Macbeth

Macbeth:
"We can't go on with this plan. The king has just honored me, and I have earned the good opinion of all sorts of people. I want to enjoy these honors while the feeling is fresh and not throw them away so soon.

Lady Macbeth
Was the hope drunk
Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since?
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
At what it did so freely? From this time
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valor
As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that
Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine own esteem,
Letting “I dare not” wait upon “I would, ”
Like the poor cat i' th' adage?

Lady Macbeth

Were you drunk when you seemed so hopeful before? Have you gone to sleep and woken up green and pale in fear of this idea? From now on this is what I'll think of your love. Are you afraid to act the way you desire? Will you take the crown you want so badly, or will you live as a coward, always saying “I can't” after you say “I want to”? You're like the poor cat in the old story.

Macbeth
Prithee, peace:
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none.

Macbeth

Please, stop! I dare to do only what is proper for a man to do. He who dares to do more is not a man at all.

Lady Macbeth

What beast was 't, then,
That made you break this enterprise to me?
When you durst do it, then you were a man;
And to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both.
They have made themselves, and that their fitness now
Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know
How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me.
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums
And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.

Lady Macbeth
If you weren't a man, then what kind of animal were you when you first told me you wanted to do this? When you dared to do it, that's when you were a man. And if you go one step further by doing what you dared to do before, you'll be that much more the man. The time and place weren't right before, but you would have gone ahead with the murder anyhow. Now the time and place are just right, but they're almost too good for you. I have suckled a baby, and I know how sweet it is to love the baby at my breast. But even as the baby was smiling up at me, I would have plucked my nipple out of its mouth and smashed its brains out against a wall if I had sworn to do that the same way you have sworn to do this."

This quote is a tad extensive, but it beautifully portrays one of the main themes within the play Macbeth. Shakespeare focuses on a role reversal between Macbeth and his wife. He uses the stereotypes that men are supposed to be the daring and courageous ones while women should be reserved and uncertain. However, as is obvious from the quote, Lady Macbeth is in charge. She taunts him with charges of cowardliness and unmasculinity. She herself though, is the one who is sure that they must carry out their deadly plan and scolds her husband for his lack of courage. She questions what type of man he can be. This is exactly what Shakespeare aimed to do. Macbeth appears weak in the beginning so that he can be consumed more and more by evil as the play proceeds. Another one of the main themes in the play is how power can corrupt people and allow evil to consume them. Macbeth whimpers like a child the first time he claims an innocent man's life, but by the end of the novel, he dispatches of people without thinking twice. His progression was set-up and able to begin because of the switch in gender roles early on the play. His wife began to mold him into the man she thought he was. By playing on his weakness and insulting his masculinity, Lady Macbeth helps to turn Macbeth into one of the most heartless characters in literature.

Shakespeare wrote Macbeth as a tragedy. This genre is one of my favorite so Macbeth was my the drama I enjoyed the most. Tragedies tend to arouse feelings of sympathy for the tragic character because the audience witnesses the character's struggle step by step. Regardless of how evil Macbeth may have turned out, the audience feels sorry for him because they saw the innocence that was within him in the beginning of the drama. Tragic characters are some of the most interesting in all works of literature, especially Shakespeare's tragic characters. There were moments when Macbeth could have prevented his downfall. The audience sees him struggle with his decisions and secretly urges him to do the right thing. However, to their disappointment, he continues to travel down his path of fate and straight to his own demise. Tragedies have a way of drawing the reader in deeper and more effectively than the other genres of Shakespeare's play, which makes the reading experience all the more enjoyable.

Macbeth is easily my favorite play by Shakespeare. The way Shakespeare develops Macbeth's character and shows the step by step corruption/destruction of his soul is truly aweinspiring. Shakespeare helps the reader understand how evil slowly just consumes someone and makes them numb to all horror and destruction. Tragic characters are normally my favorite characters in a novel. Even as Macbeth meets his death, I felt a twinge of pity for him. A work of literature that can arouse pity from the reader, even after a character has been as ruthless as Macbeth, is one that should be remembered. I normally struggle reading Shakespeare, but this is a drama that I would enjoy looking into deeper into and analyzing Shakespeare's brilliance through the script.

Richard III

"And now, instead of mounting barded steedsTo fright the souls of fearful adversaries,

He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber

To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.

