Critical Analysis of Julia Alvarez`s Poem `Touching Bottom`

An Analysis of Julia Alvarez 's Poem , Touching Bottom

In the poem 's first stanza , Alvarez says , Sometimes the best advice comes randomly ' - but without intent , how can it be advice ? Perhaps good advice consists simply of one 's own ideas , rendered into words by another and recognized by the self as something true . If we go by this definition , then the random pieces of advice are , indeed , good advice She is thus saying that some of the best advice ' is recognized by the self and in the self , and not merely

received from others . Such advice is possibly worth more than any intentional directive , because the meaning of the advice is something that one makes for oneself

Alvarez implies that good advice is abundant , but requires some recognizing - which is what she does . To be able to give good advice , a person must think like the recipient of the advice , and who better to think like the recipient than the recipient herself ? Alvarez creates remarkable associations in her mind between randomly heard directives and the troubles of her life she is actually both the giver and the receiver of the random advice , and whoever (or whatever ) gave her the advice only has an intermediary role . These random pieces of advice are nothing like what we usually conceive advice to be , but are simply reminders of things that she already knew . Thus these random pieces of advice that she recognizes are essentially advice that she gives to herself

In the second stanza , Alvarez talks of the power of these random bits of wisdom . She realizes that a minotaur of your own making ' - that is self-imposed limitations - puts the mind into a certain degree of paralysis , and that randomly received advice , in their simplicity , have the power to awaken an awareness of truisms deeply buried in the subconscious . Alvarez in essence , is talking about the shock of recognition ' that she experiences when she hears these random bits of meaning . It takes these to remind her of her own good ideas that she may have unintentionally discarded into the dark labyrinth ' of her mind

Additionally , Alvarez implicitly contrasts her random bits of advice with true advice intentionally given by others - too often , such advice is derived from the experiences of the giver and not the receiver . The poem , because of its focus on accidental ' advice , reminds us of the tendency of people to ignore intentionally given advice , no matter how good , because advice is usually given based on the perceived needs of the recipient although these needs are often misidentified . This contrasts with her accidental bits of advice , which by their very nature are good and well received

The random advice that Alvarez hears makes her capable of touching bottom ' Although touching bottom ' in general usage has the negative meaning of reaching the lowest point of something (such as when a company goes bankrupt , what she means by having touched bottom in my life ' is that she realized and recognized...