Sexton's Poetic speaker tells how Snow White's miraculous first revival (99) was "as full of life as soda pop" (100). Sexton uses this simile to point out the unlikelihood of such an occurence in real life. The simile is ironic: How much "life" can a commodity possess? Clearly none, yet one of the qualities freely attributed to Snow White is the vitality of a soda pop . . . This contradiction is illogical, but perhaps that is the point with something so "miraculous".
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Comments (2)
Andrew Lewis said
at 2:37 pm on Oct 24, 2008
Sexton's Poetic speaker tells how Snow White's miraculous first revival (99) was "as full of lfe as soda pop" (100). Sexton uses this simile to point out the unlikelihood of such an event in real life. The simile is based upon the irony that soda pop is a concrete object that is inanimate in its essence (much like Snow White for the speaker) yet seems alive by the (seemingly dead) Snow White who was "revived miraculously" (99).
Tonya Howe said
at 1:34 am on Oct 27, 2008
Drew, I think you've got some interesting thoughts going on here, but you need to unpack them a bit--and remember to simplify! I'm not sure what the last sentence is getting at.
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