Carnival: Blog 3

"Life is essentially a cheat and its conditions are those of defeat; 

the redeeming things are not happiness and pleasure but the deeper 

satisfactions that come out of struggle."

- F. S c o t t F i t z g e r a l d

At some point in life, be it now or before, or maybe even  later, you will feel left out. You will feel like the one that does not go... doesn't fit. This may happen for a moment, maybe just one situation, maybe a week, maybe a year, maybe a lifetime. Like Dr. Vince says, "It's like the ACT question... which of the following does not belong?" In each of the works assigned to me this week, I've found that the answer to that question is simple regarding characters, situations, things, etc. A prevalent, recurring theme takes into account that of some respectable Prince Charmings, Mr. Green and Joe, and some not-so-trustworthy lovers like Mrs. Wright, and throws them each into a story that just. . . doesn't quite leave you with the Happily Ever After, the tale that would just fit. Each of these characters have brought a strange love and an unsettling end upon themselves in four very separate and distinct ways.

Minnie Wright lived in a bright world, a world worth singing about, before she met her husband John. After she married him, he took the music right out of her. It could be inferred that John just didn't like music, but other details and lay testimony proves that he was just a mean, cold man - cold like the weather that seemed to surround the Wright home. This dreary scene caused those who could've saved Mrs. Wright from her silence to stay far, far away. So the question becomes this: when Minnie kills her husband for literally choking the song out of her life, can we really blame her? Without a doubt, it's wrong to murder a man, but just as Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, the wives who witnessed the downfall of the home, discover the truth about Minnie's crime and dismiss it, could we do the same? This is a woman who would rather spend her life alone and paying for the awful thing she's done than to allow her husband to make her feel as he has.

We are left with quite a decision, just as Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale are. Are we to convict Minnie? Are we to say that without another choice, she should have continued to suffer? Just as is appropriate, the weather is never just the weather, and perhaps her "peers" should've taken note to the snow.

Likewise, maybe Joe should've taken note to Mr. Slemmons' big talk about Joe's wife. Had he paid more attention to all of Otis D. Slemmons' put-ons, he might've seen his own slighted love story coming before it did. On the surface, everything seems fine, everything seems shiny and wonderful, and underneath, it's just ordinary. Underneath, it may even be tarnished. The Gilded Six Bits by Zora Neale Hurston teaches us that this world is to the strong. In order to make it, you have to be the best that you can be. In order to ensure that you get what you want from the situations you encounter, you have to be genuine and true. This story brought me to an understanding that you can't paint trash gold, and that there are times when it is okay and acceptable to give up when it's not as precious as you wish it was. In this situation, if I could give Joe all the confidence in the world, I would. To me, Joe deserved to have Missy Mae leave him just so he could finally get his gold -- probably in the future. In my life, it is hard for me to allow some vulnerability with anyone because of stories such as this. Maybe that's a bad thing, or maybe it's protection. Either way, maybe one day I'll find something authentic and worth that side of me.

Still, where would we be without our dreams? Without a reason to keep pushing, would we do it just for the sake of doing it? Dexter Green may not have had many ambitions before he met Judy Jones, but afterward, he knew exactly what he had to do in his life. He begins to associate his dreams and goals for his life with Ms. Jones, knowing that whatever he does, it has to be something that would impress her. He may have her a couple of times after most of his successes, but somehow, she never quite fits. Perhaps Judy was never the type of woman who really fit into success and accomplishment on the inside - perhaps she was gilded and plated with these things on the outside only. Whatever the case, Dexter feels the loss of Judy when she settles for less than what he thinks she deserves. With her fall, he mourns the non-fulfillment of his dreams and comes to the realization that what he wanted has always been just out of reach, even if he thought they could be.

You hear it all the time: "Marriage/Love isn't a carnival ride." -- and perhaps it isn't. If we were to accept this as true, then there would be only bad times. So how can we take their word for it? If they could speak for themselves, I think Joe, Dexter, and Minnie might tell us that at one time, they thought love was the peak of the ride and that the dive and fall gave them butterflies. Even those these may be non-conventional stories, it's safe to say that the endings of them qualify as the ride that makes you nauseous. By definition, I think that love is a carnival ride in Trifles, The Gilded Six-Bits, and Winter Dreams.

Carnival - an exciting or riotous mixture of something

Robert Frost

Perhaps most telling of Robert Frost's poetry is the reflection is has on his life. All of his writings are easy to understand and are not relatively flamboyant in nature with little left for interpretation. Frost was simply a writer, a teacher, and a on the surface, a simple man. His works, however, seem to point to an imagination that was comforted by humble origin, free from ostentation. His poetry is laced with beautiful imagery that remains unique and personal. He has truly put into our minds a tangible taste of objectivity and grace.

While reading "Mending Wall," I decided that in order to grab something of deeper meaning from the work, I would reread it aloud to my mother. It was soon determined that Frost meant exactly what he was saying by his poem: there is a wall diving two neighbors, and during the spring, they converse while mending the damage weather has done to it. At the end of the selection, I commented, "So, apparently the one man is just grumpy." My mother's response was how I came to understand the story in the poetry. She said, "Well, it's not that he is grumpy. The wall might keep him from that." It's true and evidenced in the sentence "Good fences make good neighbors." The narrator questions the rebuilding of the wall because he says they have no reason to build it, but the other man knows that there are boundaries (as there are in anything) and would like to keep them.

