The beginning ( the paper)

In the novel, Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, the theme of happiness from different viewpoints plays a major role. The happiness in this new world is one of scientific creation and false pretences. This happiness is psychologically and drug induced—an instant gratification that the new world promotes. The reader further understands this scientific version of totalitarianism in the new world when the savage come to the new world to show what happiness truly means. To the savage, a foil in the theme of happiness creation, happiness is his “deliberately attempt[s] to set up obstacles for [himself] which will impede the easy realization of [his] desires” (science and conscience in Huxley’s a brave new world, 315). The entrance of the savage, John, into the story brings a level of understanding to the reader because, through John, the reader can associate the society of today to the society of the new world. His opposing views of the happiness in the new society bring about a connection between his world—the world of today—and the new world—the world of totalitarianism and false happiness. In the new world, there is a seemingly human happiness that is only created by and underlying scientific brainwashing and large doses of drugs. The science of the new era becomes a substitution for happiness, family and education. These ideas that are presented in the Brave New World are not ideas that are new to literature. Huxley takes many of the main themes in the novel such as the tragedies of science, futuristic utopia, and scientific satire. Many of his ideas were taken from Shakespeare, as the savage clearly quotes, Bertrand Russell, and H. G. Wells. This novel of generational differences and blended ideas is a satirical manifestation of the importance and reality of happiness and the prevention of this joy due to scientific advancement.
As the novel declares satirically, happiness is created and pain is explicitly prevented in order to maintain a secure and content society. This self-proclaimed happiness is created, not achieved, but the people of the new world find that they know nothing better than this false happiness. This new world of technology and brainwashing is a world of simple bliss, not educated and refined happiness. The contentment found in this futuristic society is of “idealistic pretensions, it is a utopia” (ira page 44). The manifestation of this utopia is ill founded, however. In this world where all seems to be bliss and everyone proclaims that “everyone is happy now,” not a single person can justifiably claim true happiness. Only the happiness that is created by high doses of soma and by mental brainwashing is seen or felt by the people of this science-bred society. In this world happiness is created instead of won; the happiness that is shown is not based on relationships and love, odd things of the past, but rather on brainwashing science. As the test-tube people grow, they are trained, brainwashed, to believe that they are happy, yet they have nothing that makes them happy, only the belief that because they are told that they are happy, they must be so. The concepts that make a person truly happy have been eliminated for existence and made forbidden such as family and advancement in life. The “conflictless, nonsuppressive consumer society” (peter 313) of the new world shows that people are only in existence to consume; people are simply created so that their bodies can consume the products that they make. As the novel proclaims, satirically, happiness is created and pain is explicitly prevented in order to maintain a secure and content society. This self-proclaimed happiness is created, not achieved, but the people of the brave new world find that they know nothing better than this false happiness.(580)

Bravery in Sadness

It is crazy to imagine a world in which happiness is created and relationships and love are things the past, are things of forbidden nature. In the brave new world, when we see the agony and pain that the mother of the savage goes through because of her "uncleanliness" of being a mother, we, as readers are baffled. We learn a lot about society through the eyes of this savage who has learned about the culture outside of his reservation, but is educated in the ways of the days when people were free to live, to feel pain, and to love.
Through the savage’s reaction to the false happiness of the people in the “civilized” world, the reader can see how pained the people with no lives to call their own must need this false happiness of learned reactions and soma can contribute to a more stable society. The savage is uncomfortable in the fakeness of the world around him because he knows that true happiness only comes when one can experience true grief to gauge true happiness from. It is hard to believe that a society that can be so much advanced from the place, in which we live currently, can be so utterly corrupt. The savage sees this corruption without the eyes of forced belief of perfection. This knowledge of the possibility of a totalitarian government being able to control so much about a society that people do not even think their own true thoughts is entirely frightening. What would a world become if people were who they were going to be from the day they were conceived? The world would never be better than it was because no choices are available to be made. Every day would be as the last and no one would have the chance for improvement and failure. Once Bernard Marx finds this savage, a boy who was born from a woman who had been created, not born, this is his only chance for his true happiness, his lifting in life. As an alpha plus he innately understands that happiness stems from lack of grief, not from drugs. He realizes his need for ability to achieve and found this through recognition, something that a seemingly communistic society does not advocate or even understand. Once his fame and achievement goes away, he realizes that in the society in which he exists, greatness has no place and achievement is even frowned upon because people must follow the learning and engineering they have been created with.
It is a tragic ending when the savage runs away from the society because he cannot handle the fakeness of the world and the understanding that no person can truly be better than anyone else. Without learning and without ability for excellence, no one can make himself better. This is frightening for people who have been through hard times and know that happiness is only judged against the hard times you have had. When happiness in a society is characterized by how high you can get on a soma vacation, life is not worth living and the savage sees this. Life is made so that people have a potential to succeed or fail, be happy or sad, not so that the world appears perfect but is secretly distressed (548).


My Jstor articles:
"Brainwashing and Totalitarianization in Modern Society: by Edgar Schein
"Brave New World and The Tempest" by Ira Grushow
"Science and Conscience in Huxley's Brave New World" by Peter Firchow

Tragic New World

The novel, "A Brave New World", presents much commentary on today's society about personal happiness, over consumption of goods, and use of pleasure over morality. At the beginning of this novel, the most prominent theme that the reader is aware of is the uncomfortably the reader has about the lack of personal morality in the futuristic society and the overabundance of use of technology.

This social commentary on the future makes the reader uncomfortable because people tend to rely on morality as a form of comfort. In this futuristic society, there is no morality because being happy is the only reason that people live, and with the forced lack of morals, people seem to be happy with not knowing that morals exist. It is confusing for people who read this novel to understand a world without morality and a world where education is not formed by experience but rather by voices that are heard during sleep. The knowledge that small children are encouraged to partake in sexual play is baffling to a society where such activity is explicitly forbidden. Even more shocking is when we see the child who does not want to participate in such play taken to the psychiatrist because this is abnormal behavior. Not only is this shocking to the reader but it is also a subject of squeamishness because in today’s society, and even more in the time in which the novel was written, such topics being discussed were and are not publicly acceptable.

Another baffling sight that readers experience in the beginning of reading this novel is that technology is used for everything. People are created by, educated by, raised by, amused by, and changed by technology. It is amazing to see a whole society without a single family or a person who is born. The threads of society seem as though they couldn’t exist without the moral and loving center of a family unit, and yet in this novel, families are explicitly acting against. Every thought that the people of this new society think is given to them by machines that teach and enforce moral lessons. The people who live in this society actually believe this teaching is for the better because “everyone is happy now.” People are happy because they are taught that they are happy and because they are given drugs if they do not feel extremely happy. This is a wild state of humanity that is almost tragic. People can never be truly happy if they do not know what the alternative to happiness is or if they do not have anything that makes them happy, as in a relationship or an accomplishment, except the thought of being happy by tricking their brains with hard drugs.

It is almost an appalling idea of a society being completely decided before you are born. Knowing that each person’s future is determined while they are being created and no one can get around their creation, means that no one can create themselves, they are simply created and told what to think and how to act. This story is a seeming tragedy of the future of the world (523).

A Worse Fate than Death

XIX. To an Athlete Dying Young
by A. E. Housman (1859-1936)
The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.

To-day, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.

Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields were glory does not stay
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.

Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears:

Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Runners whom renown outran
And the name died before the man.

So set, before its echoes fade,
The fleet foot on the sill of shade,
And hold to the low lintel up
The still-defended challenge-cup.

And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl's.

The poem, "To an Athlete Dying Young", is a poem that can extend through all generations without any loss of meaning. Even though this poem was written many generations ago, the meaning can still be applied to all athletes in this day and age. This is an important aspect in a work of art or literature because this poem can be appreciated for many, many generations without any loss of understanding. In reading this poem, it is important to understand that the author's use of a dramatic and seemingly dreary topic is a cover for giving a critical view of growing old as something to be avoided and feared. Underneath the surface of this poem is an ironic portrayal of death used as a way to glorify yourself.

