“Some People” is a very happy song to me. When I listen to it I think about love and happiness and how a couple has worked hard to reach that point of happiness in their relationship. LeAnn Rimes tone is so strong in this song like she is making a point that she has been in bad relationships but now she is happy. I think about a couple who has been through very rough times but now they are doing better and this is where they want to be in that moment, hopelessly in love with each other because they have already been through so much that nothing can bring them down from where they are. I met my boyfriend when I was only 15 years old and he was 18. This song reminds me of my husband and I and that is why it means so much to me. We danced to this song on our wedding day. I knew it was our song because it said so much about us and made me think about what we had been through in 4 years of being together and where we had come from in our relationship to where we are now.
In the first verse of the song it is about how hard it is to find someone to love and when you do find that special someone it is hard to give them your heart. It about being so in love that people began to lose themselves and forget who they are without that person. When I first began dating Kole I was so scared of having my heart broke and I didn’t want to fall in love. We did begin to date and of course I became so lost in him that I forgot who I was. I never hung with my friends anymore and just looked forward to seeing him instead of worrying about what I really wanted. A year into our relationship I thought everything was perfect until he cheated on me. I was 17 and devastated. I lost a lot of weight and just cried all the time. I had never felt life that before and I didn’t know how to react. A couple months late I forgave him and we got back together. We were doing just fine and happy.
In May 2005 I graduated from high school and in August 2005 we got engaged in Helen, Georgia. Everything was going as planned and we were so happy. I never imagined what was going to happen next. I began to party more and being raised in church I knew better. I was only 18 and I decided I wanted time to myself so we were on and off for about 6 months. I began to see someone else and was having fun. He became very hurt by my actions and I was only thinking about what I wanted at the time. He moved in with a friend and began to party and drink more as well which led to him cheating again. Not to say I was being perfect but he didn’t have to go that far with it. I had my heart torn apart again and didn’t know how to handle once again. I just got drunk a lot and didn’t care. We would see each other at bars and it wasn’t very nice when that happened. To me it was all immature things.
Well once again we got back together in April 2006. One night at church we both gave our hearts to Christ. I knew we weren’t doing right and we had to change. In the second verse it talks of how two people just stumbled into fate. Kole and I have made many mistakes in our relationship and learned a lot through them and in the song it says “Look how much we’ve been given babe, in spite of all our mistakes.” When I hear that verse I just think of where we are today and what we have now. We have a nice home with descent paying jobs for two young people like us. I believe we have been blessed with so much. In this verse it also talks about how things are not always going to be easy and you have each other to make it through the hard times and the good times to celebrate. Like Leann Rimes says “Thank God we have each other we can hang onto.” Without God and each other I couldn’t have forgiven him or he couldn’t have forgiven me, it would have been hard.
In the chorus of the song she sings about how lucky people are to find that someone. I feel very lucky to be where I am today. She sings that some won’t recognize love even when it is right in front of them and how some couples just give up on what they do have. I believe that if people can make it through the hard times they can look forward to the good times. Some people called me crazy for getting back with him but I wasn’t happy without him Even though he was my only serious boyfriend I knew he was the right one, I just had to do some work on him. To me nobody is perfect and we all make mistakes. We have put our past behind us and look to the future. We are prepared for hard times because I know \that everything won’t always be a fairy world.
We ended up getting married on November 18, 2006. “Some people” was the song we danced to at our reception. I get emotional now when I listen to it because it means so much to me. When we were broke up I couldn’t get Kole off my mind and all I did was worry about him. It’s not easy to watch someone that you love so much, act like someone you don’t even know. I personally love the bridge of the song . LeAnn sings about having someone to share tears, laughter, and secrets with. Like in the song it is nice to have someone who won’t judge you for who you are and someone there to stand beside you no matter what.
I really love this song and play it every now and then to think about our wedding day. It was everything I had every imagined. So many people were there to support our marriage even though they all knew what we had been through. Some people say if our relationship can make it through what it has so far then their relationships can to. This November we will be together 5 years and married 1 year. Some people really aren’t lucky like us.
Leann Rimes - Some People Lyrics
Isn't it a gambleLayin' your heart out on the floorNothin' short of a miracleWhen you find the one you're looking forIt's another kind of trouble trying to hang on to who you areWhen all you wanna do is lose yourself in someone else's armsIsn't it a wonder (that) we got this farSome people aren't lucky like usSome people they just give upWhen the hard times fallThe thrill of it all is goneLeaves you in a cloud of dustIt's sad to think that some won't find itAnd others won't recognize it even when it comesWe're all at the mercy of the will of loveSome people yeahSome people aren't lucky like usTwo lonely souls that just stumbled into fateLook how much we've been given babeIn spite of all of our mistakesAnd I will never forget I've been blessed with the gift of lovin' youAnd when the going aint easy babeA little faith will pull us throughThank God we have eachother we can hang onto[repeat chorus][Bridge]To have someone you can laugh withSomeone you can cry withTell all your secrets toTo have someone who won't judge youSomeone who just loves youNo matter what, they stand beside you
http://www.seeklyrics.com/lyrics/Leann-Rimes/Some-People.html
Leann Rimes Some People Lyrics
Friday, April 27, 2007
"Howl" A New Era
During the repressive time period, most of America’s people live a traditionally standard, day-to-day life that lacked creativity. Allen Ginsberg, author of the poem “Howl,” strived to inspire his generation to acknowledge the then present-counterculture. He challenged people not to submit to the “acceptable” ways of life, to question what is “acceptable” and why it is that way, and to be creative and think for themselves. Throughout the decade of the Fifties, conformity throughout America reigned. Most families spent most of their time (outside of work and school) together (Plassalaqua). Religion was a very important part of life. Families usually attended Protestant churches on a regular basis. Cinched- waist dresses and poodle skirts were popular among females at the time, while fashionable men wore conservative suits and cuffed jeans (Bradley).
Allen Ginsburg, one of the most celebrated Beat poets, was born on June 3, 1926 in Newark, New Jersey (Allen Ginsberg). He was raised by his stern disciplinarian father (who was a teacher and a poet) and in part by his mentally-ill mother, who was repeatedly institutionalized during his childhood. She was also an avid communist supporter (Introduction to Howl). Ginsberg was a rebellious child and curious by nature. He led an unusual lifestyle; he was a homosexual and later in life he often used drugs and explored different religions. He spent some of his younger days institutionalized and was expelled from Columbia University for writing obscenity on a wall (Wagner-Martin 2232). Though he had a rough life, Ginsburg was a creative genius. His poem “Howl” is often credited with beginning the Beat Movement and inspiring other movements that would come later.
The Beat Movement started as a literary movement against conventional America (Beat Movement). Though it began with literature, the movement influenced a whole generation of people and popular culture. The Beat Movement was termed this because of the members of the revolution who called themselves “beatniks” or “beats” (Beat Movement) The expressions were chosen because of the meaning of the word beat: “weary,” or as Ginsberg once claimed the street meaning to be, “exhausted, at the bottom of the world, looking up or out, sleepless, wide-eyed, perceptive, rejected by society, on your own, streetwise” (Mayer). The Beats were indifferent to normal ways of life and supported “personal release, purification, and illumination through the heightened sensory awareness that might be induced by drugs, jazz (or) sex” (Beat Movement). Beatniks broke the rules of the traditional way of life and experimented with sex and drugs.
“Howl” first came to attention with the 1956 publication of Howl and other poems (Allen Ginsburg).The poem is broken into three sections, focuses on the anguish and dissatisfactions felt by all humanity, as well as struggles with mankind. Because of the language and subject matter of the poem, it caused an uproar that the San Francisco Police Department arrested publisher, friend, and fellow poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti (the charges were later dropped) (Allen Ginsburg).
Allen Ginsberg illustrated the culture of the 1950’s in the first few lines of “Howl:’ I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves… looking for an angry fix” (Ginsberg 2232). Here he described the members of society who were intelligent and expresses their own individuality. Unlike most of society, these individuals thought for themselves, unable to submit to what society found “normal.” The entire poem is about people struggling to be accepted by one another,
In the first section of “Howl” Ginsburg cataloged the unorthodox outlets that America’s youth used to cope with social hypocrisy (Introduction to Howl). He constantly referred to drugs, sex, and religions which were the greatest reflections of the oppressions of his time. Ginsberg repeatedly mentioned solicited drug use by different people and at different times, though they all faced the same circumstances; social neglect. In the opening lines, Ginsberg mentions “the best minds…looking for an angry fix,” and later. “[boys] who got busted in their public beards returning through Laredo with a belt of marijuana for New York” (Ginsberg 2232). These two lines describe different incidents of American youth and how they use drugs to cope with social problems.
Most people in the 1950’s agreed with ideas of drugs, sex, and religion; he exposed society to new ideas for each. Throughout “Howl” Ginsberg symbolized the origins of social calamity, the outlets people used to cope with the influence of conforming, and how he and a personal friend of his maintained their own individual identities (Introduction to Howl). Ginsburg was a very outspoken gay and being a homosexual during that time was rarely discussed. “Howl” revealed sides of the homosexual community and opened sexual images to the public. With subtle passages such as “seeking jazz or sex or soup,” and clear excerpts as “who lost their love boys to the three old shrews of fate… who copulated ecstatic and insatiate with a bottle of beer…and fell off the bed, and continued along the floor and down the hall and ended fainting on the wall with a vision of ultimate cunt and come eluding the last gyzym of consciousness,” Ginsburg appalled and impressed the majority of readers with his bold language and imagery of sexual encounters (Ginsburg 2234) The poem also made references to Christianity. He discussed outcasts who “fell on their knees in hopeless cathedrals praying for each other’s salvation…[who] broke their backs lifting Moloch to Heaven…lifting the city to Heaven which exists and is everywhere about us!” (Ginsburg 2236, 2238)
“Howl” reflects a unique time period in which was originated and it brought about great changes that still shock literature and society today. “Howl” is credited for the Beat Movement. His poem brought attention to creativity and the artistic opportunities of writing poetry. It brought poetry “to the streets” and “helped popularize poetry” (Echoes). He proved that poems could be written in any form or about any subject. He said “I thought I wouldn’t write a poem, but just write what I wanted to without fear, let my imagination go, open secrecy, and scribble magic lines from my real mind-sum up my life-something I wouldn’t be able to show anybody, write for my own soul’s ear and a few other golden ears” about writing “Howl” (Introduction to Howl)
Many movements came about because of Ginsburg. He wasn’t scared to admit his homosexuality, which brought about many more people opened up as well. The Hippie- Era , which dominated in the 1960’s , was made possible because the honesty that “Howl” generated in the 1950’s. The Hippie Era was a time of anti-war movements, free love, and drug experimentation; all subjects that “Howl” discussed (Hippie 32). Allen Ginberg’s “Howl” is a wonderful poem that changed literature and history forever. Ginberg will be credited for challenging people to change what is socially accepted. He encouraged people to be creative and to confront the “norm.”
Stetler, Carrie. “Ginsberg’s Epic ‘ Howl’ Resonates 50 Years Later.” The Star-Leder of Newark (2006): 1-3. LexisNexis Academic. Macon State College, Macon. 24 Apr. 2007.
