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Aubrey Arrowood

Henrik Ibsen Literary Analysis - 3 views

Aubrey Arrowood Mrs. Sejkora AP Literature-0 20 February 2011 Henrik Ibsen Views on Societal Issues throughout His Plays The Norwegian play writer, Henrik Ibsen, illustrated societal flaws as the ...

started by Aubrey Arrowood on 23 Feb 11 no follow-up yet
Taylor Collins

Walkley on "Man and Superman" by Shaw - 0 views

  • Walkley was an English drama critic for the London Star, the Speaker, and the Times from 1888 through 1902, and a major contributor to the Times Literary Supplement after it was founded in 1902. He has been noted for his disciplined, urbane literary tastes; in fact, his criticism is generally considered to have primarily a literary, and not a theatrical, basis. In the following excerpt from a review of Man and Superman—the play that Shaw dedicated to Walkley and claimed was inspired by his suggestion —Walkley regrets that while the play serves as an effective vehicle for “the Shavian philosophy and the Shavian talent,” it is imperfect as a theatrical work.
    • Taylor Collins
       
      Shaw wrote a letter to Walkley, describing his take on a suggestion Walkley made for Shaw to write a 'Don Juan'. Shaw ultimately flips the whole concept of a 'Cassinova' on its head with a modern, feminist twist, but still credits Walkley as providing him with the challenge. In the letter Shaw expresses his 'lukewarm admiration' of Shakespeare for the strength of his female characters in a maternalistic world. In this regard Shaw finds a fresh opinion of Shakespeare as a playwrite, and a connection to the women in his own plays. Though Shaw sees Shakespeare as having put his own 'tissue' around the plots and ideas of earlier, successful works (which, we can all admit, was true-) it seems that he could still have a respect for the unique and insightfulness played out in the roles of his female characters.
  • For Mr. Shaw and Shakespeare have at least one conspicuous bond of fraternal relationship; they both use the same stage technique.
  • liaison des scènes
    • Taylor Collins
       
      Roughly, the idea that the stage should never be empty during an act or a scene.
  • ...18 more annotations...
  • Thus for the sake of something which may be very fine, but certainly is not drama, both dramatists cheerfully let the quintessential drama go hang.
  • We want a play that shall be a vehicle for the Shavian philosophy and the Shavian talent and, at the same time, a perfect play. Shall we ever get it? Probably not, in this imperfect world. We certainly do not get it in Man and Superman.
  • he is perpetually energizing outside the bounds of drama,
    • Taylor Collins
       
      Since when does drama have bounds? Drama is not a formula, it is an art. Walkley says that there is a distinct form of art that he, and every other theater goer looks for in a play. Why, since Shaw's plays are entertaining, does it matter if this 'perfect' construction is not apparent? Is not a play perfect (as possible) if it is both entertaining and insightful? Literature is MEANT to convey ideas. No one creates works work taking note of unless he (or she) has something he (or she) wants to convey.
  • raison d'être
    • Taylor Collins
       
      'reason for existence'
  • nexus
    • Taylor Collins
       
      "1. a means of connection; tie; link. 2. a connected series or group. 3. the core or center, as of a matter or situation." -- Dictionary.com
  • the action-plot is well-nigh meaningless without the key of the idea-plot; that regarded as an independent entity it is often trivial and sometimes null; and that it is because of this parasitic nature of the action-plot, because of its weakness, its haphazardness, its unnaturalness, considered as a “thing in itself, ” that we find the play as a play unsatisfying.
  • We use the term action, of course, in its widest sense, so as to cover not merely the external incident but the psychologic and, more particularly, the emotional movement and “counterpoint” of the play.
  • The idea-plot we are not called upon to criticize. In the playhouse a dramatist's ideas are postulates not to be called in question. Theories of Schopenhauer about woman and the sex-instinct or of Nietzsche about a revised system of conduct are most assuredly open to discussion, but not by the dramatic critic. His business is, first and foremost, with the action-plot.
  • à propos de bottes
    • Taylor Collins
       
      'For no apparent reason'
  • dans cette galère
    • Taylor Collins
       
      'In this mess'
  • For Miss Ann is the new Don Juan, the huntress of men—no, of one man (that is to say, no Don Juan at all, but for the moment let that pass)
    • Taylor Collins
       
      In the previously mentioned letter from Shaw to Walkley, Shaw begins by telling him that he has taken up his challenge- to write a 'Don Juan story'. But, in Shaw's terms, the Don Juan is the one being pursued, rather than the pursuer. Walkley knows very well what Don Juan is doing 'in this mess'.
  • Tanner lectures poor mild milksopish Octavius about the devastating egoism of the “artist man”—how the “artist man” is (apparently) the masculine of the “mother woman,” how they are twin creators, she of children, he of mind, and how they live only for that act of creation, so that there is the devil to pay (examples from literary history) when they happen to become man and wife.
    • Taylor Collins
       
      These ideas are also included in the letter, noted by Shaw as being his "character's, and for a time, also [his] own".
  • The properly dramatic development would have thrown all the onus upon Ann—we should have seen Ann energizing as the “mother woman,” and nothing else—and would have kept Tanner's mouth shut.
  • If Mr. Shaw's play were a real play we should have no need to explain the action-plot by laborious reference to the idea-plot. The one would be the natural garment of the other; or rather the one would be the flesh of which the other was the bones.
  • Ann would exhibit Mr. Shaw 's thesis “on her own,” instead of by the help of Mr. Jack Tanner's lecture wand and gift of the gab.
  • the action-plot, being as we have said a mere parasite of the other, is bound very rapidly to give out.
  • We must not forget two subordinate characters —Ann's mother, middle-aged, querulous, helpless in her daughter 's hands, and the cockney chauffeur, the fine fleur of Board school education, Henry Straker. These two small parts, from the point of view of genuine and fresh observation, are among the best things in the play. In them Mr. Shaw has been content to reproduce, instead of deducing.
  • Mr. Shaw, as we have tried to show, has conceived Ann not as a character, but as a pure idea, a walking theory;
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    I'm having some issues with the website, but I do have the analysis saved if you end up needing a hard copy :)
stephiesal853

