The tone of the piece alters through the prose, beginning awkward the vivid diction enhancing the tone portraying Starr in an awkward position ‘feet side by side, folded in a knot of fingers, held in front her crotch’ allowing the reader to understand the awkwardness of the situation better and the prose as a whole the awkwardness due to the fact Loyal usually would visit to converse with her Jack, her husband being the only link between them and also the fact that Loyal’s feeling guilty for being with his friends wife.
Also the tone was also apparent in the statement ‘sour face’ indicating his dislike in the situation he was in and verified by the following statement ‘he close his eyes and wished Jack had lived’ indicating Loyal wishing Jack would have lived because this awkwardness between Loyal and Starr was due to the passing of Jack. Also bluntly stated ‘then all at once the awkwardness was gone’ allowing the audience to accept the problem between the characters was only their awkwardness around each other. The tone then weakening with conversation emerging between Loyal and Starr until the conversation reached its climax, with Loyal finally letting his ‘guard down’ opening up to Starr.
Miss Starr is the one of the main characters of the piece, and is portrayed as a victim as her husband had recently passed. The statement ‘that’s all he’d done, just stepped out’ indicating a premature, unexpected death which causes the audience to feel sympathetic towards her. Characterized as ‘middle-aged, in wrinkled whipcords and a sweatshirt, but something of the old vulnerable beauty persisting’ allowing the audience to better understand the Starr. Her opening lines ‘he was just passing through, I was all alone and blue’ indicating the influence Jack had her life, providing her with companionship and happiness indicated by the past tense ‘was’. Also indicating his short length in her life but how important it was. The singing then followed by ‘the words forced themselves up into her nose’ indicating the strong affect the words had on her referring to her late husband. She then begin to converse with Loyal, awkward at the beginning because she starting to move on with her life even though her home is somewhat of a monument to Jack, his belongings everywhere but she did start the conversations getting responses from Loyal indicating his lack of interest but she was ready to move on proven by the statement made later on in the work. The statement ‘I could stay on the ranch, Loyal, but not alone. A man is needed’ made by Starr is quite clear that she wanted someone to fill in her husbands place and she thought Loyal would fit the bill even though she made it seem as though he would only fulfil an worker position she also indicates that he will also fulfil the role of her companion. The piece ending with Starr giving him Jack’s pearl gray cowboy hat, an indication that he will overtake the role of Jack, on what basis not enough information is given to justify a response.
Loyal, was the best friend of Starr’s late husband Jake, and throughout the piece he refrained from conversing with Starr due to the guilt he felt for being with his friends wife. His characterized as middle aged due to the statement ‘think you might go back to Wisconsin, see your kids? Must be all growed up now’ indicates to the audience that his age is similar to Starr’s age. His character also reference when Loyal ‘he would sleep on the daybed’ to eliminate any awkward situations which could have arisen which indicate to the audience the good character he has, Starr somewhat throwing herself on Loyal and Loyal sticking to his morals, a great friend he is.
Both Loyal and Starr have peculiar names, which may have been used by the poet to highlight the key characteristics of both characters. Loyal, his loyalty to Jack and guilt caused him not to communicate well with Starr (at the beginning of the work). Keeping his responses to any question short and succinct, using a metaphor to explain his situation with his family was very thorough even though very brief. Starr, indicating her singing abilities, the text not providing ample evidence for the audience to make that link, even she likes to sing, there is no indication of her ability in that field.
Jack, the late husband of Starr wasn’t alive in the passage but his characterization was still apparent. His passing indicated being a while ago by the statement ‘ a pair of boots, stiff now from disuse’ He was seen as a great husband and a great friend by Starr and Loyal respectively. He had eliminated the loneliness and sadness from Starr’s life and had made a strong friendship with Loyal.
The strongest and most effective literary device in this work is diction; the setting alone provides enough insight to describe Starr’s emotional state after the passing of Jack. The depiction of the state of the house ‘all of Jacks things were scattered around as if he’d just stepped out’ and ‘the rope he knotted while they watched television on a peg by the door’. Both statements justify the claim that she did not care about life and her living conditions, as if time had stopped and the future no longer mattered. The claim further proven by the statement ‘the boots, stiff now from disuses’ this statement proving that his death was sometime ago yet his clothing and his belongings are kept in clear view as if he had just left proving she still has strong feelings for her husband and allowing the reader to feel sorrow and sympathy towards her. The metaphor ‘them ties was cut too long ago. With blunt scissors.’ Is very effective in portraying the rough relationship Loyal has with his children and depicts Loyal as lonely which cause the reader to feel sympathetic towards him.
The poem is structured in forty stanzas, each stanza consisting of five lines. The first two stanzas were disconnected from the rest of the piece which is due to the different time frame, setting, activity and severity of awkwardness. The second stanza is set in the kitchen, while both tried to converse with each other but found it difficult and it was difficult for both parties while in the third stanza, they are both sitting down, eating the quiche and the severity of awkwardness due to their mouths were being preoccupied they weren’t expected to speak. There is formal rhyme in the stanzas.
In conclusion, the poem Postcards written by E. Annie Proulx, is a very evocative poem with strong diction and sympathetic elements. The process of moving from one relationship to another by Starr, trying to maintain a stable life physically and finically but internally still mourning and lamenting her late husband Jack. The poet effectively uses key character traits of the characters as names to strength the understand of the poem for the reader.
Word Count - 1,418
