Friday, February 10, 2012
In the song “Little Green” Joni Mitchell uses familial characterization, realistic imagery and naturalistic personification to portray the traumatic effects of giving a child up for adoption. The song “Little Green” is about a poverty-stricken mother, Joni, who has a child at a very young age. After the father leaves, she is unable to provide for her child and is forced by her own conscious and desire for her child’s well-being. The soothing effect of the melody makes the listener relaxed and at ease. The song is not about a time of ease in this singer’s life though, it is about a time of her sorrow and hardships. Within families people different people are expected to play different roles; parents to provide for their children and children to bring joy into the home. Joni’s child was not raised in this way. The father was characterized as uninterested and a non-conformer.” He sends you poem and she's lost to you/ Little, green, he's a non-conformer.” She means that the dad doesn’t care about the child and he doesn’t know anything about her. A non-conformer is someone who doesn’t do what is expected, and the father is like this because he leaves his family when he shouldn’t. The child, Little Green, is shown as very pure and innocent. She is young and vivacious and isn’t worried about what’s happening around her. That is the way Joni wants to keep it so she needs to give her to another family. Things can be personified in ways that are completely unfeasible or they can be illustrated in ways that seem natural and as if they were meant to be like that. “Like the night's when the Northern lights perform.” This is personified because the lights are not really performing, but it seems natural because of the way the lights shimmer. “Just a little green/ Like the color when the spring is born.” When spring begins, people associate it with the color green because of the grass. Spring actually isn’t born, it is just thought of as a time of rebirth and life after winter. Joni uses naturalistic imagery to convey the way that being separated from her child has left her in a state of depression but the world seems to go on the same way. Joni Mitchell utilizes realistic imagery in order to enhance the meaning of her song. “Call her green and the winters cannot fade her.” Winter usually takes away from the brightness of people’s personalities and appearances. It is not as cheerful, and is colder than in the other seasons. The child does not fade and stays true to her usual self. You can visualize winter and it being darker than the other seasons. “There'll be crocuses to bring to school tomorrow.” Joni perceives this so you can see spring and flowers blooming. She adds this into her song because it is during the time of spring, and being happy. The imagery helped create scenery for this song.
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Your thesis statement was set up really well. Try to include some transitions between you differnt topics. Overall your analysis was very insighful.
ReplyDelete- Emily B.
You did a good job incorporating the quotes within the analysis. You could have made it into separate paragraphs so that it was easier to read, but you did a good job overall. The quotes and themes chosen made the analysis flow well and made it interesting to read. Good job!
ReplyDeleteYour examples are very good and supportive.
ReplyDeletehey anna,
ReplyDeletedid it finally upload the way you wanted it? If yes, maybe you could seperate the paragraphs, but you analysis itself is really nice!
The ideas that you have and the examples that you talk about are great. One thing that you should fix is the organization of the analysis. You should split it up into five paragraphs so the reader can understand when you talk about each point that you made in your thesis statement.
ReplyDeletei like it and how you tell about real life and explain things so the reader can understand the things you say
ReplyDeleteyou may need more quotes in the beggining, and a conclusion paragraph, im not sure if i saw one
i also like how you described the story behind the song in the beggining