But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,

Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;

I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty

To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;

I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,

Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,

Deformed, unfinish'd, sent before my time

Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,

And that so lamely and unfashionable

That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;

Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,

Have no delight to pass away the time,

Unless to spy my shadow in the sun

And descant on mine own deformity:

And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,

To entertain these fair well-spoken days,

I am determined to prove a villain

And hate the idle pleasures of these days.

Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,

By drunken prophecies, libels and dreams,

To set my brother Clarence and the king

In deadly hate the one against the other"

This quote is among the first words of the play Richard III. This passage gives us insight into Richard's character and is an excellent example of foreshadowing the rest of the play. It is obvious from Shakespeare's description of Richard that he is in some way, shape, or form physically unattractive to look at, even in his own eyes. Shakespeare makes numerous allusion to the fact there is something wrong with Richard. It is pretty bad if even dogs howl at his hideousness. His deformity contrasts his drive for power to the extreme. Powerful kings are supposed to be tall and manly, but the image Shakespeare paints of Richard is one that brings to mind pictures of the Hunchback of Notre Dame. This fact plays a key role in the drama because it appears that Richard may feel he has to make up for his deformity by gaining power. His self-loathing drives him to stop at nothing to reach his ultimate goal; even if it means that people who stand in his way face their own demise.

While some people may consider Richard III to be a tragedy, it is primarily one of Shakespeare's histories. Shakespeare histories deal with actual families in England's history. His source for his historical plays is Raphael Holinshed's Chronicle of English history. Families from this history are focused on by Shakespeare on one small part of their lives. It is interesting that Shakespeare can take things that had happened in English history and transform them into a source of entertainment. However, the fact that it is based off real life events takes away from some of the originality and creative genius that is normally used to describe Shakespeare. He is successful, though, in using real life events to make a statement about various ideas. In this play he shows through portraying Richard's constant manipulation of everyone around him that if one makes too many enemies it will eventually come back to haunt them.

Overall, this play was probably the least favorite of mine that we read. It was interesting to witness Richard's creativity in making all the pieces fall into place to his advantage. The way he was able to manipulate people was, in a strange way, extremely breathtaking. The evil that welled up inside of Richard because of his troubles and deformities could not be contained. It was great to see Shakespeare make Richard try to draw sympathy from those around him (only to double cross them later) and the audience itself. However, I think the genre took something away from the play. Shakespeare did not develop this character from scratch, which took away some of the authenticity from Richard's evil because it was based on facts. All in all though, Shakespeare did do a good job at adapting this piece of history into a historical drama.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Bottom:

"That will ask some tears in the true performing of

it: if I do it, let the audience look to their

eyes; I will move storms, I will condole in some

measure. To the rest: yet my chief humour is for a

tyrant: I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to

tear a cat in, to make all split.

The raging rocksAnd shivering shocks

Shall break the locks

Of prison gates;

And Phibbus' car

Shall shine from far

And make and mar

The foolish Fates.

This was lofty! Now name the rest of the players.

This is Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein; a lover is

more condoling.

Quince:
Flute, you must take Thisby on you.

Flute:
What is Thisby? A wandering knight?

Quince:
It is the lady that Pyramus must love.

Flute:

Nay, faith, let me not play a woman; I have a beard coming.

Quince:

That's all one: you shall play it in a mask, and

you may speak as small as you will.

Bottom:

An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too, I'll

speak in a monstrous little voice. 'Thisne,

Thisne;' 'Ah, Pyramus, lover dear! thy Thisby dear,

and lady dear!'

Quince:
No, no; you must play Pyramus: and, Flute, you Thisby."

This excerpt is from one of the early scenes and gives the audience one of the first glimpses of the comic characters putting on a play for the wedding. Nick Bottom is featured as the self-loving and self-worshiping outspoken member of the troupe. He lacks the knowledge of knowing what it means to be humble. His confidence practically oozes from every pore in his body. Bottom's arrogance assists in providing the comedy in every scene he is in. This quote portrays Bottom's belief that he has the capibility and the talent to play multiple characters in their drama. Quince hands out parts to everyone and for the most part there is little comment from the recipients, other than Bottom of course. He recieves his assignment and proceeds to describe and act out how he must perform and how his performence with be so remarkable that it will make the audience cry with him. Of course Bottom does not stop here as he relates his yearning to play a tyrant to the others. His final claim is that he should not only play Pyramus, but Thisby too. Bottom's conceitedness is supposed to be blatantly obvious to the audience and is used to lighten the mood being that the play is a comedy. It is easy for readers to find this scene along with others humerous just because of how wrapped up in himself Bottom is.

