I began reading Invisible Man this past week, and I found that there are a lot of really interesting patterns. It kind of reminds me of Winesburg, Ohio in the way the author connects many different ideas throughout the novel.
One interesting pattern I noticed was the idea of dreams or nightmares. The first time the narrator discusses this is on page 4, when he talks about beating up a man who verbally attacked him. He says, “The man had not seen me, actually; that he, as far as he knew, was in the midst of a walking nightmare!” Later, on page 7, he discusses a nightmare that a beautiful girl kept having where “she lay in the center of a large dark room and felt her face expand until it filled the whole room, becoming a formless mass while her eyes ran in bilious jelly up the chimney.” Again, on page 9, the narrator descends into a dream or nightmare while listening to Louis Armstrong’s music, although this dream is drug-induced which might set it apart from the other dreams. Finally, on page 33, he dreams that he is with his grandfather and he receives a letter that reads, “Keep this nigga-boy running.”
Another pattern I noticed was the animal imagery throughout the novel. Often times, the narrator uses animals to describe human beings. He probably does this in order to highlight the worst, most primal qualities of mankind. On page 19 he describes the naked dancer as a “fair bird-girl,” and on the next page, he describes on of the white men as “an intoxicated panda.” He also compares the room full of white men to “a dark room filled with poisonous cottonmouths,” and the boxing ring full of blindfolded black men to “blind, cautious crabs” and “hypersensitive snails.” On page 26 his blood pools in the shape of a butterfly, an interesting comparison considering butterflies are usually gentle creatures and blood is a symbol of violence. Finally, one of the electrocuted boys is describes as “a circus seal,” on page 27.
Other than animals and dreams, the narrator consistently references eyes, especially as a window to the inner soul. The first page references the “inner eyes” which are “those eyes with which they look through their physical eyes upon reality.” Later, when describing the naked dancer again, he said that, while her face was fixed in a smile, “I saw the terror and disgust in her eyes.” Thus, her eyes give away her true emotions and feelings. Later again, when describing one of the fighters, he says, “his face was a black blank of a face, only his eyes her alive.” These two examples demonstrates mankind’s attempt to conceal their true feelings but their ultimate failure because their eyes give away so much. On page 28, he says the fighter was “looking at me with soberness dead in the eye,” again demonstrating the highly intimate nature of eyes. Finally, on page 33, he says his grandfather’s “eyes seemed to follow everywhere I went.”
Other patterns I noticed where darkness, juxtaposed opposites or oxymorons, boomerangs, dancing, and obviously invisibility.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
A Divine Image
A Divine Image
By: William Blake
In his beautifully written poem, Blake pokes fun at the supposed “divine image of human beings.” According to the Bible, God made humans in his image. However, Blake calls the “human heart” cruel and “the human face” jealous. Furthermore, his ample use of fiery imagery suggests that humans appear more like the devil than God. This message is both an insult to God and to humans for their horrid qualities. The following are some literary devices I noticed in the poem.
Anaphora: In the second stanza, Blake begins each line with “The Human,” emphasizing the imperfect rather than “divine” qualities of humanity.
Antistrophe: Each line in the first stanza ends with a reference to “the Human” or “a Human” for a similar reason as above.
Personification: Cruelty, Jealousy, Terror, and Secrecy are all personified in the poem in order to underscore their domination of the human psyche and the problems with human nature.
Alliteration: The speaker references the “fiery Forge” and later uses alliteration by juxtaposing “Face” and “Furnace” as well as “Heart” and “Hungry.”
Homonyms: Many words throughout the poem have various meanings, many of which would fit in the context of the poem. Thus, there are a variety of ways to interpret the meaning of some lines, making areas of the poem very ambiguous. Some homonyms are forged, forge, and gorge.
Connotation: In order to understand Blake’s attack on human nature, people must contemplate the various connotations of “heart,” “Face,” “Form,” “Divine,” and “Dress.” For example, the heart symbolizes love, life, emotions morals, and the core of the human body while divine could reference the heavenly, celestial or the lovely and the excellent. Face could also refer to a façade, a physical appearance, or the five senses.
Irony: The title is ironic because it suggests that humans are in fact made in the image of God, while the body of the poem highlights human corruption. Thus, Blake uses verbal irony to say something he doesn’t truly mean.
Apocope: Blake emits the “e” in “seal’d” probably to reduce the length of the line.
