Well..What Can You Say About Ginsberg?

I must admit before I begin this blog that I've never had so much trouble with a poet as I have with Allen Ginsberg. His ramblings and outbursts of words that just seem to be him eloquently regurgitating random phrases and thoughts that come to mind. Is there a point to this seemingly chaotic literature? I feel there must be, or else what's the point? And why would he be so famously renowned? Although I didn't particularly enjoy either one of these poems, "America" or "In the Baggage Room at the Greyhound," but I did enjoy his "Don't Smoke" tune that we watched in class today. He really is quite a clever man though a little bit on the odd side, but there's nothing wrong with that.

So starting of with "America," the speaker seems to be quite frustrated with America and it's values and what this country ends up doing to people. There seems to be a lot of political tension throughout the poem. The speaker is obviously not happy with the times that America is with war, the political leadership, and decision making process. Some of the lines that seem to elevate the political tension in this poem is where he states, "Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb," and "My ambition is to be President even though I'm a Catholic," and being "communist." Essentially through this entire work Ginsberg is satirizing everything America stands for. Being "sinister," "pushing," "serious," making him want to be a saint. In some ways this reminds me of a nagging parent whom the child can never be good enough for. The child is rebellious and doesn't want the same thing as his parents and then becomes cynical about the world. There's a strong tone of sarcasm or simply a different approach to things from the speaker. He doesn't want to become like this "America" but I think in some ways he's saying it's inescapable? However, he ends the poem with, "I'm putting my queer shoulder to the wheel" which definitely defies anything that America would have stood for in 1956. I guess this is the speaker decides at the end of the poem that he's going to be completely rebellious and not go with America's perfect mold.

Now "In the Baggage Room at the Greyhound" Ginsberg basically starts of by giving a vivid description of the area he is in at this station. He vividly describes everyone who is there and the baggage they are bringing. A line that particularly got to me was when he says, "nor this trembling old lady with a cane taking the last trip of her life." I feel like I can see this woman. That's the great thing about Ginsberg's writing, he is so vivid that I had a complete picture of what this room looked like. Okay so I'm going to take a big leap with this literary epiphany I just had. I feel like the baggage that the people are bringing or this baggage room that is the setting could symbolically mean the emotional baggage that people end up carrying along with them in their journey throughout life. I know personally I have baggage from a previous relationship or family issues. Everyone goes through different hardships in life that shape them as who they are as an individual, but also in some ways haunt their present. Sometimes we just have to put them where they belong, on the racks that Ginsberg next mentions. He says, "the racks were created to hang our possessions, to keep us together, a temporary shift in space, God's only way of building the rickety structure of Time." I feel like this could be saying we have to put our belongings/baggage away for a while, where they belong so we can move along through life and Time. So this is just one of my thoughts on the poem, but I also feel like there's much deeper things going on. Just like in a lot of his other works, Ginsberg talks about being a communist, i.e. going against the normal social structure of society and political views of everyone. Also I really like the phrase "Tragedy reduced to numbers," because I feel like a lot of times as people we do have a tendency to have some kind of tragedy be reduced to something small. For instance, the recent Haiti occurrence. This is a HUMONGOUS tragedy that has killed many people. But sometimes, all we here is the head count. We don't think about how these peoples lives will forever be changed because of this dreadful day. We hear "100,000 people dead" and think "Oh, that's awful, 100,000 is a lot!" But that's all the mind we pay to this profound tragedy. I don't know. Just a few tid bits. A few thoughts that these poems brought to mind.

Yes, Sometimes You Can Learn From Your Little Brother

Today as I was preparing for class tomorrow by reading "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin, I felt very impacted by the story and truly felt for the characters. This story of the lives of the two brothers who live in Harlem is exceptionally deep. This really made me think a lot about what people go through in life and the measures they take to overcome their troubles. But today for my blog, I'm going to focus on a few quotes/pieces of information the characters give and give my commentary on them.

