Death of a Salesman/ Last Blog Ever

Well the year is finally coming to a close for real now ad this is the last blog I'm required to do.  Last week was spent watching movies such as Death of a Salesman and The Importance of Being Earnest while our teacher was convalescing. I spoke about Earnest last week and how it rose above my expectations and that i actually found it rather humorous but i want to elaborate a bit more on it.  What i was most surprised about this movie was the fact that it seemed so modern.  You never would have guessed that it was written by the same guy that wrote The picture of Dorian Gray in the 1800s. The humor is modern and seems slightly dirty for someone from that era and it was the polar opposite of the tone of Dorian Gray, Wilde's other book.  You wouldn't believe the same person even wrote it if you didn't already know that he did.

The other movie we watched, Death of a salesman, was also very good if a bit depressing.  This was not the fault of the Movie producers or actors however as it is a slightly down play.  Willie was played very well and the writers did a very good job of portraying his insanity to the viewer's by having asides with characters that aren't there and flashbacks of events that didn't happen with him and his boys.  The play shows the slow decay of willie and how biff and the other family members do a poor job of helping him cope with it.  He is slightly unreasonable however as he yells at his wife unnecessarily and gets unreasonably mad at his sons and other people around him.  The play essentially shows the death of a salesman since willie is no longer capable of being a good salesman and traveling around so his employer has no choice but to fire him. 

Its been a good year and a good four years in high school but its time to move on to bigger and better things as i move forward into college and beyond.  All the books i read in this class and the essays i wrote will help me succeed in the future in english classes and hopefully in the rest of my life.

Reflections

Well the year is coming to an end.  We have taken the AP exam and it is smooth sailing from here on in with only the last lecture project and the final left till we are done.  It has been a good year and i have read some very enlightening books that i would not have read otherwise.  In this hopefully but probably not, final blog i have decided to reflect on some of the more recent occurrences in the class starting with the most important and most stressful one, the AP exam.  I don't think you are supposed to talk about the multiple choice due to the highly classified and potentially dangerous nature of these question so ill just stick to the free response. 

The first two questions were, in my opinion, rather easy.  They were both also almost exactly the same as they both said to analyze the complex relationship between the husband and wife.  Neither of these two couples had particularly positive relationships especially the couple in the second essay since the wife said she wouldn't have married him if she had known how he was going to act.  However they would also sometimes seem like they were getting along when they would reconcile with each other and would be all nice.  All in all i think i performed pretty well on those two essays but i occasionally had trouble relating the examples and individual ideas back to the overall main idea of the piece.

The open question on the other hand was a different story.  I knew what i wanted to write about i just had trouble remembering the details of the work that I chose, The Stranger, relating it all back to the theme of the work.  I chose to write about this book because Mersault has to face justice and deal with it in his own mind.  He has to justify what he did in his mind so that he can find peace and go to his death without feeling guilty about something.  In order to do this he takes the existentialist view that you must take responsibility for your own actions and accept the consequences since it is your fault that you did the thing in the first place.  Mersault does take responsibility and accepts the fact that he is going to have to die for what he did.  He then goes to the guillotine with his head held high and without a feeling of guilt.  We also watched the play The Importance of Being Earnest in class today that i thought was surprisingly funny and very interesting.

Tarruffe

In preparation for the upcoming AP exam we have been reviewing books that we read earlier in the year as well as in past years.  We read many interesting novels and plays and in order to better prepare myself I have decided to blog about one that I haven’t had much time to talk about or discuss with my fellow classmates.  I am going to talk about Tartuffe because I found it slightly confusing however it seems to be apt in response to many of the open ended questions we have been going over in class. 

Tartuffe is a satire criticizing many things like wealthy aristocrats like Tartuffe himself.  He is portrayed as a good person by the not so bright people in the play however at the end you realize that he is really not nice at all.  This play also satirizes stupidity through people like Orgon and Damis.  These people are rash and gullible and tend to ruin all of the plans that the other more guileful characters hatch up.  An example of this is when Damis is hiding underneath the table and overhears the flirtation between Elmire and Tartuffe.  Elmire wants to keep it a secret and not make a big deal out of it because she believes it is not worth troubling her husband with it since she doesn’t go along with the flirtation just tries to get rid of him.  Damis doesn’t seem to understand this however as he isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed and he decides to run off and tell Elmires husband.  This then proceeds to start the fracas that elmire wanted to avoid by not telling her husband in the first place.

All of this contributes to a theme of the play that you should be careful around people who aren’t very smart because they could get you in trouble.  They all don’t understand this and end up almost being forced to be acquainted with and practically controlled by Tartuffe at the end of the play.  This play also works in another interesting element where he attempts to flatter the king.  At the end of the novel when Tartuffe is about to take over everything and get away with his evil deeds an official of the king swoops in and saves the day, acting on the kings orders of course.  Not only does he stop Tartuffe but he also, being the kind and gracious king that he is decides to pardon orgon for the things that he did that were technically treason even though they were acting for the good King. 

