Macbeth

Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's best known tragedies. It is packed with malicious acts, death, and power struggle, and in the end those who had been seen as good are those who lose their lives because of their evil-doing. One interesting aspect of this play was gender roles, because Lady Macbeth, rather than being the meek, delicate woman she was expected to be, was ruthless and the dominant figure of the scheming of the play. A passage from the play that captures this is the following:

LADY MACBETH
O, never
Shall sun that morrow see!
Your face, my thane, is as a book where men
May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
Look like the time. Bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue. Look like th' innocent
flower,
But be the serpent under 't. He that's coming
Must be provided for; and you shall put
This night's great business into my dispatch,
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.

MACBETH
We will speak further.

LADY MACBETH
Only look up clear.
To alter favor ever is to fear.
Leave all the rest to me.

This passage shows Lady Macbeth taking the reins from her husband and essentially assuming what should have been his role. She immerses herself in his scheme to become king, and, doubting Macbeth's strength and dedication, she names herself the orchestrator of the entire operation. In making herself the controller of the murders of the king and his escort, as well as the person who cleaned up the mess afterwards, she establishes herself as the ruthless killer that one would have assumed her husband would be. Macbeth, a valiant killer on the battlefield, had the good in his heart that one would have expected, stereotypically, from a woman, and because of his inhibitions Lady Macbeth took over as the driving force of her husband's plan. It is interesting how she orders her husband around, asks him to be the distracting entertainer, all while she prepares for the murdering of the two men. The entire gender role reversal is interesting and unexpected, and with Lady Macbeth ending with "Leave all the rest to me" she solidifies the fact that she is the leader of the relationship.

Macbeth is a tragedy, not only because of all the death that occurs, but because of who it is that dies. Shakespeare takes two people, who prior to the play had been good, respectful people, happy with their status, and turns them into killers. It is tragic that Macbeth, a war hero, turns from his heroics and goodness of heart to an overwhelming desire for power. This play showed the weakness of man, and how giving in to temptations would always backfire in the end. It was as though Macbeth, by resorting to manipulation and murder to climb his way to kingdom, had sentenced himself to death. Once his wife joined him and took over for him in his journey for authority, she as well was doomed to die. The tragedy of this story is inevitable once the three witches reveal their prophesy for Macbeth, and the entirety of the play is watching Macbeth's downward plummet, a very difficult thing to witness. Shakespeare made this play tragic through the gradual decline into evil of his characters, as well as the deaths of the many characters of the play.

As a whole, I did not really enjoy Macbeth. I found the gender roles fascinating, the diction was superb, yet I could not get drawn into the entirety of the play. I will always remember the scene with Lady Macbeth washing her hands in her sleep, and the ghost scene of the play, but I did not find myself as captivated with this play as I had been with others. I had difficulty becoming an active reader of this play, but perhaps that was my problem: I may have appreciated the play more had it been acted out in front of me. I recognize its strengths, I really liked Shakespeare's character development, and still I could not get into the play. One day, at another time, this play is going to be reread by me, and I am going to see if maybe I just read too much Shakespeare in one sitting. Or hopefully I will have the opportunity to see it acted out, but at this point in time, Macbeth is not my favorite Shakespearean play.

Richard III

Shakespeare, the author of some of the most widely known works in modern literature, wrote his plays in such a way that they were divided into three categories. There is history, tragedy, and comedy. An example of a historical work by Shakespeare is Richard III, a story of a man who deceives and murders his family in order to rise to the throne.

One passage from Shakespeare's Richard III that I found particularly interesting was the following:

GLOUCESTER
Welcome, dear cousin, my thoughts' sovereign
The weary way hath made you melancholy.

PRINCE EDWARD
No, uncle; but our crosses on the way
Have made it tedious, wearisome, and heavy
I want more uncles here to welcome me.

GLOUCESTER
Sweet prince, the untainted virtue of your years
Hath not yet dived into the world's deceit
Nor more can you distinguish of a man
Than of his outward show; which, God he knows,
Seldom or never jumpeth with the heart.
Those uncles which you want were dangerous;
Your grace attended to their sugar'd words,
But look'd not on the poison of their hearts :
God keep you from them, and from such false friends!

PRINCE EDWARD
God keep me from false friends! but they were none.

