Blog #18: Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay, Final Draft

Blog #17: Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay, Draft 1

In Zora Neal Hurston’s frame narrative Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston tells the coming-of-age story of Janie as she experiences failures in seeking true love due to falling victim to oppression and male dominance in her first two marriages, and ultimately realizing the futility in trying to find love in a man through coming to terms with the importance of self-love and having the strength to live alone contently. Ironically, Janie’s pivotal moment in which she finds the will to be a strong and independent woman is after the death of her husband Joe Starks; though she does not yet attain her dream of true love with Tea Cake, she is freed from coercion from men and finds autonomy as an individual.

Joe’s death and Janie’s experience of widowhood prompt her own discovery of power and independence as a woman. It is evident that Janie’s beauty represents a certain kind of power that Joe feels threatened by, which justifies his reason behind insisting that Janie hide her beautiful hair. The Caucasian quality of Janie’s hair also adds the power that it possesses. Because Joe sought a life of excess and wealth that would be comparable to a white man, Janie’s hair reinforces his racial insecurity, as other men also seem drawn to the power of its allure. Hurston conveys Janie’s liberation after Joe’s death as “she [Janie] tore off the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair. The weight, the length the glory was there” (Hurston, 87). Janie recognizes that she is no longer a “young girl”, but she realizes that she has transformed into a “handsome woman”. The image of a “handsome woman” is eloquent and mature, which contrasts the pretty and innocence girl that is longer a part of Janie. Notably, the word “handsome” also connotes an appearance that demonstrates strength, enhancing Janie’s transition.

The discovery of self-esteem in being a woman is crucial for Janie’s maturity and self-empowerment. Her discovery of the significance of womanhood opposes Nanny’s view; she reveals her hatred towards her grandmother’s pessimistic influence towards her perception of love. The dream that Janie chases is embodied by the image of the horizon, Nanny taints that image as Hurston describes, “Here Nanny had taken the biggest thing God ever made, the horizon…and pinched it in to such a little bit of a thing that she could tie it about her granddaughter’s neck tight enough to choke her” (Hurston, 89). Janie resents her Nanny’s distorted outlook on the purpose of marriage and love because Nanny only viewed marriage to be a form of security for women; she states, “de [black] woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see”. Nanny believes that finding a man with security that can support a woman is the most optimal solution and the only purpose of marriage. As Janie finds the muscle in the beauty of womanhood, she realizes that she detests Joe and Nanny’s traditional view that the role of the wife is confined to being an object of display, a position under the husband. Joe tells Janie, “A pretty doll-baby lak you is made to sit on de front porch and rock and fan yo’self and eat p’taters dat other folks plant just special for you” (Hurston, 29). After experiencing the failure of her marriage with Joe, however, Janie alters her hopes in what the horizon can offer her.

Janie’s realization of the value of freedom in womanhood over all else leads her to discover a simple, yet fulfilling life on the muck with Tea Cake. She is free to leave her hair down, wear overalls, and speak her mind in the Everglades; she pities her friends in Eatonville and recognizes her liberation, stating that “Only here, she could listen and laugh and even talk some herself if she wanted to” (Hurston, 134). Her discovery of womanly freedom proves to be pivotal in that it evidently allows her to experience self-actualization through the means of a true and boundless love. Thus, the death of Janie’s husband Joe is what allows her to discover the determination to be independent, and consequently the exquisiteness in having the ability to share an equal, compromising love with Tea Cake, which is also a perpetual love as Janie comes to terms with the eventual loss of Tea Cake.

