"Lady Lazarus" by Sylvia Plath

As we saw in the class discussion, Plath’s poem “Lady Lazarus” can be interpreted in numerous ways.  However, I think that her poem was made to show her audience that she was a piece of art being looked and analyzed at by others.  Her attempts to die and fail are what people were amazed at.  She states that she was an “opus” or a “valuable”, which are all things of display (lines 66-67).  She also mentioned that “there is a charge, a very large charge- for a word or a touch” (lines 61-62) indicating that she was a display of art because people have to pay to look or touch a piece of art.  She refers to her audience as “The peanut-crunching crowd” (line 26) which is a sense of mock that the audience watches shamefully. The phrase “Gentlemen, ladies” (line 30) is normally used when speaking to an audience before performing an act.  This proves that she was putting on some sort of show that people came to see.

In lines 43-45 Plath states “Dying- is an art, like everything else- I do it exceptionally well.”  I disagree with this stanza because how can someone be good at “dying” if they are still alive?  Her many attempts to die are not something to be saluted at.  In fact, I think that these attempts are her failures, therefore how can she be good at dying if she hasn’t achieved it yet?  Nonetheless how can someone claim that they are good at dying if once they actually die, they can’t report it? 

After rereading Plath’s poem several times, I began to realize her transformation from an innocent shy woman into a strong, powerful lady with a sense of pride.  Her statement of “I eat men like air” (line 83) displays her of a higher being and shows her power over men, whether it be her dad, husband, or the Nazi men.  She calls “Herr God, Herr Lucifer-Beware-Beware” (lines 78-80) to warn them that she has revived herself and that there is no power greater than her.  This self of confidence towards the end of the poem shows her transformation from a weak, suicidal, expression of art to a powerful triumph defeat over the impediments in her life. 

I find it interesting how the phrases “These are my hands-My knees. - I may be skin and bone” (lines 31-33) displays an image in my head of a skinny, unfortunate, and murky figure.  However she also states “A cake of soap,-A wedding ring,-A gold filling.” (lines 76-78) which is contradictory to the phrases in lines 31-33.  These phrases automatically put the words of royalty, richness, and happiness in my mind.  This change of words throughout the poem makes me think that something significant happened in her life that allowed her to transform from being poor and unhappy to living a life of glitz and glamour. 

The poem overall is definitely captivating and allows the reader to interpret it in many ways.  Everyone that reads her poem will all have a different analysis of it.  The many ways of interpretations is why I think Plath’s poem is brilliant.  She gives her readers a sense of control by letting them use their imagination to understand it.  After reading this poem, I can see that Plath definitely had a lot of rough times in her life.  However she also expresses some of the joyful moments in her life by stating “And I a smiling woman. (line 18). 

The Woman Warrior

After attending the class discussion and rereading, I began to feel a sense of connection to the narrator of the short story “The Woman Warrior” by Maxine Hong Kingston.  “The Woman Warrior” displays a story about a first generation Chinese-American narrator trying to find a balance between the two cultures.  The narrator’s mother would often times warn her about certain life situations that may humiliate their family by telling her stories to grow upon (5).  One of the stories that she narrates is about the tragic event of her dead aunt that led their family to disgrace.  The story offers several possibilities about her dead aunt’s promiscuous act.  However, the most likely story was that the dead aunt “supposedly” had forbidden sex and got pregnant.  Due to the Chinese culture and the desire to represent a prestigie reputation; the aunt’s village raided her house and excluded her from being associated with the town.  The narrator’s mother particularly articulates this story because the narrator has started to menstruate and she doesn’t want her to bring their family to shame by doing any wrong deed. 

Being a first generation immigrant myself, I can relate to a lot of the feelings that the narrator portrays.  My family, as well, has made sure that I understand that I shouldn’t be doing certain unacceptable actions that would bring my family to disgrace.  The narrator and I have both been put into a situation where we have to find a balance between the American and Indian/Chinese cultures.  The narrator states “Those of us in the first American generations have had to figure out how the invisible world the emigrants built around our childhoods fits in solid America” (5).  It is very challenging to be living in an American society as well as being brought up with different cultural and moral values.  Fortunately, through time and experience, I feel that I have been successful in balancing both of these worlds.  Luckily, America is considered to be the melting pot of the world filled with heterogeneous societies.  This has made the process much easier.  However, I often times find myself disagreeing with certain issues that my family brings up due to the American influence.  I have had to decide for myself about the types of morals and values that I want to live with.  In fact, I find it rewarding that I am able to be exposed to so many different types of ideas and that I can pick and choose and decide how I want to live my life. 

The narrator explains a Chinese tradition of having the daughter-in-law live with her husbands’ parents after marriage (7).  This is also similar in my Indian culture.  A lot of my cousins have had to move in with their husbands’ parents and play the infamous role of being a housewife and a daughter-in-law.  Traditionally, they are not allowed to work.  However, as the times have changed, more and more wives are found working in several industries.  Although I cannot connect to the dead aunt’s story that the narrator writes about; I can relate to a lot of the cultural complexities that she implies.  Confusion and frustration is found commonly in first generation immigrants.  However, the hardship that many of the first generation immigrants, as well as their parents, have experienced only makes them a better-rounded person due to the fact that they can understand multiple traditions, religions, and cultures.    

Role Playing

Role Playing

          In Octavia Butler’s book, “Kindred” the main character Dana and her husband Kevin time travel from 1976 back into 1819 during the slave era. In this time, Dana being a black woman and Kevin being a white man, they are forced to play completely different roles in order to fit in and survive in this brutal time. Dana was going to have to go from a normal women working as a temp in L.A. to playing the role of a slave trying not to get beat. As for Kevin, he has to go from marrying a black woman to playing the role of a slave owner who is supposed to resent all black people.

          When they arrive in 1819 together, they don’t come prepared with a story to tell anyone who asks. They realize that telling the truth about them isn’t going to work real quickly. When Rufus, the boy that Dana is supposed to keep alive, asks Kevin, “does Dana belong to you know?” (Butler 60). Kevin’s response is “in a way, she’s my wife” (60). Rufus gave him a weird look and told him that is was against the law for blacks to marry whites. This ensured them that if it wouldn’t hold up against a 12 year old boy it definitely would not hold up to anyone else. They eventually meet up with Rufus’s father and Kevin is forced to make up a story of why they were there and why they were broke. He was able to think off the top of his head and make up a believable story. Rufus’s father Tom Weylin then offers him a job to teach Rufus to read and while he is recovering from his injury. From that moment on he had to play the role as a teacher, which wasn’t very difficult for him since he was a teacher. He would also have to socialize with “a steady stream of ignorant pretentious guests,” which he complained to Dana about (97). This shows that Kevin isn’t at any real risk being in this time era.