This passage, although seemingly harmless and normal from the Prince's point of view, is an ironic and hateful conversation in the reader's perspective. When Richard speaks of deceit and attempts to decipher who a man is on the inside, he is, in reality, speaking of himself, and his ulterior motives. It is horrifying as the reader sits and pictures the scene, as Richard takes on the persona of a harmless, deformed uncle, when we know what really is on the inside of the man. When he speaks of outward appearances being deceiving, he is speaking directly about himself, and yet turning his nephew away from thinking him to be a threat. The irony of this passage, as well as the play on words that Richard utilizes to convince Edward that he is the safe uncle, create the type of scene that, even just being read, makes the reader stir with a sense of foreboding, yelling at their book as they realize what is going to happen. I think it is the manipulation and cruelty that Richard demonstrates throughout the play that makes this passage more effective, because the audience can only sit in anticipation, predicting the main character's next move.

This play, aside from its dialogue, also had some historical value. Shakespeare, in a combination of tyranny and history, took the story of Richard III and made it into a little chunk of English history. I think that, although history can be boring at times, Shakespeare found a way in which it could appeal to his audiences. The intertwining of tragedy and history, was, in my opinion, an archetype of typical royal happenings. The fight for power, the desire for status, the ruthlessness to reach those goals, it all works not only in the play, but in reality. Even today, there are still constant power struggles not only amongst governmental figures, but also average people. Although history was a large part of the play, Shakespeare was able to create an interesting plot that was related to everyday life.


Richard III, in my opinion, had its greatest strength in its language. Shakespeare knew what to write in order to make the work more impacting, show Richard as the dishonest, manipulative man that he was underneath his physical guise of weakness. I loved how Shakespeare took Richard's character, and rather than keeping him in the seemingly weak state that he was physically, made Richard's character into one of extreme power. The extremes of this play were shocking, and the pure cruelty of the situations was frightening. To take a deformed man, and transform him into a deceptive, power-hungry man requires great skill, and this play showed Shakespeare's mastery of the English language just as every other one of his plays has. The play appeals to audiences, has the death, and drama, and the emotional pull that a play requires in order to be a success. The sheer number of deaths in this play is frightening, but even more frightful is how Richard succeeds with his scheming, and does become King, even if for a short while.

Taming of the Shrew

Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew is one among the many plays that Shakespeare wrote during his lifetime. What makes this play unique is how Shakespeare creates the story, using word play, puns, and some very laughable situations. One passage from this play that I found myself laughing about was the following:


PETRUCHIO
Verona, for a while I take my leave,
To see my friends in Padua, but of all
My best beloved and approved friend,
Hortensio; and I trow this is his house.
Here, sirrah Grumio; knock, I say.

GRUMIO
Knock, sir! whom should I knock? is there man has
rebused your worship?

PETRUCHIO
Villain, I say, knock me here soundly.

GRUMIO
Knock you here, sir! why, sir, what am I, sir, that
I should knock you here, sir?

PETRUCHIO
Villain, I say, knock me at this gate
And rap me well, or I'll knock your knave's pate.

GRUMIO
My master is grown quarrelsome. I should knock you first,
And then I know after who comes by the worst.

PETRUCHIO
Will it not be?Faith, sirrah, an you'll not knock, I'll ring it;
I'll try how you can sol, fa, and sing it.
He wrings him by the ears

GRUMIO
Help, masters, help! my master is mad.

PETRUCHIO
Now, knock when I bid you, sirrah villain!

This scene was hilarious, not just because of what it could potentially lead to, but because of the circumstances. One missing word completely altered the meaning of what Petruchio had said, leading to a near violent situation. As horrible as that is, it has a level of humor to it that is captivating. I had to keep reading, just to see if the pair would actually come to blows or someone would come to the rescue before the fighting occurred. The situation was so believable, so ridiculous, and the way the men spoke to one another was very humorous. The threats, the insults, the fear, and the miscommunication all made this passage into the little comedic scene that it is. Situations such as this happened throughout the play, between Kate and other male characters, between servant and master, even between father and son. Despite the sections of less active dialogue, this play kept the audience paying attention with scenes such as these, that capture the true comedy of humanity.

