Hills Like White Elephants

Amanda Onalaja

February 18, 2010

AP English III

The interesting thing I’ve come to love and yet despise about Ernest Hemingway, is his ability to end a story with the reader constantly wondering. The Old Man and the Sea was the first of his works I ever read, and by the novel’s end I found myself debating over several possible inferences the story left behind. The same can be said for “Hills Like White Elephants”. Hemingway seems to enjoy encrypting his stories with hidden inferences meant to capture and saturate his readers with curiosity. Take for instance the first paragraph of the story; we are given a setting in Italy at a bar in the midst of a summer heat wave. Out main characters are a man which the narrator refers to as “the American”, and a girl. The paragraph has generously given us a setting; however, questions arise in readers as to who are these unknown characters and what is there relationship. The girl is later revealed to be Jig while the identity of our male character remains hidden. I believe this is an example of ethos because Hemingway portrays this male as unimportant by the lack of characteristics.

Another aspect of “Hills Like White Elephants” I found interesting was the depiction of the female character Jig. In short, there seems to be nothing mature about her. I noticed her odd nature when she compared the beer she was drinking to licorice only to have her “innocence” teased when the American said, “Everything tastes of licorice. Especially all the things you’ve waited to long for, like absinthe”. Upon learning that Absinthe was a form of alcohol I began to wonder how old Jig really was. Further reading enlightened me to the guardian-like persona the man had over her, especially when he seems to be coaxing her into some sort of “operation”. She almost has this childish nature in her when she begs, “Would you please please please please please please please stop talking” to the man.

Despite my small familiarity with Hemingway I have to say I was distressed with the story’s ending; expecting some sort of explanation for the conversation I had just read. Nevertheless, after carefully reviewing the story, I believe I’ve uncovered the hidden meaning behind Jig’s “operation”. The coaxing from the American, the guarantee of happiness, and the urge to please her companion led me to believe Jig has gotten herself into a tight situation, one that mirrors a modern day unplanned pregnancy. The phrase, “It’s just to let the air in”, made me realize Jig was undergoing something of an abortion. The calm way she handles his advances and worries confused me, but then again she was portrayed as somewhat naive therefore I assumed she just may not have known how big of a deal her situation was. Despite the anxiety the male seems to radiate I was surprised by him constantly reminding Jig that the decision was all hers, another clue that led me to my assumption.

Bernice Bobs Her Hair

Amanda Onalaja

February 17, 2010

AP English III – Pd. 2

Ms. Brown

“Bernice Bobs Her Hair” is a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The story was written in 1920 during the era of the infamous “Flapper movement”. Flappers were women of the 1920’s who revolutionized the modern woman. They were gutsy, frivolous, and characterized by short skirts and even shorter hairstyles. “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” is a witty snapshot of the trials of a young debutante and her transformation into a jazzy flapper.

The story line of “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” is blatant from the title; however, the conflict within the story shields the author’s motive. Written as a humorous guide to the author’s sister, this story is filled with sarcasm and the taboos of society. Take for example Marjorie Harvey, Bernice’s dynamic cousin, who was characterized as a “gardenia girl” for her extreme popularity. She constantly belittles her unusual cousin, referring to her as a “lame-duck visitor”. Even when readers believe she is truly good at heart for helping Bernice gain society’s approval, jealously rears its ugly head when Marjorie teases Bernice for just being a pawn in her game. Nevertheless, the vicious character that is Marjorie is too common; women like her exist in diluted forms. If not for her undermining Bernice, the rebellious actions of the story’s climax might never had erupted.

There is a hint of ethos in this story in regard to the very character a flapper must possess. In the 1920’s the bob was beginning to become a popular hairstyle, but the reaction to Bernice’s final decision was less than glorified. Hair was a woman’s virtue. When Bernice boasted on the idea of cutting her hair she was idolized, but when the deed was done she was ridiculed. I doubt she looked that bad, therefore I believe the author subtly added his own opinions on the topic of bobbing a woman’s hair. He obviously must have disapproved of it to let his character be mistreated so. Perhaps the author himself disapproved of the flapper movement entirely. It certainly seems to be the case, being as at the story’s ending was less than noble. Just as Bernice flees her relative’s home, she cuts off Marjorie’s hair in retaliation. Why does the author portray this act as a punishment? The short style was meant to uplift women as a catalyst for change; however the author uses this as a backlash for a rather disappointing endeavor. Not only that, but it screams inferences at the portrayal of women; catty and selfish creatures that act on whims and get caught up with petty drama. Nevertheless, if Fitzgerald’s aim was to write an entertaining piece then I believe he accomplished that, despite the story’s contradictions.

The Atlantic Exposition Address

Amanda Onalaja

January 12, 2010

AP English – III

Booker T. Washington, founder of the Tuskegee Institute, has always had, in my humble opinion, a creative way of wanting to establish the African American race. The opposite of W.E.B. DuBois’ “liberal approach”, Washington insisted on a vocational one, whereas give my race work and let us earn our keep; a view that has always earned my disapproval and criticism. However, in the chapter titled “The Atlantic Exposition Address”, from his autobiography, Up From Slavery, Washington illustrates the method behind the madness.

Ultimately at the Atlanta Exposition, Washington wanted to deliver a speech that would, “cement the friendship of the races and bring about hearty cooperation between them”. The reaction to his speech was better than he expected, but I couldn’t help but wonder why else they wouldn’t be. He preached that, “No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin and not at the top”, I agree that African Americans should not be ashamed to work, but it’s unconstitutional to have to work for our respect in a Nation that is equally our own. He follows with, “Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities”. In other words Washington believed that, we shouldn’t take a mile when we were barely offered an inch, but it is my argument that that inch and that mile should have been equally ours to claim. Washington harbored good intentions, but he chose the easy way out, and I believe anything worth struggling over, is work fighting for. After two centuries of tolling in soil and being degraded, I refuse to do the same thing over under slightly different conditions.

He was praised for wanting blacks to stay subordinates, “Just as soon as the South gets over the old feeling that it is being forced by "foreigners," or "aliens," to do something which it does not want to do, I believe that the change in the direction that I have indicated is going to begin”, until the whites allow them into civil society. He seemed to criticize DuBois’ theories by stating, “think, though, that the opportunity to freely exercise such political rights will not come in any large degree through outside or artificial forcing, but will be accorded to the Negro by the Southern white people themselves”, rebutting DuBois’ liberal education wants.

All in all I find it wrong to condemn Washington for his peaceful views. His ideal was the succession of the African American race regardless of what his methods were. He was probably right, even though some are too ignorant to take a glance at his perspective.

Of the Black Belt

Amanda Onalaja

January 11, 2010

AP English – Pd. 3

“Of the Black Belt”, is the seventh chapter of W.E.B. DuBois’ The Souls of Black Folk. The Black Belt is the southeastern region of the United States, extending from southwest Tennessee to east-central Mississippi and then east through Alabama to the border with Georgia. Known for its poverty and low education system, the Black Belt is an abundance of the Negro dilemma during the 20^th century. However, the area has negative effects for all races which inhabit it. The early 20th century brought a general economic collapse, among the many causes of which were agriculture depletion, the boll weevil invasion and subsequent collapse of the cotton economy, and the socially repressive Jim Crow laws. What had been one of the nation's wealthiest and most politically powerful regions became one of the poorest.

DuBois’ writing seems more to inform than to persuade. His use of rhetorical examination is clever. By filling chapters with tragic events such as those experienced by the residents of the Black Belt, he allows readers to draw upon their own conclusions, causing emotional turmoil. One can’t help but pity the poor man whose furniture was unlawfully repossessed at the chapters end. Cotton, one of the most old time successful crops no longer shared its abundance of fluffy softness, deepening cotton farmers in debt. DuBois recounts, “you may stand on a spot which is to-day the centre of the Negro problem,—the centre of those nine million men who are America’s dark heritage from slavery and the slave-trade”. True enough Georgia had a large population of African Americans.

Of Booker T. Washington & Progress

Amanda Onalaja

January 10, 2010

AP English III – Pd. 2

In the third chapter of The Souls of Black Folk, “Of Booker T. Washington and Others”, DuBois writes about the disadvantages on what may seem the opposite of his “liberal approach”. That is a vocational one; who better than Booker T. Washington to express this approach. I’ve always considered Booker T. Washington and DuBois as opposites. DuBois believed African Americans needed higher learning in order to make their way into a civil society, whereas Washington believed African Americans should seek economic leverage and then equality would come later. This very chapter discusses the “subtle” rejection DuBois feels for this approach.

The Tuskegee Institute to this day is a place where hose can learn a craft and perfect a skill. This approach is created with good intentions. Washington believed men and women should excel at their skill, which helped their movement as a people, however DuBois argues, “… nor Tuskegee could remain open a day were it not for teachers trained in Negro colleges or trained by their graduates”, ultimately stating education is the root to all success. It is the life water which can nourish the African American race if applied the proper way. Civic equality is what blacks needed, and being able to craft the sturdiest steel, won’t accomplish that. While complimenting Washington for his ideals, DuBois still politely discouraged them.

The fourth chapter titled, “Of the Meaning of Progress”, DuBois recounts his travels; meeting several families and persons along the hills of Tennessee. He illustrative each character from homely to rough, retelling the story of their demise or survival. The interesting thing, is that there is a moral to his madness, more than just a tale of strangers, inside lies the tale of progress. The children of those hills were eager to learn, but a string of mishaps, including the departure of their teacher Mr. DuBois, caught up with them along with life. “My log schoolhouse was gone. In its place stood Progress; and Progress, I understand, is necessarily ugly”. How can one progressive if a forward step are never taken, never even dreamed of being taken. Ambition is just a tool of progressivism.

Of Our Spiritual Strivings

Amanda Onalaja

December 9, 2010

AP English III – Pd. 2

The Souls of Black Folk is a collection of essays written by W.E.B. DuBois and other this influential persons. The first chapter, “Of Our Spiritual Strivings”, centers on DuBois coming to terms with our race’s role in America. A definite example of social realism, this chapter previews what many men and women of the African American brand had to search and sacrifice in times of slavery, how in many ways our liberation was truly not freedom, and how America would handle losing a resource it violated and humiliated.

DuBois makes a powerful statement when describing the “veil” he felt whites put up about him, “….no desire to tear down that veil… [I] lived above it in a region of blue sky and great wandering shadows”. He chose to overcome the limitations placed upon him by exceeding expectations, “that sky was bluest when I could beat all my mates at examination-time”. He compares his decisions to and actions to those of his peers, “their youth sunk into tasteless sycophancy or into silent hatred of the pale world about them and mocking distrust of everything white”. A positive versus negative approach is used, both in an attempt at pathos. DuBois’ felt knowledge is the greatest weapon against the mercy of their “superiors”; he believed a liberal education was the key to our race’s success. While others scorned the majority, he took academic action.

Being ashamed of who you are is highly discouraged, “He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows the Negro blood has a message for the world”, as stated by DuBois. How can one be African and American? “Two souls, two thoughts… two warring ideals in one dark body”. It was a battle amongst yourself, being a Negro slave. He goes on to illustrate how badly people wanted to bring these two different worlds together. Americans are always thought of as patriotic with fair skin, but why couldn’t Negro’s just be the ebony version? With the arrival of the emancipation came a bigger issue, suffrage. In order to uphold their freedom, Negro’s had to enter the government that corrupted them in the first place, lest suffer the chances of being enslaved again.. All in all, their freedom truly wasn’t freedom, “he felt his poverty; without a cent, without a home…” they were a handicapped people living with the little they had managed to secure.