In Shakespeare's plays, the ones that were comedies usually had a happy ending. There would be ficticious plots where the characters experienced difficulties, but once they were overcome they learned a valuable lesson. The basic lesson in this play was to just be true to yourself as was demonstrated by the actions of the two couples. Shakespeare's comedies often provided instances of humor to keep the mood light throughout the plays, even when the main characters were having trouble. Bottom served as the chief comic in A Midsummer Night's Dream, but there were also numerous other characters adding to the comedy. The humor and laughs in Shakespeare's works are quite different than what we think of when comedy comes to mind today. Shakespeare had a subtle way of portraying the humor. His humor came from the naiveness of characters, from actions, or from the way he wrote and what he made the characters say. Today, we often think of humor as a joke that makes us crack up laughing. When you read a play like this, you will not be rolling on the floor in hysteria, but instead will appreciate the humor in a deeper sense that will just bring a smile to your face because you understand what is going on underneath the surface of the writing that makes it humorous.

At first I had difficulty understanding the humor in this comedy. I was trapped inside the idea that if it was a comedy I should be finding things very funny and laughing. Whenever we discussed humorous passages in class I had trouble seeing what was so funny about them, but I began to see that it wasn't a laughing fit that Shakespeare was trying to induce on his audience. He wrote comedies to try to teach a good natured lesson. Once I got through my mental road block I enjoyed the silliness and unrealisticness of the play. Even though there is nothing hysterical about the scene when Bottom is turned into an ass, the concept of what was going on to drive home a point made the scene thoroughly enjoyable. Overall, A Midsummer Night's Dream was a very good comedy.

#281-The Death Of a Soldier

In the poem, The Death of a Soldier, by Wallace Stevens, knowing who the speaker is helps understand the meaning of the poem. The speaker is not the soldier in the poem like how many war poems are, but rather the speaker is Stevens himself. He is using an unnamed and unrecognized, fictitious soldier to relate his ideas to the audience. He is writing the poem as a way to express his opinion on war, but more importantly religion. The poem has an overall tone of sadness and finality without celebration. There are numerous works of Stevens's that challenge common idea of religion in a way that appears atheistic. It is not so much that he is writing against the idea that these things actually happened, but he sometimes criticizes the ideas of the Christian faith. Knowing that Stevens has a history of atheistic views present in his writing helps the reader understand some of the references he makes in the poem. When you first look at the physical format of the poem, it appears as if there will be a structured rhyme scheme and meter. However, upon analyzing the poem I was unable to conclude any specific form. There are few words that rhyme with any other word in the poem and the pattern of the syllables yields no formal type of meter. This free verse is very representative of the poem, though. The overall message is that the soldier is laying down his life without making a big deal about it. There is no ceremony or service. These things would imply structure. Without, the poem having a formalized structure, it shows that the soldier's death also lacked the normal, structure of death.

One interesting literary device Stevens chooses to use is repetition. In the first and third stanzas, the line "As in a season of autumn." (2 and 8) is present as the second line of the stanzas. Now at first I was challenged to figure out the meaning of the repetition, but I eventually came up with a response that may seem a little unexpected because of its simplicity. I focused on the type of season autumn is. To me, it is the ending of summer, the ending of warm weather and sunny days. It is the transition to the cold darkness of winter. In my mind, fall is the unrecognized and undistinguished season. Instead of people seeing fall as still offering some warm days, many see fall as the ushering in of winter. It is almost as if fall is blamed for being the precursor to the worst season. And you can say I'm looking too into things, but if you think about it fall is a lonely set of three months. For example, there is no major holiday or event that occurs in the fall. Now some could argue that Thanksgiving takes place, but that is only an American holiday. Around the world you have Christmas in winter, Easter in spring, and just the joy that summer is here during summer, but there is no celebration of fall. This portrays the soldier perfectly. He is just another soldier laying down his life without a big deal being made about it. This presents a sad view of the futility of war because his life is valuable, but is not being recognized. Perhaps the most important and obvious device used in the poem are the biblical allusions. Stevens writes, "He does not become a three-days personage" (4). This is a direct reference to the death of Christ. Christ died and rose again three days later. For many Christians, those three days before Easter are very solemn and filled with ceremony. This is where the atheistic tone is present in the poem. Stevens takes a shot at Christianity saying that Christ died and everyone makes a huge deal about it. He is not saying that a big deal shouldn't be made, but does not see how it is fair that the dead soldier can so easily be forgotten. Stevens argues that Christ was supposed to come and die for all of us, but it seems a bit ironic that Christ receives all the big to-do while many people he was supposed to save just die. They die alone and are not recognized. Stevens wonders where the love of the soldier's life is.

