can be so powerful in inducing emotions that they can "Seduce us into believing" whatever the creator of the image may want us to see (Berger 111). Rich is very aware of this when she states that, "Until we can understand the assumptions in which we are drenched we cannot know ourselves" (604). She uses the rich language of her poetry to create powerful, distinct images of women that are living the roles and the life that society has not only created, but preserves. In her poem "Orion", the final line "you with your back to the wall" produces a strong image of despair. This is how Rich sees women in our society. Unfortunately, our society is not so different today than it was in the past. Bordo believes that "Even more examples could be produced, of course, if we cast our glance more widely over the globe and back through history" (142). While we believe that we have evolved and are more liberated now than we were in the past, we are still as strongly influenced now as people were in the past by in the way women are seen and the way in which we see ourselves.Our knowledge, beliefs, and expectations are the outgrowth of our interaction with our society. Berger professes that "The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe" (106). A great deal of this interaction is through the images produced by language and the images that we react to visually. Whether we acknowledge that society has placed limitations on us or that we have placed limitations on ourselves, the limitations are there. "It is the created image that has the hold on our most vibrant, immediate sense of what is, of what matters, of what we must pursue for ourselves" (Bordo 143). What women can pursue is often with its limitations because of the established culture. Rich states that "Both the victimization and the anger experienced by women are real, and have real sources, everywhere in the environment, built into society, language and stru...
