The Sunset Limited

Cormac McCarthy's The Sunset Limited illustrates the difficult truth of humanity; namely that we are often not sure of what we believe. It is as if we do not have full assurance in our own convictions.  When we come across difficulties in life, we tend to be shaky in what we hold most dear. The character named Black asks White a number of questions that center around topics like religion and family history. White almost always answers with uncertainty: "I don't know. Maybe. I'm not sure."  He isn't sure if the Bible is as credible a book as other literature and whether or not he is guilty of not seeing his father die of cancer.  But after Black's persistent questions, he finally takes a stance as to how he feels. One would think that he has low self-esteem.  White even asks Black about what the most horrible thing he ever did was. Black refuses to elaborate on his "jailhouse story." Both men have their convictions, but when they are put to the test, they seem to become two conflicted characters. Black feels frustrated at God for not giving him the words to say after White reveals his desire for death.  Both the men are trapped by the mysteries of life and cannot find simple solutions to their problems. What the reader expects about traditional values regarding what is good or evil is turned on its head; things are not what they seem to connotate. This conclusion from  McCarthy illustrates a common thread with writers from the twentieth century: truth is not as easily discerned as we would like.          

Death Be Not Proud

John Donne is one interesting poet. I always like how he fuses religion with deep issues such a death and sex. In his famous "Death be not proud," he mocks the efforts of death to be so domineering in life. People generally, and naturally, feel like, since death is the inevitable thing we must face in the end, we should do it homage. Donne disagrees heavily. He believes death to be futile in stopping people's eternal destinies. This eternal perspective is highlighted in lines 3 and 4: "For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow/ Die not , poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me." I have to admit, he is quite bold to view death this way, with such a cocky attitude.  Christianity is the religious basis for this ideal; Christians believe that because Christ rose from the dead, then they, too, will rise and conquer death itself. I love how Donne uses alliteration and repetition in this poem; the last line is one of the most memorable I know.  The line is number 14: "And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die." Death is personified as a being who is just as mortal as humans.  The letter d gets special emphasis to where the line has a special style to it. This one, along with "Batter my heart Three-Personed God," is definitely one of my favorite poems of all time.      

   Works Cited: Donne, John "Death be not proud." The Norton Introduction to Literature. Eds. Alison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. 10th ed. New York, London: W.W. Norton and Company, 2011. 669

The Raven

Most poems that are written contain musical qualities. In Edgar Allan Poe's, "The Raven," the speaker recounts what he experiences one late night; a raven flies in through his window and constantly repeats the phrase "nevermore" to each of the man's questions. The speaker has lost a woman, Lenore, to death, and suffers from the burden of her lost presence. The bird's responses only serve to increase the speaker's feelings of melancholy. Throughout the stanzas, Poe uses sound effects to enhance the dark and gloomy tone of the poem itself.

 

Baby Villon

Devin Stevens

Lit. 240

Blog Paper

10/23/12

A Dual Speaker in Philip Levine’s “Baby Villon.”

            In poetry, speakers often use cunning ways to reveal themselves.  Philip Levine’s poem, “Baby Villon,” exemplifies this technique of slowly revealing oneself to the auditor. The poem tells of the experiences of the speaker’s cousin and how he has dealt with war and prejudice throughout his life.  Throughout the stanzas, the speaker and the subject of his thoughts share a dual relationship.

            The speaker, like his cousin, has a history of pain in that he fights those who rally against him.  The cousin encourages the speaker to never “disparage/ the stiff bristles that guard the head of the fighter” (lines 19-20). The cousin says this while he is caressing the speaker’s hair. Suddenly, the subject of the poem centers on the speaker rather than the cousin’s history.  They both share the same kinds of suffering in the world such as being “robbed” (line 1).  This allows them to relate to one another in their harsh past experiences.  The “fighter” in question is the speaker himself, who remembers the people he has lost in his life and how he has slowly moved on with it.    

            But what if the speaker isn’t merely a complimentary character to the cousin but the cousin himself? That would be an entirely different matter altogether.  In the last stanza, the speaker calls the cousin “imaginary” (line 27).  If the cousin is only a part of the speaker’s imagination, then the speaker has been talking about himself all along. And the reason that the dual personality exists is that he is merely reflecting on himself and not discussing his past with an outside person.  His other personality exists due to “all his pain” (line 28).  The difficulties of life have given him a split personality, reflecting on itself.  It has been the speaker’s intent from the beginning to slowly reveal himself as the only one who is actually suffering from the wounds of the past.  By distancing himself by talking of a third-person character, he can more easily look at his anguish from a more objective perspective.  

