Thoughts on Death of a Salesman

Everyone seems to have sympathy for Willy. Poor Willy. The world beat him down and broke his spirit. : (   Nope. I can honestly say I have no sympathy for Willy. He was very cruel to his wife, and cheated on her. He would interrupt her and tell her to be quiet. He seemed to need to be the center of attention. I know he felt like he had to prove himself, but prove himself to who? Linda? Biff? Happy? Charley? I think he was just a whiny, neurotic old man.

The character I felt bad for was Happy. He was so neglected. He never seemed to be taken seriously. He definitely seemed to have a little bit of that youngest child complex. He seemed like he was trying to overshadow Biff, who had always overshadowed him. I honestly wanted Happy to move out and get away from his family. I think that's the only way he will ever be happy (irony). 

I didn't really have any sympathy for Linda. I think she could have been a much better mom to her boys. I agree she had to take a lot of crap from Willy. He wasn't exactly a loving husband to her, but she wasn't exactly a loving mother so I think it balances out. I really wanted her to embrace Biff at the end, or do something to show that she didn't think Willy's death had anything to do with Biff. I think she sort of blamed him for it in the end.

The Red Wheelbarrow

Not gonna lie, I don't understand this poem. I'd like to believe that there is this deep metaphorical meaning about life and usefulness (or something along those lines), but I honestly think Williams was trying to capture an image of something he say. No metaphor at all. 

I just don't know what to do with this poem. What are we supposed to do with this? It barely counts as a sentence! I like the idea of the word "glazed" being used. It evokes a much different emotion than a word like dripped or shined (not that I could tell you what that emotion is). 

I want there to be something more to this poem. It's a sentence! One! And not even a very good one at that! I want there to be some deeper meaning to this poem. It needs to tell what "so much depends upon". I don't think it's just the wheelbarrow. Maybe so much depends upon hard work and perseverance. Maybe so much depends upon our ability to weather the storm. Maybe we all just need to make friends with chickens. I don't know!

Thoughts on Sharon Olds

Having never read a Sharon Olds poem before, I was equally impressed and just slightly horrified (Some of her poems get a little hard to take).  I enjoyed her brutal honesty, and how she is willing to take on issues and scenarios most other poets wouldn't dare to touch.

Of the two poems we read, I liked Last Night more. The imagery of the dragon flies was such a unique way to show how her night went. It was such a different metaphor to explain such a base thing. I noticed, after reading some more of her poems, that Olds really likes to use unusual metaphors to describe the events she's writing about.

Olds really does a great job of capturing moments and really putting you right there in the situation. It takes a real talent to be able to do what she does. 

Barbie Doll

This poem was equal parts funny and disturbing. Taking it in the literal sense, as in she is actually talking about a real Barbie, it's hilarious to picture a mutilated Barbie acting out the motions in the poem. Taken in a more metaphorical sense, the poem becomes scary as we think about the things women force themselves to do so they can look "good".

This poem could so easily be interpreted from a feminist theory point of view. It definitely tries to show the gender roles expected of women. It talks about their GE stoves, showing how woman are taught to be home-makers as little girls. IT goes on to show that the woman in the poem is willing to manipulate her body to try and fit into what is considered socially acceptable. 

I think Pearcey was really trying to show how ridiculous the whole institution of "beauty" is. Barbie dolls are considered to be so beautiful by little girls. They show how a woman is "supposed" to look, and what little girls should emulate to be. Pearcey does a good job pointing out the ridiculousness of it all. 

So true!

I don't expect this to count as a full blog, but I saw this quote and knew I had to share it!

The Story of An Hour

Definitely one of the more depressing stories I've read. The girl's husband dies, she's finally free from her loveless marriage, turns out her husband is alive, and BANG, she dies! Really!?!

I really liked the title. I thought it was really creative for Chopin to use. She could have used some generic, sort of romantic title that would have been more fitting to the time period. I really liked the title, as the whole story takes place in the shortest time frame possible. All the drama of the story takes place in an hour (I see what you did there, Chopin!). She hears his dead, contemplates life without him, and dies. Boom. Short, simple, to the point.

