Monday, June 14, 2010
How to Read Literature - Chs. 11-15
For this week I've asked that you read chapters 11-15. Please generate your responses in a similar fashion to those of last week. Choose at least two ideas to connect to prior reading. You seem to have a good handle on not just identifying the technique, but also analyzing WHY that particular technique is used and what effect it creates. Keep up the good work with this! Try to vary your examples a bit more, although I understand that your repertoire of reading may be somewhat limited. Just do the best you can. This week I would also like for you to comment on what someone else has posted before you. It could be something someone posted last week or what someone has posted this week. Try to expand on an idea or challenge an idea; don’t just agree or disagree. Let’s start a productive dialogue. I have enjoyed the posts so far. You all seem to be on the right track, so keep it up.
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Hey! I just finished reading through all the responses for last week and marking them off on my grading chart. 15 people on the blog so far - that's great! I enjoyed your responses. Although some of you used the same works to reference Foster's ideas, many of you used them in different ways. The only weakness I noted in various responses was the explanation of the real reason a character goes on a quest. This should be a universal idea (like self-knowledge) that the author is trying to relay to the audience by way of the character's quest. What does the character learn about himself/herself? About the society in which he/she lives? About his relationship to that society? Some of you did a brilliant job with this, but I noticed that several people simplified this, and I want you to start thinking big, thinking deep, about universal ideas that are present in the literature you read. You may have discussed theme as a one-word concept in the past (sacrifice, revenge, love, etc.) but I am going to challenge you to be more specific - what is the author saying about this subject throughout the work? When you can pinpoint that and explain it in a complex sentence, that will be theme. We'll be working on that more in class. Again, thanks for the thoughtful responses. I look forward to reading more this coming week.
ReplyDeleteMrs. Hollifield,
ReplyDeleteI have a question about your latest post. How deep do we have to think about the character's quest? Can you over analyze it? I know that self-knowledge is important in a character's quest. I used the novel 'The Grapes of Wrath' as my interpretation of the first chapter. Tom Joad learns that this world and society is cruel. The relationship with society is survival-of-the-fittest at the time of the Depression. His society was full of low paid work and horrible conditions. But aren't these just facts? Tom Joad learns to accept life as an endless test of survival, but also as a reward. The reward in life is family, which is love and compassion. Can this be described as self-knowledge? I'm in need of some guidance.
Maggie, one of the last statements you made could be a good thematic statement if you manipulated it to be a universal statement rather than one that only applies to this one text. You wrote "Tom Joad learns to accept life as an endless test of survival, but also as a reward." To universalize it, you would need to say something like...life is an endless series of tests of survival, but those tests lead to rewards such as love and compassion. See how you have encapsulated what Tom learns and gleaned a statement of what the author is trying to say through his quest in the novel? I'm not asking you to over-analyze, just specify what it is the character learns through the quest and how this connects to what the author is revealing to his audience on a larger scale. I'm asking you to do a little meta-analysis, analyzing what the work means outside of its own little world. That's what theme is. I hope this helps explain what I'm looking for. If not, let me know.
ReplyDeleteThank you Mrs. Hollifield. I can see the universal concept clearer now. I will keep this in my thoughts as I read on this week.
ReplyDeleteGreat! Please continue to ask questions if anything I write on the blog is unclear. I usually check it every day. Hope you are enjoying your summer.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading through chapter 13, it’s all political; one book was stuck in my mind. Throughout the chapter I kept thinking Foster, please don’t use my book as an example, and luckily he didn’t even though it is a great example. The Crucible is a perfect example of chapter 13 because Arthur Miller wrote the book with the story line of the Salem Witch Trials in the 1600s. What the book is really about though, is McCarthyism, which occurred during the mid 1900s. The Crucible “engages the realities of its world and thinks about human problems”, but it especially focuses on the paranoid U.S. government. The fear that witchcraft created is like the fear that McCarthyism created through the scare of communist leaders in American government. Miller uses the Crucible to show how ridicules McCarthyism is; Abigail and her friends accuse people of being witches when it’s obvious that it’s fake, and the U.S. government accused many Americans of being communist when it was obvious all of them weren’t. Abigail and her friends went overboard accusing people left and right because they got scared and caught up in the excitement, exactly like the government who started accusing people for everything, paranoid that communism was taking over.
ReplyDeleteChapter 15, Flights of Fancy, jumped out to me because I recently finished a book with the same principles. Beka Cooper by Tamora Pierce is about a girl who becomes part of her city’s guard, or police, in the lowest part of the city. Beka can communicate with dead souls, but the souls can’t be heard unless they ride on pigeons. When the souls finally realize that they are dead, they fly away to the “black god”. Foster’s saying “flight is freedom” is shown through the way the souls fly away when they realize they’re gone. It’s ironic that the souls have to realize they’re dead to fly(their escape) to the black god, yet they’re flying on the backs of pigeons. Another book I thought of while reading this chapter was the Maximum Ride books by James Patterson. The main characters in the book are children who have been experimented on, and they have wings. While wings should bring them freedom, literally and figuratively, and sometimes it does, the main thing it brings them is trouble. Without their wings they would easily have no trouble, but their ability to fly is“counterfreedom” as Foster says.
