Last week you wrote about a book that you deemed as your favorite so far this year. This week, I want you to find a poem that you have either read before or one you have just been introduced to that connects to your book. You must look at the book as a whole and the poem as a whole. Do not make the connection based on a small part of each connecting. Copy and paste the poem in your post, and then explain how both of them are connected. Your response will be a couple paragraphs with textual evidence from both.
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett tells the story of two men name Vladimir and Estragon who waiting day after day for the mysterious Godot to show up and give them all the answers. Day after day Godot fails to show up. In the poem “Waiting for Truth” by Lilli Janzen the speaker is waiting for answers from someone. She is questioning whether she should continue to wait. With each day she waits the questions eat away at her more and more. She knows that once she gets the answers her life will continue on to a smooth path.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of the novel we learn Vladimir and Estragon have to wait for Godot by the tree, “Estragon: let’s go
Vladimir: We can’t
Estragon: Why not?
Vladimir: Were waiting for Godot” (Beckett 6)
The two men feel obligated to wait for him, even though he has yet to show up every night. They cannot leave in fear he will not show up and they will not get the answers that they need. The poem opens with “Wait, you say, but I want to know./Wait, you say, but it's just so slow.” (Janzen 1-2). The speaker is talking about how she knows she must wait to receive her answers but it is taking too long. She is getting desperate and tired of time going by and not getting what she needs
Later on in the novel Estragon begins to question what they are doing. Part of it is because he is having trouble with his memory, part of it is because he is tired of the repetition of waiting everyday and nothing is being accomplished,
“Vladimir: We’re waiting for Godot
Estragon: Ah! [pause. Despairing] what’ll we do, what’ll we do!
Vladimir: There’s nothing we can do.
Estragon: But I can’t go on like this!” (Beckett 58).
Estragon is getting fed up with Godot not showing up. The speaker in “Waiting for Truth” says, “but waiting seems a living hell” (Janzen 14). Waiting for answers is a painful and exhausting experience. Never knowing when the answers will come, just sitting and waiting day after day, never getting results.
Towards the end of the play Vladimir mentions how they have kept their promise to sit and wait for Godot, “Or for night to fall. [pause.] we have kept our appointment and that’s an end to that. We are not saints, but we have kept our appointment. How many people can boast that much?” (Beckett 70). Even though the process of waiting has been tedious and tiring, Vladimir and Estragon still return day after day and wait. They kept their promise and they are proud of that. They know in the end the results will be worth the wait. The speaker in the poem says, “Sometimes it's better just to wait/Till we are fit to change our state” (Janzen 23-24). Even though waiting is painful, sometimes it is better to just wait and see what happens. Wait until you are ready for the answers, wait until you are ready for your life to change.
Love Being In Love… But Love Don't Love Thee - Poem by Tiffany Saxon
ReplyDeleteFor thy heart beats of pain.
For it yearns for love
Yet, love is not on the scale
of gain.
For thy heart is slowly beating
away..
For the cries and heartache
seems to never end
For it is here to stay.
Through thy hidden fears..
only thy cries speaks very
loudly.
For at one time..it was disguised
with smiles very proudly.
Yet, no one seems to notice the pain
that grows inside of thee.
For thy have kneeled on thines
knees..asking...
'is this how it's gonna be? '
Trust
Devotion
and Love is not in the picture,
For trine heart is broken and
crushed into different measures and
mixtures.
For how thy pray to the heavens for
love.
For one can only wait for the
answer from way up above.
For thy love being in love....
but ones discovered that love don't
love thee.
For time has passed..love seems to
hide from thee.
How can this be?
For one feels that love is not meant
for thee.
Hoping
Wishing
and Praying that love is for thee.
Hopefully a miracle will come and
open thy eyes..So thy can see that
love is there for thee.
But until then...thy' Love Being In Love..
But Love Don't Love Thee.'
