Critical Analysis: Exploring Feminism and Sexuality in Ai's 'Cruelty'

This essay provides a detailed literary analysis of Ai's poetry anthology, "Cruelty." It examines four key poems: "Twenty Year Marriage," "Warrior," "The Rivals," and "New Crops for a Free Man." The analysis explores themes of feminism, sexuality, and the human spirit, offering both literal and figurative interpretations of the poems. The essay highlights Ai's use of bold language, vivid imagery, and exploration of complex emotions such as jealousy, passion, and the dynamics of relationships. It also addresses the presence of supernatural elements and the portrayal of both masculine and feminine strengths. The essay concludes by emphasizing the personal and sensitive nature of Ai's work and her celebration of human emotions.

Running head: WRITING THROUGH LITERATURE
Writing through Literature
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1WRITING THROUGH LITERATURE
Cruelty, a book of poems published by AI, is a piece of work that is characterized by
a great deal of mystery and where the politics of gender is prevalent in almost each and every
page. Undoubtedly Ai is a feminist writer and her works, Cruelty notwithstanding, reflect the
spirit of the strong and spirited woman, capable of taking on the world no matter what the
challenges are. Mysticism and super natural characteristics are also commonly detected in the
poems of Ai. This essay analyzes the four poems contained in the book, “Cruelty” by Ai,
with both a literal interpretation and a figurative interpretation being provided for each poem.
The first poem contained in the anthology of poems by Ai entitled as Cruelty, known
as, “Twenty Year Marriage” is one that gives readers plenty of indications about the
psychology of the writer. The sexual intonations in the poem are very high, with the narrator
stating clearly that she is not wearing anything under her skirt and that she is impatient for
her husband to come and make love to her. Ai is bold and brazen in her use of language in the
poem. She tells her spouse to hurry up and come to her instead of busying himself in the
process of urinating against the side of a tree (Tso 29). She also appears to be complaining
about the fact that he has kept her waiting for a long time while she has been desperate for his
attention. The insinuation of the speaker is something that is calculated very well in the
poem. There is inverted and intentional tension in every stanza and the speaker does a
successful job of getting the attention of the readers through the bold and brazen statements
that she makes. However, Ai is also clearly aware of the fact that pace and language also
have a vital role to play in getting the attention of a reader. The character in the poem,
“Twenty Year Marriage” appears to have evolved from some uncharted place, a place that
forms a crucial part of each and every human being, but a place that human beings are often
unaware of (Tso 30).
The confidence of the speaker in her own sexual appeal is something that is quite
evident in the poem, “Twenty Year Marriage”. She is unabashed about the urges that she

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suffers from, as is clearly demonstrated in lines like, “Come on baby, lay me down on my
back, Pretend you don’t owe me a thing”. She also alludes to the fact that she and her spouse
can make use of old newspapers as a foundation or carpet upon which to lay down and make
love on. Through such allusions, the speaker indicates the fact that in spite of having been
married for twenty years, there is no sense of boredom or jadedness that prevails in the
marriage and that she and her husband continue to excite each other more than ever. They are
as youthful and as playful with one another as they were twenty years ago, at the time of their
marriage and it is clear to the reader that they will always continue to be like this, happy and
passionate in each other’s company (Wilson 440).
Warrior is the second remarkable poem contained in the anthology of poems,
“Cruelty” by Ai. Warrior is a poem that reflects the strength and the passion of the female
spirit. The language used in the poem is one that is quite vibrant and colorful, with several
allusions being made to the warrior spirit of Native Americans. The physical strength and
aggression that is so characteristic of warriors is also pointed out very well in the poem. This
is reflected in the way the speaker talks about a warrior picking up a fish from the river and
tearing this fish apart with its teeth (Wilson 450). The image of misty mountains, and
unexplored places is well conjured up in the poem. In spite of pointing to the apparent
physical strength of the warrior, the speaker in the poem acknowledges the strength of the
warrior’s wife as well, pointing to the fact that while he rips off a fish with his teeth, his wife,
a strong woman is also busy at work at home. The speaker refers to the fact that the wife of
the warrior has a jaw bone which is similar to that of an ox, indicating in the process that this
is a very well built woman (Tso 31). The speaker also alludes to the fact that this warrior
woman, or rather the wife of a warrior, is a person who has a huge fire or passion working
within her, and that while she toils away at home doing her domestic work, she appears to be
no less than her warrior husband in terms of strength and capability. Elements of the