The basic theme that this poem creates, before the reader understands the underlying commentary in the poem, is one of seeing the happiness in the gloom, the lighter side of the dark, without being explicitly morbid in the process. This poem is key in explaining the feeling of tragedy of an athlete dying in the peak of his or her talent. It shows the feelings associated with the accomplishments that the athlete takes to his grave is never forgotten because the glory of his endeavors weren’t given time to diminish before the athlete passed on. This poem can be seen as an ironically critical view of continuing life even after a person’s glory years have long since faded. Housman seems to be making a social commentary that life is great and wonderful when you are young and in your prime, but later, life becomes tiresome and your glory fades as your body disintegrates. The author does not appear to truly believe that it is beneficial for athletes to parish in their prime of athleticism, but rather understands that it is hard for people with such accomplishments early in their lives to grow old and lose what they had worked so hard to gain as young people. Growing old means losing your magnificence, a hard process to undergo for highly accomplished individuals.
While the writer shows this social commentary about the pities of growing old, readers do not take this poem to mean that life is only good if you are able to die in your glory days. It is an underlying irony that the author shows life as amazing in the peak moments of life and better to be ended during these times of glory. It is a sad truth that magnificence achieved during childhood is not glory that follows you into old age, but all that remains are the memories of greatness and rusty trophies that have no meaning. The author tries to capture this loss of greatness by showing the accomplishments of an athlete who died in his prime overcoming his “name d[ying] before the man” (line 20). The reader feels the sadness of the poem but can also understand that growing old can also be a terrible depression to one of such accomplishment, and therefore death can seem to be a blessing.
While this poem doesn’t show an obvious irony or commentary on society, the underlying message is one of morbid realization. Housman wants the reader to understand that while he does not believe that early deaths are something to be celebrating, in a world where accomplishments are prized above all else, early death means an athlete will never “see the record cut” or feel the decline of his glory. It is ironic that a poem that seems so tragic in theme—with the death of a young person—really is commenting that old age takes glory from those who deserve to remember glory for their whole lives. This robbery of feelings is even more tragic, according to this poem, than the loss of life. Death is the simple irony of humanity that saves glory forever but takes life with it (651).

Faults are Pain

The most intriguing part of the play fences, is how Rose attempts to overlook Troy's faults. This is interesting because the faults seem to be so heavy and irritating, and yet she stays with her husband throughout and even accepts those faults that most people would find horrible.

The fault of not caring for his children in a traditional sense would set most wives and mothers to despise and leave their husbands. Rose knew full well that Troy was not fatherly to his son from previously in his life: Lyons. Troy only thinks of his son as a thing that comes and takes money from him and not as a human to be loved by his father. Troy rejects his son as a burden and a parasite rather than accepting that it is his kin and taking responsibility for his son. We see how Troy feels about Lyons when he talks about the fact that Lyon’s mother raised him apart from Troy and that made them separate, not the fact that Troy did not try to be a part of his son’s life. Rose knows this fault but still tries to have a normal family with Troy, even bearing a son to him. Troy acts in the same manner towards Cory as he does with Lyons; treating him as a burden and something to be scolded. Troy does not have a proper capacity to be a father, and even with knowledge of this, Rose lives with this man and tries to create an acceptable family with him as well.

Even when Troy is caught with another woman, having cheated on Rose, she stays with him. Though their marriage is ruined and Rose is raising a baby girl that is not her own, she never leaves her faulted husband and continues to try to create a descent household with him. Though we see in the final scene of the play that their relationship was never real and happy again, they were still together and Rose was still loyal to Troy. Rose acknowledges that he husband has this fault and will never forgive him for ruining their household with his sneaking about and his promiscuity, but she stays loyal to him and his household even though their marriage is, in effect, ruined. This loyalty shows that Rose understands that man is inherently faulted and can accept her husbands faults even though they are great in number and in strength.

When the play says that Rose “recognizes Troy’s spirit as a fine and illuminating one and she either ignores or forgives his faults, only some of which she recognizes” I knew I would need to be mindful of the fact that Troy has significant faults. By the end of the play I believe that his faults are unforgettable and unforgivable but Rose is a bigger person and protects her family and her household by allowing these faults because she loves Troy. She may be greatly distraught by the greatness with which these faults affected her but she is more concerned with the visual aspect of having a family then with being content with her husband. The family was never the same after Rose finally admitted that her husband was greatly faulted (538).

Behind the Scene

SCENE IV. The Queen's closet.

Enter QUEEN Gertrude and POLONIUS

LORD POLONIUS

He will come straight. Look you lay home to him:
Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with,
And that your grace hath screen'd and stood between
Much heat and him. I'll sconce me even here.
Pray you, be round with him.

Speaking strongly in order to make the queen understand what she must do. He is overstepping his bounds in ordering the Queen around but she is at a loss for how to handle the situation so he is trying to assist. As he speaks, he is motioning himself to leave.

HAMLET

[Within] Mother, mother, mother!

Almost in an angry and demanding tone he is yelling for his mother who has called on him.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

I'll warrant you,
Fear me not: withdraw, I hear him coming.

Gertrude wants strength and for Polonius to trust her. She gestures for him to hide.

POLONIUS hides behind the arras

Enter HAMLET

HAMLET

Now, mother, what's the matter?
Hamlet is annoyed with having been called upon, knowing that with her alone he will not be able to hold his tongue any longer. He speaks in an angry and rushed tone in order to convey his feelings of annoyance at her.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.

She is speaking aboout his step-father and uncle, the King. This is not so much as meant as an insult as Hamlet takes it, but she is being demanding, in sense. She wants her son to understand the place that he must take in the family and she is forceful at this point.

HAMLET

Mother, you have my father much offended.

Hamlet means his true father, the former king. He is taking offense to the comment of his mother and turning the comment onto herself. He is similarly forceful in his flipping of words, getting angry as his mother speaks. His anger has pent up against his mother and what he has wanted to say to her will not be held back much longer.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.

Gertrude is seemingly hurt but still attempting to retain control over her son. She is confused as to how she should approach the situation and it trying to remain in control of her son who has, in the minds of most, gone mad.

HAMLET

Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.

Hamlet is trying to force her to understand all that he wants to say without letting it out quite yet. He is quick in his words as he as always been but he is also acting openly disrespectful to his mother, the Queen. This shows a slight change in his reactions openly to her when he and she are alone rather than being in public. He is accusatory.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Why, how now, Hamlet!

Hurt and confused, Gertrude is becoming more angry and more concerned about her position of power.

HAMLET

What's the matter now?

Hamlet is tiring of the fake face that she and the others who know the truth have put on. He wishes to burst out in anger at his mother at this point and is still attempting to be accusatory but acts as though he does not know why she is hurt by his comments.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Have you forgot me?

Concerned for his son and for her relationship, she is hurt and searching for answers from him in hopes to cure her son and to not reveal the truth of the situation between herself and the King. She would be gesturing to herself, probably to her heart as if she had been enduring a great pain, but it is feigned.

HAMLET

No, by the rood, not so:
You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife;
And--would it were not so!--you are my mother.

Hamlet is finally letting go of the guard of his tongue. He wants his mother to know what he truly thinks of her and is gaining anger every moment. He wants to cause daggers in her heart with the words he speaks so that she will feel guilty for the wrong she has committed. He is less accusatory and more comfortable with his words because he is being honest and forthwith. He is squinting at her as if despising that he could be related to such an atrocity.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak.

The Queen wants to get out of the situation and move onto a different conversation. She is uncomfortable and distressed. She was hoping to be in control of the conversation and realizes she has no control over her livid son.

HAMLET

Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge;
You go not till I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you.

He wants his mother to know that he knows all and will not let her leave until she is aware of all he knows about her. He is tired of holding his tongue and will let her know how he feels about her. He ispushing her back into her seat and forcing her to bear what he has to tell her.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me?
Help, help, ho!

The Queen is at this moment afraid for her life and believes that she may be killed by her son. She is frantic and looking for a way out but is not in the proper mind set to know what to do. Hamlet must be coming at her in a threatening way that is frightening her greatly.


LORD POLONIUS

[Behind] What, ho! help, help, help!

Polonius constantly wants to save the day and be a snitch and his reaction of trying to save the Queen and misinterpreting what Hamlet is doing, he gives himself away. With this reaction we would see him stepping out from behind the tapestry frantically to try to stop Hamlet.

HAMLET

[Drawing] How now! a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!

Makes a pass through the arras

Hamlet, expecting the person behind the curtain to be the King, reacts out of his blind anger and need for revenge and attacks Polonius with his dagger. He shoves the dagger through the tapestry into Polonius before he realizes his mistake. Hamlet is angry and spontaneous at this point and so worked up that he is not thinking entirely rationally.

LORD POLONIUS

[Behind] O, I am slain!

