Getting Into Character

As I listened to this radio show from This American Life, I realized how well it could connect to an analysis I read by Northrop Frye. The former spoke about the contrast between judging from actions and judging from character, having in mind Hamlet and Claudius. The radio show gave a glimpse of a prison production of Hamlet. What made the prison production so credible and real was the relationship the actors felt with their character. James Ward was asked if the reason he could play laertes so well was because so much of Laertes was inside of him, to which he replied, " I am Laertes, I am. I am." 
There was a direct relationship between the personal guilt of the actors and the guilt their characters were conveying.The prisoner who played King Hamlet even confessed that as he read the lines,  he was "the body up there" but the words were mostly coming from the man he killed, William Pride.  Here I found a similarity between the essay's thesis and the prisoners. Each prisoner, as well as Claudius, "is someone of great potential fatally blocked by something he has done and can never undo." Northrop speaks of the common assumption that what you've done is what you'll ever be. But this generalization is not shared by most prisoners. They see themselves as people who reached the lowest point of their life, and now only wish to come out of it and see how high they can get. They want to reach their full potential but feel their bad deeds are keeping them from reaching their maximum. They want defy the common generalization, seeking to be judged for their character, not for their actions. 

Little Hamlet

In the critical essay by Earnest Jones, it is stated that the psychological understanding of Hamlet's personality and behavior is a case of insanity. It wasn't in Shakespeare's intent to regard Hamlet as insane, but that is how us readers often interpret him. As seen in Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams, Hamlet suffers from psychoneurosis. According to Jones, "psychoneurosis means a state of mind where the person is unduly, and often painfully, driven or thwarted by the 'unconscious' part of his mind." One can relate this statement to Hamlet. His father's brutal murder gave action to his insanity. His thirst for revenge pushed Hamlet to manifest his emotions through desperate and impulsed actions. Hamlet's repressed childhood can explain the real reason behind him murdering his uncle. If as a child, "sane" Hamlet resented his father for taking some of his mother's affection, and secretly wished him out of the way, as years went by, these thoughts would be repressed and all traces of them "obliterated." But if "insane" Hamlet thought of such things as a child, then as the years went by, these thoughts would remain with him and therefore, explain his actions. If what Hamlet wanted was his mother's affection, then his father's death was only an excuse (even though it was first the cause) for his uncle's murder, leaving the audience with a feeling of pity and sympathy at the end of the play.  

Hamlet as a Dionysian man

According to Friedrich Nietzsche, Hamelet resembles the Dionysian man. Both gain knowledge, but refuse to take action, "for their action could not change anything in the eternal nature of things." (Nietzsche, 39) On the contrary, the Apolonian man would "take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing them end them." (Hamlet, 3:1:67-68) I do not agree with Nietsche that Hamlet represents the Dionysian man. When Hamlet is told the truth about his father's death, that it was his uncle who killed him and now is marrying his mother, he turns against his uncle. This shows how he, as the Apolonian man, strives to "set right a world that is out of joint." (Nietsche, 39) Here, in a desperate seek for revenge, Hamlet finds a motive for his actions. Even though Hamlet realizes that "action could not change anything in the eternal nature of things", meaning his father's death was something irreversible, he believes it is his destiny, the reason he was born. Therefore, I disagree with Nietsche's position that Hamlet is a Dionysian man.

Dehumanization- The Road

When I began to read Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road, I asked myself if it could be considered deumanization. As I continued reading, I reached to the conclusion that it defenitely was. 

de·hu·man·ize  (d-hym-nz)

tr.v. de·hu·man·ized, de·hu·man·iz·ing, de·hu·man·iz·es

1. To deprive of human qualities such as individuality, compassion, or civility.

The lack of individuality is showen in the book in a very obvious example. McCarthy refuses to name his characters, leaving them as the man, the son, the boy and so on, for his readers. This clearly contributes to the lack of individuality. No names, No identity. It's like they even lost the right to be called by a name. Compassion, as well as civility, are lost in the novel. The bad guys mainly, are the ones who demonstrate it better, doing everything they can to survive, not minding about others well being. A combination of these make The Road a novel that deals with dehumanization, as result of the desperation the characters must face in their post-apocalipic world.

Carrying The Fire- The Road

Towards the end of the book, as the man is dying and his son accompanies him, they have a conversation that caught my attention. 

"You have to carry the fire.

I don't know how to.

Yes you do.

Is it real? The fire?

Yes it is.

Where is it? I dont know where it is.

Yes you do. It's inside you. It was always there. I can see it."