“Beat Movement.” Encyclopedia of Literature. Merriam-Webster, Inc., 1995. Literature Resource Center. Macon State College, Macon. 24 Apr. 2007
‘Allen Ginsberg.” Contemporary Authors. 25 Feb. 2004. Dept. of Literature, Macon State College. 24 Apr. 2007 http://galenet.galegroup.com>
“Introduction to Howl.” Contemporary Literature Criticism. 2006. Dept of Lit., Macon State College. 24 Apr. 2007 http://galenet.galegroup.com>
“Allen Ginsberg.” Wikipedia. 25, Apr.2007 http://en.wikipedia.org
Bradley, Becky. “American Cultural History.” Kingwood College Library. June 2005. Kingwood College Library. 25 Apr. 2007 < http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu>
Wagner-Maetin, Linda. “Allen Ginsberg 1926-1997. “Introduction. Howl. By Allen Ginsberg. Boston & New York: a. Coryell,2006. 2229-2230
Howl and Other Poems, 1956; Kaddish and Other Poems 1958-60, 61; Empty Mirror: Early Poems, 1961; Reality Sandwiches: 1953-1960, 1963; Wichita Vortex Sutra, 1976; Planet News, 1968; Iron Horse, 1972-1977, 1978; Collected Poems 1947- 1980, 1984; Howl (facsimile), 1986; White Shroud, Poems 1980- 1985,1986; Cosmopolitan Greetings: Poems 1986- 1992, 1995; Death and Fame: Poems, 1993- 1997, 1999
Ginsberg, Allen. Howl. 1955-56
Passalaqua, Carolyn. “1950’s History-Information.” 8 2006. 24 Apr. 2007 http://home.att.net.
Mayer, Johnny. “Beatniks.” Blues for Peace. 2004. Blues for Peace Corporation. 24 Apr. 2007 http://www.bluesforpeace.com.
McKanic, Arlene. “Echoes of Allen Ginberg’s ‘Howl.’” ProQuest. Sept/Oct 2005 Literature Resource Center. Macon State College, Macon. 25 Apr 2007.
Miles, Barry. Hippie. New York: Sterling Publishing Company., Inc., 2004.
"HOWL" BY ALLEN GINBERG
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night, who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flatsfloating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz, who bared their brains to Heaven under the El and saw Mohammedan angels staggering on tene- ment roofsilluminated, who passed through universities with radiant cool eyes hallucinating Arkansas and Blake-light tragedy among thescholars of war, who were expelled from the academies for crazy & publishing obscene odes on the windows of the skull, who cowered in unshaven rooms in underwear, burn- ing their money in wastebaskets and listening to the Terrorthrough the wall, who got busted in their pubic beards returning through Laredo with a belt of marijuana for New York, who ate fire in paint hotels or drank turpentine in Paradise Alley, death, or purgatoried their torsos night after night with dreams, with drugs, with waking nightmares, al- cohol and cock and endless balls, incomparable blind; streets of shuddering cloud and lightning in the mind leaping toward poles of Canada &Paterson, illuminating all the mo- tionless world of Time between, Peyote solidities of halls, backyard green tree cemetery dawns, wine drunkenness over the rooftops, storefrontboroughs of teahead joyride neon blinking traffic light, sun and moon and tree vibrations in the roaring winter dusksof Brook- lyn, ashcan rantings and kind king light of mind, who chained themselves to subways for the endless ride from Battery to holy Bronx on benzedrine until the noise ofwheels and children brought them down shuddering mouth-wracked and battered bleak of brain all drained ofbrilliance in the drear light of Zoo, who sank all night in submarine light of Bickford's floated out and sat through the stale beer after noon in desolateFugazzi's, listening to the crack of doom on the hydrogen jukebox, who talked continuously seventy hours from park to pad to bar to Bellevue to museum to the Brook- lyn Bridge, lost battalion of platonic conversationalists jumping down the stoops off fire escapes off windowsills off Empire Stateout of the moon, yacketayakking screaming vomiting whispering facts and memories and anecdotes and eyeball kicks and shocks ofhospitals and jails and wars, whole intellects disgorged in total recall for seven days and nights with brilliant eyes, meat for the Synagogue cast onthe pavement, who vanished into nowhere Zen New Jersey leaving a trail of ambiguous picture postcards of Atlantic City Hall, suffering Eastern sweats and Tangerian bone-grind- ings and migraines of China under junk-with- drawal inNewark's bleak furnished room, who wandered around and around at midnight in the railroad yard wondering where to go, and went, leaving nobroken hearts, who lit cigarettes in boxcars boxcars boxcars racketing through snow toward lonesome farms in grand- father night, who studied Plotinus Poe St. John of the Cross telep- athy and bop kabbalah because the cosmos in- stinctivelyvibrated at their feet in Kansas, who loned it through the streets of Idaho seeking vis- ionary indian angels who were visionary indian angels, who thought they were only mad when Baltimore gleamed in supernatural ecstasy, who jumped in limousines with the Chinaman of Okla- homa on the impulse of winter midnight street light smalltownrain, who lounged hungry and lonesome through Houston seeking jazz or sex or soup, and followed the brilliant Spaniardto converse about America and Eternity, a hopeless task, and so took ship to Africa, who disappeared into the volcanoes of Mexico leaving behind nothing but the shadow of dungarees and the lava andash of poetry scattered in fire place Chicago, who reappeared on the West Coast investigating the F.B.I. in beards and shorts with big pacifist eyes sexy in theirdark skin passing out incom- prehensible leaflets, who burned cigarette holes in their arms protesting the narcotic tobacco haze of Capitalism, who distributed Supercommunist pamphlets in Union Square weeping and undressing while the sirens of Los Alamoswailed them down, and wailed down Wall, and the Staten Island ferry also wailed, who broke down crying in white gymnasiums naked and trembling before the machinery of other skeletons, who bit detectives in the neck and shrieked with delight in policecars for committing no crime but their own wildcooking pederasty and intoxication, who howled on their knees in the subway and were dragged off the roof waving genitals and manu- scripts, who let themselves be fucked in the ass by saintly motorcyclists, and screamed with joy, who blew and were blown by those human seraphim, the sailors, caresses of Atlantic and Caribbean love, who balled in the morning in the evenings in rose gardens and the grass of public parks and cemeteries scatteringtheir semen freely to whomever come who may, who hiccuped endlessly trying to giggle but wound up with a sob behind a partition in a Turkish Bath when the blond& naked angel came to pierce them with a sword, who lost their loveboys to the three old shrews of fate the one eyed shrew of the heterosexual dollar the one eyedshrew that winks out of the womb and the one eyed shrew that does nothing but sit on her ass and snip the intellectualgolden threads of the craftsman's loom, who copulated ecstatic and insatiate with a bottle of beer a sweetheart a package of cigarettes a can- dle and fell offthe bed, and continued along the floor and down the hall and ended fainting on the wall with a vision of ultimate cuntand come eluding the last gyzym of consciousness, who sweetened the snatches of a million girls trembling in the sunset, and were red eyed in the morning but preparedto sweeten the snatch of the sun rise, flashing buttocks under barns and naked in the lake, who went out whoring through Colorado in myriad stolen night-cars, N.C., secret hero of these poems, cocksman andAdonis of Denver-joy to the memory of his innumerable lays of girls in empty lots & diner backyards, moviehouses'rickety rows, on mountaintops in caves or with gaunt waitresses in familiar roadside lonely pet- ticoat upliftings &especially secret gas-station solipsisms of johns, & hometown alleys too, who faded out in vast sordid movies, were shifted in dreams, woke on a sudden Manhattan, and picked themselves upout of basements hung over with heartless Tokay and horrors of Third Avenue iron dreams & stumbled to unemploy-ment offices, who walked all night with their shoes full of blood on the snowbank docks waiting for a door in the East River to opento a room full of steamheat and opium, who created great suicidal dramas on the apartment cliff-banks of the Hudson under the wartime blue floodlight ofthe moon & their heads shall be crowned with laurel in oblivion, who ate the lamb stew of the imagination or digested the crab at the muddy bottom of the rivers of Bowery, who wept at the romance of the streets with their pushcarts full of onions and bad music, who sat in boxes breathing in the darkness under the bridge, and rose up to build harpsichords in their lofts, who coughed on the sixth floor of Harlem crowned with flame under the tubercular sky surrounded by orange cratesof theology, who scribbled all night rocking and rolling over lofty incantations which in the yellow morning were stanzas ofgibberish, who cooked rotten animals lung heart feet tail borsht & tortillas dreaming of the pure vegetable kingdom, who plunged themselves under meat trucks looking for an egg, who threw their watches off the roof to cast their ballot for Eternity outside of Time, & alarm clocks fell on theirheads every day for the next decade, who cut their wrists three times successively unsuccess- fully, gave up and were forced to open antique stores wherethey thought they were growing old and cried, who were burned alive in their innocent flannel suits on Madison Avenue amid blasts of leaden verse & the tanked-upclatter of the iron regiments of fashion & the nitroglycerine shrieks of the fairies of advertising & the mustard gas ofsinis- ter intelligent editors, or were run down by the drunken taxicabs of Absolute Reality, who jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge this actually hap- pened and walked away unknown and forgotten into theghostly daze of Chinatown soup alley ways & firetrucks, not even one free beer, who sang out of their windows in despair, fell out of the subway window, jumped in the filthy Pas- saic, leaped onnegroes, cried all over the street, danced on broken wineglasses barefoot smashed phonograph records of nostalgicEuropean 1930s German jazz finished the whiskey and threw up groaning into the bloody toilet, moans in their earsand the blast of colossal steam whistles, who barreled down the highways of the past journeying to each other's hotrod-Golgotha jail-solitude watch orBirmingham jazz incarnation, who drove crosscountry seventytwo hours to find out if I had a vision or you had a vision or he had a vision to findout Eternity, who journeyed to Denver, who died in Denver, who came back to Denver & waited in vain, who watched over Denver& brooded & loned in Denver and finally went away to find out the Time, & now Denver is lonesome for her heroes, who fell on their knees in hopeless cathedrals praying for each other's salvation and light and breasts, until the soulilluminated its hair for a second, who crashed through their minds in jail waiting for impossible criminals with golden heads and the charm of reality intheir hearts who sang sweet blues to Alcatraz, who retired to Mexico to cultivate a habit, or Rocky Mount to tender Buddha or Tangiers to boys or Southern Pacificto the black locomotive or Harvard to Narcissus to Woodlawn to the daisychain or grave, who demanded sanity trials accusing the radio of hyp notism & were left with their insanity & their hands & a hungjury, who threw potato salad at CCNY lecturers on Dadaism and subsequently presented themselves on the granite steps ofthe madhouse with shaven heads and harlequin speech of suicide, demanding in- stantaneous lobotomy, and who were given instead the concrete void of insulin Metrazol electricity hydrotherapy psycho- therapyoccupational therapy pingpong & amnesia, who in humorless protest overturned only one symbolic pingpong table, resting briefly in catatonia, returning years later truly bald except for a wig of blood, and tears and fingers, to the visible mad man doom of thewards of the madtowns of the East, Pilgrim State's Rockland's and Greystone's foetid halls, bickering with the echoes of the soul, rock- ing and rolling inthe midnight solitude-bench dolmen-realms of love, dream of life a night- mare, bodies turned to stone as heavy as themoon, with mother finally ******, and the last fantastic book flung out of the tenement window, and the last door closed at4. A.M. and the last telephone slammed at the wall in reply and the last fur- nished room emptied down to the lastpiece of mental furniture, a yellow paper rose twisted on a wire hanger in the closet, and even that imaginary, nothingbut a hopeful little bit of hallucination ah, Carl, while you are not safe I am not safe, and now you're really in the total animal soup of time and who therefore ran through the icy streets obsessed with a sudden flash of the alchemy of the use of the ellipse thecatalog the meter & the vibrat- ing plane, who dreamt and made incarnate gaps in Time & Space through images juxtaposed, and trapped the archangel of thesoul between 2 visual images and joined the elemental verbs and set the noun and dash of consciousness togetherjumping with sensation of Pater Omnipotens Aeterna Deus to recreate the syntax and measure of poor human prose and stand before you speechless and intel- ligent and shakingwith shame, rejected yet con- fessing out the soul to conform to the rhythm of thought in his naked and endless head, the madman bum and angel beat in Time, unknown, yet putting down here what might be left to say in time comeafter death, and rose reincarnate in the ghostly clothes of jazz in the goldhorn shadow of the band and blew the suffering ofAmerica's naked mind for love into an eli eli lamma lamma sabacthani saxophone cry that shivered the cities down tothe last radio with the absolute heart of the poem of life butchered out of their own bodies good to eat a thousand years.
