Sylvia Plath

I read through Sylvia Plath's poetry a second time today. I'm discovering that reading through poetry a couple times helps me process it more fully. "Lady Lazarus" and "Daddy" were really dark. It's evident that she was wrestling with some huge personal demons. She threw a lot of Nazi Germany references into her poetry, which I thought was really interesting. I'm curious as to what her reasoning was. Such references in "Daddy" make her father seem like an awful, evil man. It seems like Plath hated her father, but then she talks about wanting to die to get back to him. I stumbled upon a poem by Anne Sexton called "Sylvia's Death" that could almost be the sequal to "Lady Lazarus". "Sylvia's Death" helped me understand "Lady Lazarus" better because it referenced Plath's struggle with depression/suicide from the eyes of one of her friends. It sounds like Sexton and Plath talked about death a lot and "drank to" it. Sexton sounds really sad and angry and hurt and left behind, which are probably common of those close to a suicide victim. I thought the line "with two children, two meteors wandering loose in the tiny playroom" was really sad. It made me picture two little kids absolutely lost and confused in the wake of their mother's death.

Adrienne Rich

I really loved "Storm Warnings." We can predict a storm and prepare for a storm, but we can't stop it. We can measure time, but we can't control it, reverse it, or make it move faster. Rich compared storms to emotions a little bit in line 12-14, suggesting that even our own feelings are somewhat out of our control:

"...Weather abroad
And weather in the heart alike come on
Regardless of prediction."

Generally, the poem reminds us that life is always out of our complete control. Even now, as Rich's barometer has been taken over by all kinds of crazy weather predicting technology that normal people don't even understand and we prepare for weather through whole disaster kits instead of candles, we still can't control life. It's a scary thought. Personally, I like to know that things are under control and probably struggle with trying to make sure things go according to my plans. This poem reminds me that it's not possible to control life and plans won't always go as I want them to. For me, it's also a reminder that I have to trust God to take care of life and fall in line with His plans, not mine. Storms (literal and emotional) may come and do damage, but God is my rock and He always carries His children through the storms. The poem itself doesn't lead in that direction at all, but that's just where my thoughts took me.

Howl

I really didn't like Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" when I first read it. I actually gave up halfway through the poem because it reads like I imagine a written drug trip would read. I'm glad we read the poem in class though. I appreciated it a bit more, even if i still think it's pretty weird. The poem is kind of beautiful (in a really twisted way) but sad. It has such a searching, hopeless feel to it. Some parts made me really uncomfortable (I'm glad I didn't end up reading the R-rated sections), but I suppose Ginsberg wasn't necessarily aiming to make people comfortable. I found it interesting that he put together words that really don't seem to go together, such as "screamed with joy" and "shrieked with delight". The phrases made me cringe a little, but they were effective. i really loved phrasing he used like "the drunken taxicabs of Absolute Reality" and "protesting the narcotic tobacco haze of Capitalism."

Good Country People... or not.

I'm not really sure what to make of "Good Country People". It was almost like a cute country story gone really really bad. I thought parts of it were weird. From what I have gathered, the author is mocking American ideals/social customs, such as "good country folk", good Christian boys, ladies aide type gossip, etc. I didn't think any of the characters were really likeable. They were all pretty ridiculous. Mrs. Freeman and Mrs. Hopewall were kind of pathetic. Who on earth actually discusses vomit several times a day? Mrs. Freeman just liked to gossip excessively. Mrs. Hopewall tried to solve/settle everything with cliches. Joy/Hulga was sulky and tried too hard to be "deep and wise". She also seemed to think she was better than everyone else. The Bible salesman was just creepy. Who seduces awkward girls (or 30 year olds pretending to be 17) to steal their wooden legs and glass eyes?  Eww. Maybe I just missed the point completely.

