The Sacred Freedom and Confinement Quotes

So, let's start at the beginning, shall we? Are these kids in prison? Not exactly—but they're in class, and it seems like they've just been asked something that made them feel uncomfortable. Notice how they don't get up and leave? Notice how Dunn uses that simple prepositional phrase "in their chairs"? This is a great contrast to the image of driving that Dunn uses in the rest of the poem. Being in a chair and driving both require sitting down, but the main difference is that chairs are still, while cars are in motion. Obvious but brilliant, right? Dunn quietly uses the image of students being confined to their chairs and squirming in order to make the image of driving alone seem that much more liberating and freeing.

So, in contrast to the above quote, we can't tell if this is freeing or confining. Dunn suggests that this private place in the car is a liberating setting, but it's also confining. Imagine the car as a type of cell that is private and quiet, but also blocks the rest of the world out. So how are we supposed to understand what Dunn is getting at? This isn't Cujo-style where we're trapped in a stalled car with the raving mad dog-eat-dog world circling around us, trying to get inside is it? No. But it isn't the most freeing atmosphere either. Somehow, Dunn combines the image of being confined to a car as a private, but also freeing, experience that we've all experienced at some point in our lives.

There's nothing like having a hiding place right? But those hiding places are both secretive and confining in the sense that in order to enjoy them, you must remain there so that you can be "hidden." So what's unique about the car? Dunn describes it as "in motion" and "music filling it." This idea is one of being in the quiet place of your own car, behind the wheel, in control of your direction, and moving. It's almost as if there's a duality to the image of being in the car. It's confining, but the limits of the car, being locked in, seatbelt on, etc. are what enable us to be free and escape and find a sacred place.

In a sense, our needs are confining. In this case, it's a need "to speak." We have to use language in life, just like this poem has to use language to express itself. That can be confining, in a way, because there are things we feel and want to express that aren't easily captured in words. That's where the car comes in. It's like being stuck somewhere in the rain, and then, out of nowhere, a car pulls up and you're allowed to hop in and get whisked away. There's a certain freedom in finding this place—the private confines of a car can take you away from the "need," almost like a break from life where you get to quiet down, be alone, and become aware of how awesome being alive is.

It sure sounds like Dunn is talking about escape. He writes "the key / in having a key," as if the reader, the student, the speaker, and everyone could have access to this key and liberate themselves. Also, notice how the first line break of this stanza works in the poem? It makes it look like the key is "to speak, or to answer," yet the previous line of the poem talks about using the car to get far away from the need "to speak, or to answer." Using line breaks and stanzas allows Dunn the opportunity to create a paradoxical effect. In other words, "to speak, or to answer" is both the key that can lead to freedom, but also something confining that a "sacred place" can take you away from.