Blog #16: Fish Bowl Discussion and "Tea Cake" Extra Credit

“Tea Cake” Extra Credit Food Explanation

I made sugar cookies cut into star shapes and decorated with yellow icing and gold sprinkles. The yellow icing is analogous to Matt Bonner’s skinny yellow mule in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Hence, the yellow symbolizes burden, as the yellow mule is the beast of burden just as the black woman is in the society of the book. The yellow mule and the black woman must bear the extra weight as they support both the white man’s burden and the black man’s burden. The white man’s burden is pushed upon Janie through Joe Starks and the black man’s burden is pushed upon Janie through Logan Killicks. The gold on the icing symbolizes the money, power, glory, and excess that Joe seeks, forcing Janie to live her life as the voiceless wife of the mayor. The yellow alluding to the yellow mule (that exists in other examples of African folkloric culture) symbolizes the menial labor that Logan forces Janie to do, putting her down to the level of an animal, to the level of the yellow mule. The star that holds all of this together represents authority, particularly men’s power over women.  

Star Shaped Sugar Cookie Recipe

Total Time: 65 min

Prep: 20 min

Cook: 45 min

Yield: 22 cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 stick of Pillsbury sugar cookie dough, keep it refrigerated prior to use
• 2 sheets of wax paper (approximately 12 x 24 inches for each sheet)
• 1 small bottle of gold sugar for sprinkling (about 1/4 teaspoon per cookie)
• 1 small bottle of gold pearl sugar for cookie decoration (about 6-10 beads per cookie)
• 6 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
• 1 wooden rolling pin
• 1 star shaped cookie cutter
• 1 tube of yellow icing

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Put a non-stick piece of aluminum foil in a baking pan (similar size to the baking pan) for later use. 

Cut Pillsbury sugar cookie dough into ½ inch thick pieces; put them on wax paper.

Sprinkle some flour on the wax paper, dust the flour on the bottom and top of a cookie dough piece, and slowly press the cookie dough piece by using a wooden rolling pin until it forms approximately a round shape. Carefully transfer it to a baking pan with a sheet of non-stick aluminum foil. Place 6 pieces of cookie dough in a baking pan per batch and keep them ~2 inches apart. Bake the cookies for 14 minutes until the cookies are just barely turning brown. After the cookies are out of the oven, immediately use a star cookie cutter to firmly cut the baked cookies while they are hot and soft. Allow them to cool before removing the edges around the cookies. Repeat the process and bake multiple batches of cookies, if needed.

Put all the star cookies on a sheet of wax paper, cut the yellow icing tube and squeeze the icing onto the center of the star cookies; use a knife to evenly spread the yellow icing onto the top of the cookie. Dust the gold sugar sprinkles on top of the icing. Enjoy!

Blog #15: "Terence, This is Stupid Stuff" Analysis

Test Prompt:

2009B Poem: “Terence, This is Stupid Stuff”
The following poem makes use of the story of Mithridates VI, King of Pontus, who developed an immunity to poison. Read the poem carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze how Housman employs literary devices in adapting the story to address concerns of the late Victorian period.

First Essay:

In "Terence, This is Stupid Stuff", A.E. Houseman alludes to the story of Mithridates as well as "Paradise Lost" in order to assert that "poison" or alcohol cannot truly kill or heal man as the presence of these harmful entities are irrevocable in the human world and that man must survive the dangers that "poison" pose. Pathetic fallacy, irony, and narrative pace help to reinforce the late Victorian concern about the oppression of the working class through the frequent references to alcoholism. 

The poem begins with addressing the "stupid stuff". This reveals the irony in the accessibility of alcohol, which makes it so temping for tired, working class individuals worn-out from grueling factory work during the end of the 1800s. The more an individual seeks "ale", "the stuff to drink" (27), the more they crave it. Houseman states, "Pints and quarts of Ludlow beer / Then the world seemed none so bad" (32-33) to reiterate the numbing effects of alcohol. The temptation of alcohol is articulated through the references to Burton on the River Trent and Ludlow fair, as it seems to be inevadable. Essentially, no matter how dramatic the numbing effects, "'twill not last" (28) and that is the greatest "mischief" of it all. That, as the wealthier become wealthier, the poor working class is deteriorating eternally as alcoholism overtakes them because it is truly a cycle that cannot be broke. The oxymoron, "lovely muck" contrasts the wonderful feeling that alcohol brings in the moment it is consumed with the "muck" that follows the next morning when a hangover overtakes everything. In line 42, Houseman states, "But begin the game anew" to restate that the cycle of being a drunkard will cease to end.