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supernatural are clearly evident in the poem as well with the speaker talking about witch men
singing around the fireplace. The sexual intonations in the poem are also quite high, as is
evident through the speaker’s reference to the witch men singing about women who are
melon breasted. The necessity for a warrior to have a good physical form is quite clear in the
poem, in the references to melon breasts of a woman, the physical aggression of a warrior
tearing a fish apart with his teeth and the physical power of the warrior’s wife, the kind of
strength or power that keeps a fire raging within her and which enables her to carry out the
heavy duties of the home with efficiency and perfection. There are interesting comparisons
that the speaker of the poem draws between the warrior and the call of the wild. The speaker
in the poem appears to indicate that the call for war or the call for aggression rather, is
something that is ingrained in the warrior, as ingrained in him as the songs that are sung
about the women of the wild or the fish that he catches in the river (Wilson 447).
The Rivals is a poem in the anthology “Cruelty” that talks about a woman fighting for
the love of a man and who have come to despise each other in the process. The speaker in the
poem is hurling abuses at her former lover in the poem. The jealousy that a woman
experiences when she sees the man she loves be loved by another, is brought out very well in
the poem by the speaker. The anger felt by the speaker towards the man who has let her down
and who has loved another in the bargain is quite vivid. She talks about not needing this man
any more in her life, stating very clearly that she can do without him. The Rivals is a poem
that is characterized by an abundance of vivid imagery. The words and phrases that have been
used to describe the feelings of the speaker are truly apt and she describes clearly how being
spurned is not the way a woman wants to feel. If this man ever tried to lover her again, the
speaker says that he would not succeed in doing so (Kilcup 10). What is truly wonderful
about the poem The Rivals is the feisty feminine spirit that is so clearly evident in it. The
aggression and passion of a woman at the time of being spurned by the man she loves has

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been portrayed with the greatest degree of vividness by the author. The speaker does not
hesitate to describe the pain that she feels as a result of having been turned down by her lover
and the words that she uses in order to describe this pain are realistic and poignant and are
certain to strike a chord with every reader. Although Ai’s poems tend to be quite abstract in
nature, one cannot say so about this particular poem. This is largely due to the fact that the
speaker lays her feelings clearly on the table. She is not hesitant to express how hurt and
dejected she is by the act of having been spurned and uses the choicest, and angriest words in
order to convey her emotions. Ai does a terrific job of bringing out in this poem the honest
emotions that every woman is known to feel when she is let down or betrayed in the area of
love (Kilcup 5).
New Crops for a Free Man is the last and final poem in the anthology, Cruelty, by
Ai. This is a particularly remarkable poem in which the author does a fabulous job of
bringing out female sexuality as it is perceived and appreciated by a man. The speaker in the
poem is clearly a male individual who takes pride in the physical beauty and raw sexual
appeal of his wife. The poem is characterized by the use of explicit language, with the
speaker actually describing in detail how his woman looks like, referring to her breasts as
cone shaped candles and portraying in vivid details, the manner by which she is seen to
stroke her nipples (Tso 32). The speaker even goes so far as to describe the way he licks off
her private parts, displaying in turn the fact that Ai as a poetess is a person who is not
inhibited at all about the way by which she describes sexual behavior in a person. It is more
than evident that Ai believes in free and uninhibited loving and that the characters in the
poem appear to uncover their own unique sense of self in each and every line of the poem.
Apart from the vivid use of language, the poem does a remarkable job of conveying human
sexual emotions, particularly the emotions that are felt by a man in his ownership of a
woman. Although Ai is essentially a feminist writer and is known to celebrate the spirit of

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womanhood in almost all of her poems, in this particular poem she is seen to dwell a lot on
how a man feels when he loves and owns a woman, the possessiveness and the pride he feels
and the manner in which he acknowledges and appreciates the physical beauty of a woman.
The hard work that this man does out in the open is also something that is brought out in the
poem, indicating perhaps that the speaker of the poem is a farmer, who is content with the
activity of toiling hard in the fields and who likes to come back home to the comfort of his
wife’s body and her love, something that gives him the drive and the will to carry on with his
day to day existence. Raw elements of masculinity and femininity are clearly evident in this
poem, making it one of the most appealing poems of all time (Kilcup 12).
All the poems that form a part of Cruelty, an anthology of poems published by Ai are
those that appear to be a confession of some sort or the other. Each and every poem that is
contained in this anthology of poems is a confession of the mind and the heart, and of the
human spirit. Ai is a feisty and spirited feminist poet, who has succeeded in bringing out the
core human emotions that are felt by people when they go through the life, be it joy, sadness,
heartbreak, pride, possession or jealousy among others (Kilcup 11).
What is particularly commendable about this anthology of poems by Ai lies in the fact
that the poems appear to be personal, sensitive, descriptive, beautiful and a homage to the
spirit of a woman and a man at the same given time. The passion of human emotions and
human behavior gets well reflected in the poems of Ai because of the graphic language that
she uses in order to write such poems in the first place. The Cruelty anthology is a well-
known example of vivid poetry written by Ai, with human emotion and experience forming
the core or essence of each poem.

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References
Ai, and Lisa Erb. "An Interview with Ai: Dancing with the Madness." Manoa (1990): 22-37
Kilcup, Karen L. "Dialogues of the self: Toward a theory of (re) reading Ai." Journal of
Gender Studies 7.1 (1998): 5-20.
Tso, Sarah Yihsuan. "“My Body, My Poetry”: Ai-lin Yen’s and Taiwanese Women Poets’
Poetics of the Body." WENSHAN REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND CULTURE 9.1
(2015): 29-59
Wilson, Rob. "The will to transcendence in contemporary American poet, Ai." Canadian
Review of American Studies17.4 (1986): 437-448.