Whoa. That's the best way I can describe reading the first 62 pages of Nabokov's book, Lolita. The book has to this point left me with an incredibly uncomfortable feeling. I do think it's interesting to see inside the mind of a man who's struggling with pedophilia, but reading Humbert think sensually about young girls still leaves me an extreme sense of being uncomfortable.
First off, I'll just run through a few of the words that I looked up while reading. Seraph means a member of the highest order of angels. This helped me begin to understand Humbert at the beginning of the novel. The next word I found was nymphet, which means a sexually attractive young girl. Finally, the last word I looked up was prophylactic, which means preventive or protective.
Before reading the book, I knew the premise included a man being enamored by a young girl, Lolita. Since I knew this, the first line of the story pretty much set the stage for what I was to expect in the rest of the novel. Nabokov chooses to start the story with this sentence: "Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul" (page 3). From the beginning of the story, I now knew this would be a no holds barred look at the mind of a pedophile.
Humbert then goes into how he started off delving into his attraction of younger girls, including his initial love with a girl named Annabel who he tried to make love with but ultimately failed. He then goes on to talk about various prostitutes he came to know, and how he only found the nymphets, or the girls under 14 years old, to be attractive. I did find it interesting that Humbert speaks to the audience in a persuasive manner, trying to get them to side with him. Anywhere he can, he tries to gain sympathy from the readers. For example, he wants himself to be viewed as the opposite of a stereotypical pedophile by describing himself as "an exceptionally handsome man; slow moving, tall, with soft dark hair" (page 25). He then goes on to mention he could get any adult woman he wanted, showing that his going after girls was not some desperate attempt for love, but it's just the way he is.
Finally, Humbert begins to speak about his feelings for Lolita, who lives in the same boarding house as Humbert does. He does know that what he's doing is viewed by many others as wrong, because he does his best to hide his lustful desires from anyone else. He patiently waits for the best moment to pursue Lolita, when nobody else is around. This is where things get more strange.
Humbert is teasing Lolita with an apple, and begins to playfully wrestle with her in his lap. Nabokov's distinct imagery here is both beautiful from Humbert's perspective and at the same time respulsive I'm sure to most readers. The lustful feelings of Humbert come to full tilt, with imagery being used such as, "I crushed out against her left butock the last throb of the longest ecstasy man or monster had ever known" (page 61). These paragraphs of sensual pleasure that Humbert describes really tap into the innermost feelings of his soul. He is crying out to the "jury" that his love is real and that he is not some crazed man sexually abusing kids just for kicks. After reading, though, you are still left with an unexplained feeling of shame for what you just read.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
America and In the Baggage Room at Greyhound
The first poem I read was America, by Allen Ginsberg. Ginsberg states his clear opinion in the first line of the poem, saying,"America I've given you all and now I'm nothing" (page 39). He doesn't really beat around the bush or leave any mystery to what his exact feelings are in this poem. The poem expresses loud and clear Ginsberg's disdain for the United States of America.
Ginsberg makes constant references that allude to America thinking of itself as a perfect nation with no flaws. He says America made him want to be a "saint" (page 39). He also talks how America feels like it is superior to other nations in the world, when Ginsberg is still asking when America will be angelic. He also makes allusions to the millions of underprivileged souls out in the world who America is more or less ignoring. Ginsberg makes it clear that America is a flawed place, although it does its best to try to market itself as a perfect nation.
Ginsberg makes another interesting point when he says, "I won't say the Lord's Prayer" (page 40). Although the government officially observes a separation of church and state, the lines between the two become blurry when real life sets in. In America, today, it seems like every major politician of importance supports the Christian faith in some way. Some may really believe in the religion, but others use it simply for political gain. Ginsberg here refuses to just say the Lord's Prayer to sound like a "good, patriotic American."
Ginsberg ends the poem by speaking as the stereotypical American public. He blames all problems on "them Russians" and "them Chinamen" (page 42). The saying of Chinamen alone represents the ignorance employed by many Americans when it comes to other cultures. But Ginsberg goes on, talking about Indians and Communists as well. By showing America's attitude like this in a no hold bars way, Ginsberg really gets his point across well.
Just as I was getting confident after understanding America fairly well, I read the next poem, In the Baggage Room at Greyhound, and ended up fairly confused after my initial reading. Ginsberg starts off this poem as the speaker describes himself sitting in the baggage room at a greyhound station wondering about "eternity" (page 44). He then speaks about a multitude of different people from across the nation, all suffering in some way. Perhaps he was trying to envision the people whose baggage he was handling, and thinking about their lives and those connected to them. My best guess is that he somehow feels connected to them all while he handles their baggage.
