“No! It cannot be over…”
Reflecting Progress in Work and 2009
All through this year, I can honestly say that I have become partially experience in the English language and that I have had the opportunity to actually see my faults and get the chance to work on them. Moreover, I improved in more places as well. To be specific, as a reader, I have learned to compose my ideas in my head, yet; in most instances, I seem to stumble in effort to express them more clearly in my speech as well as writing it on paper. During the most part of my work in the class, I have been often been falling short being clear in my arguments as well as forming a structured or extensive explanation that I can be satisfied with. On the bright side, I also note my growing participation in the discussions on the books that we have read over the year. I always try to express my observations of the chapters that I have to see if anyone seen that as well, though I often don’t use the right words or vocabulary to convey it as much as I think so. I try I often make no sense at what I am trying to say about the book as a whole. One of my problems that usually appear in my papers is my lack of control over my words. I constantly have the idea that one word has the same meaning that I am trying to put in one context, in that result, that seems to hurt my work more than it helps it. For example, in one of my earlier boot camp essays wherein I had to focus on the topic of point of view with William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” that was one my earlier signs of my lack of work ethic and awful writing ability. One thing I can say that hindered my efforts is the fact that I like to do my work in the last minute, pass it in, and wait for the grade. For that reason, I was never proud of my first impression in the class and in result, I was too nervous to try asking for any help. In addition, when I began the introduction, I always seemed to get off topic and write a hypothetical paragraph in what I thought was one convention to do before going into the whole subject of an essay, to as well as when I stopped before or during I finish my conclusion.
In retrospect, to most of the essays and other texts that I have written, my strongest suit was having the main theme of the certain text that I was analyzing, although I did have a hard time trying to organize it into a decent essay. In the course of the class, my strengths included my work on poetry analysis as well as my adequate knowledge in literary devices such as tone, symbolism and language. The poems that we studies throughout the school term really was fun, especially when I get to scan the paper for rhetorical devices as well as literary devices. Throughout the year, my strengths included looking into certain books, novel, plays, and poems and finding said tools in the papers as well as allusions and imagery in the narratives and texts. In my opinion, such books and short stories we covered in class such as Jane Eyre, Wide Sargossa Sea, Greasy Lake, really were the stories that I really thrived in. In addition, the whole year as a whole has made me exercise the rule of what to put on paper. I cannot lie and say I did not learn anything in this class that I already knew. This has been a partial advantage towards my overall writing skills and how I have had the opportunity to access books that I never thought I could read. In conclusion, though this class has helped me sharpen my discipline in the English language, I still have a long way to go in the subject and I will try to learn as much as I can from these mistakes in the future. Heaven knows that I need it when I’m off to school.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
SP:Revision/ College Essay
You Could Go With This, or
You Can Go With That”
The Cogitations of a Black Sheep
“You want to make friends. Point a sword in their face.” – Rev. Goodlove
If only it was that easy. I fear of being an outcast because I fear being a follower. Such a paradox worries me. The question goes through my head: Follower or an Individual I need to balance these things. Being a follower means no individuality. For me to have no DNA I won’t have any inner beauty. I won’t have heart or soul. A automaton. It can mean having a community. To belong to a group. To be nourished and given aid. To be accepted by people like you. Although to be an individual, I shouldn’t care about social status. To have now need for requirements. Having a name people will remember. Nevertheless, the individual can be misunderstood. I applied for the Literary Society. Being in a club meant asylum. Not being “that” loser in school. Means a form of extra-curricular activities I walked in the door I with my application in one hand and an U.S. history book in the other. What I was doing there? Pairs of eyes stared at me. a of students near me, four or five of them. They didn’t even know I existed. When I handed my application over, I felt that hollow feeling inside. To be alone. I stumble out the room. I walked down the nearest staircase. It was done. The situation played repeatedly. Then the questions came to me. Was there something wrong with me? Was there something on my face? What was that “look” for? Was I not good enough? The questions had gone all afternoon. I felt cold and hollow inside. I didn’t think I would return.
Then it came to me: Fencing! My brother did it last year. He thought it was alright. I considered taking a year, too. I borrowed my brother’s equipment. I went to see the academy. I walked into the studio; I see golden plaques on the wall. There are many trophies and ribbons. As I look, the pupils stop. The voices rise and fall. I asked around for the instructor. They point vaguely behind me. I see a tall blonde lady. Her name is Helen. We shook hands and I smiled. She introduces me to the class. I then hear vague awkward replies. My equipment becomes heavy. I feel apart form myself. My soul watches my body. It looks along with the pupils. It begs me to heed instruction. I feel hollow again. The cold kicks in. I feel surrounded by the pupils. I snap out of it. The day is done.
The next day, I begin practice. I walk into the studio. I try to walk in rhythm. I try to get familiar. The instructor greets me again. I smile and wave lively. I think I made an effort. I put on my gear quickly. The whistle has blown. She begins the class. She has us do some stretching. We break up by weapon type. I am now with some company. Two girls and three guys. I begin to wonder to myself. Do the girls feel awkward? Maybe I’m sitting too close. Are they the open type? Where are they from? Maybe they live around here. Should I ask? It will sure calm me down. One was from Fall River. Her name was Penelope. The other, Nancy, was from Brockton. I felt like I was melting. I came out of my shell. I fell into a rhythm. I re-introduced myself to the group. The instructor divides us by two. Nancy and I were sparring partners. I then felt shy again. I began talking to her. I thought that it would help. What gave you interest in fencing? Is it your first time? Do you enjoy it? The questions came in a pace. We began with a warm-up beat. A rhythmic conversation with blades. The cadence was dull, but refreshing. She asked me questions too. How old are you? What year are you? Do you play any other sports? I tried to answer her. I was stumbling, I was nervous. I was out of my body again. She was probably psychic. She read the expression on my face. She smiled.
“I need to say something!”, I thought. So I asked her a few questions. “How long have you been fencing? What School do you go to? Got a boyfriend? Yes!? Got a sister?” I was dead. She had that surprised look. Somebody smack me. Her laugh pierced me. Then her sabre did. I was back in my body. “I guess that answers that question”. Confidence. She came back to me. Was she jealous? Afterwards, Nancy and I talked. “Off all the sports” she opened. “Why’d you choose fencing?”. “To kill people” I said teasingly. She giggled again, I loved her laugh. She promised to see me again. I never heard that from a girl before. I took it as a good omen. I grew a little. I became human.
My soul was looking at me. He picked up a sign. It read “About time! You Loser”. I felt reborn again. I made an effort. I passed. I have a soul. I am a man. I exist. I am not a loser. I am significant. I am alive.
You Can Go With That”
The Cogitations of a Black Sheep
“You want to make friends. Point a sword in their face.” – Rev. Goodlove
If only it was that easy. I fear of being an outcast because I fear being a follower. Such a paradox worries me. The question goes through my head: Follower or an Individual I need to balance these things. Being a follower means no individuality. For me to have no DNA I won’t have any inner beauty. I won’t have heart or soul. A automaton. It can mean having a community. To belong to a group. To be nourished and given aid. To be accepted by people like you. Although to be an individual, I shouldn’t care about social status. To have now need for requirements. Having a name people will remember. Nevertheless, the individual can be misunderstood. I applied for the Literary Society. Being in a club meant asylum. Not being “that” loser in school. Means a form of extra-curricular activities I walked in the door I with my application in one hand and an U.S. history book in the other. What I was doing there? Pairs of eyes stared at me. a of students near me, four or five of them. They didn’t even know I existed. When I handed my application over, I felt that hollow feeling inside. To be alone. I stumble out the room. I walked down the nearest staircase. It was done. The situation played repeatedly. Then the questions came to me. Was there something wrong with me? Was there something on my face? What was that “look” for? Was I not good enough? The questions had gone all afternoon. I felt cold and hollow inside. I didn’t think I would return.
Then it came to me: Fencing! My brother did it last year. He thought it was alright. I considered taking a year, too. I borrowed my brother’s equipment. I went to see the academy. I walked into the studio; I see golden plaques on the wall. There are many trophies and ribbons. As I look, the pupils stop. The voices rise and fall. I asked around for the instructor. They point vaguely behind me. I see a tall blonde lady. Her name is Helen. We shook hands and I smiled. She introduces me to the class. I then hear vague awkward replies. My equipment becomes heavy. I feel apart form myself. My soul watches my body. It looks along with the pupils. It begs me to heed instruction. I feel hollow again. The cold kicks in. I feel surrounded by the pupils. I snap out of it. The day is done.
The next day, I begin practice. I walk into the studio. I try to walk in rhythm. I try to get familiar. The instructor greets me again. I smile and wave lively. I think I made an effort. I put on my gear quickly. The whistle has blown. She begins the class. She has us do some stretching. We break up by weapon type. I am now with some company. Two girls and three guys. I begin to wonder to myself. Do the girls feel awkward? Maybe I’m sitting too close. Are they the open type? Where are they from? Maybe they live around here. Should I ask? It will sure calm me down. One was from Fall River. Her name was Penelope. The other, Nancy, was from Brockton. I felt like I was melting. I came out of my shell. I fell into a rhythm. I re-introduced myself to the group. The instructor divides us by two. Nancy and I were sparring partners. I then felt shy again. I began talking to her. I thought that it would help. What gave you interest in fencing? Is it your first time? Do you enjoy it? The questions came in a pace. We began with a warm-up beat. A rhythmic conversation with blades. The cadence was dull, but refreshing. She asked me questions too. How old are you? What year are you? Do you play any other sports? I tried to answer her. I was stumbling, I was nervous. I was out of my body again. She was probably psychic. She read the expression on my face. She smiled.
“I need to say something!”, I thought. So I asked her a few questions. “How long have you been fencing? What School do you go to? Got a boyfriend? Yes!? Got a sister?” I was dead. She had that surprised look. Somebody smack me. Her laugh pierced me. Then her sabre did. I was back in my body. “I guess that answers that question”. Confidence. She came back to me. Was she jealous? Afterwards, Nancy and I talked. “Off all the sports” she opened. “Why’d you choose fencing?”. “To kill people” I said teasingly. She giggled again, I loved her laugh. She promised to see me again. I never heard that from a girl before. I took it as a good omen. I grew a little. I became human.
My soul was looking at me. He picked up a sign. It read “About time! You Loser”. I felt reborn again. I made an effort. I passed. I have a soul. I am a man. I exist. I am not a loser. I am significant. I am alive.
Senior Portfolio: Literary Analysis
The Insignificant
Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”
In the 1915 short story, The Metamorphosis, the author, Franz Kafka illustrates the protagonist, Gregor Samsa transforming into an insect. Kafka transforming Gregor as a cockroach highlights certain portions of his personality. Through this, Kafka applies these certain aspects to have Gregor represent certain qualities of the common man. In addition, the family that Gregor supports embodies the higher society that benefits from the work of the common man. Nevertheless, they still look down and exclude him from their society. Kafka comments on the heartless society wherein the working class is neglected by high society when their services are no longer useful to them.
Kafka transforms Gregor as a cockroach to emphasize certain aspects of his personality. Kafka choice of vermin implies the similar characteristics between Gregor and the cockroach. For example, the connotations of a cockroach would include such terms as insignificant, burdensome, scavenger, bottom feeder and powerless. In addition, the cockroach would be an insect that is dependant on the living of others to supplement his livelihood and secludes itself from the human beings. Most of these implications apply to Gregor as a human. For example, the narrative reveals his occupation to be a “commercial traveler” (312), one that makes a living by soliciting others to buy his products. Clearly, Gregor fits the scavenger role. In the story, due to his obligation to support his family and “pay off his parent’s debts” (312) he is then unable to get away from his burdens, thus he is powerless over his decision to cut loose from the monotonous job he has. Finally, Gregor’s job makes him obtain the “prudent habit of locking all doors during the night, even at home” (313). Through this act, Kafka shows Gregor as a recluse towards his family. Through the narrative Kafka, has the reader find evidence to clearly link Gregor’s aspects to an insect.
In the narrative, Kafka has Gregor’s role in the family to be the breadwinner of the household and to pay off his debts to be free from working for the chief clerk. In addition, Gregor’s role has him represent the common man. The responsibilities and obligations Gregor is responsible for depicts him as the archetypical working man. Gregor has his debts to repay, a family to support and a higher authority he must answer to everyday. Kafka explains this through what is going on in the house. The protagonist would be locked in his room, separated from the servants, the cooks and the food. The door between Gregor’s room and the rest of the house symbolizes the borders between the aristocratic family and the sole provider for them. Gregor is the workingman who is concerned with the security of the family, one who “thinks nothing but his work” (317). While the family he supports has little to no concern for him. One example is when he is in his room as a bug; the family was unaware of his suffering just to “get up from bed” (314). One strong example is how the chief clerk arrives at the home to find the whereabouts of Gregor, his candid demeanor had him state that him and Gregor were “men of business” (316) regarding Gregor’s inconvenience as insignificant compared to his work. Kafka displays the chief clerk as the taskmaster; the careless figure that can care less of Gregor’s problems, yet he needs him to get up to get to work.
Further into the short story, the family represents the powerful, the upper classes that benefit from the worker, at his expense. Kafka insists this in lieu of the activity of the household. One example is that Gregor as the main source of income wherein he provides the money for the family; yet, the family would use this money to hire a “servant” (318). This would be a weird use of the money in lieu of their position in the story. One would say their way with money is frivolous as the tastes of the upper class. The life of the family compared to Gregor’s life is more comfortable, more enjoyable than the toiling Gregor lives. The family’s realization of Gregor’s transformation would then alter their lives as well as their perception for Gregor. The family’s main source of income has been debilitated through his transformation as a bug. Now that Gregor is impaired if this, the family worry whether they can survive with Gregor now having to be pampered. The remainder of the novel has the family toiling to make ends meet with Gregor being their burden. All the hardships get the best of the family until they now came to the decision to remove Gregor from the house. Kafka’s symbolic act would ironically set Gregor as the bad guy that is pictured to deprive the family of a decent living.
