Body in the water

“The Hours” by Michael Cunningham is an interesting book; or rather the prologue is very interesting. It was slow at first but then you’re a little confused with what is going on because there is just so much detail, you feel as though you are standing at the edge of the bank, but still at a distance, watching the curiosity and the crinkled concentrated lines on her forehead slowly flatten out and peace and calm take over her features. You notice how she looks around questioningly and you watch with curiosity as she searches around the beach and she finds one stone that is “roughly the size of a pig’s skull (4).” You watch her approach the bank noticing how the water is actually a murky and disgusting yellow rather than the ugly brown, although in my personal opinion the yellow is worse. Dirty yellow just shows a more murky filth, tainted, or disturbed. As you ponder the disgustingness of the water you see Virginia start to walk towards the water, walking inside it with her shows still on and the water coming right up underneath her knees and you want to yell at her, tell her to come out but just as you’re about to you realize just how peaceful she is and how there is really no one who could really stop her at this moment so you pause and let her continue. For a moment you are at peace with her and then she is in the water and you don’t really pay attention because you figure that she can just swim back, but she doesn’t; she lets the current take her and she flows away and you don’t think that about that being the last time that you are going to see her, but it is. Cunningham has this way of writing where you feel as though you are standing near Virginia as she commits suicide, but then at the same time you’re in her thoughts and you can understand what this moment means to her. When she is standing in the water in her head she says “Here, then , is the last moment of true  perception (5)” to some it would seem as though a delusional woman just walked into disgusting water with all of her clothes on, to another it may seemed as though a woman was just in deep thought and she just didn’t understand how she ended up in the water, but if you really knew her you’d know that this was a phase a phase that she wouldn’t be able to escape from, oh she’s been here before, but this time she isn’t strong enough to break out of this phase and this is her way of helping everyone be happy again. The woman in the water is just a blank picture and anyone could make a story on she ended up there. Then it feels as though you are being yanked and you’re at Virginia’s house where her husband, Leonard, has just gotten home and the maid tells him that his wife has gone out and he doesn’t even realize that he is never going to see her again until he sees the note. The note that he will be happier without her and she was the happiest she had been when she was with him, he runs out the house and that is the end of the prologue and the chapter starts. And you wonder about how Virginia got there in the first place and what happens to Leonard. It’s weird the Cunningham opens the book with a suicide.

For faith??

“Faith” is a fine invention

"Faith" is a fine invention
When Gentlemen can see—
But Microscopes are prudent
In an Emergency. 

Emily Dickinson

In “’Faith’ is a fine invention,” Emily Dickinson explores the vulnerability of faith through the more tangible aspect of man and invention.

Faith is the idea of believing in something that is not necessarily tangible but rather an idea or concept that will help pull through or deal with a situation. Dickinson describes faith as a “fine invention” suggesting that it could be a tactic that “Gentlemen” create when they see that things aren’t exactly going the way they should “in an Emergency”.  Faith becomes a fine invention when men are able to see where they are in a situation but then Dickinson cuts the sentence showing an unfinished thought which produces the questions of what it is that faith helps the gentleman see. The microscopes seem to take a higher rank than faith. Microscopes serve as invention for finer analyzing.Dickinson contrasts the microscope and faith, where “microscopes are prudent” meaning that they can be more careful or precise in predicting the future and that faith isn’t given the choice between the two in an emergency.  In the poem, “Gentleman”, “Microscopes” and “Emergency” are all capitalized showing a sense of importance of an Emergency where Gentleman must use a Microscope to better predict the outcome of the emergency, because faith alone will not help in seeing the future of the emergency but just the belief that they will make it through the emergency, but then how can a microscope really help in a emergency? Microscopes would easily be thrown aside in the time of an emergency rather than faith, but the poem suggests that microscopes are at a higher standard than faith. Dickinson questions what the Gentleman will use in an emergency will they use microscopes, which symbolize fact or practicality or faith a conjured concept when they can see that they will make it through. The first line shows a sense of vulnerability. “Faith is a fine invention,” faith is not only a belief that something will happen but also the vulnerability in the belief that something has to happen. When the Gentleman can see, faith becomes a fine invention, when Gentleman, proper, dignified men, are vulnerable faith is a “good, just, or a good choice” for an invention. Structurally it is interesting that that the second line doesn’t come before the first, so that it was “When Gentleman can see-/ “Faith is a fine invention” to show that when Gentleman are no longer blind and everything is clear and they have become more knowledgeable, that faith is a good virtue to have. For the last two lines it is interesting that Dickinson says, “But Microscopes are prudent/ in an Emergency” rather than, “but in an Emergency/ Microscopes are prudent.” The structure of the poem Dickinson’s way, sets the tone of endearing saying that when the men have become more knowledgeable that faith is clearer and allows more focus but then the tone shifts to  a more knowledgeable, superior , knowing tone when she says that in an emergency, microscopes are more helpful as if they have discovered through personal experience.

