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There are two different ways cultures view the locust contrasting the Ibo tribe of Africa and the western philosophy and teachings of the bible. Locusts for the Ibo are like a good omen, they provide a visual for the believed blessings they got from their own personal deities. While the bible portrays the locust as a pest or a curse. The contrasting of the two cultures is related to the symbol of the locust because Achebe plays on the fact the bug is seen negatively by the majority of his readers and makes it the symbol of transition or progression.
I hesitate to use the word change because I see the locust more like going from season to season, but having the same year repeat the seasons over when the year comes to an end.
Achebe constructs a vision of happiness that is emanate through the tribes reaction to the locust. Locust to the tribes represent a ritualistic progression that all good yam farming seasons will have. Similar in the western culture to when a lady bug lands on you, it is supposed to bring you good luck, so does the locust to the Ibo tribe.
The reason behind the sudden dropping of the audience into the culture of the African tribes is to create an exposition. This unabridged in your face change of what is expected and accepted that Achebe uses makes the reader more curious and startled. It also develops Okonkwo as a hard driven character, who strives to do better and be the exact opposite of his father. His father is a foil character to Okonkwo and so far is the most important influence on him.
After doing a little bit a research and reading and annotating the poem Ode on a Grecian Urnby John Keats, I delved into different themes like Keats not being able to see the difference between the real and imaginary world and how the poem portrays the beauty and art in nature/ everyday life. This poem was difficult to understand because of the use of old time English, but like most English poems the context was filled with “flowery” diction. This specific dictionpointed the spot light of the audience right on to this grecian urn that was magnificent, but cursed to be silent and never to reach its goals. I mean that the paintings on the urns are stuck in mid action creating a false sense of time or artificial time that will never allow the lovers to finally kiss or the tree limbs not being able to shed their leaves. Keats in this poem becomes consumed by this grecian urn not only for its beauty but his imagination takes him to a different places that the images of the urn provoke. He is able to see beauty in many things that he comes to a conclusion after pondering at the urn.
If I was able to redo the timed write on the Evening Hawk poem I would first start with the theme. The theme is chose was about how the hawk acts like a bystanderin the world, seeing every fact from a different perspective, but I would like to change that to the hawk watching as the world changes around it. The poem illustrates more of a evolution theme rather than a descriptiveimage being created. The next thing I would like to change is my general understanding of the poem. First off, I had no clue why there was a bat and how that related with the poem, and also the last stanza seemed to be out of place. I later came to learn that if the central theme was the changes of the world that the last stanza made the changes seem insignificant. Like the pipe leaking in the cellar, the last stanza down plays the importance of the wind. There are a lot changes I would like to have made but the final one i want to illustrate are the lines about the earth’s geometry. I believe this select part had more importance than I gave it and would have liked to expand my narrative about it.
In the story War Dances by Sherman Alexie, the narrator takes the audience through key points in his life where his culture and his personality intertwine. The first account is when the narrator talks about the last days of his father and what his life was like and also what his fathers life meant to him. While the commentary of getting a blanket was hilarious, it served a saddening theme which is how does one deal with a parent that has become disfigured and delusional? The blanket scene really sticks out in my head because of the traditions that are stereotyped to be traditions of all Native Americanswere some what of a joke to the son of the very spiritual older man. This lack of belief makes the man seem disingenuous and fake, but his talk about all Indians having blankets was funny and served as a comic release.
I would say that the short story is a story of literary quality because, their is a guy who is confused about his own identity in the beginning. Then later on he asks questions to an older veteran about his grandfathers life and goes through tough ordeals about having a brain tumor. Developing character is emphasis of the story and the Indian narrator takes the reader along in the journey of self trepidation.
The talking between the mother and boy Paul, early in the story set precedence for what money and winning can be interpreted. Money in The Rocking-Horse Winner represents a false hope of happiness. This connection between luck and money really point out Lawrence’s attitude toward avarice and gives the protagonist his one fatal flaw which is trying to please his mother to stop the house from whispering. In the end the luck Paul has isn’t the right kind, so he wins the money but dies in the process. In a loose interpretation of the storyLawrence makes the story similar to King Midas, where Midas wanting everything in his kingdom to be gold, so Zeus grants him this power and King Midas becomes terribly unhappy because he cannot eat, interact with others, or live in comfort. The morals of both of these stories are the same.
The Lottery a gruesome display of human sacrifice written by Jackson has a couple of archetypes that were taken from previous literature. The first example of an archetype is old Mr. Watson being a stereotypical old man who strongly believes in tradition and things ain’t what they used to be. Next there is a archetypefor women in general, which is that they all wear dresses and love to gossip. Then most importantly Mrs. Hutchinson was the proverbial scapegoat, as in she was ultimately sacrificed to help the crops grow greener. Then I also saw that the two characters that were in charge of the lottery were named Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves. This meaning that the decision of life and death were up to two men with names having a connotation for life (summer) and death (graves).
In the story Paul’s Case, the protagonist takes the reader on a small trip through his brief life. Paul is a high school boy, whom doesn’t put up with anything that is given to him except music. Music to Paul is life, and without music their is no happiness. The case I see Paul having is something related to depression or simply put, just wanting more in life. Paul loved the symphonies at CarnegieHall because he got to dress up and pretend to live in a lavish lifestyle. Paul became so enthralled with this dream that he stole $1000 from his father and traveled to New York with intentions of being there for a month. This is where Paul’s dream came into fruition, and he was only able to live there for a week because he bought the best food, flowers, room, and life. Paul after becoming completely broke was unable to come back to the middle class average lifestyle and took the easy way out by jumping in front of an oncoming train.
In the short story The Lesson, Sylvia was a rude and completely abhorrent character, who only has a poor vision of the world. She goes to a museum/gift store as a class trip with Ms. Moore supervising all the class. The constant name calling of Ms. Moore, like “I wouldn’t give that bitch that satisfaction” and calling her own colleague a “faggot” proves what a provincial mind Sylvia has towards others. In the end Sylvia proves that she is not changing or even remotely moved because Sugar (Sylvia’s closest friend) has an epiphany at the end where she realizes poor people really don’t have equal abilities and Sylvia tries to hurt her through the duration of her thought. “She can run if she want to and even run faster. But ain’t nobody gonna beat me at nuthin.” Meaning Ms. Moore can try to relate and teach, but even if she tries her hardest she will never catch (teach) Sylvia.
Ivan Ivanovitch grew up as a semi poor child living with his dad and brother. After Ivan and his brother (Nikolay) became older and obtained jobs as a vet and a government worker, Nikolay wanted more freedom in life. The central theme of Gooseberriesis that the dream Nikolay wanted was nothing more than a small farm with gooseberry bushes all around. The emphasis being the gooseberries, even when the berries weren’t ripe Nikolay was saying how delicious they are, meaning that he has become so entangled with a way out or a path to happiness he has become delusional.