This play was a comedy throughout, taking all the miscommunication, exaggerations, and puns made by the characters and turning them into an entertaining story. Shakespeare knew not only how to entertain his audience, but also how to make them laugh. A play based on taking a feisty young woman and "taming" her has to have some humor, otherwise the audience would be upset at seeing their own behavior portrayed. Shakespeare seemed to be making a jab at the actions of the men around him who, rather than accept a woman for who she is, found it necessary to make her into a meek, pristine housewife. Had he made that spear the main focus of the play, and not woven those comedic scenes into the work, it would have been quite difficult for him to maintain a happy and captivated audience. With his comedy Shakespeare was able to provide entertainment to the masses, and mask his actual thoughts on the situations that he was portraying.


Taming of the Shrew, as humorous as many of its sketches were, left me feeling sad. To think about how women in Shakespeare's time were treated in the manner of horses, seen as something to break into their wifely duties, made me somewhat angry. Not at Shakespeare, just at society as a whole, viewing women as objects because people were too ignorant to recognize that women had their strengths along with their weaknesses. All that was seen was weakness, strength and individuality were stolen from these women, and I just can't understand it. of course, I am from an entirely different time period, but it still bothers me. I found it interesting how Shakespeare used comedy to depict the plight of women. This play was one where I would be laughing, and suddenly realize that I was laughing at the inhumanity of man as they dehumanized women. I definitely felt like I was being toyed with in those situations, being made to laugh, then realizing the hypocrisy of my laughter. Overall, I enjoyed the play, but some aspects of it left me feeling bothered.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Identity and individuality are a major theme of James Joyce's novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, in which Stephen Dedalus, the main character, takes us through his life as he matures, trying to find himself. I think that throughout the novel, Stephen could never quite find that group of people that he completely fit into and could enjoy being in company with. This separation from others is what fueled his growth into the independent young man that he eventually allowed himself to become. In the beginning, his goal seemed to be to fit in in any way possible, and the please and be accepted by as many people as he could possibly find. It was this striving for excellence, and the feeling of emptiness even when he had achieved that excellence that nurtured his passion for language, and his development into a poetic and philosophical man. He reminisced of the days of old, when Parnell had kept Ireland's old ways alive and well, but he also knew that he could not change the past, and came to realize that although he couldn't change the past, perhaps he could affect the future. I think the growth of Stephen is an integral part of this novel, and it allows the reader to examine their own lives as they read it, and decide what they truly desire out of life.

My favorite quote from this novel is: "The snares of the world were its ways of sin. He would fail. He had not yet fallen but he would fall silently, in an instant. Not to fall was too hard, too hard: and he felt the silent lapse of his soul, as it would be at some instant to come, falling, falling, but not yet fallen, still unfallen but about to fall"(175 Joyce). This excerpt struck me with its poetic, repetitive nature, and its meaning. The repetition of fall made it clear that Stephen could not figure out what was going to happen to him eventually, but he knew that something was coming. The fall that Stephen is considering is one from his current status in the novel to a level that many would probably disprove of because of what it would no longer involve. At the point when this is said in the novel, Stephen is considering becoming a priest, but he suddenly realizes that it is not his heart that is keeping it on that path, it his his fear and his familial expectations of him that are making him feel obligated to the Church. His fall is eventually one from a very highly religious state, to one of searching and self-analysis, that, as difficult as it was for him to do, is leading him to a better place in life. He knew that staying as a priest would make him dissatisfied with many things in life, and Stephen knew it was necessary for him to find out what he needed for himself. I think that is why this quote appealed to me so much, because it is about doing what you feel is right for your life, despite the potential pain and discomfort it may cause at first. Knowledge of self is more important than a false serenity in a state of illusion about who you are.

I have found that in this class, the overwhelming trend with our latest novels has been that they require a deeper analysis than some, and cannot be fully appreciated until they have been completed and left to simmer in your mind for awhile. I really enjoyed this book because it had a very obvious growth of the main character's identity, and it had a philosophical basis to it that many books do not. It was reminiscent and revolutionary and confused and amazingly insightful all at once, and the stream of consciousness of the writer, as well as his increasingly poetic tendencies throughout the novel made it all the more enjoyable.