            From the evidence of the speaker talking about himself, the auditor can infer that the speaker is going through some kind of traumatic experience from the past battles he has undergone.  Soldiers from every war seem to struggle with some form of depression or another, so the only way to deal with it is to somehow distance oneself from the reality of the situation. But even though the speaker has invented someone to share in his difficulties, he cannot escape from the reality of the situation. After all, the cousin is only “imaginary.”       

An Epistle to Hopelessness

I'd figured I'd follow in Jared's footsteps and post my own poetry too. Just for fun, I reckon.

"An Epistle to Hopelessness."

Dear Hopelessness,

You often boast that you,
And you alone,
Rule the earth.

Stars die out in time.
Black holes suck away light.
Floating rocks explode
In the endless night.
Hurricanes rip elder trees from the ground.
Tornadoes steal homes in a weeping whirlwind.
Earthquakes crack sure foundations.
Politicians smile and lie.
Fanatical men murder in love.
Sickness flies through the air
And lodges itself under a child's hair.

But I would have you know,
Short-sighted thought,
That your days are numbered.
You have a contender.

For the diamonds of destiny
Are still breathed in majestic breaths.
And though the gaps in space vacuum the white flares,
They cannot diminish their radiances.
All of Nature's rages
Rage against a rage of faith
Led by each generation of man.
Those campaigners on the tube
Are found out,
And fanaticism is murdered
In sweet, forgiving love.
Even the cancer child smiles.

So do not forget,
My ever present and persistent foe,
You will be struck down,
Swiftly, in woe.

Sincerely,
Hope

Slim Cunning Hands

Walter de la Mare has something negative to say about a certain girl.  His poem, "Slim Cunning Hands," contains four lines that slowly reveal the speaker's view of a woman he is talking about.  The object of the speaker is dead and lying in her grave. At first glance, since the poem is quite short, it would seem that that is all the poem is essentially about. Yet the speaker wishes the reader to know that the lady hasn't really lived a saint-like life (though he does not elaborate as to what she did).  The first line describes the woman's hands how they are "cunning." The word "cunning" conjures up this image of a thief slowly trying to break his way into a house. One has to be sneaky and stealthy in order to obtain their coveted prize.  They also have to be deceptive and calculating.  The second line speaks of her grave and how she "loved too wildly lies." Instead of saying "she loved lies too wildly" he says it in a different way. I learned from the textbook's examples that poets don't change word order just for the heck of it.  If the speaker loved "too wildly" her deceits, then she must've have gotten out of control when it came to pulling people on a leash.  The third line implies that her falsity was so profound that not even the grave could express it: "How false she was, no granite could declare."  "Granite" is a type of rock that is used to make tombstones (I believe).  The last line states: "Nor all earth's flowers, how fair."  How is it that flowers symbolize deceit? We normally associate flowers with innocence. Mare is stating that flowers can be a symbol of deception; the woman probably put up a sweet front in order to lure others into her traps.  The speaker may even be going beyond this revelation by saying that the beautiful things in life are deceitful themselves.

Works Cited: de la Mare, Walter. "Slim Cunning Hands." The Norton Introduction to Literature. Eds. Alison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. 10th ed. New York, London: W.W. Norton and Company, 2011. 548-549

Dover Beach

In the Victorian era of literature, writers struggled with the place of God in the world. Due to some of the new scientific theories floating around (such as Charles Darwin's On the Origin of the Species), people began to see humans as animals rather than significant bearers of God's image.  Science seemed to be replacing religion as the answer to all of man's problems. In Matthew Arnold's famous poem, "Dover Beach," this conflict between faith and doubt is fleshed out.
   Arnold uses the imagery of a calm sea in the first stanza to symbolize a mind that is at ease with itself: "The sea is calm tonight" (line 1). Yet the tone of the poem begins to slowly change; the sea begins to struggle: "Listen! you hear the grating roar/Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling" (lines 9-10).  The tone is now one of conflict rather than peace. But what exactly is the issue? "The Sea of Faith/Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore/Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled/But now I hear/Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar" (lines 21-25). There was once a time, according to Arnold, in which religion had a considerable hold on people. But now doubt is beginning to replace faith; what if God does not exist? And if it turns out that God is not plausible, then the result is depressing instead of encouraging. Without God, people have no ultimate hope in the end. Everything that they place their hope in in this life ultimately fades in time.
Arnold's conclusion seems to be that we must be "true to one another" (lines 29-30). We should be honest with one another as to the cruel realities of life and not try to shy away from it in the name of faith. Optimism ultimately fails, for you can't deny that life is hard.  Yet if being true to one another entitles only showing how messed up life is, then how do we endure as humans? Why is life worth living in the end? I personally believe that we should still hope for the best, for that is certainly better than being a cynic. For me, the "best" is the unmerited kindness of God, shown in Christ and in the general blessings of life.  That's what helps me endure each day's toils and troubles. Yet I have had battles with doubt before and the battle is most certainly not pretty; its like a sea raging...