And we're back :)

I love poetry. I think it’s the best form of expressional writing. There is so much that you can get from poetry and the best thing about it is that the writer doesn’t have a specific meaning. The meaning of the poem is left up to the interpretation of the reader. You can get so much out of poetry. “Poetry is the universal language which the heart holds with nature and itself” – WilliamHazlitt. Poetry is universal, it transcends across the world. Anyone can read a poem, a sonnet, a villanelle, or a free verse and interpret it however they want and make it personal for them. Poetry connects us and intertwines us all to not just each other but to nature and the world around us. The purpose of poetry is to convey an important life moment that could either is insignificant or a very big moment like graduation, or being potty trained or your first day of college, but the moments are all things that everyone can relate too. It’s as if in the entire poetry library has poetry that is specific to everyone; every feeling and every moment you can connect with. “Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese” – G.K. Chesterton. I think what Chesterton is trying to say here is that poets will talk about almost anything. The corner of every topic and moment in life turned. Cheese represents the simple, basic topics that poets don’t talk and it almost doesn’t make sense that the all the complicated events or dark topics, or the life changing moments they talk about but very basic things they don’t talk about. Mary Oliver talked about walking through a swamp; it makes you wonder just how many people can really relate to that? How many people have walked through a swamp other than the people who live in the Everglades? Something so basic like food, which satisfies our physiological needs and won’t allow us to do anything else until those needs are met, is very interesting. Poetry kind of reminds me of short stories, in the way that we look at the meaning and the angle at which you interpret it. Both and poetry has a meaning that the author or poet had in mind when they were writing the work, but the meaning that you and I have when reading the work is not only different between the two of us but also the poet or writer. The difference that short stories have from poetry is the meaning is more solid in short stories. There is still interpretation but you’re more guessing of what happens next or what happens first, depending on how it is written, but you’re mainly focusing on sequence because the meaning is clearer. On the other hand poetry is more informal and it’s the meaning that is left to interpretation. The reader could ultimately discover a completely different poem with the same words that the poet uses. The similarity between the two is that there is a lot of reading in between the lines with both.

He's only a tad bit innocent

I'm almost a little parts of me that wants to dislike Grendel because he is in fact a monster but then the other half is sad for him because he is just trying to fit in with the men so that maybe hell be apart of something. Grendel is obviously a monster who is not apart of the human world but rather threatens thems and terrorizes them. There was the time where he got his foot caught in between to the two tree trunks and that was where he first discovered man. In discovering man he seems that they and him are not that much different from each other in that they both speak the same language. What I'm confused about is whether or not Grendel is actually talking. We are reading his thoughts but we haven't actually heard hi, communicate. In the beginning when his foot gets stuck he tries to talk to them but they don't understand him or that he is trying it attack them or when he sees the dead man outside and he picks him up and throws him over his shoulder and runs into the meadhall and yells out" Mercy!Peace! Friend!" hes almost trying to ask for their forgivensee trying to connect with them but theynrejct him and think thatbhe is trying to attsck them.So then you begin to think that the whole story is just his thoughts, he has told us that he speaks the same language as the humans but then at the same time when he has tried to communicate with them it's not the same language . It is possible that he could just speak like his mother (she is always saying drool , drool) but thinks like the humans do. Which would make his mind very sophisticated. Then what confuses me even more is that when he is hiding in the forest and he talks about how Hrothgar has violence and shame etched into his face and Unferth is asleep but guarding the meadhall and he is just watching them then someone in the forest is asking who is there and he says " the Destroyer" it seems as if the priest can understand him and he can understand what Grendel is saying to him which makes no sense to me. I don't think that Grendel is necessarily evil, I think that he , like Adam and eve , has been influenced by evil to embrace his evil side. The evil side we all posess but must be pressured so that it comes out because before he was curious at the world and angry that was why he was attacking the meadhall but then he comes into his role after talking to the dragon and becomes "the Destroyer"

