Understand Human Charecteristics On Numbers †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Understand Human Charecteristics On Numbers. Answer: Introduction The poem, A Word on Statistics is written by a Nobel laureate polish poet Maria Wis?awa Anna Szymborska. This poem is an analysis of human characteristics based on numbers. The numbers mentioned in the poem are the actual statistical data. The poet has asked questions from her point of view on human characteristics and conducted a survey on one hundred people. The aim of this essay is to analysis the main theme of the poem, which is human mortality. The essay will also demonstrate the other elements presented in the poem, like symbolism, conflict, tone, repetition, imagery to support its main theme. Discussions The central theme of the poem is human mortality. Every human being may have varied characteristics though everyone is mortal. This is the permanent character of every human life. This is the only unchangeable characteristic of human. The poet has illustrated this point at the end of the poem. She has conducted a survey on one hundred people. She has shown that certain amount of people carry certain characteristics. The first three lines can be an example to support this statement, like, Out of every hundred people, / those who always know better: fifty-two (Theatlantic.com). The statistical number fifty-two is representing the characteristics of people who know things better than the rest. The rest of the amount that is the number of forty-eight people are, Unsure of every step (Theatlantic.com). However, at the end of the poem the poet has fixed a universal character of the human being, which is mortality. Here, the number one hundred has completed a circle where no variation is al lowed. Mortality is applicable for each human being. No one can alter this characteristic. The last stanza of the poem is the portrayal of the main theme: mortal: one hundred out of one hundred- / a figure that has never varied yet (Theatlantic.com). The poem has used numbers as symbols to represent the variety of human characteristics. The numbers have worked as a portion of a whole; the whole is applicable for all and the portion represents different characteristics of different human being. For example, according to the poets statistical data the forty-nine out of one hundred people are Ready to help, / if it doesnt take long (Theatlantic.com). The number forty-nine could be poets imagination, as she believes that four or five people are always good in any situation as their characteristics are like that. They cannot be an alternative of their goodness. However, the number four or five are the symbolization of good people, which is a fraction of a whole. Eighteen out of hundred people could be able to praise other people without being jealous. More or less than sixty people are led to mistakes influencing by the youth. The seventy-seven people carry characteristics of persistent dismay as if they co-exist with constant fear. I n this manner, the poet has shown the method of symbolization of numbers. The different amount of numbers represents different human characteristics. However, each number symbolizes a constant character of the human life, which is death. The poem, A Word on Statistics is representation of conflict between variable and non-variable characteristics of life. Apart from death, everything is variable in humans life. The conflict has started at the beginning of the poem with an agenda of survey. The poet wants to conduct a survey on characteristics of human life. There is projection of different numbers showing different characteristics. The conflict, which is related to different numerology on human lifes characteristics, has continued throughout the poem. These are all the variable factors of life. The factors vary according to the context. Like, twenty-some-odd at most are capable of happiness or thirty people could be very much materialistic. They get nothing out of life except things (Theatlantic.com). The numbers vary with the features of human nature. The only non-variable characteristic is death. Human life is bound by death. The conflict between variable and non-variable has been resolved at the end of the poem wh ere the poet announces that mortality is the only characteristic of human life, which no one can alter. The tone or attitude of this poem is to reach a truth of life. The truth of human life is that they are the mortal being. Their life has a beginning as well as an end. The end is declared by the death. No one can escape from this reality. The poet, Maria Wis?awa Anna Szymborska has proven this truth by showing a statistical calculation. The calculation has reached its completion when the poet has concluded at the end of the poem with the limitation of human life. The limitation is defined by the death. The poet has stated that out of hundred people each one is a mortal being. There is no variation of this rule. The poet has used different types of imagery throughout the poem. In stanza eight, the poet has compelled the reader to imagine that someone is constantly watching from their back. The stanza eight is, Living in constant fear of someone or something, which means that the poet has used imagery of someone is continuously watching to hurt. Out of hundred, seventy-seven people are suffering from this constant fear. Imagery also has been used in stanza ten. The word clouds is represented for crowd. The stanza ten is, Harmless singly, savage in / clouds / -Half at least (Theatlantic.com). Here the possible imagery is that a person who wants to perform brutality towards something or someone hides in crowd where one can hide his or her identity. The poet has used clouds as an imagery to depict crowd. At least half the number of total people is Harmless singly, savage in / clouds (Theatlantic.com). Repetition, a literary device has been used in this poem by continuously stating a number of possible human characteristics that he might possess. The number of people out of one hundred people who possess the characteristics follows it. The repetition has occurred throughout each stanza of this poem. The number and the possible human characteristics have been repeated in recurrence. Conclusion It can be concluded by stating that A Word on Statistics is a poem that shows human characteristics based on the statistical data. However, every human possess characteristic of mortality. This is the final statement of the poem. The poet has contributed to the statistics by calculating the human nature. The final word of the poet is that every human life is bound by death. References Theatlantic.com. "A Word On Statistics - 97.05."Theatlantic.Com, 2017, https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/poetry/antholog/szymbors/stats.htm.