Falls and dies
Grabbing the spot where he has been stabbed, Polonius falls to the ground and dies.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

O me, what hast thou done?

Terrified at the act of her son, she rushes over to the fallen man is shock. She asks Hamlet in a trembling voice, fearful of the maniacal nature of her son.

HAMLET

Nay, I know not:
Is it the king?

Hamlet is hopeful that he has finally fulfilled his task. He assumed wrongly that the man behind the curtain was the King. He is terrified as well but he is almost excited to find out if he has finally finished his task of revenge. Hamlet is rushing over towards the body as well to find out who he has killed

QUEEN GERTRUDE

O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!

Upset over the recent event, Gertrude is almost in tears with terror over the occurrence. She is by the body, looking terrified at the murderer, her son, Hamlet.

HAMLET

A bloody deed! almost as bad, good mother,
As kill a king, and marry with his brother.

Finally able to fully accuse his mother of her treachery, he takes this bloody moment to create a recollection of an even bloodier moment. He is glad to get this off of his chest and onto the guilt of his mother's chest. Hamlet is waving his hands during the accusation to show his full anger and knowledge of the situation. His tone of voice is angering and accusing.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

As kill a king!

Terrified that the secret has been discovered and hoping that she has heard him wrong.
The Queen has a shocked look on her face and her voice is angry and defensive.

HAMLET

Ay, lady, 'twas my word.

Lifts up the array and discovers POLONIUS

Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
I took thee for thy better: take thy fortune;
Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger.
Leave wringing of your hands: peace!
Hamlet turns to speak to his mother now:
sit you down,
And let me wring your heart; for so I shall,
If it be made of penetrable stuff,
If damned custom have not brass'd it so
That it is proof and bulwark against sense.

Shocked at who the person he killed truly was, Hamlet does not act remorseful for his rash action. He believes Polonius to have been interfering and to have been caught in the middle of a battle that was not his own. Hamlet is almost angry at the fact that he was being watched and that people are crazy enough to meddle in matters that are not of concern to them. Hamlet is growing upset that he has not fulfilled the need for revenge and begins to think about his next move. He is staring at the body and contemplating at the same time.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

What have I done, that thou darest wag thy tongue
In noise so rude against me?

Coming to the realization that Hamlet is personally accusing her of her crimes, she takes a defensive tone and begins to attack Hamlet's words. She is growing cruel in her tone and angry because she is afraid. The Queen is shaking her arms at her son in her anguish and frustration.

HAMLET

Such an act
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty,
Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose
From the fair forehead of an innocent love
And sets a blister there, makes marriage-vows
As false as dicers' oaths: O, such a deed
As from the body of contraction plucks
The very soul, and sweet religion makes
A rhapsody of words: heaven's face doth glow:
Yea, this solidity and compound mass,
With tristful visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act.

Angry and vengeful, Hamlet tells his true feelings toward his mother. He is ashamed of her faults nad dispises her decisions and wants her to know. He is being forceful and rude toawrds his mother, coming into her mind with his word and closer to her face as he speaks. He is gesturing maniacally in his unrestrained anger.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Ay me, what act,
That roars so loud, and thunders in the index?
Still confused as to her situation and the act of which Hamlet describes, Gertrude, in a begging tone, asks this of Hamlet.

HAMLET

Look here, upon this picture, and on this,
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
See, what a grace was seated on this brow;
Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself;
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;
A station like the herald Mercury
New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;
A combination and a form indeed,
Where every god did seem to set his seal,
To give the world assurance of a man:
This was your husband. Look you now, what follows:
Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ear,
Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes? Hamlet is gesturing to the two pictures of both his father and his uncle. He is angrily trying to make his mother understand what a grave mistake she has made. Hamlet is cold and stabbing in his tone of voice.
Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,
And batten on this moor? Ha! have you eyes?
You cannot call it love; for at your age
The hey-day in the blood is tame, it's humble,
And waits upon the judgment: and what judgment
Would step from this to this? Sense, sure, you have,
Else could you not have motion; but sure, that sense
Is apoplex'd; for madness would not err,
Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thrall'd
But it reserved some quantity of choice,
To serve in such a difference. What devil was't
That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind?
Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,
Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,
Or but a sickly part of one true sense
Could not so mope. Hamlet is disgusted by the dramtic difference between his father and his uncle and dares his mother to ignore it and forces her to see it. As Hamlet speaks, Gertrude slowly falls into a depression fueled by the shame of understanding. She is hiding her face and looking frightened.
O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell,
If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones,
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,
And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame
When the compulsive ardour gives the charge,
Since frost itself as actively doth burn
And reason panders will.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

O Hamlet, speak no more:
Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul;
And there I see such black and grained spots
As will not leave their tinct.

Gertrude is mornful and ashamed of her actions, just as Hamlet wished. She begins greaving and putting her hands onto her face to hide her shame. Pleading with him to leave her alone, she motions for him to cease speaking on the matter.

HAMLET

Nay, but to live
In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,
Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love
Over the nasty sty,--

Hamlet, still close to his mother's face, continues his rant. He is now rolling with his words, everything suppressed is coming out and he is beginning to feel that weight lifted off of his shoulders as he yells at her.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

O, speak to me no more;
These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears;
No more, sweet Hamlet!

The Queen covers her ears in desperation, hoping that nothing more will leave his lips. She is in pain now because of her enormous shame that she can not rid herself of.

HAMLET

A murderer and a villain;
A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe
Of your precedent lord; a vice of kings;
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole,
And put it in his pocket!

Accusatory again, Hamlet wants to be sure of ther person she is with now, and of the pain she has caused the family in her wrong-doings. He is angry and dispising of the very words that leave his mouth because to him, the words have taken over his entire life since he learned of them. He is gesturing wildly in order to convey the words and the anger with his hands as well.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

No more!

She is pleading with her son because her weak nature can not take the pain he is currently inflicting on her.

HAMLET

A king of shreds and patches,--

Enter Ghost
Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings,
You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure?
Startled by the apparition, Hamlet speaks to the ghost.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Alas, he's mad!

Gertrude can not see the ghost and therefore only can see that Hamlet is speaking to thin air. She is confused by this moment and exclaims to the room that this is crazy in nature. She does not understand why her son is acting so strangely.

HAMLET

Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by
The important acting of your dread command? O, say!

Speaking still to the ghost, Hamlet realizes that he has not yet completed his task. He is looking in a direction that is away from his mother, but the ghost can not be seen.

Ghost

Do not forget: this visitation
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
But, look, amazement on thy mother sits:
O, step between her and her fighting soul:
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works:
Speak to her, Hamlet.

He is speaking calmly yet in a commanding tone. The ghost controls the room and the situation, though he can only be seen my one person. The ghost gestures towards Hamlets mother.

HAMLET

How is it with you, lady?

Hamlet asks her obediently, also as calmly as if they had not been fighting and as if he were not crazy.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Alas, how is't with you,
That you do bend your eye on vacancy
And with the incorporal air do hold discourse?
Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep;
And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm,
Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,
Starts up, and stands on end. O gentle son,
Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper
Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look?

The Queen is asking her son questions tentatively because she can not figure out what he is talking to. She looks around the room and at his skeptically, not seeing any objects to which he may be speaking. She is concerned and cautious in her tone of voice, unsure about the situation in which she is a part.

HAMLET

On him, on him! Look you, how pale he glares!
His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones,
Would make them capable. Do not look upon me;
Lest with this piteous action you convert
My stern effects: then what I have to do
Will want true colour; tears perchance for blood.

In almost a mocking tone he replys to his mother as though his answer is quite obvious. Hamlet is pointing to the spot in which he sees the ghost, despretly gesturing to this place.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

To whom do you speak this?

Her words and tone of voice are cautious, trying to understand.

HAMLET

Do you see nothing there?

Confused by the difference of seeing ths ghost this time and last time, where last time everyone could see the figure. Hamlet looks at the ghost and then at his mother hoping to understand why she can not see the figure he sees so clearly.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Nothing at all; yet all that is I see.

Gertrude is trying to stay calm and to be honest with her son. She thinks her son to have gone mad by this moment and can not understand what has happened to him.

HAMLET

Nor did you nothing hear?

Confused once again, Hamlet tests how much of the situation Gertrude can possibly grasp without seeing or hearing the ghost. He understand that he may look crazy talking to something that is not there and wants to test how Gertrude is reacting to the strange situation.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

No, nothing but ourselves.