The Minister's Black Veil

Amanda Onalaja

October 20, 2009

Pd. 2 – Ms. Brown

“The Minister’s Black Veil”, another short story written by Nathanial Hawthorne is an appeal to pathos. The narrative aims to stir emotions, especially those surrounding religion. The main character is Mr. Hooper, “a gentlemanly person, of about thirty, though still a bachelor, was dressed with due clerical neatness, as if a careful wife had starched his band, and brushed the weekly dust from his Sunday's garb”. Overall he’s depicted to readers as a well rounded preacher whom the congregation adored. He’s described as being good repetitively, “…good Parson Hooper… good Mr. Hooper… if good Mr. Hooper's face”, the story begins somewhat positively. Until readers are informed of the change in Mr. Hooper’s appearance, “There was but one thing remarkable in his appearance. Swathed about his forehead, and hanging down over his face, so low as to be shaken by his breath, Mr. Hooper had on a black veil”. The symbolic black veil is the focus of the entire story.

Coincidently, just as the congregation in the story, reader’s are not given too much information regarding the reason for the veil or the events that lead up to its obviously unexpected arrival, however immediately the church members become flustered and afraid, “Such was the effect of this simple piece of crape, that more than one woman of delicate nerves was forced to leave the meeting-house. Yet perhaps the pale-faced congregation was almost as fearful a sight to the minister, as his black veil to them”. The man the community once loved and praised has suddenly become suspicious of Mr. Hooper all at the sight and mystery of his veil. For example, at the funeral of a young woman, Mr. Hooper leans over in her casket but quickly retracts and grabs his veil as if afraid the corpse might see his face. This action was seen by a member and others begin conversing, “‘Why do you look back?’ said one in the procession to his partner. ‘I had a fancy,’ replied she, ‘that the minister and the maiden's spirit were walking hand in hand.’ ‘And so had I, at the same moment,’ said the other”.

Finally at the story’s end, when Mr. Hooper’s on his deathbed, readers get an understanding of the veil’s purpose, “Have men avoided me, and women shown no pity, and children screamed and fled, only for my black veil? What, but the mystery which it obscurely typifies, has made this piece of crape so awful? When the friend shows his inmost heart to his friend; the lover to his best beloved; when man does not vainly shrink from the eye of his Creator, loathsomely treasuring up the secret of his sin; then deem me a monster, for the symbol beneath which I have lived, and die! I look around me, and, lo! on every visage a Black Veil”. With his last breath, Hooper claims the black veil was like the sin of the world, which he felt he should take on, he also criticizes the people of his hypocritical community, for shunning him like a monster because they feared the unknown. However Hooper tried to prove his point, and suffered with the weight for years, one wonders why he continued to wear the veil in the afterlife.

Young Goodman Brown

Amanda Onalaja

October 19, 2009

Pd. 2 – Ms. Brown

“Young Goodman Brown” is a definite Puritan tale that appeals to pathos and ethos. Written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the story depicts a protagonist named Goodman Brown, a man of great religious faith. Likewise, his entire town is of Christianity, the perfect setting for a Puritan narrative. The events that take place, while fictional, happen around the time of the Salem witch trials. The trials were historic because nearly twenty men and women were accused of witchcraft and executed. This short story doesn’t focus on Puritan life, but the actual struggle as a Christian, wherein Goodman Brown’s faith is tested. The story also has a lot of symbolism, beginning with Faith, Brown’s young wife.

As the story opens, readers are introduced to Brown and his wife, whose one distinct feature is repetitive, “pink ribbons”. The emphasis of the pink ribbons led me to pay special attention to her character and what she represented. Just as her name entails, she is Brown’s faith, his faith in God and Christianity. Actually, when Brown was about to enter the forest and he met the mysterious figure he assured my assumption, “Faith kept me back a while”, was his response when the figure said he was late. Her name has two meanings; it could be his wife or his actual Faith in what he is doing. Another symbolism is the forest in its entirety, it’s said Puritans associate God with light and things holy, but the forest adventured by Brown was described as, “…a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest…It was all as lonely as could be; and there is this peculiarity in such a solitude, that the traveler knows not who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and the thick boughs overhead; so that with lonely footsteps he may yet be passing through an unseen multitude”. The forest must represent the devil since it’s described as lonely and dark. Not to mention the forest is the path Brown takes where he meets the witches and other evil people on his way to the dark meeting.

The appeal to ethos in the story are the biblical references, “was his staff, which bore the likeness of a great black snake, so curiously wrought that it might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself like a living serpent… So saying, he threw it down at her feet, where, perhaps, it assumed life, being one of the rods which its owner had formerly lent to the Egyptian magi”. The staff like a snake is from the Bible’s Book of Exodus where Moses directs Aaron to throw his staff before the Pharaoh’s throne. When he does, it transforms itself into a snake. The reference is ideal for a story with a Puritan setting since Puritan’s had the strict fear of God in them. It gives Hawthorne’s tale a more significant and religious standpoint instead of just being a fictional work of art.

The symbolism of “Young Goodman Brown” is the most important element of the story. When at the end, readers see that the “dream” Brown had, that depicted the evil sightings, actually changed his life. “A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man did he become from the night of that fearful dream”, Brown no longer enjoyed life for fear of the vision he saw. It was as if the forest represented the devil and also the Garden of Eden, and when Brown dreamt and saw all the evil of the world, he was cast out, forever to live in misery.

The Devil and Tom Walker

Amanda Onalaja

October 15, 2009

Pd. 2 – Ms. Brown

Washington Irving was a Gothic writer who wrote short stories such as “The Devil and Tom Walker”. The narrative is about a man so caught up in riches and wealth he sells his soul to the devil only to be condemned in the end. The protagonist, Tom Walker, is first described as, “a meagre miserly fellow”, one who is so poor and unhappy. Miserable to the point were he and his wife conspire against each other, each pining for avarice, “they were so miserly that they even conspired to cheat each other…and many and fierce were the conflicts that took place about what ought to have been common property”. The status of the couple’s marriage is seemingly important since it takes on a connection with their surroundings, “They lived in a forlorn looking house, that stood alone and had an air of starvation. A few straggling savin trees, emblems of sterility, grew near it…The house and its inmates had altogether a bad name”. True to the Gothic style, the entire setting of the story is depressing and gloomy, a direct appeal to pathos.