In summary, Kafka illustrates how society would welcome the providing party with open arms only if it benefits them, until that major source of their income on longer is useful, they will shun that party, abandon them to rot in solitude. Kafka scorns society for their parasitic manipulation towards others and how the same practice can happen in one’s own home.
Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”
In the 1915 short story, The Metamorphosis, the author, Franz Kafka illustrates the protagonist, Gregor Samsa transforming into an insect. Kafka transforming Gregor as a cockroach highlights certain portions of his personality. Through this, Kafka applies these certain aspects to have Gregor represent certain qualities of the common man. In addition, the family that Gregor supports embodies the higher society that benefits from the work of the common man. Nevertheless, they still look down and exclude him from their society. Kafka comments on the heartless society wherein the working class is neglected by high society when their services are no longer useful to them.
Kafka transforms Gregor as a cockroach to emphasize certain aspects of his personality. Kafka choice of vermin implies the similar characteristics between Gregor and the cockroach. For example, the connotations of a cockroach would include such terms as insignificant, burdensome, scavenger, bottom feeder and powerless. In addition, the cockroach would be an insect that is dependant on the living of others to supplement his livelihood and secludes itself from the human beings. Most of these implications apply to Gregor as a human. For example, the narrative reveals his occupation to be a “commercial traveler” (312), one that makes a living by soliciting others to buy his products. Clearly, Gregor fits the scavenger role. In the story, due to his obligation to support his family and “pay off his parent’s debts” (312) he is then unable to get away from his burdens, thus he is powerless over his decision to cut loose from the monotonous job he has. Finally, Gregor’s job makes him obtain the “prudent habit of locking all doors during the night, even at home” (313). Through this act, Kafka shows Gregor as a recluse towards his family. Through the narrative Kafka, has the reader find evidence to clearly link Gregor’s aspects to an insect.
In the narrative, Kafka has Gregor’s role in the family to be the breadwinner of the household and to pay off his debts to be free from working for the chief clerk. In addition, Gregor’s role has him represent the common man. The responsibilities and obligations Gregor is responsible for depicts him as the archetypical working man. Gregor has his debts to repay, a family to support and a higher authority he must answer to everyday. Kafka explains this through what is going on in the house. The protagonist would be locked in his room, separated from the servants, the cooks and the food. The door between Gregor’s room and the rest of the house symbolizes the borders between the aristocratic family and the sole provider for them. Gregor is the workingman who is concerned with the security of the family, one who “thinks nothing but his work” (317). While the family he supports has little to no concern for him. One example is when he is in his room as a bug; the family was unaware of his suffering just to “get up from bed” (314). One strong example is how the chief clerk arrives at the home to find the whereabouts of Gregor, his candid demeanor had him state that him and Gregor were “men of business” (316) regarding Gregor’s inconvenience as insignificant compared to his work. Kafka displays the chief clerk as the taskmaster; the careless figure that can care less of Gregor’s problems, yet he needs him to get up to get to work.
Further into the short story, the family represents the powerful, the upper classes that benefit from the worker, at his expense. Kafka insists this in lieu of the activity of the household. One example is that Gregor as the main source of income wherein he provides the money for the family; yet, the family would use this money to hire a “servant” (318). This would be a weird use of the money in lieu of their position in the story. One would say their way with money is frivolous as the tastes of the upper class. The life of the family compared to Gregor’s life is more comfortable, more enjoyable than the toiling Gregor lives. The family’s realization of Gregor’s transformation would then alter their lives as well as their perception for Gregor. The family’s main source of income has been debilitated through his transformation as a bug. Now that Gregor is impaired if this, the family worry whether they can survive with Gregor now having to be pampered. The remainder of the novel has the family toiling to make ends meet with Gregor being their burden. All the hardships get the best of the family until they now came to the decision to remove Gregor from the house. Kafka’s symbolic act would ironically set Gregor as the bad guy that is pictured to deprive the family of a decent living.
In summary, Kafka illustrates how society would welcome the providing party with open arms only if it benefits them, until that major source of their income on longer is useful, they will shun that party, abandon them to rot in solitude. Kafka scorns society for their parasitic manipulation towards others and how the same practice can happen in one’s own home.
Senior Portfolio: Prepared Notebook Entry
Senior Portfolio
Sophie’s World
“They are easy to assemble, she thought. Even though they are different, they fit together. They also unbreakable. She couldn’t remember ever seeing a broken Lego block (42) The best thing about them was that with Lego she can construct any object and then she could separate them and create something new”(42)Nature is really built up of different “atoms” that join and separate again. A hydrogen atom in a cell at the end of my nose was once part of an elephant’s trunk (44)
He therefore assumed that everything was built up of tiny invisible blocks, each of which was eternal and immutable. Democritus called these smallest units atoms” (43)
The fitting analogy of how toy blocks can e the most ingenious toy can be compared to a invisible state of matter in which all living things are made up of in the world.
The philosopher gives Sophie a very easy lesson to relate as well. The Lego block is not easily broken, but the bodies built out of these blocks are easily broken. The application of the Lego blocks towards the state of matter gives the reader where the whole genius of the toy and those who created it has gotten the idea. The literal idea was that the philosopher looked beyond the purpose of the atom and gave example of how every broken body atoms would scatter in the wind to create a new object. The example of "someone’s cardiac muscle’s atom that used to a dinosaur’s tail."
Sophie’s World
“They are easy to assemble, she thought. Even though they are different, they fit together. They also unbreakable. She couldn’t remember ever seeing a broken Lego block (42) The best thing about them was that with Lego she can construct any object and then she could separate them and create something new”(42)Nature is really built up of different “atoms” that join and separate again. A hydrogen atom in a cell at the end of my nose was once part of an elephant’s trunk (44)
He therefore assumed that everything was built up of tiny invisible blocks, each of which was eternal and immutable. Democritus called these smallest units atoms” (43)
The fitting analogy of how toy blocks can e the most ingenious toy can be compared to a invisible state of matter in which all living things are made up of in the world.
The philosopher gives Sophie a very easy lesson to relate as well. The Lego block is not easily broken, but the bodies built out of these blocks are easily broken. The application of the Lego blocks towards the state of matter gives the reader where the whole genius of the toy and those who created it has gotten the idea. The literal idea was that the philosopher looked beyond the purpose of the atom and gave example of how every broken body atoms would scatter in the wind to create a new object. The example of "someone’s cardiac muscle’s atom that used to a dinosaur’s tail."
Senior Portfolio:Research Sample
AP Research Paper:
Influences of Fairy Tales in
Postmodern literature.
After more than hundreds of years ago, fairy tales and fable has been a source of allusions of several authors in numerous works of postmodern literature, especially in the late 1960’s on to the late 1980’s such as Tim O’Brien, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Angela Carter. The reasons for these writers to incorporate children’s stories such as Alice in Wonderland, Rumpelstilskin, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel and Hansel and Gretel into heavily valued novels and short stories. In theory the idea of Fairy tale conveys a contrast between the simplistic views of the world through a fairy tale perspective that can appeal to mainly children only to be applied to a much more elaborate viewpoint of the world. Often readers can be daring as to claim that the interpretation the reference of children stories to be the author’s purpose of drawing comparison of one genre’s conventions and motifs to parallel the ideas that mentions in the other narrative. When one hears “fairy tales”, instantly their mind connects it to evil, elderly grandmothers, witches, queens, innocent children being punished for their parents offenses, unexplored realms and places, as well as fairy grandmothers, trolls, and the constant idea of a happy conclusion. The author’s choice to adopt such works from earlier means as children’s stories create the concept of the moral of a fairy tale become the theme in a novel. Fairy tales being included most notably in post-modern literature in the 1960’s insists that many of them correlated to world events for example, In Tim O’Brien’s 1972 novel Going after Cacciato, and the narrative follows the protagonist, Paul Brennan in his tour during the Vietnam War. In the story, there are strong resonances of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. To one reader, the context of the Vietnam War coinciding with the idea of fairy tale creates an ironic picture of an old children’s classic applying to a grown man’s journey through the underground Vietcong tunnels. O’Brien’s familiarity with Carroll’s classic has the narrative retain a strong connection to surrealist elements when connected to the historical context. To one reader’s opinion, what O’Brien tries to touch on is the context to have an anomalous presence of a children’s tale to assume the overall tone in the current melancholic setting as a Vietnam battlefield.
Fairy tales combined with postmodernist literature is, according to How to Read Literature like a Professor’s Thomas Foster, creates an ironic picture “Whenever fairy tales and their simplistic worldview crop up in connection with our complicated and morally ambiguous world” (Foster, 62). The aspect that most postmodern literature of ten depicts the real life, the grim, cruel world that is prone to the loss of innocence or the absence of simplicity which forms a dichotomy between the dreamlike, environment that all fairy tales foster. The fairy tale often appeals to the childlike naïveté of all fairy tales that has a happy conclusion that subsequently attracts children respectively. Also, the creation of fairy tales like the ancient fables of Aesop gives children a “moral of the story” or the main idea that the story expresses is the lesson learned from the protagonist’s experience that often revolved on the human vices such as hubris, greed, and or vanity. In addition, the fairy tales also speak of how it rewards noble characters for their courage, kindness, or wit. The mixture between postmodern literature and fairy tales creates a sardonic tone through the rustic background that fairy tales and the complex, frank style that most post-modern texts. One example of this blend is present in the Roald Dahl’s 1969 book Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, a story about the average an allegorical satire of such excess such as greed, gluttony, wrath, and pride. The story revolved around the tour, with each of the kids portraying a certain sin indulges in Willy Wonka’s treats and machinations only to fall victim in some creative woe. Moreover, the book has the owner portray a fiendish, satirical character that watches it happen, which has him assume the role of the devil. The idea that Dahl creates is the ironic connotation of children as sinful embodiments. In addition, the setting wherein this story takes places creates the idea that it is a harmless but strange environment, yet; many of the golden ticket holders (except Charlie) is deformed by their sin only to enhance the irony of their pleasure becoming their discomfort. With postmodernist author integration of fairy tales in their work, they have replaced the pastoral narrative with the fairy tale principle. In ones’ opinion, to compare and contrast a pastoral narrative to a fairy tale narrative they both possess the bucolic background including a moralistic commentary on the current life, or satirizing the follies and vices of man.
The perpetual motif of the unknown setting that mostly plays against the characters also applies in the spectrum of postmodern fantasy texts. If one reader refers to such archetypal texts such as Alice in Wonderland and Hansel and Gretel, they both cover the protagonist or protagonists falling into a world that is foreign to them. On the subject such novels like Going After Cacciato and The Gingerbread Man wherein the mere allusions of the certain geographical details that connects the variable narrative to the original story such as a substantial amount of forests and wild woodlands as well as tunnels. One narrative that relates to the idea of the unwelcoming setting is one of T.C. Boyle’s 1986 collections of Greasy Lake & Other Stories The main story of Greasy Lake. Apart from the allusions of the narrative creates the metaphor of the Vietnam War, it also covers the idea of a group of morally impaired teenagers, who are from well off families head off to a land which is described as terrain that has had the vegetation bombarded by napalm. The event of the group of privileged, dissolute teenagers fall into trouble, their only key of escape that is literally the key to the car that gets lost in the grass, causing the group to fall into danger and afterwards are traumatized to even think of continuing on with the night, The lesson here learned is the realization of their innocence as opposed to the life that attempted to create about them. The To the reader, on the topic of such allusions of fairy tales used in the novel, Boyle approaches the idea of the setting affecting his characters. In one instance, they are wealthy teenagers that masquerade as these “greasers” that they seem to idolize and pose as a dangerous bunch. Unitl after a death experience their static characters suddenly are affected to portray the opposite in which they are troubled by their actions they did and their consequences.
One interesting thing about postmodern/fairy tale integration is the idea of abandoning the implication that role of children in postmodern/fairy tale canon do not possess as much innocence as most genres in literature in spite of the inclusion of the fairy tale genre. Moreover, fairy tale motifs often carries the idea that children are often ignorant to the harms of others, Hence having them be more naive to the people they interact with. In addition, the cliché that women and children are helpless and defenseless is in the sort. One interesting aspect in the fairy tale customs is the constant convention of the older characters, meaning the children’s parents ironically are their antagonists. Throughout the fairy tale stories that has been published, the most notable stories “Rapunzel” and “Rumpelstilskin” exhibits parents that has had lapses in judgment, only to have their daughters pay for their wrongdoings. This narrative of the damsel in distress is one of the most generic story between father and daughter, In response to the author’s familiarity of the fairy tale narrative, such as authors like Angela Carter and Robert Coover becomes flexible to incorporate classical fairy tales into their styles of writing in order to create an variation of the archetypal version. In Robert Coover’s 1972 short story The Gingerbread House; it follows a modern adaptation of the classic in which the narrative follows the two matured, wealthy couple that are suppose to portray the original lost children Hansel and Gretal. Coover’s choice to retain the original plot and setting implies the author purpose of incorporating that to be the central idea of people lost in an environment that is foreign to them. Coover’s original plot that he tries to create is the situational irony of the wealthy and powerful of a capitalist society falling into unchartered water wherein they are now powerless and their lavish possessions are no longer important since they are insignificant for their survival.
