Saturday, April 28, 2012

The Light at the end.

English 102 was more challenging then I expected. I worked really hard on these papers. The most difficult thing I found in this class was the entire concept of analysis rather then just fact and research. I am a concrete girl. I like to have solid facts for everything, and even more so I always say what I mean. Analysis is assuming a writer has an underlying topic or comparisons going on. I don't do that I mean what I say and write what I mean. I don't guess what others are sneakily putting in their writing, talking about their childhood. I find literary analysis to be to inexact for me to enjoy, I feel like I am making up a story with little facts.
The other challenge I found was just keeping on task, reading, writing, working, reviewing, making time for all of it.

I learned a couple of little things about MLA format. I definitely learned a lot about how to write an analysis. I feel as though I have improved greatly in these past fourteen weeks.

Image from: http://magnificentvista.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/the-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel
/http://www.northshorehypnosis.com/PastLifeRegression.htm

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Up in the Air


Katie D. Johnson

Professor Laura Cline

English 102

April 22 2012                                    

The Deterioration of Airworld

Walter Kim’s Up in the Air chronicles the experiences of Ryan Bingham, a middle class businessman who travels the country working as a career transition counselor.  This book, published in July 2001, focuses on the experience of the common businessman trying to succeed in the rat race of the corporate world.  In 2009, Up in the Air was released as a movie, but with some minor alterations that reflect the changes in American business during that time period.  After the book was published in 2001, America was plunged into a time of war and economic downturn.  In order to survive the economic struggle of the times, the focus of every company became to increase efficiency and cut costs.  From coast to coast, countless men and women faced the foreboding feeling of corporate downsizing, foreign outsourcing and technological advances that would lead them to the unemployment line. While the book focuses primarily on Ryan Bingham’s experience as an individual, the movie focuses on the drive of the business world at large to continually improve the bottom line.

The main focus of the novel is Ryan’s way of life: his occupation and how he uses his business resources to support his ideal unorthodox lifestyle.  Ryan’s job is to diffuse tense situations and prevent potential lawsuits.  His presence and complimentary services are meant to give the impression that despite the fact that a company is willing to put its loyal employees out on the streets, it still has a heart and is looking out for their best interests. Ryan takes his merciless job in stride.  It is a man eat man world out there and he does what he has to survive in the rat race, “Our role is to make limbo tolerable, to ferry wounded across the river of dread and humiliation and self-doubt to the point at which hope’s bright shore is dimly visible, and then stop the boat and make them swim while we row back to the palace of their banishment to present the nobles with our bills.”(242-243 Kirn). Ryan’s career requires him to travel all across the country from company to company.  He has grown accustomed to his nomadic lifestyle and prefers it to time at home. “Last year I spent 322 days on the road, which means I had to spend 43 miserable days at home.”(Film). All of his time spent in what he refers to as “airworld” has given birth to an ambition that has become a personal obsession: to accumulate one million frequent flyer miles. The travel required by his career is the method to accomplish this feat which seems to be enough motivation to ease his conscience. He enjoys his time on the road, his hotel stays, and the courteous service he receives from his accommodations.    To him, a day off at home is depressing.  He avoids the close personal relationships that most people enjoy.  For Ryan, the good life is a life of solitude spent on the road in pursuit of the next destination.  The only other aspiration Ryan seems to entertain is an elusive job with a mysterious elite company called Mythtech.

The movie version of Up in the Air was released in 2009, eight years after the books was published.  During this time, the United States entered into a time of war and Wall Street was hit hard.  Statistics show that the nation’s unemployment percentage had climbed from 4.2 percent in January 2001 to 10.0 percent by October to 2009.  (US Labor)  The movie version is highly influenced by the drastic change in the economic climate.  America’s unemployment rate skyrocketed as corporations looked to downsizing, outsourcing, and technological advances to minimize labor costs. Even the company Ryan works for in the movie is focused on optimizing its efficiency and cutting costs. In the film, Ryan’s employer intends to overhaul its business model to reduce travel expenses.  Rather than laying off employees in person, Ryan is now expected to handle these delicate conversations via online chat. The company whose sole purpose is to increase other company’s profitability by decreasing costs is looking for its own ways to trim the fat at home.  In the book, Ryan was merely the instrument that brought devastation to the individuals he fired, but in the movie Ryan himself turns victim to the economic times.  