She is highly concerned with this occurrence and does not understand fully what is happening. SHe has a worried look on her fce as she and Hamlet stare at each other and around the room.

HAMLET

Why, look you there! look, how it steals away!
My father, in his habit as he lived!
Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal!

Hamlet is pointing frantically at the ghost in hopes that his mother soon sees it. He is despret for her to see and understand what he has been going through for some time now. He is frustrated by the fact that he truly looks as though he is crazy at this point.

Exit Ghost

QUEEN GERTRUDE

This the very coinage of your brain:
This bodiless creation ecstasy
Is very cunning in.

Gertrude wants Hamlet to understand the madness that he possesses. She is concerened for the well being of his son. As she speaks, she walks towards him in a motherly manner trying to make him understand what he thinks he sees that she can not see.

HAMLET

Ecstasy!
My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time,
And makes as healthful music: it is not madness
That I have utter'd: bring me to the test,
And I the matter will re-word; which madness
Would gambol from. He grabs his own arm as to show her the pulse that is with in him. Mother, for love of grace,
Lay not that mattering unction to your soul,
That not your trespass, but my madness speaks:
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,
Whilst rank corruption, mining all within,
Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven;
Repent what's past; avoid what is to come;
And do not spread the compost on the weeds,
To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue;
For in the fatness of these pursy times
Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg,
Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good.

Hamlet is pleaing with his mother now. He knows he loves her even while he is angry at her actions. He is done chastising her for the moment and is asking rather than demanding from her. He gets closer to his mother in order to speak to her more rationally.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.

She is in pain from the guilt she retains and is even more hurt that her own son is calling the pain out from inside her to be shown. SHe grabs her chest as if to show the heavy pain she feels.

HAMLET

O, throw away the worser part of it,
And live the purer with the other half.
Good night: but go not to mine uncle's bed;
Assume a virtue, if you have it not.
That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,
Of habits devil, is angel yet in this,
That to the use of actions fair and good
He likewise gives a frock or livery,
That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night,
And that shall lend a kind of easiness
To the next abstinence: the next more easy;
For use almost can change the stamp of nature,
And either [ ] the devil, or throw him out
With wondrous potency. Once more, good night:
And when you are desirous to be bless'd,
I'll blessing beg of you. For this same lord,

Pointing to POLONIUS
I do repent: but heaven hath pleased it so,
To punish me with this and this with me,
That I must be their scourge and minister.
I will bestow him, and will answer well
The death I gave him. So, again, good night.
I must be cruel, only to be kind:
Thus bad begins and worse remains behind.
One word more, good lady.

He is bidding her goodnight and gesturing that he must leave, but wants to be sure that his point has not only gotten across but that she understands the extent of hte pain she has caused with her decisions. He edges nearer to her in order to show his love for her while keeping enough distance to retain his angry state of mind.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

What shall I do?
Honestly weak at heart and at mind, the Queen can not think for herself because of the burden that Hamlet has placed in her face. She is beggin him to help her.

HAMLET

Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:
Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed;
Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his mouse;
And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses,
Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers,
Make you to ravel all this matter out,
That I essentially am not in madness,
But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him know;
For who, that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise,
Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib,
Such dear concernings hide? who would do so?
No, in despite of sense and secrecy,
Unpeg the basket on the house's top.
Let the birds fly, and, like the famous ape,
To try conclusions, in the basket creep,
And break your own neck down.

He is calm and collected and hoping that the Queen will understand and follow his wishes. He is entreating her to be a good person and to listen to him by being calmer than before and acting as if he is her son rather than a person destined to harm her.

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Be thou assured, if words be made of breath,
And breath of life, I have no life to breathe
What thou hast said to me.

She trusts him and hopes he can trust her. Her pain has overcome her and she only wants to make the pain subside. She is near to him and touches him gently as if to physically give him her trust.

Power corrupts, understanding rebuilds

As a leader, there is much to consider when creating a law or a standing for an entire society or country. The decision made must benefit the people beneath you and must also ensure your leadership is continual, especially in the case of a king. In the case of Creon, a decision must be made about whether the law or the moral code has a greater standing within the society that he rules.
At the beginning of the play, the reader dislikes the power role of Creon because he seems a heartless and domineering character rather than a kind and helpful king. This view point makes the reader more easily understand Antigone’s point of view and convinces the reader that moral obligation is much more important than legal obligation. If a reader were to step back and understand the trap into which he or she fell by convincing his or her self that moral defiance of a law is always in the right, the reader would begin to see that Creon is simply acting as a leader with a difficult decision. It is not until we fully view Creon’s struggle between morals and enforcement of his own laws does the reader understand the position in which the king has placed himself. It is important to the reader that there is an understanding of both sides so that the attitude change of Creon seems more human. As Creon sees the error in his law and understands that he must crush his own stubborn pride in order to do the right thing for his kingdom and for Antigone, the reader begins to pity the uncomfortable situation that the conflict between moral right and enforced law has created for Creon. At the beginning of the play we place Antigone on a pedestal as a symbol of moral obligation and rightful disregard for an unfair law, but as the play progresses, we see Creon as another inflicted character, not simply an antagonist to Antigone’s morality. The change in heart that Creon experiences between creating a law while punishing Antigone for breaking it and realizing that his law was against the god’s and human nature shows the reader that even a human with so much power and pride is simply that, a human. Human’s are fallible and mistaken much of the time, but what makes someone a good person is realizing the wrongs he or she has committed and attempting to right these wrongs. Creon does try to take back what he has done, but the deed being already committed; his punishment is the loss of his loved ones.
Throughout the beginning of the story, everyone can see Creon as the antagonist and the villain, but as the story progresses, I believe that Creon becomes a second protagonist and his own conflict between retaining power and admitting a wrong-doing becomes his antagonist. Because at the end of the play we see the world through the eyes of Creon, we begin to understand his struggles and to pity the decision he has to make, not because of the moral constraints of the situation but because the reader comes to terms with the fact that a man of his position is only human and did realize that he was wrong. His realization gives us hope that humans are inherently good and can overcome their stubborn pride to make things that were wrong turn right (567).

Pesty Problems

In bizarre situations, one of the most interesting pieces to look into is how different people react to the same situation. In the story, “Metamorphosis,” each character show has a completely different reaction to the fact that Gregor is truly a giant insect.
The most intriguing reaction is that of Gregor himself. Rather than having a typical reaction of “Oh my goodness, I am a giant bug!” he is more concerned about getting to work on time and the fact that his family needs his money. This is interesting because throughout the story, we do not often see Gregor contemplate why he has transformed into an insect. We also do not see him attempt to fix or understand the unusual situation of his recently acquired “insectly” disease. His calmness and acceptance of the situation without worries of how or why is surprising to the reader and creates a setting of a character’s understanding that seems unknown to the reader throughout the story. It is a creepy sight that the reader understands as we watch Gregor worry very little about his unsightly transformation, and the reader almost sees him as a personified insect rather than an actual giant insect. While Gregor reacts quite strangely, others react much more naturally to the abnormal situation.
The office manager who comes to see Gregor for his missing the early train reacts quite naturally to the situation, and the author sees how abnormal Gregor’s reaction truly is. The man from the office at first seems accusing toward Gregor for being in bed and for being late to work but once the door opens; as the man retreats from the giant insect he formerly knew as Gregor, we understand the intensity of the insect situation. If the business man had been more calm and collected about the situation, it would seem that in the society that the story takes place, such transformations are common. Through this man, the reader realizes that this metamorphosis has not occurred as a normality, as if in a different world, but it has occurred in the same world that we live in, making the transformation be an understandable tragedy. The office worker shows to the reader that while Gregor does not seem to realize the sad truth of his situation; he no longer has a normal life and is forever burdened.
Seeing two completely different reactions to the same situation gives the reader the ability to make different assumptions about the tragedy and hilarity of the insect situation. While typically giant pests would be a grand problem for a household, Gregor does no seem to realize the severity of his condition and carries on his days thinking more about other problems than his self. Typically this should seem selfless, but his avoidance of the problem makes him only seem to the reader like more or a lowly and buggy person. Comparing the two different people’s reactions to the same situation, the reader can identify that this problem of being a giant insect is indeed abnormal and should be disheartening to the only bread-winner of a family. This “illness” will keep the family from bringing in money as well as give an embarrassment of having a giant insect as a family member. This story is full of differing opinions on the same situation, one which seems so unlikely that it is almost hard for the reader to truly comprehend the emotional severity the change would have of Gregor’s emotions without adding a little of his or her own humor (581).

poety of the random sort

We live in deeds . . .
WE live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.
And he whose heart beats quickest lives the longest:
Lives in one hour more than in years do some
Whose fat blood sleeps as it slips along their veins.
Life's but a means unto an end; that end,
Beginning, mean, and end to all things -- God.
The dead have all the glory of the world.

