Macbeth

Macbeth is a character unlike any of the other characters presented in Shakespeare's plays. Instead of being fueled to get to the top by slaughtering off his enemies like Richard III, Macbeth is coaxed into becoming a killer and tragically when he starts, he can not scramble his way out of this path. This tragic sort of genre is one in which the reader can almost sympathize for. Every human understands the power of temptation and humiliation and in order to not be looked down upon by his own wife, Macbeth turns to murder in order to fight their way to the top. But, as tragedy would have it, being a murderer only gets Macbeth and his wife death, too, not the throne.

"Out, damned spot; out, I say. One, two,—why, then ’tis time to do’t. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier and afeard? What need we fear who knows it when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?" (Act V scene i lines 30–34)
These lines, stated by Lady Macbeth while sleep walking, sort of resembles both her and Macbeth's descent into tragic madness. Lady Macbeth was the reason her husband became a murderer in the first place. She challenged him into winning themselves power and fame, and she told him the only way was to get rid of those who may try to beat them there. Yet, in these lines, she is shown as a weak subject falling from reality because of the guilt welling up inside of her. Macbeth who was once portrayed as the one who could not "wash his hands clean of blood" reverses his role with his wife. Once she begins a descent into chaos and wishing she could take it all back, Macbeth has no driving force behind him anymore except the killer his wife had created in his mind.

Although Shakespeare's plays are always difficult for me to get into, I found myself enjoying this one the best out of all the plays in the unit. This play showed a man and a woman in reverse roles at the beginning and accurately portrayed the affects of outside pressure on a human being. I find that, if there was a character from this unit we had to connect to, it would be that of Macbeth because he possesses emotions and is weak in the face of humiliation and pressure; like so many people are.

Poem 238 - Riddle

This disturbing poem explores who exactly should feel the guilt for the killing of the Jews during the Holocaust. Many people of the time try to act as if they had nothing to do with it yet in reality they all played a part in allowing this genocide to occur. The whole poem, with the exception of stanzas five and six, follows a rhyme scheme in which the last word of the second and fourth line rhymes. This structure not only adds to the flow of the poem itself but also helps to create the sense that stanzas five and six are streams of thought. They do not follow the structure because the speaker is rushing to suggest what everyone was doing but how no one wants to admit that they played a part in the killing of the Jews. The speaker of this poem is also important to look at because he is an outsider looking in on the matter - he is just searching for answers. Had it been someone else, suppose a Jew themself or a Nazi officer, the poem would have been slanted, perhaps incorporating their own prejudices and anger into the poem and subtracting from its effectiveness.

Repetition is a huge essential part of this poem. Not only does Heyen reinstate the question, "Who killed the Jews" several times representing a desparate cry for a specific answer but there are other elements in which he repeats. In the first stanza he repeats "From" which signifies the numerous amounts of places in which they were destroying Jews. The second stanza he repeats "Not I, cries" in an accurate way to inform the reader that no one wants to take credit even though "the typist" probably type the death certificates, "the engineer" provided the transportation for the Jews to their extermination, and Eichmann and Speer obviously played hands on roles in the concentration camps. Then there is the repetition of the word "some" and "some men" representing what everyone was doing in playing a part in the extermination but still none of whom own up to actually killing the Jews. Another device that plays a major role in this poem is the rhetorical questions, especially "Who killed the Jews?". All the questions he poses in reality we know the answer to. Everyone is potentially responsible for allowing the Jews to die if they failed to do anything about it. Yet, stating the questions help reinforce the idea that no one is going to face these questions and admit the answers because they are ashamed.

All in all, I found this poem to be effective in that it forces the audience to think about their own actions. It also forces people to realize that they need to speak up and recognize how their actions, or lack thereof, do effect other people whether they want them to or not. Although the poem is gruesome and highly depressing, Heyen crafts it together in an innocent way. He is just searching for answers - for someone to come forward and admit they played a part. Sarcastically he reaches his audience by acting like he does not know the answers, and effectively he shows them how their neglectful actions did in fact make them murderers, too.

Poem 281 The Death of a Soldier

The speaker of this poem is an outside view - some one looking in and accurately showing the details of a soldier's death. This is effective in that they separate themselves from the event so that it does not become biased or glorified or de-glorified; it is what it is. It does not rhyme but is structured in an orderly fashion: three lines to each stanza. This structuring may possibly represent soldier-like life: always drilled out and following the rules.

This poem's main focus of representing the death of a soldier is found by the use of personification. Stevens states, "Life contracts and death is expected..." and "Death is absolute and without memorial". These statements signify how unimportant the death of a soldier is and how extremely different it is from anyone else's observed death. Personifying death, too, and not just a specific soldier's death is a significant way to bunch all of their deaths together making them even less specific and just something that happens. Another way Stevens effectively represents a soldier's death is not by his detailed description but by his lack of one and his ability to get straight to the point. The lack of details represents how the death is not really even thought about just easily passed on by the others around him. This lack of detail and metaphor such as, "Death is absolute and without memorial, as in a season of autumn, when the wind stops", shows how abrupt the death is but nonetheless ignored and unnoticed.

I thought this poem was effective in its interpretation of a soldier's death. Also in the time period, and even now perhaps, it effectively plays a role in opposing the war but not outwardly stating that. The poem does not offend but rather enlightens the reader on how cruel war is on a soldier and how deaths are "expected". It allows the reader to realize that their deaths are neglected and that is just how it is but it does not outwardly suggest that war is wrong and that we need to savor the lives of soldiers. It accurately, and quite subliminally, informs the reader on the realities of a soldier's life and death.

