Music and Poetry...

Talking About Theme and Tone..

Tone and theme are closely related. In the Norton Introduction to Literature, Boone and Mays refer to theme as, “not simply a work’s subject or its topic; it is a statement about that topic” (Boone & Mays, 475), and refer to tone as, “the poem’s attitude or feelings towards the theme” (Boone & Mays, 475). This easily allows us to understand their relationship. Without a topic or theme, it is hard for a poet to say something with his or her poem. The same happens when there is no tone. If there is no feeling connected to the poem, then the statement is not completely communicated to the reader. Theme as well as tone are essential components for writing a poem and communicating with it an idea feeling and a feeling.

If you were to listen to a title, “She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways”, you would not recognize what the poem is about. You might say that it is about a woman, but what else would you be able to say? If you read another title saying, “Stop All the Clocks, Cut Off the Telephone”, anything? How about a song named, “Footprints”? Would you say it is a biography? This is the reason why theme and tone are one. The relationship between these three pieces of art is that they are all written and spoken in a sad tone. Without saying it out loud, they all talk about losing someone that is their theme.

“She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways” by William Wordsworth, talks about a man who lost a person nobody noticed but that meant a lot to him. He writes, “She lived unknown, and few could know when Lucy ceased to be; but she is in her grave, and, oh, the difference to me!” (Wordsworth, 9-12). A sad tone and topic displayed, not on the first words for easy connection between the title and the content, but on the content itself. W. H. Auden in his “Stop All the Clocks, Cut Off the Telephone” poem writes, “Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead, put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves, let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves” (Auden, 5-8). In this poem Auden expresses sadness and the end of the world for him after losing an important person. This same idea and feeling is shared in the T.O.K song, “Footprints”. The lyrics say, “Hurry up and come back was the last thing she said to her son the day his life was taken she didn't know he wouldn't come back he died from the bullet of a gun and now her little boy is gone”. This song too reflects sadness and loss in its lyrics but it must be noted that without theme and tone the effect of the words would not be the same.

As seen through this artistic works of different authors, both in poetry and music, theme and tone are essential parts when writing. Feelings and ideas are communicated not only through the words but also through the messages within those words. This is why theme and not must be part of written works.

read the poems:

http://homepages.wmich.edu/~cooneys/poems/auden.stop.html

http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww147.html

2350 Broadhollow Road
Farmingdale, NY 11735

The Censorship Committee

To Whom It May Concern:

I wish to express through this letter my dissatisfaction with your chauvinist decision of not publishing The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkin Gilman. I think your arguments of it being “a distraction from traditional household duties” and “a threat to the rest cure” are unfair reasoning towards women’s rights and a complete lack of understanding of the text.

This short story, although different from our times, is a literary expression of a woman who can easily reflect the perspective of many more women around the world. Gilman expresses her own ideas as a woman, emphasizing with them that there is another face in the women of our time period. In the story, when Gilman says, “Personally, I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good. But what is one to do?” (Gilman 316). She clearly shows that women have opinions of their own, which ought to be heard. Unfortunately she also demonstrates that due to the patriarchal society she lives in; there is no point for her to say anything when her words are going to be lost in the wind. Although she does not finish the sentence, she also says, “I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus …” (Gilman 316). Illustrating that women are restricted and demoralized by men, that the image our society has of them is negligent towards the changes we have come and that the lack of support makes them more vulnerable to fall into the condition she is “diagnosed”.

You also need to pay special attention to the use and idea of the rest cure. According to the science museum in the UK, “Mitchell believed the point of the rest cure was physical and moral. “ It was supposed to be a treatment of hysteria and other nervous illnesses. Hysteria symptoms, according to the museum, “included shortness of breath, heaviness in the abdomen, muscular spasms and fainting. Anxiety, irritability and embarrassing or unusual behavior were also noted.” Gilman only displayed the last symptom and it was evident to men at the time because of their sexist idea that women were only expected to serve as housewives. Oppression to women is so intense that some women started accepting their descripted roles. Gilman shows this with John’s sister when she says, “she is a perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper, and hopes for no better profession. I verily believe she thinks it is the writing which made me sick!” (Gilman 319). The oppression applied to women so far may be exhibiting consequences today.

