Wednesday, April 24, 2019

How does the writer convey a sense of seperation in the poem "Breakfast" by Jacques Prévert?

The speaker, who appears to be a woman, describes how the man she is living with, who may or may not be her husband, gets up in the morning, pours his coffee, puts milk in it, and drinks it without saying a word to her. He also smokes a cigarette in the same silent way and puts on his raincoat to leave without saying a word. This description of a silent man going about his business while ignoring the presence of the speaker creates a picture of profound isolation and separation. The two might as well be in different countries for all that the man notices the woman.
The speaker reinforces her sense of separation by repeating the line:

Without any word to me

She states this four times, and then states two times:

Without any look at me

This description and the repeated refrain create a mood of separation and lonely chill. How devastating it must to be in a room with another person who won't acknowledge your presence. The emotional pain of this isolation is brought home in the last three lines of the poem, in which the speaker writes

And I buried My face in my handsAnd I cried

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