Who are ya dude?

Most of what I write is me fighting with myself on different issues such as themes, imagery, symbolism, or reoccurring motifs that I have noticed in the novels we have been reading in class. They are normally based off of ideas and discussions that we have in class or something that I’ve discussed in a group that I really want to elaborate on. This post won’t be that different but there are two different things I want to discuss in this blog; what I have noticed so far and what I have read of All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren up until this point and my college essays (since that is something that is really important right now).

Firstly who is the king and who are all his men? This would sound like a stupid question but when you really think about it, it makes you wonder. So far I have gathered that this book is about a politician, Willie Stark, he already has the title of “The Boss” but where would he get the name “The King?” Then that leads to another question; who are all his men? Would that mean be people such as Jack and the rest of the posse? Why, because they are Willie Stark? They are his every decision, his every political move, his every statement, wardrobe, they are his source and friend. They are what make Willie, Willie. But then i suppose that kind of makes sense, a king is more of a representative symbol then an actual person of influence. I’m not saying that they aren’t influential just not nearly as influential as a president. The thing about kings is that they think they are in control like they are the puppeteers but really they are the puppets.  Then there is the whole thing about Jacks relationship with his mom. Well I for one thing that it’s a tad creepy. There’s no way that a woman of her age, should get excited like an innocent little girl when her son comes home. It’s weird. Then the couch scene when Jack’s head is in her lap and she is rubbing his face, I connected that to the end of the chapter where they are talking about Lucy and how she wanted to hold Tom back, I think that deep down Jack’s mom is trying to hold Jack back so that he can be in the position of lover whenever she is in-between lovers. Lastly you start to wonder how important Jack is. Who is he really? For someone who was working on his PHD how did he end up underneath serving someone like Willie? I just wonder so much about Jack.

Now college, they ask you all these hypothetical questions where you have to write your response in 32,000 characters. Some of the questions ask you to tell those more about yourself and your unsure as to which angle you should take. Do you say too much? Is what I have already said enough? Too informative?Did I give enough details? That’s the kind of essay I’m writing and I know I want it to be moving but I don’t quite know how to go about that without feeling like I have shared too much. Food for thought I suppose.

Reality vs fantasy.......or not

In what I have read of All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren, which only two chapters (so far), there is this theme of reality vs. fantasy. The narrator of the story,  Jack Burden, seems to be traveling between these two worlds that are both fantasy and what's actually happening as he sets the scene of what is currently going and by going backwards to explain how the current events came to be. But Jack isn't the only one who bounces between the two worlds; the main character, Willie Stark, seems to be also. But before I continue I'm going to veer from the topic a little to vent about the things I have noticed about this book; firstly Warren introduces the main character and the minor characters but as you continue reading, you realize that the main character and the narrator are two different people, now that isnt that unusual but in the way that Warren writes this novel it just sounds a little weird. Secondly because you realize that narrator is a different person, there is a period of time where you're wondering who the main character is and why it's taking Warren so long to introduce him. Jack Burden thinks of himself as the wallpaper, the one who is constantly forgotten and the fact that Warren takes so long to introduce makes me feel as though Burden isn't as important to the story as the other characters , when he actually is. But i digress so anyways back to reality vs. fantasy. I see the theme as less of reality vs fantasy but more of real vs. fake. For Jack the life that he wished he had vs. the one he's lived and is living is the difference between real and fake. For example Jack says, "I was so much in love with her that I lived in a dream. In that dream my heart seemed to be ready to burst, for it seemed that the whole world was inside it swelling to get out and be the world. But that summer came to an end. Time passed and nothing happened that we had felt so certain at one time would happen (Warren 39-40)." In Jack's dreams ( the fantasy world) things between him and Anne  are perfect. She is no longer a little girl but now she has grow into a woman. But in this world both of their feelings run wild and then would meet at the same time , but in reality what was only a fling wont go to be anymore than that . In Burden's fantasy he is happy have his girlfriend but in the real world he doesn't have her because they don't last after that summer. then there is the idea of change in that when Jack returns back to Mason City everything is different than how he remembers it so that it really can't be real " they ain't real, I thought as I walked down the hall, nary one. But I knew they were. You come into a strange place , into a town like Mason City, and they don't seem real but you know they are (Warren 57)."  When Jack thinks about the town he thinks of the people , the people he sees now can't be real because they aren't the same people that he used to know, there's no way that they can be different even though it is common for the people of Mason city like that, in his fantasy world the people are different they are who they used to be. Then there is Willie Stark who is the Boss, his personality fits right in with real vs. fake. It's as if Stark is many different people; his fake side is when he is politician mode, he does whatever he can to appeal to the masses, to make them feel like there is some common ground between them. Even Lucy knows that this isn't his true self. But there is also his real self the self that isnt politician mode like when he is talking to Lucy, his pappy, or his posse. The way to notice the difference is in his voice,"In his old voice, his own voice. Or was that his voice? Which was his true voice, which one of all the voices, you would wonder (Warren 10)." his changes in his voice show the real self but also show the fake self. Most people who know can't decipher which one is real or which voice is fake. He uses so many different personalities that it's almost hard to tell who is Willie Stark reall.

