Reality or Illusion?

Three characters in particular take advantage of the fact that society celebrates and values innocence in, “The Bad Seed.”
First there is the obvious evil character of Rhoda. Rhoda is the cruelest person in the play, but ironically she is given the sweetest and most innocent image. Perhaps the more awful you truly are the harder you must work to uphold an outstandingly clean appearance. Rhoda, an 8 year old girl, is described as, “the most satisfactory pupil [her] school has ever had. She’s never been absent. She’s never been tardy….And she’s the neatest little girl I’ve ever encountered,” by Miss Fern, the school master. She is also described as wearing perfect cloths which she never spoils and having a smile that, “ought to be patented.” Beneath all of her prim curtseys and proper manners that society blindly adores, however, she is usually scheming and plotting the demise of another who is actually more innocent than she.
Leroy is the second character that caught my eye. Leroy’s innocent image is accomplished by acts of stupidity. Usually, society views and accepts dumb people as being more innocent than the smart, conniving ones. Monica describes Leroy as a lowly janitor who has, “the mind of an 8 year old….” However, beneath his innocent guise Leroy is actually one of the smartest people in the play. Leroy is the one who figures out Rhoda’s guilt first. But because of his assumed retardation Leroy is left alone, presumed too unintelligible to possess more than a simple, innocent soul. I think Leroy was Rhoda’s fiercest competitor in the battle of wits.
Finally, the third character, Mrs. Penmark, took advantage of society’s celebration of innocence to hide her awful heritage. Mrs. Penmark, adopted daughter of Richard Bravo and biological daughter of a serial killer, always had a haunting nag in the back of her mind that she was descended from evil. To try to counter-act her bad blood I think Christine Penmark subconsciously did all that she possibly could to behave as perfectly and innocently as possible. She was the perfect daughter, wife and mother and she had a good conscious and good morals. Despite her pristine character Christine was too foolish to make sure her evil daughter died before she commit suicide. Unfortunately this play seems to portray the fact that the truly innocent people are often times less intelligent than the non-innocents.

Medea vs Trifles

Both Medea and Trifles deal with sexism and male-dominating societies. In Medea we can see evidence of male-dominance when Medea states, “Of all things with life and understanding, we women are the most unfortunate. First, we need a husband, someone we get for an excessive price. He then becomes the ruler of our bodies. And this misfortune adds still more troubles to the grief we have.” In this Medea is implying that women in Corinth are all dependent upon men for survival. She also alludes to the fact that women must pay a pricey dowry to be married and that once they are married they lose control over their own bodies. She also later adds, “For a divorce loses women all respect.” By this statement she is saying that although men may divorce with no consequences, for a woman a divorce is devastating.
In Trifles we see evidence of male domination in the way that the county attorney, the sheriff and Mr. Hale treat the women. The men addressed the women as lesser-beings with empty minds. Mr. Hale states that, “Women are used to worrying over trifles,” implying that women only occupy their minds with simple things. The Sheriff also mocks the women when stating, “They wonder if she was going to quilt it [a quilt] or knot it!” Then the men are described as laughing while the women look abashed.
Despite the fact that in both plays the women are considered less valuable then men, in Medea the main female character does not sit around and take the sexist abuse. The women of Trifles do. Medea is characterized as strong, intelligent and opinionated. She is feared and respected by kings and friends alike, and although she is living in a sexist society she refuses to give up and assume the passive role that is expected of her. The women of Trifles are never seen as strong or boldly argumentative when talking with the men. These women seem to have made peace with their roles as docile mothers and house-keepers.
Although both women face the obstacle of sexism they both end up smarter and more victorious than their fellow male counterparts. I really liked how the women succeeded over the men in their missions in both plays.

Feedback

Over all I really like this class. It offers me a change in my usual academic regiment. I don't have to memorize chemical equations or decipher Spanish literature. Instead I get to simply enjoy English poetry, literature, and drama. So far I have liked most all of the works we have discussed/read. My favorites are "The Lady of Shalott," "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," and "The Lottery." One thing I think we could have done with out was "Kubla Khan." I felt like we spent almost no time deciphering that poem and it's better left out of the curriculum, or if it's necessary, then we should spend more time reviewing it.

