Stop. Wait a minute...

When our class first discussed the poem “In Mind” by Denise Levertov we made a short list on the board of the key things we do when we first approach a poem (look for metaphors, pinpoint shifts, explore tone, read out loud, etc.). Then, Ms. Lemon made the point that so many times we overlook the one thing that truly defines a literary piece of work—the title. The title, she emphasized, can give the reader critical information that perhaps the work itself cannot.

So lets stop. And wait a minute...

...because we forgot the title. 

   The Age of Innocence. What was Wharton thinking? I think I found a good definition of the word innocence to start us off: "Innocence is the quality of having no experience or knowledge of the more complex or unpleasant aspects of life" (www.dictionary.reverso.net). Fashionable New York in the 1870s was a very luxurious time period. It seems like all they did was dance, host parties, attend dinners, watch musicals, and of course gossip. However, citizens of this era lived in a dry, flaky world. They were caged by their own narrow-mindedness and blind to the real complexities of life. Wharton describes it as "a society wholly absorbed in barricading itself against the unpleasant" (Wharton 85). Newland was childishly afraid Ellen's divorce would make unpleasant talk. He couldn't face the "big boy" stuff. He was raised in a naive society where "they all lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world, where the real thing was never said or done or even thought, but only represented by a set of arbitrary signs" (Wharton 40). People simply didn't want to grow up, confront reality and ultimately accept it. As sad as it is, they lived during an innocent age. 

Now we can move on...