This poem was intriguing in many different aspects. Stevens is making quite a big statement in the poem. I can't agree with his views on the irony of people celebrating Christ in ceremony, but I can see his argument on behalf of the unknown soldier. Is it too much for all of us to expect some sort of recognition of our lives when we die? I don't think it is too much. It deeply saddens me that the soldier just gives up his life and does not receive any recognition. I thought Stevens has a creative message about war. He is obviously against it, but it is in a more subtle way that he expresses his feelings. He is able to delve into the religiousness (or lack thereof) of the lack of recognition for the average soldier. It was a simple poem, that held a complex message.

#209-Good Times

In the poem, Good Times, by Lucille Clifton, the speaker of the poem is tremendously important. It appears that it is a little girl relating the poem to the audience. Clifton either uses the girl to represent herself and her childhood. So in essence, the speaker of the poem is the author, she is just speaking through a created character. Knowing Clifton's background helps understand her reasons for writing the poem. She was African American and faced many financial and family hardships growing up in an age where it was hard enough on African Americans without having to worry about personal issues. In the poem, Clifton is relating personal experience to the audience. The last line shows that the poem is a message to perhaps her own children as her family may be facing hard times, and she is trying to tell them that things will get better. While structured rhyme scheme and meter are not present in this poem, the freeness and unstructuredness of it add to the overall meaning immensely. Not only is Clifton writing about difficulties in her family, but she is also rebelling against a society that has not yet accepted the equality of African Americans. By not having a structured, organized poem, Clifton is able to rebel against a society dominated by white tradition and ideals. Many consider her to be one of the great Black Aesthetic poets who focused on creating her own style of writing through unconventional structures. Another trademark of Clifton's in the poem is the lack of capitalization in places where capitalization would be expected. For example, in line 4 uncle is lower cased despite it being a title and the only lines that begin with a capital letter are the first lines of the first two stanzas. All of these aspects help make Clifton's poem very unique and personal, which support the meaning of the poem.

Lucille Clifton makes use of two simple, yet extremely effective literary devices to add to the meaning of the poem. The first one she uses is diction/syntax. The style of her writing is very colloquial, which gives the audience the sense of the poem being authentic and based on real life. She names family members using childish titles such as Daddy, Mama, and Grampaw. These names are important because it shows that the poem is a recollection of the author's. Clifton uses the little girl as the speaker to make poem appear to be in real time. If Clifton had written it as a memory, but used words like Dad, Mom, and Grandfather, the experience of reading the poem would have been lessened because it would not feel like it was coming straight from real life. She also writes using improper grammar at points to again show that the poem is from her point of view as a child. For example, she says, "they is good times" (line 7). If, instead, Clifton had wrote 'they were good times' the effectiveness of having the child speaking would have been lost. The word were would have been more matter of fact that personal. Another device utilized by Clifton in the poem is repetition. In the first two stanzas, good times is repeated three times at the end. This added emphasis is key because it shows the attempt by Clifton to reassure the reader that there are good times even though things may be difficult now. Another repeated word is kitchen in the second stanza. Generally good things happen in the kitchen. Food is made, laughs are shared, and memories are made. A kitchen is generally a joyous place and by repeating the word it just adds to the message of the poem.

On the whole, I thought Clifton's poem was a very creative piece. She tastefully relates a childhood experience while rebelling against white society that has yet to grant equality to African Americans. I enjoyed how Clifton paints the image of financial hardship by saying, "My Daddy has paid the rent/and the insurance man is gone" (1-2). I could see the scene being an inner city with Clifton's family trying to make ends meet. The poem was uplifting, though, because despite their money problems, they made the best of what they had when they had it. I also was fond of the style Clifton wrote in. The dialect and structure helped put me in the scene so I could really appreciate what Clifton was writing about. It was also great how she was using the poem as a sign of hope for good things to come during bad times, and on the larger scale perhaps equality of all people in society.