Looking back on last weeks posts I started thinking when I read through Tyler’s post on quests and Lord of the Rings. I never really thought of the character Sam Wise as being a quester because he is not the main character. Throughout the novel though, he probably goes through the most changes in learning about himself. He gains more confidence, and starts trusting himself. He also looks at himself as a protector of Frodo, and realizes that the world isn’t something he needs to be extremely afraid of. The quest for Sam Wise was huge, and to think I never looked at it that way!
Mrs. Hollifield,
Next week I will be out of town for drum major camp, but I will get my work to you a.s.a.p.!!!!
I don't know if you got my past dates or not but I will not be here or by a computer for the last questions on How to read literature, but will make them up on my return...If i find a computer I will.
ReplyDeleteclaire wyse
After reading Chapter 11, I immediately thought of Lenny in the novel “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck. This novel has a lot of everything; realism, naturalism, romanticism, and modernism. It is a story about these two friends, George and Lenny, who are trying to find work in the harsh economic conditions of the 1930s. Lenny is mentally retarded and acts like a small child, however, he is huge compared to most men and very strong. George is your average man with the exception of a kind heart. Lenny liked to pet soft things, like animal’s fur, but he would kill the animals he would pet. He did not understand his own strength. This is violence. Reality is violence during these times of hard work and cruel people. Lenny, one day, pets the farmer’s son’s wife’s hair and breaks her neck. Everyone on the farm searches for him as he hides in the spot George had told him about earlier in the novel. George finds him and shoots Lenny. The significance of this violent action is the act of compassion toward his friend, who will never change and be “normal.” Lenny was doomed from the beginning because of his mental condition. George felt that shooting Lenny was the only answer. He did not want Lenny to be tortured because he cared about Lenny and didn’t want him in pain. This violence was the act of compassion and the reality of life.
ReplyDeleteThe whole time I was reading Chapter 12 I kept thinking “The Great Gatsby” by Fitzgerald. During Mrs. Hall’s class this past semester, she took a passage from the novel and let everyone analyze it. I noticed something symbolic that I did not notice when I read the novel the first time. When Daisy attends Gatsby’s party with her husband, she and Gatsby stand together under a PLUM TREE while they enjoy their time together as lost lovers. Ok, so I thought, “Fitzgerald wants us to know something. He could have picked any tree for Daisy and Gatsby to stand under, but he picked a plum tree.” Well, a plum is sweet and sour. The sweet can symbolize Gatsby’s love for Daisy and the sour could be Daisy’s treatment towards Gatsby. A plum is also very fat and juicy. This could symbolize how many people were in this major affair; Daisy, Gatsby, Tom, Nick, Jordan, Myrtle, and Wilson. Then when a plum is smashed it is messy. This is very significant to the story because at the end of the novel Myrtle is hit by a car, Gatsby is shot in his pool, and Wilson shoots himself. Now death is messy. When Fitzgerald wrote that Daisy and Gatsby stood under the plum tree, it symbolizes their love and foreshadows the doom for the rest of the characters.
I strongly agree with Angel’s post this week about the political significance in “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller. It is a great example of the corruption that exists in the government. The Salem Witch Trails were false and very judgmental. During the Red Scare, there were many accusations against government officials of being communists. Judgment kills in government environments.
ReplyDeleteWhile I was reading chapter 11 this week, Foster was focusing on violence, and how it has a deeper meaning in Literature than it does in reality. This made me think about the story, "The Odyssy", by Homer. In this story Odyseus is on a journey home and faces many challenges, and ALOT of violence takes place. However, the most meaningful act of violence in the this story was when Odysseus returns home and realises that hundreds of suitors are in his home awaiting his wife. Odysseus fights for his wife and kills tha suitors, yes this is a very barbaric scene. However, it is also very sweet. Odysseus is gone for years and returns to fight for his wife, its really not to kill the men, but it is to gain his wife's love once more.
ReplyDeleteIn Chapter 14, Foster discusses Figures of Christ. He gives us a little checklist, and after reading that I thought about Robert Neville from "I Am Legend". In this book Robert Neville is in agony, because his wife and child died. He is working to redeem an unworthy world, because all the people are like zombies. Neville spends his time working on a cure for the zombies even though he really doesn't need to. Neville also was a scientist, and had other scientists he worked with (disciples), and the final connection is that Robert Neville lives in a city, but it is taken over by wild life so its like a wilderness. So, Robert Neville is a figure of Christ.
I went back to last week and read Carla's blog on the biblical allusions in "The Scarlette Letter", and I agree with it. I never made that connection, Hester and Eve are alot alike. Also, Adam and Dimmesdale both never recieved as harsh a punishment as the women.
