help pls.. about literature?

Question

Résumé by Dorothy Parker
Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren’t lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live

what is the point of view of this poem?
who is speaking in the poem and to whom?
what is he/she telling to other person?

Answer 1

POV-second person (using the word you)...

I think basically she is using the faults of different types of suicides and what could go wrong in attempting suicide. Maybe another way to talk a person into living besides telling what a wonderful life you could have. That maybe attempting suicide and failing could be more painful than life.

Answer 2

I always took for granted that the poet was speaking as herself, to any reader who might be thinking about suicide--but probably also to herself. Although Dorothy Parker is classed as a light poet, her poetry is often pretty serious and dark, and she may very well have been contemplating suicide and then trying in her wry, ironic way to talk herself out of it. (Some serious thoughts are more easly expressed in a light way.) I think her last line sums it up--life, no matter how unhappy, is probably preferable to anything you'd have to go through to end it.

Answer 3

It's about suicide. Ways of killing yourself are just as bad as anything life throws at you, so you might as well live.

It's kind of like what Hamlet said only he was more concerned about what happens after death. You might be worse off. I like Hamlet's reasoning better. If your life really sucks none of Dorothy Parkers ideas seem that bad considering what can go on for some people. But the unknown is very scary.

Answer 4

Dorothy Parker’s suicide attempts were no laughing matter, unless you asked her. The New York writer and poet lived a brilliant but tempestuous life, marked by a caustic sense of humor she turned even on her own difficulties. Resume is a great example of her dark wit hitting close to home.
http://www.dorothyparker.com/

Answer 5

It's a negative view of life that a despondent person is saying as the last straw that living is better than the different ways to oft yourself. The person is probably talking to themselves. It's a flimsy poem, I think. Just stating that they won't kill themselves because the devices to do so are distasteful is naive. It's not going to help a despressed person reading it, cuz they're are plently different ways to commit suicide that arn't so unpleasant. The poem needs to go into a suicides emotions and not pretend it's surface issues that's preventing the act.

Answer 6

POV: 1st person omniscient
Dorothy Parker is speaking to herself.
She is listing methods of suicide and coming to the conclusion that none of them are quite gentle enough. "You might as well live" can be viewed either as a pessimistic surrender, saying she is too cowardly to commit suicide, or as a slightly humorous encouragement, saying maybe the alternative to death isn't so bad. Most believe the poem to be largely pessimistic.

Answer 7

It's 'advice' against suicide, from a purely aesthetic point of view. Dorothy Parker was justly celebrated for being one of the world's most caustic wits.

Answer 8

ok maybe it does sound like she wanted to kill herself but decided it would "hurt" so she decided to live

Answer 9

Do your own homework.