MaggiQuinlan

Hart Crane and David Lehman

As with the poems by Ezra Pound and John Crowe Ransom, again i think that i made the obvious connection between the two. The connection being that they each talk about a particular piece of architecture that is well known in New York city. The poem written by Crane is much more eloqent and in some cases i think he's using the bridge as a metaphor.(a symbol for freedom or salvation maybe?) In the poem by Lehman he is simply speaking literally of this thoughts of the World Trade Centers. There is virtually no symbolism involved. Both poems are extremely well done in reguard to imagery for i can picture all the scenes very clearly.

Ezra Pound and John Crowe Ransom

In these two poems i think that i noticed the obvious connection in that they both make references to war. In "The Old Age of the Soul" the author is comparing himself to a warrior, or better yet he is comparing to his dreams and aspirations to a warrior. He talks about how the dream can change and how it does change just like the solider does when he endures battle. Maybe he is saying that his dreams still are not fulfilled and are restless for he makes the comparission in line 3 when he states as to the nerveless hand of some old warrior.

Again i thought that this fit the best with John Crowe Ransons poem "Judith of Bethulia." This poem describes war and how the unexpected may come to conquer all. It also talks about underestimating the power of women.

Really the only connection that i could make was the references to elders in both poems. In Pounds poem i feel that it was more prevalent for he used such words as used, old, worn, council of elders....where as in Ransoms poem it just eluded to the fact that elders didn't eaisly give into temptation as readily as the young soliders did. Also both poems used a bit of old language...Maybe that was to make it seem a bit more authentic or maybe thats just how they wrote.

Dr. Jerz's article

In my blog entry about Machinal i stated that i felt much sympathy for the Young Woman and that i felt that i could identify with some of her feelings. However, after reading Dr. Jerz's artlice I don't so much change my opinion as i accept that there are really two young women in this play. I do have sympathy for the adultresses young woman but not for the murderess young woman. When i read this play i did not make the distinction between the two. Now having read this chapter i have become aware that Treadwell may have done this on purpose and maybe i need to read a little closer from now on.

Machinal

This play was a little confusing for me. However i couldn't help but relate to the young woman in this play. She appealed to me so much. Maybe its because i'm a feminist and i felt her sympathy ...i'm not sure...But being an experimental play i found that all the repetition worked. It added to everything becoming mechanized. As for the young woman, i know that i really cannot relate to her, but Treadwell did a great job creating this play that i felt for her, and for some brief seconds i did fell as if i did relate to her.

The many faces of Nick Carraway

The second half of this novel threw many surprises at me, and the most surprising was the character change of Nick. I admit that before class last week i did not see Nick as a manipulative character, however during class i changed my mind. But in this second half, he came across to me as kind and a little vulnerable. I got the impression that he kinda cared about Gatsby. He was worried about him, and he had a feeling that something was going wrong the day after Myrtles murder. He even says that he called him and tried to concentrate, and it was only just noon. His character really changes when hes trying to locate all of Gatsby's friends to come to the funeral. I mean i think Nick just felt bad, but nobody would have tried as hard as Nick if they sincerely didn't care about them. It was just really interesting to me that Nick in a sense got manipulated. He fell for Gatsby and i think that is shown by his devotion to him by attending the funeral. Wolfsheim doesn't even attend the funeral, and he was his closest friend. I'm still not sure exactly how i feel about Nick's character, but i do feel that he did alot of changing.

Also, with the whole concept of Gatsby is God, i agree especially with the concept of Gatsby dying for Daisy's sin. This idea couldn't be more clearer that Gatsby is in fact God.

Agenda item for The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald does a good job of using nature and the weather in his settings througout his novel, The Great Gatsby. In the first chapter this is particularly evident. In the scene when Nick visits the Buchanans the setting is very beautiful. It is almost the second longest day of the year. Is this set up to mirror how Daisy feels about her and Toms marriage? It seems like Daisy feels like theri marriage just drags on. She says that she wants to celebrate the longest day but alwasy forgets. Maybe this in some way parallels her marriage. She wants to love and celebrate Tom, however she can not do so. Also it was just a beautiful summer day. This i feel, is mocking the Buchanans relationship. A dark rainy day is what the reader may expect but Fitzgerald picks a sunny day, which i think better illustrates his point.
Another instance where Fitzgerald uses the setting to illustrate his point is when Nick arrives at home after leaving the Buchanans for the first time. His mind is completely filled with many thoughts. He is unnerved about all that he has learned about Daisy and Tom. Fitzgerald creates a restless night or what he calls, unquiet darkness. In this scene the atmosphere parallels what the characters are actually feeling. Not only is Nick uneasy but Gatsby is uneasy as well, for he was staring off into the distance at a pale green light.
Fitzgerald does a great job of integrating the setting into the plot of the story.

Agenda item Bernice Bobs her Hair

The short story Bernice Bobs her hair, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald is really a universal truth about teen life. Even though times have changed since the jazz era, the secert lives that teenagers live are not that different; All girls secretly crave for the boys attention, thoughts of girls still constantly pervade the minds of strapping young men, and teens are still having premarital relations( it is referred to in the short story.) I think that Fitzgerald hit the hammer right on the head of the nail in his discriptions of the teen characters. He really did a good job on creating a character that objectived all of the teen sterotypes of his day, and ours. I must say that i really do agree with how he portrays society, for i feel that it is still operated in the same fashion. No matter how much society changes and how many barriers are broken, teen will always excude behavior similar to what is depicted in this book.

Agenda item for "The Adding Machine"

The interesting play that is, The Adding Machine, by Elmer L. Rice, posed many questions about the significance of one's life. Rice openly invites the reader to make their value judgements about what just what does it exactly mean to be a moral person. He intrigues the reader by setting up a "paradise" in which all of the most devious people are found, something that any reader would not have fore guessed. At this point he readily engages the reader to evaluate whether or not these people acted morally wrong or if their actions were indeed justified.
Another question that i found posed by Rice was the significance of a name. In this play the character or Mr. Zero essentially is a "nobody" who is going nowhere in life. Is there a link here? Is Mr. Zero really a zero? I also really liked how all of the other characters possessed symbolic names such as the couples ranging from one until six. This really shows how everyone is essentially a mold of a model. Here are a group of people striving to stand out(the men where different wigs, the women different colors of dress) yet in reality they are really only pawns in the game of life.
This play, i thought, really hit on some of lifes biggest mysteries. Can we really leave a lasting impression on this world? Do our actions in this life come with penalities in the life thereafter. I thought this was a good read, and it really got me to critically think about life.