He goes on to speak about the operating clerk, Spade, and about the vast amounts of luggage piled up on the large wooden racks. It almost seems like the speaker is amazed at his and Spade's ability to affect others' lives. He even refers to Spade as an angel at one point, conveying an almost supernatural sense. Ginsberg writes that with the racks, the workers are connected with people who have come from Japan, Mexico, and even Hawaii.
After this revelation of sorts, the speaker's thoughts figuratively come back down to where he is. He realizes he is paid next to nothing for his job, suffers physically for it, and becomes pessimistic about it all. He goes from the extreme of thinking of himself as connected with the world all the way to the other extreme of being a struggling minimum wage worker.
Ginsberg makes constant references that allude to America thinking of itself as a perfect nation with no flaws. He says America made him want to be a "saint" (page 39). He also talks how America feels like it is superior to other nations in the world, when Ginsberg is still asking when America will be angelic. He also makes allusions to the millions of underprivileged souls out in the world who America is more or less ignoring. Ginsberg makes it clear that America is a flawed place, although it does its best to try to market itself as a perfect nation.
Ginsberg makes another interesting point when he says, "I won't say the Lord's Prayer" (page 40). Although the government officially observes a separation of church and state, the lines between the two become blurry when real life sets in. In America, today, it seems like every major politician of importance supports the Christian faith in some way. Some may really believe in the religion, but others use it simply for political gain. Ginsberg here refuses to just say the Lord's Prayer to sound like a "good, patriotic American."
Ginsberg ends the poem by speaking as the stereotypical American public. He blames all problems on "them Russians" and "them Chinamen" (page 42). The saying of Chinamen alone represents the ignorance employed by many Americans when it comes to other cultures. But Ginsberg goes on, talking about Indians and Communists as well. By showing America's attitude like this in a no hold bars way, Ginsberg really gets his point across well.
Just as I was getting confident after understanding America fairly well, I read the next poem, In the Baggage Room at Greyhound, and ended up fairly confused after my initial reading. Ginsberg starts off this poem as the speaker describes himself sitting in the baggage room at a greyhound station wondering about "eternity" (page 44). He then speaks about a multitude of different people from across the nation, all suffering in some way. Perhaps he was trying to envision the people whose baggage he was handling, and thinking about their lives and those connected to them. My best guess is that he somehow feels connected to them all while he handles their baggage.
He goes on to speak about the operating clerk, Spade, and about the vast amounts of luggage piled up on the large wooden racks. It almost seems like the speaker is amazed at his and Spade's ability to affect others' lives. He even refers to Spade as an angel at one point, conveying an almost supernatural sense. Ginsberg writes that with the racks, the workers are connected with people who have come from Japan, Mexico, and even Hawaii.
After this revelation of sorts, the speaker's thoughts figuratively come back down to where he is. He realizes he is paid next to nothing for his job, suffers physically for it, and becomes pessimistic about it all. He goes from the extreme of thinking of himself as connected with the world all the way to the other extreme of being a struggling minimum wage worker.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Howl, or as it should be called, what the f@#k?
My first impressions after reading howl are similar to my title, what the junk. I was pretty confused about the jibber jabber of what I had just finished reading. After thinking a little about the poem, though, I started to see a few patterns and some trends that were noticeable throughout the poem. I'm not saying I come close to understanding much of anything about this poem, but I'll give a shot at what i got out of it.
The poem starts off with three lines that more or less introduce the rest of part 1. Ginsberg begins writing that the speaker saw "the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness" (page 9). He introduces the general subject of part one as being various people of his generation who have descended into some abnormal state of mind. I found it useful to look up dynamo as an electric generator or a very energetic person, both of which go hand in hand.
After these initial three lines, Ginsberg spends about the next ten pages addressing these great minds that have been destroyed. He in this section starts every line with "who," the who being the various minds that have been destroyed. Each line in this section describes people doing incredibly obscene and alarming actions, such as "walking all night with shoes full of blood" and "whoring through Colorado" (pages 14 and 15). Other actions mentioned were some crude sexual remarks, but one theme i noticed throughout this section was the constant mention of drugs. I remember reading about opium, marijuana, and peyote but I'm sure there were many more references. I think Ginsberg in this section is trying to show the various depravities a man can sink to when he gives way to madness. This madness can be created from drugs, as alluded to by the constant drug references, or from racism, or any idea that can drive a person to madness. Two words I looked at here for clarity were copulate, which pretty much just means to engage in sexual activity, and insatiate, which relates to not being satisfied.
