Dover Beach

Personally, I believe that “Dover Beach” is predominately a meditative poem. After reading the poem and researching it, I think that Arnold is probably using the poem to explain his feelings about the widespread belief that Darwin and other scientists may be right, and that perhaps there was a scientific reason that led to the creation of earth. Being a highly religious person, Arnold uses the stanza:

“The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.”

to explain his feeling that faith is becoming something of the past. Whereas once, people founded a new nation based on their religious beliefs, now they are beginning to accept that science may play a part in the formation of the earth.  This stanza seems to say that although once faith in God was as abundant as the sea, now it is slowly fading away from the lips of those who were once firm believers. No longer are people proclaiming their belief in an unseen God, but are now focusing on the newly discovered scientific notions of Darwin and others.

In the last stanza of the poem, he mentions love, personifying it, but I don’t really think the poem is a love poem. He is simply stating that if the world was created by “the big bang,” that there is no hope, no joy, and no use in dreaming of awaking in a paradise created by God. Rather, ignorance will lead to the two factions, believers and scientists, fighting over which thought is the truth. Is it really worth holding on to the faith of an unseen God?

Comparing Ulysses' Quote to My Life

Tennyson’s “Ulysses” is written to describe how Ulysses feels about his life. He is a mariner and wanderer at heart, and doesn’t want to stay at home, bound by his wife and child to a life of misery. The line: “I am a part of all that I have met,” is significant because it is saying that Ulysses considers every person he has come upon in his travels to have contributed to the man he is. Personally, I can understand what Ulysses is saying. I have been shaped by my mom, family members, friends, and teachers. Their belief or disbelief in what I can accomplish (in spite of my hearing loss) has played a part in helping me to make the decision to become an interpreter. I grew up wanting to be a vet, but after having an extremely bad experience with two of my teachers, changed my way of thinking as to what I want to be.

I have watched interpreters in my many trips to Children’s Hospital. My elementary Spanish teacher and high school Spanish teacher believe in my ability to become an interpreter for parents, doctors, and children. They have been encouraging me in my new career choice since I explained to them what I would like to do. Friends, family, and even my doctors have told me that they believe I can do a wonderful job as either an interpreter or an ESL teacher. I have made some of the highest scores in my Spanish I, II, and III classes, and even tutored other students having difficulty in the subject. This is something I know I can do and having others believing in me is very encouraging as well. Because of the care and concern of doctors that know of my disability, I want to be able to give back to show them that I have been aware of all the help they have given me so far.  These are some of the reasons I can relate to the line, “I am part of all that I have met.” I too have been shaped by the people with whom I have come in contact in my eighteen years of living.

Three Poems, Same Man

If the three poems by A. E. Housman were written about the same man, they would best be read in the following order: “When I was One and Twenty,” “Loveliest of Trees,” and “Is My Team Ploughing?”  The poems cover the life span of a man from the time he is twenty one until he is dead and buried. At the tender age of twenty one, the man is cautioned not to give his heart away easily. He is told that there are some things that can be given without much thought, but that giving love too easily will only cause heartache and anguish. At the age of twenty two, the poet is in complete agreement with the one who had cautioned him, indicating that he had fallen in love, given his heart to someone, and been burned!

In the second poem, “Loveliest of Trees,” he is looking back over his life with a fond remembrance of the past forty years. He is also realizing that even though he may live to be an old man, he will not have time to experience all life has to offer. He declares that even if he has fifty more years to live, he will not have enough time to enjoy his favorite tree, the blooms of spring, or other joys of life.

Finally, in the poem, “Is My Team Ploughing?” Housman writes from the perspective of a man dead and buried. He is wondering if it is spring planting time or the fall of the year. He also wonders if his love is happy or sad about his passing. The answer appears to be that she is happy and content with a new love, perhaps a close friend of his before his death. The poem ends with him claiming that he cheers a dead man’s sweetheart, but he will not tell who she once belonged to.

The three poems seem to indicate that life should be lived to the fullest, but some cautionary measures need to be taken to guard the heart from anguish. Take time to enjoy the spring time, but don’t give your heart too easily. If you live life with no regrets, it will be an easy death.