Ryan’s transitioning company is ruining his way of life. He prides himself on living without the normal things that weigh you down like a house, a car, and relationships with others.  These are the things in life that most people find value in, but Ryan sees only the limitations of an average life.  In the movie, Ryan says, “Moving is living.” When Ryan’s boss calls him back to the office for a meeting that will prove to be a real “game changer” Ryan says, “State of business needs me everywhere”, meaning that his place is on the road because everyone is in need of his services.  When he returns to the office for this important meeting, Ryan discovers that the economic downturn has finally hit home in an unexpected way.  Ryan’s boss emphasizes, “This is one of the worst times on record for America, this is our moment.” Ryan finds himself grounded, his way of life brought to a halt and he is outraged.  This transition is being led by his new co-worker, Natalie.  Ryan wastes no time confronting the source of his frustration, “Before you try revolutionizing my business, I’d like to know that you know my business”, for him it is very personal. When Ryan turns his outrage on his boss he is told, “Don’t blame me. Blame the high fuel cost, blame insurance premiums, and blame technology.”  This statement is very typical of the economy in 2009.  The excuses he had been taught to feed others became his main course.  Ryan was now faced with the same message that he had hand delivered to thousands throughout his career: the company has chosen to make changes which will directly affect your way of life and there is nothing you can do about it.   

This drive for ever-increasing efficiency can even be seen in Ryan’s habitual patterns while travelling.  The novel was published in 2001 prior to the September Eleventh attacks after which drastically heightened the security screenings required for all airline passengers.  The film highlights these added hassles and shows how Ryan has altered his patterns to gracefully and efficiently overcome all of these obstacles. In the film Ryan says, “Everything you probably hate about flying…. Are warm reminders I am home” (film). The practiced and systemized way Ryan unpacks his laptop and removes his shoes for the mandatory security screening could be likened to coming home and kicking back on the couch for any other businessman. Ryan notes common obstacles to avoid preventing any delays such as families, the elderly, and Middle Easterners who are more likely to be “randomly selected for additional screening.”  His advice is to always line up behind Asians because they pack efficiently and have an affinity for slip-on shoes.  This kind of racial profiling became very common in airports after 911.  He also insists that Natalie invest in a new carry-on to replace her large luggage while travelling with him in order to maintain efficiency, “Do you know how much time you lose by checking in?... Thirty-five minutes per flight.  I travel 270 days a year.  That’s 157 hours.  That makes 7 days.  Are you willing to throw away an entire week on that?”  By 2009, efficiency became the engrained motivator for every activity; efficiency had become the new heartbeat of every businessman. 

Corporate America evolved rapidly during this short time period.  The days previously spent on travel quickly became an unneeded expenditure as the business world collided head-on with the internet and other technological advances.  The cost of hotel rooms and rental cars was an unnecessary burden on the bottom line.  The World Wide Web replaced Airworld and our hero’s dominion was down-sized to a domain name.  The world of Ryan Bingham was forever changed, along with every other American businessman, in the interest of the corporate dollar.


Works Cited

Kirn, Walter. Up in the Air. New York: Anchor-Random, 2001. Print.

