I could not find any bird imagery, or if there was, I didn't see it.
The only reference to water was that they were on an island at the beach.
Madame Ratignolle is Edna's friend. She is described as a 'mother-woman' and the perfect Creole woman. She has three children and is married. She presumably has a high place in society, being a Creole, but lower than the male Creoles, since that was their society. There is also the 'quadroon' nurse to Edna's children. She has a low place in society. She does not play much of a role.
Of male characters, there are Robert, Mr. Pontellier, Edna's children and X. Robert is Edna's friend. He is 'young'. He talks to her a lot. She spends most of her time with him. He has a high place in society, being a Creole man. Edna is attracted to him. Mr. Pontellier is Edna's husband, with a high place in society. He views Edna as a piece of his property, though he feels that he loves her. Edna does not love him. Occasionally, she feels trapped and constrained by him. Edna's children are her children. Since they are Creoles, they are 'upper class', but being children, aren't exactly part of 'society'. Edna does not obsessively love them. She is fond of them and occasionally both ignores and dotes on them, but does not display the typical Creole overly obsessive love for them.
Friday, 31 October 2008
Lost Brother
Lost Brother
I knew that tree was my lost brother
when I heard he was cut down
at four thousand eight hundred sixty-two years;
I know we had the same mother.
His death pained me. I made up a story.
I realized, when I saw his photograph,
he was an evergreen, a bristlecone like me,
who had lived from an early age
with a certain amount of dieback,
at impossible locations, at elevations
over ten thousand feet in extreme weather.
His company: other conifers,
the rosy finch, the rock wren, the raven and clouds,
blue and silver insects that fed mostly off each other.
Some years bighorn sheep visited in summer—
he was entertained by red bats, black-tailed jackrabbits,
horned lizards, the creatures old and young he sheltered.
Beside him in the shade, pink mountain pennyroyal—
to his south, white angelica.
I am prepared to live as long as he did
(it would please our mother),
live with clouds and those I love
suffering with God.
Sooner or later, some bag of wind will cut me down.
—Stanley Moss
This is a poem about a man (the poet) who heard that a really old tree was cut down. He relates himself to the tree, calling it his lost brother because they had the same mother. The mother that the poet speaks of is 'Mother Earth'. The poet tries to envision the tree's life in order to come to terms with its death. The poet's reference to living as long as the tree is not literal. Presumably, he means that he will live in heaven. 'Suffering with God' is an odd sentence. Perhaps it is because the poet thinks that life is a better place than death in heaven. I like the last line the most because of the phrase 'bag of wind'. It could be a deliberately vague reference to anything that could kill him (this relates to trees because a strong wind will blow a tree down) Additionally, a 'windbag' is a derogatory term for someone who talks a lot about nothing meaningful. It sort of means 'pompous idiot'. Since the poet is presumably a literary, intelligent person, it's sort of funny that he thinks such people will kill him. It could be sort of a veiled insult.
(FYI: I really really really hate poetry. It's just a bunch of words thrown together in an ungrammatical order that can be construed to mean whatever you want it to. A kindgergartner could throw together a string of random words and call it poetry, and if you didn't know who had written it, you would believe that it was real. Poetry is a way of saying what you mean in the weirdest, vaguest, most incomprehensible way possible. It does not appeal to me. I hate being forced to 'understand' something that has been willfully encoded in unsentences and unparagraphs and ungrammar. It's more like decrypting a secret spy-message than reading and appreciating great thoughts and ideas. Therefore, I have an incredibly difficult time writing about poems because I hate them, I don't care about them and the ones on our list are either extra-super-random (or so deep that it is brain-defyingly beyond my ability to comprehend) or too obvious to write much about or just plain weird.)
(Sorry about the rant. I just do not like poetry at all. There is occasionally a phrase or a poem I will enjoy, but 99.9% of the time, I hate poetry.)
I knew that tree was my lost brother
when I heard he was cut down
at four thousand eight hundred sixty-two years;
I know we had the same mother.
His death pained me. I made up a story.
I realized, when I saw his photograph,
he was an evergreen, a bristlecone like me,
who had lived from an early age
with a certain amount of dieback,
at impossible locations, at elevations
over ten thousand feet in extreme weather.
His company: other conifers,
the rosy finch, the rock wren, the raven and clouds,
blue and silver insects that fed mostly off each other.
Some years bighorn sheep visited in summer—
he was entertained by red bats, black-tailed jackrabbits,
horned lizards, the creatures old and young he sheltered.
Beside him in the shade, pink mountain pennyroyal—
to his south, white angelica.
I am prepared to live as long as he did
(it would please our mother),
live with clouds and those I love
suffering with God.
Sooner or later, some bag of wind will cut me down.
