10/31/13

"True!  Nervous -- very, very nervous I had been and am!  But why will you say that I am mad?  The disease had sharpened my senses -- not destroyed them.

Above all was the sense of hearing.  I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth.  I heard many things in the underworld.  How, then, am I mad?  Observe how healthily -- how calmly I can tell you the whole story

If still you think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise steps I took for hiding the body.  I worked quickly, but in silence.  First of all, I took apart the body.  I cut off the head and the arms and the legs." The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe

   In the spirit of Halloween, I decided to read The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe. (If you watch Criminal Minds and are in love with Matthew Gray Gubler like I am, then I suggest you google his reading of the poem/story. It's amazing!) Anyway, as I was reading the work, I decided to pick out the points that I found interesting. Interesting enough, the passages I found reminded me of chapter 7 in Grendel, the speaker is talking about how he is not mad. He brings up the question of if he is crazy or not. While Grendel, accuses himself of being crazy and points out that he is. The speaker of this work contrasts Grendel by pointing out that he is not crazy. Usually the word disease has a negative connotation. It leaves people weak and destroyed. But instead, the disease gifted him. The disease heightened his senses and made him a better man. It seems that the disease has given him a God like power. He is able to hear everything on Heaven and on Earth. He now has an omniscient presence.  This new power does not make him mad however. He is able to stay calm even though he can sense every little thing going on around him. Nothing phases him because he is now God.
   The second part of the work I selected was towards the end. He is still calming that he is not mad and that he is a rational human being. He is God and he can control the life and death of all people. He took specific steps to hide the body. It almost sounds as if he thinks himself as a genius because he hide the body so well. He worked "quickly but in silence." This ties back into the omniscient presence. God does not physically perform his deeds. He works silently like a ghost. The fact that he cuts up the old man's body reminds of fragmentation. He thinks he is organized and put together by taking the time to cut up the body. I think it is funny that he is trying to convince the reader that his mind is whole and not fragmented. In order to seem sane and whole, he cuts up the body which I think is a little ironic. He cuts off the head the arms and the legs. These parts are needed together to make the body seem whole. Without the limbs, the body is no longer pieced together how it is supposed to be naturally.  He is taking on the role of God and performing an unnatural act. He is taking control of a situation when is mind is spinning out of control. I think it is interesting that he is earnestly trying to convince the reader that he is not crazy. He's claiming that he is not crazy because he did a good job and murdering the man and hiding the body.  This is the logic of a mad man. A normal person would not be thinking of a murder as a natural and organized act. He could be trying to convince himself more than the reader that he is not crazy. He's trying to convince himself that what he did was a good thing. He is justifying the fact that he killed a man that never harmed him. The old man never harmed him, said a bad word about him, NOTHING. Yet he killed him. What a twisted work for a twisted Halloween. Happy Halloween everyone!