Reading back again through Chapter 12, mainly when someone is thinking about symbols, the novel that comes to mind is the 'Great Gatsby.' I remember last year, my mom was constantly pestering me on the number of symbols I see throughout the novel, and every chapter I have to discuss why each symbol in that chapter is meaningly symbolic. The one we had always brought up was the green light upon Daisy's dock. One only knows that the only reason Gatsby had wanted to live at his home was to see the green light, knowing Daisy was there. That light could only mean it was a symbol of jealously. Green was an odd choice to show in a lantern across a lake, though that light that Gatsby saw was the jealously he has with not being the one of Daisy, and him wanting her as his own.
ReplyDeleteReading Chapter 13, something had only dawned upon me, '1984.' Though highly political, this novel shows the most about politics than anyone else. The thought of Big Brother always watching someone, seemed as if almost horrifying, and knowing that nothing can be safe. Showing this political veiw, Orwell shows the possible horrors that can occur in the possible future, though another book that would come into mind is 'Fahrenheit 451.' Knowing how all of these possiblities coming out possibly through an author's mind, one can only wonder what the possiblities may be in order to occur in our futures.
When reading the chapter “It’s All Political” the first book that came to mind was Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. The book was written during the peak of Joseph McCarthy’s political outcry against Communist living in the United States. In the book, Bradbury uses the futuristic society he created to criticize the society that he was living in at the time. McCarthy called for censorship during the Cold War Era because he believed that certain books and writing promoted communism. In Fahrenheit 451 the ironically named “firemen” would travel to houses where they suspected books, that were not allowed, were being kept and would burn them. One fireman, Guy Montag, begins to develop his own ideas on what is right and wrong and begins to hide books in his own house. I think that Bradbury wrote the book to express how he and many others felt during McCarthyism. Bradbury felt like many of his civil liberties had been taken away during the Communist scare. This is evident because of how Montag is troubled by all the different things going on in the society in which he lives. Foster describes how many characters in political novels feel the need to be individual and not conform to the society that surrounds them. That is exactly what Montag felt. Bradbury used his writing as a means to express the oppression that he felt during the 1950s. The politics in this book is what keeps the reader intrigued and engrossed in the story.
ReplyDeleteThe chapter on violence and death also caught my attention. The first book I thought of while reading this section of the book was John Knowle’s, A Separate Peace. In the novel, death plays a major role at the end of the story when Gene’s best friend Finny dies. In Foster’s book, he discusses how a death can be a symbol or play a part in making the theme clear to the reader. This is true for A Separate Peace because the death of Finny represents the gloomy and unknown future that lies ahead of Gene and his fellow classmates. The book is set in the time shortly before World War II so Gene and his friends knew that being sent to war was a huge possibility. The death of Finny became symbolic to the boys at the school because it served as a precursor for the hardships ahead of them. Death in Knowle’s book was supported by much of what Foster talked about in his writing.
Looking back at everyone else’s posts, I couldn’t help but connect with what Angel wrote on ‘The Crucible.” Angel talked about McCarthyism relating to what Arthur Miller wrote in his play. It is very evident that Miller and Bradbury both used their writing to express how they felt during this difficult time.
How to Read Literature like a Professor
ReplyDeleteLog 2/ Chapters 11-15
Claire Wyse
While reading chapter 12, I thought of an allegory in the Bible. The apple and the tree of life are symbolic of the knowledge of good and evil. I didn't like the way this book really explained allegory, it was just over complicating things I think. I think of allegory as a similarity between things, just like a symbol representing something. But back to the Bible, the snake or the tempter of the fruit is also an allegory representing true evil.
Narnia is full of allegory/symbols, one being a major allegory when the lion is symbolic of Jesus. This also goes back to last week's chapter 7.
Chapter 13 surprised me when it mentioned A Christmas Carrol being majorly political, and a way for Dickens to voice his criticism about the government. A past book I have read that reminds me of this is Jane Eyre. I believe Bronte wanted Jane to come off as almost a feminist. The story's main character Jane goes through her whole life "under control" of men, but still is able to make life changing decisions for herself which is totally unlike the women of the victorian era. A great example of this is when she turns down Rochester's very respectful proposal, which just wasn't done in those days. Even Charlotte Bronte writing that in her book was a bit extreme for the era I beleive. Other examples are Jane not depending on her beauty and speaking truthfully in bad situations. She also has a career as a teacher thanks to herself. I beleive Charlotte's book Jane Eyre is her stand up to the government, saying women can do more than you think. :)
While reading through the posts this week, I like Maggies when she points out about the plum tree being a symbol in the Great Gatsby. I had never thought about that before and it was very insightful of her to notice it.
