Category: Literature

Summary

Moon. The story of Moon starts with the description of a girls affection to two blond twins who managed to humiliate her in the most violent way. This was a Chinese-American fat girl who took a revenge on those boys and provoked the car accident so that boys died.

The relationships with parents and their attitude to their daughters action reflect the nature of Chinese culture when her mother calls her a slut and her father goes on about the Sino-Japanese war (Chin 15). Justice is the main aspect of the story when a girl grows up and can afford not feeling oppressed by blond twins that used to humiliate her by pissing on her face.

Cake. The parable about twin sisters starts with a story when a woman from the neighborhood offered girls a pie if they come to the Christmas service with [her] and accept Jesus Christ, our lord, into [their] hearts (Chin 27). As girls had another religion, the woman tried to convert them into Christianity.

The girls parents worked hard and their grandmother looked after them. So, she invented a method to make the Christian woman leave the girls alone with their native religion. Though granny died a few years later, the girls did not want to learn the lesson of their culture and religion; the only thing they knew was that they did not ever want to be as poor as before.

Literary Criticism

Literary criticism is reflected in the article written by Lucy Ellmann in The Guardian who claims that there is no single emotional center in the book however it is full of details which becomes the core positive aspect of the whole boon.

In other words, Ellmann reflects on the book from her personal perspective and manages to indicate the most prominent feature of this work presented with the help of a variety of theological, biological, and other concepts as well as historic and cultural details that enhance understanding of American and Chinese cultures.

Related Works

One of the related works that shares its main theme with the Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen is the book by Pin-Chia Feng Diasporic Representations: Reading Chinese American Womens Fiction where the author reflects her understanding of Chinese American literary works on various topics.

Relations between family members and the difference between American and Chinese cultures are vividly enlarged on in this book that also demonstrates well-known concepts typical of the Chinese culture such as memory, honor, hierarchy in the family, and combination of cultures that gives rise to a set of brand-new concepts and values applicable to both cultures.

Comparison of Two Characters

Choices. The main characters of the parables are twin sisters who have different choices in their life with regard to their lifestyle and values. One sister was beautiful from the very beginning and helped her parents with the running of a restaurant whereas the second girl was fat but she took a revenge on the people who used to humiliate her and became a beautiful young woman as well.

Motivations. The motivations for two girls were different as the beautiful one knew about her attractiveness whereas the fat one wanted to show people that she could do better.

Historical Circumstances

The period of time reflected in the parables coincides with the contemporary one when more attractive people can humiliate the fat one and the combination of Chinese and American cultures. Multicultural issues as well as combination of different values typical for various cultures is the main historical environment for creation of the text when political and business issues are closely related to culture and its perception. The world is in the condition of continuous conflicts and wars when a lot of misunderstanding rises due to miscomprehension of values typical for different cultures.

Reflection on the Text

I believe that the text of the parables does not reflect all the conflicts that may occur in the everyday life of Chinese people who live on the territory of the United States. However, it is possible to learn more about the relationships of members in Chinese families and customs that take place in their daily lives. In addition, every person who knows what the Chinese culture looks like would understand that every Asian has some difficulties related to his/her identity and background.

Discussion Questions

What emotions do readers feel when reading about humiliation?

The widest range of emotions is experienced in the process of reading and each story provokes different feelings. When the author writes about humiliation, the readers want to offer the girl some alternative options on how to act with those trashy twins.

How is it possible to use concepts from different cultures to reflect the same ideas? Did the author manage to do this naturally?

The author uses allusions on different American and Chinese concepts and individuals which contributes greatly to the understanding of both cultures.

Works Cited

Chin, Marilyn. Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen: A Novel. New York: W. W. Norton, 2009.

Ellmann, Lucy. Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen: A Manifesto in 41 Tales by Marilyn Chin. The Guardian, 2010. Web.

Feng, Pin-Chia. Diasporic Representations: Reading Chinese American Womens Fiction. Piscataway, NJ: Translation Publishers, 2011. Print.

Ganeshananthans, Hippocrates, is a wonderful short story which reveals the sufferings caused by the ethnic violence in Sri Lanka. Like her novel, Love Story, it probes into the terrific nature of the human situations in which human life loses all values and relationships.

The narrator in the story says that there was no point in discussing what had already happened (Ganeshanandan, 1). The cruelty inflicted by the Sri Lankan soldiers, particularly on women, has caused lasting wounds, both physical and mental, for which there is no cure available, feels the narrator. This paper is an analysis of the story to trace the conflicting motives in the characters.

The story opens with an atmosphere of indifference and strangeness. Everything seems to be mechanical, sans human emotions. The narrator is coming back from Jaffna to Colombo and her fellow passenger is a girl of her age known to her: We had known each other since we were very young (Ganeshanandan, 1), and yet they do not speak anything. The train jostles them, indicating that it is the external forces which direct their nearness and relationships, their life.

The narrators uncle comes to receive her, but even he is a stranger: This man, my uncle, looked like my family, but he did not know me, he did not want to know me and the feeling of being surrounded by strangers made a pocket of pain inside my chest (Ganehanandan, 1). The essence of the story is this pocket of pain created by the ethnic violence in every Tamil heart in Sri Lanka. As her uncle does not speak anything she looks outside but sees nothing.

