Our homeland impacts us more than we could ever imagine. I have had a yearning to return to Scotland for many years now having only been once when I was too young to remember. My dad’s family lived in that country for the last twenty plus generations and I cannot but venture to guess that this is the reasoning behind my strong urge to return. Claude McKay’s homeland, Jamaica, called out for his homeland his entire life. McKay spent most of his life in his country yet impacted the Harlem Renaissance more than many Africa American authors of the day. McKay is still considered a key writer of his generation because he incorporated his life into his work, leading to the revelation of the internationality of the Harlem Renaissance.
Festus Claudius McKay was born in Sunny Ville, Jamaica. Sunny Ville is known only for McKay and the manner in which he described it. It played as his “symbol of a lost golden age” (pg 1457) in his works. In this small town, McKay found his calling. He studied “the British masters” (website). This was particularly difficult for Blacks at the time. They had been taught to speak and taught to learn in the conqueror’s language and knew no other way of freedom. McKay noticed quickly how ridiculous this was and “cease[d] mimicking the English poets” and began “producing verse in Jamaican dialect”(website), a radical decision for the day. McKay went to study in Europe, which began to shape his writing. He wrote his most famous work, If We Must Die, before leaving on this trip. The poem, If We Must Die, played role model for Ernest J. Gaines work, A Lesson Before Dying, several years later. Gaines’ work had nothing to do with Jamaica yet McKay’s poem had everything to do with his homeland. McKay wrote the poem after living in Kingston, where he was disgusted at the lack of resistance to the white man’s rule.
McKay moved to the United States in 1921 to try and become a more prominent voice. His radical ideas were lost on the general public but some key people took notice. While in Harlem, however, home called out for McKay once more. His autobiography was entitled A Long Way from Home, clearly referring to his island nation. He never did move back but McKay did become an American citizen in 1940, over twenty years after first arriving. McKay was able to make an international impact without leaving the United States, however. McKay’s work in Jamaica started to raise Black awareness. He started a trend of abandoning the White Man’s English and regressing back to the natural idiom of the country. McKay, after showing his island what freedom could really be like, moved on to Europe, where his ideas fell upon deaf ears. On the Eurasian continent, racism mattered less and people were treated much more fairly. McKay noticed and quickly returned to the United States, where he made enemies with such leaders as W.E.B. Du Bois and Alain Locke (pg 1456). He made sure his voice was heard in this country and became a severely under recognized influence of the Harlem Renaissance movement.
McKay never got to go back to his homeland after moving to Harlem permanently. He moved to Chicago and died there a few years later. Yet his heart was never in the United States. My heart lies in Scotland. I hope that I am more fortunate than McKay; if I don’t get to go back, my life will be incomplete. McKay kept Jamaica in his mind and heart by writing about it, incorporating it into a little of everything. His homeland influenced him more than any of ours impacts us.
Works Cited
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=4573
The Norton Anthology of American Literature Between the Wars 1914-1945, Sixth Edition, Volume D
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
Home is Where the Pen is
It has long been said that any good writer can only write about what he or she knows. What we know best is our home. Every leaf on every tree, the street sign's colors, the neighbor's houses are all ingrained into our brains for life. This is the same for William Carlos Williams. He wrote not about his home but rather incorporated a little of it into every one of his poems.
William Carlos Williams was born in Rutherford, just outside of Paterson, New Jersey. Paterson is the place of our focus. Paterson was founded in 1792 indirectly by Alexander Hamilton as a hub of water falls. It soon became known as the "silk city" for its massive output of the material. Not too much longer after that, Paterson sprouted as a massive factory locale. What Paterson is most known for, however, is not its accomplishments but the people it turned out and the writings spun around the third largest town in New Jersey.
Paterson was the birth place of not only William Carlos Williams but also to two other major poets: Allen Ginsberg and Simon Perchik. The first was one of the first beat poets and one of the most influential voices of the Postmodernism movement. Ginsberg was very vocal in his activism and stood up for, among other things, Gay Rights, Free Speech, and NAMBLA. Ginsberg wrote "Howl," which is still read in High Schools around the country. Simon Perchik, on the other hand, is much less controversial. He is an ex-lawyer who served in the military, Ginsberg's polar opposite. Perchik still writes poetry about his hometown.
Paterson mainly played role as setting for two other semi-random authors. It was the setting of Junot Diaz's short story that won her the Pulitzer. For John Updike, Paterson was the setting for his short story "In the Beauty of the Lillies." The most famous work, though, lies with William Carlos Williams and his five book poem with the title of the town.
Thus, the town was clearly important to William Carlos Williams. His family history is quite skewed, not based out of just one place. "His maternal grandmother, an Englishwoman deserted by her husband, had come to America with her son, married again, and moved to Puerto Rico. Her son – William’s father – married a woman descended on one side from French Basque people, on the other from Dutch Jews. This mix of origins always fascinated Wiliams and made him feel that he was different from what he thought of as mainstream Americans" (pg 1263). This only helped Williams to separate himself from the average people. He was raised mainly by his mother and grandmother as well, which also played well into his poetry. In his work, any woman is portrayed "as an earth mother, whom men require for completion and whose reason for being is to supply that completeness" (pg 1263). Thus, home is where the heart is and his heart was not only in with his family but with the town that nurtured him, Paterson, New Jersey.
Works Cited
The Norton Anthology of American Literature Between the Wars 1914-1945, Sixth Edition, Volume D
http://www.patersonnj.gov/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paterson,_New_Jersey
William Carlos Williams was born in Rutherford, just outside of Paterson, New Jersey. Paterson is the place of our focus. Paterson was founded in 1792 indirectly by Alexander Hamilton as a hub of water falls. It soon became known as the "silk city" for its massive output of the material. Not too much longer after that, Paterson sprouted as a massive factory locale. What Paterson is most known for, however, is not its accomplishments but the people it turned out and the writings spun around the third largest town in New Jersey.