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz illustrates the extreme power of love, being one of the main themes present in the novel. Many characters chase after this “love”, which they make poor decisions and receive heart break throughout the novel. The poem “Love Being In Love… But Love Don't Love Thee” by Tiffany Saxon demonstrates the hardships and struggles that come with love, which are incorporated throughout The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
ReplyDeleteThe poem “Love Being In Love… But Love Don't Love Thee” relates to the Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, demonstrating the struggles of love and how influential it can be. Oscar, the main character of the novel, who was once a ladies man became cursed. He could not receive reciprocative love, which was his only dream. Females were disgusted by him and constantly ignored his affection: “His affection- that gravitational mass of love, fear, longing, desire, and lust that he directed at any and every girl in the vicinity without regard to looks, age, or availability- broke his heart each and every day… it was most like a ghost because no girl ever really seemed to notice it”(Diaz 23). Due to the extreme pain of not having anyone to love him or notice his affection, he would drive himself to attempt suicide. Oscar constantly believed that he was not good enough and that he would never find love. His extreme pain relates to the pain illustrated in Saxon’s poem: “For the cries and heartache / seems to never end / For it is here to stay”(Lines 7-9). Oscar does believe that his heartache will never end and he will never receive that reciprocative love. At the end of the novel, Oscar finally finds love. He decides to pursue a relationship with an already taken woman, which this “love” takes his life. Oscar went through a great amount of heartache and made decisions in the novel, based off of love. Beli, who is Oscar's mother, also had many struggles with love. She had fallen in love with a Dominican Gangster who had relations to Trujillo, who was a Dominican dictator. The novel states, “but there was one important item he’d failed to reveal. That he was married… But I bet you never would have imagined whom he was married to. A Trujillo”(Diaz 138). Beli did not listen to La Inca’s advice to stay away from this man, who had killed people and was incorporated with dirty work. And on top of it all, he was married to Trujillo’s sister. Beli remained with this man all for “love”, which Trujillo’s sister finds out about the affair. His wife sends Trujillo's men to beat and torture Beli, almost killing her. After this, Beli is heartbroken and in mental and physical pain. She was devastated that she had lost her baby and that the Dominican gangster had put her through an awful situation. “Love Being In Love… But Love Don't Love Thee” states, “is this how it's gonna be? / Trust / Devotion / and Love is not in the picture, / For trine heart is broken and / crushed into different measures and / mixtures”(Lines 19-25). This relates to Beli’s heartbreak, which she never imagined that she would be “crushed” and beaten by Trujillo’s men for being in love with the Dominican Gangster. Beli had no hopes for love and would not receive love again. The characters in the Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao are heavily affected by love.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao demonstrates the hardships and struggles of love, which is demonstrated in Tiffany Saxon’s poem “Love Being In Love… But Love Don't Love Thee”. Oscar and Beli make many decisions based off of “love”, and heartbreak is present in both of their stories.
Waiting
ReplyDeleteWaiting for a phone call,
Waiting for a text message,
Waiting for a visit,
Waiting for a time,
When I no longer have to wait.
I chose the poem “Waiting” to connect to the book Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, as they both have similar themes and allude to the same concept, waiting for nothing. In the poem, the author starts with listing STUFF they have to be patient for from others, a phone call, visit. The poem concludes with an open-ended thought, “Waiting for a time, / When I no longer have to wait,” (lines 4-5). This connects to the novel, as the two main characters are always waiting for something that will never be given. A direct example of this is within act 1, as Estragon asks why they’re unable to leave, and Vlad replies, “‘We're waiting for Godot,’” (Beckett 6). Vlad and Estragon will always wait, because if they don’t, they are afraid they will miss out on the potential opportunities that could arise with their meeting from Godot. The same idea is included in the poem, as the author mentions their endless wait for another that will never be able to do the same for them.
The poem’s last line “When I no longer have to wait,” (line 5) is similar to the main objective of Estragon and Vlad. Throughout every encounter in the book, whether it be a fight between each other or a conversation with Pozzo and Lucky, it always leads to them waiting at the dead tree for Godot. They choose to wait in promise to see Godot, as Vlad believes they must wait for him, as they said they would. This commitment is then renewed every night, as Vlad continues to promise their wait to the boy sent for Godot. The poem reflects the same, as the author wonders when they won’t have to wait any longer. The reason we, as humans, wait for others to be decent is because of the faith that is associated with such person. We are willinging to run a marathon for someone who would not lift a finger for us because of the compassion and love for the individual, and this can be a constant concern for some. Similar to Vlad’s constant commitment to the boy to meet with Godot, individuals will continue to keep faith in some that will never live up to the potential that they should.
Alone- Edgar Allan Poe
ReplyDeleteFrom childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I loved, I loved alone.
