The valley of ashes is introduced to us in chapter two as a symbol of the moral and social decay of American society.
The valley of ashes is depicted as a lifeless "desolate area of land" where "ashes grow like wheat" symbolic to the "crumbling" of American moral and social structures. It is the place where ashes are dumped from industrial waste, representing the actions of the rich and powerful without any regard to others. Another symbol introduced in the second chapter are the eyes of doctor T.J Eckleburg which is an old billboard. However, to George Wilson it becomes a symbol of God's judging eyes on American society. George Wilson is a man who's wife is having an affair and unlike the Buchanans, he does not of the luxury of retreating back into the pleasure of spending. Thus, George uses the eyes of T.J Eckleburg and religion to put meaning back into his meaningless existence.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
The Great Gatsby - East & West Egg
In the first few chapters of the novel, Nick Carraway (narrator) introduces the readers to Tom and Daisy Buchanan of the East Egg. The Buchanan’s are defined by their inherited wealth and fortune depicted through their extravagant estate filled with luxuries such as “polo ponies.” Although the Buchanan’s life may appear to be filled with pleasure, Nick discovers underneath all those riches lay a somewhat unfulfilled life. The East Egg becomes a symbol for inherited wealth, people who have never accomplished any real meaning and spend their lives socialising and spending their riches. We also see the lack of moralistic values in the East Egg where Tom quite obviously is having an affair with a married woman. With Gatsby and Nick living in the West Egg, it stands for the opposite of the East Egg. The West Egg symbolises the determination and inner drive for self-made fortunes and wealth. Although Gatsby also lives in an extravagant mansion, he does not find meaning in materialistic items and is driven beyond his wealth; to retain his former lover, Daisy.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Heaney's Bog Poems
Introduction
Heaney’s early poems can be seen as fundamentally concerned with childhood, and with the horrors as well as the wonders of nature, drawing the reader into a world full of "the smells/of waterweed, fungus and dank moss", to look into places where ‘there is no reflection’ – poetry which is also an exploration that aims ‘to set the darkness echoing’.
This fascination with the hidden secrets of the earth takes another direction in the bog poems, which utilize a metaphor begun in Bogland, but with a different, more intense focus, as the land itself seems to come alive, revealed as the source of mystery and power.
Heaney has noted that writing at the time of the Troubles meant that "the problem of poetry moved from a matter of finding the satisfactory verbal icon to being a search for images and symbols adequate to predicament."
In the bog people, victims of tribal sacrifice, the poet seems to have found such images, and develops the metaphor in drawing parallels with the political and social situation in Ireland. This connection to the past allows him to comment on the present in an oblique yet forceful way.
However, this does not imply that Heaney’s poetry necessarily became entirely political. Critics have pointed out that his work is less an ideological statement than an effort to generate historical awareness, and that while his themes contain both resistance and defiance, they do not make an active political statement. Instead, he speaks about political ideas through his description of the land, the use of mythology and history and the religious atmosphere, the images of prejudice, violence and intolerance. His pastoral style uses images of rural Ireland to suggest greater universal ideas. As one critic has said "Heaney staked out the boundaries of his poetic, devoting himself to excavations of his chosen land."
Bogland
The earliest bog poem, appropriately entitled Bogland, is more nationalistic and more about the essence of Ireland than the later poems, which are more deeply concerned with mythical associations, with the connection between violence and religion.
The beginning of the poem sets the nationalistic tone clearly as the possessive pronoun ‘we’ is used more than once, to convey a sense of unity with the land. In the first lines "we have no prairies/To slice a big sun at evening", what is ostensibly a negative statement of absence is turned into a positive assertion, as Heaney speaks of "our unfenced country" and "encroaching horizon".
At the same time the poem emphasizes the layers of the land, layers of history ‘bog that keep crusting’ in continuous expansion, so that the land seems to stretch forever, endless in both horizontal and vertical dimensions. The bog is in layers, each layer a page of history, yet like the encroaching horizon, it at first reveals nothing, seems a statement of absence.
The poem establishes the bog as the source of all Irish memory and ancestry, linking the present to the past through the constancy of the land, as "butter sunk under/more than a hundred years/ was recovered salty and white". The ground conserves rather than destroys, not the realm of fire but of water "they’ll never dig coal here/only the waterlogged trunks of great firs". The land is "itself...kind, black butter", revealing it’s secrets as it is "melting and opening underfoot."
This brings in the motif of digging and exploration, "our pioneers keep striking/Inwards and downwards" which again in the use of the word ‘pioneers’ connects to America, while it relates to a tradition of Irish poets to the diggers, bringing treasures to light.
The poem ends with a reference to something greater, to Northwest Europe, perhaps the seed of the myth of the North in the later bog poems. There is a suggestion of a continuous enrichment, as "every layer they strip/seems camped on before", emphasizing again the metaphor of the bog as history, the memory of the landscape.
The ‘Atlantic seepage’ and ‘the wet center’ is a reiteration of an earlier point "they’ll never dig coal here" the earth is preserving and not consuming, but this is connected to a larger pattern here, in an exploration attempting to find a core, a final center but conceding that this center is ‘bottomless’.
The poem conceives the past as a dimension to be explored dynamically rather than simply received, constructed from a drive to establish a connection between forces shaping a nation’s consciousness. At the heart of the poem, beyond the overlapping of the past and present, is the timelessness of nature.
Tollund Man
The Tollund Man is a poem that promises a pilgrimage: "Some day I will go to Aarhus". In the first few stanzas the tone is expectant, determined, yet at the same time the future tense is an indication of the remoteness of the poem from the time it speaks of. While the poem never wanders in conviction, there is an element of foreignness and distance, which is reinforced by the place names ‘Aarhus’, and later ‘Tollund, Grauballe, Nebelgard’.
The Tollund Man is unnamed. The pilgrim will go "to see his peat brown head"; he goes to worship, in a way, yet the tone remains impersonal. The Tollund Man is passive, his eye-lids "mild pods". A victim, the action of the poem relates not who he is but what is done to him, and in the end he "reposes" in "sad freedom". The Tollund Man, like the girl in Punishment, is portrayed as a scapegoat for society’s crimes and ignorance.
The Tollund Man’s own journey begins when "they dug him out", destroyed and elevated at the same time. The meticulous observations of the narrator are again, detached, "his last gruel of winter seeds/caked in his stomach" yet also emphatic, emphasizing vulnerability "naked except for/the cap, noose and girdle" the remains of a ritual death.
The pilgrim makes a respectful promise to "stand a long time", but the action itself is passive, promising not to move.
The last line of this stanza "bridegroom to the goddess" takes on a more ominous, forceful tone as the bog itself is personified and equated to Ireland, female and overwhelming "she tightened her torc on him". The language indicates the powerlessness of the victim in the face of greater, unfathomable powers, but at the same time metaphorically insists on his quasi-divinity, worked "to a saint’s kept body", bringing in religion and relating it to violence and ritual death. The Tollund Man becomes almost, a surrogate Christ. He is left to chance, "trove of the turf cutters" and finally resurrected until at last "his stained face/Reposes…"
The poet links religion with the ordering of violence or sacrifice in order to bring peace again in comparing "the old man killing parishes of Jutland" with his own land.
The second part of the poem suddenly becomes more emphatic after the stillness of the previous line "reposes at Aarhus" as the narrator says "I could risk blasphemy". Again here, religion is directly connected to violence but this time the pilgrim says he could "consecrate the cauldron bog/our holy ground". Religion derives it’s power from the land, as the land demands sacrifice, a 'bridegroom’, to whom the pilgrim will "pray/him to make germinate". Deriving his power from the land which turned him to a saint, the Tollund Man as victim, is linked to the "four young brothers", to whom he is both kin and saint, to "flesh of labourers" and "stockinged corpses". His paradoxical survival and repose should, the poem implies, give him the power to raise others. At this point, the language is both bleak and harsh, and can be interpreted as an impotent longing to obliterate the wrongs of the past, attempting to see this resurrection as redemption from violence, but seeing only the similarities of a ‘ritual’ of death, uncontrolled and meaningless.
The last part of the poem returns to the quiet beginning, but here, instead of determination and looking forward, there is sorrow and despair, a sense of isolation which is linked to language. The pilgrim insists that the ‘sad freedom’ of the Tollund Man "should come to me…/saying the names" yet showing that ultimately exile means "watching the pointing hands/ of country people/not knowing their tongues" as language is defined as the root of culture, of nationality. Along with religion, and a sense of history and myth, language is central to Heaney’s poetry, and here the idea of isolation is brought sharply to the reader through the idea of being ‘lost’ in a foreign land, yet ultimately the paradoxical nature of exile is realized, the poet realizes that he feels at home in a state of homelessness, and welcomes the feeling of being lost, of not belonging to society, a sort of ‘sad freedom’ he shares with the Tollund Man, no longer tied to religious forces. The poem ends in a statement which describes both the isolation and empowering sense of exile: "I will feel lost/unhappy and at home".
Bog Queen
Bog Queen is a story of decay, describing processes the body has been through until found and excavated. It is different from the other bog poems in that the body speaks: "I lay waiting." There is a sense of restraint here, creating suspense. The body lies "between heathery levels" suggesting an overgrown world, nobility rotting.
"My body was braille" creates a vision of communication between the body and the land, "the creeping influences". In a sense the process of decay can be read as symbolic of Irish history, and the degradation of Irish culture as a result of English intervention: "the seeps of winter/digested me, the illiterate roots/pondered and died". Still the body speaks "I lay waiting" enhancing the reality of her strange existence, yet also asserting that she remains undefeated. She is not destroyed, rather she is altered, made part of the land, "brain darkening/ a jar of spawn" hinting at new beginnings.
She is a frozen, preserved work of art, described meticulously in icy images, her sash "a black glacier", the winter cold "like the nuzzle of fjords".
All this is described in slow, deliberate language, ‘waiting’. Yet, like in Tollund Man, the tone grows more forceful towards the end, as she describes "the wet nest of my hair/which they robbed". This again might be read as relating to English interference, as the body says "I was barbered/ and stripped/ by a turfcutter’s spade". Her discovery is a matter of chance. Here, the clipped language brings a sense of anger which in the last stanza turns to triumph "and I rose from the dark", evoking her past and glory. With the rising of the body, Heaney offers a hope for the rise Irish cultural identity and nationalism.
A detailed, vivid account of a woman given an opportunity to speak, telling her strange existence between the world of life and death, the poem is also, on the metaphorical level, related to incarnation of goddesses who demand sacrifice, related to the feminsation of the land in Tollund Man, and perhaps to the image of a Mother Ireland calling for new sacrifices.
Her excavation elevated to the level of a rising, a metaphoric connection to the theme of invocation in Tollund Man, yet not a resurrection because she had never died.