          Dana’s role was much more difficult and risk bearing than the role that Kevin had to play. Even though she didn’t have to work on the plantation, she had to learn to hold her tongue and not talk back to anyone who was white.  One thing that had to be particularly rough for her was not being able to be with Kevin as often as she would have liked. She was also forced to sleep in less than desirable condition but most importantly not with Kevin. One morning Dana was sneaking out of Kevin’s room and Mr. Weylin spotted her coming out. All he did to her was give her a “wink” and walked away (97). Not only could she not be near her husband but she also has to be judge as being a whore and not say anything about it.

          Overall Dana had a much worst “role” to play than Kevin. While Dana was stuck doing busy work and being bossed around by Ms. Weylin; Kevin was “complaining of boredom” (97). This is tough on Dana because she is the one who is potentially risking her life, so she has to think about every move she makes so she doesn’t get whipped or beaten. 

Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper

            Back in the 1800’s people didn’t know very much about medicine and diseases. This is what the narrator for, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman experiences after she has her baby. Her husband John and her brother our both physicians and believe that she has “a temporary nervous depression-a slight hysterical tendency” (Gilman 1). She is not getting well fast enough, and John believes that the cure to her illness is complete rest. In order for her to get that rest he takes her to a secluded mansion for 3 months. At this mansion John treats her as if she was a child. Throughout the story the narrator slowly starts noticing weird things about the room, mainly the wallpaper in the room. Johns techniques in his medical practice drive the narrator to see people in the wallpaper and eventually go insane.

            When they arrive at the mansion, John makes the narrator stay in the stay in the nursery on the top floor of the house. This is the beginning of the babying John does to the narrator. She wanted a room downstairs, but John says that “there was only one window” in that room and she need as much air as she could get (2). When the narrator gets to the room, she notices that “the windows are barred” (3). Having bars on the window gives the illusion of being in jail and makes you feel like you are locked out from the outside world. She then notices the wallpaper and describes it as:

It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide – plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions. (3)

This shows that she believes this wallpaper is hideous and is truly bothered by how it was made. The environment she was set up in was setting her up for failure. She was in a room that resembled a jail cell with wallpaper she couldn’t stand to look at.

            Even though she is forced to stay in this room she tries to find the good in it. She realizes that with all the windows she gets a great view of everything from the garden to the bay. Even with all of these beautiful views, there is one thing that she can’t stop thinking about, “that horrid paper” (4). At this point she is beginning to get an obsession with the wallpaper. She begins to study the patterns of it and believes that the paper is looking at her “as if it knew what a vicious influence it had” (5).  She continues to study and obsesses over it more. She even begins to see “bulbous eyes” starring at her from the wall paper (5). To further express her obsession, continually throughout the story she will be talking about something completely unrelated and will say things such as, “but I don’t mind it a bit-only the wallpaper” (5). She continually brings up the subject of the wallpaper even when what she is talking about has nothing to do with it.

            As she lives in the room longer and studies the paper more she continues to be able to bare the room and even like it. She hides the things that she sees in the wallpaper and believes that “nobody knows them but [her], or ever will” (8). She is constantly keeping watch making sure no one sees her looking at the wallpaper. She begins to see a pattern that “gets clearer everyday” until she finally makes it out to be “a women stooping down and creeping about behind the pattern” (8). I believe that this shows that everyday, she begins to get a little crazier and starts to see more and more things in this wallpaper. Finally, she gets totally insane and starts seeing actual people in the paper. She begins to notice that as the light changes so do the pattern of the wallpaper. At night she says, “it becomes bars” and she can see the women in the paper the best at night (10). As the weeks go by she gets tired more easily and sleeps more. John thinks it’s a good thing, but isn’t she supposed to be getting stronger?  All the analyzing of the wallpaper is draining her energy and making her weaker. Still obsessing over it, she sees John and his sister Jennie looking at the paper and begins to worry that they are trying to see the patterns that she sees.

They are only staying there for another week and she starts to worry because she has not yet figured out the pattern. She begins to stay up through the night because it is more “interesting to watch developments” at night (11). Though analyzing it at night so much she begins to realize that “the front pattern does move” and it is because “the woman behind shakes it” (12). This shows that since she has been staring at the paper night after night, in just the moonlight, her mind had begun to play tricks on her. She began to see what she wanted to see. It was as if the woman was trying to break out of the wallpaper by shaking it.  After she sees the women trying to get she believes that during the day she does get out because “[she] has seen her!” (12). On the last night she was going to be there, once she saw the women in the paper she ran over there and tried to help her get out. She tried and tried until “[they] had pulled all the wall paper off” (13). Her she believed that the woman from the inside was actually helping her pull off the wallpaper but in reality it was just her ripping it down herself.

            She was going crazy; she locked herself in her room and through the key out the window just so she could be alone with the wallpaper. Now that she is alone, she wanted to “astonish [John]” (14). In order to do that she tries to commit suicide by hanging herself. She finds a rope, but doesn’t have anything high enough to stand on. The bed is bolted down and she tries everything to move. She even “bit off a little piece of the corner off” and the only reason she stopped was because “it hurt [her] teeth” (14). What kind of sane person would try to bite through metal? When she first moved in to the room, the only thing she liked about it was that there were a lot of windows to look through. Now that she has gone insane, she doesn’t “like to look out of the windows” anymore because she is now seeing women outside creeping (14). What once was the only positive thing she could say about the room is now the one thing she can’t stand to do. Also, the one thing that she couldn’t stand to look at is now the only thing she cares about. John then tries to come into the room but it is locked. He finds the key and opens the door to his wife creeping on the floor. John faints, and she continues to creep right over his body.

            When the narrator first moved into the room she hated it. She thought the wallpaper was disgusting and couldn’t stand to look at it. Once she got obsessed with it she began seeing things in. I believe that she began seeing herself in the wallpaper because at night she said that it looked like there were bars on the wall, just like how the windows in her room were barred. The women she saw was her, because during the day the narrator would go out and walk in the garden sometimes. She wasn’t completely confined to the room. Just, as the narrator saw the women in the wallpaper walking around during the day. This was all caused by John’s techniques for treating the symptoms that she had. To detain someone in what seems to be a prison cell for 3 months would cause most people to go insane. She had nothing to do, so she began to imagine things to entertain herself. In her case, she imagined someone in the wallpaper with the same problem that she had. Since she was stuck in the room for so long she took it to far and began trying to break free of the room and the way she did that was by tearing the wallpaper down and creeping around. This problem would have never happened if they knew the medical stuff we know now. Then they would have realized that she just had postpartum depression.

KINDRED

Octavia Butler incorporates a number of different themes in her novel, Kindred. The idea of time travel, violence, gender roles, slavery, family, and playing certain roles in order to survive all play an important part in making Kindred the brilliant work it was. This book began in a way that allows for suspicion to occur and I thought that was very interesting. We are led to have certain expectations about the characters but we can then only suspend those beliefs because it is not the truth at all. I wasn’t sure if the author had a particular reason for doing this, or if she did it to make the reader aware of the fact that nothing is always as it seems.