Then- in my childhood, in the dawn
Of a most stormy life- was drawn
From every depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:
From the torrent, or the fountain,
From the red cliff of the mountain,
From the sun that round me rolled
In its autumn tint of gold,
From the lightning in the sky
As it passed me flying by,
From the thunder and the storm,
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view.
In Crime and Punishment, the narrator says “He had become so completely absorbed in himself, and isolated from his fellows that he dreaded meeting, not only his landlady, but any one at all” (1.1.3). This quote is regarding Raskolnikov, a murderer who has isolated himself from society because he does not fit in with the rest of society. In the thoughts leading up to the murder, Raskolnikov struggles internally with his desire to kill and if he should act on it. His thoughts were much like those of Edgar Allan Poe in his poem “Alone”, where he describes the feeling of alienation he has felt all his life, then subsequently sees a demon in his way. “Alone” is thematically connected to Crime and Punishment, with both of their focuses on experiencing social alienation.
Both Raskolnikov’s and Poe’s alienation begins in childhood after unfavorable experiences. Poe states that “From childhood’s hour I have not been/As others were; I have not seen/As others saw; I could not bring/My passions from a common spring” (1-4). Poe is describing that all of his current emotions stem from events that happened in his childhood. These events cause him to become emotionally numb, similar to Raskolnikov’s lack of morality regarding his desire to kill. Raskolnikov also had traumatic childhood memories that primed him to become a murderer. In a dream, Raskolnikov recalls the death of his Grandmother and younger brother, as well as the uneasiness he had toward the town’s tavern, and even an odd ‘hallucination’ of a horse being beat to death. After he awakens, he exclaims, “Lord, show me my path- I renounce that accursed...dream of mine” (1.5.61). Raskolnikov realises that his thoughts are wrong but he cannot help but follow what his mind is telling him he is meant to do. When Poe sees “a demon in [his] view” he realises, as Raskolnikov did, that his alienation and social experiences have led him to have evil feelings.
Emotionless
ReplyDeleteCloudy skies have gone away
But clear skies aren't here today
I'm left without a care
No hopes or dreams anywhere
No happy or sad
No forgiving or mad
An empty hole
That once was full
Emotionless is redefined
When you enter my godforsaken mind
But they come back you see
My emotions
They come back to me
Mo Frederickson
The poem “Emotionless” by Mo Frederickson shows the emotionless state that the speaker is going through. This is very similar to the lives of the characters of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, who rely on their soma to keep the numb from reality. When the poem says “An empty hole That once was full”, this represents how time before the new society was full, but is now empty is acceptable because emotions that once filled this void took away from stability. Brave New World says, “Mother, monogamy, romance[...] And feeling strongly, How could they be stable?” The mother, monogamy and romance that was mentioned in the book would represent the sense of family and the structure of having a relationship, and the characters make it quite clear that life is easier without them. But despite this, there is now an empty hole in humanity where these things used to be.
The poem isn’t strictly negative, but stays so blatantly neutral that it does appear to be negative. It says, “Cloudy skies have gone away But clear skies aren’t here today”, this gives the sense that negativity has left the speaker, but that does not mean that their life suddenly became positive. This is a theme in Brave New World as well, when the story says, “I want to know what passion is. I want to feel something strongly.” This quote shows that although pain and suffering has been eliminated, the people were still unhappy. This quote reveals that they would rather take the good with the bad instead of just a constant static nothingness.
A Dream
ReplyDeleteBy: Edgar Allan Poe
In visions of the dark night
I have dreamed of joy departed-
But a waking dream of life and light
Hath left me broken-hearted.
Ah! what is not a dream by day
To him eyes are cast
On things around him with a ray
Turned back upon the past?
That holy dream-that holy dream,
While all the world were chiding,
Hath cheered me as a lovely beam
A lonely spirit guiding.
What through that light, thro’ storm and night,
So trembled from afar-
What could there be more purely bright
In Truth’s day-star?
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley speaks of this perfect utopia that was the ultimate goal of everyone during the time before Ford. But while pursuing this goal of perfect, the society began to remake itself and rid of everything that caused all the turmoil that lead to this decision.. They left behind everything, from culture to family and, “Our Ford himself did a great deal to shift the emphasis from truth and beauty to comfort and happiness” (Huxley 228). This dream of perfection as the novel progressed, increasingly began to look as if it was a nightmare of sorts, with very few people who can truly think for themselves. Essentially the dystopia in the novel was a dream gone wrong.