The Grauballe Man
One critic has noted that if Tollund Man is pilgrimage, Grauballe Man is arrival and the celebration of being there. Certainly, in this poem, there is a new standpoint, an immediacy that is apparent from the first. "As if he had been poured/ in tar he lies/on a pillow of turf/and seems to weep/the black river of himself."
He is at one with the turf, a vivid picture of the union between the land and the man, a metaphoric union. At first, the image is one of stillness, harmony, yet there is an edge of suspense as the language evokes a world dominated by dark colors, water, sorrow and sleep.
"The grain of his wrists/is like bog oak" begins a list like description of the exhibit, for this victim is not a victim but a work of art. There is no commentary on these images, human feeling and empathy are noticeably absent, leaving just an attempt to accurately define the beautiful horror the viewer seems to see. The body has been established as art, and the viewer describes it as such. There is less myth-making, the terror here, unlike Tollund Man, comes as the peaceful image of sleep is turned into a fearful picture of violent death.
The Graballe Man is not passive, there is nothing ‘mild’ about the way he is described, "the chin is a visor/raised above the vent/of his slashed throat".
It is here that the central point of he poem is made clear: "who will say ‘corpse’/ to his vivid cast?/ who will say ‘body’/ to his opaque repose?"
This has also been seen as the turning point for the use of the bog metaphor, as the poet makes us aware of the clash between myth and reality, beauty and atrocity. These lines are a rationale for the description, but they also ask us to question the work of art the poem constructs, as the actuality of terror asserts itself: "I first saw his twisted face/ in a photograph" and the idea of sublime art is undermined by reality. Yet "now he lies/perfected in my memory". The picture is a more balanced one, he is "hung in the scales/with beauty and atrocity", constructing a complex idea of sculpture, yet awakening also the ethical response, which is held back until now.
The poem ultimately addresses the issue of art as a reflection of life and can be read as arguing life is too strictly compassed' in art. The poem itself cannot reveal the full horror of life’s horrors, yet attempts to understand them, through it’s metaphors, returning in the end to reality as it climaxes in a terse expression of death "each hooded victim/slashed and dumped".
Punishment
Punishment has often been described as the central point, the climax of the bog poems, as the Winderby Girl is a metaphor for Ireland. It begins with a focus on her body, describing it in anatomical detail on a level similar to Grauballe Man, yet this time there is a degree of empathy absent from the last poem. It is intensely personal, rooted in the senses "I can feel the tug/of the halter". The image of the "frail rigging/of her ribs" creates the idea of a ship in a storm, further reinforced by the next line "I can see her drowned".
The persona scrutinizes her into parts, an onlooker. She is sacrificed at the hands of oppressors, but still contains information about her culture, managing to preserve her identity despite the overwhelming cultural storm.
The next stanza begins a more violent image "her blindfold a soiled bandage" but the violence is softened "her noose a ring/ to store/the memories of love", as the description becomes more immediate, more emphatic, transformed to a lament of pity "my poor scapegoat". Heaney finds himself guilty however of remaining silent out of loyalty to the tribe. He says he "would have cast…/the stones of silence", as in Grauballe Man, as an artist, he is both part of the situation and outside it. "I am an artful voyeur" he both claims and admits, and in watching reality he remains an onlooker who has "stood dumb".
The girl is juxtaposed here to her "betraying sisters" (also a reference to France and Spain) "cauled in tar/wept by the railings". This cyclical view of history is typical of Heaney’s poetry; springing from a sense that past is present, in the sense of both here and now. In Punishment, the poem implies that the past functions as a scapegoat, taking the blame for social ills for which we are responsible. Yet we do not feel responsible because we do not feel it is our fault. The poet’s role, Heaney believes, is to redeem the past and make it live again. Thus, the past and the present become one, and the girl in ‘Punishment’ is reflected in her ‘betraying sisters’, as the poet uses the link between past and present to explore the darker aspects of the human experience from betrayal to death.
Ultimately, Heaney shows that in the face of "tribal, intimate revenge" it is difficult to speak out, though we "connive/in civilized outrage".
Strange Fruit
Strange Fruit, the last bog poem, is not only different in style it is also different in structure, written in sonnet form. It deliberately misses rhymes, its line length widely inconsistent, pointing towards the recognition of conclusion, deliberately breaking and failing patterns in the resolution of a long, complex metaphor.
"Here is the girl’s head" it begins, and in contrast to Punishment, it’s description emphasizes all that is repulsive. This girl is not likened to a ship withstanding a storm, or storing memories in a noose, but is "an exhumed gourd". She is constructed using images of plant-life, natural life, but nature here is never beautiful. She is "oval-faced, prune-skinned, prune-stones for teeth" her broken nose "dark as a turf clod". The picture is not meant to mystify. This body is no more than a document of ancient violence. There is no indication of myth.
Murdered, forgotten, nameless, terrible,
Beheaded girl, outstaring axe
And beatification, outstaring
What had begun to feel like reverence.
Heaney’s attempt to elevate the bog people to a mythic level is destroyed here, the final bog poem refusing to colour present violence with the hue of acceptability of rationality, finally asserting the meaningless of sacrificial or ritual death.
Conclusion
The political aspect of the bog poems is undeniable. Some critics such as Blake Morrison have seen this in a negative light, arguing that while "it would be going too far to suggest that the bog poems generally offer a defense of Republicanism" he sees them as a form of ‘explanation’ which according to Morrison "give[s] sectarian killing…a historical respectability".
Ciaran Carson’s critique takes a different direction, seeing that with the bog poems the poet became ‘the laureate of violence’ and "an anthropologist of ritual killing’ who seems to be "offering his ‘understanding’ of the situation almost as consolation…as if he is saying suffering like this is natural" so that it is as if such acts are removed to 'the realm of inevitability'.
However, it can also be argued that although Heaney’s work is full of images of death and dying, it is at the same time deeply rooted in life, endlessly metaphorical, it holds out an offer of endlessness, of cyclical history, of eternity. Heaney’s poems are ultimately peace poems, intensifying the sense of beauty in contrast to the horror of violence and the pathos of needless death.
(http://exagminations.tripod.com/id39.html)
Heaney’s early poems can be seen as fundamentally concerned with childhood, and with the horrors as well as the wonders of nature, drawing the reader into a world full of "the smells/of waterweed, fungus and dank moss", to look into places where ‘there is no reflection’ – poetry which is also an exploration that aims ‘to set the darkness echoing’.
This fascination with the hidden secrets of the earth takes another direction in the bog poems, which utilize a metaphor begun in Bogland, but with a different, more intense focus, as the land itself seems to come alive, revealed as the source of mystery and power.
Heaney has noted that writing at the time of the Troubles meant that "the problem of poetry moved from a matter of finding the satisfactory verbal icon to being a search for images and symbols adequate to predicament."
In the bog people, victims of tribal sacrifice, the poet seems to have found such images, and develops the metaphor in drawing parallels with the political and social situation in Ireland. This connection to the past allows him to comment on the present in an oblique yet forceful way.
However, this does not imply that Heaney’s poetry necessarily became entirely political. Critics have pointed out that his work is less an ideological statement than an effort to generate historical awareness, and that while his themes contain both resistance and defiance, they do not make an active political statement. Instead, he speaks about political ideas through his description of the land, the use of mythology and history and the religious atmosphere, the images of prejudice, violence and intolerance. His pastoral style uses images of rural Ireland to suggest greater universal ideas. As one critic has said "Heaney staked out the boundaries of his poetic, devoting himself to excavations of his chosen land."
Bogland
The earliest bog poem, appropriately entitled Bogland, is more nationalistic and more about the essence of Ireland than the later poems, which are more deeply concerned with mythical associations, with the connection between violence and religion.
The beginning of the poem sets the nationalistic tone clearly as the possessive pronoun ‘we’ is used more than once, to convey a sense of unity with the land. In the first lines "we have no prairies/To slice a big sun at evening", what is ostensibly a negative statement of absence is turned into a positive assertion, as Heaney speaks of "our unfenced country" and "encroaching horizon".
At the same time the poem emphasizes the layers of the land, layers of history ‘bog that keep crusting’ in continuous expansion, so that the land seems to stretch forever, endless in both horizontal and vertical dimensions. The bog is in layers, each layer a page of history, yet like the encroaching horizon, it at first reveals nothing, seems a statement of absence.
The poem establishes the bog as the source of all Irish memory and ancestry, linking the present to the past through the constancy of the land, as "butter sunk under/more than a hundred years/ was recovered salty and white". The ground conserves rather than destroys, not the realm of fire but of water "they’ll never dig coal here/only the waterlogged trunks of great firs". The land is "itself...kind, black butter", revealing it’s secrets as it is "melting and opening underfoot."
This brings in the motif of digging and exploration, "our pioneers keep striking/Inwards and downwards" which again in the use of the word ‘pioneers’ connects to America, while it relates to a tradition of Irish poets to the diggers, bringing treasures to light.
The poem ends with a reference to something greater, to Northwest Europe, perhaps the seed of the myth of the North in the later bog poems. There is a suggestion of a continuous enrichment, as "every layer they strip/seems camped on before", emphasizing again the metaphor of the bog as history, the memory of the landscape.
The ‘Atlantic seepage’ and ‘the wet center’ is a reiteration of an earlier point "they’ll never dig coal here" the earth is preserving and not consuming, but this is connected to a larger pattern here, in an exploration attempting to find a core, a final center but conceding that this center is ‘bottomless’.
The poem conceives the past as a dimension to be explored dynamically rather than simply received, constructed from a drive to establish a connection between forces shaping a nation’s consciousness. At the heart of the poem, beyond the overlapping of the past and present, is the timelessness of nature.
Tollund Man
The Tollund Man is a poem that promises a pilgrimage: "Some day I will go to Aarhus". In the first few stanzas the tone is expectant, determined, yet at the same time the future tense is an indication of the remoteness of the poem from the time it speaks of. While the poem never wanders in conviction, there is an element of foreignness and distance, which is reinforced by the place names ‘Aarhus’, and later ‘Tollund, Grauballe, Nebelgard’.
The Tollund Man is unnamed. The pilgrim will go "to see his peat brown head"; he goes to worship, in a way, yet the tone remains impersonal. The Tollund Man is passive, his eye-lids "mild pods". A victim, the action of the poem relates not who he is but what is done to him, and in the end he "reposes" in "sad freedom". The Tollund Man, like the girl in Punishment, is portrayed as a scapegoat for society’s crimes and ignorance.
The Tollund Man’s own journey begins when "they dug him out", destroyed and elevated at the same time. The meticulous observations of the narrator are again, detached, "his last gruel of winter seeds/caked in his stomach" yet also emphatic, emphasizing vulnerability "naked except for/the cap, noose and girdle" the remains of a ritual death.
