"Things Fall Apart" and "The Second Coming"

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe happens to be one of my favorite novels, so when we discussed "The Second Coming" in class I was excited because that poem is featured in the opening of the novel. It fits well with the theme of Things Fall Apart; once the leader Okonkwo is excommunicated from his community, everything falls apart. As Yeats said, "The falcon cannot hear the falconer/Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold". Without a foundation or a "leader", things are in disarray and chaos ensues. The poem definitely has a foreboding tone to it, and I think that fits well with Things Fall Apart because of its tragic nature.

hamlet film adaptations

I admit that before we watched the Mel Gibson version of Hamlet I had only seen the version with Kenneth Branagh, and I have to say that I preferred the latter. Kenneth Branagh seemed to encompass Hamlet's madness much better than Mel did, and I can't say I really appreciated the scene that Mel's Hamlet had with his mother in bed; I don't think the play intended on having there be a full on incestuous relationship even though it could have been vaguely hinted at. I think Kenneth also had a broader range of emotional responses than Mel did, and when i pictured Hamlet in my head I pictured more of a Kenneth version than a Mel. My favorite scene in the Kenneth version was when Ophelia had the conversation with him and Polonius was spying in on them, because Kenneth's performance of Hamlet's madness was very convincing. He was pacing and frantic and almost foaming at the mouth. Mel looks like an oaf in comparison.

bartleby, the scrivener

Even though this short story seemed simple in the plotline, it was my favorite work that we were assigned to in class. Bartleby's detached passive resistance reminded me of Meursault from Camus' "The Stranger". Like Bartleby, Meursault simply floats through life, never sticking up for himself or having an opinion in general. When his love interest asks him if he loves her, he tells her that love doesn't mean anything but he doesn't think so. Usually, love is something that is important to many people, but Meursault doesn't care for it or anything else, really. This is why he reminds me of Bartleby, because they are so similar in their detached nature. Bartleby exudes an existentialist view of the world, because he doesn't seem to hold much value to life and routine because in the end, everyone dies and he readily accepts that.

stop the clocks

Even though i was assigned this poem by W.H. Auden in class, I enjoyed reading it and picking it apart. My favorite part of his piece is that I had no idea he was a man before I did research on him. That totally turned my viewpoint of the poem around, because when I pictured the scene in my head I imagined a woman talking about how nothing has meaning since her man left. I didn't expect the author to be a man because it was published in the early 1900's, and I assumed homosexuality wasn't widely accepted, but it turns out there was an entire community of homosexual writers at the time, which I thought was really awesome because I'm a huge supporter of gay rights.

hamlet

I know that there are many conflicting opinions of Hamlet as a noble character in one of Shakespeare's finest tragedies, and i just want to give my own personal opinion on him.
As a genreally contemplative person myself, i can sympathize with Hamlet. While many say that he is too wishy-washy, indecisive, and dithering, i think that he is simply cautious and meticulous. Let's take Romeo from Romeo and Juliet, for example. Here is a character who is daring and bold, willing to throw away his family for the love of his life, a character who drank poison because he believed his loved one was dead (turns out, she really wasn't- oops). Because of his rash decision-making, he ended up dead along with the love of his life. Hamlet dies in the end, yes, but not until he finishes what he set out to do and killed his scheming uncle. Because of his patience, he was able to fulfill what his fathers ghost requested he do. To me, that doesn't make him indecisive, it makes him smart.

death of a salesman

recently, i wrote an essay on what type of protagonist Willy is. He isn't the typical "hero"; he is arrogant, deceitful, egotistical, delusional, and misogynistic. He has many opportunities for redemption, but refuses them for various reasons, which makes him a difficult character to sympathize with. When his sons try to reconcile with him, he often brushes them off out of his own pride and thinly veiled disappointment in their lives. When his neighbor offers him a job and money when he is laid off, he doesn't willingly take either because he is stuck in the past and vehemently refuses to acknowledge his present. Because of all this, I feel like Willy is actually his own antagonist, which is an interesting thought. People around him actually seem to want to help him, but he is the one who gets in his own way. What a depressing notion.

We Real Cool

 I think it's interesting how to poem is set up with an introduction (THE POOL PLAYERS. SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL.) It reminds me of a play and how sometimes there's a narrator offstage or something introducing the setting. It puts an image in my head of "cool" people hanging around a pool table, smoking cigarettes and drinking. It' so simple but has such a smooth quality to it. You want to say "reeeeeaaal cool" instead of "real cool" in your head.

THE POOL PLAYERS. SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL