Recent Entries

Blog #10

Part One:
The authors Boland and Dove, of the poems "The Pomegranate" and "Persephone, Falling" respectively, use the myth of Persephone to convey to their audiences very different messages. Although their poems are very different from one another, their interpretations of the myth make sense and both hold validity. In "The Pomegranate" Boland begins by reflecting how relevant the myth of Persephone is in the life of the narrator. She was first "an exiled child" and experiencing the world such as a young Persephone, and then switched roles to develop the more motherly point of view of Ceres. In regards to raising her daughter, she believes that her daughter's wisdom will come to fruition by learning from her own mistakes. By not interfering in her daughter's life and letting her develop down her own path, the narrator hopes that "the legend will be [her daughter's] as well as [her own.] This connection is all she could hope for.
Dove's poem "Persephone, Falling," is a much shorter and to-the-point warning of the trap that can be experienced when growing up. As the title simply, but brilliantly explains, every child has the chance to 'fall' like Persephone did into the underworld. Instead of letting your child grow and learn from the mistakes they make, the speaker in this poem sends a warning in order to avoid "how easily the pit opens" and have "one foot [sink] into the ground." The poem does not want the child to experience the traumatic events that Persephone did, and therefore lays out rules of avoidance. Both of these poems raise valid points and both are correct, although very different interpretations of the myth of Persephone.

Part Two:
Icarus was the son of the imprisoned craftsman Daedalus. Daedalus wanted his son to fly because he could no longer live out this dream of escaping himself. He made Icarus a pair of wings made of feathers and wax. Before the flight he warned Icarus not to fly near the sun because the wings would not be able to handle the heat. However, Icarus got too excited during his flight and flew near the sun, thus melting the wax and causing him to fall to his own death in the sea. In the poem "Musee dee Beaux Arts," Auden uses the myth of Icarus to show that life goes on during tragic times. Although Icarus was falling to his death because of his own mistake, life did not stop.
Unlike the myth of Ceres and Persephone, where Ceres morned and avoided living six months of the year, the myth of Icarus presents real life circumstances. Just because your life has been stuck with grief, the world does not stop to wait for you; you must find a way to catch up.

Blog #9

Part One:
I think the title of "The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock" is used as a great ironic introduction to the man portrayed in the poem. The title is the only place where we learn the name of the character the poem is about because the poem is written from a first person point of view. The reader might assume, because of the nature of love songs, that the poem will be about romance or love in some form. Upon reading the title for the first time I thought the poem would be about the happy love that J Alfred Prufrock experienced in his life. The irony becomes apparent upon reading the third line in the poem: "like a patient etherized upon a table."(3) Because the title is so light hearted, this line shocked me and made me ask questions of what this poem might be about. The irony between the title and the content of the poem made me more interested in reading it right to the end. Prufrock describes himself as a man with little confidence who is very self-aware and conscious of what others think of him. When he physically describes himself, he predicts what women in particular will think about him: "[They will say: 'But how his arms and legs are thin!'] Do I dare. Disturb the universe?"(44) This also displays his views towards women. His descriptions of women often illustrate them to be uneducated and untrustworthy, and people he doesn't have must respect for. The line "in the room the women come and go, talking of Michelangelo,"(13) is repeated twice and can illustrate Prufrock's thinking that women aren't around for long and fake their knowledge in order to get what they want. Through the descriptions of "yellow fog,"(15) yellow smoke,"(16) "dusk,"(70) and "the wind blow[ing] the water white and black,"(28) a deary setting lingers as the poem is read. This also adds to the irony of the cheery title.