"The Road Not Taken" and "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" are both representative of Frost's simplicity and little moments that he so often writes. Both stories reflect on a bigger and better decision, but the appreciation of a decisive and quiet moment. Also an element in each is the weather. Frost writes of a quiet "yellow wood" with "undergrowth" in "The Road Not Taken," signals of growth and joy and delight, apparently in taking the road less traveled by. In "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," the author depicts the "darkest evening of the year" with "wind and downy flake" in the woods, a symbol of life and snow, a symbol of death. It is apparent with that knowledge and the line of "miles to go before I sleep" that the reader can infer the narrator is on a journey that is coming to a close and he has things to do before he can stop and enjoy the scenery. As learned in many classes before, the weather is never coincidence in a story, and definitely not in this poem. In both, there is inner and outer weather to take into account.

In both "Birches" and "Out, Out" by Robert Frost, there is an obvious element of childhood. The two are, however, exactly the opposite. In "Birches," the narrator pines for childhood of the simplicity that came with it, symbolized by his adolescent memories of swinging along birch trees. Throughout the poem the reader can infer the narrator is aging or elderly in remembering those days fondly, and that he'd like to do that activity again in his older age. The man in the story doesn't wish to come to terms with his growing older or the death that will come and says that if he has to go, he'd like to go swinging from the birch trees. "Out, Out" takes a much different tone in that the boy assigned to do a grown man's work is much too young/immature to carry out the job he's been given. He does not yearn to grow older as the man in "Birches" wished for his childhood, but instead, must do the task he's been assigned. Perhaps there is something to say in that the job ends in his demise.

"Design" is another easy-to-understand piece that reminded me of a fairly common saying: big things come in small packages. Whether it be the spider or the flower, Frost has witnessed a gloomy scene that he turns into something of awe. He seems to take on the cold-blooded pallor that he has seen in the force of nature when looking at the scene, the contrast of the course of natural events that is so dreary. Once again, Frost is analyzing a simple event in nature and describing it so uniquely, in such a way that only Frost can do. This poem, though, has definitely taken on a deeper element, much like the mind of Robert Frost in his own simple world.

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if I had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

- Robert Frost

Life's Handbook: Blog 2

In the event that this blog turns somewhat inspirational and more like a therapy session, I'd like to apologize. I am still on the rather new notion that I am enjoying these literature stories we are reading and it is all a bit new to me. I have found while reading and discussing these tales that there is a lesson to be learned and something to relate to in almost every story. Some of these things have come naturally to me; others have been through some deeper digging in class. The title of this particular blog post is very much inspired by Kate Chopin, whose stories tend to take an unexpected turn or ironic flip of events, such as in the short work The Story of an Hour. 

Though we have defined irony in a few different ways in class (once upon a time), I figured I should include the professional definition again.
Irony (noun): The expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically  for humorous or emphatic effect. 
Most certainly in The Story of an Hour there was an element of surprise and when the expected widow, Mrs. Mallard, becomes the deceased of the couple, there was shock. To me, this is the definition of irony, but to others, this ending was expected. The evidence comes in the form of language - something that is extremely indicative in the time period of the stories we've been reading. For instance, before Mrs. Mallard's husband returns, at her point of "freedom," she is referred to as "she" and "her." After his unexpected arrival, she is named and called the "wife," as if she is not a singular, recognizable woman, but only Mr. Mallard's wife. During the time, women were pioneered by their men, and as referenced in history, married women disappeared in the eyes of the law. Keeping up with reputation and acceptance, before her husband's return, Mrs. Mallard was expected to grieve and mourn her husband (and sole supporter) and his absence in her life. Here you will find further scholarly, interesting discussion of other themes and opinions of The Story of an Hour.

Keeping up with reputation and expected roles, Booker T. Washington brought a dynamic approach to the position of black Americans in society. In advocating a path for new (and previously very oppressed) citizens, he writes in Up From Slavery that they must accept their lesser place in society and grow from it. Without first understanding where you are, you will never fully reach the place you're destined to go. Though it is a hard concept for anyone to grasp, this is similar to the suggestion Chopin was making in The Story of an Hour. Mrs. Mallard never fully accepted her place and was not happy, and it ultimately ended in her demise. Washington pushes the idea home that you musn't be unsatisfied with the lower end of things if you are doing your best, because after all, a big idea in life is that we shouldn't take the little things for granted. There was an example we used in class that really struck home for me in this instance: Someone put that toilet paper there. I realized that I never truly think of that and how much I just expect things as trivial as toilet paper to be there whenever I need it. We should all be more appreciative and thankful for those small things and the people who do those little things for us should definitely be proud of the position they hold.

Taking a slightly darker turn, The Blue Hotel by Stephen Crane teaches us, among other things, not to jump to conclusions. As spoken in class, "Everyone has a reason for telling the stories they do." Though the Swede in this instance was clearly not the most likable guy, there was a reason for the way he acted. He wasn't the most awful person in the world, either, and no one deserves the treatment he received even if he had a bad attitude. In this case, his demeanor got him into the position he held relative to everyone else, but that is to open a new discussion. I have always been interested in the battle of Nature vs. Nurture. How much of which determines what a person is made of and the things they choose and prefer? Though this is really a subjective story, could the Swede have been driven to act the way he did because of heredity, or were his actions completely a result of the influences he'd had in life?

I suppose there is some point in the discussion where the answer arrives that it simply does not matter. Like Mrs. Mallard, his ending was determined by the position he held (granted that his was most likely chosen, not given to him, much like the African Americans referenced in Washington's short story). Regardless, I found the recurring them to be interesting, especially given the circumstances under which each was given. Whether a victim of circumstance or maybe even a martyr of chance, these characters were similarly subjected to an overall very careful battle between who they were and what they could be.

"Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can't, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it. "- Robert Frost