The second chapter of the poem, I guess you could call it, is all about Moloch, a deity whose worship was marked by the propitiatory sacrifice of children by their own parents. I feel that this section connects with the section on the actions of crazy people. It describes a disturbing deity made more than likely by crazed human beings, just further illustrating the ridiculous things that the human mind can create.
The final section talks about Carl Solomon, who the poem is actually written for. Solomon was an author who voluntarily admitted himself into a mental hospital. Ginsberg relates to Solomon's mental troubles, saying that he too is in Rockland, presumably the mental institute, where he "screams in a straightjacket" and "where fifty more shocks will never return your soul to your body" (page 25). Ginsberg is here saying that he, too, is fit for a mental hospital. I think the overall meaning of the poem is trying to convey the fact that everybody's mind can sink into a crazed state, emitting a barbaric yawp or howl.
The next poem, A Supermarket In California, involves Ginsberg repeatedly referencing Walt Whitman and seeing himself walking through a supermarket with Whitman. I honestly had no idea what was going on in this poem. Perhaps Ginsberg wishes to be a transcendentalist like Whitman, and is talking about the normality and consumerism in the supermarket. Maybe Ginsberg just wanted to speak about his longing for a conversation with Whitman, who he calls a respected teacher in the poem. I'm not sure of the meaning of the poem, but it certainly shows a reverence to Whitman.
The poem starts off with three lines that more or less introduce the rest of part 1. Ginsberg begins writing that the speaker saw "the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness" (page 9). He introduces the general subject of part one as being various people of his generation who have descended into some abnormal state of mind. I found it useful to look up dynamo as an electric generator or a very energetic person, both of which go hand in hand.
After these initial three lines, Ginsberg spends about the next ten pages addressing these great minds that have been destroyed. He in this section starts every line with "who," the who being the various minds that have been destroyed. Each line in this section describes people doing incredibly obscene and alarming actions, such as "walking all night with shoes full of blood" and "whoring through Colorado" (pages 14 and 15). Other actions mentioned were some crude sexual remarks, but one theme i noticed throughout this section was the constant mention of drugs. I remember reading about opium, marijuana, and peyote but I'm sure there were many more references. I think Ginsberg in this section is trying to show the various depravities a man can sink to when he gives way to madness. This madness can be created from drugs, as alluded to by the constant drug references, or from racism, or any idea that can drive a person to madness. Two words I looked at here for clarity were copulate, which pretty much just means to engage in sexual activity, and insatiate, which relates to not being satisfied.
The second chapter of the poem, I guess you could call it, is all about Moloch, a deity whose worship was marked by the propitiatory sacrifice of children by their own parents. I feel that this section connects with the section on the actions of crazy people. It describes a disturbing deity made more than likely by crazed human beings, just further illustrating the ridiculous things that the human mind can create.
The final section talks about Carl Solomon, who the poem is actually written for. Solomon was an author who voluntarily admitted himself into a mental hospital. Ginsberg relates to Solomon's mental troubles, saying that he too is in Rockland, presumably the mental institute, where he "screams in a straightjacket" and "where fifty more shocks will never return your soul to your body" (page 25). Ginsberg is here saying that he, too, is fit for a mental hospital. I think the overall meaning of the poem is trying to convey the fact that everybody's mind can sink into a crazed state, emitting a barbaric yawp or howl.
The next poem, A Supermarket In California, involves Ginsberg repeatedly referencing Walt Whitman and seeing himself walking through a supermarket with Whitman. I honestly had no idea what was going on in this poem. Perhaps Ginsberg wishes to be a transcendentalist like Whitman, and is talking about the normality and consumerism in the supermarket. Maybe Ginsberg just wanted to speak about his longing for a conversation with Whitman, who he calls a respected teacher in the poem. I'm not sure of the meaning of the poem, but it certainly shows a reverence to Whitman.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
The Glass Menagerie Scene 7
Scene 7 of The Glass Menagerie almost exclusively dealt with the interactions between Jim and Laura. Although the beginning of the scene consists of Amanda making small talk with Jim again saying things like "isn't electricity a mysterious thing?," the main content of the scene involves Jim and Laura getting reacquainted (page 68). Jim, although already engaged, seems to fully enjoy getting to know Laura. With his easygoing and confident manner, Laura slowly loses her nervousness and begins to feel at ease with Jim. One of her precious glass animals is even damaged, yet she shows no remorse for the broken unicorn. This speaks to the amount of importance she gives to Jim.
