"Popular Mechanics" is a prime example of what can happen when selfishness overcomes sensibility. Sometimes we fight so intensely for what we want that we often lose sight of what matters most which is a fact made overwhelmingly obvious in Carver's theme in this story. The objective point of view used to tell this story helps to remind the reader that it does not matter why the couple is splitting up, all that matters is what happened to the child as a result of their struggle for control. If the story were told in first person the reader might have ended up supporting either the man or woman in their rights to the child which dramatically takes away from the theme Carver intended to convey. In other words, if the reader knew what either party were thinking or why each person felt compelled to take the fight to such an extreme, the reader may see either the man or woman as the victim along with or even instead of the child. By not assigning particular thoughts or motivations for the central characters, Carver effectively forces the reader to feel for the child alone and assign blame to BOTH of the adults.
Additionally, Carver has a subtle way of allowing the reader to infer what happens to the child in the end. He foreshadows the impending struggle by having the woman pick up the picture frame. He again foreshadows by bringing the readers attention to a flowerpot broken during the struggle which could symbolize what ended up happening to the child. Though Carver never actually says the child was injured, his description of the type of force used during the fight implies the couple was unrelenting in their efforts and careless with their actions in regards to the child's physical safety. Though quite ominous and sorrowful, the theme is calculated in its delivery and Carver's message is undeniable: In compassion's absence- the innocent always suffer.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
SSRJ #3 - D.Walker
I really wrestled with trying to identify the theme in Walker's, "I am the grass" and I still can't say with any certainty that I completely understand it yet. While it is clear the Surgeon is a man struggling to make amends with himself for past transgressions not easily lived down but I don't think the theme is really as simple as that. Obviously he feels some guilt for the past but he never fully puts aside his harsh feelings for that particular country or its inhabitants. Since he never really lets go of all that animosity I have a very hard time believing he just wants to forgive himself for what he has done. Instead, I believe he is lost. A man trying to find his way or trying to find a niche or place where he truly belongs. Not a physical place but his place in life.
For example, he opens the story by admitting all the things he can never tell his family about the things he has done. Since most people would describe family as a group of people one can be one's self around, I have to believe that he still has not truly found a place of peace with them. He seems like he would like to come clean but cannot because he wants them to think he is a decent guy. But how can continuing a lie bring anyone peace? Secondly, in the very next paragraph when he writes about coming home from the war he says, "It was as if I were exiled in my own country" (p.326) and goes on to say he had to keep his true feelings hidden and just try to get on with his life. He sounds like he feels as if he were betrayed by his own country and does not feel welcome there.
The third paragraph has him in Chicago, a place he calls home but still describes himself almost as if he were a man with no sense of purpose or belonging. There are a few more times in the story that he mentions similar feelings while being in different places but its not until the very last sentence where he finally states, "It makes me feel a part of the land" (p.338). But even that revelation does not come until he understands the nature of the land. The constant turmoil of Vietnam mirrors the turmoil in his heart and that has to be why he identifies with the country and the people so much by the end of the story. Therefore, it would appear Walker's theme is not without a sense of irony in that the nature of the land in which he has helped to destroy is more like his own nature than the country that he has always called home.
For example, he opens the story by admitting all the things he can never tell his family about the things he has done. Since most people would describe family as a group of people one can be one's self around, I have to believe that he still has not truly found a place of peace with them. He seems like he would like to come clean but cannot because he wants them to think he is a decent guy. But how can continuing a lie bring anyone peace? Secondly, in the very next paragraph when he writes about coming home from the war he says, "It was as if I were exiled in my own country" (p.326) and goes on to say he had to keep his true feelings hidden and just try to get on with his life. He sounds like he feels as if he were betrayed by his own country and does not feel welcome there.
