Modernism

1. The topic that I chose for modernism was Psychoanalysis. I’m not really sure what to expect, but I’m sure I’ll be reading some really interesting things. The human mind in my opinion is really interesting because it varies from person to person. I guess I’ll be reading a lot about crazy people or something.

2. This story was really confusing. Mostly what confused me was what was actually going on. I think that what was actually happening was that Mitty’s wife told him to buy a few things while she went to get her hair done. That seems like the most logical explanation to me. But there were parts in the story where Walter would be having episodes and stuff like the part where he was in the operating room with a few other doctors and he fixed the anesthesia. If I’m right about the plot then James Thurber did a really good job writing it to where people could understand it. I really liked the way that he described the characters. Walter and his wife reminded me of Rip van winkle and Dame van winkle, because both Walter and Rip were annoyed by their hen pecked wives.


Like I said before in the story there were parts where Walter would have these episodes or daydreams or whatever where he’s doing everyday things but he gets sucked into this “different world” almost. This is very different because before the modernists nobody ever really did this. Nobody ever actually went into detail about what went on in the minds of the characters.


Like for instance, after Walter drops his wife off at the hair dresser, he’s driving past the hospital and he has this really long episode where he’s doing surgery or something. “In the operating room there were whispered introductions: "Dr. Remington, Dr. Mitty. Mr. Pritchard-Mitford, Dr. Mitty." "I've read your book on streptothricosis," said Pritchard-Mitford, shaking hands. "A brilliant performance, sir." "Thank you," said Walter Mitty. "Didn't know you were in the States, Mitty," grumbled Remington. "Coals to Newcastle, bringing Mitford and me up here for a tertiary." "You are very kind," said Mitty. A huge, complicated machine, connected to the operating table, with many tubes and wires, began at this moment to go pocketa-pocketa-pocketa. "The new anesthetizer is giving way!" shouted an intern. "There is no one in the East who knows how to fix it!" "Quiet, man!" said Mitty, in a low, cool voice. He sprang to the machine, which was going pocketa-pocketa-queep-pocketa-queep. He began fingering delicately a row of glistening dials. "Give me a fountain pen!" he snapped. Someone handed him a fountain pen. He pulled a faulty piston out of the machine and inserted the pen in its place. "That will hold for ten minutes," he said. "Get on with the operation." A nurse hurried over and whispered to Renshaw, and Mitty saw the man turn pale. "Coreopsis has set in," said Renshaw nervously. "If you would take over, Mitty?" Mitty looked at him and at the craven figure of Benbow, who drank, and at the grave, uncertain faces of the two great specialists. "If you wish," he said. They slipped a white gown on him; he adjusted a mask and drew on thin gloves; nurses handed him shining . . .” I feel like that is direct evidence of what I was saying about the author trying to get us to psychoanalyze his characters.




3. a. In the first Poem that I read entitled Richard Corey it’s talking about a man who seems to be all that and a bag of chips and everyone loves him and thinks he’s a cool guy then all of a sudden he commits suicide and then everyone realizes that he wasn’t so perfect at all. I think that this poem would be a very good example of disillusionment. Because it’s basically tricking you into believing that something (the character) is so perfect but yet he’s not.


b. In the second poem, it was very hard to understand what was going on. I didn’t really like it that much because of that fact. I’m not really sure what it could be categorized as, but I think it could be Disillusionment because in the poem they about this wall, and every spring this wall is messed up so they have to fix it. Also in this poem there is a character that says “Good fences make good neighbors” I think he and readers of this poem are disillusioned from the whole point of the poem. From reading this poem I think that “bad fences make good neighbors” because if it wasn’t for this fence then these two characters wouldn’t have a relationship at all. They would never see each other. But because of this fence that they have to fix every year it makes them good neighbors.