Allen Ginsburg, one of the most celebrated Beat poets, was born on June 3, 1926 in Newark, New Jersey (Allen Ginsberg). He was raised by his stern disciplinarian father (who was a teacher and a poet) and in part by his mentally-ill mother, who was repeatedly institutionalized during his childhood. She was also an avid communist supporter (Introduction to Howl). Ginsberg was a rebellious child and curious by nature. He led an unusual lifestyle; he was a homosexual and later in life he often used drugs and explored different religions. He spent some of his younger days institutionalized and was expelled from Columbia University for writing obscenity on a wall (Wagner-Martin 2232). Though he had a rough life, Ginsburg was a creative genius. His poem “Howl” is often credited with beginning the Beat Movement and inspiring other movements that would come later.
The Beat Movement started as a literary movement against conventional America (Beat Movement). Though it began with literature, the movement influenced a whole generation of people and popular culture. The Beat Movement was termed this because of the members of the revolution who called themselves “beatniks” or “beats” (Beat Movement) The expressions were chosen because of the meaning of the word beat: “weary,” or as Ginsberg once claimed the street meaning to be, “exhausted, at the bottom of the world, looking up or out, sleepless, wide-eyed, perceptive, rejected by society, on your own, streetwise” (Mayer). The Beats were indifferent to normal ways of life and supported “personal release, purification, and illumination through the heightened sensory awareness that might be induced by drugs, jazz (or) sex” (Beat Movement). Beatniks broke the rules of the traditional way of life and experimented with sex and drugs.
“Howl” first came to attention with the 1956 publication of Howl and other poems (Allen Ginsburg).The poem is broken into three sections, focuses on the anguish and dissatisfactions felt by all humanity, as well as struggles with mankind. Because of the language and subject matter of the poem, it caused an uproar that the San Francisco Police Department arrested publisher, friend, and fellow poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti (the charges were later dropped) (Allen Ginsburg).
Allen Ginsberg illustrated the culture of the 1950’s in the first few lines of “Howl:’ I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves… looking for an angry fix” (Ginsberg 2232). Here he described the members of society who were intelligent and expresses their own individuality. Unlike most of society, these individuals thought for themselves, unable to submit to what society found “normal.” The entire poem is about people struggling to be accepted by one another,
In the first section of “Howl” Ginsburg cataloged the unorthodox outlets that America’s youth used to cope with social hypocrisy (Introduction to Howl). He constantly referred to drugs, sex, and religions which were the greatest reflections of the oppressions of his time. Ginsberg repeatedly mentioned solicited drug use by different people and at different times, though they all faced the same circumstances; social neglect. In the opening lines, Ginsberg mentions “the best minds…looking for an angry fix,” and later. “[boys] who got busted in their public beards returning through Laredo with a belt of marijuana for New York” (Ginsberg 2232). These two lines describe different incidents of American youth and how they use drugs to cope with social problems.
Most people in the 1950’s agreed with ideas of drugs, sex, and religion; he exposed society to new ideas for each. Throughout “Howl” Ginsberg symbolized the origins of social calamity, the outlets people used to cope with the influence of conforming, and how he and a personal friend of his maintained their own individual identities (Introduction to Howl). Ginsburg was a very outspoken gay and being a homosexual during that time was rarely discussed. “Howl” revealed sides of the homosexual community and opened sexual images to the public. With subtle passages such as “seeking jazz or sex or soup,” and clear excerpts as “who lost their love boys to the three old shrews of fate… who copulated ecstatic and insatiate with a bottle of beer…and fell off the bed, and continued along the floor and down the hall and ended fainting on the wall with a vision of ultimate cunt and come eluding the last gyzym of consciousness,” Ginsburg appalled and impressed the majority of readers with his bold language and imagery of sexual encounters (Ginsburg 2234) The poem also made references to Christianity. He discussed outcasts who “fell on their knees in hopeless cathedrals praying for each other’s salvation…[who] broke their backs lifting Moloch to Heaven…lifting the city to Heaven which exists and is everywhere about us!” (Ginsburg 2236, 2238)
“Howl” reflects a unique time period in which was originated and it brought about great changes that still shock literature and society today. “Howl” is credited for the Beat Movement. His poem brought attention to creativity and the artistic opportunities of writing poetry. It brought poetry “to the streets” and “helped popularize poetry” (Echoes). He proved that poems could be written in any form or about any subject. He said “I thought I wouldn’t write a poem, but just write what I wanted to without fear, let my imagination go, open secrecy, and scribble magic lines from my real mind-sum up my life-something I wouldn’t be able to show anybody, write for my own soul’s ear and a few other golden ears” about writing “Howl” (Introduction to Howl)
Many movements came about because of Ginsburg. He wasn’t scared to admit his homosexuality, which brought about many more people opened up as well. The Hippie- Era , which dominated in the 1960’s , was made possible because the honesty that “Howl” generated in the 1950’s. The Hippie Era was a time of anti-war movements, free love, and drug experimentation; all subjects that “Howl” discussed (Hippie 32). Allen Ginberg’s “Howl” is a wonderful poem that changed literature and history forever. Ginberg will be credited for challenging people to change what is socially accepted. He encouraged people to be creative and to confront the “norm.”
Stetler, Carrie. “Ginsberg’s Epic ‘ Howl’ Resonates 50 Years Later.” The Star-Leder of Newark (2006): 1-3. LexisNexis Academic. Macon State College, Macon. 24 Apr. 2007.
“Beat Movement.” Encyclopedia of Literature. Merriam-Webster, Inc., 1995. Literature Resource Center. Macon State College, Macon. 24 Apr. 2007
‘Allen Ginsberg.” Contemporary Authors. 25 Feb. 2004. Dept. of Literature, Macon State College. 24 Apr. 2007 http://galenet.galegroup.com>
“Introduction to Howl.” Contemporary Literature Criticism. 2006. Dept of Lit., Macon State College. 24 Apr. 2007 http://galenet.galegroup.com>
“Allen Ginsberg.” Wikipedia. 25, Apr.2007 http://en.wikipedia.org
Bradley, Becky. “American Cultural History.” Kingwood College Library. June 2005. Kingwood College Library. 25 Apr. 2007 < http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu>
Wagner-Maetin, Linda. “Allen Ginsberg 1926-1997. “Introduction. Howl. By Allen Ginsberg. Boston & New York: a. Coryell,2006. 2229-2230
Howl and Other Poems, 1956; Kaddish and Other Poems 1958-60, 61; Empty Mirror: Early Poems, 1961; Reality Sandwiches: 1953-1960, 1963; Wichita Vortex Sutra, 1976; Planet News, 1968; Iron Horse, 1972-1977, 1978; Collected Poems 1947- 1980, 1984; Howl (facsimile), 1986; White Shroud, Poems 1980- 1985,1986; Cosmopolitan Greetings: Poems 1986- 1992, 1995; Death and Fame: Poems, 1993- 1997, 1999
Ginsberg, Allen. Howl. 1955-56
Passalaqua, Carolyn. “1950’s History-Information.” 8 2006. 24 Apr. 2007 http://home.att.net.
Mayer, Johnny. “Beatniks.” Blues for Peace. 2004. Blues for Peace Corporation. 24 Apr. 2007 http://www.bluesforpeace.com.
McKanic, Arlene. “Echoes of Allen Ginberg’s ‘Howl.’” ProQuest. Sept/Oct 2005 Literature Resource Center. Macon State College, Macon. 25 Apr 2007.
Miles, Barry. Hippie. New York: Sterling Publishing Company., Inc., 2004.