10/27/13

So Grendel is a lot more complicated, twisted, and weird than I expected it to be. Like hello I did not know about how Grendel violated the woman in chapter seven. Way too much imagery there! However, I was interested in connecting the Zodiac signs to chapters and figuring out why each chapter was a certain zodiac sign was picked for a chapter over another. My group and I are discussing chapter seven for the lesson project. The zodiac sign for chapter seven is the Libra. I researched certain the characteristics of the Libra. Some of the positive words for a libra are diplomatic, graceful, peaceful, idealistic, and hospitable. Now these words do not sound like they relate to any of the characters in Grendel so far. Grendel is a monster who can never seem to make up his mind on who to trust. The men seem to do whatever they want whenever they want. So who shows the positive qualities of a Libra? Well, a woman is introduced in this chapter. She sacrifices herself for her people. She tries to help all of the men and tries to be the peacekeeper between them. She is the only one who is portrayed as graceful and peaceful in the novel so far. Unlike the positive words associated with a Libra, the negative words seem to connect to chapter seven. Negative words associated with a Libra include superficial, vain, indecisive, and unreliable. Now these words connect with this chapter perfectly! All of the characters, except for possibly the woman, are superficial and vain. They look out for themselves and strive for power. They want gold and woman and power. They have their brotherhood, but their ultimate goal is to lookout for themselves. The thanes want to protect the king, and they do so because of the brotherhood, but they also want to move up in their society. They want to be the best thane they can be in order to gain treasures and rewards from the king. I was so excited when I learned that indecisive was a word that connects to a Libra. Grendel is the most indecisive character in the novel. Hello! Just make a decision and be done with it! Words cannot describe how frustrated I get with him because he cannot make up his mind and is easily influenced. Does he agree with the dragon? Does he agree with the men and the shaper? Should he kill the men? Should he try and be at peace with the men? WHO KNOWS? He sure does not know. He cannot figure out what is going on in his mind. Not only is he at war with the men, but he is also at war with himself. Grendel is not just indecisive, he is also unreliable. Since he is so indecisive, can we trust him as a narrator? Can we trust his opinions on the men or on the dragon? Once again, WHO KNOWS? These are a few of the questions I have been asking myself since the beginning of the novel, and so far, I have not found the answers.  I will continue to keep these questions in mind.  I also think it is a good idea to look up the zodiac sign of a certain chapter after you read it because it helps you understand how the characteristics of the zodiac sign connect to the chapter.  

Website used for zodiac sign info: http://zodiac-signs-astrology.com/zodiac-signs/libra.htm

10/6/13

   "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Elliot is quite an interesting poem.  I would like to start off by addressing the name of the speaker. J. Alfred Prufrock is such an interesting name for the name of a man who has his own love song.  When I picture J. Alfred Prufrock, I see an older man who is quiet and unattractive.  It is an odd name for a poem supposedly about a love song.
   The poem itself took a different turn than what I was expecting when I read the title.  The poem deals with society's pressure on the individual, inner conflict, sleep and dreams, fragmentation, etc.  I thought the poem would be about a man falling in love.  The poem was not only different than I expected, but a few aspects present in the poem are also present in the novel Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson.  The element of fragmentation is present in both works.  The different stanzas of the poem seem to have a different image. The first stanza sets an image of the streets and life at night.  The last stanza sets an image of drowning and dying.  Then there are the stanzas in between, that talk about mermaids, and windows, and crying, and eyes.  SO MUCH IMAGERY.  While the poem is fragmented with imagery, Winesburg, Ohio is fragmented with different stories.  That is one of the reasons why critics argue over whether the novel is a collection of short stories or one novel.  Each chapter discusses a different story concerning a different grotesque.  The story "Hands" discusses the life of Wing Biddlebaum and the truth that brought him into Winesburg.  The story "Respectability" discusses the story of Wash Williams and his truth.  The only element of the novel that connects the stories is the character George Willard.  Similar to George, Prufrock is the only element of the poem that connects all of the imagery and fragmentation.  All of the images describe what he is feeling, and what he is thinking about in regards to his life and the decisions he made.
    Fragmentation is not the only connection between the novel and the poem.  Dismemberment plays a significant role in both works.  Certain parts of the body are focused on in both works.  The body is not looked at as a whole.  Prufrock states, "To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet; There will be time to murder and create, And time for all the works and days of hands," (Elliot 27-29).  Faces and hands are parts of a whole.  Elliot uses synecdoches often in the poem.  Prufrock seems to look at people in parts.  He does not look at people as a whole.  These parts are what define people.  Similar to Wing Biddlebaum in Winesburg.  Wing's hands are what cause him to become a grotesque.  His hands are the part of him that he is defined by.  He is constantly trying to hide his hands from getting too excited and emoting any feelings he has.  People in the town know him for his hands, not him as a whole. 
   Fragmentation and dismemberment are not the only connections between"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and Winesburg, Ohio.  I could go on for days talking about all of the themes that we discussed about in class.  Fragmentation and dismemberment were the two elements that I found to be interesting.  I enjoyed reading both the poem and the novel.  Analyzing the poem with the novel in mind helped me find deeper meaning in the poem.  It really is possible to find connections between any two pieces of literature!

