Eyes

After having spent valuable time of my life reading The Invisible Man by Herbert George Wells on my kindle and being inspired to the point of lunacy, I have come to the realization that a book can’t have two different modern covers (Unless there is a movie based on it which will deem the book susceptible to be plagued by the cheap-looking cover of the actors such as a demure Kristen Stewart and a constipated and sparkly James Patterson on the cover of Twilight).

Well.

So my previous blog entry was actually written on The Invisible Man and not, Invisible Man. And so. Complaining aside, here it goes.

“I am an invisible man.” Whoa. If that’s not a direct and life-altering way to start a novel, I do not know what it. The direct, statement/no-questions-asked, matter-of-fact diction creates a character that is very sure of what he is talking about. The imagery when he says he is very much “flesh and bone. Fiber and liquids,” takes away the expectation of his invisibleness being transparent and useable, a physical invisibility and in actuality, real flesh. His “people just refuse to see me” creates a more deep concept of invisibility. His allusion to Edgar Allen Poe’s usually creepy ghosts and his negating the fact this his is like that of the former’s characters clears the idea that he is not the invisible ghost/transparent perceived entity, but more one who is invisible because people decide to view him as such. When he says this, his tone is accusatory and point-blank, almost as if criticizing the reader for even thinking otherwise, for even imagining his invisibility as anything but figurative.

The character uses irony when he says, “I might even be said to posses a mind.” He is sarcastically giving other people the right to judge what he can rightfully judge himself, the obvious fact that he does, indeed, possess a mind. His sarcasm serves to create an antagonistic relationship with those who happen to say he does, giving them a kind of unrightfully gained authority. In this case, the reader might take the authority to be racist America, ignorant in their judgment of him. Their ignorance is described when he eloquently and formally says his invisibility is not a product of a biochemical accident, but that “to which I refer occurs because of a peculiar disposition of the eyes of those with whom I come in contact,” who choose not to see him. And so ‘eyes’ become a symbol for the obvious, perspective, but also of poor-vision and near-sightedness to the extent of being narrow-minded and blind in ignorance and blindfolded by prejudice.

But he seems pretty uncaring of this fact, as seen when he says, “I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.” In his diction we can see he is all accepting of the fact that he is invisible. He speaks almost casually.

The imagery and his comparison of his being like those “Bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as if I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorted glass.” The imagery encases his point that he is in full possession of a mind but is constrained by society, his lack of body and lack of presence in society.

But apparently, he is not a real person lacking rights. He is solely a vision of people’s dreams. Just like when he pounds a white man to a bloody pulp on a deserted street below a lamplight, the scene being that of common mystery TV shows. The setting then adds to the surreal aspect of it all and to emphasize the character’s point that he is, indeed, just figment of people’s dreams. And we see his belief of this when he snorts at the news reports the day after about the blonde man reporting being mugged, and responds, “Poor fool, mugged by an invisible man.”

He believes it.

A Cold Wintry Day

And so it all starts on a cold, wintry February.

What an enticingly way to begin a novel. It’s oh-so-very different from the usual, “ A fine summer day,” and the customary, “One hot, sweltering evening,” etc. Actually. It is.

Herbert George Wells uses personification to make this expected beginning an aberration from the usual. The “biting” wind and the “driving” snow serve to create a wind so powerful, menacing, piercing with whatever invisible teeth seem to grasp flesh, and with so much drive and powerful intent. The setting being cold and dark and the “stranger” walking down the icy streets create an aura of suspense, mystery and wonder. The imagery when the author describes the stranger as being wrapped from head to foot covering creates a shield that is protecting himself from his surroundings. And maybe he’s not just using that thick cloth wrapping as an armor to protect himself from the biting wind, but also everything else in the bitter outsides that is not the stranger. The people, the human inefficiencies, mistakes, his own bitter curiosity biting him in the ass.

Curiosity that is symbolized by the fact that every part of his body is covered except his nose. Like when he was walking in the beginning of the novel, “he was wrapped up from head to foot, and the brim of his felt hat hid every inch of his face except the tiny tip of his nose.” And later, in the warm confines of the room he finds housing in, “It was the fact that all his forehead above his blue glasses was covered by a white bandage, and that another covered his ears, leaving not a scrap of his face exposed excepting only his pink, peaked nose.” The repetition of his nose being the only scrap of his face that is visible remaining through the day emphasizes the existence of his nose, a nose usually representing nosiness and curiosity. So said stranger is a character that is stamped by his curiosity, which is probably the reason he decided to become invisible in the first place. (The back of the cover said so.)Hmm.