The cumulative rhyming couplets throughout the poems adds to the quickening of the narrative pace with alliterations like "livelier liquor" (20) and "smiling seasoned sound" (67) as the poem ends with the allusion to the myth of Mithridates to assert the final conclusion that though Mithridates died old, he experienced the evil of those who wanted to poison him which parallels to the evil that alcohol poses for its victims. "Many-venomed earth" (65) and other instances of pathetic fallacy help to reflect the evil and malicious intentions of "poison" as it threatens to harm the delicate and oblivious nature of man.


Ultimately, “the world has…much less good than ill” (43-44), so the wisest decision for man is to “train for ill and not for good” (48), to be prepared for the presence of poison as Mithridates did because without this knowledge, any individual would fall victim to the evil of “poison”, regardless if it is tempted or inflicted.

Score: 4-5 (C)

1. Structuralism: Any language system that utilizes signs, symbols or physical gestures to allow humans to socially interact and communicate with one another. It should include the "sign" which is anything that shows meaning, the "signifier" (word or image) which provides meaning to the audience, and the "signified" which is developed and derived in the mind of the individual. There is a connotation which encompasses the emotions, thoughts, and cultural implications associated with the object such as an icon and denoation which is the literal dictionary defintion of the word. The structure of language can be broken down into: pragmatics, semantics, syntax, morphology, phonology, and phonetics (morphemes are the smallest units of a word that contain meaning). Structuralism includes the affirmation of the ambiguity of using certian words to represent a definitive idea and the polarization that may frequently (intentionally or unintentionally) appear in literature.

2. Binary Opposites: smart v. stupid, ambiguity v. clarity, solitude v. friendship, sadness v. happiness, sobriety v. drunkenness, past v. present, reality v. abstract concept, faith v. mischief, old v. anew, good v. ill, sun v. moon, luck v. trouble, chance v. sure, brisk v. weary, day v. dark, birth v. destruction, tell v. heard, and "lovely muck" (oxymoron)

3. In "Terence, This is Stupid Stuff", A.E. Houseman alludes to the myth of Mithridates to parallel Terence's argument for sad poetry that serves to build a similar numbness or immunity, as Mithridates developed to poison, in order to "train" for the inherent evil and sadness in the world. The frequent use of binary opposition including oxymoron and the reversal of man's idea of optimism, placing "ill" before "good", reinforces Terence's argument for sad poetry.

4. "stupid stuff", "livelier liquor", "pewter pot", "brisker pipes", "brisk a brew", "smiling, seasoned sound"

5. In "Terence, This is Stupid Stuff", A.E. Houseman justifies Terence's solution to become numb and immune to evil and sadness by using soft, melodic phonemes to capture the momentary euphoria that alcohol can bring in contrast to harsh cacophony to capture the bitter, ever-present sadness that will always return. Alliteration, consonance, and assonance help to create cacophonic and euphonic sounds to contrast the struggle between softness and harshness and to ultimately support Terence's argument for numbness through sad poetry.

6.  "And while the sun and moon endure / Luck's a chance, but trouble's sure" (45-46). This line is significant as it introduces the entire thrust of Terence's argument which is to "train for ill and not for good" (48).  Luck may be something that is attributed to good, which is rare because sadness is inevitable.

7. I selected the word "luck". My question: is luck synonymous to good as trouble is synonymous to ill? Does luck always have a positive connotation? This is significant to the argument of reversing optimism. Definition: success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one's own action. Etymology: From Middle Dutch ("luc"-shortening of "gheluc" meaning happiness and good fortune) of unknown origin. It has cognates in Dutch conveying "good luck". It was perhaps borrowed in English as a gambling term. "Lukken" was a verb in Middle English meaning "to happen fortunately". In the 1900s, "to luck out" became an American English colloquial term meaning "to succeed through luck". This clarifies the meaning of luck to almost always signify a fortunate occurrence. Furthermore, the phrase "to luck out" in a colloquial setting is very fitting in the setting of the pub in the poem. It is evident that Terence is trying to relate to the more casual vernacular of his friends in the pub, and uses "luck" as being attributed to something good, yet extremely rare, which justifies Terence's argument that becoming immune to "ill" (something that is certain) is the most optimal solution.

