Hey Now

2007-05-07T13:14:00.000-07:00

Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) and Dr. Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro) keep saying they are searching for the American Dream (the subtitle of the novel was "A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream"). What do they think that Dream is, and do they find it?
1) For the longest time I have wanted to see Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I admire Johnny Depp’s dedication as an actor and his performance in Cry-Baby and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? exemplify his diligence. However, his portrayal of Hunter S. Thompson in this film trumps all of his past performances. Reading about the research and preparation he and Benecio del Toro exercised, I cannot understand why the film was not more successful. Johnny Depp, with assistance from Thompson himself, becomes the “Doctor of Journalism,” from the eccentric mannerisms, to the “Red Shark,” to the exact same cigarette filter. While I really enjoyed the film, I can see how some viewers would be turned off by the film’s eccentricity. The freewheeling, disjointed flow of the film is representative of Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo as they trip from one drug to another.

2) In Fear and Loathing is Las Vegas, Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo set out from Los Angeles for Vegas to cover the Mint 400, a motorcycle race. While on their excursion, Duke and Gonzo also declare that they are in search of the “American Dream.” Employing the effects of marijuana, cocaine, LSD, amyls, and adrenochrome, Duke and Dr. Gonzo essentially create a second consciousness from which they take in the wild surroundings of Vegas. As they travel around the city, the protagonists experience drug trip after drug trip, all the while searching for the “American Dream.” Ironically, the “Dream” is not the destination of the trip, but the trip itself. Duke’s and Gonzo’s freedom to travel Las Vegas tripping on every drug imaginable is the American Dream. Being able to do your job while doing drugs non-stop and cost-free is the definition of the American Dream. Raoul Duke’s and Dr. Gonzo’s exploits in Vegas should elicit a sense of pride in all Americans.

2007-04-18T10:45:00.001-07:00

The characters in an Oscar Wilde play often sound alike--they sound like their author. Are the witticisms of Wilde's characters a distraction to the plot or do they actually help to build the individual characters?

1) After reading The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, I appreciate the brevity and conciseness of Wilde’s storytelling. Instead of wasting words and dialog to describe the surrounding environment as in Shakespearean drama, Wilde uses his characters to interject with his witticisms and societal views. My problem with Wilde’s drama is the confusing names he uses for his characters and the similar manner in which they speak. Couple that with the necessary yet bewildering role playing by the two male characters, Algernon and Jack, and the story requires a few readings. Despite that, I find Wilde’s drama to be entertaining as well as durable, withstanding the test of nearly one hundred years.

2) In The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, the playwright employs his characters to express his own societal observations. By using this strategy, Wilde clouds the distinctions between the characters, causing each of them to talk similarly and hinders the character development of the play. Interjecting with his numerous witticisms into each of the character’s conversations creates an almost inhuman environment. The characters in the play seem synthetic and insincere as they go about their unrealistic conversations. While Wilde’s style is definitely entertaining and humorous, it is not the best way to develop relationships between characters that are purportedly in love. Without even mentioning the fact that they fall in love and become engaged after meeting for the first time, each of the characters seems empty, inhuman, and shallow because of Wilde’s conversational strategy.

2007-04-09T11:10:00.000-07:00

Most of the humor in Taming of the Shrew is based on romantic conflict. Choose one of the many conflicts between two (or three) characters where romance is in the air. Looking at particular passages in the play, discuss how is humor generated by the situation and what sort of subtext that humor may or may not be concealing.

1) After reading the first three acts of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, my head is still a little woozy trying to keep all the characters (and their nutty ass relationships) straight. Couple the unique Italian names with the numerous disguises the men use and the play quickly and easily gives you a headache. However, while the relationships are painfully difficult to keep straight, scenes like Petruchio’s and Katharina’s wedding make the anguish worthwhile. Petruchio’s bizarre behavior would be much more enjoyable to see portrayed on the stage rather than read off the page. The subversive plots by the numerous suitors resemble the romantic tactics used by Benedick’s and Beatrice’s friends in Much Ado About Nothing.

2) One of the most intriguing romantic relationships of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew involves the couple of Petruchio and the object of his mysterious affection, the elder daughter of Baptista, Katharina. Katharina is known as the mediocre, malevolent older sister of the beautiful and desired Bianca. Curiously, Petruchio wishes to take the ill-tempered Katharina’s hand in marriage, much to her dismay. While Katharina may be inferior to her sister, she shows she is by no means a bad prize with her quick-witted brain. During her introduction to Petruchio, and his subsequent request for her hand in marriage, Katharina shows confidence, spunk, and humor in bantering with her suitor. The continuous insults lobbed by Kate do little to deter Petruchio as he bizarrely persists in his pursuit, creating a humorous and suspenseful atmosphere. Later, Petruchio begins to enact part of his plan when he turns his wedding to Katharina into a complete joke. Dressed in ridiculous clothes on a ridiculous horse, Petruchio arrives late and, in an attempt to outdo his new wife, immediately begins his outrageous behavior. As the scene ends, Katharina and the audience are left waiting to see what Petruchio will do next.