Although Jim and Laura don't turn out falling for each other, Jim does teach Laura a great lesson. He tells her that she "doesn't have the proper amount of faith in herself" and has an "inferiority complex" (pages 80, 81). Although she is visibly shaken when she realizes that Jim is engaged to Betty, she bravely smiles at the end of their conversation, suggesting her increased strength in herself.
After Jim leaves, Amanda of course explodes at Tom for bringing an engaged man as a gentleman caller. Tom, having had enough, declares, "The more you shout about my selfishness to me the quicker I'll go, and I won't go to the movies!" (age 96). Tom proceeds to leave the situation entirely, getting fired from work and exiting the apartment forever. Tom's longing for adventure and meaning for his life eventually supersedes the feelings he has for caring for his family.
In the end, everyone goes their own way. Jim leaves to get engaged, Tom leaves to search for better things in his life, and Amanda and Laura are left in the apartment. Perhaps doomed to wasting away to nothing in their apartment, Laura at least gives some hope by smiling at her mother in the final scene.
After reading The Catastrophe of Success, the biggest thing that stood out to me was the need for isolation. After blowing up to celebrity status almost overnight, Williams expressed his need to get back to the simple life by moving down to Mexico to write A Streetcar Named Desire. I think everyone can feel this feeling of needing to be alone. I'm sure being well known can just magnify this desire.
Although Jim and Laura don't turn out falling for each other, Jim does teach Laura a great lesson. He tells her that she "doesn't have the proper amount of faith in herself" and has an "inferiority complex" (pages 80, 81). Although she is visibly shaken when she realizes that Jim is engaged to Betty, she bravely smiles at the end of their conversation, suggesting her increased strength in herself.
After Jim leaves, Amanda of course explodes at Tom for bringing an engaged man as a gentleman caller. Tom, having had enough, declares, "The more you shout about my selfishness to me the quicker I'll go, and I won't go to the movies!" (age 96). Tom proceeds to leave the situation entirely, getting fired from work and exiting the apartment forever. Tom's longing for adventure and meaning for his life eventually supersedes the feelings he has for caring for his family.
In the end, everyone goes their own way. Jim leaves to get engaged, Tom leaves to search for better things in his life, and Amanda and Laura are left in the apartment. Perhaps doomed to wasting away to nothing in their apartment, Laura at least gives some hope by smiling at her mother in the final scene.
After reading The Catastrophe of Success, the biggest thing that stood out to me was the need for isolation. After blowing up to celebrity status almost overnight, Williams expressed his need to get back to the simple life by moving down to Mexico to write A Streetcar Named Desire. I think everyone can feel this feeling of needing to be alone. I'm sure being well known can just magnify this desire.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
The Glass Menagerie
I came into reading the Glass Menagerie really knowing nothing about the book. I had heard of it before, but really had no clue on what the story is about. To start off, I wasn't sure what menagerie meant so I looked it up as a collection of wild or unusual animals, esp. for exhibition. After reading the first 66 pages of the play, I can readily assume that the title comes from both the glass collection that Laura keeps and the collection of very fragile people that are living together.
Two other words looked up were parish: a local church with its field of activity, and D.A.R.:a patriotic society of women descended from Americans of the Revolutionary period, organized in 1890.
Since the play is a character study of the members of the Wingfield family, I'll spend a little time discussing what I think about each person. First off, there's the mother, Amanda. Amanda is stuck in the past, constantly reminiscing about the days of her youth. She discusses about how she "received-seventeen!-gentleman callers!"(page 8). She wants to focus on the good fortune she had in her past. Back then, she was a popular socialite. Now, she is a mother of two with no husband to speak of. She now tries make it her aim for her daughter Laura to be just like her-having gentleman callers beckoning at every time of the day.
Unfortunately for Amanda, Laura doesn't fit the mold of socialite. She is a very shy girl, who is content with her old records and her glass menagerie. Tom might say it best when he remarks that she "lives in a world of her own-a world of little glass ornaments" (page 48). Despite her mother's constant badgering, Laura simply wishes to keep to herself. Even attending typewriting school was too much for Laura, who instead took long solitary walks. Laura is slightly crippled, which adds even more to her want for isolation.
