A Perfect Day for Bananafish

As I read this story I found it to express the oddities of each character described in the story. In a way it seems that Salinger wrote it to have the story play out in a weird sort of Sundance film kind of way, at least that is the feeling I got when i read it. One thing I didn't understand in the story is why Seymour committed suicide? and also why was he playing with 3 year old girls? It seems kind of creepy and I wonder if Salinger had things from his own life contribute to the story and its characters. Also what is up with Seymour and his feet? Did his self-consciousness lead to his eventual suicide? I think Salinger really develops the story in unique way as he provides insight on the characters and the roles they play in the story. However i do wish Salinger would have written about the internal, ideas/problems that Seymour faced, so readers could have concrete evidence to understand his actions and more of his character.

J. D. Salinger: A Perfect Day for Bananafish

When first reading the title of the story "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" I was quite interested in wanting to know what it was about. As I read the story it seemed pretty interesting and good, but it was a little weird. I wonder what the author was thinking when he wrote it, because its very different. I also wonder more about why the mom is very concerned about Muriel Glass' husband. I feel as though the relationship between Muriel and her husband is very strange and weird. It is also ironic how the little girl on the beach happened to say she saw a bananafish, when it was made up by Seymour beforehand. The ending of the story is strange in the fact that he killed himself; I think the whole story in general was strange and different but that's just my opinion. But to some up my opinion I really did like this story; it kept me reading and wanting to know what happened next. Both the husband and wife were a bit strange and especially when the husband got mad at that lady in the elevator for looking at his feel; that was weird. Makes you wonder if something is wrong with his feet.

Jack Karouac

In this excerpt from "On the Road" I mainly got that he was telling a story about his life. I love that he is a cop and doesn't want to be and he gets drunk making his rounds. I feel like I can relate to his life somewhat. Living as well as he can just making the best of his job just trying to make a living while he is pursuing his dream. But, then I feel like he is not fulfilling his true dreams. He's talking about writing a story for Hollywood but sounds rather indifferent about it. I can relate, as I am sure many students ca, you are in school going for a certain degree but is that what you really want to do with your life? Back to Jack... all in all he's just telling the story of his life and the way things happen for him. Sal is Jack who is Remi?

Drunk Texts from Famous Authors

Thought you all might enjoy a little chuckle! Drunk texts from Gertrude Stein and Emily Dickinson:

Howl- Allen Ginsberg

The first thing that struck me about Howl is the way that it's written. Ginsberg writes in a way very similar to the way Walt Whitman did in "Song of Myself", where the words seem to describe the way one would think rather than actually speak. This makes for a more interesting read, and adds to the landscape of this beatnick masterpiece.
The poem is divided into three parts. The first part opens with
"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness"
He then goes on to explain exactly who these great minds are. To Ginsberg these men are not whom people would typically regard as "Best minds of a generation" material. They are the insane, homeless, drug addicts, drug smugglers, hipsters, and many others. Note Ginsberg's use of obscene language. It's understandable why many people had a problem with Ginsberg in the 1950's America. But his lines containing obscenities are equally as important. there are no restrictions and that's what I admire about it. Again to compare Ginsberg to Whitman, Whitman included lines in "Song of Myself" alluding to gay sex and the bodies of young men, and receieved the same kind of flac, only to later on be wholly embraced. It's interesting that both poems are now anthologized in our textbook. But he goes onto explain that eventually all of these people, who you get the sense are his friends, were eventually used, washed out, "with the absolute heart of the poem of life butchered out of their own bodies good to eat a thousand years".
The second part of the poem explains what made them this way. Ginsberg uses Molloch to project all of his anger and resentment towards the elements of American society that turned his friends completely crazy. The second part just seems to roll on and on, as if Ginsberg is just ranting and raving. He points to the politicians, institutions, wars, and ultimately the American capitalist system as the culprit. One line that I find particularly imporant is when he says,
"They broke their backs lifting Moloch to Heaven! Pavements, trees, radios,
tons! lifting the city to Heaven which exists and is everywhere about
us!"
I interpret this to mean that those that are the power wielders in American capitalism will do anything they can to continue to exploit the friends of Ginsberg and others, in order to protect the status quo, and protect the false American vision of the 1950's, and hence they'll "break their backs lifting Moloch to Heaven!". At the end of this section, everything goes "down the river". I'm not sure exactly what he meansby this but i think he is referring to the apathetic attitude of the powers that be to pay any attention his generation,and that eventually these great minds of his generation "bade farewell! They jumped off the roof! to solitude! waving!
carrying flowers! Down to the river! into the street!"
These men turned to getting wacked out on drugs rather than joining the system they loathe, until eventually they were insane, homeless, poor, wandering the streets. But they CHOSE this so their laughter is "holy" but still of a "mad generation".