Paterson was the birth place of not only William Carlos Williams but also to two other major poets: Allen Ginsberg and Simon Perchik. The first was one of the first beat poets and one of the most influential voices of the Postmodernism movement. Ginsberg was very vocal in his activism and stood up for, among other things, Gay Rights, Free Speech, and NAMBLA. Ginsberg wrote "Howl," which is still read in High Schools around the country. Simon Perchik, on the other hand, is much less controversial. He is an ex-lawyer who served in the military, Ginsberg's polar opposite. Perchik still writes poetry about his hometown.
Paterson mainly played role as setting for two other semi-random authors. It was the setting of Junot Diaz's short story that won her the Pulitzer. For John Updike, Paterson was the setting for his short story "In the Beauty of the Lillies." The most famous work, though, lies with William Carlos Williams and his five book poem with the title of the town.
Thus, the town was clearly important to William Carlos Williams. His family history is quite skewed, not based out of just one place. "His maternal grandmother, an Englishwoman deserted by her husband, had come to America with her son, married again, and moved to Puerto Rico. Her son – William’s father – married a woman descended on one side from French Basque people, on the other from Dutch Jews. This mix of origins always fascinated Wiliams and made him feel that he was different from what he thought of as mainstream Americans" (pg 1263). This only helped Williams to separate himself from the average people. He was raised mainly by his mother and grandmother as well, which also played well into his poetry. In his work, any woman is portrayed "as an earth mother, whom men require for completion and whose reason for being is to supply that completeness" (pg 1263). Thus, home is where the heart is and his heart was not only in with his family but with the town that nurtured him, Paterson, New Jersey.
Works Cited
The Norton Anthology of American Literature Between the Wars 1914-1945, Sixth Edition, Volume D
http://www.patersonnj.gov/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paterson,_New_Jersey
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Tartlet
When I was much younger and much more naive than I am now, my mother told me that words were exhaustible. She said that if I said any given word too many times I would not be able to say that word any longer. Being the smart-ass that I was, I tested this theory. "Cat, cat, cat," I proclaimed loudly for two days straight. When I awoke on the third, I couldn't say it any longer. The word, which had meant so much to me before, now was meaningless. After saying the word so many times, it had worn out and my mind had developed a mental block to saying it. I walked around for day, sunken in a depression of realizing how useless words are as a form of communication. They don't stand alone as a generalization; they mean something unique to everyone else. This is precisely the idea explored by Gertrude Stein's quote. She said : “In Tender Buttons and then on and on I struggled with the ridding myself of nouns, I knew nouns must go in poetry as they had gone in prose if anything that is everything was to go on meaning something. And so I went on with this exceeding struggle of knowing really knowing what a thing was really knowing it knowing anything I was seeing anything I was feeling so that its name could be something, by its name coming to be a thing in itself as it was but would not be anything just and only as a name”(242). What this simply means to her is that words do not translate with the same meaning. She, like the younger version of me, used certain words repeatedly in the text to purposefully demonstrate their irrelevance. Each time she used the word was meant to felt different but, in reality, merely highlighted the incongruences of language. In the first three sections of "Objects" for example, the word "color" is used three times specifically, once a section. She brings out the word to show how color demonstrates several different things in our language, English, but can mean something totally different in, say, Italian.
Stein's work reads much like a drunk man's writing. That being said, both Hemingway and Fitzgerald, notorious drunkards, write more clearly than Stein. Her language is twisted, in some cases more clearly read backwards than left to right. Upon first reading the poetry of hers, one imagines this is a joke assignment, written perhaps by a stoned guy, as was demonstrated in F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Unfortunately, we are left without our Sugar O's to keep us from drowning. Stein's writing is full of meanings unexplained and meant to stun the reader. As was mentioned in a previous post, I am a huge LOST fan and I love puzzles. This piece of writing, however, is not a puzzle. It is a maze, designed to entrap the reader in a universe of confusion.
It took several days to undo my mental block of the word "cat." I have a nagging feeling that not even a lifetime of study could un-fog the writing of Tender Buttons.
Stein's work reads much like a drunk man's writing. That being said, both Hemingway and Fitzgerald, notorious drunkards, write more clearly than Stein. Her language is twisted, in some cases more clearly read backwards than left to right. Upon first reading the poetry of hers, one imagines this is a joke assignment, written perhaps by a stoned guy, as was demonstrated in F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Unfortunately, we are left without our Sugar O's to keep us from drowning. Stein's writing is full of meanings unexplained and meant to stun the reader. As was mentioned in a previous post, I am a huge LOST fan and I love puzzles. This piece of writing, however, is not a puzzle. It is a maze, designed to entrap the reader in a universe of confusion.
It took several days to undo my mental block of the word "cat." I have a nagging feeling that not even a lifetime of study could un-fog the writing of Tender Buttons.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Shakespeare's Wasteland
T.S. Eliot's most famous work, The Waste Land is one of the most famous works of modernism. Yet, Eliot draws from an author who defines classic literature. Within the Waste Land, no author's works are referenced more than those of William Shakespeare. Eliot either quotes or makes reference to Shakespeare's The Tempest, Antony and Cleopatra, and Hamlet in the poem's brief yet powerful sixteen pages.
The Tempest was believed to have been written in 1610 or 1611, when Shakespeare was writing The Winter's Tale. The play was first published in the first folio in 1623 along with thirty five additional works. The play itself revolves around Prospero, a magician of sorts, who has had his throne taken away. Prospero plays with the lives of people through the play. He leads three subplots. One involves love, another involves treachery, and the last beholds betrayal. The Tempest was not one of Shakespeare's more famous works until the mid eighteen hundreds, when it saw a brief revival. At the time Eliot wrote The Waste Land the play had more or less faded into the background in exchange for some of Shakespeare's more popular plays.