8. Rhyme Scheme: rhyming couplets

Meter/rhythm: iambic tetrameter

Thesis: 

In “Terence, This is Stupid Stuff”, A.E. Houseman captures Terence’s deep understanding of the language and the rhythm of the barroom through the use of conventional iambic tetrameter and rhyming couplets which reveals his ability to comfortably assimilate into the drunken environment of the barroom, but also justifies the validity in his pretentiousness through delivering an eloquent argument that demonstrates his mastery of sad poetry. His efforts are juxtaposed in that he delivers a complex argument that reverses man’s idea of optimism in the midst of a jesting, lighthearted pub.

9. 

Parallelism:

Definition: When the writer establishes similar patterns of grammatical structure and length.

Effect: Allows speakers and writers to maintain a consistency within their work and create a balanced flow of ideas as well as persuasion.

Alliteration:

Definition: Repetition of a sound in multiple words

Effect: Creates a musical effect in the text that enhances the pleasure of reading a literary piece

Antithesis:

Definition: Contrary ideas expressed in a balanced sentence.

Effect: To emphasize the idea of contrast by parallel structures of the contrasted phrases or clauses.

           

Anastrophe:

Definition: Inverted word order from what one expects.

Effect: To emphasize a word or draw attention to its inverted phrasing.

Anaphora:

Defintion: Repetition of beginning clauses.

Effect: Gives prominence to ideas, adds rhythm, and for persuasion.

10. In "Terence, This is Stupid Stuff", A.E. Houseman uses schemes to stress Terence's assertion of the lapse in judgment of the weak-minded, drunkards as they use alcohol as a temporary escape to distort reality, yet reality is something that cannot be escaped. Anastrophe and anaphora, especially, emphasize Terence's argument of the importance of accepting "muck" and "ill" by placing it before good through the purposeful use of syntactical devices.

11. "The cow, the old cow, she is dead" (7).

The Semantic meaning is that the cow is literally dead. However, the dead cow is a metaphor and a mocking joke at the same time. The Pragmatic meaning for the dead cow is that the friends see sad poetry as pointless as a random cow dying. They are using this line to mock Terence's affinity for sad poetry and to state its pointlessness. This ultimately shows that a cow is only a cow for those who cannot see it for its complexity. However, for the less simple-minded (Terence), the pain of the dead cow will carry on in the future and make him more immune to the future pains of life.

12. Terence's friends structure their argument deductively. For instance, their reasoning for calling sad poetry "stupid stuff" is revealed when they say to Terence, "you eat your victuals fast enough...to see the rate you drink your beer"(2-4). They believe that all people enjoy eating and drinking when they are happy; since Terence appears to be partaking in these actions, they conclude he must also be happy. Terence structures his argument by appealing primarily to ethos and pathos. Ethos is evident through the fact that Terence is a well-educated man; he is extremely well versed in sad poetry and his mastery in this poetry grants him the credibility for his argument. Pathos is well utilized by Terence as he shapes his argument around the role of his audience (his friends) as he acknowledges the blissful, temporary happiness that alcohol can bring, but shifts towards its lack of longevity in dealing with sadness. By addressing his friends' feelings sympathetically (using a concession and rebuttal), he can then build his more logic-based argument (logos) to "train for ill and not for good" as the most optimal, longstanding solution.

Blog #14: Darkly Gothic Poem Text and Analysis

"The Blackest Gift"

It is a night of darkness, a song of ethereal pain,

wolves vent their loneliness. The immortal one

awakes.

Curling, icy wisps of death shrouds her pale form,

an everlasting desire.

Her silken hair cascades over

translucent ivory shoulders, and her

full scarlet lips part slightly, to taste the

blood streaming from the

pale flesh beneath

her.

