elizabeths english blog: May 2011

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Portfolio

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Wanda Why arent you Dead

The poem Wanda why aren’t you dead, reveals the authors struggle to be herself when surrounded by a judgmental group.

The first two stanzas point out all of the authors faults in a drilling blunt fashion. The anaphora of her name creates a sense of being overwhelmed, and cornered, by others. Her name is used as a weapon against her, her identity is used as a weapon against her. The frequency of her name has the same effect as excessive propaganda; it gets in the authors head. Many lines are questions but they have no question marks, their said as judgments. Instead of people asking questions to understand her they “ask” questions to put her into a vulnerable position, where she will need to justify who she is, but ultimately they don’t want to listen to her response. There is an instance of advice which has confusing syntax, “if I were you were you were you.” the advice is confusing and useless, leading only to misunderstanding. In that line there were three “you’s” and only one “I” indicating how she feels that people constantly judge her but rarely look at themselves.

The third stanza describes people taking interest in Wanda’s sexual preference and sex life, which shows how people take warp her identity to suit their interests. Instead of “asking” questions they are telling her who to be. “Tell me you’re ac/dc.” It isn’t completely clear if what is being said about her sexuality is true or not. However it does show that people take interest in her only in a way that interests them. When someone takes interest in your life, there are generally positive connotations involved, people like you and want to get to know you. But here it’s the reverse it’s degrading because people are telling her to be what interests them, they see an aspect of her and they like an aspect of her, but that is all they see and that is all they think she should be.

The poem Wanda why aren’t you dead reveals the struggle between an individual and society. The character is seen as something to be used for the pleasure of society and the criticizers are constantly telling her how to fit in. Wanda is being lectured she feels as though society is punishing her for her identity when they take an interest in part of her, they attempt to warp her identity to suit their interests. She is showing how she has to struggle to get control her identity.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Paglia Commentary Response

The Paglia commentary had a structure unfamiliar to me. The structure moved seamlessly and naturally, it followed the poem which made sense. There wasn’t that dull essay structure this essay was rich enough in analysis that the formulaic essay structure seemed to disappear. The topics sentences I found particularly good she didn’t completely summarize the entire paragraph in one sentence, which would have just made the paragraph redundant; but she used to topic sentence to give the reader a natural transition into her argument.

Paglia also made some interesting analysis and interpretation of the poem. Her interpretation of the nuthatch was interesting. The bird definitely did slice through the chaos of the first two lines with its clear call, showing its power and importance. I was uncertain about the meanings of down from the tree tops up through time, I thought it was just meant to be disorienting, humbling the man in nature, or perhaps nostalgic or suggesting that nature is timeless. Paglia seemed to interpret the bird as the voice of nature and as a sort of god, which I think would further show the humbling effect of nature on man. This would also suggest that his dive was inspired by the bird call, as one might be inspired by a higher power. I thought her most insightful argument was the contemplation to action piece. It explains why there was a lack of verbs in the first part, where as the second part is filled with verbs and involves the narrator.

From this commentary I feel that this poem encourages us to live in the present. That single bird call is eternal, in that instant time was obsolete, but that moment counted. The narrator made the moment count as he jumped into the water. The nakedness of the narrator, suggests shedding of materialistic values and a sense of vulnerability that creates a sense of self.

Monday, May 9, 2011

If this was my poetry final, I would

I would disscuss the lack of verbs in the first stanza. also is the first stanza there are threatening diction "needle-sprays" "rocky ragged" "hemlock." the "single flat call" contrasts with the "ragged rocky sky line." the second stanza has verbs but has a sensation of winding down. the peculiar description of the bug, why is the bug described as naked, what kind of bug has a white body and brown hair, what kind of bug dives into the water, the bug seems like its a person. this probably describes the humbling expierience one would feel when hiking. there is an exclamation point at the end. the nuthatch call sounds abrubt in its flatness compared to the chaotic imagery before. the splash is an abrupt change from the winding down feel of the second stanza. the line up through time is strange. there is a rapid change of pace from the chaos to the first four lines to the birds call, to the call coming "down from the tree trunks" and "up through time." this seems to show the unpredictablity of nature and the thrill of nature. this change of pace also gives a sense of action to the stationary imagery, showing how the peace and tranquility of nature have excitement as well.