Her heart is filled with the events of the past. She says, My eyes were still full of Jaffna. I wanted my brothers  my brothers, who were gone. And I wanted my mother and my father (Ganeshanandan, 1). The story now takes the readers through the experience of an innocent girl, whom the narrator once treated, to the aftermath of the horrible violence.

As the narrator listens to the radio, the announcer tells the story of a pregnant girl. This provokes the narrator to reveal the truth to the readers. She says, I want you to understand: I was not born to fight for a political cause. I did not feel chosen. And this woman was not born this way. She was not chosen (Ganeshanandan, 2). All the girls who join the Tiger Force do not do it willingly. It is the circumstances which led them to it.

There is no existential choice for a Tamil girl in Sri Lanka. The narrator says that like her she was gangraped, and she watched the men who raped her kill her four brothers. I want you to understand (Ganeshanandan, 2). No one seems to understand that the girls in that country have/had no choice.

The fate is decided by external factors. The narrator is pregnant, so is the case of many girls who were raped by the soldiers. She admits that the pregnant women were used to detonate the bombs because the officers may have sympathy towards them: A transgression against a mother is a universal transgression (Ganeshanandan, 3).

The narrator remembers an event of treating a raped and wounded girl. They both realize that pain has become part of their lives. The girl says that I want to know what is happening and if the pain goes away then that might be worse. She was right. Pain informs, admits the doctor (Ganeshanandan, 4).

Ganeshananthans skilful narration of the protagonists past is great and beautiful. Her characters are original and the social conditions rendered are real.

The way the conflicting motives of the protagonist are given is marvelous. The story keeps the readers anchored to the terrible events that took place in Sri Lanka. Hippocrates surely places her among the best Diaspora writers. It is a heart-rending story.

Reference

Ganeshanandan, V. V. Hippocrates. Web.

Each work of poetry has a specific poetic voice. It is not only the authors style or message of the work, it is the voice of the poem itself and it is not always identified with the author.

In fact, it is the description of the imaginative person that occurred in specific situation. It goes without saying that the voice of the poetry is expressed not only through the content of the poem, but through the languages used by the author and context.

In this paper, we are going to provide the analysis of the poetic voice of two poems Please Fire Me (1998) by Deborah Garrison and Porphyrias Lover (1936) by Robert Browning. We will focus on how differ man and woman poetic voice.

Both of these poems are focused on the subject of the woman in the society and her relations with men. However, the poem by Deborah Garrison speaks for the woman and her vision of her work and attitude to men. As opposed to Please Fire Me, Porphyrias Lover written from the point of view of a man and his vision of the woman. The poems are bright examples of the man and woman voice in the poetry.

So, Please Fire Me describes a woman that holds the philosophy that nothing can be well with men. She is not satisfied with her work and she is indignant at what she has to do and how men treat her. He has to join men in order to own her living, but she does not want to do it as it is not her nature. She writes about her fate with disguise:

Here comes another alpha male,
and all the other alphas
are snorting and pawing,
kicking up puffs of acrid dust (Garrison 453)

She does not like what she does, but job is job and she works well. The voice of the woman in the poem is separated from the voice of the author, it is an individual that faces unique situation. However, the voice of the protagonist and her thought over her life can be interpreted as the voice of all women who have to adjust their life and habits to mens lifestyle in order to survive.

The poem by Robert Browning Porphyrias Lover also has in its focus the image of the woman, but from the point of view of a man. The voice of the poem is male and protagonist is not the author, but a man who killed his lover to keep her forever.

The speaker of the poem is a mad man, but who knows, may be love towards a woman made him loose his mind. The speaker tells justifies his violence assuming that in such way, he saved dignity and independence of his lover. The voice is calm and he is sure that he has power over the woman and can take her life:

Porphyria worshiped me: surprise
Made my heart swell, and still it grew
While I debated what to do.
That moment she was mine, mine, fair,
Perfectly pure and good: I found
A thing to do, and all her hair
In one long yellow string I wound
Three times her little throat around,
And strangled her. No pain felt she;
I am quite sure she felt no pain. (Browning 599)

Thus, both poems are monologues that depict the power of man over women but from different points of view. In the Please Fire Me, we can hear a woman vice and her attitude to the world in which she lives. As to the Porphyrias Lover, we can see clearly the mans voice and his attitude to his lover.

Works Cited

Browning, Robert. Porphyrias Lover in Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Compact 7th ed. Eds. Laurie G Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2010. Print.

Garrison, Deborah. Please Fire Me in Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Compact 7th ed. Eds. Laurie G Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2010. Print.

Introduction

Michael Foucault was a French philosopher. He was also recognized in other fields such as sociology and history. Foucault was born in 1926 and later died in the year 1984 leaving a markover his contributions to social institutions in the society. One of his major contributions was his writing about the history of sexuality in which his ideas about power, among other aspects, have remained to be influential in the society today.