Some notes on structure: The first and third line in the first stanza begin with a dactylic followed by three trochaics and finished by an elision of the unstressed vowel in the final trochaic. The second and the fourth line in the same stanza are similar except their lone, unstressed vowel occurs at the beginning, not the end of the line. All lines in the second stanza are iambic tetrameter, except for the first line which is iambic trimeter followed by a trochee.
Some structural questions:
1. Why would Blake offset the first line in the second stanza with structural oddities?
2. Why do the second and fourth lines of the second stanza rhyme whereas no other lines in the poem rhyme?
3. Why does Blake employ such a structured format? Does it illuminate his purpose in writing the poem?
These are some things I noticed while mapping the poem. If you notice anything else or can answer some of these questions, please say something.
By: William Blake
In his beautifully written poem, Blake pokes fun at the supposed “divine image of human beings.” According to the Bible, God made humans in his image. However, Blake calls the “human heart” cruel and “the human face” jealous. Furthermore, his ample use of fiery imagery suggests that humans appear more like the devil than God. This message is both an insult to God and to humans for their horrid qualities. The following are some literary devices I noticed in the poem.
Anaphora: In the second stanza, Blake begins each line with “The Human,” emphasizing the imperfect rather than “divine” qualities of humanity.
Antistrophe: Each line in the first stanza ends with a reference to “the Human” or “a Human” for a similar reason as above.
Personification: Cruelty, Jealousy, Terror, and Secrecy are all personified in the poem in order to underscore their domination of the human psyche and the problems with human nature.
Alliteration: The speaker references the “fiery Forge” and later uses alliteration by juxtaposing “Face” and “Furnace” as well as “Heart” and “Hungry.”
Homonyms: Many words throughout the poem have various meanings, many of which would fit in the context of the poem. Thus, there are a variety of ways to interpret the meaning of some lines, making areas of the poem very ambiguous. Some homonyms are forged, forge, and gorge.
Connotation: In order to understand Blake’s attack on human nature, people must contemplate the various connotations of “heart,” “Face,” “Form,” “Divine,” and “Dress.” For example, the heart symbolizes love, life, emotions morals, and the core of the human body while divine could reference the heavenly, celestial or the lovely and the excellent. Face could also refer to a façade, a physical appearance, or the five senses.
Irony: The title is ironic because it suggests that humans are in fact made in the image of God, while the body of the poem highlights human corruption. Thus, Blake uses verbal irony to say something he doesn’t truly mean.
Apocope: Blake emits the “e” in “seal’d” probably to reduce the length of the line.
Some notes on structure: The first and third line in the first stanza begin with a dactylic followed by three trochaics and finished by an elision of the unstressed vowel in the final trochaic. The second and the fourth line in the same stanza are similar except their lone, unstressed vowel occurs at the beginning, not the end of the line. All lines in the second stanza are iambic tetrameter, except for the first line which is iambic trimeter followed by a trochee.
Some structural questions:
1. Why would Blake offset the first line in the second stanza with structural oddities?
2. Why do the second and fourth lines of the second stanza rhyme whereas no other lines in the poem rhyme?
3. Why does Blake employ such a structured format? Does it illuminate his purpose in writing the poem?
These are some things I noticed while mapping the poem. If you notice anything else or can answer some of these questions, please say something.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Sylvia Plath's Morning Song
I chose Sylvia Plath’s “Morning Song” for my first poem in the poetry journal. It is an incredibly interesting, seemingly simple, but actually highly complex poem that centers around the birth of an infant and the relationship between that infant and his mother.
The first stanza:
Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
Took its place among the elements.
In this first stanza, Plath personifies life in order to depict the creation of this child. I think it is interesting that the creation of the child is compared to a “fat gold watch.” A gold watch is obviously very valuable, so it would appear that the creation of the child is a prized, memorable moment. At the same time, a watch is a simple, material object, thus how could it be compared to something so precious as a child’s birth? This discrepancy requires further analysis to sort out. Furthermore, the image of the watch similarly evokes the image of time. With time in the picture, it is almost as if, when the baby was born, the clock started clicking, and she started losing life immediately. In a less grim picture, you can view the image of time as a symbol of how much life the baby has yet to live.
Continuing into the second stanza:
Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.
In a drafty museum, your nakedness
Shadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.