The parallel between the two stories is one theme is apply to the other books overall meaning, along with the archetype’s implications of the children being relevant to their counterparts. For example, the idea of the original lost children being innocent to the world they came into in H&G, translates to be the couples’ ignorance of the world around them in the The Gingerbread House. The theme or moral of the story of Hansel and Gretel is the children’s perseverance over their trials while Coover’s version is an allegory that satirizes government’s indifference from the outside world that has the woods play as a metaphor to the common world. Though the two stories have their different meanings, they both possess the same themes such as the slow development of their characters from their innocent outlooks into their more broad and self-sufficient characters as well as both stories includes the two characters having knowledge of their surroundings. The original story of Hansel and Gretel constant resonance of virtue is ironic depending on hoe the readers deconstruct the story. For example, the idea of two children suddenly trying to find refuge in a home made entirely out of sweets falls under the children’s motive to take the candy for themselves, which displays greed in the children’s judgment. Furthermore, the scene wherein Hansel and Gretel forces the witch into the oven’s fire, killing her disbands the idea of purity from their character when they have committed murder. Form that experience, one reader can speculate that this has affected the picture of innocence that Hansel and Gretel both embodied. In addition, according to Foster’s input on irony between the original fairy tales and their adaptations in the chapter “Hanseldee and Greteldum”, is that children’s books and fairy tales tend to have the use of prior text in the variable versions , drive a great deal of fiction and poetry (62).
The two stories have the same stories but the different characters often provide the irony depending on their situation or physical differences.
The topic of innocence is often apparent in the novel wherein if it is not little children wandering in the woods to create a sense of vulnerability between the characters. It is the idea of their innocence when they are born into situations in which they were not involved. To regress to the motif of daughters and children being thrown into other people’s custody ( Rumpelstilskin , Rapunzel ) or to be held captive by an evil grandmother and made to toil for the rest of one life. One story that correlates to this motif is one of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s 1969 collection of short stories of Innocent Erendira in Innocent Erendira and other Tragic Stories where it follows the heroine, Erendira as she is exploited by her evil grandmother and is put out into prostitution after she burns the grandmother’s house down by accident. The story portrays the common fairy tale customs of the evil grandmother, grandaunts, or elderly witches manipulates the mostly innocent female daughters often the motives being jealousy for the youth and spirit of the young girl. And in Erendira’s case, her grandmother’s idea to sell her granddaughter’s body out to the towns that they drift into. Gabriel Garcia Marques creates the elements of a fairy tale to create a grimmer sinister story, almost in a way to include the postmodernist theme of innocence dying quickly in the life of the heroine. During the reader’s experience in the short story, he/she sees the subtle classical tale themes of the old torturing the young, the victimized youth, and the loss of the youth’s innocence wherein it was at the choice of Marquez to incorporate in the story. In many variations of fairy tales in a post modern world, the canons of the fairy tale universe coexisting with the norms of a postmodern literature gives the reader either an allegorical tone to portray they known world as the roles in a fairy tale’s perspective. The whole short story retains the original customs of the elderly being the antagonizing factor in the child’s life. The subtle allusions in Innocent Erendira adopts the main convention of a children’s fairy tales in which the young, innocent girl is forced to work off dues for her grandmother in demeaning ways. This narrative can parallel the story of Cinderella, which includes the evil grandmother denying the youthful girl of her innocence in the easiest way possible to sell her off as a prostitute. In most postmodern literature, the alterations of the classical texts do not always
mean the post-modernist writer to be copying the plot but to be applying the conventions of the old children’s tales to their story, like the modern story adjusting itself into the fairy tale version.
One story that draws from this technique is in the Jeanette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle; wherein the plot’s narrative portrays contains the original motifs of a classical fairy tale. The conventions of a dark fairy tale such as the author’s siblings portraying the naïve, victimized children that is gullible to their intemperate, underachieving father, the children are constantly being put in mortal danger by their father, and also the “evil grandmother” motif also makes it’s appearance in the book. Throughout the autobiography, the father constantly talks about him building a glass castle wherein the nomadic family, will live in the future. The book being a postmodern memoir of the author constructs as fairy tale narrative in which the author creates either to set a romantic theme of one’s early life in her father’s tyranny and an unusual childhood that has her exposed to such things as addiction, guns, racism, neglect alcoholism and child molestation. The main themes that the memoir addressed is the gradual ascension from innocence into responsibility, the children’s overcoming the obstacles of their father’s follies and nonsense as well as the cliché of the happy conclusion in the end. The premise that the memoir revolves around is the father’s idea of the glass castle, a transparent fortress in the middle of the southwestern deserts of Arizona, that the protagonist’s father, believe will be the family’s house that he will build. In the earlier stages of the book, the children accepts the idea as a true plan of the father, as well as them believing that their father is the most intelligent person they know, but like the glass castle, it becomes the metaphor of the dream of constructing a transparent palace is hard to see. In addition to the subtle irony of the dream of the glass castle not being so clear after all. In retrospect, Wall’s choice to incorporate the themes of a archetypal classical children’s tale sets the ides of being a dramatic plot device that has the readers assume that the children in the story should evoke sympathy from their readers instead of the their parents.
Apart from the classical customs of characterization and setting in children’s literature, the genre also retains the gender functions in the stories. In most, if not all children’s tales, had the perpetual damsel in danger and the male champion comes to rescue her from her tormenters and take her to be his wife “and live happily ever after”. The continual narrative of the man portrays the hero to save a vulnerable beauty or a harmless, little girl from certain danger or torment of other villain. Whether they are woodsmen or charming princes, the strong purpose that the stories try to make clear of men to have chivalrous qualities tp them. At the time, the children story of Bluebeard became the first anti-chivalrous character in a grim matter of fact narrative against the previous children stories about a murderous marquis and his young, unsuspecting wife.
In the canon of postmodernist texts, the archetypal tale of Bluebeard inspired allusions from such authors like Angela Carter and her collections of short stories, The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories. The main story, The Bloody Chamber, the new altered version of Bluebeard retains the original plot, about the reluctant bride of the French Marquis. The plot plays towards the romantic elements of the mysterious chamber, as well as the antagonist French Marquis, embodying the secretive qualities of Byronic Hero. Once again, the plot plays up to the majority of the short story until the near ending of the story wherein the young bride finds the grim secret of the Marquis and is about to be next victim. At the discretion of the author she has the grandaunt of the bride come to the rescue of her niece and kills the Marquis. That shift from the archetypal text gives hint of Carter’s purpose of applying that version of the gloomy children’s tale to bring the element of feminism between the author’s act to have the protagonist’s savior be a woman.
Apart to the original idea of men usually answering the call to be a hero; in this case, it was Carter’s initiative to add the grandaunt to save the narrative’s heroine. One reader can assert that Carter approach the original text and is aware of the time period wherein the story was published and for her to enrich the alternative ending to such a model account of Bluebeard is to lampoon the patriarchal society that created such a misogynistic story. The central proposal for the reason Carter chose to allude to such a classic in order to apply such a modern topic such as feminism in to the canon is to set the entire narrative of the children’s tale. Carter’s objective to embody as well as emphasize the extremely feminist qualities of their perceptions of males in that era, so it is Carter satirizing feminist writers, who are making fun of the fairy tale itself. In the collection of these short stories, Carter seems to provide a creative twist to the original stories such as Puss in Boots and Little Red Riding Hood.
Another instance that the canon of fairy tales that the plot has to be moved by some purpose of the story or a certain undertaking of which the character goes through in order to find the certain object or destination. This quest narrative is referred in Foster’s How to Read Literature like A Professor in the first chapter entitled, “Every Trip Is a Quest (Except When It’s Not” wherein, he deconstructs the base of the plot in most literature. Notable archetypal works that comes to mind is the original text of Little Red Riding Hood and Faerie Queen, which are partial known for the idea scenes of quest narrative. If one finds such reference to the story of Little Red Riding Hood, a narrative about a girl off to deliver a basket of gifts to her grand mother. On that scene, the plot of the quest begins. The quest narrative in most classic stories follows such conventions of the norm of children’s tales such as; a vulnerable character, an intimidating setting, as well as an objective that the hypothetical protagonist want to accomplish.
Apart from the analysis of characters, what many readers find to be interesting is the customs of postmodernist authors to also incorporate the overall meaning from the classical fairy tale into their own texts. The idea of one allusion of any kind of literature, explaining the whole direction of a novel comes from T. Foster's How to Read Literature like A Professor in the chapter: Hanseldee and Gretaldum, in which he asserts the idea of how one may invoke the whole story simply by a single small reference (62). The presence of fairy tales in most postmodern literature produces a pattern between the two canons of literature. The period of literature in the 1970’s as well as the mid 1980’s, classical fairy tales seemed to have made their role in postmodern literature to enact as a literary device to create a juvenile setting and plot in the frame of the postmodern events or topics. These said events and topics often places these two texts in juxtaposition with each other the comparison and often what the writer does is they apply the allusions around the central meaning of the novel and integrate into the relative meaning. Many of the post-modern writers dwell on the allusions to fairy tales as well as children tales such as Tim O’Brien and Going after Cacciato , when according to Magic Realism, a web-site poses the whole idea of the integration of Alice in Wonderland into a Vietnam War battleground setting created a complex tone of meaning in itself only to gradually point the satire of the war through such an allusion.
Influences of Fairy Tales in
Postmodern literature.
After more than hundreds of years ago, fairy tales and fable has been a source of allusions of several authors in numerous works of postmodern literature, especially in the late 1960’s on to the late 1980’s such as Tim O’Brien, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Angela Carter. The reasons for these writers to incorporate children’s stories such as Alice in Wonderland, Rumpelstilskin, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel and Hansel and Gretel into heavily valued novels and short stories. In theory the idea of Fairy tale conveys a contrast between the simplistic views of the world through a fairy tale perspective that can appeal to mainly children only to be applied to a much more elaborate viewpoint of the world. Often readers can be daring as to claim that the interpretation the reference of children stories to be the author’s purpose of drawing comparison of one genre’s conventions and motifs to parallel the ideas that mentions in the other narrative. When one hears “fairy tales”, instantly their mind connects it to evil, elderly grandmothers, witches, queens, innocent children being punished for their parents offenses, unexplored realms and places, as well as fairy grandmothers, trolls, and the constant idea of a happy conclusion. The author’s choice to adopt such works from earlier means as children’s stories create the concept of the moral of a fairy tale become the theme in a novel. Fairy tales being included most notably in post-modern literature in the 1960’s insists that many of them correlated to world events for example, In Tim O’Brien’s 1972 novel Going after Cacciato, and the narrative follows the protagonist, Paul Brennan in his tour during the Vietnam War. In the story, there are strong resonances of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. To one reader, the context of the Vietnam War coinciding with the idea of fairy tale creates an ironic picture of an old children’s classic applying to a grown man’s journey through the underground Vietcong tunnels. O’Brien’s familiarity with Carroll’s classic has the narrative retain a strong connection to surrealist elements when connected to the historical context. To one reader’s opinion, what O’Brien tries to touch on is the context to have an anomalous presence of a children’s tale to assume the overall tone in the current melancholic setting as a Vietnam battlefield.
Fairy tales combined with postmodernist literature is, according to How to Read Literature like a Professor’s Thomas Foster, creates an ironic picture “Whenever fairy tales and their simplistic worldview crop up in connection with our complicated and morally ambiguous world” (Foster, 62). The aspect that most postmodern literature of ten depicts the real life, the grim, cruel world that is prone to the loss of innocence or the absence of simplicity which forms a dichotomy between the dreamlike, environment that all fairy tales foster. The fairy tale often appeals to the childlike naïveté of all fairy tales that has a happy conclusion that subsequently attracts children respectively. Also, the creation of fairy tales like the ancient fables of Aesop gives children a “moral of the story” or the main idea that the story expresses is the lesson learned from the protagonist’s experience that often revolved on the human vices such as hubris, greed, and or vanity. In addition, the fairy tales also speak of how it rewards noble characters for their courage, kindness, or wit. The mixture between postmodern literature and fairy tales creates a sardonic tone through the rustic background that fairy tales and the complex, frank style that most post-modern texts. One example of this blend is present in the Roald Dahl’s 1969 book Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, a story about the average an allegorical satire of such excess such as greed, gluttony, wrath, and pride. The story revolved around the tour, with each of the kids portraying a certain sin indulges in Willy Wonka’s treats and machinations only to fall victim in some creative woe. Moreover, the book has the owner portray a fiendish, satirical character that watches it happen, which has him assume the role of the devil. The idea that Dahl creates is the ironic connotation of children as sinful embodiments. In addition, the setting wherein this story takes places creates the idea that it is a harmless but strange environment, yet; many of the golden ticket holders (except Charlie) is deformed by their sin only to enhance the irony of their pleasure becoming their discomfort. With postmodernist author integration of fairy tales in their work, they have replaced the pastoral narrative with the fairy tale principle. In ones’ opinion, to compare and contrast a pastoral narrative to a fairy tale narrative they both possess the bucolic background including a moralistic commentary on the current life, or satirizing the follies and vices of man.