One issue that I believe is worth talking about is the observation I made about the characters’ roles. For example, the colored boy Nigel is roughly the same age as Rufus, but he appears to already be aware of how things are going to be for the rest of his life. He knows how he needs to act and what he needs to say to please Mr. Weylin. With this being said he still wants to experience and be apart of things that white folks are granted. Nigel learns to live by Luke’s words: “’Don’t argue with white folks, don’t tell them ‘no.’ Don’t let them see you mad. Just say ‘yes, sir.’ The go ‘head and do what you want to do. Might have to take a whippin’ for it later on, but if you want it bad enough, the whippin’ won’t matter much” (Butler 96). I felt like he much rather do the things he desires and pay for it later rather than living a life full of what-ifs. Later when Nigel asks Dana to teach him to read he proceeds to make it clear he does not care about being beaten. Dana is at first hesitant in agreeing but eventually she breaks and states, “I’ll teach you. I just wanted to be sure you knew what you were getting into” (Butler 98). After she says this Nigel “turned away, lifted his shirt in the back so [Dana] could see his scars. Then he faced [her] again. ‘I know,’ he said” (Butler 98). This response took me back because I wasn’t expecting it. I find it very powering that Nigel is willing to risk his life for something like learning to read. To think that this is something we take advantage of and don’t fully appreciate makes me feel guilty for overlooking the severity of how slavery was enforced. They yearned for something as simple as spelling a word or reading a sentence and do we even think twice about how easily it comes to us?

The roles being played by Dana and Kevin are also important to this novel. The role as slave and slave master was necessary for both of them to survive. But have any events led you to believe otherwise? One in particular that made me question whether it was still a role or a new way of life was the little argument between Dana Kevin after witnessing the auction the kids were holding. It affected her more than Kevin and this didn’t sit well with her. He claims “’It has already happened. We’re in the middle of history. We surely can’t change it. If anything goes wrong, we might have all we can do just to survive” (Butler 100). I feel like Kevin’s main concern is getting Dana and himself back to the present safely. This is great, but has he somewhat become accustomed to his life on the plantation? For some reason when I read the line “’I see Weylin was right about educated slaves,’” spoken by Kevin, I read it as a negative remark. (101) I thought he was in agreement that slaves should not be taught to read because it gives them too much power but once I continued to read I do not believe that is at all how he meant it. He is rather encouraging her to teach him rather than deny him the privilege.

Kindred

Kindred

                The scenes described in Kindred are like no other story I have read. They are horrifying but for some reason I couldn't put the book down. I needed to finish reading to see if Dana and Kevin were ever reunited or if Rufus ever tried to rape Dana. The relationship that Dana and Rufus had seemed to keep my attention the most. Rufus always called for her when he was in danger and Dana would come to help him, like a savior. One of the times Dana came Rufus had just been beaten up by Isaac for raping Alice. Dana says, "I was beginning to realize that he loved the woman-to her misfortune. There was no shame in raping a black woman, but there could be shame in loving one." (Butler, 124) You can't help who you fall in love with. Rufus fell in love with Alice and Kevin with Dana. They were both interracial relationships and even though centuries a part they were both looked down upon.
                  I just don't understand the hatred towards someone else because of their looks. I understand disliking someone because they did something bad and unspeakable but condemning a whole race because their skin is black instead of white is a little absurd. But it happened. Even now there are the color lines and separations among people because they are different.
                The doubling for Alice and Dana was also interesting. If Rufus loved Dana like he loved Alice, why didn't he try to sleep with her too? Rufus says, '"You were one woman. You and her one woman. One woman, two halves of a whole." (257)
               While I was reading I kept trying to imagine that what if this were me. Would I adapt and play the role? Would I have such a close relationship with Rufus, even though he hit me and made me work in the fields?

No Named Woman

The story of “No Name Woman” by Maxine Kingston is one full of ambiguity from beginning to end. The narrator tells the story with different scenarios and possible situations for the purpose of getting the audience to question the facts given. When I first read this shorts story I couldn’t quite understand why the narrator was telling the story about her aunt, especially when the first line in directly states that she “Must not tell anyone what [her mother was] about to tell [her]” (Kingston 3). It wasn’t until our class discussion that I realized the narrator was trying to put the pieces together and determine what kind of person her aunt really was, despite the rumors of her throughout the village.

The first scenario somewhat plays the aunt as the victim. We are led to believe that a man in the village repeatedly rapes her. As the beginning of the story progresses we are immediately introduced to the raid that took place destroying everything in the house of the “No Name Woman.” Later we are told that the man who is said to rape her also threatens to kill her if she tells anyone. When she claims, “’I think I’m pregnant.’ He organized the raid against her” (Kingston 7). We see here she can possibly be viewed as the victim. Once the village assumes she must be sleeping around, since her husband has been gone for years, her name is ruined, she is tainted, and she is put to shame. But was she really raped? Was there absolutely no way it could have been her husbands’ child? Even though as a reader this is the information we are given the full truth is still uncertain. The narrator is giving us insight based on information from her mother, which could in fact be biased because tells her own daughter, “What happened to her could happen to you. Don’t humiliate us” (Kingston 5).

This leads me to another topic we discussed in class when Ronald brought up the idea about this story being ironic. Ironic in the sense that the “No Name Woman” was being punished when she was the one who was raped when it should have been the other way around. When you first read the story the situation could easily appear to be ironic because the victim is punished instead of the perpetrator. But when we started discussing the possibility of this in class a bigger issue came up. I thought it was really interesting when we came to the conclusion that this part of the story isn’t really ironic at all because it happens in our society today. Women are demonized by our culture and are, more often times than not, too afraid to speak up if they are victims of abuse.

Although as readers we don’t know which version of the story to believe, but the third version is the one I choose to believe. The “No Name Woman” committed her last act of love. “Carrying the baby to the well shows loving. Otherwise abandon it…Mothers who love their children take them along” (Kingston 15). This I strongly agree with. As the mother she knew that her baby was already deemed to be nothing and a no one. Instead she believed it was her “devotion,” “responsibility,” and ultimate “protection” to take her daughter to die with her. Ultimately we do not know the truth of the story in it’s entirety but the outright defiance from the narrator herself proves she is trying to find her own truth and guidance for who she should be.

