saecha0m’s Blog

The first usage of madness is the first stanza in which he talks about great minds being broken. This is by far the more simple usage and intrepretation of madness. Basically it refers to great people with great minds who use drugs during his era and turn mad. The next lines refering to madness he explicitly talks about cock and balls. Direct message of drug use is also present which now clearly refers to madness. Although this line and the first are not too different because they involve madness with drug usage. The next line involving madness would have to be the last few lines in which he refers to 25,000 mad comrades singing their internationale. This probably refers to them singing their anthem before going into battle but who knows if there is drug use also involved. Soldiers are known to use drugs to enhance their fighting capabilities. I see this last usage of madness as like a conclusion of lines refering to madness and that is a difference that I see. Ginsberg sounds pretty crazy with his motifs all or most of which sounds pretty gloomy. But then again poetry is reflection so who really knows what he might’ve been feeling at the moment no matter how much we try to intrepret.

When people are seeking employment no matter what their education level, there is a saying that comes into mind, “It is not what you know, it is who you know”. The idea is that the people who are related to you in some ways, will offer you a position before anyone else. And then the question or matter of loyalty comes into play. Miller places emphasis and importance on loyalty in the 50′s but we very much see the same thing today and it does not have to be related with employment. Eddie has no choice but to give his niece away as she ages into a grown woman, but he does not trust the man she is with.

He believes Rudoplho is trying to take advantage of his niece and does not trust him. Rudoplho is clearly self-motivated and unloyal to Eddie. Same with what we see in society today, employers will not hire employees who seem disloyal or are percieved to be. People often say competence, experience, or education are the main factors when it comes to employment but it is actually just a matter of loyalty. When ethnicity is in the situation as with this story, the loyalty factor becomes even more important. We as humans will always have a subconcsious bias for our own ethnicity or nationality. Eddie did not want to hand over his niece to a bunch of illegal immigrants who were disloyal.

Loyalty is a human characteristic that makes groups of human strive. If Eddie is to succeed and rise within society, his peers of related ethnicity must be loyal in helping each other strive. Being the blue collar people that they were, loyalty and cooperation is even more important. Loyalty is simply what keeps groups of human together to strive. When there are different ethnic groups competing with one another, then loyalty becomes even more important. When mongol forces arrived in Poland during the 14th century, there was no NATO or third reich to protect Europe. Loyalty to Christianity was the only factor in the life and death situation of the invading mongol hordes. Eddie was simply stupid and had over-exaggerated loyalty. There was no life and death situation and no need to put so much emphasis on loyalty. Or on the other hand, because we often forget too that we are animals, Eddie probably sub-conciously thought he would die if he couldn’t pass his genes on through impregnating his sweetheart Caroline.

The ability to feel with emotion in itself is a very human characteristic. Emotion allows us to be human because with the feeling of emotion, we take into consideration morality and reason. Without morality and reason is what we see throughout nature as animals fail to cope with their environment and die off. The ability to feel and sympathize with one another is what drives humans together into civilization to think and strive. In the story, the girl constantly feels and that is what makes her feminine, human, and civilized. Civilization itself is a woman in that before civilization existed, it was men who dominated with their masculinity. In hunter gather societies, the need to hunt and even compete with other factions required men to be hardened killers without feeling. The story places so much emphasis on the feeling of the girl that it could only mean one thing; civilization centers around the woman and the feminine nature. Agriculture for the most part, kept everyone alive through plants and this had a softening effect in human nature. Suddenly through agriculture, everyone was brought together to a rich city and shared an identity. What a better way to show your new found civilization’s identity through clothing your woman up in the riches attained from agriculture. The Qin empire clothed their women with fine and beautiful silk, the mongols clothed their warriors with plundered silk to protect against enemy arrows. Civilization could think, feel, plan, and strive just like the feminine soul of a woman. People often wonder why the mongol conquests of Genghis Khan were so successful but it is pretty simple and I feel relates directly to this story. First off, the mongols were masculine and hardened people who were kept alive through meat and war. They simply saw civilization as soft prey no matter how numerous. They were feminine, arrogant, and rich through their agriculture. They often ventured out of their walls to taunt and would run back in. Civilization, like a feminine woman, can think, feel, and reason. The mongols, who were masculine and did not feel much, massacred civilization after civilization successfully with the ability to not feel and to not even think in some cases. Whereas the femine Qin and Sung empire that was conquered in China, even when conquered, they could think and feel their way out of the situation. Hundreds of years later when the Japanese invaded, like the feminine nature of civilization, the communist parties and democratic parties united against Japan even though while in the middle of a civil war between each other. The ability to think and feel like a woman can be weak in some cases, but in other times, it is what makes us strive and civilized.