234

The fire the man talks about, so passionately, is a symbol of hope, purity and enlightenment. He strongly believes the boy has the fire inside of him, meaning that he is the hope of humanity. The boy who carries the fire represents what is left of good nature, innocence, humbleness and purity. Throughout the novel we see cases where the boy feels the need to help others and is constantly asking for assurance of whether they're still the good guys. The enlightenment theory is derived from greek mythology that represent fire as enlightenment or knowledge. What his father is trying to tell him by "you have to carry the fire... It's inside you", is that he must never give up on his morality, because it's people like him who can save the world, save humanity (McCarthy, 234).

McCarthy meets Darwin- The Road

Social darwinism is understood as the theory of social selection that attempts to justify the success of some social groups over others. This laissez faire based theory is also called 'survival of the fittest', meaning that only the best adapted survive in times of conflict. In McCarthy's The Road, there is a constant reminder of this theory. A clear example of this is the division between good guys and bad guys.

He (The Boy) sat there cowled in the blanket. After a while he looked up. Are we still the good guys? he said.

[The Man:] Yes. We're still the good guys.

[The Boy:] And we always will be.

[The Man:] Yes. We always will be.


[The Boy:] Okay. (McCarthy, 120)

This conversation between the boy and his father occurs after the conflict experienced with a man (road-rat), in which the father ends up killing him. The conversation above demonstrates the different kinds of groups living in the same environment. The bad guys portray a negative, yet dominating image of people, while the father and his son represent humbleness. In a devastated world such as the one they live in, it is only logical that this 'survival of the fittest' will emerge. In this case, the fittest is the one that can obtain more food supply. In order to do this, you have to become selfish. Only care about your survival, what you are going to eat. Take the cannibals for example, their life revolves around the saying “the end justifies the means”. This is exactly what separates the social groups in The Road. There are the ones who don't mind killing and eating humans as long as they get fed, and there are the ones who won't let go of their beliefs and will not even consider hurting an innocent one. The problem is, when it comes down to the end of the world, which one is more useful?

21st Century- The Road

So, I was searching for new music on youtube and I stumbled upon this music video. The Goddess Willow Smith does an incredible job portraying dangers in such an artistic and original manner. In order to honor this multitalented girl, I decided to make a comparative analysis with , The Road having in mind the scenario and the lyrics. So lets begin! 


The video commences with a lady, rather old and mysterious, straying through a desert like path. She finds a bone resting in the lifeless sand and, surprised by her finding, quickly begins a ritual resulting in the reviving of Willow Smith. The desert, as well as the road in The Road, represent a remaining path that humans created by engendering destruction. Until this point, we only see a lifeless and abandoned world. Further on in the video, Smith begins to rise skyscrapers and roads that were underground, covered by the desert sand. As she does this, she sings "21st Century Girl, I do what i like" and "21st Century Girl, yeah, I'm gonna live it up, just live it up". Clearly, this is the most important message the viewer has to absorb. She is telling us we are in the 21st century, we only do what we like and live it up. Now, I'm sure this sounds exciting and completely harmless but, when you incorporate the video scenes where she's trying to build up the world again, you understand this is actually a wake up call. McCarthy also uses his novel as a wake up call to humans, encouraging us to preserve what we have and not "live it up". 


She continues the song as follows. "I set the boundaries The rules don't own me I'm living life on the edge, I choose my path". What she is trying to tell us with these powerful words is that us humans tend to believe the rules don't apply to us and that we are invincible. Specially adolescents believe this, and as her song title states, we are living in the 21st century. The future of the world are presently teenagers. If we continue with the mentality of acknowledging we are "on the edge" but do nothing about it, we are doomed. But she doesn't let this mentality take over her, for she ends the song with a heroic phrase: "It's that new girl thinking and this song is just the start!". Again, she is telling us that this generation, the new kids, have to take action and responsibility for the future of our earth. She is taking action by communicating the message through her song. That is the first step. The rest is up to us if we don't want to end up striving for our survival in the road.

*Please note my love for Willow Smith and her video is purely sarcastic. 

The Sandman

Turns out the light and is gone.

Ever is a long time.

That ever is no time at all.   (McCarthy, 28)

                                       

This poem is a recollection of words and sentences found in McCarthy's novel The Road. I decided to analyze the sentences separately from their "true" meaning in the book. The first sentence contains the word 'light', possibly referring to a bright and good state. The poem begins stating that the light is turned off, linking it with the loss of knowledge experienced in the book. Knowledge being the good and bright factor. The end of the sentence continues the vanishing motion until it reaches a dead end, its 'gone'. The next two sentences serve as a paradox, one saying that "ever is a long time" while the others says "ever is no time at all." McCarthy emphasizes on time by using words such as "ever", "long" and "time". My guess is that it's referring to how people take so much for granted. we truly believe we will have it forever and then on day, in a split second we don't. In The Road, humans took mother earth for granted, believing she would be there forever, but as these thoughts grew stronger, mother earth grew weaker until one day she was gone (or at least most of her). 