Tom, on the other hand, feels the need for adventure. Although he wants action and intrigue in his life, he is instead stuck working in a warehouse in a low level job paying for the apartment's rent. He goes to the movies for hours at a time in order to get release from his mundane life. He transports himself to the world of cinema to forget about his hum ho life and find something more. He experiences a revelation, though, when talking to Jim. He realizes that "people go to the movies instead of moving...I'm tired of the movies and I'm about to move!" (page 61). Tom finally realizes that his fantasies are proving fruitless and that the only way for him to experience some action in his life is for him to get out and experience something new.
Two other words looked up were parish: a local church with its field of activity, and D.A.R.:a patriotic society of women descended from Americans of the Revolutionary period, organized in 1890.
Since the play is a character study of the members of the Wingfield family, I'll spend a little time discussing what I think about each person. First off, there's the mother, Amanda. Amanda is stuck in the past, constantly reminiscing about the days of her youth. She discusses about how she "received-seventeen!-gentleman callers!"(page 8). She wants to focus on the good fortune she had in her past. Back then, she was a popular socialite. Now, she is a mother of two with no husband to speak of. She now tries make it her aim for her daughter Laura to be just like her-having gentleman callers beckoning at every time of the day.
Unfortunately for Amanda, Laura doesn't fit the mold of socialite. She is a very shy girl, who is content with her old records and her glass menagerie. Tom might say it best when he remarks that she "lives in a world of her own-a world of little glass ornaments" (page 48). Despite her mother's constant badgering, Laura simply wishes to keep to herself. Even attending typewriting school was too much for Laura, who instead took long solitary walks. Laura is slightly crippled, which adds even more to her want for isolation.
Tom, on the other hand, feels the need for adventure. Although he wants action and intrigue in his life, he is instead stuck working in a warehouse in a low level job paying for the apartment's rent. He goes to the movies for hours at a time in order to get release from his mundane life. He transports himself to the world of cinema to forget about his hum ho life and find something more. He experiences a revelation, though, when talking to Jim. He realizes that "people go to the movies instead of moving...I'm tired of the movies and I'm about to move!" (page 61). Tom finally realizes that his fantasies are proving fruitless and that the only way for him to experience some action in his life is for him to get out and experience something new.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Two Short Stories on Two Young Firls
The first of the two short stories I read was The Flowers by Alice Walker. This story starts out innocent enough, describing a young girl taking a stroll around her family's farmland. Myop, the young girl, seems carefree and completely juvenile. Living up in a very rural area with probably only her family, she seems like she is completely free from any kind of corruption. The only thing that startles her at all is the fact that "her heel became lodged in the broken ridge between brow and nose" of a rotting human corpse (line 21). Only then did she give "a little yelp of surprise" (line 23).
This scene interests her very much, because she hadn't ever seen anything like it before. At first, she doesn't even act emotional at all about the scene. She picks a rose from near the body, then it seems as if she slowly realizes what she's found as she sees the noose of the rope. She laid down her flowers, "and the summer was over" (line 33). The summer ending represents the loss of innocence she experiences by discovering the rotting corpse. Every child at some point experiences this loss of innocence, although it's normally a lot less drastic than finding a rotting corpse. Once innocence is lost, though, it is over, and not coming back.
The next story, Girl, by Jamaica Kincaid illustrates a problem that pertains to some parents: they talk too much and don't listen enough. The story is almost completely made up of the mother's dialogue to her daughter. The daughter, however, gets only 25 words for herself in the entire story. The mother spends most of her time telling the girl how to do household chores, but more disturbingly alludes to her daughter wanting to be a "slut" and instructing her how to act differently. The mother seems extremely strict, railing against benna on Sundays, which is a type of Antigua folk music. Even when the girl interrupts her mother's ranting for a short bit, the mother either ignores the question or replies with a biting remark. The entire piece to me showed how ridiculous some strict parents can become in trying to discipline and instruct their children. Ultimately, they need to take time to listen as ell as talk to their children.
This scene interests her very much, because she hadn't ever seen anything like it before. At first, she doesn't even act emotional at all about the scene. She picks a rose from near the body, then it seems as if she slowly realizes what she's found as she sees the noose of the rope. She laid down her flowers, "and the summer was over" (line 33). The summer ending represents the loss of innocence she experiences by discovering the rotting corpse. Every child at some point experiences this loss of innocence, although it's normally a lot less drastic than finding a rotting corpse. Once innocence is lost, though, it is over, and not coming back.