Final thoughts

Since we are finishing up Winesburg, Ohio, I’ll just make this post about my final thoughts of Winesburg. Well to begin with I really did enjoy this book, well actually the book is a tad bit confusing but the discussions we have had based off the book helped me better understand the book, look at it in a different way but then at the same time I questioned more. It made me wonder how Anderson really intended for this book to be read. Did he want people to read it as if it were a collection of short stories that just seemed to be intertwined? Or as a novel and each of the short stories were just really flashbacks and a description of the people who were once young and innocent and then in a moment of their innocence, something came and disrupted them, causing them to become grotesques? Anderson allowed you to build a connection with these characters’ you weren’t angry at them, you pitied them. As I learned about Doctor Reefy, Elizabeth, Wing Biddlebaum, Tandy, Enoch, and Doctor Parcival, my heart opened up a little more because of their loneliness. With these people who are considered grotesques I think more about the people that I see every day. We all start off innocent, as a baby we are filled with excitement and amusement for the world and at the same time filled with youth and innocence.  But how many times do we see people that walk past us that may be dressed a little different, look a little different, act a little bit more dramatized, walk a little funny, or seem a little bit more out there? And what do we do? We judge them. We get an idea in our heads and that’s it, there is no stop to think that they might have some kind of story, one that would make us feel sorry for them and want to comfort them rather than poking fun at the things that we see is wrong in them. Winesburg, Ohio makes me consider how many of us are really grotesque; it’s as if Anderson has created this guide for us to ultimately recognize that in a way we are all grotesque and that we are no better than the woman on the street who tries to dress like her daughter. The structure of the work had me reconsidering what it means for a text to be a novel vs. a short story; here the lines blur a bit, and I was a little unsure. But concluded that it is a slight combination of both in that , each short story is a chapter that is part of the “The Book of the Grotesque”, but that also each of the “chapters” could stand alone and tell their own story. I related it to the structure of the bible and how it is one story that is the Bible but within in the overall collection of the bible there are little stories inside it , that make up chapters that can stand alone.

Is he the Philosopher?