The third and final part of the poem, Ginsberg addresses his friend Carl Solomon, a friend of his from the time he spent in a psych ward, and also the one whom the poem is dedicated to in the beginning. He repeats the line "I'm with you in Rockland" at the beginning of every stanza. From this part, I sense Ginsberg's true connection with the people he's been talking about the whole poem. Ginsberg tells you that Solomon was insane and you can feel Solomon's descent into madness in this part, and that eventually Ginsberg and Solomon are united in madness.  I get the sense that Solomon is both a savior and a victim of this generation that Ginsberg is describing. In the end, the reader is left to question whether Ginsberg has been describing real situations and people he knows,or whether this was the product of a dream state of Ginsberg's that he was able to describe and use to characterize this generation of people. Perhaps it's both.
I find this poem extremely important, especially given it's time period. Howl is able to capture Whitman's essence of the American spirit and what that has come to mean in Ginsberg's time, while also bridging the gap to the 60's and giving birth to it's youth movement and drug/counter culture.

Ginsberg's "Howl"

     I was supposed to blog about Ginsberg and Kerouac, but upon searching for the readings in TRACS, the Kerouac readings seem to be missing, so for now, we'll just concentrate on "Howl."
      As much as it annoys me to tell you this, the best way to ingest "Howl" is with a reefer and  Walton, Jones, or Davis getting down with it somewhere in the background. After all, this poem is a tribute to what happens to intelligent kids when they get bored with the status quo, which is, of course, getting loaded.
      "Howl" reads like it was written ten years later than what it was, and it's no surprise that so much of the culture of the hippies of the sixties was lifted directly from the Beat Generation. When this poem was written, the "$64,000 Question" was the most popular show on television, followed closely by "I Love Lucy." These were what most of us look back upon as being the squeaky-clean post-war years, where everyone washed their hands before sitting down at the dinner table, praying before dinner. In that context, it's easy to see why the authorities came down hard on "Howl." Blatant drug references and depictions of sexuality were not taken lightly in those days, and authorities did their best to keep "Howl" out of the hands of the youngsters of America.
      Part I. of "Howl" addresses specific incidents involving friends of Ginsberg, as well as tales to to Ginsberg by Carl Solomon, whom Ginsberg spent some time with in a mental institution. Part II. is devoted to the spirits of authority, who in their minds find it best to quell the demons which inspire individual thought, while Part III. affirms the friendship Ginsberg had with Solomon, and the sympathies the author has with insanity, and the importance insanity plays when battling Moloch.
      "Howl" is a revolutionary piece of poetry, laying down a solid foundation for the massive surge of counter-culturalism that was just around the corner.

Ellison: Invisible Man

Obviously the time period in which Ellison wrote Invisible Man was in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement of African Americans. But looking a little closer into history, this novel was published just before the first big milestone for African Americans in regards to racial segregation. (In 1954, Brown v. Board of Education, that establishing seperate public schools for blacks and whites was unconstitutional.) So, I believe that most African Americans, at the time Ellison was writing this, felt so oppressed that they were invisible to the white man. However, I was under the impression that this was a non-violent time period, yet the narrator seems to be somewhat violent at the beginning of the prologue. When Chapter 1 begins, he mentions his grandparents and how they lived so timidly, meaning they never stood up for what they believed in. I find it kind of disturbing that "separate but equal" was the how Americans saw the racial divide.

Invisible Man

The main theme of the story "Invisible Man" was the black man struggling to find his identity, he realized he was in fact living in a white racist society. He wanted to become invisible to the world to ignore stereotypes. They were treated horribly, the whites made the boys to look at the white woman and threatened them if they didn't, they also made tricked the boys to fall into their trap- an electric rug filled with money. The story is filled with lots of stereotypes and racism is seen throughout. It was hard to read not because of the difficulty of the reading, but because of the disturbing, depressing scenes that happened in the story.

Invisible Man

I personally liked and disliked reading this story, but it was confusing to read the further you read.Even though the story was quite confusing at some times, i believe the story was about a young black man that was from the south and didn't understand why there was racism in the world. The story was dark and i got confused after reading more towards the end. I liked how he wanted better for himself by going to college, but then its messed up how hen gets expelled because of his race. This story even though was hard to understand and had its boring moments; it was still very interesting and a person can learn and take a lot out from reading it. This story makes the reader think about what is really going on in our society around this time; the author really made the writing dark and confusing at times. I would get confused about what point he was trying to make or where he was going with certain things. It was really hard to understand the story, but i tried my hardest.