The Raven

In my opinion, The Raven’s theme is about a person dwelling on his own grief or mental anguish. Other themes can include loneliness or lost love. After all, this poem is about his old flame, Lenore. Scientifically, it has been proven that raven’s are the smartest of all birds, and are considered mysterious and mythical. Once it was believed that they carried spirits on into the afterlife. Poe is asking the raven if it has been sent from heaven to carry the soul of his beloved Lenore to heaven. The raven quotes, “nevermore,” a theme carried out by Poe when he is saying that he will nevermore know the love of the fair Lenore. He will nevermore see her alive and well. He also feels that the raven will not leave him until his own death because of the way it sits just outside his door and stares at him evilly. It almost seems as if Poe feels that the raven is awaiting his death to carry his soul to the devil.

As for The Blessed Damozel, the theme is that of an estranged lover just outside the gates of Heaven who longs to be united with her lover who is not yet dead. She fervently hopes that God shall grant her wish that her lover’s soul should join her in heaven after he dies. Hence, she stands at the walls of heaven looking towards the earth below and longing for her lover’s soul to float up to join to her. This poem is full of hope and the belief that two people will once again find their true love upon reaching the heavenly gates.  The Damozel  finally gives herself up to “the light,” but goes inside the gates of heaven weeping since she doesn’t know when she will be joined by her lover.

Poe writes a poem full of despair and heartache. Rossetti writes one of hope. While both of them tell of love stopped by the death of one character, they show very different ideas of what happens in the afterlife. Poe leads the reader to believe that the spirit has to be carried onward by an inhuman source, whereas Rossetti leads one to believe that perhaps it is possible to communicate with someone that shares a special bond with their lover.

The Help

The Help by Kathryn Stockett is a modern day novel written from the perspective of three women living in deep Mississippi in the 1960’s. Two of the women, Aibileen and Minny, are black women; they work as maids for young, 23 year-old-women. The third woman, Skeeter, is a 23 year-old white woman who yearns to be a writer. She wants to tell the story of how harshly a black woman is treated by her employers during a time when segregation was causing emotions to run high.

The story begins with Aibileen, or Aibee, as her young charge, Mae Mobley calls her. Aibee is in her early 50’s, a single woman who has raised 17 white children over the course of her employment --from the time she was 15. She lost her son when a truck he was loading backed over him when he fell from the dock on which he was working. His boss picked him up, threw him in the back of a pickup, and took him to the black hospital where workers pushed him out of the truck bed before they sped away. Aibee has nothing to live for other than her precious “Baby Girl” the term she affectionately calls Mae Mobley. Mae’s mother is Miss Leefolt, a 23 year-old friend of Skeeter’s. Miss Leefolt rarely pays attention to Mae, really only having anything to do with the child when she is disciplining her, or trying to get rid of her. Miss Leefolt is the poorest of three friends, the third of which is Miss Hilly, a friend of hers and Skeeter’s since grade school.

Miss Hilly is married to a man with high political aspirations, lives in a fine home, and is a member of the country club. She is also the president of the women’s social club, the Ladies League. She lords her wealth over all in her inner circle. Skeeter on the other hand, is possibly the richest of the three, but the only one who knows how to express her true feelings. Her former nanny, Constantine, was always her best friend, and keeps in touch with her all thru college, promising her a big surprise when she graduates. However, when she gets home, she finds that Constantine is gone; allegedly she quit to go to Chicago, but she finds out from conversations with Aibee, that Constantine was fired. It had to do with the fact that one day Constantine’s daughter, whom Skeeter knew nothing about, showed up to speak to her at work. The girl was visibly part white, practically a sin in that day! Turns out that Constantine was the daughter of a white man and black woman (presumably the master of her mama) and even though Constantine’s man was black, the lighter pigmentation showed up in her daughter.

Anyway, Aibee’s son had been working on a book called The Invisible Man before he was killed. She told Skeeter about it one day, and that is when the idea to write a book from a maid’s perspective was born in Skeeter’s mind and heart. Skeeter finally talks Aibee and Minny into telling her some of their feelings and thoughts and begins writing a novel based on their experiences. She learns some unpleasant things about her two best friends, but keeps the secrets and continues with the novel. She has found a mentor at Harper & Row Publishers in New York who agrees to read her story and see if it is worthwhile. Skeeter found out about Aibee’s son when Aibee was helping her write a domesticated section for the town newspaper. Since Skeeter was raised by a nanny/maid, she knows nothing about ways of cooking and cleaning, and turns to Aibileen for assistance. Each time she visits her friend, Elizabeth, or Miss Leefolt, she goes to the kitchen for more help from Aibee.