In “A Dream” by Edgar Allan Poe, the speaker dreams of a better world but of a dream where there is no joy. The speaker dreams and dreams of this better world throughout the day, ignoring the present and what others say about this pursuit. But where could that dream lead? And what caused this pursuit is something in reality that left him “broken-hearted.” And as the dream progresses, the speak asks, “What could there be more purely bright / in Truth’s day-star” (Poe 1). Which leads us to think if this dream is truly leading the speaker into the right direction as he leaves all that is familiar behind for this dream.
Both texts represent the quest of something that twists in the wrong direction. We see that Brave New World with the loss of any depth in society with their people only knowing their work and pseudo-happiness. And in “A Dream,” because of something wrong in reality, the speaker ends up leaving everything behind for this singular dream. And in the end, both texts create warning of sorts that tells us to not forget the past and be careful about the future.
I picked the poem “Science” by Robert Kelly for the book Brave New World.
ReplyDelete“Science explains nothing
but holds all together as
many things as it can count
science is a basket
not a religion he said
a cat as big as a cat
the moon the size of the moon
science is the same as poetry
only it uses the wrong words.”
To me, this poem is definitely from the perspective of someone who is deeply offended by the loss of humanity in our fast-paced technologically driven world. This person feels as though science cannot fill the void of religion and morality, calling it “a basket / not a religion” (Kelly 4-5). The person could almost be John from Huxley’s Brave New World, voicing his frustration in his mother’s shortcomings as a teacher with her vague knowledge of science. On the topic, Huxley writes, “It was the same with everything else he asked about. Linda never seemed to know. The old men of the pueblo had much more definite answers” (130). Raised on the border between these two worlds, John learns quickly that science does not provide the awe-factor of old tales passed down from generation to generation or local customs that he has grown up around. No matter how concrete and proven science may be, it “explains nothing” because nothing can compare to the depth of life that is introduced by the idea of a higher power or some governing of morality in life (Kelly 1).
This poem also reminds me of the passage in the book where John shows Helmholtz and Bernard some of the Shakespeare he had been reading. After reading a part of Romeo and Juliet, Helmholtz “broke out in an explosion of uncontrollable guffawing” (Huxley 184). Unfamiliar with the art of wordcraft and literature, Helmholtz laughs at what he doesn’t understand. What makes this ironic is that the world that they live in uses the most advanced technology conceivable, giving them the ability to procreate asexually, and yet they are intellectually stunted by being kept from enjoying Shakespeare fully. In this way, “science is the same as poetry / only it uses the wrong words” (Kelly 8-9). A utopian future full of intelligent young individuals is possible, but not with science as its main driving force, as seen in this book.
(1) You foolish men who lay
ReplyDeletethe guilt on women,
not seeing you’re the cause
of the very thing you blame;
(5) if you invite their disdain
with measureless desire
why wish they well behave
if you incite to ill.
(9) You fight their stubbornness,
then, weightily,
you say it was their lightness
when it was your guile.
(13) In all your crazy shows
you act just like a child
who plays the bogeyman
of which he’s then afraid.
(17) With foolish arrogance
you hope to find a Thais
in her you court, but a Lucretia
when you’ve possessed her.
The poem “You Foolish Men” by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz depicts the role of women in Crime and Punishment. The men in Crime and Punishment certainly would not see women the way feminists do today. Consistently throughout the novel men seem to be getting saved by the women in their lives. Sonia even sells herself to men in order to support her family (or her dads alcohol addiction) and Raskolnikov's mother sends him money all the time. Just like how the poem begins “You foolish men/who lay the guilt on women/not seeing that you’re the cause/” (1-3). The lines seem like they were designed with Sonia in mind “[...] he stood on his dignity: ‘how, said he, ‘can a highly educated man like me live in the same rooms with a girl like that?”(1.2.23). In this quote Marmeladov is discussing how it was hard for him to accept his daughter living in his house due to her profession. Well Marmeladov, I’m sure Sonia has got it much harder and everything that she goes through is for her family. Sonia first sees Raskolnikov as her saviour but in reality Sonia redeems Raskolnikov as much as she can at least. Despite how mean Rask was to Sonia, he eventually forgives her for being a prostitute. The men in Sonia’s life wish that she was well behaved but treat her like garbage “if you invite their disdain/with measureless desire/why wish they well behave” (5-7). The poem shows that male ignorance to how important women are is prevalent in Crime and Punishment.