I also really like the English blogs. I feel that by answering the blog questions I get a better grasp of the works we are studying. I like reading about what other people think about the works too, because it often shows me a completely different opinion of the work. I think the blogs should definitely be incorporated into future syllabi.

I have no real complaints; I don't even mind the grading being slow. It must take an awfully long time to go through all of our papers. One thing that I wish for in the future, however, is a little bit more leniency when grading papers. Sometimes I feel like the grades I receive on some of my past papers do not reflect how much work and effort I put into them.

The Nature of Evil

In the past, and even in today’s world, evil is associated with the unknown. People don’t like change and therefore any fluctuations from whatever society deems ‘the norm’ are considered different and therefore evil.
We can see examples of this in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery.” Evil is interpreted as a deviation from the norm in this story because the town is extremely adamant about keeping up their ancient traditions. One such tradition is the annual stoning of a member of the community. Obviously this is a horrible, cruel and undeserving murder. However, when faced with the prospect of changing their ways, the towns’ people refuse to even consider the idea. A town’s man named Mr. Adams remarks to his friend, Old Man Warner, that the northern village has begun to cease the mindless murders. To this statement Old Man Warner replies, “Nothing but trouble in that,” and calls the northern villagers a, “Pack of young fools.” From this line we can see that the majority of the town considers change to be foolish, and to some extent, even evil.
Evil is interpreted as a deviation from the norm in the short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” too. In this story we are presented with a family that consists of three young children, a husband and wife, and a grandmother. The two older children are bratty and disrespectful, the husband does not honor the wishes of his mother, nor does he respect her opinion, and the wife is ghost-like in the fact that she hardly speaks at all. In an ideal society children should be well-behaved and elders are respected and defended. Because of this family’s ill-tempered mannerisms they suffer cruel deaths at the hands of a criminal, named the ‘Misfit.’ The Misfit does not fit into society’s mold either, since he is a law-breaking scoundrel. The only one through-out the entire story that fits society’s norms, and is therefore not portrayed as evil, is the grandmother. If the family had listened to the grandmother’s warnings in the first place, like a good family in society would have, they would have been able to avoid their untimely deaths. Unfortunately in this story evil prevails in the fact that the family doesn’t conform to a more socially acceptable manner.
I also saw evil in both of these stories when it was stated that children are not exempt from the murderous rages of evil people. In "The Lottery" Mrs. Hutchinson was the unlucky soul who was selected, at random, to be stoned. However, it could have just as easily been one of her three young children who selected the 'short stick.' I don't think it would have mattered to the town's people if a child had been selected. They still would have stoned them to death. In "A Good Man is Hard to Find," we also see children being subjected to harm. The Misfit has no problem shooting the two young children and the baby to death. He also murders the wife. Although it is unacceptable to murder anyone, murdering women and children are absolutely outrageous.

Ghost Story or Comic Relief?

One of the ways in which Irving described Ichabod Crane in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” was when Ichabod was mounting the farmer’s horse, Gunpowder. The two are a sore sight for any eyes. The horse was described as, “gaunt and shagged, with a ewe neck, and a head like a hammer; his rusty many and tail were tangled and knotted with burs; one eye had lost its pupil, and was glaring and spectral, but the other had the gleam of a genuine devil in it.” Gunpowder is a very run-down, second-hand horse. Ichabod is also described as awkward and ungainly when Irving wrote, “He rode with short stirrups, which brought his knees nearly up to the pommel of the saddle; his sharp elbows stuck out like grasshopper’s; he carried his whip perpendicularly in his hand, like a scepter, and as his horse jogged on, the motion of his arms was not unlike the flapping of a pair of wings.” Later in the story, after Ichabod heads home from the party at Van Tassel’s mansion on the back of Gunpowder, he encounters the headless horseman who pursues him in a wild chase through the woods. This part of the story is intended to be fearsome, with the horrible, headless creature tearing after poor Ichabod. But all I could think about during this part of the story was the image of Ichabod on the dilapidated horse, lumbering through the forest. It’s quite an awkward and humorous scene. Humor goes hand-in-hand with terror in this part of the story.
I also noticed humor tied to scary elements in the “Christmas Banquet.” During the annual Christmas banquet there are ten guests invited to the table. They all gather around the food like civilized, mannered people. However, at the head of the table sits a skeleton, described as, “Such a fearful guest, shrouded in a black mantle […].” The skeleton is used as a horrifying image, meant to inflict fear and wariness among readers. In my opinion the image of ten civilized people sitting down to dinner with a skeleton at the head of the table is funny. I also thought that three of the mournful, depressed dinner guests were comical. I found it hilarious that one man, described as, “[…] a certain Mr. Smith, who had evidently the fat of many a rich feast within him, and the habitual twinkle of whose eye betrayed a disposition to break forth into uproarious laughter for little cause or none,” died because his heart condition wouldn’t allow him to laugh, yet he did. I also found it funny that two of the most miserable people seated at the table were married to each other, and the chief cause of each other’s grief. Often this is the common and unfortunate case with many married couples. These three guests were meant to symbolize grief, despair and unhappiness, but to me they were funny.