Harlem Dancer Commentary

In the Harlem dancer Claude McKay presents a dancer in a night club. The dancer is ravished but not fully understood by her audience, this discusses how sexual objectification can lead to and oversimplification of ones identity.

The first line introduces feelings of happiness and innocence but also as dark side. “Applauding youths” has a sense of innocence and happiness, the applause also shows that the performance is successful. But this image of innocence changes “laughed with young prostitutes.” the prostitutes undermine the innocence of the scene, suggesting that this event of fun is superficial. However there is a sense of unity evoked from the “laughed with,” the audience while it might not be entirely innocent, is coming together and having fun, this performance is successful and powerful.

The dancer is characterized as adult and sensual. “Her perfect half clothed body” clearly shows that she has the ideal form, and she is dressing provocatively. She is holding the gaze of her audience she is a successful performer. The scene and the dancer are portrayed as improper and sexually charged, but the seemingly blissful atmosphere seems to idealize this. “Her voice sounded like blended flutes, blown by black players on a picnic day” depicts the girl as complex and innocent. The flutes have a very high innocent feminine sound, but because they are blended would sound very complex. This implies that she herself is beautiful and complex, and “the picnic day” gives a sense that she is out of place in this night club.

McKay doesn’t necessarily look down upon the dancer the audience or the scene. There is a sense of happiness, and innocence in sexuality. The girl is not immoral for dancing, as McKay portrays her as a “strong palm tree” this has positive connotations, it suggests she has more character than people in the audience perceive, dancing isn’t degrading, it just is an incomplete perception of her. The audience is not immoral for liking it; they are comprised of “applauding youths.” They look at the dancer with “passion” they are admiring the sex appeal of the dancer, they believe they are honestly seeing the dancer for who she is, a sex object, but they misunderstand her.

Sexuality is not the tragedy of this situation; in fact her dancing and sexual appeal unites the crowd and makes her a successful performer. It is in her “false-smile” which shows her dislike of her current role, which is tragic. Misunderstanding is also tragic. When the audience showers her with money and attention, she feels little excitement. The sense of unity and excitement in the crowd alienates the dancer even though ironically she is the cause of the excitement.

McKay does not victimize or demonize the audience or the audience; he simply shows the difficulties for the dancer in the situation. Sexuality is not depicted as immoral in this poem; the audience is not bad for admiring the dancer. The dancer is not immoral for herself exploitation of her sexuality. The sadness comes from the misunderstanding of the situation, for which neither dancer nor audience are blamed.

Chimp Poem

A whirlpool of green leaves,

Twisted branches, gnarled trunks,

Wrapping the crew of chimps.

They know the chaos well.

Well enough to call it thiers.

Cries pierce their green cocoon,

Foreign cries a kin to them, flood the jungle.

The forest seem to thrash,

Drowning in the blood.

The punctured green cocoon

Is patched up with flesh,

Pulled ravenously from bone.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Expressive Language

The expressive language essay seemed to focus on the practical use of language rather than language for the sake of art. But then again art has a practical purpose, and like the spoken word it often to get across a message. But then what is the difference between true poetry and giving some one direction to a restaurant or telling them to “watch out?” like Orwell the author of this essay seems to think language is power. But unlike Orwell ‘s essay on language, Baraka doesn’t tell how to one how to use language or how to write well, he just says speech is a tool we all use it differently, words mean different things to us, words have different connotations depending on who says them. I think Orwell comes short in his rules for writing after reading this. Orwell mentioned that you should always come up with your own metaphors never use expressions you’ve heard before, but aren’t these expressions part of your cultural language? These expressions will be widely understood they make it easy to communicate to the masses. It is possible to make up your own metaphors but you also have to keep your audience in mind and keep yourself in mind. You can’t make up a metaphor that people of your culture wont resonate with or that you couldn’t pull off saying. In this essay Baraka points out the complexity of understanding language based on your back ground, and it seems daunting but also the variety of connotations for words allows for possibility, he implies language as something malleable that we can define. Baraka has an interesting writing style. He writes long elaborate explanatory sentences that are embellished with a few big words here and there, but also uses short statements to get his point across. When you get into the rhythm of a long sentence and you suddenly change it with a short sentence, the short statement is emphasized. This makes him easy to understand it also makes his words sound more powerful. It’s effective and rhythmic. It sounds quite spoken the way he wrote it, not in that generic essay structure