This paper seeks to discuss the topic of the history of sexuality as earlier and originally discussed by Foucault. The paper will look into Foucaultsdefinition of power and the fundamental characteristic of this power according to his views. The paper will also relateFoucaults understanding of power to the current American society.

History of sexuality: power

In his writing about the history of sexuality, Foucault shifted his topicfrom sexuality to explore the concept of power. According to Foucault, in the article history of sexuality, power is defined in terms of sovereignty. Sovereignty is on its right defined as supremacy in the application of authority by a subject.

It is also defined as being in the state of complete independence or beingself-governed in the sense that there is no element of yielding to any form of authority. Foucault therefore defined power as the highest force that drives activities or occurrences. In expressing the supremacy of power, he for example illustrated the determination of life and death as being subject to power (Hurley 1).

Fundamental characteristics of power

One of the fundamental characteristics of power as outlined by Michel Foucault is its potential to determine the right to decide life and death (Hurley 1). Power was identified to be responsible for the manner in which life existed. The term existence of life is used to align Michels meaning of how life is controlled by power. According to Foucault, life exists as an entity just like a business enterprise, for example, that is being controlled by some authority in the form of management or administration.

In his view, he portrayed power as the manager who makes decisions over life in terms of whether life is to be upheld or whether it is to be stopped.

One of the characteristics of power, according to Michel, is the authority over life and death. Power was also identified to be founded on two bases. One of the bases of power was the body that was perceived to be in the form of equipment while the other basis of power was applicable in the form of population.

These two bases offeredthe capacity of power to be exercised at different levels starting from an individual person to a group of people in a given society.The basis of population as an element of exercising power was then established to be the common application of institutional authority that is exercised over people by given structures of governments.

Another characteristic of power as illustrated by Michel is the element of transformation that power poses over life. In the understanding of the history of population, the power that is exercised over populations as well as that power that may be possessed by a population, Michel illustrated that change the lives of people. This transformational impact of power was explained to be established due to the influence of knowledge (Hurley 1).

Sex was also explained as an element that bears some relation to power. Being derived from factors such as the hysterical woman, the sexualization of children among other factors, sex became identified as an element that yielded influence in the authority of power over life.

The relations that are created in sexual interactions were thus perceived to be contributors to the authority of power as a subject hence contributing some level of force to the administration and control of life. Relationships that are based on blood were also cited by Michel as a factor to power.

Foucault explained, in the history of sexuality, that such blood relations that could take the form of relationship within nuclear or even extended families shaped the direction and effects of power. He, however, explained that such characteristics of blood relations with respect to power were undergoing transformations with time.

The characteristics of power as discussed by Michel were thus based on sexuality that influences the materiality, forces, energies, sensations and pleasures(Hurley 1) of bodies. Foucault thus expressed the basis of power, as exercised in a general social environment, to be based on the relations between bodies that derive influence from sexuality through relations(Hurley 1).

The characteristics of power as explained in the history of sexuality, volume one also includesa number of features. Inclusive in the features of power is its origin.

It was explained that power does not have a specified source. It was thus established that authority can be established by any personality or any group of people in a given society. Another characteristic of power is the nature and existence of reaction forces to an established authority.

Just as in the existence of action and reaction forces, an established power is characterized by a form of counter power that it has to incorporate. Power is also attributed to the development of personalities. This can be achieved through established structures of power that sets up mechanisms for the running of a society (Web 1).

Application of Foucaults definition of power in the present American society

The constitution of the United States, which is the countrys guideline to the way in which power and authority is supposed to be exercised, has an outline of the powers that are offered to the state, those that are offered to societies as well as those that are accorded to individuals.

The component of the constitution that includes the bill of rights among other regulations has its basis on regulating powers that any particular entity can have.

The shift of sovereignty from the government to people in what is widely known as democracy was an illustration of Foucaults idea of transformation of power. This transition has witnessed the liberalization of citizens through limitations of powers vested in the government and strengthening thesovereigntyof people.

Elements of authority as defined by Foucault is also evident in the countrys system of governance as the federal government is given the power to exercise authority over citizens as well as authority to check on its systems (Sidlow andHenschen 37).

Conclusion

The history of sexuality as written by Foucault expressed characteristics of power that were witnessed in the society. These aspects of power such as sovereignty are basically experienced in the American government system with a transition to sovereignty of the people.

Works Cited

Hurley, Robert. The history of sexuality: an introduction. Foucault, 2003.Web. <https://cla.umn.edu/comm-studies>

Sidlow, Edward andHenschen, Beth.America at odds. New York: NY: Cengage Learning, 2005.

Web. Michel Foucault: the history of sexuality. Web, n.d. May 2, 2011.

Maxine Hong Kingstons work has long fascinated critics for its investigation of speech, language and storytelling as a means of unlocking some of the deepest secrets of the Chinese culture, a culture that observes very clear behavioral distinctions between genders.

Kingston belongs to a culture wherein women use story as a means to understanding and survival, whereas for the most part the men of the Chinese culture tend toward silence (Pinkser n.p.).

