Disillusionment Transcends Time and Circumstance Meghan Edwards College

Disillusionment is everywhere from our careers, to a significant other that turned out to be the very person we thought they were not, to the reality that human activity is pushing the earth towards destruction. Brenda Shaughnessy touches on this feeling in her poetry book, Octopus Museum, a book detailing a possible future in which life has been drastically altered due to climate change. In one of her poems, “I Want the World,” Shaughnessy establishes the connection between the dissipating post-apocalyptic future and the disillusionment that every modern child faces during which they come to understand the difficulties and complexities that accompany life in the worst ways as opposed to a sheltered and idealistic childhood. In Shaughnessy’s poem, the speaker (the child’s mother) grapples with the loss of even the most basic choice due to the loss of resources throughout the apocalypse and the inevitable disillusionment her daughter will experience upon the realization that she cannot have her desired choices; however, this can be broadened to apply to the common feeling amongst all in this real pre-apocalyptic world who eventually come to understand that the world is not as universally expansive with limitless opportunities as...