278. The Fly by Karl Shapiro

This poem is told from the perspective of the disgusted and irritated human, discussing the everyday activities of the fly, and the eventual death of the fly at the hands of the speaker. This perspective, although not from the point of view of the fly, offers a fairly apt idea of what flies do in their usually quite short lifetimes. It is through this point of view that the poet allows his readers to further connect with what he is saying, because Shapiro is aware that all people have had at least one less-than-enjoyable encounter with this gross flying insect. He appeals to the readers' memories in order to create a more interesting, impacting poem, and has a loathing, disgusted tone that also connects with the reader. Along with his choice perspective, Shapiro utilizes a creative rhyme scheme, with six, eight-line stanzas, each of which ends in an A-B-B-A pattern. it is the first and third lines that are interesting, because they do not have any rhyme connection, while the second and fourth lines do, however, the non-rhyming lines have a metric quality, with the same number of syllables in each line, which in turn forms a sense of rhythm. Although the first half of the stanza does not follow a rhyme scheme as does the second half, Shapiro successfully creates a rhythm that is reminiscent of a fly coming closer and then leaving and then returning again with the back and forth nature of the rhyme and meter of the poem.

The literary devices that Shapiro uses in this poem are that of simile, and his diction. The similes that Shapiro employ add to the general sense of disgust in regards to the fly, for example, in line 16 the speaker says "And inlay maggots like a jewel," to describe how the flies utilize the dead as their personal breeding ground. He also compares the fly's noise to "Sounding your buzzer like an urchin toy"(line 12), which gives the reader a sense of how, just as a child's toy, the fly is extremely irritating. Then Shapiro utilizes similes to describe the destruction of the fly by the speaker: "Knock your head sideways like a drunkard's hat,/Pin your wings under like a crows"(Line 37-38), which procures an image of a fly with a crooked head and useless wings. Shapiro's word choice is the main strength of the poem, because without many of the adjectives "The Fly" would not have the same affect. The first line of the poem "O hideous little bat, the size of snot" is an immediate clue that this poem is not a friendly portrayal of the fly, and then he emphasizes the disgusting character of the fly with his other word choices. From lines 29 to 32 it is written: "You glue yourself to death. Where you are stuck/ You struggle hideously and beg,/ You amputate your leg/ Imbedded in the amber muck." The word hideous is repeated , and the struggle of a fly dying in a sticky trap is given an almost war-like tone, showing the fly's slow trek toward death with the words struggle, beg, amputate, amber, and muck.

As gruesome as this poem was, I liked how it gave such a disgusting little creature a part in a poetic thought. It made the various ways that the flies died, and what happens to the flies after death seem extremely repulsive. The last lines say: "I sweep. One gyrates like a top and falls/And stunned, stone blind, and deaf/Buzzes its frightful F/ And dies between three cannibals." This is a chilling view of how the fly, once it has been killed, is simply devoured by its fellow insects, who face the same fate as it met. The fly was killed by horses, killed by men, killed by wives and children, killed by its own fellow insects. The poem has a transition point to arrive at these various forms of death, where the first two stanzas of the poem are about the life of the fly, and the final six stanzas are about the fly being killed, which I found interesting because it shows that more happens to kill the fly than to keep it away. It is made out to be the hated insect of the living population, a fascinating perspective that allows for the reader to see just how the annoying little bane of their summer is annihilated.

265. Getting Through by Deborah Pope

The perspective in this poem is from the point of view of a person who is feeling hopelessly in love with someone who they cannot tell that they are in love with. It is a poem of sadness and frustration, as the speaker tries to describe how their love is built up within them, dying to get out, but they know that it will fall upon deaf ears. The poem has no rhyme scheme, and is essentially one very lengthy stanza, without a parallel structure and no breaks in the stream of words that the speaker lets out. Despite its lack of rhyme, and its lack of separation, this poem is rhythmic and allows the reader to experience the stream of consciousness that the speaker is portraying. It is effective, although it is not particularly long, in creating a sense of silent desperation as the reader experiences, through words, the pain of the speaker.

The literary devices that the poet utilizes are imagery and diction, which contribute to the overall meaning and tone of the poem. In terms of imagery, Pope appeals not only to visual images, but also to that of auditory, because sounds play an important part in this poem. The first instance of imagery is the first three lines of the poem: "Like a car stuck in gear,/ A chicken too stupid to tell/its head is gone." These images are of movement and of a feeling of ridiculousness, seeing as a car stuck in gear is going to move unless the brake is pressed, and a chicken with its head cut off continues to run in circles despite its lack of a head. This sense of movement contributes to the speaker's desire to say more, but feeling stuck and ridiculous whenever they try to say anything. Some of the auditory images of this poem include: "...sound ratcheting on/long after the film/ has jumped the reel" and "...a phone ringing and ringing." These add to the never ending, urgent tone of the poem, and reflect how the speaker knows that they have to say something, but their thoughts are not coming out the way that they would like them to. Some of the word choices that I found particularly important were "blundering,""spilling," and "hurtling," which make the poem seem a little more chaotic, and add to the feeling of fright that the speaker seems to have. The final piece of imagery that Pope utilizes is the comparison of her words to a train that is going to a decrepit "boarded-up station,/closed for years" which helps to describe the fear the speaker has about professing their feelings.