The pilgrim makes a respectful promise to "stand a long time", but the action itself is passive, promising not to move.
The last line of this stanza "bridegroom to the goddess" takes on a more ominous, forceful tone as the bog itself is personified and equated to Ireland, female and overwhelming "she tightened her torc on him". The language indicates the powerlessness of the victim in the face of greater, unfathomable powers, but at the same time metaphorically insists on his quasi-divinity, worked "to a saint’s kept body", bringing in religion and relating it to violence and ritual death. The Tollund Man becomes almost, a surrogate Christ. He is left to chance, "trove of the turf cutters" and finally resurrected until at last "his stained face/Reposes…"
The poet links religion with the ordering of violence or sacrifice in order to bring peace again in comparing "the old man killing parishes of Jutland" with his own land.
The second part of the poem suddenly becomes more emphatic after the stillness of the previous line "reposes at Aarhus" as the narrator says "I could risk blasphemy". Again here, religion is directly connected to violence but this time the pilgrim says he could "consecrate the cauldron bog/our holy ground". Religion derives it’s power from the land, as the land demands sacrifice, a 'bridegroom’, to whom the pilgrim will "pray/him to make germinate". Deriving his power from the land which turned him to a saint, the Tollund Man as victim, is linked to the "four young brothers", to whom he is both kin and saint, to "flesh of labourers" and "stockinged corpses". His paradoxical survival and repose should, the poem implies, give him the power to raise others. At this point, the language is both bleak and harsh, and can be interpreted as an impotent longing to obliterate the wrongs of the past, attempting to see this resurrection as redemption from violence, but seeing only the similarities of a ‘ritual’ of death, uncontrolled and meaningless.
The last part of the poem returns to the quiet beginning, but here, instead of determination and looking forward, there is sorrow and despair, a sense of isolation which is linked to language. The pilgrim insists that the ‘sad freedom’ of the Tollund Man "should come to me…/saying the names" yet showing that ultimately exile means "watching the pointing hands/ of country people/not knowing their tongues" as language is defined as the root of culture, of nationality. Along with religion, and a sense of history and myth, language is central to Heaney’s poetry, and here the idea of isolation is brought sharply to the reader through the idea of being ‘lost’ in a foreign land, yet ultimately the paradoxical nature of exile is realized, the poet realizes that he feels at home in a state of homelessness, and welcomes the feeling of being lost, of not belonging to society, a sort of ‘sad freedom’ he shares with the Tollund Man, no longer tied to religious forces. The poem ends in a statement which describes both the isolation and empowering sense of exile: "I will feel lost/unhappy and at home".
Bog Queen
Bog Queen is a story of decay, describing processes the body has been through until found and excavated. It is different from the other bog poems in that the body speaks: "I lay waiting." There is a sense of restraint here, creating suspense. The body lies "between heathery levels" suggesting an overgrown world, nobility rotting.
"My body was braille" creates a vision of communication between the body and the land, "the creeping influences". In a sense the process of decay can be read as symbolic of Irish history, and the degradation of Irish culture as a result of English intervention: "the seeps of winter/digested me, the illiterate roots/pondered and died". Still the body speaks "I lay waiting" enhancing the reality of her strange existence, yet also asserting that she remains undefeated. She is not destroyed, rather she is altered, made part of the land, "brain darkening/ a jar of spawn" hinting at new beginnings.
She is a frozen, preserved work of art, described meticulously in icy images, her sash "a black glacier", the winter cold "like the nuzzle of fjords".
All this is described in slow, deliberate language, ‘waiting’. Yet, like in Tollund Man, the tone grows more forceful towards the end, as she describes "the wet nest of my hair/which they robbed". This again might be read as relating to English interference, as the body says "I was barbered/ and stripped/ by a turfcutter’s spade". Her discovery is a matter of chance. Here, the clipped language brings a sense of anger which in the last stanza turns to triumph "and I rose from the dark", evoking her past and glory. With the rising of the body, Heaney offers a hope for the rise Irish cultural identity and nationalism.
A detailed, vivid account of a woman given an opportunity to speak, telling her strange existence between the world of life and death, the poem is also, on the metaphorical level, related to incarnation of goddesses who demand sacrifice, related to the feminsation of the land in Tollund Man, and perhaps to the image of a Mother Ireland calling for new sacrifices.
Her excavation elevated to the level of a rising, a metaphoric connection to the theme of invocation in Tollund Man, yet not a resurrection because she had never died.
The Grauballe Man
One critic has noted that if Tollund Man is pilgrimage, Grauballe Man is arrival and the celebration of being there. Certainly, in this poem, there is a new standpoint, an immediacy that is apparent from the first. "As if he had been poured/ in tar he lies/on a pillow of turf/and seems to weep/the black river of himself."
He is at one with the turf, a vivid picture of the union between the land and the man, a metaphoric union. At first, the image is one of stillness, harmony, yet there is an edge of suspense as the language evokes a world dominated by dark colors, water, sorrow and sleep.
"The grain of his wrists/is like bog oak" begins a list like description of the exhibit, for this victim is not a victim but a work of art. There is no commentary on these images, human feeling and empathy are noticeably absent, leaving just an attempt to accurately define the beautiful horror the viewer seems to see. The body has been established as art, and the viewer describes it as such. There is less myth-making, the terror here, unlike Tollund Man, comes as the peaceful image of sleep is turned into a fearful picture of violent death.
The Graballe Man is not passive, there is nothing ‘mild’ about the way he is described, "the chin is a visor/raised above the vent/of his slashed throat".
It is here that the central point of he poem is made clear: "who will say ‘corpse’/ to his vivid cast?/ who will say ‘body’/ to his opaque repose?"
This has also been seen as the turning point for the use of the bog metaphor, as the poet makes us aware of the clash between myth and reality, beauty and atrocity. These lines are a rationale for the description, but they also ask us to question the work of art the poem constructs, as the actuality of terror asserts itself: "I first saw his twisted face/ in a photograph" and the idea of sublime art is undermined by reality. Yet "now he lies/perfected in my memory". The picture is a more balanced one, he is "hung in the scales/with beauty and atrocity", constructing a complex idea of sculpture, yet awakening also the ethical response, which is held back until now.
The poem ultimately addresses the issue of art as a reflection of life and can be read as arguing life is too strictly compassed' in art. The poem itself cannot reveal the full horror of life’s horrors, yet attempts to understand them, through it’s metaphors, returning in the end to reality as it climaxes in a terse expression of death "each hooded victim/slashed and dumped".
Punishment
Punishment has often been described as the central point, the climax of the bog poems, as the Winderby Girl is a metaphor for Ireland. It begins with a focus on her body, describing it in anatomical detail on a level similar to Grauballe Man, yet this time there is a degree of empathy absent from the last poem. It is intensely personal, rooted in the senses "I can feel the tug/of the halter". The image of the "frail rigging/of her ribs" creates the idea of a ship in a storm, further reinforced by the next line "I can see her drowned".
The persona scrutinizes her into parts, an onlooker. She is sacrificed at the hands of oppressors, but still contains information about her culture, managing to preserve her identity despite the overwhelming cultural storm.
The next stanza begins a more violent image "her blindfold a soiled bandage" but the violence is softened "her noose a ring/ to store/the memories of love", as the description becomes more immediate, more emphatic, transformed to a lament of pity "my poor scapegoat". Heaney finds himself guilty however of remaining silent out of loyalty to the tribe. He says he "would have cast…/the stones of silence", as in Grauballe Man, as an artist, he is both part of the situation and outside it. "I am an artful voyeur" he both claims and admits, and in watching reality he remains an onlooker who has "stood dumb".
The girl is juxtaposed here to her "betraying sisters" (also a reference to France and Spain) "cauled in tar/wept by the railings". This cyclical view of history is typical of Heaney’s poetry; springing from a sense that past is present, in the sense of both here and now. In Punishment, the poem implies that the past functions as a scapegoat, taking the blame for social ills for which we are responsible. Yet we do not feel responsible because we do not feel it is our fault. The poet’s role, Heaney believes, is to redeem the past and make it live again. Thus, the past and the present become one, and the girl in ‘Punishment’ is reflected in her ‘betraying sisters’, as the poet uses the link between past and present to explore the darker aspects of the human experience from betrayal to death.
Ultimately, Heaney shows that in the face of "tribal, intimate revenge" it is difficult to speak out, though we "connive/in civilized outrage".
Strange Fruit
Strange Fruit, the last bog poem, is not only different in style it is also different in structure, written in sonnet form. It deliberately misses rhymes, its line length widely inconsistent, pointing towards the recognition of conclusion, deliberately breaking and failing patterns in the resolution of a long, complex metaphor.
"Here is the girl’s head" it begins, and in contrast to Punishment, it’s description emphasizes all that is repulsive. This girl is not likened to a ship withstanding a storm, or storing memories in a noose, but is "an exhumed gourd". She is constructed using images of plant-life, natural life, but nature here is never beautiful. She is "oval-faced, prune-skinned, prune-stones for teeth" her broken nose "dark as a turf clod". The picture is not meant to mystify. This body is no more than a document of ancient violence. There is no indication of myth.
Murdered, forgotten, nameless, terrible,
Beheaded girl, outstaring axe
And beatification, outstaring
What had begun to feel like reverence.
Heaney’s attempt to elevate the bog people to a mythic level is destroyed here, the final bog poem refusing to colour present violence with the hue of acceptability of rationality, finally asserting the meaningless of sacrificial or ritual death.
Conclusion
The political aspect of the bog poems is undeniable. Some critics such as Blake Morrison have seen this in a negative light, arguing that while "it would be going too far to suggest that the bog poems generally offer a defense of Republicanism" he sees them as a form of ‘explanation’ which according to Morrison "give[s] sectarian killing…a historical respectability".
Ciaran Carson’s critique takes a different direction, seeing that with the bog poems the poet became ‘the laureate of violence’ and "an anthropologist of ritual killing’ who seems to be "offering his ‘understanding’ of the situation almost as consolation…as if he is saying suffering like this is natural" so that it is as if such acts are removed to 'the realm of inevitability'.
However, it can also be argued that although Heaney’s work is full of images of death and dying, it is at the same time deeply rooted in life, endlessly metaphorical, it holds out an offer of endlessness, of cyclical history, of eternity. Heaney’s poems are ultimately peace poems, intensifying the sense of beauty in contrast to the horror of violence and the pathos of needless death.
(http://exagminations.tripod.com/id39.html)
Thursday, August 26, 2010
The history of Ireland.
432 A.D.:
St. Patrick arrives in Ireland, bringing Christianity. (The Protestant faith did not yet exist.)