The perpetual motif of the unknown setting that mostly plays against the characters also applies in the spectrum of postmodern fantasy texts. If one reader refers to such archetypal texts such as Alice in Wonderland and Hansel and Gretel, they both cover the protagonist or protagonists falling into a world that is foreign to them. On the subject such novels like Going After Cacciato and The Gingerbread Man wherein the mere allusions of the certain geographical details that connects the variable narrative to the original story such as a substantial amount of forests and wild woodlands as well as tunnels. One narrative that relates to the idea of the unwelcoming setting is one of T.C. Boyle’s 1986 collections of Greasy Lake & Other Stories The main story of Greasy Lake. Apart from the allusions of the narrative creates the metaphor of the Vietnam War, it also covers the idea of a group of morally impaired teenagers, who are from well off families head off to a land which is described as terrain that has had the vegetation bombarded by napalm. The event of the group of privileged, dissolute teenagers fall into trouble, their only key of escape that is literally the key to the car that gets lost in the grass, causing the group to fall into danger and afterwards are traumatized to even think of continuing on with the night, The lesson here learned is the realization of their innocence as opposed to the life that attempted to create about them. The To the reader, on the topic of such allusions of fairy tales used in the novel, Boyle approaches the idea of the setting affecting his characters. In one instance, they are wealthy teenagers that masquerade as these “greasers” that they seem to idolize and pose as a dangerous bunch. Unitl after a death experience their static characters suddenly are affected to portray the opposite in which they are troubled by their actions they did and their consequences.
One interesting thing about postmodern/fairy tale integration is the idea of abandoning the implication that role of children in postmodern/fairy tale canon do not possess as much innocence as most genres in literature in spite of the inclusion of the fairy tale genre. Moreover, fairy tale motifs often carries the idea that children are often ignorant to the harms of others, Hence having them be more naive to the people they interact with. In addition, the cliché that women and children are helpless and defenseless is in the sort. One interesting aspect in the fairy tale customs is the constant convention of the older characters, meaning the children’s parents ironically are their antagonists. Throughout the fairy tale stories that has been published, the most notable stories “Rapunzel” and “Rumpelstilskin” exhibits parents that has had lapses in judgment, only to have their daughters pay for their wrongdoings. This narrative of the damsel in distress is one of the most generic story between father and daughter, In response to the author’s familiarity of the fairy tale narrative, such as authors like Angela Carter and Robert Coover becomes flexible to incorporate classical fairy tales into their styles of writing in order to create an variation of the archetypal version. In Robert Coover’s 1972 short story The Gingerbread House; it follows a modern adaptation of the classic in which the narrative follows the two matured, wealthy couple that are suppose to portray the original lost children Hansel and Gretal. Coover’s choice to retain the original plot and setting implies the author purpose of incorporating that to be the central idea of people lost in an environment that is foreign to them. Coover’s original plot that he tries to create is the situational irony of the wealthy and powerful of a capitalist society falling into unchartered water wherein they are now powerless and their lavish possessions are no longer important since they are insignificant for their survival.
The parallel between the two stories is one theme is apply to the other books overall meaning, along with the archetype’s implications of the children being relevant to their counterparts. For example, the idea of the original lost children being innocent to the world they came into in H&G, translates to be the couples’ ignorance of the world around them in the The Gingerbread House. The theme or moral of the story of Hansel and Gretel is the children’s perseverance over their trials while Coover’s version is an allegory that satirizes government’s indifference from the outside world that has the woods play as a metaphor to the common world. Though the two stories have their different meanings, they both possess the same themes such as the slow development of their characters from their innocent outlooks into their more broad and self-sufficient characters as well as both stories includes the two characters having knowledge of their surroundings. The original story of Hansel and Gretel constant resonance of virtue is ironic depending on hoe the readers deconstruct the story. For example, the idea of two children suddenly trying to find refuge in a home made entirely out of sweets falls under the children’s motive to take the candy for themselves, which displays greed in the children’s judgment. Furthermore, the scene wherein Hansel and Gretel forces the witch into the oven’s fire, killing her disbands the idea of purity from their character when they have committed murder. Form that experience, one reader can speculate that this has affected the picture of innocence that Hansel and Gretel both embodied. In addition, according to Foster’s input on irony between the original fairy tales and their adaptations in the chapter “Hanseldee and Greteldum”, is that children’s books and fairy tales tend to have the use of prior text in the variable versions , drive a great deal of fiction and poetry (62).
The two stories have the same stories but the different characters often provide the irony depending on their situation or physical differences.
The topic of innocence is often apparent in the novel wherein if it is not little children wandering in the woods to create a sense of vulnerability between the characters. It is the idea of their innocence when they are born into situations in which they were not involved. To regress to the motif of daughters and children being thrown into other people’s custody ( Rumpelstilskin , Rapunzel ) or to be held captive by an evil grandmother and made to toil for the rest of one life. One story that correlates to this motif is one of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s 1969 collection of short stories of Innocent Erendira in Innocent Erendira and other Tragic Stories where it follows the heroine, Erendira as she is exploited by her evil grandmother and is put out into prostitution after she burns the grandmother’s house down by accident. The story portrays the common fairy tale customs of the evil grandmother, grandaunts, or elderly witches manipulates the mostly innocent female daughters often the motives being jealousy for the youth and spirit of the young girl. And in Erendira’s case, her grandmother’s idea to sell her granddaughter’s body out to the towns that they drift into. Gabriel Garcia Marques creates the elements of a fairy tale to create a grimmer sinister story, almost in a way to include the postmodernist theme of innocence dying quickly in the life of the heroine. During the reader’s experience in the short story, he/she sees the subtle classical tale themes of the old torturing the young, the victimized youth, and the loss of the youth’s innocence wherein it was at the choice of Marquez to incorporate in the story. In many variations of fairy tales in a post modern world, the canons of the fairy tale universe coexisting with the norms of a postmodern literature gives the reader either an allegorical tone to portray they known world as the roles in a fairy tale’s perspective. The whole short story retains the original customs of the elderly being the antagonizing factor in the child’s life. The subtle allusions in Innocent Erendira adopts the main convention of a children’s fairy tales in which the young, innocent girl is forced to work off dues for her grandmother in demeaning ways. This narrative can parallel the story of Cinderella, which includes the evil grandmother denying the youthful girl of her innocence in the easiest way possible to sell her off as a prostitute. In most postmodern literature, the alterations of the classical texts do not always
mean the post-modernist writer to be copying the plot but to be applying the conventions of the old children’s tales to their story, like the modern story adjusting itself into the fairy tale version.
One story that draws from this technique is in the Jeanette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle; wherein the plot’s narrative portrays contains the original motifs of a classical fairy tale. The conventions of a dark fairy tale such as the author’s siblings portraying the naïve, victimized children that is gullible to their intemperate, underachieving father, the children are constantly being put in mortal danger by their father, and also the “evil grandmother” motif also makes it’s appearance in the book. Throughout the autobiography, the father constantly talks about him building a glass castle wherein the nomadic family, will live in the future. The book being a postmodern memoir of the author constructs as fairy tale narrative in which the author creates either to set a romantic theme of one’s early life in her father’s tyranny and an unusual childhood that has her exposed to such things as addiction, guns, racism, neglect alcoholism and child molestation. The main themes that the memoir addressed is the gradual ascension from innocence into responsibility, the children’s overcoming the obstacles of their father’s follies and nonsense as well as the cliché of the happy conclusion in the end. The premise that the memoir revolves around is the father’s idea of the glass castle, a transparent fortress in the middle of the southwestern deserts of Arizona, that the protagonist’s father, believe will be the family’s house that he will build. In the earlier stages of the book, the children accepts the idea as a true plan of the father, as well as them believing that their father is the most intelligent person they know, but like the glass castle, it becomes the metaphor of the dream of constructing a transparent palace is hard to see. In addition to the subtle irony of the dream of the glass castle not being so clear after all. In retrospect, Wall’s choice to incorporate the themes of a archetypal classical children’s tale sets the ides of being a dramatic plot device that has the readers assume that the children in the story should evoke sympathy from their readers instead of the their parents.
Apart from the classical customs of characterization and setting in children’s literature, the genre also retains the gender functions in the stories. In most, if not all children’s tales, had the perpetual damsel in danger and the male champion comes to rescue her from her tormenters and take her to be his wife “and live happily ever after”. The continual narrative of the man portrays the hero to save a vulnerable beauty or a harmless, little girl from certain danger or torment of other villain. Whether they are woodsmen or charming princes, the strong purpose that the stories try to make clear of men to have chivalrous qualities tp them. At the time, the children story of Bluebeard became the first anti-chivalrous character in a grim matter of fact narrative against the previous children stories about a murderous marquis and his young, unsuspecting wife.
In the canon of postmodernist texts, the archetypal tale of Bluebeard inspired allusions from such authors like Angela Carter and her collections of short stories, The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories. The main story, The Bloody Chamber, the new altered version of Bluebeard retains the original plot, about the reluctant bride of the French Marquis. The plot plays towards the romantic elements of the mysterious chamber, as well as the antagonist French Marquis, embodying the secretive qualities of Byronic Hero. Once again, the plot plays up to the majority of the short story until the near ending of the story wherein the young bride finds the grim secret of the Marquis and is about to be next victim. At the discretion of the author she has the grandaunt of the bride come to the rescue of her niece and kills the Marquis. That shift from the archetypal text gives hint of Carter’s purpose of applying that version of the gloomy children’s tale to bring the element of feminism between the author’s act to have the protagonist’s savior be a woman.
Apart to the original idea of men usually answering the call to be a hero; in this case, it was Carter’s initiative to add the grandaunt to save the narrative’s heroine. One reader can assert that Carter approach the original text and is aware of the time period wherein the story was published and for her to enrich the alternative ending to such a model account of Bluebeard is to lampoon the patriarchal society that created such a misogynistic story. The central proposal for the reason Carter chose to allude to such a classic in order to apply such a modern topic such as feminism in to the canon is to set the entire narrative of the children’s tale. Carter’s objective to embody as well as emphasize the extremely feminist qualities of their perceptions of males in that era, so it is Carter satirizing feminist writers, who are making fun of the fairy tale itself. In the collection of these short stories, Carter seems to provide a creative twist to the original stories such as Puss in Boots and Little Red Riding Hood.
Another instance that the canon of fairy tales that the plot has to be moved by some purpose of the story or a certain undertaking of which the character goes through in order to find the certain object or destination. This quest narrative is referred in Foster’s How to Read Literature like A Professor in the first chapter entitled, “Every Trip Is a Quest (Except When It’s Not” wherein, he deconstructs the base of the plot in most literature. Notable archetypal works that comes to mind is the original text of Little Red Riding Hood and Faerie Queen, which are partial known for the idea scenes of quest narrative. If one finds such reference to the story of Little Red Riding Hood, a narrative about a girl off to deliver a basket of gifts to her grand mother. On that scene, the plot of the quest begins. The quest narrative in most classic stories follows such conventions of the norm of children’s tales such as; a vulnerable character, an intimidating setting, as well as an objective that the hypothetical protagonist want to accomplish.
Apart from the analysis of characters, what many readers find to be interesting is the customs of postmodernist authors to also incorporate the overall meaning from the classical fairy tale into their own texts. The idea of one allusion of any kind of literature, explaining the whole direction of a novel comes from T. Foster's How to Read Literature like A Professor in the chapter: Hanseldee and Gretaldum, in which he asserts the idea of how one may invoke the whole story simply by a single small reference (62). The presence of fairy tales in most postmodern literature produces a pattern between the two canons of literature. The period of literature in the 1970’s as well as the mid 1980’s, classical fairy tales seemed to have made their role in postmodern literature to enact as a literary device to create a juvenile setting and plot in the frame of the postmodern events or topics. These said events and topics often places these two texts in juxtaposition with each other the comparison and often what the writer does is they apply the allusions around the central meaning of the novel and integrate into the relative meaning. Many of the post-modern writers dwell on the allusions to fairy tales as well as children tales such as Tim O’Brien and Going after Cacciato , when according to Magic Realism, a web-site poses the whole idea of the integration of Alice in Wonderland into a Vietnam War battleground setting created a complex tone of meaning in itself only to gradually point the satire of the war through such an allusion.
Senior Portfolio: Creative Sample
“You Could Go With This, or
You Can Go With That”
The Cogitations of a Black Sheep
“You want to make friends. Point a sword in their face.” – Rev. Goodlove
If only it was that easy. I fear of being an outcast because I fear being a follower. Such a paradox worries me. The question goes through my head: Follower or an Individual I need to balance these things. Being a follower means no individuality. For me to have no DNA I won’t have any inner beauty. I won’t have heart or soul. A automaton. It can mean having a community. To belong to a group. To be nourished and given aid. To be accepted by people like you. Although to be an individual, I shouldn’t care about social status. To have now need for requirements. Having a name people will remember. Nevertheless, the individual can be misunderstood. I applied for the Literary Society. Being in a club meant asylum. Not being “that” loser in school. Means a form of extra-curricular activities I walked in the door I with my application in one hand and an U.S. history book in the other. What I was doing there? Pairs of eyes stared at me. a of students near me, four or five of them. They didn’t even know I existed. When I handed my application over, I felt that hollow feeling inside. To be alone. I stumble out the room. I walked down the nearest staircase. It was done. The situation played repeatedly. Then the questions came to me. Was there something wrong with me? Was there something on my face? What was that “look” for? Was I not good enough? The questions had gone all afternoon. I felt cold and hollow inside. I didn’t think I would return.