One of the most ironic lines in the short story is the closing line, when the doctors come and say "she had died of heart disease--of the joy that kills". This is so ironic. I really don't think she died of joy, which I think was the point of the short story. The main character was so happy to have a life away from her husband, a life full of possibilities that she could decide for herself, and when she sees her husband still alive she sees that life disappear. This is what kills her. Her life went from complete freedom to being constrained again.

The Yellow Wallpaper

Okay, so one of my new favorite short stories right here! It was one of those stories that I could see a really weird and twisted movie coming from. Anyway, I really enjoyed it in all of it's creepiness.

I was very intrigued by the author Charlotte Perkins Gilman. So I did some research. (Again). Gilman explained that the idea for the story was from her own experience as a patient: and the real purpose of the story was to convince her doctor of the error of his ways. Apparently, Gilman had suffered for years from depression, and after consulting a physician who prescribed a "rest cure" which required her to "live as domestic a life as possible." She was not allowed to write or paint and was only allowed two hours of mental stimulation a day.

After three months, Gilman decided to ignore the doctor and started working again. Realizing how close she had come to a mental breakdown, she wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper" with exaggerations of her own misdiagnosed cure. She sent a copy to her doctor but never received a response.

She added that "The Yellow Wallpaper" was "not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked." Gilman later claimed that her doctor had changed his treatment methods, but  historian Julie Bates Dock discredited this. However, her doctor did continue his methods, and was interested in creating entire hospitals devoted to the "rest cure."

Painting by Jonathon Sutton, entitled The Yellow Wallpaper
more info on Gilman and The Yellow Wallpaper

Thoughts on Hamlet

Being a pretty avid Shakespeare fan (I own the giant "completed works" book with the gold pages that weighs about two hundred pounds), I have to say this play is still probably pretty high on my favorites list. My favorite tragedy would be King Leer, favorite comedy would be Midsummer's Night Dream, and my favorite history would be Cleopatra and Antony, just in case you wanted to know.

I actually really liked Hamlet. I had read it before in my freshman year of high school, so it was nice to visit it again. I definitely had much more appreciation for the absurdity of the play. For some reason I didn't remember the scene with Yorick's scull. It really caught be my surprise the second time around.  

I, however, don't really see the supposed incest in Hamlet. I don't understand how the queen, Gertrude, being married to her brother-in-law is considered incest. It doesn't make sense to me! They aren't related at all! (Well, by marriage, but I still don't think that counts as incest). And I do agree that Hamlet and Gertrude have a pretty close relationship, but I think things were different back then. I think it was a little more acceptable for a mother and son to have a close relationship. They never do anything together, and absolutely nothing happens in the infamous bedroom scene. (Besides some lewd jokes. But what Shakespeare play doesn't have some lewd jokes???)

Although, I think I understand why Hamlet delays, and it's not because he's a wimp. I think he is simply confused. A ghost claiming to be his dad tells him to kill his uncle. I don't think I would have jumped right on that. It really was a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't situation. If Hamlet kills his uncle, and he was innocent, Hamlet screws himself over. But if he doesn't kill his uncle, he's also screwed. I don't blame the guy for waiting! That's a confusing, difficult situation!!!

The World is Too Much With Us

Since I just did my presentation on this poem, I figured I'd recap it for all of you. William Wordsworth was ™born on April 7, 1770 in Cockermouth, Cumbria, England. He studied at St. John's College in Cambridge, and came into contact with the French Revolution. He eventually died on April 23, 1850.


™Wordsworth is highlighting the fact that we have nature in abundance but don’t appreciate it, and have given nature up for technology. ™He claims we need to pay attention because we are out of tune with nature itself. ™The phrase the world is "too much with us" implies that it has gotten too big for us to handle. ™It is now possible for us to spend all of our time "getting and spending.“ ™The line, "For this, for everything we are out of tune" implies that man is out of tune with nature, and unable to live in harmony with the world around him
™The phrase "sleeping flowers" describes how nature is being overrun unknowingly .Such advancements come with a heavy price, at least according to the speaker of the poem.

Wordsworth wrote this poem ™during the Industrial Revolution, when there was  far ™more technology and  far less time spent out enjoying nature. ™People had/have less appreciation for the natural world and take it for granted, even to this day. 