ReplyDeleteI wish these blogs had spell check :/
ReplyDeleteIn the eleventh chapter of Thomas C. Foster's How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster explores violence in literature and how it affects the work and reader. He says, “Violence is one of the most personal and even intimate acts between human beings.” While reading this sentence, I was reminded of the tragic ending of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. Of Mice and Men follows the story of George Milton, a small, dark man, and Lennie, a giant man with a mental disability, as they look for work on a farm after being chased out of their previous employment as a result of Lennie’s insatiable desire to touch soft things; Lennie was accused of rape after touching a girl’s dress and not letting go. Soon after their abrupt eviction, George and Lennie become employed at a large farm in a town several miles from the town in which the above incident occurred. After avoiding conflict and settling in for a few weeks, Lennie is caught unawares and alone in a barn by Curly’s wife, a flirtatious and lonely woman, who allows him to touch her hair. When Lennie refuses to let go of her hair, Curly’s wife starts to scream and is subsequently silenced by Lennie accidentally snapping her neck. During the confusion that follows the discovery of the body, Lennie escapes to a special hideaway that George selected in case of such an emergency. George, after realizing what Lennie has done, runs to the hideaway and finds Lennie hiding behind a tree. George tells Lennie he’s not mad at him for doing “a bad thing,” and has him recount a dream of George and Lennie’s to have their own farm. During his retelling, George hears the sound of horses coming, and, as Lennie reaches his favorite part about him managing a group of rabbits, he unceremoniously shoots his best friend in the back of the head. This intimate and unexpected act brings about an incredibly strong emotional response from the reader in that the reader feels great sympathy for the blissfully ignorant Lennie and anger at George for committing such a horrific act. Steinbeck uses this revulsion to engage the reader creatively and make them ponder the idea of human mortality or as Foster says, “Mortality in a cold universe.” We, as readers, are forced to consider the idea that, on a cosmic scale, humans and our concerns are less than mice in their importance—much like mice seen from our perspective. Further exploration of this topic reveals a striking similarity between humans and mice: we both resemble candles that can be suddenly extinguished at any one second. Later in the same chapter, Foster discusses “authorial violence” or violence used for plot advancement. Steinbeck uses authorial violence to climatically end his novel with a sudden twist—this twist serves to emphasize the shortness of human life. In the end, the killing of Lennie by George comes to resemble the earlier, unintentional killing of pet mouse by Lennie, and Lennie becomes the mouse which was crushed by the human who cared and loved him.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading chapter thirteen involving politics in literature, I was keenly reminded of the strict, rigid social and political structure of the Salem Puritans in Arthur Miller’s masterpiece The Crucible. In The Crucible, a young girl by the name of Abigail Williams leads a small group of women in claiming that they have been attacked with witchcraft by various members of their community. Abigail leads the judiciary of the community on a massive witch hunt during which nearly one hundred members of end up in jail. She is able manipulate the judicial system because its members are consumed with a blind religious fervor. Arthur Miller uses this idea to make a statement both about the Puritan’s blind and gullible actions and of the McCarthyism that was present in politics during his life. This is an ideal example of how even older concepts in history can play a role in determining our current and future thinking.
Comment:
ReplyDeleteAdam's use of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury ties in closely to Arthur Miller's ideas presented in The Crucible. Both men disagreed with the debilitating disease known as McCarthyism that had overtaken their society and they took the opportunity to make a political statement by writing books that criticized the burning of books and the hunting of witches in order to present the reader with a deeper understanding of why such a concept as McCarthyism is disastrous in a modern, democratic society.
When reading the last part of Chapter 11, ...More Than It's Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence, the book, Lord of the Flies, comes to mind. The violence illustrated in this book depicts the fall of innonence of the small boys. The crash of the airplane they were in reveals their, "descent," as Foster says. Ther struggle for survival pushed them to distort the moral views they once had. Their humble world soon turns into a vicious life where murdering and hunting becomes normal. Eventually, there is no way to go back and repair the damage.
ReplyDeleteReading through Chapter 12, Is That a Symbol?, I remembered reading, As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. Even though it was quite a bizarre book, there were numerous objects with huge symbolism. However, one important object was Addie's coffin. At the beginning, Cash carefully and prudently built the coffin as his mother, Addie, was closing in on death. The toil Cash faced while building the coffin foreshadowed the troubles the family would later face throughout the novel granting Addie's last request. Gradually through the novel, the coffin with Addie's corpse became a heavy weight on the Bundren's. Facing hardships and family disagreements, the voyage spanned out into a long treacherous journey. I also noticed their last name almost spells out burden, and that's what Addie became: a burden.
I agree with Claire's post on allegory. The Bible has so many allegories, it's crazy. Although sometimes, they're not quite as clear. Like Foster said, "Allegories have one mission to accomplish." Stories and parables in the Bible are to teach us something. They have one task to complete, and that is for us to understand the underlying meaning. It can take hard analyzing, but there's always a hidden message waiting to be discovered.
