Lost and Found

In Elizabeth Bishop’s poem "One Art", each stanza ends with the same message until all of the stanzas eventually come together to culminate into what seems to be the climax of the poem. Although at first glance "One Art" seems to be nothing less than a lighthearted piece of advice, it is apparent by the penultimate stanza that Bishop had a much greater overall meaning in mind for her readers to take away from her work. "One Art" is a reflection of Bishop’s personal opinions on the subject of loss and how one should deal with coping and living with loss.

Loss is not a subject that is unfamiliar to Bishop; many of her poems allude to loss of both material positions as well as loved ones. In "One Art" the mention of material positions makes the overall meaning of the poem that much more intense when she goes on to talk about loosing “two cities…a continent,” and “you,” the anonymous main subject of the poem. By juxtaposing material things with humans, Bishop is conveying the message that many people are over dramatic when referring to the human emotion of loss.

Bishop lost her father at a very young age, which caused her mother to have severe mental health issues. It is apparent that "One Art" does not hit too far from home for her, especially in the last stanza when she writes about loosing a loved one. However, it is the way in which Bishop copes with her own lose through the writing of this poem that is the most intriguing; the reader does not get the sense of the standard coping mechanisms of anger and sorrow. Rather, Bishop attempts to have the speaker cover up his or her feelings by comparing the lost of his or her love to things such as a watch. There is a certain sense of bitterness and detachment of feeling in the poem. In addition, the order in which Bishop chooses to names all that has been lost adds a deeper meaning to the message of the poem. She starts by generally stating, “so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster,” and goes on to name losses that can most defiantly be attributed to human error and everyday forgetfulness. As she continues to name what the speaker has lost, the significance of the poem becomes greater and the reader becomes more aware of the emptiness the speaker feels.

"One Art" is an example of a poem using villanelle, a certain form of poetry. Poems written in villanelle form have six stanzas that all rhyme and two lines that are constantly repeated in a specific way (at the beginning and end of certain stanzas). When writing in villanelle form, repetition is a given. Bishop chooses to repeat, “The art of losing isn’t hard to master,” as well as different lines conveying the message that loss is "no disaster." She does this in order to stress that things can be lost so quickly and there is no limit to what one can loose, and that there is no use worrying about what has already been lost or what will be lost in the future. The speaker makes a sad statement about his or her life by implying that the loss of human companionship does not bother him or her.

There are many unanswered questions in One Art, such as whom exactly the last stanza is referring to and why loosing such valuables is “no disaster.” However, the poem itself stands for something greater than those mysteries. It was written to have a profound impact on its readers on the subject of loss and to challenge its reader to see life as the short and valuable amount of time that it is.
(637)

The Many Questions of "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest"

For this assignment, I have chosen to read "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kesey. I chose this novel because Richie has read it and he told me I would really like it. I am a little over halfway through reading it, and I except to finish it this week. So far, Richie was right; it is really good.

In my paper I am going to explore the meaning of a variety of topics from the novel that really interest me. They include Bromden's unreliable narration, the concept of the speed of time, the fog that Bromden constantly sees, and effect of McMurphy's rebellious nature on those around him.

As I have been reading, I have questioned whether or not the "fog" that Bromden claims comes down on everyone in the ward is simply metaphorical fog, or if there really is a fog machine in the ward as well. I eventually came to the point where I had convinced myself that the fog must be purely metaphorical because it sounds crazy that there would be a fog machine in the ward; and then I remembered that Bromden is in fact "crazy" and is therefore not a reliable narrator. Hence, I may never know the answer to my question.

In addition, Bromden claims again and again that the Nurse controls the clock and that she slows time down and speeds it up as she sees fit. I think that the question of whether this is true or not is an interesting one in addition to the relation time has to the small isolated world the patients are living in. If the patients do not have control over their daily activities and follow the same schedule their whole lives, does is matter that time is irregular? And what does time represent in the novel?

I look forward to finishing the novel and looking further into Bromden's character. Hopefully I will find at least parts of the answers to my questions as well!

Willy's "Death" before he Died

In class, we discussed briefly the meaning of the title Death of a Salesman and how it relates to the play while containing two completely different meanings. I found myself wondering about the actual death of Willy (ie. at the end of the play when he is no longer living) in addition to his death as in his ultimate demise as a person in life, and what that does to his character.