I Died For Beauty - Poem by Emily Dickinson
ReplyDeleteI died for beauty, but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb,
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.
He questioned softly why I failed?
"For beauty," I replied.
"And I for truth - the two are one;
We brethren are," he said.
And so, as kinsmen met a-night,
We talked between the rooms,
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names.
In Emily Dickinson’s poem, she analyzes life through the means of death. The two characters presented in the poem each explain why they died, one for beauty and the other for truth. Although one is physical and the other inanimate/emotional, she comments that each hold equally heavy impact in society’s ideas in the meaning of life. She explains “the two are one,” meaning that society is all the same when death comes (line 6). People constantly strive and wish to be remembered but their stories are often forgotten. This provides explanation to the moss in the poem, of which, “covered up our names” (line 12). Dickinson writes the poem to say that everyone becomes equal when they die, and their stories are not remembered and will repeat themselves throughout society which questions the purpose of life.
The Picture of Dorian Gray also questions the reasoning of life throughout the novel in Gray’s life. He lives his life consumed by beauty and pleasure, which causes him to lose all morals. Dorian dies for both, beauty and truth, as the characters do in the poem. Through his degeneration of youth/beauty and the portrait representing his truth, he kills all aspects of himself. He stabbed the painting because he believed it would remove the guilt of his true self, “It would kill the past, and when that was dead he would be free” (Wilde 210). Nothing remains of him besides what his society recognized him as, “hanging upon the wall a splendid portrait of their master as they had last seen him, in all the wonder of his exquisite youth and beauty” (Wilde 210). His true story dies with him and Basil, for they are the only ones to see the altering painting. Dorian’s story is not remembered and will not be told or learned from in his society. Therefore, the poem and novel reveal parallel meanings in the lessons of life being lost through death, which all of society will endure.
T.S. Eliot "The Hollow Men" :
ReplyDeleteI
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;
Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom
Remember us-if at all-not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.
II
Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death's dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind's singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.
Let me be no nearer
In death's dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer-
Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom
III
This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man's hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.
Is it like this
In death's other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.
IV
The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms
In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river
Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death's twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.
V
Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o'clock in the morning.
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
ReplyDelete“Brave New World,” by Aldous Huxley portrays a society in which freedom is triumphed by happiness. The citizens of this society are controlled by the use of drugs and sex; thus, the citizens are unable to create their own sense of purpose or accomplishment. “The Hollow Men,” by T S Eliot explores the emptiness and meaningless the Hollow men feel.
“The Hollow Men,” by Eliot connects to Brave New World as it connects to the theme of happiness vs freedom. Individuals choose to stay content with their current situation, thus, they are unable to find purpose. In Eliot’s poem, he writes, “Our dried voices, when / We whisper together / Are quiet and meaningless / As wind in dry grass / Or rats' feet over broken glass / In our dry cellar” (Eliot 5-9). The Hollow Men express their acceptance of their meaningless and refers to their inability to express thought through the phrase, “Our dried voices.” This is similar to Huxley’s, “Brave New World,” as individuals i n this society are also unable to find purpose, and instead resort to drugs and sex to escape the truths of reality. Huxley writes, “...always soma, delicious soma, half a gramme for a half-holiday, a gramme for a week-end, two grammes for a trip to the gorgeous East, three for a dark eternity on the moon; returning whence they find themselves on the other side of the crevice, safe on the solid ground of daily labour and distraction, scampering from feely to feely…” (Huxley 55). This shows the constant drug use that occurs in Huxley’s society; individuals are conditioned to believe this is normal, thus, they accept their situation like the Hollow Men. Instead of facing one’s own problems, individuals turn to drugs. Both pieces of literature are able to connect through the emphasis placed on purposeless life and acceptance of a poor situation.
Eliot then expresses the lack of emotion and importance feel in part V. Eliot writes, “Between the idea /And the reality / Between the motion / And the act / Falls the Shadow / For Thine is the Kingdom / Between the conception / And the creation / Between the emotion / And the responses / Falls the Shadow / Life is very long / Between the desire /And the spasm / Between the potence / And the existence / Between the essence / And the descent / Falls the Shadow” (Eliot 74-92). Here, Eliot is describing the differences between the ability to think and the ability to act. Eliot contrasts creating ideas and making these ideas a reality, having an emotion and acting on that emotion, and having a desire and achieving that desire. This idea is similar to the John’s description of freedom in, “Brave New World.” John says, “But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness, I want sin” (Huxley 215).” This relates to Eliot’s poem as it also describes what an ideal society would be made of. While Eliot’s Hollow Men suggest that the ability to think and act allows for choice making, John is suggesting that purpose is achieved through freedom instead of happiness. Although the reasoning for choice making is different, both the Hollow Men and John share the same interest in creating the ability to make a choice instead of being subject to restrictions placed by others.