Story Time

I have to admit that I approached reading the short story with a lot less trepidation than when I approached the poetry we read. I usually view short stories as much easier to read and to understand. I approach them with the intent of being amused, instead of a fear that I will not comprehend what they are trying to say, as with poetry. Of course, now that we have been through the English-200 poetry unit I am a lot more confident in my skills when it comes to reading a poem. However, I still enjoy reading short stories more.
While reading the Lottery I did have to use some of my earlier-learned poetry skills. I found that I needed to re-read certain parts of the story, three or even four times, before I really understood what was going on. I also had to re-read certain paragraphs to keep all of the different characters straight. Often, during the poetry unit, I would need to go back and look at certain verses and lines more than once. I quickly learned that it is not easy, and sometimes not even possible, to grasp a poem’s meaning with just one quick skim through. The same theory applies to The Lottery as well. Also, I found myself noticing the imagery of the story, something I would not have previously thought to do. For example, I loved how Jackson set the scenery in the beginning of the story, when she writes, “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green.” The poetry unit taught me to better appreciate the pictures painted by the words of poetry, and short-story, authors.

"El Cisne" (The Swan)

The poem that I found to be most interesting was “Leda and the Swan.” I recognized the poem immediately because I had read a poem almost identical to it last semester in a Spanish literature class. Ruben Dario, a very famous Nicaraguan poet, wrote “El Cisne,” which translates in English to “The Swan.” “El Cisne” describes the rape of Leda, by Zeus, and the birth of her beautiful daughter, Helen, from a blue egg. What’s most interesting to me is that in “Leda and the Swan,” the significance of the poem was to depict the violence of the Irish civil war. However, the significance of the almost identical poem, “El Cisne,” is to depict the literary current ‘modernismo.’ Modernismo is a literary current which advocates art for art. Modernistos (as they are called in Spanish) desire to create beautiful art and nothing more. It is a rebellion against the industrial revolution, which demanded relevance in everything. Nothing was important if it was not useful to science or medicine. We can see that the poem is written under modernismo influence because Dario uses such symbols as a swan and the color blue, both of which are very popular in the modernismo current. It’s interesting to me to see how two different authors wrote an almost identical poem with completely different underlying themes.
I definitely feel that this poetry unit has changed my opinion about poetry over all. I’ve realized that not all poems are that hard to understand if you only do a little research on them. Some poems I’ve actually come to really like and admire, such as the “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and “The Lady of Shalott.” I feel more well rounded in the area of literature now that I am familiar with more than just popular novels and short stories.
Aqui esta “El Cisne,” escribo por el autor Ruben Dario:
(Here is “El Cisne” written by Ruben Dario:)
"Fué en una hora divina para el género humano.
El Cisne antes cantaba sólo para morir.
Cuando se oyó el acento del Cisne wagneriano
Fué en medio de una aurora, fué para revivir.
.
. . . .Sobre las tempestades del humano oceano
Se oye el canto del Cisne; no se cesa de oir,
Dominando el martillo del viejo Thor germano
Ó las trompas que cantan la espada de Argantir.
.
. . . .¡Oh Cisne! ¡Oh sacro pájaro! Si antes la blanca Helena
Del huevo azul de Leda brotó de gracia llena,
Siendo de la Hermosura la princesa inmortal,
.
. . . .Bajo tus blancas alas la nueva Poesía
Concibe en una gloria de luz y de harmonía
La Helena eterna y pura que encarna el ideal."