9/30/2013

  My legs are covered in bruises, and I can barely move my body.  I'm positive people think I was kicked in the leg due to the giant bruise on my right knee.  However, I was not beaten, and I did not fall down a hill.  I actually started to learn my solo yesterday.  My solo is to the song "Bottom of the River" by Delta Rae.  Words cannot describe how much I love this song and how great the dance makes me feel(even though my stamina is not up to par, and I'm breathing like a dog only a minute in).  At the beginning of the session with my teacher, he went into detail about the song and about its meaning.  It seemed like he had sat down and analyzed it just like any piece of literature we would analyze in class.  He wanted to look at the song from every possible angle so that we could portray the story that the song illustrated.  After a lengthy discussion we decided to focus on the idea that a woman is possessed and believes that God is going to come for her baby.  In order to save her baby, she goes to the river to baptize him, but in reality she drowns the baby.  I am going to analyze a portion of the song to see if that section goes along with the main story my teacher and I came up with.  Here is the portion of the song:

If you get sleep or if you get none
The cock's gonna call in the morning, baby
Check the cupboard for your daddy's gun
Red sun rises like an early warning
The Lords gonna come for your first born son
His hairs on fire and his heart is burning
Go to the river where the water runs
Wash him deep where the tides are turning

   One word that describes this passage is "warning."  The first two lines of the passage say that no matter how much sleep the woman gets the rooster is going to wake her up early in the morning.  No matter what, the rooster is going to call to bid her to her duties.  I had a little trouble interpreting the next line, "Check the cupboard for your daddy's gun."  I asked myself, "Why would she need a gun if she is planning on baptizing her son?"  I believe that the voice that is telling her to "baptize" her baby is telling her to grab a gun for protection.  If anything goes wrong, then the woman has the gun.  The line could also take an even darker turn if there could be a possibility that the woman will wake up from her dreamlike state and realize what she has done to her baby then she would need the gun to use it on herself. (And I did not think this song could get any darker!)  The word "warning" comes into play with the next line.  The red sun is rising early in the morning as a warning to the woman.  She needs to hurry and baptize her son before the Lord takes him away.  The line, "His hairs on fire and his heart is burning," connects to the idea of damnation.  The baby is damned if the mother does not baptize him in the river.  The words "fire" and "burning" remind me of hell.  The baby will go to hell if the woman does not save him.  The woman must go to the river and wash him DEEP.  She does not need to put the baby in the water and then take him out.  She must push him deep into the river.  If she does not push him deep into the river, then the baby cannot be saved.  The woman is possessed to believe that she is doing the right thing in trying to save her son when in reality she is killing him.
  I absolutely love this song, and I am ecstatic that I get to interpret this song not only in the way of analyzing literature, but in movement with my body.  I can analyze the song and create movements that portray the deeper meaning of the song.  This is why I love to dance, and love to express myself through dance.  It allows me to analyze a song with movement and with expression, and allows me to portray is with my body not just with words.

9/26/13

"Frog Autumn" By Sylvia Plath
Summer grows old, cold-blooded mother.
The insects are scant, skinny.
In these palustral homes we only
Croak and wither.
Mornings dissipate in somnolence.
The sun brightens tardily
Among the pithless reeds. Flies fail us.
he fen sickens.
Frost drops even the spider. Clearly
The genius of plenitude
Houses himself elsewhere. Our folk thin
Lamentably.