In conclusion, Huxley’s “Brave New World,” and Eliot’s, “The Hollow Men,” share several characteristics that allow each piece of literature to relate to one another. Both pieces revolve around the themes of happiness vs freedom and the importance of choice.
The Cloud - Charles Coonz
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts now live in the cloud,
My moments, wishes and hopes,
Opinions, preferences, scopes
Our loved ones live in the cloud,
Their Voices are screaming out loud,
“We hope you all make us proud”.
Our Selves now live in the cloud.
The future, present and past,
A shadow we eagerly cast.
The things we have renounced,
So hard to claim it back
There’s more than meets the eye,
The Cloud is just a lie.
The novel “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley is a tale that describes the ominous personal and societal implications that exist in a world of utopian sensations and pleasures. Detailing a society ridden of personal responsibility and consumed by neverending pursuits of euphoria, the World State has, on the surface, achieved an idealistic place where negativity has been outlawed and the boundaries between human desires and fulfillments have been demolished. Yet, when this world is observed through the minds of certain inquisitive citizens, such as Bernard, Helmholtz, and John the society of limitless pleasure and satisfaction is quickly exposed as a prison whereby its inmates are citizens who are conditioned, controlled, and manipulated. “People were ready to have even their appetites controlled then. Anything for a quiet life. We've gone on controlling ever since. It hasn't been very good for truth, of course. But it's been very good for happiness.” (Huxley). This quote displays the extreme sacrifices of truth and free will that were made in order to ensure a “perfect” society of peace and satisfaction.
The poem “The Cloud” by Charles Coonz offers a parallel commentary over this topic of a utopian paradise. In saying “My thoughts now live in the cloud / My moments, wishes and hopes” the piece establishes “the cloud” as a place where many of an individual’s defining characteristics reside in a metaphorical cloud. This cloud can speak towards the society of the World State within “Brave New World” on account of their similar messages. As “Brave New World” states, “Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the overcompensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn't nearly so spectacular as instability.” (Huxley). “The Cloud” makes a similar observation about perfectionist places when it says “Our Selves now live in the cloud” (Coonz), alluding to the tendency for the citizens within “Brave New World” to lose nearly all of their personality, free will, and human essence, resulting in nothing more than mindless entities who live a falsified life. In the final lines, “The Cloud” alludes to this false utopia by stating “There’s more than meets the eye / The Cloud is just a lie.” (Coonz). The poem, like “Brave New World”, makes the conclusion that perfectionist lives and places are oftentimes mere illusions of an infinite pool of happiness, while in reality being a life-sucking dystopia where all truth and freedom has been eradicated.
“Alone”
ReplyDeleteBY EDGAR ALLAN POE
From childhood’s hour I have not been
As others were—I have not seen
As others saw—I could not bring
My passions from a common spring—
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow—I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone—
And all I lov’d—I lov’d alone—
Then—in my childhood—in the dawn
Of a most stormy life—was drawn
From ev’ry depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still—
From the torrent, or the fountain—
From the red cliff of the mountain—
From the sun that ’round me roll’d
In its autumn tint of gold—
From the lightning in the sky
As it pass’d me flying by—
From the thunder, and the storm—
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view—
Throughout Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky, the Underground Man is seen living a life of solitude. His views on society and the way it works combined with his social anxiety and inability to interact with other people keeps him living in loneliness. To begin, the Underground Man constantly refers to himself as a man of intelligence throughout the novella. His viewpoint that “an intelligent man of the nineteenth century is bound to be a spineless creature, while the man of character, the man of action, is, in most cases, of limited intelligence” (Dostoevsky 1.1.5) limits his ability to succeed in life. By labeling himself as an intelligent man while possessing this mentality towards society, the Underground Man eliminates his chances of successfully finding a place in society. For example, being an intelligent man keeps him from being able to properly interact with Zverkov and his friends, who act as men of action. Instead of being able to view himself as an equal to them, he feels much less, leading him to getting drunk and being unable to appropriately function. This continues to fuel the Underground Man’s bitter feelings toward society.
