There are many different interpretations of the future of George Willard and his overall role in Winesburg, Ohio. One of these theories is that Anderson meant to imply that George Willard, after leaving Winesburg to go to the city, grow old to become the old writer in "The Book of the Grotesque" who introduced us to the grotesques. The two characters seem to serve a similar purpose and many of the experiences George Willard had in the novel seem to logically point him in the direction of the old writer.
The largest similarity between George and the old writer is their experience with the grotesque. In the "Book of the Grotesque", the old writer speaks of the countless of grotesques he sees and how to him some of them were beautiful. Throughout the story, George Willard speaks with many different grotesques in Winesburg and serve as almost of the record keeper of the stories of the grotesques as he writes the Winesburg newspaper.
Both George and the old writer have a deeper understanding of the grotesques than other members of society. The old writer appears to have the same deep understanding of the grotesque as George. In George's story, a number of characters seek him for understanding as they tell him the story of their grotesqueness. For example, in Loneliness, Enoch Robinson demanded a conversation with George Willard so that he could tell George the story of his past and how he has become the shell of what he once was. Also, George's conversation with Kate Swift in which she tells him to look into people and truly understand them perfectly captures what the old writer is able to do with the grotesques in the book he wrote but never published.
Unlike the grotesques of the novel, George and the old writer have within them a certain sense of sophistication and maturity as well as youth that preserves them from grotesqueness. In the stories of the grotesques, a sudden transformation from youthful innocence to forced maturity through betrayal or misfortune is almost ubiquitous. It is this sudden loss of youth that transforms the grotesque into their current state and that is what separates both George and the old writer from them. In "Sophistication", George undergoes a transformation process that resembles maturity but not fully. In their acceptance of mature life, George and Helen retain a part of their youthfulness, which makes them successful in avoiding grotesqueness.
The old writer, in "The Book of the Grotesque", is said to have in him a youth in the form of a young woman in a coat of mail that saves him from grotesqueness. The young woman in mail inside of the old man represents the caring and understanding but strong being that was once inside of him, mirroring the thing that is inside of George in the end of the novel. It is this young thing inside of George that saved him from the wretched soul-sucking effect the city seem to have on other Winesburg residents as he leaves Winesburg to begin the next phase of his life.
Monday, September 30, 2013
Reponse to "We Real Cool"
"We Real Cool"
by Gwendolyn Brooks
The poem "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks captures the sense of rebellious and fun-loving spirit of youth. The poem begins with two lines that are separate from the poem and set the scene and introduces the speaker and subject of the poem. Playing pool gives the speaker and his friends a sense of cool and mysteriousness that traditionally follows the activity. The number seven is considered one of the holiest and luckiest numbers as it has many biblical references while the word "golden" connotes prosperity and fortune. Both suggest that the speaker and his friends are fortunate and will find success; however, the word "shovel" contrasts with the positive connotations. The word "shovel" is connected to death and despair, which is once again touched on later in the poem.
While reading this poem, I couldn't help but notice the unusual line separations and how it could be read. While read sentence by sentence, the poem has a simple rhyme scheme as well as rhythm as every adjacent line rhymes with each other and every line has 3 syllables. If read as written with "We" at the end of each line, however, the poem has a certain rhythm to it. This rhythm focuses on the "We" of the poem and has less emphasis on the actions. It gives the speaker and the people he or she is speaking for a sense of mysterious conceitedness, as if they thought they were above the rules they were breaking. The alliterations and broken rhymes of the poem makes the speaker sound almost playfully indifferent about the rules being broken.
After the introduction, the poem is a series of actions, all alluding to the rebelliousness. It feels like Brooks is trying to capture how the rebellious youths feel about themselves. The first stanza of the poem mentions how the speaker feels about breaking the rules by skipping school. The idea of going against authority and rebellion repeats many times throughout the poem with the actions like "Lurk[ing] Late", "Sing[ing] sin", and "Thin[ing] gin". During the time of Brooks, Jazz music belonged to the black community and was considered immoral outside of the black community as it was music infused with a unique passion that was interpreted as sexual. The mention of Jazz also adds to the unruliness of the pool players. The word "cool" that the speaker uses to describe his friends and himself denotes superiority in a sense that they are above authority and all of their peers who are subject to authority.
The poem's last line concludes the work in such a drastic shift in meaning that it almost seemed like there wasn't enough time to shift to the tone of the poem to a more somber tone that better suits the topic of death. This sudden change makes the speaker sound detached from the issue of impending death, giving death a sense of inevitability. This inevitability is Brooks' commentary on the futility and foolishness of youthful rebellion. The speaker and his friends feel like they are somehow making a difference with their actions but in reality, their acts of rebellion are meaningless.
by Gwendolyn Brooks
THE POOL PLAYERS.
SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL.
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
While reading this poem, I couldn't help but notice the unusual line separations and how it could be read. While read sentence by sentence, the poem has a simple rhyme scheme as well as rhythm as every adjacent line rhymes with each other and every line has 3 syllables. If read as written with "We" at the end of each line, however, the poem has a certain rhythm to it. This rhythm focuses on the "We" of the poem and has less emphasis on the actions. It gives the speaker and the people he or she is speaking for a sense of mysterious conceitedness, as if they thought they were above the rules they were breaking. The alliterations and broken rhymes of the poem makes the speaker sound almost playfully indifferent about the rules being broken.
After the introduction, the poem is a series of actions, all alluding to the rebelliousness. It feels like Brooks is trying to capture how the rebellious youths feel about themselves. The first stanza of the poem mentions how the speaker feels about breaking the rules by skipping school. The idea of going against authority and rebellion repeats many times throughout the poem with the actions like "Lurk[ing] Late", "Sing[ing] sin", and "Thin[ing] gin". During the time of Brooks, Jazz music belonged to the black community and was considered immoral outside of the black community as it was music infused with a unique passion that was interpreted as sexual. The mention of Jazz also adds to the unruliness of the pool players. The word "cool" that the speaker uses to describe his friends and himself denotes superiority in a sense that they are above authority and all of their peers who are subject to authority.
The poem's last line concludes the work in such a drastic shift in meaning that it almost seemed like there wasn't enough time to shift to the tone of the poem to a more somber tone that better suits the topic of death. This sudden change makes the speaker sound detached from the issue of impending death, giving death a sense of inevitability. This inevitability is Brooks' commentary on the futility and foolishness of youthful rebellion. The speaker and his friends feel like they are somehow making a difference with their actions but in reality, their acts of rebellion are meaningless.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Response to Respectability
"Respectability" tells the story of Wash Williams and his grotesqueness. The chapter begins with the description of a caged beast. The beast is hulking, dirty, and ugly and its ugliness instills emotions of wonderment and disgust in people as they pass by. Wash Williams is then said to resemble the beast. This description of Wash serves as the initial characteristics that make him grotesque. Unlike other residents of Winesburg, Wash is strongly described as being incredibly grotesque in the physical sense of the word, which affirms his grotesqueness. Although physical foulness covers his entire body, his hands are described as "sensitive and shapely". George Willard also often talks about how he imagines Wash, during their conversation, as a "comely young man". This description of his hands as well as George's imaginative description shows the pure thing inside of Wash that still exists under the hard, ugly cover that is his body. Even the man's name alludes to this, as the word "wash" implies cleanliness and purity. I think Anderson created this dichotomy between the man's real, physical appearance and the appearance of his hands and George's description to remind the readers that the grotesques, although they are damaged people, were once full of hope and dreams that still reside deep inside of them.
One of the most prominent characteristic of Wash Williams is his absolute hatred of women. His description of women is the polar opposite of Wash's character. It is interesting how Anderson points out that "the sight of a woman sickens" Wash even though he notices their outer beauty, while the sight of Wash sickens others. He describes them as "trick in Nature", saying how their beauty and "soft hands and blue eyes" were only to veil their inner wretchedness.
His hatred for women at first seems like unwarranted misogyny but is then later explained with his story. In his conversation with George Willard, which only happened because Wash pities George, like he does all woman-loving men, Wash told George the story of his marriage. He talks about his naivety in loving a woman. His love for his wife and his virginal status gives us a completely different look at Wash as he was before becoming grotesque. Wash's "religious fervor" to remain a virgin until his marriage as well as the image of Wash planting seeds that his wife gave him in the garden shows the hope that Wash had for his marriage. His abstinence shows how dedicated Wash was to the pursuit of the correct partner while the seeds show how Wash hoped that his wife and he would grow old together. His wife handing him the seeds represented a promise that she made to him, assuring him both about the fertility of the seeds as well as the marriage. It was in a moment of intimacy and lust that he finds out that her promises were empty, and the seeds with which their marriage was planted were destined for failure.
