Brief Analysis of The Narrator in “Lost Much As Twice”

 

 

Brief Analysis of The Narrator in “Lost Much As Twice”

In this poem, we see the impotence and powerlessness of our narrator, she cannot control life and death, and hence she must be subjected unwillingly to lose and be separated from two dear people to her.  This state of not having control over death and loss, makes her have an unstable relationship with God. The main reason for this instability is the fact that she alters her impression about God, she is in limbo wherein at one moment she attaches positive connotations to God, and at other times she gives God negative attributes. For instance, she positively acknowledges the fact that God is the creator and source of all life by referring to Him as a ‘Father’. But later one, she calls God a ‘banker’ and a ‘theft’, as she feels offended and attacked by God from the mere fact that she makes Him responsible for taking away the two people dear to her.

By describing God with two opposite tones, we see the kind of tension that our narrator is dealing with, namely, the fact that God does not only bring life to things but also death. Hence, she cannot reconcile these two opposite acts of God, namely, the giving and the taking away from people. Thus, it becomes clear that in this poem our narrator cannot reconcile her mortal suffering, and this is shown by the fact that she cannot have a concrete and stable conception of God.

Comments

  1. Cintia OsorioMay 20, 2021 at 12:43 AM

    This was very helpful for me to understand the process of life as a representation of God. To believe that God grants us life and delivers us death implies that he is responsible for both actions rather than one or the other. The narrator seems to be conflicted about the overall process of experience, the rising and ceasing. In order for death to be significant or bring pain it must remind us of the memory of life. For example, when someone is sick we are pained at the memory of when that person was healthy. The fact that we need the memory of one to experience the suffering of the other reveals our discomfort with the entire process of life. In order to truly enjoy with calmness our experience of life we must also appreciate the individual parts that work together to gives us a momentary presence of life. The narrator's frustration with God about death shows that the love for God is one sided/partial, diminishing the wholeness of his creation of experience (life and death).

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