Anitgone and Her Relationship with Ismene

                Antigone and Ismene are two of the most famous sisters in literature.  They oppose each other completely in their attitude and how they react towards their existential situations. Ismene is the Apollonian type sister who agrees with government and order’ Antigone represent Dionysus; she causes disorder and she is willing to go around her government to achieve her goals. Both of the sister Antigone and Ismene in the Sophocles’ play “Antigone” are characterized by their relationship that resembles feminism and the two sides of the argument that women rights.

                Antigone is a strong and independent woman. She refuses to settle down with Haemon and goes against the Creon’s orders to leave her brother alone. She embodies the feminism ideas. Unfortunately for Antigone and feminism, the ideology she follows cause high entropy wherever she goes. The chaos and disorder she causes is exactly why she represents Dionysus. Antigone is the antithesis to Ismene’s thesis. Ismene signifies Apollo is this play, and stands for the argument against feminism. From the beginning of the play, the two sisters are alone, and that alone scares Ismene and her ideas of women following her male superiors. Antigone, being the one to organize them being alone, embraces her independence and puts her family and heart above her government and male counterparts. This is continued through the play as Antigone refuses to marry Haemon and ultimately kills herself to have the final say.

                The disruption that Antigone and Dionysus cause is seen as contagious when her actions change Ismene’s weltanshaang and causes her to refuse her role as an inferior to her government and to stand up for herself and what she believes in. Her entropy level increases and she decides that she wants Antigone to share her blame for burying her brother. Antigone of course refuses her since she has not been with her and hers ideas the whole time; she had not helped her bury him. The ideology of feminism is shown to be spreading from Antigone to Ismene.

                Antigone and Ismene are seen as opposing forces in Sophocles’ “Antigone” despite being sisters. They both handled their existential situation differently depending on what they found to be more important to them in the long run. Some of the first ideas of feminism can be attributed to Sophocles’ situation he put Antigone in and how she reacts.

“Girl” by Jamiaca Kincaid

“Girl”: Gender Inequality, Double Standards, and Slut Shaming

            Gender distinctively separates people since birth. Pink blankets go to the new born girls and blue blankets go to the boys, thus beginning the difference between the two. The differences continue throughout life and many stereotypes arise from this great divide. Women are expected to be caring and quiet, while remaining prim and proper. Men, on the other hand, are seen as strong macho-men who are to remain stoic and unemotional in tough situations. Another example of the different stereotypes surrounding gender is their attitude towards sex.

A double standard exists between men and women when it comes to sex. If a man has sex, then it is no big deal; but if a woman was to ever have sex, then she would be defiled forever and immediately branded a slut. This is slut shaming. Slut shaming is most prominently used against women and generally by other women to make them feel bad, a sort of bullying for being promiscuous. Men face very little of this bashing when it comes to their sex lives.

Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “Girl” tackles these inequalities and double standards.  The short story details a mother advice to her daughter that varies from helpful and practical to undiscerning and even attacking the daughter’s actions and behavior through small remarks. The girl for the most part listens to the mother and only interrupts twice to defend herself or to ask a questions. The advice all mostly involves tricks and tips for being a good house wife and how to take care of a house along with a future husband or her current father. By the end of the short story, the mother expects the daughter to have learnt and understand a woman’s place in society, her job in a household, and the dangers of her sexuality.  The style the short story is written in, the symbols that are included, the tropes that are implied, and the fact that gender plays a huge part of her story all help Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” convey her message against gender inequalities, double standards, and slut shaming.

The style which Kincaid writes this short story and gets her plot across to the audience can be described as out of the ordinary. The story contains no clear beginning, middle and end like most short stories have. The story rather resides in the syntax and tone of the mother and the reaction of the girl to her mother’s instructions. The story also reads more like a poem then a short story. It almost appears to be poetry written in prose. Kincaid could be doing this to downplay the actual advice the mother is giving and highlighting the meaning behind them, much like poetry is to be read between the lines. The audience is lead to read in-between the words and advice the mother is giving and to find the story. The existential situation that the mother and daughter are in at the beginning of the story cannot be seen until later on in the story when more information is given. The tone and syntax are made the most important part of understanding this short story and Kincaid makes her audience see that.