The red sweater

 For the prose timed writing essay that we had to write about the short story, Eleven. Elevwn is about a little girl in class who is unable to communicate with her teacher that a lost sweater isn’t hers. The sweater is really ugly and smells funny and the teacher is quite certain that it is hers until she is told otherwise. In the beginning the girl is reflective in that she thinks that as people age we don’t know the difference in each year as we get a little older. She goes on to mention how she is turning eleven but she doesn’t feel eleven. She also describes how even though we get older we still repeat actions from the years younger. She compares aging with an onion or the rings of a tree. Ad we grow older we start off in the very center of the tree and then we make our way outward but then an event or test will stop us from continuing outward and moving on to the next ring, but will in fact make us revert to the ring that we have already passed. Then the teacher comes to her table and tells her that the sweater is hers and the narrator says how because the teacher is older and she is only eleven that the teacher must be very wise. This goes along with the idea that as you do get older you are creating more rings on the tree, that represents your growth in age, but also provides more opportunity for you to revert back into your childhood. I looked at this prose through the prospective that this was an internal battle between maturity and childhood. The girl was trying to find her way to maturity by it being her birthday she figured that because there were no physical changes she would just have adult- like actions. This was  a failed test on her journey to maturity because the  red sweater was the test to prove that she would be able to handle the situation in a adult matter and continue on her journey to adulthood and have less moments where she would revert back into her childhood . The red sweater isn’t just a red sweater but it symbolizes the test that could potentially stop us from maturing. Once we have passed our red sweater then we may continue to explore the world while being on the road to maturity. Because the girl, whose name I think might be Rachel, failed the red sweater test and cried she had regressed back into her childhood making it seem that the journey of her maturity was almost nonexistent. She went back to the time where she was three and sat and cried in front of her class. So now she must start over and prep herself to find the road to maturity and begin again. This ending shows that when we, as people, fail our red sweater test we must start over again , kind of like going from that childhood moment and starting again.