The date of Shakespeare's writing of Antony and Cleopatra is fuzzier than some of his other plays. It is believed that the play was written between 1603 and 1607. It, too, was published in the First Folio of 1623. The plot of Antony and Cleopatra is more of a history than The Tempest. This play focus on Marc Antony and Cleopatra, as one may deduce. This play is the first where Shakespeare shows a complex female character. He wrote her to break the stereotypes of the day, the first time he did so. This play was quite popular when T.S. Eliot was writing and would have been something he wouldn't have had to search far to find.
The final play mentioned by Eliot in his poem was the most famous of the three, Hamlet. Luckily enough, we have just completed this play in my Shakespeare class so it's history is easy to remember. Hamlet is a story of contradictory actions, familiar betrayal, and insanity. The play believed to have been written in 1602 and has widely been acknowledged as one of Shakespeare's most famous works. It was still famous when Shakespeare died and when Eliot was writing The Waste Land.
Each of these works played a subtle part in Eliot's most famous work. The first mentioned, The Tempest, has what can be called the most direct quoted line. In chapter one, the line "Those are pearls that were in his eyes," line 47, is taken directly from the text. It is a referrence from Ariel's song. Ariel was the tempest. The next Shakespearian reference is the Antony and Cleopatra one. It comes in chapter two, line one, "like a burnished throne." It is another direct quote, except this one is a partial text. It is not the complete line but rather a mention in passing, referring to Cleopatra herself. The final Shakespearian play discussed that holds mention in The Waste Land is the one of Hamlet, coming again in chapter two, line 172. The repeating of "Good night, ladies" comes from Ophelia, Hamlet's once lover, before her death. It is used in this case as well to represent death but one of a much more vulgar sort.
It is clear that Shakespeare played a role in Eliot's The Waste Land. It isn't until we look into the texts referenced by the poet do we see just how drastic of a difference the works made. Eliot used the plays as subtle clues into the true meaning of his cryptic play. Like a puzzle, they all fit together once we see the bigger picture.
Works Cited
http://poetry.suite101.com/article.cfm/the-waste-land-and-anthony-and-cleopatra
http://poetry.suite101.com/article.cfm/the-waste-land-and-hamlet
http://poetry.suite101.com/article.cfm/the-waste-land-and-the-tempest
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tempest
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antony_and_Cleopatra
The Tempest was believed to have been written in 1610 or 1611, when Shakespeare was writing The Winter's Tale. The play was first published in the first folio in 1623 along with thirty five additional works. The play itself revolves around Prospero, a magician of sorts, who has had his throne taken away. Prospero plays with the lives of people through the play. He leads three subplots. One involves love, another involves treachery, and the last beholds betrayal. The Tempest was not one of Shakespeare's more famous works until the mid eighteen hundreds, when it saw a brief revival. At the time Eliot wrote The Waste Land the play had more or less faded into the background in exchange for some of Shakespeare's more popular plays.
The date of Shakespeare's writing of Antony and Cleopatra is fuzzier than some of his other plays. It is believed that the play was written between 1603 and 1607. It, too, was published in the First Folio of 1623. The plot of Antony and Cleopatra is more of a history than The Tempest. This play focus on Marc Antony and Cleopatra, as one may deduce. This play is the first where Shakespeare shows a complex female character. He wrote her to break the stereotypes of the day, the first time he did so. This play was quite popular when T.S. Eliot was writing and would have been something he wouldn't have had to search far to find.
The final play mentioned by Eliot in his poem was the most famous of the three, Hamlet. Luckily enough, we have just completed this play in my Shakespeare class so it's history is easy to remember. Hamlet is a story of contradictory actions, familiar betrayal, and insanity. The play believed to have been written in 1602 and has widely been acknowledged as one of Shakespeare's most famous works. It was still famous when Shakespeare died and when Eliot was writing The Waste Land.
Each of these works played a subtle part in Eliot's most famous work. The first mentioned, The Tempest, has what can be called the most direct quoted line. In chapter one, the line "Those are pearls that were in his eyes," line 47, is taken directly from the text. It is a referrence from Ariel's song. Ariel was the tempest. The next Shakespearian reference is the Antony and Cleopatra one. It comes in chapter two, line one, "like a burnished throne." It is another direct quote, except this one is a partial text. It is not the complete line but rather a mention in passing, referring to Cleopatra herself. The final Shakespearian play discussed that holds mention in The Waste Land is the one of Hamlet, coming again in chapter two, line 172. The repeating of "Good night, ladies" comes from Ophelia, Hamlet's once lover, before her death. It is used in this case as well to represent death but one of a much more vulgar sort.
It is clear that Shakespeare played a role in Eliot's The Waste Land. It isn't until we look into the texts referenced by the poet do we see just how drastic of a difference the works made. Eliot used the plays as subtle clues into the true meaning of his cryptic play. Like a puzzle, they all fit together once we see the bigger picture.
Works Cited
http://poetry.suite101.com/article.cfm/the-waste-land-and-anthony-and-cleopatra
http://poetry.suite101.com/article.cfm/the-waste-land-and-hamlet
http://poetry.suite101.com/article.cfm/the-waste-land-and-the-tempest
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tempest
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antony_and_Cleopatra
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
History Forgotten
We all have our idols. They influence our lives, writing, thinking, and acts in ways we can't even comprehend. Their ideas bring people together and sometimes drive them apart. Jodi Picoult, J.K. Rowling, and Diana Gabaldon are just a few of the authors who changed my life. J.K. Rowling introduced me to higher thinking. She showed me, through Harry Potter, that it was okay to be a nerd and also okay to speculate about things that may not happen. I spent a good portion of my middle school years dreaming about what would happen in the end, if Harry would marry Hermione, etc. Diana Gabaldon writes about my country, about Scotland, and showed me that my destiny lies in the pages of Scottish history. Through her series, she managed to link Scotland and the U.S., proving that history is intertwined in ways we can't even imagine. Most recently, Jodi Picoult has shed light on me. She toured my high school and I had the privileged to show her around. Nine months later, in my favorite book of all time, a character emerged with my name. This really drove the nail into the proverbial coffin for me being a writer. I have been so positively (and occasionally negatively) influenced through writing that I feel it to be my duty to pay it forward. Thus, I completely understand Alice Walker's need to find out more about Zora Neale Hurston.