"HOWL" BY ALLEN GINBERG
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night, who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flatsfloating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz, who bared their brains to Heaven under the El and saw Mohammedan angels staggering on tene- ment roofsilluminated, who passed through universities with radiant cool eyes hallucinating Arkansas and Blake-light tragedy among thescholars of war, who were expelled from the academies for crazy & publishing obscene odes on the windows of the skull, who cowered in unshaven rooms in underwear, burn- ing their money in wastebaskets and listening to the Terrorthrough the wall, who got busted in their pubic beards returning through Laredo with a belt of marijuana for New York, who ate fire in paint hotels or drank turpentine in Paradise Alley, death, or purgatoried their torsos night after night with dreams, with drugs, with waking nightmares, al- cohol and cock and endless balls, incomparable blind; streets of shuddering cloud and lightning in the mind leaping toward poles of Canada &Paterson, illuminating all the mo- tionless world of Time between, Peyote solidities of halls, backyard green tree cemetery dawns, wine drunkenness over the rooftops, storefrontboroughs of teahead joyride neon blinking traffic light, sun and moon and tree vibrations in the roaring winter dusksof Brook- lyn, ashcan rantings and kind king light of mind, who chained themselves to subways for the endless ride from Battery to holy Bronx on benzedrine until the noise ofwheels and children brought them down shuddering mouth-wracked and battered bleak of brain all drained ofbrilliance in the drear light of Zoo, who sank all night in submarine light of Bickford's floated out and sat through the stale beer after noon in desolateFugazzi's, listening to the crack of doom on the hydrogen jukebox, who talked continuously seventy hours from park to pad to bar to Bellevue to museum to the Brook- lyn Bridge, lost battalion of platonic conversationalists jumping down the stoops off fire escapes off windowsills off Empire Stateout of the moon, yacketayakking screaming vomiting whispering facts and memories and anecdotes and eyeball kicks and shocks ofhospitals and jails and wars, whole intellects disgorged in total recall for seven days and nights with brilliant eyes, meat for the Synagogue cast onthe pavement, who vanished into nowhere Zen New Jersey leaving a trail of ambiguous picture postcards of Atlantic City Hall, suffering Eastern sweats and Tangerian bone-grind- ings and migraines of China under junk-with- drawal inNewark's bleak furnished room, who wandered around and around at midnight in the railroad yard wondering where to go, and went, leaving nobroken hearts, who lit cigarettes in boxcars boxcars boxcars racketing through snow toward lonesome farms in grand- father night, who studied Plotinus Poe St. John of the Cross telep- athy and bop kabbalah because the cosmos in- stinctivelyvibrated at their feet in Kansas, who loned it through the streets of Idaho seeking vis- ionary indian angels who were visionary indian angels, who thought they were only mad when Baltimore gleamed in supernatural ecstasy, who jumped in limousines with the Chinaman of Okla- homa on the impulse of winter midnight street light smalltownrain, who lounged hungry and lonesome through Houston seeking jazz or sex or soup, and followed the brilliant Spaniardto converse about America and Eternity, a hopeless task, and so took ship to Africa, who disappeared into the volcanoes of Mexico leaving behind nothing but the shadow of dungarees and the lava andash of poetry scattered in fire place Chicago, who reappeared on the West Coast investigating the F.B.I. in beards and shorts with big pacifist eyes sexy in theirdark skin passing out incom- prehensible leaflets, who burned cigarette holes in their arms protesting the narcotic tobacco haze of Capitalism, who distributed Supercommunist pamphlets in Union Square weeping and undressing while the sirens of Los Alamoswailed them down, and wailed down Wall, and the Staten Island ferry also wailed, who broke down crying in white gymnasiums naked and trembling before the machinery of other skeletons, who bit detectives in the neck and shrieked with delight in policecars for committing no crime but their own wildcooking pederasty and intoxication, who howled on their knees in the subway and were dragged off the roof waving genitals and manu- scripts, who let themselves be fucked in the ass by saintly motorcyclists, and screamed with joy, who blew and were blown by those human seraphim, the sailors, caresses of Atlantic and Caribbean love, who balled in the morning in the evenings in rose gardens and the grass of public parks and cemeteries scatteringtheir semen freely to whomever come who may, who hiccuped endlessly trying to giggle but wound up with a sob behind a partition in a Turkish Bath when the blond& naked angel came to pierce them with a sword, who lost their loveboys to the three old shrews of fate the one eyed shrew of the heterosexual dollar the one eyedshrew that winks out of the womb and the one eyed shrew that does nothing but sit on her ass and snip the intellectualgolden threads of the craftsman's loom, who copulated ecstatic and insatiate with a bottle of beer a sweetheart a package of cigarettes a can- dle and fell offthe bed, and continued along the floor and down the hall and ended fainting on the wall with a vision of ultimate cuntand come eluding the last gyzym of consciousness, who sweetened the snatches of a million girls trembling in the sunset, and were red eyed in the morning but preparedto sweeten the snatch of the sun rise, flashing buttocks under barns and naked in the lake, who went out whoring through Colorado in myriad stolen night-cars, N.C., secret hero of these poems, cocksman andAdonis of Denver-joy to the memory of his innumerable lays of girls in empty lots & diner backyards, moviehouses'rickety rows, on mountaintops in caves or with gaunt waitresses in familiar roadside lonely pet- ticoat upliftings &especially secret gas-station solipsisms of johns, & hometown alleys too, who faded out in vast sordid movies, were shifted in dreams, woke on a sudden Manhattan, and picked themselves upout of basements hung over with heartless Tokay and horrors of Third Avenue iron dreams & stumbled to unemploy-ment offices, who walked all night with their shoes full of blood on the snowbank docks waiting for a door in the East River to opento a room full of steamheat and opium, who created great suicidal dramas on the apartment cliff-banks of the Hudson under the wartime blue floodlight ofthe moon & their heads shall be crowned with laurel in oblivion, who ate the lamb stew of the imagination or digested the crab at the muddy bottom of the rivers of Bowery, who wept at the romance of the streets with their pushcarts full of onions and bad music, who sat in boxes breathing in the darkness under the bridge, and rose up to build harpsichords in their lofts, who coughed on the sixth floor of Harlem crowned with flame under the tubercular sky surrounded by orange cratesof theology, who scribbled all night rocking and rolling over lofty incantations which in the yellow morning were stanzas ofgibberish, who cooked rotten animals lung heart feet tail borsht & tortillas dreaming of the pure vegetable kingdom, who plunged themselves under meat trucks looking for an egg, who threw their watches off the roof to cast their ballot for Eternity outside of Time, & alarm clocks fell on theirheads every day for the next decade, who cut their wrists three times successively unsuccess- fully, gave up and were forced to open antique stores wherethey thought they were growing old and cried, who were burned alive in their innocent flannel suits on Madison Avenue amid blasts of leaden verse & the tanked-upclatter of the iron regiments of fashion & the nitroglycerine shrieks of the fairies of advertising & the mustard gas ofsinis- ter intelligent editors, or were run down by the drunken taxicabs of Absolute Reality, who jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge this actually hap- pened and walked away unknown and forgotten into theghostly daze of Chinatown soup alley ways & firetrucks, not even one free beer, who sang out of their windows in despair, fell out of the subway window, jumped in the filthy Pas- saic, leaped onnegroes, cried all over the street, danced on broken wineglasses barefoot smashed phonograph records of nostalgicEuropean 1930s German jazz finished the whiskey and threw up groaning into the bloody toilet, moans in their earsand the blast of colossal steam whistles, who barreled down the highways of the past journeying to each other's hotrod-Golgotha jail-solitude watch orBirmingham jazz incarnation, who drove crosscountry seventytwo hours to find out if I had a vision or you had a vision or he had a vision to findout Eternity, who journeyed to Denver, who died in Denver, who came back to Denver & waited in vain, who watched over Denver& brooded & loned in Denver and finally went away to find out the Time, & now Denver is lonesome for her heroes, who fell on their knees in hopeless cathedrals praying for each other's salvation and light and breasts, until the soulilluminated its hair for a second, who crashed through their minds in jail waiting for impossible criminals with golden heads and the charm of reality intheir hearts who sang sweet blues to Alcatraz, who retired to Mexico to cultivate a habit, or Rocky Mount to tender Buddha or Tangiers to boys or Southern Pacificto the black locomotive or Harvard to Narcissus to Woodlawn to the daisychain or grave, who demanded sanity trials accusing the radio of hyp notism & were left with their insanity & their hands & a hungjury, who threw potato salad at CCNY lecturers on Dadaism and subsequently presented themselves on the granite steps ofthe madhouse with shaven heads and harlequin speech of suicide, demanding in- stantaneous lobotomy, and who were given instead the concrete void of insulin Metrazol electricity hydrotherapy psycho- therapyoccupational therapy pingpong & amnesia, who in humorless protest overturned only one symbolic pingpong table, resting briefly in catatonia, returning years later truly bald except for a wig of blood, and tears and fingers, to the visible mad man doom of thewards of the madtowns of the East, Pilgrim State's Rockland's and Greystone's foetid halls, bickering with the echoes of the soul, rock- ing and rolling inthe midnight solitude-bench dolmen-realms of love, dream of life a night- mare, bodies turned to stone as heavy as themoon, with mother finally ******, and the last fantastic book flung out of the tenement window, and the last door closed at4. A.M. and the last telephone slammed at the wall in reply and the last fur- nished room emptied down to the lastpiece of mental furniture, a yellow paper rose twisted on a wire hanger in the closet, and even that imaginary, nothingbut a hopeful little bit of hallucination ah, Carl, while you are not safe I am not safe, and now you're really in the total animal soup of time and who therefore ran through the icy streets obsessed with a sudden flash of the alchemy of the use of the ellipse thecatalog the meter & the vibrat- ing plane, who dreamt and made incarnate gaps in Time & Space through images juxtaposed, and trapped the archangel of thesoul between 2 visual images and joined the elemental verbs and set the noun and dash of consciousness togetherjumping with sensation of Pater Omnipotens Aeterna Deus to recreate the syntax and measure of poor human prose and stand before you speechless and intel- ligent and shakingwith shame, rejected yet con- fessing out the soul to conform to the rhythm of thought in his naked and endless head, the madman bum and angel beat in Time, unknown, yet putting down here what might be left to say in time comeafter death, and rose reincarnate in the ghostly clothes of jazz in the goldhorn shadow of the band and blew the suffering ofAmerica's naked mind for love into an eli eli lamma lamma sabacthani saxophone cry that shivered the cities down tothe last radio with the absolute heart of the poem of life butchered out of their own bodies good to eat a thousand years.
Friday, April 6, 2007
The Perfect Murder
In Edgar Allen Poe’s story for “The Cask of Amontillado” Poe writes this story from a one-person point of view where Montresor wants revenge on Fortunato and to support his family motto: “ Nemo me impune lacessit” which means (No one can attack me without being punished). Poe wrote this story with verbal and dramatic irony to build suspense, foreshadow the ending, and a touch of humor. The title of Poe’s story cask means wine barrel and derived from the same root word as casket so this represents Fortunato’s casket. (Cummings) Poe’s short story uses many different dialogues to connect the story.
The story begins at a carnival where Fortunato and Montresor greet each other. In the beginning there would be suspense that a murder is being planned out. Fortunato has no clue that is death is so close but Montresor seeks revenge on him for the many insults that Fortunato has brought upon him. We are reading this story from one-person view so the insults that Montresor refers to is only from him not Fortunato.
Montresor is planning the perfect murder throughout this story. He tells Fortunato that he bought some Amontillado, which is dry, amber wine. Fortunao is already drunk and wants to go the Amontillado and is frustrated that he Montresor bought the wine with out his permission but who can pass up a good deal. All the while Montresor’s plan is working so far and he is preparing for Fortunato’s death.
Montresor may be taken his revenge on Fortunato to far. Instead of killing Fortunato he could inform him that he had made an insult upon him. In this story Poe does not let us know what kind of insult Fortunato made or if it was even a really bad insult. Poe leaves the readers guessing on that part and wants his readers to read deeper into the story to comprehend it or to use our imagination to figure out why Montresor wants to kill Fortunato so bad.
The Cask of Amontillado is being read through a murderer’s eyes. Poe wrote so we can imagine maybe what a killer’s thoughts would be. While reading the story Montresor is very friendly to Fortunato and invites him to taste the wine. Montresor was really tricking Fortunato into his own death. In the story Poe writes comments from Montresor to Fortunato about life. Fortunato had a bad cough and Montresor acts concerned and mentions that they should go back but Fortunato says that a cough will not kill him and Montresor’s reply is “ True, True” because he knows that the cough won’t kill him
On the way to the Amontillado Montresor gives Fortunato some wine to make him stay drunk so he can’t run or be very strong if he tries to fight Montresor during the murder. As they are walking along Fortunato makes a toast to the dead that are around them but Montresor makes a toast to Fortunato’s long life that will not be very long. In the end Montresor chains Fortunato to the granite and begins to wall up the area that he has Fortunato. Since Fortunato is so drunk he really doesn’t understand and finally around midnight he is almost finished while Fortunato is sobering up. Fortunato finally realizes what is going on and in the Montresor yells Fortunao’s name in the end and there is no reply. After fifty years has passed Fortunato remains behind the wall, resting in eternal peace. (Cummings)
Poe crafted his story to create the desired effect. (Womack) He wanted the story to be read from a murder’s point of view. This story was hard to understand in the beginning but after some research it was an interesting short story. Montresor got his revenge and no one ever found out what had happened. He played his part as being a friend and then killed his victim the way he wanted.