    Works Cited: Arnold, Matthew. "Dover Beach." The Norton Introduction to Literature. Eds. Alison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. 10th ed. New York, London: W.W. Norton and Company, 2011. 517-518

love poem

Linda Pastan's poem entitled "love poem" is a work whose structure and repetition convey its own meaning. Grammar is dismissed in the poem so that the reader can get the sense that the love being mentioned rushes headlong without any pauses. There are no periods at the end of the sentences (even at the end), neither are the first letters in consonants capitalized. This technique helps the reader easily breeze through the poem while still being able to capture its meaning. The very poem itself becomes a symbol for a river flowing. Pastan is implying that love breaks all boundaries and never stops for anything. It is comparable to a river in that it flows and is "swollen" (line 13). Yet it can be "dangerous" in this sense (line 6). Love can be sweet but can also be consuming. This concept reminds me of Joyce's "Araby" where the narrator is so consumed in his attraction to the stranger that he can barely think of anything else.

There is also repetition in the poem that gives the reader a feel that love runs over everything in its path. The word "every" is repeated in lines 9 and 11. Nothing can escape love when it starts. Everything in one's life is affected when one is in a relationship.  It reminds me of the famous quote "love conquers all." There is also another phrase that is repeated from the text, "we must grab each other", in lines 16, 17, 19 and 20. The lovers must hold on to each other not merely because they are in love, but because their love is dangerous. Maybe the poet is saying that their love is forbidden and that it causes issues in their life.  However, the fact that they want to embrace each other is an indicator that even though their love has risks, they can still embrace one another.    

Works Cited: Pastan, Linda. "love poem." The Norton Introduction to Literature. Eds. Alison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. 10th ed. New York, London: W.W. Norton and Company, 2011. 441.

A Good Man is Hard to Find

In Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the third person narrator gives us some insight into the character of a self-righteous grandmother. She is particularly self serving in the sense that she is always lamenting about how the times used to be better than the present ones and, when later on in the tale, she attempts to use religion as a means to keep herself from being murdered.
As the grandmother's family is going on a trip to Florida, they stop at a barbeque restaurant. She converses with a worker there about the "good ol' days": "People are certainly not nice like they used to be," said the grandmother (par. 35). "A good man is hard to find," Red Sammy said. "Everything is getting terrible. I remember they day you could go off and leave your screen door unlatched. Not no more" (par. 43).  The grandmother and Sammy believe that most of the people that live during their present time have no moral ethics and decent social mannerisms. Self-righteous people often lament at how everyone else but themselves are in bondage to their own selfish ends. Since they believe themselves to be holy, everyone else can be seen as hell-bound beasts, no matter if a small ray of common chairty emanates from their actions.

Yet one of those brimstone critters, "The Misfit", meets up with the grandmother with a gun in his hand. Fear begins to well up inside the grandmother at her imminent demise so she brings the God-Man to her defense: "If you would pray," the old lady said, "Jesus would help you." "That's right," The Misfit said. "Well then, why don't you pray?" she asked trembling with delight suddenly" (par. 118-120). It would be easy to interpret the words of the grandmother as those that concern eternal salvation, but the word "trembling" conveys fear of death, rather than love for a lost soul. She is emotionally nervous of being shot and the only way she can see of keeping herself safe is to bring about repentance in The Misfit. If he changes his ways, he will not kill her. The ultimate irony of the grandmother is that she is the very kind of person she condemns.

Works Cited: O'Connor, Flannery. "A Good Man is Hard to Find." The Norton Introduction to Literature. Eds. Alison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. 10th ed. New York, London: W.W. Norton and Company, 2011. 396-409.