Up in the Air. Dir.Jason Reitman. Paramount. 2009. DVD

United States. Dept. of Labor. “Labor ForceStatistics." data.bls.gov. US Dept. of Labor. April,        2012. Web. 21 April2012



  

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Thesis Paragraph: Up in the Air


Walter Kim’s Up in the Air chronicles the experiences of Ryan Bingham, a middle class businessman who travels the country working as a career transition counselor.  This book, published in July 2001, focuses on the experience of the common businessman trying to succeed in the rat race of the corporate world.  In 2009, “Up in the Air” was released as a movie, but with some minor alterations that reflect the changes in American business during that time period.  After the book was published in 2001, America was plunged into a time of war and economic downturn.  In order to survive the economic struggle of the times, the focus of every company became to increase efficiency and cut cost.  From coast to coast, countless men and women faced the foreboding feeling of corporate downsizing, foreign outsourcing and technological advances that would lead them to the unemployment line.  While the book focused primarily on Ryan Bingham’s experience as an individual, the movie brought a new perspective to the audience by highlighting the effects of Ryan Bingham’s actions on the business community at large.  What began as an egocentric tale of a businessman’s desire for success regardless of the cost, broadened to a social commentary on the effects of this same impulse in the hands of corporate America.  
Helpful review of Film, "Up In the Air" http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/12/04/movies/04upinair.html

Sunday, April 8, 2012


Up In the Air by Walter Kim, was an uneventful life study. Ryan the main character is dry, goal oriented impassioned man. He works his heartless job of firing people across the country. Instead of having a home he has airworld, his made up version of a nonexistent place. A place he reveres beyond all others.

I find character and psychological studies like this fascinating. The way Ryan thinks and acts, the way he calculates every move and how it will affect his job, life, and most importantly his frequent flyer miles is enthralling. Not to say I love the writing style or seemingly nonexistent plot. It was hard to get through. One of those sit down and force yourself to read kind of books.
Up In the Air Preview