c. A dream deferred by Langston Hughes was a pretty simple poem. I don’t believe it took much effort for him to write it because of its length, but in the poem he’s saying alot. In the poem he’s talking about the American dream for people who are living in the ghetto. He’s saying that these people are constantly told that their dream will come and it just keeps getting put off. This poem is a really good example of the Harlem Renaissance but it could be also argued as disillusionment, because it could be written to the disillusioned Americans that actually think that there is an American dream for all Americans.


d. The Negro speaks of rivers is also a very powerful poem. What I get out of this poem is that the author was looking at a river and imagining what it meant to the African Americans. It wasn’t until I heard what he wrote it for, and until I read it as he was reading it that I finally appreciate what he was trying to say. Since he’s talking about the importance of something to his people it would definitely be categorized as The Harlem renaissance.


e. I love this poem. I thought it was pretty funny, but kind of sad at the same time. Because back then when someone called someone a nigger it was very degrading to that person, but nowadays when someone calls someone that they are more than likely just joking and it’s not so serious. But it’s also sad because in the poem she says that she doesn’t remember anything else about her trip but this one white man calling her the N word. This poem would definitely be a Harlem renaissance poem.

Realism

1. “The Story of an Hour”
a.) -There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.
-She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life.

-In the street below a peddler was crying his wares.

-There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.

-She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength.

b.) The social issue is how women are treated in marriages. In the story the main character is happy of the news of her husband dying. I think that this story describes how women who are in relationships with controlling relationships feel.
Here’s some direct evidence:
“There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature.”

2. “The battle with Mr. Covey”

a.) -On one of the hottest days of the month of August, 1833, Bill Smith, William Hughes, a slave named Eli, and myself were engaged in fanning wheat....The work was simple, requiring strength rather than intellect; yet, to one entirely unused to such work, it came very hard. About three o'clock of that day, I broke down; my strength failed me; I was seized with a violent aching of the head, attended with extreme dizziness; I trembled in every limb....

-He then gave me a savage kick in the side, and told me to get up. I tried to do so, but fell back in the attempt. He gave me another kick, and again told me to rise. I again tried, and succeeded in gaining my feet: but, stopping to get the tub with which I was feeding the fan, I again staggered and fell. While down in this situation, Mr. Covey took up the hickory slat with which Hughes had been striking off the half- bushel measure, and with it gave me a heavy blow upon the head, making a large wound, and the blood ran freely; and with this, again told me to get up.

-At this moment I resolved to go to my master, enter a complaint, and ask his protection. In order to [do] this, I must that afternoon walk seven miles; and this, under the circumstances, was truly a severe undertaking.

-The blood was yet oozing from the wound on my head. For a time I thought I should bleed to death, and think now that I should have done so, but the blood so matted my hair as to stop the wound.

-After lying there about three quarters of an hour, I nerved myself up again, and started on my way, through bogs and briers, barefooted and bareheaded, tearing my feet sometimes at nearly every step;

b.) The Social Issue that Douglass was trying to address is slavery.

I think one of the reasons that Douglass wrote this story was to give people some insight on how it was to be a slave. Cause a lot of people during that time claimed to be abolitionists but they didn’t really do anything to try and end slavery. He probably also wrote this because most people didn’t realist how bad slavery was.

3. The Message by Grandmaster Flash would be a good example of realism. In this song he’s talking about what it’s like to be a African American I living in the ghetto and he uses a lot of detailed descriptions of poverty. Here are some of the lyrics:

Broken glass everywhere
People pissing on the stairs, you know they just
Dont care
I cant take the smell, I cant take the noise
Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice
Rats in the front room, roaches in the back
Junkies in the alley with a baseball bat
I tried to get away, but I couldnt get far
Cause the man with the tow-truck repossessed my car

Dont push me, cause Im close to the edge
Im trying not to loose my head
Its like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under

Standing on the front stoop, hangin out the window
Watching all the cars go by, roaring as the breezes
Blow
Crazy lady, livin in a bag
Eating out of garbage piles, used to be a fag-hag
Search and test a tango, skips the life and then go
To search a prince to see the last of senses
Down at the peepshow, watching all the creeps
So she can tell the stories to the girls back home
She went to the city and got so so so ditty
She had to get a pimp, she couldnt make it on her
Own

