The Humor of Lot 49

The first time I attempted to read The Crying of Lot 49 it did not go so well. I was forced to read the first two chapters twice. It was quite frustrating because I didn’t comprehend the humor in it. After reading further into the novel and understanding, the characters I started to catch onto the whit of Oedipa and fully realize the oddities she was put through. The humor in the book was probably my favorite part. It is a different type of humor though because it’s not “in your face humor”, this humor grows as you read and it makes you become more attached to the characters. I also thought the word WASTE was an interesting part of the novel.
I particularly enjoyed the part when Oedipa is pulled into the deaf/mute dance at the hotel. I thought it was so funny when she was talking about how she was just waiting to have a collision with another couple and how each person had a different tune in their head. Another part that was amusing was when Oedipa was talking with Mucho’s boss and he was telling her that Mucho has changed. The line when she says, “pray, has he been, Ringo Starr?” I think this really shows Oed’s character and how she sticks up to her husband’s boss.
The word WASTE has a few meanings that are relevant to the novel. I believe that the most important meaning is that wasteful nature that human beings possess. It is shown throughout the book that people waste so many things and are not appreciative of what they have. All of those poor people who attempted suicide had such a hard time while other was concerned with much less important facets of their lives. Overall, I did not really enjoy the plot of the book, but I did like the characters and the humor it brought to the reader.

mother in laws

The Brooch by Faulkner exposed a relationship between three members of a family. The relationship between the mother and the son showed a controlling mother who didn’t let her son date much of anything, let alone leave the house. The other relationship I found interesting was the mother and daughter in law relationship. I feel as if this is a relationship that is dreaded by all new wives who are anxious to meet their mother in laws and their new family.
The relationship between Howard and his mother is a strange one. It gets particularly strange when she moves to Charlottesville to live near him while he was in college. I am surprised he didn’t die of embarrassment when that occurred. I couldn’t tell whether this relationship between son and mother could have been sexual or not. I lean towards the “not”, because the reader can tell the mother really cares for her son and I cannot see her physically abusing him. I can see her mentally abusing him though. All the years he is made to take care of her and given no freedom to grow and build relations with females.
Amy and her mother in law also have a very complex relationship. I feel as if the brooch is curse. I don’t think it was given to Amy as a blessing of love, I think it was given to her in order to have the mother in law on her mind the entire time she was wearing it. My favorite line of the short story is when Amy says, “I’m scared of your mother.” I think this is a great line and prefaces the entire relationship they will have together. Howard is now not only tortured by his mother, but by his wife.

Queens

There Was a Queen written by Faulkner kept me interested the entire time. It was attention-grabbing to see a world of women living together because of their lost husbands and grandfathers and other male kin. The only male that is left is Narcissa’s son Bory. This story accurately displays the ongoing battles females have not only with men, but with other females. The generality of the male and female relationship is delved into as well as the relationship that a mother and a son can possess.
Throughout the story there were plenty of times the old woman would make strange and off toned remarks to Narcissa. For example, when Narcissa is trying to tell her about the letters she interrupts her and says, “If it’s marriage, I told you. I told you five years ago that I wouldn’t blame you.” Throughout the next few paragraphs the old woman continues to tell her niece that she would not blame her. The assumption that a man must and will make a woman happy is absurd. This seems like a very cold hearted thing for a relative to say to their kin.
It is also said by the old woman and by Elnora that Narcissa will “never be a Sartoris.” This battle between the household is ridiculous, how could a woman treat a member of their family with such rude remarks. This story represents a struggle that women faced back then and are still facing in the present day. If the war between females does not stop, and we do not support one another, progress will not continue.

Married and Lonely

While reading “The Young Housewife” Williams captured my imagination. It was one of the easiest poems that I read, but it has a deep subject matter that makes it all the more interesting. I actually saw this beautiful woman walking around her house after she has just woken up in the morning. The first thing that came to my mind was the loneliness the housewife was feeling. When Williams writes “moves about in negligee behind the wooden walls of her husbands house”, it shows that she is possibly a prisoner in her own home. It insinuates that she has had no freedom to make her house her own and add her own feminine touch to it.
The next line that caught my attention spoke of her walking out to the curb. I feel as if this showed she was only allowed out to perform meaningless tasks, and that a strange man saw her doing these tasks and felt her lonesomeness. Lastly, the fallen leaf could mean many things in the young housewife’s life. Because it is a “fallen leaf” it makes us believe she has been mentally injured in some way.
As I was looking at the website I came across a comment by Rachel Blau Duplessis. She addressed the fallen leaf metaphor as well as the “wooden walls of her husbands house” and I agree with her statements. She says, “This "leaf" metaphor also follows from "the wooden walls of her husband’s house," sympathetic lines suggesting her mild imprisonment and the husband’s clumsy stolidity.” Both of these lines as well as the rest of the poem really express a hollow loneliness that was captured greatly by William Carlos Williams.

