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).