I liked this poem because, as sure as I am that I do not entirely understand what Deborah Pope is saying, I connected to the scattered, fearful urgency of the speaker. It seemed like a situation that anyone has experienced in their life, where they want to tell someone how they really feel about them, but they convince themselves that it is not worth telling the person because they won't care anyway. I felt as though the poet was trying to show how, as difficult and stressing as being in love with someone is, if you never say it you are wasting a beautiful moment by worrying about it so intensely.

235. The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy

This poem has a speaker who is wandering aimlessly through a barren winter landscape, describing the sheer desolation of the season. With this perspective Hardy allows for a human narration on the sad natural state of the winter season. in addition to the human aspect of this poem to contribute to its melancholic tone, Hardy uses an ABABCDCD rhyme scheme that creates a rhythm for the speaker's words. He also implements the technique of making the lines of the poem follow an eight syllable-six syllable scheme that makes the poem more melodic than it would be with merely rhyming end words. With the parallel syllabic structure of the poem, the connection to a bird's song is strengthened, and it contributes further to the sense of bleakness in the poem.

The main literary devices that Thomas Hardy uses in this poem are personification and language choice. This poem personifies winter, and offers the thrush a few human aspects as well. To emphasize the personification of winter and its various components, Hardy capitalizes the first letter of Frost, Winter, Century, and Hope to heighten their human relation by making them out to be actual names. He describes Frost as "specter-gray" which, as well as personifying, is a good choice of words. Winter is made out to have "dregs" and "The land's sharp features seemed to be/ The Century's corpse outleant"(Line 9-10), and the century's grave is a "cloudy canopy," "the wind his death-lament." These descriptions, as well as choices of words, all contribute to the overall sense of sad and grayness of the poem. The change in the poem occurs when the thrush begins to sing, and Hardy writes "An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,/In blast beruffled plume,/ Had chosen thus to fling his soul/ Upon the growing gloom"(Line 21-24). This flinging of the soul is another excellent choice of diction because it is showing how the bird is putting his entire being into his joyful song, to balance out the bleak season.

I liked this poem a lot because of its natural, melancholic depiction of winter, as well as the little bit of "Hope" that is seen at the end of the poem. The piece captures the cold bleak grayness that winter seems to always have, and with the human perspective shows how nature sometimes knows best. The bird is a sign to the man that as miserable as the winter is, it will one day be over, and the warmth and soft breezes of spring will be upon them. I found that although the poem was generally sad in tone, the final two stanzas showed that faith had to put into nature that one day things would be happy and comfortable for all again.

232. Snow White and the Seven Deadly Sins by R.S. Gwynn

This poem is told as a story, much like an adult telling a child a short story, with the antagonist, the hero, and the moral of the story. It is a take on the original story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, yet in this poem the dwarfs are reflective of the seven deadly sins, and Snow White is the woman who must endure their difficulties. The poem utilizes a A-B-A-B rhyme scheme, which is similar to a nursery story, and makes it easier for the child to remember it. Each stanza is four lines, which makes it of a parallel structure, and also adds to the rhythmic nature of the poem, and makes another similarity between it and a child's story.

Gwynn utilized a variety of literary techniques, but those that stood out and emphasized the poem the most were her use of allusion and personification. The entire poem is filled with biblical allusions, the most obvious being when the Father at the confessional refers her to "... texts in Romans/And Peter's First Epistle, chapter III," after she expresses dissatisfaction with her life as, essentially a servant to the devil. This chapter of The First Epistle of St. Peter involves how wives are to behave toward their husbands, and obviously the Church has no sympathy to Snow White's situation. Another allusion is to demons, as Gwynn writes that the Seven "sped to contravene the hopes of heaven,/ Sowing the neighbor's lawns with tares and thorns." The tares and thorns are alluding to the temptations that the Devil procures in daily life, and attempts to lure people astray with. The Seven Deadly Sins are personified in this poem, with Pride, Lust, Gluttony, Avarice, Envy, Sloth, and Wrath all contributing something to the misery of Snow White's life. The turning point of this poem, when Snow White begins to consider leaving behind the Seven is when she looks into the mirror and sees "How much she'd grayed and paled, and how much clearer/ Festered the bruise of Wrath beneath her eye"(Line 27-28). It is when she recognizes the abuse that she has been enduring at the hands of sin that she makes the decision to turn her life around.