The first is, "Then I wanted to ask him--to many things. He could not have answered, or if we had, I could not have borne the answers" (page 35). I feel like this is exactly how I am in so many situations. I definitely have the mentality of, "I'd just rather not know" when it comes to certain things. I feel like maybe sometimes I can still think of a person in a favorable light or just really think the world is a good place. But, I guess this is a naive view of the world. I don't know, sometimes this may not be a good thing to have this mentality, however I feel like it keeps my spirits higher or keeps a little mystery in a situation. "What you don't know won't kill you." Yes, no, maybe. Maybe it depends on the information? Maybe the narrator and I have something in common that we simply don't like to acknowledge the truth because as soon as we do we have to take responsibility for it. As soon as he realizes there's something wrong with Sonny, he must begin to help him. And he eventually does. I don't think this guy didn't love his brother, he was just scared that he was going to fail at helping him. He didn't know what he could do therefore he did nothing. But we must be careful of this because if we never know what is going on in the lives of those we love, how can we help, or ever make a difference in their lives?

The next quote is, " . . .you know people can't always do exactly what they want to do.' 'No, I don't know that,' said Sonny, surprising me. 'I think people ought to do what they want to do, what else are they alive for?" (page 44). This piece of dialogue truly hit me hard because I feel like it really speaks to people my age who are trying to figure out exactly what to do with their lives. This kind of conversation could be compared to numerous conversations that teenagers my age have with their parents. Kids who have passion for something that may not be lucrative or "safe" in the future, so the parents try to persuade them into doing something that is more secure and trustworthy. For example, I have always had a passion for theatre. I've never really even thought of going for it though in life because I can just imagine the conversation with my parents. "Where is that going to get you?" "You need something to fall back on if that doesn't work out." In fact, I think it's been drilled into me my entire life that I need to try something safe. Why is it that we do this? Suppress what we actually have a passion for, do something safe, and be miserable our entire lives? I think Sonny's advice was spectacular. We're never going to be truly happy unless we're doing what we love. The question is though, do we have the courage to do it?

The final quote is, "But there's no way to not suffer--is there, Sonny?' 'I believe not,' he said and smiled, 'but that's never stopped anyone from trying.' . . .'why do people suffer? Maybe it's better to do something to give it a reason, any reason." (page 51). If you can't tell already, I really like Sonny and his view on life. I think it's because I wish I could be more like him. He knows that everyone is going to suffer in life, he as had his fair share of suffering, but he refuses to not have an excuse for it. He wants a reason, something to explain it. ANYTHING! Although Sonny is a depressed character and has tried to commit suicide, I feel like he's more alive than the narrator. Atleast more of a risk taker and a feeler. I feel like the two, although they don't get along naturally because of their differences, they compliment each other. They're so different that they can help one another in their opposing ways.

Broken Hearts and Torn Homes

Today as I finished the last scene of The Glass Menagerie I was reminded of how incredibly sad it is by the way it leaves the audience feeling hopeless for the family and the situation they are left it. It makes me sympathize for those families today that live like this one...an unfortunate situation where the father is gone and the family is left broken and full of unresolved issues.

Mean ol' Tennessee Williams in this scene gets his poor audience's hopes up in order to just break us down in the situation with Laura and Jim. They seem to be completely hitting it off as they are enjoying conversation with each other. Jim seems to be the only person who can truly relate to Laura and he even diagnosis her problem as an "inferiority complex" that she just needs to feel better about herself, and for a brief moment she does, with Jim. Jim gives Laura this boost of confidence she most likely has never had before. He tells her she's pretty and reassures her that everybody has issues by saying, "And everybody has problems, not just you, but practically everybody has got some problems. . . you will see lots of people as dissappointed as you are" (page 76). He even goes as far as to give her the autograph she's wanted from him since high school and just to put the cherry on top, he kisses her!! Even this being the second time reading this play I was completely enthralled by this scene. Somehow I thought, for sure, that Jim was going to change his mind this time. That everything was going to work out well for Laura and Jim and they were going to run away and live happily every after. But I suppose that's not how Tennessee Williams wanted his play to turn out in this obviously post-modern work, because life just never seems to end up this way, does it? No, poor Laura only gets a glimpse of this happiness with Jim to soon find out he's engaged to the other woman Betsy. Oh, what a disgrace...isn't that a cows name? I mean come on Jim. Although I must give him credit, he did tell her quickly. He could have been a COMPLETE scum bag and left that evening allowing Laura to believe there'd be a future with him when all along he's in love with another woman. Laura too handled herself quite well. She ended up giving Jim her favorite piece of glass, the unicorn, which is now broken (SYMBOLISM!). They definitely both acted quite cordial in this situation...which I don't know if I could have done the same myself.