Literary Crticism # 4 (Continued) - 2 views

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    Argument: A biography on Hemingway and critical essay stating that Ernest Hemingway's works and novels portray information almost identical to his real life. Explains how both The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms are both books in which Hemingway's personal life has become involved. Argues that the events that happen in his books correspond with Hemingway's private life. Evidence: "The Sun Also Rises, a novel based on his years in Paris and Spain after the war…" (Nagel). "He became confused, suspicious, and aggressively suicidal; he agonized that he could not write….and committed suicide" (Nagel). "In each single paragraph Hemingway presented the details and events that communicated what it was like to be part of a civilian retreat in war, to shoot German soldiers coming over a wall, or to observe the execution of political prisoners by a firing squad" (Nagel). "The novel is narrated…by Jake Barnes, an American correspondent in Paris who was severely wounded in the war and has been left impotent" (Nagel). "The serious underside of this life is revealed largely through Jake's psychological turmoil, a vestige of the trauma of the war, that at times nearly incapacitates him….he is emotionally unstable…(Nagel). "…touching on all the serious themes:…expatriation…,love, and the aftermath of the war"(Nagel). "for nearly all of Jake's friends in Paris are seeking desperately for some unattainable happiness or fulfillment" (Nagel). "The novel ends where it began….none of the major problems have been resolved, none of the characters have achieved any sort of lasting fulfillment" (Nagel). Thoughts: James Nagel provides the reader with a biography and background information on Ernest Hemingway, including a summary and analysis on Hemingway's novels so that the reader can understand the correlation between Hemingway and his books. I believe that Nagel gives ample information on Hemingway so that the reader can make the
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    Literary Critique # 4 Answer these questions, or simplify: 1. What is the argument? 2. What is the evidence? 3. What are your thoughts on this? 4. What are some quotes you would want to use as support or to argue against in your paper? 1.This is a source written by James Nagel provides a biography of Ernest Hemingway and a critical essay of many of his novels including A Farewell to Arms. Nagel offers background information on Hemingway and later talks about A Farewell to Arms to make connections between Hemingway's life and the novel. The essay implies that Hemingway portrays much of his life through the protagonists in his novel. 2.-"Pauline Hemingway, small of stature, gave birth to a son, Patrick, by a traumatic cesarean section" (Nagel 4). -The incident of Patrick's birth Hemingway recreated, with a tragic conclusion, in A Farewell to Arms" (Nagel 4). -"[A Farewell to Arms] treated the experiences of Frederic Henry on the Italian front in the First World War and his eventual desertion to Switzerland with Catherine Barkley, only to have Catherine die in childbirth" (Nagel 4). -"A lifetime of dangerous physical adventure had taken its toll in numerous injuries…" (Nagel 4). -"He became confused, suspicious, and aggressively suicidal…" (Nagel 4). -"In each single paragraph Hemingway presented the details and events that communicated what it was like to be part of a civilian retreat in war, to shoot German soldiers coming over a wall, or to observe the execution of political prisoners by a firing squad" (Nagel 4). 3.This article verifies that Hemingway composed many novels based off his real life experiences. When he writes about the war, getting wounded, falling in love with a nurse, and experiencing a traumatic ending with his loved one in A Farewell to Arms, he is practically retelling his story with different characters. He makes few minor detail switches and main story doesn't change. The reader has th
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    3...opportunity to hear Ernest Hemingway's deep feelings and true thoughts coming through in his A Farwell to Arms. Hemingway unmistakably portrays himself in the novel as the protagonist, Frederic Henry, and depicts his loved one as Catherine Barkley. In real life, his loved one was Pauline Pffeifer-Hemingway. It is apparent that Pauline portrays Catherine Barkley, as both the real person and fictional character experienced similar, if not same events such as the Cesarean section that both went through in childbirth. 4.-"My legs in the dirty bandages, stuck straight out in the bed. I was careful not to move them. I was thirsty and I reached for the bell and pushed the button. I heard the door open and looked and it was a nurse. She looked young and pretty" (Hemingway, "A Farewell to Arms" 84). -"Yes, even in the ambulance business….ambulance drivers were killed sometimes" (Hemingway, "A Farewell to Arms" 37). -"I went out the door and suddenly I felt lonely and empty. I had treated seeing Catherine very lightly, I had gotten somewhat drunk and had nearly forgotten to come but when I could not see her there I was feeling lonely and hollow" (Hemingway, "A Farewell to Arms" 41). Works Cited Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print. Nagel, James. "Ernest Hemingway." American Novelists, 1910-1945. Ed. James J. Martine. Detroit: Gale Research, 1981. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 9. Literature Resource Center. Web. 16 Jan. 2011. .
Ashley Cox

My Name Was Salmon, Like the Fish': Understanding Death, Grief, and Redemption in Alice... - 0 views