Now a night of taking,

I remember her.

Explanation:

Diction such as "darkness" of the night and "ethereal pain" of the song helps to extend the connotations of the words to the vampiress as they are used as pathetic fallacy to attribute the vampirism curse to being such exquisite pain that it seems too perfect for this world, to be utterly beautiful, but also a monster. The idea of an eternity of suffering is conveyed through words such as "loneliness", "immortal", and “everlasting”. I chose to implement the word “taking” in order to assert that the vampiress is incapable of giving love and life, and therefore can only take it from mortal men.

My intention was to convey an ironic and forlorn tone through the eternal curse of vampirism as something that simultaneously helps and hurts the vampiress. She is undeniably beautiful, yet she can tear men apart.

A haunting, alluring, and lethal mood is conveyed through the provocative imagery of the vampiress’s appearance and her desire for men’s blood overtakes her equal desire for love, which is seemingly fading as a result of her blood lust. The last line of the poem ("I remember her") captures the nostalgia that her victim experiences as he falls under her allure.

Binary opposites are evident in the “silken” (soft or lustrous like silk) and delicate appearance of the vampire in contrast to her deadly nature. In addition there is the allure of her beauty and ability to seduce men contrasting her loneliness. Phrases such as “silken hair cascades”, “translucent ivory shoulder, and “full scarlet lips” reinforce her beauty. The title also contains binary opposition as it captures the contradictory ideas of exquisite or "ethereal" pain. The vampirism is the "blackest gift", an ill-fated offering from the universe. 

Blog #13: Fairy Tale Allusion Poetry PowerPoint

Blog #12: Mythological Allusion Poetry PowerPoint

Blog #11: Biblical Allusion Poetry PowerPoint

Blog #10: Literary Period PowerPoint

Blog #9: Literary Criticism PowerPoint

Blog #8: Summer Reading Creative Project

Text: Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient

Essence: A change in one’s values forces a change in what he/she is willing to sacrifice.

Brief Summary of Text: The book follows the stories of four unlike people living inside an Italian villa towards the end of World War II. The book centers upon the story of an unrecognizable burn victim who is assumed to be English. However, after slowly revealing his past he turns out to be of Hungarian origin. His story is a “blank page” at first, as Hana, Kip, and Caravaggio reflect their own thoughts upon him. But the English Patient eventually recalls his memories and reveals his real name to be Almásy, uncovering every detail of his past including how he falls in love with Katherine, her husband’s death, her death, and his enduring belief that nations are useless entities and that love can take people to different times and places.

AP Prompt (2014): It has often been said that what we value can be determined only by what we sacrifice. Consider how this statement applies to a character from a novel or play. Select a character that has deliberately sacrificed, surrendered, or forfeited something in a way that highlights that character’s values. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how the particular sacrifice illuminates the character’s values and provides a deeper understanding of the meaning of the work as a whole.

Thesis which addresses the prompt: In Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient, László Almásy makes significant sacrifices for his personal value for individualism as he favors freedom by staying in the desert and holds no value for national identity; the purity that he finds in the desert, however, is clouded by the entrance of temptation in the form of Katherine Clifton, which ultimately forces him to sacrifice his greatest personal value of breaching national ties.

Iceberg View of Culture: Literature is the surface culture that is highlighted in The English Patient. Literature has the ability to connect the past to the present. Hana reads to Almásy to keep him preoccupied in present-day life, but literature also allows him to feel the love that he had for Katherine and his memories of his work in the desert in Cairo. For the characters in this novel, time and place play cannot inhibit the eternal love that they have for their loved ones, and through the medium of literature, they are able to transcend all obstacles: even death. For Almásy, The Histories by Herodotus is literature that allows him to connect to people and feelings that are now dead or gone, things that can only be reached through books.