As I read this week I almost instantly thought about A Clockwork Orange. When I first thought of it I really didn't realize the deeper mean involved with the book. In fact while continuing my reading it seemed that this book had not only relation to violence, but to symbols, politics, Christ, and freedom in some form or another. Though in the end I decided to choose chapters 11 and 12. At first look you'd just say there is a group of teenagers who have led a life of violence. They end up doing horrible things to innocent people hurting them, and in one case killing their victim. This group is taking out their anger for the "state" (the government) on other people. These teens violence is not just literal, but it's also about their freedom of choice. Their ability to do what they want. Anthony Burgess, the author, shows this throughout his book where the main character Alex as well as his "Droogs"(friends) make choices like those of a violent nature.
ReplyDeleteChapter 12 and 14 are also somewhat intertwined with Clockwork Orange. Alex the main character and narrator of the book stand almost as a Christ figure. He goes through three stages where he is a martyr for him and the citizens. Giving up who he is and then going to jail almost completely gone, and forgot about finally he returns in the end as himself at the very end. Alex also is related to Christ in such that he says he is "the fruit of his mother’s womb." Then later he turns his cheek when he is hit as Christ did. Another symbolic thing for Alex is the time of day at which certain things happen.
Ex: Alex is free to roam the streets doing whatever he pleases at night with no one to stop him.
Though when it’s daytime outside or there is something bright he feels insecure and finds things like more police outside, and has bad experiences with doctors in their white coats.
The night or plain Darkness seems to make Alex feel free and that's when he goes to do what he wants, but when there are bright things or its light outside he can't be free he feels threatened by it to an extent.
Comment: I liked in Jared's post the fact that he compared lennie to the mouse and I hadn't thought of the similarities between them. When Jared also compared life of mice and humans to a candle saying, "we both resemble candles that can be suddenly extinguished at any one second". I thought was a great line that got me thinking more then just about the assignment.
ReplyDeleteIn the novel Grapes of Wrath, the Jodes are traveling to California in search of a better life. Along the way they stay in these make-shift camps that are nick-named “Hoovervilles.” The locals of the towns, where the camps are, treat the residents of the Hoovervilles like criminals; however, Steinbeck offers an insight into the true behaviors of these people. Chapter 13 of Foster’s book, “Its All Political” can be applied to this passage. The town’s people saw the travelers as a problem, instead of normal people. They blamed the government for this “problem”, and wanted the government to get rid of them, so the cops would try to blame people who live in the camps for crimes they did not commit. Almost everyone in the US was suffering at this time in history; however, some people, in this book, wanted others to fix their problems, instead of helping themselves. Just as foster mentions the way Sophocles wanted to show the kind of leader that Athens needed, Steinbeck showed the ignorance of the locals, where the residents of the Hoovervilles were involved. He shows the true behavior of the camp residents, in contrast with the assumed behavior. Steinbeck shows that they are not murders, just people who are doing what they can, to help their families and each other, to survive. This political statement is focused more towards the people and not the government.
ReplyDeleteAs I Lay Dying is the story of the death of a mother and the travel to bury her. Chapter 12, “Is That a Symbol?” can be applied to a passage from this novel. When they are attempting to cross the swollen river with the casket, the river surges which causing the wagon to tip. The casket is carried down the river, and then later recovered. When you first read this scene it seems to just be an act of nature; however, there seems to be something more going on. The river can be seen as an embodiment of the feelings some of the members of the family have toward traveling so far to bury their mother. The river taking the casket can possibly be the author showing that the family just wants to be done with the whole situation.
When I was reading last week’s post, one that caught my eye was Adam’s connection between Gatsby and Daisy and Adam and Eve. This is a connection that I never would have made; however, I can see his point. Both items (Daisy and the fruit) were forbidden, but in the end they chose to take the chance. On the same note, both endings were disastrous. While Gatsby’s affair ended in his death, even though it was not by Tom’s hand (Tom is Daisy’s husband), it was a chain of reactions set off by his affair. Eve’s actions did not end in death, but they were kicked out of the Garden of Eden, as well as receiving other punishments. In the end, it can also be looked at as a lesson was taught.
OK! This is fabulous. I'm having a great time reading your posts. Thank you for taking your time and explaining your ideas carefully. I really liked all the posts on the politics of the the literature you have read. Outstanding. I also enjoyed your analysis of the various symbols in the literature you discussed. I loved the way that even if you discussed a text someone else had already mentioned, you could find different symbols and varying interpretations of some of the same symbols. You really emphasized what Foster was trying to say in that chapter. I want to make a brief point about the difference between allegory and symbol. It will be important to distinguish between these two ideas. A symbol is something that stands for something else; more specifically, it's a concrete object or event that stands for some abstract concept. According to how you are reading a novel, ie from a political or historical perspective, a psychological perspective, or a biographical perspective, the symbol may have more than one meaning. An allegory, on the the other hand, is a system of symbols that work together to represent another larger idea, often used to teach a lesson (as the Bible uses the parable) or warn or remind us about something (as in Animal Farm when the pigs and other animals represent characters in the Russian Revolution). In an allegory, there really isn't much room to interpret the symbols in a variety of ways. The symbols are lined up with their counterparts to achieve the author's desired effect. I hope this distinction makes sense. Please let me know if it doesn't. We'll be discussing the concept of allegory more fully in class.