  • As with so many other works of contemporary fiction and film, Alice Sebold's bestselling novel The Lovely Bones (2002) fulfills our fundamental and indelibly human desires for establishing vital interconnections with the lost friends and loved ones who adorn our personal pasts.
  • Time and time again, the most cherished works of our literary and popular culture reflect this abiding need to seek out our lost siblings, parents, and grandparents.
  • we long for the opportunity to wade back into the recesses of time in order to enjoy impossible reunions with the people who left their imprints upon our very souls
  • ...29 more annotations...
  • By narrating the events surrounding the Salmon family's tragic dislocation and heart-wrenching reunion, The Lovely Bones deftly taps into our yearnings to eclipse the laws of space and time. Even more powerfully, the novel depicts the many ways in which interpersonal tragedy possesses the capacity for tearing survivors' lives apart at the very moment in which they need familial companionship the most. The parlance of family systems therapy--with its accent upon the interpersonal dynamics that shape literary works as well as our own senses of self--provides us with a useful lens for understanding the Salmon family's trials and tribulations in The Lovely Bones.
  • as an inherently open system, the family must at once provide support for its individual members' integration into a solid family unit, as well as their differentiation, or emotional and psychological separation, into relatively autonomous selves. This mutual developmental process possesses the capacity for producing functional and dysfunctional families. In functional families, individual members evolve into fully realized selves that allow them to act, think, and feel for themselves. In dysfunctional families, however, family members develop pseudo-selves--often fostered by fear and anxiety within the system--and thus, such individuals frequently remain unable to maintain any real equilibrium between their inner feelings and their outward behavior
  • In the novel, Susie can only watch in horror as her family devolves from a functional system into a dysfunctional shadow of its former self. Family therapists describe the fashion in which the Salmons maintain their systemic dysfunctionality as a psychological state of homeostasis, which Barnard and Corrales define as a family's tendency
  • "In order to perceive change in one's life--to experience one's life as progressing--and in order to perceive oneself changing one's life, a person requires mechanisms that assist her to plot the events of her life within the context of coherent sequences across time--through the past, present, and future" (35). These mechanisms--works of narrative therapy--offer cogent methodologies that assist clients (or readers) in simultaneously identifying with and separating from the dilemmas that plague their lived experiences.
  • At the beginning of the novel, the Salmons' interpersonal relationship exists as a functional family system. Jack and Abigail Salmon enjoy a busy, albeit satisfying family life in eastern Pennsylvania, where they raise their three children--fourteen-year-old Susie, her younger sister Lindsey, and their four-year-old brother Buckley. After Susie's rape, murder, and dismemberment in December 1973, the family lapses into a dysfunctional spiral as they attempt to cope with a stultifying sense of grief. The effect of Susie's untimely death is rendered even more painful by the disappearance of her body save for a stray elbow, as well as by Jack's suspicions that a reclusive neighbor, George Harvey, is responsible for her demise.
  • "The reflective awareness of one's personal narrative provides the realization that past events are not meaningful in themselves but are given significance by the configuration of one's narrative," Polkinghorne observes. "This realization can release people from the control of past interpretations they have attached to events and open up the possibility of renewal and freedom for change" (182-83).
  • Told entirely from Susie's perspective, the novel details the post-traumatic experiences of her family as they attempt to make their various ways among the living. Existing in a form of atemporal limbo that she describes as a kind of heaven, Susie observes her family and friends as they try to understand her loss in terms of their own survivorship. In addition to her significant role as witness, Susie must also contend with her own anxieties about her untimely separation from her family unit, as well as her severance from the young life that she was only just beginning to comprehend.
  • "There is no question," they write, "that families devote considerable energy to maintain a certain amount of order and stability. Security," they add, "seems to be tied with a certain amount of stability and predictability"
  • In The Lovely Bones, Susie composes her narrative in an explicit attempt to make sense of her family's dysfunctionality and to explode the homeostasis of her former family system, thus allowing them to effect their own "new levels of functioning." Although feelings of morphogenesis for Susie will always be tempered by the finality of her death, she intuitively realizes that the sublimation of her family's homeostasis will allow both herself and her family to continue their progress toward selfhood--although obviously in decidedly different locales and through highly disparate states of being.
  • The particular manner in which Susie sorts through the tragic events of her family's post-traumatic experiences can be usefully understood by interpreting her act of narrative therapy in terms of the five "attitudes" toward death that Kübler-Ross postulates in On Death and Dying. These attitudes--which themselves mirror the five stages of dying that terminally ill patients undergo--include denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. "The one thing that usually persists through all these stages is hope," Kübler-Ross writes. "It is the feeling that all this must have some meaning, will pay off eventually if they can only endure it for a little while longer" (139).
  • Abigail isolates herself by delving into the workaday world of the suburban housewife. Her obsession with the preparation of the family's meals and her daily chores allows the time to pass more quickly, thus limiting her ability to reflect upon her daughter's ordeal.
  • In The Lovely Bones, the first portion of Susie's narrative highlights the narrator and her family's struggle with denial and isolation as they simultaneously come to grips with and attempt to disavow the unsettling reality of her murder.4 Their feelings of denial and isolation function as "coping mechanisms," according to Kübler-Ross, as well as the result of the "inability of [clients] to look at their situations realistically" (37, 41). Unable to make sense of Susie's sudden disappearance from their lives, the Salmons initially cleave to each other, hoping against hope that somehow she will return to their midst. After the police report to the family that Susie must be dead, given that so much blood had been found at the scene of the crime, they begin the difficult work of having to confront her fate, as well as their own. Like her family, Susie finds herself unable to accept her passing: "I hadn't yet let myself miss my mother and father, my sister and brother," she reports. "That way of missing would mean that I had accepted that I would never be with them again; it might sound silly but I didn't believe it, would not believe it" (27).