Another reason Kincaid seemingly write poetry in prose could be that the story is meant to be read with a tempo like a poem. This effectively speeds up the mother’s voice. The speed Kincaid gives the mother voice changes the tone to something more urgent. Another stylistic tactic Kincaid uses to give the mother an urgent tone is the fact that there are no clear sentences; rather imperative remark after imperative remarks that are connected by semicolons. It is one continuous sentence; the mother is not taking a break. This urgent tone in the story is translated onto the mother making her seem insistent and frantic. The mother probably finds it vital to teach the daughter as fast as possible the ways to be a proper lady and to keep her away from sex and being a slut. Despite the urgency, the mother still fits on the bullying and slut-shaming as if it is that all she cares about. The bullying is the only thing that gets across to the daughter and the audience, and Kincaid’s message becomes more visible.

The mother’s voice speaks mostly throughout this story, but it contains two lines which the daughter either defends herself against her mother’s harsh judgment or asks a question regarding her mother’s advice. Both times that the girl speaks, Kincaid reveals an important symbol in her story.  The first time the girl speaks, she denies her mother’s claim that she sings Benna, a “Caribbean folk-music style,” (118).  Benna that is mentioned in the story is probably a type of music that the mother is not familiar with or comfortable with, hence her not wanting her daughter to sing it. For this reason, Benna could be a symbol for feminism. Feminism is an idea that the girl is embracing and the mother is afraid of. The mother would rather stay with something she is comfortable with, not singing Benna and not accepting feminism. She is stuck in her old ways and is unwilling to change her weltanschaang. The mother would much rather keep the status quo and force her idea onto her daughter.

The way that the girl reacts to her mother accusations that she sings Benna reveals another potential tenor for the music. The girl says, “but I don’t sing Benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school,” (118) at least two lines after the mother last brings it up and about four lines after she asks.  This delay suggests that the girl was fixated on it while her mother talks about other things. This means that the girl just might sing Benna and probably during Sunday schools. She felt the need to deny the claim and remain innocent to her mother, even though the mother is clearly not buying it. All of this leads to Benna being a vehicle for the girl’s blooming sexuality. The mother does not want to her to have any kind of sexuality but the girl is probably influenced by other things including her friends at Sunday school who are convincing her to try new things, including singing Benna and sex.

The other time the girl says something to her mother is at the end of the short story when the mother mentions squeezing the bread to test it for freshness. The girl responds with, “but what if the baker won’t let me feel the bread?” (pg 119). The mother then gets irrationally angry and says “you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won’t let near the bread?” (pg 119). This reaction to a simple question makes it seem out of place. The bread baker and his bread are a vehicle for society in general. They are part of the town and its citizens that stand for it as a whole. The fact that she cannot touch the bread, her situation in question, symbolizes her not being a part of the functioning society. If she becomes a slut, then society would disown her and not let her “feel the bread”.

The bread maker and his bread could further symbolize her mother. The outburst the mother gives is due to all the advice she has given to her daughter that has not sunk in yet. The mother is adamant about keeping her daughter ‘pure’ and she is afraid that she might be too late. Along with society disowning her, so would her mother if she continues to be promiscuous and turns into a slut in her mother’s eyes. A mother is the most important person to a daughter and the fact she would disown her for this could frighten the girl into disowning her own blooming sexuality for a life just her mother’s just to please her.