The third paragraph has him in Chicago, a place he calls home but still describes himself almost as if he were a man with no sense of purpose or belonging. There are a few more times in the story that he mentions similar feelings while being in different places but its not until the very last sentence where he finally states, "It makes me feel a part of the land" (p.338). But even that revelation does not come until he understands the nature of the land. The constant turmoil of Vietnam mirrors the turmoil in his heart and that has to be why he identifies with the country and the people so much by the end of the story. Therefore, it would appear Walker's theme is not without a sense of irony in that the nature of the land in which he has helped to destroy is more like his own nature than the country that he has always called home.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
SRJ #2 Oates
"Three Girls" is not simply the story of a chance encounter with the famed Marilyn Monroe but instead is something of a love story; not just love between two people but for a shared love of literary art. Set in a gloss less used books store, "Strand Used Books" seemingly represents a safe haven for where unconventional women of that time can immerse themselves in the innate anonymity of the place while simultaneously seeking forgotten treasures within the piles of bound and frayed pages. Oates tells two stories in one: the first, of an actress the two "girl-poets" had previously believed could not possibly have anything in common with themselves and the second, of a young romance between the two women who play guardians to the actress in such an unlikely place. However, perhaps the most powerful element within the story is the underlying tone of society's (at the time) disdain for the intellectual properties inherent in educated women.
The era in which the story takes place eludes to a collective societal belief that the stereotypical, seen-and-not-heard, type of woman was far more acceptable then the polar opposite of whom the first-person narrator describes herself as being. It is hardly a time where tolerance and encouragement is shown to many women who choose to freely and eloquently express themselves in any way other than the norm of the time. This era and societal belief system makes the mere presence of Marilyn Monroe in such a place even more powerful, not because of who she is but because of who she represents.
Marilyn Monroe, for the majority of society at the time, represents the purely physical qualities cherished by Hollywood and most of America for that era (and, unfortunately, for our era too sometimes). But she also represents something even more powerful to the two girls who find her just as enthralled by those dusty books as they themselves have been for some time. For the two girls, she represents a connection to a society they had previously assumed to be unattainable or even overrated or unwanted. There was an actress, celebrated for her outward beauty and charm, who simultaneously possessed remarkably similar interests in poetry and other literary works. Moved by this newly discovered commonality, the two girls defend her identity and right to be in such a place as if defending their own right to there, or their right to be "unconventional" or different.
Oates' message to the reader is one of validation. Marilyn Monroe's presence gives validity to the struggle of a gender in a seemingly ignorant and often intolerant era. The shared encounter gives validity to the girls' sense of who they are and what they intend to do with their lives. And just in case no one believes them, they have the "Selected Poems of Marianne Moore" which validates not only that Marilyn Monroe was indeed there, but that female authors could also one day find their own book of written art among the classic works of old, untidy masterpieces kept at all but forgotten bookstores.
The era in which the story takes place eludes to a collective societal belief that the stereotypical, seen-and-not-heard, type of woman was far more acceptable then the polar opposite of whom the first-person narrator describes herself as being. It is hardly a time where tolerance and encouragement is shown to many women who choose to freely and eloquently express themselves in any way other than the norm of the time. This era and societal belief system makes the mere presence of Marilyn Monroe in such a place even more powerful, not because of who she is but because of who she represents.
Marilyn Monroe, for the majority of society at the time, represents the purely physical qualities cherished by Hollywood and most of America for that era (and, unfortunately, for our era too sometimes). But she also represents something even more powerful to the two girls who find her just as enthralled by those dusty books as they themselves have been for some time. For the two girls, she represents a connection to a society they had previously assumed to be unattainable or even overrated or unwanted. There was an actress, celebrated for her outward beauty and charm, who simultaneously possessed remarkably similar interests in poetry and other literary works. Moved by this newly discovered commonality, the two girls defend her identity and right to be in such a place as if defending their own right to there, or their right to be "unconventional" or different.
Oates' message to the reader is one of validation. Marilyn Monroe's presence gives validity to the struggle of a gender in a seemingly ignorant and often intolerant era. The shared encounter gives validity to the girls' sense of who they are and what they intend to do with their lives. And just in case no one believes them, they have the "Selected Poems of Marianne Moore" which validates not only that Marilyn Monroe was indeed there, but that female authors could also one day find their own book of written art among the classic works of old, untidy masterpieces kept at all but forgotten bookstores.
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