Philip James Bailey




Paper, Paint, and Crayons

Eighteen years, a thousand fears,
Yet countless joyful times.
A tiny baby smiles just once,
Her Daddy's heart it binds.

A toddler cries with tearful eyes,
That only Mom can dry.
The little girl so cute in pink
Decides what clothes she'll try.

Her favorite pastime soon becomes
All paper, paint, and crayons.
Some years go by, she's growing fast,
No longer holds our hands.

She struggles some along the way,
We hope she feels our love.
The strength she needs takes all she has,
She's all we're thinking of.

The sun breaks through, she finds her way,
The clouds begin to clear.
And every day that passes now,
Each one we hold so dear.

She'll leave us soon to spread her wings,
A dream or two to find.
We know her life's forever bound
To these roots she leaves behind.

We hope she knows how proud we are,
How deep our love resides.
How much we've learned along the way,
Seeing through our child's eyes.

The paper, paint, and crayons
Through graduation years,
Will always be our most precious ones,
Despite the thousand fears

Margaret Alliet



Sugar And Spice And Everything Nice
by JOY 14

I looked at her to see
mascara running down the sides of her face
Mixing with a lot of tears
Of frustration mostly

She glanced at me through tear glass eyes
Like a rain showered wind shield without window wipers
Stopping to take my hand
playing with my fingers
carefully fingering my rings

Then, something happened that surprised me
She smiled at me
A little smile
On her little face
What could I do but
Just smile back.

I took a tissue and wiped up the rain,
took her hand and walked with her to the playground
where she gladly played for hours on the swings

I sat and watched
perched
on slanted monkey bars
and knew better than to leave my makeup just laying around.

Goodbye Gramps
by Melissa
Today something happened that I thought never would.
I wish it could be undone, oh, if it only could.

I realize the memories I've made will be all there is.
My grandfather's memories, mine and his.

See, my grandfather passed away today and will never be back.
And now it's moments with him that I will sadly lack.

He won't be here to see me get my license or my car.
See me go to prom or graduate, because he is so far.

But I guess he's in a better place.
He resides in Heaven, and is surrounded by God's grace.

Now he can watch over me throughout the night and day.
And I can pretend that he's not really away.

He can stay with me in a place inside my heart.
And of me, he can still be a part.


Growing Up
© By Melissa S. Rawls

Life is so easy
when you are young.
When kisses heal boo-boos
and lullabies are sung.
It seemed that life could go on for years,
as long as the nightlight was there
to quiet our fears.
Why does growing up
have to be so hard?
When did the world become
bigger than our own back yard?
There is no more recess
to stop the stress of the school day.
There are no more falling stars
that can take our worries away.
Decisions are more complicated
now that we are grown,
why cant we go back
to when life was our own?

Tragic Relations

As we progress in our lives, we find that many things that have seemed sure and comfortable for us in our pasts have been proven to be lies and should only have been taken for face value. This much is true in the life of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy as shown by his family and friend’s reactions to his death.
The friendships of Ivan Ilych during his life seemed to have been long-lasting and typical, but as we read we see that these “friendships” are much less than close and numerous. Upon hearing of their so-called friend’s tragic death, rather than feeling pity and sorrow, his friends are first to feel that it is better he died than they, which seems a shallow feeling for people who had been his “friends” since childhood (18). Not only do they feel no depths of sympathy, but the friends also find it a monotonous and annoying task to see to going to the funeral and giving their condolences to the wife. It is as though the author is making a statement that the middle class only has exterior couth, on order to be looked upon as good people by those above them. The author shows that one of the great problems with society in this story is that people of this class only feel for others exteriorly, and are more concerned about their own lives than the lives of those who claim to be close to them. Even Ivan’s own wife is more concerned about her monetary gain from the death of her husband than the actual loss. The whole society seems to take no pity on others and simply concerns itself with individual affairs. This is portrayed as almost tragic in the story because we, as readers, see, through the wife’s eyes, the suffering and pain of Ivan Ilych but his pain is taken as a pain of her own rather than a pain of his. While, in a manner, it is Ivan Ilych that lived his life for others and contributed little to society, it is “terrible” that the end of his life meant only an annoyance to those who were supposedly close to him (55). The visual of friends being frustrated by the death of a life-long friend rather than troubled by the loss shows the reader how Ivan Ilych pushed away those nearest to him by conforming to society and adding nothing as well as makes a statement that human beings are innately selfish.
This story is one of terrible truths about the detachedness of society and the problems with conforming to what is expected of you and contributing nothing to the society around you. It is tragic that something as unfortunate as death can reveal the truths of false friendships and relationships. While these two interactions with those around you seem long-lasting and constant, friendships and relations change in an instant and sometimes things only as tragic as death can prove the truth of the relationship. While Ivan Ilych died before completely realizing the tragedy his life had become, the reader can see that his eminent coming to reality was one of complete change in not only lifestyle and heath but of the realization that both his family and friends did not hold him in as high a regard as he would have expected and hoped (559).

Love Bites

The relationships and intimate relations that Florentino Ariza partakes in play a large part in the theme of the novel because it shows how physical love is only a temporary solution to a broken heart.
Young Florentino, at a naïve part in his early life swore his virginity to be taken only by his true love, Fermina Daza; however, he quickly learns that promiscuity can temporarily curb his pain. Though there are many women in Florentino’s life, 622 to be more precise, there are only a few that are significant enough in his formation as a character to be mentioned in the novel. The first of these women has no name or face to be known, but she is the one who took Florentino’s naivety away and created a man disloyal to even his own promises. This began the promiscuity of Florentino that encompassed his whole life. It is very important to the reader that this women is to remain nameless and faceless because it shows that the relations that Florentino will partake in from this moment on will be solely physical for the most part and hopelessly loveless. Her anonymousness brings the reader to comprehend that these physical relationships are ephemeral and unimportant to the character but they seem to temporarily relieve his life-long need for Fermina so that he can ease his pain in daily life. While his naivety was lost, his pain was seemingly eased, but the reader understands that these relationships are fleeting and unimportant in the long stretch of Florentino’s life.
In contrast, there was one relationship that did affect Florentino’s love life that was not in the least part promiscuous, and this may be the reason why the relationship was beneficial for Florentino. Leona Cassiani became a very influential woman in Florentino Ariza’s life for many reasons. She was one of the only women other than Fermina Daza that Florentino began to have true romantic feelings for. This may stem from the fact that Leona was one of Florentino’s only friends and he felt comfortable around her and was able to talk to her. Another reason she was very important in his life is because she is the only woman that he had feelings for which whom he never laid in bed. This is significant because the reader can see that physical relationships are not what attract Florentino to women, it is the personality and love that Florentino needs women for but he tends to get into bed with women regularly in order to save his true love for a woman who does not love him for his skills in bed. Leona is a demonstration to the reader that Florentino truly is a romantic, and that, while he does partake in promiscuous activities, his internal goal is to strive for a true love with a person that is his friend and emotional partner rather than a play thing to take to bed.
The women portrayed in the novel bring light to the truth behind the character we readers know as Florentino Ariza. From these women we learn that he is sensitive and romantic but yearning for a way to curb the pain of a heart break that was never cured. While he seems to trudge along every day in order to win the heart of his one true love, he partakes in promiscuous activities in order to forget his love as well. In a sence this seems ironic but mentally, the reader can see into the mind of a lovesick martyr-of-a-man who simply wants to hide his pain or overcome it by winning the one he loves. Florentino is a true romantic who only partakes in physical love to ease the pain that he has been experiencing for such a long period of time (630).