The fact that when the stranger gets into the “Coach and Horses” he exclaims “A room and a fire!” the diction and how he exclaims such simple things leads the reader to infer that this guy has been living without a room and without a fire. Probably homeless. Probably a sad drunk that got kicked out of his house due to his constant pummeling of random dishes during dinnertime? Ah, no. It’s the fact that he did everything possible to become invisible and apparently not being seen by humanity is just not all that it’s cracked out to be.

And maybe bitter ending and crash of his expectations ended in his becoming totally bitter and unapproachable human being. I mean, with his dry comments and monosyllabic answers, something must have affected him in some way. I mean, his answers range on “No,” and “Thank you” and have the overall dry tone and described as ‘with emphasis,’ ‘with aggressive brevity,’ ‘concisely’, and ‘drily’ describing each and every word that comes out of his lips. His manner of speaking mixes to create such a tough manner and wonder at what might have happened to make him this way.

Tun. Tun. Tun.

And we wonder.

Reading

Thoreau describes reading as the art of getting away from confusion, distractions, as well as the means towards achieving knowledge. He builds nature to symbolize the beginning of art, seeing as art is a way of interpreting our emotions and feelings about whatever happens to exist and so that would be nature. He describes the reading of classics as laborious and time-consuming, and difficult, using personification to describe their language as “dead”, adding to the intangibility of their whole being, but in the end those are the works that end up contributing to a more culture-aware person. Thoreau uses simile to liken the task of reading to a noble exercise like that of training that athletes undergo. He uses imagery when he says, “the noblest written words are commonly as far behind or above the fleeting spoken language as the firmament with its stars is behind the clouds,” to get the reader to fully grasp the gap between the written language and spoken word. The spoken words are always altered in a way that will fulfill and satisfy the audience, while the written words are existing solely for the author. Basically, reading is an entirely more intricate thing than just genres of entertainment.

Comin Back Ower The Border

Mary McCabe uses archaism to set the setting and context of her poem “Comin Back Ower The Border” which is then Scotland and it emphasizes the point of the poem, which is coming back home. The dialect helps the reader relate more with the poet’s journey because the usage of language creates a deeper bond between the latter and their home. Mary uses a bc rhyming scheme to highlight the “hame” and “stane”, the stone that characterizes her home. She uses alliteration when talking of the “craggies, cleughs an corries” to show that it wasn’t easy coming home, past the rocks and over the cliffs. The imagery of the pastels and the weather-gleam and the wind create a peaceful, windy atmosphere that carried freedom along with the wind. She has crossed the border and has traipsed through a hard and arduous journey to come back to the freedom of her haven, her home.

Constantly Risking Absurdity

“Constantly Risking Absurdity” is a poem in which Lawrence Ferlinghetti uses metaphor to liken being a poet to being an acrobat, in that they hang on a string before an audience that entertains in their every move and watches them if they happen to slip and fall. And so being a poet is an occupation that is built on having an audience and people’s take on your work determines your success or lack thereof. He uses imagery to show how poets balances “on eyebeams above a sea of faces”, so that the reader can picture the poet being subject to the gazes of the audience, depending on their view, on their judgment, for his perfect balance or for his eventual fall from success. The structure of the poem is jagged and spaced out, in the like of ropes leading a zigzagged path through which the poet walks, which emphasizes the poet’s uncertainty, dependence, and need to take risks.

Hills Like White Elephants

The title of this particular work by Ernest Hemingway is so random that it is evident that it is of huge importance to the piece. Hills are tiny little imperfections in the Earth’s rather straight plains. They are rather unique impositions on the earth’s surface. The simile that compares them to white elephants compares the burden of a mountain to a white—pure, innocent—elephant, nature. Hemingway uses simile and symbolism in just the title to capture just what is happening, which is the natural imposition of a baby coming along the way.

Besides simile and symbolism, Hemingway also uses characterization and dialogue to capture how words don’t always mean getting a point across and to emphasize a very common situation, but in different circumstances. The obvious love and care the man feels towards Jig is palpable as well as Jig’s stubbornness and almost uncaring persona. The way the man cares about Jig’s opinion and her overall well-being serves to make the decision of the operation less grating and more open and understanding. This demonstrates how certain obstacles and the stress they cause are not just because of certain events in our lives, but how we choose to deal with them.