Cummings, Michael J. Edgar Allen Poe “The Cask of Amontillado” A Study Guide ©
2005 http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides2/Caskof.html
Womack, Martha and Nilsson, Christopher. Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of
Amontillado” 16 Oct. 2006 http://www.poedecoder.com/essays/cask/
The story begins at a carnival where Fortunato and Montresor greet each other. In the beginning there would be suspense that a murder is being planned out. Fortunato has no clue that is death is so close but Montresor seeks revenge on him for the many insults that Fortunato has brought upon him. We are reading this story from one-person view so the insults that Montresor refers to is only from him not Fortunato.
Montresor is planning the perfect murder throughout this story. He tells Fortunato that he bought some Amontillado, which is dry, amber wine. Fortunao is already drunk and wants to go the Amontillado and is frustrated that he Montresor bought the wine with out his permission but who can pass up a good deal. All the while Montresor’s plan is working so far and he is preparing for Fortunato’s death.
Montresor may be taken his revenge on Fortunato to far. Instead of killing Fortunato he could inform him that he had made an insult upon him. In this story Poe does not let us know what kind of insult Fortunato made or if it was even a really bad insult. Poe leaves the readers guessing on that part and wants his readers to read deeper into the story to comprehend it or to use our imagination to figure out why Montresor wants to kill Fortunato so bad.
The Cask of Amontillado is being read through a murderer’s eyes. Poe wrote so we can imagine maybe what a killer’s thoughts would be. While reading the story Montresor is very friendly to Fortunato and invites him to taste the wine. Montresor was really tricking Fortunato into his own death. In the story Poe writes comments from Montresor to Fortunato about life. Fortunato had a bad cough and Montresor acts concerned and mentions that they should go back but Fortunato says that a cough will not kill him and Montresor’s reply is “ True, True” because he knows that the cough won’t kill him
On the way to the Amontillado Montresor gives Fortunato some wine to make him stay drunk so he can’t run or be very strong if he tries to fight Montresor during the murder. As they are walking along Fortunato makes a toast to the dead that are around them but Montresor makes a toast to Fortunato’s long life that will not be very long. In the end Montresor chains Fortunato to the granite and begins to wall up the area that he has Fortunato. Since Fortunato is so drunk he really doesn’t understand and finally around midnight he is almost finished while Fortunato is sobering up. Fortunato finally realizes what is going on and in the Montresor yells Fortunao’s name in the end and there is no reply. After fifty years has passed Fortunato remains behind the wall, resting in eternal peace. (Cummings)
Poe crafted his story to create the desired effect. (Womack) He wanted the story to be read from a murder’s point of view. This story was hard to understand in the beginning but after some research it was an interesting short story. Montresor got his revenge and no one ever found out what had happened. He played his part as being a friend and then killed his victim the way he wanted.
Cummings, Michael J. Edgar Allen Poe “The Cask of Amontillado” A Study Guide ©
2005 http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides2/Caskof.html
Womack, Martha and Nilsson, Christopher. Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of
Amontillado” 16 Oct. 2006 http://www.poedecoder.com/essays/cask/
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Bibliography
An American Dream By Norman Mailer
An Annotated Bibliography
Bufithis, Philip H. Norman Mailer An American Dream 1923. Literature
Resource Center. Gale Group Databases. Macon State College Library,
Macon, Ga. 19 Mar. 2007
Philip says that Stephen Rojack’s primary commitment is to understand the mysterious region and then to eventually act in the world to substantiate his newfound knowledge. Stephen Rojack is trying to cast off his old identities and become reborn into a new person. Deborah was part of his past so he has to rid of her to move on in his new life. He thinks that Stephen is being held back from Deborah and that is why he kills her. He says that Mailer has defined character in his novel with an endless series of second chances for Stephen. He states that Mailer wrote this story as the mind of primordial being and that is what Stephen Rojack was trying. He refers to Rojack as a hero in this story when many people consider him a murderer.
In this short essay over An American Dream Philip states that Mailer believes that insanity is unavoidable in America. He doesn’t believe that insanity should be a rule out for people who murder and that many of Mailer’s novels that involve murder was a type of sickness instead of insanity. He was saying that Stephan Rojack is not considered insane but maybe he had some type of sickness that led him to kill his Deborah.
Gordon, Andrew. Norman Mailer An American Dream 1923. Literature
Resource Center. Gale Group Databases. Macon State College Library,
Macon, Ga. 19 Mar. 2007
This writer says that An American Dream is America as dream and nightmare, seen by Jewish outsider. This short summary says that Stephen commits violence to prevent the death of the soul. The character Stephen Rojack kills his wife and gets away with murder and that he is a war correspondent. He says that Mailer is concerned with the inter play between the various forms of American Power, including sex, politics, and monwy.
Andrew Gordon wrote this short essay to help understand a point of view that maybe someone else had not seen. This source was reliable and I could have looked up his information also.
This helped me find more information to write my blog and to understand more of the book and information that I didn’t understand with different points of views.
Lennon, Michael J. Norman Mailer An American Dream 1923. Literature
Resource Center. Gale Group Databases. Macon State College Library,
Macon, Ga. 19 Mar. 2007
Michael approaches this story as Stephen Rojack trying to have personal victory over society. He states that he kills Deborah Kelly because he thought that his marriage to her would bring about positive aspects to the relationship like leading him into presidency. In the end his marriage actually brings him down and the only way out of the war between them is killing her. Michael thinks that Stephen Rojack was never given a chance to live and also wants to commit suicide and takes his problem to Deborah instead.
He thinks that Cherry, Stephen’s new love would maybe never been killed if he had spent the night in Harlem instead of visiting Barney Kelly. Stephen then takes off after her murder and lives his life without Cherry and Deborah.
An Annotated Bibliography
Bufithis, Philip H. Norman Mailer An American Dream 1923. Literature
Resource Center. Gale Group Databases. Macon State College Library,
Macon, Ga. 19 Mar. 2007
Philip says that Stephen Rojack’s primary commitment is to understand the mysterious region and then to eventually act in the world to substantiate his newfound knowledge. Stephen Rojack is trying to cast off his old identities and become reborn into a new person. Deborah was part of his past so he has to rid of her to move on in his new life. He thinks that Stephen is being held back from Deborah and that is why he kills her. He says that Mailer has defined character in his novel with an endless series of second chances for Stephen. He states that Mailer wrote this story as the mind of primordial being and that is what Stephen Rojack was trying. He refers to Rojack as a hero in this story when many people consider him a murderer.
In this short essay over An American Dream Philip states that Mailer believes that insanity is unavoidable in America. He doesn’t believe that insanity should be a rule out for people who murder and that many of Mailer’s novels that involve murder was a type of sickness instead of insanity. He was saying that Stephan Rojack is not considered insane but maybe he had some type of sickness that led him to kill his Deborah.
Gordon, Andrew. Norman Mailer An American Dream 1923. Literature
Resource Center. Gale Group Databases. Macon State College Library,
Macon, Ga. 19 Mar. 2007
This writer says that An American Dream is America as dream and nightmare, seen by Jewish outsider. This short summary says that Stephen commits violence to prevent the death of the soul. The character Stephen Rojack kills his wife and gets away with murder and that he is a war correspondent. He says that Mailer is concerned with the inter play between the various forms of American Power, including sex, politics, and monwy.
Andrew Gordon wrote this short essay to help understand a point of view that maybe someone else had not seen. This source was reliable and I could have looked up his information also.
This helped me find more information to write my blog and to understand more of the book and information that I didn’t understand with different points of views.
Lennon, Michael J. Norman Mailer An American Dream 1923. Literature
Resource Center. Gale Group Databases. Macon State College Library,
Macon, Ga. 19 Mar. 2007
Michael approaches this story as Stephen Rojack trying to have personal victory over society. He states that he kills Deborah Kelly because he thought that his marriage to her would bring about positive aspects to the relationship like leading him into presidency. In the end his marriage actually brings him down and the only way out of the war between them is killing her. Michael thinks that Stephen Rojack was never given a chance to live and also wants to commit suicide and takes his problem to Deborah instead.
He thinks that Cherry, Stephen’s new love would maybe never been killed if he had spent the night in Harlem instead of visiting Barney Kelly. Stephen then takes off after her murder and lives his life without Cherry and Deborah.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Stephen Rojack
An American Dream
Norman Mailer’s An American Dream was written for installments that were published in the magazine Esquire from January through August 1964. (Bridge) Norman wrote many of his novels from true-life experiences. This novel was defined as a “contemporary classic” three years after it was published in 1965. (Bridge)
This book is based upon a man named Stephen Rojack. He believes that death is “ a creation more dangerous than life.” He comes to this conclusion when fighting in World War II while staring into the eyes of a German soldier whom he had mortally wounded. (Lennon) He compares his battles in war to war with his soon to be ex-wife Deborah Kelly. They were on the verge on getting a divorce when he strangled her to death. He then turns toward their maid Ruta and they have sex. After this encounter he goes back to Deborah’s apartment and makes it look like she jumped from the window when he actually tossed her body out looking like she had killed herself. Stephen Rojack was a very well known man, author, professor, TV talk show host and a congressman. He admits that his marriage was “a losing war”. He thought the only way he could win with Deborah was to kill her. After this encounter he goes through many more confrontations with the police, mob, Barney Kelly, and also Cherry the blonde nightclub singer he met. (Lennon)
Rojack thought that his marriage to Deborah would eventually lead him to presidency. (Lennon) He is caught between many emotions. He seems he very much still loved Deborah but could not handle being without her. They were still intimate but also fought a lot. He considered her death a way out of being angry. Stephen was also suicidal with her. His only way out of her cruel ways was to kill her. He becomes intimate with Cherry shortly after killing Deborah. Cherry represents Stephen’s chance for physical and spiritual fulfillment. She makes him feel loved and special and although they haven’t known each other long they tell each other they love each other. He also has an encounter with Cherry’s former lover, Shago Martin, whom Stephen gets into a fight with and sends him away. After Stephen leaves Cherry to meet with Deborah’s father, Shago shows back up at Cherry’s place and kills her.
Stephen is with Barney Kelly at his house discussing Deborah’s death. This meeting seems as if Barney wants Stephen to dies after he admits to Deborah’s father that he killed her. Stephen lies to Barney at first and then admits the truth. During these thirty-two hours in Stephen Rojack’s life many events happen. While at Barney’s home he climbs upon the parapet maybe to prove to Barney that he was not scared and he could do anything. Barney tries to push Stephen off with Shago’s umbrella.
