Love It's a mysterious thing

The love poems this round were very interesting. Probably more confusing than interesting. I found that Hacker Villanelle may have been the easiest to understand and even than a little confusing. Her poem seemed to be more about all the phases that we go through in love and love making only to always seperate. I do think that the confusion is kinda of a good think since love more often than not is just confusing. I think that's why love is said to be blind. Love is a great feeling but easily misunderstood.

Why do we write about love?

I think we write about love for a lot of the same reasons we write about death. We write in order to express our emotions and what we see and go through everyday. But I think that death and love are probably the two most written about topics because they tend bring out our strongest emotions. Love is believed by many to be the one thing that transcends death. In many ways love is all encompassing in both death and life it moves for good or evil. That is why I think we write so much about love because you can't escape it.

Why is Hamlet a tragedy?

Hamlet is a tragedy because the story leads to the death of the hero and everyone he cares for. Although the Hero Hamlet does exact some revenge. He catches the King in his own treachery. He than makes the King drink from his own cup of death. Even though they all die tragically Hamlet does have the opportunity before his death to see his enemies lies revealed. This event made the story a little less dark. Had it ended with the King living and getting a way with everything than that would have really been twisted. Fortunately it didn't end that way. I think we all like to take hope in the fact that the King didn't get away with everything. That little fact puts some moral to the story and lets us feel that evil won't conquer good.

What was the story about?

The story of the double was about a man and his struggle to free himself from mental illness. He goes to a doctor to receive help and in the end gets the help he needs. The hero, often referred to as Mr. Goliandkin Sr. I believe was actually the alter ego of Mr. Goliandkin Jr.

Mr. G Jr. who is like and very successful is actually the true personality and receives his freedom of the senior form at the end once he relinquishes control of to Dr. Ivanovich. I believe through out the story everyone can see that Mr. G Jr. Is very gifted and well liked and falls into these states from time to time when he was drunk. Once he was able to see he had a problem and surrender it to the doctor he gained his freedom.

In a sense his alter ego was a hero because it allowed the Mr. G Jr. to humble himself and overcome his weaknesses. This actually made him a better person and so by helping Mr. G Jr. become better he was a hero of sorts.

My initial opnion of Mr. Goliadkin?

My initial opinion of Mr. Goliadkin is he may have multiple personality issues. He seems to be caught up in thinking that he has a ton of money when at times I don't think he does. He also likes to ramble so that those who come to make him honor his agreements get lost and confused by what he is saying. This by the way also has me confused up to this point as well. I'm hoping as I read more clarity to the story will come. I really hope that I'm not lost because of a gap in Russian writing and culture. Up to this point this is what I think of Mr. Goliandkin.

What is the connection between sleeping and dying?

The connection between death and sleeping is that no matter how we try to avoid them they inevitably will come. For instance we will die of sleep deprivation faster than starvation. So in other words you will either sleep or die. There is also an interesting that when we sleep we often enter a dream, another world, or black emptiness. death is the same in that we will go to on to an after life or another state of being much like a dream or blackness for those who don't believe that this life is all we have. Either way they are very similar.

The similarities were expressed well in Death, be not proud by John Donne when it stated that:
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,

This shows that death much like sleep can be restful and even a pleasure of sorts. It allows us to escape the torments that can happen in our world. Maybe this is what Richard Cory was seeking when he decided to kill himself.

I think this way of thinking of death is a lot better than some of the more tortured and painful ways that some people believe can happen to us at death.

Why do authors write about killing?

Why do authors write about killing? I think authors like to look into everything that can be seen in life. I believe it lets them explore their own reactions to death or the evil in killing. I also think they like to see how other people will react to their writing especially with death and murder.

In the stories that we read their several examples of murder. Each of the stories had a different take at the process of killing someone. In Poe's short story The Cask of Amontillado we read about a guy killing for revenge. I think at some point we all have wanted revenge, but never got pushed over the edge so far that we wanted to kill someone. Revenge is something fairly easy to relate to and I felt was far less shocking than some of the other stories.

For instance, Jackson's The Lottery was probably the most shocking for me for several reasons. To begin with Jackson hid what was going to happen very well so it was far more shocking once I found out they were going to stone someone. Secondly, I found it hard to relate to what seemed to be a very random and odd ritual. They never explained why they were doing it, other than they were just blindly following tradition. In the end I think that was the point of the author was to have people open their eye's and see that we shouldn't just blindly follow for the sake of following.

In the end I think that I actually like The Lottery the most. Probably, because it was different and I like the hidden meaning behind the story.

The Moon is Down

Who won and who lost the battle? I believe that the towns people in the end eventually win. But the reality is everyone lost. Primarily, because the purpose of the invasion was done on the premise of lies to the soldiers. This inevitably led to depression and lack of trust in the cause. Therefore, it allowed the people to slowly destroy and undermine the stronger military. The people had were unified in purpose and therefore eventually prevail with the help of sympathizing England.

The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

I found The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin compelling for several reasons. First, I initially thought that Mrs. Mallard was going to die once she got the notice of her husbands death, but she doesn't. She goes and cries and seem to have an eye opening epiphany. Through her grief she seems to find herself and make resolve with what life has handed her. I thought this would be a great triumph for her to grieve but ascend above her friends beliefs in her frailty. Of course her brief triumph over grief was very brief. But the ending may actually have been more liberating even though she died. She died happy that the person she loved so much was alive. As we all know it is better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved at all. In Mrs. Mallards case she loved and lost than regained and left this world with a heart so full it burst.

“What You Pawn I Will Redeem” by Sherman Alexie

“What You Pawn I Will Redeem” by Sherman Alexie seems to give a greater contrasting story to "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Both stories are about a journey, but the destination and way the both man get there are completely different. Jackson Jackson's shows a spiritual journey as well as the physical journey. Jackson continues to strive to get his grandmothers regalia back but does so in a way that is different from most. He continually looks for money but never gets enough so he ends up spending it on others. In the end the aid of others and also his own charity towards his fellow Indians help him regain his regalia.

This Journey to reconnect with his family is also has some religious undertones as well. We can see that it is much like present day Christians believe that even though we may try we will always fall short of perfection; but through Christ sacrifice for us we can be forgiven. This resembles the act of kindness the pawn shop owner had towards Jackson. Jackson had come up short but through his efforts he had mercy on him and gave him the Regalia.

I liked this story better because it focused more on the positive side of humans in-spite of our short-comings. It also showed how we are connected to each other and how we can help each other through hard times.

“Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne

As I read the story of "Young Goodman Brown" I found it to be both inspiring and depressing. It was a very well written story of a mans journey and lessons on overcoming evil. Goodman Brown found that he had put to much confidence in himself and his own power to control every situation that he might confront. He believed that his will and faith were stronger than the Devil's. He allows himself to be tempted. He overcomes the temptation but I fear he loses the battle.

Goodman Brown returns to his faith and looks to God during his trial and is saved from the hideous ceremony. Unfortunately, He also sees so much that he loses his faith in his fellow men and his beautiful wife. His life becomes a living hell where he no longer trusts anyone. This is unfortunate because he will never know whether he was being beguiled by the Devil. It is the way he chooses to live his life under the misconceptions that makes the story depressing in the end.