#263-A Work of Artifice

In this poem by Marge Piercy, there is no specific speaker as the poem is told in a third person omniscient point of view. However, it is obvious that Piercy is this omniscient narrator. Many works by Piercy are about oppression of women. She is easily considered a feminist. The entire poem is a portrayal of struggles of women. The narrator relates the story of women with describing a bonsai tree being pruned so it stays small instead of growing to its full potential. Knowing the narrator has the perspective of a feminist helped the reader to understand many of the symbols used in the poem. There was no rhyme scheme or specific meter in the poem. The poem was free verse. The physical structure of the poem is important, though. Most of the lines are kept short to represent the bonsai tree and in turn women not being able to grow to their full potential. The free verse is actually used an ironic way. It is showing exactly what women cannot do; be what they want. If the poem had a structured rhyme scheme and meter, it would have added to the structured lives of what were expected in women's' lives. However, Piercy uses the free verse to represent the goal of freedom for women.

One literary device Piercy uses is diction. Many of the words she uses effect the message of the poem greatly. Perhaps the most relevant example is a word in the title-artifice. You first look at it and see the word art. This arouses beauty and picturesque images in your mind. However, the word artifice is deceiving. It in fact means dishonesty or untruthful. This is representative of the entire poem. On the surface it looks artistic with a bonsai tree as the subject of the poem. However the poem is not about bonsai trees, but women being oppressed. Because of the trickery in the superficialness of the poem. Key words such as artifice add much to the overall effectiveness of the poem. Another literary device utilized by Piercy is the use of symbols/allusions. The poem itself is one big allusion. It is telling the story of a bonsai tree, but is symbolic of women's' struggle for equality. The last five lines of the poem contain numerous allusions to negative stereotypes placed upon women. The bound feet refers to an ancient Chinese custom of women's' feet being broken to appear small and dainty. Crippled brains refers to the fact that men were believed to be stereotypically smarter than women. Hair in curlers gives the image of a housewife doing the duties of a woman. And finally, the hands you love to touch are alluding to the stereotype of women being seen as sexual beings. Other lines that stereotype women include calling the trees (representing women) small and cozy and domestic and weak. The gardener symbolizes men suppressing women. These allusions and symbols make the poem everything it is. They add incredible meaning and without them the poem would be useless.

Overall, I enjoyed this poem. It sent a clear message without being too over the top. This poem was obviously inspired by the women's' movement for equality. For ages women have been considered to be inferior to men. Piercy's poem lashes out at this belief in inferiority. She does it with a sense of grace though. The analogy of the bonsai tree was a masterful creation. The effectiveness of the poem is greatly enhanced by the fact that Piercy is not writing a full out criticism against the treatment of women. She is not accusing, demanding, or ranting. Instead, she uses imagery to persuade the audience. I have never read such a tastefully done piece of literature that made such a statement.

A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man

One of the most important symbols in the novel
was one of the characters herself; Emma. She is never really a main character, but is present from the beginning to the end and often on Stephen's mind. She is a symbol of purity and perfection; everything Stephen is not. Stephen sees Emma as an angelic creature, free of all sin and impurity. For much of the novel, Stephen places Emma up on this untouchable pedestal. She is above sin, above sex, and above him. It is not until chapter 5 that Stephen begins to rationalize his image of Emma. It first begins with the scene when he picks a louse off his neck, but crystallizes once he has a conversation with her at the university. Through talking with her, Stephen realizes that she is an ordinary individual, not the saint he imagined her as. She was still special to him, but no longer was above him. This transformation of Stephen's opinion regarding Emma symbolizes his struggle with religion. His religious extremism, from prostitutes to perfect piety, is portrayed by his realization Emma is not an angelic being. Stephen seeing her as an ordinary individual, instead of placing her on the pedestal is just like how he eventually sees a more middle of the road path with religion. He knows he does not want to live in continuous sin, but at the same time the life of perfect piety is no for him. He searches to find a balance with his religious life he finds it, just as he sees Emma for who she really is.


"Hell is a strait and dark and foul smelling prison, an abode of demons and lost souls, filled with fire and smoke. [...] There, by reason of the great number of the damned, the prisoners are heaped together in their awful prison, the walls of which are said to be four thousand miles thick: and the damned are so utterly bound and helpless [...] They lie in exterior darkness. For, remember, the fire of hell gives forth no light. [...] It is a never ending storm of darkness, dark flames and dark smoke of burning brimstone, amid which the bodies are heaped one upon another without even a glimpse of air. [...] The horror of this strait and dark prison is increased by its awful stench. All the filth of the world, all the offal and scum of the world, we are told, shall run there as to a vast reeking sewer when the terrible conflagration of the last day of purged the world. The brimstone too which burns there in such prodigious quantity fills all hell with its intolerable stench; and the bodies of the damned themselves exhale such a pestilential odour that as Saint Bonaventure says, one of them alone would suffice to infect the whole world." (128-129)