—Stanley Moss
This is a poem about a man (the poet) who heard that a really old tree was cut down. He relates himself to the tree, calling it his lost brother because they had the same mother. The mother that the poet speaks of is 'Mother Earth'. The poet tries to envision the tree's life in order to come to terms with its death. The poet's reference to living as long as the tree is not literal. Presumably, he means that he will live in heaven. 'Suffering with God' is an odd sentence. Perhaps it is because the poet thinks that life is a better place than death in heaven. I like the last line the most because of the phrase 'bag of wind'. It could be a deliberately vague reference to anything that could kill him (this relates to trees because a strong wind will blow a tree down) Additionally, a 'windbag' is a derogatory term for someone who talks a lot about nothing meaningful. It sort of means 'pompous idiot'. Since the poet is presumably a literary, intelligent person, it's sort of funny that he thinks such people will kill him. It could be sort of a veiled insult.
(FYI: I really really really hate poetry. It's just a bunch of words thrown together in an ungrammatical order that can be construed to mean whatever you want it to. A kindgergartner could throw together a string of random words and call it poetry, and if you didn't know who had written it, you would believe that it was real. Poetry is a way of saying what you mean in the weirdest, vaguest, most incomprehensible way possible. It does not appeal to me. I hate being forced to 'understand' something that has been willfully encoded in unsentences and unparagraphs and ungrammar. It's more like decrypting a secret spy-message than reading and appreciating great thoughts and ideas. Therefore, I have an incredibly difficult time writing about poems because I hate them, I don't care about them and the ones on our list are either extra-super-random (or so deep that it is brain-defyingly beyond my ability to comprehend) or too obvious to write much about or just plain weird.)
(Sorry about the rant. I just do not like poetry at all. There is occasionally a phrase or a poem I will enjoy, but 99.9% of the time, I hate poetry.)
Wednesday, 15 October 2008
1943
1943
They toughened us for war. In the high-school auditorium
Ed Monahan knocked out Dominick Esposito in the first round
of the heavyweight finals, and ten months later Dom died
in the third wave at Tarawa. Every morning of the war
our Brock-Hall Dairy delivered milk from horse-drawn wagons
to wooden back porches in southern Connecticut. In winter,
frozen cream lifted the cardboard lids of glass bottles,
Grade A or Grade B, while marines bled to death in the surf,
or the right engine faltered into Channel silt, or troops marched
—what could we do?—with frostbitten feet as white as milk.
—Donald Hall
This is a poem about WWII. It is saying that the people prepared for going to war, and died, and for the people back in America, life went on as normal while people died, and they couldn't do anything back home to help stop people dying. This is sort of like today's war, where nobody in America can do much to support the troops besides just saying we support them. In WWII, people collected scrap metal and made clothing and grew vegetables and things for the people fighting. Today, we do not. Also, life continues as normal for us, too, even more than the war in which the poem is about (no rationing or anything). I think it is like this for most wars fought away from the mother country, because the citizens themselves are not in danger. When a war is fought within or very near the borders of the mother country, though, people are more concerned and do more and their lives change.
They toughened us for war. In the high-school auditorium
Ed Monahan knocked out Dominick Esposito in the first round
of the heavyweight finals, and ten months later Dom died
in the third wave at Tarawa. Every morning of the war
our Brock-Hall Dairy delivered milk from horse-drawn wagons
to wooden back porches in southern Connecticut. In winter,
frozen cream lifted the cardboard lids of glass bottles,
Grade A or Grade B, while marines bled to death in the surf,
or the right engine faltered into Channel silt, or troops marched
—what could we do?—with frostbitten feet as white as milk.
—Donald Hall
This is a poem about WWII. It is saying that the people prepared for going to war, and died, and for the people back in America, life went on as normal while people died, and they couldn't do anything back home to help stop people dying. This is sort of like today's war, where nobody in America can do much to support the troops besides just saying we support them. In WWII, people collected scrap metal and made clothing and grew vegetables and things for the people fighting. Today, we do not. Also, life continues as normal for us, too, even more than the war in which the poem is about (no rationing or anything). I think it is like this for most wars fought away from the mother country, because the citizens themselves are not in danger. When a war is fought within or very near the borders of the mother country, though, people are more concerned and do more and their lives change.