The open ended question is one of the more difficult ones due to the broad nature or it however a believe that I am now all the more prepared after discussing this Play with myself.

Reminiscing on Dorian Gray

The AP exam is quickly approaching and in order to prepare for the open ended question i have been reveiwing a number of novels from earlier in the year.  One novel that i was reviewing that i enjoyed and wanted to look into in more depth was The Picture of Dorian Gray. There are many aspects of the novel that make it the literary classic that it is including the setting, tone and allusion.

The Picture of Dorian Gray was a dreary book about society in London in the nineteen hundreds and how it corrupts mankind.  The setting of the novel does an excellent job of portraying the book's meaning as it is set in rainy, dreary London and many of the most important actions take place at night. This book takes place in the 19th century and is mostly centered on the upper class and nobility. It covers a period of years as there is enough time for people like Basil Hallward to notice that he is not aging at a natural rate. The setting is important to this novel because the climate in London is typically seen as dreary which fits the novel quite well. This time period also fits the novel very well as it is very mysterious to the reader. The fact that it is primarily in the upper class of society also plays an important role in the novel as most of the characters are seen as sophisticated.  

The tone of the novel is also bleak as there are not any happy moments in the novel which gives it a dreadfully negative tone.  The atmosphere relates closely to the setting and the tone as they are very similar since they are both dull and grim.  As I stated earlier I believe that Wilde’s purpose in this book is to show how society in London corrupts man and all of the devices he uses help to support this tremendously.  I thought the book was rather dull however i do believe that it had literary merit as it contained many intricate allusions and motifs throughout the novel.

One such allusion was the allusion to Adam and Eve in the beginning of the novel.  This allusion occured when Dorian and lord Henry were talking in the Garden.  The scene takes place in a garden, like the story of Adam and Eve and it invlolves corruption.  It is at this point in the novel that Dorian makes the change from innocent, young man towhat will become one of the most corrupted characters in all of literature.  After speaking to Lord Henry, the metaphorical serpent, there was a new light in his eyes and when he went back to sit for Basil he was a changed man, eternally corrupted.

Literary Criticism

Last week in class we learned about the different literary criticism techniques.  An example of one of these literary criticisms is a gender role criticism.  The play "A Doll House" can be viewed in a gender role lens very easily.  Some of the characters in "A Doll House" have gender roles that are opposite those accepted by the society at the time that the play was written.  During the time period that this play was written the society was very male dominant and the man of the house was also supposed to be the breadwinner.  In this family however the gender roles are reversed and when Torvold cant bring in enough money to support his family Nora has to take out that loan to keep the family going.  The fact that she does this in secret and doesn't even tell her husband about it shows the extent to which he would be shamed if he or anyone else found out about the loan.  She could also be seen as the controlling presence in the house.  This is completely contrasting to the gender roles accepted by the society of the time.  The wife is supposed to be obedient and do what the husband says.  Their view of women is a very stereotypical view where the woman stays home and cooks and cleans and is obedient.  This is not the case in this family however.  Nora gets what she wants every time.  She manipulates Torvald into doing whatever it she wants or getting whatever she wants.  She then uses this power, which going by society she shouldn't have, to help cover up the loan that she took out that would be severely frowned upon by the entire society.

Gender role criticism doesn't always have to be contradicting the social norms of the time however.  A book can have all of the gender roles fit right in where they are supposed to fit and then they aren't really criticizing anything.  In "A Doll House"  the author is criticizing the male dominance of society and the lack of freedom that women have to make decisions for themselves in the time period that this play takes place.  Another example of a book I read this year that can be viewed under the gender role lens is The Sun also Rises by Ernest Hemingway.  In this book the female characters are very powerful and seem to have dominance over the male characters in a society where men have all of the power.

HOD

Since my last post we have done very little other than discuss Heart of Darkness in class and most of my time out of class has been spent annotating the book and touching up on my note card activity.  Since it is all we have been doing i think it is appropriate for me to devote this post to HOD.  The topic for my envelope activity is savagery and primitive behavior.  This book is full of examples of both of these especially since it is located in a place where most of the people are considered savage and all of their behavior is considered primitive by the more "advanced" Europeans of the novel.  One prime example of some savages are the cannibals that Marlow works with on the ship.  He describes them as being inherently savage but having some degree of restraint.  He says, "Restraint! What possible restraint? Was it superstition, disgust, patience, fear-or some kind of primitive honour?"(II, 14).   He doesn't know what it is that is holding these savages back from being savage and eating him and all of his men since the Europeans are severely out-numbered and the cannibals have to be getting hungry.  It is also ironic that the cannibals are starting to go hungry due to the fact that the white men threw away all of their hippo meat yet they still don't eat the men, even though it is their fault that they now have no food.  He also queries that it could be some kind of honour that is holding them back from eating the white men, but not just honour, some "primitive" honour.  The savages are not capable of following honour of the European standards, they are only capable of primitive honour, and only enough of that to not eat the men that they are working with.