Goophered

When I first started reading The Goophered Grapevine I couldn’t believe that the bulk of the story was written in a difficult dialect. Although it was somewhat hard to read and took a few times to go over a paragraph I started to become entranced by the words that Uncle Julius was using, and couldn’t wait to keep reading. There were many possible themes that could have been picked out in the tale, such as race and the slave era. But there were two things that jumped out at me when reading this short story, first was Anne and second was the clear and crisp image I was given throughout the story.
Anne is a very interesting character, and even though she doesn’t get many words in, she is the reason for the move and the purchasing of the vineyard. She is immediately viewed as weak because she is said to be sickened by the weather in the North, she is then viewed as a very proper lady who became “weary” while walking around the grounds. It is interesting to see her so interested in the man’s story and her inquisitiveness surprised me.
The other aspect of the story that engrossed me was the vivid picture I was able to form about the vineyard, Uncle Julius, and the slaves that used to work on the grapes. I almost thought of it as a flashback when Uncle Julius started to talk about his master when he first purchased the grounds. While he is talking about these stories, the reader can really picture the people and what was going on. Overall I thought it was a great story and kept me interested the entire time.

Huck

While reading the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn I noticed a common theme involving pride and honor. Throughout the novel Huck Finn and other characters comment on what makes an honorable man and how one can be proud of his accomplishments. We first see an example of this with Tom Sawyer; it also resonates throughout the life of Huck Finn and his relationship with Jim.
Tom Sawyer is seen early in the novel wanting to form a band of thieves with his friends. He comments on how robbers and thieves have a great sense of accomplishment and are quite honorable. He immediately forms this band of robbers in search of acceptance and pride. It is interesting how something so morally wrong such as robbing innocent people can be seen as a good deed to children in the South during this time period. It shows the inner calamities that are occurring during these children’s lives.
Next we see Huck Finn talking about life on the river and his time as a raftsman. He says, “There was a power of style about her. It amounted to something being a raftsman on such a craft as that.” I feel that Huck has been so beaten down with his father’s unruly nature and Miss Watson’s extreme strict attitude, that Huck needs something like this raft to boost his confidence and allow himself to have some place in society.
Huck battles with himself over his honor when taking Jim with him to a free state. Huck talks about how he would never turn Jim in, but realizes that he is committing a very serious crime. What’s most interesting to me is that Huck wants to help Jim to safety, but he wants to do it for himself, not Jim. Early on we get the sense that Huck wants to get Jim to safety for his own pride.

Scarlet

In the poem “the name of it is “Autumn”, there are many internal meanings and hidden meaninigs that can discovered. I think it is interesting that a female such as Emily Dickinson wrote a poem of this vulgarity and truth. I think it shows a lot about the female population during the civil war and the lack of knowledge that students have of women writers like Emily. When I first started reading her poems it was not what I expected. I think people sometimes pin point female writers to only speak of light subjects and that is very untrue with Emily Dickinson. I did some outside reading on this poem and some scholars said that it may or may not have been speaking about the Battle of Antietam during the Civil War. Due to the fact that this was based in the north, it could explain the emphasis of Autumn time and the leaves and nature.
The color imagery in the poem was phenomenal to me. The red of Autumn can directly link to the red color of blood that runs through veins and arteries which is then rained upon the ground and poured into a basin which forms a bloody pool of redness. The rose mentioned at the end is also red. My favorite line of the poem is “and spill the Scarlet rain”. When I read this line I not only thought of the color red/scarlet but I thought of the movie Gone With the Wind, which also discussed the Civil War years and the reconstruction era. Although this movie was released earlier than the poem was, it still came into my mind.
The turning point to me in the poem is early and immediately when she mentions the veins and arteries, I believe that the reference to the human body can suddenly makes things real and the imagery becomes even more important.