Aside from the eerie setting, our Tom Walker is also a shifty character himself. He and his wife often don’t get along, however when he has news of the immense wealth he could possibly earn from dealing with Old Scratch, the “black” man who symbolizes the “devil”, he tells her, “He was not prone to let his wife into his confidence; but as this was an uneasy secret, he willingly shared it with her”. This is an example of pettiness on Tom’s part. He tells his wife only to reassure himself he has gotten the better of her, but when she realizes she too will gain wealth Tom pulls back, “However Tom might have felt disposed to sell himself to the devil, he was determined not to do so to oblige his wife; so he flatly refused out of the mere spirit of contradiction”; thus driving her to see Old Scratch herself, never to return.

The death of Tom Walker’s wife was but short-lived as readers didn’t get much depth or information as to the events or reason why she dies, just a justification, “it was said a great black man with an axe on his shoulder was seen late that very evening coming out of the swamp, carrying a bundle tied in a check apron, with an air of surly triumph…for he recognized his wife's apron, and supposed it to contain the household valuables…Tom seized the check apron, but, woful sight! Found nothing but a heart and liver tied up in it”. The entire passage is ironic and cynical. It’s the greed and self-indulgence Tom constantly exhibits that leads him to suffer his ultimate fate in the story’s end, “The black man whisked him like a child astride the horse and away he galloped in the midst of a thunder storm…On searching his coffers all his bonds and mortgages were found reduced to cinders. In place of gold and silver his iron chest was filled with chips and shavings; two skeletons lay in his stable instead of his half starved horses, and the very next day his great house took fire and was burnt to the ground”. The story holds a satirical message to those who withhold greed.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Amanda Onalaja

October 11, 2009

Pd. 2 – Ms. Brown

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl was written by Harriet Ann Jacobs, but under the pen name Linda Brent. The pen name probably helped Jacobs to narrate the story without feeling guilty for the tales told within. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is an appeal to pathos and ethos, in which the story expresses deep emotional ties and references to God as an escape from Linda’s woes. In the opening sentence, Linda make an important remark, “I was born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of happy childhood had passed away”, this is a critical beginning because readers learn she had a shielded childhood. Why would her parent’s refuse to instill the workings of slavery in her, why wouldn’t they prepare her for the fate she was meant to endure? I believe not knowing, or not believing she was a slave helped her to manifest strength and self worth, to know she wasn’t a piece of property. That strength was necessary to survive. Readers become somewhat attached to Linda, our young protagonist that had to grow up too fast, “Such were the unusually fortunate circumstances of my early childhood. When I was six years old, my mother died; and then, for the first time, I learned, by the talk around me, that I was a slave”.

God is referred to in the narrative, and I’m sure those who read it in Jacob’s time connected with it, “These God-breathing machines are no more, in the sight of their masters, than the cotton they plant, or the horses they tend”. Jacob’s doesn’t call them “human beings” or “men”, she refers to the slaves as “God-breathing machines”, equal in God’s eyes but lesser in the eyes of their masters. In her preface Jacobs wrote that she was a bit hesitant to put her autobiography out there, but hoped reading it would make a difference. Beside those who may have been too ignorant to recognize her heart, I believe her strong words fell on deaf ears, but with countless examples of the suffering of a harmless race, how could one just ignore it?

The diction in the narrative is also very strong. In one paragraph Linda make reference to a woman who had to relinquish her children to slavery, “She may be an ignorant creature, degraded by the system that has brutalized her from childhood; but she has a mother's instincts, and is capable of feeling a mother's agonies”, the term “mother’s agonies” is a phrase all can understand, for we all can reciprocate to a mother’s love. Brent coins hard hitting phrases like this throughout the piece I’ve read, “Her sufferings, afterwards, became so intense, that her mistress felt unable to stay; but when she left the room, the scornful smile was still on her lips”, imaging the pain of slaves back then, that would watch their children die and be grateful knowing they wouldn’t have to suffer through slavery, says a lot about slavery. In fact, it says a thousand words. Even though Jacobs used add-ins like this that may have had nothing to do with her personally, I’m sure it gave the audience she directed it toward back then something to think about. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl carried a defiant tone, even though I believe Jacob’s didn’t want sympathy for the obstacles she faced. She just wanted a chance to express them.

Desiree's Baby

Amanda Onalaja

October 10, 2009

Pd. 2 – Ms. Brown

In the short story “Desiree’s Baby”, Chopin’s usual empowerment of women varied. The narrative is an appeal to pathos because it carries a heavy weight of emotion. That being said, the emotion deprives not from just the story, but the actual character of Desiree herself. It seems that Desiree has no identity since her background is unknown, “…when Monsieur in riding through the gateway of Valmonde had found her lying asleep in the shadow of the big stone pillar… the girl's obscure origin”. Even the title of the story makes one believe it revolves around her child, but in actuality it doesn’t, it just defines her character even more. Why would Chopin, an empowered woman herself, create such an insignificant role for Desiree? However bleak it was to know of Desiree’s seemingly unimportant role or of her future, it did add to the story’s appeal as readers experienced a flux in emotions as the story unraveled.