Doctor Parcival is a confused man. There is a lot in "The Philosopher" that seems to contradict each other. The chapter starts off with Parcival being described as "a large man with a drooping mouth covered by a drooping mustache. He always wore a dirty white waistcoat, out of the pockets of which protruded a number of the kind of black cigars known as stories" (Anderson 34). From this passage Anderson shws how Parcival cannot take care of himself but when he is with George he finds ways to relate to him , by telling long stories about himself. There are some insecurities within Parcival where he needs someone to listen to him, to believe in everything he says, and to take him seriously. He finds this in George, someone who will actually believe in him. Especially someone like George, who is the reporter for the town and can get other people to listen to what Parcival says. Parcival's priorities are a little bit hazy because his book is the most important thing to him, while he is Winesburg, rather than his practice of being a doctor. But strangely Parcival is supposedly a doctor and yet the chapter is called "The Philosopher". Anderson contradicts Parcival when talking about his book because Paricval's main point for his to book is to let everyone know that we are all Christ therefore we are all crucified . But he himself  joins into the unchristian society when he refuses to go and help the girl who died because she fell from the stagecoach. He becomes paranoid because he thinks it will become known by the town and they will all whisper about it until they all join together and form a mob to run him out of town. In reality no one notices that he didn't come to help but he tells George that they will come soon, if not now later down the road. I am confused by the fact of whether or not he is considered a grotesque. Anderson describes the grotestque as distorted and unsure and Parcival reveals himself to be very insecure , and these insecurities allow him to not be able to live the life that he intended on living. One thing I really questioned about Parcival was his family. His father went to an asylum and his brother was a railroad painter and brought in the money for him , Parcival and his mother. His brother was a drunk who would make the money and tell him and his mother they couldn't touch, then he would go spend it all , and make up to his family by sending them gifts. Through this he still considered his brother a "superior being" and he tell George that he want him to be just like his brother. In what ways does he mean? Selfish and uncaring of others? Or the ultimate man, who makes money and takes care of the family without really being there? What is it he sees in his brother that he believes makes him superior ?

The philosopher

For the most part Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson is a pretty weird book; there are a lot of characters to remember and a lot of different things that happen to them that make them all eventually tie in with each other. In a way most of these characters are grotesque. The actual meaning of the word grotesque is marked by ludicrous or incongruous; distortion; outlandish or bizarre. Anderson takes from that and describes all the people the writer had ever met as grotesque. Not that they were horrible people but because each person had a truth about them and they took up another truth that basically wasn’t theirs. With this in mind I think of Doctor Parcival. He’s one guy who’s a fire short a couple of sticks. To begin things one of the first pictures you have of him is dirty blackened and yellowed, just untidy. It’s actually really gross because I think at some point some crazy lady goes away with him, although why I will never know… but I digress. So anyways Doctor Parcival develops this thing for George, for a collection of short stories that seem to be completely different he definitely shows up a lot, which I wonder is it a fondness that he has taken with Willard, some kind of admiration, like one would admire a son or child? Or is it something more serious like love or lust? Does he relate to Biddlebaum who never openly says that he has a liking for boys but suggests so when he says that he thinks of the little boy. George Willard is quite the stud though, he gets everybody. But back to Parcival who is trying to convince people that he is something he isn’t that he’s more advisable when in reality he’s not worth actually listening to. But what makes him a grotesque is the truth about him which is that the reason he moved from Chicago to Winesburg in the first place was not to write a book but because him and some other people killed a man then out him in a trunk. When he first arrives in Windeburg he and the baggeman get in a little fight over a trunk then in the next page he goes on the tell George about the men and the man they murdered which is interesting that Anderson put them on paged that are right next to each other and in relatively the same spot as if Anderson was trying to show how Parcival was contradicting himself. Everyone in the town knew he got in a fight over a trunk when he first arrived, and then on the second page he goes and tells this story which makes you automatically connect the dots and say that yes Parcival really killed this man so it’s like he is separating himself from his own actions by telling the story from a different perspective. I almost wonder why he set the particular part that way. Then there is the thing where the child had passed away and the town had called all the practicing doctors to come and check to see if the child was going to be ok but then they all say that she is dead but when Doctor Parcival was asked he said no then later was freaking out for inexplicable reasons about how the town would start whispering about how he didn’t come to help her and eventually they will find him and chase him out of town or hang him which sounds and awfully like another grotesque charcter, Wing Biddlebaum. 

