Analysis Of The Poem Carpathia - 1552 Words

â€Å"Carpathia†, a short story by the poet and memoirist Jesse Lee Kercheval. The short story was written for a segment in her book â€Å"Building Fiction†. The main plot is a fictional story about her parents in their honeymoon. The setting is in April 1912, when the titanic sank. Jesse Lee’s parents were on the Carpathia, a ship that picked up the Titanic survivors. It also focuses on the role of women in society. In her book â€Å"Building Fiction† she explains the differences between a short story and a novella, providing several examples including the short story â€Å"Carpathia†. In her writing, you could feel the bitter-sweetness of her parent’s experience. Specially, her mom. It also points out a big controversial issue in society, gender†¦show more content†¦Her father just stands there observing the water. Since 1852, a code of conduct was stablished to save women and children during a life threatening situation (â€Å"W omen and children first, is a code of conduct dating from 1852, whereby the lives of women and children were to be saved first in a life-threatening situation, typically abandoning ship, when survival resources such as lifeboats were limited†) This code of conduct was stablished after the British ship â€Å"HMS Birkenhead† sank in 1852. When this happened there was not enough lifeboats to save all the people on board, so they let women and children escape from sinking. This gave life to the code of conduct â€Å"Women and Children first†. However, this rule was born purely out of the soldier’s chivalry. Lee makes you picture the solidarity between women as well, she says (â€Å"The women of the Carpathia went to the women of the Titanic, wrapping them in their long warm furs. My mother left my father s side to go to them† pg.166). Previously she describes a cold environment, meaning these women were probably very cold and scared. Lee’s mom le aves her husband side to help other women. In the story, these women came from a life-threatening experience. Most of them lost people. Some children lost their parents, some women lost their husbands. Lee expresses these women’s feelings after having probably the worst experience of their lives (â€Å"The women went down on their knees on the deck and prayed,