Photo from: http://starsteeds.blogspot.com/2011/06/silence-of-solitude.html

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Winter's Bone

 
Katie D. Johnson
Professor Laura Cline
English 102
March 25, 2012
Winter’s Bone, a novel by Daniel Woodrell, examines how the hardships in life are often a catalyst for personal character development.  Set in the backwoods of the Ozark mountains, this story is filled with undesirable characters who partake in drugs, crime and domestic abuse on a daily basis.  The heroine of this novel is Ree Dolly, a young girl who must take a dangerous stand for the survival of her family.  She stands alone against a pitiless community ran by an abusive and chauvinistic patriarchy.  She receives countless warnings and threats of violence for her actions, and although it may lead to her death, she fearlessly persists for the sake of her family.  This selflessness and sense of moral responsibility is unseen in the other characters of this novel and proves to be her greatest strength.  Throughout her trials, Ree finds the courage to confront long-standing social norms of her community, and although she alone may not be able to change the community at large, she finds the strength to prevent it from changing her. 
The community of the Ozark Mountains is very isolated and has been made up of the same families for generations.  These families were previously known for their illegal production of moonshine during Prohibition and now make their money by producing methamphetamine.  Woodrell describes the setting of his novel as a neighborhood where the houses are surrounded by heaps of trash and rundown cars, but the children play happily in the yard.  Children in this community grow up with low expectations and no real hopes of being able to leave the Ozarks.  The girls are expected to marry and often become pregnant as teenagers.  The boys are expected to continue the family business of producing meth.  Overseeing and enforcing this social code is a patriarchy of men that will not tolerate any challenge to their way of life.
After Ree’s father is arrested for producing meth, she is saddled with the responsibility of caring for her two younger brothers and her mother, who has become mentally unfit to raise them herself.  She is forced to drop out of school and sacrifice her own dreams of happiness and fulfillment in order to compensate for her absent parents.  Within the first few pages of Woodrell’s novel, she demonstrates her new role as caretaker for her younger brothers, “Finish up eatin’. Bus’ll be along soon.” (6)  She teaches them life skills that they should be learning from their father and mother.  Ree teaches the boys to shoot, “she steadied their arms and guided their fingers” (79) and cook, implying that she will not always be there to do it for them, “… eyes peeled and watch every goddam thing I do. Learn how I make it, then you both’ll know.”(19).  Ree’s situation is further complicated when she finds out that her father has used their family home to post bail and has left town.  She has no other choice but to find him herself or forfeit their family home for his transgressions.
            The women in Ree’s family and community are not treated well and are expected to know their place.  A woman’s role is to cook and clean and do anything else she is told.  Women must obey.  The men of the Dolly clan consider their word to be the law; in fact, they even fancy themselves above the law. They take care of their own problems and under no circumstance say anything to the police. All the men in the clan are “outlaws who cook crank as their daddies brewed moonshine before them.” (NP Bowman). While Ree interacts with her rough and tumble uncle, Teardrop, you see a glimpse of this patriarchal oppression when he says to his fifth wife, “I said shut up once already, with my mouth.”(25).  Ree’s only hope of finding her father is to confront her family and neighbors for any clues of his whereabouts. In doing so, Ree goes beyond her rank in the social hierarchy and angers many of the characters.  She is called “girl” multiple times in a condescending way that implies she has no right to be demanding answers since she is not a man, nor even a woman.  Even the sheriff of the town shares this mentality as he explains to her that her father has disappeared, “Girl, I been lookin’.” (15)  No one is eager to help her and many send her away with threats if she is unwilling to heed their warning to go home and end her search.   
For Ree, her fear of violence is surpassed by her devotion to her family and she refuses to back down, “I can’t listen. I just can’t listen.” (132)  She knows she has exhausted all of her resources and cannot take “no” for an answer from the only people who might know something that could save her family from eviction and certain ruin. After being brutally beaten, she makes a heartfelt and realistic plea for help to the top patriarch of the clan, “I gotta prove dad’s dead…If Dad did wrong, dad has paid. But I can’t forever carry both… them boys’n Mom…not…without that house to help.”(134) Even though her actions are never glorified, her courage is noticed even by those who advised her to surrender her search, “You took that beatin’ good as most men I’ve seen.” (148)  “Folks have noticed the sand you got, girl.”(150)
Despite the hostile environment that Ree has grown up in, she has developed an extraordinary moral compass.  She advises her brothers, “Don’t fight if you can help it. But if one of you gets whipped by somebody both of you better come home bloody.” (48). This statement reveals a person who is well aware that at time conflict is unavoidable, but there are some issues worth fighting for.  For Ree, her devotion to the welfare of her family is one such issue that is worth facing any danger. “You got you a whole bunch of stuff you’re goin’ to have to get over bein’ scared of boy.” (107)  It is remarkable that she has developed into such a brave, well-balanced youth without a strong female role model to help guide her. 
Ree’s mother was once described as beautiful; the kind of woman men would go out of their way to flirt with. She used to dance and be happy, but it seems like things just slowly deteriorated.  She cheated on her husband and paid the price for it, “no-strings roll in the hay with a stranger lead to chipped teeth or cigarette burns on the wrist” (42).  Her father also had affairs, one of which Ree believes ultimately led to her mother’s catatonic state.  “Mom’s mind didn’t break loose and scatter to the high weeds until …she learned about dad’s girlfriend.”(30).  Ree undoubtedly learned two things from her mother: life is filled with double-standards and unfair situations and all wrong-doings come with a price.
            Another influential female role model is her friend Gail.  Ree and Gail have been friends since the third grade. They chased frogs together, fed hogs together, and experimented with one another. They were as close as two people can be. Until one drunken night, Gail had a one-night stand which led to an unintended pregnancy.  Due to this event, she “had been required by pregnancy to marry Floyd Langan.” (31)  Neither of them wanted the marriage, Floyd even had a long-time girlfriend, but they had no choice. He does not love Gail and has affairs of his own “I know when he says deer stand it means he’s gone to fuck Heather.”(82).  The relationship is strained and, as with most women, marriage meant the loss of Gail’s freedom. Floyd controls every aspect of her life.  When Ree comes to visit, he says, “she can come in” (33) and soon after she arrives he says, “Don’t hang around too long. She’s got that kid now.” (33). He shows no interest in his parental responsibility at all; however, when Gail stays out later than he approves, he takes his son and tells her she might as well not have come home at all.  Floyd manipulates and controls Gail, and Gail feels she has no choice but to obey as all of the other women do.  Ree explains to Gail how upsetting it is to see her taking orders and not doing things she would normally do, but Gail has resigned to this being her lot in life.  Ree asks if the reason she stays with Floyd is because she truly loves him despite the mistreatment.  To this Gail responds that she loves her son, and he will need his father.  For Ree, Gail exemplifies a woman who has resigned to misery because she never had the courage to challenge social expectations. 
            Winter’s Bone is actually a “coming of age” story for the character of Ree Dolly.  Ree’s character begins to develop as a young child observing her family and neighbors.  The women around her are expected to submit to the direction of their husbands and fathers. They are subjected to horrible treatment and lose their voice and personal power in the process of adhering the social expectations of the community.  Ree witnesses the hardships these women face and finds the courage to challenge the established authorities in order to survive.  Her daring determination is not a virtue learned by role models within her life, but a valiant attempt to maintain her personal independence in a world where she is destined to lose it.   
Works Cited
Bowman, David. “Hillbilly Noir.” New York Times: Sunday Book Review. 17 September 2006. Web. 20 March 2012.
Woodrell, Daniel. Winter’s Bone. New York. Little. Aug. 2006. Print.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Winter's Bone Response


