Analysis of "The city planners" by Margaret Atwood

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“The city planners” Margaret Atwood

The poem “The city planners” was written by Margaret Atwood.  This poem is about living in a suburban residence. Which is described by the narrator as a boring place, were everything is the same and there is no originality or uniqueness.  It also talks about the “city planners” who are apparently ruining the city and imposing rules. The key theme in this poem is the numbness produced by living in a place without originality or creativity.

The first stanza of this poem is describing the city, nature and how dull and how nothing exciting ever happens in that suburban residence. “What offends us is the sanities:” with this line the author is kind of criticising the city and suburbia. She then continues to list the things that bother her “the houses in pedantic rows, the planted sanitary trees…”  this words show how the author sees suburbia which she describes as picture perfect everything is too clean “sanities” too neat and structured. “assert levelness of surface like a rebuke to the dent in our car door.” With this quotation the narrator even says that the dent in her car door makes her feel bad and how it seems to be out of place as everything in suburbia is flawless.  In the next line she continues to describe the city “No shouting here, or shatter of glass”. And in the lines 11-12 she says “nothing more abrupt than the rational whine of the power mower cutting a straight swath in the discouraged grass.” which tells us that the only noise is the sound of a power mower and that even the strip of grass cutted is neat and perfectly straight.

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In the second stanza the narrator continues to describe and list the flaws she believes this suburban residence has.  For example “But thought the driveways neatly sidestep hysteria by being even” she is saying that although everything seems perfect, all the problems are being putted aside “sidestep hysteria”.  Then she describes the roofs as being all the same and not having any individuality “the roofs all display the same slant and avoidance of hot sky”. After that Atwood introduces the images of “the smell of split oil a faint sickness lingering in the garages”. Finally with the quotation “a ...

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