Daniel Machover

The poem that I have selected for this weeks discussion is “White Lies” by Natasha Trethewey.  This poem highlights the struggles of adversity that a little african american girl is dealing with while growing up.  I have identified this from when the author states, “I could easily tell the white folks that we lived uptown, not in that pink and green shanty-fled shotgun section along the tracks. I could act like my homemade dresses came straight out the window of Maison Blanche” (7-15). The author clearly feels ashamed of her families “status” in the world being that she attends school in a melting pot of socio-economic statuses and demographics.  Therefore, she feels the need to tell “white lies”.   You can also draw this point from, “She laid her hands on me, then washed out my mouth with Ivory soap. This is to purify, she said, and cleanse your lying tongue. Believing her, I swallowed suds thinking they’d work from the inside out.” (22-29), where the author uses dramatic irony to show how the girl feels not only ashamed of her status in school, but also her race.  This poem is very saddening to me but is put together in an extremely clever and thoughtful manner. Therefore, I have completed the poem by starting with what imagery it presents and bringing it into my point of view.

I found this weeks curriculum very exciting because I was able to get the chance to learn more about a type of literature that was otherwise basically foreign to me. In Activity 1, we learned about the different types of poetry as well as the literary terms that come with it. In Activity 3, I learned that sonnets are always composed of fourteen lines.  There are also two different types of sonnets: English and Italian.  An Italian sonnet has an octet, which consists of eight lines, and a sestet, which consists of six lines whereas the English sonnet has three quatrains, consisting of four lines each, followed by a couplet which is two lines.  A sonnet is the most common type of poetry and they are usually written about love. In Activities 4 & 5, I was able to read and learn more about the most famous William Shakespeare.  William Shakespeare most often writes his sonnets about women, comparing them to seasons, objects, emotions, etc.  I have learned this by reading “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day.”.  It is also shown in a short lecture on Sonnet 130, “My Mistress’s Eyes Are Nothing like the Sun.”, where Professor Conway states that Shakespeare uses “elaborate metaphors and even mythical allusions are employed to describe adored female subjects.”. (2)    

The theme of the Emily Dickinson poem “The Wife” relates to Mrs. Mallard’s emotional state in “The Story of an Hour.”, in many ways.  Cleary in the time period in which both the story and poem were written, feminism was just a trembling whisper.  However these short passages exploit the experiences of Women who were undermined and emotionally & physically abused first hand.  The theme of “The Wife” relates to Mrs. Mallard’s emotional state in “The Story of an Hour” by using verbiage to set a dark tone when describing their relationship to their spouse and how they are bound to their partner.  This can be directly proven from lines eleven and 12 of, “The Wife”, where Dickinson quotes “But only to himself is known The fathoms they abide.” (11-12).  Mrs. Mallard proves to be relieved by her husbands death being that there is no longer a clasp on her independence.  This can be derived from, “The Story of an Hour”, when her sister Josephine mistakes Mrs. Mallards tears of joy for tears of greif, “I beg; open the door — you will make yourself ill. What are you doing, Louise? For heaven’s sake open the door.” “Go away. I am not making myself ill.” No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window.” (15-16).  Finally, are many other examples in which you can make this direct correlation as well., but I find that this identifies best with the relation of the Women’s emotional state in the two passages. P.S. (I capitalized Women as the stories were related to feminism and independence) 🙂

In the essay about suspense in her story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” O’Connor writes that readers, like the ancient Greek viewers of tragedy, “should know what is going to happen in this story so that the element of suspense in it will be transferred from its surface to its interior.” We know what the story is about on the surface. What do you feel the story is about in its “interior?” I believe that the author, in saying that allowing the reader to know what’s going to happen in the story enables them to take the story from the surface to the interior is alluding to dramatic device in writing. The use of this device, I believe, allows the reader to not just become consumed with the one element of suspense. Rather, the reader, in already knowing the outcome, can shift their focus to other themes the author is trying to convey in their work- such as family dynamics, the Grandmother’s manipulative behavior, and the Misfits perception of life. The Grandmother, being the main character of the story, uses her words wisely in order to gain what she wants from others, acting as a puppeteer so to speak.  Her manipulative behavior ends up being her demise.  As the Misfit enters the story, it is difficult to get much of a read on him.  As the Grandmother tries to penetrate the emotional wall he puts up using statements about religious beliefs and questions about his past, ultimately trying to tie it into relating to him which gets her killed.  The Misfit saw past that.  The quote “Daddy was a card himself,” The Misfit said. “You couldn’t put anything over on him. He never got in trouble with the Authorities though. Just had the knack of handling them.” [103-106], […]