Part 2:
The myth of Demeter and Persephone explains the changing seasons and the crop cycle. Demeter was the sister of Zeus and she controlled the harvest. She had the ability to ruin the crops if she got mad. Persephone was her daughter who was kidnapped by Hades, the uncle and God of the Underworld. There was a legend that if you ate while in the Underworld, you could not leave. Persephone grew hungry however, and ate some pomegranate seeds. Zeus, not wanting the crops to die, struck a deal with Hades, that upon marriage Persephone could return to Earth for six months as long as she was the Queen of the Underworld for the other six. Every fall Demeter would cry when her daughter left Earth, therefore killing the crops and beginning the winter season. The universal theme that comes across in this myth is the love that a mother holds for her daughter that never changes. Even though Persephone is married and each year growing older, the heartache of losing your child never escapes you. A mother's love for her child is unbreakable and Demeter is willing to risk the crops to morn, until her daughter returns to her every year.
http://greece.mrdonn.org/greekgods/demeter.html

Blog #8

Part 1:
Seasmus Heaney uses an extended metaphor in the poem "Digging" to illustrate the barrier between a son and father. The poem opens and closes with very similar words, though through the depth of the poem they equate to very different things. "Between my finger and my thumb, The squat pen rests; snug as a gun." (1-2) Although the son's father and grandfather were manual labourers, the son has chosen to stray from their line of work and become a writer. The expression of the pen being a gun might suggest the disappointment he faces from other family members by not following the families heritage and becoming a farmer/ manual worker himself. The son, however, appears to think of himself as superior to his father because of his new career choice; "My father, digging. I look down. (5) The act of digging in the poem could represent the metaphor of new beginnings. Although the son and father have different opinions about life choices, the digging could illustrate trying to find common ground. The son reminisces about being a child and bringing milk to his grandfather as he worked hard to provide for his family. The line "corked sloppily with paper," (20) alludes and ties in the fact that he will not end up a manual labourer, but a writer, making his money off of pens and paper. The son has bad memories of the "smell of potato mould, (25) which leads to the conclusion that you expect after reading his earlier lines, "I've no spade to follow men like them." (28) The last lines of the poem, as stated earlier, are almost the same as the opening lines, with one exception, the pen still rests, but now, "[he'll] dig with it." (31)

Part 2:
If anyone is interested, this is Sylvia Plath reading 'Daddy' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hHjctqSBwM

Sylvia Plath's life was short and complicated. Her death was self-inflicted and tragic at the age of 30. She was the single mother of two children, after her marriage dissolved due to infidelity after seven years. The complicated relationship with her father, as well as her earlier attempts at suicide are documented in her poem "Daddy."
Jeanette Winterson wrote, "There is no autobiography; there is only art and lies." After reading the quote from Plath that I have included below, I believe that Sylvia would have agreed with Winterson. Her poems were weaved with truths about her life, but were manipulated in order for her to think of them as relevant.

"I think my poems immediately come out of the sensuous and emotional experiences I have, but I must say I cannot sympathise with these cries from the heart that are informed by nothing except a needle or a knife, or whatever it is. I believe that one should be able to control and manipulate experiences, even the most terrific, like madness, being tortured, this sort of experience, and one should be able to manipulate these experiences with an informed and an intelligent mind I think that personal experience is very important, but certainly it shouldn't be a kind of shut-box and mirror looking, narcissistic experience. I believe it should be relevant."
http://www.sylviaplath.de/plath/orrinterview.html

Blog #7

Part 1:
Antigone and Creon both poses the ability to be perceived as the tragic hero of the play. Creon was born into royalty and took the place at the crown. The play opens while he is in the midsts of this transition period. In his attempt to gain admiration and interest from the public, he threatens and then destroys his private relationships. "I'm not the man, not now: she is the man if this victory goes to her and she goes free. Never! Sister's child or closer in blood...she'll never escape."(541) The threat against his masculinity and pride is enough for him to lose his son, Antigone and his wife forever. Although Creon may not seem worthy of concern, the situation that he endures in the end can have a sympathetic affect on the reader or viewer of the play. Even though his tragedy was inflicted upon himself, he couldn't have known the consequences. Antigone is also born into royalty, as her father used to be the king. Her flaw however it a bit more up for interpretation. Her error could be going against Creon's orders and disobeying the law, however, in her opinion she was only doing the right thing. Some may peg her flaw as being overly prideful but in her pride she expected death, so this is hard to argue as her flaw. "And even if I die in the act, that death will be a glory. I'll lie with the one I love and loved by him." (86) Her eventual death leads to the death of two other people. Antigone is the protagonist of the story, therefore it is easy to sympathize her case and her argument towards the burial of her brother. Simply changing the title of the play could change the view point of the play for me, without changing any of the words. It would create influence on Creon's role and thus might change readers or viewers opinion of him. For the story to remain affective, in my opinion it could not be called Creon.