The connection of literature

I wanted to write my post off of what I read on Jasmines blog. I don't know how to respond to her post on sex trafficking. It's not right, it shouldn't be allowed, but it happens and it's a part of reality that most people don't want to face, so like many other difficult topics it gets swept under the rug.
I think that most people are unaware of sex trafficking and what really happens to these young individuals because hearing it and not being able to stop it or do anything is heart breaking. I remember my mom making a comment when I read her a passage in Douglass, she shuttered and told me to stop, and I thought wow your being a little ignorant.  But that's what is so wrong with people! 99% of people probably aren't aware of what goes on around the world or even our countries own past.
The post reminded me a lot about most of the books we read in class. They all seemed to tie in and intertwine with one another. Douglass's narrative speaks on the slavery and what it was like to be a slave, Chesnutt reminds us that post war slavery was no different than before, even though it was illegal now, and Plath sheds light on the impact of memories and what they will do to a person.
 Sex trafficking is a different form of slavery but it is still a way of dehumanizing people, treating them inhumanly and forcing them to do horrible things. These men make money by seducing these younger, impressionable children and forcing them into a life of slavery. Like entering the "blood-stain gates of hell".(Douglass 24) During the pre-war era slavery was an economic reality. It was a form of trading that gave people money. Post-war, these men, whom were former slaves, were forced to do the same things but got money and had the choice to do them.
It was like we read in Chesnutt's short stories. The post-war period was an allegory for the pre-war. They mirrored each other. You could even say that Priscilla went through the same thing. Her present mirrored her past, which she was trying to escape. She was promised a better life and left to get away from the beatings and abuse at home but entered into an even worse hell. Even when she was actually finally free she could never really get away. Sylvia Plath describes this feeling. The character's present and future are gone, all she knows is the past, because the memories were so deep and the experiences engraved in her that she would never forget it. A lot of the stories we have read so far connect to one another and connect to reality and life outside of our suburban lives.
Chesnutt's and Plath's stories are fiction. They aren't real. But what if these stories were meant to speak out about things like slavery and the experiences of a war or being ill treated? I think that the moral we can find in these stories is that this is life, these horrible experiences do happen to people, we need to open our eyes and be aware of them instead of sweeping it under the rug.

The Reality of Sex Trafficking

America has done a remarkable job in corrupting the society to think in a form of mind of consumerism.  Corporations, advertisement, and entertainment are what seem to devour over lives.  Propaganda, as well as pop culture, is something that we as citizens allow to influence us.  We have given marketers the right to a higher authority to make us believe in what they put out.  The advertisement and entertainment industry has blurred our visions and tainted our minds to think and act a certain way.  It has made us believe in fantasy and ignorant to reality.  It has failed to spread awareness of potential harm in our society.  Although some businesses support cancer research and obesity awareness, it has failed to expose the harms of poverty, human trafficking, and slavery.  Marketers only have an eye for wealth and the only reason they support causes like cancer and obesity is because they get more funding and they aren’t too risqué.  Most people have a problem with dealing with the word “sex” due to its controversial acts.  Because of this, people are at a lack of information about sexual abuse.  Sex trafficking, a part of human trafficking, is a modern-day form of slavery in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act is under the age of 18 years (1).  Sex trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry worldwide (1).  Due to its increase in demand, it is the 2nd most profitable illicit business globally (1).  Unfortunately, most people don’t even know a clue about it. 

I had the opportunity to go to a screening of the documentary Cargo: Innocent Lost produced and directed by Michael Cory Davis.  Davis started off as a struggling actor, but later realized that he didn’t like the entertainment industry and the world of materialism that it brought.  Davis first witnessed the atrocious acts of human trafficking when he got offered to act in a famous soap opera in Bulgaria.  While acting in Bulgaria, Davis came upon a girl named Svetlana and was easily inspired to spread the word about sex trafficking due to her story.  He produced this film to bring awareness in America about these crimes.  In the early 2000’s no one had even heard of the word sex trafficking.  After the release of the documentary in 2007, the U.S. government put into law the Trafficking Victims Prevention Act which allowed the imprisonment of people involved in the trafficking enterprise.  Davis stated that since Americans are already exposed to so many sexual commercials, he had to gratify the sexual abuse scenes in his film to really make people understand what these innocent victims were going through.  Every cry and every preach for help was heard and seen in these scenes.  It was a form of sexual violence gone to a whole another level.  I, personally, was mentally and emotionally petrified by these scenes.  I could hear some people in the audience crying, while others had to leave the room.  None-the-less, these scenes in the film is what actually makes people realize how horrifying the sex trafficking industry really is. 

The sex trafficking industry targets vulnerable, foreign, young women in the ages of 12-18 and manipulates their mind into thinking that coming abroad to another country will make their lives a lot better.  Sex trafficking victims are promised a better life and a chance at the American Dream if they come into the U.S.  However once they are deported to America, or any other foreign country, they are put into work as prostitutes without their will.  They are sent to brothels, night clubs, and massage parlors and are forced into sexual slavery.  They are often times confined into a tiny room and are required to please the slave owners or their customers at any given time.  Customers would often times be very brutal to the victim because they have paid for it and they want to get their money’s worth.  The victims would inject themselves with drugs, like cocaine, to numb their experience.  The slave owners and the customers would not use condoms and therefore would transmit STD’s to the victims. The victims would then later be blamed for transmitting the STD’s and would be abused even more.  The documentary stated that some sex slaves saw up to 45 men per day.  Due to the constant sexual intercourse, women were forced to get abortions or deliver their baby and sell it on the black market.   The documentary stated that traffickers have a “recipe” to keep these women in the industry.  They say that one of the ways to keep them from being strong is to take away any support system that they have.  The traffickers would change the location of the victims every two weeks to ensure that they didn’t become comfortable with anyone around them.  Another part of their recipe is to break down any sense of self-will or self-confidence that the victim may have by depriving her of her rights to freedom.  The sex trafficking victims were told when to eat, sleep, and please and were denied any right to go outside. 

American parents have done a good job in protecting their children.  Due to this, more American children have fallen into the sex trafficking trap.  Foreign countries, such as China and Japan, have had a high demand in women with blonde hair and blue eyes.  Due to this, sex trafficking continuous to increase in the United States.  Davis stated that San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York are three of the biggest cities that are involved in sex trafficking.  I am from the Bay Area and I have never heard of the word human trafficking.  This just shows how little information the society has about it.  Over 3,000 kids per day are kidnapped in the U.S. and no one knows why.  The government has now concluded that some of these kids may have been involved in sexual slavery.  It is devastating to see young children being stripped away of their childhood and forced into sexual slavery through abuse.  Constantly being traded and sold is dehumanizing.   No one deserves to experience this and have their innocence stripped away.  In my opinion, even the death penalty, is not a justifiable punishment to the slave owners. 

It angers me to know that I didn’t have any knowledge about these crimes because I was brought up in America.  When talking to my cousin, he stated that he had done a case study about human and sex trafficking in his high school in England.  He was required to know the details about the business and the sufferings that the women had gone through.  This just proves that America is very ignorant to certain matters that may be controversial.  I believe that everyone in America wants to help.  However, when money is involved, or when certain situations are too sticky to handle, we tend to ignore them.  We only take action when it becomes a part of everyone’s lives or when it becomes harmful to our society.  But often times, it is too late then. 