I liked this poem because it had a slightly feminist air to it at the end, where Snow White turns down Prince Charming, not because she's happier where she is, but because he is a man, and she is unable to tolerate their actions. It made me laugh when Gwynn wrote: "Impeccably he spoke. His smile was glowing./ So debonair! So charming! And so Male./She took a step, reversed, and without slowing/ Beat it to St. Anne's where she took the veil"(Line 37-40). The men that Snow White had been living with had been so disgusting and horrible that she saw no reason to trust any that were more attractive or seemed nicer than others, and instead went to the convent. I felt as though the poem was saying that men were the true sinners of the world, and the only way for women to protect themselves from these sins was to hide away among other women and devote their lives to God. I do not agree with this point of view, but I did enjoy the humor with which Gwynn portrayed her speaker's perspective.

Heart of Darkness

Joseph Conrad, in his story Heart of Darkness, portrays the journey to the inner evil within all of humanity, and how it can be avoided, hidden, and kept in check if one so chooses. The novel’s dominant theme was that of good versus evil, and how we are faced with a choice between the two everyday of our lives. Marlow, the narrator of the novel, is faced with this task in his quest to find Kurtz, who symbolize his own hidden and evil nature. The novel also addresses the issue of colonization, and the imperialist nature of the white men as they take away the identities of the native Africans around them. It is in the conditions of the interior that the true nature of man is revealed, and the inhumanity of man to his own fellow man is shown.
In this story, the use of descriptive words was a very important part of its overall theme. Of the many passages and quotes throughout Heart of Darkness, the one that I found to be the most effective was on pages 105 to 106. Conrad writes:

Going up that river was like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings. An empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest. The air was warm, thick, heavy, sluggish. There was no joy in the brilliance of sunshine. The long stretches of the waterway ran on, deserted, into the gloom of over-shadowed distances. On silvery sand-banks hippos and alligators sunned themselves side by side. The broadening waters flowed through a mob of wooded islands; you lost your way on that river as you would in a desert, and butted all day long against shoals, trying to find the channel, till you thought yourself bewitched and cut off fir ever from everything you had known once—somewhere far away—in another existence perhaps.

I found this passage to be very strong in conveying its message because of how the natural things can be compared to aspects of a person’s identity. The adjective use of this passage makes its purpose clear, particularly the use of impenetrable, lost, bewitched, and gloom. These words all work together to create the sense of darkness and evil that is surrounding Marlow as he makes his journey up the river, searching for who he really is inside. The river is a symbol of his soul, and all the snags that he hits are showing the problems that Marlow is experiencing in his internal struggles. This quote was full of symbolism and I found it to be a good description of the journeys people take to discover who they are.
This story was definitely one that, although it was, as Mr. Klimas liked to say, “dense,” it had a very strong symbolic nature to it. I connected with its focus on the quest for identity, because most people go through a period where they have no idea WHO they really are underneath all the layers that they build up to please those around them. It offers a glimpse into the darkness that Conrad feels we all have within us, while pointing out that we are capable of overcoming this evil side of our conscience. The true heart of darkness is within us, the little piece of our life that we do our best to hide from those around us, and at some point we all have to choose between the dark and the light. Kind of like Star Wars, we have to make a choice between good and evil within ourselves.

Invisible Man

When Ralph Ellison wrote Invisible Man, he definitely had to have put a lot of thought into the symbols and themes that he used in his novel. The novel is so packed with symbolism and recurring motifs that it is impossible to discover them the first time around. A major aspect of this novel was the focus on man’s inhumanity to man, particularly white man’s inhumanity to the black race. Invisible Man depicts the mechanical treatment of black men by the whites around them, particularly when Mr. Norton addresses the car that the narrator is driving as a machine, as though the vehicle drives itself. The leg shackle is also important in this novel because it is showing how the black race is still controlled by those around them. Although they are physically free, mentally they are still suffering the punishment of slavery, and Ellison wants to show the difficulty faced by the black man as he tries to overcome adversity. At the time when this novel was written, race should not have been an issue, and yet it drove so many things, from what college a person could get accepted to, to the jobs that people could hold, and the way that they had to carry themselves around others. The affects of the inequality faced, and the unused power people had to overcome it, are what Ellison seemed to want to point out with Invisible Man.
A quote from this novel that I really liked was on page 249, where the narrator says:

It was as though I were acting out a scene from some crazy movie. Or perhaps I was catching up with myself and had put into words feelings which I had hitherto suppressed. Or was it, I thought, starting up the walk, that I was no longer afraid? I stopped, looking at the buildings down the bright street slanting with sun and shade. I was no longer afraid. Not of important men, not of trustees and such; for knowing now that there was nothing which I could expect from them, there was no reason to be afraid. Was that it? I felt light-headed, my ears were ringing. I went on.

After the narrator’s “rebirth” in the paint factory hospital, he comes to find that he no longer fears those around him. He can handle the pressure from authority figures, and he finds himself a changed man. It is as though he is seeing the world through a new pair of eyes, and everything is clear. I think that what I like about this quote the most is the realization that he can make a difference in the world, because every person needs to feel as though they can make a change at some time in their lives. The changes that the narrator can make are ones that will not only benefit him, but also his race as a whole if he succeeds, and it’s an amazing metamorphosis.
I had a hard time getting through this novel and as valuable it is in the literary world, it is not one of my most liked pieces of this year. It was so packed with information and symbols and allusions, and other references that it was almost too much to handle. As I read the end of the novel I came to better understand its purpose, however, the preceding pages left me feeling confused and unmoved. I have a feeling that Invisible Man is going to be one of those novels that I have to read a few years from now, at a different time in my life, to understand the true impact of it. I know that it’s good, and I honestly feel guilty for not being able to be as enthusiastic about it as some of my classmates were, because I feel like I missed out on something. Hopefully Ellison will understand that this just wasn’t the time for me to read his novel, and maybe I will appreciate more after a few more times around

Player Piano

Player Piano, written by Kurt Vonnegut, was a novel meant to serve as a warning of what could become of American society if it wasn’t cautious about the advancements that it was making. The time period that this novel was written in was a time of technological advancements, with the assembly line beginning to remove people from their jobs. This mechanization of society was a dominant theme throughout the novel, was definitely solidified by Vonnegut’s use of dark humor, which, although causing a chuckle, caused an uneasy feeling to rise up when the laughter was gone. As unbelievable as the situation portrayed in the novel was, it had a foreboding sense to it that was warning against the dependence on machines, otherwise they would take over our lives. Purpose is the one thing people search for in life, and Vonnegut used Player Piano to show how without a purpose, we are nothing.
My favorite quote from Player Piano was a scene later on in the novel, when one of the young men that Proteus met at the Meadows turns up at a different point of the story, and offers his advice. The quote, on page 279 of my copy, reads:

“I have heard every word you’ve said,” said a young redhead thickly. He wasn’t drinking Benedictine and Pluto water, but sloshed around instead a puddle of whiskey and water on the table as he sat down by buck, facing Doctor Roseberry, uninvited. Beneath his open-necked shirt the red of a Meadows T-shirt showed plainly. “Heard it all,” he said, and he laid his hand on Buck’s shoulder gravely. “Here you are at a crossroads my boy. You’re lucky. Not many crossroads left for people. Nothing but one-way streets with cliffs on both sides.”

I really liked this quote because it says so much about the world in which these people are living, where your options are laid out for you, and there is no way out of anything. The use of the cliff analogy was used to emphasize the desperation of people to succeed, and the horrors that people face if they are deemed below the necessary IQ level. To live in a constant state of fear and obey all commands from those more intelligent than you seems to be the driving force in this society, and freedom of choice has become a lost concept.
This novel, as a whole, was one of my favorites. I really liked Vonnegut’s use of dark humor to create his satire of our society. It was also interesting that the way he created this world was not much different from our current society. Although the machinery in the novel may have been slightly exaggerated in their scope of usage when compared to current times, the exaggeration is a good literary tool for when we turn and look at our own lives. Examining how many machines we have doing our work for us today, it is amazing just how set our world seems on mechanizing the entire work force. People are getting laid off because machines are more efficient, computers are overtaking many job fields, and life is becoming increasingly mechanized. Although Vonnegut was from a different time and place, he had an insight into how the world was progressing that is so accurate in the present times.