The Beat

The poem “Beat! Beat! Drums!” supports Neely’s claim. The poem and the word usage represents a man that is proud of his country, but doesn’t mention the emancipation of slavery, nor does he rejoice of it directly anywhere in the poem. The patriotism is quite evident in the forcefulness of the stanzas and the constant exclamation points. I don’t necessarily think that his lack of mentioning the slavery issue makes him not care about it though. He is a strong believer of the union and a strong national government which makes me believe that he would support anti-slavery and the emancipation proclamation. The reason I think it supports Neely’s claim is his lack of mentioning the emancipated and his abundance of references of the common man such as brokers, lawyers, mothers, children, and farmers. As I read the poem it reminded me of a show on the history channel. I could just envision this poem being read and the panning and cutting of the camera from one citizen to the next.
Whitman seemed to be more of a Timrod to me with a Horton soul. Timrod didn’t make a clear stance on what he believed in throughout “The Cotton Boll” while Horton was very direct in his beliefs about the runaway and the realities of war. Whitman said “make no parley, stop for no expostulation, mind not the timid, mind not the weeper or prayer,”. This sentence explored the heart that Whitman was trying to get across. He is saying that no one is stopping for a meeting or earnest protest, but just going on their way and not caring of the people affected. Overall, I think Whitman is being judged to harshly by Neely just because of his lack of diary findings.

Timrod

As I read The Cotton Boll by Henry Timrod, a few things jumped out at me right away. One of the first things was his description of the senses, such as sight and sound. The second aspect of Timrod’s writing that I noticed, which goes hand in hand with the sensory descriptions, is his repetitive account of his surroundings. I find the first few stanzas to be very beautiful and full. He really gave me a first hand explanation of his natural surroundings, but it got very old half way through. He couldn’t simply speak of the winds or a place; he had to make it more convoluted than it needed to be. If this was done for rhyme or to meet the beat, then it was a must, but it took away from the internal meaning in my opinion.
Even though the writing started to become monotone, I tried to focus on his underlying tone and what he was trying to say. His persistent sensory vocabulary drew me in throughout the poem and I was able to draw some of his feelings out of them. He mentions sound and sight at least ten times throughout the poem. He literally uses the words sight and sound two or three times on one page. When mentioning sound he uses descriptive words such as “mystic”. When discussing sight he says, “the landscape broadens on my sight…to the remotest point of sight…” He also alludes to a veil and how it was lifted in order for him to see the big picture of the war and slavery. Although he uses both of these senses to address the slavery issue he appears seemingly unconcerned. He never really chose a side (North or South) through the poem. Relating this issue to a cotton boll and an ocean shell have double meanings and may even be too delicate to describe the situation. The cotton boll is brought up in a morose tone and seems almost condescending. Near the end of the poem he says, “Oh, help us, Lord! To roll the crimson flood back on its course, and, while our banners wing Northward, strike with us!” This sentence seems so propaganda like and eventually turned me off from the poem.

Black or White

The story of Benito Cereno is at times very vague. Clearly the question of race is at hand throughout most of the story; it is the underlying tone that sets the stage for the meat of the novella as well as the ending. The ambiguity throughout the novel could partly be due to the fact that it is hard to tell the difference between Melville’s views and Delano’s. I felt as if Melville almost put words into Delano’s mouth near the end of the story. Even if Delano didn’t say them it was as if his thoughts have shifted and wavered throughout the drama.
It was easy to see through some of Delano’s quotes in the novella that he greatly underestimated the black culture. It was unbelievable to him that a black could be superior to a white. It was interesting to see how he couldn’t get himself to notice and piece together these mishaps that occurred on the Cereno’s vessel. For example, the black passenger hitting the other white passenger; although Delano is startled, he immediately deems himself stupid for thinking anything sour with the situation. Almost every time he saw a mishap involving crew members, one was black and one was white. And almost every time the black slave was over powering the white crew member. Near the end of the story Delano is discussing how he cannot believe that they were duped by the black slaves and will have to respect them more in the future.
I also think the relationship that Babo and Delano had was curious. Although they didn’t have too much dialogue I feel as if Delano was entranced by Babo and that he was in fact “following his leader”, who just happened to be a slave without even knowing it. The same thing could be thought of when thinking of Cereno and his passing. Was he following his past captain or did he follow his black slave that turned out to control him for the last months of his life.