This stanza attempts to depict human awe at the birth of the child; however, the imagery creates a very cold, unwelcoming mood. The baby is compared to a “new statue,” something to be put onto display and admired. Yet, when you think about it, statues have no human qualities. They are forced to be perfect, given no chance to experience mistakes, emotion, or change. They are also constantly on display for anyone to critique. It appears that Plath is insinuating that the baby will live his/her life under the critical eye of the world, constantly subject to nit-picking and insults. The idea that the baby’s new home is a “drafty museum,” furthers the idea that those around the statue baby are cold, heartless people. I have difficulty comprehending, “your nakedness/ shadows our safety.” Does shadow mean to cover-up or to mimic? Also, safety in what? Maybe safety in normalcy?
Stanza 3:
I'm no more your mother
Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow
Effacement at the wind's hand.
This stanza continues to evoke a very distressing tone. Plath paints a very ephemeral image, a cloud being pushed away by the wind, as if the relationship between the mother and her child is constantly growing more distant.
Stanza 4/5:
All night your moth-breath
Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:
A far sea moves in my ear.
One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral
In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat's. The window square
For me, the mood changes dramatically in these stanzas. The speaker, instead of feeling distant from the child, now appears to be connected with it. Although, the child’s cry, when compared to a “far sea,” does appear very distant. Plath depicts a mother, laden with milk in her breast (“cow-heavy”) caring for her distressed child in the early hours of the morning. Presumably, it is this child’s cry that is the morning song.
Stanza 6:
Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try
Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons.
It’s interesting that the only time Plath splits a sentence between two stanzas is between stanzas 5 and 6, although I am not sure the purpose of this enjambment. Here, Plath describes the sun awakening (“The window square/ Whitens and swallows its dull stars”). She describes the breaking of the dawn from the perspective of the child’s room, making the world seem incredibly small.
On a final note, I am still struggling with defining the purpose of the poem. What is Plath really trying to say? To me, it seems like a bitter-sweet message, for she describes some very sentimental moments between a mother and child, but at the same time, she sees a grim future for the child. It almost seems like a comparison between innocence and experience, as in Blake’s poetry.
The first stanza:
Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
Took its place among the elements.
In this first stanza, Plath personifies life in order to depict the creation of this child. I think it is interesting that the creation of the child is compared to a “fat gold watch.” A gold watch is obviously very valuable, so it would appear that the creation of the child is a prized, memorable moment. At the same time, a watch is a simple, material object, thus how could it be compared to something so precious as a child’s birth? This discrepancy requires further analysis to sort out. Furthermore, the image of the watch similarly evokes the image of time. With time in the picture, it is almost as if, when the baby was born, the clock started clicking, and she started losing life immediately. In a less grim picture, you can view the image of time as a symbol of how much life the baby has yet to live.
Continuing into the second stanza:
Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.
In a drafty museum, your nakedness
Shadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.
This stanza attempts to depict human awe at the birth of the child; however, the imagery creates a very cold, unwelcoming mood. The baby is compared to a “new statue,” something to be put onto display and admired. Yet, when you think about it, statues have no human qualities. They are forced to be perfect, given no chance to experience mistakes, emotion, or change. They are also constantly on display for anyone to critique. It appears that Plath is insinuating that the baby will live his/her life under the critical eye of the world, constantly subject to nit-picking and insults. The idea that the baby’s new home is a “drafty museum,” furthers the idea that those around the statue baby are cold, heartless people. I have difficulty comprehending, “your nakedness/ shadows our safety.” Does shadow mean to cover-up or to mimic? Also, safety in what? Maybe safety in normalcy?
Stanza 3:
I'm no more your mother
Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow
Effacement at the wind's hand.
This stanza continues to evoke a very distressing tone. Plath paints a very ephemeral image, a cloud being pushed away by the wind, as if the relationship between the mother and her child is constantly growing more distant.
Stanza 4/5:
All night your moth-breath
Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:
A far sea moves in my ear.
One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral
In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat's. The window square
For me, the mood changes dramatically in these stanzas. The speaker, instead of feeling distant from the child, now appears to be connected with it. Although, the child’s cry, when compared to a “far sea,” does appear very distant. Plath depicts a mother, laden with milk in her breast (“cow-heavy”) caring for her distressed child in the early hours of the morning. Presumably, it is this child’s cry that is the morning song.
Stanza 6:
Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try
Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons.
It’s interesting that the only time Plath splits a sentence between two stanzas is between stanzas 5 and 6, although I am not sure the purpose of this enjambment. Here, Plath describes the sun awakening (“The window square/ Whitens and swallows its dull stars”). She describes the breaking of the dawn from the perspective of the child’s room, making the world seem incredibly small.
