Tristan's Essay!

Tristan Yerkes
Mr. Salsich
English 02
7 April, 2009

The Bumps Along the Road to the Dark Side of the Moon:
An Essay Analyzing "Courage" by Anne Sexton

“I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.” This is a commonly known quote from The Wizard of Oz, A film about a young girl that runs away from home, and upon returning finds herself in a magical land called Oz. This film relates to the poem “Courage” by Anne Sexton, in that both are centered around courage, decision making, and growing up.
Both The Wizard of Oz and “Courage” relate to these three themes, and in this paragraph I will explain how they are expressed in “Courage” by Anne Sexton. Obviously, courage is a main theme in “Courage” displayed in all of the stages of life. In the first stanza, Sexton explains courage from early life, to old age, from “The time you first rode a bike” to when “You face old age and it’s natural conclusion”. This reiteration (FAST WORD) of examples of courage shows that courage is a reoccurring theme. Another theme shown in “Courage” is decision making, almost each act of courage is made voluntarily, with an accompanying decision. In the second stanza, Sexton talks about a “buddy” deciding to sacrifice his own life to save “your‘s”; this decision is not made by the person the poem is addressed to, but important nonetheless (FAST WORD). In the last stanza, Sexton shows one of the biggest decisions of all, the decision to “stride out” into deaths arms. These two main themes in the poem build to the theme of growing up, and maturing. The courage used in early and later life, added to the decisions made, all are variables in the equation for what the addressee will grow to become. This theme of growing up is a main guide throughout the poem, and gives a better sense of direction. With these three major themes in mind, “Courage” has messages on three different levels, with relationships between each.
Each of the three main themes in “Courage” are also displayed in a similar fashion in The Wizard of Oz in this paragraph I will examine and explain these relationships. In the first stanza of “Courage” Ms. Sexton talks about courage in an early stage, this same type of courage is expressed in The Wizard of Oz before Dorothy leaves Kansas. Dorothy has a normal life on a farm in Kansas, this small quiet life represents the earlier stages of her courage. Before she leaves for Oz, she makes small courageous acts, like running away from home, balancing on pig pens, and confronting her nosy neighbor, these are her “first steps” in the storyline. In “Courage” Ms. Sexton says the addressee of the poem “fights off bombs and bullets” this symbolism of courage used to fight is replicated in The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy begin to follow a mysterious yellow brick road to get home, and finds herself fighting off an evil witch. As in The Wizard of Oz, the second stanza of “Courage” leaves the reader feeling as if the addressee is still young, and still has the innocents of childhood, similarly, Dorothy still seems young as she fights off the Wicked Witch. In “Courage” Sexton talks of how the addressee’s buddy “saved your life, and in so doing, died himself” this idea of sacrifice is carried on in The Wizard of Oz as Dorothy finds new friends that work together to save each other from the perils of the dangerous, witch-ridden road. The final stanza of “Courage” describes how the addressee of the poem “strides out” to meet death, without hiding; the same thing happens at the end of The Wizard of Oz, as Dorothy walks directly into the dangerous lair of the wizard of Oz, unfaltering, possibly sacrificing everything she had done. In both of these situations, there is definite acceptance of fate, both the addressee’s acceptance of death, and Dorothy’s acceptance of the wizard’s anger of being disturbed. In both situations, the subjects of their story went on to some place where they could enjoy the fruits of their cumulative courage. These two stories don’t match up perfectly chronologically, but they both hold the same essence of courage, and growing into an adult.
However much Dorothy was an adult at the end of her adventures, she was not the same person at all. Through courage, both the addressee of “Courage” and Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz grew and were shaped and had memorable experiences. (POLYSYNDETON) The quote “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore” expresses a feeling of having been changed dramatically in one way or another. I think that both the addressee and Dorothy, at the end of both of their adventures could say “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”