Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad - Blog Post 3

A new character that is introduced in this part of Heart of Darkness is a young man who is simply referred to as "the Russian" (132). He is first spotted on the bank in front of the station, where Marlow tells that "he looked like a harlequin" because of his brightly patched clothing (126). This association that is made between the Russian and a clownish, comedic figure sets up an air of innocence around him. This air of innocence is emphasized by the way Marlow describes him as the steamship pulls closer to the shore: "A beardless, boyish face, very fair" (126). The fact that the Russian is "beardless" and has a "boyish face" suggests that he is young, but not young enough to actually be a boy anymore. The observation that the Russian has "very fair" complexion conveys that he has not been in the sun much, presumably covered in the jungle for a long time. This also gives off an air of innocence, for the Russian looks as though he is not weathered and has not traveled much, but later he is told to have been lonely and traveling for quite some time. The knowledge that the Russian has done so much traveling and been so alone makes it strange but intriguing how a man like him can stay so youthful and innocent.

The Russian is also said to have had "smiles and frowns chasing each other over that open countenance like sunshine and shadow" (126).  The verb choice of "chasing" gives off a feeling of playfulness and joy as if the Russian's emotions are a game. The Russian's mood shifts back and forth from happy to sad quite often, as if running after itself one after another. The Russian is at times "like sunshine" - light and happy - and at times "like [...] shadow" - dark and morose; however, he is never both at once. His "open countenance" tells that his emotions can be easily read on his face; he is an open book.

Marlow also tells that the Russian has "no features to speak of" (126). He says this while describing the Russian outright, clearly pointing out features that he notices about the Russian, so saying that the Russian has "no features to speak of" is a strange statement; However, this may go along with the point that the Russian is never given a name, though he is quite important to the plot of the story. Giving this man a name would make him less of a mystery, for Marlow doubts "whether [he] had ever really seen him - whether it was possible to meet such a phenomenon" (140).

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad - Blog Post 2

"He was there below me, and, upon my word, to look at him was as edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches and a feather hat, walking on it's hind legs" (Conrad 106).

In this quote, Marlow is describing an African man who was brought along to help run the steamship. Using one of his classic similes, Marlow compares the benefit of seeing the African man working to a "dog... walking on it's hind legs". This is an unnatural occurrence, for dogs are not meant to walk on two legs like people. Therefore, Marlow does not view this working African man as a natural occurrence. The dog in the "breeches and a feather hat" is parodying a person; However, dressing a dog in fancy clothes and standing him on two feet does not make a dog a person, just a humorous spectacle. This can be compared to Marlow's feeling that teaching an African how to work a steamship does not make him a European. This exposes Marlow's racism and his view that the African people are inferior to the Europeans, but are being made to act like they belong among them. In fact, Marlow later states that the African man "ought to have been clapping his hands and stamping his feet on the bank" (106). Marlow feels that the African man does not belong, and instead should be acting like the other Africans that the steamship passes. Also, while the African man is physically "below" Marlow on the steamship, he is also metaphorically below Marlow because he is seen as inferior to Europeans.

Body Paragraph - Chapter 5 - "The Author to Her Book" by Anne Bradstreet

The author of the poem uses personification to emphasize that speaker's book is like her child, for she brought it into the world . The first indication of this is the words used to describe the book throughout the poem. The speaker refers to her book as "offspring", which can mean both child and also the product of something, in this case, her writing (1). The use of this word starts the idea of the book being her child and the idea is carried on throughout the poem. The word "birth" is used to describe when the book came into being after it was written by the speaker, which makes the book seem as if it were a baby being brought into the world (2).

The speaker does not like her book, for she calls it "ill-formed" and created from her "feeble brain", showing how she feels inadequate as a writer and that this book of hers is not what she wanted it to be (1). The speaker constantly sees flaws in her work, which she is constantly trying to change: "I washed thy face, but more defects I saw, / And rubbing off a spot, still made a flaw" (13-14). The personification in giving the book a "face" gives the imagery of a mother trying to clean off her child to make them look proper; Yet the speaker sees herself in her book: "Thy visage was so irksome in my sight; / Yet being mine own, at length affection would / Thy blemishes amend, if I so could" (10-12). She tells herself that overtime she will try to oversee what she feels is wrong with her creation and learn to love it, since it is really a reflection of herself. The use of the word "visage" underscores the personification of the book, for the word visage is even more descriptive than the word "face", for it refers to the features and emotions on a face.