Poem 200 Woman Work

This poem possibly written during the women's movement represents the woman as hard-working. It shows Angelou asking for an escape from it all but also intends to show it's audience that, although the work women do is often over-looked, they are very demanding jobs to go through day in and day out. In the first stanza the structure is longer than compared to the other stanzas and also manipulates rhyme scheme much more effectively than the last stanzas. This adds to the fast flow of the first stanza which is meant to perhaps overwhelm the reader a bit to get them to feel how the woman doing the work is overwhelmed. Also the long structuring of it represents how the work is seemingly never ending and possibly makes their thoughts often scattered. The last four stanzas are perfectly four-lined structured which represents the speaker's thought processes as more calm and pleasant thoughts to think about. The last line that states, "the cotton to pick" suggests her being a black woman but nonetheless everything stated represents all women which I think is the main focus of this poem.

In the last four stanzas Angelou uses personification many times. Directly addressing different types of weather as if they were people and stating, "snowflakes cover me with white cold icy kisses". This personification reinforces the idea of finding an escape in the outside world, mostly in nature. She is not addressing people which effectively represents that she probably can not because most people back then did not view a woman's work as a tedious job to do. Instead by personifying the sunshine, rain, dewdrops, storm, snowflakes, mountains, ocean, leaf, and stone she shows how her job is otherwise casted out by society and the only refuge she can find is among nature. Also she carefully chooses the diction she uses which adds detail to the piece significantly. For example instead of just saying "Storm, blow me from here with your wind", she adds a detailed "fierce wind". This added technicality represents how in order for her to escape something strong enough must come along.

Overall this poem I found to be effective and easy to analyze because women of these times often fought for representation. They were often mis-interpreted and viewed as fragile and not capable of important tasks. In this poem, Angelou effectively signifies to her audience that a woman's work is not all dolled up and easy to do. I can also see how this poem probably was regarded with criticism if ever published in her time. She was probably viewed at, especially by men, as a whiner. That is not the point of the poem, though. The whole idea is meant to represent women as essential people in society and show that they too need to escape from their busy lives, too.

Poem 203 - On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High

This poem's whole idea is being signified through the imagery Berry crafts together. Turning his classroom into an aquarium and making a metaphor relating his students to fish, Berry shows his audience how his students absorb, instead of reject, the poetry discussion. He opens his poem up with a simile representing the students as obedient and rather fearful of what is to come. By the fourth stanza, though, he represents them in a simile, "Together we swam around the room like thirty tails whacking words till the bell rang" that shows their willingness to join in the discussion eagerly. He manipulates the use of alliteration, "frozen fish" "whacking words", which adds more poetic language to the poem and helps it to flow better. We are reading a poem about analyzing poems and the alliteration technique helps to separate creating a story from creating a poem.

Although the poem does not follow much of a rhyme scheme, the important aspect of this poem comes from the speaker of it. The speaker is the teacher and is more effective than if it was a student or outside source. Coming first hand from the teacher adds to the title of the poem in that it is from the perspective of the first-hand person teaching poetry to his students. If this poem had been written by a random student in the class, we may have got a more bias approach to what was occurring. If they were bored, they may represent everyone as being bored. Therefore, the teacher being the speaker of the poem is the most effective way in which the poem can be projected to the audience.

This poem was interesting to me because it is exactly why were blogging and what we have been focusing on for a while in class. In this way everyone in my class can relate to it personally. Some days we are "frozen fish" drowning in "an aquarium" because we do not understand a poem and are fearful of the one-sided discussion to come. Other times, we have those "gills", soaking and reciprocating the information we all get out of the poem. Especially when we easily recognize most poems are about slavery. (Just Kidding).

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

The journey of a young artist is displayed through Stephen Dedalus in James Joyce's novel. Whether or not this is Joyce's own self-portrayal, it accurately details the ups and downs that comes with finding yourself; especially when you are pressured by family, society, and religion. Throughout the novel, we see an emerging young man caught up in the conflicts of deciding to find his own internal happiness or living for other people in a false sort of ignorant bliss. This novel, with its creative manipulation of diction and language, portrays struggles any adolescent may face. Coming to terms with maturing, being introduced to sex and self-satisfaction, and determining a belief system that works for the individual inside of you are just a few of the conflicts we see Stephen deal with.

By the end of the novel, we see an obvious change and growth in Stephen. He finally realizes that his personal happiness will come from sacrificing his comfort and embracing life outside of the world he knows. On page 269, he states, "You made me confess the fears that I have. But I will tell you also what I do not fear. I do not fear to be alone or to be spurned for another or to leave whatever I have to leave. And I am not afraid to make a mistake, even a great mistake, a lifelong mistake and perhaps as long as eternity too." These statements represent an intellectual prosperity from the child we saw in Stephen at the beginning of the novel. Stephen, who once cringed at the thought of sex but still fell into its temptation, now openly can accept it as a part of life. No longer does he avert his eyes from women, no longer is he a good catholic just because he fears damnation and hell, and no longer will he attempt to satisfy society without first thinking of his own individual happiness.

Although at times, Joyce's writing was descript and so in-depth it got hard to follow, overall I enjoyed the novel. I thought it's themes and the portrayal of an emerging individual were extremely accurate still to this day. The journey Stephen goes through is a journey that many individuals deal with. Also, the diction and way in which Joyce writes and re-creates some scenes is extremely talented. I have never see an author grasp the realities of religous experiences and portray them more properly than James Joyce did in this novel.