Monday, May 14, 2012
Reflection
My time in Eng 102 has been interesting to say the least. I’ve gotten a lot out of the class but if anything I’ve learned a lot about myself. My favorite lesson was the one about post modernism; my family is a big Italian family so there big on family values loyalty and religion things that don’t really correlate with the people I see around me. Its hard sometimes to keep my values in line because my generation is the biggest example of post modernism.
Blog 1
In the play Antigone by Sophocles two opposing themes are written law vs. moral law. Written laws are supposed to be a set of rules that the citizens of that city/ nation must abide by. On the other hand moral laws is ones believes in his/ hers own heart on what they think is the right thing to do.
In the play, Creon expresses the importance of his laws to not touch the body of Polyneices and to leave him dead in the middle of the city “You shall leave him without burial; you shall watch him chewed up by birds and dogs and violated”(Creon 224-225). Here he shows his power even though it is unmoral to most to leave a body without burial. Antigone on the other hand shows a great deal of self-moral law; she disobeys Creon’s law and continues to bury her brother. This does not prove the fact that she is disobedient but in fact shows her loyalty to her family and her morals. When caught by the sentry Antigone does not shy away from her actions when confronted, she shows a great deal of pride in them “I knew it; of course I did. For it was public”(Antigone 492). She knew of the consequences yet her morals couldn’t let her leave her brother unburied.
Many people in life grow up following a set of rules that are obeyed; others follow their own rules based off their morals. In the play Antigone is a firm believer in her moral laws and what she thinks is right, but Creon is the opposite he believe everyone should obey his written law and respect his leadership.
Blog 4
Within the past few decades we live as what is known as the post modernistic age, where certain values that a past generation may have once seen as a top priority we now put on the backburner and focus on other things that we few as “important” like the media and other material things. In the story “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri this concept of post modernism is applied in different aspects of the story.
The loss of family values is a big argument in post modernism and the fact that in the story Mrs. Das has a child with a man who is not her husband exemplifies the loss of loyalty and family values in a post modernistic day. Respect I feel is also lost with the post modernism generation, this is shown when Mr. Das is speaking to his daughter Tina and refers to his wife as Mina “Mr. Kapasi found it strange that Mr. Das should refer to his wife by her first name when speaking to the little girl”(Lahiri 45). I see this as disrespect because growing up in a very traditional household your elders always had a label and should never be called by their first name
Blog 3
Over the course of history many people have fought for what they thought was right, and fought for what they thought would make a difference. Martin Luther King once said “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” He is stating that if one wants to gain there freedom it is not going to be handed over by the oppressor, it must be demanded and fought for by the oppressed. This is directly tied to MLK’s civil rights movement during the 1960’s, he lead African Americans to demand their freedoms from the oppressor.
In “The Yellow Wall Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman the main character (narrator) suffers from temporary nervous depression and is moved into a mansion over three months with her husband. Her husband also being her physician thinks he knows what is best for her and tells her what to do constantly being the oppressor. During this time period women did not have many rights as the men ran the world and controlled what they did. She doesn’t want john to know of her writings for he may further think she is mentally unstable “I believe John is beginning to notice, I don’t like looking into his eyes.” (Gilman 326). She is very secretive about her obsession with the wallpaper and her writings. She asks john to change the room or tear down the paper but he refuses which symbolically denies her of freedom from the room. She ultimately take her own freedom when she tears down the wallpaper when john is not home and when he sees what she has done he faints, she walks over his body showing that she has gotten her freedom and overcame the oppressor.
Chuck Palahniuk shows oppression in the movie Fight Club when the main character is oppressed by him having schizophrenia so himself rules him. Throughout the movie he continues to try to treat his insomnia by going to different seminars so he can sleep at night but what he doesn’t realize is when he “sleeps” at night he becomes a completely different person and in time befriends his alter ego (Tyler Durden) but on the outside he is talking to himself. Finally when he realizes that Tyler is in fact himself Tyler attempts to take over his body, in failed attempts to get rid of him he takes his freedom from himself by force by shooting himself and killing Tyler ultimately.
