For Selma

Poetry.......it seems as if this type of writing has actually begun to grow on me. Every time I search for a different poem to incorporate into one of my blogs, I end up coming across a new poet who's words leave a lasting impact on my mental state while at the same time dazzle my thoughts with the way these rhythmic pieces of writing are filled with hidden, memorable messages. Poems, though instrument less and beat less, are like songs whose "lyrics” simply cannot be ignored. These short little snippets of speech seem to always leave me with a lifted mental state; the majestic formation of every stanza is something that I, for one, cannot get a complete grasp on, yet, the way various beloved poets repeatedly spur fourth words of wisdom continues to amaze me. Seeing how I’m personally unfamiliar with the majority of the poets out there, finding the perfect poem to blog about never comes easy. Yet, when I find one that I particularly like, it sticks. These poems stick to my memory not just for the reason that they are short, sweet, and to the point (I can’t even help it, excess wording usually has me losing interest within the first three seconds of reading a poem) but also because the messages they secretly portray seem to always jump out at me. One poem specifically whose message happens to grab my attention, within the first few lines, is "For Selma", by Langston Hughes; this piece of poetry goes a little something like this:

“In places like

Selma, Alabama

Kids say,

In places like

Chicago and New York….

In places like

Chicago and New York

Kids say,

In places like

London and Paris….

In places like

London and Paris

Kids say,

In places like

Chicago and New York….”

So this poem is pretty repetitive, not going to lie, but the message within it always seems to grab my attention. I’ve read the poem over and over again and it seems as if every time the message it speaks becomes clearer. “For Selma” sheds light on the fact that people, no matter where they are in the world, no matter how beautiful the city in which they live is, always want more. From a young age, people begin to dream big, continuously imagining themselves in various locations throughout the world meeting new people, learning new things, and making a name for themselves. Unsatisfied within the place in which they live, people always strive to move from location to location in the hopes that changing their environment will spark a sudden life changing movement for them to take hold of. “In places like Chicago and New York……”; the repetitive notion of these lines allowed Langston Hughes to accurately depict the way people of his specific time period we’re feeling at that time. America has faced various downfalls, and when the reality that some people were living became too much to bear, the idea of going off into another country and starting from scratch seemed more tempting than ever. People are constantly moving; our emotions repeatedly impact our decisions, impulses, and internal state of mind. Humans, being the complex figures that we are, let passions run wild and steer the direction of our hearts desires/future doings. The urge to constantly fill our lives with excitement and spontaneity is what draws people towards the question of what is out there for them in “places like Chicago and New York”. Ya feel me?

Death

So, Winesburg, Ohio is full of stories that somehow intertwine into one another and lead to the book as a whole having a deeper mean than before. The seminars that were performed by the lit circles in class this week helped in explaining how specific stories had more substance to them when looked at/studied closely; "Death" was the story that my lit circle looked at, and after looking at articles, hearing what my other group members had to say, and simply rereading the chapter as a whole, my outlook on what that specific chapter brings to the novel changed completely. When I first read "Death", nothing about it really caught my eye. The protagonist’s mother dies, and he's left alone to decide whether or not he should venture off into the world alone, thus, leaving Winesburg behind. Pretty straight forward if you think about it, right? Wrong. Like so wrong. It's funny how going back and rereading the chapter, with specific questions in mind, opened up my perspective on the writing and led to fresh, internal conclusions being drawn about what the chapter actually symbolized. "Death" relates to the idea of one having a "truth" in life by showing how one's "truth" can in fact be, well, death. Elizabeth Willard is a character within Winesburg who has lived a long, miserable, loveless life; "she thought marriage would change the face of life" (Anderson 228), thus, what started her chain of miserable life events back in her youth. Elizabeth longed for adventure, but more than anything she longed for love. Her lack of communication with her father throughout her days of girlhood played a role in what drove her into so desperately desiring having a man that she could call her "own". Elizabeth deciding to marry Tom Willard just for the sake of marrying someone, instead of acquiring patience and waiting until someone she shared a true connection with to come along, is what morphed her "truth" into becoming not love, but death. Death soon becomes something that Elizabeth longs for; she craves it, hungers after it, almost in a lustful manner. She soon begins to claim death itself as her lover and speaks towards death in a way full of passion. “…she put out her hand, thrusting it from under the covers of her bed, and she thought that death like a living thing put out his hand to her” (Anderson 232); Elizabeth once grabbed for a hand in the darkness in the hopes of finding love, however, as the misery of life began to beat her internal state down, she began to grab for a new lover instead. Elizabeth greets death almost as if he is a long lost friend she has been waiting to see; the harsh realities that came along with her marrying a man for the wrong reasons soon began to haunt her in a somewhat ghostly way, and changed her “truth” in life to some would see as the worst. However, I found her new profound “truth” in death being as a positive thing. Elizabeth Willard’s personal knowing that the life she was living was offering her nothing to cherish or hold on to is what led to her experiencing an internal shift and coming to terms with the fact that death was a truth she could part ways with without regret. Death was the lover that released her from her suffering, and its impact on not only her life but also the life of her son is exactly what helped George Willard himself find his way in the end. Elizabeth Willard’s connection with death shows how everyone’s personal “truth” in life may not always be something that is expected of them, yet, in the end can provide them with the calming state of mind that they had once hungered for after all. Ya feel me?