The next story, Girl, by Jamaica Kincaid illustrates a problem that pertains to some parents: they talk too much and don't listen enough. The story is almost completely made up of the mother's dialogue to her daughter. The daughter, however, gets only 25 words for herself in the entire story. The mother spends most of her time telling the girl how to do household chores, but more disturbingly alludes to her daughter wanting to be a "slut" and instructing her how to act differently. The mother seems extremely strict, railing against benna on Sundays, which is a type of Antigua folk music. Even when the girl interrupts her mother's ranting for a short bit, the mother either ignores the question or replies with a biting remark. The entire piece to me showed how ridiculous some strict parents can become in trying to discipline and instruct their children. Ultimately, they need to take time to listen as ell as talk to their children.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Robert Frost Poetry
Although I read all of the Robert Frost poems assigned, I will only take the time to explain two of the poems, Birches and Mending Wall.
The first poem I read, Birches, was a tough poem for me to understand. It took me a couple of readings to really get into what I thought Frost was trying to tell me. The word birches can be defined as small to medium sized trees. I looked that up to help get a visual idea of what the poem was describing physically. I also looked up the word bracken, which means a cluster of ferns or a thicket. Roughly the first half of the poem contains vivid imagery of what birches look like, especially when they are bent by either ice or by humans. Frost uses this physical imagery to set up symbolism later on in the poem.
The poem moves on to describing a boy going through the birches, knocking them all down until they are all arched to the ground. Frost then transitions to wishing he could personally go back to swinging birches. Frost likens the swinging of birches to a kind of relief from the world; he thinks of it as taking a break from daily life. The speaker describes that when "life is too much like a pathless wood, where your face burns and tickles with cobwebs broken across it and one eye weeping," he would like to take a break from this world (lines 44-46). Frost cleverly uses climbing a birch tree as a comparison to taking a break from daily troubles. The use of the phrase "snow white trunk" alludes to climbing the birch as a very pure experience, almost heavenly (line 55).
The speaker, however, does not wish to detach himself completely from the earth, he still wants to come back. After he experiences his withdrawal from society by climbing up the birch, the tree will slowly give way and let him back down to life on earth. In doing this Frost is saying that he is taking a break from earth and life, and after some time contentedly comes back to his life.
The second poem, Mending Wall, proved even more difficult for my comprehension. Although no words were extremely difficult, I had trouble getting a lot out of it. I did look up the word elf to find that it probably here means mischievous person, especially a child. Literally speaking, the poem talks about a neighbor and his thoughts on a wall that separates his property from his neighbor's property. He repeats the line, "Something there is that doesn't love a wall" a couple of times, showing that although his neighbor is certainly in support of the wall, others voice contrasting opinions on the matter (line 1).
I can only guess at what Frost was trying to communicate to the reader, but I think it has something to do with how much we open up ourselves to others. The neighbor uses the phrase, good fences make good neighbors many times, expressing many peoples' thoughts on how they believe keeping everything to themselves is the best way to live. The speaker, however, speaks on how he wondered "what [he]was walling in or walling out" when he built the fence (line 34). He wonders what the consequences will be of keeping himself inside of the wall he built and others outside.
The first poem I read, Birches, was a tough poem for me to understand. It took me a couple of readings to really get into what I thought Frost was trying to tell me. The word birches can be defined as small to medium sized trees. I looked that up to help get a visual idea of what the poem was describing physically. I also looked up the word bracken, which means a cluster of ferns or a thicket. Roughly the first half of the poem contains vivid imagery of what birches look like, especially when they are bent by either ice or by humans. Frost uses this physical imagery to set up symbolism later on in the poem.
The poem moves on to describing a boy going through the birches, knocking them all down until they are all arched to the ground. Frost then transitions to wishing he could personally go back to swinging birches. Frost likens the swinging of birches to a kind of relief from the world; he thinks of it as taking a break from daily life. The speaker describes that when "life is too much like a pathless wood, where your face burns and tickles with cobwebs broken across it and one eye weeping," he would like to take a break from this world (lines 44-46). Frost cleverly uses climbing a birch tree as a comparison to taking a break from daily troubles. The use of the phrase "snow white trunk" alludes to climbing the birch as a very pure experience, almost heavenly (line 55).
The speaker, however, does not wish to detach himself completely from the earth, he still wants to come back. After he experiences his withdrawal from society by climbing up the birch, the tree will slowly give way and let him back down to life on earth. In doing this Frost is saying that he is taking a break from earth and life, and after some time contentedly comes back to his life.
The second poem, Mending Wall, proved even more difficult for my comprehension. Although no words were extremely difficult, I had trouble getting a lot out of it. I did look up the word elf to find that it probably here means mischievous person, especially a child. Literally speaking, the poem talks about a neighbor and his thoughts on a wall that separates his property from his neighbor's property. He repeats the line, "Something there is that doesn't love a wall" a couple of times, showing that although his neighbor is certainly in support of the wall, others voice contrasting opinions on the matter (line 1).
