If Bartleby had a Facebook page, it would be very plain and contain very little information about himself. Even though we imagine that he lives his entire life online, the vacuity of it would yield little information. He may have a profile picture of himself staring out a window that someone else took of him. There would probably be a lot of comments from other users asking who he was and where he came from and about his life. He may have a few songs on a play list, but they would be some sort of instrumental classical music. In terms of favorites, Bartleby probably would not have any. He would probably list his previous employment, consisting only of his two jobs. He would have many friend requests from people eager to learn more about him, but he would not respond to them, so would not have any friends. When people send him event invites, he would probably reply with his (seemingly) favorite thing to say: “I would rather not.” If we could view his status changes, they would probably reflect something along the lines of “Bartleby is working” or “Bartleby is writing” or “Bartleby is on Facebook.” He does this at one point in the story, pointing out the obvious by saying that he is “sitting upon the banister” when it can clearly be seen that he is doing so. In his favorite quote section, there would definitely be something with the word “prefer” in it, as he uses it so often, even in the story, people surrounding him start to use it freely. Bartleby is a very mysterious character and his Facebook page would reflect that, even if he did live his whole entire life online.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
After the Before...
It is no secret that Adrienne Rich was an advocate for feminism. She once said, “It's exhilarating to be alive in a time of awakening consciousness; it can also be confusing, disorienting, and painful.”1 In Rich’s “Diving into the Wreck,” she describes a woman looking for answers regarding the injustice to women in her society. Many readers see the piece in an autobiographical light, comparing “the wreck” to the poet’s personal life. However, one must carefully review the symbols that are present in her work in order to extract a purpose behind it. Rich uses the metaphor of a person diving down to a wreck to represent the deeper meaning of the journey for truth and the fight for respect for herself and her gender. In doing so, several inanimate objects come into play that must be analyzed to determine what is truly being explored.
In the first strophe of the poem, the woman is preparing for the dive, “First having read the book of myths.” Myths are usually a way of describing how something has come about, perhaps in this case the view of females in society. The character is coming into the situation with that knowledge, and it is possible that she will use it as a tool to challenge, and possibly change society’s perception. She also loads a camera, which suggests that she intends to take pictures for memories of where she is going. This alone tells the reader that she intends on coming back to where she is starting from (the ship) and that she will want to educate others of what she has learned.
As a part of preparation for the dive, the character puts on a “grave and awkward mask.” The adjectives used to describe the mask makes it seem like a hindrance to her, as something making her feel uncomfortable or holding her back. Rich chooses to describe it with word “the,” which creates a sort of distance between the woman and the things, mirroring the awkwardness that she feels wearing it. In a later strophe, however, Rich begins using “my” when referring to the mask, leading the reader to believe that its significance to the diver has changed. It now seems more a part of her as she is climbing down the ladder. Since masks are used by divers to see underwater, we might examine it as the character’s vision, allowing her to see things more clearly when she is below. This is how we can assume that the diver’s perception is different from societies in terms of women, and hence the reason for the dive is to educate herself so that she can persuade others to her perception. She then dives down into the ocean, seeing things from the common point of view, and taking on that position causes her to embrace it shortly, so much that “it is easy to forget what I came for / among so many who have always / lived here.”
Rich sets up the last four lines of the first strophe with this feeling that the woman is somewhat afraid as she is getting her equipment on. The woman says, “I am having to do this…here alone.” In the next strophe, however, the ladder comes in, which seems to be a symbol of strength or bravery in the woman. Rich describes the ladder as being “always there, hanging innocently” and says “We know what it is for, we who have used it.” The tone of these few lines insinuates a sort of frustration with women who do not use their “strength” in saying that “otherwise it is a piece of maritime floss some sundry equipment.” This small hint of irritation points to the idea that Rich may believe that the collective strength of women can encourage change.
