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.