There was an abundance of foreshadowing in the story, beginning with statements of Desiree’s unknown past and Madame Valmonde’s reaction to the baby, “Madame Valmonde had never removed her eyes from the child. She lifted it and walked with it over to the window that was lightest. She scanned the baby narrowly, then looked as searchingly at Zandrine, whose face was turned to gaze across the fields. ‘Yes, the child has grown, has changed,’ said Madame Valmonde, slowly, as she replaced it beside its mother”, she is hesitant in her response to Desiree, the same with Zandrine who both notice something is amiss, unlike the new mother, who of course can not see nor feel anything but the joys of motherhood. Everyone at L’Abri seemed to notice a problem, “It had only been a disquieting suggestion; an air of mystery among the blacks; unexpected visits from far-off neighbors who could hardly account for their coming. Then a strange, an awful change in her husband's manner, which she dared not ask him to explain”, except Desiree. Little by little it pieced together, “She looked from her child to the boy who stood beside him, and back again; over and over. “Ah!” It was a cry that she could not help”, and soon realized her child contained some Black in him. It didn’t help when she confronted her mother with her beliefs and was given a diverted answer, “My own Desiree: Come home to Valmonde; back to your mother who loves you. Come with your child”.

The events that led to Desiree’s death were upsetting but not surprising. It bothered me to know Desiree so loved her husband and was so ashamed of herself that she would rather die than to be anyone’s burden. It also occurred to me that she was contrasted by Chopin. In the story’s opening, Desiree’s described as, “beautiful and gentle, affectionate and sincere - the idol of Valmonde…in her soft white muslins and laces…strands of her long, silky brown hair that hung about her shoulders”, altogether elegant. However, once her suspicious origin is thought to be defined as Black she takes a different persona, “Desiree had not changed the thin white garment nor the slippers which she wore. Her hair was uncovered and the sun's rays brought a golden gleam from its brown meshes”. She seems to lose her elegance when she loses her “whiteness”.

The Pit and the Pendulum

Amanda Onalaja

October 9, 2009

Pd. 2 – Ms. Brown

I may not have read many of Edgar Allen Poe’s works but, if anything, I know of him to be a Gothic writer. I know of his chilling stories without the use of gore and modern scare tactics. I know of his ability to create eerie situations and unexplainable events. That being said, “The Pit and the Pendulum” had to be one of his milder narratives. I say this because the story isn’t at all odd or creepy. It’s actually enjoyable in a sense that it has an underlying tone of optimism. The narrator actually struggles between an ultimatum – to die or to die. However, somehow Poe manages to find discrete ways to preserve his life and instead of focusing on the grim process of death in the Gothic era, as he usually does, he focuses on the mental process of escaping death.

“The Pit and the Pendulum” is a narrative piece, therefore it appeals to pathos. Poe wants nothing more in all of his stories than to initiate a reaction from readers. What triggered me was the unusual nature of our narrator. He is somewhat backwards in a sense that he does the opposite of what he says, “I felt that my senses were leaving me”, yet throughout the story we get a detailed sensory description of everything, from the “the tumultuous motion of the heart, and, in my ears, the sound of its beating” to the view of the dungeon, “now to be iron, or some other metal, in huge plates, whose sutures or joints occasioned the depressions”. The tone of the story, which is hopeful, helped in its appeal to pathos because readers were interested in the narrator’s determination. Our narrator doubted himself, “I had little object -- certainly no hope…”, and at some points accepted defeat, “The odor of the sharp steel forced itself into my nostrils. I prayed -- I wearied heaven with prayer for its more speedy descent. I grew frantically mad, and struggled to force myself upwards against the sweep of the fearful scimitar. And then I fell suddenly calm, and lay smiling at the glittering death, as a child at some rare bauble”. Then he would think of these plans to save himself, “I had thought of forcing the blade in some minute crevice of the masonry, so as to identify my point of departure”. Basically, he struggled with utter defeat but if and when he found a shred of opportunity, he would take it, for example the quick acting way he used the chunk of meat to entice the rats. I think Poe might have enjoyed writing this piece, because it kept the audience half disheartened. It seemed our narrator escaped one death trap just to wind up in another one.

The story, overall, doesn’t dive into anything horrifying or in my eyes gory and graphic. In fact, I think Poe purposely averted that. He sets the stage in the time of the Inquisition, where he would have had the freedom to create all kinds of reference to torture. Instead, he focuses on the trials of the narrator and not the reasons of his imprisonment, or his capturers. We don’t even learn of their identities or what happened to them the exact moment he was freed. Actually, that made the story’s end somewhat disappointing. It seemed that Poe was so unused to a happy ending; he didn’t know how to do it! Poe just left our narrator on the brink of death, seconds away from falling into the pit, and then just saves him and ends the story. The ending was so untraditional, but welcomed, that Poe painfully made it brief.

The Fall of the House of Usher

Amanda Onalaja

October 9, 2009

Pd. 2 – Ms. Brown

If one has never read a piece by Edgar Allen Poe then surely you’ve heard of him. His eerie style of writing can be traced back to the Gothic Age. Poe examines the human psyche in his odd yet carefully pieced tales. Many if not all of his stories challenge the limits of your average mystery and actually dive into the mentality of his characters. That can also be said about “The Fall of the House of Usher”. The story was somewhat challenging to understand but piece by piece I believed I figured out the underlying angst. In “The Fall of the House of Usher”, Poe uses the common myth of being buried alive to scare his readers. It actually makes me wonder the mental state of Poe, who wrote so many horrifying stories and I really do wonder what kind of menacing images he had thought of to base so many narratives on them.

“The Fall of the House of Usher” is if anything a definite appeal to pathos. The story carries a supernatural tone from beginning to end, “During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher”. The opening sentence seemed to set the entire setting of the story. The use of depressing imagery such as, “dull, dark, soundless, oppressively low, alone, dreary, shades, and melancholy”, convey the exact factors needed in a Gothic story like this. In fact, the entire first paragraph is used to address the haunted looking manor of Usher.

