Another Brick In The Wall

In Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall”, the wall represents schisms of communication and cultural exchange. The title has a dual meaning: It signifies the action of mending the wall, as well as the wall that mends. We must also note that in the former interpretation, the noun ‘wall’ is vague. Is it plural or singular?; General or specific?

The “Something there is that doesn't love a wall” also has two possible approaches. The “something” can be the very narrator who begins to doubt the repairs he feels forced to complete, as we see when he inquires, "Why do they make good neighbours? / Isn't it Where there are cows? / But here there are no cows. / Before I built a wall I'd ask to know / What I was walling in or walling out, / And to whom I was like to give offence. In this poem with a predominant iambic pentameter meter, the other “something there that doesn’t love a wall” can also be a force of natural attraction. Maybe the wall is not destined to exist where and when it does. Even the narrator acknowledges the silliness in their efforts to keep the wall upright, for he or she says that “We have to use a spell to make them balance: / "Stay where you are until our backs are turned!"” The poem questions the validity of comfort zones, for the wall represents a comfortable, yet invasive and ephemeral area that blocks a path. Where does this path originate? What is its destination?

The narrator analyzes the blind determination of his companion, when he “[…] see[s] him there / Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top / In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed. / He moves in darkness as it seems to me, / Not of woods only and the shade of trees”. This darkness in which he moves represents the ignorance of his faith and effort. He does not know where he is going, or why, and yet goes without question, for “He will not go behind his father's saying, / And he likes having thought of it so well / He says again, "Good fences make good neighbours"”. Here we see a practiced custom, maintained by fear and repetition, which yields to a comfortable slavery. The poem seems to criticize those who blindly follow others to remain in their comfort zone. It praises the incentive required to inspire doubt, and the initiative employed in expressing it by rejecting the norm.

A Sunny Mourning

In Kevin Young’s “The Mission”, he contrasts light and dark imagery to portray the dichotomy of life and death. By employing elements of satire, he gives the comparison an ironic tone. The poem’s purpose is to find grim humor in the eternal cycle of life, grievance, and death. The fact that humor is present in a poem with death as a topic is ironic in itself.

Contrasting imagery first appears when Young writes “of cars, lights low / as talk, idling dark”. The other instance where this is seen is when he complains of how “The sun / is too bright. / Your eyes / adjust, become / like the night. Hands / covering the face— / its numbers dark / & unmoving”.

By saying, “Mornings or dead / of night”, he plays with the wording, and the expression “dead of night”. This is an ironic description, for the poem concerns death. Furthermore, the word “morning” is a homophone to the word ‘mourning’, which would be considered a pun if its spelling were different. Peoples’ existence, thus, is either spent mourning, or in a grave.

The statement, “He kept everything / but alive”, exemplifies a type of humor that manipulates the words ‘he kept everything’. On one hand, it can mean that the father maintained control over his belongings. Alternately, the second line establishes the humor by posing a secondary definition for the phrase, as “he kept himself everything but alive”, meaning that the deceased one fervently, yet pointlessly kept his health. This poses another irony, which satirizes the effort to preserve the body and avoid an unavoidable death.

Such satiric humor wishes to criticize a society of monotonous and continuous sorrow, for “I have come to know / sorrow’s / not noun / but verb”. We must learn, according to the poem, to regard death more lightly.

The 40-Minute World is Not Enough

In Adrienne Rich’s “Storm Warnings”, we see metaphors comparing hostile weather to inner tempest and unwelcome change. The title, “Storm Warnings”, represents the uselessness of predictions to cope with a challenging experience. These forecasts signal an uncomfortable, and unalterable event, one that “clocks and weatherglasses cannot alter” (17).

The first line compares “the glass [that] has been falling all the afternoon” (1) to clear raindrops. The “instrument” (2) mentioned in the next line literally refers to a barometer or thermometer, commonly used to analyze weather. Metaphorically, we can also consider the news as an instrument for weather forecast, or any upcoming change in the surroundings. Because the narrator knows better than these instruments, he or she accepts that they undermine reality, and, thus, the narrator braces for the incoming change. This first stanza depicts a specific case of the repetitive phenomenon described in the last stanza. In a way, this organization illustrates an eternal loop.

The weather and its changes not only represent, literally, a storm, but they also metaphorically symbolize social unrest outside of the shelter that is the home. Likewise, the metaphor indicates inner turmoil.

Time is given a hazardous, aggressive, and mysterious personality, when Rich commands the reader to “[…] think again, as often when the air / Moves toward a silent core of waiting, / How with a single purpose time has travelled / By secret currents of the undiscerned / Into its polar realm” (8-12). The “single purpose” makes the change a determined one. The “silent core of waiting” describes the peace the such a change feels it must disrupt, and the undiscerned winds contrast with determination of its travels to give the change a “polar personality”.

