Blog Question #7: Second Half

It's very difficult to pick just one text from all the short stories, poems, and two plays we studied this semester.  I wish I could pick one of each.  But since I must only choose one-- surprising, I think the text that will stay with me would be "Young Goodman Brown" by N. Hawthorne.  It's surprising because I didn't like it at all the first time I skimmed it.  I thought it too "singsong" with its allegorical characters and symbols like the pink ribbon for the protagonist's wife.  Really.  That irritated my feminist mind.  Sure, let pink stand for the lady.  I read it again before class and my opinion didn't change.  But then we discussed it and I saw I hadn't really read it.  I hadn't looked deeply into it.  During the class discussion, I started to gain an appreciation for the story. I'm amazed at times by the students' ideas and your ability to glean the best from them.  It all worked for me with this story.

 When I chose "Young Goodman Brown" for my essay, I explored articles written by "experts."  I read different perspectives and finally had to choose ones that would help me write my thesis. I can see why "Young Goodman Brown" has stood the test of time.  He is Everyone.  We all do battle within ourselves with our polar natures of good and evil.  This conflict makes each of us a person and which side wins each momentary battle makes each of us a certain kind of a person. Sure, we all have evil within us, but what he didn't recognize is that we all have good also.  That perspective will remain with me the next time I make a leap of judgment on another mortal.

Blog Question #6 - Second Half

From the first lines of his play "Fences," August Wilson hits us with black culture, diction, and words.  In 1987, only a black person could use the word "nigger" and not expect to be hurt.  On the other hand, a black person using the word "nigger" about another black person shows a certain lack of respect for his own race. In this play, Troy searches for himself, his inner self.  The question he silently asks in all his actions is:  Who am I?  With Bono in the first act, he is "Buddy" like Jackie Gleason's character was to Art Carney's in "The Honeymooners."  Gleason was the lead.  Or, perhaps "The Flintstones" might be a better choice because it's more current.  In "The Flintstones," Fred and Barney are buddies, but Fred is the lead. His opinions carry more weight. He is "Boss." Both Troy and Bono are blue collar workers - garbage collectors, but Troy isn't content to stay in that job where everyone is a black man.  He challenges that segregation at work and gets a promotion to a typical "white" job - garbage truck driver.  He pays a price, though, leaving his black community of workers.  He is lonely in his new job and his buddy doesn't come around on Fridays any more. Troy wants to be
"Good Father" but bumps his head on changing times. Baseball was a white man's game when he could have played and he doesn't understand that in 1957 with Jackie Robinson paving the way, his son, Cory, might have used the college football scholarship to work in a "white" profession.  Troy loves his wife, Rose, and dutifully gives her his paycheck each week so he can be "Man of the House," but he has an affair on the side and doesn't give Rose his attention.  Troy spends most of the play searching for himself and perhaps this search is more than Troy. Perhaps Wilson is using Troy to be the "Black Man" in a white man's world.

Wilson has all the family, except Raynell, institutionalized at the end of the play.  Troy is dead and underground,  Lyons is in jail, Gabriel is in a mental hospital, Cory is in the Marines, and Rose is a steady church supporter.  I think Wilson is saying that to the black culture, institutions are where blacks find their place. And he is angry.  In an interview (1989) with Bill Moyers in American Theatre, Wilson makes a strong point that blacks have their own culture.  They are and act differently from whites, Asians, and other cultures.  He says that "the real struggle, since an African first set foot on the continent, is the affirmation of the value of oneself... [and if] you have had to give up that self, then you are not affirming the value of the African being."  Wilson believes that an African should not try to become someone else in the white world.  In the play, Raynell is the hope of the family.  Times may change quickly enough so that she doesn't have to seek life within an institution, but may break down the "fence" between the black culture and others.

Blog Question #5, Second Half

August Wilson gives the reader of Fences a heads-up on the protagonist of the play in the "Setting" and "Play" that he provides before the play begins.  This protagonist lives "set back off a small alley in a big-city neighborhood."  The protagonist lives in a poor community on the outskirts of a big-city neighborhood, which probably itself is a poor (but with more prestige) community.  He lives in the alley off of it.  His house is not a wooden shack, however, it is a two-story brick abode.  But, either the protagonist or a previous owner has tried to make it more endowed with prestige by adding a large porch which while "sturdy...with a flat roof"  unfortunately is not a proud structure, but "lacks congruence."  Leading up to it are two or three steps "badly in need of paint."  The house sits in a "small dirt yard" and has only one entrance. We see that protagonist wants to be elevated in station and show that he's prosperous, but he comes short of that goal.