In reading, “Oedipus The King,” there are many common themes that resonate both in modern day arenas as well as the time it was written. First, the people looking to those in power- Oedipus- to cure the existing plight of the plague is certainly familiar when thinking about how our country looked to our government to combat COVID. In the story, this leads Oedipus to seek out the murderer, never expecting the criminal to ultimately be himself.  In his quest, he first becomes paranoid that Creon is maneuvering to unseat him and become king. It is a timeless behavior for those not in power to seek to takeover those in power.  “For only with the people at your back or money can the hunt end in the capture of the crown.” This statement by Oedipus also rings true in contemporary society, as the people at your back would represent today’s voters, and money would represent today’s campaign funds, etc. Be careful what you wish for, is a phrase that also comes to mind when reading this piece, as Oedipus goes to great lengths to discover the truth, even as the people around him try to discourage him from doing so.  Not heeding one’s inner circle’s advice is a behavior that can certainly prove to be a detriment, as we see as the story unfolds. I believe that this is deemed a timeless, classic story because it speaks to the reader’s life no matter the time in history it is read.

The passage by the chorus that I have selected to analyze was when Oedipus and the chorus shared a brief back and forth conversation regarding the best way to go about finding out who the murderer is.  In lines 319 & 320 the chorus states “Yet if he has a share of fear at all, his courage will not stand firm hearing your curse”.  Throughout the passage, I found it very troubling to debrief the lengthy and complex language used.  This passage was less difficult to comprehend than others.  It states that Oedipus should question Tieresias as even though he is a man of great power, scolding him may cause him to fold under pressure, aka, “his courage will not stand firm” especially because there is motive.  This is proven in the next few passages when Oedipus starts to question Tieresias as stated in lines 392-396 “For I would have you know I think you were complotter of the deed and doer of the deed save in so far 395 as for the actual killing. Had you had eyes I would have said alone you murdered him.”.  

When answering the question, ” “Araby” by James Joyce is not a love story. What is “Araby” really about?”, many things come to mind.  Though there are many take aways throughout the coming of age story, the main thing you begin to realize throughout the story is how his obsession with the Mangan’s sister blinds every other aspect in his life.  I believe this story is about how one’s judgement and how they can perceive things are clouded by what they may think is their first love.  However, this obsession continues to grow as he grows older and he no longer focuses on the things he used to love, like his family (being impatient and angry with his uncle) and playing with his friends in the street.  As he continues to gain progress in his goal of winning the Mangan’s sister over, he is met with a humbling experience at the bazaar.  This leads me to believe that the author is choosing to highlight the fact that the boys growing obsession blinds him from reality.  This point can be drawn when the author states “I wished to annihilate the tedious intervening days.” [12}.  Portraying that as he has the bazaar to look forward to, his days between then are a just a nuisance.

In the short story “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, Sylvia and Sugar are a lot alike in ways, however, Sugar shows a little bit of character development at the end of the story much to the dismay of Sylvia. Towards the beginning, when the crew first arrives at the toy store, they are all nervous. Sylvia even explains how she was tentative about going into the store. One can assume from her words that she felt as though someone of her social status didn’t belong in a store where toys are sold for over $300. She felt out of place and even looked to her friends to enter first. Eventually, they all managed to muster enough courage to enter the store. Sylvia shows in the story a sort of resentment for upper-class citizens who can afford these types of toys and she thinks that Sugar feels the same way, however, towards the end of the story Sugar surprises Sylvia by not making fun of the rich people, but by trying to understand why the economy is the way it is and why it is so unfair. This angers Sylvia and she even says that she is “disgusted by Sugar’s treachery” demonstrating the different mindsets that Sylvia and Sugar have at the end of the trip.

In the short story “Salvation” by Langston Hughes, a twelve-year-old Langston is having a discussion with his aunt about what it is like to be rescued by Jesus. She talks to him about the innate feeling inside your body that you experience when you are saved. Hearing all of this from his aunt excited Langston and further drove his belief in the church and being saved. This strong and seemingly unwavering belief in the church made him wait patiently for his turn at being rescued by Jesus, however, after waiting a very long time and seeing all of the other children being saved, he felt ashamed that he was the only one not being saved and he eventually lost hope in his belief. This even caused him to lie to the church and to his aunt about being saved by Jesus. At the end of it all, Langston went from being extremely overjoyed and eager to be saved by Jesus, to wondering whether or not Jesus even existed and if he could ever be saved.

After I read the short story “The Most Handsomest Drown Man” I think that you assigned this reading as the first story in this course to establish the tone of this course. I feel like now that we have been exposed to this new type of literature known as magical realism, there will be more readings that have a very similar feel to this one. While reading the short story, I noticed the sudden impact on the village made by the appearance of the drowned man. This impact was even more prevalent among the women of the village, as to the men of the village, the women seemed to be making the entire ordeal much more than it actually was. They even went as far as to tell them to move to the side as they prepared his body to be put back into the ocean. However, in the end, the men of the village also succumb to the impact of the drowned man as they were suddenly also overcome with a wave of compassion for him.