16 pages • 32-minute read
Good Man
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Symbols & Motifs
Snakes
Several of the images in “Good Man” are biblical in nature; the most repeated of these symbols is the snake, or serpent. In the Old Testament of the Judeo-Christian Bible, the snake is the catalyst for Adam and Eve’s forced exit from the garden of Eden; thus, the snake represents the cause of ongoing conflicts between men and women in heterosexual relationships.
Snakes are mentioned almost immediately in the poem in the fourth line, and then appear again in the fourth stanza, where Geter describes men hiding “serpents in our blood stream” (Line 33) and physically separating from Eve. In this portrayal, Geter seems to be arguing that men make an intentional choice to side with the snake, a character who wants women to feel shame and be set up for failure in their relationships with men. The language of “in our blood stream” (Line 33) also implies Geter’s belief that men, rather than searching for a more righteous path, are internalizing negative aspects of masculinity and allowing these to control them, much as the serpent originally poisons Eve’s mind in the biblical interpretation.
Prey/Pray
One of the important word play aspects of Geter’s poem is easier to catch in the printed version than the spoken word one: the difference between “pray” and “prey.” The comparison created through this is both interesting in how Geter is connecting religion and masculinity as well as his creativity around vulnerabilities. By connecting the act of prayer with the act of preying on someone, Geter weaves together two major metaphors of his poem: women as righteous beings who should be worshipped because of the “God in” (Line 30) them and women as targets for men, who are “hunters.”
Pray and prey also connect because they both refer to moments where someone is unguarded or could be perceived as weak. Perhaps Geter is suggesting that men would benefit from being in the position of prayer rather than viewing women as prey. Indeed, in the last lines of the penultimate stanza Geter describes men as being “taught how to prey / Before we learned how to pray” (Lines 54-55). If, Geter argues, men were taught how to “pray” first, it’s possible they would be able to have healthier relationships with women.
A Good Man
Although it’s also the title of the poem and a key thematic idea in the text, the idea of a “good man” or men also repeats as a key symbol throughout the poem. If Geter’s point was simply to clarify that there are no good men, he could have done so without repeating this particular phrase; instead, by repeatedly using the mental image of the “good man,” Geter forces the reader to acknowledge the myriad ways that society teaches a certain kind of masculinity. Being a “good man,” as Geter is arguing in his poem, comes with a specific set of expectations, behaviors, and values. Geter utilizes a number of supplementary images to build the idea of this fictional good man in order to undo it as a positive construction in society.
In the poem, “good man” exists as a kind of archetype or totem character who exists outside of reality. One important moment that illustrates the way Geter thinks about this is in the second stanza where he asserts his main point of view that being a “good man” is “a lie” and “an illusion.” Thus the illusion, or symbolic nature of the good man is to further the lie of masculinity taught by society. By intentionally using the “good man” repeatedly in his poem, Geter begins to decouple the idea of goodness from masculinity.
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