You may also take into account that the developing movement of women rights in the United States might be a reflection of this type of work. The oppression women have had over the centuries has been the catalyst of this form of expression. We have come passed the point where women were subject to men. We have passed the period of time when women had to live under a patriarchal community. We have come to a time where women are intellectual human beings that have felt enough of the humiliation and limitation men have put on them.

I truly appreciate the time you have invested reading these important lines for oppressed women around the world. I hope you reevaluate your decision and that not far from now this valuable piece of literature is available for both men and women across the world.

Sincerely,

Jonathan A. Munoz

Psychology in Literature..

Blench and Her Mind...

A Streetcar Named Desire

Reality is just not pleasant. In the play, A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, the character Blanche displays a personality and a way of acting that is odd from the rest of the characters. Her behavior could be the response to several events in her life, which affected her emotional stability, creating anxiety. Explained in psychology, anxiety is the result of a conflict produced by the disagreement between our biological a social needs. To deal with anxiety, Sigmund Freud talked about the defense mechanisms: denial, regression, reaction formation, projection, displacement and rationalization (Stratton). They were ways to distort reality to better cope with it. Fairy tales and magic worlds are always the place we want them to be and the places in which we would want to live. The mind is powerful and mighty, it can take us places we can only dream of and give us pleasures that we never heard before. In the play, A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche alters her reality through denial and rationalization to try to move on with her life when everything in her world was not pleasant anymore.

Sometimes our lives just do not go the way we would like them to go. Sometimes we are just not strong enough to live our lives. Sometimes we just live our lives in a different way and it is not bad but for Blanche, it was necessary to alter her life, it was necessary to alter her reality. For Blanche, it was critical to create that illusion that everything was better and that there was not pain, that her pain was actually happiness and enthusiasm. She says, “I don’t want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don’t tell the truth, I tell what ought to be the truth. And if that is sinful, then let me be dammed for it!” (Williams 1225). This is reaction formation, this is her changing her feelings to the opposite of what they are and therefore she is able to deal with them. You can see how desperately she needs it. The fact that she is willing to be “dammed” makes, it evident that she rather go through extreme consequences, than facing the truth that her young husband was homosexual and that her discovery of it triggered his suicide. Blanche’s mind is conflicted but having the opportunity of denial, why not denied herself what creates the trouble?

According to Kendra Cherry, a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, denial is a very common defense mechanism. She says, “Denial is probably one of the best known defense mechanisms, used often to describe situations in which people seem unable to face reality or admit an obvious truth” (Cherry 3). People deny things all the time, it is easy. It is easy to pretend, it is easy to lie and it is easy to deny. Blanche does this in an attempt to ease her complex situation. This is evident when she lies about the reasons why she is in New Orleans. She tells Mitch, “Stella hasn’t been well lately, and I came down to help her for a while. She’s very run down” (Williams 1189). There is nothing wrong with Stella; she is only having a baby. The truth behind these lies is that there are many things going on with Blanche. She lost their family’s property; she lost her job and her reputation. She is going crazy but she does not see this happening to her. She lies to her sister, to her friends and to herself. She is trying to protect herself from the hurtful reality that is torturing her past. She sees in the lies a way of preserving her emotional stability when inside everything is chaos.  We all tell lies and we all try to justify them, we find them to be the way out.

