More symbols?!!

As Andrea said, Kafka's writing treats everything as if it is factual, if a shade fantastic. But that does not mean that there are not implications in his writing of meanings beyond the literal. Review your reading of "The Hunger Artist" and comment on some aspect of the story that takes you beyond the literal meanings in the story. Consider the images we mentioned in class: the impresario, fasting as a profession or art, the watchers or audience, the cage, the circus, the panther. Or comment on some other aspect of the story that held additional meaning for you or respond to one of the comments made in class. Just push yourself to look past the literal.

Rememories and Relationships

The trees throughout Beloved evoke both pain and comfort to the characters involved in the scenes with them. The "tree" on Sethe's back was named so by the nurturing Amy Denver, who saved Sethe as a runaway and helped her deliver Denver. But it is also a constant reminder of her past humiliations at Sweet Home though the scars on her back have been long dead to any feeling. This tree reflects Sethe's present mental and emotional state; though she is dead to any feelings in the present, she cannot rid herself of the scars of the past. When Paul D. arrives, he attempts to ease the pain of this memory, gently touching the scars that make up the tree. But Sethe cannot feel this touch; in fact, Paul D. adds to the burden of memory of Sweet Home with his comments on Halle's witnessing Sethe's rape and violation by the nephews. Early in the novel, Sethe recalls the beautiful trees of Sweet Home and the image of her boys playing in them. But the memory of these trees is also tainted by her recollection later in the novel of the horrific consequences of the Sweet Home slaves' abortive attempt at escape. Sethe finds when she reaches for these images for the comfort of their beauty, they turn in her mind to reminders of pain and death. Thus, Sethe finds her only recourse is to turn away from all of it, beauty and pain alike, and become as deadened to life as the tree-like scars on her back. To Paul D., to Denver, to the community on Bluestone Rd., Sethe appears hardened and proud, incapable of shame, but is she really incapable of life and living? Until Beloved arrives....
Comment on one of the other imagery patterns and how it helps to clarify the feelings, mental state, or relationships of one or more of the characters in Beloved.

"What kind of evil you got in here?"

How appropriate that we begin our ghost story the weekend of Halloween. But Beloved is not a traditional ghost story, not scary in the manner of Stephen King or Edgar Allan Poe horror tales, but scary in untraditional ways. Of the three main characters, only Paul D. reacts with some shock to the otherworldly presence at 124 Bluestone Rd. Sethe and Denver have lived with it too long to be horrified at all. "It's not evil, just sad," says Sethe in reaction to Paul D.'s condemnation. And Denver---her view of the presence is even weirder. Recount the attitudes of these three characters to the ghost's presence in the house as shown in the opening few chapters of Beloved. In your view, what is Morrison's intention in painting us a ghost who, on the one hand, can hurl a little dog across a room and scare two teenage boys out of their own home, but on the other provide company and comfort to a lonely and isolated girl? Scary...or what?

Romance or Comedy

Shakespeare's 12th Night, as director Charlie Fee declared, presents us with two female heroines unique in their society in that both are cut loose from parental and societal demands and placed in the revolutionary position of choosing their own love interest. Though we see little of their respective courtships, we see enough to make some judgments on these two women and the bases of their choices. Evaluate the love relationships of Orsino and Viola and Olivia and Sebastian/Cesario. For the sake of his comedy, what aspects of each relationship does Shakespeare target satirically? Is the Bard making any universal pronouncements about love and its role in society?

Committed, Body and Soul

Doc Daneeka ministers to the body while Chaplain Tappman ministers to the soul.
Heller opens the novel saying that he “fell in love” with the Chaplain the first time he saw him, establishing at least some figurative connection. Yossarian’s first encounter with Doc Daneeka in the book, though, introduces him and the reader to the ubiquitous Catch 22, that becomes Yossarian’s nemesis, the ultimate trap. Is Heller making some comment through these characters about the relative importance of the body and the soul? Or is there some other reason for their presence in Yossarian’s life at Pianosa? Consider some of the following in writing your blog. Or come up with some questions and answers of your own that you find more intriguing.

--How is each man characterized? Which character is more sympathetic?
--How does Yossarian relate to each of these men? How do they relate to him?
--What happens to each of these men in the course of the novel?
--What other characters seem sympathetic to these two men? Who do the Doctor and Chaplain particularly befriend and why?

What, if anything, is Heller saying about the body and the soul through the depiction of these characters?

Yossarian: Slacker or moral hero?

What follows is one of the first paragraphs of an essay I wrote several years ago about Catch 22. I'd like you to respond to my take on Yossarian as a moral hero in the world of this novel. At this point in your reading do you empathize or sympathize with his plight or not? And why?


Catch 22 is a bitterly funny book set during the end of World War II about an unlikely American moral hero, John Yossarian. Heller signals the throw-back status of the moral hero Yossarian represents by making him an Assyrian, survivor of a dead civilization. The book's time-altering structure and use of absurdist writing techniques further disorients the audience, forcing us to empathize with Yossarian who himself feels alienated and threatened in an irrational world. On the surface Yossarian seems initially concerned with physical survival and understanding of his world only insofar as understanding will enable him to survive the war. The evolving of the story, however, which does follow a psychological if not chronological sequence, shows Yossarian to be one of the "good guys" in that he respects life, cares for his friends, and harbors a deep-seated moral outrage at the injustices he witnesses in this irrational world. To find this moral core, Yossarian and the reader must examine and discard traditional guides of value. Nationalism, patriotism, romantic love, free enterprise, personal identity and individuality, even literature and language all become twisted or lost in the monolithic whirling void of the material world, symbolically shown in the motif of the vicious circle that echoes throughout the novel. Yossarian must not merely survive the circle, he must find a moral center and survival will follow.

Welcome to AP English!

I would like to introduce blogging as a new activity to AP English this year. Since most of you are already web savvy, much more than I, to be sure, I thought that this medium would be most likely to promote free exchange of ideas about the literature we will be studying this year. This will also give all of you an outlet for free-writing your ideas, a view to how others react to them (your ideas), and the opportunity to hone and sharpen your expression for the final essays you write for this class. This will also put me on the blogspot as well since I will be directing, encouraging, and responding to your comments with my own. Finally, since I will be out of school the last two weeks of September, this blog will give us the platform to continue our literary discussions of the works you are reading during this time. If you have any ideas for bells and whistles to add to this blog (and know how to do them), please let me know. Let the blogging commence!