Part 2:
About.com says that an extended metaphor is "a comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph or in lines in a poem."
There are many extended metaphors that last many sentences in the reading Obasan. "Grief has roamed like a highwayman down the channels of her body with its dynamite and its weapons blowing up every moment of relief that tried to make its way down the road. It grew rich off the unburied corpses inside her body." (4) Joy Kogawa's use of extended metaphors helps relay the grief that Obasan has been living with for many years. This particular quote draws imagines surrounding the trials Obasan has faced in her life and the discomfort they have left her with.

Blog #6

Part 1:
Literature for me has always been a daunting thing to read as I have always struggled reading into things. In the past I have had a hard time delving deeper into the underline message that the author was trying to convey to the reader. Studying literature in this course has really opened my eyes to how simple it can be to get meaning out of literature. By using techniques such as binaries, images, and theme, it has become easier for me and more interesting to uncover the subtle messages that the author uses. I have also loved reading other peoples thoughts and opinions that you don't normally get to read in an on-campus course. Like others have said, online courses do present the opportunity to fall behind, or sometimes feel lost as you encounter new things alone, however this course has been awesome at tackling this problem. I feel there is a great group of individuals in this class for support.

Part 2:
Hamartia- Leads to the fall of a noble man, due to some excess or mistake in behaviour
Eg. Creon's ignorance in not burying both brothers causes the hamartia that leads to the death of Antigone.
Hubris- Actions that embarrasses a victim for the gratification of the abuser
Eg. Although Creon finds out that it was Antigone who buried her brother's body, he still punishes her because of his own pride and pleasure.
Catharsis- An extreme change of emotion or purging
Eg. When the mother of Haemon takes her own life, the audience of the play is affected by a shift in emotion as this event also affects how Creon feels towards the decisions he has made.
Peripeteia- A sudden reversal or change in events or circumstance
Eg. Creon, because of his pride and greed for wanting to be the all powerful king, causes the death of his wife, son, and to be daughter-in-law. In his own mind he had only been trying to achieve and establish his reign.
Anagnorsis- A characters awareness of a situation or the realization of what they stood for.
Eg. Creon again experiences anagnorsis when he discovers that it was he who caused the three suicides of those he was close to.

Definitions from Wikipedia and About.com

Blog #4

Part 1:

In order to understand the point of view and dynamics of the family in “Obasab” it is very important to know the history of Japanese internment during World War II in Canada. The relationship that Obasab experiences with her daughters could be confusing or misconstrue if insight about the treatment of these Japanese was not known. “Her daughters, unable to rescue her or bear the silent rebuke of her suffering have long since fled to the ends of the earth...Approaching her, they become balls of liquid metal--mercurial--unpredictable in their moods and sudden departures” (Kogawa 5). When the reader is presented with the information that Obasab’s daughters have disappeared while she is silently suffering, one might judge their decision. However, knowing the history of the situation and the experiences that the family has endured, the reader is better able to understand the dynamic. The experience of the internment silenced many Japanese, as they were made to feel less-than the rest of the population. Because of this built up of emotion, tension is an obvious outcome. This explains why the daughters felt that, “departure [was] as necessary as breath” (Kogawa 5). Without the prior knowledge of the internment, the reader would not understand that these relationships formed out of the consequences of war.