Winesburg, Ohio: My Personal Reflection

So........Winesburg, Ohio. Totally different from what I was expecting it to be. From the cover art to the somewhat bland name, I was beyond sure that this book was going to be about some slow paced story that revolved around a sad little town in the middle of nowhere. Was the setting actually in a remote, off the grid, unknown town? Yes. Was the story slow paced and bland? Not at all. If anything, the novel was subtly intense (if that’s even possible). This novel-or short story, depending on how one personally views it- was captivating in the way that it shed light on the idea that everyone has a "truth" that represents their life and why exactly they may be the person they are today. Within the writings of Winesburg, Ohio, these "truths" are what make each individual story teller some form of a grotesque. The word grotesque means "absurdly incongruous, in a ludicrous context"; the characters within this novel all seemed to be a part of some "ludicrous" situation that molded them into their current mental states and impacted the "truth" that represents their lives. Each character tells their story in way that makes them an individual representation of tragic beauty; their souls we're once beautiful and pure, however, these characters sadly each endured a form of tragedy that led to know one understanding them or their true intentions, except for one character, George Willard. George Willard serves as not only the protagonist of the novel (if it even actually has one.....no one will ever know) but also a sort of safe haven that these people can turn to when they feel the time has risen to let the world know of the experience that led to them to having the title of a "tragic beauty". George Willard magically grasps each "truth" that the people within Winesburg have while showing that the characters within this novel are not as alone as they might think. Willard himself represents some form of a “tragic beauty” in the sense that his soul has proven itself to be pure enough to genuinely listen to/understand the stories of the people in Winesburg, Ohio without any form of judgment. That critical free sense of understanding George Willard possess not only plays the role of a vital quality for someone to have but also a key aspect in clearly getting across the way a comforting outside source can help an individual express their purpose for an overall deeper meaning of that individual’s place in the world. George Willard helps to show the beauty in the “truths” of all the characters within Winesburg, but one specific character, whose “truth” made an undeniable impact on this novel as a whole, in my personal opinion, was that of Wing Biddlebaum. Wing Biddlebaum is a quiet, reserved, ex school teacher who has a deep fear of the powers his hands possess. Wing's one desire in life is to express his beliefs that the students he teaches can amount to greater things in life, and he does just that through his hands. Sadly, the positivity he wishes to shed through his hands are mistaken for pedophilic doings and Wing is forced to leave his old life behind while becoming a stranger to society. George Willard eventually swoops in and not only gets Wing to tell his story, but shows a genuine understanding for what Wing's been trying to say all along. Without the inclusion of George Willard in Wing's life, the "truth" this character possessed would've never been made clear. Winesburg, Ohio is a novel that makes one question their own "truth" in life along with the idea of whether or not people would understand their "truth" in the same way that they personally do. Without someone ever being there to allow individuals to reveal how their "truths" can shed wisdom on the world, members of society would slowly begin to hide behind their tragic beauties and soon become a part of their own version of a world like Winesburg. Ya feel me?

A message within a message....

So Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, uses various symbols throughout the novel to help highlight the deeper mean of the words within the tale; references to dangerous knowledge, feminist views, and monstrosity are a few symbols that occur throughout this intricate story, however, one symbol within the text that simply cannot be ignored is nature. Nature is something that seems to connect everything together in Frankenstein; it shows the intention of a characters next move, their true spirit, and the various emotions that are stirred up when situations arise. Mary Shelley broadcasts the effects nature has on one's internal spirit when she references the poem "Lines Written A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During A Tour", by William Wordsworth, while Victor Frankenstein is reflecting back on the different state of minds he and his dear friend, Henry Clerval, seem to have. The poem goes like this:

 

“The sounding cataract

Haunted him like a passion: the tall rock,

The mountain and the deep and gloomy wood,

Their colours and their forms, were then to him

An appetite; a feeling, and a love,

That had no need of a remoter charm,

By thought supplied, or any interest

Unborrowed from the eye”

 

The powerful message this poem gives off helps to shed light on the internal being/outlook on life that Henry Clerval possesses. Henry Clerval is a character who is full of life, optimism, and amicable qualities; the constant words of encouragement this man has for Victor show the passion and overall appreciation he has for life. “His soul overflowed with ardent  affections, and his friendship was of that devoted and wondrous nature that let the worldly-minded teach us to look  for only in the imagination” (Shelley 112); Victor’s words for his friend are almost spoken in a form of admiration. Clerval is a man who lives in the moment, and the appetite he has for natures “colours and forms” broadcast the way he uses his imagination as a form of guidance to help show him exactly what it is life has to offer. Nature haunts Clerval. Nature creates feelings of love and charm within Clerval. Clerval appreciates the beauty of nature for what it really is while Victor abuses its laws as a way to get ahead in life. Victor doesn’t cherish nature the way his peer does; he uses its beauty as a tool for societal gain while Clerval sees it as something to help him internally connect with himself to be the person he truly wishes to be. Victor lacks not only confidence within himself but also passion needed to help strive to accomplish something that HE can be proud of when he reflects back on his life; Victor’s main focus when it comes to showing the rest of society what he’s made of is exactly why this poem symbolizes his relationship with nature in a negative way. This poem, by William Wordsworth, fits into Shelley’s novel perfectly, seeing how a lot of the main points she get across deal with internal shifts these characters have. Wordsworth’s poem is full of internal/external shifts that help one see how a certain moment in one’s life can help them grow into mature beings with a worthy purpose. Henry Clerval’s connection with nature not only relates him to William Wordsworth in ways that Victor Frankenstein never could but also helps to make clear on the idea of the need for moments of internal reflection; by stopping and reflecting on what he has accomplished in life and realizing the blessing he has for being able to attach himself to nature in ways that help him grow, Henry Clerval represents another aspect of Victor Frankenstein that he wishes he was strong enough to take control of. Ya feel me?