Battle Royal

This story made me sick. The blood and stripper scene were gross, but they didn't sicken me as much as the concept behind the whole show. The concept of this gathering of prominent people was almost surreal to me. The prominant, upstanding citizens of the town are actually slimy creeps who use women and black teenagers for entertainment. It was also almost unbelievable that the narrator plays right into their hands, always trying to say and do the things they want him to say and do. The narrator uses their potential approval to place himself above the other African American boys and thinks that only these men, who are treating him worse than an animal, can judge his ability.The woman was being taken advantage of by the men and used for their own selfish pleasure. Her "impersonal eyes" and "fixed-smiling lips" that were a cover for the "terror and disgust in her eyes" suggest that she knew she was being used and went along with it. The entire idea of the Battle Royal sickened me, and I was upset that everyone just went along with it. These prominant citizens are gathering together teenage boys, blindfolding them, and pitting them against each other to fight. The boys go along with it and beat the crap out of each other to please the white people. It's almost like a dog fight with humans instead of dogs.  Once again, these kids are pitted against each other for entertainment. The scene with the electrified rug was totally dehumanizing. How do you justify electrifying a group of teenage boys like that? It really disgusted me. Everything that occured before the speech made the speech ridiculous. The events before the speech showed what kind of "path" the audience wants the narrator to lead "his people" in. I related the clowns in the narrator's dream to the fighting. It seems the narrator knows that he and his classmates were made into clowns for the selfish purposes of the businessmen and that his grandfather would have been angry with him for going along with it.

"Ahm seventeen. Almost a man."

I thought the total contradiction between Dave's words and his actions was interesting. He kept insisting he was almost a man, but clearly acted like a child. He felt the need to prove to everyone that he was an adult instead of  being content with what he knew about himself. I feel like that's a huge sign of immaturity. He continues to show immaturity throughout the rest of the story. He can't see the necessity of saving money for winter clothes over his want for a gun. He manipulates his mother to get the gun in the first place and then lies about it and sneaks off with it. When he actually shoots it, he does it with his eyes closed. Even I know a person shouldn't shoot a gun with closed eyes. When he realizes he shot the mule, he tries to stop the bleeding with clumps of dirt. This boy is not destined for the medical field. I think he would have gone to get help if he really was "almost a man". Instead of admitting to his mistake, he makes up a wild story. When he gets caught in his lies, he won't take responsibility for his actions and tries to shift the blame to everyone else. The ending is similiar to the end of Huck Finn or Barn Barning in the sense that he decides to take off on his own. Unlike the characters in the other two novels, who were actually much younger, Dave shows no signs of maturing. When trying to decide whether to run or not, he thinks to himself "Ah betcha Bill wouldn't do it!" and decides he's going to go "somewhere where he can be a man". Neither thoughts are good reasons for a boy to try to make a life on his own. If he can't learn to be a man in the middle of the mess he made for himself, he probably won't be one anywhere else either.

A Weird Comparison

I was reading through some other blogs and came across one about The Snows of Kilimanjaro and it kind of got me to thinking about the relationship between Harry and his wife(were they married?) compared to the relationship between Tea Cake and Janie. They have some surface similarities. In both relationships, there is a lot of physical attraction. Both men take their wives to new places and both couples shoot as a hobby. Both men die of preventable diseases that cause them to say harsh things to their wives. However, Harry says what he actually feels about his wife and Tea Cake seems to just be out of his mind. Comparing the two made me appreciate Tea Cake a lot more. He has his bad moments, but he really does sincerely love Janie and does his best to take care of her. The women have some similarities as well. They both seem to be strong women. Helen hunts, ride, and hangs out in the mountains of Africa. Janie also shoots, runs a business at one point, works beside Tea Cake in the field, and picks up the pieces of her life after the hurricane and Tea Cake's death. However, Janie possesses an inner strength that Helen doesn't. Helen clings to alcohol and to her husband because she is not a strong person alone. Janie can obviously be strong by herself, although I do think she tends to cling to the men in her life a little too much. Altogether, I appreciated the characters in Their Eyes Were Watching God quite a bit more than the characters in The Snows of Kilimanjaro.