One of the most poigniant lines in the poem to me was that all women were named "Rose" or "Grace." I agree that this seems to be a predestined way of life for these women and that they are stigmatized for it. Lines 11-13 comment on the tourists that watch them. Having visited a few small towns in Europe, I understand why the tourists are there, but I don't believe they realize what they're witnessing. The fact that the women don't even look up at them makes it seem like they're being ostresized for their work. Whether or not they're actually taunted, being gauked at is not much better. To be able to adapt to that type of "career" has got to take a lot out of the women.

I feel like this is a perfect display of the bores that many people face in there jobs today. I believe that the way in which the poem displays the way these women feel speaks to alot of the same feelings many Americans have. These feelings in turn I believe are the reasons that so many Americans are depressed in our society. The poem flows together like I feel a life a monotony in a job would. I believe the way the poem reads actually displays the point better than the words themselves.

I agree that these women seem to be stuck in a situation that they just can't leave. The part that struck me most included lines 11-13. In these lines the tourists come and watch the women as they slave over the fish. The women continue to work without even looking up which is shocking to me as i can't even sit in the library to read without looking around between each page. It is clear that the tourists do not appreciate the hard work that these women do. Many of them must eat at the local seafood restaurants and take advantage of the duties that this women perform. Another article of interest is their names all being "Rose or Grace" as if they have no personal identity or that nobody cares if they do.

I got a similar feeling from this poem. I feel like the women are very much stuck in their jobs. The poem is told with a kind of somber tone that makes the lifestyle that these women live even more depressing. It shows that these women would love to be anywhere but where they currently were with the line "They wake up close to the water, damp and dreamy beneath white sheets, thinking of white beaches." The way the lines of the poem seem to just flow from one to the next represent to me their lifestyle which just seems to blend with the day before, doing simply the same things every day. I think that the way the fish are placed on the conver belt also seems to be symbolic because it's like they are laid out perfectly and seem to represent the women who put them there because they "fall compliantly" to however they are laid. This poem shows how I feel a lot of labors feel where they are stuck somewhere to simply make a living, but hate every second of it.