Faro
Vitale
Professor Brady
Eng 102
5/4/12
Stuck
in a Fantasy
In
todays post modernistic age it is common that people live most of their days in
a fantasy world separated from reality. In the short story “The Yellow
Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gillman and the short story “Interpreter of
Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri show this fantasy world. Both stories show the
concept of living in ones own fantasy world. Living in a fantasy is a major
theme in the movie/novel “Fight Club” by Chuck Palahniuk that’s about the main
character being a schizophrenic who has multiple personalities to cope with his
life. The main character (narrator) creates her fantasy world around her
obsession with the yellow wallpaper surrounding the room. Mr and Mrs. Das and
Mr. Kapasi all live there own fantasies and dilutions from being unhappy with their
lives, and the narrator fights his multiple personalities from breaking out
into the real world. Mental fantasies are a reoccurring theme within all of
these characters to get away from their unfit realities.
In
Charlotte Perkins Gillman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” the main
character (narrator) builds a fantasy world around her obsession with the
yellow wallpaper. She speaks on this
“pattern” that she sees in the wallpaper that she determined to figure out by
constantly staring at the wall and grows very uneasy if anyone should look at
the wallpaper besides her. Even though she suffers from minor nervous issues
she should have enough sanity to avoid giving into the false reality there is
something within the wallpaper in the room. She seems to believe a few things
with the pattern, she mentions a woman constantly creeping in the wallpaper and
she says the pattern moves in the nighttime. She later finds out or so it seems
in her mind that the woman is shaking the pattern in the wall “The front
pattern does move-and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it!” (Perkins Gilman
325). As she lives in the room that is in fact driving her crazy and making her
fantasy world even worse because she is seeing all of these things within the
wallpaper that aren’t actually there in actuality.
In
the short story “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumper Lahiri there are a few
characters that are caught in a fantasy separated from reality, but none more
then Mr. Kapasi and Mrs. Das. Mrs. Das lives in the fantasy in that she sees Mr.
Kapasi as a father figure and someone to tell the secret that’s she’s been
keeping from everyone for the past eight years. She does this because she and
her husband seem to have a very unhappy relationship and Mr. Das himself is not
stuck in a fantasy but is completely oblivious to the things going on around
him because he is so caught up in his book and his surroundings. Throughout the
entire story Mr. Kapasi is the biggest victim of living in a fantasy world,
growing completely obsessed with Mrs. Das the moment she describes his job as
“romantic”. Kapasi grows very intrigued in furthering his “relationship” with
Mrs. Das when she asks for his address so she can send copies of the picture
they have taken, he creates this fantasy that they will talk on further topics
and get to know each other better, “she would write to him, asking about his
days interpreting at the doctors office, and he would respond eloquently,
choosing only the most entertaining anecdotes, that would make her laugh at
loud as she read in her house in New Jersey” (Lahiri 55). He loves the fact
that she shows so much interest in his job mainly because he is unhappy with
the way that his life/marriage as turned out. After finding out Mrs. Das’s
secret Kapasi’s fantasy of there relationship together is slightly faded and
eventually ruined when the paper with the address on it blows away in the wind.
Living
in a fantasy world is clearly exemplified in Chuck Palahniuk’s novel/ movie
“Fight Club”. In the story the main character (narrator) suffers from major schizophrenia
and is completely separated from reality. He makes up another personality that
he thinks is another person, he creates this fantasy man to deal with the
things in his life that he perceives as unfit. He sees this other personality
as if he were a real person having conversations and performing actions with
this alter ego. A prime example of his fantasy is the scene when the narrator
and Tyler are fighting each other outside the bar but then we later find out
that there is no Tyler and the narrator has been fighting himself the entire
time. The narrator overcomes his fantasy by eliminating Tyler by shooting
himself therefor killing his alter ego.