Then it came to me: Fencing! My brother did it last year. He thought it was alright. I considered taking a year, too. I borrowed my brother’s equipment. I went to see the academy. I walked into the studio; I see golden plaques on the wall. There are many trophies and ribbons. As I look, the pupils stop. The voices rise and fall. I asked around for the instructor. They point vaguely behind me. I see a tall blonde lady. Her name is Helen. We shook hands and I smiled. She introduces me to the class. I then hear vague awkward replies. My equipment becomes heavy. I feel apart form myself. My soul watches my body. It looks along with the pupils. It begs me to heed instruction. I feel hollow again. The cold kicks in. I feel surrounded by the pupils. I snap out of it. The day is done.
The next day, I begin practice. I walk into the studio. I try to walk in rhythm. I try to get familiar. The instructor greets me again. I smile and wave lively. I think I made an effort. I put on my gear quickly. The whistle has blown. She begins the class. She has us do some stretching. We break up by weapon type. I am now with some company. Two girls and three guys. I begin to wonder to myself. Do the girls feel awkward? Maybe I’m sitting too close. Are they the open type? Where are they from? Maybe they live around here. Should I ask? It will sure calm me down. One was from Fall River. Her name was Penelope. The other, Nancy, was from Brockton. I felt like I was melting. I came out of my shell. I fell into a rhythm. I re-introduced myself to the group. The instructor divides us by two. Nancy and I were sparring partners. I then felt shy again. I began talking to her. I thought that it would help. What gave you interest in fencing? Is it your first time? Do you enjoy it? The questions came in a pace. We began with a warm-up beat. A rhythmic conversation with blades. The cadence was dull, but refreshing. She asked me questions too. How old are you? What year are you? Do you play any other sports? I tried to answer her. I was stumbling, I was nervous. I was out of my body again. She was probably psychic. She read the expression on my face. She smiled.
“I need to say something!”, I thought. So I asked her a few questions. “How long have you been fencing? What School do you go to? Got a boyfriend? Yes!? Got a sister?” I was dead. She had that surprised look. Somebody smack me. Her laugh pierced me. Then her sabre did. I was back in my body. “I guess that answers that question”. Confidence. She came back to me. Was she jealous? Afterwards, Nancy and I talked. “Off all the sports” she opened. “Why’d you choose fencing?”. “To kill people” I said teasingly. She giggled again, I loved her laugh. She promised to see me again. I never heard that from a girl before. I took it as a good omen. I grew a little. I became human.
My soul was looking at me. He picked up a sign. It read “About time! You Loser”. I felt reborn again. I made an effort. I passed. I have a soul. I am a man. I exist. I am not a loser. I am significant. I am alive.
You Can Go With That”
The Cogitations of a Black Sheep
“You want to make friends. Point a sword in their face.” – Rev. Goodlove
If only it was that easy. I fear of being an outcast because I fear being a follower. Such a paradox worries me. The question goes through my head: Follower or an Individual I need to balance these things. Being a follower means no individuality. For me to have no DNA I won’t have any inner beauty. I won’t have heart or soul. A automaton. It can mean having a community. To belong to a group. To be nourished and given aid. To be accepted by people like you. Although to be an individual, I shouldn’t care about social status. To have now need for requirements. Having a name people will remember. Nevertheless, the individual can be misunderstood. I applied for the Literary Society. Being in a club meant asylum. Not being “that” loser in school. Means a form of extra-curricular activities I walked in the door I with my application in one hand and an U.S. history book in the other. What I was doing there? Pairs of eyes stared at me. a of students near me, four or five of them. They didn’t even know I existed. When I handed my application over, I felt that hollow feeling inside. To be alone. I stumble out the room. I walked down the nearest staircase. It was done. The situation played repeatedly. Then the questions came to me. Was there something wrong with me? Was there something on my face? What was that “look” for? Was I not good enough? The questions had gone all afternoon. I felt cold and hollow inside. I didn’t think I would return.
Then it came to me: Fencing! My brother did it last year. He thought it was alright. I considered taking a year, too. I borrowed my brother’s equipment. I went to see the academy. I walked into the studio; I see golden plaques on the wall. There are many trophies and ribbons. As I look, the pupils stop. The voices rise and fall. I asked around for the instructor. They point vaguely behind me. I see a tall blonde lady. Her name is Helen. We shook hands and I smiled. She introduces me to the class. I then hear vague awkward replies. My equipment becomes heavy. I feel apart form myself. My soul watches my body. It looks along with the pupils. It begs me to heed instruction. I feel hollow again. The cold kicks in. I feel surrounded by the pupils. I snap out of it. The day is done.
The next day, I begin practice. I walk into the studio. I try to walk in rhythm. I try to get familiar. The instructor greets me again. I smile and wave lively. I think I made an effort. I put on my gear quickly. The whistle has blown. She begins the class. She has us do some stretching. We break up by weapon type. I am now with some company. Two girls and three guys. I begin to wonder to myself. Do the girls feel awkward? Maybe I’m sitting too close. Are they the open type? Where are they from? Maybe they live around here. Should I ask? It will sure calm me down. One was from Fall River. Her name was Penelope. The other, Nancy, was from Brockton. I felt like I was melting. I came out of my shell. I fell into a rhythm. I re-introduced myself to the group. The instructor divides us by two. Nancy and I were sparring partners. I then felt shy again. I began talking to her. I thought that it would help. What gave you interest in fencing? Is it your first time? Do you enjoy it? The questions came in a pace. We began with a warm-up beat. A rhythmic conversation with blades. The cadence was dull, but refreshing. She asked me questions too. How old are you? What year are you? Do you play any other sports? I tried to answer her. I was stumbling, I was nervous. I was out of my body again. She was probably psychic. She read the expression on my face. She smiled.
“I need to say something!”, I thought. So I asked her a few questions. “How long have you been fencing? What School do you go to? Got a boyfriend? Yes!? Got a sister?” I was dead. She had that surprised look. Somebody smack me. Her laugh pierced me. Then her sabre did. I was back in my body. “I guess that answers that question”. Confidence. She came back to me. Was she jealous? Afterwards, Nancy and I talked. “Off all the sports” she opened. “Why’d you choose fencing?”. “To kill people” I said teasingly. She giggled again, I loved her laugh. She promised to see me again. I never heard that from a girl before. I took it as a good omen. I grew a little. I became human.
My soul was looking at me. He picked up a sign. It read “About time! You Loser”. I felt reborn again. I made an effort. I passed. I have a soul. I am a man. I exist. I am not a loser. I am significant. I am alive.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Poetry Explication
“Mother of the Year”
‘The Victory’ by Anne Stevenson
In the poem ‘The Victory’ by Anne Stevenson, she uses morbid language and imagery to create the awkward picture of a heavy disdain towards her child. Through this, the speaker creates the contrast between the normal reactions of childbirth. The poet intends to have the speaker’s outlook of the child develop into that that ironic feeling a mother should have for the birth of her child. When the reader knows that the “victory” is her birth of her son, the speaker berates her “tiny antagonist”. The poem addresses the speaker’s dreams of her respite and her ascension only to be crushed by the reality of the idea of her devoting her life to her infant. Because of this, her tone is an emphatic tone of defeat that translates to disappointment. To accomplish this, the speaker’s language uses a bellicose register such as antagonist, glory, and knife as well as bruise to relay the message of how motherhood and responsibility for the child has “won” over her by a “gory” struggle.
“Suicidal Thoughts”
‘Metaphors’ by Sylvia Plath
In the poem ‘Metaphors’ by Sylvia Plath, the poet expresses the feelings of the small things having their appearances be the message of that enduring factors that cannot change. These objects and things are the terms which define the enduring nature of life but on the other half of the poem it expresses the things that can change, the tone wherein the poet uses to expresses the desperation to grasp the nostalgic past through explaining the nouns that represents change.
“Mother of the Year”
‘The Victory’ by Anne Stevenson
In the poem ‘The Victory’ by Anne Stevenson, she uses morbid language and imagery to create the awkward picture of a heavy disdain towards her child. Through this, the speaker creates the contrast between the normal reactions of childbirth. The poet intends to have the speaker’s outlook of the child develop into that that ironic feeling a mother should have for the birth of her child. When the reader knows that the “victory” is her birth of her son, the speaker berates her “tiny antagonist”. The poem addresses the speaker’s dreams of her respite and her ascension only to be crushed by the reality of the idea of her devoting her life to her infant. Because of this, her tone is an emphatic tone of defeat that translates to disappointment. To accomplish this, the speaker’s language uses a bellicose register such as antagonist, glory, and knife as well as bruise to relay the message of how motherhood and responsibility for the child has “won” over her by a “gory” struggle.
“Suicidal Thoughts”
‘Metaphors’ by Sylvia Plath
In the poem ‘Metaphors’ by Sylvia Plath, the poet expresses the feelings of the small things having their appearances be the message of that enduring factors that cannot change. These objects and things are the terms which define the enduring nature of life but on the other half of the poem it expresses the things that can change, the tone wherein the poet uses to expresses the desperation to grasp the nostalgic past through explaining the nouns that represents change.
The Insignificant
Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”
In the 1915 short story, The Metamorphosis, the author, Franz Kafka illustrates the protagonist, Gregor Samsa transforming into an insect. Kafka transforming Gregor as a cockroach highlights certain portions of his personality. Through this, Kafka applies these certain aspects to have Gregor represent certain qualities of the common man. In addition, the family that Gregor supports embodies the higher society that benefits from the work of the common man. Nevertheless, they still look down and exclude him from their society. Kafka comments on the heartless society wherein the working class is neglected by high society when their services are no longer useful to them.
Kafka transforms Gregor as a cockroach to emphasize certain aspects of his personality. Kafka choice of vermin implies the similar characteristics between Gregor and the cockroach. For example, the connotations of a cockroach would include such terms as insignificant, burdensome, scavenger, bottom feeder and powerless. In addition, the cockroach would be an insect that is dependant on the living of others to supplement his livelihood and secludes itself from the human beings. Most of these implications apply to Gregor as a human. For example, the narrative reveals his occupation to be a “commercial traveler” (312), one that makes a living by soliciting others to buy his products. Clearly, Gregor fits the scavenger role. In the story, due to his obligation to support his family and “pay off his parent’s debts” (312) he is then unable to get away from his burdens, thus he is powerless over his decision to cut loose from the monotonous job he has. Finally, Gregor’s job makes him obtain the “prudent habit of locking all doors during the night, even at home” (313). Through this act, Kafka shows Gregor as a recluse towards his family. Through the narrative Kafka, has the reader find evidence to clearly link Gregor’s aspects to an insect.
In the narrative, Kafka has Gregor’s role in the family to be the breadwinner of the household and to pay off his debts to be free from working for the chief clerk. In addition, Gregor’s role has him represent the common man. The responsibilities and obligations Gregor is responsible for depicts him as the archetypical working man. Gregor has his debts to repay, a family to support and a higher authority he must answer to everyday. Kafka explains this through what is going on in the house. The protagonist would be locked in his room, separated from the servants, the cooks and the food. The door between Gregor’s room and the rest of the house symbolizes the borders between the aristocratic family and the sole provider for them. Gregor is the workingman who is concerned with the security of the family, one who “thinks nothing but his work” (317). While the family he supports has little to no concern for him. One example is when he is in his room as a bug; the family was unaware of his suffering just to “get up from bed” (314). One strong example is how the chief clerk arrives at the home to find the whereabouts of Gregor, his candid demeanor had him state that him and Gregor were “men of business” (316) regarding Gregor’s inconvenience as insignificant compared to his work. Kafka displays the chief clerk as the taskmaster; the careless figure that can care less of Gregor’s problems, yet he needs him to get up to get to work.
Further into the short story, the family represents the powerful, the upper classes that benefit from the worker, at his expense. Kafka insists this in lieu of the activity of the household. One example is that Gregor as the main source of income wherein he provides the money for the family; yet, the family would use this money to hire a “servant” (318). This would be a weird use of the money in lieu of their position in the story. One would say their way with money is frivolous as the tastes of the upper class. The life of the family compared to Gregor’s life is more comfortable, more enjoyable than the toiling Gregor lives. The family’s realization of Gregor’s transformation would then alter their lives as well as their perception for Gregor. The family’s main source of income has been debilitated through his transformation as a bug. Now that Gregor is impaired if this, the family worry whether they can survive with Gregor now having to be pampered. The remainder of the novel has the family toiling to make ends meet with Gregor being their burden. All the hardships get the best of the family until they now came to the decision to remove Gregor from the house. Kafka’s symbolic act would ironically set Gregor as the bad guy that is pictured to deprive the family of a decent living.
In summary, Kafka illustrates how society would welcome the providing party with open arms only if it benefits them, until that major source of their income on longer is useful, they will shun that party, abandon them to rot in solitude. Kafka scorns society for their parasitic manipulation towards others and how the same practice can happen in one’s own home.
Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”
In the 1915 short story, The Metamorphosis, the author, Franz Kafka illustrates the protagonist, Gregor Samsa transforming into an insect. Kafka transforming Gregor as a cockroach highlights certain portions of his personality. Through this, Kafka applies these certain aspects to have Gregor represent certain qualities of the common man. In addition, the family that Gregor supports embodies the higher society that benefits from the work of the common man. Nevertheless, they still look down and exclude him from their society. Kafka comments on the heartless society wherein the working class is neglected by high society when their services are no longer useful to them.