Writing Four

Kurt Cobain was the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter for Nirvana, the multi platinum grunge band that was the basis for the sound of the nineties. He was married to Courtney Love, the lead singer of the band Hole, with a daughter named, Francis Bean. Tragically, on April 5th 1994, his body was found in the room over the garage at his house. The police immediately concluded “suicide”. I don’t believe Kurt killed himself and there is plenty of evidence supporting my theory.
The first piece of evidence that I’m going to mention is that Courtney Love was facing a divorce. When she found out he was really going to file for divorce, she asked one of her attorneys Rosemary Carroll to find her the “meanest, most vicious divorce lawyer” she could. In the beginning of the marriage, Kurt was smart enough to have her sign a prenuptial, which in the event of a divorce, he wouldn’t have all his money taken away. Courtney wanted someone who could possibly get her out of that agreement or change it. After Kurt’s death Carroll had come to believe that Courtney was behind it because she had a motive.
Kurt’s body was found by the electricians that had been called to do some work on the house. He had been dead for three days. How could his body been laying there for three days? Since he had supposedly been missing, wouldn’t his house have been the first place they would’ve looked? The gun he supposedly used to shoot himself (purchased for protection BEFORE he left for rehab) was found on the scene with no fingerprints on it. How could he wipe off the fingerprints after he shot himself in the head? But it gets better--- No fingerprints at all were found on the box of shells for the gun, and three shells from the box were loaded into the gun. If he was planning on shooting himself, why would he have loaded three shells into the gun? The truth is, the shotgun wasn't even checked for fingerprints until May 6th, nearly one month after Cobain's body was found.
The note that was found at the scene was immediately labeled by the police as a “suicide note” written to Courtney and Francis Bean. But this note was not addressed to his wife or his child. It was clearly written to his fans telling them that he was going to quit the business. It was a known fact that Kurt wanted to quit the music business, and that he was tired of his marriage with Courtney. The note has been read and determined by handwriting specialists to be of two completely different handwritings. In the original letter it says nothing about suicide. The portion that he wrote was merely a reflection of his thoughts on quitting the business, and his feelings on letting his fans down.
“All the warnings from the punk rock 101 courses over the years, since my first introduction to the, shall we say, ethics involved with independence and the embracement of your community has proven to be very true. I haven't felt the excitement of listening to as well as creating music along with reading and writing for too many years now. I feel guilty beyond words about these things.
For example when we're back stage and the lights go out and the manic roar of the crowds begins., it doesn't affect me the way in which it did for Freddie Mercury, who seemed to love, relish in the love and adoration from the crowd which is something I totally admire and envy. The fact is, I can't fool you, any one of you. It simply isn't fair to you or me. The worst crime I can think of would be to rip people off by faking it and pretending as if I'm having 100% fun. Sometimes I feel as if I should have a punch-in time clock before I walk out on stage. I've tried everything within my power to appreciate it (and I do, God, believe me I do, but it's not enough). I appreciate the fact that I and we have affected and entertained a lot of people. It must be one of those narcissists who only appreciate things when they're gone. I'm too sensitive. I need to be slightly numb in order to regain the enthusiasms I once had as a child.”