The "Play" section gives us a clue why this is so.  The protagonist is black and it's 1957.  While white immigrants have been welcomed by the United States and allowed to prosper, black ex-slaves have been rejected by the white population and kept from prospering.  Jobs for the immigrants are shown to be professional, while black jobs are blue-color menial ones.  Thus, the protagonist is seen in conflict with his dreams of higher status because of his heritage, race, and "role" in life.

But the "Play" section also gives us a picture that this discrimination may be changing and that the protagonist may be able to change with it.  There begins the conflict even before the play has begun.  The protagonist is set in a time of discrimination, but can he change with the time and pursue his dreams, or will he be "stuck?"  These two sections allow us a window into the protagonist so before he enters the stage, we seem to know him.

Blog Question #4: Second Half

A place in Hamlet that I found the poetics particularly interesting relative to the plot is in Act 3, Scene 2:  Hamlet has had the players put on The Mousetrap to test Claudius for Hamlet's father's murder.  What Hamlet says after Claudius has gotten up and called for lights to exit is the piece that I chose.

"Why, let the strucken deer go weep,
    The hart ungalled play
For some must watch, while some must sleep;
    Thus runs the world away."

The translation might go:

"Why, let the wounded deer leave to weep and die,
    The unhurt one live,
For some must remain awake, while some must sleep;
    Thus this is the way of the world."

First, the part about the wounded deer is believed to be alluded to a popular belief in that time concerning wounded deer.  As it says in As You Like It, Act II, Scene 1:

"Under an oak whose antique root peeps out
Upon the brook that brawls along this wood.
To the which place a poor sequestered stag,
That from the hunter's aim had ta'en a hurt,
Did come to languish, and indeed, my lord,
The wretched animal heaved forth such groans
That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat
Almost to bursting, and the big round tears
Coursed one another down his innocent nose
In piteous chase..."

Hamlet's "wounded deer" was Claudius.  Claudius was wounded with Hamlet's arrow of conscience because of the play, so as the "wounded deer" he left to weep on his sins of murder and incest.  Hamlet would also have him die for them.  If Claudius had been innocent of the crimes, he would have stayed with the others to enjoy the players and lived in innocence. There is in justice, that murderers are put to "sleep", while innocents may live. Thus Hamlet says that this justice keeps the world aright.

I liked the way that Hamlet, here, tells Horatio of Claudius' guilt and Hamlet's course for justice, but "hides" it in poetry.  The rhyme scheme of ABAB and the iambic rhythm produces poetry that sounds innocuous.  But Horatio may easily read between the lines.  Hamlet is saying that Claudius has failed the test of innocence and must die by Hamlet's hand.

Blog Question #2, Second Half

The poem I chose to recite was by A.E.Housman, "When I Was One-and-Twenty," published in 1896.

I chose a poem with rhythm and rhyme, almost an adult nursery song because my memory isn't as good as it once was.  No, that's an excuse.  My memory is selective and works best when not under pressure to perform.  I've always had trouble reciting something from memory when it was in front of an audience (past the age of 12).  When asked my name for my voting card, I went blank.  So I knew I'd have to choose a poem that had repetition and traditional rhythm/rhyme.  To memorize it, I used a student's book for help.  It said to learn it two lines then repeat them and add two more lines, then repeat those four lines, etc, until the whole poem was done.  I wish life were that easy.  I repeated the lines faithfully, but I still didn't have the poem imprinted.  Finally, I made sure I could "see" the poem in my mind (the way I spell) so I could "read" it.  Thank you for letting me start again when I first tried reciting it.  I went totally blank.  The second time, I looked toward the floor and "read" it.

I find the poem's message quite clear.  Your heart is worth more than money and jewels so don't give it away.  Better to be a pauper in wealth than a pauper in love.  Don't love.  The online sites agreed that this poem's message is right out there in the open and not hidden in veils.  Don't give your heart away.  Period. The young man didn't listen to the wise man and had learned the lesson when he was a year older.