Cause and Effect of Women

Fermina Daza, in the novel Love in the Time of Cholera, can often be seen as the stereotypical woman. Her quick temper, undying love, changing mood, and using of her lover for personal amusement are all qualities that the stereotypical, confusing woman possesses and that are all shown through the character of Fermina Daza. While the reader comes to love this character as an interesting person, her stereotypical female attributes lead the reader to a further understanding of what love is to many females and the power that such a woman has over the males in her life.
Many of the frustrations in the marriage of Fermina Daza and Dr. Urbino stem from Fermina Daza’s uncontrollably quick temper which stand to explain how women can be immensely infuriating to men in times of argument. The scene where Fermina Daza took her anger out on her husband for reminding her of her forgetful ness and exaggerating the time in the process, caused a simple issue over whether there was or was not soap to be a great rift in their marriage. Because Fermina Daza was determined to be proven correct and would not back down, knowing she was fully wrong, she shows the unchangeable stubbornness that women possess. She uses this power to make her husband miserable and therefore his love for her overpowers his frustration. During this argument, the reader sees how frustrating women can truly be and how two sided their thoughts commonly are. Though it is obvious she loves her husband, her will power and anger get in the way of her love and she would rather control her husband than control her emotions, as many women seem to do. While it is infuriating to men to be put through the metaphorical washing machine in order to make up with the one they love, women consistently force men to compromise because women know the power love has over their husbands and lovers.
When a reader can see the truth behind a woman’s mind as she seems to fall in love but her mood and mind consistently changes, the reader can understand a man’s frustration and obsession with love and irritation with his lover. While Fermina plays with the heart of her lover, Florentino, thinking that she loves him more than anything in the world and knowing that all she needs is to marry things man, she pulls his heart and his emotions closer to her own. Even when a year and a great distance separated the two, their adolescent love kept them from being far apart. But at the moment when the two can legitimately be together and married, Fermina realizes, as it seems many women do, that she was in love with the idea of love and the idea of having an admirer, not necessarily in love with the man himself. Her obsession with adolescent love and her toying with a man in order to fulfill her own naive emotional needs sends Florentino into a state of irrevocable love for the woman he fell so madly for from the beginning. Her hops and leading aspirations for their future together never left his mind and he never recovered that part of his heart that he had lost. The mood change and feeling change of selfish women can terrorize a man’s life forever, though Fermina never intended this to be the case, she destroyed his love life forever.
Women are so highly influential in the lives of men that they can overpower men’s emotions and toy with heir hearts. Women have mood changes, mind changes and fluctuated feelings that lead men into falling for them and lead them into an irreversible trap known as love that even the conniving woman did not understand she was making. While these traps cause many men pain, they also cause turmoil and confusion in the mind of women who commonly do not even know the disasters they are causing, as in the case of Fermina (662).

Brotherly Pain

In the novel, The Sound and the Fury, the pride of the family in conjunction with the brothers’ love for their sister tears the family apart. Each of the characters in the story have many internal, mental issues with their positions in their family which are only heightened as a result of Caddy’s promiscuity. Both Benjy and Quentin suffer after Caddy lost her virginity because their love for their sister tears them each apart mentally, knowing that Caddy has changed and that they no longer can control the occurrences in her life.

Caddy’s promiscuity effects Benjy greatly and his reaction to her loss of virginity shows that Caddy’s actions changed the lives of those around her. When Caddy first comes into the house after she had been deflowered, Benjy senses that she has been with a boy and attempts to make her cleanse herself of her sins by washing them off as she had done before. Though, in his mind, this seems the sensible way to redeem herself, for Caddy the cleansing is not a possibility and she is aware that she is too far-gone from personal reconciliation. Benjy throws a fit that Caddy will not give herself completely to him anymore, and though he does not fully understand Caddy’s actions, he seems to understand that he can no longer control Caddy’s actions and that he cannot be the only boy in her life any longer. We, as readers, can see that this is the beginning of Caddy abandoning her brother, whom she loved so dearly, and that she will only further isolate him from her life. The next time, chronologically, that the reader can tell that Benjy needs his sister but she is no longer there to support him is when he waits by the golf course, moaning when the golfers say “caddie”. This shows that Benjy still wants to wait by the gate for his beloved Caddy as he did when he was little, because to his adolescent mind, she comes home through the gate. He still hopes that if he is loyal to the sister who treated him so kindly that she will come back to take care of him as she used to. When Caddy lost her virginity, she bean to throw her brother, Benjy, who so idolized her, to secondary importance. This change effected Benjy, and his emotions took over so that Benjy kept trying to bring his sister back, unaware that she would not return to his side.

Caddy’s actions began to deteriorate the mental state of Quentin from the beginning of her changes and slowly, he began to lose all hope for the future. Quentin loved Caddy to the point that he would admit to the world that he had committed incest so that the world would reject them together. He is torn apart because he believes in the morals of the south and that women should be cautious with their bodies. He is proud of his heritage and wants to retain the stature that his family possessed in better times. When Quentin discovers the promiscuity of Caddy, it forces him to convince her that she never loved Dalton Ames and that she can overcome her promiscuity. Even after Quentin has gone back to Harvard, he cannot get his sister out of his mind, as shown when he fights a fellow Harvard student and loses, all to protect the names of sisters everywhere. Quentin tries, and fails to protect his sister from the real world, but realizes that he cannot keep her from something he, himself, does not understand. This realization drives him all the way to suicide because he cannot bear the disgrace of his family and the loss of his truly beloved sister because of her life choices. Caddy’s actions tears him to pieces to the point that death is a better outlet than fretting about every instance that had occurred when Caddy lost her virginity, became pregnant, and married a man she didn’t love in order to cover her pregnancy.

The Compson family is distraught over the choices that Caddy has made, and though they were not wholly normal before her actions, the knowledge of her losing her virginity and becoming pregnant out of wedlock is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Caddy was the finishing moment that tore the family to pieces and put her brothers out of their minds (733).

Caddy as a Postulate

As a reader trudges through the novel, The Sound and the Fury, she must make assumptions or formulate her own theories about the history of the characters. I myself, along with a few of my classmates have a few theories that involve the central character, Caddy, in conjunction with Quentin, the girl, and her marriage. These theories are nothing more than postulates about the novel, but they are scenarios that have intrigued me as details have been added to my understanding of the history of the characters in the novel.
My theorizing began when the female Quentin became a larger part of the story, as she was seen with her boyfriend in the yard by Benjy, which raises many questions about the origin of this young girl. Due to her repulsion from Benjy, I could assume that she was not one of Benjy’s siblings. As I realized that Caddy was no longer in the picture, had been married, and now lived far from the home of Benjy and her family, I started to believe that Quentin was her own child. As we read it seems that our knowledge of Caddy grows. We soon realize that Caddy was experimenting with boys and her body at seventeen years old, and that this made her ashamed to confront Benjy. In the second section of the story, as told by the male Quentin, he notes that she was sick and could not inform anyone. This is where I believe she was pregnant with Quentin, and therefore was going to have an illegitimate child. In the South, and in the timeframe of this novel, illegitimate children were looked down upon, and this would have scared Caddy into rushing into a marriage in order to keep the child from being illegitimate. This theory is one that seems to be collecting evidence as I read further in the novel.
Another reoccurring theme in the novel is the theme of incest, which has many potential outcomes for the family and for Caddy. Caddy’s older brother, Quentin, tells his father that he has committed incest, which sparks concern for the reader. While reading I have come to theorize that Quentin loves his sister very much, as all of the children in the family did, and realized that she was pregnant with an illegitimate child when she confessed to being sick. I think that he lied to his father about the incest in order to protect his sister and her illegitimate child. If he had truly committed incest then the family would be able to cover the illegitimate child as their own because there would be no outside father that needed to be dealt with. This theory is supported by the fact that Quentin lives with the family after Caddy is off married. It seems as though Caddy had the child, claimed it as a product of incest with her brother, and moved on to a new life. This would explain the appearance of the child, Caddy’s abandoning of everything associated with her family, and the family’s hesitation to talk of their daughter after she is gone. This theory, as well, seems to be getting the most support out of the other theories of the family incest as I read further in the novel.
The openness of this novel leaves many occurrences in the family to the imagination. Many theories have been concocted by the readers in the class, and some might be proven true by the end of the novel. Though none of these theories is positively the truth, maybe more evidence will be shown to sway my opinion or to prove4 my theories real (606).

