Summary of "The Burning of Paper Instead of Children"----Jake Moore

In Adrienne Rich's poem “The Burning of Paper Instead of Children” she concentrates on the present tense.  A theme that is revealed is people spend to much time on the past and future.  An example of this theme is Durer's work MELANCOLIA.  He draws a lady who is extremely wrapped up in studying and is oblivious to her surroundings.  She does not realize her little baby is beginning to be wrapped up with books, and how her dog is becoming extremely thin and has a look of sadness on its face.  Rich is trying to state that literature will always tell the past and try to predict the future; therefore, we should not become obsessed with studying, but live a life in the present.  We, the readers, should live a life of how we want to live not how people lived in the past.  With the new and advanced technology in today's society anybody can look up any type of material and find instant answers on that certain subject, but nobody knows what will happen exactly as Rich writes in her poem "no one knows what may happen though the books tell everything."  Because nobody will ever know what will happen we should "burn the texts" a French actor, Artaud, suggests.  This is not stated literally but is said with a sarcastic tone once again telling people to live in the present.