Kafka transforms Gregor as a cockroach to emphasize certain aspects of his personality. Kafka choice of vermin implies the similar characteristics between Gregor and the cockroach. For example, the connotations of a cockroach would include such terms as insignificant, burdensome, scavenger, bottom feeder and powerless. In addition, the cockroach would be an insect that is dependant on the living of others to supplement his livelihood and secludes itself from the human beings. Most of these implications apply to Gregor as a human. For example, the narrative reveals his occupation to be a “commercial traveler” (312), one that makes a living by soliciting others to buy his products. Clearly, Gregor fits the scavenger role. In the story, due to his obligation to support his family and “pay off his parent’s debts” (312) he is then unable to get away from his burdens, thus he is powerless over his decision to cut loose from the monotonous job he has. Finally, Gregor’s job makes him obtain the “prudent habit of locking all doors during the night, even at home” (313). Through this act, Kafka shows Gregor as a recluse towards his family. Through the narrative Kafka, has the reader find evidence to clearly link Gregor’s aspects to an insect.
In the narrative, Kafka has Gregor’s role in the family to be the breadwinner of the household and to pay off his debts to be free from working for the chief clerk. In addition, Gregor’s role has him represent the common man. The responsibilities and obligations Gregor is responsible for depicts him as the archetypical working man. Gregor has his debts to repay, a family to support and a higher authority he must answer to everyday. Kafka explains this through what is going on in the house. The protagonist would be locked in his room, separated from the servants, the cooks and the food. The door between Gregor’s room and the rest of the house symbolizes the borders between the aristocratic family and the sole provider for them. Gregor is the workingman who is concerned with the security of the family, one who “thinks nothing but his work” (317). While the family he supports has little to no concern for him. One example is when he is in his room as a bug; the family was unaware of his suffering just to “get up from bed” (314). One strong example is how the chief clerk arrives at the home to find the whereabouts of Gregor, his candid demeanor had him state that him and Gregor were “men of business” (316) regarding Gregor’s inconvenience as insignificant compared to his work. Kafka displays the chief clerk as the taskmaster; the careless figure that can care less of Gregor’s problems, yet he needs him to get up to get to work.
Further into the short story, the family represents the powerful, the upper classes that benefit from the worker, at his expense. Kafka insists this in lieu of the activity of the household. One example is that Gregor as the main source of income wherein he provides the money for the family; yet, the family would use this money to hire a “servant” (318). This would be a weird use of the money in lieu of their position in the story. One would say their way with money is frivolous as the tastes of the upper class. The life of the family compared to Gregor’s life is more comfortable, more enjoyable than the toiling Gregor lives. The family’s realization of Gregor’s transformation would then alter their lives as well as their perception for Gregor. The family’s main source of income has been debilitated through his transformation as a bug. Now that Gregor is impaired if this, the family worry whether they can survive with Gregor now having to be pampered. The remainder of the novel has the family toiling to make ends meet with Gregor being their burden. All the hardships get the best of the family until they now came to the decision to remove Gregor from the house. Kafka’s symbolic act would ironically set Gregor as the bad guy that is pictured to deprive the family of a decent living.
In summary, Kafka illustrates how society would welcome the providing party with open arms only if it benefits them, until that major source of their income on longer is useful, they will shun that party, abandon them to rot in solitude. Kafka scorns society for their parasitic manipulation towards others and how the same practice can happen in one’s own home.
Fear (villanelle)
I did not overlook that following ghost,
Only I could see him, only my cross to bear.
To remind me of the risks coming close.
So, I gave him lodge as a makeshift host
I should not have gave him time to repair
I did not overlook that following ghost
All men have ghosts, no matter how morose
That they fall, overcome with fear and despair,
To remind me of the risks coming close.
His job is to taunt me first and foremost.
I could not let him go, I would not dare.
I did not overlook that following ghost.
A world with no specters, she bravely boast
Her scars are veiled well; my wounds are there
To remind me of the risks coming close.
I stand and watch from the reckoning post,
The city gave up their ghosts without a care
I did not overlook the following ghost
To remind me of the risks coming close.
Spaghetti (sonnet)
Sergio could not paint a better piece,
Mexican stand-offs between good and bad,
The line linking the naïve and the mad
Simply a metaphor to war and peace,
The pale Rubio and the bandito,
The passing sands shirks the two pair of eyes,
Which one draws quick and which one has to go
Th waiting of the draws more time it buys.
Our western identity came from Rome,
Our spaghetti from far eastern cooking,
Went from the theatres and into my home,
A closet fan for this comfort taking,
Walks through the Good, the Bad and the Ugly,
All three able find through dichotomies.
I did not overlook that following ghost,
Only I could see him, only my cross to bear.
To remind me of the risks coming close.
So, I gave him lodge as a makeshift host
I should not have gave him time to repair
I did not overlook that following ghost
All men have ghosts, no matter how morose
That they fall, overcome with fear and despair,
To remind me of the risks coming close.
His job is to taunt me first and foremost.
I could not let him go, I would not dare.
I did not overlook that following ghost.
A world with no specters, she bravely boast
Her scars are veiled well; my wounds are there
To remind me of the risks coming close.
I stand and watch from the reckoning post,
The city gave up their ghosts without a care
I did not overlook the following ghost
To remind me of the risks coming close.
Spaghetti (sonnet)
Sergio could not paint a better piece,
Mexican stand-offs between good and bad,
The line linking the naïve and the mad
Simply a metaphor to war and peace,
The pale Rubio and the bandito,
The passing sands shirks the two pair of eyes,
Which one draws quick and which one has to go
Th waiting of the draws more time it buys.
Our western identity came from Rome,
Our spaghetti from far eastern cooking,
Went from the theatres and into my home,
A closet fan for this comfort taking,
Walks through the Good, the Bad and the Ugly,
All three able find through dichotomies.
“What Can Flowers Tell About
A Woman”
In the I938 short story “Chrysanthemums”, the writer, John Steinbeck, demonstrates the subtle symbol that signifies a great deal towards the character, and their role in the story. Steinbeck focuses on the protagonist, Mrs. Elisa Allen, a regular housewife in the mature age of 35, who is seen tending the budding chrysanthemums. Through this context, Steinbeck sets up the characterization of Mrs. Elisa Allen as a woman with masculine features but a dim, feminine demeanor to her person. The author illustrates Mrs. Allen tending to her chrysanthemums as a base to set up the main symbol to the story. The flowers would describe Mrs. Allen’s youth, the beauty that she has. In addition, Steinbeck sets up the setting to be in the winter; which represents a period of the knowledge of maturity as well as death and old age. Through this, the author uses the season as a symbol to connect to the flowers to indicate conflict between the two meanings: the desperate maintenance of youth during realization of death. The author uses this narrative to suggest the symbol of the story is the chrysanthemums; though Steinbeck illustrated them to be the symbol of youth, he also defines the inevitable loss of youth and ultimately death.
Steinbeck opens the story with the description of the Salinas Valley as the depiction of winter. He displays death and it’s presence in the setting throughout the valley. Steinbeck symbolizes the setting to emphasize the presence of death when he describes the landscape: “It was a time and quiet and of waiting. The air was cold and tender. A light wind blew from the southwest so that the farmers were mildly hopeful of a good before long, but fog and rain do not go together (p.240)” he summarizes the air of the valley to be languid and cold. One suspects that the description proposes that the air embodies death through such adjectives like light, cold, tender and quiet. Steinbeck uses these adjectives to defend the symbol of winter and define death through old age. The setting and those who live in it are not excused from this, especially Mrs. Allen, which has Steinback then use this symbol to its real purpose.
Steinbeck then puts his focus to Mrs. Allen and the story then takes meaning and is expand on from the season’s symbol. The author illustrates Mrs. Allen to be tending to the growth of her flowers in the winter. From the start, the symbol of the flowers in the same picture as the cold and quiet valley conflicts from the dichotomy of flowers being grown during the time of death. Steinbeck intentionally places these two symbols together to show how one defies the other. The author illustrates the blooming flowers growing in the cold and tender winter as a struggle between preservation and decay, life and death as well as youth and old age. Through this, he accomplishes the intentions of Mrs. Allen and why she takes care of the chrysanthemums. He demonstrates the desperation Mrs. Allen has for her life as well as the flowers. Through this, he reveals the symbols at their literary connotations as well as the purpose and inner thoughts of Mrs. Allen. Steinbeck illustrates the chrysanthemums to personify Mrs. Allen as a sol that struggles to ward off the signs of aging and death, while being surrounded by it.
Later in the novel, after she has been acquainted with the salesman on p.243-245, she had given him one of her flowers in a pot. Later, on p.246, she then sees her flowers on he ground by where the salesman was and the pot missing: “He might have thrown them off the road, that wouldn’t have been much trouble, not very much. But he kept the pot …(p.246) In this passage, Steinbeck then illustrates the conclusion of her flower being left, being forgotten by the salesman’s subtle act of disregard for the feeling of the protagonist. Through the context, Steinbeck has the reader interpret what the flower on the ground meant to her and has the reader go back to the author’s connotation of the flower to conclude that: Mrs. Allen’s gift of her flower to a stranger to then be discarded. Through this, it shows Mrs. Allen ‘s efforts to ward off death and old age are in vain and that she has came to realize her mortality.
A Woman”
In the I938 short story “Chrysanthemums”, the writer, John Steinbeck, demonstrates the subtle symbol that signifies a great deal towards the character, and their role in the story. Steinbeck focuses on the protagonist, Mrs. Elisa Allen, a regular housewife in the mature age of 35, who is seen tending the budding chrysanthemums. Through this context, Steinbeck sets up the characterization of Mrs. Elisa Allen as a woman with masculine features but a dim, feminine demeanor to her person. The author illustrates Mrs. Allen tending to her chrysanthemums as a base to set up the main symbol to the story. The flowers would describe Mrs. Allen’s youth, the beauty that she has. In addition, Steinbeck sets up the setting to be in the winter; which represents a period of the knowledge of maturity as well as death and old age. Through this, the author uses the season as a symbol to connect to the flowers to indicate conflict between the two meanings: the desperate maintenance of youth during realization of death. The author uses this narrative to suggest the symbol of the story is the chrysanthemums; though Steinbeck illustrated them to be the symbol of youth, he also defines the inevitable loss of youth and ultimately death.
Steinbeck opens the story with the description of the Salinas Valley as the depiction of winter. He displays death and it’s presence in the setting throughout the valley. Steinbeck symbolizes the setting to emphasize the presence of death when he describes the landscape: “It was a time and quiet and of waiting. The air was cold and tender. A light wind blew from the southwest so that the farmers were mildly hopeful of a good before long, but fog and rain do not go together (p.240)” he summarizes the air of the valley to be languid and cold. One suspects that the description proposes that the air embodies death through such adjectives like light, cold, tender and quiet. Steinbeck uses these adjectives to defend the symbol of winter and define death through old age. The setting and those who live in it are not excused from this, especially Mrs. Allen, which has Steinback then use this symbol to its real purpose.
Steinbeck then puts his focus to Mrs. Allen and the story then takes meaning and is expand on from the season’s symbol. The author illustrates Mrs. Allen to be tending to the growth of her flowers in the winter. From the start, the symbol of the flowers in the same picture as the cold and quiet valley conflicts from the dichotomy of flowers being grown during the time of death. Steinbeck intentionally places these two symbols together to show how one defies the other. The author illustrates the blooming flowers growing in the cold and tender winter as a struggle between preservation and decay, life and death as well as youth and old age. Through this, he accomplishes the intentions of Mrs. Allen and why she takes care of the chrysanthemums. He demonstrates the desperation Mrs. Allen has for her life as well as the flowers. Through this, he reveals the symbols at their literary connotations as well as the purpose and inner thoughts of Mrs. Allen. Steinbeck illustrates the chrysanthemums to personify Mrs. Allen as a sol that struggles to ward off the signs of aging and death, while being surrounded by it.
Later in the novel, after she has been acquainted with the salesman on p.243-245, she had given him one of her flowers in a pot. Later, on p.246, she then sees her flowers on he ground by where the salesman was and the pot missing: “He might have thrown them off the road, that wouldn’t have been much trouble, not very much. But he kept the pot …(p.246) In this passage, Steinbeck then illustrates the conclusion of her flower being left, being forgotten by the salesman’s subtle act of disregard for the feeling of the protagonist. Through the context, Steinbeck has the reader interpret what the flower on the ground meant to her and has the reader go back to the author’s connotation of the flower to conclude that: Mrs. Allen’s gift of her flower to a stranger to then be discarded. Through this, it shows Mrs. Allen ‘s efforts to ward off death and old age are in vain and that she has came to realize her mortality.
Seamus Heaney:
“The Country Bumpkin”
In the many works of author and poet laureate Seamus Heaney, his well-known texts are influenced by his life in the rural countryside in Northern Ireland. Through this, his poems often have several motifs in which he includes a complex language both vivid and grotesque that include images of foliage, fruit and blood both habitually occupying the same poem with each other. In one poem, Blackberry Picking, the morbid twist on a very joyous activity when the poet uses such grotesque language such as blood, flesh, skin, and rot. Later, the poem references the fictional character of Bluebeard and his lustful and murderous reputation with women. The author’s life experience in the farmlands references the conventions of berry picking in the field to take on a deeper meaning. In addition, the imagery and references Heaney employs in his writing occupying the customs and the agricultural life style that he witnessed in his early life living in a farmhouse. In result, Heaney’s writing is synonymous with the pastoral writing, wherein the urban way of life is mocked when juxtaposed with the rural counterparts in a sardonic manner.
The reflective times of Seamus Heaney depicts in his text, wherein it includes simple, countrified agricultural images that comes together with bodily imagery to that repeats through most of his writings that implies a pure and natural setting for his poems and short stories to complement his message through that piece. In addition, when he accomplishes this style of writing, the tone finds to be more earnest in the author’s message. However, by accomplishing this, he does not lose his ulterior purpose to the poem. His writings, which include such poems as Follower, Blackberry Picking and Requiem for the Croppies, are clear examples of his affection to his conventions that often echoes some influences from his cultural background that he exercises in his writing style as a result.