The last two lines give the poem a sad undertone: "And for thy Mother, she alas is poor, / Which caused her thus to send thee out of door" (23-24). She refers to herself as the "Mother" of the book, her child. She seems to be explaining to this child that, since their mother is poor, she needs to send them out into the real world. Since her child is her book, she's referring to having to sell her writing, her book, to get money.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad - Blog Post 1

"Lifting one arm from the elbow, the palm of the hand outwards, so that, with his legs folded before him, he had the pose of a Buddha preaching in European clothes and without a lotus-flower" (Conrad 69).

Marlow is described to have "the pose of a Buddha" while he begins to recount his story to the other crew members of the ship. Though he has not yet told his story, there is a sense that he is full of knowledge and that he is trying to pass it on to those around him.

Marlow is in the same pose as Buddha, with the "palm of his hand outwards" and "his legs folded before him". The palm of his hand facing outwards represents how he is trying to open up about his experiences, however he is also crossing his legs, which can be viewed as him not wanting to open up or being anxious about doing so. Buddha is a religious figure of Buddhism. The word Buddha means "enlightened" or "awakened", and Marlow seems to have become enlightened and awakened after seeing and becoming a part of the horrors of imperialism.

It is also pointed out that Marlow is "Buddha preaching in European clothes". The European feel of Marlow is a contrast to the idea of him looking like and being like the Buddha in this moment. The idea of preaching brings to mind a church, a European concept, while the clothes are stated outright to be European. There seems to be a sharp juxtaposition of Eastern and Western culture that throws off the idea of Marlow being like the Buddha., due to the drastic differences between the East and West at the time this book was written

Marlow is said to be the "Buddha... without a lotus-flower". The lotus flower is a beautiful flower that grows in muddy water, but rises above it to bloom. When a lotus has bloomed, it is said to have reached enlightenment, for it has risen above the darkness and murkiness.  A large part of Buddhism is the idea of becoming enlightened and pure, even when there is surrounding trouble. The "lotus-flower" has two symbolic meanings in Buddhism: fortune and purification. First, Marlow never started his journey for the sake of money, but for the intrigue of adventure. Therefore, he would not have the flower because he lacked the motivation of fortune. Second, Marlow is not pure of heart, mind, and spirit because of the destruction and harm that he caused in the past. He committed actions that he can never undo, and therefore can never be pure again.

Poem Outline - Chapter 3 - "Pathedy of Manners" by Ellen Kay

In "Pathedy of Manners" by Ellen Kay, a woman is viewed by the narrator as this woman's her life goes by, telling of the choices that she makes and how her life turns out because of them.

The word choice in the poem tries to be something it isn't, like the woman in the story, and therefore seems unfitting or unsettling in their contexts.

• "She learned the cultured jargon" (5)

"Cultured jargon" is a set of words with two possible meanings. Cultured is an adjective that means refined, but it can also refer to something with an artificial nature. Jargon is a term that means the language of a group, - in this case the upper class - but it can also mean unintelligible, meaningless talk. Therefore, "cultured jargon" can either mean "enlightened and refined speech" or "artificial and unintelligent speech". The first definition of this set of words refers to how most people view the upper class and the way they talk about life, growing up in comfortable homes without poverty. The second definition of this set of words refers to how the woman, who is intelligent, has to dumb herself down to fit in with those who speak the language of the rich.

• "They had an ideal marriage, and ideal / But lonely children in an ideal house" (15-16)

The use of the word "ideal" reveals that the woman's situation seems like it would be just that, "ideal", but in her eyes it is not. The repetition of the word "ideal" makes the word become dull and meaningless after so many uses, when other adjectives could have done the same or even a better job of describing the elements in her life. This sentence seems almost like the chatter of those who are watching her life and wanting to be her, talking to each other about this woman and her "ideal marriage" and her "ideal / ... children" and her "ideal house". The one unhappy word here is "lonely", which is slipped in as an almost afterthought in the list before talking about her "children". The use of the word lonely shows isolation and sadness, breaking the vision of an "ideal" life.

There are words in the poem that appear more than once and bear significance to different parts of the poem.