Stumbling Upon McCarthy

In the interview with Cormac McCarthy on Oprah, themes like luck and money showed up. According to McCarthy, money was never a concern. When things were going badly, something usually happened that put him back on track. Just like in the road, as they face danger or hunger, the father finds a way to get passed it alieve. For example, McCarthy mentions a situation where he didn't have any money and was trying to live from babysitting. One day, the door bell rang and a man gave him a letter, stating that they were giving him twenty thousand dollars. In situations like this one would think McCarthy had a lot of luck. But he also disagrees on this. He says the world is not controlled by luck, only probability. Sometimes, you end on the right group and you 'get lucky', or at least believe so, until that time period passes.      In McCarthy's novel, The Road, luck is a well-desguised theme. Living in a world where the only thing left for you is to survive, being lucky or seeing and positive side in a situation is otiose. In this time, money is not important anymore, it's useless. Just like McCarthy feels money wasn't important in his life, he implies this feeing in his post apocalyptic novel. The most important thing for the characters in the road is family. As the father speaks of his son, the believe that "if he is not the word of God God never spoke" conquers his thoughts.(McCarthy, 5) The father's only concern is his son's well-being, luck or money don't really fit the equation.     There's something McCarthy mentioned in the interview that caught my attention. When Oprah asks him if he was concerned about money, he answers the following: "I was very naive. I always assumed I was going to be taken care of one way or the other. And i was." This made me think about how humans take so much for granted. In The Road, we see a perfect example of this. They are living in a world they helped create as they destroyed it. Humans took nature for granted, they didn't take care of it. As McCarthy describes, "he did not take care of her and she died alone somewhere in the dark and there is no other dream nor other waking world and there is no other tale to tell."(McCarthy, 32) McCarthy is trying to remind us that we can no longer presume we will be taken care of forever. If we keep up with this attitude, probability will chose our fate instead of ourselves earning it.

Remember- The Road

“The dog that he remembers followed us for two days. I tried to coax it to come but it would not. I made a noose of wire to catch it. There were three cartridges in the pistol. None to spare. She walked away down the road. The boy looked after her and then he looked at me and then he looked at the dog and began to cry and to beg for the dog's life and I promised I would not hurt the dog. A trellis of a dog with the hide stretched over it. The next day it was gone. This is the dog he remembers. He doesnt remember any little boys.” (McCarthy,87)

The paragraph caught my attention for two main reasons. One, it is written in first person, while the novel in general is in third person.This shifting in the narration automatically reaches the readers attention. McCarthy uses this technique to describe a personal, life reflecting experience. This is my second reason to write about this paragraph, the message behind the text. In life, sometimes the smallest things are the ones that impact you the most. For example, in literature, the most important things aren't always the most interesting. In this case, the dog had an impact on the father (assuming e is the one speaking). “The dog that he remembers” follows them down the road. The father talks about how he tried to coach him and take care of him, but that the dog was gone by the next day, and “he doesn't remember any little boys” (McCarthy, 87). As I see it, this passage talks about loss. When you're living you are remembered and you are able to remember, just like the son remembers the dog. But when you die, you are limited to only be remembered, like the dog when he leaves. We cannot hope to be remembered forever, specially in a situation similar to what the father and son are in. We have to be satisfied with just living the moment, regardless of what our memories will keep. 

Survive- The Road

McCarthy is able to combine a tragic tale with a heart-warming, father-son story. Living in a post-apocalyptic environment, feeling both chased and abandoned, it's only reasonable to embrace whatever relationship you have left. Their life style is affected drastically, this is seen through the conversations they have. They restrict their conversations to topics related to survival. The tension felt in these conversations is depicted in the following quotation. “We need to eat, he said. Are you hungry? The boy shook his head. No. Of course not.” (McCarthy, 69) The father asks his son wether he is hungry, and he replies by shaking his head, the reader can infer the son is trying to relief some responsibility from his father. The father replies by saying “No. Of course not”, thus implying a similar situation has happened before. This is an example of the limited conversation they maintain in the novel. The sentence structure in McCarthy's novel are short, representing how shallow their life has become.

Vocab in The Road!