In Maxine Hong Kingstons The Great Grandfather of the Sandalwood Mountains, from her non-fiction work China Men, the author explores the theme of enforced silence and its consequences in numerous facets. The story details not only what happens from the standpoint of political oppression, but also how the theme of enforced silence plays itself out in families, often in an intergenerational manner.

Critic Sanford Pinsker understands that the enforced silence, especially that which is staunchly observed among Chinese men, forces Kingston to invent multiple versions of what may have happened in her fathers past (Pinkser n.p.).

The Great Grandfather of the Sandalwood Mountains exists as an epic family history, and follows the world travels of a number of generations of Chinese men. Kingston recounts the journeys of her family of male sojourners across America and away from womenfolk and children in China.

This dispersed arrangement of family members was the predominant form the traditional Chinese extended patrilineal family system took during the peak years of emigration (Pinkser n.p.). Although these generations of men traveled the world and witnessed many wonders, their culture of enforced silence bid them not to share most if not all of the details of their experiences.

In Kingstons The Great Grandfather of the Sandalwood Mountains therefore, we see the impact of this silence as family members attempt to make sense of their heritage with only anecdotal and speculative information available to them, often delivered from third and fourth hand sources, not from the grandfathers themselves.

One of the readers first experiences of the theme of enforced silence occurs when Kingston discusses the third wife of her maternal grandfather (Kingston 85). The woman in question is not given a name, nor does Kingston reveal the grandmothers origin, explaining only that my maternal grandfather had brought a third wife back from his third trip West, Bali or Hawaii or South America or Africa (Kingston 85).

The impact of the silence  in this case, the suppression of detail about this element of the family  reveals itself in the fate of the grandmother. Kingston claims that I am glad to see the black grandmother ended up with a son and grandson who are articulate. When she came to China she jabbered like a monkey, but no one answered her. Who knows what she was saying anyway? She fell mute (Kingston 85).

In this passage from the text we glimpse the consequence of enforced silence on the grandmother  her family essentially ignores her, until she stops attempting to communicate with anyone at all (Kingston 85). In this example, though Kingston does not overtly state it, the enforced silence destroyed a member of her family (Kingston 85).

The above example also brings up the idea of enforced silence in the area of interracial marriages. Despite the fact that interracial marriages clearly happened between the grandfathers who traveled the world and the women of other races and cultures that they met and fell in love and married there, all details of these unions are kept silent and buried in the culture, and even within the families where they occur, as evidenced by the lack of information that Kingston seems to know about this relative.

Critic Linda Ching Sledge has spoken of the issue of interracial marriages and its treatment in Kingstons work and in the Chinese culture at large. In Sledges words, Kingstons The Great Grandfather of the Sandalwood Mountains draws an accurate portrait of the thorny issue of miscegenation in the Chinese culture (Sledge 19).

According to Sledge, it is well known that intermarriage was strictly forbidden to Chinese by Confucian teachings, for it went against the classical notion established in the Li Chi that marriage was a religious duty between consenting families to secure the services in the ancestral temple for the predecessors and to secure the continuance of the family line for posterity&. (Sledge 19).

The enforced silence in regards to the black grandmother in this case has deep cultural roots in the ancient teachings of Chinese philosophy, economic practices and social customs, although the appearance of the black grandmother herself speaks volumes about the long ignored problems of sojourner historyloneliness, homesickness, sexual frustrationwithout cultural bias (Sledge 19).

Despite the fact that silence was culturally bred, clearly once the sojourners left China, their natural desires trumped their cultural taboos. In Kingstons The Great Grandfather of the Sandalwood Mountains, we see the impact of enforced silence in the way that the black grandmother is treated, but not in the action of the grandfather himself, who took her as his wife.

In Sledges opinion, the reader comes to understand and accept the emotional needs motivating these men to enter relationships which violated so profoundly cherished family and religious attitudes because we view such relationships from a sojourners (Bak Sook Goong) own point of view (Sledge 19).

We also see the practice of enforced silence applied in the political arena in Kingstons The Great Grandfather of the Sandalwood Mountains. In this case the enforced silence relates to keeping quiet and not drawing attention to oneself and ones family, for fear of rousing the interest and ire of the Communist party.

Interestingly, this fear transcends physical borders in The Great Grandfather of the Sandalwood Mountains, and the family remains cognizant of the long arm of the Communist Party  real or perceived  even though they live in the United States. We find an example of this in the text wherein Kingston discusses the enforced silence as an obstacle to her trip to China.

Id like to go to China if I can get a visa and  more difficult  permission from my family, who are afraid that applying for a visa would call attention to us: the relatives in China would get in trouble for having American capitalist connections, and we Americans would be put in relocation camps during the next witch hunt for Communists (Kingston 87).

In Kingstons The Great Grandfather of the Sandalwood Mountains, the author also illustrates a contrasting perspective on enforced silence, one that provides an important insight as to how the Chinese sojourners were able to move beyond the constrictive silence of their culture, travel the world and enjoy a fuller experience of life.

Kingstons The Great Grandfather of the Sandalwood Mountains attributes this phenomenon to the influence of nature. In her mind, certain parts of China transcend the enforced silence of their culture through the example provided by the natural world  nature itself is dynamic, ever changing, and certainly rarely silent.