When Alice started her journey, Hurston was "one of the most significant unread authors in America" (Walker, 93). Hurston's book, Their Eyes Were Watching God was so influential in Walker's life that she wanted to learn more about the woman who wrote it. Walker traveled to Florida to try and find more details about this mysterious woman but found only more dead ends once arrived. "Most people [don't] know anything about Zora Neale Hurston" or "any of the great things she did," (Walker, pg 95) one school teacher told Walker. Not many of the town folk even knew Hurston wrote about them as well (pg 99).
Reading the article, Looking for Zora was almost depressing. Walker sets out on a journey of her idol's history and comes up short at almost every turn. She doesn't even know for sure where Hurston was buried. Walker feels a sadness beyond anything she can describe when she found the area where Hurston most likely lays to this day. It was nothing more than a "field full of weeds" (Walker, pg 115). While Zora never mentioned fear of death in her writings, she surely deserved better than what she got. This was only 35 years ago yet it seems impossible that someone so influential could receive such an unjust end. Hurston influenced more than just Walker but Alice was the only one to do something about her unknown influence. She made an effort to get to know the past of the woman who made such a difference in her life. Honestly, if I wondered onto Jodi Picoult's grave some day and found it overgrown and unmarked, I would feel just as unjust as Walker must have.
Works Cited
Looking For Zora by Alice Walker
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
When Alice started her journey, Hurston was "one of the most significant unread authors in America" (Walker, 93). Hurston's book, Their Eyes Were Watching God was so influential in Walker's life that she wanted to learn more about the woman who wrote it. Walker traveled to Florida to try and find more details about this mysterious woman but found only more dead ends once arrived. "Most people [don't] know anything about Zora Neale Hurston" or "any of the great things she did," (Walker, pg 95) one school teacher told Walker. Not many of the town folk even knew Hurston wrote about them as well (pg 99).
Reading the article, Looking for Zora was almost depressing. Walker sets out on a journey of her idol's history and comes up short at almost every turn. She doesn't even know for sure where Hurston was buried. Walker feels a sadness beyond anything she can describe when she found the area where Hurston most likely lays to this day. It was nothing more than a "field full of weeds" (Walker, pg 115). While Zora never mentioned fear of death in her writings, she surely deserved better than what she got. This was only 35 years ago yet it seems impossible that someone so influential could receive such an unjust end. Hurston influenced more than just Walker but Alice was the only one to do something about her unknown influence. She made an effort to get to know the past of the woman who made such a difference in her life. Honestly, if I wondered onto Jodi Picoult's grave some day and found it overgrown and unmarked, I would feel just as unjust as Walker must have.
Works Cited
Looking For Zora by Alice Walker
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Colorblind
I have a confession to make. I am an addict. Not to drugs or drinking. I am addicted to LOST.
In the LOST Season 5 finale, The Incident, two men are sitting on a beach. One, named Jacob, is wearing a white shirt. The other, who's name we aren't given, is wearing black. The Man In Black, as he is known to fans, and Jacob talk for a few minutes when the Man In Black says, "Do you have any idea how badly I want to kill you?" We instantly assume that he, therefore, is the evil one and Jacob, in all white, is good. Since we did not know the name of the Man In Black, some people turned to the Bible and assumed it was the story of Jacob and Esau. The writers of the show are tricker than that, however. They told us not to assume that white represents good. This holds true for The Great Gatsby as well. White is used several times through the novel but whether or not it represents good is left for the reader to determine.
The first mention of white is not actually outright but a subtle reoccurrence throughout the novel. The two areas where the inhabitants of the novel dwell are known as West Egg and East Egg. There are some pink eggs, but the majority are white. To say that they live in Insert-Direction-Here Egg implies that their homes are located on delicate, innocent plots. An egg is an object that is both fragile and pure, capable of both producing new life or sustaining that which is already alive. This does not reflect correctly upon the actuality of the neighborhoods. The Eggs are places of controversy where nothing pure goes on. Lavish parties, affairs, laziness, and even death occur in the neighborhoods in the span of two hundred pages. The Eggs are anything but fragile and pure.
The next big white reference is another that is not outright...Daisy. Daisy's name implies purity, innocence,and delicacy. The flower was something on which to dote, a gift to a loved one. Daisy the character is nothing of the sort. She left Gatsby for Tom because Tom had more money and security. When Gatsby comes back around, she flitters back to him. Daisy values security more than love, as she proved throughout the novel. The first time we meet Daisy, she is wearing white but she is already guilty.
Tom is the next to be obsessed with the color white. When Nick, Daisy, Jordan, and Tom are all talking, Tom becomes obsessed with telling all about a book he read. It "talked about the Nordic race" (pg 19). No matter how desperately Daisy tries to steer the conversation away, Tom brings it back to his racist agenda.
There were many more blatant references to the color white in this novel. I chose to take a road less travelled and explore the whites right in front of our eyes that are often overlooked. When we look too far into certain details, we forget to see the forest. This is what the writers of LOST have been telling all the avid fans. I, unfortunately, am in too deep to start looking at the bigger picture. I can't just sit back and enjoy...I have to know what the Man In Black's name really is.
Referrences
http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Jacob's_nemesis
http://www.lesekost.de/amlit/HHL252C.htm
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
In the LOST Season 5 finale, The Incident, two men are sitting on a beach. One, named Jacob, is wearing a white shirt. The other, who's name we aren't given, is wearing black. The Man In Black, as he is known to fans, and Jacob talk for a few minutes when the Man In Black says, "Do you have any idea how badly I want to kill you?" We instantly assume that he, therefore, is the evil one and Jacob, in all white, is good. Since we did not know the name of the Man In Black, some people turned to the Bible and assumed it was the story of Jacob and Esau. The writers of the show are tricker than that, however. They told us not to assume that white represents good. This holds true for The Great Gatsby as well. White is used several times through the novel but whether or not it represents good is left for the reader to determine.