  • While her father purposefully refuses to allow himself to cry for her loss--to do so, he reasons, would make Susie's death seem all the more real--Jack copes by attempting to establish normalcy in the Salmon household within only a few scant days of her disappearance.
  • Meanwhile, Lindsey and Buckley act as their father's accomplices in his efforts to trap Susie's killer. In one particularly harrowing instance, Lindsey slips into Mr. Harvey's house in order to search for evidence. She narrowly escapes from his clutches, ultimately becoming the object of Mr. Harvey's sociopathic fantasies herself. In each instance, the family members' behaviors serve to exacerbate their ability to come to terms with their grief, rather than to sate their enduring despair.
  • In this fashion, Jack, Abigail, and Lindsey each develop pseudo-selves in order to quell their devastating senses of anxiety and pain. As the youngest member of the family, little Buckley can hardly begin to comprehend his sister's fate. He only begins to understand the extent of her absence from his life during a game of Monopoly, when he realizes that there is no one to play with the shoe, Susie's favorite game piece. Unable to cope with the significance of the moment, Buckley hides the shoe in his bedroom. As with the rest of his family, Buckley can only consider the depth of her absence in isolation from the rest of the unit. To do anymore, it seems, would force them to contend with the awful reality of a world in which Susie simply no longer exists.
  • In the second stage of their confrontation with Susie's death and the slow, almost imperceptible collapse of their family system, the Salmons experience the anger about which Kübler-Ross remarks in On Death and Dying. "When the first stage of denial cannot be maintained any longer," she writes, "it is replaced by feelings of anger, rage, envy, and resentment." According to Kübler-Ross, people in such situations often find it difficult to control their anger or to differentiate logically between the various objects of their animus. "The reason for this," Kübler-Ross observes, "is the fact that this anger is displaced in all directions and projected onto the environment at times almost random" (50).5 In The Lovely Bones, the family's anger takes many
  • forms. Susie's own anger reaches a fever-pitch when she learns the maddening extent of her killer's depravity. As she recognizes that her own death was just the latest in a series of unsolved homicides, Susie seethes as she realizes that Mr. Harvey's house exists as a "town of floating graves, cold and whipped by the wind, where the victims of murder went in the minds of the living. I could see his other victims as they occupied his house--those trace memories left behind before they fled this Earth" (182).
  • While Susie's anger rages in heaven, her father's inability to come to terms with her death pushes the Salmon household to the brink of psychological disaster. His suspicions about his daughter's killer begin to emerge after he visits Mr. Harvey's home and assists his reclusive neighbor in the construction of a backyard bridal tent. Mr. Harvey's bizarre behavior--including his odd remark that "the neighbors saw us. We're friends now"--culminates in Jack's nearly round-the-clock surveillance of the murderer's behavior. Egged on by another neighbor's advice that he should find a covert way of avenging his daughter's homicide, Jack begins casing the cornfield where his daughter died. After he mistakenly accosts a young couple in the field, an altercation ensues that nearly results in Jack's own death. "
  • I wanted my father's vigil," Susie reports, "but also I wanted him to go away and leave me be" (140).
  • Having sublimated her grief for so long and with her husband's increasingly risky behavior testing the boundaries of her patience, Abigail indulges in an extramarital affair--with the local homicide detective, no less--in order to stave off her guarded emotions.
  • Lindsey and Buckley respond to their mother's departure by rallying around their father, whose physical deterioration in the wake of his daughter's murder has rendered him into a shadow of his former, pre-trauma self. Yet by opting to become their father's protector and ally, Lindsey and Buckley also succeed in erecting complicated emotional walls between themselves and their estranged mother.
  • In the third stage of their post-traumatic experiences, the Salmons engage in the act of "bargaining," the grieving phenomenon that Kübler-Ross describes as the product of a given client's irrational fears about the future and his or her "attempt to postpone," if only temporarily, the inevitable processes of life and death
  • In the Salmons' case, the third stage involves very explicit efforts to delay their acceptance of the finality of Susie's death. In so doing, they postpone their capacity for achieving morphogenesis and become typecast in their familial roles.6 Such self-imposed constraints inevitably lead to identity diffusion.
  • Abigail, the overwhelming anxiety over her daughter's loss and the psychological disintegration of her surviving family prompt her to seek refuge by fleeing the Salmon household. When the first anniversary of Susie's death arrives, Abigail can simply no longer fathom the mind-numbing flow of the grieving process:
  • After spending the winter in her late father's cabin in New Hampshire, Abigail drives across the country to California, where she finds a job as a day laborer in a winery. As Denis Jonnes notes,
  • Abigail seeks to empower--or, perhaps more accurately, re-empower--herself by effecting her escape from the larger Salmon family system.7 Yet mere distance can hardly provide her with the emotional sustenance that she so desperately desires:
  • Lindsey attempts to lose herself in the business of living. Opting to go to school the first Monday after Susie's death, Lindsey begins steeling herself against the world. In class, Susie observes, "my sister did not look at Mrs. Dewitt when she speaking. She was perfecting the art of talking to someone while looking through them. That was my first clue that something would have to give" (30).
  • Buckley's youth is understandably complexified by his psychological over-identification with his father, and their intensely close relationship results in Abigail's triangulation after her return from the west coast.
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    This article takes the coping mechanisms in the lovely bones and is connecting it to real life and gives more insight to why the acted the way they did and also how their different ways of coping lead to a divided family. 
Melanie Reyes