In the end Stephen Rojack has gotten away with murder and decides to travel west after his love Cherry has been killed. Stephen Rojack was a good man at one time but he deserves to be put in jail. The police had all the evidence but let it drop to take carry of the man in the mob they had been trying to catch. I believe that he loved Deborah very much but could not handle her ways so he took her out of this earth to ease his own pain of wanting to commit suicide. Norman Mailer wrote an exquisite book that was wonderful to read and interesting.
WORKS CITED
1.) Gordon, Andrew , Norman Mailer. Gale Group Databases. Macon State College Library.
Macon, GA. 19 Mar, 2007 galenet.galegroup.com
2.) Lennon, Michael L , Norman Mailer. Gale Group Databases. Macon State College Library.
Macon, GA. 19 Mar, 2007 galenet.galegroup.com
3.) Whalen-Bridge, John. Gale Group Databases. Macon State College Library. Macon, GA. 19
Mar, 2007 galenet.galegroup.com
Norman Mailer’s An American Dream was written for installments that were published in the magazine Esquire from January through August 1964. (Bridge) Norman wrote many of his novels from true-life experiences. This novel was defined as a “contemporary classic” three years after it was published in 1965. (Bridge)
This book is based upon a man named Stephen Rojack. He believes that death is “ a creation more dangerous than life.” He comes to this conclusion when fighting in World War II while staring into the eyes of a German soldier whom he had mortally wounded. (Lennon) He compares his battles in war to war with his soon to be ex-wife Deborah Kelly. They were on the verge on getting a divorce when he strangled her to death. He then turns toward their maid Ruta and they have sex. After this encounter he goes back to Deborah’s apartment and makes it look like she jumped from the window when he actually tossed her body out looking like she had killed herself. Stephen Rojack was a very well known man, author, professor, TV talk show host and a congressman. He admits that his marriage was “a losing war”. He thought the only way he could win with Deborah was to kill her. After this encounter he goes through many more confrontations with the police, mob, Barney Kelly, and also Cherry the blonde nightclub singer he met. (Lennon)
Rojack thought that his marriage to Deborah would eventually lead him to presidency. (Lennon) He is caught between many emotions. He seems he very much still loved Deborah but could not handle being without her. They were still intimate but also fought a lot. He considered her death a way out of being angry. Stephen was also suicidal with her. His only way out of her cruel ways was to kill her. He becomes intimate with Cherry shortly after killing Deborah. Cherry represents Stephen’s chance for physical and spiritual fulfillment. She makes him feel loved and special and although they haven’t known each other long they tell each other they love each other. He also has an encounter with Cherry’s former lover, Shago Martin, whom Stephen gets into a fight with and sends him away. After Stephen leaves Cherry to meet with Deborah’s father, Shago shows back up at Cherry’s place and kills her.
Stephen is with Barney Kelly at his house discussing Deborah’s death. This meeting seems as if Barney wants Stephen to dies after he admits to Deborah’s father that he killed her. Stephen lies to Barney at first and then admits the truth. During these thirty-two hours in Stephen Rojack’s life many events happen. While at Barney’s home he climbs upon the parapet maybe to prove to Barney that he was not scared and he could do anything. Barney tries to push Stephen off with Shago’s umbrella.
In the end Stephen Rojack has gotten away with murder and decides to travel west after his love Cherry has been killed. Stephen Rojack was a good man at one time but he deserves to be put in jail. The police had all the evidence but let it drop to take carry of the man in the mob they had been trying to catch. I believe that he loved Deborah very much but could not handle her ways so he took her out of this earth to ease his own pain of wanting to commit suicide. Norman Mailer wrote an exquisite book that was wonderful to read and interesting.
WORKS CITED
1.) Gordon, Andrew , Norman Mailer. Gale Group Databases. Macon State College Library.
Macon, GA. 19 Mar, 2007 galenet.galegroup.com
2.) Lennon, Michael L , Norman Mailer. Gale Group Databases. Macon State College Library.
Macon, GA. 19 Mar, 2007 galenet.galegroup.com
3.) Whalen-Bridge, John. Gale Group Databases. Macon State College Library. Macon, GA. 19
Mar, 2007 galenet.galegroup.com
Friday, March 2, 2007
Tregedies in Sonny's life
Tragedies can cause a relationship or family to become closer or father apart. “Sonny’s Blues” a story written by James Baldwin had many tragedies in it. A brother looses his brother a drunk driver, two brothers lose their mother, and they lose contact with each other. Sonny and his brother have a unique relationship with each other in this story. It takes a few tragedies to make them realize how much they really need each other. The brother is devastated to find out his brother has been put in jail for heroin, his brother belittles Sonny’s dreams, and the death of his daughter creates tragedies throughout this story.
As the teacher was reading the newspaper he was reading about his brother. He was devastated to see what had happened to Sonny who used to be so bright and happy. They had not talked in over a year but it was his brother. There relationship had not always been perfect but they had been through a lot of tragedies together. He didn’t want to believe the newspaper but it was about his brother, Sonny and his heroin addiction. There was an old friend waiting outside to report the news but the brother already knew. He had promised his mother many years ago after his fathers death that he would take care of his brother, and that was the last time he saw her.
Sonny's brother belittled his dreams. Sonny kept himself much llike their father.His father loved Sonny very much and didn’t want anything to happen to Sonny. After his dad’s death Sonny became different and then when his mother passed he was devastated. Sonny moved in with his brother’s girlfriend Isabel while his brother was away in the army. After their mother’s death Sonny’s brother had asked him what he wanted to be after high school and he said a jazz piano player. Sonny’s brother wanted Sonny to be realistic and scolded him for not figuring out what he wanted to become. Sonny hated and school and wanted to join the army but his brother told him no to finish college. For a while Sonny stayed in school and played his piano. Sonny was determined to reach his goals. He was upset for his brother belittling his dreams he way he did and he eventually joined the army and left town.
After many years apart and only keeping in touch with each other only a couple times out of the year they were falling apart. The next tragic accident the brother’s daughter dies and while Sonny is in jail he finally decides to write him. He turns toward Sonny for some help. After all the years he should have been there for his brother Sonny but this death caused him to call on Sonny. After jail Sonny’s brother lets him stay with him and hopes he has beat the habit of drugs. They talk and catch up on life and have time to actually get to know each other. Sonny always looked up to his brother they just had a hard time revealing their feelings to each other. His brother finally goes to a nightclub with Sonny and watches him play his jazz music on his piano. In the end Sonny has proved to his brother that he can become who he wants even though they had to have all these tragedies in their lives to show how much they care for each other and how much they needed each other.
Tragedies can be hurtful or painless. Sonny and his brother had many tragedies in their lives to that consisted of both. Their relationships with each other could have been stronger but they let so many tragedies tear them apart until Sonny let drugs get him down. In the end he was strong and his brother had more respect for him, something he had yearned for so long.
As the teacher was reading the newspaper he was reading about his brother. He was devastated to see what had happened to Sonny who used to be so bright and happy. They had not talked in over a year but it was his brother. There relationship had not always been perfect but they had been through a lot of tragedies together. He didn’t want to believe the newspaper but it was about his brother, Sonny and his heroin addiction. There was an old friend waiting outside to report the news but the brother already knew. He had promised his mother many years ago after his fathers death that he would take care of his brother, and that was the last time he saw her.
Sonny's brother belittled his dreams. Sonny kept himself much llike their father.His father loved Sonny very much and didn’t want anything to happen to Sonny. After his dad’s death Sonny became different and then when his mother passed he was devastated. Sonny moved in with his brother’s girlfriend Isabel while his brother was away in the army. After their mother’s death Sonny’s brother had asked him what he wanted to be after high school and he said a jazz piano player. Sonny’s brother wanted Sonny to be realistic and scolded him for not figuring out what he wanted to become. Sonny hated and school and wanted to join the army but his brother told him no to finish college. For a while Sonny stayed in school and played his piano. Sonny was determined to reach his goals. He was upset for his brother belittling his dreams he way he did and he eventually joined the army and left town.
After many years apart and only keeping in touch with each other only a couple times out of the year they were falling apart. The next tragic accident the brother’s daughter dies and while Sonny is in jail he finally decides to write him. He turns toward Sonny for some help. After all the years he should have been there for his brother Sonny but this death caused him to call on Sonny. After jail Sonny’s brother lets him stay with him and hopes he has beat the habit of drugs. They talk and catch up on life and have time to actually get to know each other. Sonny always looked up to his brother they just had a hard time revealing their feelings to each other. His brother finally goes to a nightclub with Sonny and watches him play his jazz music on his piano. In the end Sonny has proved to his brother that he can become who he wants even though they had to have all these tragedies in their lives to show how much they care for each other and how much they needed each other.
Tragedies can be hurtful or painless. Sonny and his brother had many tragedies in their lives to that consisted of both. Their relationships with each other could have been stronger but they let so many tragedies tear them apart until Sonny let drugs get him down. In the end he was strong and his brother had more respect for him, something he had yearned for so long.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
The man who could have survived
Jack London was a very adventurous man. His writings came from the places he traveled. He loved going on adventures. His love for writing came along with the many stories that he wrote. “To build a fire” was written from a journey he had also gone on in the Yukon Trail and almost died from lack of nutrition. He wrote this story about a man and his dog and in the story Jack even let the dogs feelings come out about the journey that he and the man take together. The man ends up in a struggle for his life for being arrogant and stupidity. There are three things he could have avoided to end up the way he did. First he should not have gone alone; next he should have carried more necessities, and last he should have though more of his short journey.
The man should have taken company to travel with him instead of just him and his dog. It is common sense to know if your spit freezes in mid-air before it hits the ground that a person should not be traveling in weather that is fifteen below zero. The man takes his dog but that is not going to save his life if he has frost bite or if he falls through the frozen water. He was just being an arrogant man who couldn’t wait to make it to his friends and wasn’t worried about the consequences of traveling in that cold of weather. In Jack London’s life he made a decision to live in Alaska on the Yukon trial but is taken care of before he dies.
If the man would have taken the necessities that were necessary for this trip, he might have lived. The man is traveling and as he is being careful to walk he steps in a water hole that looks like snow. He is angry at himself for letting this happen because he knew better than to let his feet become wet. If he had brought along another pair of socks he could put them on. In another part of the story he decides that he is becoming hungry but has only brought a biscuit and was going to eat it later. Since his feet have gotten wet though he has to build the fire now and warm himself and decides to go ahead and eat, even though he did not bring anything for the dog. If he had more food he could eat some now and some later on the journey. The man also struggles building a fire, his first two fires worked ok, but as the night went on and he realizes that he will not make it to his destination before he wanted to he has to build more fires to keep warm. In his last fire he drops all of his matches and he can’t light the fire and the snow from the tree falls and puts out the fire he did have. His feet began to freeze and the man lies there waiting to die. He could have brought more matches or a lighter and something more to get his fires started.