Hey! So after I read Maria Luisa's post, commenting on my blog I decided I should follow her advice. However, I won't change the matching activity since I created it in order to learn vocabulary and reflect on The Road in a more relaxed environment. Just like Maria Luisa stated in her blog! McCarthy doesn't include a very complex vocabulary in his novel, mainly, I believe, because this simpleness adds to the tone and melody portrayed by the book. These few words listed below are the ones I had the most trouble understanding. Match each word with the correct definition. (DON'T USE A DICTIONARY!) 1. Morels a. Keep under control; restrain. 2. Eddied b. A tarpaulin sheet or cover. 3. Uproot c. Pull or move something out of the ground. 4. Jackknifed d. A circular movement of water, counter to a main current, causing a small whirlpool. 5. Tarp e. A cigar with both ends open. 6. Macadam f.  Bend into a V-shape in an uncontrolled skidding movement. 7. Rein g. A widely distributed edible fungus that has a brown oval or pointed fruiting body with an irregular honeycombed surface bearing the spores. 8. Cheroot h. Broken stone of even size used in successively compacted layers for surfacing roads and paths, and typically bound with tar or bitumen. Answer key: 1. g 2. d 3. c 4. f 5. b 6. h 7. a 8. e

Coming Through Slaughter- Buddy Bolden

"It was a financial tragedy that sleep sobered Bolden up completely, that his mind on waking was clear as an empty road and he began to casually drink again although never hard now for he played in the evenings. He slept from 4 to 8. His day had begun at 7 when he walked the kids a mile to school buying them breakfast along the way at the fruit stands. A half hour's walk and another 30 minutes for them to sit on the embankment and eat a huge meal of fruit. He taught them all he was thinking of or had heard, all he knew at the moment, treating them as adults, joking and teasing them with tall tales which they learned to sift down to the real. He gave himself completely to them during the walk, no barriers as they walked down the washed empty streets one on either side, their thin cool hands each holding a finger of his. Eventually they knew the politics of the street better than their teachers and he in turn learned the new street songs from them. By 8 they were at school and he took a bus back to Canal, then walked towards first, greeting everybody on his way to the shop."(Ondaatje, 13)

In the first sentence, the reader can infer that Buddy used to have drinking problems, and that he's beginning to engage the habit again. “It was a financial tragedy” may lead up to the fact that alcohol is expensive and buddy was needing it (Ondaatje, 13). He's struggling with this. It says that Buddy sleeps from 4 to 8, possibly meaning that he doesn't get much sleep at night, probably because he's playing music. Buddy walks “the kids” a mile to school each day. He buys them breakfast at a fruit stand along the way. This portrays the lack of a maternal figure since its the mother who's usually in charge of these tasks. Buddy enjoyed teaching the kids the politics of the street, as well as learning street songs from them. In this paragraph, we are able to see a very dedicated father and friend. When it says, “he gave himself completely to them during the walk, no barriers as they walked down the washed empty streets one on either side, their thin cool hands each holding a finger of his”, may imply that he had a good relationship with the kids.(Ondaatje, 13) The last sentence makes the reader believe Buddy must have really enjoy walking with the kids since he took a bus back to Canal. By greeting everybody on the way we can infer he's a well-known, social man.


“Webb training in the police force, three years older, and Bolden a barber's apprentice emphasizing his ability to be an animated listener. Later on, after he moved, he continued listening at N. Joseph's Shaving Parlor. Here too he reacted excessively to the stories his clients in the chair told him, throwing himself into the situation, giving advice that was usually abstract and bad. The men who came into N. Joseph's were just as much in need of confession or a sense of proportion as a shave and Bolden freely gave bizarre advice just to see what would happen. He was therefore the perfect audience to these songs and pleas. Just take the money and put it on the roosters. Days later furious costumers would rush in demanding to speak to Bolden (who was then only twenty-four for goodness sake) and he would have to leave his customer and that man's flight of conversation, take the angered one into Joseph's small bathroom and instead of accepting the guilt quickly suggest variations. Five minutes later Bolden would be back shaving a neck and listening to other problems. He loved it. His mind became the street.” (Ondaatje, 42)