After I finished watching the film, I began to think why didn’t these women try to escape?  However, at the question and answer session at the end of the screening, Davis explained to me that a lot of the sex trafficking victim’s slave owners threaten them to kill their family back home.  They had men watching their every move and made sure that no one knew about them.  These women continued to receive the sexual abuse to save their family.  It was horrifying to see the devastating acts being done upon these victims.  It was hard to realize that no one is really safe.  San Bernardino itself has had an increasing number of human trafficking in the recent years.   Davis has tried his best to help strategize a plan and to train the police officers nationwide into suspecting more of these crimes and victims.  What these women had to go through was just heart breaking and fearful for me to watch.  Since I am an independent college student, I tend to travel alone.  However, after viewing this documentary, I am now becoming aware of my surroundings and am making sure that I am not vulnerable to the human trafficking industry by being street smart. 

Davis has learned to use his acting skills to produce documentaries to get awareness.  He has transformed from an actor to an activist.  He uses his fame of being an actor to get other famous actors, such as Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, to promote awareness of sex trafficking.  Davis is truly an inspiring individual and has succeeded in getting the government involved in this issue.  Just the power of one individual can make such a big difference.  Racism, poverty, slavery, and human trafficking will never be diminished.  However, we can try our best to keep the number of victims to these crimes low by helping to spread awareness.  With this knowledge, I can now educate others and help spread awareness about these crimes. 

For more information on sex trafficking visit the following website:

http://www.istoptraffic.com 

Trailer of the documentary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWc6C7oxNEQ

Scenes from the documentary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBcm0PdjoKs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZDwX_3XxRI&feature=relmfu

Work Cited

1.  "Sex Trafficking." Artists United For Social Justice. Web. 21 Mar. 2012. <http://www.istoptraffic.com/>.

Daddy Poem -Sylvia Plath

Power of Words

Sylvia Plath’s poems were definitely ones I had to read more than once in order to fully understand the meaning behind the text. I believe both of the poems were difficult to analyze and comprehend. Without knowing further details about the author, who also happens to be the narrator, and the war between Germany and the Jews Plath’s poems are just words with no meaning.

At first the poem “Daddy” was confusing but once I read Sylvia Plath’s background and looked up key words I didn’t know the poem makes a little more sense then it did originally. The narrator starts off by announcing that she will no longer deal with living “in a black shoe” (Line 2). Choosing the color black to describe the shoe gives me the impression that her life was one consisting of unhappiness. Then in the following stanza we find out that she is talking about her father. The words “I have had to kill you” makes me jump to the conclusion that she is the one who killed her father but in the next line she states that her father “died before she had time” (Line 6-7). This left me wondering what it was she didn’t have time to do before her father died? I don’t believe she means it as simply as she states, she does not mean she didn’t have time to kill her father herself. So, does she mean she didn’t have time to get to know him or that she didn’t have the time to be the daughter he would of wanted? It’s all-only an unanswered mystery unless you continue to read her poem in its entirety.

I continue to question how the narrator truly feels about her father. She gives mixed emotions and uses both negative and positive descriptions throughout the poem. For example, her words “I used to pray to recover you” in line 14 represents her hope to cure her father from his sickness and make him healthy. But, later on she compares her father to Hitler and continues to talk about the theme of Germany and war with the Jews. The “neat mustache” immediately put the image of Hitler in my head, especially after she previously mentions the fear she had towards her father and his “Luftwaffe,” which is the German word for air force used during WW II. She proceeds with another disapproving detail of her father when mentioning the swastika and the word black in the same stanza. The symbol is a representation of evil, so, the narrator has gone from describing her father as being her God to being a swastika. She even makes it a point to emphasize the color of the swastika: black. This once again gives a dark, evil, mysterious image of the narrators’ father.

The father criticized in this poem is portrayed to great extremes to everything from a Nazi, the devil, and even a vampire in the end. I did notice the word black is continuously repeated and I believe she does this to stress the opinion she has of her father. Although we are first unsure of her feelings, she resolves the issue using multiple similes and metaphors and the reader ultimately discovers her true view in the final stanza when she calls her father a bastard. Her conviction is final. Since she chose to make a number of her stanzas reflect the brutality of the Nazi’s/Germans and Jews and compared her father to Hitler himself, I am curious to know what exactly he did to make her feel so bitter towards him?

"In Search of Air" - Theater Performance by Lida Winfield

I had the opportunity to witness a brilliantly executed theater performance about living with Dyslexia, a learning disability.  The performance was performed by a nationally known dancer named Lida Winfield.  Winfield was first diagnosed with Dyslexia when she was in middle school.  Her hour long performance allowed her to share her life experiences with the learning disability.  Dyslexia is a learning disability that makes it hard for students to distinguish between numbers and letters.  People with this disability have fluctuated symptoms making it hard to read.  One day she can read a novel with minimal errors, while other days she can’t even make out some of the words.  She stated that she often found herself “drowning and swimming” throughout her life and struggled to find the balance between them both in order to grow.  She gave many examples of when she found herself “drowning” in school and felt that she was good for nothing.  She explained that all the negative remarks she got in high school about her Dyslexia is what pushed her to focus less in school and more on her passion for dance.  It wasn’t until she enrolled in a college, which was meant for students with learning disabilities in Vermont, that she started “swimming.”  The small college allowed her to get the special attention that she needed and she was able to graduate with a master’s degree in interdisciplinary fine arts.  She has had the opportunity to tour in Europe with the Double Vision Dance Company.  This experience, as well as being a dancer in the Heddy Maalem’s From the New World festival is what made her performance strong. 

Being a dancer, I have seen many different styles of dance ranging from jazz to ballet to hula to Bollywood.  However, Winfield’s style of dance was unique.  She liked to call her dance moves as “creative movements” rather than a particular style of dance.  Her performance included a lot of talking (which was needed in order for her to tell her story) and dancing.  Since she tried to emphasize her story to the audience, she focused more on perfecting her storytelling rather than her dancing.  At the question and answer period at the end of the show, she admitted to have improved most of her “creative movements” on stage.  With experience, I believe that improving is a difficult task.  Improving requires the dancer to let their body to be free by not being afraid of letting out their emotions.  Winfield had a repetition of steps in her choreography in order to grab our attention to emphasize a certain point; just like the repetition of words in the novels that we have been reading in class.  Winfield also used different tactics, such as yelling, to highlight a certain point.  On the contrary, she also became silent when she wanted her words to really sink into her audience.  Her use of fierce facial expressions made me fearful of her at some points.  I think she wanted her audience to feel that sense of shock, fear, and uncertainty to show that she is strong; even with a disability. 