Aside from the story’s obvious tone, Poe’s credibility also had a factor in this story. Poe likes to shroud his readers with an air of mystery, and for one thing, we never got to know our narrator’s identity, when or where these events took place, or even what inclined the narrator to accept this invitation. Furthermore, we learn that the narrator and Usher are supposed to be childhood friends, but it seems the narrator knows little about him, “Although, as boys, we had been even intimate associates, yet I really knew little of my friend”. The vagueness of the story adds to the tone. There’s also a peculiar connection between the house and it’s residents, “in other words, that the entire family lay in the direct line of descent, and had always, with very trifling and very temporary variation, so lain…the “House of Usher”—an appellation which seemed to include, in the minds of the peasantry who used it, both the family and the family mansion”. It’s almost as if the house exists through its single line of descendents. It’s practically foreshadowed by Usher himself, “‘I shall perish,’ said he, ‘I must perish in this deplorable folly. Thus, thus, and not otherwise, shall I be lost. I dread the events of the future, not in themselves, but in their results.’”.

As assumed, there is a plot in Poe’s madness, the relationship between Madeline, Roderick, and the house. “…and looked upon the face of the tenant. A striking similitude between the brother and sister now first arrested my attention; and Usher, divining, perhaps, my thoughts, murmured out some few words from which I learned that the deceased and himself had been twins…”, at nearly the narrative’s end we learn that not only are they siblings but twins which makes the story’s climax much more understandable. Because Madeline is physically sick, Roderick is practically mentally sick, as in what afflicts one twin afflicts the other. It’s almost a weird psychic connection between the two which becomes even more prominent when Roderick announces his sister’s mistaken burial, “We have put her living in the tomb! …Madman! I tell you that she now stands without the door”. In her last resolve Madeline falls upon Roderick, scaring him to death, which frightened our narrator, causing him to flee from the manor before it could collapse, enclosing its last remaining inhabitants.

The Story of an Hour

Amanda Onalaja

September 29, 2009

Pd. 2 – Ms Brown

“The Story of an Hour”, written by Kate Chopin, is another story revolving the experiences of women. However short, the narrative is filled with hidden meaning and overall rhetoric. Its protagonist, Mrs. Mallard, embodies characteristics of women in Chopin’s time. One might even say Chopin herself might have held the same notions and feelings as her character did.

As the story begins we’re introduced to a woman “with heart troubles” who’s husband has just died. The very character of Mrs. Mallard is odd. “She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength” and “…as her two white slender hands would have been”, she is described as somewhat powerful for a woman with a heart so frail. She is dynamic from her initial reaction to her husband’s death, “she wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms” to the optimistic view of her newfound freedom, “she would live for herself”. This ironic and paradox character is an appeal to pathos all on her own. She definitely triggers certain suspicious moods and reactions in readers.

Chopin also details the slightly isolated life of our Mrs. Mallard. “And yet she loved him – sometimes. Often she had not.” This tells a lot about Mrs. Mallard’s or rather Chopin’s view of freedom. It seems Mrs. Mallard was almost a prisoner to her husband even though she cared for him. “There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature” in this passage I feel Chopin is speaking of marriage. She possibly loves her freedom as an independent woman and views the terms of marriage are just barriers on people. Furthermore in regards to independence, Mrs. Mallard’s first name, Louise, wasn’t revealed until near the story’s end. It wasn’t until she had claimed her own freedom and fully embraced it that we no longer called her Mrs. Mallard, but Louise.

Lastly, at the story’s end when we find that Mr. Mallard isn’t dead and it was all a mistake, our weak Louise can not handle the news. However, “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease – of the joy that kills”, the last line is somewhat misleading. So far Louise has just undergone a transformation, she has embraced her independence. From her hysterical cries and sorrow she found a silver lining, but it was taken back from her. The doctors are assuming she died because she couldn’t take the excitement and joy from her husband’s safe return, but I believe she couldn’t take the pain of the new life she had just become attached to being taken away from her.

The question that arises in me however, was the meaning behind not WHY she died but WHY DID the narrator choose to kill her off? Maybe her death was the ultimate freedom, it took death to realize her independence, but possibly it was her death that had to be achieved and not her husband’s. At the same time it could have been a justification for her “wicked” happiness at the loss of her husband’s life. Regardless it ends on a cliffhanger just as Chopin often does.

Sojourner Truth

Amanda Onalaja

September 28, 2009

Pd. 2 – Ms. Brown

Sojourner Truth was a strong willed abolitionist. Born Isabella Baumfree, she clung to her well known title after a religious experience. From then on she expressed the lack of African American and women’s rights. The speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?” addressed to a Women’s Rights Convention contradicted assumptions regarding gender and the “roles” of women. In her speech, Truth appeals to ethos and pathos with powerful examples and fiery emotion.

There are supposedly two accounts of “Ain’t I a Woman?”, one written by Truth herself and a revised version crafted by Frances Gage nearly 30 years later. The message in both accounts are the same, however the change in syntax truly appeals to Truth’s credibility. In one version the dialect is that of a black woman of her time, “I tink dat ‘twixt de niggers of de Souf and de womin at de Nork…”. In the other, “I think that ‘twixt the negroes of the South and the women of the North…”. The change in syntax illustrates two woman, one educated and well-known of the English language, the other somewhat illiterate, but still knowledgeable. The question being which one can be labeled as Truth’s work. If the broken English is hers, it displays how proud Truth is to be a black woman. She was able to renounce social barriers and express herself in her natural tongue while still keeping its flame. However, if it’s not Truth’s work and was written by Frances Gage, what was she trying to prove? That Truth’s speech should have been displayed in that form? In it’s raw state, unlike the proper standards written by their society? It’s obvious there’s a high level of pride in the authors.

Other examples of ethos are her relations to woman and religion. She “pints out” the minister and contradicts views that women are less equal because Christ was a man. “Where did Christ come from … From God and a woman”, she states. Her biblical evidence can’ be counted out, especially amongst Christians. Jesus was birthed by Mary, a woman; Truth argues that Man, who had no involvement, shouldn’t be considered better than Woman. She continues using Eve as an example, “If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down, all alone…”, this reference is almost the climax of the speech. She makes a very critical point, woman are capable of many things.