In the following example, the reader witnesses the impact of enforced silence slowly eroded by the natural curiosity displayed by the ocean. Ocean people are different from land people. The ocean never stops saying and asking into ears, which dont sleep like eyes.

Those who live by the sea examine the driftwood and glass balls that float from foreign ships&Sometimes ocean people are given to understand the newness and oldness of the world; then all morning they try to keep that boundless joy like a little sun inside their chests.

The ocean also makes its people know immensity. They wonder what continents contain the ocean on its other side, what people live there (Kingston 90).

Here Kingstons The Great Grandfather of the Sandalwood Mountains gives the reader a glimpse of how the enforced silence of the Chinese men can be broken  through curiosity, through an understanding that there exists a large world out there, one that offers different experiences, different people, and one that perhaps does not suppress verbal expression to the same extent that the Chinese culture does.

In this passage Kingston offers the reader one of the main clues as to how the Chinese men who grew up in a system of enforced silence were able to move beyond it and expand their horizons to the wider world.

Works Cited

Kingston, Maxine Hong. The Great Grandfather of the Sandalwood Mountains. China Men. New York: Random House, 1977. Print.

Pinsker, Sanford. Maxine Hong Kingston: Overview. Contemporary Novelists. Susan Windisch Brown. 6th ed. New York: St. James Press, 1996. Web.

Sledge, Linda Ching. Maxine Kingstons China Men: The Family Historian as Epic Poet. MELUS 7.4 (Winter 1980): 3-22. Web.

In the story Mrs. Dutta writes aletter,we encounter Mrs.Dutta, the main character breaking into song once her son and his family have left in a huff. She is in the kitchen,her favourite place and sings along with the reassuringhum of the refrigerator,though her voice is rusty and a little off key. The writer says that music helps to reduce the silence in the house now that everyone is away.

Music rejuvenates Mrs. Duttas spirits, causing her to let go of a grudge she had against her grandchildren for disrespecting their mother as well as her daughter in law for not punishing the young ones (Richard and Marvin 569).

Mrs. Duttas singing helps her to reminisce about the life she left back in India.The music makes her nostalgic.While humming,Mrs. Dutta remembers her new gas stove that she had bought with the birthday money Sagar had sent her. She also notes in her mind her scoured-shiny brass pots and the window with a lottus pattern grille where she used to watch children playing cricket (Richard and Marvin 575).

Music brings Mrs.Dutta to a more familiar world, away from the strange foreign accents on television that she does not understand. Generally singing is a preoccupation Mrs. Dutta indulges in as she handles the household chores. It helps her put her thoughts in order and to note what to write or what not to say in her letter to her friend, Mrs.Basu (Richard and Marvin 568-582).

Work Cited

Richard , Abcarian and Klotz Marvin . Literature the human experience reading and writing. Ed. Nineth. New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2009. Print.

As poets Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes differed greatly, not only temporally and geographically, but also in respect to the life situations that each poet drew from when creating their poems. Both poets harbored revolutionary thoughts and used their poems to express these thoughts to a wider audience.

This essay will present general impressions toward each poets work, and will assert that despite their differences, Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes shared an essential common trait. Both poets spoke out against the hypocrisy and oppression that they witnessed and faced during their lifetimes, albeit in very different ways.

Emily Dickinson lived a privileged life from a financial perspective. She was born into a wealthy Massachusetts family headed by prestigious lawyers and educators, and enjoyed a stellar education, much more advanced than many men had access to at that time in history, at Amherst College where her father served as treasurer (Wolff 261). Emily Dickinson spent the majority of her life in Massachusetts, in the house she was born in, and never had to work (Wolff 261).

The general impressions of Emily Dickinsons work are that it contains a reticence that hides a sharp and astute intellect and subversive soul.

Although she lived the life of recluse, she missed nothing, and wrote critically about the society she lived in. Emily Dickinsons intellectual horsepower surpassed many minds of her generation; however her solitude, reclusive bent and shy demeanor meant that few of her poems saw the light of day during her lifetime (Wolff 261).

Emily Dickinsons poetry covers the gamut of human experience  death, loss, love  and many of her poems contain a penetrating intellectual analysis and insight into the human condition. An example is Because I Could Not Stop for Death. This poem speaks to the human view of death as something to be avoided and feared, rather than a natural part of life: Because I could not stop for Death  He kindly stopped for me  The Carriage held but just Ourselves  And Immortality (Dickinson 1).

Emily Dickinson describes the busy social obligations of life that melt in the face of our own demise and render themselves largely meaningless: We slowly drove  He knew no haste, And I had put away, My labor and my leisure too, For His Civility (Dickinson 1). Emily Dickinsons keen eye saw the hypocrisy and ludicrous avoidance of death she encountered in her everyday life, and wrote about it in a quiet yet penetrating way.

Another example of this exists in Emily Dickinsons Much Madness is Divinest Sense. This poem reads as a scathing indictment of the false and arbitrary nature of the human social construct, and largely defines that which is deemed mad as having the most meaning when compared to that which is deemed socially acceptable, whether or not it makes sense.

