The Outsiders "Anecdote of the Jar"
The Outsiders
In both of this poems Anecdote of the Jar and Clay has a sense of alienation
between them, the Jar and Maria are nothing without their surroundings and their
surroundings are nothing without them as well.
The title of both of this text has a great significance of what the story is all about for
instance Anecdote of a Jar anecdote meaning a little story that has little or significance
at all. The meaning of Clay according to ardictionary.com means the dead body of
human being, that’s what she got inside the prayer book, Maria just doesn’t have good
luck in getting the ring or meeting a guy who would be interested in her without being a
bit drunk, all the men in her life always seen to be a bit tipsy for instance in one part of
the story Maria said “Only she hoped that Joe wouldn’t come in drunk”. Both the Jar
and Maria are surrounded by “Sloppiness” for instance on line 4 to 5 in the Anecdote of
the Jar “ It made the slovenly wilderness/ Surround that hill” the object which is the jar is
surrounded by sloppy wilderness, and in Clay Maria is surrounded by prostitutes and
drunken men.
What Stevens is trying to teach is that the Jar is a symbol of life, sometimes we
rise sometimes we fall or we led other things take over our lives for instance “The
slovenly wilderness/ Surrounded that hill” or when Maria has forgotten the plum cake at
the Canal Bridge when the colonel-looking gentleman talked to her, Maria made a big
deal over something that wasn’t really that important to begin with. Again Maria and the
Jar are always alienated by everyone the reason being because they just don’t belong
where they are, the Jar and nature, Maria and the prostitutes.
In conclusion the Jar and Maria are put in worlds they don’t belong in, she would
be better off in the wilderness where the Jar is, and the Jar would be in better use in a
world where she lives in
In both of this poems Anecdote of the Jar and Clay has a sense of alienation
between them, the Jar and Maria are nothing without their surroundings and their
surroundings are nothing without them as well.
The title of both of this text has a great significance of what the story is all about for
instance Anecdote of a Jar anecdote meaning a little story that has little or significance
at all. The meaning of Clay according to ardictionary.com means the dead body of
human being, that’s what she got inside the prayer book, Maria just doesn’t have good
luck in getting the ring or meeting a guy who would be interested in her without being a
bit drunk, all the men in her life always seen to be a bit tipsy for instance in one part of
the story Maria said “Only she hoped that Joe wouldn’t come in drunk”. Both the Jar
and Maria are surrounded by “Sloppiness” for instance on line 4 to 5 in the Anecdote of
the Jar “ It made the slovenly wilderness/ Surround that hill” the object which is the jar is
surrounded by sloppy wilderness, and in Clay Maria is surrounded by prostitutes and
drunken men.
What Stevens is trying to teach is that the Jar is a symbol of life, sometimes we
rise sometimes we fall or we led other things take over our lives for instance “The
slovenly wilderness/ Surrounded that hill” or when Maria has forgotten the plum cake at
the Canal Bridge when the colonel-looking gentleman talked to her, Maria made a big
deal over something that wasn’t really that important to begin with. Again Maria and the
Jar are always alienated by everyone the reason being because they just don’t belong
where they are, the Jar and nature, Maria and the prostitutes.
In conclusion the Jar and Maria are put in worlds they don’t belong in, she would
be better off in the wilderness where the Jar is, and the Jar would be in better use in a
world where she lives in