Realism

*painting = imagination = Romanticism / photograph = detail = Realism*


TASK ONE:

+--The Story of an Hour--+

1) Details

I noticed right away Chopin's attention to detail. Realism stories generally include an elaboration of detail in order to prevent the reader from having to use their imagination. Not that imagination is a bad thing, but when you want to persuade a reader to feel a certain way, using elaborating details is an effective method. In The Story of An Hour, Chopin describes the scenery, the senses, and the thoughts and feelings of the character Mrs. Mallard in great detail.

"There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.
She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves."


2) Social Issue

Another effective means of persuading the reader is to describe a common life issue (this could be political, social, or personal). Usually, the author describes the issue and then uses the characters to react to the issue in a way that provides the reader with information on how some people respond to the problem at hand. In The Story of An Hour, Chopin elaborates on the issue of male-dominated marriages. Through Mrs. Mallard's reaction to her husband's death, the reader can understand that she felt suffocated under his dictation.

"When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: "free, free, free!"

"But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome."

`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
TASK TWO:

+--The Battle with Mr. Covey--+

1) My Response

Compared to Douglass's former disposition as a young slave, he's come a long way. I am appalled at how he came out of his prison of slavery such a strong writer with an innate sense of justice. This is a rare and incredible feat for anyone under such a harsh disposition as slavery. What I like most about Douglass's writing is his style and descriptions. He is very down-to-earth, and rather than bitterly, spitefully divulge the cruel details of his life (though after what he'd been through he was definitely entitled to) he lays the story out in front of you, explains how he felt, what he did, and leaves you to your thoughts. This is why realism is one of my favorite kinds of writing, though it often indulges on depressing or shocking topics.

With Douglass in particular, the way he explains situations is incredibly realistic (hence the name...) yet intricately laced with metaphors. I'm also fond of the way he refrains from writing in rage. Though he very well could have been angry or vengeful when writing, his story doesn't imply a tone of rage or yelling. It's much easier to understand a serious point when it is explained calmly, and this is most likely where the pressure of being a Realist lies. When an event occurs in your life that is particularly tragic or traumatic, the last thing you'd want to do is write calmly about it.

"If at any one time of my life more than another, I was made to drink the bitterest dregs of slavery, that time was during the first six months of my stay with Mr. [Edward] Covey."

"Mr. Covey succeeded in breaking me. I was broken in body, soul, and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute!"


2) Details

There is a plethora of detail provided in Douglass's The Battle with Mr. Covey. The story itself is fairly descriptive, but the scenes Douglass wants you to pay closest attention to are very clearly laid out. This is a very effective means of informative persuasion, especially in this story. Douglass wants the reader to understand the effect of the cruelties placed upon him. I noticed an especially descriptive point in the story: when Douglass describes the head wound he received from Mr. Covey.

"I then presented an appearance enough to affect any but a heart of iron. From the crown of my head to my feet, I was covered with blood. My hair was all clotted with dust and blood, my shirt was stiff with briers and thorns, and were also covered with blood. I supposed I looked like a man who had escaped a den of wild beasts, and barely escaped them."

Douglass also focuses on his own emotions in this story, spanning from submission to hope. I particularly enjoyed a paragraph near the end of the excerpt, when Douglass decides he will no longer take physical punishment from anyone.

"This battle with Mr. Covey was the turning- point in my career as a slave. It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood. It recalled the departed self- confidence, and inspired me again with a determination to be free. The gratification afforded by the triumph was a full compensation for whatever else might follow, even death itself. He only can understand the deep satisfaction which I experienced, who had himself repelled by force the bloody arm of slavery. I felt as I never felt before. It was a glorious resurrection from the tomb of slavery to the heaven of freedom. My long- crushed spirit rose, cowardice departed, bold defiance took its place; and now I resolved that, however long I might remain a slave in form, the day had passed forever when I could be a slave in fact."


2) Social Issue

Writing, as a way of communicating to the public, is extremely useful for conveying a hardship or social issue. Writers like Douglass have fully utilized this skill and used it to create a clear message to the world. In this story, the obvious issue at hand is slavery. Rather than provide examples of how Douglass is writing about slavery (because that should be really obvious) I'll show you some phrases in the story--regarding slavery, of course--that are much more intellectual and creative than flat out saying "Slavery is bad and I hate it with a passion". The examples I'll provide are much deeper than that, and contain the shocking proof necessary to convince anyone how a slave, a human being, was being mistreated. With these examples he portrays how his superiors regarded him as property, mistreated him, and took advantage of him.