Well to put it simply, these paintings are all out of conformity to begin with or what a classical masterpiece of art would look like. For example, much of the paintings or sculptures in the armory were abstract and had no form whatsoever. And form has a special place in art which is taught from pretty early on. Although the paintings were not so pretty with form or conformity, it did have one characteristic; which was truth. The paintings had represented the actual case of the artist’s perception of the world. In other words, although the art work did not conform, all that mattered was the modernists’ attitude and approach.

The north’s attitude of progressivism is also an important matter in all of this. Without the desire to change and advance from common norms, these art works would have never been possible. Defamiliarization of what we knew as art and poetry was only brought about by the progressive attitude. Much like what we see today when people protest conservatism, we see in the armory show. The unique and revolutionary pieces of art are almost like a protest to the conservative notion of art.

When the question is asked about how these artworks represent American modernism, it is quite simple. The fact that it is American in itself rather than the classic ancient roman view of art. It is a very American thing to voice your own opinion especially in New York, and it is no coincidence that the armory show was in New York. When Frost tells us to have our own intrepretations, he is telling us to be a modernist and American most important of all. We do not have to conform to classical or conservative perceptions of art, rather we have our own revolutionary and American perception of the modern world.

Another point to make is the significance of the paintings and scultpures. Some were so abstract and colorful that you start to wonder about the middle-south American influence. The fact that some of those colorful abstract paintings were Cuban influenced, is revolutionary and modernist in itself to conservative or classical art. Also the sculptures being totally deformed of a man’s head, may also say something about nonconformity and the need to have a true perception of the modernist world. Instead of having a fine tuned sculpture like Apollo, this sculpture was ragged and deformed but it may say something about modern urbanism and how our whole lives revolve around the harsh realities of modernist American life.

1. This excerpt occurs in the beginning of the Novel where Carrie first arrives in Chicago. She is walking around town looking for employment but she cannot help but to obersve the people in rich city clothing.

2. We see everything that is observered through Carrie’s perspective as she walks along the city. We know this is Carrie’s perpective of her awe in the situation as she observes.

3. The voice of the narrator is describing the situation as well as what the character is feeling.

4. He is very descriptive and informative in style. As a reader, I feel as if he is putting a great deal of effort in getting me to understand and to grasp the situation. The narrator strikes me as an educated, wide, and middle-aged man telling an urban story.

5. The narrator is mainly describing the setting being that Carrie’s walk along downtown Chicago is the center of this excerpt. He is mainly describing the richness of the city whether it be the people or the buildings.

6. He seems to want us to understand the awe that this country girl, Carrie is feeling in a great bustling city. Carrie is in fact, the main character so I can udnerstand her motives clearly.

7. The Narrator sounds almost to be materialistic and in Awe with the city just as much as Carrie is while he describes the setting.

Her husband may have represented to her the depression and opression she was feeling as a woman. She treated her as if she was a lost depressed little girl who didn’t understand what she was feeling. She on the other hand, was a strong willed woman who knew the reason for her mental illness and depression was the husband himself. For him to treat her as if she wasn’t sick and lock her up was also like a slap to the face for her and probably made her illness worst. As he lay helpless at the end of the story sick, it is a victory for her in that now he is the one that is actually sick. Now she probably feels as if it is her turn as a strong willed woman to take care of her ill husband like a little child. It is probably a victory for her in a sense that she may have found affection and comfort caring for her husband thus, not making her ill anymore.

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant –

This line basically is about white lies. A person can be honest but have a hint of innocence with white lies. The line is quite literal and straightforward except for the end with the word “slant”. The usage of that word may simply refer to a hint of dishonesty.

Success in Circuit lies

Repeated sucess in a certain subject or field may refer to a person’s boredom with that subject. In a sense, that person may be dishonest with his or her life who took on a subject that can be successfully mastered in circuits. I found the line to be quite straightforward and easy to intrepret given the first line.

Too bright for our infirm Delight

This line probably refers to knowledge or truth with the words “too bright”. Something may be too intelligent to comprehend or something may be too truthful to comprehend. The truth or intelligence of something may be too much for our comprehension. Our delight is our satisfaction or contentment in a sense. The first two lines definitely gives a hint of concern about truth or intelligence and this line may simply be about the two being too much to comprehend.

The Truth’s superb surprise

The truth that is being spoken about in the previous lines is literally a surprise in this line. It is quite literal and gives meaning a straightforwardness to the other three lines. All of the other lines have to do with truth and honesty and this line makes it clear with it being very literal. I find that the truth is actually a surprise personally but not in a good way because I generally don’t like surprises. The use of the word “superb” may indicate to us that she likes surprises maybe.