Now going on to Tom in this last scene. I mean come on Tom!! He just leaves in the end..leaving his poor mother and handicapped sister behind. I mean, what is going to come of them? I mean I do understand why he wanted out. He was yearning for adventure and freedom and Amanda was a nagging mother, but I just feel like he could have left on better terms. And, his decision haunts (duh! I mean he LEFT them!). He says, "Oh, Laura, Laura, I tried to leave you behind me, but I am more faithful than I intended to be!" (page 97). The sad thing is though, even though Tom left his "coffin" he definitely wasn't able to escape without undoing a single nail. It seems as though he still feels guilt from his decision. That even though he is gone from the environment he felt to be so poisonous, he isn't free.

Nagging Mothers, Introverted Daughters, and Rebellious Sons

As I began the first six scenes of The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, I was reminded by his vivid use of symbols and everyday occurrences that his audience can definitely relate to, but definitely find something to learn from and take as a life lesson away from this reading. I have read this production before in the fall of 2006 and truly loved it and the rich nature of the literature.

Starting with just the title, there can be inference made by how the the story will begin. A menagerie by definition is, "a collection of wild animals kept in captivity for exhibition." The part of this definition that is of grave value is "captivity." I feel like all three of the main characters, Amanda, Laura, and Tom, all feel in some way held back from their true dreams. Amanda is held in captivity by her past and all the dreams she had for her future that were unfulfilled. Laura is held back by her false world of her class ornaments and victrola. She refuses to stay in reality, and the one time she tried to live in reality was by going to school which proved to be too much for her and she vomited in front of the class. Finally, Tom feels simply restless. In fact Amanda says to him, "But why--why? Tom--you are always so restless." (page 33). Tom is thirsting for adventure but is held back by the reality that he must provide for his mother and sister because his father left many years ago.

This family is a classic case of a strained relationship and broken home. Amanda is controlling. She has to control everything from what everybody wears, to when the eat, and how they eat it. Amanda says to Tom, "Honey, don't push with your fingers. If you have to push it with something, the thing to push with is a crust of bread. And chew--chew!..."(page 6). She is so discontent with the life she now lives that she must constantly bring up her past and how popular she was, "There was young Champ Laughlin who later became vice-president of the Delta Planters Bank. Hadley Stevenson who was drowned in Moon Lake and left his widow one hundred and fifty thousand in Government bonds..." (page 9). She can't seem to understand how her life turned out the way it has in my opinion. One of her flaws is that she fail to recognize reality, which I guess is exactly what Tom meant in the beginning of the play when he said they were somehow "set apart from reality." She does not recognize that Laura is crippled, doesn't even let other people say she is, and doesn't realize that Laura is a little bit odd.

All three of these characters go about conflict in different ways, yet almost the same. Laura is a recluse and simply goes and shines her collection of glass animals while dreaming of a different day. Tom drinks away his sorrows or goes to the movies where there too is a false reality. The movies are a getaway, a place where he can forget his job doesn't fulfill him and his life is in shambles. Amanda, she just returns to her past and the hope that was in abundance then. So far, these family members don't face their problems head on and that is going to be their downfall.

There seem to be many symbolic figures in the story. Starting off with the glass menagerie. For Laura, I believe this represents hope and something constant. She enjoys getting away and escaping by cleaning these glass figurines. The fire escape seems to signify something as well. I think it's the dangerous life their living and some kind of escape. Tom stands here in order to watch the swing dancers down the street at the club as well, so this too represents hope and longing. Also, music and the legend screen seem to play a pivotal role in the play. There are words that reflect the mood of a character or foreshadow and event and the music choice usually goes right along with the character's mood. The father's picture also is brought up a lot during these first six scenes. His picture is above the hearth (which ironically is a sign for family/home) and he is smiling down upon the family. I feel like this is quite an ironic place for him to be, smiling nonetheless. He was a traveling salesman who one day decided to never return to his family and left them destitute. But, for some reason he is still sitting there, reminding the characters of the past they cannot escape. Also, Guernica in Spain is mentioned a few times throughout...which maybe represents something terrible yet also adventurous and out of the norm. Tom brings up how at least Spain has Guernica. Now I think think is a little bit repulsive, but it was a revolution and I think he looks to this as adventure.