Under the ice

"Krogstad: under the ice perhaps? Down into that cold, black water? Then spring comes and you float up again hideous, can't be identified, hair all gone (1206)." there is a period of time where everyone seems to be the most important, where they are noticed by either masses of people, a few people, or just one person but still they are noticed. Nora is noticed for being the doll, the quite woman who is to be seen and not heard. She plays the role very well. The realm in which she lives in is the dollhouse and there is nothing in there that separates her, nothing that other woman will see as right for a woman in her day.so she sinks back farther into the dollhouse and when it comes time for the rebirth (the spring).  To happen then we grow and change into our mature selves but by then no one cares who or what we are.
"Nora: well there are people you love, and people you'd rather be with (1203)." nora doesn't love Torvald, but can we necessarily say that she loves rank either? She is doing what her father has taught her is best for herself financially. From one rich guy and handed straight to another. But Nora wants someone who really understands her, listens to what she needs and she knows that she can't get that from Torvald because they have never really talked, never gotten to understand each other. She is saying that in this time people don't end up with the people they love, they end with the people who it is most confident and who society will approve of with disregards to actual love and  love, feeling and emotions.
The characters in a A Doll House   by Henrik Ibsen are hard to understand at first you think that everyone acts one way or their personality is one way but it turns out it really isn't. Originally you think that Nora is naive and innocent, that she can't seem to do anything real but please her husband, but then you find out that she has this huge secret and it turns out she is a lot sneaker and deceptive then you had originally anticipated. The plot, I believe, was centered around The Wonderful and that Nora really wanted to get out if the dollhouse from a long time ago but she couldn't. Secretly everyone wants The Wonderful but not like Nora did. She knew that eventually the secret would come out her hope was that when it did, Torvald would stand and and try and take the blame for everything and then she would let everyone know that it was really her and Torvald was just trying to take the fall for it, soon she wouldn't be able to handle the burden so she would kill herself. Most females want the security of knowing that the person their with will throw themselves into the raging fire tin order to douse the flames that she has so created. Also tthere is the setting, the fact that the play takes place over three days coincides with the birth, the life and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This play is also broken up into three scenes, which we see three different sides of Nora. In the first scene we see the doting and loving and following side of Nora, the wife who does whatever her husband tells her to and only and answers to him. In the second act we see Nora as nervous, she has told Kristine her secret and now she knows it is only a matter of time before everyone else finds out about it. She is frantic in trying to keep Torvald in the dark about the secret, as to not lead to the breakdown of the dollhouse. But she is hoping and praying that when the secret does come out the wonderful will happen. Then in the third act she is almost indifferent  like she knows the inevitable will happen and is going to happen. She knows she must leave to find herself and explore the world.

What's so wonderful?

I am unsure of how exactly I feel about Nora and Torvald in "A Doll House" by Henrik Ibsen . In this play Ibsen exploits the  true dynamic of a family. He uses the Helmers to show the audience how superficial and appearance based one family is, but how their "doll house" is slowly breaking down. Throughout the play I've noticed a few things for one thing the dollhouse itself. In a way the dollhouse reminds me of a glass house in that it is delicate and fragile. For the Helmers  the dollhouse is a game of pretend with Torvald being the owner and Nora as the doll. The pretend that what they have is real so others will think what they have is beautiful and be envious of their happiness. Torvald likes to show Nora off as his carefully made up doll, in which he controls and she will follow his lead. This idea of the dollhouse as the glasshouse is that the dollhouse must be kept beautiful, free of debt, and pure for that is what makes a perfect home, not loyalty, honesty, and love. But imagine a glasshouse; it's one of those things that if set up correctly it is beautiful to look at and looks as though it has been so carefully thought out that you don't want destroy it. But there's a problem with a glasshouse it's contents are completely visible to everyone, there are no secrets. Also as perfectly and carefully as it has been designed it takes one sharp enough thing from the outside to strike it at the right spot then the whole glasshouse comes down, and we know that broken glass is painful. So when this house breaks down everyone inside is affected. Let me take the whole glasshouse metaphor and apply that to dollhouse. Torvald prides himself that his home is debt-free, because he says that a beautiful home is not beautiful if it is not free. He has built thus house to be completely superficial to give the presence of something real. For those who look at the Helmer's home they see a very loving home, children, and two madly in love parents but it's all an act. Then there is Kristine and Krogstad, who can see the truth. They see the disconnect that lies inside the dollhouse, they see the lack of understanding between man and wife, but they are outsiders. They don't fit in with the dollhouse. The
letter  Krogstad leaves in the mailbox is the rock that hits the glasshouse. Once Torvald reads the note, and realizes how Nora has committed forgery everything has changed. And now the glasshouse is breaking affecting Torvald , Nora and the kids in the process. This is where the idea of the wonderful is supposed to kick in. The wonderful is the response Nora thought Torvald was going to have once he found out what she did. She thought he would take the blame for her actions and handle the situation and she,in turn, would not let him then she would've killed herself , but they would have developed a true family. But that's not what happens at all. Torvald realizes he will have succumb to Krogstads threat . Nora can't believe this and eventually leaves.