Weekly Reflection on Allen Ginsberg's "Howl"

Part I

Throughout the first part of the poem "Howl" it seems as if the narrator is attempting to describe every type of person, in detail, that comes to mind. From my perspective, the narrator has an extremely negative connotation of people but yet shows interest in religion. I noticed that he mentioned all different types of religion, but yet always mentioned Heaven which suggests the narrator was a Christian. It seems as if the narrator was confined to only think a specific way of people and does not feel safe in the environment he is describing. Perhaps he is forcing himself to believe what he is saying about the people is true and he is in such a negative place, not only physically in a negative place but emotionally. "ah, Carl, while you are not safe I am not safe, and now you're really in the total animal soup of time-" (Page 19)

 

"who lit cigarettes in boxcars boxcars boxcars racketing through snow toward lonesome farms in grandfather night," (Page 12)

The quote above has the literary term of repetition. When the narrator repeats 'boxcars' three times in a row he is obviously trying to emphasize it. Perhaps he is repeating it because right before he mentions lighting a cigarette and from my understanding boxcars are made out of cardboard which is highly flammable. Also, another literary element evidently used throughout the entire poem is run-on sentences. To me, run on sentences are used to portray importance, as if the narrator wants to get his point across and do it all in one setting; not giving anybody else time for a response.

• pederasty (noun): sexual relations between two males, especially when one of them is a minor

• seraphim (noun, plural of seraph): 2. a member of the highest order of angels, often represented as a child's head with wings above, below, and on each side

• insatiate (adjective): insatiable: insatiate greed

"with mother finally ******, and the last fantastic book flung out of the tenement window..." (Page 19)

It may seem obvious to others as to why Ginsberg put asterisks in for a word in the quote above pertaining to something about the narrator's mother, but I cannot seem to think what sort of possible fowl word could fill in that blank. Surprisingly to me, the author uses extremely fowl language in previous lines and I am not quite sure as to why the author felt it was necessary to blank out a word using asterisks. Obviously he is speaking of his mother in negative context and perhaps did not want to use a fowl word in the same sentence that he refers to his mother in.

Part II

 In the second part of the poem, the narrator repeats 'Moloch' in every line.

• Moloch (noun): 1. a deity whose worship was marked by the propitiatory sacrifice of children by their own parents. II Kings 23:10; Jer. 32:35

Clearly Moloch was not a "caring" figure in society and was seen in a negative context. All throughout the second part the narrator badgers the government, including its army, along with the technological advances, including the radio, mentioned in the line, "They broke their backs lifting Moloch to Heaven! Pavements, trees, radios, tons!" (Page 22). It seems obvious that the narrator is doubting the advances in his time and uses Moloch to exemplify his doubts. I also wonder if the narrator makes it seem as if he is bashing Moloch but in reality he is admiring his independence and ability to make very prominent decisions in society, which the narrator cannot make and clearly does not agree with the decisions society has made for him.


Part III

Finally, in the third part of the poem the narrator directly recognizes the person to whom he has dedicated this entire work to, Carl Solomon. It seems as if the narrator is recognizing all of the troubles the two have faced together. Taking place in Rockland, which is repeated in every line, using the literary term of repetition once again throughout the final part of the poem. 

Clearly the two were perhaps in a prison, of some sort, together. Maybe not so much a prison because of the freedom the two had, that one would not have while in prison, but maybe an insane asylum or somewhere treating psychiatric illness. This is obvious to me, the reader, because of the line, "I'm with you in Rockland where you've murdered our twelve secretaries." (Page 24). Nobody would admit to someone they've committed murder, so the fact that the narrator is aware of the situation suggests the two are in some sort of isolation together. 

The third and final part shows why the tone of the previous parts is full of remorse and negativity. The narrator obviously struggled with a lot of doubt and wrote this poem in memory of his friend, or inmate, Carl Solomon to recognize their struggles they once had together.

Third Reflection of the Week on Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues"

After reading through "Sonny's Blues" for the first time I was extremely confused at what was in the present and what was in the past. To me the story seemed to be set up at a group of letters, some in the present and some in the past. However, after doing research on Baldwin and the story itself, before reading "Sonny's Blues" for the second time, I realized it was a mixture of the narrator having flash backs as well as his present. 

When I recognized the way the story was set up it made more sense to me the second time I read it and made me think of the relationship I have with my half-sister. Although the relationship I have with my half-sister is not nearly the same as the relationship the two brothers have in the story, I can relate. Growing up, my half-sister and I were 10 years apart. She came from our mom's first marriage but was raised by my dad. Being so young when she was a teenager I never understood some of the choices she made, why she dressed the way she did, or why she talked to my mom the way she did. But then as I got older I realized my sister was going through a typical teenage rebellion stage. My half-sister struggled with a lot of different things in her life and I never understood why she couldn't just change her ways. Then I realized, we were raised differently, her dad was not like my dad and although she only saw him on the weekends he had a huge impact on her life. 