The fact that society would not accept a woman who is comfortable with her sexuality enough to explore it signifies slut-shaming. This is a trope that Jamaica Kincaid uses in this short story. The girl who is just now discovering her sexuality is instantly being discriminated by both her mother and the bread maker, who symbolizes society; and this is just for discovering it. Kincaid uses her story and this trope to effectively show how absurd and ridiculous slut shaming against a woman can be. The judgment put on this girl by so many reminds me of the part in the bible when Jesus is presented with an adulterous women and pestered with questions to know what to do with her. (NIV, John 8:6). According to the New International Version, John 8:7, “When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her”. Who are people to judge someone for their sins when they have their own? The mother really has no right to judge and the bully her daughter when she has her own sins. It is very likely that the mother went through the same thing as her daughter when she was her age.

Throughout the story, Jamaica also includes a feminism trope through the mother’s and daughter’s conflict. The mother has a thesis that a woman is a being-for-others. She believes women are supposed to be “sweet flowers that smile in the walk of men” (Wollstonecraft) and that a household are a patriarchy; her antithesis is her daughter’s sexual blooming that is starting to threaten her ideology about the relationship between men and women. Her daughter is starting to see the cage they are stuck in and the mother does not like this. The mother’s synthesis is to teach her what she knows to hopefully keep her in control and in ‘her place’. A woman with the morals of a man is not a ‘proper women’ according to the mother. The unevenness in gender treatment is the very problem that feminism tries to close. Kincaid uses her example of the mother and daughter to highlight this problem and bring feminism alive to her audience in this short story without ever having to say that the story was about feminism.

With the talk of gender inequality and the great divide, the genders in this story are critically important to the progression and meaning of it. How would the story change if the genders were reversed? The story would be about a father teaching his son how to do household chores as a punishment for his sexuality while calling him a slut. This version sounds absurd to an audience who is not use to the same treatment given to men and women. The fact that the reverse is so absurd gives Kincaid’s story more clarity and meaning. The feminist and gender equality ideas behind the story are exemplified by how strange the opposite of the story. The judgment women go through becomes more unfair and ridiculous.

The gender reversal strategy and double standards when it comes to gender reminds me of another short story this could be applied to. John Updike’s “A&P” takes place in a grocery store where a young male cashier follows three girls in swim suits as they look for something they need (Norton, pgs 409-414). The young male cashier starts off with a condescending and judging tone with saying, “You never know for sure how girls’ minds work (do you really think it’s a mind in there or just a little buzz like a bee in a glass jar?),” (pg. 410). This immediately begins the question of how gender would change this story. Would a girl think the same thing about a guy? The girls who enter the stores in their bathing suits are also given the mentality of men, as they do not care they are dressed with the bare minimum; which is a reason why the cashier is so fixated and intrigued by them. If three men had walked into the store in their swim suits, would as much attention be given to them? Probably not, it would be shook off as they just got back from the beach. The girls are given unfair and unequal judgment simply based on their gender, just as the girl in Kincaid’s “Girl”.

Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “Girl” holds important mimesis about feminism, gender differences, and slut-shaming. Gender differences are still alive today but are getting better. Despite the improvement, women are still getting paid less, are expected to have children, not have careers, and go into the housewife stereotype. Will this gender divide ever close all the way or are men destined to be treated as superiors above women?

Hills Like White Elephant by Ernest Hemingway Analysis

“Hills Like White Elephant”

An elephant in the room can be an uncomfortable and slightly embarrassing situation, and no one wants to answer or face it. The tension of this situation comes alive in Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”. The story watches as an American and a girl (not his girlfriend or even a friend, just a girl) try to tackle an important issue that they are faced with, an unwanted pregnancy. Hemingway’s use of syntax and the relationship he builds between the two characters makes the audience of his short story “Hills Like White Elephants” wrapped up into the discomfort and anxiety.