There are also many images in the book of the men in the steam boat just floating by wild savages and seeming completely removed from them.  Sure they are as repulsed as anyone would be in the face of such utterly primitive behavior but the just float by like a phantom that isn't disturbed by and doesn't disturb its surroundings.  Marlow describes it as "feet stamping", "eyes rolling", and "hands clapping"(7).  These natives are not capable of comprehensible communication and just yell and scream.  Marlow then states, "we were cut off from the comprehension of our surroundings; we glided past like phantoms"(7), illustrating how they are not effected by the savagery around them, they are unconnected.

Research Paper

Unfortunately I can not write about my feelings on the research paper as I have only gotten to the outline but I can give some feedback about what I have done thus far.  In my opinion limiting the paper to a book that we have read in high school greatly limits the our capacity to be creative.  It is reasonable to limit us to a book that we have read in the past so that we have a deeper understanding of the plot and characters and can focus on more complex aspects of the book but I don't think it should be limited to something we have read in school.  Most of the books we read come out of a relatively strict school approved literary canon.  I have read many books outside of school that have literary merit but may not be a book that a teacher would pick to read in class since they can only fit a limited amount of books into the school year.  Allowing the students to pick any book they have read, with approval from the teacher of course, would broaden the range of books that would be chosen and would have the double accomplishment of allowing the students to write a paper they might have enjoyed more than, say, Heart of Darkness, or One flew over The Cuckoos Nest.  Other than that it is fine and I cant really criticize the time lines since mine aren't the same as anyone else's.

Well that's all i can really say about the research paper so now Ill move on and talk a little about HOD.  In class today we talked about the part in part 1, paragraph 69, about work.  He says, "I don't like work- no man does- but i like what is in the work- the chance to find yourself." (Conrad 97). In class we talked about this quote and I find it very true.  Nobody enjoys working, or at least the working itself.  What you enjoy is the challenge or finding out that you have the ability to do something you didn't know you could do.  In my opinion work that is physically demanding is very satisfying.  Something that requires me to lift stuff or hit stuff like splitting wood or mowing the lawn is at least as enjoyable as work can be. It allows you to push your body to the limit and find yourself.  It is, like Marlow says, "for yourself", It isn't for anyone else, other people may see you working but only you know what it really means to you.

Heart of Darkness

I have to admit I was skeptical about this book at first and not only due to the none too cheery title.  The fact that one of the smarter people in our class expressed his dislike for this book left little hope for me.  However I was surprised in many ways by the novel.  Contrary to my expectations it did not drudge along lingering on every little detail and talking about all of the narrators feelings and thoughts.  That isn't to say that Conrad doesn't delve into many of the more interesting aspects of the human soul and mind.  The title "Heart of Darkness" refers not only to the heart of darkness in the Congo that Marlow and his crew are venturing deeper and deeper into but also the figurative hearts of darkness in the characters of the novel.  It is foreshadowed that one of the characters is going to resort to some kind of brutal savagery at some point in the novel.  In a place like this it would be surprising if someone didn't.  Everything seems decayed and dying from the old railway car that looked, " as dead as the carcass of some animal" to the people that are hiding underneath the trees that are in all forms of pain and look like they could drop dead at any second.

In class we are doing an activity called the envelope activity.  The Motif that i am supposed to be researching is Savagery or primitive behavior.  This novel is full of both of these especially since it is based in the primitive Congo where all of the people are primitive in the European view of the word.  One prime example i found of primitive behavior is when Marlow and the steamboat float by the village of natives.  These people all start to jump around and yell n languages nobody understands and in other words act like primitive people and in the eyes of the Europeans of the day, including the people on the steamboat, like savages.  Not only are the black natives in the Congo viewed as savages but they are treated savagely by the Europeans.  They are put in chains and driven like animals to do the will of the Europeans at the trading post.  They are often not even doing work that really needs to be done an example of this is the huge, pointless, artificial pit that the white people made them build just to keep them busy.  Even when the slaves have been worked to the point that they can no longer work they do not get any respite.  They are thrown aside to the sweltering heat of the trees where they are left to die of starvation or by one of the many wounds that they endure during their labor.