In a Station of the Metro

Ezra Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro” is a metaphor that likes faces in a crowd to petals on a black bough. The comparison serves to make out the faces to be delicate and harmless, symbolized by the flower petals, and yet they’re tied to a much more imposing a possibly powerful entity which is the crowd, the black bough and its sturdy essence symbolizing a stable and commanding force. The metaphor states the idea of people seeming so powerless and incapable of making change, just bits of grains of sand, but they are all connected to bigger truth in which, when everyone stands for the same thing, they can achieve unimaginable things.

The length of the poem is so short that the reader wonders just what it is the writer can fit so easily into two lines. The shortness then interlocks with the assuredness of the speaker. Being able to state something in such few words creates a tone of security, as well as the obvious meditating and deep quality of anyone who would compare a pack of faces to flower petals. But the certainty makes the metaphor to be even more impacting, given the fact that the writer is sure it means something. And so the message that people in mass can be extremely imposing and powerful becomes more prevailing.

Fog

Fog is a cloudlike mass that limits visibility. In Sadburg’s “Fog”, Sandburg uses personification to give the lingering mass of humidity and blurriness the ability to crawl on “little cat feet” and sit, lingering, and then move on. The human qualities that encompass it give fog the importance of anything human. In other words, fog is of vital importance.

The way Sandburg describes it as coming, lingering, and eventually moving on, it becomes a metaphor for whatever happens to cloud our minds, making us stumble and rendering us disoriented, in the same way everyday problems and obstacles seem to affect as.

The structure of the poem goes along with its overall meaning, a couplet correctly interpreting the “little cat feet” as well as the quickness with which it comes, and the other stanza, a quatrain, signaling the staggering lethargic pace with which humans let their problems engulf the, and the time it takes them to overcome them, or deal with them, to the point where they eventually fade away.

A Very Short Story

Hemingway’s “A Very Short Story” is a piece that incorporates irony, symbolism, and hyperbole to create a satirical and thought-inducing work.

The overall meaning of this story is a tad baffling, seeing as it starts out well and drives on to become absurd and negatively surprising. The beginning begins with the “He” we never know the name of, and Luz in their escapades and shared moments of love. The word ‘luz’ in itself is Spanish for light, light being a symbol of brightness, guidance, and assurance. So taking into account the way the male protagonist seems daydream and think of Luz, she is his only hope in a dreary hospital, which usually stands for hopelessness and death. Luz is his hope in a place where there is anything but.

Just from that simple detail, the reader can already tell that the relationship between the two is less having to with actual love, and more drenched in the basic search for fulfilling one’s needs, in this case, the search for hope, and in Luz’s case, an attempt at doing some good-willed acts driven on pity. This is why their so-called ‘love’ is a hyperbole in itself. It is not the long-lasting entity they like to believe it is. And this is seen when the piece states that even though they felt like were married, “they wanted everyone to know about it.” It is childish and in a way shows the opposite of what they are trying to demonstrate. If they really loved each other, they would marry each other for their own benefit, not to assuage their peer’s second thoughts or doubts.

It is at the very end that the reader finds Luz ditching the male character for a an Italian, after which she tells the former that theirs was only a “boy and girl” love, and proceeds to expect a wedding proposal from the latter. She knew it was for the best.

But that is not the case, as seen when the major fails to marry her and contracts “gonorrhea from a sales girl in a loop department store while riding in a taxicab through Lincoln Park.”

That ending was like meshing a love story and then placing a paragraph from a satirical, cynical and caustic version of happily-ever-after short essays. You just don’t expect it. The gag-inducing term “gonorrhea”, the unpredictable affair of a major with a mere “sales girl” and all of that occurring in a very public, very slutty venue of a taxi cab is just absurd. The fact that this is how this formerly positive and bright story comes to an end is both bizarre and sad.

It blends to make an ironic tale of how sometimes when people choose to let go of their morals or let others go because of one’s unprecedented rise to the top of whatever it may be, life just might leave them with everything but.