We see the metaphor deepen when Rich writes how “Weather abroad / And weather in the heart alike come on / Regardless of prediction” (12-14). Here we see the futility of knowledge, hypotheses, instruments, and theories when faced against the actual event. Furthermore, the metaphor’s inclusion of inner discomfort is clearly seen in this citation. She emphasizes the ineffectiveness of preparation by saying how “Between foreseeing and averting change / Lies all the mastery of the elements / Which clocks and weatherglasses cannot alter” (15-17).

The narrator exposes the prison of unheralded change by explaining how all the preparations are “[…] the things we have learned to do / Who live in troubled regions” (27-28).

BUZZZZZZ.

Never Blue Enough

During the few days that Pecola had her "bluest eyes" (203), she was undoubtedly in a state of ecstasy. The conversation she had with Claudia represents an existential debate over the meaning of happiness, beauty, and love. They question the source of joy when Pecola asked:

"But suppose my eyes aren't blue enough?

Blue enough for what?

Blue enough for . . . I don't know. Blue enough for something. Blue enough . . . for you" (203)!

Pecola considers a happiness dependent on external components. In her comparisons, and search for certainty that her eyes are, indeed, the blues eyes, she loses herself, only to find that "the horror at the heart of her yearning is exceeded only by the evil of fulfillment" (204). Here we see a Hinduist component of the novel, where the journey is the destination, and dreams remain dreams. Soaphead Church never achieves to become a clergyman, just as Pecola remained without public appreciation, and Pauline Breedlove never encountered her ideal mate or home. This novel is littered with disappointment, and yet, curiously, some characters possess joy. The three whores, for instance, live without guilt or worry. This made me question what type of personality is needed to attain unconditional happiness.

This is a novel with many erotic scenes of varied nature. None of them are conventional, for we see Cholly and Mrs. Breedlove sustain violent acts of love, Soaphead Church display controversial sexual tendencies, Cholly suffer an unfortunate childhood experience involving an untimely flashlight, and Geraldine feel obligated to indulge in repulsive interactions with her husband, which contrasts to the fetish focused on her pet. We can conclude that "love is never any better than the lover" (205). This is a realistic (cynic?) line, for it removes love from the pedestal it holds in the emotional pyramid. It is usually coupled with the idealistic hope of a "perfect love". Being based on the lover, who is undoubtedly imperfect, love becomes an imperfect sentiment.

Beauty: A highly controversial concept throughout the ages. My sister is currently working on a semester-long research paper on the perceptions of beauty and how culture, religion, and environment shape its definition. I will not tire my readers with an extensive discussion on this matter, but I will say this: By the end of the novel, Morrison emphasizes the vagueness and pointlessness of some of mankind's fiercest quests; those of perfect love, happiness, and beauty.

The Creative Reader

In her interview, Tony Morrison discusses one of her techniques to describe her characters (minute 14). She limits the details she uses, to allow the reader's imagination to flow and construct its own imagery. Although oblivious to this method, I enjoyed forming specific physical characteristics on my own. As Morrison explains, when she leaves the creativity of the character to the reader, "he or she owns it" (14:14).

In The Bluest Eye, Morrison illustrates Geradline's personality by simply demonstrating her actions. For instance, "Geraldine did not allow her baby, Junior, to cry" (87). We see her characteristic reactions when she commands Pecola to ""get out," she said, her voice quiet. "You nasty little black bitch. Get out of my house"" (92). With this simple statement, a complete figure blossoms in my imagination. She reminds me somewhat of Harry Potter's Professor Dolores Umbridge. Her cat obsession, coupled with a sterile personality and explosive, bizarre reactions dapple her with pure maliciousness. I loathed her each time her figure matured in my mind. I enjoyed finishing Winter, because I appreciated Morrison's dexterity in evoking such an intense emotion within me, employing few, expectably insufficient details.

Freud And Zombies

I recently stumbled upon an interesting link while scavenging for René Descartes' biography in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The link to 'zombies' drew my eyes and made me wonder how the world of philosophy views the mindless creature. I expected to find a description of a nightmarish animal. From the few apocalyptic films that show them (SHORT LIST), one learns to fear their thirst for blood, which lacks the elegance of vampires'. After reading how zombies are humans without consciousness (by definition), I couldn't help but recall what we have learned in class about Freud's ideas on the subject. We see a meditating Buddha, a puny mortal, and a mindless zombie depict the three states of mind.

Automated Creativity

For those who underestimate themselves, I found an internet-based software that revises text. This is not your every-day spell-check-word-processor. This gizmo has more tricks up its sleeve to offer, including interpretation of word use, sentence variety, cliché finder, and more. I would appreciate any comments on this example of artificial "intelligence".

LINK

The Burnt Joke

When an author writes about three experienced women (be that sexual, chronological AKA senile, or intellectual capacities or other forms of experience), an allusion to the three fates is often present.