In the next strophe, she says “I am she: I am he,” which is somewhat ambiguous. She refers to herself as a “mermaid” and also as “the merman in his armored body.” The reader gets a sense that this character being described feels a sense of beauty and strength, but also bravery and independence. During this time, for a woman to feel the strength of a man was unheard of. Rich is creating a uniform character that is reflected again later in the line “We are, I am, you are,” indicating her desire to involve not only women in her cause, but the general population, including men.
The last strophe of the poem, in a way, pulls everything together. It becomes clear that the woman wants to take the world on the journey she has been on to educate everyone and create a new view of women. She writes “by cowardice or courage / the one who find our way / back to this scene/ carrying a knife, a camera / a book of myths / in which / our names do not appear.” The reader notices that she alternates between singular and plural tenses, again emphasizing the fact that she wants us to view the character universally, as a woman, man, or group, society as whole.
“Diving into the Wreck” is a poem that tells the story of a woman on a quest to fight for the rights of women. She does this through an analogy of a diver going into the sea to examine a “wreck.” The diver goes in with knowledge of the history of patriarchy that has existed and with protection and a desire to learn more to empower herself and eventually, others too.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Before the After...
It is no secret that Adrienne Rich was an advocate for feminism. She once said, “It's exhilarating to be alive in a time of awakening consciousness; it can also be confusing, disorienting, and painful.” “Diving into the Wreck” is a work of Rich’s in which she describes the journey of a woman that is looking for a cause for the way her society views women. Rich uses the metaphor of a person diving down to a wreck to symbolize the deeper meaning of the journey. In doing so, several inanimate objects come into play that must be analyzed to determine what is really being represented.
In the first stanza of the poem, the woman is preparing for the dive, “First having read the book of myths.” Myths are usually a way of describing something, perhaps in this case the view of females in society. She also loads a camera, which suggests that she intends to take pictures for memories of where she is going. This alone tells the reader that she intends on coming back to where she is starting from (the ship). The diver puts on “absurd flippers” and a “grave and awkward mask.” The adjectives used to describe these things make them seem like a hindrance to her, something making her feel uncomfortable or holding her back. Rich chooses to describe each piece of equipment with “the” instead of “a,” which creates a sort of distance between the woman and the things. In a later stanza however, Rich begins using “my” for both the flippers and the mask, leading the reader to believe that their significance to the diver has changed. They now seem more a part of her as she is climbing down the ladder.
Rich sets up the last four lines of the first stanza with this feeling that the woman is somewhat afraid as she is getting her equipment on. The woman says, “I am having to do this…here alone.” In the next stanza, however, the ladder comes in, which seems to be a symbol of strength or bravery in the woman. Rich describes the ladder as being “always there, hanging innocently” and says “We know what it is for, we who have used it.” The tone of the stanza insinuates a sort of frustration with those who do not use their “strength” in saying that “otherwise it is a piece of maritime floss some sundry equipment.”
The woman then begins to take steps down the ladder with a bit of difficulty due to the flippers and mask that she has on, but once she enters into the “ocean,” which is like the scorn of society, the mask is what actually clears her vision. Even so, she begins to blend in with the underwater environment and forgets what she came for. Shortly after, she remembers that she came to explore “the wreck and not the story of the wreck the thing itself and not the myth.” She has read the book of myths and she knows that she wants to find a deeper meaning behind the way women are treated so that she will know how she can change peoples’ minds. In the next stanza, she says “I am she: I am he,” which is somewhat ambiguous. She refers to herself as a “mermaid” and also as “the merman in his armored body.” The reader gets a sense that this character being described feels a sense of beauty and strength, but also bravery and independent. During this time, for a woman to feel the strength of a man was unheard of. Rich is creating a uniform character that is reflected again later in the line “We are, I am, you are.”
The last stanza of the poem, in a way, pulls everything together. It becomes clear that the woman (possibly Rich) wants to take other women on the journey she has been on to educate everyone and create a new view of women. She writes “by cowardice of courage the one who find our way back to this scene carrying a knife, a camera a book of myths in which our names do not appear.” The reader notices that she alternates between singular and plural tenses, emphasizing the fact that she wants us to view the character universally, as a woman, man, or group, society as whole.