1541:
Britain's King Henry VIII is declared King of Ireland by Englishmen living in Ireland. He opposes the Catholic religion.
1608:
Britain's King James I sends thousands of Protestant English farmers to Ireland to take over land owned by Catholic farmers, mostly in the north.
1692:
New laws forbid Catholics to vote, own land or practice their religion. Such laws remain in effect until 1829.
1845-1849:
A potato blight kills Ireland's staple food crop. About a million people die from starvation and fever during the Great Potato Famine.
1916:
The Easter Rebellion. Armed Irish patriots rebel against British troops in Dublin, Ireland, on the Monday after Easter. The British execute rebel leaders.
1919-1921:
The Anglo-Irish War between the British and the Irish Republican Army. In a treaty, Britain finally gives up control of most of Ireland but tightens its grip on the six counties of Ulster (Northern Ireland).
1921-1923:
Irish Civil War between those who accept the treaty with the English and the Irish Republican Army, which wants all of Ireland to be free of British rule. The Republicans lose.
1949:
Britain declares Ulster a permanent part of the British Empire. The lower 26 counties of Ireland declare themselves the Irish Republic, totally free of British control.
1972:
During anti-British protests in the Ulster town of Londonderry on January 30, 13 unarmed marchers are killed by British troops, an event now known as Bloody Sunday. Britain imposes direct rule on Ulster. A more intense era of bloodshed begins. The Irish call this violence the Troubles.
(http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/teachers/aw/wr/article/0,28138,1720975,00.html)
St. Patrick arrives in Ireland, bringing Christianity. (The Protestant faith did not yet exist.)
1541:
Britain's King Henry VIII is declared King of Ireland by Englishmen living in Ireland. He opposes the Catholic religion.
1608:
Britain's King James I sends thousands of Protestant English farmers to Ireland to take over land owned by Catholic farmers, mostly in the north.
1692:
New laws forbid Catholics to vote, own land or practice their religion. Such laws remain in effect until 1829.
1845-1849:
A potato blight kills Ireland's staple food crop. About a million people die from starvation and fever during the Great Potato Famine.
1916:
The Easter Rebellion. Armed Irish patriots rebel against British troops in Dublin, Ireland, on the Monday after Easter. The British execute rebel leaders.
1919-1921:
The Anglo-Irish War between the British and the Irish Republican Army. In a treaty, Britain finally gives up control of most of Ireland but tightens its grip on the six counties of Ulster (Northern Ireland).
1921-1923:
Irish Civil War between those who accept the treaty with the English and the Irish Republican Army, which wants all of Ireland to be free of British rule. The Republicans lose.
1949:
Britain declares Ulster a permanent part of the British Empire. The lower 26 counties of Ireland declare themselves the Irish Republic, totally free of British control.
1972:
During anti-British protests in the Ulster town of Londonderry on January 30, 13 unarmed marchers are killed by British troops, an event now known as Bloody Sunday. Britain imposes direct rule on Ulster. A more intense era of bloodshed begins. The Irish call this violence the Troubles.
(http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/teachers/aw/wr/article/0,28138,1720975,00.html)
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Mid-Term Break by Seamus Heaney.
I sat all morning in the college sick bay
Counting bells knelling classes to a close.
At two o'clock our neighbors drove me home.
In the porch I met my father crying--
He had always taken funerals in his stride--
And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.
The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram
When I came in, and I was embarrassed
By old men standing up to shake my hand
And tell me they were "sorry for my trouble,"
Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest,
Away at school, as my mother held my hand
In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs.
At ten o'clock the ambulance arrived
With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.
Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops
And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him
For the first time in six weeks. Paler now,
Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple,
He lay in the four foot box as in his cot.
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.
A four foot box, a foot for every year.
_____________________________________________________
Mid-Term Break is a very personal poem, written when Heaney's four year old brother passed away. This poem may make Heaney sound emotionless the way he calls his brother a "corpse" and never revealing his emotions towards this tragedy, however this is how Heany has dealt with this whole ordeal and has added onto the powerful effect this poem has on the reader.
The death of his brother is shown to change Heaney's childhood completely, this event in his life is where he becomes aware of the true brutal reality of the world. We can sense a disturbing undertone to the poem, most clearly seen at the poem's start. Here he still does not know of his brother's death, he is still at school "counting bells knelling classes." The world "knelling" has a direct link to funerals. Heaney is "embarrassed" when men stand up to shake his hand like a man. The last line is very isolated from the rest of the poem,"A four foot box, a foot for every year." This line highlights how young his brother was taken from them, and how unfair life has been on their family.The dramatic shift from innocent school scene to standing next to his dead brother represents the drastic change Heaney went through at the time, from innocent school boy to understanding the harsh realities of life.
Counting bells knelling classes to a close.
At two o'clock our neighbors drove me home.
In the porch I met my father crying--
He had always taken funerals in his stride--
And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.
The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram
When I came in, and I was embarrassed
By old men standing up to shake my hand
And tell me they were "sorry for my trouble,"
Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest,
Away at school, as my mother held my hand
In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs.
At ten o'clock the ambulance arrived
With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.
Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops
And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him
For the first time in six weeks. Paler now,
Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple,
He lay in the four foot box as in his cot.
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.
A four foot box, a foot for every year.
_____________________________________________________
Mid-Term Break is a very personal poem, written when Heaney's four year old brother passed away. This poem may make Heaney sound emotionless the way he calls his brother a "corpse" and never revealing his emotions towards this tragedy, however this is how Heany has dealt with this whole ordeal and has added onto the powerful effect this poem has on the reader.
The death of his brother is shown to change Heaney's childhood completely, this event in his life is where he becomes aware of the true brutal reality of the world. We can sense a disturbing undertone to the poem, most clearly seen at the poem's start. Here he still does not know of his brother's death, he is still at school "counting bells knelling classes." The world "knelling" has a direct link to funerals. Heaney is "embarrassed" when men stand up to shake his hand like a man. The last line is very isolated from the rest of the poem,"A four foot box, a foot for every year." This line highlights how young his brother was taken from them, and how unfair life has been on their family.The dramatic shift from innocent school scene to standing next to his dead brother represents the drastic change Heaney went through at the time, from innocent school boy to understanding the harsh realities of life.
Seamus Heany
Heaney's poems first came to public attention in the mid-1960s when he was active as one of a group of poets who were subsequently recognized as constituting something of a "Northern School" within Irish writing. Although Heaney is stylistically and temperamentally different from such writers as Michael Longley and Derek Mahon (his contemporaries), and Paul Muldoon, Medbh McGuckian and Ciaran Carson (members of a younger Northern Irish generation), he does share with all of them the fate of having be en born into a society deeply divided along religious and political lines, one which was doomed moreover to suffer a quarter-century of violence, polarization and inner distrust. This had the effect not only of darkening the mood of Heaney's work in the 1970s, but also of giving him a deep preoccupation with the question of poetry's responsibilities and prerogatives in the world, since poetry is poised between a need for creative freedom within itself and a pressure to express the sense of social obligation felt by the poet as citizen. The essays in Heaney's three main prose collections, but especially those in The Government of the Tongue (1988) and The Redress of Poetry (1995), bear witness to the seriousness which this question assumed for him as he was coming into his own as a writer.
Heaney's beginnings as a poet coincided with his meeting the woman whom he was to marry and who was to be the mother of his three children. Marie Devlin, like her husband, came from a large family, several of whom are themselves writers and artists, including the poet's wife who has recently published an important collection of retellings of the classic Irish myths and legends (Over Nine Waves, 1994). Marie Heaney has been central to the poet's life, both professionally and imaginatively, appearing directly and indirectly in individual poems from all periods of his oeuvre right down to the most recent, and making it possible for him to travel annually to Harvard by staying on in Dublin as custodian of the growing family and the family home.
The Heaneys had spent a very liberating year abroad in 1970/71 when Seamus was a visiting lecturer at the Berkeley campus of the University of California. It was the sense of self-challenge and new scope which he experienced in the American context that encouraged him to resign his lectureship at Queen's University (1966-72) not long after he returned to Ireland, and to move to a cottage in County Wicklow in order to work full time as a poet and free-lance writer. A few years later, the family moved to Dublin and Seamus worked as a lecturer in Carysfort College, a teacher training college, where he functioned as Head of the English Department until 1982, when his present arrangement with Harvard University came into existence. This allows the poet to spend eight months at home without teaching in exchange for one semester's work at Harvard. In 1984, Heaney was named Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory, one of the university's most prestigious offices. In 1989, he was elected for a five-year period to be Professor of Poetry at Oxford University, a post which requires the incumbent to deliver three public lectures every year but which does not require him to reside in Oxford.
In the course of his career, Seamus Heaney has always contributed to the promotion of artistic and educational causes, both in Ireland and abroad. While a young lecturer at Queen's University, he was active in the publication of pamphlets of poetry by the rising generation and took over the running of an influential poetry workshop which had been established there by the English poet, Philip Hobsbaum, when Hobsbaum left Belfast in 1966. He also served for five years on The Arts Council in the Republic of Ireland (1973-1978) and over the years has acted as judge and lecturer for countless poetry competitions and literary conferences, establishing a special relationship with the annual W.B. Yeats International Summer School in Sligo. In recent years, he has been the recipient of several honorary degrees; he is a member of Aosdana, the Irish academy of artists and writers, and a Foreign Member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1996, subsequent to his winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995, he was made a Commandeur de L'Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.
(http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1995/heaney-bio.html)
Heaney's beginnings as a poet coincided with his meeting the woman whom he was to marry and who was to be the mother of his three children. Marie Devlin, like her husband, came from a large family, several of whom are themselves writers and artists, including the poet's wife who has recently published an important collection of retellings of the classic Irish myths and legends (Over Nine Waves, 1994). Marie Heaney has been central to the poet's life, both professionally and imaginatively, appearing directly and indirectly in individual poems from all periods of his oeuvre right down to the most recent, and making it possible for him to travel annually to Harvard by staying on in Dublin as custodian of the growing family and the family home.
The Heaneys had spent a very liberating year abroad in 1970/71 when Seamus was a visiting lecturer at the Berkeley campus of the University of California. It was the sense of self-challenge and new scope which he experienced in the American context that encouraged him to resign his lectureship at Queen's University (1966-72) not long after he returned to Ireland, and to move to a cottage in County Wicklow in order to work full time as a poet and free-lance writer. A few years later, the family moved to Dublin and Seamus worked as a lecturer in Carysfort College, a teacher training college, where he functioned as Head of the English Department until 1982, when his present arrangement with Harvard University came into existence. This allows the poet to spend eight months at home without teaching in exchange for one semester's work at Harvard. In 1984, Heaney was named Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory, one of the university's most prestigious offices. In 1989, he was elected for a five-year period to be Professor of Poetry at Oxford University, a post which requires the incumbent to deliver three public lectures every year but which does not require him to reside in Oxford.
