Viktória Borosán

I have always loved poetry. I enjoy its versatility, the beauty and brutishness it may carry, the rawest emotions it expresses. Having English as my second language, however, I always believed that my love and understanding for poetry in a deeper sense would forever be limited to Hungarian poems. They are the ones I grew up reading and analyzing, my vocabulary is much wider in that language, too, therefore it only made sense to me. Thankfully, that changed with Activity 8. I only know that summer sang in me A little while, that in me sings no more. The way the last two lines are worded makes me feel touched and awed in a way I believed only poems in my own language could. It is a relief to realize, I can truly appreciate a poem and its imagery even if it was written in my second language.

My thesis statement is the following: The gravity of the narrator’s inner turmoil and confusion is expressed through the use of several types of irony throughout the short story. It is my plan, in order to further demonstrate the irony of “Salvation” by Langston Hughes, besides introducing examples of the different types of irony from the short story, to use the writer’s biography as reference, with emphasis on his relationship with religion, spirituality and the church. To gain sufficient and accurate information for this, I intend on using the Gale in Context database, as there is a quite informative biography on this site. I am still in the midst of my research for the best material for my secondary research but I trust, the Library’s databases won’t let me down.  

Both the short story, “Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and the poem, “The Wife” by Emily Dickinson explores the lack of freedom and individuality of a married woman deeply and thoroughly, despite their limited length. During the Victorian times, to which both writings date back, a wife was more of a status symbol. She was something to acquire, something that makes a boy a man, gives him credibility. A wife was her husband’s property, whose only happiness, need and want in life was to be just that. If aught she missed in her new day Of amplitude, or awe, Or first prospective, or the gold In using wore away, It lay unmentioned, as the sea Develops pearl and weed, This quote goes to show just how little a woman’s needs really meant. They went unmentioned and were treated as nonexistent. A wife’s only possible way to freedom and individuality was becoming widowed. “Story of an Hour” sheds light on such experience. Some could easily think that all those women who lived through such times were weak and had no concept of self. But I believe that the strength to shoulder of such burden with so much humanity, grace and endurance and then to forgive all that could only found in women.

I believe that the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor is really telling the story of how hard it is to change one’s way of thinking. In the story, one of the main characters, the Grandmother is a beyond shallow, ignorant and judgmental, selfish woman. She remains that way even when coming face to face with death itself. She looks a convicted felon, whose crimes she is aware of, and believes that he is still inherently good solely based on his noble background. Even after the Misfit orders the death of her own son, daughter in law and grandchildren, she still insists on him being good. Her faulty outlook on the world is so deeply implemented, that not even a situation so stressful can overrule it. Not even the possibility of death can turn her into a “good” or at least “better” person.

I believe that a truly universal aspect of the characters in the ancient Greek tragedy, “Oedipus the King” by Sophocles is their relationship with the gods. Obviously, in our modern society most people are not as hung up on God’s wrath but, even with the spread of atheism, people still need an outer force to blame things on and hope for things from. Whether that’s a deity, energies, forces, fate, chance or destiny, the majority believes that there is something else in charge of reality as we know it. Most people are still dependent on something else. Which in a way, understandable because after a certain amount of experience, one must admit that the way life works, the people we meet and the things we live through cannot be all for nothing.

In the ancient Greek tragedy, Oedipus the King the following line is sung by the Chorus: CHORUS: Here comes his prosecutor: led by your men the godly prophet comes 325 in whom alone of mankind truth is native. Although short, it is a beautifully written passage. It is meant to emphasize the relevance Teiresias, the prophet, holds in their society. According to the Chorus’ line “in whom alone of mankind truth is native”, he is the only one who knows the truth about anything in the world as he is omniscient. His word cannot be questionable the the weight it holds is akin to a law, therefore they refer to him as a “prosecutor”. The Chorus call him “godly”, showcasing how, in this ancient society, prophets were regarded as at least partly divine individuals.

“Araby” by James Joyce is a coming of age story, not a love story. The narrator’s love-like obsession with one of his friends’ sister is nothing but a tool, a channel for his maturing. The love does not come to be and by the end of the story it loses its significance to the narrator, as he gains understanding of his driving force being not love but narrow-mindedness. As he is exposed to experiences that grant him insight into the real world that is often sad, unfair, lonely, dirty, unfriendly and not only mesmerizing and beautiful, he realizes how simple-minded he has been by allowing his obsession to take up so much of his life. He is disappointed in himself not for loving someone but for allowing it to take over his life and urge him to make unreasonable decisions.

In the short story “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, the narrator allows insight into the realization of a child’s own poverty through various characters. One character, Mercedes, who has a somewhat more fortunate background represents a social class where hope is not a luxury. For her, the situation is less angering because, as we can learn through her reactions, her financial situation is slightly more fortunate than the rest of the characters’. It is not enough to get her out of their neighborhood but it still sufficiently affects the way she views her own poverty and her possibilities of getting a toy from FAO Schwarz. The narrator, Sylvia, however, is less optimistic. She is a smart girl, quick on her feet and seems to have a rather realistic understanding of life itself. That being said, the bliss of not having the most sorrowful parts of reality rubbed in one’s face is always sweet, therefore she is rather fed up with the forced reality check that having to visit the toy store is for her. She is angry at everything and everyone because, odds are, she understand the unfairness of it all more than any of her friends. Facing such disadvantage at life itself is a beyond heavy weight to have to carry around at 12.

In the short story, Salvation, by Langston Hughes, the narrator introduces his readers to a painful and life-altering memory about religion. The story begins with young Langston being promised a new beginning, a closer relationship to God, Jesus and his faith. He mirrors the excitement of the adults around him as he looks forward to stepping into this new, pure and enlightened stage of his life along his peers and friends. However, during the actual ceremony where Jesus was supposed to come to him, Langston is left confused and disappointed. He suddenly questions his faith and starts wondering if everyone around him is only faking their piety as well. He feels ashamed of having to lie in order to bring relief to his community and to be accepted and praised by his people. His disappointment pains him to the core. Langston was allowed to gain a new understanding of the world around him through this experience, therefore his coming-of-age was successful, however it is far from what he hoped for. He is now doubtful, confused and, by growing unsure of his faith, lost.

I think The Handsomest Drowned Man by Gabriel García Márquez was assigned as the first reading of the semester to serve as an encouragement for the participants of the course to tap into, explore and express our imagination. The short story introduces a realm where the environment and the people are realistic, except for Esteban’s character. By bringing a small piece of wonder into a world of normalcy, García Márquez prompts his readers to have an open mind for the occurrence of such miracles and to look for them in their lives and, perhaps, even their minds. Therefore, I believe that the objective of this assignment was to let us feel safe in freely expressing our truth in our writing during this course, even if it leads to the establishment of a world that might seem odd at first. I am looking forward to seeing what everyone’s imagination has in store for us.