Hemingway uses le mot juste time after time in this short story, especially when it comes to the dialog of the American. His material cause allows for the plot of the story become clear without having to actually say what is happening. The American comes off as pressuring and persuasive towards the girl with comforting lines such as “It’s all perfectly natural” (line 47) and even repeating the line “It’s perfectly simple” (lines 56 and 65). The fact that Hemingway makes the American repeat the same thing a couple of times shows the audience that the man is obviously trying to convince the girl to do something that she is not exactly comfortable with.  They never say the problem straight out and it adds to the stillness and tension in the room; it becomes a huge secret from each other that they both know.

The dialog between the man and women also reveal a master and slave relationship between them. The American has the master morality since he convince the girl to do something she does not want to do or had no opinion on. He has objectified the girl with his western gaze. He cares very little for her, she happens to be a loose end he needs to take care of before leaving. The girl has the opposing slave morality and exists as a being-for-others. The existential situation she has been put in is that she is pregnant by an American. With anyone else the situation could have been a dream come true for the girl, to start a family and have a child; but with the Americans master morality, the girl is left in bad faith. She goes along with his plans and does whatever he wants her to do in hopes of keeping their love as he promises. Both of their personas advance the story line in a way that the audience can see what exactly is happening. If the master-slave relationship was not as prevalent between the two, the story would take a whole new turn. The girl would keep the child and the man would be stuck on what to do from there. For the story to have to go the way it did, the relationship between the two that Hemingway created was vital.

Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” highlights the damaged connections between an American and a girl. The audience is left feeling the emotions they both feel in that train car and seeing the elephant between them. The lasting awkwardness sticks with audience throughout the story and after. Hemingway successfully emerges his audience in his short story and conveys his emotions through his written word.

Frank Kafka’s “The Hunger Artist”

“The Hunger Artist”

                Frank Kafka’s short story “The Hunger Artist” follows the story of a self-proclaimed artist whose art has sunk in popularity. The spectators that the hunger artist craves attention from would rather watch as happier and more ‘alive’ form of entertainment. The hunger artist never does quit his art and his desperation of attention from the others continues.  Kafka effectively holds up a mirror to society by using double binds and comparisons in his short story “The Hunger Artist”.

                Frank Kafka writes many short stories full of double binds; The Hunger Artist is no different. One double bind in the story is the relationship between food and attention. The hunger artist at the end states that if only he had found the right food, he would have eaten it; but the food he craves is attention. They only way he knows how to get attention happens to be through his art of starvation. This creates a double bind that leads him to starve to death. He cannot get his attention so he cannot eat anything. This exemplifies and furthers his struggle to get his audiences attention towards his struggle. When this never happens, the artist withers away. This is related to another similar double bind between pride and the fulfillment and contentment he receives from his art. The artist has too much pride in his work to ever quit until he receives the fulfillment his desires, but the fulfillment cannot come from his line of work. Nobody wants to watch his suffering and the depressive tone he gives off.  Both of these double binds Kafka uses as mimesis to post-World War I Eastern Europe. The people of Eastern Europe do not want to face the reality but they have to if they wish to get past the hard times. They are also craving a good happy time when that is not possible for them at the moment. Kafka story tries to illuminate this problem to show how much of a problem it has become.

                Kafka also uses comparison and symbolism in his very last paragraph of his short story. The panther that replaces the hunger artist at the circus is the hunger artist antithesis. The panther could stand for the fake façade that the public wishes to believe. The panther appears to be happy being stuck in a small cage, just like the people seemingly do not mind to be living in poverty. The panther could also stand for the demagogue that the people wish they had to lead them out of the hard times. The panther is strong and “seemed to carry freedom” (pg. 340), both characteristics that many people wish to see in a leader’s persona. The panther, no matter how it is seen, holds a mirror up to society to show what it truly wants. The public does not want to deal with the problem; they want something to distract them from all the responsibilities. The panther is the perfect distraction.

                Frank Kafka short story “The Hunger Artist” happened to be very accurate in the later years. Hitler soon became Eastern Europe’s panther, but World War II then began. A distraction is never the answer. To solve a problem, it must be dealt with head-on, not pushed to the back and ignored. “The Hunger Artist” tried to warn the people of this danger but they were too busy watching the panther.

Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin

Sonny’s Blues

                Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin is a short story that follows two brothers through their hardships of living in Harlem. The narrator of the story is a straightedge teacher, husband, and father who likes to live his life as if nothing bad could happen. His views on life and the good and the bad are quickly turned around when one morning he reads the newspaper and learns about some unsettling news. James Baldwin’s short story Sonny’s Blues is a story of brotherly love and doing the right thing despite existential situations and being in bad faith.

The story starts en medias res, or the middle of the whole story. The way it is describes the narrator reading the story leaves the audience guessing on what is the existential situation. What has the narrator read? Who is it about? And if the narrator is so distraught about the story, how come he is finding it out through a newspaper? The second paragraph answers some questions but brings a fog of situations(he has to get to work and cannot find out more of the situation) and some bad faith the narrator might have had in the past (“he became real to me again” (pg.75)). While the second paragraph finally names the character the narrator is worried about, the audience still does not know who he is. Sonny could be anywhere from a student in one of the narrators algebra classes, a family member or a friend.

By the fourth paragraph the audience knows that Sonny is the narrator’s brother and has been caught with heroin.  For something that is introduced in the first paragraph and is important to the narrator, Baldwin takes his time in releasing the news to the audience. This directly related to the narrators habit of waiting to do something proactive in his situation. The narrator continually puts himself in bad faith when it comes to helping his brother or dealing with any situation involving his brother. Examples include waiting to write to his brother in rehab/jail when he knew he brother hated it there, giving money to Sonny’s beggar friend when he clearly does not want to, and ignoring his mother’s wish that he would take a more active role in Sonny’s life until she died. It is not until the end of the short story that the narrator sees Sonny’s way of life and ontological mystery towards music when they go to the bar and Sonny plays the piano. Baldwin gives hope to the audience that from then on the narrator will be in his brother’s life by helping him stay away from drugs and continue his music career by the narrator buying Sonny a drink while he plays the piano.

James Baldwin’s short story has more purpose beyond the narrator’s bad faith and how he deals with existential situation, including the comparison of good and bad and the difficulties of living in Harlem as an African American. The meaning and purpose of the short story, including the narrator’s reaction to his existential situations, is exemplified by Baldwin’s formal cause of his plot. The fact that he waits to inform the audience of the back story makes it more significant; without knowing who or why the story is a big deal, the audience might shrug it off. Starting the story en medias res makes the beginning of the story more important to the audience and the meaning come across more.

Baldwin use of formal cause and the existential situation he puts his characters in play important roles in his short story “Sonny’s Blues.” His meanings and purpose of writing this short story were conveyed to the audience and by the end of the story, the audience is left hoping the best in the situations that they were left in.

“Lady Lazarus”

Sylvia Plath’s poem “Lady Lazarus” details Plath’s unwanted resurrections from death. Her intentional audience is her enemies, the doctors, who have thwarted her attempts of suicide and brought her back to the life which she wishes to escape.  Her real audience is herself; she is talking to herself, her real enemy. Her persona in this poem is of someone who has gone mad from unsuccessful attempts of suicide. Sylvia Plath shows how she views herself subconsciously through comparisons and irony in her poem “Lady Lazarus”.

Plath uses many comparisons of herself to monsters or things to be feared; not of her outward appearance, but of what cannot be seen or not easily seen. The first example of this comes early in the poem, right after she states her problem of coming back to life. Lines 4 through 9 describe what she thinks of herself with a metaphor of what the Germans had done to Jews during the Holocaust. On the outside, the things are beautiful; Plath’s syntax describes them as “bright” and “fine”. Knowing the history of these things will give them a whole new meaning though. Plath uses this to “terrify” her enemies when in reality she is calling herself an object made out of human body parts, something no longer alive. The lines 13 through 18 further portray her self- image. They describe a zombie, something that is dead inside but forced to live and walk the Earth. She depicts herself this way right after line 12, “Do I terrify?-,“ to further show that her persona is something to be afraid of to her enemies. In lines 26 through 34, she makes herself a freak show, something people watch for amusement and amazement.  She sees herself as a beast, a monster, a freak, and she wants others to as well.

