Literature Analysis #2

1.     1. The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison is about an African-American man who believes he is socially invisible, living underground to write his life’s story. He begins telling the audience about his time in the South at the start of the Great Depression, being humiliated in order to receive scholarships for a prestigious “black college”. The narrator tells of his experiences at college, driving a wealthy white trustee from the college around, and taking him to a bar that serves black people where they are accused of being “blind” to racial conflict after a brawl occurs. He is then expelled from the college on the grounds that he showed the trustee a less-than-ideal version of African-American life. He is sent to New York to find a job with one the trustees of the school. In Harlem, New York, he meets the son of one of the trustees, Mr. Emerson, who tells him the letter of recommendation sent from his school were the exact opposite. He helps the narrator find a low-paying job for a paint company. After being knocked unconscious and temporarily losing his memory in an accident at the factory, the white doctors perform electric shock experiments on him until his memory recovers. After collapsing on the street, the narrator is taken to the home of Mary in Harlem, who allows him to stay for free. She gives him a sense of his heritage. He is offered a position as a spokesperson for the Brotherhood, an organization that supposedly works to help oppressed people, after giving a passionate speech against eviction. The Brotherhood makes him move into a new apartment and he is placed in charge of advancing the interests of the Brotherhood in Harlem. He delivers speeches and becomes a well-known person in the multi-racial Brotherhood. He receives a racist letter from an anonymous member of the Brotherhood, telling him to remember his place as a black man. He is then suspected of selfish intentions and is moved to the women’s rights branch of the organization. After a while, he is sent back to Harlem to find that the community feels betrayed by the Brotherhood. He gets in trouble for holding a funeral for his friend without permission and has to learn the new strategies of the Brotherhood. The narrator is forced to disguise himself in order to escape the men sent to beat him up. After being told of the Brotherhood’s new intentions, the narrator decides to go against them. He gets called to Harlem, one night, to find a riot. One man, who is against the Brotherhood, orders the narrator to be hanged in the midst of the rampage. While fleeing from them, and then the police, the narrator falls down a manhole, where he has stayed since. He says he is now ready to emerge into the world again.

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2.     2. The theme of this novel is to by following the crowd and doing what others want you to do, you become “invisible” and lose sight of yourself.

3.     3. The tone of this novel is angry and reminiscent.

“I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I am only ashamed of myself for having at one time been ashamed.”

“If only someone who had known me at school or at home would come along and see me now. How shocked they'd be! I'd push them into a side street and smear their faces with the peel.”

“Then in my mind's eye I see the bronze statue of the college Founder, the cold Father symbol, his hands outstretched in the breathtaking gesture of lifting a veil that flutters in hard, metallic folds above the face of a kneeling slave; and I am standing puzzled, unable to decide whether the veil is really being lifted, or lowered more firmly in place; whether I am witnessing a revelation or a more efficient blinding.”

4.    4.  Symbolism- “No, I thought, shifting my body, they're the same legs on which I've come so far from home. And yet they were somehow new. The new suit imparted a newness to me. It was the clothes and the new name and the circumstances. It was a newness too subtle to put into thought, but there it was. I was becoming someone else.”

“What on earth was hiding behind the face of things? If dark glasses and a white hat could blot out my identity so quickly, who actually was who?”

“Then in my mind's eye I see the bronze statue of the college Founder, the cold Father symbol, his hands outstretched in the breathtaking gesture of lifting a veil that flutters in hard, metallic folds above the face of a kneeling slave; and I am standing puzzled, unable to decide whether the veil is really being lifted, or lowered more firmly in place; whether I am witnessing a revelation or a more efficient blinding.”

Diction-“ "They're my birthmark," I said. "I yam what I am!"

“Perhaps the part of me that observed listlessly but saw all, missing nothing, was still the malicious, arguing part; the dissenting voice, my grandfather part; the cynical, disbelieving part – the traitor self that always threatened internal discord.”

“On his deathbed he called my father to him and said, ‘Son, after I'm gone I want you to keep up the good fight. I never told you, but our life is a war and I have been a traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemy's country ever since I give up my gun back in the Reconstruction. Live with your head in the lion's mouth. I want you to overcome 'em with yeses, undermine 'em with grins, agree 'em to death and destruction, let 'em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open.’”

Setting- “Why do I recall, instead of the odor of seed bursting in springtime, only the yellow contents of the cistern spread over the lawn's dead grass? Why? And how? How and why?”

“Of course I knew he was a founder, but I knew also that it was advantageous to flatter rich white folks. Perhaps he'd give me a large tip, or a suit, or a scholarship next year.”

“’You too can be truly beautiful,’ a sign proclaimed. ‘Win greater happiness with whiter complexion. Be outstanding in your social set.’”