Winfield gave many examples of people that brought her down as well as people that inspired her.  Surrounded by an educated family, Winfield was always expected to succeed.  She stated that she felt “stupid” when she couldn’t meet the expectations of her sister; having a PhD in evolutionary molecular biology.  However, the one person that believed in her was her mother.  Although we may think it is wrong, her mother used to do her homework for her so that she wouldn’t have to face shame at school and at home.  Unfortunately her mother died of cancer when Winfield was in high school.  When receiving her high school diploma, she realized that she couldn’t even read what was written in the diploma.  She graduated high school with a reading capacity of a 2^nd grader and with the “inability to spell the word broccoli.”  

Winfield’s story telling through her theater performance was effective in making her audience hear her story.  She is an inspiration to all people with a disability.  Her success, along with multiple failures, gives hope for people with disabilities to not give up and to pursue their passion.  She makes us realize that there are always going to be people that bring you down by criticizing you.  We just need to learn to turn that criticism into positive energy and to exert it into something that we truly enjoy. 

Pro or Anti-Slavery

Herman Melville’s story “Benito Cereno” tells a story at which slaves take over a ship and put on an act to fool Delano, who is a captain of another ship. One question that struck me when reading this book was, is this a pro-slavery or anti-slavery story. Throughout the story there are signs of both, but the conclusion that came to was that it was more of a warning to other slave holders.

            In this story Captain Delano looks past many obvious signs that something is wrong on the ship because he is too over trusting and ignorant to see them. When Delano first boards the ship he sees three slaves sitting with two Spaniards holding hatches and when one Spaniard misspoke, “one of the black boys [was and] seized the knife, and, though called to forbear by one of the oakum-pickers, struck the lad over the head, inflicting a gash from which blood flowed” (Melville 179). This confused Delano, for “‘had such a thing happened on board the bachelor’s delight, instant punishment would have followed’” said Delano (179). This was an obvious sign of unbalance of order (back then), but Delano shrugs it off liking nothing happened when Cereno says, “that it was merely the sport of the lad” (179). Delano surprisingly trusted the judgment of the captain he had just met.

            Later in the story Delano recognizes that the whites seemed to be the “shrewder race” on the ship (201). He begins to question Cereno’s loyalty to his crew and begins to think that his crew might “have dark secrets concerning [him], could [he] be any way in complicity with the blacks?” (201). At this point you think that Delano has finally caught on to what is going on in the ship but quickly overlooks that ideal because he believed the blacks “were too stupid” to go into cahoots with (201). Even with all these clear signs that the order of power was compromised he was still too trustworthy of the slaves to see what was happening.

            I believe that this story is a warning to other slave holders because Melville is trying to say that if you keep mistreating your slaves there is a possibility that they can come together and overtake you. I think that Melville uses Delano’s character as a representation for how Americans thought back then about slaves. He uses Babo in the story to show that blacks could become educated and they were not as dumb as most slaveholders thought them to be. I believe that this shows that is pro-slavery but in a sense that you need to treat the slaves as humans and not as animals as they would.Herman Melville’s story “Benito Cereno” tells a story at which slaves take over a ship and put on an act to fool Delano, who is a captain of another ship. One question that struck me when reading this book was, is this a pro-slavery or anti-slavery story. Throughout the story there are signs of both, but the conclusion that came to was that it was more of a warning to other slave holders.

           

Physical and Psychological Enslavement

            Being a slave was not only physically exhausting but also mentally. Fredrick Douglass makes this clear in his book Narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglass, an American Slave, with personal experiences that he has gone through. Not only are they beaten if they get out of line but they are also stripped of their voices and beaten if they say the wrong thing.

            The physical enslavement wasn’t just the beatings that they were given, it was also the conditions in which they were forced to live in. Douglas explains how they were forced to sleep when he says, “drop down side by side, on one common bed,--the cold, damp floor” (Douglas 55). Along with not having any other clothing than a shirt, they also only had “miserable blankets” to sleep under (Douglas 55). Having very little sources of warmth made it very difficult to sleep. Even though they would were getting very little sleep they had to be up at their “post” by the “morning summons” and “for if they are not awakened by the sense of hearing, they are by the sense of felling” (Douglas 55). This is saying that if they did not wake up in time they would be beaten awake.

            In order to enslave them mentally they took the slaves voice from them. They were not a loud to speak their minds, and had no say in anything. In order to keep the slaves in line, “the slaveholders have been known to send in spies among their slaves, to ascertain their views and feelings in regard to their condition” (Douglas 62).  This forces the slaves to lie about things such as how they feel about their owners, because if they tell the truth and the owner finds out that slave would have been beaten. Douglas states, “I have been frequently asked, when a slave, if I had a kind master, and do not remember ever to have given a negative answer” (Douglas 62). This shows that by planting spies it made it so no slave could trust another one, therefore they would lie to each other. I also believe that this could have been a plan to keep the slaves from bonding, making it an everyman for themselves situation. This would make the slaves less likely to try to overtake their masters because if they were to do it they would have to team up.

            The slaves would also play a psychological game on their owners. They would sing songs to vent about their problems in way that their master’s wouldn’t notice. They would, “sing the most pathetic sentiment in the most rapturous tone, and the most rapturous sentiment in the most pathetic tone” (Douglas 57). This means that the slaves would sing sad songs happily and happy songs sadly to throw off their owners. This was their way of rebelling slavery and praying that one day this would end, Douglas shows this when he says, “every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to god for deliverance from chains” (Douglas 58).

            Slaves were forced to live in treacherous conditions and beaten. Alongside that, they were treated poorly and were given no rights. They were treated worse than animals, for “if a horse did not move fast enough, or hold his head high enough, it was owing to some fault of his keeper” (Douglas 60). They were stripped of their voices, which dehumanizes them that much more. These things don’t only destroy you physically but also slowing brings you down mentally.

Frederick Douglass

Amanda Lievanos

ENGL 130

Dr. Oster

20 February 2012

An Inch of Motivation

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave is a piece of writing that both informs the reader of the brutality of slavery and pleads a change to be made within the country. Douglass’ words: “You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man,” is evidence that his story is the conversion from how he first became a slave how he escaped that title and was able to become a free man.

In our class discussion we spoke about the possible motivations that led Frederick Douglass to consider his escape. “The Colombian Orator” is certainly one book he came across that became the little inch of motivation he needed. This particular opened his eyes to ideas he did not before believe were possible. The Sheridan was able to give him “ a bold denunciation of slavery, and a powerful vindication of human rights” (Douglass 84). From this book Douglass also read conversation between a slave and his master. Because of this he made the discovery of the power of argument and the power of words.

Although “The Colombian Orator” is an important source for Douglass’s motivation, I believe something that happened earlier in his life became his foundation of encouragement. The incident that really stuck out to me was the conversation that occurs between Douglass and Mr. Auld. When Mr. Auld makes discovers his slave (Douglass) has been being taught how to read he immediately puts a stop to it. He goes on to explain to Mrs. Auld that teaching a slave to read is unlawful and unsafe, “if you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell” (Douglass 78). In other words if you educate a black slave even in the slightest they will use it to their advantage. The white masters believe an educated slave is not an ignorant slave. Therefore these slaves will believe there is something better in the world than what they are being forced to do and could potentially rebel against their owners.