Rationalization is another Freud’s defense mechanism. In about.com, Cherry says, “Rationalization is a defense mechanism that involves explaining an unacceptable behavior or feeling in a rational or logical manner, avoiding the true reasons for the behavior” (Cherry). This is exactly what Blanche does when Mitch finds out the truth about her and what she did in Belle Reve. Blanche tries to justify her actions with the shock and grief of her husband’s death. She says, “Yes, I had many intimacies with strangers. After the death of Allan – intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my empty heart with…I think it was panic, just panic, that drove me from one to another, hunting for some protection” (Williams 1224). Blanche actions are unjustifiable, her mind is not right and her surroundings are not helping realize of that. Everything about Blanche’s life feels to her like she is going to be defeated and in her sense of preservation there is no other path for her to follow but to lie.

There is no doubt that Blanche’s character in the play, A Streetcar Named Desire, is seriously damaged and needs a way out of the real world. Psychological studies such as the defense mechanisms explain why Blanche needs a world of “magic,” as she says it, to deal with her life. She is in desperate need of help, which is impossible for her to find in her sister’s household. There is no doubt that Blanche has made mistakes and that her way of dealing with the grief and betrayal of her husband is not proper but everything Blanche needs and looks for is condolence and sympathy. She needs a new start, a new beginning and that is what she tries to find with Mitch. Unfortunately for her, as the Spanish proverb says, “el pasado no perdona”, the past is not compassionate. Throughout the play, Blanches desire is nothing more than the drive to live again without having to hide behind a mask that cover the face of a wounded woman.

Miscommunication…

and The Interpreter of Maladies

Post modernism can be simply described as a period of time where nothing is explicit but left to interpretation. It is individual understanding of things what creates reactions. People as individuals are important. Unlike realism, post-modernism focuses on the self interpretation and the truth seen through a person’s perspective not on family, society or roles (Brady notes). Post modernism is also literature emphasized in the complexity of human relationships and on the chaotic human interaction is. The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri is a clear example of post-modern world literature and also of the complexity of human relationships.

In The Interpreter of Maladies, Lahiri depicts a scenario where individual understandings of concepts lead to misunderstanding. Mr. Kapasi, the tour guide, feels his life is a failure, he believes “the job was a sign of his failings…He had dreamed of being an interpreter for diplomats and dignitaries, resolving conflicts between people and nations, settling disputes of which he alone could understand both sides” (Lahiri 52). For this reason, he wishes to feel recognized and appreciated for his profession. He wishes to find the admiration his wife is not giving him. These feelings of need lead him to misinterpret, even though it is the title of his dream profession, Mrs. Das’ admiration for his job when she says, “But so romantic” (Lahiri 50). Post-modern behavior is noted in the selfishness with which he creates the idea of a romantic story with Mrs. Das. He thinks, “She would write to him, asking about his days interpreting at the doctor's office…In time she would reveal the disappointment of her marriage, and he in his. In this way their friendship would grow, and flourish” (Lahiri 55). Talking about their inconformity with their marriages is also prove of the complicated relationships are and how human behavior comes to play. Mrs. Das herself misinterprets Mr. Kapasi’s profession because of her own personal situation. The guilt and remorse of keeping the secret from her husband his drowning her conscious. The fact that she says, “But so romantic” (Lahiri 50), comes out of her belief Mr. Kapasi might give her the relief she needs and since she is only worried about her feelings, she never realizes the man is also in need.

The story centers on the individual “maladies” of two different characters in need for something they have not achieved. Mrs. Das situation displays life today with both the urge for solutions and the urge for relief. Mr. Kapasi reflects the post-modern period and the complexity of human relationships in his individual problems and feelings with his marriage and his life. Neither culture or skin makes a difference in their lives, they are both facing life in a complicated modern world.

If you want to, you can read it here:

http://mherzog.pbworks.com/f/Interpreter+of+Maladies.pdf 

Freedom, Oppresion..

And The Yellow Wallpaper

Martin Luther King was an African American, who played an important role in the development of the civil rights movement. He was an exemplary human being. He did not tolerate injustices and was characterized by his passiveness and wisdom. One of his most important phrases was, "Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." King was trying to communicate and emphasize that the need for something must be expressed in order for our lives to see a change. Our silence keeps us prisoners and until there is a voice who urges change, everything will always remain the same. History is a witness that oppression was always a human characteristic. Women’s oppression is one of the clearest examples of the lack of freedom our society lives today.