Structure- “I didn't understand in those pre-invisible days that their hate, and mine too, was charged with fear.”

“So after years of trying to adopt the opinions of others I finally rebelled. I am an invisible man.”

“Our fate is to become one, and yet many -- This in not prophecy, but description.”

Metaphor-“ Or again, you often doubt if you really exist. You wonder whether you aren't simply a phantom in other people's minds.”

“Perhaps you'll think it strange that an invisible man should need light, desire light, love light. But maybe it is exactly because I am invisible. Light confirms my reality, gives birth to my form.”

“I had no desire to destroy myself even if it destroyed the machine; I wanted freedom, not destruction.”

In Search Of.

     While watching the “Ted” video, I learned that Facebook actually takes all of your information as well as what links you click on and filters what is on your news feed. Google also does the same thing with what you search. This information makes me curious about what I am missing out on thanks to these "filter bubbles". I'm also a little bit worried about what or who is using my information and to what extent. It makes me actually want to know more about what the "gatekeepers" are keeping me from seeing. It made me wonder: At some point, are all websites going to be using filter bubbles? How will the Internet change as a result? How will it affect the average web surfer? I think that in order to improve the effectiveness of your search, you should be very specific in what you search and you should "filter" each site yourself. When I redid my Shakespeare search, I looked more carefully at the sites that came up. I made sure I recognized the site as a legitimate source of information, and not just some stranger’s blog about their opinions on Shakespeare. I went to more than just the first page of links that each search engine (Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Ask) provided me.

Notes on Hamlet

At the beginning of reading Hamlet, I thought it was going to be just like other tragedies. I was immediately surprised by the presence of a ghost in the first scene, and that this ghost had so much influence on the plot. As we read through the tragedy, I began to identify different aspects of a classic tragedy. I noticed Prince Hamlet was extremely troubled by the death of his father and the remarriage of his mother to his father’s brother soon after. Following his troubles through the play, it became apparent that Hamlet was not crazy, as many say, but young, passionate, and vengeful after finding out it was King Claudius, his uncle, who murdered Hamlet’s father. It seems that poor Hamlet knew that the testimony of a ghost would be an absurd reason for killing his uncle, so I believe that the play-within-a-play idea was genius. It shows that Hamlet actually thought his actions through, and was not just acting on impulse the whole time, as I initially thought. So far, through this play, I have evolved my thinking of Hamlet as a crazy, impulsive, young man to thinking of him as a passionate, vengeful person, and rightly so. I have also found this play has become easier to read and understand as we have been reading it. It is the most understandable Shakespearean play I have ever read.

Who was Shakespeare?

William Shakespeare is a historic figure known, if only by name, by almost every English speaker in the world. He is known as a genius playwright and poet, coming from a middle-class family in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. His father was John Shakespeare, who was a glove-maker, landowner, and held an office equivalent to the mayor in today’s society. It is believed that Shakespeare attended a local grammar school taught by teachers with degrees from Oxford. William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a farmer, at the age of eighteen and had three children. Shakespeare moved his family to London, where he was a successful actor and writer. He became an established poet and playwright, and a charter member of Lord Chamberlain’s Men theatrical company. He then became a partner, with James Burbage, in the Globe Theatre. He wrote plays that were performed for Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. After his creative output diminished in 1608, Shakespeare moved back to Stratford with his family and became an important member of the community until he died in 1616.

            All of this is accepted as fact about Shakespeare, but there is still a lot that is unknown about him. It is unknown exactly when he was born and what he looked like. People also question whether it was actually him who wrote such masterpieces as “Romeo and Juliet” and “Hamlet”. It is also unknown just how Shakespeare is connected to his works and how he had knowledge of court life, royalty, politics, and foreign countries when he had only lived in Stratford and London.

            Even with all of the exciting controversy over Shakespeare’s identity, students dread reading his works. They see it as a foreign language, nearly impossible to interpret and understand. Over the years, however, I have learned to appreciate the genius in his stories. Although, for the most part, I cannot understand half of what he is saying, the complexity of the characters and the plots is something that is truly amazing.  I have developed more understanding, it seems, of iambic pentameter, as well as the old English. However, sometimes it takes a few times and some discussion to completely understand what he is trying to get across.

            Even though there is controversy over whether the middle class son of an illiterate glove maker was truly the author of multiple genius poems and plays, there is no doubt that these works are a cornerstone of English literature. No matter how much high school students dread reading Shakespeare, it will ultimately give them an appreciation for English literature. Without Shakespeare’s works, who knows what novels, stories, plays, and movies would be like today?

To Facebook, or Not to Facebook?