Aibee convinces Minny that they are trying to do some good, and Minny agrees to tell her story. Boy, does she have a story to tell! Minny started working as a maid at the age of 14. She is married to a drunk and they have five children. He beats her whenever he gets drunk. She has a smart mouth, and isn’t afraid to speak her mind to her employers. She is working for Miss Hilly’s mother when the story begins, but Miss Hilly decides to send her mama to the nursing home, and accuses Minny of stealing. Minny, mouths off to Hilly and goes home and prepares a chocolate pie. She puts feces in the pie and takes it over to Hilly’s mother’s house. Hilly eats two big pieces, claiming it’s the best pie she’s ever eaten. The elderly mother is the first to figure out what Minny has done, and laughs while telling Miss Hilly she got what she deserved. This infuriates Miss Hilly, and she goes around telling more lies on Minny so that Minny can’t find employment. Aibee is hurting for her friend, and hears about a young couple just outside of town that may be looking for a maid. They make up a lie that Miss Elizabeth Leefolt has recommended Minny, and she gets a job with Miss Celia. Miss Celia can’t understand why no one in town will befriend or accept her, but the reason is that Miss Hilly’s former fiancé, Johnny, has dumped her for Celia, presumably because Celia was pregnant with his child but lost it. Since Hilly controls the Ladies League, no one in society wants to cross her. Miss Celia doesn’t know the first thing about cooking or cleaning which is evident when Minny first goes to interview with her. Then she informs Minny that she was born and raised on the “wrong side of the tracks,” and tries to befriend the maid. Minny doesn’t want to be friends and remains standoffish, demanding that Miss Celia tell Johnny she has hired her to keep from being shot. Celia keeps giving her excuses, and one day Johnny comes in early and finds Minny. He explains that he has known for weeks that someone was working for them, because Minny is such an outstanding cook. Minny doesn’t trust Miss Celia, thinking that she is a drunk. It turns out that Miss Celia is suffering from four miscarriages and is drinking a “medicine” that is supposed to help her carry a baby to term. Minny tries to keep Miss Celia from hearing the lies that Miss Hilly has spread about her, but one day, can hide it no longer and tells Celia everything, including the story of the pie, which not even Aibee knows!

Together, Aibee and Minny get other women to contribute to the book, but not without repercussions. One friend who has worked for Hilly for years asks Hilly for a loan of $75 so that both of her twin boys can go to college. Hilly refuses, and the maid steals a ring thinking it is worth a lot of money. Rather than being a family heirloom, it is a simple garnet, but Hilly files charges, and knowing the judge, gets a six-month sentence raised to four years and a $500 fine. This infuriates many of the women who heard their friend was going to tell her story. They agree to help with the book. In all, Skeeter has 13 women with stories to tell. Her friend and mentor tells her she must include her own maid’s story, and this is when she finds out what truly happened to her beloved Constantine. Aibee tells her much of the tale, but Skeeter has to ask her mother for the truth. It turns out that Constantine’s daughter found her, and came from Chicago to visit. She poses as a white girl, going so far as to come to Skeeter’s mom’s meeting of the DAR group and daring to sign up to join. Then when Skeeter’s mom tells her to leave, she spits in her face. Constantine goes to Chicago with the girl, and dies three weeks later. Skeeter’s mom doesn’t want the whole story to come out, and that is why she never told Skeeter that Constantine is dead.

The book is written and published, and then an old sorority friend of Skeeter’s, Miss Leefolt’s, and Miss Hilly’s talks about it on a talk show. Everyone rushes out to buy the book and the maids who have contributed to it are afraid. Miss Hilly begins reading it, and starts telling people in her circle to fire their maids. Then she gets to the last chapter, about eating the feces filled pie, and changes her story, swearing that some black woman must have written it. She, Elizabeth, and all of the other high society snobs have already stopped talking to Skeeter, but she goes to Elizabeth’s house claiming that Aibee has stolen her silver and she is going to prosecute. Aibee gets fired, but not before telling Miss Hilly that if she goes to jail, she will have plenty of time and lots of free paper, and she will write to every society person in their town telling them more of the bad things that Miss Hilly has done. This threat causes Miss Hilly to back off, but Aibee still has to leave her beloved Baby Girl and Lil Man, the young children in her charge.

Because there is a demand for the book, 5,000 more copies are printed. This insures each of the women contributors another $100 to add to the $61 they got for the first round. Skeeter is offered a job in New York at Harper’s Magazine, and Minny and Aibee convince her to take it. Before leaving, she goes to her editor at the newspaper and confesses that Aibee has been writing the weekly column all along, and he agrees to hire Aibee at the pay of $10 per week. With this pittance and the advance on the book, Aibee knows that she will have it hard, and the story ends with her thinking she just may write another book.