In the course of his career, Seamus Heaney has always contributed to the promotion of artistic and educational causes, both in Ireland and abroad. While a young lecturer at Queen's University, he was active in the publication of pamphlets of poetry by the rising generation and took over the running of an influential poetry workshop which had been established there by the English poet, Philip Hobsbaum, when Hobsbaum left Belfast in 1966. He also served for five years on The Arts Council in the Republic of Ireland (1973-1978) and over the years has acted as judge and lecturer for countless poetry competitions and literary conferences, establishing a special relationship with the annual W.B. Yeats International Summer School in Sligo. In recent years, he has been the recipient of several honorary degrees; he is a member of Aosdana, the Irish academy of artists and writers, and a Foreign Member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1996, subsequent to his winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995, he was made a Commandeur de L'Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.
(http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1995/heaney-bio.html)
Friday, July 23, 2010
Unseen Commentary - The In-Between world of Vikram Lall
As time passes our experiences turn into our memories, "memory makes monkeys of our enemies" however they also give our friends "a tint of rose, or it saves them in amber." This main idea is explored in M G Vassanji's The In-between World of Vikram Lall when the protagonist Rabba and his younger sister Deepa are attacked by six Muslim youths , however they are also saved by Mr Bapu (also Muslim). This experience is a result of racial tension between the Kenyans and Muslims- a theme the writer has also been weaved into the passage.
We are first exposed to the racial tension in this passage through the use of diction and syntax. The Mosque is said to be "towering in all its grandeur." Making it evident that Muslim is the religion which tower over others. The symbol of the towering mosque is not enough for the Muslims to signify their superiority, they find the need to ambush Rabba and Deepa, two Kenyans one of which"was dating one of their girls." Rappa could feel "a tremor in [his] sister's arm." The use of simple sentences create suspense meaning they both already knew they were unwelcome in such a Muslim dominated society. The attack was by "six youths, howling like wild dogs, gesturing like demons" surrounding them. The use of diction of the words "demon" and the number "six" link together to create a religious undertone to the passage. The attack was also planned out to be inescapable for Rabba and Deepa, making it unfair and un-honorable. All this makes it all the more evident that in a heavily religious area, lives are run by the strict religious rules and fear rather than faith, love and fairness which religion is seen to be about.
However in a turn of events Rappa and Deepa are rescued by Mr Bapu who is also Muslim himself. His selfless act of kindness proves that even amongst this dense racial tension there are still good people who are willing to live together peacefully, putting aside all religious differences. When "what awaited was only the kill" Mr Bapu sends the attackers away "scamper[ing] away into the dark like cockroaches" in his "white Mercedes." The "white Mercedes" becomes a symbol of hope and the savior Mr Rapu is. Mr Bapu plays the roll of the knight in shining armor fighting in the war between racial differences.
Although the attack barely lasted maybe two or three minutes and nobody was hurt it has become deeply engraved into the memories of Rappa and Deepa, and their “contempt for those nocturnal attackers has not waned a bit.” It shows “how memory makes monkeys out of our enemies.” Over time it becomes clear how pathetic the attackers are using the simile comparing them to cockroaches.
They never saw Mr Bapu again yet he also became deeply engraved into the memories of Rappa and Deepa as well. Mr Bapu is an example of how memory “gives [our friends] a tint of rose, or it saves them in amber.” “Mr Bapu cut for Deepa a red rose.” The rose becomes a symbol of the beauty of their friendship and how over time Mr Bapu’s generosity becomes preserved in amber.
When experiencing the attack Rappa found it frightening and “Deepa was close to hysteria” yet after the attack Rappa realizes how pathetic the cause was as it would only further damage the relationships between religions. Yet as time passes Mr Bapu’s kindness is still as respectable as the day it happened. All this pieces together to express the strength of kindness, over time our enemies become laughable yet our friends become more respectable.
We are first exposed to the racial tension in this passage through the use of diction and syntax. The Mosque is said to be "towering in all its grandeur." Making it evident that Muslim is the religion which tower over others. The symbol of the towering mosque is not enough for the Muslims to signify their superiority, they find the need to ambush Rabba and Deepa, two Kenyans one of which"was dating one of their girls." Rappa could feel "a tremor in [his] sister's arm." The use of simple sentences create suspense meaning they both already knew they were unwelcome in such a Muslim dominated society. The attack was by "six youths, howling like wild dogs, gesturing like demons" surrounding them. The use of diction of the words "demon" and the number "six" link together to create a religious undertone to the passage. The attack was also planned out to be inescapable for Rabba and Deepa, making it unfair and un-honorable. All this makes it all the more evident that in a heavily religious area, lives are run by the strict religious rules and fear rather than faith, love and fairness which religion is seen to be about.
However in a turn of events Rappa and Deepa are rescued by Mr Bapu who is also Muslim himself. His selfless act of kindness proves that even amongst this dense racial tension there are still good people who are willing to live together peacefully, putting aside all religious differences. When "what awaited was only the kill" Mr Bapu sends the attackers away "scamper[ing] away into the dark like cockroaches" in his "white Mercedes." The "white Mercedes" becomes a symbol of hope and the savior Mr Rapu is. Mr Bapu plays the roll of the knight in shining armor fighting in the war between racial differences.
Although the attack barely lasted maybe two or three minutes and nobody was hurt it has become deeply engraved into the memories of Rappa and Deepa, and their “contempt for those nocturnal attackers has not waned a bit.” It shows “how memory makes monkeys out of our enemies.” Over time it becomes clear how pathetic the attackers are using the simile comparing them to cockroaches.
They never saw Mr Bapu again yet he also became deeply engraved into the memories of Rappa and Deepa as well. Mr Bapu is an example of how memory “gives [our friends] a tint of rose, or it saves them in amber.” “Mr Bapu cut for Deepa a red rose.” The rose becomes a symbol of the beauty of their friendship and how over time Mr Bapu’s generosity becomes preserved in amber.
When experiencing the attack Rappa found it frightening and “Deepa was close to hysteria” yet after the attack Rappa realizes how pathetic the cause was as it would only further damage the relationships between religions. Yet as time passes Mr Bapu’s kindness is still as respectable as the day it happened. All this pieces together to express the strength of kindness, over time our enemies become laughable yet our friends become more respectable.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Unfamiliar Commentary
In the second paragraph of this passage the writer explores a contradicting concept of childhood in Venice using satire. At first the writer states that Venice "is not altogether an easy city for children to live in." Yet in the next sentence the writer informs the reader about the absence of "dangerous traffic" and "unspeakable rascals." This clever use of satire purposely diminishes this assumption that just because there is no "dangerous traffic" or "unspeakable rascals" Venice "is an easy city for children to live in." It begins to question our perspective of a healthy childhood.
In Venice children are raised in an inescapable 'childproof' urban city, there are no gardens in the city creating an image of imprisonment of the Venetian youth, caged by "subtleties and qualifications" which robs them of a childhood. The writer gives a negative response to this lifestyle. Children who "have somewhere green to play" are said to be "lucky" to be able to experience such a luxury. The writer uses diction to continue this link of the children to prisoners who attend school in "tall, dark, overheated buildings, heavily decorated with pot plants." These pot plants become a symbol of the Venetianese children in the city. They are so full of life they are meant to outside with the freedom to experience and learn naturally. However, they have been caged up and placed inside what is mistaken to be better and safer, but by doing so they have sacrificed the children's childhood.
In Venice children are raised in an inescapable 'childproof' urban city, there are no gardens in the city creating an image of imprisonment of the Venetian youth, caged by "subtleties and qualifications" which robs them of a childhood. The writer gives a negative response to this lifestyle. Children who "have somewhere green to play" are said to be "lucky" to be able to experience such a luxury. The writer uses diction to continue this link of the children to prisoners who attend school in "tall, dark, overheated buildings, heavily decorated with pot plants." These pot plants become a symbol of the Venetianese children in the city. They are so full of life they are meant to outside with the freedom to experience and learn naturally. However, they have been caged up and placed inside what is mistaken to be better and safer, but by doing so they have sacrificed the children's childhood.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Record 9 - The Benefactor
"A white...and yet not - not white, but colourless - a glass face, glass lips. He was all eyes - black, absorbing, swallowing holes - with that terrible world but several minutes away. His golden badge and digits were already removed. His hands were bound with a purple ribbon (an old-fashioned custom: the explanation, apprarently, is that in ancient times, when all this was not carried out in the name of One State, the convicted, understandably, felt it within their rights to resist, and so their hands were usually fettered with chains."
This cipher, who is about to be executed is described to have a "glass face, glass lips." Glass becomes a symbol of no privacy, in the world of One State the most delicate of situations is made public. Earlier D-503 explains a metaphor of our face and how it is like apartments. You can only see into the person through their eyes, the windows to your soul. However this cipher "was all eyes - black absorbing, swallowing holes..." In his case where he is about to be executed in public, his eyes reveal the defeat, the emptiness inside him. He does not even fell that it is "within [his] rights to resist" that as an individual he has no power to make a change.
This shows how in a society where privacy does not exist and everyone is forced to confine, individuals are unable to express their individual opinions.
This cipher, who is about to be executed is described to have a "glass face, glass lips." Glass becomes a symbol of no privacy, in the world of One State the most delicate of situations is made public. Earlier D-503 explains a metaphor of our face and how it is like apartments. You can only see into the person through their eyes, the windows to your soul. However this cipher "was all eyes - black absorbing, swallowing holes..." In his case where he is about to be executed in public, his eyes reveal the defeat, the emptiness inside him. He does not even fell that it is "within [his] rights to resist" that as an individual he has no power to make a change.
This shows how in a society where privacy does not exist and everyone is forced to confine, individuals are unable to express their individual opinions.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Frederick Winslow Taylor - We
F W Taylor is a scientific management theorist. His industrial theories were centralized around these four main points:
- Replace rule-of-thumb work methods with methods based on a scientific study of the tasks.
- Scientifically select, train, and develop each employee rather than passively leaving them to train themselves.
- Provide "Detailed instruction and supervision of each worker in the performance of that worker's discrete task" (Montgomery 1997: 250).
- Divide work nearly equally between managers and workers, so that the managers apply scientific management principles to planning the work and the workers actually perform the tasks.
This makes him highly admired by the ciphers in We where the One State runs by the basis of Taylor's management theories. Strict timetables are enforced using the "table of hours", ciphers are constantly under "detailed supervision" and all tasks have been broken down, analyzed, the un-necessary discarded to produce the most scientifically efficient way of doing jobs. An example of this is how in the world of One State "... by simply turning [a] handle, any of [them] could produce three sonatas an hour. What a struggle this was for our ancestors. They could create only if they drove themselves into fits of 'inspiration,' a strange form of epilepsy." One State has managed to take something as free as music, broken down each process mathematically, disposed of the parts not needed and cut it down into a simple mathematical process. This strips away the creativity and spirit found in music, furthermore dehumanizing the ciphers.