Indesputable Failure

The short story, Shiloh, was intriguing to me because of the concept of marriage and failed relationships. As I read along in the story, I began to almost hope for that Shiloh would cure the marriage because it seems as though the two characters might have a deeper connection that they had forgotten. The ending of the story did not catch me by surprise, but I had hoped for the save marriage so it disheartened me.
As the story progresses, the characters become farther and farther apart from each other to the point that their relationship is destroyed. Once Leroy is finally able to be at home for his wife and to not go out onto the road on a usual basis, Norma Jean tries to get out of the house and keep their relationship distant as she is used to it being. It is as if their relationship had only held together because the two of them lived separate lives and didn’t have to deal with each other on a regular basis. In this way, both of them could be cordial and intrigued by each other because they did not know each other well enough any more to have a true relationship or to argue. As Leroy makes many attempts to get to know his wife better and to progress in their new relationship, the reader begins to feel the fruitlessness of his efforts and almost pities his position. It seems as though Norma Jean does not even want to make an effort to renew their relationship or to make it last with the ownership of the house. She does not want to make the relationship permanent because living with her husband and seeing him on a regular basis makes her realize that she has not lived life because she married so young. As the reader cannot see the thoughts of Norma Jean as we can see the thoughts of Leroy, we get a skewed idea of the patterns of the relationship. It seems as if Leroy is the caring and thoughtful one in the relationship and that he is only trying to make life better for his wife. Once Mabel convinces the couple to go to Shiloh to make their relationship better, the reader sees that there is to be a turning point in the relationship. I, however, believed this turning point would be for the better because of the scene of them both laughing at their own stupidities. From here is seems as though the couple has gotten past their dislikes of each other and are headed to make things work. But Norma Jean’s plans had never changes and the couple was doomed to fail. Norma Jean’s touchiness to the subject of her life at 18 shows that this failure was a long time coming and that, had the two not conceived a son, The relationship never would have been finalized. Because the two have nothing to keep them together, Norma Jean finally ends a relationship that was never meant to be.
This is a story of relationships and discontentedness with life in general. The couple was obviously never completely functional after the death of their son, and because of the work of Leroy. The trigger that set off the complete separation of the married coupe was that Leroy’s accident forced the two to deal with each other on a regular basis which only showed how incompatible and forced the relationship was (575).

Competition Rules All

The short story, Harrison Bergeron, was more focused upon the theme than on the plot or the characters. There are many themes that are prominent to the reader while reading this story and others that are more below the surface. The different themes that surround this horrible distopia of a nation are all a reflection of the loss of individuality and uniqueness.
The background of the story, as we discussed in class, shows that the demand of perfect equality inhibits progress. People in the novel are not able to move past the era in which they live because nobody is allowed to be better or achieve more than any other person. In essence, this is the perfectly politically correct nation. From a modern perspective, this theme of perfect equality and limited competition is a step up from the extreme necessity of political correctness that our nation is pushing at this moment. This is crossing the line of the need to make everyone content with who they are and make the world one in which everyone fits snuggly. Because there is no competition and no one person is better than another due to the handicaps given to them, the world ceases to progress while every one believes they are happy with the correctness imposed upon them.
The theme of a relationship in this egalitarian setting is a theme that lies below the reader’s radar until the story is read multiple times. From what the readers know of George and Hazel, the couple is not actually suited for companionship. It seems as though Hazel has no brain of her own, to the point that she needs no handicap to keep her from over thinking a situation. George, on the other hand, has a severe handicap in order to keep him from thinking rationally because he is naturally highly intelligent. The government is keeping him from being an intellectual in this equal society and he is therefore as unintelligent as his wife. Without his handicap, he would realize that he is much more suited to an intellectual setting than to that of simplicity and forgetfulness. In this sense, everyone in the nation is suited for each other because, if they are all truly equal, no one person is a better match for another and anyone would be able to marry another person just as happily as if they had married their perfect mate. With the knowledge that everyone is the same then there is no hope in looking for a sole mate or need to succeed in life in order to live well. If every person would succeed or fail in the same way because competition is eliminated, the education, progress, and life purpose would cease to exist.
There is also the notion, brought forth by Hazel and Harrison, that people are able to cheat their handicaps and therefore, the seemingly equal society is not always as equal as the people seem to hope. While there is a fine and jail time for removing or not using your handicap, many people would most likely tire of wearing all of the debilitating devices and would often remove their restraints. If this were true, then many people would most likely cheat the system because people are naturally curious creatures who are competitive. While George imagines the prospect of taking off the handicap will bring the society back to a “dark age” where competition rules people, many people most likely attempt to show their true worth while they are in their homes. Therefore, the society is, in body equal, but in mind as unequal as society is meant to be.
Because this story is an explanation of the horrors of true equality, the modern reader can understand where competition is truly a good concept, even when I can harm others. This story was written in the early 1960’s and therefore written by a different generation than my own, but as a modern reader, I can understand the purpose that the themes in the story convey. Competition and inequality are what make a society, a family, and an individual unique. Progress, purpose, and life pondering stop when there is not drive to succeed or punishment for failure. Society needs competition in order to thrive (707).

Indecent Pride

As the story "A&P" progresses, readers find themselves focusing on many different aspects of the scene. The primary aspect that is seen is of the girls in the supermarket, but as we read, our attentions is not on the girls, through they are the main focus, but rather on those surrounding the girls. The theme of monotonous settings and ordinary people--the "sheep" described by John Updike--rule our perspective and divert us from thinking thoroughly about the girls and their place in society. As a reader, I feel that more attention needs to be drawn to the girls themselves and their perspective on the situation in the supermarket.

The setting is the same for all of the characters in the story, but the plot seems to surround the girls in the mind of the narrator. Therefore, we must look at the incentive that the girls must have in entering the supermarket so promiscuously. Sammy comments that “Queenie” seems to be showing the girls how to flaunt themselves and to make themselves the centers of attention. In this way, Queenie is successful; the entire supermarket notices and brings attention to their presence. The prospect of being observed does not go unnoticed by Sammy, who understands that the supermarket is nearly five miles from the beach, and the girls, therefore, had plenty of time to properly dress themselves before entering the store. Also, the reader observes, at the end of the story that they circled the entire supermarket in order to find one item, herring snacks. While they could have been in the supermarket for only moments and made a brief appearance in the store, the girls chose to make a display of themselves and wander through the majority of the aisles in order to retrieve their purchase. The girls seem to enjoy being gawked at and act as though everyone staring at their almost-bare bodies is commonplace for girls such as these.

While this scene, to the modern reader, would seem almost common and uninteresting if the same situation had happened today, the outright disregard for proper dress is a very exciting prospect in this story. This may be because the story was set in the 1950’s and the girls in this time were supposed to be much more proper than these girls seemed to act. There is almost a blend of modernism that is mixed into the monotonous supermarket scene. The girls are not only wearing very little clothing in a public place, but they are wearing 2-piece bathing suits—which are seemingly offensive to Mr. Lengel and force him to confront the customers about their behavior. In this scene, we face the fine line between the modern ideas of the customer’s always being right, and of decency in public places. As a reader, I feel that Mr. Lengel had a right to ask his customers to practice common decency because he knows as well as Sammy does that between the super market and the beach, the girls had plenty of time to put on clothes and make themselves more publicly presentable. He seems to notice that rather than simply shopping as the rest of the sheep do, that the girls are purposefully flaunting their bodies and making themselves the “dynamite” in the store. Because of this obvious tension that the girls create among the employees and the customers, Mr. Lengel has a right to keep his store pure and respectable and to ask the girls to remain decent while in his supermarket.

The scene that the girls create in the supermarket is intriguing through the eyes of Sammy, and the attention of all involved are on this girls, but readers seem to focus more on the people surrounding the girls. Readers are more intrigued by the way that the “sheep” react to Queenie’s whit shoulders and the girls’ bare skin. While the story itself surrounds the girls, the commonality of the store and the setting create more intrigue for the reader than does the blunt indecency of the girls in the supermarket. This is an interesting prospect to see that the intrigue of the reader is different that that of the characters in the story. As readers, we are experiencing the way that Sammy feels toward the freedom the girls have to express them selves and the mundane feeling of the supermarket as a whole. The characters though, have a plot shaped by the unexpected appearance of the indecent girls. John Updike does a good job of creating a scene with almost different plots for the characters than for the reader (762).

Teenage Wasteland

In Teenage Wasteland by Anne Tyler, the narrator shapes the story into a format so that we, as readers, can see the whole picture without fully understanding all of the author’s intentions. The limited omniscience of the narrator leads us to feel specific ways towards the individual characters in the story. Daisy is the only character with whom we have a total connection and, as a result, our perceptions of the story are shaped by her actions and thoughts.