Invisible Man

The section was very dark with a lot of disturbing moments. For one he is told to fight with another man, he is yelled at when he opens his mouth, and teased with a naked woman. There was no lack of description to it. After the fight the author went over his injuries with detail. He also explained his longing for the money on the rug. The section also felt a bit cluttered at times. I felt as if there was some unnecessary information. I am also confused as to if he is receiving the scholarship or not.

Invisible Man

The ending of chapter 1 kind of confused me. Was the scholarship a joke or was it a letter from his grandfather? Anyways, the story was barbaric. I know why he would resent powerful white men after being teased with a naked girl, beat up blindly, forced to fight till he or Tatlok was knocked out, teased again into collecting coins on an electric rug, and then speaking while most of them laughed and scolded him. It seemed like he was very patient toward the treatment he recieved by the white folks, but it always "boomeranged" back and I guess he finally had enough and realized his invisibility to them. Later on I guess he decides to treat white folks the way they treated him. Interesting story to read, but pretty "F"ed up at the same time.

Amiri Baraka: An Agony. As Now.

Though Amiri Baraka's tone is anything but uplifting, he is an incredibly intriguing author. His word choice is absolutely pristene in excerpts such as...

"This is the enclosure (flesh,

where innocence is a weapon. An

abstraction. Touch. (Not mine.

Or yours, if you are the soul I had

and abandoned when I was blind and had

my enemies carry me as a dead man

(if he is beautiful, or pitied."

 

The style in which he writes could easily be percieved as melodramatic if it were written by another poet, but Baraka pulls it off with a certain grace that is vastly appealing. The line breaks and punctuation used are strange, but serve a purpose to emphasize the alliteration and sharp rhythms within the poem.

 

In another excerpt...

"I am inside someone

who hates me. I look

out from his eyes. Smell

what fouled tunes come in

to his breath. Love his

wretched women."

 

This one is much more simplistic than the last, but the symbolism is great. To describe himself as inside of himself, where the outer body hates the inner, holds a lot of metaphorical value as well as a strong image.

 

Though Amiri Baraka's poetry is pretty dark, it does much more than depress you. This is a great poem by a great poet.

Amiri Baraka: Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note

To be honest,
I chose this poem because I thought that Baraka may have committed suicide, and some dark, twisted side of me wanted to read this poem to understand why. After reading the poem, and a little research, I found that he did not commit suicide, in fact he is still alive.

This poem is from the first volume of poems he published, and I have found that his was a very political person. He was very involved in African American Rights, and I believe this poem reflects that.

It feels that in this poem he is not happy with the way things are, and that it does not seem to be changing. This is seen by him saying that he has "become accustomed to the way the ground opens up and envelops him..." He later states "it has come to that..."

This statement seems so blunt. He is not happy. He does not like his everyday life.

He later states that he counts the stars, and there are always the same number. By saying this, I feel that he is telling us that things are not changing. He is hoping for a new one every time he counts, (why else would he count?) but there is always the same number. Meaning, nothing is changing around him. It has become the normal.

I feel that he has lost hope, but this last stanza is what changes him.

His daughter is talking to someone on her knees into clasped hands. I take this that she is praying, and prayer to me, means there is hope. In this stanza, his tone changes to. By starting it out with "And then," It changes what he was previously feeling. By seeing his daughter hold onto this hope that there is something better, he knows he has to make it better for her.

The Negro Speaks of the River

In Langston Hughes' poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" he references many historically important rivers. I think he uses them to symbolize of Africans in American history. First he references the Euphrates which along with the Tigris forms the Fertile Crescent, where civilization began. By saying this I think he is saying that Africans have been in America since its very beginnings. Next he says "I built a hut near the Congo", by him saying he built a hut on the Congo (a river in Africa) I think he is saying that that is his homeland. When he says he built pyramids he is referencing how Africans were once enslaved and the pyramids are a metaphor for America. I think he’s is trying to say that America was built with the sweat of African slaves. By referencing Abe Lincoln going "south" on the Mississippi he is talking about how he freed the slaves. The overall felling in the lines about Lincoln and the Mississippi are happy and joyous because of the words "singing" and "golden". It makes me think that he was happy about emancipation. The line "muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset" to me is a reference to how the South went from having slaves (muddy) to having freedmen (golden). I liked this poem because it was easier for me to decipher what Hughes was actually trying to say.