This extensive quote is only a small part of Father Arnall's powerful speech on hell and death. I choose this quote because this whole passage describing Father Arnall's description of hell is one of the most descriptive pieces of writing I have ever read. I know Stephen was greatly influenced by the speech, and I could relate to his reasons why. Nearly all the senses were touched in the description. It was difficult to even fathom the horror and terror the Stephen was being exposed to. Joyce's brilliance was extremely apparent in the way he was able to make his words touch the reader's senses. The exaggeration used was vastly effective in making the reader feel exactly what Stephen was feeling. The analogies Joyce uses to describe the smell and other senses are truly unbelievable. The descriptions drove the point home in a way that was nothing short of genius. I don't blame Stephen for being scared into confession. There is nothing worse that I can think of in this world than the horror of how Father Arnall's hell sounds. Hell is always described as a wretched place, but no description can come close to this one. Reading it was quite an experience.


When I read Invisible Man, I thought that was the most complex novel of the year. Well, there is a new novel that can claim that title now. Like Invisible Man, many messages and hidden meanings can be discovered by close reading of Portrait. I have never read a stream of consciousness in a novel of this length and complexity. I have mixed feelings towards it. At times, it was so confusing and complex that it seemed to in-depth. I almost felt as if I was reading Hawthorne; it was like I know Joyce was trying to say something, but felt that I had to wade through paragraphs to figure out what it meant. I also had trouble deriving what everything was supposed to mean on my own. Once we discussed things, they made sense and I could see what the symbols meant and were supposed to represent. On the flip side though, the novel contained some of the most descriptive passages I have ever read. The ability for Joyce to make me feel what he felt was truly awe inspiring. It was great to read Joyce's recount of his own experience. He was able to superbly describe what he had felt. The detail of Stephen's life, which is really Joyce's life retold, shows the excellent use of stream of consciousness. Overall, I enjoyed the novel because of the writing ability of Joyce. There may have been complex parts, but the insight Joyce gives into Stephen's mind made for a fantastic novel.

Poem 200-"Woman Work"

In the poem, Woman Work, the speaker is the author of the poem. The author, Maya Angelou, is writing about her situation in life. Angelou is a very famous writer who was actively involved in the Civil Rights Movement. Knowing this, the poem she writes takes on a much greater meaning than when read as if it was just about a housewife (not that a housewife doesn't have difficulties too). The speaker in the poem has all this responsibility to care for the children, the house, and the garden. Knowing the speaker is the author, the reader realizes that she is doing all of this in the face of extreme diversity. When I first read the poem I thought it may have been about a slave (yes, I know you are shocked Mr. Klimas). Upon doing research about the author it gave me a clearer picture that she was not a slave of early America, but still a captive of conservative times. The rhyme scheme and meter also add value to the poem. The poem utilizes an AABB rhyming pattern in the first stanza (tend-mend, mop-shop). The pattern of the pairs of lines and the flow that is created as a result give the poem a very measured effect. This represents the daily pattern of the speaker's life. Each day, they go from one task to the next without a rest. When the patterned, rhyming part of the poem changes after the first stanza so does the attitude of the speaker. Instead of discussing the work she must do, she is able to take a moment for herself and wish for help; just a small break in the routine to give her strength to continue on.

One literary device that adds a great deal to the poem is the use of interruption between the first stanza and the rest of the poem. There is an extremely apparent shift between the tone and message the author is sending. As discussed earlier, the first stanza is measured and patterned. Stanzas 2-5 are quite different. They are all four lines long and lack an obvious rhyme scheme. Though these four stanzas are similar with each other, they differ from the first stanza. The first stanza is all about what has to be done and what the speaker does regularly. When the interruption occurs, the speaker's thoughts shift to selfish ones. This sounds bad because being selfish is stereotyped as being bad. However, everyone needs sometime to themselves where they can just wish for the best. There is no crime in that. The four stanzas contain the thoughts about what the speaker yearns for. She wants to feel relief from her work and responsibility, she wants to be calm and relaxed, and most of all she wants all of her work to result in something. The last stanza of the poem is the most important part. It says, "Sun, rain, curving sky/Mountain, oceans, leaf and stone/Star shine, moon glow/You're all that I can call my own." (26-30). This line portrays another literary device in the poem-irony. How can things such as the sun, rain, and moon belong to one person? I thought they were there for everyone? The irony of the speaker believing these vast objects are the only thing she owns reveals the hardship of the situation she is in. She does all the work mentioned in the first stanza, but it does not appear to reap any benefit or reward that she can wrap her arms around. Even though, the sun, moon, and stars are not her personal possessions, she can call them her own because they represent her freedom and hope. She may work long hours, doing laborous work, but she can always recede to the comfort of the vast sky and its possessions and know that at least she is able to work for a better living.