Oddly enough there was a second “suicide note” attached to a box of flower bulbs that was addressed to Courtney and another name blacked out by the police. Courtney was in possession of this when Kurt’s body was found. She didn’t let anyone know about it until months later when she exposed a little bit too much to Rolling Stone Magazine during an interview. This second suicide note clearly states that he was leaving Courtney. Not that he was going to kill himself.
The last bit of evidence that supports my theory was that when Kurt’s body was found the autopsy concluded that his heroin blood level was 1.52 mgs per liter. This would require a minimum injection of 225 mgs of heroin which was three times a lethal dose. Even for a hardcore heroin addict like Cobain, injection of this amount of heroin would cause him to be in a coma or dead. How could a dead man or a vegetable pick up a gun and shoot himself?
In conclusion, neither the police nor the Medical Examiners have forensic evidence that Kurt Cobain’s death was a suicide. The verdict of “Suicide” was simply a rush in judgment of this case. I wonder if he had not been a celebrity, would they have taken the evidence and put it together as a murder. This makes me wonder had it been someone else how they would’ve handled it. Or maybe it’s because they didn’t want to work on the case any further, by trying to find a suspect. If the case had gone that far I wonder who the possible suspects could’ve been.

Dark Romanticism

The dark romantic authors would be against the Transcendental philosophy because of the things that they experienced in their lives. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s great grandfather saw that a bunch of innocent people were brutally killed all in the name of god. He wouldn’t believe that in listening to your intuition that you were listening to the voice of god. Neither would Melville, because he saw some really disgusting and terrifying things in his lifetime. While sailing around the world Melville saw cannibals. If that were me I’d think that the transcendentalists were insane. Poe had some really terrible things happen to him also. Everyone that he ever got close to died from TB.

I think that I’m more of a Dark romantic than a transcendentalist. Like the Dark Romantics I think that the transcendentalist philosophy is crazy. If I listened to everything my intuition told me to do I’d definitely be in a Prison somewhere. I also believe that everyone has a little piece of evil in them, because I’ve seen even the nicest of people turn over to the “dark side”.

I thought that the story was crazy and hilarious. I was very fun to read, but in the beginning it was kind of slow. I love the gore in the story. My favorite parts of the story are when he gouges Pluto’s eye out and hug hum, and the part where he lodged an axe into his wife’s brain and buried her within the wall. I also liked the part where the police find her corpse in the wall. The ending was a bit confusing; my thought was that it was his wife telling him to do all these crazy things. It illustrates what the dark romantics thought because it featured a character with a little bit of evil about him. “Beneath the pressure of torments such as these, the feeble remnant of the good within me succumbed. Evil thoughts became my sole intimates—the darkest and most evil of thoughts”

I thought the poem was really sweet and depressing at the same time. The poem is describing the way Poe felt as he was writing the poem. I think that the character of the Raven is not really a literal bird. I think that the raven is a symbol of Death, kind of like the grim reaper.

Alot of lines in the poem caught my attention. The first one that really stuck out to me was the part where he firsts opens the window to see who was tapping on it to find that it's nobody. And then he hears the name "Lenore". Then he hears the tapping again and opens the window and this bird flies in and perches on a bust of Athena.(Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door) I thought that part was kind of crazy. Then he asks the birds name and it says "Nevermore"(Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.')But the part that really caught my attention is when he says that the raven will problably leave him like so many people have left him before, and since we all know that all of the people that Poe ever loved died.(Till I scarcely more than muttered `Other friends have flown before -
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.'
Then the bird said, `Nevermore.')

That quote was definately anti-transcendentalist because it's saying that not everyone that listens to their intuition is doing the right thing. In the poem Poe states that The angels basically blessed him with this woman and then took her away for no reason.(`Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us - by that God we both adore -
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels named Lenore -
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels named Lenore?'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.')The Dark romantics beleived that there was a bit of evil in everybody, and i think that the bird is symbolic of the evil inside him.

One of the things you didn't mention was the fact that Edgar Allen Poe's Death is still a mystery. Some random guy found him layin in the streets deleirious. He was taken to the hopital and Died four days later on October 7th, 1849. He never was consious enough to tell them what had happened. Come to find out, he was wearing someone else's clothes. Many people started to beleive he was a victim of cooping. Which is where someone is forced to vote for a candidate over and over again.

I think that poe wrote really depressing works because of all the things he has experienced in his life. For instance "The Raven" being about his wife dying of TB, and Also Anabel Lee.