I can only guess at what Frost was trying to communicate to the reader, but I think it has something to do with how much we open up ourselves to others. The neighbor uses the phrase, good fences make good neighbors many times, expressing many peoples' thoughts on how they believe keeping everything to themselves is the best way to live. The speaker, however, speaks on how he wondered "what [he]was walling in or walling out" when he built the fence (line 34). He wonders what the consequences will be of keeping himself inside of the wall he built and others outside.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Carver and Pound's Poems
The first poem I read was Pound's "In a Station of the Metro." After my initial reading, I was fairly confused on what the author was trying to convey from the couplet. I looked up the exact definition of apparition, which came out to be "a supernatural appearance of a person or thing, esp. a ghost." This helped me figure out the what I believe the author is trying to tell the audience.
From the title, it seems like the speaker is in some kind of metro station. He describes seeing an "apparition of faces in the crowd" (line 1). This implies that the reader is not looking merely at each face from a mere physical standpoint, but instead he sees them as a singular enmity. This idea is further shown from the second line in which the speaker describes the faces as "petals on a wet, black bough" (line 2). A bough defined is a branch of a tree. So, by saying that the faces represent the petals on a bough, the author is saying that every human face each makes up a part of something bigger. The faces are all parts of a human mosaic, a large melting pot of different people, thrown together to form one picture.
The second poem, "Photograph of My Father In His Twenty Second Year" by Raymond Carver, offers a somber look at the relationship between a son and his father. In the first line, the author uses the phrase, "dank, unfamiliar kitchen" to allude to the fact that the speaker has not been in the kitchen for a while, suggesting that the author is perhaps a young man who has already moved out of the house (Line 1).
The author then describes a picture of his father that he finds in the kitchen. The next eight lines or so are devoted to thoroughly describing the picture of his young father. The initial descriptions seem fairly objective until the last line of the second stanza, in which the speaker tells us that "all his life my father wanted to be bold" (Line 10). The next stanza shows the speaker's mixed feelings about his father. He states that he does indeed love his father, and yet he realizes that his father has many faults, including a sore lacking of boldness, apparently. Also, the speaker's lack of knowledge of a fishing hole tends to point to his father perhaps ignoring his son, not spending much time with him.
I think many people, including myself, can relate to this poem. Many children grow up idealizing their fathers, thinking of their parents as ideal individuals with little or not fault. As they grow, however, people begin to realize that their fathers are normal human beings with faults, some with more than others. The speaker in this poem struggles with his father's failures in his life. He still loves his dad, but he still has trouble accepting his father's various weaknesses. After perhaps idealizing him as a child, the son has to come to terms with who his dad really is.
From the title, it seems like the speaker is in some kind of metro station. He describes seeing an "apparition of faces in the crowd" (line 1). This implies that the reader is not looking merely at each face from a mere physical standpoint, but instead he sees them as a singular enmity. This idea is further shown from the second line in which the speaker describes the faces as "petals on a wet, black bough" (line 2). A bough defined is a branch of a tree. So, by saying that the faces represent the petals on a bough, the author is saying that every human face each makes up a part of something bigger. The faces are all parts of a human mosaic, a large melting pot of different people, thrown together to form one picture.
The second poem, "Photograph of My Father In His Twenty Second Year" by Raymond Carver, offers a somber look at the relationship between a son and his father. In the first line, the author uses the phrase, "dank, unfamiliar kitchen" to allude to the fact that the speaker has not been in the kitchen for a while, suggesting that the author is perhaps a young man who has already moved out of the house (Line 1).
The author then describes a picture of his father that he finds in the kitchen. The next eight lines or so are devoted to thoroughly describing the picture of his young father. The initial descriptions seem fairly objective until the last line of the second stanza, in which the speaker tells us that "all his life my father wanted to be bold" (Line 10). The next stanza shows the speaker's mixed feelings about his father. He states that he does indeed love his father, and yet he realizes that his father has many faults, including a sore lacking of boldness, apparently. Also, the speaker's lack of knowledge of a fishing hole tends to point to his father perhaps ignoring his son, not spending much time with him.