In
todays post modernistic era people everyday make up there own little fantasies
to cope with everyday life. In the short story “The yellow Wallpaper”
“Interpreter of Maladies” and the novel “Fight Club” they all show prime
examples of people living in fantasy worlds in order not to deal with the
problems that they have in there life’s.
Faro Vitale
Professor Brady
English 102
2/25/12
Power
of Gender
Throughout
history in reality and also in literature there are many variations of gender
inequality. Gender inequality is described as a great difference between
individuals due to gender. Gender inequalities are thoroughly projected in the
plays “Antigone” by Sophocles between the characters Creon, Haemon, and
Antigone and also in Tennessee Williams play “A Streetcar Named Desire” between
Stanley, Blanche and somewhat Stella. During ancient Greece the male species
was dominant over the females in terms of power and rule with the women having
no rights but to be obedient to the men, and in the 1940’s in America women
still didn’t have many rights or as much power as the men.
In
“Antigone” the ruler Creon shows a great deal of gender inequality throughout
the entire play especially towards Antigone. Throughout the play Creon displays
his power as the ruler of Thebes and puts it on display to the people, very
rarely does he like to show weakness to his peers especially towards women, he
shows this during his argument with his son Haemon when he states “we cannot
give victory to a woman. If we must accept defeat, let it be from a man.”(Creon
729-730) He is trying to say women are weaker then men so he cannot show
weakness to a woman. Throughout the play he argues with his son Haemon about his
nature to show sympathy towards women and Antigone, Creon makes another
statement showing this when he says to Haemon “your nature is vile, in yielding
to a woman.”(Creon 803) and also when he says “you woman’s slave, do not try to
wheedle me.”(Creon 814) he is showing utter disrespect for Haemons efforts in
trying to save Antigone. At times Creon shows no respect towards Haemon and
goes as far as to threatening his son to kill Antigone right next to him “you
people bring out this creature, this hated creature, that she may die before
his very eyes, right now, next to her would-be husband.”(Creon 828-830)
In “A Streetcar Named Desire” Williams
displays gender inequality in various characters in different points in the
play. Blanche has a distinct dislike for Stanley from the start of the play and
as they go on she goes on to call him an “animal” as he acts on that
description of himself in the play. Stanley is shown yelling at the other men
around the poker table displaying his dominance, he dominance and disrespect
for Blanche is shown when Blanche turns on the music during the poker game and
even though the other men don’t mind the music Stanley pursues to break the
radio showing his animalistic behavior. Williams shows symbolism to the poker
games and dominance/ primitive behavior when Stanley throws his plate to the
floor and states, “what do you two think you are? A pair of queens? Every man
is a king! And I am the king around here, so don’t forget it!”(Stanley, scene
8) Stanley’s actions show his disrespect towards women when he slaps Stella on
the butt while there is company present even though he has clear knowledge that
she doesn’t like when he does it. His rage is displayed not only with him
throwing the plate to the floor but he goes as far as getting physical with his
wife Stella and abuses her in front of the others. Stella is shown as weak and
depending on Stanley when returning to him son after the attack on her. The
biggest deal of gender inequality is the brutal act of violence on Blanche from
Stanley. The climax of the play is the rape of Blanche by Stanley in scene 10,
since in the entire play Blanche has gone toe to toe with Stanley and has
objected to his dominance he had to prove to her that he is dominant between
the two of them.
During
both of these time periods there was a great deal of gender inequality. In
ancient Greece women had no rights and had to follow every demand of whoever
was married to them. In the 1940’s American women were usually married to
strong hard workingmen and still had very little rights. In “Antigone” she was
sentenced to death for doing what was morally correct and in “A Streetcar Named
Desire” Stella was abused for speaking up and the same man out of straight rage
and dominance raped her sister Blanche.
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