As Lightning to the Children eased

Lightning is generally an amazing thing to witness for adults but quite scary for children. Lightning may refer to the truth about something or discipline in general. As discipline and the truth about life eases upon children, it may be better for their development into adults. This line is very figurative an not quite so literal but quite easy to intrepret.

With explanation kind

Discipline and truth must be taught to children very kindly for the better of their mental development. This line probably refers to her views of disciplining children. A teacher can use hard physical discipline or gentle and kind explanations. Personally, I think all explanations of anything should be told in a kind manner no matter who you are giving it to.With children I believe, is most important to set a good example for them.

The Truth must dazzle gradually

Children learn gradually through mistakes and through observations. The hard truths about life must be understood gradually through time because you do not want to traumatize a child. If a certain truth is brought to a child hard and fast like the death of a family member, then it can be quite traumatizing. Death is a hard truth about life and only when a child gradually ages can he or she better cope with that reality.

Or every man be blind

Every man or person may as well be brought into adulthood traumatized by a hard truth or fact about life if it is not gradually instilled open them. That is why I believe in a certain population or demographic, very few actually have been traumatized by truths and facts of life. From what I understood, ED was quite depressed throughout her life and this is what she poem is about truth, discipline, and development.

Observations:

- Reading the entire poem at first, it was hard to understand because she was so figurative in her speech.

- After analyzing and intrepreting the lines, I piece them together and they all came together perfectly from my understanding or viewpoint.

- I found that this poem had entirely to do with truth and discipline which became clear to me mostly through the strong words, Truth, Lightning, Success, and Superb.

- The use of children was like the conclusion or almost climax in a sense to me, because now she is obviously referring to a group that likely receives plenty of discipline

I think we can compare Whitman’s experience with our modern day experiences when we take transportation whether it is through cars, buses, trains, or airplanes. The next time you are in such an environment, you must take notice that there are two types of individuals in these transportation environments. The introverted person that sits by the window seat who looks outside and thinks within. Then there is the extroverted person that sits in the isle seat and looks at whats going on inside the environment but thinks outside which can also be talking or conversating. Whitman sees a side of himself where he is looking at the tides which causes introspection. In doing this he sees the beauty of the river crossing. He then sees the extroverted side of him where he looks within the crowd and notices they can’t even take a break from the city and notice such a beautiful crossing. The people with their usual costumes just go on conversating sitting near the isle while Whitman sits near the window seat daydreaming about the beauty of the crossing. These two differences pose a problem because they are so different and conflicting to Whitman especially if he himself is the romantic in all of this. He probably realizes that the crossing will end soon just like how the trip is over and you snap out of your beautiful daydream. He embraces the two conflicting sides at some point because he knows a journey or trip cannot last forever in which you daydream and see beauty for eternity.

One reason why I liked this project was the fact that we could reflect on the sentence we chose from Whitman’s song of myself. This project really got me into thinking about my past life experiences so that I could intrepret my views of the sentence I chose. I also really liked the creativity part of the project where we had to find visuals to express our views. I believe expressing thoughts through visuals and words are the best way to go about interpreting something in which this project gave us the chance to. The only thing I did not like about this project was the technical part of it in which I had to copy and paste all around. I thought that it was technically challenging in some ways with too much directions and thought it would be better if we just drew our visuals in a class related assignment. I learned and observed that Whitman’s poem seemed to be very revolutionary and almost radical in his tone. He seemed to have a very romantic sense of nature to the point of being almost sexual explicit but I thought that it was creative. His love of nature and view of his young country was very romantic in his words. As of the project, I thought it might be easier to just copy and paste the visuals here or just give a quick sketch to turn in class.

I chose this image because it is the perfect setting of a river bank in which Whitman explains in Song of Myself. He explains himself undisguising and getting naked by the river bank along the woods. I found this picture to be the ideal place to get naked for a swim because of its’ sunny and pleasant background. It connects perfectly with Whitman’s sentence because I just cannot imagine him swimming naked in any river bank. He spoke of getting naked by the woods in a river bank and this picture I chose resembled just the exact setting as he mentioned. It connects with our modern day world because we also do the same on camping or fishing vacations. I can recall as a child camping somewhere in the Ukiah area in California where we would often swim in the clear and cool rivers. It was such a feeling of freedom like no other; to be alone in the woods swimming half naked by the river. I had felt one with nature and this was freedom unlike the freedom that is spoken of in the declaration of independence. This was nature and I was enjoying it to its’ fullest in the present modern world. I know too that I wasn’t the only one enjoying the swim on the river bank in the woods because many others did the same. That is how I think this picture relates especially to the contemporary experience in that it happened in Whitman’s day but in todays world of city pollution, it is quite common to seek the river banks.