Nearly everyone these days is on Facebook. Whether it’s for business or social purposes, Facebook has proved a very useful tool for networking. With so many obvious benefits apparent to the average user, the risks and drawbacks are often overlooked. An article by Emily Bazelon published by the New York Times discusses how Facebook can be putting the world’s youth at risk. This article makes its readers think about what Facebook is doing to us with, or without, our knowledge.

            I, personally, am an avid Facebook user, as I’m sure most teenagers are. I love the feeling of being connected with all of my friends nearly all the time. I also use it as a place to share my thoughts, pictures, and experiences with the world. Everybody that uses Facebook on a regular basis knows that great feeling when they log on and find their friends have messaged them, posted on their wall, or liked something they have posted. Facebook users feel more connected to their world and their friends than previous generations. Facebook is also a great tool for staying touch with friends who have never lived close or have just moved away. I met a ton of wonderful people at the National Young Leaders Conference in Washington, D.C. last year and, thanks to Facebook, I still talk to many of them.

            Facebook is also useful from a business standpoint. I know many small business owners, as well as larger companies, that use Facebook in order to stay connected to their customers. My favorite little store, owned by family friend, uses their Facebook page to make announcements about drawings, sales, and new merchandise.  Larger companies use their Facebook pages in a similar way, informing customers of new items just released, as well as about different events their company is affiliated with. This not only increases their sales, but it allows Facebook users to know what is happening in their communities.

            As beneficial as Facebook seems to be, it also comes with risks. When you sign up for Facebook, you are giving them permission to have and use the information you put on your page. You are also, whether you know it or not, making it possible for their advertisers to target you specifically. As Emily Bazelon’s article, “Why Facebook is After Your Kids”, points out, “What is clear is that Facebook thinks it needs access to kids’ lives in order to continue to dominate its industry.” Facebook is dependent on the information supplied by kids in order to stay on top. This means that they can get to any information you have on the site. In that sense, even if your page is set to “private” so only your friends, or friends of your friends, can see it, it really isn’t private. There are ways for just about anyone to view, and use, your information.

            With so many benefits, and an almost equal amount of risks, people need to think about what they are putting on Facebook, or any other website for that matter. Even after reading Bazelon’s article, I’m still going to use Facebook just as much as I always have. However, reading that article and knowing just how public even “private” information on Facebook is, I am definitely going to be more careful about what I post and the information I make available. While you shouldn’t let the risks completely scare you away from social networking, you should always have them in mind when you are posting, commenting, liking, or poking on Facebook.

(Don't) Be Hamlet

            Throughout Shakespeare’s Hamlet, a young man is forced to face adversity within his family and himself. Young Hamlet has to deal not only with the death of his father, but also with the fact that it was his father’s brother who was the murderer. In addition to this, he must face his uncle everyday as his mother’s new husband. In his soliloquy, Hamlet is trying to figure out just how he should handle this situation. “Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer; The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune; Or to take arms against a sea of troubles; And by opposing end them.” He has to take into consideration his royal stature, his personal morals, and his religious beliefs before he can make the decision whether to face the problems in his life or end his life.

            As a prince, Hamlet is in the spotlight of his country, forced to think of his reputation before himself. “To die, to sleep--No more--and by a sleep to say we end;

The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks; That flesh is heir to.” If Hamlet were to commit suicide, as he is considering, his troubles may be over, but his reputation would be forever tarnished by his inability to handle adversity. He would also force his mother to handle the social scorn of his actions. She would be forced to live with the embarrassment and grief of her son committing suicide.

            In his own mind, Hamlet is conflicted. He is not sure whether life itself, with all its troubles and challenges, is worse than death. “But that the dread of something after death,; The undiscovered country, from whose bourn; No traveler returns, puzzles the will,; And makes us rather bear those ills we have; Than fly to others that we know not of?” Hamlet cannot decide if what is unknown beyond the grave would be an improvement from his wretched life. The thought of the unknown scares him, but he isn’t sure if it scares him more than his life troubles him.

            There are also the religious conflicts Hamlet must face while dealing with this dilemma.  “Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,; And thus the native hue of resolution; Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,; And enterprise of great pitch and moment; With this regard their currents turn awry; And lose the name of action.” Hamlet, being brought up in a religious family, knows that suicide is a sin and if he were to commit it, he would go to Hell. He also knows his entire country would see him as a sinner, which relates to his first conflict.

            Overall, it isn’t in Hamlet’s best interest to commit suicide.  He would ultimately bring shame to himself and his family in the eyes of his country. He would be perceived as weak and incapable of handling troublesome times. Even in his own mind, he isn’t sure if it’s the best idea, and suicide is a decision you must be completely sure about. If in his own mind, Hamlet isn’t sure if death would be better than his life, he should not commit suicide. Religiously, Hamlet knows it’s wrong. If it is a sin, like he has always been taught, he has no interest in committing suicide because Hell couldn’t possibly be any better than his life is.