I think many people, including myself, can relate to this poem. Many children grow up idealizing their fathers, thinking of their parents as ideal individuals with little or not fault. As they grow, however, people begin to realize that their fathers are normal human beings with faults, some with more than others. The speaker in this poem struggles with his father's failures in his life. He still loves his dad, but he still has trouble accepting his father's various weaknesses. After perhaps idealizing him as a child, the son has to come to terms with who his dad really is.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Andrew Finley Letter of Introduction
So, as an introduction you normally state your name first but hey mine's in the title so I guess I'll cut right to the chase. Although I am in the Packaging Science major, I have always enjoyed literature and hope to make it a big part in my future life. Even when I was little, I enjoyed writing short, creative stories. Transitioning into high school, I wrote less but picked up reading more and more. I took both AP Language and AP Literature in high school and thought both were fairly interesting. Poems have always been one part of literature that I've had a hard time getting into. Although there are some that I enjoy, I would much rather stick to some kind of narrative rather than poetry.
I do, however, enjoy reading on my own on top of school assigned texts. The topics I read tend to vary. I go through phases during which I enjoy reading simple, enjoyable books such as Harry Potter, John Grisham, etc. Then, I'll have time periods when I feel like really challenging myself. It's in these periods when I've read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, which were both very challenging books. I also have read a couple of Vonnegut's books, Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse Five, both of which were fairly easy to read but contained a lot of topics and ideas that left me thinking. Ishmael, as well, was a philosophical book that really made me sit back and think. Various theological books that discuss Christianity and Judaism especially interest me.
As far as my own writing goes, I honestly have not pursued writing fiction in quite some time. As mentioned earlier, I did it a lot when I was younger, but I've only attempted a couple of short stories lately. After taking two AP English classes in high school, I certainly have written plenty of essays on various topics. I have written one rap song on the use of rhetoric for an English 103 extra credit project, and that turned out to be a lot of fun when my suite mate recorded it on garage band. I normally don't blog or write elaborate emails, although I do instant message with people plenty of times. Although I dabble in fiction from time to time, my writing mostly sticks to communication and essays nowadays.
I needed to take another English class for my major, and I chose English 215 because I already thoroughly enjoy reading contemporary literature. I didn't see myself really enjoying reading 18th century works or Shakespeare. I have found that I can relate better to more modern contemporary literature and thus get more out of it.
As I said before above, I'm not the best at poems, but here's a little ditty about my Clemson experience.
Growing up a Tiger fan I thought I would come here,
Although as a senior in high school I felt some fear.
Would I really like Clemson or think it was lame?
All I knew beforehand just came from football games.
Well when I moved in as a freshman my answers came,
I now know why Clemson has gotten such fame.
Both in the classroom and out I have found
Success and fun that knows no bounds.
As a sophomore now I know what message to send;
I hope that my time here at Clemson will never end.
I do, however, enjoy reading on my own on top of school assigned texts. The topics I read tend to vary. I go through phases during which I enjoy reading simple, enjoyable books such as Harry Potter, John Grisham, etc. Then, I'll have time periods when I feel like really challenging myself. It's in these periods when I've read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, which were both very challenging books. I also have read a couple of Vonnegut's books, Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse Five, both of which were fairly easy to read but contained a lot of topics and ideas that left me thinking. Ishmael, as well, was a philosophical book that really made me sit back and think. Various theological books that discuss Christianity and Judaism especially interest me.
As far as my own writing goes, I honestly have not pursued writing fiction in quite some time. As mentioned earlier, I did it a lot when I was younger, but I've only attempted a couple of short stories lately. After taking two AP English classes in high school, I certainly have written plenty of essays on various topics. I have written one rap song on the use of rhetoric for an English 103 extra credit project, and that turned out to be a lot of fun when my suite mate recorded it on garage band. I normally don't blog or write elaborate emails, although I do instant message with people plenty of times. Although I dabble in fiction from time to time, my writing mostly sticks to communication and essays nowadays.
I needed to take another English class for my major, and I chose English 215 because I already thoroughly enjoy reading contemporary literature. I didn't see myself really enjoying reading 18th century works or Shakespeare. I have found that I can relate better to more modern contemporary literature and thus get more out of it.
As I said before above, I'm not the best at poems, but here's a little ditty about my Clemson experience.
Growing up a Tiger fan I thought I would come here,
Although as a senior in high school I felt some fear.
Would I really like Clemson or think it was lame?
All I knew beforehand just came from football games.
Well when I moved in as a freshman my answers came,
I now know why Clemson has gotten such fame.
Both in the classroom and out I have found
Success and fun that knows no bounds.
As a sophomore now I know what message to send;
I hope that my time here at Clemson will never end.
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