Sunday, May 25, 2014

What is the significance/message of the poem "Hubris" by Mary Karr? Is its theme only arrogance, as the title announces?Why do you think she wrote...

The title "Hubris" is an ironic one. The tone of the
speaker reveals that this is so.
Hubris means overbearing pride or
arrogance. Arrogance means to have a
feeling of self-importance and superiority over others. The poetic speaker's
tone conveys the feeling or attitude
of the speaker toward the subject of the poem, who is, in this poem, "The man in the
next office."

The speaker’s tone reveals two important things at the
start. The first is that the speaker does not take herself seriously; she expresses
herself with self-irony as is shown when she says of
herself:



while
I shamelessly covet
his gray
baseball jacket.



The second
is that the speaker thinks very highly of "The man in the next office." She describes
him as cultured, intellectual and of a dignified inner character through the simple
phrase "he quotes Whitman" as they wait for the elevator.

The
conclusion is that Karr wrote this poem as a tribute to "The man in the next office" and
that the theme pointed to by the ironic title is not arrogance but rather
humility as she diminishes her mundane
feats ("to take the stairs ... two at a pop.") and elevates his stature in the face of
his great feats:


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he waves me on--
(...)
he
says with cheer.

Maybe he doesn't
mean
to be a figure of courage
with his
cane and his corkscrew knee,
this smart man who can't reach
some
sinks. ....


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