ReplyDeleteAnother quick note: I noticed that a couple of you who posted this week have not posted under last week's thread. Please get caught up as soon as possible. I don't want to be going back to earlier threads as we progress through this book and move on to Wuthering Heights. Thank you!!
Brandon Loftis
ReplyDeleteMrs. Hollifield
How to Read Literature Like a Professor
22 June 2010
In chapter 13 Foster points out that many parts of literature are political. In more detail Foster describes how a piece of literature with social discrepancies are often somewhat political. I ,therefore, could only think of one book with an enormous amount of socialistic elements; The Great Gatsby. The huge differences between social classes greatly impacted the two main characters on an emotional level. Daisy being of the old aristocracy still found it hard to accept Gatsby completely even though he achieved great wealth. Subsequently Daisy returns to Tom where she feels safe and no longer venerable.
In the following chapter Foster writes about how characters often times have Christ-like qualities. He goes on, giving a lists that describes recurrent qualities of a Christ-like figure. Hester, from the novel The Scarlet Letter comes to my mind (even though she is female). Instead of having all the physical scars, she experiences a emotional crucifixion while standing on the stage. Not only this but she carries Pearl as her burden and sacrifices herself in many ways for Pearl. Hester at one point in the novel even goes into the woods to meet her past love in hope to find some type of redemption. These events and characteristics comply with several of the key points in Foster's list.
As I read through Tyler's first paragraph about how the green lantern was a symbol of jealousy, I started to see things in a new light (no pun intended). I had always thought to myself that the green lantern severed strictly as a symbol of Gatsby's persevered hope that he will eventually have Daisy as his own. Now I see the point Foster is trying to make. This chapter explains the fact that one symbol doesn't have one concrete meaning, but expands to the individual and our own personal experiences.
Alrighty, I'm catching up from last week at Girls' State. For Chapter 11, violence, I focused on The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. I saw that the Exodus could easily apply to Estevan and Esperanza, who flee Guatemala to safety in the US. Back in Guatemala, the terrorist groups are oppressive and threaten the lives of teachers. On a large scale or small, people overall are oppressed and tormented by leaders, gangs, and cults. The two E's represent citizens of dictatorial governments in Latin America, in which guerilla warfare has been dangerously common in some cases.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Taylor finds Turtle, a badly bruised infant who has already been molested or raped before meeting Taylor. Turtle symbolizes raped and molested children who feel lost and think that no one cares for them. Violence surely puts children in distraught situations, because they don't know who they can trust after being hurt.
This proves that people are ruthless and will stop for no person, no morals, and no laws. Meanwhile, Kingsolver points out that no one is stopping these people. Violence is unpreventable, even though it is discouraged, and it leaves a lasting impact on all parties affected. However, violence also provides a reason for healing, reflecting, and taking action to stop wrong-doing. Sometimes that means to escape the situation, but sometimes it means even more, like the the efforts of social-activist groups.
Now, for Chapter 12, symbolizism of the river in William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. High up the banks from heavy rain, the river water tore down all foresee-able bridges in the county. Not only is this thematically symbolic that nature doesn't care, but nature also destroys civilization. First nature provides the materials to build civilization and structures, and then the fall of the bridges, the fall of human logic, the fall of sympathy, caring, and progress. They all go down the drain, down the river. Just like the river is impersonal, many of the people are uncaring and not helpful.
In general, the river symbolizes danger, storms, loss, and inconviences like roadwork and traffic. It emphasizes hardship and teamwork, or lack-thereof. The river is a challenge, like a mythical dragon to fight. But the constant flow is also monotonous and takes time to change.
On the other hand, the people of Jefferson, having heard of the smelling Bundren body coming their way, may see this river as a saving grace. It is a lucky incident that delays the arrival of the burdensome family.
A couple of summer reading novels, I associated with these chapters. I thought of the Crucible as Arthur Miller was a victim of Joe McCarthy's witch hunts in Washington. I believe any book has an overstated or underlying political motif, because every author is intelligent, and intelligent people always have an opinion. More notably, in Grapes, I think John showed his political and deep distaste for the California government body with their treatment of the vagrants and hobos. Steinbeck showed this through the Cali Patrolman and Landowners kicking innocent "Okies" off of their fallow fields. Also, if you read Steinbeck's articles and short stories (I'd call them mini-documentaries.) about the migrant camps, his political views are transparent.