His final encounter with his wife was what made Wash grotesque. Like it was for many other characters in the book, it was a moment of sexual confusion that changed Wash. Wash came to his wife's mother's house with a sliver of hope still left in him. He wanted his wife to come into the room and somehow convince him to forgive her. He "ached to forgive and forget" and he wanted the pain that she caused him to disappear. Instead however, his wife was pushed by her mother to enter the room naked. Her mother hoped that the sight of her naked daughter and Wash's primal lust was enough to convince Wash to forgive his wife. Up to this point, Wash still wanted to reconcile with his wife, but her naked form being presented to him like an offering enraged him as he tried to kill the mother.
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Shelley's use of Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey"
In her most famous work Frankenstein, Mary Shelley directly quoted Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey", a poem depicting the changing effects that nature has on Wordsworth and how Wordsworth himself changes. Wordsworth begins by describing his first experience with nature. He talks about the overwhelming joy that he felt being with nature in his youth and how the physical beauty of nature gave him that joy. He then transitions from this state of overwhelming emotion and talks about his time away from nature, and how from time to time, the memory of nature and the feelings nature gave him gives him comfort and allows him to understand nature in a deeper sense. When he returns to nature, he knows that he will never again experience the joy that characterized his youthful days but he appreciates his new found understanding and looks hopefully to his sister to, when he is gone, experience the same joy and enlightenment he did and remembers him through it.
Shelley included lines from the poem while telling the story of Victor's and Clerval's travels in Europe when they themselves were heavily impacted by nature. Shelley alluded to Wordsworth's poem here because at this point in the story, the state of mind of both Victor and Clerval can be perfectly described by the multiple selves of Wordsworth in Tintern Abbey. In the poem, Wordsworth first describes his first encounters with nature in his "boyish days" and how the encounter is almost emotionally overwhelming. The ecstasy instilled into Wordsworth's first 'self' by nature can also be seen in Clerval as the duo travel through Europe. Before she quoted the poem, Shelley described Clerval's state of mind: "His soul overflowed with ardent affects, and his friendship was of that devoted and wondrous nature that the worldly minded teach us to look for only in imagination" (Shelley 139). Like Wordsworth was during his first encounter with nature, Clerval is overwhelmed with joy as he allows his emotions to run wild and free, unlike Victor.
The reason Victor accompanies Clerval on his journey is promise to create, for the creature, a female companion. Victor needs to escape from society to begin his work. Throughout the entire trip, while Clerval is left to freely enjoy the scenery and landscape, Victor has the weight of his conscience on his shoulder. The effects nature has on Victor differs greatly from its effects on Clerval. While Clerval "observed the scenery with an eye of feeling and delight" (138) in his journal, Victor is "haunted by a curse that shut up ever avenue to enjoyment". Victor seems to be more disconnected from nature than Clerval is as instead of engrossing himself in all the beauties of nature, he worries about the task at hand. Like Wordsworth's more transcended self, however, Victor does not dismiss the beauties that are in front of him. While he knows that he himself will never enjoy nature the same way Clerval does, Victor looks onto Clerval with hope, just as Wordsworth did to his sister.
Shelley included lines from the poem while telling the story of Victor's and Clerval's travels in Europe when they themselves were heavily impacted by nature. Shelley alluded to Wordsworth's poem here because at this point in the story, the state of mind of both Victor and Clerval can be perfectly described by the multiple selves of Wordsworth in Tintern Abbey. In the poem, Wordsworth first describes his first encounters with nature in his "boyish days" and how the encounter is almost emotionally overwhelming. The ecstasy instilled into Wordsworth's first 'self' by nature can also be seen in Clerval as the duo travel through Europe. Before she quoted the poem, Shelley described Clerval's state of mind: "His soul overflowed with ardent affects, and his friendship was of that devoted and wondrous nature that the worldly minded teach us to look for only in imagination" (Shelley 139). Like Wordsworth was during his first encounter with nature, Clerval is overwhelmed with joy as he allows his emotions to run wild and free, unlike Victor.
The reason Victor accompanies Clerval on his journey is promise to create, for the creature, a female companion. Victor needs to escape from society to begin his work. Throughout the entire trip, while Clerval is left to freely enjoy the scenery and landscape, Victor has the weight of his conscience on his shoulder. The effects nature has on Victor differs greatly from its effects on Clerval. While Clerval "observed the scenery with an eye of feeling and delight" (138) in his journal, Victor is "haunted by a curse that shut up ever avenue to enjoyment". Victor seems to be more disconnected from nature than Clerval is as instead of engrossing himself in all the beauties of nature, he worries about the task at hand. Like Wordsworth's more transcended self, however, Victor does not dismiss the beauties that are in front of him. While he knows that he himself will never enjoy nature the same way Clerval does, Victor looks onto Clerval with hope, just as Wordsworth did to his sister.
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