On a final note, I am still struggling with defining the purpose of the poem. What is Plath really trying to say? To me, it seems like a bitter-sweet message, for she describes some very sentimental moments between a mother and child, but at the same time, she sees a grim future for the child. It almost seems like a comparison between innocence and experience, as in Blake’s poetry.
Monday, January 10, 2011
AP Lit Resolutions
So begins another semester in AP Lit, and the class is already in full swing! With a final quote journal for Frankenstein, another poetry journal, an allusion project, and two books on file due, there is no shortage of work to do in AP Lit, but it is definitely not unmanageable. A new semester means better organization and more preparation, or at least that's what we can tell ourselves, and I am going to try my best to follow my new AP Lit Resolutions in order to happily accomplish my assignments painlessly and punctually.
1. One poem a week, with two weeks to do my own personal poem. (I mostly did this last semester, though I did have to finished two poems on the last weekend, and even that was a little much.) If I follow this schedule for the poetry journal, I will finish it before my birthday (March 28 if anyone cares ) and before spring break (because no offense to the poets, but I'd rather not read poetry while on the beach, no matter how handsome the poet). I have even picked out for of the poems I will due and their accompanying critical articles: Morning Song by Sylvia Plath, A Drop fell on the Apple Tree by Emily Dickinson, A Divine Image by William Blake, and Morning at the Window by T.S. Eliot. I am attempting not to show favoritism towards modernist poets, but I may be miserably failing. Please let me know. If it helps any, I plan on choosing a romantic poem for my last one.
2. Blog every week. I pretty much did that last semester, except for the last blog, I sort of lost my motivation there. Don't worry, though, I put my senioritis on the back burner considering my New Years Resolution is to graduate...
3. As I explained in #1, don't wait to do anything until the last minute. I have already picked out my critical articles for the Books on File and started my research for the allusion project. Doing a little work everyday means a lot less AP Lit-induced stress, which may be more difficult to deal with when senioritis takes control of me.
4. Read all the books, which, for the record, I have always done. (Except I never finished Peace like a River, please don’t tell on me.) This is something that I would like to continue doing, not start doing.
5. Keep working hard on analysis, especially on time writings. I really want to get a “9” one day, if that is even possible. I will continue to work hard on my analyzing skills and attempt to improve my style in time writings, which occasionally falls apart when I am a little rushed.
I figure if I can follow all of these rules, I will do well in my 2nd semester of AP Lit, and not turn into one of Mrs. Clinch’s horror stories. Then, I can fulfill my New Year’s Resolution and Mrs. Clinch can happily watch us graduate.
1. One poem a week, with two weeks to do my own personal poem. (I mostly did this last semester, though I did have to finished two poems on the last weekend, and even that was a little much.) If I follow this schedule for the poetry journal, I will finish it before my birthday (March 28 if anyone cares ) and before spring break (because no offense to the poets, but I'd rather not read poetry while on the beach, no matter how handsome the poet). I have even picked out for of the poems I will due and their accompanying critical articles: Morning Song by Sylvia Plath, A Drop fell on the Apple Tree by Emily Dickinson, A Divine Image by William Blake, and Morning at the Window by T.S. Eliot. I am attempting not to show favoritism towards modernist poets, but I may be miserably failing. Please let me know. If it helps any, I plan on choosing a romantic poem for my last one.
2. Blog every week. I pretty much did that last semester, except for the last blog, I sort of lost my motivation there. Don't worry, though, I put my senioritis on the back burner considering my New Years Resolution is to graduate...
3. As I explained in #1, don't wait to do anything until the last minute. I have already picked out my critical articles for the Books on File and started my research for the allusion project. Doing a little work everyday means a lot less AP Lit-induced stress, which may be more difficult to deal with when senioritis takes control of me.
4. Read all the books, which, for the record, I have always done. (Except I never finished Peace like a River, please don’t tell on me.) This is something that I would like to continue doing, not start doing.
5. Keep working hard on analysis, especially on time writings. I really want to get a “9” one day, if that is even possible. I will continue to work hard on my analyzing skills and attempt to improve my style in time writings, which occasionally falls apart when I am a little rushed.
I figure if I can follow all of these rules, I will do well in my 2nd semester of AP Lit, and not turn into one of Mrs. Clinch’s horror stories. Then, I can fulfill my New Year’s Resolution and Mrs. Clinch can happily watch us graduate.
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