In this poem Emily Dickinson describes society in the most deplorable terms as consisting mainly of conditioning and mob rule: Much Madness is divinest Sense  To a discerning Eye  Much Sense  the starkest Madness  `Tis the Majority, In this, as All, prevail (Dickinson 2).

Much Madness is Divinest Sense also provides some insight into Emily Dickinsons treatment at the hands of those she confided her genius in: Assent  and you are sane  Demur  you`re straightaway dangerous  And handled with a Chain (Dickinson 2).

This poem speaks to quiet radicalism and staunch non-conformity that punctuated much of Emily Dickinsons work; she remained a singular soul on the fringes of her society, and thus her poems became an important outlet for her own distinctive voice and distinctive view of the world.

The general impressions of Langston Hughess poems Langston Hughes also sat comfortably in the fringes of his society, and wrote about racism, although his work tends to be much more effusive and openly critical. Langston Hughes, by contrast to Emily Dickinson, travelled the world and spent extended periods of time living and working in Cuba, Mexico, Paris and Russia (Rampersand 497).

Being black in the United States during the early part of the twentieth century, Langston Hughes family lacked the financial means to support their son, and although he did gain access to a formal education at Columbia University and Lincoln University, he struggled with poverty for much of his life (Rampersand 497).

Many of Langston Hughes most famous poems deal largely with his personal experience of being a black man during an extremely racist period of American history, and his work deals with his ensuing feelings of separation and isolation.

Langston Hughes poem Theme for English B speaks to this condition: I guess being colored doesnt make me not like the same things other folks like who are other races. So will my page be colored that I write? Being me, it will not be white. But it will be a part of you, instructor. You are white yet a part of me, as I am a part of you. Thats American (Hughes 5).

Another example is Harlem, and the poignant rhetorical question that opens the poem: What happens to a dream deferred? (Hughes 3). Harlem describes the pain and anguish of a generation of human beings denied access to fundamental human rights on the basis of pigmentation.

The poem is distinctive in that as it progresses, it describes a range of human emotions in response to oppression: Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar overlike a syrupy sweet? (Hughes 3) In these lines the reader witness many potential reactions: the phrases dry up and fester might refer to suicide, depression, or addiction (Hughes 3).

Stink may refer to death (Hughes 3). Sags like a heavy load speaks to the weight of oppression and its impact on the lives of the millions who endure it (Hughes 3).

Interestingly, the poem ends with the image or does it explode? (Hughes 3). Hughes ends the poem with a violent image, that may refer to anger, and in many cases may be the harbinger of the racial rebellion that eventually took place in the United States forty years after the poem was written during the Civil Right movement.

As poets, both Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes Emily Dickinson wrote about the social mores at work during their lives, and while each poet lived an extremely different life, both drew from personal experience and observation to write critical responses and commentaries on the worlds they lived in.

Although Emily Dickinson lived as a recluse, she wrote penetrating insights into the society she lived in. Similarly, Langston Hughes wrote about the hypocrisy of racism. Both poets tailored their revolutionary thoughts to be expressed through their poems, and used their creative talents to criticize the society they lived in.

Works Cited

Dickinson, Emily. Reading for English 2. Mark Connelley and Joseph Trimmer, eds. Oxford, U.K.:Oxford University Press, 1995. Print.

Hughes, Langston. Reading for English 2. Mark Connelley and Joseph Trimmer, eds. Oxford, U.K.:Oxford University Press, 1995. Print.

Rampersand, Arnold. Hughes, Langston (1902-1967). Benets Readers Encyclopedia of American Literature: Volume One. George B. Perkins, Barbara Perkins and Phillip Leininger, eds. New York: Harper Collins, 1991. Print.

Wolff, Cynthia Griffin. Dickinson, Emily (Elizabeth) (1830-1886). Benets Readers Encyclopedia of American Literature: Volume One. George B. Perkins, Barbara Perkins and Phillip Leininger, eds. New York: Harper Collins, 1991. Print.

Tragic tales draw enormous pity and empathy from the audience who get a chance, to either read and/or listen to them. Often, the heroes of tragic tales experience punishments that are beyond the implied committed crimes arising from the lethal mistakes they make.

By learning from the mistakes made in the due course, the heroes acquire self-knowledge coupled with an abundant wisdom enough to make them go back to their normal life sure of one thing: never to repeat the errors.

Consistent with Aristotles suggested reasons as to why people flocked to the Greek theatres, at least to have a firsthand feel of tragic theatre shows, people leave in a world full of imperfections, which challenge them adequately rendering them hopeless: never to think of succeeding in their endeavors of dealing with challenges.

Even today, people prefer tragic shows. By watching the shows, people redeem their hope of coping with challenging situations and perhaps leaving the theatre with a reformed mindset. The success of the protagonist is particularly essential since he/she becomes a role model and a subject of drawing comparisons of the depth of lifelong encountered problems among the audience.