Langston Hughes:The Weary Blues

Of all the poems I read so far, I feel I can relate to "The Weary Blues". A poem seemingly to be about the confronts of music during a time of depression.  The man he describes playing the piano doesn't stop playing because he has no one. " Ain't got nobody in all this world, Ain't got nobody but ma'self". Even though the man playing the piano is singing these words, I feel that they are Hughes true feelings, sung through the man, playing the blues. Hughes grew up without out his parents and talks of being alone in other poems such as the "Theme for Enlgish B". Although this poem speaks of depression, it also speaks of a love for music. A love that is hidden behind the words of melancholy.  The man plays music "far into the night he crooned that tune". Thump, thump, thump,went his foot to the floor". these quotes hint at enjoyment, while the words he sings paints a depressing picture. "I ain't happy no mo' And I wish that I had died". This line tells of the harsh thoughts of a depressed man contemplating suicide, or is so depressed, that he just does not want to be alive.

Countee Cullen

I may just not be good at understanding poetry, but to me "Yet Do I Marvel" is out there. It opens up by stating that they do not doubt God and that he is well-meaning, and kind. It then goes on to say how a man quibbled and than moles continued blind. I've heard the stories of Tantalus and Sisyphus before but for some reason they just don't fit in the story to me. Is the poem about their punishments? That is just something I can not figure out.

In "From The Dark Tower" the rhyming scheme throws me off a bit. The first section goes ABBA 2 times and the second part of the poem goes AABBCC. Like previously stated I'm not to good at poetry so that took me a few times to figure out. It sounds like when someone passes away we should take a moment and tend to ourselves. "tend our agonizing seed" could mean a lot but it sounds like its talking about a broken heart.

"Uncle Jim" seems to make the most sense out of the 3. It's a boy with his uncle who appears to be African American and has something against White people. "Young fool you'll soon be ripe" to me sounds like hes saying that hes going to grow into his color soon and realize what he does. It says that he turns away from his poem that hes reading and sits and thinks with his uncle, shows that he really does care for him but maybe not his opinions.

William Faulkner

Does William Faulkner use alternate annunciations for "it" and "can" to portray that the father hit his kin? I found it strange that every time the overwhelming father acted out in violence, the son or narrator always mentions that it is not as bad as it seems. The smaller son gets the bulk of the abuse in the story and his hopes for it ending is always italicized. This kind of goes back to modernist writers experimenting with style or form. Personally William Faulkner utilized too many adjectives, that it had a negative effect for me to follow the story.

Was there a meaning to this story other than family abuse? Other than the Snopes, the other characters really did not have relevance except to show the father get into quagmires and revert to beating his son. The wiry boy liked to chop wood, was it a way to get anger out and maintain the gentle image of his father? At the end, the boy finally decides to run away. A lot of kids back then ran away from home to end abuse from their fathers, so the story seems a little more relevant to the 30's when it was written.

I think that the story was difficult to read due to all the adjectives and overall style of writing that I didn't really get anything out of it.

"Barn Burning" by William Faulkner

The beginning paragraph of this story was kind of hard to follow for me. What was significance of repetitively talking about the smell of meat and cheese? The way he described the setting and Colonel Sartoris Snopes stomach and his view was a very strange way to describe something. He took alot of detail and time into describing his empty stomach and the smells and the cans on the shelf.

Why is Snope so rude and ruthless? He speaks of loyalty to family and blood because that is all you essentially have, but i do not get the sense that he was very nice to his family. The message to me was that when going through a crisis, whether you ( or your family) was at fault, you always stand behind blood. But Abner is a monster, and ends up destroying everything, even the one thing he said you should always have, family. Sartoris faced a conflict between what he thought was right and what his father has always told him. I think that Sartoris made the right decision, because it saved the rest of his family from the crisis they had been in from moving all the time, and knowing the wrongful of the fathers doing.

The only thing i got out of this story was that in 1939, men ruled everything. Because in the story lizzie says that if Sartoris does not warn the de Spains that the barn is going to be burned, then she will. When faulkner desribes the sisters, he only speaks of their physical appearance, never their names or age or anything else. This story kind of gave a subtle side story that women were not important, and what they say did not matter. And as much as the mother tried to give a calm. loving presence, she was always taken down by the stern temper of her husband with the family.
Overall, i thought this piece was kinda of boring.