In "Sonny's Blues" the two brothers are two totally different people, when it comes to personality and determination. It is evident that Sonny struggled with addiction problems and perhaps, like my half-sister, was raised differently than his brother, the narrator. The narrator mentions that Sonny and their father fought and that the mother left for the military and never came back, perhaps this affected Sonny more than it affected the narrator. Sonny, like my half-sister, went through a rebellious stage while the narrator sat back and watched his brother ruin his life. Of course tragedy brought them together, similar to me and my half-sister. It did not take a death to bring me and my half-sister together but it took a birth, the birth of her son. When my half-sister gave birth to her son, her entire life changed. I now look up to her and console in her for advice, unlike before I did not want to speak to her because of the decisions she made. Similar to Sonny and his brother, it took finding out that their mother had passed away to bring them together at the funeral and led the narrator to want to help his brother chase his dreams, of music.

Second Reflection of the Week on Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl"

While reading "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid I took a few short hand notes on the lines that stuck out to me:

• "...benna in Sunday school...": This phrase showed up a lot throughout the entire short story. At first I thought "benna" was slang for the word "better" but then the use of benna in some of the other lines shows that benna may have been a type of song or way to sing.
• "...the slut I know you are so bent on becoming...": This phrase also shows up a lot throughout the entire short story. The narrator seems very strong on his/her thoughts and opinions and clearly has some hatred or remorse towards whomever he/she is referring to.
• "this is how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child;": This phrase stood out to me solely because of how hateful it is, and to think that someone would even think to say that strikes me by surprise. 

After reflecting on the lines that stood out to me I did a little bit of research on the author, Jamaica Kincaid, and on the short story. I discovered that Kincaid and her mother did not have a very positive relationship and this short story relates back to the relationship that they had. As soon as I discovered that the author and her mother did not have a positive, healthy relationship I read the short story over again to discover that "Girl" is a mother talking to her female child, only letting the child speak twice: "but I don't sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school" and "but what if the baker won't let me feel the bread?".

Reflecting on "Girl" and how negative and unhealthy the relationship between the daughter and mother is in the story, makes me appreciate the positive, strong, healthy relationship I share with my mother. Growing up, my mother taught me all of the right things to do in life, learning by experience and mistakes. It seems as if the mother that the narrator describes is telling, not teaching, her daughter how to do things and puts her down by referring to her as a "slut". Obviously, the mother in the story did not have a good childhood and it is now reflecting on to her parenting and relationship with her daughter. Personally, my mother comes from a strong christian, successful family and that definitely reflects the way that she has raised me. I am so fortunate to know that I have a positive influence on my life and do not have to worry about my mother putting me down like the girl in this story must worry about on a daily basis. Everyone makes mistakes and my mother knows that, but it seems as if the mother in "Girl" does not live by that motto and does not want her daughter to make mistakes and wants her to live by strict rules. Overall, this short story made me realize how lucky I am to have a strong, intelligent, thoughtful, and caring mother that understands the situations I go through and guides me in all of the right directions.

Weekly Reflection on Alice Walker's "The Flowers"

• noose (noun): 1. a loop with a running knot, as in a snare, lasso, or hangman's halter, that tightens as the rope is pulled. 2. a tie or bond; snare.
• benign (adjective):  1. having a kindly disposition; gracious: a benign king. 2. showing or expressive of gentleness or kindness: a benign smile. 3. favorable; propitious: a series of benign omens and configurations in the heavens. 4. (of weather) salubrious; healthful; pleasant or beneficial. 5. Pathology . not malignant; self-limiting.

"The Flowers" starts out to be a whimsical, happy, positive mood story. Describing a little girl adventuring out on her family's land. The little girls name was Myop and the narrator portrays her image as, "She was ten, and nothing existed for her but her song, the stick clutched in her dark brown hand, and the tat-de-ta-ta-ta of accompaniment." Perhaps the accompaniment of the stick shows that Myop was lonely and played by herself, using the stick as a "friend" or "companion". Myop seemed very interested in nature, "She had explored the woods behind the house many times," and what it had to offer. 

Ironically, on the day that she made herself a new, different, path than the one she usually takes, Myop found, "an armful of strange blue flowers with velvety ridges and a sweet suds bush full of the brown, fragrant buds." The narrator uses a lot of detail here, describing the flowers as not only blue, but strange. To me, there was a shift in the story at this point. Previously in the story, the narrator used all positive context clues such as, "..made each day a golden surprise that caused excited little tremors to run up her jaws." But now the narrator has shifted to using the word "strange" to describe a flower in the woods. The narrator also goes on to describe the unpleasant feeling Myop had from this new "strange" land Myop has discovered.

After the narrator sets a "strange" tone to the story, Myop discovers a man that has been hanged. In the midst of her discovery, she managed to find a wild pink rose. It seems as if the flowers follow Myop throughout the story and serve as the positive, lively aspect even though she has just found a dead man in the cave she discovered on her journey through the woods. Or did it serve as a symbol of life and death? "As she picked it to add to her bundle she noticed a raised mound, a ring, around the rose's root." Myop discovered that even though the wild rose represents life, it came from death- it in fact was growing from the noose, or knot the man used to hang himself. After realizing the wild rose was not such a beautiful thing after all, "Myop laid down her flowers."

