Literary Analysis Paper: Tone

This poem Cell by Margaret Atwood is a very intriguing and striking

poem as it describes the naturalness of the cancer cellhow the cell lives the
way it is programmed to beand compares it to us. This poem triggered many
questions in my mind. The comparison between cancer cells and humans
questions the goodness of humans as what we are doing is similar to the
cancer cell which we deem evil. Furthermore, it also questions whether good
or evil actually exists or is just a social construct to differentiate what we find
favorable or unfavorable.
The poem starts with the sentence Now look objectively which indicates
that from the beginning of this poem we should look at the cancer cell without
the knowledge that these cells kill people to interfere with how you view it. . It
allows us to see these monstrous cells through the eye of a scientist. These cells
are not as something evil but rather a creature that coexists with us. This
sentence actually sets the mood and tone of the poem as it somehow removes
the monster-quality of the cell, and breaks it down to something natural.
The following lines of the poem described the cancer cell by comparing it
to flowers, to tentacles, spines, gillsto nature in general. This kind of
description seems to emphasize that the cancer cell is just another natural
occurrence with its own beauty, just like every other part of nature. However,
just because it is beautiful does not imply that it is not dangerous. Beauty, after
all, can be deceptive. Although, the cell is something natural it is unnatural to
us because the cancer cell being a creature that coexists with us is inside our
body just like an alien. In the third stanza, however, there seems to be a turning
point. From describing what a cancer cell looks and is like it jumps to
describing how a cancer cell behaves like. The third stanza is especially
insightful, from describing the cancer cell as a flower in the first stanza, a
Martian in the second, it is now being described as money: its spores scatter
elsewhere, take root, like money. This comparison of the cancer cell to money
seems to imply that money is something that take root in us. It becomes the
priority of some people and somehow acts like a cancer because instead of
prioritizing the things that are important like family, friends, love, people
become much more interested in their survival and money. In the fourth stanza,

it further describes the cancer cell as a creature with a voracious appetite: To

take more. To eat more. To replicate itselfforever. Aside from describing the
cancer cell as such it also compares it to us. This seems to imply that the cell is
not the enemy here it just does what it is programmed to do. It is just like us,
something that wants to live and grow. Aside, from that the last stanza
especially the last like also implies that we are also mindless, compassionless
organism oblivious to the harm we inflict to a larger body, whether the society
or the planet. It also implies that humans are similar to cancer cells in a sense
that we are very greedy and selfish creatures who put ourselves and our
survival first. We are as presented as creatures mindlessly moving through life,
consuming whatever we encounter, spreading and seeking everywhere
material enrichment that we need to sustain our physical existence.