In his own unique, roundabout way, Vonnegut utilizes this novel to criticize the human tendency toward conflict and denounce mankind's arrogance in its ability to comprehend the universe around it. The most glaring assault on human conflict comes at the beginning of the fourth chapter when Billy "came slightly unstuck in time" and "saw the late movie backwards, then forwards again," (Vonnegut 73). This film Billy watched was about "American bombers in the Second World War", describing the consequences of their actions both in reverse and in normal chronological order. Going in reverse, the planes seemed to be miraculous machines of healing to the environments around them: they repaired bullet holes, sucked in shrapnel, and absorbed explosions of metal into small metallic canisters. However, going forward, the planes destroyed everything around them, becoming beacons of death, destruction, and terror. This shows symbolically how mankind's petty conflicts can cause so much pain in the world and how humanity must change its violent ways. Insight into the way humans view the world comes from Billy's time on Tralfamadore. The Tralfamadorians supposedly can see in the fourth dimension, observing how all things are interconnected in the past, present, and future. They see all life as existing in a pure state of being rather than gauging it with terms relative to the passage of time. This perspective, obviously, humans are incapable of, which is why the Tralfamadorians label them "the great explainers", always trying to explain why things happen the way they do rather than marveling at the beauty of how all things are, have, and will always be intertwined (Vonnegut 85). Billy appears to accept and want to fix this conclusion about his race.
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Thursday, March 28, 2013
A Vicious Cycle
"Acquainted with the Night" by Robert Frost
As a huge Frost fan, this poem interested me the most out of the six we studied this week. It appeals, in a sympathetic way, to those people feeling depressed, forgotten, and unloved. Frost's speaker expresses extraordinary sorrow in the poem, setting a melancholy mood immediately. He repeats the phrase "I have" before listing a series of gloomy, saddening acts from walking alone in the rain to peering down an ominous city street (Frost 976). He express shame, or possibly apathy toward the world, as he describes walking past a policeman with his head hung low, "unwilling to explain" his sorrow (Frost 976). The only glimmer of hope in the poem comes when the speaker stops because he thinks he is being called. Sadly, he only heard an "interrupted cry" completely unintended for him and destroying any hope for happiness he may have had (Frost 976). Thus, the whole poem reinforces the speaker's depression, and the second to last line amplifies it by adding confusion. The line reads, "[The clock] proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right," which emphasizes a world without moral judgment, confusing the speaker and leaving him lost as to how he should break his depression (Frost 976). He can't escape his sadness. Therefore, Frost ends the poem with the same depressing line he began it with, "I have been acquainted with the night", to reinforce the speaker's entrapment in his melancholy (Frost 976).
As a huge Frost fan, this poem interested me the most out of the six we studied this week. It appeals, in a sympathetic way, to those people feeling depressed, forgotten, and unloved. Frost's speaker expresses extraordinary sorrow in the poem, setting a melancholy mood immediately. He repeats the phrase "I have" before listing a series of gloomy, saddening acts from walking alone in the rain to peering down an ominous city street (Frost 976). He express shame, or possibly apathy toward the world, as he describes walking past a policeman with his head hung low, "unwilling to explain" his sorrow (Frost 976). The only glimmer of hope in the poem comes when the speaker stops because he thinks he is being called. Sadly, he only heard an "interrupted cry" completely unintended for him and destroying any hope for happiness he may have had (Frost 976). Thus, the whole poem reinforces the speaker's depression, and the second to last line amplifies it by adding confusion. The line reads, "[The clock] proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right," which emphasizes a world without moral judgment, confusing the speaker and leaving him lost as to how he should break his depression (Frost 976). He can't escape his sadness. Therefore, Frost ends the poem with the same depressing line he began it with, "I have been acquainted with the night", to reinforce the speaker's entrapment in his melancholy (Frost 976).