• "At twenty she was brilliant and adored... sought for every dance" (1-2). "A hundred people call, though not one friend, / ... She will walk / Alone in brilliant circles to the end" (25-28).

The word "brilliant" is used only two times in the whole poem: once at the beginning and once at the end. Both lines happen to start with the letter "a" as well. However, these two sentences show the change between the woman at twenty years old and the woman at forty-three years old. Brilliant is first used to describe the woman herself. She was "adored", regarded highly and admired by many, and people wanted to be around her. They all wanted her so badly, they even "sought" her out specifically. Brilliant is later used to describe the metaphorical circles that the woman will walk "to the end", or until she dies. She is no longer adored like she was twenty-three years ago, for she is now alone with "not one friend". She has gone from being on top in school to being on top in real life, but with the change of how people saw her. The circles are the memories of her hopes and dreams, what she wanted to accomplish, that which she feels she no longer can.

• "Those bred / To antique crystal and authentic pearls" (5-6). "A bright young man whose pearl cufflinks were real" (14).

Pearls are mentioned in the poem as a symbol of the upper class and their lineage. Both times, the credibility of the pearls are stated outright, for they are told to be "authentic pearls" and then the woman's husband was a "man whose pearl cufflinks were real". Validating the pearls emphasizes that they are of real value, and the fact that the woman's husband has real pearls has come to be seen as a symbol of the fact that he is part of the upper class and has wealth.

The woman's life started to take a turn for the worse as she let others interfere, and word-choice is also able to expose this.

• "And when she might have thought, conversed instead" (8).

Instead of using her mind and thinking about life, the woman started to slip into the world of socialites. She begins to spend her time learning rituals of the upper class, no longer leaving time to engage her mind in thought.

• "She shuns conviction, choosing to infer / Tenets of every mind except her own" (23-24).

This woman who once had such a wonderful mind full of intelligence now doesn't trust herself enough to use it anymore. Instead of taking in a fixed structure of an idea, a "conviction", the woman would rather have an inference from someone else. She trusts others more than her own mind. "Tenets" is a word that means an opinion, especially one held as true to members of a group. Saying that the woman would rather get the opinions, of other members of the upper class shows that she wants to assimilate to be like them, and no longer wishes to have her own opinions. The woman had changed the way she spoke earlier on when she "learned the cultured jargon" but now she has changed the way she thinks to no longer reflect her own opinions (5). Both the words "jargon" and "tenet" refer in their definitions to being something for a specific group, such as the upper class. The fact that these types of words keep being used show how the woman is blending into the group and not watching the world around her, only focusing on becoming like those she sees around her most.

Poem Outline - Chapter 2 - "Mirror" by Sylvia Plath

In "Mirror" by Sylvia Plath, the personification of reflective surfaces gives an original look at  places and people through the perspective of mirrors that see the world around them and how they affect people overtime.

The use of a mirror as the narrator of the poem allows for a non-judgmental viewpoint.

• "I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions" (1).

A mirrors surface is silver and reflective, showing whatever is put in front of it exactly as it is. A mirror cannot change these things that it sees, it just shows them as they are. Mirrors cannot judge, they cannot be prejudiced towards what it sees.

• "Whatever I see I swallow immediately / Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike. / I am not cruel, only truthful" (2-4).  

Mirrors "swallow" the images around them to reflect their surroundings. They do so because that's what they were made to do, so they cannot choose what to see based on "love or dislike". They cannot be mean because of this, and they can only reflect what is actually there, the truth.

The diction in the poem is dark and morbid.

• "She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands" (14).

The line is telling of how, when the woman stares into the lake, she starts to cry and bats away the image on the water's surface.  The juxtaposition of "rewards" and "tears" is unusual and unsettling, for rewards are supposed to be happy and given to someone when they have done well. The woman is unhappy with what she sees, but the lake sees her "tears" and "agitation of hands" as a reward to the lake for showing her the truth.

• "In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman / Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish" (17-18).

The lake has seen this woman age over time, for she was once a "young girl". Over time, the girl has grown into a woman and her young self is "drowned", for she will never be that young again. "Day after day" sounds monotonous due to it's alliteration and emphasizes the fact that the woman comes by each day to see her reflection, yet never gets desired results. To the woman, her reflection is like that of a "terrible fish", for as she cranes her head over the water, the reflection looks as if it is not bowing towards the water, but rising up to stare back at her.