The first mention of white is not actually outright but a subtle reoccurrence throughout the novel. The two areas where the inhabitants of the novel dwell are known as West Egg and East Egg. There are some pink eggs, but the majority are white. To say that they live in Insert-Direction-Here Egg implies that their homes are located on delicate, innocent plots. An egg is an object that is both fragile and pure, capable of both producing new life or sustaining that which is already alive. This does not reflect correctly upon the actuality of the neighborhoods. The Eggs are places of controversy where nothing pure goes on. Lavish parties, affairs, laziness, and even death occur in the neighborhoods in the span of two hundred pages. The Eggs are anything but fragile and pure.
The next big white reference is another that is not outright...Daisy. Daisy's name implies purity, innocence,and delicacy. The flower was something on which to dote, a gift to a loved one. Daisy the character is nothing of the sort. She left Gatsby for Tom because Tom had more money and security. When Gatsby comes back around, she flitters back to him. Daisy values security more than love, as she proved throughout the novel. The first time we meet Daisy, she is wearing white but she is already guilty.
Tom is the next to be obsessed with the color white. When Nick, Daisy, Jordan, and Tom are all talking, Tom becomes obsessed with telling all about a book he read. It "talked about the Nordic race" (pg 19). No matter how desperately Daisy tries to steer the conversation away, Tom brings it back to his racist agenda.
There were many more blatant references to the color white in this novel. I chose to take a road less travelled and explore the whites right in front of our eyes that are often overlooked. When we look too far into certain details, we forget to see the forest. This is what the writers of LOST have been telling all the avid fans. I, unfortunately, am in too deep to start looking at the bigger picture. I can't just sit back and enjoy...I have to know what the Man In Black's name really is.
Referrences
http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Jacob's_nemesis
http://www.lesekost.de/amlit/HHL252C.htm
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Blog Review
I think my blog is off to a strong start. True, the first blog on Age of Innocence was kind of weak but it was the creative movie review. I really enjoyed writing both the Hemingway and poem blogs. It was fun to get a chance to explain the meaning behind what I wrote versus the meaning other people got from it. For example, someone told me they pictured a dead body when I really meant for there to be someone going to jail. The O' Pioneers blog was less fun and more forced. It was more of a struggle to write since I felt I had less of a grasp on that book's meanings. So far, I think my blogs deserve B-, B, A, A. I surpassed the requirements for word count and wrote sufficient articles proving my point as well as adding information from outside sources. Since this does not count as a blog as far as I know, it will not meet the word count!
Friday, February 19, 2010
The Noise off 10th and Broward
The Noise off 10th and Broward
A siren wails through the fog,
Another life is lost.
_______________________________
I wrote this poem after finding out that my brother's girlfriend was in labor. She was two weeks early but still delivered a beautiful baby girl. My niece. Francesca Jaylan Adam. It made me think about all the bad happening on the day a new life was started. How many peoples' lives were ending on this day? And from there, we get the poem.
To understand the poem, we must first understand the title. 10th and Broward is where my parents live, in downtown Fort Lauderdale. They recently moved there. It's a beautiful, affluent neighborhood near an even better one. The people are mostly gay (literally and following the actual definition). It is a rather enjoyable neighborhood. Those who live in South Florida know where it is. That is why I thought it would make the best setting. It is not a place associated with crime or sirens.
In class, people hypothesized the siren being for an ambulance. I must admit that when writing I thought it to be more of a police car. The scene I saw was a drug dealer getting busted by the cops, his life being lost because the remainder of it would be spent behind bars. But it could be an ambulance that did not get to the place fast enough, or a person inches from death who couldn't be pulled back.
My rough draft had only two other lines:
A siren wails through the fog,
Another life is lost.
But who's to say the one caught
won't be found?
The lines were cut due to lack of poetic value. The poem seems more stable without them than it does with. The last line adds a glimmer of hope, something that either takes away from the death theory or makes it religious, something I definitely did not intend.
My imagery was not very strong. Kelsey Billings said that she imagined a foggy night with a man standing over a dead body, holding a bloody knife. This seems to be too Jack the Ripper for this poem. It is meant to be more modern than that, and a lot less violent. Imagery is supposed to paint a clear picture of what the author wanted you to see. It is supposed to make it so the reader sees through the author's eyes and understands perfectly. This is not the case with me. The poem is left open to interpretation so broadly that the subject is even debatable. I paint several pictures with only ten words.
The poem could certainly be improved upon. I could spend days editing it, picking more accurate words to use or making more of a backstory for the character. But that would not be true to the intent. The poem is meant to let the reader see what he or she wishes, not what I had wanted them to see. Poetry is supposed to be in the eye of the beholder so behold, world, I give you the poem of a non-poet.
A siren wails through the fog,
Another life is lost.
_______________________________
I wrote this poem after finding out that my brother's girlfriend was in labor. She was two weeks early but still delivered a beautiful baby girl. My niece. Francesca Jaylan Adam. It made me think about all the bad happening on the day a new life was started. How many peoples' lives were ending on this day? And from there, we get the poem.
To understand the poem, we must first understand the title. 10th and Broward is where my parents live, in downtown Fort Lauderdale. They recently moved there. It's a beautiful, affluent neighborhood near an even better one. The people are mostly gay (literally and following the actual definition). It is a rather enjoyable neighborhood. Those who live in South Florida know where it is. That is why I thought it would make the best setting. It is not a place associated with crime or sirens.
In class, people hypothesized the siren being for an ambulance. I must admit that when writing I thought it to be more of a police car. The scene I saw was a drug dealer getting busted by the cops, his life being lost because the remainder of it would be spent behind bars. But it could be an ambulance that did not get to the place fast enough, or a person inches from death who couldn't be pulled back.
My rough draft had only two other lines:
A siren wails through the fog,
Another life is lost.
But who's to say the one caught
won't be found?