"I spent that day mostly in the woods, having the alternative before me,- - to go home and be whipped to death, or stay in the woods and be starved to death."

"Master Thomas ridiculed the idea that there was any danger of Mr. Covey's killing me, and said that he knew Mr. Covey; that he was a good man, and that he could not think of taking me from him; that should he do so, he would lose the whole year's wages; that I belonged to Mr. Covey for one year, and that I must go back to him, come what might; and that I must not trouble him with any more stories, or that he would get hold of me."

"Mr. Covey enjoyed the most unbounded reputation for being a first- rate overseer and Negro- breaker. It was of considerable importance to him. That reputation was at stake; and had he sent me- - a boy of sixteen years old- - to the whipping- post, his reputation would have been lost; so, to save his reputation, he suffered me to go unpunished."

`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
TASK THREE:

+--Realism Example--+

1) Detail

The example I chose to provide for Realism is the movie "Stand By Me" directed by Rob Reiner (based on "The Body" by Steven King). As you may or may not recall, the movie follows four teen boys searching for the body of a missing local, a boy their age. The detail in this movie is abundant two ways: One, in the scenery and layout (it's much easier to show detail in a movie than with a book). The majority of the movie takes place in rural forest. Two, with the characters. The director stresses the boys' feelings and emotions throughout the movie: particularly how they feel about the search and how they feel about themselves. There are two conjoined scenes that I want to use as my favorite examples:

1) The initial discovery of the body:
The imagery is realistic; the boy's body appears as if it had been sitting for weeks: pale, grotesque, and stiff. The four boys' reactions are generally the same: shock and silence. Rather than focus on any one character's thoughts, the director plainly shows their reactions. The find had a very strong impact on the main character, Gordie, because his brother had recently died. The director makes a point to focus more on Gordie's initial shock and post-depression.

2) Gordie and Chris:
My memory of the events leading up to this next scene are a little vague, because I can't remember what the boys decide to do with the body. I'm pretty sure they either covered it or built it a stretcher... Like I said, vague. But more importantly, I remember that as the group was leaving the area, Gordie goes back and sits beside the body. The alpha male of the group, Chris, comes back and consoles him. Gordie, very upset and vulnerable, explains that he should have died instead of the boy they found. He believes his father resents him for staying alive when his brother died and repeats the line: "I'm no good."


2) Social Issue

This story has many social issues wrapped in the plot. I could go into great detail of many of them, but I'll focus on the ones that stuck out to me the most. One would be the social issue of death and how it affects a young generation. In this case, I'm referring to Gordie's dead brother and how Gordie is so deeply affected by it.

Another social issue I found apparent in the story was that of stereotypes: that young boys are supposed to learn to be tough and adventurous. The director disproves this with Gordie, showing the audience that "boys can cry".

As I mentioned before, there are many more social issues present in the plot, some more subtle than others, but those were the ones I found the most appealing.

Dark Romanticism

TASK ONE:

+--The Spectrum--+

I would fall closer to being a Dark Romantic than a Transcendentalist, but not by an exceeding amount. I believe some of the Dark Romantic ideas while rejecting others, and the same goes with the Transcendentalists. In short, I do not believe in original sin, I do not believe that everyone's thoughts are the voice of God, and I do not believe that every thought should be acted upon. However, I agree with the Transcendentalists in that with hard work and self-reliance, you can succeed and reap the benefits. I also agree with the Dark Romantics in that every thought in your head isn't be pure and wonderful and that there are corrupt people in the word.

`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
TASK TWO/THREE:

+--The Masque of the Red Death--+

1) Imagination

One major connection I've noticed between Dark Romantic authors is their attention to detail and elaboration on the bizarre. This is especially true with Poe. In the Masque of the Red Death, the metaphors are endless and I was constantly analyzing the different situations into meaningful symbols or ideas. One good example would be the description of the rooms.

"The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls, falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of the same material and hue."

Although seemingly realistic, the room descriptions prompted a sense of metaphor in me. One speculation I have is that each room represents different emotions or feelings. Kind of like those cheap mood rings you can buy that come with a list of different colors and their 'meanings'. (Generally, colors like blue are 'calm' while reds are 'angry'.) Another idea, spurred from one of Mr. Siegmund's, was that the rooms represent a passage of time--or a person's life--starting from the east to the west--or from birth to death (the last room, of course, is black).

In the few pieces of Poe's literature I've read, I've noticed there is always an object, or symbol, that represents something deeper. This object is usually unrealistic. In this case, I would mean the masked figure in The Masque of the Red Death. You would obviously need a good imagination to read about the masked figure, who is described as a corpse, because at the end his outfit turns out to be empty.