Femme Fatale
A femme fatale is : "An alluring and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. She is an archetype or stock character of literature and art. Her ability to entrance and hypnotize her male victim was in the earliest stories seen as being literally supernatural, hence the most prosaic femme fatale today is still described as having a power akin to an enchantress, vampire, female monster or demon." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femme_fatale)
I-330 is the femme fatale of We. D-503 finds the "fire" in I-330 strangely attractive. He senses the danger and is "frightened" he wants to "quarrel with her, to scream at her..." however still goes with her to the Ancient house, D-503 is still unable to "restrain [himself]" from her. D-503 keeps using the metaphor of humans being like apartments, you can't see through the walls, except through the windows which are the eyes. In One State privacy no longer exists, the walls are entirely constructed out of glass. Which makes I-330's "two terrifyingly dark windows, and within them the very unknown" more appealing and seductive to D-503. She uses this allure to draw D-503 out of his comfort zone and into the unknown.
I-330 is the femme fatale of We. D-503 finds the "fire" in I-330 strangely attractive. He senses the danger and is "frightened" he wants to "quarrel with her, to scream at her..." however still goes with her to the Ancient house, D-503 is still unable to "restrain [himself]" from her. D-503 keeps using the metaphor of humans being like apartments, you can't see through the walls, except through the windows which are the eyes. In One State privacy no longer exists, the walls are entirely constructed out of glass. Which makes I-330's "two terrifyingly dark windows, and within them the very unknown" more appealing and seductive to D-503. She uses this allure to draw D-503 out of his comfort zone and into the unknown.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
The Loom
As the children of the family grow up and leave home, the household becomes torn apart, this is explored in R L Sasaki’s The Loom where the mother falls into depression since her children no longer need her. She becomes lost for a purpose in life and starts weaving as a “fortress” to cope with her emotions. The writer uses an extended metaphor of the loom to symbolize the lives of the family and the mother uses greys and browns these “shades of her life” to express her depression. Each tread symbolizes each individual family member and the mother’s job is to weave their lives back together again into a single piece and she does so with “painstaking attention”, “tirelessly, endlessly winding, threading, tying.” It becomes her duty as a mother now to weave her family back together and it seems to be working. Shown through the dialogue of her daughters, all Jo, Sharon and Linda ever talk about is their mother. The muffler woven by their mother even leads to Jo and Sharon “sharing a rare moment together before their lives diverged again.” This extended metaphor helps the reader understand the importance of family and how as one we are quite insignificant. However, as a family we can support and make each other stronger just like how when each strand is woven together the fabric becomes much stronger and significant.
Monday, June 14, 2010
We - Modern vs Ancients
The Green wall symbolizes the distinct separation between the city and the wild, separation of values and lifestyles.
Inside the green wall is the city, life in the city is organised and controlled. All the buildings are made out of glass and ciphers walk in fours to eliminate privacy, each individual’s schedule is organised in the "table of hours" which merges each individual into a "million-handed body" turning the "I" to "we". The ciphers inside the city become brainwashed by the Benefactor in believing that order and logic are superior to freedom and individuality.
While on the other hand the revolutionary group outside the green wall have opposite beliefs and share similar values to us. They believe in freedom, privacy and individuality.
These are two contrasting values expressed in We. D-503 is taken through a journey which opens his eyes to both sides of the green wall, creating a alluring plot for readers due to the reader having strong values similar of those outside the green wall.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Reflection on Zamyatin's We (record two)
Although we have been introduced into a strictly mathematical culture of One State, in record two, D-503 writes very poetically “sweet dust parches on your lips”. Here we are exposed to the internal conflict emerging in D-503. He sees the beauty of the world outside the green wall and unconsciously starts to admire it. However his faithful dedication to the One State soon kicks in to remind him that “this somewhat interferes with logical reasoning.” This makes it evident that this attraction to nature, to spring is a part of being human. Another example of human nature is how when D-503 writes, he naturally says “I love” then corrects himself and says “we love” It becomes instinctively clear that it is natural that when we personal thoughts we use “I” and “my”. The Benefactor has dehumanized all the ciphers by forcefully robbing them of their individuality and freedom. This links to the nature verses nurture debate and proves that when forced into unnatural conditions, the nature of human behaviour will always rebel. This is a highly significant concept that will be the basis of the events throughout this book.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Reflection on Zamyatin's We (record one)
The first impression of the book is given in the first chapter. The chapter begins by repeating word for word an article in the state paper. This allows us to gain perspective of the culture in One State. The reader begins to pick up on the totalitarian culture of One State through the irony of the tezt. "the savage state of freedom" is a stand-out phrase in this chapter because it revels that the views of the One State differ dramatically from our views. We believe that freedom is beautiful, never savaged. The use of irony allows us to make other informed assumptions of the text. There is a mathematical idiom used and we can therefore conclude that One State is a state run by mathematics and logic, where freedom and creativity is not valued. The concept of One State striked to me similar to a cult. Ciphers are brainwashed by the propaganda and are convinced that the governments views are the only right ones.
The used of first narrration will help gain a richer understanding of the text. Because the culture of One State and our culture is so different, by seeing the world in their eyes it provides a more emotional, personal attachment to the D-503 and his journey throughout the novel.
The used of first narrration will help gain a richer understanding of the text. Because the culture of One State and our culture is so different, by seeing the world in their eyes it provides a more emotional, personal attachment to the D-503 and his journey throughout the novel.
Mid-term essay reflection
Q: "What we aspire to and what we achieve are not always the same." In what ways and to what effect has the playwrite you have studied explored this human experience?
Introduction
Henrick Ibsen's play "A Doll's House" demonstrates how "what we aspire to and what we achieve are not always the same." Ibsen explores this through the main characters of Nora, Torvald, Krogstad and Mrs Linde. They all aspire to reach a common goal of true happiness however they have contrasting methods of obtaining it, meaning one some will come to achieve what they aspired to achieve.
Topic sentences
A Doll's House is set in a 19th century patriachal society where men were expected to provide and guide the women and children under his care. Nora and Torvald are a middle class couple who both aspire to achieve happiness for their family.
Even thought Nora and Torvald appear to have filled these conventional social roles well, we begin to see they have not truely achieved what they aspired to: happiness.
Krogstad and Mrs Linde on the other hand aspire to happiness through survival.
In end Krogstad and Mrs Linde "join forces" to achieve the happiness both has aspired to.
Reflection
I have managed to start a sophisticated argument but failed to resolve it. There is little mention to techniques in my essay. I have not managed to go into enough detail and havn't developed my argument. Although the essay question is centered around the quote "what we aspire to and what we achieve are not always the same" I could have linked the supporting evidence from my body paragraphs to the bigger picture: how society's expectations rob us of true happiness. Hopefully this will halp resolve the argument.
The introduction lacks mention of the important role society plays in developing my essay, also it does not flow well. My topic sentences are very to the point and helps strengthen the structure of my essay more. However I need to make sure I fully explain all the points made in the topic sentence in order to create a convincing argument. This is where the exploration of techniques are important.
Introduction
Henrick Ibsen's play "A Doll's House" demonstrates how "what we aspire to and what we achieve are not always the same." Ibsen explores this through the main characters of Nora, Torvald, Krogstad and Mrs Linde. They all aspire to reach a common goal of true happiness however they have contrasting methods of obtaining it, meaning one some will come to achieve what they aspired to achieve.
Topic sentences
A Doll's House is set in a 19th century patriachal society where men were expected to provide and guide the women and children under his care. Nora and Torvald are a middle class couple who both aspire to achieve happiness for their family.
Even thought Nora and Torvald appear to have filled these conventional social roles well, we begin to see they have not truely achieved what they aspired to: happiness.
Krogstad and Mrs Linde on the other hand aspire to happiness through survival.
In end Krogstad and Mrs Linde "join forces" to achieve the happiness both has aspired to.
Reflection
I have managed to start a sophisticated argument but failed to resolve it. There is little mention to techniques in my essay. I have not managed to go into enough detail and havn't developed my argument. Although the essay question is centered around the quote "what we aspire to and what we achieve are not always the same" I could have linked the supporting evidence from my body paragraphs to the bigger picture: how society's expectations rob us of true happiness. Hopefully this will halp resolve the argument.
The introduction lacks mention of the important role society plays in developing my essay, also it does not flow well. My topic sentences are very to the point and helps strengthen the structure of my essay more. However I need to make sure I fully explain all the points made in the topic sentence in order to create a convincing argument. This is where the exploration of techniques are important.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Dramatic techniques - A Doll's House
Describe what Torvald reveals of himself through: dialogue, actions, beliefs, conflict, and stage directions/costumes.
Pg214-215
Torvald is a man who focuses all his efforts into appearing the way that is expected for men in those days. In this patriarchal society, men were expected to be the leader of the household. They were expected to provide guidance and financial support for the women and children under their care. Through Torvald’s dialogue we see how controlling he is when he tells Mrs Linde she should give up knitting simple because it is “ungraceful.” His opinion of knitting is purely dependant on the appearance of the “arms held tightly in, needles going up and down... an almost Chinese effect...” This reveals much of Torvald’s character. This exposes much of Torvald’s beliefs and proves him to be judgemental, and quite stereotypical, all linking into the theme of “a doll’s house” where only appearance matters.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Distortion of Kien's soul (pg63)
Throughout the book we are constantly reminded about how war distorts one’s soul. Kien’s tortured soul is the main contributor to his ongoing suffering. War has slowly aged Kien physically as well as spiritually. When Kien finally catches a glimpse of his “blank” reflection in the mirror, “his wrinkles, the circles under his eyes” show Kien’s physical deterioration. Kien’s physical deterioration reflects the deterioration of his soul. Kien no longer showed interest in living his post war life. Kien becomes “bored with his university studies.” He spends the rest of his post war life drinking, to escape to the few innocent memories before the outbreak of war. Kien’s soul could never recover from the brutality of war. He can never seem to get over the past, often found himself suffering from his “poisonous nightmares” of battle. The distortion of Kein’s soul has lead to the uncontrollable nostalgia Kien is forced to live the rest of his life with.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
The Sorrow of War (pg160) The symbol of Phuong
Phuong’s youth and innocence represents the youth and innocence of Vietnam before war broke out. By looking at the effects war impacted on Phuong, we are able to understand what war has done to Vietnam as a whole. We are able to understand how war has forever scarred Vietnam by impacting many generations of its people. We see this through how war has forcefully taken the joyous youth Phuong was entitled to as a teenager. War forces her to grow up quickly in order to deal with the dangerous situation, she is raped and forced to lead a harsh life due to the war. Just like how invasions forced Vietnam to quickly grow up and fight to protect themselves, this meant that Vietnam had no choice but to give up what they had. Phuong’s post war sufferings also represent Vietnam’s suffering even though they won the war. Although the war is over, a spiritual suffering still haunts Phuong, her and Kien try and regain the passionate love they had prior to war as a way to regain the happy pre war lives they lived, however that passion is long gone due to the harsh spiritual damages the war has had on both of them. This represents what war has done to the Vietnamese, it represents that people come back from war trying to lead the life they had been living prior to war, however somehow the people cannot continue as it was before and it is scary because war changes people.