So finally I think I'm going to end my commentary with some quotes from the story I found quite good.

1. "Old maids are better off than wives of drunkards." p. 44

2. "You are the only young man that I know of who ignores the fact that the future becomes the present, the present the past, and the past turns into everlasting regret if you don't plan for it!" p. 45

3. "All pretty girls are a trap, a pretty trap, and men expect them to be." p. 52

Sometimes Being Young and a Girl Is Tough

The two short stories I read today offered me a great surprise and I do not feel they were in any way predictable (not that the literature/poems I have read for this particular class have been, but these gave me a surprise.

I'm going to begin with the more gruesome of the two, "The Flowers" by Alice Walker. Because, I do feel like if i tackle this one first than I will not feel quite as depressed the rest of my day :). First off I would like to point out there is a lot of color imagery throughout the story. Walker uses phrases such as, "golden surprises," "large white teeth," "wild pink rose," etc. It could have some kind of meaning that these colors Walker seems to implement are bright and almost youthful. This too presents a vast contrast with the dead man lying on the ground. He is lifeless laying there, but he still has the bright colors of life all around him. But Myop seems to be in the beginning of this story, a young vibrant girl who is simply looking for adventure and gathering flowers all along the way. She is enjoying every minute of summer exploring the woods. Throughout this piece though she is beginning to lose some of her innocence and grow up, even at the young age of ten years old. In the third paragraph it talks about how "Today she made her own path, bouncing this way and that way, vaguely keeping an eye out for snakes." This is the first instance of her starting to show her maturity and growth as a young girl. Also, Walker writes a little later how this experience beings to become unpleasant for Myop even before she encounters the man. Which is quite true for anybody. The process of growing up can be quite invigorating, but also scary just plain not fun at times.

But the shift begins when she encounters this man who has taken his life by actually stepping on his face. What I don't understand here is why this child is not spooked?! I mean, she just found a dead man in the woods while she is by herself. The author does indicate that she's surprised but now where does it say she's scared...weird is all i can say to that. This is where she grows up though. The summer/her flowers, which symbolically means her innocence/youth is gone. As soon as she laid down that bouquet, nothing is going to be the same for Myop again. This same sort of thing could be true for the rest of us (although hopefully not the same type of encounter!) Something drastic could cause us to grow up at a young age, leaving behind those carefree years. It's kind of a shame if you think about it. At least I think it is. This poor girl, at the ripe age of ten years old will forever be different.

Now the second story, "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid presents quite a different aspect. This entire piece is basically a "How to" for girls, but I believe this is specifically an African American women speaking to her daughter. For this piece I think I may have more questions than answers...but I will try. This mother, or mother figure, is trying to teach what is pressumably her daughter how to be a good wife. How to wash clothes, how to fix fish, how to iron, how to act in public. But the part that is interesting and stands out a lot (because the narrator says it two or three times) is, "to prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming." This makes me wonder has the girl gone and gotten herself knocked up? Or did her mother catch her shackin up with some boy behind the house? I don't know? Maybe she's telling her all of these things because a baby is on the way and she's going to have to know how to take care of a household, but really I don't think that's what it is. I think this mother is concerned for her daughter's obvious loose morals and is maybe trying to correct them somehow. A piece of advice I truly loved and thought was quite comical was the, "this is how you smile to someone you don't like too much; this is how you smile to someone you don't like at all; this is how you smile to someone you like completely." I just had to giggle at this because isn't this true for so many girls, or southern women it seems? They just smile, but behind that smile there is so much pent up hate and gossip that if it came out it would just flood the other person. Now the daughter only speaks twice throughout this piece and the last thing she says is, "But what if the baker won't let me feel the bread?" and then the mother responds, "you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won't let her near the bread?" All I can figure is this is a sexual reference...I can't think of any other thing the bread can symbolically mean and it would go right along with the daughter's "sluttiness." Okay so that is my interpretation..hopefully not too far off base. But i definitely enjoyed these pieces the characters were quite interesting to engage with in the literature.