Lack of Love

It was interesting how much the narrator in The Raven paralleled the life of Edgar Allan Poe. Two of the main themes throughout the poem are loneliness and isolation as well as lost love. The alienation the narrator is experiencing seems to jump through the page at the reader. While reading Poe’s biography I learned that he had married his significantly younger cousin Virginia and that she suffered and eventually died after living a life of ailing illnesses. This left Poe a broken man and leads right into the loneliness and depression that he may have felt. The narrator in The Raven has also lost a lover and is hanging onto life by the edge of his teeth. At first it seems as if the raven in the poem may have been sent from angles to save him from his despair, but later the narrator changes his mind and is convinced that the bird is from a darker side only there to remind him of the love that he has lost and will never regain.
One of the passages that I took a closer look at in regards to the lonely and lost feeling that the narrator is experiencing concerning Lenore states,
“Eagerly I wished the morrow; vainly I had sought to borrow. From my books surcease of sorrow-sorrow for the lost Lenore-For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore- Nameless here for evermore.”
This passage is important because it really shows the angst he is feeling and it also portrays a man desperate to fill the void that his lover has left him here on Earth. It is fascinating how the narrator seems to refer to Lenore as leaving him. It makes me think that he is almost mad that she left or that she is dead and in heaven with the angels. This parallels Poe’s life after Virginia passed away.
Another passage in the poem the narrator, again, refers to people leaving him and the assumption that the raven will also fly away soon. For example he says “other friends have flown before on the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.” This great feeling of solitude and lack of love in the narrator’s life may welcome the solidarity of life or he may be secretly happy to have the raven stay on his doorstep to for evermore remind him of the agony of losing Lenore.

"The Group" of Will Power

While reading, The Group written by Mercy Otis Warren, it made me think about my own attitude towards bravery, power, and will. Another subject that I thought was interesting was the discussion on having a guilty conscience. These themes seemed to hold a strong undertone throughout the document. I started to think about these themes and how they related to me and what my general thoughts were on bravery, power, and will. There were a few examples in the text that I studied closer to see if I agreed with what the character was saying.
The first passage that caught my eye was when Simple was discussing people that were brave. He said, “I fear the brave, the injured multitude, repeated wrongs, arouse them to resent…resolved to die or see their country free.” I thought this was a great passage, perhaps a speech to give before a big game or before battle. I agree with Simple that the brave are the ones to be most scared of, they may not be the biggest or meanest, but the more fuel you give them, the more fire you will get in return.
After I read about being brave I moved onto power and will. This was mentioned by Hateall when he was responding to Halzerod about feeling no remorse for killing their opposition. He said, “Nor I – But had I power, as I have the Will I’d send them murmuring to the shades of hell.” Although this is a very brutal passage and is clearly being satirized by Otis Warren, the words have such great force. This passage is such a parallel to athletics. Day in and day out people train to become the strongest, fittest, and fastest, but only the ones who are mentally strong and have to strongest will can emit their greatest powers at all times.
The last passage I found intriguing was near the beginning of the play when Halzerod and Crusty are discussing having a guilty conscience. I found it interesting that Halzerod tells Crusty he has resolved himself of ever having a guilty conscious and Crusty replies eagerly wanting to know how to get rid of the “guilty” feeling. I don’t agree with Halzerod that one can wish away their morbid feelings; rather a person must stop doing the act that is making them feel guilty.

You're So Vain

The second part of Franklin’s autobiography was clearly oozing with vanity and major self confidence. I feel like Franklin does a humorous job of trying to play his ego down, but in turn making him sound and seem even more pompous. A good example of that is when he is reminiscing about establishing a public library and he says, “so few were the readers at that time in Philadelphia, and the majority of us poor…” , I am pretty sure that Franklin was not poor at this time while trying to build a public library.
The second subject that is a constant throughout the autobiography is vanity. He makes several statements about vanity such as “the present little sacrifice of your vanity will afterwards be amply repaid.” I thought this was an interesting quote because he makes this statement in regards to building the library, and how (at the time) he tried to stay out of the spotlight and let his friends reap the benefits. He doesn’t even follow his own advice because he is writing this for everyone to see and to know that he did that. It makes it even vainer to publish something that you did in lieu of avoiding vanity no matter how many years ago it may have been.
Mt favorite quote of arrogance has to be near the end of the passage when Franklin is “surprised” that he has so many faults; but knew that he could watch them diminish while using the 13 step program that he himself wrote. Is he extremely vain because he was one of the youngest children out of more than a dozen? Or just trying to cement him as an important figure in history? One of the last subjects I found intriguing was when a Quaker friend of Franklin’s told him to add Humility to his 12 steps because Ben was often thought of as too proud and very insolent when in heated discussions. Franklin immediately states that he can fix this pride and selfishness by simply adding humility into his daily routine and practicing it. In the last paragraph of the reading he states (unlike any other on of his steps) that in “reality there is perhaps no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue in pride.” In that sentence alone he immediately is defending is outward pride and lack of humility. I guess Franklin needs to add some more steps to mold the perfect man.