A quick dissection: short stories

So recently we have been discussing short stories and what we think the main idea is, the so what's about them, and what the true meanings have been. So the sort stories we are reading are "Fiesta" by Diaz, "Teenage Wasteland" by Anne Tyler, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates, and "Hairball" by Margaret Atwood; thank gosh for the "anything you can buy in Barnes N Noble" thing otherwise I would've never remembered how to properly quote those. Anyways the first story that we read was "Hairball". "Hairball" is a pretty interesting and slightly gross story , the woman takes her ovarian cyst and saves it then later goes and gives it to someone but not after putting chocolate shavings on it. She treats her cyst, who she names Hairball, as if it is her child and that it has teeth, nails, toes and fingers. She personifies Hairball into something that she cannot have, something that she feels that the world has taken from her. She's always moving to the next thing, or the next stage, whether that be changing her name or where she is currently living. When Gerald convinces her to go to move to Toronto, she does because she is ready for the next thing. It doesn't take Gerald long to hit on her or rather she hits on him. She is alone and uses her sexuality to hide what she is feeling inside. She hooks up with guys but she can't be with them be because she thinks they are unfit. She wants children and she wants gerald but those are both things she can't have because Gerald is married and she is getting older. This story was mainly a distraught woman trying to turn her life around,to stop being the cold person she was, now she wants love and with everyone being in love with someone else she may not get that. The story i read though , that I found the most interesting is "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" this story shows what happens when teens look for attention in the wrong places, Connie and her mother don't get along but instead of trying to get her mother's love she goes and looks for attention from boys. Arthur Friend, which I find his name ironic because his last name is friend which he has managed to disguse himself as but he's really a predator, finds her and tries to get her to join him. The weird thing is though while he tries to get her to come outside, he never actually goes in after her he wants her to see that she wh really wants to be with him herself, that joining him is where she wants to be. The screen door that separates them is almost like a portal that separates to different worlds; inside being the human world that Connie is already a part of and the outside world being the underworld disguised as heaven. It's like Arnold Friend and Ellie don't really exist this, they are just figments of her imagination, her deepest subconscious, telling her that she really wants to escape this world. Maybe she actually dies at the end and she's having an outter body experience . What does it truly mean to really want to leave the world because you are unaccepted because you are too vain, that you go and construct this whole scene where a guy comes to your house after your parents leave and offers you a ride , then waits for you outside while you try and run or scream for help, feeling like you're being metaphorically (or physically) stabbed?

Short stories

So I have recently read the short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates. It's a pretty interesting story mainly because I have no idea what's going on. There is a girl, her name is Connie and she is the type of girl that is pretty and knows she's pretty. She is constantly looking at herself in the mirror, trapped in this vanity. Her mother has pretty much no interest in her because when her mother looks at connie she sees a young version of herself. She was once young, once beautiful but that eventually faded away with time and age making her plain and ordinary, she cares more about her other daughter, June. June was never really beautiful she skipped that phase and went straight to the plain and ordinary and her mother loves that about her, because she knows that June will never be trapped in vanity . But without her mothers love and affection, Connie goes else where to find it. She meets Arnold Friend and his friend Ellie later on in the story. Here's where it starts to get confusing. First off Arnold just shows up at her house, he knows that her parents aren't home, what they are doing and when they will be back. He starts to rattle off numbers; 33, 19, 17. What do they mean ? Arnold calls out to her telling her that she should go on a ride with him but he doesnt ask her in a normal way one would ask someone out he says, "Connie you ain't telling the truth. This is your day set aside for a ride with me and you know it (Oates 472)" he says it as if he came for her like this is her doom day and he is the collector. Another interesting thing in the story is the fact that the whole time that Arnold is trying to get Connie to come outside to be with him, as he gets increasingly more aggressive, he never goes inside the house , he tellers her that he promised he won't go inside as long as she doesn't try to pick up the phone, but it's almost as if the phones is a barrier that separates to different worlds the house being the actual human world and the outside where Arnold is this other world like an afterlife. It is described as a vast land with light as if the place outside isn't even of this world, when she picks up the phone, like the last thing in her "battle" against Arnold, she tries to dial for help but then she says how it felt like she was being stabbed repeatedly but the thing is Arnold never came in side the house. Connie seemed to be having and outter body experience and then she goes outside and runs to Arnold, her soul has lost the fight against Arnold and is giving itself to him. But then this brings up questions; was she really killed? What Arnold real or a made up figure? What is Ellie's purpose in the story? because he doesn't actually contribute to the story he just listens to the radio.