All in all, many of the employers who were depicted in the story sat their maids down and talked to them for the first time about feelings and treatment. A couple lost their jobs, but most earned a new respect from and for their employers. Telling their stories did make a difference in a turbulent time. The story was funny, sad, and honest in its telling of how slaves were being treated as late as the 1960’s in the South.

Frankenstein

The story is called Frankenstein, written by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Frankenstein turns to forbidden sciences and discovers how to bring the dead back to life. When he does, he believes that he has created a monster and flees. The monster chases him and demands that he creates a mate for him. Frankenstein almost does, but he winds up refusing to do so. The monster kills everyone close to him before turning on Frankenstein and murdering him. At the end of the story, a sailor finds Frankenstein’s notes and tries to continue the quest.

The protagonist of the story is Victor Frankenstein, a man who has an obsession of bringing the dead back to life. Studying in Ingolstadt, Victor discovers the secret of life and creates a monster that he recoils from in horror. Victor keeps this creation a secret; his feeling of guilt and shame increase as he realizes he is helpless to stop the monster from ruining others’ lives, including his. Another main character is the monster, Victor’s eight-foot-tall, hideous creation. The monster is abandoned by his creator, and rejected by all those he comes into contact with; his feeling of abandonment compels him to root for revenge against Victor. Other characters in the story include the De Lacey family consisting of an elderly blind father, his two grown children, Agatha and Felix, and Felix’s wife. It is through observing the De Lacey family that the monster learns all that he knows about society and emotions as well as reading and speech. Henry Clerval, Victor’s best friend, nurses Victor back to health when he falls ill after the disappearance of the monster.  Henry becomes one of the monster’s victims, and Frankenstein is accused of his best friend’s murder. Another character is Elizabeth Lavenza, an orphan a few years younger than Victor, whom the Frankenstein’s adopt. William, Victor’s youngest brother and the darling of the Frankenstein family, ends up being strangled by the monster in the woods outside Geneva.

The setting of the novel ranges all over Europe in the eighteenth century. The tale begins and ends in the Arctic with the explorer Robert Walton seeking a northwest passage. On his journey he first meets Victor Frankenstein and then the monster himself. The arctic atmosphere itself is a fitting symbol for the scientific journey on which Frankenstein has begun and Walton is beginning.

The conflict in the story would have to be man vs. self. Victor is apparently appalled at his own creation which could be said to be a part of him. After all, he did create the monster. One can obviously see that Victor is tearing himself apart throughout the novel due to his creation. The people that the monster killed in the story, including Elizabeth, William, Clerval, Justine, Victor's father and Victor himself, would all be alive and well if this monster had not been created. It is because of this that Victor cannot stand himself, initiating his outright depression and self-loathing. Another conflict that can be seen is the effort of the monster to extract love from his creator.  When he doesn’t receive love, he turns to murder instead.

The theme of the story is dangerous knowledge. One can understand this theme as Victor attempts to go beyond accepted human limits and access the secret of life. This access would allow Victor and other scientists to create humankind. The knowledge of creationism would not only make Victor famous, but rich beyond the human imagination. Life could be prolonged and duplicated. Duplication could allow criminals to go free, while their innocent counter-parts are locked away.

There is symbolism all throughout the novel. The windows and shutters are the borderlines that the creature could not cross until the moment when he reached into Victor's life and took Elizabeth from him. Yellow is the color of evil, the monster’s eyes, and the moonlight. Lightning represents the moment of life when energy filled the monster. In the story, the lake symbolized the book’s potential. The way the lake is portrayed mimics the tone of the story. For example, it’s peaceful when Victor is young and innocent, but when Victor is depressed after hearing of William's murder and is returning home, the lake reflects his mood. "Vivid flashes of lightning dazzled my eyes, illuminating the lake, making it appear like a vast sheet of fire."

I would recommend this book to anyone who has a love for science, science fiction, and/or fantasy. I think that this specific book is geared toward upper middle and high school students. The mind-set for this story requires some level of maturity as it is necessary to understand the monster’s feelings and his need for love and acceptance. The graphic nature of the story makes me feel that it is written for an older audience. Even though young children can understand a need for love and acceptance, maturity is needed to fully comprehend why the monster acts cruelly toward those who refuse to love him.