A Rose for Emily

The title of "A Rose for Emily" had me beyond confused. In the story, there was a small town in the South where there was a woman, Miss Emily, who was supposed to be part of the "old south". Anyway, she falls for a guy named Homer, and eventually, he goes into Emily's house. Once Emily dies, they go into an upstairs bedroom and there was Homer's rotting body.
So, this is where I got confused. What did the title mean? There were no roses in the story. So, I started thinking. Roses generally symbolize love. Emily was kind of old when she met Homer. The neighbors all thought she would be a spinster. So, perhaps the rose in the title was to symbolize that there was one love, or rose, for Emily. This could be why she kills Homer, in the end. She loves him, and he loved her (I thought anyway). Emily doesn't want to give up Homer. She she never has him buried. She eventually, I think, realizes that he isn't really there anymore (he's dead, hello) and that leads to her boarding up the room.

The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket

This story by Yasunari Kawabata I expected to be like an Aesop's fable. However, I was delighted to be wrong. This story is capable of being both heart-warming and poignant. The ending paragraphs, where the narrator addresses a future version of Fujio, both are uplifting and depressing. The narrator implies that Fujio will only find a world of grasshoppers and forget that there are bell crickets in the world. The narrator hopes Fujio will remember the girl he gave a bell cricket to.
So, I figured there had to be some type of symbolize with the cricket and the bell cricket. So I did a little research. A grasshopper symbolizes a great leap in happiness or faith. For Fujio and Kiyoko, the finding of the grasshopper might lead to a great period of happiness for the two of them. The bell cricket ,however, represents courage. If the two of them have the courage to try and make something out of their little interaction, they could find great happiness. grasshoppers bell cricket

grasshopper

bell cricket

The Lady with the Dog

"The Lady with the Dog", by Anton Chekhov was by far my favorite story we've read this far. The characters were both a little despicable (both cheating on their spouses) but I enjoyed the language of the story. It seemed to me that the story would make a fantastic movie. It just had the kind of settings and  plot line that could eventually make it an Oscar winner.
The story reminded me of an actual novel that I read, "The Paris Wife" by Paula McLain. The novel follows the story of Hadley, who starts the novel a spinster but ends up wearing the novelist Ernest Hemingway. The novel was written very similarly to "The Lady with the Dog" stylistically. The characters also seemed very similar. Dmitri was very similar to the novel's interpretation of Hemingway. So, if you liked "The Lady with the Dog" you would also probably enjoy "The Paris Wife". A quick synopsis of the book

Hills Like White Elepants

The short story "Hills Like White Elephants", by Ernest Hemingway had me beyond confused. I didn't understand the main conflict of the story until I read it through a second time. The characters never explicitly say what their troubles are. They speak of it in vague terms, that keep the reader guessing. I took the white elephants line "''They look like white elephants,' she said" (pg 115), to mean an actual baby bump. Hills are round, like a baby bump, and most women keep them covered, which would make them pale. The man says he's never seen one and the woman responds that he wouldn't have. This ultimately means that he would never have seen her baby bump because they're going to be getting rid of the baby.
The line about absinthe "Especially all the things you've waited so long for, like absinthe." (pg 115) was also confusing. I understand this was written at a time when it wasn't understood that drinking was bad for developing fetuses. But what did absinthe have to do with anything? So I did a little research. It is believed that her line is her trying to bring up her pregnancy subtlety. She's saying that she doesn't like the taste of the drink the man ordered for her, just as she doesn't really like being pregnant. The man understands what she's trying to do so he tells her to be quite. The licorice, a.k.a. the color black, and the white of the hills symbolize the difference between sorrow and joy. The bitterness of the absinthe is ironic.      http://www.csus.edu/indiv/m/maddendw/Hem_form.pdf

20/20

The short story "20/20" by Linda Brewer, recounts the tale of Ruthie and Bill as they travel cross-country. Throughout the story, Ruthie sees things that aren't there, according to Bill. This could be because she actually had bad eyesight. I recently got my first pair of glasses. I was ridiculously annoyed. I'm eighteen and never had a pair before in my life. I didn't want them now. But apparently, they're necessary for driving and stuff (who knew?). They have been a big adjustment for me. I am constantly leaving them places, or getting into the shower with them still on. However, I can understand how Ruthie feels. The world looked much more interesting when I couldn't really see it.

A picture of me before I got my glasses.