Literary Analysis for Henry James - 1 views

Henry James is the author to a wide variety of short novels. He is more known for writing on his own views for European and Americans' society, culture, and class status (Liukkonen). But he spices...

started by Melanie Reyes on 22 Feb 11 no follow-up yet
stephiesal853

Literary Analysis # 2 ("A Farewell to Arms") - 1 views

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    Argument: Lists and explains in detail the characters that play a role in Ernest Hemingway's novel, A Farewell to Arms. Justifies that the protagonist of the novel is Lieutenant Frederic Henry, and that the woman he loves is named Catherine Barkley. Argues that the protagonist, Frederic Henry, feels pity and sorrow at the end of the novel (similar to the sorrow that Hemingway feels in his life). Evidence: "Henry is a protagonist who is sensitive to the horrors and beauties of life and war" ("A Farewell to Arms"). "Henry feels sorrow and pity…" ("A Farewell to Arms"). "When she falls in love with Henry, she gives herself freely to him" ("A Farewell to Arms"). Thoughts: The two main characters, Frederic Henry and Catherine Barkley in A Farewell to Arms are reflections of Ernest Hemingway in real life and of the love affair he once had with an Italian nurse, Agnus Von Kurowsky. Both characters in the novel are mirror images of what once existed in Hemingway's life. He nearly tells his life story over again A Farewell to Arms. However, he uses other characters to present his story. For example, he plays the protagonist character (Frederic Henry), and his one-time lover, Agnus, plays Catherine Barkley. Because of this, Hemingway has the opportunity to recount his life, let his feelings out, and put a little twist on the story if he pleases. However, the story of his life is tremendously similar to his books. He changes little of his real life and puts it into novels, and merely changes the characters' names. Quotes: "American who has volunteered to serve with an Italian ambulance unit during World War I. Like his Italian companions, he enjoys drinking, trying to treat the war as a joke…" ("A Farewell to Arms"). "…he is wounded, has an operation on his knee, and is sent to recuperate in Milan, where he again meets Miss Barkley, falls in love with her…" ("A Farewell to Arms").
Dacia Di Gerolamo

Romantic Comedy Criticism - 0 views

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    Dacia Di Gerolamo Ms. Jensen AP English 12 26 January 2011 AP Literature Analysis 4 Pygmalion was not a single genre book, but a book with genres intertwined. Not only was it a romance but also a comedy. Not a traditional romance with the fairy tale ending, but a story in which love is used, but not in the sense it is usually portrayed. It was a comedy not in a humorous way but in a way in which Shaw used satire to shed light on social issues. Issues such as division between the classes during the 1800's. The purpose of this article was to evaluate dramatic comedies in the 1800's. It examines the satire used in the early works. The author is able to clearly express his view. He constructively criticizes dramatic comedies of the time. The author uses the traditional ideas of the genre a long with how the authors built their works around the genre. Enough evidence is definitely provided for the reader to get the point of the paper. The author points out that the works are defined by the characters actions. The author is able to make the characters a certain way in order to fit a genre. In Shaw's case the genre was not only a comedy, but a romance as well. The author can easily have bias especially on the romance genre, whether good or bad. And also the sense of humor can affect it. All his bias can affect his view on all pieces of romantic criticisms.
Gisela Ortiz

Carson McCullers: Marxism - 0 views

  • Hunter portrays oppressed classes of the South, such as blacks and women, describes the "fascist" ideology in which they live, and uses Marxist ideas about religion as a central theme.
    • Gisela Ortiz
       
      Carson McCullers uses the same theme in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter as in The Member of the Weddding; oppression in the South, racism, etc.
  • For Karl Marx, literature and art are products of an artist's labor that show oppressed people a picture of where they stand in their society. A work should "describe the real mutual relations, break down conventional illusions about them . . . but not offer any definite solution . . ." (Eagleton 46) . McCullers' novel exposes the ideology of the South in the 1930s as one in which blacks, textile workers, and women are oppressed. It portrays their individual struggles without offering a solution to them.
    • Gisela Ortiz
       
      Like in The Member of the Wedding, McCullers mixes in a variety of racist ideas and the belief of "equality" and uses irony to contradict these themes. She shows how oppressed the blacks are, but she keeps them in the struggle and she shows their hardships throughout her novels.
  • He mentions Jesus as an important historical figure, but then devotes the rest of his time to speaking of Karl Marx, whom he describes in religious terms.
    • Gisela Ortiz
       
      In The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Singer is represented as a Jesus-figure. This is so, because the deaf-mute man is always there to "listen" to everybody's stories, hardships, etc.
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  • Jake calls it "The strangled South. The wasted South. The slavish south" ( Hunter 254).
  • She argues that the book includes social and religious issues together because McCullers offers both white and black Christ figures. Champion writes that the black Christ is persecuted more severely than the white Christ, but the significant point is that they are both crucified: "Spirituality, loneliness and human isolation "crucify" all members of society" (Champion 52).
    • Gisela Ortiz
       
      Christ figures:black and white. States that even though these two "Christ's" are of different racial entities, they are both judged the same in the ending, "crucifixion" (being alone in life, isolation, etc). Not real death, but both live miserable lives.
  • McCullers states that the main theme of the book is "man's revolt against his own inner isolation and his urge to express himself as fully as is possible" (Smith 124).
  • Marxism in Carson McCullers' "Strangled South"
    • Gisela Ortiz
       
      Argument: Call states that in McCullers novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, use Marxist ideas and the theme of racial equality. Not only does she state that Carson uses oppression in blacks, but she never gives them an opportunity to end their struggle. She writes about it. Call also argues that she saw Singer as a Christ figure "with a different context" as in there was a black and a white "Christ". Of course, the black one is prosecuted more than the white one is, but they both live miserable and lonely lives.Evidence: "Hunter portrays oppressed classes of the South, such as blacks and women, describes the "fascist" ideology in which they live, and uses Marxist ideas about religion as a central theme.""...the black Christ is persecuted more severely than the white Christ, but the significant point is that they are both crucified: "Spirituality, loneliness and human isolation "crucify" all members of society."Thoughts: "For Karl Marx, literature and art are products of an artist's labor that show oppressed people a picture of where they stand in their society. A work should "describe the real mutual relations, break down conventional illusions about them . . . but not offer any definite solution . . ." (Eagleton 46) . McCullers' novel exposes the ideology of the South in the 1930s as one in which blacks, textile workers, and women are oppressed. It portrays their individual struggles without offering a solution to them."Call shows many viewpoints that showcase her argument that McCullers uses marxism in her novels. Even though Call uses many examples in portraying her argument, she uses mostly what other critics have said about this book and not much of her own voice. This feels as if it's more of an accumulation of many critiques put into one. Now that I have read this critique, however, I can see the different uses of Marxism in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.
cody villanueva