Last the man should have thought about his journey more in depth and the consequences instead of thinking nothing could go wrong on this short journey. As a man he never thought that this would be his last journey. He would never see his buddies that he longed to be with and his last minute solutions never worked. He thought about killing his dog at one point and get inside of him to keep warm but he talked in the wrong manner to the dog, so the dog would not come to his owner. He forgot at times that his hands were frozen and when trying to grab matches or his gloves he could not feel them unless he looked at his hand touching what he was trying to grab. He could have avoided death in so many ways if he would have prepared for this journey instead of being stubborn and deciding he can handle nature alone when he really couldn’t.
This story was sad but the man had brought it on himself. Jack London also traveled the Yukon Trail in Klondike and almost did not survive from malnutrition because he did not have the things he needed in order to survive. The dog in the end makes it to the campfire alive, but he makes it alone without his owner. The man should have thought about his journey instead of reacting on his own feelings. He chose to go out and face nature alone, when in the ends nature took his life.
1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_London#Personal_background
2. Dr. Stasz, Clarice A biography of Jack London 23 Feberuary 2007 http://london.sonoma.edu/
3. Wilson, Margie and Mike Wilson. Who Was Jack London? 23 Feberuary2007.
The man should have taken company to travel with him instead of just him and his dog. It is common sense to know if your spit freezes in mid-air before it hits the ground that a person should not be traveling in weather that is fifteen below zero. The man takes his dog but that is not going to save his life if he has frost bite or if he falls through the frozen water. He was just being an arrogant man who couldn’t wait to make it to his friends and wasn’t worried about the consequences of traveling in that cold of weather. In Jack London’s life he made a decision to live in Alaska on the Yukon trial but is taken care of before he dies.
If the man would have taken the necessities that were necessary for this trip, he might have lived. The man is traveling and as he is being careful to walk he steps in a water hole that looks like snow. He is angry at himself for letting this happen because he knew better than to let his feet become wet. If he had brought along another pair of socks he could put them on. In another part of the story he decides that he is becoming hungry but has only brought a biscuit and was going to eat it later. Since his feet have gotten wet though he has to build the fire now and warm himself and decides to go ahead and eat, even though he did not bring anything for the dog. If he had more food he could eat some now and some later on the journey. The man also struggles building a fire, his first two fires worked ok, but as the night went on and he realizes that he will not make it to his destination before he wanted to he has to build more fires to keep warm. In his last fire he drops all of his matches and he can’t light the fire and the snow from the tree falls and puts out the fire he did have. His feet began to freeze and the man lies there waiting to die. He could have brought more matches or a lighter and something more to get his fires started.
Last the man should have thought about his journey more in depth and the consequences instead of thinking nothing could go wrong on this short journey. As a man he never thought that this would be his last journey. He would never see his buddies that he longed to be with and his last minute solutions never worked. He thought about killing his dog at one point and get inside of him to keep warm but he talked in the wrong manner to the dog, so the dog would not come to his owner. He forgot at times that his hands were frozen and when trying to grab matches or his gloves he could not feel them unless he looked at his hand touching what he was trying to grab. He could have avoided death in so many ways if he would have prepared for this journey instead of being stubborn and deciding he can handle nature alone when he really couldn’t.
This story was sad but the man had brought it on himself. Jack London also traveled the Yukon Trail in Klondike and almost did not survive from malnutrition because he did not have the things he needed in order to survive. The dog in the end makes it to the campfire alive, but he makes it alone without his owner. The man should have thought about his journey instead of reacting on his own feelings. He chose to go out and face nature alone, when in the ends nature took his life.
1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_London#Personal_background
2. Dr. Stasz, Clarice A biography of Jack London 23 Feberuary 2007 http://london.sonoma.edu/
3. Wilson, Margie and Mike Wilson. Who Was Jack London? 23 Feberuary2007
Monday, February 12, 2007
A women's dreams dead
As a wife, sister, and friend, it is difficult to be women some days. We feel over frustrated about small mishaps. We don’t feel this way because we want to but sometimes men just drive us to become that way, like in “The story of an hour” by Kate Chopin a women’s husband dies but instead of being sad she is a little relieved.
Mrs. Louise Mallard has a heart condition and as she is at home her sister Josephine and her friend Richards comes to tell her the news that her husband has been killed in a train accident. Louise acts much differently than I would if I had just found out that my husband had been killed. As I began reading the story I was upset that a wife had lost her husband, I couldn’t imagine hearing the news of my husband’s death. Mrs. Mallard cries a little in front of Josephine then locks herself in her room to sit and stare out the window.
In the room she can be upset or happy about the accident, no one can see her. She can feel think about the “death” of her husband anyway she wants. As she sits in the rocking chair and stares out the window she feels something coming toward her but she is not sure what it is, she can’t see it but she can feel it. My feelings are maybe that this feeling is her wishing she could feel sorry about her husband’s death but she just feels happy and relieved. This story talks about the couple but it doesn’t say how their marriage was or how they treated each other so we never really know why Louise feels the way she does about Brently Mallard’s death.
“Free, Free,” is repeated over and over by Louise. I was shocked that she felt free from her marriage. Mrs. Mallard maybe had an unhappy marriage and finally it was over. She states that she can start living for herself, doing what makes her happy and not what her husband wanted her to do anymore. As a child growing up my mother always put my sister and I before herself, she always bought us new toys or clothes and never purchased anything she wanted.
Women tend to put everyone else’s needs and wants ahead of their own. I think that Mrs. Mallard was in an unhappy marriage that her husband never knew about. She may have put his wants and needs before her own and now it is her time to do the things she has wanted to do. When she walks out her room after thinking about Brently’s death she begins to walk down the stairs when a key unlocks their home and her husband walks in. Mrs. Louise Mallard dies of a heart disease after her husband walk through the door. The story says it was “a joy that kills,” which makes me think what that means. She became so happy of the life that she had wanted so long and she has her time when her husband comes home instead to his wife who dies. He never even knew that he was considered dead.
Mrs. Louise Mallard has a heart condition and as she is at home her sister Josephine and her friend Richards comes to tell her the news that her husband has been killed in a train accident. Louise acts much differently than I would if I had just found out that my husband had been killed. As I began reading the story I was upset that a wife had lost her husband, I couldn’t imagine hearing the news of my husband’s death. Mrs. Mallard cries a little in front of Josephine then locks herself in her room to sit and stare out the window.
In the room she can be upset or happy about the accident, no one can see her. She can feel think about the “death” of her husband anyway she wants. As she sits in the rocking chair and stares out the window she feels something coming toward her but she is not sure what it is, she can’t see it but she can feel it. My feelings are maybe that this feeling is her wishing she could feel sorry about her husband’s death but she just feels happy and relieved. This story talks about the couple but it doesn’t say how their marriage was or how they treated each other so we never really know why Louise feels the way she does about Brently Mallard’s death.
“Free, Free,” is repeated over and over by Louise. I was shocked that she felt free from her marriage. Mrs. Mallard maybe had an unhappy marriage and finally it was over. She states that she can start living for herself, doing what makes her happy and not what her husband wanted her to do anymore. As a child growing up my mother always put my sister and I before herself, she always bought us new toys or clothes and never purchased anything she wanted.
Women tend to put everyone else’s needs and wants ahead of their own. I think that Mrs. Mallard was in an unhappy marriage that her husband never knew about. She may have put his wants and needs before her own and now it is her time to do the things she has wanted to do. When she walks out her room after thinking about Brently’s death she begins to walk down the stairs when a key unlocks their home and her husband walks in. Mrs. Louise Mallard dies of a heart disease after her husband walk through the door. The story says it was “a joy that kills,” which makes me think what that means. She became so happy of the life that she had wanted so long and she has her time when her husband comes home instead to his wife who dies. He never even knew that he was considered dead.
Friday, February 2, 2007
Gabriel the emotional
"The Dead"
James Joyce
Two sisters, Julie and Kate, hold the Morkan Annual dance every year in Ireland. The dance started when their brother passed and they moved to Usher’s island and started the dance. As Julie and Kate were upstairs getting ready their caretaker Lily lets in the guest. They were especially excited when Gabriel Conroy and his wife Gretta showed up, their favorite nephew.
This story has many characters but Gabriel is the main character who has a “riot of emotions”(Ali 85) In his first emotional conversion while he is taking off his goloshes and coat he begins to question her about school when she replies “O no, sir,” “I’m done schooling this year and more.” (Joyce 298) Gabriel then asks her a “well – meant question”(Ali 83) about planning to wed soon Lily answers him back in a bitter tone, which shocks Gabriel, and he is colored. I don’t think Lily intentionally answered him that way but she was just astonished with his question as he was her answer.
In Gabriel’s next emotional encounter, he talks with Molly Ivors. He is partnered with her for a dance and during this she starts their conversation with “ I have a crow to pluck with you.” (Joyce 303) She questions him about a newspaper that he writes for. He never put his name on the paper just his initials G.C. Molly talks about how she is ashamed of him for writing for the newspaper and then says, “I didn’t think you were a West Briton.” (Joyce 303) Gabriel never lets his thoughts aloud about what Molly had said but continues to think about what she had said and that he did not consider himself a West Briton just because he wrote for the paper. Molly then takes him across the room and while she and someone were talking about his paper and she asks him to come on an excursion to the Aran Isles that she will stay a month there. In this conversation she questions him about why he doesn’t want to go and he tells her that he goes other places like France, Belgium and Germany. Molly says “ And why do you go to France and Belgium instead of visiting you own land?” (Joyce 304) They get into intense conversation and he answers her nervously when he sees that their neighbors are listening “ If it comes to that, you know, Irish is not my language.” (Joyce 304) As he becomes angry she questions him about his country and finally he replies, “ I’m sick of my own country, sick of it.” She says “Why?” “ Why?” “ Of course, you’ve no answer.” (Joyce 304)
In the last conversation Gabriel and his wife Gretta are in their hotel room when she mentions the song “The Lass of Aughrim” and after he asks her what she is thinking. Gretta is upset about this song because it brings up memories about her love of seventeen. Gabriel didn’t know this about his wife. Gabriel learns a few things about his wife and that she had loved another many years ago, this was a shock to him and kind of angered him. After hearing Gretta’s story and her falling asleep he reminisces the conversation between them and how she had loved another.
This story was interesting and Gabriel’s encounters with the many people at the Morkan dance kept me interested. In the beginning he was scared to talk to Lily and didn’t understand why she was mad, with Molly he let his anger out more and with Gretta he let some feelings be made known but still held some inside. I don’t think he should have thought Gretta had loved more she was just upset about the past.
Sipiora, Phillip Reading and Writing about Literature
Chapter 10 “The research Essay” Joyce, James 291-333
Prentice Hall 2002
Pathways models for Composition Humanities division- Macon state college
Remembrance and Tradition in “The Dead” Ali, Donald
Pearson Custom
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Life Changing
In this story a young boy is going through changes in life. He talks of playing with his friends in the road till late in the night and in some parts of the story he talks of being alone so it shows he is in the process of developing from a child into a teenager. In this story the boy is young and happy, then it talks how he has fallen in love, and in the end he is angry and upset.