I reacted so strongly to the responsibility of the main character, Ree.  She took on the role of the mother and father. I have been there. My parents divorced and even though my brother was older I became the man of the house. I fixed things kept an eye on my brother.
I love that the gender roles come out of the box in the story. Ree teaches her brothers how to shoot, hunt and cook. At the same time the men in the extended family do treat her like a stupid girl but she tries to stand on her own two feet.  She takes on the full responsibility of the house, even trying to hunt down her irresponsible crack-making father. She tries to keep the burden off her mentally unstable mother, and brother by keeping everything to herself and trying to handle it all by herself. 

I’m sure we all feel at some point that taking all the responsibility on ourselves is the best thing. There have been many times for me. It seems kinder. Trying to just do the right thing keep everyone you love, as happy and healthy as possible. 
Tribulation for love.. I guess that  is how I would describe it. Taking one for the team. Responsibility that she neither anticipated or desired.


Image from: http://vi.sualize.us/view/29287b47c47f4426a810f4824ef22b72/

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Bartleby


Katie D.  Johnson

Professor Laura Cline

English 102

22 February 2012

In “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street,” Melville shares the story of a scribe working in a law office in order to convey a social change in the common man’s work ethic and the negative effects it will have on society.  The narrator of this story is an average, yet successful, lawyer who represents the Protestant ethics of work and charity.  Bartleby, on the other hand, represents a new social class that shows no regard for this outdated mode of thinking.  Throughout the story, the narrator makes countless attempts to aid Bartleby in his struggles with no success.  Melville makes it apparent that the ways of Bartleby, and this new social class, will inevitably lead to their own destruction.   

The narrator of this story is a middle-class man who has made his way in the world by meeting society’s status quo.  He is not one to challenge social norms or draw attention to himself in anyway; his success lies in conformity.   “I am one of those unambitious lawyers who never addresses a jury, or in any way draws down public applause; but in the cool tranquility of a snug retreat, do a snug business among rich men’s bonds and mortgages and title-deeds… my first grand point to be prudence; my next, method.”(Melville).

             It is obvious that the narrator looks for similar virtues in the company he keeps: “…Nippers, like his compatriot Turkey, was a very useful man to me; wrote a neat, swift hand; and, when he chose, was not deficient in a gentlemanly sort of deportment. Added to this, he always dressed in a gentlemanly sort of way; and so, incidentally, reflected credit upon my chambers.”(Melville).  From the narrator’s standpoint, a successful business life requires a man to be dedicated to his work and to comply with social expectations with a professional and genteel demeanor.  This was a typical outlook for a Wall Street businessman at the time that Melville wrote this story.  New York in the 1850s was plagued by poverty in the lower class and an ever-increasing population due to immigration.  Any businessman who challenged social norms and stood in the way of success was destined to lose his position in society and face poverty.    

