Dead Water 3 types of Criticism
Reader-Response Criticism
Despite being a short and very deep poem, Dead Water manages to evoke various feelings which ultimately concludes the ending. It is clear that Wen Yi-Tuo is the center of the story and its protagonist that experienced extreme tragedy in his life using many figurative languages. The dead water symbolizes corruption and immorality. Either you worsen it by throwing in your own wickedness and spite, or you try to change it through small acts of decency and integrity.
Formalist Criticism
The creator of this poem was Wen Yi-Tuo, a Chinese that studied literature in United States. The Dead Water was published 1925 when he traveled back to china and he took a University teaching. The Dead Water is all about our environment as well as the result of our actions and pollution. This poetry was influenced by western models. The Dead Water is the poem employs a complicated rhythm structure of varying syllable length units. It also has a A-B-C-B rhyme structure whicn is difficult to translate into English. This poem is an example of Yi-tuo early political learnings, interpreting it as a bitter satire on the state of the government. This poem was a interesting to explore, it is the idea of environmentalism. The ditch full of rusty metal scraps and left over food, it is a metaphor for the rampant destruction and consumption of the modern world. In the second and 3rd stanza, the speaker states that the ditch could be redeemed by emerald grass, and peach blossoms but left to its own devices it only becomes a feeding area for the “gnats” who could be those who wish to feel upon the earth. The dead water will croak its song of delight which could be the tendencies of human towards self-destruction.
Marxist Criticism
Wen yi duo was a patriotic poet and fighter.In 1922, Wenyiduo went to USA to study in order to use his knowledge to serve CHINA.However, on the foreign land, the poet suffered all kinds of hardships, , Chinese were insulted and discriminated in USA.In 1925, wen yi duo retured to China early with patriotic-hearted and expectation.But after wenyiduo were back to CHINA, cruel exploitation of tangled warfare among warloads, imperialists expansion were presented to his sight...China was like a ditch of desperate dead water! ~~so the emotion of poet was from disappointed, , to painful..to extreme anger! ~under this circumstance, wenyiduo wrote down the poem 'Dead water'