In the beginning this story talks of young children playing in the streets at night after dinner and running wild. This reminds me of the days when life was so easy just being a child running free and doing whatever is enjoyable. It states that “we played till our bodies glowed”(1), showing that they just happily acted young and enjoyed being outside. This story makes me think back to the days my sisters and I played in the mud and stayed until the moon was out, having no worries and free from the responsibilities that we carry now. He reminds me of my nephews who have all the energy to continue on through the day without stopping.
The story shows a transition on how the boy talks of playing and running free
And then seems to be in love and then he states," her figure defined by the light from the half opened door. Her brother always teased her before he obeyed and I stood by the railings looking at her.”(2) He talks like he can’t stop looking at her and here he makes it known that he is interested in his friends sister. After reading this story a few times, it continuously reminded me of middle school. It makes me think back to when a boy was so intimidating, always trying to impress someone and to just be noticed. This young boy is very much impressed with this girl who he considers just her name to be “summons to all my foolish blood.” (3)He wants to be noticed as he states he leaves for school the same time every morning she leaves for school he quickly passes her right before they go separate ways. He is very interested in this girl throughout this story. Even though they have never spoken he considers her his love saying “o love, o love,”(4) as he presses his palms together until they tremble. One day she finally speaks to him and asks if he is going to Araby and he can’t remember his answer because he is so confused. The girl will not be able to attend the bazaar so the boy mentions if he goes he will bring her something. Maybe here he is trying to show he like her but mentions that if he goes he will bring her a gift.
The boy becoming angry is then shown when his uncle does not come home in time for him to make it to the bazaar. He says "When she had gone i began to walk up and down the room,clenching my fists"(5) When he arrives home from school the uncle as yet to return, the boy waits and waits. At nine the uncle finally arrives and has forgotten about the boy returing from his trip a little drunk. The boys asks hisuncle during dinner for the money so he can go to the bazaar. Around 10:00pm he gets off the train and fearing the bazaar was closed looked for an entrance. As he entered most of the halls were already dark and only a few people were still gathered. As he remembered the reason for coming to the bazaar he started looking around for a gift but could not find anything. As he left it was darker and he thought to himself “I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.”(6) This saying shows he was upset maybe only because he could not find a gift but for being so foolish and realizing he should not have gone to the bazaar just for a girl.
(1) James Joyce, Araby, quoted in Phillip Spioria,
Reading and writing about literature(Prentice Hall,2002) 38
(2) James Joyce, Araby, quoted in Phillip Spioria,
Reading and writing about literature (Prentice Hall,2002) 38
(3) James Joyce,Araby, quoted in Phillip Spioria,
Reading and writing about literature (Prentice Hall,2002) 38
(4)James Joyce, Araby, quoted in Phillip Spioria,
Reading and writing about literature,(Prentice Hall,2002) 39
(5)James Joyce,Araby, quoted in Phillip Spioria,
Reading and writing about literature, (Prentice Hall,2002)40
(6)James Joyce, Araby, quoted in Phillip Spioria,
Reading and writing about literature,(Prentice Hall,2002)41
In the beginning this story talks of young children playing in the streets at night after dinner and running wild. This reminds me of the days when life was so easy just being a child running free and doing whatever is enjoyable. It states that “we played till our bodies glowed”(1), showing that they just happily acted young and enjoyed being outside. This story makes me think back to the days my sisters and I played in the mud and stayed until the moon was out, having no worries and free from the responsibilities that we carry now. He reminds me of my nephews who have all the energy to continue on through the day without stopping.
The story shows a transition on how the boy talks of playing and running free
And then seems to be in love and then he states," her figure defined by the light from the half opened door. Her brother always teased her before he obeyed and I stood by the railings looking at her.”(2) He talks like he can’t stop looking at her and here he makes it known that he is interested in his friends sister. After reading this story a few times, it continuously reminded me of middle school. It makes me think back to when a boy was so intimidating, always trying to impress someone and to just be noticed. This young boy is very much impressed with this girl who he considers just her name to be “summons to all my foolish blood.” (3)He wants to be noticed as he states he leaves for school the same time every morning she leaves for school he quickly passes her right before they go separate ways. He is very interested in this girl throughout this story. Even though they have never spoken he considers her his love saying “o love, o love,”(4) as he presses his palms together until they tremble. One day she finally speaks to him and asks if he is going to Araby and he can’t remember his answer because he is so confused. The girl will not be able to attend the bazaar so the boy mentions if he goes he will bring her something. Maybe here he is trying to show he like her but mentions that if he goes he will bring her a gift.
The boy becoming angry is then shown when his uncle does not come home in time for him to make it to the bazaar. He says "When she had gone i began to walk up and down the room,clenching my fists"(5) When he arrives home from school the uncle as yet to return, the boy waits and waits. At nine the uncle finally arrives and has forgotten about the boy returing from his trip a little drunk. The boys asks hisuncle during dinner for the money so he can go to the bazaar. Around 10:00pm he gets off the train and fearing the bazaar was closed looked for an entrance. As he entered most of the halls were already dark and only a few people were still gathered. As he remembered the reason for coming to the bazaar he started looking around for a gift but could not find anything. As he left it was darker and he thought to himself “I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.”(6) This saying shows he was upset maybe only because he could not find a gift but for being so foolish and realizing he should not have gone to the bazaar just for a girl.
(1) James Joyce, Araby, quoted in Phillip Spioria,
Reading and writing about literature(Prentice Hall,2002) 38
(2) James Joyce, Araby, quoted in Phillip Spioria,
Reading and writing about literature (Prentice Hall,2002) 38
(3) James Joyce,Araby, quoted in Phillip Spioria,
Reading and writing about literature (Prentice Hall,2002) 38
(4)James Joyce, Araby, quoted in Phillip Spioria,
Reading and writing about literature,(Prentice Hall,2002) 39
(5)James Joyce,Araby, quoted in Phillip Spioria,
Reading and writing about literature, (Prentice Hall,2002)40
(6)James Joyce, Araby, quoted in Phillip Spioria,
Reading and writing about literature,(Prentice Hall,2002)41
Friday, January 26, 2007
Charles Wales and his mistakes
In “Babylon Revisited” by F.Scott Fitzgerald, the main character, people view Charles Wales differently. He has made many mistakes in his life but comes back to Paris to show that he has changed. After losing his wife and his daughter he sees that he needs to make a change in his lifestyle.
Charles Wales is a good man he has just made a few wrong decisions in his life and now he is dealing with the consequences. Before he lost his daughter and wife he thought his life was perfect. He had money, a good wife, and his alcohol. Helen and Charles enjoyed spending money and partying and having a good time. They would go around Paris night after night, drinking and being with their friends. In time, Marion, Helen’s sister was angry for the way they threw money away. One drunken night Charles and Helen got into a fight and he went home. Charles was drunk and upset so he locked the door to their house and thought nothing of it. Helen ends up at Marion’s house, which she will never forget how cold and upset her sister was. Marion blames that night on Charles and says he is the reason she died.
Lincoln is Marion’s husband and he can’t decide whose side to be on. When he’s not with Marion he agrees that Charles is ready to take his child home with him. When he’s around Marion he doesn’t stand up for Charles, he just sits back and lets Marion talk. She becomes upset with Charles very easily over his mistakes in the past. Marion wants Honoria to be where she thinks Helen would want her. When Charles first comes back to Paris and he begins talking to Marion about having his daughter back she automatically assumes that his drinking is not over and that he will drink again. It is hard to forget the past and to forgive someone for their mistakes but Marion blames all the wrongs on Charles. In this book she doesn’t mention Helen drinking and partying like she does Charles, even though she is her sister, Helen wasn’t always the best mother to Honoria.
He takes Honoria out to eat one day to talk to her and spend time with her. Charles wants to forget who he was in the past and look toward the future. He has been sober for over a year and wants to take responsibility for his daughter. At the time when he signed the papers for Marion to take Honoria, he was in no condition to take care if her. Marion has had Honoria since her mother’s death and now it’s time to let Charles take her, but she can’t forget anything he has done.
Charles past is a constant reminder to him and everyone else of his mistakes. Through out this story he is reminded many times of who he used to be. Marion thinks he hasn’t changed, Lincoln thinks he should have another chance, and Charles made himself change for the better. He walks around Paris night after night remembering his mistakes and how all that he has done was not worth what he has lost, his dear daughter. Honoria longs to be with her father as well as he longs to be a good father to her. He has missed enough in her life and he can’t handle missing anymore.
This story was really interesting, it reminds me of my husband and I. We both have made many mistakes in the four years that we have been together. There are people who mess up all the time and it’s either forget what they did or hold it against them . I had to do this with my husband, he didn’t always make the best decisions, so I could hate him for hurting me or forgive him. Marion needs to forgive Charles and let him be the father he wants to be, he deserves a second chance.
Charles Wales is a good man he has just made a few wrong decisions in his life and now he is dealing with the consequences. Before he lost his daughter and wife he thought his life was perfect. He had money, a good wife, and his alcohol. Helen and Charles enjoyed spending money and partying and having a good time. They would go around Paris night after night, drinking and being with their friends. In time, Marion, Helen’s sister was angry for the way they threw money away. One drunken night Charles and Helen got into a fight and he went home. Charles was drunk and upset so he locked the door to their house and thought nothing of it. Helen ends up at Marion’s house, which she will never forget how cold and upset her sister was. Marion blames that night on Charles and says he is the reason she died.
Lincoln is Marion’s husband and he can’t decide whose side to be on. When he’s not with Marion he agrees that Charles is ready to take his child home with him. When he’s around Marion he doesn’t stand up for Charles, he just sits back and lets Marion talk. She becomes upset with Charles very easily over his mistakes in the past. Marion wants Honoria to be where she thinks Helen would want her. When Charles first comes back to Paris and he begins talking to Marion about having his daughter back she automatically assumes that his drinking is not over and that he will drink again. It is hard to forget the past and to forgive someone for their mistakes but Marion blames all the wrongs on Charles. In this book she doesn’t mention Helen drinking and partying like she does Charles, even though she is her sister, Helen wasn’t always the best mother to Honoria.
He takes Honoria out to eat one day to talk to her and spend time with her. Charles wants to forget who he was in the past and look toward the future. He has been sober for over a year and wants to take responsibility for his daughter. At the time when he signed the papers for Marion to take Honoria, he was in no condition to take care if her. Marion has had Honoria since her mother’s death and now it’s time to let Charles take her, but she can’t forget anything he has done.
Charles past is a constant reminder to him and everyone else of his mistakes. Through out this story he is reminded many times of who he used to be. Marion thinks he hasn’t changed, Lincoln thinks he should have another chance, and Charles made himself change for the better. He walks around Paris night after night remembering his mistakes and how all that he has done was not worth what he has lost, his dear daughter. Honoria longs to be with her father as well as he longs to be a good father to her. He has missed enough in her life and he can’t handle missing anymore.
This story was really interesting, it reminds me of my husband and I. We both have made many mistakes in the four years that we have been together. There are people who mess up all the time and it’s either forget what they did or hold it against them . I had to do this with my husband, he didn’t always make the best decisions, so I could hate him for hurting me or forgive him. Marion needs to forgive Charles and let him be the father he wants to be, he deserves a second chance.
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