Similarly, in “Alone” by Edgar Allan Poe, the narrator describes living a life of solitude due to what makes him different than others, namely being depression. In the first couple lines, the narrator says, From childhood’s hour I have not been/ As others were—I have not seen/ As others saw—I could not bring/ My passions from a common spring” (Poe 1-4). Just like the Underground Man, the narrator in the poem describes not being “as others were,” implying the narrator did not fit society’s norm. In the same way, the Underground Man as a “man of intelligence” did not fit in with the men of “character” that seemed to dominate the society in which he could never fit in.
From childhood's hour I have not been
ReplyDeleteAs others were -- I have not seen
As others saw -- I could not bring
My passions from a common spring --
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow -- I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone --
And all I lov'd -- I lov'd alone --
Then -- in my childhood -- in the dawn
Of a most stormy life -- was drawn
From ev'ry depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still --
From the torrent, or the fountain --
From the red cliff of the mountain --
From the sun that 'round me roll'd
In its autumn tint of gold --
From the lightning in the sky
As it pass'd me flying by --
From the thunder, and the storm --
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view --
This poem by Edgar Allen poe accurately portrays the main themes of my choice book a picture of. Dorian gray. This poem like the book shows the ills of vanity, selfishness and youth. Dorian gray is a young man who is clearly easily influenced by those around him.
Dorian gray begins with a young Dorian grey visiting his friend basil. At this point in the novel Dorian is very clearly easily influenced. Lord Henry influences Dorian at this point to become cane. He tells Dorian of the values of beauty and makes sure Dorian understands that his youth is his greatest value. This in turn sets up Dorian attitude and character for the rest of the novel. It causes Dorian to have a malicious outlook. The beginning of the poem states “from childhoods hour I have not been as others were”. This accurately shows the way that dorians youth was so cruelly disrupted and his outlook was changed to something most others weren’t. Dorian wasn’t taught kindness or ethical morals, he was taught by lord Henry that beauty was the only thing of value to be had. His outlook from his childhood was set up differently than others.
The last line of the poem is also representative of the end of the novel. Dorians downfall is his eventual realizing of his own evil. The poem says “of a demon in my view”. It shows the formation of evil. Dorian eventually looks at his portrait and sees his own evil that was stemmed from his childhood meeting with Henry and basil. The poem also follows the theme of vanity causing evil outcomes.
The poem also mentions the way in which the narrator loves alone. This is a very common idea from Dorian grey because Dorian is the only one who ever sees a beauty in Sybil vane and is the only one who loves her. He also tends to love all his evils in private. His tainted self portrait he also admired and Hayes alone. I think the poem helped highlight dorians loneliness throughout the novel. He cannot show the world the portrait and it eats him alive as his dirty little secret.
I’m conclus the picture of Dorian grey and this poem both emphasize the ideas of vanity, loneliness, and youth. They are both self destructive prices that result in demons and evil after youthfulness takes a turn.
“Revenge”
ReplyDeleteMike Hauser
If revenge is oh so sweet
Then why this bitter taste
Along the edges of my tongue tip
A tearful sadness to my gaze
Where I find it now hard to smile
Under this heavyweight
Sweet is sour in revenge
And the trouble that it makes
In the play “Hamlet” and the poem “Revenge”, both Shakespeare and Hauser use revenge as a major theme. Three of the main revenge plots within the play are Hamlet’s aim to avenge his father by killing his uncle, Laertes’ target to avenge the murder of his father by killing Hamlet, and Prince Fortinbras’ wish to reclaim his father’s land. Fortinbras, Hamlet and Laertes each demonstrate the ways revenge leads to tragedy when they are unable to cope with the loss of a loved one. As Hauser says, “Sweet is sour in revenge / And the trouble that it makes” (7-8). Revenge causes one to act blindly through anger, rather than through reason. They all acted on emotion, but the ways the characters went about it in “Hamlet” were very different. Because of this, it led to the downfall of two, and the rise of one.