Spunk

Zora Neale Hurston’s “Spunk” is a work that analyzes what courage really is. The title in itself represents the noun that signifies balls, courage and resolution; the character Spunk being a symbol of that bravery act itself. Hurston uses to highlight every word that comes out of each character’s mouth. Especially in the beginning when Elijah Mosley says, “But that’s one thing Ah likes about Spunk Barks—he ain’t skeered of nothing’ on God’s green footstool—nothing!” This embodies Spunk’s person and then renders him a FOIL to Joe Kanty’s measly, door-mat character that nurses a coffee while he’s conscious of the fact that his wife’s run off with the local monster. Spunk’s literary hugeness is so that it highlights Joe’s submissiveness and compliant persona. Their opposing personalities also mixes with the sardonic tone of some parts of the text ---most of which are ironic and questioning of women and their status as well as defects--- like when the narrator states that Spunk’s case was a “clear case of defense” when describing the court case. The obvious sarcasm masking the tone creates an overall hint of antagonism and dislike for the character Spunk, suggesting there must be more to him that suggests him to be the powerful and worship-worthy character that he is.
Hurston also makes allusions to Hamlet and Goliath. The Hamlet aspect might have been coincidental and not at all on purpose, but the perpetual insults towards women such as, “ A woman knows her boss and answers when he calls,” and “He done moved most of Lena’s things—and her along wid’em,” remind the reader of Hamlet’s contempt towards the female gender. When Joe’s wife marries Spunk just after Joe’s death, Walter says, “Joe ain’t even had time to git cold yit,” reminding one of Hamlet’s mother marrying Claudius so soon after her previous husband’s death. This allusion builds to create the revenge and justice theme that is Hamlet around this particular work. Another allusion, and probably the most important of all, is the allusion to Goliath. At the end of the piece, Elijah describes Joe’s father as “leering triumphantly down upon the fallen giant,” fallen giant resonating and portraying that Goliath we all know so well. This reference is made clearer when Walter explains his reasons for why he believes Joe is braver than Spunk. “Lookit whut he done; took a razor an’ went out tofight a man he knowed toed a gun an’ wuz a crack shot, too; ‘nother thing Joe wuz sakeered of Spunk, skeered plumb stiff! But he went jes’ the same. It took him a long time to giet his nerve up. Tain’t nothin’ for Spunk to fight whe he ain’t skeered of nothin.” And so we see Joe as David, a meer kid that pales against Goliath in both size and in accomplishments--- and Spunk as the Goliath that fears nothing and is eventually beaten by David. Joe ups Spunk after his death but the theme is still the same. What makes courage is the ability of one to confront one’s fears. Joe feared Spunk while Spunk never feared anyone and so whatever he did that people assumed was due to “bravery” was not bravery at all if just an idea of badly masked power. Even though Joe died, he dived head first into a battle with someone he feared so very much and that makes him braver than anything Spunk ever did. Courage is facing your fears. Not inspiring them in someone else.

Dis Poem

Mutabaruka’s “Dis Poem” is a work that brings up some controversial ideas. Its patronizing tone as well as the listing of African American leaders and conflicts in said country as well highlights the meaning of the work as one for justice. The repetition of the words “dis poem” mend to create an identity for the poem, and yet a very intricate one seeing as ‘dis poem’ “shall say nothing” and yet contradicts itself and “shall speak of time.” It will “not change things”, “it “has to be changed.” “Dis poem is still not written.” These then demonstrate that poem is a mixture of contradictions, it is a form of time—most likely the present and the future—and it is still not written because while it talks of the past, it begs for another way to bring about the future. A future that does not involve “knives…bombs…guns” like the past did, but that “has to be changed.” The poem is the rebirth of a people arising...awaking...overstanding."
It is sometimes self-mocking, patronizing, and subtly judgmental of the reader, which leads to infer that the reader has to do with most of the past atrocities. The particular rhyme only present when describing “time” accentuates the importance of time in the work. It describes it as “undefined”. And undefined is basically the gist of the entire poem. It is confusing and yet at the same time it’s trying to convey the message that “Dis Poem” is not really a poem. It hasn’t been written, and it “has no poet” and it shall be called, ‘boring’ and ‘stupid’ and ‘senseless’. The poem is “to continue in your mind.” It is urging the reader to write their own poem, to make their own future a better one, to act. The poem is whatever moral values and whatever conscience we hope to obtain in the future. “Dis Poem” is a plea to learn from previous mistakes in the past, and change the prospect of making the same mistakes in the future.