Friday, 10 October 2008
Heart of Darkness (Last one)
Basically, Kurtz dies, Marlow goes a little nuts and then talks to the Intended. Kurtz's last words were 'the horror, the horror'. Whatever he actually meant by those words is very unclear. It could be Kurtz's realization of the horror and existence of the darkness and what it has made him do. I don't think he is remorseful or feels guilty at the end. He simply understands what he has done and is maybe afraid of it and what might happen to him now, but I think if given the choice, he would do it again. Marlow is really affected by Kurtz's words and death. He doesn't feel like he fits with normal civilization again because he feels that all the people don't understand the moral danger they are in and don't know, care and understand about the darkness. When Marlow talks to the Intended, this feeling gets worse because the Intended really has absolutely no conception of what the darkness is or means. She thinks she knows Kurtz better than anyone, yet she doesn't know about what he did in the jungle and she probably wouldn't believe it if Marlow told her. That's partly why Marlow lies at the end: he doesn't want to explain what Kurtz became because she wouldn't understand. He also lies because he feels awkward and telling Kurtz's grieving fiancée that he said 'the horror, the horror' about his experiences in the jungle would require explanation and Marlow just wants to leave by that point. In the end of the book, the sailor crew does not care or understand about Marlow's story either, but the darkness is shown to be there and ready to affect them even though they don't know it.
Monday, 6 October 2008
Heart of Darkness (4?)
Marlow talks to the Russian about Mr. Kurtz. Kurtz appears to be a person who has the ability to dominate people with the force of his personality. When Marlow sees Kurtz, he (Kurtz) is dying and frail, but his voice is still powerful. The Russian is surprised that Marlow has not become a worshipper of Kurtz. Marlow does defend Kurtz from the Manager, who says Kurtz (and thus Marlow) is unsound. Kurtz apparently ordered the attack on the boat. He is portrayed as having been consumed with the darkness of the land. The themes of sickness and physical decomposition are shown. The Russian leaves and makes Marlow promise to look after Kurtz.
Thursday, 2 October 2008
Heart of Darkness pgs 42-54
This part continued Marlow's journey in the steamboat down the river. A bunch of natives attacks and some people get killed. They arrive and the harlequin greets them. He's Russian and ran away from home to be on a ship, like Conrad did. Marlow breaks narrative for a bit to say that none of the sailors now can understand the darkness and what he went through because their lives are too regulated and 'civilized'. Kurtz is mentioned a lot. He is portrayed as a 'voice' that speaks and to which others only listen. He is also mentioned as having gotten loads and loads of ivory (fairly and by finding what the native people bury). Despite the fact (or maybe because of) that Marlow knows the rumours of how Kurtz might have done 'unspeakable rituals', Marlow is still interested in meeting Kurtz. The darkness in people and in the land is mentioned a lot. There is a lot of imagery connected to all of this: violent death, isolation, madness. Especially because of the battle scene.
Wednesday, 1 October 2008
Heart of Darkness 30-41
(I'm not entirely sure what exactly these blogs are supposed to be about, but I tried.)
This section begins with Marlow overhearing the Manager (I think this is who it is) talking with his uncle about Mr. Kurtz (and possibly Marlow as well?). Then Marlow begins his journey in the steamboat down the river and has difficulty because in parts the river is too shallow and the African people who go with them are forced to eat rotten hippo meat until the pilgrims throw the meat away and then they starve. Marlow is really really curious about meeting Mr. Kurtz. I think the Manager goes with them.
There is a lot of the imagery listed in point 7: sickness (the people dying of starvation), gloom and brightness (these two when describing the forest they're sailing through), physical decomposition (the hippo meat). Also, there are a lot of the references to work and labor.
This section begins with Marlow overhearing the Manager (I think this is who it is) talking with his uncle about Mr. Kurtz (and possibly Marlow as well?). Then Marlow begins his journey in the steamboat down the river and has difficulty because in parts the river is too shallow and the African people who go with them are forced to eat rotten hippo meat until the pilgrims throw the meat away and then they starve. Marlow is really really curious about meeting Mr. Kurtz. I think the Manager goes with them.
There is a lot of the imagery listed in point 7: sickness (the people dying of starvation), gloom and brightness (these two when describing the forest they're sailing through), physical decomposition (the hippo meat). Also, there are a lot of the references to work and labor.
Monday, 29 September 2008
Lilacs in September
Lilacs in September
Shocked to the root
like the lilac bush
in the vacant lot
by the hurricane—
whose black branch split
by wind or rain
has broken out unseasonably
into these scant ash-
colored blossoms
lifted high as if to say
to passersby
What will unleash
itself in you
when your storm comes?
—Katha Pollitt
The interesting part of this poem is the lest three lines. Often, when tragedy strikes or a crisis happens, unexpected parts of people’s characters are seen. Sometimes unnatural heroism or courage manifests itself, like when some people have an adrenaline rush and feel strong enough to save someone from drowning, or snatch them out from under a bus or a car. In that way, those people are like the lilac bush; good parts of them come out when faced with terrible things. Other people, however, don’t react well under pressure. The worst parts of their nature may come out. They may lose their tempers or lie or simply be too scared to deal with anything. The last lines read like some sort of warning: what do you think you’ll do if faced with a horrible situation?