ReplyDeleteIn "Flights of Fancy" is talks about a character flying or symbolically moving. I instantly thought of Huck and Jim. Although, Huck and Jim aren't airborne, from a dramatic and analytical sense, they're flying. They're going down America's river toward freedom, but Jim is cut off from the Ohio River (chance at freedom) as he is marching at the beat of all America ( Miss. River). It may not be taking off from a runway, but in the sense of freedom, I find the floating quest to be just as admirable as a flight of fancy.
P.S. Sorry about the late blog, I was at Boy's State last week, so I got behind on my reading.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Alex
Leana's point on the Odyssy is one that I had long forgotten about. The outward violence is a prime example that love conquers all. Not only were many men defeated by a jealous husband, but Odysseus' heart was pulled by love to commit a real massacre. The violence shows desperation to prove love and loyalty, just as wars were fought over beautiful princesses and gladiators wooed ladies by killing their enemies or competition.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the 1971 movie Omega Man is the original movie version of I Am Legend. Also featuring Robert Neville, the doctor battles a cult of 70's zombies and he even performs several miracles by saving the lives of several ill children who somehow avoided the sickness before. Therefore, he's also good with children, as he is the oldest person he has seen that is still healthy. Every night he is in danger as the zombies try to attack his townhouse, and he even tolerates torture in the end from the leader of the zombie cult.
In chapter fifteen of How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster discusses the significance of flight in literature. In this chapter he specifically states in bold letters that “flight is freedom.” In the book Eragon, the protagonist has his first encounter with the freedom that flight brings. The boy, Eragon, finally learns how to fly his dragon, Saphira, after much time of watching her grow. This first flight was very frightening for Eragon, but he soon realized how free he felt. In this one moment he learns a key skill that all dragon riders have and the reality of his success brings joy to his heart. This one skill proves vital in later moments in the story because it provides Eragon a safe haven in which he can relax his nerves and find his sanity. Flight also helps facilitate the bond between Eragon and Saphira that is crucial to their success in defeating the evil Galbatorix.
ReplyDeleteIn chapter fourteen Foster discusses Christ figures in literature. In the Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne puts Hester in similar situations as Christ. First, she was put up on that big pedestal to be punished and humiliated in front of the whole town. She didn’t deny the accusations, instead she took the punishment without complaint and kept silent. At the end of the book she ends up staying in the town instead of leaving and a kind of resurrection takes place. In the beginning of the book she is constantly ridiculed for her mistake but in the end the people begin to have a kind of respect for her. She also begins a lifestyle of reaching out to the poor and lonely which helps create the respect they show to her.
Jared's comment on the political system and how it effected the people in The Crucible is accurate. In this story the system is broken by a young girl and everything turns into chaos. The author, Arthur Miller, is recounting events that happened in history to warn readers before history would repeat itself. This strict judicial system had good points and bad points but relied on unseen evidence rather than tangible evidence to make a decision. This story also displays the modern political arena in which people do anything to cover up there mistakes. These attempts usually make the situation worse and more people get involved that shouldn't have been including innocent people. When these innocent people get involved, as in the story, it is possible that they might take the fall for the guilty party.
I'm sorry this is so late--I was at Girls' State!
ReplyDeleteChapter 11 made me think of “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. This classic book is full of racism, violence, and injustice, but one specific scene stuck out to me. On Halloween night, Jem and Scout are on their way home from the pageant when they are attacked by a man who greatly despises their father for defending an innocent black man. All of the sudden Boo Radley, the town’s focus of gossip for many years, comes to their rescue, but he ends up killing Ewell to save the children. Afterward, Tate, the sheriff, claimed that Boo did not kill Ewell, but Ewell killed himself. Boo Radley has not been seen by the town for 15 years, and it is rumored that he stabbed his father with a pair of scissors. By rescuing the children, Boo not only risked his own life, but he finally faced the rumors and gossiping citizens of the town, therefore his actions were selfless.
Being the die hard Nicholas Sparks fan that I am, I had to relate “True Believer” to chapter 12. To summarize the book, a New York journalist goes to a small town in North Carolina to write a column on some mysterious lights in the cemetery. What he didn’t know was that he was going to fall in love with a beautiful southern girl who will always keep her heart in the small town. While the love story is a good tearjerker, I want to focus on the mysterious lights. To Lexie the lights symbolize her parents who died when she was a young girl. When she started having nightmares, her grandmother took her to see the lights, and her nightmares went away. To Jeremy, a huge skeptic, the lights were simply an odd coincidence, and he was bound and determined to find the cause of them. As the week went on and they spent more time together, Jeremy and Lexie eventually fell in love and ended up making love. Jeremy had recently become divorced due to his inability to reproduce, so it came as a huge surprise when Lexie told him she was pregnant with his child. Now I’m sure many of you guys are rolling your eyes thinking that it’s just another romance novel, but those lights mean something. Remember, Jeremy wasn’t able to have children before he saw the lights, and Lexie had nightmares before she saw them. Personally, I think the lights symbolize hope; the hope that miracles truly can happen, and that nothing is impossible.