Hao
Hoa’s relationship with Kien
Kien is forced to rely on Hoa for directions in a desperate and deadly situation. Kien uses force and treats Hoa harshly at first. Yet Hoa still tries to earn his forgiveness.
Kien's attitude towards Hoa changes after she safely takes him to the right location and they are able share a peaceful moment together
Later Hoa sacrifices herself for Kien and the others by shooting the tracking dog and diverting the Americans
This becomes Kien’s most memorable escapes
- The borders of morality shifts in battle
When Kien brutally says: "you ought to be shot, but bullets wouldn't be good enough." it seems unnecessarily harsh. However, in the mist of battle, when the stakes are high, morality shifts. In some ways his words are justifiable because due to her mistake, Hoa placed the lives of many in danger.
Later when they are back on the right track and are clear of danger, Kien's mood softens and he realizes how close he had come to shooting "a teenage girl because she'd lost her way in unfamiliar jungle."
Now that the pressure has been lifted, he is able to treat her as a human being. And his morality shifts back.
- War can bring out the best of people and the worst
From the pressures of war, a darker side of Kien is brought to light from his harsh threats towards Hoa. Soldiers become so accustomed to killing, they become barbaric and seem to find violence is the only way to solve disputes.
However by killing the tracking dog and diverting the Americans, Hoa's noble act of self sacrifice shows us that war can also bring out the best in people.
- War brings out the "spiritual beauty" of war through the acts of courage by "nameless ordinary soldiers"
Hoa had been like the many other “nameless ordinary soldiers.” She had not even reached 20 when she gave her life for the safety of others. Before this noble act Kien saw her as “little Hoa.” The Americans were well armed and very powerful. To stand strong in face of certain death takes much bravery. This is a quality Kien did not expect Hoa to posses, Hoa herself probably did not think she possessed such bravery herself which is what makes her sacrifice so beautiful.
When Hoa emerges from the ant-hill, ready to give her life, the writer uses a semantic field of fire related words to describe her. In this paragraph words such as: “final rays of the setting sun silhouetted her... tingeing her skin copper... bronze statue” are used to reflect her fiery fierceness and help highlight her bravery and honours the “spiritual beauty” of her heroic actions.
- However, most of these noble acts go unrecognised
Hoa “was a magnificent portrait of courage." She saved Kien’s life and many others. Even though she had vanished, “not one of them asked about Hoa”. Hoa’s self sacrifice affected Kein heavily, yet she only drifts back into Kien’s mind when he returns to the area where it all happened. Acts of self sacrifice were common during war, it became “expected” and an “everyday occurrence.” This sadly means that such brave actions go unrecognised and forgotten over time.
- This is adds to the "immense sorrow of war"
Because Hoa’s brave act went unrecognised, this adds to the sadness Kien carries. Kien feels a heavy burden that it is his fault Hoa’s bravery was not acknowledged. It is also because others have sacrificed lives so he could live which meant he could not kill himself to “escape the psychological burden of killing others.” All these factors add to the “immense sorrow of war” Kien suffers.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Essay planning
Often the setting in a text will carry symbolic significance, supporting as well the writer's key themes. Discuss these concepts in the light of The Sorrow of War.
-constant mention of the river. The river is used as a metaphor of life. This metaphor is used by the writer to express how war tampers with life in destructive ways.
-pg1 constant mention to water which links to rotting
"water-soaked and dull.. greenish vapour... carpet of rotting leaves"
water links to the river which is a significant symbol.
-pg4 setting symbolizes the eternal scarring war was on the landscape.
"set the village alight to cleanse it, but after the fire soldiers were still terrified.."
this touches on the spiritual side of this novel.
-the setting of the entire book is untidy and uncontrollable, reflecting the battle field and the inside of Kien's mind.
Essay planning:
Introduction: Introduce the key themes of the book as: how war can leave a permanent suffering on all those who participate, the dead and living. Bring in the theme of a spiritual world. Explore briefly how the writer uses symbols in the setting to express this key theme.
Paragraph 1: Using the metaphor of the river and quotes explore the effect of war on the living. Also use quotes from other examples throughout the book
Paragraph 2: Using the metaphor of the river and quotes explore the effect of war on the dead/spirits. Also use quotes from other examples thorughout the book.
Paragraph 3: Explore what connects the two, sorrow of war for the living and dead. close analysis using clear evidence from text.
Conclusion: summarise the key themes supported by the setting in the text: how war effects the living and non, how they are connected and the importance of the setting in the text.
Character study: Hoa in the Sorrow of War.
How does Hoa effect Kien?
-Kien is forced to rely on Hoa even though he does not trust her
-Kien is horrid to to Hoa for her innocent mistakes
"It's not a mistake, it's a f***ing crime" Kien says
-However Hoa still desperately keeps trying to earn his forgivness
-They share a special moment together
-Hoa sacrificed her life for him by shooting dead the tracking dog
Through the behaviour Kien shows around Hoa helps us understand how war can change you. Hoa never crossed Kien, and desperately tried to gain his trust. However Kien does not let her in easily. The constant fighting and killing has made it difficult to trust easily. It is from Kien's story with Hoa that we come to see in detail the effects war has on the soldiers.
-Kien is forced to rely on Hoa even though he does not trust her
-Kien is horrid to to Hoa for her innocent mistakes
"It's not a mistake, it's a f***ing crime" Kien says
-However Hoa still desperately keeps trying to earn his forgivness
-They share a special moment together
-Hoa sacrificed her life for him by shooting dead the tracking dog
Through the behaviour Kien shows around Hoa helps us understand how war can change you. Hoa never crossed Kien, and desperately tried to gain his trust. However Kien does not let her in easily. The constant fighting and killing has made it difficult to trust easily. It is from Kien's story with Hoa that we come to see in detail the effects war has on the soldiers.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
symbolic significance supporting the writer's key themes in the Sorrow of War
Pg4
Here Kien is on his body collecting mission, putting to rest the bodies and souls of the soldiers who died fighting in the war. There is a strong presence of the spiritual realm in this passage. “Disease and successive famines had erased all life” and they “set the village alight to cleanse it.” However even after the fire “soldiers were still terrified” of the place because of the “civilian souls loose in the wood.”
From this passage the writer explores the erasable damage war causes. They can try destroying the physical evidence by burning it however the souls of all those killed in war will always haunt the area and the sorrow of war will forever be marked in the Jungle of Lost Souls.
In the line: “emitting a stink that penetrated the imagination” has symbolic significance in supporting the writer’s key themes. The “stink” symbolizes the sorrow of war. This line represents how the impact the sorrow of war can get to even the bravest of men, even those who do not believe in an afterlife. This supports the key theme of the strong spiritual force the sorrow of war has on all people.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Background reading on The Sorrow of War
Innocents Abroad Too: Journeys Around the World on Semester at Sea by Michael Pearson.
In the Vietnam chapter of the book, the author talks about his experience of the Vietnam War even though he did not participate in the physical fighting.
Even though the author was American, he still felt for what the Americans had done to Vietnam after reading The Sorrow of War. He expressed that Boa Ninh's book had a heavy impact due to the insight it gave the readers to the scaring effects the war had on the Vietnamese.
The author tells the reader about a friend. He describes this friend as being "a confident, smiling boy, the companion who always knows how to talk to the girls, the one who always finds the right thing to say." He later goes to fight in the Vietnam War and returns "a silent older man." This displays the common traumatic scarring war has on almost all of whom survive.
Whilst The Sorrow of War tells the story from a survivor’s point of view, Innocents Abroad Too: Journey around the world on semester at sea tells the story from an observer. What he observed was war completely change this young man. War took away “confident, smiling boy" and replaced him with a stranger. In the end, the author simply just "wanted [his] old friend back." Sadly it was too late and "he was gone forever."
This change of personality was common for all who fought in the war. As humans we experience guilt, and how is it possible to not feel guilt when you kill? This would likely to lead up to constant stress for the family and friends of these soldiers. Even if they survived(which was unlikely) they had become a different person. This could lead up to stress on families when the surviving soldiers return home, bringing with them the sorrow of war.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House - Krogstad
a) What role does Krogstad serve in the play?
Krogstad acts as the main antagonist in the play, however in some ways he does mirror Nora's character. For example: Both Krogstad and Nora have been limited in what they are able to do by society. Krogstad's reputation obtained by his crime of forgery and Nora's status as a woman takes away opportunities from them. Both believe that committing an unethical deed is acceptable in order to save loved ones.
b)In what ways does Ibsen develop the characters?
Ibsen develops the characters by putting both Nora and Krogstad under extreme situations. When Krogstad's job therefore his reputation is put on the line, he blackmails Nora even after his past experiences with crime. "For the last eighteen months I haven't touched anything dishonest" In his desperate attempt to save his family and himself, Krogstad returns to his darker side.
Nora on the other hand, is revealed to be a lot less naive then she appears to be. Nora acts superficial because that is her current vision of a perfect life. However when Krogstad threatens to take that "perfect" life away from her, in desperation she shows a more aggressive and passionate side to her.
c)What themes does the characters assist in conveying to the audience?
Redemption is the theme conveyed by Mrs Linde and Krogstad's reuniting conversation.
After many years of separation, the two lovers help one another redeem themselves. Mrs Linde is able to redeem herself by putting her faith back into Krogstad and being willing to mother his children. She is motivated in life now that she has someone to work for, to care for and to rely on her.
Krogstad Redeems himself by giving Nora back her bond and offering to ask for the letter back, "Oh, if only I could undo it." This proves to himself to be a changed man. This good deed shows that he has a sympathetic side to him and is capable of doing the right thing. "Now I shall be able to set myself right in the eyes of the world".
Krogstad acts as the main antagonist in the play, however in some ways he does mirror Nora's character. For example: Both Krogstad and Nora have been limited in what they are able to do by society. Krogstad's reputation obtained by his crime of forgery and Nora's status as a woman takes away opportunities from them. Both believe that committing an unethical deed is acceptable in order to save loved ones.
b)In what ways does Ibsen develop the characters?