For me, this became the turning point that helped Douglass realize what makes the white man powerful. As Mr. Auld goes on with his explanation using the words “spoil,” “unfit,” and “unmanageable” Frederick Douglass gets a clearer understanding of what exactly makes the white man superior over any other. “From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom. It was just what I wanted, and I got it at a time when I the least expected it” (Douglass 78). It is this incident that urges Frederick Douglass to continue learning to read and continue his thoughts on believing that slavery does not have to be forever. “In learning to read, I owe almost as much to the bitter opposition of my master, as to the kindly aid of my mistress. I acknowledge the benefit of both (Douglass 79). Without knowing it Mr. Auld becomes the reason behind Douglass’s motivation to exist as more than just a slave.

It’s difficult to believe that the story of Frederick Douglass is only a mild case of what slavery was like for people of color but it’s encouraging to know that he was able to become something greater and become a man of great success after the horrific experiences he went through.

The Right to Freedom

“I think I never hated slavery so intensely…” stated by Frederick Douglass in the novel Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass (34).  This is exactly what I was thinking when I started to read this novel.  Frederick Douglass does a remarkable job in adding all the horrific details when writing about the torments of slaves.  In the 1800’s to the early 1900’s, slavery was known to be an acceptable act.  In fact, not owning slaves was out of the norm.  Slavery had “…an inevitable tendency to brutalize every noble faculty of man” (37).  Children were taken away from their mothers at a very young age and were stripped of their right to identity.  However, I question the white slaveholders’ acts of torment towards the African American slaves just because they had a different skin color.  How can something so superficial be the cause of the deaths of so many innocent lives?  Unfortunately this is the reality of our American history. 

America is known worldwide to be the country of freedom; however it is frightening to know that our government once allowed the enslavement of slaves.  Slaves were stripped of their freedom the moment they were born by being auctioned off to slave plantations.   “You will be free as soon as you are twenty-one, but I am a slave for life! Have not I as good as right to be free as you have?” (83).   The detainment of freedom the moment the slaves were born is, in my opinion, taking away their life.  What is a life worth living if it is full of excruciating pain and suffering?  No one deserves to be whipped until you scream, to be whipped until you hush, and to be whipped “…where the blood ran fastest” (51).   It is morally inhumane to treat a human being the way the whites did.  Yet they took no shame. 

One of the ways the white slaveholders took away the slaves freedom was by diminishing their right to education.  The white slaveholders would not allow the slaves to learn to read and write because they thought that knowledge was power.  “If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell.  A nigger should know nothing but to obey his mater…learning would spoil the best nigger in the world” (78).  This sense of mentality is just humiliating.  African Americans have tremendously helped develop our world today.  Imagine how much our society would have progressed if they were allowed the right to an education earlier.  In fact, now-a-days, there are African American doctors that try to save the lives of the white, even though they know what the whites have put their family ancestors through.  African American doctors have forgiven and set aside the horrifying acts the whites have done to their family because they know that a life is worth more than anything in the world. 

“I often found myself regretting my own existence, and wishing myself dead; and but for the hope of being free, I have no doubt but that I should have killed myself…” (85).  This statement saddens me because no young child should ever feel this way.  The desire to die at such a young age is detrimental to the child.  The devastating acts the whites have performed on the slaves during their enslavement are demeaning.  They treated slaves as if they were more like pets rather than human beings.  Douglass admits that slaves, along with horses, sheep, and swine “…were all ranked together at the valuation” (89).  The whites were dehumanizing African Americans, and they took pride in it.  I believe that students should be required to read Frederick Douglass’s novel, so that they understand the severity of slavery.  Students are taught about slavery in high school, but they aren’t exposed to the cruelty of it.  Everyone needs to understand the brutality of slavery in our American history and how the slaves earned their right to freedom once again. 

Benito Cereno

The Power of Deception

Herman Melville’s main purpose for his story “Benito Cereno” is first not clear at the beginning of his story. Even at the end we still find no true absolutes, no straightforward answers, and we are left wanting more.

The entire plot that Melville establishes is brilliant considering the circumstances and time period he is writing about. This is the part of the story that intrigues me the most. When the issue of loyalty first arises it continues to remain an issue for the rest of the story. There’s the loyalty that occurs between Cereno and Babo, Babo and the rest of his people on the boat, and the loyalty between Cereno and Delano. The main theme that occurs here is deception. The elaborate staging made by Babo is done to deceive Captain Delano all in hopes for the slaves to be freed.

Because of the fact that Delano suffers from being overly trusting he oversees any situation that should be viewed as alarming to any logical person. Of course Melville’s entire staging of the slaves acting as slaves and Cereno acting as the captain was enough for Delano to believe anything he was told. This third person omniscient narrative leaves the reader wanting to help Delano see the full truth because he was being deceived. The scene where Atufal approaches in chains is only one example of masking a situation to ease Delano’s suspicions. Before this particular scene Delano witnesses an event where “one of the black boys, enraged at a word dropped by one of his white companions, seized the knife, and, though called to forbear by one of the oakum-pickers, struck the lad over the head, inflicting a gash from which blood flowed” (Melville pg. 179). Concerned that Delano might jump to assumptions, Babo is quick to plan something that would reassure Delano that everything is as it should be. This is when Atufal comes out in chains. It eases Delano’s securities and he was again is deceived from knowing the truth.

It’s unfortunate that the role-playing occurring upon the ship blinds Delano. He is continuously ignores the signs and “warnings” which should be acknowledged. While the slaves are committing acts of loyalty to each other they are also committing treason by tricking and fooling Delano. It was difficult for me to choose whether I was rooting for Cereno or Babo and his crew to come out on top in the end. Slavery in my eyes is immoral. If you are a slave it is difficult for you to get out of it and it is difficult to find safety anywhere with a target on your back. The slaves in this story resort to their last option in hopes of conquering freedom. They are the ultimate victims so where is the line drawn between who was in the wrong? For these slaves liberty is not something that is handed to them so they feel the only way to get it is to take it! I find myself rooting for Babo and his crew to win their freedom because it is something they were denied.

It appears that Melville is deliberately portraying blacks as being rightly condemned to slavery while warning his readers that if they aren’t careful this in fact could happen to them. Slaves are not as dumb as the whites perceive them to be and with the perfect masking of any situation the unthinkable could be done.

The Perception of Perfection

The perception of perfection is something that is different for everybody.  One person may think that someone is “perfect” whereas another may think that that person has numerous flaws.  There is a reason as to why no two people look and behave exactly the same.  Even in the case of twins, there are slight differences between them.   “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is the perfect example of the obsession to be perfect. Hawthorne creates an unusual story about a scientist that goes to the extent of murdering his wife to get rid of the birthmark that is placed upon her cheek.  The birthmark on the scientist’s wife’s, Georgiana, face was “… often called a charm” (85).  However the scientist, Aylmer, had a different view upon it.  He stated “…Georgiana, you came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature that this slightest possible defect, which we hesitate whether to term a defect or a beauty, shocks me, as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection”(85).  This statement allows us to see Aylmer’s obsession to not only be perfect but to have the things around him to be perfect too. 