Robert Frost. A wise man indeed.

So like many Americans, I am one of those people who don't even truly read poetry but enjoy a good Frost poem. Yes, I enjoy the good classic of "Road Not Taken," and gain inspiration from it. However, even though this particular poem is usually the one that comes to mind when most people think of the great poet Robert Frost, I believe he has more to say to us through his many poems. What I love about his poetry is that I don't feel that it takes someone with some kind of Ph. D. in the analysis of literature (which probably doesn't even exist) to figure out some of what he is trying to get across to his readers. Two of his poems that I will be focusing on are "Birches" and "Mending Wall."

So we'll begin with "Birches." I have to begin by confessing that no I am not a specialist in the names of trees to before I even started reading this poem i looked up "birch" into the trusty online dictionary Webster dictionary (thank you Merriam!) Which I thought the definition was interesting and pertinent to the content of the poem itself. Briefly described, a birch is a type of tree that is fast growing and generally peels away its bark. Which a lot of what I think this poem is talking about is growing up and kind of losing the our innocence or who we used to be as children, but still being the same person inside. Frost paints this lovely mental picture of a young boy swinging on these birches and actually conquering them. He says in line 32 "And not one but hung limp, not one was left/ For him to conquer." This young boy is having a marvelous time playing on these trees and conquering them one by one as he grows older. But the speaker of this poem is an entirely separate entity. He is watching the young boy and reminiscing on the days when, "So was I once myself a swinger of birches" (ll. 43). Frost says stuff like the tree "shed crystal shells" (ll. 10) which I believe this is a maturation process. The poem ends with the speaker saying, "I'd like to getget away from earth a while/ And then come back to it and gein over" (ll. 49-50). What I think Frost is saying here is that sometimes as adults or when people get older they sometimes want an escape, a thought of utopia if you will, or even just a nice memory to return to. When life presents tough times even to myself, and I'm only eighteen, sometimes I like to take a deep breath, remember a good memory, like being in a musical, or some crazy memory with friends in high school before I return to life's daily stresses. Frost emphasizes how it's nice to have something to look back on, something to remember and keep us sane during our chaotic lifestyles.

"Mending Wall," by Frost seems to have a slightly different tone throughout it... and I'm not sure if I got the entire meaning of this...but here's my whack at it. The wall seems to be symbolic of something that is holding us back as individuals. The poem starts off with, "Something there is that doesn't love a wall," which I know is significant because he adds the same line again further down in the poem...but exactly what it means, I'm not entirely sure. I think the speaker of this poem doesn't necessarily like having this wall because he says in line 33, "Before I built a wall I'd ask to know/ What I was walling in or walling out,/ And whom I was like to give offense." The speaker is curious about what is out there but the neighbor just says, "Good fences make good neighbors." This is where I begin to question, why are people so guarded? Is everything in society so private that it keeps us from experiencing everything life has to offer?? These neighbors go out in the spring to make repair to the gaps that have occurred in the wall, but what would happen if they left them there? Adventure. New experiences. Change. Which brings up a good point how change is stressful. People like what' they're used to...which is why any transition (like my recent transition to college) is difficult. People keep to what they're used to, but maybe there's something better on the other side. We just need to be willing to break down that wall.

The Beginnings of Analyzing Poetry...

So as I begin my venture into analyzing these two pieces of poetry, I must remind you to bare with me as I have not done this in about six months and never have considered myself an expert as it. However, these two poems have given me reason to think deeper beyond just the plain words. "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound gave me a little bit more difficulty than Raymond Carver's "Photograph of my Father in His Twenty-Second Year," mostly because it was only a couplet and sometimes it is difficult to find deep meaning in fourteen words and one sentence...but here is my attempt.