Plath later uses a dark form of irony to make fun of herself and her failed attempts of suicide. She describes “dying” as “an art” and something, “like everything else,” she does “exceptionally well.” Plath’s last two attempts have failed though, she has not and, from she thinks, cannot die. She is exceptionally bad at dying, just “like everything else.” Plath’s views of her existential situations have not been up to par with what she thinks to be successful. In line 50, she describes dying as “easy enough to do”, but going back on to her not being able to do it, Plath is calling herself useless and unable to do simple tasks that everybody else is able to perform.

Plath’s combination of seeing herself as a monster and not being able to do things that everybody else seems to be able to do gives her poem a depressing tone despite her attempts at having a terrifying and threatening tone. This tone is what holds up the mirror to her image in the poem to herself. Her mimesis of what she thinks of herself was in all actuality a cry for help, help from her feelings of dying. The way she wants help from this problem can be found in stopping the help that doctors and people who bring her back to life give her. Plath eventually got what she wanted when her next suicide attempt was successful.

“Do Not Go Gently into That Good Night” Review

“Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”

            Dylan Thomas’ poem “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” conveys strength, power, and persuasion. The poem’s main audience happens to be Thomas’ father who sits on his deathbed. Thomas, knowing that his father might silently slip into his death, uses his poem “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” to convince him to never give up the will to live, even if the end appears close, with the use of powerful syntax and examples.

            Thomas uses powerful syntax throughout his poem. He starts with the first stanza with strong word after strong word. Words such as “burn”, “rave”, “rage, rage”, and “dying” are all used in the first stanza alone. These words early on start the poem strong and show the attitude and determination of Thomas to save his father. Thomas uses this syntax to convey and hopefully transfer his attitude to his father, making him more likely to fight harder and longer for his life. The first stanza contains two lines that are used numerously throughout the poem. “Do not go gentle into that good night” and “rage, rage against the dying of the light” can easily be said to be the message of the poem. At least one appears in each stanza. Both lines express an extremely powerful tone by the word choice and placement. This tone carries from the first stanza into the rest of the poem by these two lines. The last stanza of the poem contains this tone that is affiliated with his father specifically. The “fierce tears” Thomas’ describes run down his father’s face. Tears and crying are usually   associated with weakness but Thomas describes them as powerful. He uses this syntax to further convince his father that he is in fact strong, even if he might look weak or feel close to dying. Thomas makes something weak strong, so that his father can go from weak to strong along with his tears.

            The middle four stanzas of Thomas’ poem are each a different example of great men that have fought into their last moments of their lives. Each stanza starts with a new example. “Wise men,” “good men,” “wild men,” and “grave men” begin each of the first line of their respective stanzas. This leads up to the last stanza where Tomas introduces his father in the first line. This allows for an easy comparison for the reader of his father and the other great men. All of them are seen to be in similar situations so his father should do the same as the others. His father gets the message that if these men can fight for life this hard then he can as well. Thomas continues to make it easier for the reader to compare them all by the rhyme scheme. Each stanza has the rhyme scheme A, B, A. This allows for an easier comparison between the stanzas and therefore an easier comparison of the individual men. Thomas’ main goal of the easy comparison was to show his father that he is great and that he cannot just let it go by letting death take him silently.

            Thomas’ attempt to empower his father through his poem “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” was made through his syntax and examples. He cared for his father too much for him to seemingly throw his life away by going quietly into the light. For his father to fight for his life was all that Thomas wanted to see. Thomas wanted his father to be the strong man he knew him to be until the very end.