Over-thinking Things
"Sorting Laundry" by Elisavietta Ritche
This poem displays how people can over-analyze a situation to the point of distorting something as pure as love into anxiety and insecurity. The speaker of the poem speaks to her absent lover, comparing doing their laundry to "folding you into my life" (Ritche 841). Her relationship with this man appears perfect and without worry. The two laugh at their tacky towels, do not mind each other's old clothes, and embrace each other's "wrinkles" or flaws (Ritche 841). However, after the seventh stanza, the speaker's insecurity starts to set in. She starts focusing on minute details in the laundry like unpaired socks and miscellaneous items she finds in pockets. This attention to minutia represents her thinking too much about her wonderful relationship and fabricating hypothetical scenarios in her head. Her anxiety peaks when she folds the shirt of one of her former lovers. The act elicits thoughts of abandonment and the speaker states, "If you were to leave me . . . a mountain of unsorted wash could not fill the empty side of the bed," (Ritche 842). She has worried to the point of transforming a wonderful relationship into one on the verge of collapse. The poem should have a wide audience as there are many people that have over-analyzed something good into a distortion of its true nature due to their insecurities.
This poem displays how people can over-analyze a situation to the point of distorting something as pure as love into anxiety and insecurity. The speaker of the poem speaks to her absent lover, comparing doing their laundry to "folding you into my life" (Ritche 841). Her relationship with this man appears perfect and without worry. The two laugh at their tacky towels, do not mind each other's old clothes, and embrace each other's "wrinkles" or flaws (Ritche 841). However, after the seventh stanza, the speaker's insecurity starts to set in. She starts focusing on minute details in the laundry like unpaired socks and miscellaneous items she finds in pockets. This attention to minutia represents her thinking too much about her wonderful relationship and fabricating hypothetical scenarios in her head. Her anxiety peaks when she folds the shirt of one of her former lovers. The act elicits thoughts of abandonment and the speaker states, "If you were to leave me . . . a mountain of unsorted wash could not fill the empty side of the bed," (Ritche 842). She has worried to the point of transforming a wonderful relationship into one on the verge of collapse. The poem should have a wide audience as there are many people that have over-analyzed something good into a distortion of its true nature due to their insecurities.
A Bold Social Attack
"The Convergence of the Twain" by Thomas Hardy
Hardy fully utilizes the Titanic tragedy to pen this poem decrying ostentation, luxury, and vanity. He writes as if displays of wealth and pretentiousness, angering God, led to the sinking of the Titanic. His speaker expresses an aversion to vanity by describing how a "sea-worm crawls - grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent" over luxuries on the ocean floor (Hardy 778). This image also serves to contrast luxurious items with something disgusting in an effort to mock the vanity they embody. Furthermore, at the beginning, middle, and end of the poem, Hardy refers to a divine "Pride of Life", "Immanent Will", and "Spinner of the Years" in relation to the boat and its superficiality (Hardy 778, 779). Specifically, he writes how this deity, God, "prepared a sinister mate . . . A Shape of Ice" for the boat, presumably due to the sinful greed on the boat (Hardy 778). He believes God set the Titanic in motion toward the iceberg so that the passengers would atone for their sins. This portrays God as vindictive and angry, but that portrayal is likely an expression of Hardy's own sentiments toward vanity. Regardless, the poem ends cleverly, lending resolution to the loneliness set out by the phrase, "In a solitude of the sea" at the start of the poem (Hardy 778). Hardy writes that once the ship and iceberg collide, "consummation comes" and ends the solitude experienced earlier (Hardy 778). Ironically however, this consummation leaves the ship in ultimate solitude at the bottom of the ocean.