I really enjoyed reading this poem. It sounded so personal and heartfelt that it was like Angelou was telling me her story in person. In the second stanza it says, "Shine on me, sunshine/Rain on me, rain" (15-16). By saying me, Angelou personalizes the story and the actions she asks for. Telling the sun to shine on and the rain to rain on a specific individual is a high demand. It appears that the speaker is asking for alot, but the speaker just wants to have some of the simple joys of life. I sensed that it was such a heartfelt request from a working mother that it was touching. I liked the structure of the first stanza with the short phrases that gave me a sense the speaker was frustrated from working so hard with little reward. I thought Angelou did a fantastic job at putting me in her shoes. I could feel her tiredness and sense her wishes. Angelou is obvious a very gifted writer because of these abilities to make her audience feel what she is saying.

Invisible Man

Well, this was definitely the longest book I have read in awhile. Sometimes quantity does not mean quality because if the author cannot keeps the readers interest over many, many pages, then often the book does not get finished. Ralph Ellison, however, is able to carry the reader's interest over a lengthy novel in Invisible Man. I was unsure how to feel about the novel at first because it seemed a tad dry and boring. Once the narrator got situated in New York and his life got moving, so did the novel. Ellison writes one of the most intricate novels I have ever read. If you think about how much time it must have taken him to think of all the subtilties and hidden meanings you may find your mouth agape in pure amazement. The quality of the novel goes beyond impressive and straight to genius. He approaches the theme of racism and equality in a very different way than many writers who wrote about similar topics. We discussed many times how he could have just written about a problematic, black boy from the South who goes North to find himself. Ellison's style of how he takes on the race issue was intriguing and much more interesting to read. The only drawback I saw to the novel was that it was almost too good. It got to the point where almost every other line could be broken down to reveal some hidden meaning or symbolization of something. When the literature gets that detailed, some of the fun of reading is taken away because you get too focused on what is trying to be said by a seemingly insignificant statement. The internal struggles of the narrator though fascinated me. His character development was fantastic. The novel always kept you intrigued because it would leave you hanging with things. For example, the nameless narrator. I know whenever I was reading I kept wondering if I was going to find out the name of the narrator. Just this simple aspect of the novel was one of the many things that kept my interest throughout the novel. All in all, I envy Ellison's creative ability and intellect.

"Well, I was and yet I was invisible, that was the fundamental contradiction. I was and yet I was unseen. It was frightening and as I sat there I sensed another frightening world of possibilities. For now I saw that I could agree with Jack without agreeing. And I could tell Harlem to have hope when there was no hope. Perhaps I could tell them to hope until I found the basis of something real, some firm ground for action that would lead them onto the plane of history. But until then I would have to move them without myself being moved...I'd have to do a Rinehart." (Ellison 507)

This quote deals with the narrator's transition towards invisibility and his optimism before he is completely invisible. He feels that on some levels, others do not see him. At the same time, however, he still believes he can make a difference and have an effect on people. The narrator still has an attitude of trying to make his view of the Brotherhood movement work. He still wants to help the people of Harlem, even if he thinks he is not seen by people like Jack. The narrator is searching for a firm basis that can give the people of Harlem hope, but I think he is really looking for solid ground for himself to stand on and give himself hope. I actually think that by trying to act like Rinehart he will only disconnect himself more. He says that he cannot get emotionally moved, but in order to gain back some visibility he needs to be fully involved. Rinehart may appear to be well connected with everyone, but there is probably a great deal of distance between himself and other. Putting space between himself and others is not going to help the narrator become any less invisible. This quote is contradictory, which makes it very interesting. It is good because it shows the narrator still has hope and has not admitted defeat yet. He believes he still has a chance to make a difference. I enjoyed seeing the narrator when he still possessed this optimistic attitude where he did not care if he was invisible or not; he was still going to try to make a difference.