2007-03-21T13:10:00.001-07:00

Both of these stories use suspense to build to somewhat bizarre climaxes. Looking at one of the stories, discuss how the ending was foreshadowed by the text, and what sort of lesson the author is hoping for the reader to gain.

1) After reading “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, I cannot remember a more f’ed up piece of literature that I have read. While I have read some sickly comedic literature before, Jackson’s “Lottery” maintains a serious tone as the townspeople await the drawing for the privilege of being stoned. The children in the beginning, obviously accustomed to the violent event, treat the imminent murder as a type of game, racing to pick the best stones. However, perhaps the most stirring excerpt of the story is Old Man Warner’s assertion that a town without a lottery is “a pack of fools.” I was lulled to sleep by this story and then shockingly awoken by a brutal gang murder. I seriously question Jackson’s motives for writing this and worse, her sanity.

2) In the short story “The Lottery,” Jackson portrays a small town of three hundred people gathering in the middle of town during a beautiful summer day. The townspeople have gathered in anticipation for the lottery draw being conducted by Mr. Summers—the devotee to “civic activities.” The demeanor of the crowd suggests that the potential prize is something desirable, as the crowd is abuzz with banter of who is present. However, Jackson makes special note of the antics of three young boys during the beginning of the story. Bobby Martin, Harry Jones, and Dickie Dellacroix each begin a competition to compile the greatest pile of rocks. This slight factor in the story initially seems as just an insignificant detail, yet by the end of the story, the rock race foreshadows the terrible fate. Jackson’s climax exhibits the vulnerability of an ignorant citizen body. Showing the town enacting at least its 70th lottery, as others have retired the practice, demonstrates Jackson’s belief that people should be open to change. Jackson is discouraging people from being close minded, displaying the deadly consequences in the form of a brutal stoning.

2007-03-14T11:20:00.001-07:00

How does Fitzgerald represent the nature of identity in "Bernice Bobs Her Hair"? Is identity a static thing or is it something we can change? What does Bernice's actions at the end of the story reveal about her identity--has she changed?
1) After reading F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story “Bernice Bobs Her Hair,” I actually can say that I enjoyed it. Prior to reading it, I recognized Fitzgerald from reading his masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, one of my favorite books. However, quite honestly, this story’s title and premise of a girl getting an edgy haircut weren’t the most enticing things I’ve ever heard. Still, reading about Bernice’s transformation from a timid, conservative young woman into a confident, edgy, and vengeful girl was exciting and almost self fulfilling. Fitzgerald’s unique storytelling style morphed this rather boring story premise into an exciting and humorous narrative.

2) In the short story “Bernice Bobs Her Hair,” Fitzgerald details Bernice, a very refined and proper yet dull and insecure young woman, staying with her drastically different cousin, Marjorie. Marjorie, beautiful, sexy and always good for a great time, takes the dull and socially unaware Bernice under her wing and attempts to transform her into a “new woman”—risqué and flirtatious. The two young women, although both very privileged and upper class, represent two different identities of women and their clashes represent conflicts in the definition of the societal woman. Marjorie succeeds in morphing the conservative Bernice into a sexy, intriguing woman, so much so that she creates a monster in the process. Bernice, with her new looks and personality, manages to become the object of Marjorie’s “beau’s” affection, wooing Warren McIntyre, who previously had been put up by Marjorie to try and show Bernice a good time. Obviously, the changes exhibited by Bernice show that Fitzgerald’s idea of identity is a changeable thing, something that can be altered for the better. When Marjorie crosses Bernice, betraying her into getting an awful haircut, Marjorie finalizes the changes in her. Instead of being the dull, insecure lady, Bernice exhibits vengeance and trickery, emulating Marjorie, betraying her trust, and cutting the beautiful braids of her cousin. Undoubtedly, Bernice leaves the town on a train as a new woman, one so independent that she can betray the family she once depended on.

2007-03-07T19:51:00.000-08:00

Examine the narrator from either "The Yellow Wallpaper" or "A & P." What does the narrator reveal about him or herself indirectly? What sort of transformation, if any, does the narrator experience during the course of the story?