Aside from creditability, the speech appeals to ethos because of emotional responses it targets, “I have borne thirteen children and seen them almost all sold off into slavery, and when I cried out with a mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard”. It would take a strong will to suffer some of the torment she endured. Her strive and determination entices her audience, as clearly expressed through the side notes of the speech.

The Wiz

Amanda Onalaja

September 22, 2009

Pd. 2 – Ms. Brown

Whether you’ve read the novel or watched the movie, The Wizard of Oz, is a heartfelt story with any different concepts. The protagonist, or main character, Dorothy is cast off from her hometown of Kansas to a magical land called Oz. She encounters a scarecrow, a tin-man, and a lion, each joining her party in a search for the Wizard of Oz and a wish of whatever their heart desires. In an adaptation, The Wiz, the storyline is similar, expect for the memorable cast including Diana Ross and Michael Jackson, and the modern environments. However, one concept that truly shines is Dorothy’s realization of the meaning of family.

In the first scenes of The Wiz, Dorothy’s Aunt Em is hosting a Thanksgiving dinner party. As Aunt Em and the guests sing, Dorothy looks about the dinner table with cheerless expressions almost as if she doesn’t fit in. In the middle of the carol, she hurriedly excuses herself from the table and into the kitchen where she continues a glum version of the song, “Lose it, lose it, I don’t even know the first thing about what they’re feeling”, she seems to question herself. The setting in Aunt Em’s home is cheery and joyful, but Dorothy sticks out. Her character isn’t defiant just distinct in her manner of operating.

However, we see Dorothy’s character progress throughout the story. From the moment she lands in Oz she begs and pleas to return home. The dependent side of her breaks through as the once “wanted to handle my life on my own Dorothy” now sees she needs help and the safety and comfort of home, the same safety and comfort that is brought out by family. She constantly clings to her dog Toto, every moment he runs off she nearly breaks down into hysterical tears, seeing as he is the only thing tying her to the reality she believes still exists in New York.

As the story progresses the scarecrow, tin-man, and lion are introduced into the story. Through different trials the party subtly gains the things they desired without help from the Wiz. Dorothy displays maternal actions such as comforting the others in times of stress too, “It’s all right, everything’s all right”. When it comes time to meet the Wiz, she even defends her friends saying they’re her “companions” and she won’t see the wizard unless her fiends can too. By now Dorothy expresses her gratitude for the party’s company throughout her quest to go home; she sticks by them just as family would.

When all is said and done, Dorothy is thankful for the experience and friends she has met but she is grateful to go home. She learned the value of family; people who stick by you through thick and thin and love you unconditionally, just as her friends did. Without them she wouldn’t have been able to face the obstacles she had and eventually find herself and her purpose. Many could learn about family values from characters like her.

"Spontaneous Me" Analysis

Amanda Onalaja

September 16, 2009

Pd. 2 – Ms. Brown

“Spontaneous Me” can very well be described as a list of random subjects. The poet, Walt Whitman embodies randomness and spontaneity, or so one may think. The first line repeats the title and the topic, Nature. While the poem appears impulsive, the images Whitman expresses do have a common link with nature. The importance of his “list style” is the requirement to infer the poems overall relationship with its topic – How is Whitman connecting these different events? Not to mention his purpose for comparing them. In “Spontaneous Me” Whitman appeals to pathos with his uses of refined imagery. He discusses Nature and it’s relation to humanity or rather humans and their relation with Nature.

What readers may not realize is that Whitman mixes human nature and non-human nature in this poem. “…The friend I am happy with, the arm of my friend hanging idly over my shoulder” and “Two sleepers at night lying close together as they sleep, one with an arm slanting down across and below the waist of the other” are examples of the human nature Whitman expresses. Each quote depicts a natural instinct of love in humans. The non-human side is displayed through everyday nature, “…hillside whiten’d with blossoms of the mountain ash” and “The rich coverlet of the grass, animals and birds”. All of the examples given are characteristics of nature in some form.

However, Whitman indulges in the human side of nature in a more sensual way – the nature of sexual desire. “The hairy wild-bee… that gripes the full-grown lady-flower, curves upon her with amorous firm legs, takes his will of her, and holds himself tremulous and tight till he is satisfied” that passage radiates sexuality, but in a sense it still is a metaphor for nature by human and non-human standards. “Love-thoughts, love-juice, love-odor, love-yielding, love-climbers”, the word “love” is repetitiously used to emphasis a sexual connection with many things, although “love” may not be the same as “sexual desire”, like Whitman is talking about.

Overall, I believe the poet is using nature to bury his true gist of the poem. He practically announces the significance of the poem in the eighth and ninth lines, “The real poems, (what we call poems being merely pictures)/ The poems of the privacy of the night”, he speaks of something obviously sexual. Whitman is trying to say he believes sexual desire is natural. “The poems” he speak of are phallic, “This poem drooping shy and unseen that I always carry, and that all men carry, (…our lusty lurking masculine poems)”. Whitman intertwines the body, love, and passion together to get poetry. “The curious roamer the hand roaming all over the body”, “the young man all color’d, red, ashamed, angry”, and “the young man that flushes and flushes, and the young woman that flushes and flushes”, are all examples of natural sexual instincts.

Whitman embraces the nature of his manhood and is unashamed. He feels there is a “great chastity of paternity, to match the great chastity of maternity” and will not be afraid to express his desires as a human. He also appeals to ethos and gives biblical credit when he writes, “The oath of procreation, I have sworn, my Adamic… [I] shall produce boys to fill my place when I am through”, reminding readers he is a descendant of biblical character Adam and therefore must recognize his duties (producing offspring or not) as a man.