The Cask of Amontillado

I love reading Poe's short stories, for he was a master of the craft. He talked about how a short story should have a "single effect" that strikes a chord within the reader's emotions. There is quite a bit of dramatic irony in this piece since the reader knows that Montresor is going to exact vengeance on Fortunato but Fortunato knows nothing about it. Fortunato's name, which contains the root word "fortune", is ironic, since he is going to meet with a future demise. Montresor makes ironic statements to Fortunato in order to mask his true intentions, intentions that the audience is well aware of: "I drink," he (Fortunato) said, "to the buried that repose around us." "And I (Montresor) to your long life" (par. 40). Yet one question that the reader may ask is why does Montresor want to kill Fortunato? Well one thing that really jumped out at me (and I caught this when I read it before I took this class) is that Montresor is a Mason, and that Fortunato must've said something to deeply offend him on religious grounds, even though the reader dosen't exactly know what Fortunato is guilty of. One thing I like about Poe's tale (and even more so Herman Melville's Moby Dick and Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter) is that they give the reader some liberty to interpret the story for themselves. One quote that might prove that Montresor is a Mason is this one allusion from the biblical book of Genesis about how Christ will conquer Satan (in Montresor's case, the Catholic Church): "...the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are imbedded in the heel" (par. 45).

Works Cited: Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Cask of Amontillado." The Norton Introduction to Literature. Eds. Alison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. 10th ed. New York, London: W.W. Norton and Company, 2011. 107-113.

Sonney's Blues

I like how "Sonney's Blues" begins with the algebra teacher feeling like ice is going down his system at the mention of Sonney being on the news for possessing heroin. Such a beginning creates suspense for the reader and ushers them to keep on reading to see what happens next. I also distinctly saw another technique Baldwin used to generate suspense. He always insinuates that there is a problem with Sonney yet he never elaborates as to what it is. The reader is simply drawn to the story by the theme of mystery. At the end of the story, Sonney reveals that he is a man who suffers all kinds of woes just like all people yet he never mentions all the things he goes through besides heroin. Even when Sonnney's brother says something he usually follows with the statment "I don't know why."

Baldwin also starts at the middle of the plot and gives more flashbacks as the story progresses. He wants to show us why the brother felt so nervous about him before. Personally when I like to write a short story I often use a flashback or two sometimes. By the title I rightly guessed that the story would be about black musicians expressing themselves through music. B.B. King automatically comes to mind. I learned a little about black musical history from the brother mentioning Charlie Barker and Lois Armstrong. The musicians use the music to try to deal with the pain of everyday life. That pain comes in different ways for each of the characters, both major and minor. Sonney's dad is haunted by memories of his brother being killed by a group of drunk whites. For Sonney it could very well be what he saw in World War 2. For the brother, it is the guilt that he never looked after Sonney the way his mother wanted him to.

Cathedral

When I first saw the title "Cathedral", I expected the setting to be an actual cathedral. The image of a medieval church actually conjured up images of Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I distinctly remember Hugo taking the liberty (but admittedly a difficult one for me) of describing Paris in every way you could imagine, including the cathedral where Quasimodo lived. But as for "Cathedral" it was an "okay" story, meaning that I didn't feel as impressed with it as I would, say, Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil" or Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death". It seemed to have ordinary characters in an ordinary setting. A blind man named Robert basically comes over to stay at a married couple's house in Conneticut. The wife used to work for Robert in Seattle and she seems to be very fond of him, telling him about her first, failed marriage to an army officer, even once allowing him to touch her face (par.2). This incites jealousy in the narrattor who is also the second husband. When he speaks about his wife's past, he is using the past tense. When the main plot happens, he begins to use the present tense. When Robert arrives, the husband and wife have dinner with him and also smoke pot together. Robert helps the husband draw a picture of a cathedral they were discussing in the livingroom, yet the husband never opens his eyes to see what they drew together. I honestly believe the husband is the main character in the story even though Robert at first feels like the central character. Robert seems to be the husband's antagonist simply because the husband uses repetition to sarcastically describe how caught up in Robert his wife is. He does not think highly of Robert. He even says outright that Beulah (Robert's former wife) and Robert were fools to have a church wedding to celebrate their marriage: "It was a little wedding-who'd want to go to such a wedding in the first place?" (par.16). Overall, it seems that the husband is a judgmental person. Yet I believe he is this way because he is not confident in himself deep down. He seems to have a bad relationship with his wife, for they get into a brief argument about how he has little friends, not to mention the fact that his wife hardly ever talks to him. After he gives a decent account of what a cathedral looks like, the husband puts himself down by saying: "...I can't tell you what a cathedral looks like" (par. 107). Robert encourages him to keep drawing even though he feels like he cannot do it. He says that the experience drawing with Robert was the best that had happened to him so far. Yet he never looks to see what he draws. Part of me thinks he dosen't want to see the messy job he and Robert did because he thinks it will be more respectful to Robert due to his blindness. But I believe it is more so because he is simply unconfident in anything he does.

Works Cited: Carver, Raymond. "Cathedral." The Norton Introduction to Literature. Eds. Alison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. 10th ed. New York, London: W.W. Norton and Company, 2011. 32-44.