Works Cited

Kogawa, Joy. “Obasan.” Literature and the Writing Process. Elizabeth McMahan...[et al.]. Canadian Ed. Toronto: Pearson Education, 2005. 3-8. Print.

Part 2:

When writing essays in the past I have found that is it better for me to not sit and bang it out in one sitting. I tend to write better if I complete one paragraph and take a short break or switch focus to a different activity before continuing to the next. If I don’t take a break I tend to sit and re-read and think and re-read, without getting anywhere. A tip I learned from a teacher in the past is to read your completed essay, sentence-by-sentence, backwards. This way you take the sentences out of context from the paragraph and really see if they make sense and hold content individually. A new strategy that I would like to implement during the week of the midterm essay is free writing. After reading about it in the textbook it seems to bring thoughts together and help ideas flow more freely. When writing an essay it is easy to become stuck for what to say, but having a page full of your own ideas might be helpful.

Blog #3

Part 1:
Intertextuality of old literature is present through the story “The Boat” to deepen the readers knowledge and connection to the story. The pieces alluded to in “The Boat” are "The Return of the Native", "Moby Dick" and "David Copperfield." The use of Eustacia Vye from "The Return of the Native" helped to better understand the mother, Jenny, in “The Boat.” Throughout the story, Jenny appeared to be a dreary character. After the comparison to Eustacia, we can come to a deeper conclusion. Their external looks, “tall and dark and powerfully energetic,” resemble each other. Eustacia hates the heath where she lives, but through “her deep, brooding passion,” she becomes a “part of its wild nature.” Jenny has the same passion for the life of a fishman’s wife, but she feels alone towards her family, especially her children, for not having her fervour and for not “being of her sea.” In the story “Moby Dick,” Captain Ahab is in search of revenge of the great Sperm Whale who took his leg. The father in “The Boat” is enduring his own pursuit. Everyday he wakes and goes fishing, searching for the passion that should accompany it. However, he only experiences that passion after the work day is done in his room reading, knowing that all he has ever wanted was “to go to university.” The character Ham Peggotty from “David Copperfield” emerges throughout the story in both the narrator and the father. Ham has a hard time communicating what he wants but is a self-sacrificer: he dies in his attempt to save others on a boat that crashes. The narrator shares this self-sacrifice, giving up school to help his father fish, while the father sacrificed his dreams to fulfill Jenny’s. The father dies while at sea, with water deaths being present in all of these stories. The narrator made reference to the different pieces of literature to show how important the works were in his family. His father had wanted to study at university and had asked his son to return to university instead of fishing with him. The narrator ends up as a teacher at a “great Midwestern University.”

Part 2:
Metafiction is a fictional device which reminds the reader or viewer that it is a fictional piece of work. Authors can achieve metafiction in many different ways, some examples being a fiction within a fiction, the author directly addressing the reader, or a story about a story. This deepens the relationship the reader has between fiction and reality. If it is achieved correctly, the hope is the story will resinate more with the reader and become more “real by not pretending to be real.” It is often thought that a metafiction takes on the qualities of a live play, where the audience is always aware it is fiction, but can become deeply engrossed while watching it. This might be a reason why authors would choose to write something metafictional. The television show 30 Rock, as well as the movie Stranger Than Fiction, both contain many elements of a metafiction. When metafiction is delivered correctly it can illuminate the story, making the audience think more and deepening their experience with the book or movie.

Blog #2

Part 1:
In the story "Boys and Girls," there are three areas in the narrator's life that she spends time describing in detail. These areas include where her father and mother work, and where her and her brother sleep. She uses both similar and different descriptions for all three areas, but feels differently about them all. For his job, her father works part-time in a brightly lit, "whitewashed" cellar used for the skinny process of the foxes. He also works in the fox pens, which are setup like a "medieval town," in the cold, dark outside. Her mother works day in and day out inside, in a "hot dark kitchen." The narrator and her brother sleep upstairs in the attic of the house. She describes this space as "stale" and "cold."