I found the scene involving Liberty Paints to be one of the most important in the novel. Many themes and motifs are portrayed in the scene, especially the blatant black and white motif, which is present throughout the novel. It is so ironic that the white paint is made from a black foundation. This fact is so symbolic of the reality of past American culture. The early American economy was based upon slave labor. Without it, the United States would most likely have crumbled in its infancy. This is just like the paint; without the black base, the pure white cannot be made. There cannot be white without black. The Liberty Paint company uses the word liberty to appear to represent American ideals. However, there is really not any liberty for some of its own employees. For example, Brockway does a large amount of work, but is not rewarded the way white employees who work far less are. He takes part in making a paint that is used to cover up any stain or mark. White covering black. There is not really anything more that could symbolized American society of this time period. The white supremacy was rampant as it attempted to swallow the black culture. It is important that this was the first place the narrator went to work. Just how the paint covers things, this is when he first started being covered with the result of him being invisible.

The Heart of Darkness

This book, as I am sure most people would agree to, was definitely a little out of the norm of my reading experiences. I am always open to new things, but I can definitely say that I was not really a fan of Heart of Darkness. The style it was written in, including dialect, syntax, and tone made the novel very difficult to understand and really get into. I find it difficult to really grasp the point of a novel when I cannot get interested in reading it. At times it appeared to be very dense like novels of Scarlet Letter proportion. Despite these superficial difficulties, Conrad creates extremely complex, interesting characters. Kurtz and Marlow are far from simple. Kurtz portrays the consumption of a man by evil. I could not wrap my mind around Kurtz because I cannot fathom the evil that overtook him. The darkness that surrounded the novel as a whole, surrounded him as an individual specifically. What horror he must really have dealt with. Marlow on the other hand, I really liked as a character. He struggled against his inner evil, but came out for the most part on top. He did not succumb to the evil like Kurtz. He felt it; he experienced it, but he did not let go of the wheel and lose control. While Conrad's created extremely appealing characters, he put them in a context that made it difficult to enjoy them to the full extent.

"She had [...] bizarre things, charms, gifts of witch-men, that hung about her, glittered and trembled at every step. She must have had the value of several elephant tusks upon her. She was savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent; there was something ominous and stately in her deliberate progress." (Conrad 142)

This quote is full of contradictions; much like the entire story. The quote describes the woman as "savage and superb" and "ominous and stately", which are odd sets of words to use to describe the same individual. The ideas the words represent just do not go together. This is just like Kurtz and the colonies. So many people rant of Kurtz's intelligence and skill, yet spears with heads on top line the outside of his hut. What kind of brilliant man can represent such savagery at the same time? It is the same with the colonies. The settlements on the coast misrepresent the whole picture to the mother countries in Europe. They see their colonies as only being like the coast settlements, not the interior where the heart of darkness lies. The primitive ruthlessness of the interior of the colony contradicts the pretty picture in the minds of the imperialistic countries in Europe. The quote shows that many things can have two very different sides to them. This woman may be intriguing, but walks with an aire of danger about her. Kurtz may be one of the greatest assets to the company's ivory collection, but he is also a savage murderer. The colonies may be a great economic asset for the European countries, but they are also the sites of unmentionable horrors. Conrad uses contradiction throughout the novel to contrast superficiality with reality.

One of the themes I found interesting in the novel was the contradiction of the interior vs. the exterior. The interior was referred to as the inner jungle where the heart of darkness lies that Marlow must travel into, while the coast is viewed in a much more favorable light. The joy of the exterior and the horror of the interior are supposed to be symbolic of human nature. The novel delves into the question of whether or not evil lies within everyone. All signs from the novel seem to point to yes it does. To use Kurtz as an example, he appeared successful and intelligent on the outside. The leaders of the company saw him as a man of great talent in acquiring great amounts of ivory. However, as Marlow tragically witnesses, Kurtz was far from this fine man other saw him as. Marlow saw what lay in the interior of Kurtz-pure evil. Even calling the interior the heart of darkness is symbolic of the interior of everyone of us. Your heart is in the interior, and with that is also darkness. Many people have such thick, bright exteriors that it is sometimes difficult for the evil interior to pierce through the light. A lot of times the interior will attempt to cover up for what is on the inside. Throughout the novel interiors and exteriors are tied together by contradiction. At first sight things appear one way to Marlow, but upon further examination, end up being quite the opposite of his original thoughts.