Feelin' Drunk on Summertime
"I taste a liquor never brewed" by Emily Dickinson
In this poem, Dickinson incorporates one long extended metaphor to compare summer and everything related to it to alcohol. The speaker in the poem adores summer. For him, summertime is a "liquor never brewed", better than all the alcohol made in the "Vats upon the Rhine," (Dickinson 797). In order to clarify that the speaker is in fact comparing summer to the alcohol, Dickinson employs several clever titles. He writes and the speaker states that he is an "Inebriate of Air", a "Debauchee of Dew" (Dickinson 797). These titles show the speaker deriving his intoxication from aspects of summer and warm weather. Furthermore, the speaker reinforces his ecstasy over the season by expressing how even after bees and butterflies have stopped drinking in the weather, he'll continue to imbibe the essence of summer. The entire extended metaphor works perfectly except for the problem of the negative connotation associated with drunkenness and alcohol. Luckily, Dickinson rectifies this dilemma in the last stanza. By describing "Seraphs" and "Saints" enjoying and approving of a "Tippler's" intoxication with summer, Dickinson transforms inebriation's negativity into something positive (Dickinson 797). If angels and saints approve, being drunk on summer must be acceptable.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Unrealistic Standards
"Barbie Doll" by Marge Piercy
"Barbie Doll" calls to attention the astronomical expectations placed on young girls in contemporary society to be absolutely perfect physically and intellectually. The first stanza describes a young girl observing the characteristics of a doll she has been given. The doll wears "lipsticks the color of cherry candy" and keeps house with "miniature GE stoves and irons," (Piercy 835). It most likely also appears physically perfect, as the last line of the first stanza contrasts with the doll by pointing out the girl's imperfections: a big nose and fat legs. However, as the second stanza explains, the girl is absolutely wonderful; she is "healthy", "intelligent", "strong", and sexually driven. Regardless, she cannot stop thinking that whenever anyone looked at her, they only "saw a fat nose on thick legs," (Piercy 835). Despite all of her fantastic qualities, she cannot get over the insult about her physical drawbacks. Accordingly, she believes she does not fit the mold of the ideal woman. Thus, the girl struggles with relationships while people advise her to "play coy" or "come on hearty," (Piercy 836). Eventually, the girl commits suicide, symbolized in the poem by the moment she "cut off her nose and her legs," (Piercy 836). The appalling part of the poem occurs when, at the girl's funeral, all in attendance call her beautiful because of the undertaker's make-up she has on. They cannot recognize how such superficial considerations led to her death. Thus, the poem concludes bitingly that such a superficial, appearance-focused society gives "to every woman a happy ending" such as the fate this young girl suffered (Piercy 836).
"Barbie Doll" calls to attention the astronomical expectations placed on young girls in contemporary society to be absolutely perfect physically and intellectually. The first stanza describes a young girl observing the characteristics of a doll she has been given. The doll wears "lipsticks the color of cherry candy" and keeps house with "miniature GE stoves and irons," (Piercy 835). It most likely also appears physically perfect, as the last line of the first stanza contrasts with the doll by pointing out the girl's imperfections: a big nose and fat legs. However, as the second stanza explains, the girl is absolutely wonderful; she is "healthy", "intelligent", "strong", and sexually driven. Regardless, she cannot stop thinking that whenever anyone looked at her, they only "saw a fat nose on thick legs," (Piercy 835). Despite all of her fantastic qualities, she cannot get over the insult about her physical drawbacks. Accordingly, she believes she does not fit the mold of the ideal woman. Thus, the girl struggles with relationships while people advise her to "play coy" or "come on hearty," (Piercy 836). Eventually, the girl commits suicide, symbolized in the poem by the moment she "cut off her nose and her legs," (Piercy 836). The appalling part of the poem occurs when, at the girl's funeral, all in attendance call her beautiful because of the undertaker's make-up she has on. They cannot recognize how such superficial considerations led to her death. Thus, the poem concludes bitingly that such a superficial, appearance-focused society gives "to every woman a happy ending" such as the fate this young girl suffered (Piercy 836).
Smooth Talking at its Finest
"To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell
In "To His Coy Mistress" the speaker addresses his sweetheart and attempts to talk her into making love with him. He begins, in the first section, by explaining that he does not mind waiting, that her "coyness, lady, were no crime" if they had "but world enough, and time," (Marvell 803). The speaker elaborates, describing how "an hundred years should go to praise thine eyes" and "an age at least to every [other] part," (Marvell 803). All of these statements he makes assuming that he and his lover have an infinite amount of time to love each other. Moving forward, in the second section, the speaker reveals that this is certainly not so. He speaks of "time's winged chariot hurrying near" while his lady's "quaint honor turn(s) to dust", referring to the fading of youthful beauty as time passes by (Marvell 804). The speaker aims to make his love aware of the quick passage of time and how limited the time they have together is. Making this point, the speaker moves toward his overall goal, sex, in the third section. Incorporating simile, he urges that he and his mistress must "love like amorous birds of prey" before they lose "the youthful hue" they now possess (Marvell 804). He argues that they should make love now before the passage of time steals the gift of youth away from them. He reinforces his argument for passion now by saying, "though we cannot make our sun stand still . . . we will make him run," (Marvell 804). In other words, the two cannot stop the passage of time, but they can acknowledge it and act accordingly, which, the speaker argues, involves making love now.
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