Through the Looking Glass

The title of the story is Through the Looking-Glass, written by Lewis Carroll. The book is about a young girl named Alice. While playing with a kitten and staring at a mirror, Alice wonders about what the world would be like on the other side of the mirror. To her surprise, she is able to go through the mirror to explore another dimension. She finds a book with looking-glass poetry, “Jabberwocky,” that she can only read by holding it up to a mirror. While leaving the house, she enters into a garden, where the flowers speak to her mistaking her for a flower. Alice then meets the Red Queen, who proposes a throne to Alice if she moves to the eighth rank in a chess game. Alice is placed as the White Queen's pawn, and she starts the game by taking a train to the fourth rank since pawns in chess can move two spaces on the first move. She then meets Tweedledee and Tweedledum, who she is familiar with from the famous nursery rhyme. After reciting the long poem, “The Walrus and the Carpenter” to Alice, the two continue to act out the events of their own poem. Alice carries on to meet the White Queen, who later transforms into a sheep. Here the White Queen helps her cross into the sixth square. The sixth square brings complete madness, introducing Humpty Dumpty, and witnessing the furious battle between the Unicorn and the Lion fighting for the crown. Square Seven delivers the White Knight, who helps guide Alice to the last square. When she reaches the eighth and final square, Alice finally becomes a queen alongside the Red and White Royalty, and a party is held in celebration. As they toast to the new queen, Alice wakes up in her old world to find that she has been dreaming the adventure. Or has she?

The protagonist of the story is a seven-year-old girl with good intentions named Alice. Her dream leads her to exciting adventures in Looking-Glass World. Alice has determined her own thoughts of the peculiar world and becomes aggravated when Looking-Glass World challenges those insights. The main antagonist is the Red Queen, a fussy dominating woman who makes Alice participate in the chess game. Though she is civilized, she harasses Alice about her lack of common sense and good manners. Other characters include the Red and White Kings, the White Queen, the twins, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, Humpty Dumpty, and the White Knight. The Red King is a king who might be dreaming this whole story, while the White King is a quite the one to be very paranoid and senile. The White Queen appears to be very absent-minded, yet she is the opposite of the Red Queen. With the twins, whether they are fighting or entertaining each other, these two never stop. Humpty Dumpty is an egg-like creature who thinks himself a very wise one, and who has connections with the White King. The White Knight is a kind and gentle, yet clumsy, old fellow who rescues Alice from the Red Knight and helps her on her journey.

Through the Looking-Glass is set in Victorian England in the upper class home of Dean Liddell in Oxford. The significance of this particular setting is that the looking-glass world is composed of familiar English scenes, such as riding on a train, walking in a flower garden, browsing in a shop, etc. If the setting of the story was changed, the outcome of it would not be the same. It would give a different feeling to it, and the scenes of the story would not necessarily symbolize anything.

Conflict happens whenever Alice meets a new character and is being confronted with its peculiar rules and behavior. The main conflict occurs during Alice's dinner-party, when strange things start to happen and the guests convert into other beings. Resolution comes when a frustrated Alice seizes the table-cloth and crashes everything onto the floor. She then picks up the Red Queen and starts shaking her. This shaking makes Alice wake up and realize that it is only one of the kittens that she is holding.

Although the first book has the deck of cards as a theme, this second book is slightly based on a game of chess, played on a giant chessboard with fields for squares. Most main characters met in the story symbolize a chess piece, along with Alice herself being a pawn. However, the chess game described cannot be carried out legally due to a move where white doesn't move out of check. The looking-glass world is divided into sections by brooks, with the crossing of each brook indicates a notable change in the action and scene of the story.  The brooks represent the divisions between squares on the chessboard, and Alice crossing them represents the advancing of her piece one square. The sequence of moves is not always followed which goes along with the book's mirror image reversal theme.

This story is filled with symbolism. The characters represent chess pieces, the scenes symbolize the squares on the chessboard, and the setting represents England. A big form of sybolism is when Alice pulls rushes from the water in Chapter Five; they represent dreams. The rapid fading of the rushes’ sweet scent after being picked corresponds to the memory of a dream after a person wakes up. Another major form of symbolism is when Tweedledum and Tweedledee tell Alice that she is only a creation of the Red King’s dream, which implies that Looking-Glass World is not in Alice’s dream. The Red King becomes an almighty figure who dreams up all of Alice’s adventures, believing the idea that she does not really have any identity beyond what she is allowed in the context of the dream.

I would greatly recommend that others read this book. Not only is there impressive imagery, but the acknowledgement of a possible second world out there rivals the belief shared by many today that life can exist on other planets. Carroll uses games symbolically which will appeal to a wide audience. Characters, both realistic (as Alice) and imaginary, hold the attention of the reader making this classic tale one that both children and adults can enjoy.