Poem 2 - A Sad Child by Margaret Atwood

A Sad Child

By Margaret Atwood

You're sad because you're sad.
It's psychic. It's the age. It's chemical.
Go see a shrink or take a pill,
or hug your sadness like an eyeless doll
you need to sleep. 

Well, all children are sad
but some get over it.
Count your blessings. Better than that,
buy a hat. Buy a coat or pet.
Take up dancing to forget.

Forget what?
Your sadness, your shadow,
whatever it was that was done to you
the day of the lawn party
when you came inside flushed with the sun,
your mouth sulky with sugar,
in your new dress with the ribbon
and the ice-cream smear,
and said to yourself in the bathroom,
I am not the favorite child.

My darling, when it comes
right down to it
and the light fails and the fog rolls in
and you're trapped in your overturned body
under a blanket or burning car,

and the red flame is seeping out of you
and igniting the tarmac beside your head
or else the floor, or else the pillow,
none of us is;
or else we all are.

Analysis

        In the poem, A Sad Child, Atwood says, " You're sad because you're sad", on line 1, which suggests presence of the theme of depression. On line 2, Atwood claims the depression being a factor of age - " It's the age. It's chemical", which gives an idea of the theme of growth present in the poem. Atwood uses simile to compare between hugging sadness and hugging a toy - "hug your sadness like an eyeless doll", which means to face or consider sadness as a fact and cope with it rather than avoiding it. For example, Atwood says , " My darling, when  it comes right down to it ", which suggests a casual speech of the writer and justifies the simple diction essential for the attention and the understanding of the reader. Moreover, Atwood uses imagery - " in your new dress with the ribbon and the ice-cream smear, " allowing the readers to visualize that the teenage got her dress dirty with ice-cream and can also imagine her sad face. I think Atwood is talking about herself when she was  a teenager. Simple diction, simile and the imagery really helped me in understanding how bad the teenager would have felt from visualizing her sad face with dirty dress - feeling of shame - and also analysing how it could have been prevented - by considering it as a fact that will be with you for the rest of your life.                     
                                     

            I can connect myself to the poem; I often feel depressed upon really small things. For example, one of my friends ignored me and then when I asked him a question , he got really angry and yelled at me; I felt terribly isolated and a realization - that no one loves me - for the rest of the day and it was hard to not think about it. I couldn't sleep that night. Such feelings of depression are bitter and unbearable - " and the red flame is seeping out of you", stated on line 26, which suggests similar feelings of Atwood as mine. In this way, I can connect to Atwood due to depression being universal and getting over with it is the solution.

            Atwood talks about the issue of depression amongst teenagers and gives advice of how to avoid it or just face it. At points, Atwood plans on using materialism to deal with depression - " Buy a hat. Buy a coat or pet." on line 9; She also mentions of just engaging into activities - with physical and mental exercise - to get rid of depression - " Take up dancing to forget " on line  10. The poem would be written to encourage the hopeless youth and provide them hope as they are the future of the Earth - to prevent suicidal thoughts amongst teenagers either due to social, emotional or academic issues. The purpose of the poem is to aware teenagers of ways of gaining happiness and getting out of sadness and also that they are not the only ones in depression - its universal.

            I agree to the ideology of Atwood as depression is universal - "none of us is; or else we all are. " - which means all of us are depressed or no one of us is. Depression is important to get over with amongst teenagers as it is a fact. Sadness is the sibling of happiness and follows it all along. I agree to Atwood's idea of engaging yourself into activities to distract yourself from sadness. If we concentrate on a specific thing like sadness, we will just be thinking about it but if we divert our focus, we can break through the sadness. Atwood is trying to send a message of not isolating yourself due to depression as everyone in this world is depressed but most of them just find a way out of it.  Atwood's attempt to help youth come out of sadness is a great one that will keep generations inspired.