Initially, the narrator believes his newly hired employee, Bartleby, to be a man who shares in his views of propriety and industry, “Bartleby did an extraordinary quantity of writing. As if long famishing for something to copy, he seemed to gorge himself on my documents. There was no pause for digestion. He ran a day and night line, copying by sun-light and by candle-light.” (Melville).  Bartleby seemed to be the ideal employee.  He completed an extraordinary quantity of work and never showed any signs of mood swings which were characteristic of the narrator’s other employees.  Indeed, the narrator was quite pleased with his new acquisition until one day Bartleby refused to comply with his supervisors request to help him review a document, “Imagine my surprise, nay, my consternation, when without moving from his privacy, Bartleby in a singularly mild, firm voice, replied, “I would prefer not to.””(Melville).  “I would prefer not to” becomes Bartleby’s response to all miscellaneous requests that are put to him.  He refuses to review his work, or run errands, or do any task other than copying documents at his desk.  Then one day he announces, “I have given up copying.”(Melville). Although Bartleby prefers not to complete any of the tasks associated with his job, he also prefers not to quit or leave the narrator’s office.   Bartleby’s actions represent a new social class that is no longer willing to conform to the demands of bureaucratic society.

The narrator is perplexed by Bartleby’s refusal to fulfill his duties or to quit his job, and is not sure how to address the situation.  He later discovers that Bartleby is living in the office and pities his condition, “it is evident enough that Bartleby has been making his home here, keeping bachelor’s hall all by himself. Immediately then the thought came sweeping across me, what miserable friendlessness and loneliness are here revealed! His poverty is great; but his solitude, how horrible.” (Melville).  Bartleby has refused conformity and his choice is leading him down a path of social deterioration.  The narrator pities his condition and resolves to be charitable and shelter him from the punishment society has in store, “Poor fellow! thought I, he means no mischief; it is plain he intends no insolence; his aspect sufficiently evinces that his eccentricities are involuntary…  If I turn him away, the chances are he will fall in with some less indulgent employer, and then he will be rudely treated, and perhaps driven forth miserably to starve… To befriend Bartleby; to humor him in his strange willfulness, will cost me little or nothing, while I lay up in my soul what will eventually prove a sweet morsel for my conscience.” (Melville). The narrator’s Christian charity moves him to offer aid to Bartleby in any way he can.  His only hope is to help Bartleby until he is able to help himself. 

In order to survive on Wall Street, Bartleby must choose to assume is proper role, but it is evident that he “would prefer not to.”  The narrator patiently tries to coherse Bartleby to fulfill his duties as a scrivener, but is unsuccessful.  He finally chooses to abandon his trials and relocate his office, deeming the situation hopeless.  His fear is that since he is unable to cure Bartleby of his condition, it is more likely that Bartleby’s attitude will become contagious and ruin those around him, “Somehow, of late I had got into the way of involuntarily using this word “prefer” upon all sorts of not exactly suitable occasions. And I trembled to think that my contact with the scrivener had already and seriously affected me in a mental way. And what further and deeper aberration might it not yet produce?...  I thought to myself, surely I must get rid of a demented man, who already has in some degree turned the tongues, if not the heads of myself and clerks.” (Melville).  Bartleby is left for the next tenants to deal with and is seen, “…haunting the building generally, sitting upon the banisters of the stairs by day, and sleeping in the entry by night.” (Melville).  Without the charity of the narrator, Bartleby is left unsupported and picked up as a vagrant.  He is taken to the Halls of Justice and held on a vagrancy charge until his death.  At his death, the narrator closes Bartleby’s eyes and remarks that he, “Lives without dining.” (Melville). This statement reflects the misery that Bartleby endured living a life in disagreement with social expectation.  Had he been willing to play his part and appreciate his good social standing, he would have also been able to find joy in life be it by success or relationships. 

            Melville’s Bartleby represents a new social class that is growing from the social unrest in New York during the 1850s.  The lower class, made up mostly of immigrants, was experiencing extreme poverty.  The narrator represents a middle class that is bound to a rigid social structure in order maintain its affluence.  Melville uses these characters to expose the harsh reality that without this adherence to the “old ways” the middle class and society at large faces deterioration.














