E. E. Cummings’ she being Brand can be easily called a quintessence of the poet’s literary revelation – the revelation that leads to rethinking and reconsidering eternal values through the modern prism of sexuality.
Unclear punctuation and unexpected literary transitions form a complex vision of ambiguity and disguise.The reader is accompanied by the feeling of something that seems to be missing and that can be found between the poem’s lines… Whether she is Brand… or whether she is “Brand new” is a dilemma, but Cummings’ satirical attitudes to reality suggest that the poet was seeking the means to balance modern commercial values with the eternal search for spiritual sexuality – the sexuality that no longer seems relevant under the pressure of the growing consumerism and social hierarchies in the 20th century’s America.The poem describes a usual (or unusual? sexual encounter with a young woman. “She being Brand / -new; and you / know consequently a / little stiff I was / careful of her…” (Cummings 627).
The language that first sounds unsuitable for the description of sexual desires gradually turns into an excellent instrument emphasizing the earthiness of sexual desires in consumer-oriented society. “The universal joint”, “the clutch”, and even “flooded-the-carburetor” turn sexuality into a tool of mass consumption. The poet is driven by the joy of their mutual proximity, and car metaphors form a small and cozy private atmosphere.At the beginning of the 20th century, an automobile signified bourgeois strivings to material success, as well as personal freedom and the right for privacy. In his poem, Cummings is trying to form a new satirical vision of consumerist attitudes to everything in our lives – from cars to sex.
Ultimately, in Cummings’ view, cars and sex have created an integral picture of the 20th century’s modernism in the American culture. The very first line of Cummings’ poem plunges the reader into the set of poetic ambiguities.From the very beginning to the very end of the poem, the reader is vainly trying to discover, whether she is Brand, or whether she is Brand New. Cummings is amused by the evident consumerism of virginity and sexuality in the modern culture.
Virginity is no longer Brand new, but it is turning into a brand. This brand lacks any hidden meanings, but is driven by commercial awareness and freedom. Is Cummings talking about a woman, or is he trying to parallel the new car’s excitement with that of the first sexual encounter with a woman? It is difficult to decide.The ambiguities that stem from the extensive use of automobile vocabulary imply that a brand-new automobile is the central determinant feature of female sexuality.
Cars symbolize freedom, self-realization, power, and as a result, sex. “A 1 shape passed from low through second-in-to-high like greased lightning just as we turned the corner of Divinity / avenue i touched the accelerator and give / her the juice” (Cummings 627). It should be noted, that Cummings’ “i” is never capitalized: evidently, the poet and his partner associate people, behaviors, and themselves with commodities.Here, commodities change our attitudes to others, and significantly distort our perceptions regarding everything that surrounds us daily.
Is Cummings’ poem humorous? Hardly so. I would rather suggest that it is filled with tragic satire about the emptiness of our modern consumerist strivings to self-fulfillment. “It was the first ride and believe i we was / happy to see how nice she acted right up to / the last minute coming back down by the Public / Gardens i slammed on” (Cummings 627).Cummings is trying to create a realistic picture of the spiritual devolution, where sexual desires toward a woman are mixed with sexual attitudes toward a new car.
By the end of the poem we might not be able to keep ourselves from laughter, but this laughter is filled with the tragic realization of our idiosyncratic movement to the Public Garden as the geographic symbol of nowhere. Conclusion She is being Brand / new is an excellent example of modernist poetry, where sexuality is conventionally mixed with cars, commodities, publicity, and excitement.All these elements form a complex vision of new consumerist spirituality, which associates people with commodities, and which links sexual experience to new cars. The use of automobile vocabulary leads readers to rediscovering the hidden facets of modern sexuality, the meaning of which changes under the impact of new consumerist values. Although the majority of Cummings’ ambiguities seem misleading, they inevitably prove the tragedy of our sexual, and spiritual emptiness as a result of social and economic revolution.