Literary Analysis #3 - 0 views

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    Cody Villanueva Jensen AP LIT 24 January 2011 Literary Analysis #3 Yann Martel's novel Beatrice and Virgil, in comparison to his highly praised novel Life of Pi, did not merely meet the expectations of critics. According to MICHIKO KAKUTANI, a New York Times writer, this novel that follows the life of a donkey, monkey and a writer's detailed stories re-telling the Holocaust, is said to be "misconceived and offensive as his earlier book." Mimicking animalistic characters and simple text in Martel's previous novel, Beatrice and Virgil, is a simple metaphor using animals to portray Jewish extinction. Kakutani also points out that Martel's novels also includes a play that is closely resembled to that of "Beckett's "Waiting for Godot."" Not only does Kakutani perceive this as awkward, but do not appeal to the novels ending but making it a "disappointing and often perverse novel." But Kakutani gives little to support such reasoning, but clutters his argument with an overall summary that gives the reader a brief understanding of the novel. His overall purpose for such a criticism, or article one may say, is a list of brief downsides compared to Martel's past novel, possible noting that Martel Life of Pi is a single novel of achievement and that Martel is not a writer that continues eloquence throughout his series of novels. Even though it is hard to assume bias within Kakutani's criticism, it can be perceived that this novel brought no interest to Michoko. Therefore Kakutanis simply sits closely to a neutral position when describing his feelings toward the novel Beatrice and Virgil, simple stating small downsides and flaws the novel has compared to Yann Martel's other literary works.
Joyce Zhang

Literature Resource Center - Document - 0 views

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    Argument: Thomas Hardy is a gifted writer who was able to craft a masterful novel, Jude the Obscure. The novel is plagued with only a few drawbacks, including the drab setting and the overcompensated characters that often render the novel unrealistic. Claim: Thomas Hardy is a gifted writer. Thomas Hardy could have chosen a more interesting setting (Dorsetshire) but instead chose a setting with a limited history and scenery (Wessex). Hardy's novel is overall well-done. Evidence: "Jude the Obscure is an irresistible book; it is one of those novels into which we descend and are carried on by a steady impetus to the close, when we return, dazzled, to the light of common day. The two women, in particular, are surely created by a master. Every impulse, every speech, which reveals to us the coarse and animal, but not hateful Arabella, adds to the solidity of her portrait. We may dislike her, we may hold her intrusion into our consciousness a disagreeable one, but of her reality there can be no question: Arabella lives." http://go.galegroup.com.lib.chandleraz.gov/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CH1420014281&v=2.1&u=chandler_main&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w
Janine Vanlandingham

Literary Analysis #4: A Thousand Splendid Suns - 1 views

  • . Socially, Mariam is from the rural lower class; Laila, the urban middle class. Psychologically, Mariam is accustomed to humiliation; Laila, to consideration. Physically, Mariam’s features are “unshapely,” “flat,” “unmemorable,” “coarse,” while Laila is a green-eyed blond beauty.
    • Janine Vanlandingham
       
      The stark contrasts Hosseini makes in these women show that regardless of who someone is, we can all get along.
  • This defining trauma, then, teaches Mariam that to assert oneself, to dare, to take the initiative is to suffer pain, cause hurt to others, and precipitate tragedy. Better to bear and forbear. Hosseini thus prepares the psyche of this character for the almost incredible burden of abuse and suffering that she has to bear in her marriage.
    • Janine Vanlandingham
       
      The whole psyche of Mariam draws a reader in right away and it makes one wonder why Hosseini created a character that has had such a terrible upbringing and it doesn't get any better for her.
  • he felt impelled to tell an Afghan story different from The Kite Runner’s. That book had been about men—fathers and sons, male friendship, male treachery. Hosseini now felt drawn to tell a contemporaneous story about Afghanistan’s women.
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    C. L. Chua analyzes A Thousand Splendid Suns in an attempt to find out if it was as much of a success as The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini's first novel. The different literary devices that Hosseini used are mentioned to perhaps give validity to the various arguments Chua makes. A shortfall of the critique is that perhaps not enough emphasis was actually placed on an argument; a majority of the essay was a very well written summary of the novel with only a light touch at the very beginning and end of the essay on the actual argument. "He [Hosseini] felt impelled to tell an Afghan story different from The Kite Runner's. That book had been about men-fathers and sons, male friendship, male treachery. Hosseini now felt drawn to tell a contemporaneous story about Afghanistan's women." Chua uses a clear and logical argument to assert his opinion that Hosseini really delved into the life of an Afghanistan woman in the current times. The critique remains coherent but I wish it was more focused and consistent in the argument. It would have been overall better if Chua has also given more of their insight of this novel. I'm not sure if the author of this article is male or female but depending on their gender, it could create a bias. Another bias that may exist is that the author of this critique really enjoy Hosseini's first novel The Kite Runner so they may be more inclined to say that his second novel was just as good since they are already a fan. "Hosseini's two women are strategic contrasts physically, socially, and psychologically. Socially, Mariam is from the rural lower class; Laila, the urban middle class. Psychologically, Mariam is accustomed to humiliation; Laila, to consideration. Physically, Mariam's features are "unshapely," "flat," "unmemorable," "coarse," while Laila is a green-eyed blond beauty." The stark differences that Chua notes about Hosseini's protagonists help to understand a main theme of the novel which could
Matthew Pepper