Through the limited omniscience of the narrator we are able to comprehend every aspect of Daisy’s experience in relation to the suffering of her son, Donny. To the reader, Daisy is fully understood and her thoughts, actions, and feelings towards certain situations and people are completely clear to us, the readers. The narrator has a limited view, though, and forces us to miss certain portions of the story. We merely see the actions of the other characters in the story rather than emotions and thoughts as we experience from Daisy. Because of this one-sided view of the story, we are able to make certain judgments about the story as skewed by Daisy. As the story begins, we see Daisy speaking to the principle of the school about Donny’s grades slipping (4). We feel the power of her urge to help her son and to make things better. Her confusion about the way in which she raised her child brings us to pity her situation and to even want to help her, even though it seems Donny would be the one who needs the help. Even as it seems Daisy is growing more confident in her son, he falters again and her loss seems to be our loss as well (8). Because we can not see another person’s perspective on the mounting situation with Donny, we cannot seem to get a connection with the other characters in the book as we do with Daisy.

Even her perspectives on other characters in the story impose upon the perception that we, as readers, get of the characters that are presented. Through the story, Daisy has fluctuating feelings about the way that she feels about Cal. She, at first, is comfortable with placing her extra funs into the hands of an unknown person in order to save her son (33). But as Donny seems to get better in the eyes of his mother, the simple monetary loss is an evident gain to Daisy because she sees her son succeeding by raising confidence. The reader feels the roller coaster of emotions that Daisy feels through the situation with Donny. Since we never see any emotions of any other characters, we can understand where her fluctuations of confidence in the situation begin. Towards Cal, we feel as Daisy does; concerned with the welfare of her son, hopeful that confidence in Cal is confidence in her son, and fearful that she is relying too much on an outside source of which she has no control. Because we cannot see the occurrences in Cal’s house, we understand Daisy’s trepidation towards Cal’s methods and Donny’s advancement in his psychological help. Even when Donny begins to heighten his interest in Cal, we are aware of the origin of Daisy’s hesitation toward Cal’s methods because, just as she does, we have no control or awareness of the happenings or outcome. As the mother of Donny, Daisy feels compelled to stay out of the situation in order to help his self-confidence and inspire trust in her son, but as readers we feel as she does. We feel, through her emotions, the fear of letting a child make his own decisions. Once Donny gets expelled, it is logical to us that Daisy would blame Cal because, as it is to her, we cannot see what had been occurring during the lessons Donny attended. Our lack of ability to comprehend other character’s actions put us in the same situation as is Daisy. We, as readers, are seemingly uncomfortable with the situation that Donny goes through because we are part of Daisy’s mind and are unconnected with any other emotions in the story.

Anne Tyler presents us with a limited omniscient narrator in order to describe emotions rather than a setting. We are able to feel the story rather than simply read it. She gives us a means to feel sorry for and to comprehend Daisy’s actions and to misunderstand the actions and intentions of the other characters. Because the author told the story in such a way, it is closer to home for the reader and evokes emotions rather than simple intrigue, as an omniscient narrator would have. In this way, we are able to interpret the story from a single angle and feel as one of the specific characters feel. This would not have been as possible if the story had been told directly from Daisy because we would have been given room to mistrust her narration. Because the emotions were described by an overseeing narrator, we are able to trust that the feelings presented are the truth and that we are meant to feel as Daisy does throughout the story (857).

Curiously Human

The novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, shows insight into the depths of a child’s true humanity and perspective on life. We, as readers, learn about the world through the eyes of a child who is paranoid and uncomfortable in the world in which he lives because of his autism. His humanity is apparent through his innate fear of the world, which is widely shown through his open likes and dislikes of the world, as well as through is obvious misunderstanding of human nature in general. In a sense, his human traits are highlighted by his eccentric behavior and through his behavior we further understand humans.

Through his eyes we, as readers, see the world through a scope not previously known to our one-dimentional minds. Each person in this world has experienced fear and uncertainty about the unknown and are concerned about our individual paranoia, but never have I experienced fear so explicit and engrained that every detail of the experience seems real. In the novel, the main character invokes his feelings with elaborately detailed desciptions of everything around him. Christopher explains that he does “not like people shouting at [him]. It makes [him] scared that they are going to hit [him] or touch [him] and [he] does not know what is going to happen (Haddon, 4).” Rather than explaining the way he feels in general, the most important part to his story is explaining the way he feels about touch, colors, and numbers. Every person in the world attributes good and bad qualities to certain aspects in life. People have favorite colors and hate certain smells. The aspect of pain versus pleasure that sets Christopher apart from a typical human being who simply feels good or bad by these qualities, is that he forms his mood and decisions around the appearance of certain colors, numbers, and feelings. Through out the novel, Christopher is very specific about his likes and dislikes, such as his hatred for yellow and his love for the color red. He even goes as far as dieing his food red in order to make it more favorable to him. The examination of numbers and colors and specific descriptions that seem minute and unimportant to the majority of the population are brought to central attention by Christopher. Human attributes of dissatisfaction and gratification are displayed in larger view because his personality constraint brings both of these daily notices into central observation so that the reader understand how Christopher’s mind is filled with the most minute details.

Christopher attempts to interpret humans around him in order to gain a fuller understanding of life. He does not understand human beings because they lie, and they express their ideas and feelings through expressions rather than words. The main character embellishes upon human nature by placing it into a realm of misunderstanding. To Christopher’s autistic mind, expressions and moods have no validity, and words are the only sourse of truth and understanding between individuals. Christopher Boone explains how he believes humans are overly complicated by describing why he likes dogs. He says “ You always know what a dog is thinking. It has four moods. Happy, sad, cross and concentrating (Haddon, 3-4).” Because of this alternate perspective on human issues that seem obvious and normal to most of society, reading this novel shows a reader that all people do not think as he or she does, but rather, all people see the world through differently colored lenses. Christopher simply possesses a more defined lens. He even goes as far as drawing different happy faces in order to compare people’s expressions to his paper so that he can verify what their expressions mean. Because of his lack of understanding of human moods and expressions, Christopher listens very closely to words and takes all words to be truth. He cannot understand why people say things that have no place in reality when he cannot even imagine something that has not occurred to him. Because his mind thinks differently from the majority of the world’s minds, through this novel we learn a great deal about the effects of autism on a family and a child.

Every portion of the novel reflects the main character’s feelings and experiences. We, as readers, see through his eyes and feel what he feels because we are told only the portions of the scene most important to him. We see and understand his emotions and pain because, most people understand that humans, in general, are confusing creatures, but most of us accept the human flaws of lying and acceptance of our dislikes where Christopher, avoids all contact with those things of which he loathes. Christopher is a symbol of humanity because he shows the flaws and confusions that humans innately possess (796).

Ask me to Read Again, Please?

When I was very young, I read very little outside of what was assigned in the classroom. This behavior was not for lack of love of books, I enjoyed what I needed to read very much, but rather because I had not yet found a genre that interested me. I had tried to read many different types of books but never had become immersed in the reading. It was not until I decided to follow my Dad’s reading habits did I finally become an avid reader.

When I was about eight years old I began to read the children’s version of the Star Wars series. I then fell in love with science fiction novels and could not put the series down until the seventeenth in the series was over. Soon, I began to expand my reading to different kinds of fiction, which included my all-time favorite, Harry Potter. As I grew into my love of reading I discovered many other types of genres could capture my interest, and that I did not need to stick with science fiction and fantasy novels. I have begun to love murder mysteries since my freshman year under Dr. Allison as well as historical fiction, my new-found joy, under Mr. Martin. I am hoping that as I grow in my love and admiration of books I will be able to find even more genres that intrigue me, but for now I have plenty of novels in which I may immerse myself in order to remain occupied in literature.

Since I have found my love in books, I read quite often, possibly to make up for my lack of reading when I was very young. Typically I read about six books in the summer, and when I have no schoolbooks to occupy my reading time before bed, I am always in the middle of a good, newly released fiction novel. I often prefer novels with higher thinking involved, usually including math and reasoning in order to further understand the ending, but at times I find that a simple comical book can keep my attention for two or three days just as well as any other novel. More often than not, though, novels with little thinking tend to lose my attention more quickly than a bad horror movie and are easily discarded, never to be read again.

My writing style is a bit more sparse. Generally, I write for scholarly purposes, and my best writing is done in those subjects of mathematics or researching. I am a very literal person and writing a research paper, to me, is much more intriguing and a more useful way to use my brain waves. As much as reading fiction is more interesting, in writing, my my brain tends to understand researched material and place it together coherently. At times, I wish I were able to write fiction, but often I am much more useful in a research-oriented setting for my writing needs (492).