The Guest featuring an extended metaphor

The Guest by Camu is a prime example of existentialism. It presents many of the ideals of existentialists as well as many of the delimas that they face in their lives such as the decisions that they are going to make.  The decision that they ultimately choose is extremely important to the existentialists because they believe that you are essentially defined by the decisions that you make.  In The Guest Daru is faced with the decision of whether to allow the prisoner to escape or to do his duty to the Revolution and turn him over to the authorities. Without a higher power or moral beleif system to help him make this decision he is basically just doing what feels right and going with the flow.  He isnt writing these lyrics down ahead of time, hes freestyling it up, straight up going with the flow.  Hes no traditional singer that has the traditional systems to follow and the lyrics written down ahead of time by some other person.  He makes this decision by himself and it therefore shapes him and he is responsible for the consequences of this decision whatever it may be.  He decided to give the prisoner the chance to walk away and go free because this is what he feels is morally right in his mind, he would have had to face the consequences and take responsibilty for his actions to the other members of the french force but the prisoner follows this very existentialist rule and takes responsibility for his choice to kill his comrade and decides to go to prison.

Daru rejected the mens rule of law because the existentialists have their own morals which they decide themselves.  The actions that he took towards the prisoner, feeding him, unbinding him, and eventually letting him go free, define Daru as a morally honarable person in his mind and therefore he is honorable.

Extistentialism

In class this past week we learned about existentialism while at the same time reading The Stranger by Albert Camus outside of class.  One of the basic elements of existentialism is that you are created by the actions that you take or that the human essence is determined by your life choices.  This is shown in many ways in The Stranger as Meursalt's being and personality are essentially created by the ways that he acts.  How he acts is also very extistentialist.  He does things not because they are morally acceptable or expected by society but because they are something that he wants to do or something that he believes is right or honorable.  When he is attending his mothers funeral he goes against all of the common or expected social responses by not showing external grief and large amounts of respect for his deceased parent.  He smokes at her dead bodies side, drinks coffee with the caretaker, and doesn't cry or show any typical external signs of grief.

In class we also read The Guest which is by Camu as well and is an exceptional example of the existentialist values.  At the end of the story when he gives the prisoner a choice it may seem as if he is dodging the main belief of the existentialists and in their eyes becoming a coward by not making a decisive choice and just passing it along to the prisoner so that he can make the choice, but I believe that he did in fact make a choice.  By Giving the prisoner the option of either walking by himself all the way to prison or going free with money and supplies he did make a decision.  Anyone would believe that if given the choice of going free or going to prison one would choose going free.  This is a reasonable assumption that i believe the teacher made, he gave him the choice simply to make it so he partially followed his part of the bargain and to make it right in his mind which, to an an existentialist, is all that matters.  The fact that The prisoner decided to go to prison instead of taking the easy way out and going to freedom is a very existentialist idea as well.  The believe that as you are defined by your actions you should also take responsibility for them as well.  This man killed another man and in an existentialists mind the only thing that can be done is for him to take full responsibility for his actions.

King Lear and Tragedy

A tragedy has many components almost all of which are present in King Lear. There is a protagonist, Lear, that you can relate to on some level, since all he wants is the love of his daughters and to be able to retire to a life of peace.  Lear has a tragic flaw however in that he is too trusting of his daughters and that he at one point goes quite insane.  His doling out of his empire to his three daughters is a horrible idea but he could not have foreseen the consequences.  How was he supposed to know that two of his daughters would turn on him and conspire to kill him and that he would end up banishing the only daughter that truly loved him?  This did however occur and it led to his tragic downfall.  from the moment that he split up his kingdom to his two daughters they began to plot against him and therefore he indirectly, by giving the kingdom to Regan and Goneril, led to the loss of his sanity and eventually, his own death.

There was another parallel tragedy inside of this already tragic story.  The story of Gloucester and his two sons, Edgar the legitimate one and Edmund the illegitimate one was a tragedy in itself.  The fact that Gloucester and the rest of the noble class believed that it was Edgar that wanted to kill his father instead of Edmund who actually wished the demise of his half-father was as tragic as it was ironic.  Gloucester Banished Edgar and sent out a warrant for his arrest even though it was Edmund that wanted to kill him.  Edgar, the son whose head Gloucester had put put a warrant for ended up saving his life more than once, caring for him after his eyes were gouged out by Cornwall as well as keeping him from committing suicide by jumping off the cliff.  Gloucester's story was tragic to the bitter end when his heart finally broke from being overwhelmed by the fact that it was in fact Edgar who was taking care of him and that Edmund actually wanted him dead.

This play was also tragic just in the fact that such a vast majority of the characters died at the end of the play.  Not only did they die but many of them died from things such as broken hearts or by committing suicide, or even attempting to commit suicide and then later dying from a heart that couldn't handle all the grief of life in the case of Gloucester.  It was a prime example of a tragedy and there really isn't any way it could have been more tragic unless the few main characters that remained at the end of the play had also died.