I think that a title reveals a lot about a play or piece of writing, and Death of a Salesman is no exception. There are many causes of Willy's "death" as a person throughout the play that contribute to his true, physical death. Willy is slowly dying throughout the play because of his failure to accomplish what he set for himself as goals and standards.

Contributors to Willy's mental death (as apposed to and actually leading up to his physical one) include his many missed opportunities, regrets for himself and his family, and his jealousy of other's successes. It is apparent that he takes his job very seriously, or at least the idea of his job seriously. When he finds out that not only is Howard not granting his location request but also firing him altogether, a part of him dies.

Willy also counts on his sons to become the successful men he is not. When Biff tells him that he has failed math, Willy is not willing to accept the truth. This is in part because he has other mistakes of his own on his mind, like the fact that his son knows he is cheating on his mother with another woman, and part because he trys everything possible to make sure Biff and Happy are successful, including telling Biff to cheat off of Bernard.

Willy is so desperate for approval that his own desperation actually backfires on him and pushes him further and further away from family and friends until he can no longer find happiness within himself, his job, and the life he is living.

Realism in A Doll's House

In my opinion, A Doll's House is a realistic work because of the way the characters are portrayed and interact with each other. Although I find that some of the character's actions can be considered irrational and many times unrealistic, the major themes of the text overall is by no means a stretch of the imagination.

Qualities that most of the characters share in A Doll's House is insecurity and indecisiveness. These two human qualities lead to many issues between characters. At the same time it is apparent that there are true feelings and a sense of caring between many of them including Nora and Helmer, Nora and Dr. Rank, or Krogstad and Mrs. Linde; whether that affection is reciprocated or not. These qualities also show the human characteristics and the realism of each character. Nora is not satisfied with her marriage and decides to take action. In doing so she displays bravery and is also very real with herself and her husband.

Although there are many true emotions and life-like situations portrayed in A Doll's House, like when Dr. Rank professes his love to Nora or when Mrs. Linde tells Krogstad that shes misses being with him, certain characters overall are not so realistic. In my opinion Nora puts on quite the act in the first few acts of the play if she has really fallen out of love with her husband. I think that she could be seen as somewhat unrealistically devoted to a man she claims to no longer love although I admire her strength in sticking up to him instead of living a merely average life. In addition, I find Torvald's reaction to the circumstances surrounding Krogstad's letter to be unrealistic. First he says that he must read his mail, then he decides he rather spend the evening with Nora; he is enraged when he reads the letter, and suddenly all too forgiving when he comes to understand that the problem is solved. Torvald's actions are the main reason Nora leaves him, a decision that is in my opinion VERY realistic and one which he deserves.

Who's To Blame?

After reading the story of Hamlet, it was hard for me to not immediately question who is to blame for the death of basically every character in the play. I mean, it is only human nature to investigate the source or sources of one persons death (take CSI for example), not to mention a case where almost every single person's dies within days of each other. Can it be called murder? And if so, can these murders be traced back to only one person, or are multiple people responsible. In this blog, I will do my best at answering these questions.

Now, of course the answer to whether or not the deaths of so many were more than one person's responsibility is yes; however in my opinion they all have the same single origin: Hamlet's father's ghost. Yes, it is true that Hamlet did stab Polonius by mistake and the king could have let the queen know that she was drinking poison, but in the end none of these events would have taken place if Hamlet's father's ghost had not placed such a burden to put an end to his own unfinished business on his son.

I think that because such a large burden was placed on Hamlet, (seeking revenge for his dead father's ghost) he ended up starting a chain reaction of deaths. Hamlet was not even sure that helping his father seek revenge was a task he morally agreed with, but he went along with it anyway because he is a loyal character and takes the importance of family very seriously. In turn, because he did not fully agree with what he was doing himself, he made the mistake of killing the wrong person because he was so nervous and busy concentrating on minor details of his plan such as the right time for murder. Polonius's death then leads to Ophelia's death. In addition, I believe that Laetes and the Queen would not have died if it wasn't for Hamlet's father's ghost because the King would not have had such a reason to want to murder Hamlet and start a fencing duel and consequently the accidental deaths would also not have occurred.

Although I am aware that the story of Hamlet is a tragic one and death is a crucial part to any tragedy, I think that many fictional lives could have been saved if it were not for the ghost of Hamlet's father.

Just because Ismene's name is impossible to pronounce doesn't mean she shouldn't be analyzed...