I'll begin with Pound's "In a Station of the Metro." The title leads me to believe this is obviously in an urban area since the setting is a station of the metro. "The apparition (which yes I did look up that it's a ghostlike figure...so i suppose that's my vocab word of the week) of the faces in the crowd," (line 1) makes me think the faces are all blank and no one truly pays attention to them. The words "wet" and "black" also suggest a mellow and dark tone. I feel like this can relate to the students of Clemson walking around campus to their class on the first day. They're semi blank because everyone is tired and not used to getting up early from their previous long break. The students are anxious and unaware of their surroundings because about all their brains can focus on in those moments is where their class is and, "What in the world is this new semester going to be like?!" Although, I do not believe the first day of class should offer a gloomy tone as this poem does, to some people it is extremely anxiety-provoking and could, in fact, be construed that way.

The second poem, "Photography of My Father in His Twenty-Seond Year" by Raymond Carter I especially loved (and I can't say that about most poetry). I felt like Carter started off in the first stanza doing and excellent job of laying the scene. Even by starting of by simply saying, "October" (line 1) the reader receives a mental image of leaves changing, a time for new beginnings, the old gone and the new to come. Carter, by implementing diction such as, "embarassed," "sheepish," bold," and "hearty," he shows us what type of character this man was. One of my favorite lines, (line 10), "All his life my father wanted to be bold," shows how this man was always striving to be noble and upstanding, but certainly had his flaws as well. Right in line 11 is where the turn begins, "But the eyes give him away..." He's a sweet man, who apparently can't hold his liquor, as his child can relate to him, and loves to fish. I feel like the photograph taken that his child is looking at and reminiscing upon was a good day for this man. He is having a good ol' time drinking a beer and catching fish. I truly like this poem because it made me chuckle at the end because I too would have no idea where a good place is to fish. I relate to this because I too hold my own father on a high pedestal. Although, just like the father in the poem, my dad is not perfect, but he is a wonderful dad and I love him dearly...which is exactly how the speaker feels in this poem. I suppose I could be missing something here, but I think this is a feel-good poem meant to make the readers smile, and it accomplished that task.

Letter of Introduction...And So We Begin

Throughout my entire scholastic career, reading and writing (mostly reading) have been my true loves. My entire life I have enjoyed listening to stories and engaging in the stories myself. I try most every night to dive into literature for a short time before I go to sleep, currently attacking the famous classic Gone With The Wind. However, I did not always enjoy the classics. One of my first encounters with a classic piece of writing I truly enjoyed was Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. I immediately fell in love with her writing style after simply glancing at her first line, "It is the truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." This simple sentence just caught me, made me chuckle, and forever love Austen's witty writing style. I felt like Jane Austen was almost a sassy author, to which I can most definitely relate.

Another story that I enjoyed even before this was F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Although, I do think a lot of the reason I enjoyed this book was my wonderful English II teacher in high school, Mrs. Linda Kirkland. She was an inspiring teacher despite the fact that she was extremely strict, but she encouraged her students to do the best they possibly could and stretched her little fifteen-year-old students to think analytically. Through this story I learned to understand the importance of figurative language, themes, simply just deeper meaning in the great works of literature. Also right around this time I was encouraged to write poetry (and by encouraged I mean forced) for some of my English classes. I actually was published in a local literary magazine in Greenville, South Carolina and in my high school's collection of poetry, but I would never say that my calling in life was that of a poet.

My most expansive and deep learning years for writing were in my AP Literature class and English 103 this past semester. Although I feel I have always been a decent writer, I struggled through the beginning of AP English learning how to write analytical essays on a certain piece of literature in a short amount of time. Through this course, however, I developed skills to implement quotes, quickly come up with a theme or figurative language, and write a decent essay in only forty minutes. My learning of writing expanded into first semester freshman year of college with Mr. Collamati as my English 103 professor. In his class my writing style matured and I learned many different mechanics for writing a well developed and comprehensive essays.

Now, at the beginning of the semester, I am excited to be combining these two subjects into one. Being able to discuss literature in class again as well as writing about it most days online. We shall see how it goes, but I'm ready for the adventure.