I enjoyed the discussion about the poem in class more than I enjoyed reading and analyzing the poem.  To me, the "wise man" is a "fool" but perhaps he's a fool in the medieval sense and not in the modern one.  Is the poet serious about his theme?  One site said that because of the singsong style, Housman wanted the poems in the book, Shropshire Lad to be like young lads' diaries.  How serious are young lads?

I'm sorry I didn't choose "The Emperor of Ice-Cream" because I've been enjoying delving online and with my own mind tearing apart the images.  For instance, now I know why "The Emperor" struck me.  It brought up Hamlet's words about emperors and worms and eating.

Blog Question 1, Second Half

The poem I choose to write about is in our book, but wasn't assigned or discussed by the class.  It is "Facing It" by Yusef Komunyakaa (p. 916).  The poem was published in 1988 by an author who was born in 1947 in Bogalusa, Louisiana.  He entered the army after graduating high school and served in Vietnam.  He earned a Bronze Star.  This poem is the last poem in his book of poems about Vietnam entitled "Dien Cai Dau" which is a slang term for crazy.  This poem melds his personal emotions with the historical war.

I was drawn to this poem because the Vietnam War played a large part in my thoughts and conscience when I was a teenager.  I saw it played out on the television screen each evening with its raw human suffering.  I was conflicted between my trust for the Government which said the war was necessary to protect our country and my gut feelings for wanting to be speaking out, protesting it because it was "wrong."  The Vietnam War tore more than a country apart.

The poet speaks about his visit to the Vietnam War Monument in Washington, DC.  He melds with it ("My black face fades, hiding inside the black granite.") He promised himself no tears, but he finds himself both stone and flesh.  He is one with this monument and the War.  As he inspects the 58,022 names, he almost expects to find his own.  As he touches one, it brings him back to the shock and sorrow of the War.  Visitors almost can merge with the wall, but cannot because they haven't shared the soul-breaking experience, only veterans can merge with it.

Mr. Komunyakaa uses no poetic devices except in breaking lines:  no set rhythm, no rhyme, no alliteration, no similies, no metaphors, no traditional patterns.  His poem is powerful from the words' placements and the powerful words themselves.  Word breaks emphasize anger because he had told himself "No Tears" so we know that his eyes are filled with them; "I am a window," "black mirror."  The wall reflects the world outside the War while veterans remain inside it.  The power of his lines' lengths and breaks do have a rhythm of grief spoken.

When I visited the Wall a few years ago.  I saw my reflection mixed with the names of fallen soldiers and I despaired that I had chosen silence over speaking out against the War.  Years before, I had met a homeless soldier who had been in a prisoner of war camp who showed me his misshapen, nail-less fingers and told me how he had been tortured. It's a powerful Wall and the poet has given us his own powerful experience with it.

Blog #3, Second Half

The women’s function in HAMLET is in part similar to many characters in the play.  There is a division between good and evil with the characters.  For instance, good father/King is Hamlet (Sr.), while bad father/King is Claudius. Good friend to Hamlet is Horatio, while bad friends are Guildenstern and Rosencrantz.  Similarly, Hamlet himself is depicted as pure intellect Hamlet in opposition with Hamlet the Mad.  Therefore, the women in the play are seen as good, pure Ophelia  contrasted with his incestuous mother/ Queen.  The play examines how both sides (good and evil) act upon Hamlet and how he acts upon them.  In the examples of Ophelia and the Queen—whether or not they are good or bad--because of their love for Hamlet, they die.  Ophelia commits suicide because her love, Hamlet, has killed her father. The Queen drinks of the cup her evil husband has prepared for Hamlet, thus warning Hamlet with her death.  That is one way that Hamlet impacts them.

How do they impact Hamlet?  One way that Ophelia impacts the play HAMLET is by setting up a duality between the "madness" of Hamlet seen beside the true madness of Ophelia.  Hamlet tells the men, after they have sworn three times on his sword to be silent about what they have seen and heard, to promise never to disclose that his "antic personality" may not be real (Act 1, Scene 3).  So when he acts the fool his madness is perceived by the players as real, but the audience has doubts.  In contrast, Ophelia's madness is perceived by both players and audience as real.  The Queen impacts Hamlet at the outset of the play, by marrying his father's murderer (brother) soon after Hamlet Sr.'s death.  This act causes Hamlet to have dual feelings towards her.  His natural love for his mother conflicts with his unnatural hatred for her incestuous betrayal of his true father. And this conflict becomes a major reason for his "madness."