"...the revellers at once threw themselves into the black apartment, and, seizing the mummer, whose tall figure stood erect and motionless within the shadow of the ebony clock, gasped in unutterable horror at finding the grave-cerements and corpse-like mask which they handled with so violent a rudeness, untenanted by any tangible form."


2) Proof of Anti-Transcendentalism

There is a plethora of statements against the Transcendentalists concealed in this story (it seems to me that Poe had a very distinct way of proving them wrong). When Prince Prospero (a quite ironic name for him, really) took his people and fled from the Red Death, he eventually brought the end to them all. This is clearly a statement against Transcendentalist belief for these reasons: 1) Prospero followed his intuition but in the end it killed him.
2) Evil lurks everywhere; Prospero tried to hide away but he only ended up locking himself in with it.
When Poe describes the black room, I immediately thought that this could represent Prospero's 'grain of evil' (that Original Sin that the Dark Romantics believe in). This 'evil' ended up killing Prospero.

I'll use the ebony grandfather clock from the story as my last example. Poe, as a Dark Romantic, believes that Transcendentalists are fools for their belief in 'all good intuition and thoughts'. In the story, whenever the 'evil' clock chimes, the party would die down and everyone would appear worried and frightened. I believe that here, Poe was saying that even the Transcendentalists were worried of evil, simply because evil was everywhere.

"...there came from the brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was clear and loud and deep and exceedingly musical, but of so peculiar a note and emphasis that, at each lapse of an hour, the musicians of the orchestra were constrained to pause, momentarily, in their performance, to hearken to the sound; and thus the waltzers perforce ceased their evolutions; and there was a brief disconcert of the whole gay company; and, while the chimes of the clock yet rang, it was observed that the giddiest grew pale, and the more aged and sedate passed their hands over their brows as if in confused reverie or meditation."

`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
TASK FOUR:

+--The Raven--+

1) Imagination

As with most of Poe's writing, it's clear to see the different ways you must use your imagination while reading the piece. The raven is the best example in this story. There are many ideas and arguments about what the bird stands for:

1) It's a real raven that the character imagines talking to him because he's going crazy with grief
2) It's a figment of his imagination that represents his hopeless despair
3) It's a ghost or imagined demon come to depress him
4) It's a real bird that's actually talking to him

Any one of these would require a good deal of imagination to understand. The idea I chose to go with was number 2. In the character's misery and grief, he imagines an answer to all his questions. Will I ever see Lenore again? No. Will I ever feel better? No.
Perhaps then, if the raven is fictional, it represents more than answers to his questions. Maybe it represents his own beliefs. While trying to feel better, the main character's 'seed of evil' slowly takes over his mind and convinces him that his life will always be horrible. It just happens to take the form of a black bird because that is much more imaginative than the character sitting and talking to himself the entire poem.

"In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door -
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door -
Perched, and sat, and nothing more."


2) Proof of Anti-Transcendentalism

The evidence here for Anti-Transcendentalism is unmistakable. Poe uses the main character of the story as proof himself. In the beginning of the poem, the main character attempts to bury his fear of the tapping in the darkness by saying 'tis the wind and nothing more!' To me, this appears to be the character having dark thoughts of the unknown evils lurking outside his home--when he (as a representation of a Transcendentalist) should be assuming it's something good and harmless, like a visitor.

"Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before."

Then again, when the narrator is faced with the raven, he speculates that the bird is a gift from heaven to take away his sorrow and pain of the lost Lenore. Even when the bird says 'nevermore', the narrator still hangs on to hope, asking the raven if he will ever feel good or see Lenore again. Of course, the raven says, 'Nevermore'.

"`Wretch,' I cried, `thy God hath lent thee - by these angels he has sent thee
Respite - respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore!
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'"

"`Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil!...
On this home by horror haunted - tell me truly, I implore -
Is there - is there balm in Gilead? - tell me - tell me, I implore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'"

By the end of the poem, Poe is showing the reader that Transcendentalist beliefs are flawed and useless as the main character falls apart and gives up all hope. The raven represents all the doubt to his questions and hopes. His intuition, where as a Transcendentalist should soothe and guide him to feel better, ends up destroying and depressing him.

"And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted - nevermore!"

Independent Reading - WEEK SEVEN

Okay, so here's another week that I didn't read a darn thing (unless you count advertisements on the bus...). I'm planning on getting either the Twilight series from my friend or Catcher in the Rye from Mr. Siegmund. So far I'm leaning toward Catcher in the Rye simply because I'm not extremely excited to read Twilight (that series has been somewhat ruined for me by squealing fan girls and an obsessive society).