Literary Analysis #4 - 1 views

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    Argument: The argument is The Pearl is a realistic book that does not have happy endings or sugar coats the realistic part, its just a fictional story with true meaning to it. In each book he writes he shows a different interpretation on life and how it really was at the time period. Evidence: "Perhaps such a basically fantastic, sentimental story does not warrant such strong condemnation; but The Pearl has been widely used as an introduction to fiction, and it provides the kind of introduction that is a disservice both to its author--who wrote much better, controlled works--and to fiction itself by failing to suggest the tough-minded complexity of the greatest examples of the art." (French). "The story that Steinbeck reports hearing is a perfect, self-contained parable that can be read in a variety of ways--it provides consolation for the unsuccessful, a pat on the back for those who choose freedom over wealth, and a scourging of the guilt of those who have suffered for choosing to serve Mammon." (French) "To stress the symbolic importance of these events, Steinbeck heavy-handedly relates each to one of three songs--of the Family, the Enemy, and the Pearl (capitals Steinbeck's)--that Kino keeps hearing in his head." (French) Thoughts: Like most of Steinbeck's books he shows the true meaning of what life was. I think the best authors are the ones who speak there minds and share there opinions in there books. It beings out the character of them. I believe that French (the author of the article) really described and illustrated the way the book effected people and how john Steinbeck is a realist. Steinbeck explains that each and every problem we face every day comes with its pros and cons. Kino had to make a decision with is daily life. I believe wrong he wasn't able to fulfill his dream bring his family on the right track but he made a run at it and most people at that time it was hard to live the dream you always wanted and Steinbeck made a good poi
Tara Toliver

Article Analysis #1 - 0 views

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    The Survival of the Fittest Throughout The Handmaid's Tale, a major ideal is a strong feminist stance. The author is trying to convince other critics that Offred, a character in the novel, portrays a strong woman fighting for survival against politics. While others believe that Offred is "no hero," "a wimp," this author is convinced that she continuously "proves her consistent efforts not only to survive, but also to maintain her individuality." With the evidence the author has given to support his ideas about this ideal to survive, the evidence he provides proves to be logical. When the author states, "an examination of her more subtle rebellion against the oppressive totalitarian regime," he is persuasively showing that Offred portrays the strong nature of the human spirit. The focus the author commits on the argument is obvious. The author repeatedly compares Offred to other strong characters in other Margaret Atwood novels and in The Handmaid's Tale itself. This proves the author's consistency with the evidence he provides to prove his purpose. These also help show the pros of his persuasive side of the argument about how strong a feminine hero can be through human spirit. The evidence this author provides significantly supports his perspective. He starts out by attacking other arguments that have been stated, using it as a tactic to show that his perspective is more "correct." There is plenty of evidence provided in this article to help support his argument. With statements like "the Republic of Gilead is a typical totalitarian society in that it promotes terror tactics while enforcing its rigid dogmas," the author is setting up for his next piece of evidence. He uses the typical case where he sets you up for the next argument, uses evidence from text, and then attacks the opposite side of the argument, but all with a twist. Most authors would have used quotes from the novel itself or a source to attack the opposite s
cody villanueva

Lit Analysis #2 - 0 views

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    Cody Villanueva Jensen AP LIT 20 January 2011 Literary Analysis #2 The novel not only portrays a sense of classic literature, but for Bill Robinson Life of Pi is presumably an award winner. Based on what Robinson says is "straightforward and innocent in a way that is entertaining and highly engaging," he praises this novel for its mere simplicity and uniqueness that not only is carried through Martel's text but his overall idea and organization of the novel. As perceived to be a novel of such grace and simplicity, it seems as if Robinson connects more intimately to this novel due to the fact of its heavy affiliation with religion. Within his review not only does he state Martel's thoughts , in this case being "This is a novel of such rare and wondrous storytelling that it may, as one character claims, make you believe in God." but praises it by saying "Could a reader ask for anything more?" Due to Robinson's religious arousal this is a possible bias toward readers of religious ambiguity or unaffiliated preference. Even though Robinson's praise Martel for such a genius novel, he rarely comments on any of the downsides the novel contains. It takes him to the end where he finally comments on a small portion of the novels ending and how it "drags a bit at the end," but is simply reinstating what other reviews may say. The author in conclusion contains an overall affectionate appeal to this novel with rare and minimal critiques, possibly due to a assumed bias. Robinson not only praise's this novel in words but it seems as he pushes this novels to review for an accredited award based on his overall high ratings for the novel.
Angie Pena

Article Analysis #3: Enderby - 0 views

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    Argument: John Stinson suggests that through allusion Anthony Burgess displays different facets of himself throughout his novels. Stinson focuses on three of Burgess' works centering on how his identification with other artists allows him to confront his own contradictions as an artist. Stinson also argues that Burgess' use of an alter-ego gives him an outlet of manageability in his own life. Evidence:"...alike in their evident feeling that the novel of a consistent tone, moving through a recognized and restricted cycle of emotional keys was outdated . . . their attempt has been to combine the violent and the absurd, the grotesque and the romantic, the farcical and the horrific within a single novel" (Amis).  "What hurts me . . . is the allegation . . . that there is a gratuitous indulgence in violence which turns an intended homiletic work into a pornographic one" (Burgess). "The artist's desire to reconcile the apparent opposites is, somewhat paradoxically, often what provides the motive force for his art, but it also makes his personal life very difficult" (Stinson). Thoughts: Stinson offers a unique view on Burgess' writing style and use of allusion. By focusing on Burgess' lesser known works (known being A Clockwork Orange) he gives a greater sense of the writer's analogy between his own life and his artist persona. Stinson achieves his assertions in a clear and logical manner, first denoting Burgess' relationship with the artist, then by providing examples from three of Burgess' works.
Joyce Zhang

Literature Resource Center - Document - 0 views

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    Argument: In publishing a novel as dark and brutal as Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte broke through the restraints that constricted female authors at the time. Claim: The book was written during the Romantic era. Emily Bronte was heavily influenced by Romanticism, as evident in her novel. Wuthering Heights is clearly a novel written by a woman. Before Romanticism, Wuthering Heights would have been a daring novel to write. Evidence: "'While the book is offensive, even repulsive, it has the repulsiveness of power. Charlotte Brontë's books are unmistakably those of a woman--a woman fretting at and scorning the limitations of her sex and her day, yet in a measure yielding to them. But Emily . . . overleaps the barriers" and ignores her own and her readers' sensibilities. Her purpose was to write the truth about her characters, and as a result she "handles brutality and coarseness as another woman would handle a painted fan.'" "In Wuthering Heights 'there is evident no quiver of feminine nerves in the mind or hand.'"
Sebastian Shores