Bolden, after being an apprentice, moves into N. Josephs Parlor Shop. As an apprentice, he emphasized his ability to listen and by working at the parlor he was able to apply it. The reader can infer the type of lifestyle Bolden carries by reading that he listens to his customer's stories and puts himself in their position. By doing this, he may be looking to establish a more personal relationship with his customers or maybe he's lacking problems of his own and uses their issues for self-amusement. His advice was usually abstract or bad, probably meaning he had no real interest in his customer's problems, “The men who came into N. Joseph's were just as much in need of confession or a sense of proportion as a shave and Bolden freely gave bizzare advice just to see what would happen.”(Ondaatje, 42) This connection between confessing and shaving makes the reader understand that Bolden's real intentions for the job wern't to listen to problems, but to cut hair. Also that while one, the customer, was worried about his problems, the other, Bolden, worried about the hair. This established a relationship between both, making the customers feel like Bolden was the perfect audience. After a few days, when they came to speak to Bolden about his terrible advice, Bolden would just suggest some mends and other advice. This shows how humans are so self-inflicted that they are just searching for a way to solve their problems, or at least someone to do it for them, someone like Bolden. Even though Bolden wasn't the one with the problems, soon enough, his advice ran through town, “his mind became the street”, and he loved it. (Ondaatje, 42) This shows how empty Bolden must feel to spend time on other's problems, loving so, but not really putting much thought into it. 

Where I Grew Up....

In “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy, the father guides his son through his childhood home. As they walk around the house, the father recalls some memories from when he was young. McCarthy decribes the father's journey through the house and recollections: “They walked through the dining-room where the firebrick in the hearth was as yellow as the day it was laid because his mother could not bear to see it blackened.” (McCarthy, 26) Such memories made me think about my house when I used to live in the U.S. I began wondering what would I see and remember if it was me who was passing through the house ruins. This is what came to mind:

Soon enough, I was standing in front of the old blue, now grey, door frame. I made my way through the ashes lingering on the marble floor. The kitchen lightbulb was no longer there and the refrigerator was open and empty inside. The living room in front remained the same, only darker. The window shields stopped the wind from entering and impregnating the house. I turned around and followed the path I used to take years ago. It lead me to my old bedroom. The yellow walls had black stains all over, accompanied by insect holes. There was a tangling of spider webs where my bed used to be. A mixture of dirty cloths and ashes was piled up in the corner previously occupied by my sisters bed. The most notorious change was the smell. That warm, spicy yet sweet home smell was replaced with cold post-mortem essence. I heard a noise coming from outside the window. Slowly, I approached the dirty window shield and noticed the dying pine trees falling one by one. It was time to leave.  

Ashes -“The Road"

Ashes -“The Road” by Cormac McCarthy

Barren, silent, godless.
Looking for anything of color.

                                          Any movement.

He said: if he is not the word of God God never spoke.
I'm right here.

                    I know.

Each other's world entire.

We have to go back.
Nothing to see.

There was nothing.

Sometime. Not now.

Sustained by a breath, trembling and brief.

Have you a heart?

If only my heart were stone.

A blackness to hurt your ears with listening.

Eyes closed, arms oaring.

Desolate country.

Freeze this frame.

How else would death call you?

No

one

traveled

this

road.

The poem above is a recollection of phrases I liked from the first 20 pages of The Road. The punctuation and the wording are left untouched. I only played around with sentence structure so McCarthy's essence and would remain the same. My intention was to highlight the mood one may perceive while reading, as well as incorporating the father's relationship with his son. McCarthy repeats the same ideas over again in order reach into his readers minds and cause some kind of chip that will be constantly reminding them what the characters are going through.  

Close Reading: 'The Great Gatsby' Last Paragraph

Fitzgerald ends The Great Gatsby in the following way:

“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And then one fine morning— So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” (Fitzgerald, 189)

The green light Fitzgerald mentions in the first sentence is a representation of mens dreams and goals, in this case, Gatsbys. The light is portrayed as a future that is possible to achieve but year by year gradually diminishes. The second sentence mentions the escaping of such light but quickly restates its reappearance. Your goals, wishes, dreams, hopes and so on change throughout time. They transform and reinvent themselves. This is why the green light of tomorrow will be different from that of today. “And then one fine morning", if you're persistent enough, you will find yourself struggling against the current, wanting to metamorphose your dreams into reality, until the current brings you back to the past. (189) This is represented in various scenes in the book, but probably the most important one was Gatsbys desire to become everything he wasn't in order to win Daisys heart. All the obstacles he went through quickly crumbled and became insignificant when his life-long love rejected him. This green light he once deeply believed in faded out and Gatsby was left with nothing but the emptiness of his former dreams. 

Surprising Symbolism in Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby'

F. Scott Fitzgerald's famed book, The Great Gatsby is full of symbolism that gives most little details in the novel special meaning. One of those symbols that is rarely analyzed is the role that sports play. In many cases, Fitzgerald relates sports to characters that have cheated and deceived society. Therefore, sports play a role in which those involved tend to get what they want fraudulently. One example is the encounter Nick has with Mr. Wolfsheim in which Gatsby tells him the truth about the 1919 World Series: "Gatsby hesitated then added coolly: 'He's the man that fixed the World's Series back in 1919." (Fitzgerald 73)