The main plot of “Hamlet” is outlined by revenge. Upon learning the circumstances of his father’s death, Hamlet’s attitude shifts. Once a saddened mourner, Hamlet becomes a man on a mission for revenge. When the ghost of Hamlet’s father brings the news to the awestruck Hamlet, Hamlet is appalled by the “Foul and most unnatural murder” (1.5, 31). Hamlet immediately promises the ghost the retribution he desires, claiming that he will seek swift vengeance against his father’s murder to prove his love for him: “Haste me to know’t that I, with wings as swift as meditation or the thoughts of love, may sweep to my revenge” (1.5, 35-37). Ironically, Hamlet promises the ghost a swift revenge, though his revenge is anything but quick. Hauser connects to this idea by writing, “Under this heavyweight” (6). The theme of delayed activity reoccurs throughout the plot of the play because consistently, the protagonist’s time-table for accomplishing the task is slowed due to his pondering of moral issues.
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S Eliot
ReplyDeleteS’io credesse che mia risposta fosse
A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma percioche giammai di questo fondo
Non torno vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero,
Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo.
Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question ...
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”
Let us go and make our visit.
In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.
The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.
And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.
In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.
And indeed there will be time
To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair —
(They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”)
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin —
(They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”)
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
For I have known them all already, known them all:
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?
And I have known the eyes already, known them all—
The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,
And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
Then how should I begin
To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?
And how should I presume?
And I have known the arms already, known them all—
Arms that are braceleted and white and bare
(But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!)
Is it perfume from a dress
That makes me so digress?
Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl.
And should I then presume?
And how should I begin?
Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets
And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes
Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows? ...
I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!
Smoothed by long fingers,
Asleep ... tired ... or it malingers,
Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.
Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,
Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?
But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter,
I am no prophet — and here’s no great matter;
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.
And would it have been worth it, after all,
ReplyDeleteAfter the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it toward some overwhelming question,
To say: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all”—
If one, settling a pillow by her head,
Should say: “That is not what I meant at all.
That is not it, at all.”
And would it have been worth it, after all,
Would it have been worth while,
After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,
After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor—
And this, and so much more?—
It is impossible to say just what I mean!
But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:
Would it have been worth while
If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl,
And turning toward the window, should say:
“That is not it at all,
That is not what I meant, at all.”
. . . . .
No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—
Almost, at times, the Fool.
I grow old… I grow old…
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think that they will sing to me.
I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.
Hamlet centers on the dealings of being human in an a seemingly indifferent world, what sufferings importance is in a hedonistic mindset. It also asks what it means to have emotions that are consistent with the views of morality. It compares much to the character of Hamlet and his own dilemma of being caught in indecision between these forces, Eliot even asks "Streets that follow like a tedious argument Of insidious intent To lead you to an overwhelming question ... Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”" (13) Which reminds us of Hamlet questioning his own mortality, saying "To be or not to be", essentially asking the point of it all. In this time of indecision, caught between the spectrum of emotions, he like Hamlet confides in wasting time and not acting on anything, fearing the ramifications, as he says: "There will be time to murder and create, And time for all the works and days of hands That lift and drop a question on your plate; Time for you and time for me, And time yet for a hundred indecisions, And for a hundred visions and revisions" Hamlet is specifically tormented by his indecision to kill his uncle, having the opportunity multiple times but never being able to legitimate capitalize on it until the end, even taking an innocent life by the end, and in the poem, the speaker too grows old with indecision saying: "And indeed there will be time To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?” Time to turn back and descend the stair, With a bald spot in the middle of my hair — (They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”" (26) The poem questions what it means to define yourself in the universe, what morals really mean and what they are dictated by. In questioning this, however both works demonstrate that it is not worth musing the philosophical ramifications of every one of our actions, and presents idealists and futile. We can't stop to measure each step, and eventually we will have to move, no matter the direction that is, or the universe will pin us against the wall, as T.S says "When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall, Then how should I begin To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways? And how should I presume?" (44) All of the poem eventually culminates in him saying "No! I am not Prince Hamlet" but we know this to not be true, due to his manipulative nature, exposed in the epigraph of the poem. Hamlet too is very manipulative, attempting to convince that he is not crazy while simultaneously dropping subtle mixed signals that he might be. Love too plays the same role in both, where in the poem it is hard to tell if he actually is in love with this person he is talking about or if he is just too busy thinking about himself, like Hamlet ignoring Ophelia and wanting nothing to do with her. Both of these poems end tragically, both dying at the end of their life having accomplished none of their potential with frivolous pursuits strained by their own consciousness, this fundamental constant, a human condition is what defines their life and leaves the undefined of their lives undone.
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