   I would like to start off by saying that Sylvia Plath's poems are extremely interesting to read.  They are not completely straight forward, and it is hard to figure out the meaning of the poem by only reading it once.  It was difficult to pick out one poem from the long list of her poems, but "Frog Autumn" stuck out to me.  I not only picked it because it was one of the shorter poems, but I picked it because after I read this poem and continued looking at other poems in the list, I could not get "Frog Autumn" out of my mind.  The title itself is what drew my attention.  "Frog Autumn."  Autumn is the season that comes after summer, and it is usually a transition season where weather begins to change and elements of life begin to change.  But why did Plath add the word frog?  The definitions of frog are: 1. tailless amphibian with smooth skin with long legs for leaping 2. person who is characterized as repulsive in appearance or character 3. a french person 4. thing used to hold something 5. raised area on a surface.  When I first read the word "Frog" I thought this poem could possibly be about a frog, the amphibian, in autumn.  After looking up the definition, I think that definition number four could be the possible definition that goes along with the poem as a whole.
  I decided that before I could analyze this poem, I needed to define the words that I did not know. Here is the list of definitions I found:
1. palustral: living in or pertaining to marshes
2. dissipate: scatter or disperse
3. somnolence: sleepy state; sleepiness
4. pithless: weak; lacking strength
5. fen: low, marshy area; frequently flooded area of land
6. plenitude: abundance
7. lamentably: deplorably; unfortunate manner; deserving strong condemnation
Without looking up these words, I would not have been able to fully understand the poem.  In the first line of the poem, Plath uses the word mother.  I believe that mother could be referring to mother nature because the summer is growing cold.  Mother nature is turning cold blooded as fall and winter approach.  Insects begin to die when the weather turns cold.  Plath seems to be utilizing the word palustral to create a marshy, dark, cold, swamp imagery for the environment.  The people who live in the marshy home live in the middle of nature.  They are being affected by mother nature just as the insects and the weather are.  It does not seem to have a positive connotation because the imagery is dark and damp.  The mornings during autumn disperse in a sleepy state indicating that nature and life and in the swampy area are in a sleepy state.  This puts an image in my mind of an early morning when the sun is rising and the grass has dew on it and it is cold and damp and there is a slight fog in the air.  The mornings seem to scatter without anyone noticing.  The shift to colder weather has put everyone in a sleepy dreamlike state.  The sun rises late like it is in no hurry to light up the sky indicating a perpetual dreamlike state.  The flies are dying, and the plants are weakening.  The "he" before fen seems to give it a human like quality.  The life of the marshy are begins to sicken as the cold weather descends in the area.  Even the genius spiders begin to die.  They attempt to house themselves in places that they hope are safe from the cold, but even the most genius insects cannot save themselves from the frost of the coming season.  The family is also affected.  The folk thins in an unfortunate manner.  When I read this line, I think of family members retreating into themselves during the cold months.  They tend to be in a sleep like state, and want to be by themselves.  They want to survive on their own during the changing season.
  The definition of "Frog" that best fits this poem is: a thing used to hold to something.  Elements in the swampy area try to hold on to life during the shift of mother nature.  The weather is changing and life seems to be dying.  The spiders try to hold on to life, but even the genius spiders cannot survive the changing season.  Overall, this poems seems to shine a negative light on the changing season.  It describes a swampy area with life dying all around.  Families disperse, and nature and organisms seem to be in a sleep like state.  I love this poem, and enjoyed reading it. I love the eerie feeling it gives to autumn.  I always thought of winter as being the season where everything dies.  But now, I can picture an early fall morning that is quiet and serene.  Life seems to be still and silent, and even though everything seems to be dying, the morning has a peaceful quality that I can relate to when I think of autumn.