Works Cited

Melville, Herman. Bartleby, the Scrivener. A Story of Wall-street. New York, 1853. Bartleby.com . web. 22 February 2012.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Close Reading of Bartleby



“Now, the utterly unsurmised appearance of Bartleby, tenanting my law-chambers of a Sunday morning, with his cadaverously gentlemanly nonchalance, yet withal firm and self-possessed, had such a strange effect upon me, that incontinently I slunk away from my own door, and did as desired. But not without sundry twinges of impotent rebellion against the mild effrontery of this unaccountable scrivener. Indeed, it was his wonderful mildness chiefly, which not only disarmed me, but unmanned me, as it were. For I consider that one, for the time, is a sort of unmanned when he tranquilly permits his hired clerk to dictate to him, and order him away from his own premises.” (Melville NP)

Melville, Herman. Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-street. 1853



The story of the Scrivener has some literary foreshadowing.  I found Melville’s use of words very interesting. Melville uses “Cadaverously” which foreshadows the death of Bartleby in the last couple of paragraphs. The deathly persona Bartleby puts off makes the propriator enough that even though Bartleby is his employee, and has no business being there, he lets it slide. The “sundry twinges” are his discomfort with death or deathly character talking to him and making him do its will. Death can “unman” a man, make him feel like an uneasy child.

In my opinion Bartleby probably was displaying symptoms of schizophrenia. Which on set can come in early adulthood. For more information on schizophrenia click HERE


Picture From: http://technorati.com/women/article/death-by-liposuction/


         

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Summary vs. Analysis


A summary, is a simple this is what happened in the book, movie what have you. It is a true undeniable fact of what happened in the story.

An analysis, analyzes the text or story for themes, trends, patterns, characters and making an arguable claim to its underlying meaning. Underlying, like not visible or outright. It is a deeper look trying to see something that may or may not be there.

I think as a writer I NEVER have underlying anything. Seriously is every author thoughtful or conniving enough to put basically a secret in their work? I sincerely wonder if everyone has underlying motives, intentions, or meanings? It has become a theme in my life and now I am going to become a crazy person who overanalyzes what anyone says or writes, to try to understand why, EVEN if there is absolutely no reason or underlying motivation.

photo from: http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-50807479/stock-vector-magnifying-glass-guy-pointing-down.html

Friday, February 3, 2012

Jonathan Swift's a Modest Proposal


Swift identifies and explains the hunger and overpopulation if his society, of Dublin Ireland in 1729. His “scheme” as he called it was to care for and provide for the children born to the poor until the age of 1 year then sell them as a delicacy. It would provide income, eliminate another mouth to feed, and actually feed a whole family with good “infant flesh”.

Thankfully, Swift was not serious when he suggested eating babies to solve the hunger and overpopulation problem in Dublin in 1729. He was criticizing the political and economic policies of Ireland and England. Ireland was downtrodden filled with the poor facing disease, starvation, and prejudice.
I got my Background context from http://www.enotes.com/modest-proposal-criticism/modest-proposal-jonathan-swift. I wanted to know what was going on in the 1720's Ireland that caused this proposal satire.
His solution is totally irrational. It would never work for countless reasons. People have an ethical issue with cannibalism especially eating babies. I think most women would not want to give up any of their babies, but I suppose if things got bad enough they felt ending the baby’s life would be the most humane thing to do it could happen. I think if someone really didn’t have scruples they could just produce children to sell them, like potentially a prostitute or drug addict. Potentially a person could also imprison women for the sole purpose of making and selling babies, like cattle.
Swift’s proposal is horrifying but if we were lacking any sort of principals, ethics, or morals it would be a viable solution. I figure if we were all animals eating and surviving would be the only thing we were looking for. His evidence is the sheer number of beggars and mouths to feed. It is especially true for the Irish Catholics he refers to as “constant breeders”.

Source of information: http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/ModProposal.html, http://www.enotes.com/modest-proposal-criticism/modest-proposal-jonathan-swift
image from: http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Baby_farming