Ibsen develops the characters by putting both Nora and Krogstad under extreme situations. When Krogstad's job therefore his reputation is put on the line, he blackmails Nora even after his past experiences with crime. "For the last eighteen months I haven't touched anything dishonest" In his desperate attempt to save his family and himself, Krogstad returns to his darker side.
Nora on the other hand, is revealed to be a lot less naive then she appears to be. Nora acts superficial because that is her current vision of a perfect life. However when Krogstad threatens to take that "perfect" life away from her, in desperation she shows a more aggressive and passionate side to her.
c)What themes does the characters assist in conveying to the audience?
Redemption is the theme conveyed by Mrs Linde and Krogstad's reuniting conversation.
After many years of separation, the two lovers help one another redeem themselves. Mrs Linde is able to redeem herself by putting her faith back into Krogstad and being willing to mother his children. She is motivated in life now that she has someone to work for, to care for and to rely on her.
Krogstad Redeems himself by giving Nora back her bond and offering to ask for the letter back, "Oh, if only I could undo it." This proves to himself to be a changed man. This good deed shows that he has a sympathetic side to him and is capable of doing the right thing. "Now I shall be able to set myself right in the eyes of the world".
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Ibsen's: A Dolls House - Mrs Linde
Ibsen has created Mrs Linde as a foil character, she brings out Nora's character well because their personalities contrast so dramatically.
ACT ONE
Nora and Mrs Linde's conversation in act one allows us to see both of their strong character traits.
Nora, is asking questions, sympathizing and giving a lot of response.
Mrs Linde however, shows little emotion, contributing little to the conversation.
NORA: It was very bad of me, Christine. Poor thing, how you must have suffered. And he left you nothing?
MRS.LINDE: No.
NORA: And no children?
MRS.LINDE: No.
Throughout their conversation in this first act, there is a constant repetition of the word "no". Although Mrs Linde is told to have much more independence and life experience compared to Nora. However, we see her as a somber, emotionless and a cold character. There Ibsen's is putting across the idea that there is a high price to be paid for independence and freedom.
Ibsen has also used Mrs Linde as a shadow of Nora. During the play, Nora searches for self-realization, independence and freedom. Mrs Linde has all of these qualities. "Yes, anyhow I think it would be delightful to have what one needs." What Mrs Linde refers to as something one "needs" is in fact freedom. She is a strong working woman who knows how to live a free life. She is freed from emotional baggage "not even any sorrow or grief to live upon." She is freed from society's expectations because she is a widow. And now, she has become free of family responsibilities as well. Now that her mother has passed on and brothers have grown up. We do see the down side to all the freedom, she has become vulnerable, financially unstable and lost the child-like positive attitude Nora still possesses in the early stages of the play.
ACT THREE
In this act Mrs Linde talks to Krogstan after a long time of not seeing.
Their relationship is much deeper than Mrs Linde and Nora's friendship. This is shown through the more active responses from Mrs Linde. "Now, Nils, let us have a talk." However, she still speaks plainly, and straight to the point. She calls Krogstan by his first name, Nils. This proves that they have/had a deep relationship. We later find out how she sacrificed that possibility of love for money, so she could care for her family. Once again, Isben has enforced the idea that freedom and independence comes at a hefty price.
ACT ONE
Nora and Mrs Linde's conversation in act one allows us to see both of their strong character traits.
Nora, is asking questions, sympathizing and giving a lot of response.
Mrs Linde however, shows little emotion, contributing little to the conversation.
NORA: It was very bad of me, Christine. Poor thing, how you must have suffered. And he left you nothing?
MRS.LINDE: No.
NORA: And no children?
MRS.LINDE: No.
Throughout their conversation in this first act, there is a constant repetition of the word "no". Although Mrs Linde is told to have much more independence and life experience compared to Nora. However, we see her as a somber, emotionless and a cold character. There Ibsen's is putting across the idea that there is a high price to be paid for independence and freedom.
Ibsen has also used Mrs Linde as a shadow of Nora. During the play, Nora searches for self-realization, independence and freedom. Mrs Linde has all of these qualities. "Yes, anyhow I think it would be delightful to have what one needs." What Mrs Linde refers to as something one "needs" is in fact freedom. She is a strong working woman who knows how to live a free life. She is freed from emotional baggage "not even any sorrow or grief to live upon." She is freed from society's expectations because she is a widow. And now, she has become free of family responsibilities as well. Now that her mother has passed on and brothers have grown up. We do see the down side to all the freedom, she has become vulnerable, financially unstable and lost the child-like positive attitude Nora still possesses in the early stages of the play.
ACT THREE
In this act Mrs Linde talks to Krogstan after a long time of not seeing.
Their relationship is much deeper than Mrs Linde and Nora's friendship. This is shown through the more active responses from Mrs Linde. "Now, Nils, let us have a talk." However, she still speaks plainly, and straight to the point. She calls Krogstan by his first name, Nils. This proves that they have/had a deep relationship. We later find out how she sacrificed that possibility of love for money, so she could care for her family. Once again, Isben has enforced the idea that freedom and independence comes at a hefty price.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Reflection On a Gift of Watermelon Pickle Received from a Friend called Felicity
Reflection On a Gift of Watermelon Pickle Received from a Friend called Felicity by John Tobias is a quirky poem which explores the ideas of growing up. The poem is literally what the title expresses. The constant mention of watermelon throughout the poem is an extended metaphor, comparing growing up to watermelon. The different views the protagonist has of the watermelon reflects how their life is changing as they start to grow up. From this Tobias expresses an important message about how life changes drastically as we start to mature even tough we do not see it this way. In this commentary I will explain in detail the clever constant mention of watermelon, diction used and the overall idea Tobias is trying to get across in this piece of text.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Reading of a critic's response to A Doll's House
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=RELEVANCE&inPS=true&prodId=LitRC&userGroupName=per_k12&tabID=T001&searchId=R1&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=BasicSearchForm¤tPosition=9&contentSet=GALE%7CA99398770&&docId=GALE|A99398770&docType=GALE&role=LitRC
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This link is to a discussion of one of the major themes appearing in the play A Doll's House. In this article, the critic focuses on the downing effect of failed fathers on the events and decisions the characters make in this play make.
Nora's father and Helmer, both fathers, have put unnecessary pressure on Nora to act and think a certain way, therefore restricting her true needs and emotions. Nora explains how all her life they would "play with [Nora] just a [she] played with [her] dolls."
She continues to use the metaphor of a doll to explain further why she must leave the "play-room" which she has been living in for all these years in order to make something out of herself.
The way Hemler treats Nora directly affects how she treats their children. "I was Papa's doll-child. And the children have been my dolls in their turn." This shows the viewer the butterfly effect of how one bad father can cause a mother to walk out on her children.
This explains the title of this play "A Doll's House" refers to Nora as the doll and the house she desperately needed to escape from as the dollhouse. The title is an extended metaphor of Nora and her home being compared to a doll and it's dollhouse.
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This link is to a discussion of one of the major themes appearing in the play A Doll's House. In this article, the critic focuses on the downing effect of failed fathers on the events and decisions the characters make in this play make.
Nora's father and Helmer, both fathers, have put unnecessary pressure on Nora to act and think a certain way, therefore restricting her true needs and emotions. Nora explains how all her life they would "play with [Nora] just a [she] played with [her] dolls."
She continues to use the metaphor of a doll to explain further why she must leave the "play-room" which she has been living in for all these years in order to make something out of herself.
The way Hemler treats Nora directly affects how she treats their children. "I was Papa's doll-child. And the children have been my dolls in their turn." This shows the viewer the butterfly effect of how one bad father can cause a mother to walk out on her children.
This explains the title of this play "A Doll's House" refers to Nora as the doll and the house she desperately needed to escape from as the dollhouse. The title is an extended metaphor of Nora and her home being compared to a doll and it's dollhouse.
A Doll's House (Ibsen) first analysis
At this moment, we are studying "A Doll's House" by Ibsen. I have yet to get to the end of the play but much has already been revealed of the characters. From the exposition Ibsen has made it seem as the family's room is quite ordinary, with typical furnishings. However the line "furnished inexpensively, but with taste" tells me that this family is quite wealthy but would like to be higher up in the social ladder. Their wealth is further supported when Ibsen mentions that they own a piano, "handsomely" bound books, carpet, many doors and a separate study which suggests that the man of the house focuses much of his time on work.
Nora's entrance is very cliché of a housewife, cheerfully bursting in the room, humming a small tune. Just like the room, Nora at first seems very normal. However we soon see that she is hiding something when she secretly eats macaroons.
When Helmer (Nora's husband) talks to Nora he treats her like a doll, something to tease and admire but not treat as an equal. He shows this through the diminutive names he calls Nora. Such as: "skylark", something beautiful and a "squirrel", something always trying to scavenge. He comes across as a man driven by work as he is always busy "I'm busy!". Helmer is also shown to be a man whose actions and emotions are greatly affected by society’s expectations. He works hard for more money and higher social status. Helmer is sensitive and always will have a need for acception and respect by the people around him. "There's something constrained, something ugly even, about a home that's founded on borrowing and debt."
Nora and Helmer's relationship from what I've read all looks like a show. They want to seen like a happy normal cliché couple and in the process try to burry their troubles to stay seemingly happy and fine in the eyes of others. They need each other to fulfil their own fantasies of a perfect life. However their love for each other is not true and neither is the happiness they think they have together. This idea has come from the theme of their conversations, which are mainly about money and status. Unlike real loving relationships, they talk little about each others real troubles and emotions.
Nora's entrance is very cliché of a housewife, cheerfully bursting in the room, humming a small tune. Just like the room, Nora at first seems very normal. However we soon see that she is hiding something when she secretly eats macaroons.
When Helmer (Nora's husband) talks to Nora he treats her like a doll, something to tease and admire but not treat as an equal. He shows this through the diminutive names he calls Nora. Such as: "skylark", something beautiful and a "squirrel", something always trying to scavenge. He comes across as a man driven by work as he is always busy "I'm busy!". Helmer is also shown to be a man whose actions and emotions are greatly affected by society’s expectations. He works hard for more money and higher social status. Helmer is sensitive and always will have a need for acception and respect by the people around him. "There's something constrained, something ugly even, about a home that's founded on borrowing and debt."
Nora and Helmer's relationship from what I've read all looks like a show. They want to seen like a happy normal cliché couple and in the process try to burry their troubles to stay seemingly happy and fine in the eyes of others. They need each other to fulfil their own fantasies of a perfect life. However their love for each other is not true and neither is the happiness they think they have together. This idea has come from the theme of their conversations, which are mainly about money and status. Unlike real loving relationships, they talk little about each others real troubles and emotions.
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