The narrator suggests that “…it was not unusual for the love of science to rival the love of woman in its depth and absorbing energy” (84).  However, I disagree with this.  As being a scientist myself, I would never try to harm any individual just so that individual can have a better cosmetic appearance.  This is against my moral values and principles.  The life of an individual is far more important than anyone’s desire to achieve perfection and this is a flaw that I believe is embedded in Aylmer. 

Aylmer’s obsession to be perfect distracts him from making rational decisions.  Aylmer knows that most of his scientific experiments have gone wrong, but he is still willing to put his wife’s life at risk.  He believes that “…the draught cannot fail” (97).  However Aylmer thinks that if, by chance, the experiment does fail, then Georgiana is “…fit for heaven” (97).  A sane individual will agree that everyone deserves a life and that no one being can be “fit for heaven”.  Even Aminadab, Aylmer’s assistant, agrees that taking a life of a loved one for a small flaw is insane by stating “ If she were my wife, I’d never part with that birthmark” (89). 

Georgiana’s devotion to keeping her husband happy is inspiring.  In the process of the removal of her birthmark, “…she prayed that, for a single moment, she might satisfy his highest and deepest conception” (96).  Even though Georgiana found Aylmer’s journals of failed experiments, she still was willing to give up her life just for the satisfaction of her husband’s need for perfection.  Georgiana’s sacrifice of life for the one that she loves is a quality that Aylmer lacks.  In my opinion, this is a quality that is needed to be perfect. 

Aylmer’s perception of perfection is only in appearance and he handles “…physical details as if there were nothing beyond them; yet spiritualizes them all, and redeems himself from materialism by his strong and eager aspiration towards the infinite” (94).   However what is the point of perfection if it is not executed morally.  If everyone in the world had the same mentality as Aylmer, then our society would become corrupt and innocent lives would be taken away for irrational reasons.  Nowhere in the short story does it say that Aylmer has the right to decide what is perfect and what is not.  In my view, Aylmer was the source of imperfection.  

Wieland - Pleyel’s Accusation of Clara

            In our discussions on Charles Brockton Brown’s work Wieland, we discussed some themes of the book. Among these are social conventions, love, sexuality, trust, betrayal and reason. I think all of these themes are depicted very well in the scene where Pleyel accuses Clara of being with Carwin.

            Pleyel’s character is portrayed to be more of an empiricist, a man who relies on the powers of reason. On page 23, of Wieland, Clara describes Pleyel as ‘the champion of intellectual liberty… (one that) rejected all guidance but that of his reason.’ Clara’s depiction of Pleyel painted a portrait of a smart, intellectually savvy and stable man that relied on judgments and reasons. The scene where Pleyel accuses Clara, however, paints a much different portrait of his character.

            Pleyel accuses Clara of being with Carwin in a manner that is much different than what we had been reading and known about him thus far. The words he uses on page 96, ‘atrocious’, ‘wretch’ and ‘thief’ to associate her with thieves and prostitutes. The punctuation that Brown uses helps the reader depict the tone and emotions that Pleyel is expressing. He pauses, “…of they act—what end can it” (96) and uses exclamation points, “insupportable disgrace!”(96) and “profligate of women!”(96), to express Pleyel’s emotions towards the subject matter.

            An important note in this scene is that Pleyel never asks for her reasons or for her side of the story. We spoke a lot about the social conventions at this time and for women, how important your credibility was. Credibility of women was judged, in part, by their sexual well being. Clara betrayed Pleyel, in his mind at least. Because of her presumed sexuality her reputation has been discredited. He doesn’t ask for her side because whatever she was to say doesn’t mean anything and wouldn’t be believed if it did.

            This scene is also very important in the sense that Pleyel doesn’t accuse her in a manner that is rational, like his character should. He lets his emotions over take him, almost as if he is acting out ‘in the heat of the moment.’ The punctuation used by Brown and the lack of letting Clara explain herself, completely contradict the image of Pleyel that Clara had originally painted in the beginning of the story. The themes are greatly depicted here: the social conventions of the time, the impacts of love, trust and betrayal, what a woman’s sexuality meant, and what reason is and how it can be manipulate my the mind.

Human Integrity in Poe's work

“The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen  Poe

           

            I wanted to take a different route than what we have been discussing in class and share my thoughts on Poe’s style of writing and uses of symbols to really question human integrity. “The Black Cat” is a story of mystery and suspense. The narrator confesses his tale of murder of his cat with each detail being more spine thrilling than the last. The tale is both a confession and a defense as the narrator makes the point “But to-morrow I die, and to-day I unburthen my soul”(230) but throughout his confession he finds ways to defend himself. He blames his acts of cruelty on alcohol, the cat and the spirit of perverseness.

            There is a lot going on in the tale.  As discussed in class Poe’s work uses different symbols as a way to question human integrity. In the case of “The Black Cat” Poe uses the black cats as his symbol. A black cat is thought to be superstitious, ‘a witch is disguise.’(231), and in the case of this tale, serves as a constant reminder of the narrator’s guilty conscience.

            After the narrator hangs the first cat he misses him, and wishes to replace him. “I went so far as to regret the loss of the animal, and to look about me, among the vile haunts which I now habitually frequented, for another pet of the same species, and of somewhat similar appearance, with which to supply its place.”(233) There is the saying in life that you want what you can’t have, and I think it relates a lot to the narrator. He is regretting his actions and wants to fill a void. Is the best way to forget about something that was lost to replace it with the same thing? I think that the second black cat is really a symbol for narrator’s conscience and mind. The wanting of the second cat is the narrator’s way to ‘replace’ the first one, and therefore also ‘replace’ the memory associated with it.

            The next point where Poe touches on the ability of the human mind to rationalize and the integrity of people is in the paragraph on perverseness. The narrator begins his tale by describing his love for his animals and then his’ fiend intemperance’ that causes him to abuse them. He then goes on to say ‘perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart… have we not a perpetual inclination, to violate that which is law, merely because we understand it to be such?’ (232) The desire to do wrong simply because we know it to be wrong is not a good justification for murder nor really for anything. But so often we see acts of crime being committed for this very reason, because the inclination and desire to do so was there.

             I think Poe’s point in writing this tale was not only to provide a thrilling tale but to question where our morals and ethics come in. At which point in the story was that line crossed and these acts were no longer an act of perverseness? These weren’t acts that the narrator could rationalize, yet he does so in his confession, leading the readers to believe that he is psychologically impaired and therefore no questions of human integrity arise.