I absolutely love what Maggie said about "Of Mice and Men!" I definitely agree! I never remember become so emotionally attacked to that book, and I was so upset when he broke her neck! He was just trying to love her and show her compassion, but he was unaware of his own strength. George had such a hard task ahead of him when he learned what Lenny did; taking his best friend's life just to spare him from the torture was an incredibly selfless act.
Before I read chapter 11, I really didn’t see much significance in violence, but after I read it, I realized that Foster was correct in saying that violence almost always has more significance than just the act itself. Ride the Wind, by Lucia St Clair Robson, is the story of a small girl living on the frontier, whose village get attacked by a tribe of Indians and completely destroyed. Most of the people living there were killed (except the few that escaped) whereas 4 were captured. Cynthia Ann Parker (the protagonist) was one of the few captured and had to spend the rest of her life living the way of life of the Comanche Indians. The scene of the attack was extremely gruesome and violent, showing that it had some kind of deeper significance. I believe that the significance lies in the Indians’ want and even need for control of their own lands. When the United States bought the Louisiana Territory, and began spreading west, the Indians were all pushed back farther and farther into the wastelands where they had no chance of survival. Their attacking of settlers’ villages was their way of trying to get back at the Americans for stealing their land. When they were done looting, it wasn’t even worth checking if they left anything useful behind, because they didn’t.
ReplyDeleteChapter 12, about symbolism, also jumped out at me. In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg have a very large significance to the story. The eyes are beginning to fade away and look kind of sad, looking down on the valley ashes from an old advertising billboard. I think they symbolize the eyes of God looking down on the earth full of meaninglessness and lies. The eyes get to see George Wilson lied to by his wife, Myrtle, who is having an affair with Tom Buchanan. The eyes also see the death of Myrtle (she was run over by a car, which Daisy was driving). Seeing so many disappointing things happen, makes the eyes of God sad, and wanting to help the people whose lives are completely invested into things so meaningless.
I really liked how Angel Hollon made a connection between the Red Scare and the Crucible. I probably wouldn’t have thought of making that connection, but when I saw it made for me, I really agree with her. During the Cold War, everyone was very scared and paranoid of the socialist political system of Communism. Thus, they began to accuse everyone of things they didn’t do and of things they didn’t believe in, just like in the Crucible.
Mrs. Hollifield,
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry that these are so late, but I have been on vacation and trying my hardest to get caught up on everything!
How to Read Literature Chapters 11-15
Symbols are a really subdued literary device in most literature. A vast majority of times I believe it's because a large chunk of authors don’t intentionally mean for something to be a symbol. Most of the times things can be overanalyzed, which I believe some of Foster's allusions are. It's because of this that I tend to be drawn to the more obvious symbols, such as the road in The Road Not Taken, which is a work that Foster mentioned. The complexity and symbolism that these roads hold in the world of this simple decision is immense and speaks to me. The fact that these roads could symbolize different ways of life and alter this traveler's decisions, gives them such a power and pulls together the point that was trying to be made with Frost's poem. Because the traveler took the road less traveled by, he chose his path, to not only, not be a follower, but to make his own decisions. You may be thinking that these two points are the same, but they have totally different meanings. Anyone can just not follow a pack and wander, but this character made a conscious decision and his own decision, as he acknowledges this decision with "And that has made all the difference".
When I saw the chapter about Christ figures, I immediately went to The Old Man and the Sea. For one, I thought about it when I was reading The Old Man and the Sea, and two, because we discussed it in tenth grade English class. Santiago is the epitome of a Christ figure. He holds most, if not all of the traits discussed in Foster's novel. Santiago is a little old man that lives in a small house or shack and fishes out of a humble mode of transportation, a boat. His luck hasn’t been very good and he goes out on a fishing journey. Santiago takes a companion, Manolin, on this journey with him. The boy can be seen as a disciple of Santiago, as he sticks with him throughout it all. Out on top of the water, he engages in a struggle with a marlin, which ultimately ends in the marlin being caught, then eaten by sharks, leaving only a skeleton. When arriving on shore, the old man finds marks on his hands and struggles to carry the mast up the hill, falling several times. When he gets back to his hut, he falls on the bed and lies straight, with his palms up. As soon as the village sees the skeleton, and the fact that he had actually caught the fish, the old man is redeemed. All of these characteristics were put in place to hold Santiago as a Christ figure and create a modern, and almost biblical, tale.
I pondered a lot on what Austin was talking about with The Scarlett Letter and Hester as a Christ figure. I would have never seen her as a Christ figure with all of the sinning that she was so looked down upon in her society for. I guess in most situations you rely more on the redeeming part of the Christ allusion than the fact that Jesus was shunned. Hester is for one, a girl, and two, had been sleeping around, but I agree with Austin, where it is when her heat shines through that we really get to see the appearance of this Christ figure.
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