The lines were cut due to lack of poetic value. The poem seems more stable without them than it does with. The last line adds a glimmer of hope, something that either takes away from the death theory or makes it religious, something I definitely did not intend.
My imagery was not very strong. Kelsey Billings said that she imagined a foggy night with a man standing over a dead body, holding a bloody knife. This seems to be too Jack the Ripper for this poem. It is meant to be more modern than that, and a lot less violent. Imagery is supposed to paint a clear picture of what the author wanted you to see. It is supposed to make it so the reader sees through the author's eyes and understands perfectly. This is not the case with me. The poem is left open to interpretation so broadly that the subject is even debatable. I paint several pictures with only ten words.
The poem could certainly be improved upon. I could spend days editing it, picking more accurate words to use or making more of a backstory for the character. But that would not be true to the intent. The poem is meant to let the reader see what he or she wishes, not what I had wanted them to see. Poetry is supposed to be in the eye of the beholder so behold, world, I give you the poem of a non-poet.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Blurring the Lines
In today's society, the roles of men and women are interchangeable. Women are no longer restrained to their sphere. They have their own careers, some not starting a family until they are well into their thirties. Men can stay at home with the children. They can be nurses, secretaries, and house maids. Conversely, women can fight in the armed forces, be doctors, lawyers, judges of the Supreme Court, hold high office, etc. The roles are very blended. Hemingway wrote in a similar light. While he didn't have the women doing the jobs of the men, he certainly had the women acting manly while many of his men were impotent. This portrayal is best shown in his novel The Sun Also Rises. Hemingway makes Brett Ashley a much more manly woman, and makes Jake partake in very manly man activities yet emasculates him time after time.
Brett Ashley is first introduced to us as she approaches a bar, not a very feminine thing to do. She then orders a drink not typically had by women. What surprises the reader the first time around is how calmly she reacts to people around her. She laughs off insults and continues on her way. Brett is described as having hair "brushed back like a boy's" (pg 30) and she is "build with curves like the hull of a racing yacht" (pg 30). She is clearly not making herself up to be feminine but rather to try and come off as one of the guys. Throughout the entire novel, Brett is drinking and sleeping around, not the typical actions of a lady in this time. She acts more like a man, unattached and carefree from both responsibility and life itself. She acts in a polar opposite from Jake.
Another aspect which Hemingway is famous for and exemplifies in Jake is the impotency. Hemingway himself suffered a war wound and both of the characters in his biggest novels, The Sun Also Rises and For Whom the Bell Tolls are unable to do certain things which many men like to do. In the early chapters, Jake tells Georgette that he's "sick" (pg 23) and later on says that he "got hurt in the war" (pg 24). He has to embarrass himself to tell other people that he can't have sex because it doesn't work. This is something Hemingway had to deal with and projected upon his male characters. Hemingway, like Jake, tries to make up for this by partaking in masculine activities.
Jake is very emasculated yet Hemingway tries to make up for this by making Jake do very manly things. To understand the manly things Jake does, we must first take a look at the things Hemingway considered most masculine. In some of his other works, namely the Nick Adams stories, Hemingway has his main characters fish and hunt. In Big Two-Hearted River, one of Hemingway's best known Nick Adams stories, Nick spends the majority of the time fishing on his own. In all of Heminway's stories involving fishing, there is a significant amount of male bonding going on. This is considered a time when men can be men and have uninterrupted time together to bond. In the Nick Adams stories, Nick and his friend, Bill, are still debated to be gay lovers. In The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway has Jake go bull fighting, a sport Hemingway believes is only for the manliest of men. He also has Jake fish and try to compensate for his disability.
Clearly, sexuality is skewed in this novel. Hemingway didn't fully understand gender roles and neither do any of his characters. Jake is more of a girlfriend to Brett than a lover, even if their love making is insinuated. Hemingway blurs the lines between man and woman very well, which makes him a modern author remembered nearly ninety years after first coming on to the scene.
Works Cited
Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises. Scribner, 2006. New York, New York.
http://books.google.com/books?id=RH1ddAFQwDAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=nick+adams+stories&source=bl&ots=tMyG2dI5-N&sig=heuPdSStjrlZfLGtN9YNavsKwqI&hl=en&ei=uCJvS9IJ1o62B-679f8F&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CCQQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=&f=false
Brett Ashley is first introduced to us as she approaches a bar, not a very feminine thing to do. She then orders a drink not typically had by women. What surprises the reader the first time around is how calmly she reacts to people around her. She laughs off insults and continues on her way. Brett is described as having hair "brushed back like a boy's" (pg 30) and she is "build with curves like the hull of a racing yacht" (pg 30). She is clearly not making herself up to be feminine but rather to try and come off as one of the guys. Throughout the entire novel, Brett is drinking and sleeping around, not the typical actions of a lady in this time. She acts more like a man, unattached and carefree from both responsibility and life itself. She acts in a polar opposite from Jake.
Another aspect which Hemingway is famous for and exemplifies in Jake is the impotency. Hemingway himself suffered a war wound and both of the characters in his biggest novels, The Sun Also Rises and For Whom the Bell Tolls are unable to do certain things which many men like to do. In the early chapters, Jake tells Georgette that he's "sick" (pg 23) and later on says that he "got hurt in the war" (pg 24). He has to embarrass himself to tell other people that he can't have sex because it doesn't work. This is something Hemingway had to deal with and projected upon his male characters. Hemingway, like Jake, tries to make up for this by partaking in masculine activities.
Jake is very emasculated yet Hemingway tries to make up for this by making Jake do very manly things. To understand the manly things Jake does, we must first take a look at the things Hemingway considered most masculine. In some of his other works, namely the Nick Adams stories, Hemingway has his main characters fish and hunt. In Big Two-Hearted River, one of Hemingway's best known Nick Adams stories, Nick spends the majority of the time fishing on his own. In all of Heminway's stories involving fishing, there is a significant amount of male bonding going on. This is considered a time when men can be men and have uninterrupted time together to bond. In the Nick Adams stories, Nick and his friend, Bill, are still debated to be gay lovers. In The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway has Jake go bull fighting, a sport Hemingway believes is only for the manliest of men. He also has Jake fish and try to compensate for his disability.