Notes on Virginia

Jefferson’s Notes on Virginia were vehemently different than what I expected. Initially I was concerned about it being a very dry read and struggling to get through it. Consequently I was quite intrigued by Query 11 concerning the Native Americans. Throughout the passage he seemed to focus on a few key points including language, skin color, and government. His concern and focus on language between the Indian tribes was interesting. He continually spoke of the tribes not being able to communicate properly with one another, or “losing their language”. But who really lost the Indian language? The numbers of the people in the tribes were being lost, not because they wanted to, but because they were being forced.
Another interesting passage on page 222 spoke of the Mattaponies tribe and that “they have more negro than Indian blood in them”. I found this focus on color interesting. All of the early English writers are constantly comparing skin color. On the other hand, the color contrast normally moves from dark to light, not from light to dark. The feeling towards Jefferson and he treatment of slaves is undecided on many accounts, although he does contradict himself constantly. I think Jefferson regularly remarks on the skin color comment because he finds himself superior and higher class, but yet he wants to make sure he recognizes Native Americans and African slaves just to say he has.
He also discusses government and heavily alludes to the fact that although there may be language barriers between all of the Indian tribes, there still exists an organized system/government of some type. And on the other hand he mentions that if the government is too stiff, it can be quite detrimental. This totally contradicts the English style of government that Jefferson is primarily involved in and glorifies the Native American unity to a certain extent. How can the Indian form of “government” (or lack thereof) be better than the English system? I think this goes back to the story of how proper civilization and doing things “correctly” can cause the people of that society to lose sight as to what is really just, such as family and keeping tradition alive.

Jonathan Edwards

The first thing that I started to think about with this document was the way it was arranged for the reader. I enjoyed the beginning lead in to Edwards main argument. After reading through it multiple times I really started to comprehend what Edwards was trying to argue. The beginning of the passage started to tell a story about the light that spread from God to Peter. It speaks of how peter is “truly blessed” because he has received a spiritual light from God and pronounced that Christ was in fact the son of God. From there it started to go into Edwards’s doctrine.
One of the introductory paragraphs that immediately gained my attention was the section when Edwards spoke of how “it was not flesh and blood that had revealed it to him, but God.” After that sentence it goes on to talk about how the message given to Peter is truly special and unique and unnatural. For if it were natural and could be spoken by all men, then surely someone like a priest or anyone in high society would know God’s information before a peasant or of the like. This idea is continually brought up later in the doctrine and is the foundation that Edwards is trying to argue.
The part of the argument that I studied closely was the section on imagination in relation to spiritual light. This really interested me because I often wondered who are the so called “chosen ones” and if they can prove their claim. Many people take impressions and turn them into a spiritual light. I do not believe that it is necessarily a bad thing to “trick” yourself into believing and trying something new, but it is not a message directly from God. “The spiritual and divine light does not consist in any impression made upon the imagination.” This passage goes onto discuss the light as an unseen blessing. A person cannot see this light or view these messages, nor are the messages life changing. Edwards argues that messages are sent through the light and may bring inspiration that could cause a person to have an epiphany.

intro

Hey!
My name is Laree Beans and I am a Junior from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. I am on the field hockey team and will graduate next December. I am an EXSS major who enjoys reading and would like to expand my knowledge of literature. I really enjoy going to see movies and especially love old movies and musicals. My favorite actor is Gene Wilder, which many of my friends make fun of me for :) I love going to NYC to see a Broadway show every once and a while. I am also an avid sports fan and I love all of the Philadelphia teams. Well, i am looking forward to reading new material in the class and getting to know some of you.

Laree