In The Yellow Wall Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a woman is oppressed by men with the idea that she is going crazy. She displays a different image and intellectual capacity from other women of her time. She wants to write, she has the capacity to do it but according to her husband and brother, who are physicians, her condition gets worse as she develops her intelligence. She does not believe it is that way, she says, “Personally, I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good. But what is one to do?” (Gilman, 316). she finds herself in a difficult situation where her voice means nothing even though she has a lot so say. The oppression of her time consumes her desire. Although from different times, this woman knew what King said, that change does not come by itself and she tries to look for change. she talks to her husband and tells him that his treatment is not doing her any good but her husband, in his role of domination says, "My darling, I beg of you, for my sake and for our child's sake, as well as for your own, that you will never for one instant let that idea enter your mind! There is nothing so dangerous, so fascinating, to a temperament like yours. It is a false and foolish fancy. Can you not trust me as a physician when I tell you so?” (Gilman, 322). Gilman depicts with no difficulty the oppression that women had to live during her time because the story is a narration of her own experience as a woman back then.

Today, women’s oppression in the United States is not as visual and evident as it was on Perkin Gilman’s time, but there is oppression in the world. In countries all over the Middle East women are under men control, just as it was throughout the centuries. These women are not protected under any constitution. They are expected to behave a certain way and to follow the parameters provided by their culture throughout their existence. They are neglected the privilege of having sexual pleasure. They are thought of as a tool for reproduction. They are not socially participants of elections or any other form of decision making in their countries and their lives are not their but their husband’s. Women are severely punished and oppressed in the Middle East where the fear of exposing their ideas prevents women from shouting that they need a change.

You can read The Yellow Wallpaper here:
http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/wallpaper.html

Writing About Antigone by Sophocles...

Antigone: Written Laws vs. Moral Laws

In the play, Antigone by Sophocles, there is a debate between the written laws and the moral laws. Its importance is crucial in this literary piece, since the written laws are laws under a system that allows us to “function properly” and the moral laws are the laws/duties that bring in peace to ourselves, our beliefs. The conflict emerges because there are two principle characters with different wishes.

On one side, there is Creon; king of Thebes, husband, father, and stubborn leader who won’t allow the burial of a man. He says, “I here proclaim to the city that this man shall no one honor with a grave and none shall mourn. You shall leave him without burial; you shall watch him chewed up by birds and dogs and violated” (Creon 222-225). By doing this, Creon wants to prove his power and maintain control over his city.  On the other side there is Antigone; citizen of Thebes, fiancé of the prince, and religious sister who wants to bury her brother because that is the law she follows, not the king’s. That is why she says, “I did not believe your proclamation had such a power to enable one who will someday die override God’s ordinances, unwritten and secure” (Antigone 496-499). by saying this she allows us to know that religion and honor means everything to her.

 Antigone’s written laws are unwritten. Nevertheless, they are laws to her; they are her religion and what her religion commands her to do. Her religion demands the burial of her brother and against all forces that is what she believes in, that is her moral law, her faith in what her religion asks. She is so attached to her beliefs that she accepts her death for burying her brother Polyneices, “I myself will bury him. It will be good to die, in doing so. I shall lie by his side, loving him as he loved me; I shall be a criminal -but a religious one” (Antigone 82-85). She grew believing that her faith in her religion and honoring her family was more important than anything. She knew that taking proud of her death for her brother was an honorable thing to do, that is why she wanted it to be shout out, she said, “I know I am pleasing those I should please the most” (Antigone 103). Thus, she reflects her bravery and most important of all, her values.

In the play, Antigone by Sophocles, there is a debate between two different points of views: the written laws and the moral laws. Many people would have different perspectives of which is more important but for Antigone her life relies on her beliefs, her moral.

You can listen to the play here: http://archive.org/details/antigone_1009_librivox