Clearly, sexuality is skewed in this novel. Hemingway didn't fully understand gender roles and neither do any of his characters. Jake is more of a girlfriend to Brett than a lover, even if their love making is insinuated. Hemingway blurs the lines between man and woman very well, which makes him a modern author remembered nearly ninety years after first coming on to the scene.
Works Cited
Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises. Scribner, 2006. New York, New York.
http://books.google.com/books?id=RH1ddAFQwDAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=nick+adams+stories&source=bl&ots=tMyG2dI5-N&sig=heuPdSStjrlZfLGtN9YNavsKwqI&hl=en&ei=uCJvS9IJ1o62B-679f8F&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CCQQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=&f=false
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
O'Pioneers is Still Modern
On the back of the copy of my novel it is stated that Willa Cather is "one of America's greatest women writers." This being said, many writers have not even heard of her. I certainly had not. Upon reading her most famous novel, O Pioneers!, I can say that she certainly is one of the most relevant of this period. Her writings on the pioneer lifestyle of the premiere generations of farmers trying to tame the wild land of the west still reflects, to a certain point, the struggles of modern farmers. The relevancy of the book is demonstrated through several ideas, including the struggle against the land to grow crops where very little life exists, the idea of families stay on the farms for generations, and the techniques being guarded for generations as the most valuable things the family has claim over.
The first aspect of O Pioneers! that carries over to modern day is the idea of having to fight to succeed, especially against the land. My grandfather is a farmer in New Hampshire. He gave up the life of prosperity and luxury to do something he really loves. He grows his own food through a relatively small garden and uses the animals to procure the land. This is the life hundreds of thousands of immigrants envisioned for themselves back at the turn of the 20th century. They wanted to have a life of peace and solidarity within a community of people who help each other out. The sense of community is best demonstrated by the community coming forward to help Emil when his kitten climbs up a pole on page 5. The whole of the town comes out to help Emil get his kitten back. This scene shows what a community this city is. Carl, another boy, immediately climbs the pole to get the kitten down. The sense of family goes beyond the actual family. This idea is also shown by John Bergson's desire to cultivate the land. On page 14, John's story is told of how he "spent his first five years on the Divide getting into debt, and the last six getting out." He was willing to sacrifice it all to give his family a better life, a common principal amongst farmers and immigrants at this time.
The thought of someone breaking away from this tight knit community at this time was considered preposterous. When Emil goes away to school, he knows it is only to return to the farm a few years later. There is an option to stay in the city, an option that was taken by someone in their family. One of John Bergson's younger brothers had long ago "given up the fight" and "gone back to Chicago" (pg 14). It is not a foreign concept, to return to the big cities, but it is one looked down upon. This is why the brothers are so surprised when Alexandra welcomes Carl back with arms wide open. He went out, tried the real world, and returned to the farm life expecting to pick up where he left off. Once one has left the farm, they are not easily welcomed back.
When John Bergson is on his death bed, he calls in his daughter to entrust her with the secrets of farming the land. The techniques of farming are held close to the chest. While Crazy Ivan is willing to tell Alexandra what he feels will work on the land, he would not tell this to just anyone. Ivan gives Alexandra advice that allows her animals alone to survive the harsh season. As was demonstrated by John, these trade secrets are passed on to children only. Crazy Ivan, who had no children, considered Alexandra worthy of knowing his family's secrets. This is a huge honor, something that is not lost on Alexandra.
All three of these tie into the modern farming issues. Every year, peoples' crops are killed from the land's inability to be tamed. Even this year in Florida, a frost so brutal came unexpected and claimed many citrus fruits from unsuspecting farmers. To say that we have the climate under control is delusional. Families are still expected to help out on the farms. My uncle dropped out of high school to help on the farm when he was in the ninth grade. When he told my grandfather five years later that he was not going to stay on the farm, my grandfather was heart broken. All of his children moved away. His grandchildren, myself mainly, go and visit to try and learn from him before the traditions are lost. All over the country, this is becoming all to common a practice. For these reasons, and many more, O Pioneers! is a very relevant modernist piece that should be enjoyed by people for generations both now and to come.
Works Cited
Cather, Willa. O Pioneers!. Bantam Books, July 2008: New York, New York.
My Grandfather's history, as told by Paul Edward Glazer.
The first aspect of O Pioneers! that carries over to modern day is the idea of having to fight to succeed, especially against the land. My grandfather is a farmer in New Hampshire. He gave up the life of prosperity and luxury to do something he really loves. He grows his own food through a relatively small garden and uses the animals to procure the land. This is the life hundreds of thousands of immigrants envisioned for themselves back at the turn of the 20th century. They wanted to have a life of peace and solidarity within a community of people who help each other out. The sense of community is best demonstrated by the community coming forward to help Emil when his kitten climbs up a pole on page 5. The whole of the town comes out to help Emil get his kitten back. This scene shows what a community this city is. Carl, another boy, immediately climbs the pole to get the kitten down. The sense of family goes beyond the actual family. This idea is also shown by John Bergson's desire to cultivate the land. On page 14, John's story is told of how he "spent his first five years on the Divide getting into debt, and the last six getting out." He was willing to sacrifice it all to give his family a better life, a common principal amongst farmers and immigrants at this time.
The thought of someone breaking away from this tight knit community at this time was considered preposterous. When Emil goes away to school, he knows it is only to return to the farm a few years later. There is an option to stay in the city, an option that was taken by someone in their family. One of John Bergson's younger brothers had long ago "given up the fight" and "gone back to Chicago" (pg 14). It is not a foreign concept, to return to the big cities, but it is one looked down upon. This is why the brothers are so surprised when Alexandra welcomes Carl back with arms wide open. He went out, tried the real world, and returned to the farm life expecting to pick up where he left off. Once one has left the farm, they are not easily welcomed back.
