Them insane, their only interest being swindling people of hard earned money. The sake of monitory gain, without thinking about the safety and security of the structures orĢ6-27-28) She believes that some day in the near future the houses will capsize andĭisintegrate into vast seas of clay just like the polar glaciers that no one is noticing at theĢ9-30-31-32-33) Margaret Atwood calls ‘The City Planners’ political conspirators.
Metaphorically she refers to how the money spinning real estate dealers build for Windows, at the landscape that lies behind these ‘homes’, it is easy to see cracks in the She compares to a bruise and other differentiating factors like the way the plastic hoses areĢ2-23-24-25) However Atwood believes that if one were to carefully stare beyond the Other are things like the smell of different oils in the garages, a sudden splash of paint which Guaranteed to prevent accidents or chaos because they are so uniform.ġ5-16) Much to Atwood’s disgust, the roofs of all these houses are inclined at the same angleġ7-18-19-20-21) The poet notices that the only things that differentiate one house from the The dictates of the planners by cutting through the grass in predetermine lines.ġ3-14) She says that the driveways of these residences are so neatly planned that they are
Try and hear a shout or the breaking of glass.ġ1-12) The only sound the poet picks up is that of a lawnmower that seems to be following Pick up any sounds or movements of people living in these structures. Make fun of) a slight dent in her car door! She finds the level of uniformity very amusing butĩ-10) Atwood finds it very ironic that unlike the homes in the olden days, she is unable to Look alike and she even personifies these structures by giving them the ability to scorn (to The poet is trying to give power back to nature here, and stating that nature will eventually, definitely rise once again and break down these suburbs.ġ-2) Atwood describes the sights that meet her eye as she cruises along a residential complexģ-4) She feels offended by the uniformity she sees and the fact that the people living in citiesĪccept the uniform structures as their homes.ĥ-6-7-8) She describes rows of houses surrounding landscapes that are all predetermined to Man's mistakes seem to offer more than his creations in this stanza. She also admits that, “the houses in pedantic rows, the planted sanitary trees, offend us with their transitory lines, rigid as wooden borders”. The speaker hopes that the future cracks in the plaster will enable one to view the breathtaking natural view behind. The natural scenery appears to be at the back of this residential area.
The windows portray a fixed-stare as though everything is static, and nothing is kinetic. Even a domestic entity like a coiled pipe appears as poisonous as a snake, as it is out of place. The driveways neatly side-step hysteria by revealing even roads. This could metaphorically indicate that the people living here live empty, monotonous lives that are without meaning. Throughout the second stanza there has been absolutely no mention of any human movement, making it seem as if the sub-division is empty.
With the insane faces of political conspiratorsĮmpty, Monotonous Lives of the People in the Cities: Obliquely into the clay seas, gradual as glaciers Margaret Atwood The same slant of avoidance to the hot sky,Ī splash of paint on brick surprising as a bruise,Ĭoil even the too-fixed stare of the wide windows Cutting a straight swath in the discouraged grass.