The syntax and diction of the poem make it seem slow and calming, yet also deep and dark.

• There are many periods in the poem, more than there are commas. Many of the lines stop at the ends.

The periods seem to leave the ends of sentences hanging, even though they are supposed to stop them. They are like cliffhangers at the ends of sentences, because the sentence that came before them seem to need more support to make total sense.

• The lines are long and, even with stops, draw themselves out with their words.

"Over and over" in line 9 and "day after day" in line 18 drag out the poem. The use of "each morning" makes the poem feel like it takes place over many days.

Poem Outline - Chapter 1 - "The Eagle" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

"The Eagle" is a majestic and dynamic poem that describes the life and flight of an eagle in an outlook that is fresh and intense.

Alliteration is used the most in the first stanza of the poem.

• "He clasps the crag with crooked hands;" (1).

The alliteration of the words "clasps" "crag" and "crooked" all have a hard "c" sound, which feels edgy and points to the hard, tough life of the eagle.

• "lonely lands" (2). 

The use of the "l" sound ties the words together to create a greater sense of how alone the eagle in in his solitary life.

The structure and rhyme used in the poem both bring the stanzas of the poem together and yet separate it into two parts as well.

• "hands" (1), "lands" (2), "stands" (3); "crawls" (4), "walls" (5), "falls" (6)

The rhyme scheme makes each stanza stick out and seem separate. The first three lines are meant to be together and so are the second three. Yet, the first and second stanza are connected by way of talking about the "azure world", the water around the eagle, and then "the wrinkled sea", also the water around the eagle.

• " He clasps the crag with crooked hands;" (1), "The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;" (4)

The first line of each stanza ends with a semicolon. This semicolon separates this sentence from the rest of the stanza, for the other two lines end in a comma and then a period. However, the sentences with semicolons set up the idea of each stanza. The first line is centered around the eagle and how he is standing and the fourth line is talking about his surroundings.

The imagery used in the poem makes the poem lively and unique.

• "close to the sun lonely lands" (2), "azure world" (3), "wrinkled sea" (4)

The descriptive words used in these quotes help to describe the world that the eagle lives in. A lonely place, desolate, and dry, due to the closeness of the sun. Yet there is the sea surrounding him, with a rich color of blue and waves like wrinkles.

• "and like a thunderbolt he falls" (6)

Just like a thunderbolt, a flying eagle is agile, quick, and sharp; it plummets towards the ground at great speeds. However, the word "fall" seems graceful and elegant, juxtaposing with the idea of a flashy, jolting thunderbolt.

The Tempest - Analyzing Prospero's Character in Act 5, Scene 1, Lines 1-97

In Act 5, Scene 1, Lines 1-97 of The Tempest, Prospero's plan has began to reach its conclusion. He is having a good day and everything is working in his favor, for Prospero is someone who plans ahead. He has had his whole idea of revenge outlined in his mind since the very beginning of the play and probably even years before the play begins. Prospero also has Ariel by his side to makes sure that everything runs smoothly, however, if anything does not go as planned, Ariel can help Prospero get everything back on the right track.

An aspect of Prospero's character that helps him in his plans is his commanding presence. Prospero has a commanding presence because he is able to control spirits and the magical arts. Prospero uses this power along with his strategically-thinking brain to get the upper hand in most situations. This upper hand starts at the beginning of the play with the tempest. Though Prospero relies on his magic to help get him this upper hand, he acknowledges in lines 50-57 that he will get rid of his magic when he no longer needs it. This time comes in lines 83-86 when he is ready to step back into his position as the Duke of Milan.

Prospero cares about the people who he got caught in the tempest. In lines 25-27, Prospero tells that though he remembers the wrongdoings of the people he shipwrecked, he will no longer be angry at them. Prospero is forgiving, but he does call out those who have done him wrong because he wants them to remember exactly what they did to him. This helps define that Prospero still has his emotions and his feelings. He is still human. Ariel points this out when he tells Prospero that, if Prospero saw the shipwrecked group that he was holding, his "affections / would become tender" (5.1.18-19). Prospero is someone who understands and keeps his promises and contracts. In the end, Ariel is set free after his allotted time of servitude and those who were shipwrecked are allowed to go back to Italy. Throughout the play, those who were shipwrecked remain physically unharmed, just like Prospero wanted.