When John Bergson is on his death bed, he calls in his daughter to entrust her with the secrets of farming the land. The techniques of farming are held close to the chest. While Crazy Ivan is willing to tell Alexandra what he feels will work on the land, he would not tell this to just anyone. Ivan gives Alexandra advice that allows her animals alone to survive the harsh season. As was demonstrated by John, these trade secrets are passed on to children only. Crazy Ivan, who had no children, considered Alexandra worthy of knowing his family's secrets. This is a huge honor, something that is not lost on Alexandra.
All three of these tie into the modern farming issues. Every year, peoples' crops are killed from the land's inability to be tamed. Even this year in Florida, a frost so brutal came unexpected and claimed many citrus fruits from unsuspecting farmers. To say that we have the climate under control is delusional. Families are still expected to help out on the farms. My uncle dropped out of high school to help on the farm when he was in the ninth grade. When he told my grandfather five years later that he was not going to stay on the farm, my grandfather was heart broken. All of his children moved away. His grandchildren, myself mainly, go and visit to try and learn from him before the traditions are lost. All over the country, this is becoming all to common a practice. For these reasons, and many more, O Pioneers! is a very relevant modernist piece that should be enjoyed by people for generations both now and to come.
Works Cited
Cather, Willa. O Pioneers!. Bantam Books, July 2008: New York, New York.
My Grandfather's history, as told by Paul Edward Glazer.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
The Victorian Era: A Time Not Missed
Very few exciting things happened in America during the end of the Victorian Era. The society of 1870 New York was centered around scandal, love, marriage, tea parties, vacations, clothes, and, of course, affairs. Edith Wharton's novel, The Age of Innocence very accurately portrays this era. The movie does an even better job, boring the audience enough to show how dull it truly was while simultaneously bringing characters the viewer becomes invested in.
When we first meet Archer and his bride to be May, we are instantly shown just how dull their lives are. They are courting through their families and have never really gotten a chance to see if things work. Regardless, Archer proposes. Soon after, May's cousin Ellen arrives and causes the controversy of the movie. Their love affair turns Ellen into the supposed villain, trying to seduce the innocent husband. Yet, for some reason, we still like Ellen. Why is this? Ellen plays a flawed woman who knows her flaws yet wants to be better. This is something most women can admit to and all women can relate to. Michelle Pfeiffer does a great job showing us this discontent with her self yet still holding on to the hope that change is possible.
Archer, played by Daniel Day-Lewis, shows the conflict from an even more heartbreaking point of view. He is in love with Ellen but loves May. He is always our main character and, therefore, the one we are supposed to agree with the most. Trouble is, it's hard to agree with someone's choice if they themselves cannot decide. Daniel Day-Lewis does a fantastic job showing this inner strife, this coming from a critic of most of his work.
May, played by Winona Ryder, is the average housewife. As a young girl, she aspires to marry someone like Archer, expecting it to be this romantic voyage two people take. Unfortunately, her marriage is not. The audience is compelled to pity her story yet we still feel more for Archer. Archer does not deserve our emotion because he is not only cheating on his wife, he is maintaining the affair behind her back for several years.
Martin Scorsese's piece has great lighting for the era. It appropriately shows the decor and clothing of the era. The horse drawn buggies in the movie seem as if they could be strolling down the street. New York is depicted as the calm before the modern storm it is today. The tension of the city accurately reflects upon the tension of the affair. Gossip, rampant in today's society with technology, was just as furious through word of mouth.
It is clear that much thought went into the production of this movie. Although it is nearly seventeen years old, the movie is still a piece shown in many classrooms as a lead in to modern literature. The frustration of the characters and depiction of the boring public lives led helps the movie viewer go back one hundred and thirty years to a time when living was dull. However, this movie shows us the insiders view of the truth behind the mask, of the evils of assumption, and the heart wrenching story of a man who made all the wrong decisions regarding love.
When we first meet Archer and his bride to be May, we are instantly shown just how dull their lives are. They are courting through their families and have never really gotten a chance to see if things work. Regardless, Archer proposes. Soon after, May's cousin Ellen arrives and causes the controversy of the movie. Their love affair turns Ellen into the supposed villain, trying to seduce the innocent husband. Yet, for some reason, we still like Ellen. Why is this? Ellen plays a flawed woman who knows her flaws yet wants to be better. This is something most women can admit to and all women can relate to. Michelle Pfeiffer does a great job showing us this discontent with her self yet still holding on to the hope that change is possible.
Archer, played by Daniel Day-Lewis, shows the conflict from an even more heartbreaking point of view. He is in love with Ellen but loves May. He is always our main character and, therefore, the one we are supposed to agree with the most. Trouble is, it's hard to agree with someone's choice if they themselves cannot decide. Daniel Day-Lewis does a fantastic job showing this inner strife, this coming from a critic of most of his work.
May, played by Winona Ryder, is the average housewife. As a young girl, she aspires to marry someone like Archer, expecting it to be this romantic voyage two people take. Unfortunately, her marriage is not. The audience is compelled to pity her story yet we still feel more for Archer. Archer does not deserve our emotion because he is not only cheating on his wife, he is maintaining the affair behind her back for several years.
Martin Scorsese's piece has great lighting for the era. It appropriately shows the decor and clothing of the era. The horse drawn buggies in the movie seem as if they could be strolling down the street. New York is depicted as the calm before the modern storm it is today. The tension of the city accurately reflects upon the tension of the affair. Gossip, rampant in today's society with technology, was just as furious through word of mouth.
It is clear that much thought went into the production of this movie. Although it is nearly seventeen years old, the movie is still a piece shown in many classrooms as a lead in to modern literature. The frustration of the characters and depiction of the boring public lives led helps the movie viewer go back one hundred and thirty years to a time when living was dull. However, this movie shows us the insiders view of the truth behind the mask, of the evils of assumption, and the heart wrenching story of a man who made all the wrong decisions regarding love.
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