To me, "The Flowers" has a much deeper meaning than the actual story tells itself. The entire story represents a comparison between life and death. Life is represented through the flowers in the woods, the little girl, the harvest season, the warm sun, the stream, etc. Death is represented by Autumn, because in Autumn the leaves die and fall to the ground, the gloomy little cove, the dead, hanged man, rotted clothes, and ironically the wild pink rose. People may portray the wild pink rose negatively or positively but I believe that the wild pink rose represents the death of the man and as a token of respect, Myop left her bundle of flowers that will soon wilt and die too. One could also compare the man to a flower, the man was hanged and his clothes rotted away just like a flower when taken off of its stem wilts, dies, and rots. Overall, I found many comparisons to life and death in the poem both obvious and hidden.

Second Reflection of the Week on Robert Frost's "Birches"

• Bracken (noun): 1. a large fern or brake, especially Pteridium aquilinum. 2. a cluster or thicket of such ferns; an area overgrown with ferns and shrubs.  

After reading Robert Frost's Birches over again a few times, I got the feeling that perhaps the narrator was either talking about taking risks and dealing with the consequences or dealing with depression. 

My first feeling that I had about taking risks and dealing with the consequences came to mind because the narrator goes in and out of negative and positive feelings when referring to bending the birch or "taking a risk". In the line, "...shed crystal shells; shattering and avalanching..." (10;11) I got the feeling that the narrator possibly took a risk but then also took a fall when the ice or "circumstance" shattered and avalanched into something unexpected.

The second feeling that I had was that the narrator was dealing with going in and out of depression. Throughout the poem the narrator goes in and out of negative feelings, talking about the sun shining in one line and then shattering ice in another. In the line, "...heaps of broken glass to sweep away," (12) it is almost as if the narrator is trying to get rid of his depression and negative memories and to sweep them away or get help to rid the thoughts from his mind.

This was an extremely long poem that jumped around a lot but all related back to the same thing, bending birches. It was hard to truly understand what Frost was writing about in his poem but it can be interpreted many different ways. Clearly, the narrator was a "swinger of birches" at one point in his life, 

"So once I was myself a swinger of birches. 

And so I dream of going back to be." (41-42)

and considers going back so that is where it makes me lean away from the idea of depression and lead more towards the idea of risk taking and dealing with the consequences.

Weekly Reflection on "Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-Second Year" by Raymond Carver

• Dank (adjective, -er, -est.): unpleasantly moist or humid; damp and, often, chilly: a dank cellar.  (Stanza 1, Line 1)

• Perch (noun):  1. a pole or rod, usually horizontal, serving as a roost for birds. 2. any place or object, as a sill, fence, branch, or twig, for a bird, animal, or person to alight or rest upon. 3. a high or elevated position, resting place, or the like. 6. a post set up as a navigational aid on a navigational hazard or on a buoy. 7. British . a. a linear or square rod. b. a measure of volume for stone, about 24 cubic feet (0.7 cubic meters). 8. Textiles . an apparatus consisting of two vertical posts and a horizontal roller, used for inspecting cloth after it leaves the loom. 9. Obsolete. Any pole, rod, or the like. (verb): (used without object) 10. To alight or rest upon a perch. 11. To settle or rest in some elevated position, as if on a perch. (Stanza 1, Line 4)

In the first stanza of the poem, "Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-Second Year" the narrator, also considered to be the son, sets the setting of the poem. Portraying his father in an unpleasant place he says, "Here in this dank, unfamiliar kitchen." (1) Also, he mentions a bottle of beer, "...in the other a bottle of Carlsbad Beer," (5) which will come up later on in the poem and be a significant part to the true, deeper meaning.

In the second stanza, the narrator describes the look and personality or "portrayal" of his father. Describing him (the father) as posing to be "...bluff and hearty for his posterity." (8) It almost seems as if the mood of the poem changes in this stanza, because the son now makes it seem as if he looks up to his father; instead of looking down on him like he did in the first stanza.

In the third stanza, the narrator makes it seem like everything he has described his father as, is an exaggerated lie and not actually describing who he really is. He says, "But the eyes give him away," (11) describing perhaps his dad's deceiving eyes that hide a lot behind them, such as his alcoholism. Finally, the son (or narrator) admits that he, too, has an alcohol problem just like his dad and almost blames his father for his problems, "Father, I love you, yet how can I say thank you, I who can't hold my liquor either..." (13).

After analyzing each stanza separately it is evident that perhaps the narrator (or son) is writing the poem about himself, and sees himself as his father when he was in his twenties. He does not seem to be proud of his problems, but admires his father for having such a bold personality when he was his age. Maybe the son wishes that photographs of himself would portray a confident, bold man like his father seemed to be, instead of a man struggling with alcoholism. Also, the son seems to have hatred towards his father and blames his father for his struggles with alcohol because of witnessing his father drink for so long.

In a Station of the Metro Poem

A gentle group gathers by the bus;
As if a child was given candy without a fuss.