Necessities of Life

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1966

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

Repression versus Freedom

Throughout the poem, Rich contrasts repression and constraint with self-creation and liberation. In the beginning, the speaker repeatedly emphasizes her broken self. She “ooze[s]” (Line 9) and “melt[s]” (Line 10). As a result, she is in “piece[s]” (Line 1) and “shreds” (Line 20). Without the freedom to create and define herself, she is left fractured. Because of her repression of personal expression and meaning, her artwork mimics others.

The poem’s pronoun usage supports the evolution of this theme. Initially, the poetic “I” can only define itself through metaphors and allusions. Her identity is defined and constrained by the expectations of others. However, in the second half of the poem, the speaker uses the possessive and reflexive pronouns my, mine, and myself. This change in the use of language reveals the speaker’s freedom to create her own identity, reclaim life as “mine” (Line 27). She reinvents herself as “unappetizing” (Line 22) to make sure she “let nothing use” her (Line 24) except herself, as she sees fit.

Art and Identity

A central concern of the poem is the role of art in self-creation and self-expression. When under the constraints of the expectations of artistic greatness, the speaker is unable to create art on her own terms and is left mimicking others. When creating, she must meet the standards of historical-artistic greatness, which soon causes the speaker to “ooze” and “melt” to blend in with the “pointillist’s buzz and bloom” (Lines 9, 10, 7). Her art must appear a certain way to meet artistic standards. These standards are unfulfilling and kill her creative spirit, leaving it “dead [like] / in a blown-up photograph” (Lines 18-19).

In contrast, when she starts to create art for herself and “let nothing use” her (Line 24), art becomes an act of community-building and self-definition. The speaker rejects artistic expectations, redefining her goal as to be “middling-perfect” (Line 35). The poem's imagery shifts to focus on daily toil and repeated labor: making bricks and knitting—activities that literally build home. The speaker is now free to enjoy the results, placing “one hand on a warm brick” (Line 29) to catch the momentary pleasure. Rich uses the word “practice” (Line 35) to describe her new outlook: Through the repetition of her actions, she can fulfill her artistic practice to “make” herself (Line 35).

The poet’s word choice reflects the poem’s concern with the fashioning of identity. Rich selects words that suggest an active choice to create: As her actions shift to defining herself, she “learned to make” (Line 21) herself while “practice may make” her (Line 35). This self-fashioning is a participatory act of creation.

Alienation versus Connection

The poem opens with the speaker’s initial alienation: She feels as if she is “protruding” (Line 6) from her life. She knows that she must “re-enter the world” (Line 2), but cannot move away from her solitary existence. Even when she rejects the expectations around her, the world reacts by rejecting her in return—she is “thrown into a cellar” (Line 23). But this experience allows her to “dare inhabit the world” (Line 36), finally creating connections with a newfound community as she receives “invitations” (Line 38) to engage with women around her. Her identity now becomes her own.

This theme connects to Rich's artistic and personal experiences and reflects Rich’s feminist concerns. One strategy for second wave feminism was a practice called consciousness-raising, a form of activism that asked people to empathize with the conditions and experiences of others. By connecting with her community, the poem's speaker creates bonds of solidarity. This radical merging of personal and public reflects Rich’s artistic philosophy.