Heaney’s work has a strong connection towards his experiences in his hometown and the environment wherein he grew. Seamus Heaney was born in into a large, Catholic farming family in countryside of Castledawson in Northern Ireland in a family farmhouse called Mossbawn. Consequently, the family’s life revolved around the farm and it’s maintenance for the reason that it was the main source of their living and their lifework. During his life, while working as a farmhand assisting his father, he grows to respect the experience of his hard labor, next to his father. Through this experience of the responsibilities in his life of a farmer’s son, this exposure would emanate his fixation towards the agricultural images that he recognizes from hi s early life. To this outcome, his writings comprises of the agricultural language and imagery that relates to his rural farm.
Like most people, Heaney’s life and work often involved his connection with his native history and culture. In his case, his writings resonates the contact that his culture has had on him. His Catholic background has been present in most of his writing, which has allowed him to be exposed to the religious text that has had a spiritual effect on him a well as cultural effect on the author. Consequently, his religious background has allowed him to keep in touch with the text, which manifests itself in his writing in which he refers to importance of the use of such elaborate language in his poems. His employment of this intricate language works as an indicator of his imagery that gives depth to the images, which resembles religious imagery. In addition, his knowledge and experience of the history of his native Ireland as well as the events that was taking places during his time has had an effect on him as well to incite opinions from the writer. His criticism and observation often can label him a regional writer for his allusions of the environment wherein he lives. Heaney’s works seldom speaks of political or military subjects, but he references the small observations about the countryside or the simple details that goes beyond the ideas of government.
In most of Seamus Heaney’s work, he employs several allusions to his rural experiences in his writing that brings in rustic metaphors that interprets to mean anther thing. For instance, in the poem, Blackberry Picking, the occasion illustrates a joyous atmosphere when the readers assumes is an innocent event of picking berries. Heaney’s use of salient language constructs the vibrant tone of the poem that invokes clear and vivid imagery of the narrative. Heaney’s utilization of corporeal language wherein includes such vocabulary as lust, tongue, and flesh has the reader indicate a sensual quality that is a cross between a grim and corporeal tone. The ripe berries noted in the poem are clearly to be a allusion to how these berries possess a human quality, therefore the metaphor that the berries exemplifies the gloomy aspects of human lust for excess. Heaney’s purpose and language creates a different picture from the innocent description of day of berry picking by employing grotesque language in the first stanza to have a mixture of a violent imagery within the berry-picking occasion. Next, the second stanza shifts from the contented ambiance of delight towards a thwarted realization of their disintegrating joys that creates a melancholic shift to create a dramatic effect between a beautiful narrative, to a dismal, gory description in the first of reality’s tendency to raze dreams and banish all hopes of all humanity through their fault of excess.
The measure of corporeal and agricultural image motifs he uses in his poems progresses through his work. The focus in his poetry always remains on his allusions on the small observations he has whether they are of reflections of his distant past years as well as the times and periods long before him. One reader of his works also finds the images of blood rampant in his writings, wherein he uses it to intensify the purpose and picture of his imagery that parallels between the connotations of violence and death in his poetry. One example that uses these patterns is his early poem from 1966, Requiem for the Croppies, which is an elegy commemorating the thousands of Irish families that was massacred for their land by English armies in 1789, where their bodies were desecrated and given no burial. At the start his facility with history makes him familiar to his cultural background and his experience and that history effect on him. In addition, these allusions from his knowledge of history give the reader resonances of his past and his connection towards his native land. The poem itself shares the similarity to other poems when he regresses to the blood motif when the poem relapse to the grass being “soaked in their broken wave” a metonymy for the bloodshed one the ground as well as the symbol of barley on the that parallels the close interpretation of life and death, thus keeping to his rustic conventions as a regional writer towards his works. Additionally, both works mentioned here has the author’s constant use of the month of August. The term would share a noble and powerful connotation with the inclusion of Next, when the use of this meaning crosses with both settings and sparks several parallel between youth and virility.
In summary, Seamus Heaney’s background compensates for the overall success of his poetry and his style to be as earnest towards his writing and to
“The Country Bumpkin”
In the many works of author and poet laureate Seamus Heaney, his well-known texts are influenced by his life in the rural countryside in Northern Ireland. Through this, his poems often have several motifs in which he includes a complex language both vivid and grotesque that include images of foliage, fruit and blood both habitually occupying the same poem with each other. In one poem, Blackberry Picking, the morbid twist on a very joyous activity when the poet uses such grotesque language such as blood, flesh, skin, and rot. Later, the poem references the fictional character of Bluebeard and his lustful and murderous reputation with women. The author’s life experience in the farmlands references the conventions of berry picking in the field to take on a deeper meaning. In addition, the imagery and references Heaney employs in his writing occupying the customs and the agricultural life style that he witnessed in his early life living in a farmhouse. In result, Heaney’s writing is synonymous with the pastoral writing, wherein the urban way of life is mocked when juxtaposed with the rural counterparts in a sardonic manner.
The reflective times of Seamus Heaney depicts in his text, wherein it includes simple, countrified agricultural images that comes together with bodily imagery to that repeats through most of his writings that implies a pure and natural setting for his poems and short stories to complement his message through that piece. In addition, when he accomplishes this style of writing, the tone finds to be more earnest in the author’s message. However, by accomplishing this, he does not lose his ulterior purpose to the poem. His writings, which include such poems as Follower, Blackberry Picking and Requiem for the Croppies, are clear examples of his affection to his conventions that often echoes some influences from his cultural background that he exercises in his writing style as a result.
Heaney’s work has a strong connection towards his experiences in his hometown and the environment wherein he grew. Seamus Heaney was born in into a large, Catholic farming family in countryside of Castledawson in Northern Ireland in a family farmhouse called Mossbawn. Consequently, the family’s life revolved around the farm and it’s maintenance for the reason that it was the main source of their living and their lifework. During his life, while working as a farmhand assisting his father, he grows to respect the experience of his hard labor, next to his father. Through this experience of the responsibilities in his life of a farmer’s son, this exposure would emanate his fixation towards the agricultural images that he recognizes from hi s early life. To this outcome, his writings comprises of the agricultural language and imagery that relates to his rural farm.
Like most people, Heaney’s life and work often involved his connection with his native history and culture. In his case, his writings resonates the contact that his culture has had on him. His Catholic background has been present in most of his writing, which has allowed him to be exposed to the religious text that has had a spiritual effect on him a well as cultural effect on the author. Consequently, his religious background has allowed him to keep in touch with the text, which manifests itself in his writing in which he refers to importance of the use of such elaborate language in his poems. His employment of this intricate language works as an indicator of his imagery that gives depth to the images, which resembles religious imagery. In addition, his knowledge and experience of the history of his native Ireland as well as the events that was taking places during his time has had an effect on him as well to incite opinions from the writer. His criticism and observation often can label him a regional writer for his allusions of the environment wherein he lives. Heaney’s works seldom speaks of political or military subjects, but he references the small observations about the countryside or the simple details that goes beyond the ideas of government.
In most of Seamus Heaney’s work, he employs several allusions to his rural experiences in his writing that brings in rustic metaphors that interprets to mean anther thing. For instance, in the poem, Blackberry Picking, the occasion illustrates a joyous atmosphere when the readers assumes is an innocent event of picking berries. Heaney’s use of salient language constructs the vibrant tone of the poem that invokes clear and vivid imagery of the narrative. Heaney’s utilization of corporeal language wherein includes such vocabulary as lust, tongue, and flesh has the reader indicate a sensual quality that is a cross between a grim and corporeal tone. The ripe berries noted in the poem are clearly to be a allusion to how these berries possess a human quality, therefore the metaphor that the berries exemplifies the gloomy aspects of human lust for excess. Heaney’s purpose and language creates a different picture from the innocent description of day of berry picking by employing grotesque language in the first stanza to have a mixture of a violent imagery within the berry-picking occasion. Next, the second stanza shifts from the contented ambiance of delight towards a thwarted realization of their disintegrating joys that creates a melancholic shift to create a dramatic effect between a beautiful narrative, to a dismal, gory description in the first of reality’s tendency to raze dreams and banish all hopes of all humanity through their fault of excess.
The measure of corporeal and agricultural image motifs he uses in his poems progresses through his work. The focus in his poetry always remains on his allusions on the small observations he has whether they are of reflections of his distant past years as well as the times and periods long before him. One reader of his works also finds the images of blood rampant in his writings, wherein he uses it to intensify the purpose and picture of his imagery that parallels between the connotations of violence and death in his poetry. One example that uses these patterns is his early poem from 1966, Requiem for the Croppies, which is an elegy commemorating the thousands of Irish families that was massacred for their land by English armies in 1789, where their bodies were desecrated and given no burial. At the start his facility with history makes him familiar to his cultural background and his experience and that history effect on him. In addition, these allusions from his knowledge of history give the reader resonances of his past and his connection towards his native land. The poem itself shares the similarity to other poems when he regresses to the blood motif when the poem relapse to the grass being “soaked in their broken wave” a metonymy for the bloodshed one the ground as well as the symbol of barley on the that parallels the close interpretation of life and death, thus keeping to his rustic conventions as a regional writer towards his works. Additionally, both works mentioned here has the author’s constant use of the month of August. The term would share a noble and powerful connotation with the inclusion of Next, when the use of this meaning crosses with both settings and sparks several parallel between youth and virility.
In summary, Seamus Heaney’s background compensates for the overall success of his poetry and his style to be as earnest towards his writing and to
“How Sweet and Fitting…”
Dulce et decorum Est by
Wilfred Owen
In history, most countries would focus on the victories and spoils of war, when others question the need for such barbaric occurrences. In the 1920 poem, Dulce et decorum Est, Owen proposes the cycle of decay in all civilizations continues through the man made epidemic; war. The morbid imagery of death and suffering on the battlefields of Europe during World War I intensifies the author’s purpose of having the experience of war not to be viewed as a bold and valiant display of men struggling against their enemies, instead as a melancholic picture of sickness and decrepitude. Owen uses this morose imagery to imply that all wars a
The first stanza of the poem bring to mind the corroding health of the soldiers, who are mentioned as “beggars” The term implies the overall condition as well as the description of their morale. The writer suggests that the soldiers are poor souls, to be pitied for the luck to be there in the midst of death and agony. In addition, Owen uses the choice to comment on the posture and facial appearances of the soldiers. The first stanza would go on to mention the impotence of the soldiers using such descriptive verbs such as “trudge “and “limped” to evoke a visual depiction of these men.
The second stanza would express the confusion and death in vivid detail as Owen recant on the lethal gas shells that bombarded the squad. The author intends to highlight the horrors of war through the constant fear of mustard gas poisoning them. The imagery helps Owen maintains the purpose of how war would poison, and deteriorate the bodies biologically, like a sickness that kills instantly. One reader notes the the depiction of the dead being put in wagons to give the image of a wholesale slaughter of men as cattle as well as give the image of the reference to the black plague when the dead would be put in wagons.
Dulce et decorum Est by
Wilfred Owen
In history, most countries would focus on the victories and spoils of war, when others question the need for such barbaric occurrences. In the 1920 poem, Dulce et decorum Est, Owen proposes the cycle of decay in all civilizations continues through the man made epidemic; war. The morbid imagery of death and suffering on the battlefields of Europe during World War I intensifies the author’s purpose of having the experience of war not to be viewed as a bold and valiant display of men struggling against their enemies, instead as a melancholic picture of sickness and decrepitude. Owen uses this morose imagery to imply that all wars a
The first stanza of the poem bring to mind the corroding health of the soldiers, who are mentioned as “beggars” The term implies the overall condition as well as the description of their morale. The writer suggests that the soldiers are poor souls, to be pitied for the luck to be there in the midst of death and agony. In addition, Owen uses the choice to comment on the posture and facial appearances of the soldiers. The first stanza would go on to mention the impotence of the soldiers using such descriptive verbs such as “trudge “and “limped” to evoke a visual depiction of these men.
The second stanza would express the confusion and death in vivid detail as Owen recant on the lethal gas shells that bombarded the squad. The author intends to highlight the horrors of war through the constant fear of mustard gas poisoning them. The imagery helps Owen maintains the purpose of how war would poison, and deteriorate the bodies biologically, like a sickness that kills instantly. One reader notes the the depiction of the dead being put in wagons to give the image of a wholesale slaughter of men as cattle as well as give the image of the reference to the black plague when the dead would be put in wagons.
“How Sweet and Fitting…”
Dulce et decorum Est by
Wilfred Owen
In history, most countries would focus on the victories and spoils of war, when others question the need for such barbaric occurrences. In the 1920 poem, Dulce et decorum Est, Owen proposes the cycle of decay in all civilizations continues through the man made epidemic; war. The morbid imagery of death and suffering on the battlefields of Europe during World War I intensifies the author’s purpose of having the experience of war not to be viewed as a bold and valiant display of men struggling against their enemies, instead as a melancholic picture of sickness and decrepitude. Owen uses this morose imagery to imply that all wars a
The first stanza of the poem bring to mind the corroding health of the soldiers, who are mentioned as “beggars” The term implies the overall condition as well as the description of their morale. The writer suggests that the soldiers are poor souls, to be pitied for the luck to be there in the midst of death and agony. In addition, Owen uses the choice to comment on the posture and facial appearances of the soldiers. The first stanza would go on to mention the impotence of the soldiers using such descriptive verbs such as “trudge “and “limped” to evoke a visual depiction of these men.