As one can see, Rich uses symbolism throughout the entire poem. It is interesting that there really is not any specific rhyme scheme; it is only made up of ten separate, lengthy stanzas. This gives the reader the idea that she is trying to tell a deeper story with all of the details. It seems as if the character that Rich creates here is actually her.
“Diving into the Wreck” is a poem that tells the story of a woman on a quest to fight for the rights of women. She does this through an analogy of a diver going into the sea to examine a “wreck.” She goes in with knowledge of the history of patriarchy that has existed and with protection and a desire to learn more to empower herself and eventually, others too. Like all struggles for rights or freedom, the woman has some challenges. She forgets at one point what she came for, and ends up getting everything together at the end when she suddenly becomes universal character.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
"In a Station of the Metro" Response
Instead of trying to argue against critics of Ezra Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro,” one should first recognize the simple definition of what a poem truly is. Olograhpes Literary defines a poem as “an arrangement of words in an artistic aim.” With that said, it is impossible to exclude such a beautiful piece as this. Upon researching a little into the history of the poem, a reader could find out that Pound actually condensed this poem from thirty lines to the mere fourteen words that it has come to be. It took him two years to come up with an “equation” which he felt would do justice to an actual moment of his life when he was at the Metro Station in Paris. The imagery is so vivid that one can almost see “these faces in the crowd.” It is interesting that the poem contains absolutely no verbs. Pound could be portraying to his audience that action need not be taken to see the beauty in life and in people. However, the actual content does not suggest anything of the sort. A good poet will often, intentionally, use grammar that contains some ambiguity to keep their readers interested. Perhaps, that is Pound’s goal in this case.
Pound starts off describing the faces in the crowd, and continues, after the semicolon, to use a metaphor to describe them. He chooses to use a semicolon to separate this two-line couplet form. This is one of the only parts of punctuation used in the piece, which suggests that it is a pivotal moment. Being that the poem is so short in length, Pound’s choice of words is especially important and happens to be quite thought-provoking. It is worthy to note that Pound uses the word “apparition” to describe the faces, as it usually refers to something more mystical and supernatural. This then leads to the fact that Pound could possibly believe that he is seeing the spirit of people as they are going about their every day lives. This creates a relatively blurry image in the first line, which is contrasted by the vivid image in line two of the “petals on a wet, black bough.” The reader can also see that same sense of contrast within that line with the feminine beauty of the petals against the dullness of the “black bough.” Pound uses several tools to make it clear that “In a Station of the Metro” is not only a poem, but is a remarkable one.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Poetic Analysis
On the surface, Diving into the Wreck seems to tell a simple story of a woman diving down to the site of a shipwreck. However, in lines 8-12 Rich exposes the reader to the fact that she is actually referring to something much deeper by explaining “I am having to do this not like Cousteau with his assiduous team aboard the sun-flooded schooner but here alone.” I interpreted it as a coming-of-age story, the dive being a metaphor of the girl’s journey to womanhood. Rich uses several images to parallel what is actually happening in the girl’s life. The second stanza introduces a ladder that “is always there hanging innocently.” The ladder is the connecter between the ship (her innocence) and the water (a dark and unfamiliar place, womanhood). Rich continues in the third stanza to describe the girl’s journey down the ladder, mentioning that the flippers are crippling her, which seems to suggest that she is somewhat uncomfortable in making this journey. Rich then describes the colors of the air above water as blue and green, then as the girl descends into the water, it becomes dark and she begins to black out, which suggests that things are becoming overwhelming for her. She reminds herself to stay focused and instead of focusing on her “wreck,” to look to the future. Beginning around line 61, the girl realizes that she has come to forget about her past and to learn from it instead of regretting it. Also, the poem makes a shift from dark, black images to a lighter one, suggested by line 64-64, “drowned face always staring toward the sun.” Later, in lines 71-75, she has reached the “wreck.” It seems that the point Rich is trying to make is that entering adulthood is a demanding stage of life that should be viewed as a learning process.