Life After Irony - Girlfriend in a Coma - 1 views

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    Argument: Coupland uses noteworthy pop-culture to name and create his novel Girlfriend in a Coma. The Smiths' a popular band of the '80s was the reason behind the books title while Karen Ann Quinlan was the true reason the teenage girl in the book who slipped into a coma was also ironically named Karen. Starting with the basics Coupland constructed Girlfriend in a Coma to mean more than what was put on the surface. The turning point of Coupland's career as a serious author blossomed after he successfully published Girlfriend in a Coma, a dark and daring book that involves post-apocalyptic events. Difficult overbearing situations was what fascinated Coupland and was one of the main influential reasons Coupland wrote the novel Girlfriend in a Coma; the thrill of watching teenagers and later on adults survive in a world where their only worry was to find their true purpose on Earth. Evidence: "On the surface, the book seems vintage Coupland, taking a cue from pop-culture icons like Karen Ann Quinlan, the New Jersey teenager who spent 10 years in a coma before dying in 1985, and The Smiths, the quintessential band of '80s disaffection from whose song the book takes its title." ". And yet, Girlfriend in a Coma is Coupland's most audacious novel to date, and it marks something of a watershed in his career." "Sitting in a posh Toronto hotel lounge sipping coffee, Coupland struggles to find words to describe the genesis of Girlfriend in a Coma. "It's so weird to talk about this out loud," he says. But eventually, between frequent changes of subject, he remembers that it began with a quote from novelist Thomas Pynchon. "He said the way young people deal with the overwhelming-ness of existence--I'm paraphrasing--is through time travel or sleep," Coupland says. "So what I wanted to do was present sleep and time travel, and the coma as the embodiment of both." "Then there was his fascination with Karen Ann Quinlan. "I just remember in the '70s, every
Trey Sherwood

Tim O'Brien: Going After Cacciato - 0 views

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    Argument- Tim O'brien uses close detail as well as explanatory descriptions to express the psychological tension that the war places upon a soldier. Evidence: Throughout the article the author focuses on the psycholgical views of both characters. "The novels are intimatly personal, psycholical and explanatory." The article than continues to prove that TIm O'Brien uses different perspectives of the war through his various characters, primarily Cacciato and Paul Berlin. This is useful because it gives the reader a broader view on the war, and a soldiers reactions and responses to the war. Thoughts: I believe that Tim Obrien purposefully used the technique of juxtaposition to express the optimisitc and protagonist view of the vietnam war through a soldiers eyes. O'Brien himslef was a soldier, which makes the reader ask, "Is TIm Obrien a protagonist, or a optimist?" I believe he is more so categorized as a protagonist. I came to this conclusion because in both books, "Going After Cacciato, and "The THings They Carried" the protagonist view is expressed more clearly. Psychological trauma is evident amonst the American soldiers in Vietnam. O'Brien uses both repition, close attention to detail and juxtaposition to prove this as fact.
Angie Pena

Article Analysis #4 - 1 views

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    Argument: Rubin Rabinovitz writes that Anthony Burgess reuses a motif of libertarian vs. authoritarian in many of his novels. Often times this conflict of the characters is a projection of Burgess' views on morals and ethics as well as a display of Burgess' internal struggle. Rabinovitz refers to his novels A Clockwork Orange and the Tremor of Intent, pegging characters to libertarian and authoritarian personas. Through these comparisons he observes Burgess' own inconsistencies in his writing. Evidence: "The apparent inconsistencies in Burgess's dualistic moral views are sometimes seen as the result of his utilization of the Eastern yin-yang principles" (Rabinovitz). "What the religious novelist often seems to be saying is that evil is a kind of good, since it is an aspect of Ultimate Reality; though what he is really saying is that evil is more interesting to write about than good" (Burgess). "Very often, Burgess's use of Manichean dualism does work to reconcile differences in Eastern and Western thought; but problems arise when a choice must be made between relativism and absolutism...Absolutism seems to demand absolute fidelity, and in this sense Burgess's moral point of view appears ambiguous or inconsistent" (Rabinovitz). Thoughts: Rabinovitz focuses on conflicting ideologies that are not often recognized when reading A Clockwork Orange. He also offers a background on Anthony Burgess' location and how that contributes to his characters. Rabinovitz recognizes many of Burgess' characters as projections of Burgess himself and proposes how the clash of eastern and western philosophy influenced the author.
Taylor Collins

Man and Superman by Shaw (Analysis #3) - 0 views

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    Argument: Novick determines in his review of a reproduction of "Man and Superman" that not only were the actors inadequate for their roles, but the rules inadequate for the actors. Though the play is considered 'a Comedy and a Philosophy', the philosophy of it overtook the human element of drama. According to Novick, the play was beyond present-day theatergoers in its length and construction. Evidence: "Bernard Shaw's "three-ring circus," as H. L. Mencken called Man and Superman, "with Ibsen doing running high jumps; Schopenhauer playing the Calliope and Nietzsche selling peanuts in the reserved seats," runs a paltry three hours and fifteen minutes…." "The wisdom of both these alternatives is dubious, but no more so, perhaps, than that of exposing the theatre-going population of the Boston area to the night air past its bedtime. When we succeed in breeding our descendants into supermen, a super-theatre may come into being to present Man and Superman entire." Thoughts: Novick has a more forgiving view of the play itself than of the actors, a perception which comes with the post-humorous protection of Shaw's legacy over his works. This review gives a mid-twentieth century review of the production long after Shaw's death, as opposed to Walkley's critique of Shaw in his day.
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