The three whores who live above Pecola's home, China, Poland, and Miss Marie represent those three fates. They each have their own personality. Their shared humor inspired by years of experience together gives them an eeriness comparable only with that of one who knows enough pain to last an eternity. That is, enough pain to become a joke. Their humorous experiences entertain them in a way that makes them bearable. "They abused their visitors with a scorn grown mechanical from use. Black men, white men, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Jews, Poles, whatever—all were inadequate and weak, all came under jaundiced eyes and were the recipients of their disinterested wrath" (56). We could even say that "these women hated men, all men, without shame, apology, or discrimination" (56), and that each recount of how they cheated them describes how they slit their string of life. Their eternal toil that forces them to live together becomes unbearable and comic, as we see in this depiction from the Disney cartoon, Hercules.

Regarding the idea I mentioned in my previous blog, we see that Pecola's ignorance remains untainted by the whores' witty comments, or their very obvious profession. Pecola doesn't seem to grasp the implications of such employment. She didn't even know what "mininstratin'" (27) was. On one hand, she asks profound questions, like "how do you get somebody to love you" (32)? This is the type of enviable objective thought some children use to perceive reality. The contrasting figures of the three experienced fates, with that of the innocent Pecola, creates polarized characters. The interaction between the two is definitely interesting to read.

Infants Of Horror And Comedy

After the first 30 or-so pages of The Bluest Eye, I noticed something I thought only occurred in horror films, and humorous cartoons. The creators depict intellectual and mature children alongside adults with ignorant and brusque personalities. These older characters often target a population group. Certain scenes epitomize this contrast. In particular, one of Mr. and Mrs. Breedlove's conflicts compare to a fight between toddlers. When Mrs. Breedlove expected her recently intoxicated husband to fetch coal, and Mrs. Breedlove sneezed after he reneged, she attacked like a fierce mother gorilla. "She ran into the bedroom with a dishpan full of cold water and threw it in Cholly's face. He sat up, choking and spitting. Naked and ashen, he leaped from the ned, and with a flying tackle, grabbed his wife around the waist, and they hit the floor" (44). The ensuing battle would only take place among children who don't know their own strength. Luckily, and "tacitly, they had agreed not to kill each other" (43). The adults speak with African American vernacular, while Pecola and Claudia represent mature, misunderstood girls who know how to speak with correct english grammar. Claudia's mother, during her rant regarding one vanished milk incident, screams, "Don't nobody never want nothing till they see me at the sink. Then everybody got to drink water...." (28). What is that, a triple negative?

Here we see a clip of Peter Griffin, from Family Guy, mocking the immature and ignorant American stereotype American, as usual...

Here is one clip of Homer Simpson displaying his clumsiness, only comparable to that of a toddler learning to use his extremities.

Our narrator, Claudia, describes the inside of the Breedlove's home with enough ease and precision to evoke colorful imagery, despite the bleak environment being illustrated. She says that the furnishings were "anything but describable, having been conceived, manufactured, shipped, and sold in various states of thoughtlessness, greed, and indifference" (35). Either Tony Morrison helps Claudia express a setting to help the reader, or she truthfully has mastery over the art of description. This is another possibility:

The children may speak African American vernacular when talking to other characters, and display enviable clarity when reflecting on their surroundings and occurrences.

Now, we shall see how smart children either convey horror, or they hint at uncomplicated intelligence.

How they surprisingly convey horror more effectively than adult figures, I do not know. Either way, I will content myself, and my readers by simply mentioning Chucky, the ventriloquist child puppet of happiness, and showing this harmless image.

Creepy. Now, on to the part where I show the mature, clever, innocent youngling.

OK. OK. So maybe I did have to scavenge a little for a representation of a smart and goodhearted six-year old. So what if we only see this nicely-combed doppelganger in a very rare, one of a kind strip where a character's dual personality materializes. Stewie Griffin seemed like the appropriate example. Despite his extreme lack of innocence, he is still a baby with a weird accent and sense of morality. He is probably the smartest member of his family, tied, ironically, with the dog.

Bloody Punch-Lines

After the first time I finished last page of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, another work was presented to me. The world's endemic and uncontaminated species are numbered. In Age of Discovery, Joseph Banks' journey depicts the customs of a blissfully ignorant Tahitian culture. As opposed to the natives we see in Conrad'snovel, those in Banks' recount expose themselves to the europeans with ease and trust. This is the very trust that, when abruptly shattered, eliminates any hope of good-will. The impossibility of genuine, selfless curiosity is now a joke. This time, however, the punch-line exterminates an ethnicity. Banks and his kind befriend the Tahitians, and partake in local commerce which ultimately gives the carpenter a monopoly he never dreamed of having.

(20)

Besides forming beneficial relations with the natives, Mr. Cook, the captain appears to think highly of respect and morality. Despite succumbing to taboo relationships in an island where they can remain a secret, he maintains a degree of european civilized values. He strongly upholds these values, and we see that the

(16).

When I think of the natives in Conrad's tale, I can't help but picture mystic beings, struggling for their survival against oppressing forces. Maybe Conrad depicts the future of the Tahitian people. We do see that at the time Conrad published his novel, the empires still believed in their benevolent intentions, as did the natives.