When reading the story of Antigone, I was intrigued by the character Ismene right away. For some reason, I found myself siding and reasoning with her and going so far as to defend her in class discussions. In this blog, I am going to look further into the subject of why that is.
In class, many regarded Ismene as a push-over and the weaker of the two sisters. Although I would not completely argue against the fact that Ismene is the weaker-minded of the sisters, there is something about her actions that causes me not to immediately dismiss her and the all-together inferior. She tells Antigone that she will not aide her in burying their brother because of the consequences they will receive if they do so. This shows that she is smart, not merely a coward. I mean, realistically, when faced with the option of doing something honorable or being sentenced to death, although many people would like to think that they would take the honorable route, in the end humankind will do almost anything to avoid their own mortality. Ismene is simply acting as Antigone's voice of reason. In addition, no matter what decisions Antigone makes, no matter how absurd they may be, Ismene stands by her. The same can definitely not be said for Antigone. Though Antigone preaches honor and respect, she does not practice it. Although Ismene does not walk the walk, she does not talk the talk. That to me is more honorable than Antigone, who does not follow through with what she supposedly believes in in every aspect of her life.

Eventually, Antigone ends up dying after doing something she believes is right and honorable: burying her brother. However, her death is her own doing and therefore the two events are actually unrelated. Ismene is able to fly under the radar, so to speak, and only puts her own life at risk when defending her sister in an action she does not even agree with to begin with. I am not in anyway insinuating that it is right for Ismene to forgo what she thinks is right for fear of consequences, just that Antigone obviously had things going on in her life that would cause her to commit suicide and that burying her brother is not as heroic as it might seem at first. Antigone makes it seem that she is not afraid of death because that is how much she cares for her brother, yet the fact that she is not afraid of death might simply be a bonus when she decides to bury her brother.

Ismene is a constant throughout the story. Not only is she supportive, she is reasonable and level-headed. Accordingly, Ismene is one of the only characters who does not have a tragic demise.

The Meaning of Life

In Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilych, Ilych is faced with one of the longest and most feared mysteries of life: death. Not only does the main character have to come to term with death itself and the death of those around him, he must come to terms with something that places a much heavier burden on him; his own death. By beginning the story with Ilych's funeral, the reader out of instinct immediately disconnects with Ilych because it is assumed that he will not be appearing later in the story. However, we are forced to take another glance at the person we thought was dead because of the way Tolstoy dives back into the story of his life. In the same way, Ilych's friends all try to disassociate themselves from the dead as much as possible and throughout his life Ilych looks at death as something that only others face in order to disassociate himself from it in order to ease the fear of death itself. The characters of the story think that the more they choose to avoid thinking about their own mortality the more chance they have of expanding their lives indefinitely. 

It is not so much that Ilych and his friends do not know they are at some point going to die or that they are not expecting it, it is that they do not think it will happen to them any time in the near future. This is why, when experiencing so much pain in his side and mouth and when soon learning that no medical professional has a cure or even an idea of what his disease is to begin with, Ilych starts to have panic attacks. He finally realizes that death is not as far away as he had hoped and as a result, starts to question the meaning of his life. 

Ivan Ilych uses different methods to try and cope with the fact that he is nearing death. By referring to death and his own mortality in general as "It," he uses the same method that people use when referring to subjects they might not want to talk about or think are sensitive by using euphemisms. He thinks that by calling death "It" the reality of his mortality will become less real. Ilych also tries to cope by "replacing it with other proper and healthy thoughts," yet the thought of his own mortality keeps coming back to haunt him because nothing can seem to compare in level of importance. He also experiences periods of jealousy and hatred, especially towards his wife whom he believes is not being as sympathetic to his pains as she should be. Ilych turns against everyone he knows in an attempt to regain control of his life. 

Just as it is human nature to immediately disconnect from a character in a book that has died in order to lessen the emotional impact of simply reading about death, it is also human nature to try and ignore thoughts of ones own and sometimes imminent death in order to lessen the impact of the idea that humans are in fact, mortal. When Ilych thinks of death, he thinks of the death of others, not that of himself. As he tries to accept the fact that he is deathly ill, he still can not help but think, "It cannot be that I ought to die. That would be too terrible." As much as it is instinct to avoid confronting the thought of death, it is necessary to do so in order to live a fulfilled life (587).