*definitions found on google.com definitions*

9/22/2013

   Throughout the week, our class has been having an insightful discussion about the novel, Winesburg, Ohio.  Doing the seminar in smaller groups was a good choice.  I liked how there was a bigger chance of someone having the opportunity to make their claim and have a chance to explain it without having to worry about someone else needing to talk.  Doing the seminars in smaller groups allowed for more in depth conversations about the individual stories, and helped me look at the stories in a new light.
   My group did our seminar over the story "Adventure."  I thought our discussion went extremely well, and we all brought up good points that showed our close reading of the text. One of the points that we talked about was the point about the words "walk" vs. "run" not only in "Adventure," but throughout the entire novel of Winesburg, Ohio as a whole.  While I was reading the book, I indexed, circled, and underlined the word walk like a madman.  Every time the word came up (which was a lot), I would think to myself, "This is an important word that has a much deeper meaning, and I am going to find out what that meaning is."  The word walk is important because it shows up in about every story in the novel.  Many characters end up walking up and down the roads of Winesburg, and many go outside to walk and gather their thoughts.  I think walking represents confusion, being unsure, and being troubled with aspects of life.  When a character walks, he or she is confused or unsure of his or her thoughts.  However, when a character runs, he or she is certain and acting on impulse.  He or she is not thinking about the consequences or the causes of his or her actions, but letting his or her impulses make the decisions.  The first time I figured out the significance of the word "run" was in "Adventure."  The narrator states, "Without stopping to think of what she intended to do, she ran downstairs through the dark house and out into the rain.  As she stood on the little grass plot before the house and felt the cold rain on her body a mad desire to run naked through the streets to possession of her," (Anderson 111).  At this point, Alice is not thinking, but doing.  She is letting her impulses make decisions for her that she would not normally make.  The Alice stops and realizes what she is doing.  She collapses to the ground and begins to crawl on her hands and knees back to her house.   Her impulses scare her so much that she can't even get up and walk back to her house.  She has to crawl on her hands and knees because she is defeated and mortified. She crawls back to her house and accepts her truth. She accepts her fate of being alone for the rest of her life and gives up hope.  This is the truth she accepts which makes her a grotesque.
   There are so many other interesting points that I could talk about from my group's discussion as well as other groups' discussions.  I enjoy doing seminars like this because they help me further understand the stories and look at them with a new point of view.

9/15/2013

   In chapter eighteen of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley quotes a passage from "Tintern Abbey."  I believe Shelley uses this section of the poem to show Victor Frankenstein's connection to nature and the difference between Henry and Victor.  In this part of the book, Victor is talking about his journey with Clerval.  He talks about how the nature and scenery calm him and help him feel better. Victor states, "I seemed to drink in a tranquility to which I had long been a stranger," (Shelley 138).  In "Tintern Abbey," Wordsworth talks about how he has been absent for five years.  He has come back to a place that he now views differently.  It is almost like he is looking at scenery from a different point of view similar to the point of view of stranger. 
   The part of the poem that Shelley selected comes from the third section of the poem that we discussed in class.  In the third section of the poem, Wordsworth travels deeper into his memory and talks about what he has gained and what he has lost when coming back to the Abbey.  Similar to Wordsworth, Victor is dealing with inner thoughts of what he has to lose and what he has to gain.  In chapter eighteen, Victor must decide if he should finish creating the female creature or to ignore the creature's request and hope that he does not come after him.  During this stressful time, Victor finds solace in nature and in his friend Henry Clerval.
   Shelley uses this part of the poem to describe Clerval directly.  Victor is delighted that Henry is eager to see the world and to travel.   This part of the poem illustrates how Henry feels about nature.  He is in awe by the scenery and consumed by nature.  Henry seems to represent a younger version or healthier/happy version of Victor.  Victor used to find solace in nature when he was younger, and still finds solace in it when he is not feeling well.  However, Henry is more excited to see the world and all it has to offer.  In my mind, I connect this to Wordsworth and his sister.  Wordsworth's sister represents a younger version of Wordsworth that can still be awed by nature.  Wordsworth has grown and is less amazed by nature.  The feeling he gets when he sees nature is calm and more subdued than when he was younger.  I believe that Victor feels the same way about Henry.  Victor is dealing with the creature and the threats the creature made against him.  Victor can be relaxed by nature, but he is not excited or amazed by nature.  On the other hand, Henry is happy and energetic and excited to see what the world has to offer.  Shelley states Wordsworth, "Their colours and their forms, were then to him An appetite; a feeling, and a love," (Shelley 140).  Henry has an appetite for nature and to see the world.  He is hungry for it. Henry and Wordsworth's sister are similar because they are young and adventurous.  Victor and Wordsworth are similar because they have gone through hardships and have grown up and now view things differently than they did when they were younger.  Shelley uses this poem to describe Henry's connection to nature compared to Victor's connection.  I believe she also uses it to parallel Wordsworth and Victor, and Henry and Wordsworth's sister.