As a way of example, audience prefers tragic stories as a way of encouragement to adopt steps that would see them succeed in their daily chores, as opposed for instance to some autobiographic tales of successful characters. Perhaps that is why people prefer to learn, not only from their mistakes, but also from those of oters. In the actual form, the entire learning process entails some sort of tragedies.

Zimmer in Grade School provides a substantially close packed humiliating story of a boy who struggles to deal with his school ordeals with no one capable of coming for his rescue. Perhaps in the modern world, empathetic readers would pose a challenging concern as to why the church, family and concerned educators hardly come to help the boy. However, this presentation aids the poet to achieve his literally style of fostering catharsis.

Telling this story in form of a poem is advocated for, since the symbols used serve to represent hundreds of words that could be used if the poem was to be put in any other genre. For instance the mask, symbolically explains all the ordeals engulfed within the narrator.

On the other hand, in Eleven, the situation depicted by Sandra is well suited to the purpose short stories intend to serve, despite the fact that the story opens up by unveiling all the meaning of the being eleven and hence taking incredibly almost the entire narration space.

The red sweater ordeal is perhaps well explained in a story format as opposed to other genres such as poetry. Providing the meaning of being eleven, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, etc, all at the same time would prove problematic in a poem since poems are brief in nature.

Consequently, on my part, I prefer the use of poetry as a vehicle for telling Zimmer in Grade One, just as the way it is. The red sweater ordeal is one situation that draws many imaginational images to the mind of the reader. Eleven would have thus been more effective, if presented in form of a short video or on a stage skit.

The speaker in the poem The Mask remains unidentified all through the poem. All that is told is that the anonymous speaker struggles to hide the realty of his/her situation from other people always. The mask shrouds the suffering of the speaker.

The speaker must take caution to make sure that the mask remains intact by being vigilant lest the mask falls off exposing the realty of a tormented personality. According to well-documented historical sources, though not provided in the poem, the author is a black American who lived in the late nineteenth century.

In addition, the author had suffered from tuberculosis dying at a young age in the same century. By putting into consideration the stigmatization associated with such chronic ailments then, the author through speculation may have been the speaker. However, for critical analysis purpose of the poem, there is no warranty of such a speculation. In the last stanza of The Mask, the author uses we to denote all people, the persona inclusive.

The We shows how all people have worn the mask leave alone the persona. This can be interpreted as authors attempt to draw a general conclusion on the message of the poem. We refers thus to all other people who undergo hidden tortures, which they do not want unveiled to others, tantamount to the speakers predicament.

Non-provision of information pertaining to who wore the mask is deliberate. By over perusing the information about who wore the mask could obscure the message contained in the poem. Otherwise, Durbar could have provided substantial details if they were necessary for unmasking the intended message in the poem.

Prior to commencement of this course, I thought drama was disconnected from present day experiences, but I was surprised to find that even some of the oldest plays are still relevant today.

I expected to learn about particular components of the social and cultural backgrounds of the plays by simply looking through their scripts. After completion of this course, I found that those expectations were met. It is indeed possible to deduce the social and cultural values of a certain society simply from the plays written at that time.

Lastly, I did not expect to become more analytical about my own society as a result of studying drama. However, after doing this course, I have realized that ideologies are prevalent in almost all spheres of life; politics, education and entertainment are just some of the many examples.

Through this course, I have learnt how to distinguish between useful and harmful ideas. Since some plays can be rich and meaningful while others can be shallow and unbalanced, it is always best to assess them first. The same analysis can be applied in the above mentioned spheres of life.

The Valdez play and US national leaders

The aspect I found most convincing about the play was the commoditization of Hispanics and other minority groups in the US. Miss Jimenez came to purchase a brown Mexican who would be used in Governor Reagans campaign to appeal to a larger crowd. In other words, ethnic minorities were seen as a platform for advancing Caucasian Americans political or social goals.

They were treated as nothing more than a means-towards-an-end rather than genuine individuals. In this regard, one can say that the stereotypes prevalent within the country are reducing ethnic minorities to commodities. US national leaders would find this component quite useful as they would refrain from using ethnic minorities for political aims.

Instead, they would focus on each and everyones strong points. People would get appointed or promoted on the basis of their merits rather than their ethnic identity. Another aspect of the play that would be useful to US administrators that are dealing with immigration is the aspect of seasonal immigrants.

In the play, the first model represents the typical farm worker that comes in once in a year, works the fields and goes back home. This kind of worker requires special policy provisions that can allow him to make such seasonal trips in and out of the country. He renders a great service to the nation, but still wants to maintain links with his native home.

Concept of marriage in A Dolls house

I was quite surprised that the idea of terminating a marriage was unheard of in those times. Women had very few rights in that society if they were expected to stay in marriages irrespective of how fulfilling or unfulfilling they were.

I think this play illustrates just how different societal values have become. In the 19^th Century, women were not allowed to pursue freedom, independence and happiness (especially at the expense of marriage).

Nora is a woman who struggles to break free; her choice to leave her husband becomes a symbol of rebelliousness against her own society. This was the reason why the play caused a lot of unrest in western literature at the time. Fortunately, these challenges no longer exist in modern western societies. Women now have the ability to make choices in their marriages.