1) After a reading Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” for a second time, I still come away bored and confused. I first read this piece back in high school in my Women’s Studies class. The narrator, writing from the woman’s perspective, and her obsessive description of the mundane yellow wallpaper bore me nearly to the point of tears. I have never understood the mystique behind Gilman’s narrative and why it is so unique. I cannot imagine wanting to ever read about marveling over ugly, musty wall décor for days at a time, let alone reading it a second time. Quite honestly, reading this was painful.

2) In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the audience is overcome with the psychotic observations of a female, quarantined in a bedroom for days. The narrator’s husband and brother, both doctors, determine that she is suffering from a type of depression or madness, one that oddly requires days of isolation to cure. To pass the time, the narrator begins to journalize her observations of the room around her. Describing the titled “yellow wallpaper” and the rest of the room, the narrator begins to grow obsessive of the bedroom’s décor. She even ponders the room’s history and its past inhabitants, wondering how they felt about the paper. As time passes, the narrator continues to indirectly reveal a building insanity, much like the narrator in Poe’s “Tell-Tale Heart.” Finally, the room’s mystique overcomes the author entirely, causing the narrator to fall into complete madness and leaving her wanting to stay in the room. Undoubtedly, the “yellow wallpaper” is merely the straw that broke the camel’s back, as this woman leaves the room unable to even recognize her husband.

2007-02-21T11:10:00.001-08:00

How does Donne's use of irony in "The Flea" or "Woman's Constancy" affect the meaning of his poems? How are we to respond to his speakers?

1) After an initial reading of each of John Donne’s poems, “The Flea” and “Woman’s Constancy,” I came away feeling frustrated and confused by the poems’ meanings due to the elevated language that Donne employs. More often than not, I don’t consider myself as a complete fool, yet I was unable to completely understand what Donne was trying to say after a single evaluation. However, after a few more readings, I was finally able to decipher Donne’s clever use of irony and, especially in “Woman’s Constancy,” a sense of humor. I admire Donne’s ability to portray himself as this lofty, eloquent nobleman during the initial portion of the poem, while finishing with a funny admission.

2) In “Woman’s Constancy,” Donne expresses the thoughts and feelings of a conflicted lover who wishes that the present never becomes the past. In the first part of the poem, Donne’s speaker is begging his girlfriend to continue to love him after today, declaring his worries about her possibly transient affection. The speaker’s thoughts come out in a sort of stream of consciousness as his worries consume him. He thinks about relationships ending after a single day, women falsely leading their men on, and love ending in death. Donne’s speaker initially expresses disbelief about how women could possibly change their minds and end a relationship. However, after posing the question to himself, he declares, “Vain lunatic, against these 'scapes I could Dispute, and conquer, if I would; Which I abstain to do, For by to-morrow I may think so too.” Donne’s speaker undergoes a type of realization and discovers just how fleeting love is. After thinking about the adversity that comes with a relationship, the speaker understands where these “vain lunatic” women are coming from. With this ironic realization, Donne is encouraging
his readers to analyze situations with a critical, even self-deprecating eye. The solution or problem may not always be readily apparent.

2007-02-14T10:12:00.001-08:00

What is the relationship between Hughes's "I, Too" and Whitman's "I Hear America Singing"? How does Hughes respond to Whitman's conception of America? 

1. After reading Walt Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing” and Langston Hughes’ “I, Too, Sing America,” I admire each of the authors’ thoughts and points in their pieces. In his poem, Whitman describes varying aspects of American citizens’ lives while uniting them with a common song. I have always admired Whitman’s poetry and this poem’s idealistic view of simpler America gives me a sense of pride in the common man. Hughes’ poem is very clever in the way it responds to the proud tone of Whitman’s poem. I feel that when poets respond poetically to each other’s work, it creates an even more meaningful and interesting debate.

2. Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing” and Hughes’ “I, Too, Sing America” present an interesting debate about American social structure. In his poem, Whitman attempts to create a common thread amongst all levels of blue-collar, American society from the mechanics to the boatmen to even the women. He describes the different daily and nightly lives of simple America and provides a recurring and uniting song that each person sings. The song metaphorically represents the equality, camaraderie, and perhaps even nationalistic pride between society’s echelons. Whitman essentially is bragging about the blended American society, yet curiously forgets or ignores, another aspect of the population. In a clever and poignant response, Hughes shows Whitman’s omission of a certain portion of the American population. Hughes treats the forgotten African-American society as almost an elephant in the living room that White America, including Whitman, fails to acknowledge to their counterparts. Instead of angrily responding however, Hughes cleverly takes the omission as an inducement to grow, develop, and mature while White America and “the company” shields their eyes. He vows to one day show the detractors how beautiful the “darker brother” truly is. Hughes response, to one day embarrass the world for its ignorance, is both admirably peaceful and similar to the civil disobedience advocated by men like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Hughes promises that one day, blacks will be part of America’s melody.