The descriptions and feelings expressed towards these areas in the girl's life illustrate many binaries. Her father's two work areas display the binary light verses dark. However, although the cellar is brightly lit and outside has a darker feeling, she loves both areas. Her mother's kitchen is also described as dark, but she hates spending time there. The bedroom is also described as scary when dark, but is safe when the light is on. This leads to another binary of afraid verses safe. She talks about feeling safe outside and feeling uneasy inside, however this is not always consistent. She differentiates between being upstairs and downstairs in her house. When she sleeps in the attic, she is left with the "reminders of the warm, safe, brightly lit downstairs."

Part 2:
Eustacia Vye in "The Return of the Native" is described as an "oddity." She is a beautiful young woman, but she holds herself apart from everyone else, which makes some "think she's a witch." Eustacia hates the heath where she lives, but also refuses to adapt to it. She constantly dreams of being rescued for a better life, but "undeniably causes a lot of her own problems." When reading how Eustacia dies, it is unclear whether or not she died by accident, or wanted to end her life by throwing herself off the weir into the water below.
Moby Dick is the story of Captain Ahab and his whaling ship in pursuit of the great Sperm Whale, Moby Dick who took his leg. The captain sacrifices his life and his ship with crew, in order to fulfill his desire to kill the whale.
Ham Peggotty in David Copperfield was raised by his uncle, as his father drown when he was a child. Ham has a hard time communicating what he wants to say, but he is a "quiet, self-sacrificer." Ham dies in his attempt to save people who were on a boat that crashes, which demonstrates how self-sacrificing he was.

Blog #1

Part 1:
I had never read or heard of the works of Larkin before. So when I set out to read his poem, with the question "is this great literature" in mind, I thought the answer would be no. After reading the title and the opening line, the opposition of the two started to change my mind. It really made me think. I thought with a title like "This be the Verse," Larkin would mean business, but the first line showed he was here to play.

One definition of "great literature" is the ability to find new meaning each time a piece is reread. Although I thought I had gotten most out of the poem during the first read, after I followed the steps laid out for us, I had a new understanding. Another definition of "great literature" is addressing a universal theme. I think we would be hard pressed to find a theme more universal than parenting. Although we ourselves may not be parents, we all come from parents. The term does not necessarily have to mean birth parents, just the grown up or person who was the influence in your young life. Larkin was able to achieve the theme while being serious and comical. When addressing a universal theme such as this, I believe it was smart of Larkin to not be blatantly straight forward and outright in his approach to the topic.

The lines "They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had," made me reflect on my parents influence on my own life. Growing up I remember my mom always telling my three sisters and I that we could be whatever we wanted to be, and to never settle for being anything but happy and fulfilled in life. While she told us to dream big, she was unhappy herself. My mom has always wanted to be a teacher, but instead spent her entire life as a stay-at-home mom. She talks about how much she regrets it to this day. I see the reflection of this in my sisters lives, as well as my own, as we settle for bad jobs just for money, or give up our dreams to give our husband a forth child. My mom thought she was doing the right thing, by telling us to dream, but she didn't follow her own example, so therefore we never had an example. "They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had."

Part 2:
After reading "Eveline" by Joyce, the theme of "This be the Verse" expanded and cemented after rereading it. "Eveline" illustrated the underlying messages Larkin was portraying using two different examples. Firstly her dad, which is a more obvious image. The abuse that Eveline endured is enough to drive her out of the home. This is pretty much the literal meaning of the line "They fuck you up, your mum and dad." The relationship that she had with her mom however is more reminiscent of the next line "They may not mean to, but they do." It wasn't the mother's intention to mess up the life of her daughter by making her promise to keep the family together. However, this promise becomes the constant hang up in Eveline's life. "Eveline" shows how influential the smallest acts of a parent can unintentionally affect a child, and it accompanies Larkin's poem nicely.