This poem is about those in our society with binge eating disorder, and how it is looked down upon rather than helped like other eating disorders. The poem is visually shaped like a heart monitor that starts off completely fine but towards the end stops which shows death and could also be viewed as a warning to those who overlook such a serious issue that the mental health of those who suffer with it will only progressively get worse. I compared the people that suffer with binge eating disorders to the people that were wrongfully accused of being witches and killed on account of it. It shows how their innocence is overlooked and they are immediately looked at as just greedy and unhealthy and how they are just told to go to the gym or go on a diet and it isn't taken as seriously as other eating disorders such as anorexia. I used allusion to reference the context of the different ways in which they would kill supposed "witches" in Salem in 1692. I reference being burned at the stake, drowned, beheaded and hung. The different forms of death could also be interpreted to be how different disorders are all as important as each other as they could all end horribly even though they could be polar opposites for example anorexia and binge eating. I feel incredibly strongly about the way the binge eating disorder is looked at in society especially our society, it is incredibly disregarded and hardly brought up, whereas more known disorders such anorexia and bulimia are focused on (which is amazing because any acknowledgement of the struggles that effect those other than ourselves is amazing progress in society) but Binge eating disorder should be given the exact same amount of focus and care. You wouldn't try to stop someone from drowning but not do anything about someone hanging themselves. I also included the different ways of death is to show how they all obviously end in death but even if the types of death are completely different they are both still death and they need to be prevented. So burning is the complete opposite to drowning and starving is the complete opposite to binging but they both end terribly so both should be treated equally as important. The name of the poem was meant to show a sense of juxtaposition between life and death. Burning at the stake means to take life away quite obviously and the word stake could also be seen as a steak which is food which can be cooked medium rare- showing death and food which is a source of life. The fact that the steak is medium rare shows a sense of neglect and ignorance as it is not cooked all the way through.The poem is one long stanza and I decided to this to show a sense of a never ending struggle, a continuous feeling of disgust and regret. I decided to write this poem in first person narrative as it gives more of an insight into the point I am trying to get across and gives the reader a chance to see who I am and how strong my views are on the topic. I used naturalistic imagery by mentioning the tree but I also created a sense of contrast by referring to the sins and obliteration straight afterwards. Mentioning the sins is also referring to context as in Salem at the time they lived in a very religious Puritan society so by mentioning sins it shows that the shadows of what society wanted the women to be was magnified into the women that died. Having somewhere to put the blame would have put the people of Salem at ease. I used the metaphor kiss of death to emphasis the lack of choice in this situation. She has been tied to noose and told that she has to die and now she has to await death and there is nothing she can do about it except for romanticize it and be oblivious to it. I used the words "the finger" to add an ominous tone to the poem rather than just saying a specific finger it draws society together, the fact that I used the word "the" means that they have to the ultimate say as they are most important. The word "twiddle" has a sense of lighthearted childishness to it, it completely contrasts to the fact that she is about to be hung and would shock the audience that she was so content with the fact that she was going to have to hang. When writing the line "with a brick of judgement stapled to my chest" I was referring to how they would drown the people they thought were witches. The brick of judgement is a methanol for the heaviness of judgement from society that people who suffer with this disorder feel.
"Made me wonder of i really was what they made me to be" has a double meaning as it comes from the supposed witch and the binge eater. The supposed witch started to doubt herself and society forced it down her throat that she was a witch that she started to believe it, and the binge eater would have has the idea that she/he is greedy or lazy shoved down their throats so they start to believe it. The idea of accepting death with open arms gives a sense of helplessness and feeling as if there is no other solution because you are not getting the help that you need or deserve. When you can see yourself getting out of hand and there is nothing you can do about it you learn to accept that the time will come where your body won't be able to take it. "Praying for god to come and move me from this deathly place or take me to his holy place" shows how they had gotten so desperate that they either wanted to be moved from where they were being killed or just be killed quickly and getting it over and done with. This, again reinforces the idea of it being a hopeless situation where you'd be willing to accept death. "The smell of a Christmas pork" is obviously referencing the inability to stop thinking about food even when you are about to die but also the fact that the burning body would smell like cooking meat. I refer to Ketosis which is when the body does not have enough glucose or energy so it burns stored fats instead and many people have gone on a diet where they deprive themselves of glucose in order to try to lose weight.