Shocked to the root
like the lilac bush
in the vacant lot
by the hurricane—
whose black branch split
by wind or rain
has broken out unseasonably
into these scant ash-
colored blossoms
lifted high as if to say
to passersby
What will unleash
itself in you
when your storm comes?
—Katha Pollitt
The interesting part of this poem is the lest three lines. Often, when tragedy strikes or a crisis happens, unexpected parts of people’s characters are seen. Sometimes unnatural heroism or courage manifests itself, like when some people have an adrenaline rush and feel strong enough to save someone from drowning, or snatch them out from under a bus or a car. In that way, those people are like the lilac bush; good parts of them come out when faced with terrible things. Other people, however, don’t react well under pressure. The worst parts of their nature may come out. They may lose their tempers or lie or simply be too scared to deal with anything. The last lines read like some sort of warning: what do you think you’ll do if faced with a horrible situation?
Wednesday, 10 September 2008
Eveline
This story is about a girl who wants to escape from her horrible life and find happiness elsewhere but can't make the decision to go.
1) What's the girl's name?
2) Why didn't she go with Frank?
3) If you were in that situation, what would you do?
The theme of this story is about fear of change. (Yes, I looked that up in the notes :) ) But really, it is. Eveline is afraid of changing her life, even though it's for the better. She's afraid of leaving what's familiar, even though it's not good for her. People generally don't like the unknown and so prefer even a bad thing that they recognize to a possibly good thing that they're not sure will work out and will take them away from what they know.
I thought the reference to the priest was interesting. We learned in class that every Joyce story (in Dubliners at least) has a reference to a dead/gone priest. I think it would be amazing if we went through the book and found all the priest references. Anyway, I suppose it's more symbolism about how the Catholic church was once good and stable but now (by that I mean James Joyce's now) it caused (in Joyce's opinion) social paralysis and is no longer there for the people, but is just a fond memory.
1) What's the girl's name?
2) Why didn't she go with Frank?
3) If you were in that situation, what would you do?
The theme of this story is about fear of change. (Yes, I looked that up in the notes :) ) But really, it is. Eveline is afraid of changing her life, even though it's for the better. She's afraid of leaving what's familiar, even though it's not good for her. People generally don't like the unknown and so prefer even a bad thing that they recognize to a possibly good thing that they're not sure will work out and will take them away from what they know.
I thought the reference to the priest was interesting. We learned in class that every Joyce story (in Dubliners at least) has a reference to a dead/gone priest. I think it would be amazing if we went through the book and found all the priest references. Anyway, I suppose it's more symbolism about how the Catholic church was once good and stable but now (by that I mean James Joyce's now) it caused (in Joyce's opinion) social paralysis and is no longer there for the people, but is just a fond memory.
Monday, 8 September 2008
Araby
This is a story about a boy who is infatuated with his neighbor and goes to a bazaar to buy something for her and doesn't.
1) What is the name of the bazaar?
2) Why does the boy feel 'anguish and anger' at the end?
3) The description of the section of the book that this story was taken from says that it focuses on the confusion of leaving childhood behind. Does it really show that confusion as it is?
I really have no idea what the theme of this story is.
I didn't think the story was very interesting. It made sense and the characterization and writing and everything was good, but the piece itself didn't seem interesting. A lot of it was description, which has always bored me.
Anyway, the story's ending would have meant something else to me if I hadn't read the descriptions which said that this story had to do with the confusion of leaving childhood or something. I'm not sure exactly what I would have thought it meant, except that the story really didn't seem to have much to do with childhood, except the narrator was obviously young. In the end, his feelings of anger and anguish were what I felt was interesting about the story, since they connected with his failure to find anything for the girl and the obstacles he faces in getting to the bazaar. He feels as if the end isn't worth the effort and so feels that way.
1) What is the name of the bazaar?
2) Why does the boy feel 'anguish and anger' at the end?
3) The description of the section of the book that this story was taken from says that it focuses on the confusion of leaving childhood behind. Does it really show that confusion as it is?
I really have no idea what the theme of this story is.
I didn't think the story was very interesting. It made sense and the characterization and writing and everything was good, but the piece itself didn't seem interesting. A lot of it was description, which has always bored me.
Anyway, the story's ending would have meant something else to me if I hadn't read the descriptions which said that this story had to do with the confusion of leaving childhood or something. I'm not sure exactly what I would have thought it meant, except that the story really didn't seem to have much to do with childhood, except the narrator was obviously young. In the end, his feelings of anger and anguish were what I felt was interesting about the story, since they connected with his failure to find anything for the girl and the obstacles he faces in getting to the bazaar. He feels as if the end isn't worth the effort and so feels that way.
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