One of the most memorable moments in the novel is when Katherine tells the story of the Lydian King Candaules showing off his wife’s beauty to his lieutenant Gyges, and Gyges killing the king to take the throne and the queen for himself. The telling of this story itself causes Almásy to be seduced by Katherine. This story parallels the love triangle between Almásy, Katherine, and Mr. Clifton. This scene reiterates the power that literature has to strengthen human connections beyond the story that is being told. There is a lot of nonverbal communication that occurs when it comes to the intimacy and the intensity that builds between Almásy and Katherine. The silence and their everlasting gaze exemplify their feelings for one another. Almásy reflects on this when he says, “All these years I have been trying to unearth what she was handing me with that look…I think she was studying me” (144). Of course, facial expression, body language, and tone of voice also imply Katherine’s motives to be rather seductive in nature. The details of nonverbal communication illustrate the nuanced suggestions that Katherine makes while telling the story.

The deeper implications of Katherine’s reading of the story are: preferences for competition or cooperation, concept of past and future, and the concept of self.  As stated earlier, literature has the ability to allow people to feel connected regardless of time and place. Discernibly, Almásy’s response to Katherine’s story will either result in competition or cooperation with Mr. Clifton. In this case the result is definitely competition, as Mr. Clifton ultimately goes mad and attempts to murder, but dies in the process. Self-concept is a psychological concept that is especially unique for Almásy in this novel. He originally stays in the desert to maintain lucidity, but this is changed dramatically by his lose of rationality as he becomes so infatuated with Katherine that he cannot control himself. Almásy addresses his feelings as she tells the story, he states, “That night I fell in love with her voice. Only her voice. I wanted to hear nothing more" (145).

Creative Project & Explanation: In Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient, László Almásy, a man who is guilty of reprehensible betrayals, makes significant sacrifices for his personal value for individualism as he favors freedom by staying in the desert and holds no values for national identity; the purity that he finds in the desert, however, is clouded by the entrance of temptation in the form of Katherine Clifton, which ultimately forces him to sacrifice his personal value of breaching national ties.

The Left Side of the Mask: The image of the desert contains many symbolic meanings. ‎From a biblical point of view, the desert is related to a place of cleansing. God took many occasions to send groups of Jews and other religious groups into the desert for cleansing prior to sending them to the "promised land". Most notably, the Jews (led by Moses) coming out of exile in Egypt and sending Jesus into the desert for 40 days and 40 nights for the cleansing of his soul and temptation from the Devil. The general significance of the arid landscape of the desert is that it represents purity and a place free from temptation, with no distractions. The only thing that is on the image of the desert is the silhouette of a single person, which represents Almásy’s clarity with only his favorite book (Herodotus) by his side. All focus is on survival rather than satisfying personal needs. For Almásy specifically, the desert is a place where national identity is extraneous, allowing him to redefine himself freely. The irony in all this lays in Katherine, who embodies temptation, but travels to the desert—a place of spiritual cleansing.  The dove holding the olive branch in the sky (a general peace symbol) represents his freedom outside of his Hungarian origin.

The Right side of the Mask: The circular image is one of King Candaules of Lydia who is letting Gyges see his wife naked. Gyges is shot with Cupid’s arrow in this image as he has fallen in love with the queen through the mere display of her beauty. This image is associated with blindness and bewilderment through the thick black swirls around the right temple of the mask. This detail symbolizes Almásy being clouded by the temptation of Katherine. The two quotes are words spoken by Candaules’ wife, which allude to the death and destruction that Almásy and Katherine also cause through their relationship.

The backside of the mask is divided into two halves like the front. Directly behind the left side with the desert, the mask is blank because Almásy is not concealing anything significant about himself when he is solely invested in his work in the desert. Directly behind the right side with the black swirls, there is a skull as well as a World War II map of Hungary, which represents the repercussions of his relationship with Katherine. He must conceal the death and destruction that his iniquitous relationship with Katherine causes and also his Hungarian background that is eventually revealed. This is the sacrifice that Almásy makes for Katherine; he sacrifices upholding his value of breaking national ties. Essentially, the left side of the mask represents who Almásy was before he met Katherine and the right side of the mask (as well as what is behind it) represents who he is after he meets Katherine.