The Deconstructive Criticism Analysis of the Poem Rain by Don Paterson

Deconstructive Literary Criticism increases readers’ critical thinking, and it also helps to evince the hidden meanings which are built into language. One of the foremost benefits of deconstruction is the interpretation of the reader. Readers can attach their comments to the text which we have read. Deconstruction improves a different perspective according to thinking. By finding binary opposition, we may manage to access the undercover ideologies in the literary text. Besides, we can create meaning with our minds and values. Deconstruction leads us to research while analyzing the literary text to comprehend why stable meaning does not exist. After analyzing the benefits of deconstructive reading, it would be proper to mention the shortcomings of Deconstructive LC. During text examination, we often search to define meaning, but if we use Deconstructive LC, we cannot reach the meaning due to polysemantics. Deconstructive LC obstacles to finding straight goods because everything can be deconstructed.

 The DC analysis of the poem Rain by Don Paterson below was performed to interpret the text within my imagination and perception. Deconstruction theory allows writers to improve their critical way of thinking. In this analysis, the purpose of mine is to delve into hindered meaning by DC.

The Deconstructive analysis of the poem Rain by Don Paterson

Paterson uses a lot of natural motifs in his poem, such as rain, grass, watercourse, and gutter, which leads us to binary oppositions in the end. The poem starts with the author mentioning a movie beginning with a rainy scene. Rain may represent a dramatic narration with a blissful tone, a pure young character that knows nothing about life yet. After that, Paterson images a woman in line 11th, whose dress is ruined on the grass, which can be the point that the character meets with wickedness:

‘‘ ... or the dress lies ruined on the grass. ’’

Then we see the image of a watercourse:

‘‘ ... all things flow out from that source along their fatal watercourse. ’’

, which presents a suicide of the character, as done in most of the drama movies. The character wants to be purified again by killing herself. We see the colour images in the last stanza. ‘‘… rain-dark gutter, running gold forget the ink, the milk, the blood—’’ gold as a yellow, ink as a black, milk as a white, blood as a red. These colours symbolize the emotions of the characters. Bliss as yellow, black as depression, milk as purity, and red as ambition and love. All human emotions fade with death, like rain cleaning all those things; however, there is no such end for humanity. The fallen will rise and live again in another life. When we consider the poem, the fundamental binary opposition of the poem is Pureness versus Evil. Even though it seems like life and death, Paterson consciously or unconsciously uses more vivid images that represent purity. This situation can be seen as a struggle to hold on to purity against an unfair life that ends with the corruption of self.

Works Cited

Paterson, Don. “Rain.” Poets.org, Academy of American Poets, 31 July 2017, www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/rain-0.