Phillis Wheatley

Amanda Onalaja

September 15, 2009

Pd. 2 – Ms. Brown

Phillis Wheatley grew up as a very privileged woman of her time. Not only was she female and African American, she was highly intelligent. She was born into slavery and sold to John and Susannah Wheatley. With the Wheatley’s she experienced a surreal form of slavery, she was accepted and raised as one of the Wheatley’s own children. She developed quickly with reading and writing. Wheatley was a truly an influential person as her admirers saw in her “the triumph of human spirit over the circumstances of birth”. She is considerable the first African American to publish book. However, her gifts were questioned as John Wheatley, John Hancock, and others had to prove her originality, “[Phillis] had been examined and thought qualified to write them”.

Not only was she a literary genius, but Wheatley was a wise woman; commenting on the issues of slavery, “It does not take a philosopher to see that the exercise of slavery cannot be reconciled with a principle that God has implanted in every human breast, “Love of Freedom””. This quote is an appeal to pathos and ethos. God is her credited source; slavery can’t co-inhabit with man because God designed man to be free. It’s an appeal to logos because she uses imagery to paint a picture of a man torn between society’s ways and the natural way of God. Wheatley didn’t seem to be an abolitionist, but she made her views on slavery clear with another passage from a poem, “Such, such my case. And can I then but pray/others may never feel tyrannic sway”. The “tyranny” she speaks of is oppression, but she uses a word associated with evil people like despots and villains. Wheatley, however, doesn’t always sing the praises of her roots.

In “On Being Brought from Africa to America” an original poem, there is a patronizing yet saccharine tone to it. “… Some view our sable race with scornful eye, ‘Their color is a diabolical dye’. Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain, may be refined and join angelic train”. Wheatley refers to Negroes as descendants of the biblical Cain, those who are supposedly cursed for his crime, but she sounds patronizing in the sense that she emphasizes her audience by calling them “Christians”, subtly hinting that they should think in pious fashion. In a sense the Negro Christian and White Christian share a common bond which only Wheatley knows or seems to acknowledge. Wheatley displays distaste for oppression in more ways than just racism. In her poem “To His Excellency General Washington”, she expresses her anticipation of victory in freeing the colonies from England. She envisions victory even though in this period, victory leaned on the side of Britain.

Thomas Jefferson

Amanda Onalaja

September 14, 2009

Pd. 2 –Ms. Brown

Thomas Jefferson is one of our founding fathers; he along with several other men signed the Declaration of Independence and is the reason why today we don’t hail to a queen. He was a man who fought against slavery, ironically he dabbled with slaves in his personal life, but furthermore he helped certify a holiday celebrated across the U.S. In his autobiography he writes of the trials with trying to ratify the declaration along with the departure from English rule. In the passage, Jefferson describes the days leading to the declaration’s signing and the original and revised versions.

The Declaration itself is an evident appeal to pathos. The comparison between the original and revised version highlights the change in tone from the change in diction. The passage isn’t as harsh; it holds a calmer and refined tone as if it’s holding back its true meaning. “… The present king of Great Britain is a history of unremitting injuries and usurpations”, the underlined portion was replaced with “alter”. Another example, “[The king of England] has suffered the administration of justice…” the underlined portion was replaced with “by”. The original diction had more power because the phrase were uncommon and stronger than there new substitutions.

Not all of the Declaration was replaced however. In fact, paragraphs were removed. An entire paragraph on the king’s neglect toward his people has removed. I suppose congress wanted to stay on task and write of their new found independence rather than their dislike and disloyalty to monarchy. It almost seemed like a persuasive essay on why the king was considered bad instead of proclaiming themselves free.

Coincidently, given Jefferson’s history and his relationship with slaves, I found some excerpts to be highly hypocritical. “He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns and destroyed the lives of our peace”, it sounds as if these are the words of the Native Americans, the same inhabitants of the Americas that we’ve come to claim as our territory. It’s ironic how the declaration was about securing the liberties of man; however they were for the white, northern man. The entire passage appears patriotic, but how can it be if its notions don’t apply to all men?

Huswifery

Amanda Onalaja

September 9, 2009

Pd. 2 – Ms. Brown

The life of a Puritan is known to revolve around one thing–God. So it was no surprise when reading Edward Taylor’s work it expressed his want to be reformed by the Lord. His writing differs though, unlike Anne Bradstreet’s writing that was somewhat prosaic, Taylor’s writing is a little more in-depth wherein you have to infer and analyze the metaphors he uses. “Huswifery”, however cleverly written, was nothing I expected by the title alone. I thought of a married coupled since “huswifery” looks like husband and wife mixed together. But, instead I read an account of a man who wants God to take control of his life.

“Huswifery” is an appeal to pathos because the narrative left me feeling empathetic. Taylor relates to God through a daily task for Puritans of that time, operating a spinning wheel, “Make me, O Lord, thy Spinning Wheele compleat”. Using the spinning wheel as a metaphor for his place with God was good because he and other Puritans could better understand their connection. Modern day, we might not be as subtle and directly say something such as “Lord mold me into a better man”; maybe a phrase like that would be easier to understand because we hear something like that often or about someone becoming a better person because they want to be saved. Taylor continues to weave his qualities with everyday knitting to further highlight the act of God manipulating his life.

Taylor also expresses his belief that one cannot expect to find true salvation without first reaching for God. A spinning wheel cannot operate on its own, it needs someone to guide its movements and actions, “Then cloath therewith mine Understanding, Will, Affections, Judgment, Conscience, Memory”. The process of God weaving in out of mankind applies to all man, but in Taylor’s case, he wants God to leave behind a better man; a man with grace and overall salvation. It also seems to follow the path of predestination, since he writes as if one cannot take control of their own lives; that it is only by God’s hands can you be worthy of such grace.

Aside from the overall meaning of the poem, Taylor’s syntax is unlike that of present day. On common words readers notice a silent “E”, “worde”, “mee”, “reele”, etc. The “E” is something I’ve noticed on old shops or retro restaurants called “The Shoppe”. It isn’t used often but the use of it in Taylor’s writing is evidence of its old age and times.