The second stanza would express the confusion and death in vivid detail as Owen recant on the lethal gas shells that bombarded the squad. The author intends to highlight the horrors of war through the constant fear of mustard gas poisoning them. The imagery helps Owen maintains the purpose of how war would poison, and deteriorate the bodies biologically, like a sickness that kills instantly. One reader notes the the depiction of the dead being put in wagons to give the image of a wholesale slaughter of men as cattle as well as give the image of the reference to the black plague when the dead would be put in wagons.
Dulce et decorum Est by
Wilfred Owen
In history, most countries would focus on the victories and spoils of war, when others question the need for such barbaric occurrences. In the 1920 poem, Dulce et decorum Est, Owen proposes the cycle of decay in all civilizations continues through the man made epidemic; war. The morbid imagery of death and suffering on the battlefields of Europe during World War I intensifies the author’s purpose of having the experience of war not to be viewed as a bold and valiant display of men struggling against their enemies, instead as a melancholic picture of sickness and decrepitude. Owen uses this morose imagery to imply that all wars a
The first stanza of the poem bring to mind the corroding health of the soldiers, who are mentioned as “beggars” The term implies the overall condition as well as the description of their morale. The writer suggests that the soldiers are poor souls, to be pitied for the luck to be there in the midst of death and agony. In addition, Owen uses the choice to comment on the posture and facial appearances of the soldiers. The first stanza would go on to mention the impotence of the soldiers using such descriptive verbs such as “trudge “and “limped” to evoke a visual depiction of these men.
The second stanza would express the confusion and death in vivid detail as Owen recant on the lethal gas shells that bombarded the squad. The author intends to highlight the horrors of war through the constant fear of mustard gas poisoning them. The imagery helps Owen maintains the purpose of how war would poison, and deteriorate the bodies biologically, like a sickness that kills instantly. One reader notes the the depiction of the dead being put in wagons to give the image of a wholesale slaughter of men as cattle as well as give the image of the reference to the black plague when the dead would be put in wagons.
“Ghosts and Drunks”
Disillusionment of Ten O’ Clock by
Wallace Stevens
In the poem Disillusionment of Ten O’ Clock, the poet suggests that certain words are imperative to describe and contrast the characters and imply certain fragments in the poem. The handling of connotations through color, diction, and dreams clues the reader in to find the purpose of the poem. Stevens uses these implications to depict the townspeople who dwell in their “haunted” homes as ghosts and how their lives are without stimulation or dreams that translates to no prospect towards the future. In addition, Stevens creates a dichotomy between the townspeople and the “old sailor”. The “old” sailor is ironically embodied as the lively, imaginative and dream-wise; prospective person among the haunted souls. The purpose of the poet is to convey the message of man’s pursuit for that dream and how others would abandon theirs and settle into a dull and haunting life.
The first stanza introduces the “haunted” townspeople who are laden with “nightgowns”. Through this text, the visual imagery of “white nightgowns” dwelling through the “haunted houses” gives strong resonance to have the reader connect the vision of nightgowns to an image of a ghost. From there, the connotation of the word “white” hints a relation ship with the ghost. The term refers to the clear, characterless, bland, and naïve. The poet uses these associations with the word to deepen the meaning if the look the towns people being referred to as ghosts. The second stanza, develops form the first to give more description to the townspeople being naïve and characterless.
One example is the poet mentioning none of the residents is “strange”. The choice of pointing this out to reader would insist that the residents of the city are without any quirk, that they are not weird in any way. Through this choice of words, Stevens implies that these people are the bland and characterless people. The idea of a human having any foibles would insist their originality, in short; what makes them unique. Stevens justifies his position to label them as “white nightgowns” .In the last two lines of the stanza, the poet explains that the inhabitants of the houses, do not dream reveries of eccentricity or their own unique concepts. The poet intends to defend why he would choose “baboons and periwinkles as a definition for a dream. The whole implications of the word baboon would interpret in a the inference of a “clumsy, oafish, person
Disillusionment of Ten O’ Clock by
Wallace Stevens
In the poem Disillusionment of Ten O’ Clock, the poet suggests that certain words are imperative to describe and contrast the characters and imply certain fragments in the poem. The handling of connotations through color, diction, and dreams clues the reader in to find the purpose of the poem. Stevens uses these implications to depict the townspeople who dwell in their “haunted” homes as ghosts and how their lives are without stimulation or dreams that translates to no prospect towards the future. In addition, Stevens creates a dichotomy between the townspeople and the “old sailor”. The “old” sailor is ironically embodied as the lively, imaginative and dream-wise; prospective person among the haunted souls. The purpose of the poet is to convey the message of man’s pursuit for that dream and how others would abandon theirs and settle into a dull and haunting life.
The first stanza introduces the “haunted” townspeople who are laden with “nightgowns”. Through this text, the visual imagery of “white nightgowns” dwelling through the “haunted houses” gives strong resonance to have the reader connect the vision of nightgowns to an image of a ghost. From there, the connotation of the word “white” hints a relation ship with the ghost. The term refers to the clear, characterless, bland, and naïve. The poet uses these associations with the word to deepen the meaning if the look the towns people being referred to as ghosts. The second stanza, develops form the first to give more description to the townspeople being naïve and characterless.
One example is the poet mentioning none of the residents is “strange”. The choice of pointing this out to reader would insist that the residents of the city are without any quirk, that they are not weird in any way. Through this choice of words, Stevens implies that these people are the bland and characterless people. The idea of a human having any foibles would insist their originality, in short; what makes them unique. Stevens justifies his position to label them as “white nightgowns” .In the last two lines of the stanza, the poet explains that the inhabitants of the houses, do not dream reveries of eccentricity or their own unique concepts. The poet intends to defend why he would choose “baboons and periwinkles as a definition for a dream. The whole implications of the word baboon would interpret in a the inference of a “clumsy, oafish, person
“You Could Go With This, or
You Can Go With That”
The Cogitations of a Black Sheep
“You want to make friends. Point a sword in their face.” – Rev. Goodlove
If only it was that easy. I fear of being an outcast because I fear being a follower. Such a paradox worries me. The question goes through my head: Follower or an Individual I need to balance these things. Being a follower means no individuality. For me to have no DNA I won’t have any inner beauty. I won’t have heart or soul. A automaton. It can mean having a community. To belong to a group. To be nourished and given aid. To be accepted by people like you. Although to be an individual, I shouldn’t care about social status. To have now need for requirements. Having a name people will remember. Nevertheless, the individual can be misunderstood. I applied for the Literary Society. Being in a club meant asylum. Not being “that” loser in school. Means a form of extra-curricular activities I walked in the door I with my application in one hand and an U.S. history book in the other. What I was doing there? Pairs of eyes stared at me. a of students near me, four or five of them. They didn’t even know I existed. When I handed my application over, I felt that hollow feeling inside. To be alone. I stumble out the room. I walked down the nearest staircase. It was done. The situation played repeatedly. Then the questions came to me. Was there something wrong with me? Was there something on my face? What was that “look” for? Was I not good enough? The questions had gone all afternoon. I felt cold and hollow inside. I didn’t think I would return.
Then it came to me: Fencing! My brother did it last year. He thought it was alright. I considered taking a year, too. I borrowed my brother’s equipment. I went to see the academy. I walked into the studio; I see golden plaques on the wall. There are many trophies and ribbons. As I look, the pupils stop. The voices rise and fall. I asked around for the instructor. They point vaguely behind me. I see a tall blonde lady. Her name is Helen. We shook hands and I smiled. She introduces me to the class. I then hear vague awkward replies. My equipment becomes heavy. I feel apart form myself. My soul watches my body. It looks along with the pupils. It begs me to heed instruction. I feel hollow again. The cold kicks in. I feel surrounded by the pupils. I snap out of it. The day is done.
The next day, I begin practice. I walk into the studio. I try to walk in rhythm. I try to get familiar. The instructor greets me again. I smile and wave lively. I think I made an effort. I put on my gear quickly. The whistle has blown. She begins the class. She has us do some stretching. We break up by weapon type. I am now with some company. Two girls and three guys. I begin to wonder to myself. Do the girls feel awkward? Maybe I’m sitting too close. Are they the open type? Where are they from? Maybe they live around here. Should I ask? It will sure calm me down. One was from Fall River. Her name was Penelope. The other, Nancy, was from Brockton. I felt like I was melting. I came out of my shell. I fell into a rhythm. I re-introduced myself to the group. The instructor divides us by two. Nancy and I were sparring partners. I then felt shy again. I began talking to her. I thought that it would help. What gave you interest in fencing? Is it your first time? Do you enjoy it? The questions came in a pace. We began with a warm-up beat. A rhythmic conversation with blades. The cadence was dull, but refreshing. She asked me questions too. How old are you? What year are you? Do you play any other sports? I tried to answer her. I was stumbling, I was nervous. I was out of my body again. She was probably psychic. She read the expression on my face. She smiled.
“I need to say something!”, I thought. So I asked her a few questions. “How long have you been fencing? What School do you go to? Got a boyfriend? Yes!? Got a sister?” I was dead. She had that surprised look. Somebody smack me. Her laugh pierced me. Then her sabre did. I was back in my body. “I guess that answers that question”. Confidence. She came back to me. Was she jealous? Afterwards, Nancy and I talked. “Off all the sports” she opened. “Why’d you choose fencing?”. “To kill people” I said teasingly. She giggled again, I loved her laugh. She promised to see me again. I never heard that from a girl before. I took it as a good omen. I grew a little. I became human.
My soul was looking at me. He picked up a sign. It read “About time! You Loser”. I felt reborn again. I made an effort. I passed. I have a soul. I am a man. I exist. I am not a loser. I am significant. I am alive.
You Can Go With That”
The Cogitations of a Black Sheep
“You want to make friends. Point a sword in their face.” – Rev. Goodlove
If only it was that easy. I fear of being an outcast because I fear being a follower. Such a paradox worries me. The question goes through my head: Follower or an Individual I need to balance these things. Being a follower means no individuality. For me to have no DNA I won’t have any inner beauty. I won’t have heart or soul. A automaton. It can mean having a community. To belong to a group. To be nourished and given aid. To be accepted by people like you. Although to be an individual, I shouldn’t care about social status. To have now need for requirements. Having a name people will remember. Nevertheless, the individual can be misunderstood. I applied for the Literary Society. Being in a club meant asylum. Not being “that” loser in school. Means a form of extra-curricular activities I walked in the door I with my application in one hand and an U.S. history book in the other. What I was doing there? Pairs of eyes stared at me. a of students near me, four or five of them. They didn’t even know I existed. When I handed my application over, I felt that hollow feeling inside. To be alone. I stumble out the room. I walked down the nearest staircase. It was done. The situation played repeatedly. Then the questions came to me. Was there something wrong with me? Was there something on my face? What was that “look” for? Was I not good enough? The questions had gone all afternoon. I felt cold and hollow inside. I didn’t think I would return.
Then it came to me: Fencing! My brother did it last year. He thought it was alright. I considered taking a year, too. I borrowed my brother’s equipment. I went to see the academy. I walked into the studio; I see golden plaques on the wall. There are many trophies and ribbons. As I look, the pupils stop. The voices rise and fall. I asked around for the instructor. They point vaguely behind me. I see a tall blonde lady. Her name is Helen. We shook hands and I smiled. She introduces me to the class. I then hear vague awkward replies. My equipment becomes heavy. I feel apart form myself. My soul watches my body. It looks along with the pupils. It begs me to heed instruction. I feel hollow again. The cold kicks in. I feel surrounded by the pupils. I snap out of it. The day is done.
The next day, I begin practice. I walk into the studio. I try to walk in rhythm. I try to get familiar. The instructor greets me again. I smile and wave lively. I think I made an effort. I put on my gear quickly. The whistle has blown. She begins the class. She has us do some stretching. We break up by weapon type. I am now with some company. Two girls and three guys. I begin to wonder to myself. Do the girls feel awkward? Maybe I’m sitting too close. Are they the open type? Where are they from? Maybe they live around here. Should I ask? It will sure calm me down. One was from Fall River. Her name was Penelope. The other, Nancy, was from Brockton. I felt like I was melting. I came out of my shell. I fell into a rhythm. I re-introduced myself to the group. The instructor divides us by two. Nancy and I were sparring partners. I then felt shy again. I began talking to her. I thought that it would help. What gave you interest in fencing? Is it your first time? Do you enjoy it? The questions came in a pace. We began with a warm-up beat. A rhythmic conversation with blades. The cadence was dull, but refreshing. She asked me questions too. How old are you? What year are you? Do you play any other sports? I tried to answer her. I was stumbling, I was nervous. I was out of my body again. She was probably psychic. She read the expression on my face. She smiled.
“I need to say something!”, I thought. So I asked her a few questions. “How long have you been fencing? What School do you go to? Got a boyfriend? Yes!? Got a sister?” I was dead. She had that surprised look. Somebody smack me. Her laugh pierced me. Then her sabre did. I was back in my body. “I guess that answers that question”. Confidence. She came back to me. Was she jealous? Afterwards, Nancy and I talked. “Off all the sports” she opened. “Why’d you choose fencing?”. “To kill people” I said teasingly. She giggled again, I loved her laugh. She promised to see me again. I never heard that from a girl before. I took it as a good omen. I grew a little. I became human.
My soul was looking at me. He picked up a sign. It read “About time! You Loser”. I felt reborn again. I made an effort. I passed. I have a soul. I am a man. I exist. I am not a loser. I am significant. I am alive.
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