Proposal for The glass menagerie

The topic of the proposal will be How the glass menagerie illustrates the breakup of family structures. Through the main characters in the play, it will be explained that family structures in modern societies are quite fragile and can be easily broken. The work will focus on Tom and his struggles, Amandas maternal failures and Lauras unfulfilled expectations.

In the article Nightingale Benedict This Menagerie is Much Too Cosy. New York Times, 11 December 1983, the author argues that at face value, Amanda seems like a well-meaning and concerned parent.

Many mothers have nudged their children to stop smoking and worried about them when life seemed too hard for them. However, Amanda crosses the line when she stretches these good intentions to the limit. She starts intruding into her childrens lives and uses words like to we and I to talk about their behavior.

Furthermore, Amanda assumes that what was good for her is good for her daughter too. She manipulates and controls her children and thus ends up destroying the very same people she had hoped to fix. The proposal will look at more of these arguments concerning Amandas character so as to relate them to the breakdown of family structures.

In another book, Bloom, Harold. The Glass Menagerie. NY: Infobase publishing. 2006. Print, the author talks about the shattered faith of Amandas only daughter Laura. Upon learning about Jims engagement, Laura goes through an emotional storm. The event took away her innocence and destroyed the faith she had in love. All these unfulfilled expectations were brought on by her mothers pressures and her brothers lack of support. This line of argument will be explored further in the proposal.

In Life is a Smorgasbord, the author takes the reader through occurrences on his Aunt, Elaines birthday. The authors aunt is turning fifty and is throwing a dinner at his favorite place, The Hometown Buffet. He refers to the place as being smorgy. He is informed by his mother after attending the dinner they will proceed to a party at their place.

The party is meant to honor the authors aunt. Although, the author does not describe what is meant by smorgy, the context within which, it is used makes the reader visualize a place that lacks liveliness and vigor often associated with the middle aged population.

The author sarcastically describes the people in attendance and how they are likely to behave. Despite not wanting to attend, the author has no room for choice as his mother compels him to attend.

After having to queue for lengthy duration before getting in, they finally get inside and as the author put it, its the land of plenty insinuating that there is plenty of food to choose from. The author finds it difficult to choose what to eat from the array of foods provided.

At some point, he stops to ponder the criteria that the other people had used to choose what to eat. Eventually, he settles on nothing in particular but ostensibly decides that perhaps tasting everything is the best option. Unfortunately, the combination fails to match and the meal ends up being un-enjoyable. To summarize the whole situation, the author describes it as confusing.

The author looks back and affirms that he has realized that any time one opts for something else, he has to sacrifice another. He mentions that time spent doing something is equivalent to time wasted not doing another. Finally, the author winds up by stressing the importance of making choices in life despite the vast array of things to choose from.

How decisions influence choices

The overall picture suggested by this essay reflects the real life situation. It affirms that life is full of choices but not always. At times, circumstances are forced on people and one has no choice. Surprisingly, when finally one has an array of things to choose from, confusion reigns in and one cant help but wonder what would constitute the right choice.

When the author half-heartedly accepts to attend the dinner, he has limited choices. The situation is imposed on him and he finds himself accepting under duress. Despite the whole process being boring, he goes through it. The scenario reflected here is one where life presents limited choices and you have to conform to what the situation demands.

Often people will complain when presented with such circumstances. An interesting phenomenon that the author highlights is that when finally options are presented, making decisions become difficult. One seems to want everything yet situation demands you make a choice.

At this point, the author stresses the importance of coming up with a conclusive and rational decision. For as long as one is not able to come with a conclusive decision, confusion is rife and unfortunately one cannot be able to make a choice.

Notable, choice is depicted as a direct product of making a conclusive decision. When the author decides to taste everything, he ends up not enjoying anything. This is indicative of the level of confusion experienced when no conclusive decision is made.

The menu is too large and there is no time to rehearse. This stresses the need to come up with a conclusive decision as soon as possible. In decision making, a key factor emerging is that one has to forfeit other things in order to enjoy others.

Its impossible to enjoy everything. Deciding whats important in ones life must therefore take consideration of important factors that affect life rather than simply being guided by desire. Making a choice begins by prioritization of things important to your life. Decide what you can forego in order to enjoy another. As an economist will put it, you have to be prepared to incur some form of opportunity cost.

The process of making a choice should therefore begin by identifying the existing opportunities. Once you have identified the opportunities, eliminate those that you can do without.

Rank the remaining opportunities according to priority. Lack of a conclusive decision can hamper the process of making a choice. Living in hope that everything will have its time is perhaps the best way to be able to make choices without much ado. You simply forego something in belief that its time too will come and you will enjoy it then. This is what determines how to number a priority list.

For instance, in preparing your priority list, you assign an object the tenth position hoping that there will come a time when the object will be on top of the list. If you are not able to forego anything for something, then you are likely not to enjoy anything, After all, to take a plane, you must have decided not to take a car. In this case, the car is what you forego in order to board a plane. Generally, life presents plenty of opportunities, you just need to choose which one to take and not to take.