Paper 3

Ben Williams

Mrs. Brady

EGL 102

3 December 2011

Coincidence

            Expressing a feeling or emotions is an extremely difficult task. Many people have tried to verbally describe their complications, but found it to be very challenging. What many people do to express their self is to write a song, or poetry which is very coincidental throughout history and time period, since a lot of them are alike. This is easier because instead of coming out and trying to describe exactly what you mean, you can word things differently to mean what you want to express, or the way you tone the words, can make your audience interpret your feelings or emotions a certain way. A song this is demonstrated in is “Love” by Musiq Soulchild. I also noticed it in two poems one being called Morning” by Billy Collins, and “The Night-Wind” by Emily Bronte. The literary element these authors demonstrate is personification, and expressed their  themes and tones similar in the pieces of work.

               Signification is the theme in the poem “The Night-Wind” by Emily Bronte and the song “Love” by Musiq Soulchild. The tone for the two is sorrow. The authors both describe the title of their works of literature, and what it means to them. Bronte discusses how the night-wind signifies a special force that is irresistible and beyond your control, also how the wind reminds her of memories she does not want to remember and the way she expresses the wind is regretful and sorrow because it is there and cannot be resisted. “Love” by Musiq Soulchild talks about Love and how it is also an irresistible force and beyond your control, and also discusses what love is to him. A quote that demonstrates Bronte explaining what the night wind is on line 9-11 “I need not it’s breathing, to such thought to me , but still it whispered lowly”. The poet is saying that she did not require the wind at that time, for it was a reminder of some things she did not want to recollect at the moment. To explain that the wind is a irresistible force he says “And when thy heart is laid at rest, beneath the church-yard stone, I shall have time enough to mourn, and thou to be alone” (Bronte33-36), simply meaning that because she cannot control the wind, so she has to deal with it for now until death, where she will be free from its reminders. In “Love” the artist explains to love that it is something he cares about so much that he needs to tell love it is being deceived. Musiq quotes “Love, so, many things I got to tell you, but I’m afraid I don’t know how, cause there’s a possibility that you’ll look at me differently”… then says to love, “ Love, so many people use your name in vain, love, those who have faith in you sometimes go astray”(“Love” Soulchild), meaning that he needs to tell love the truth, but will be difficult because of everyone lying since so many people say love without meaning it and is sorry that people will do that to love. To explain how love is an irresistible force beyond your control, Musiq states “Many nights I’ve cried from the things you do, felt like I can die from the thought of losing you” (“Love” Musiq Soulchild). This time he saying he wants love and after he receives love, he is scared to lose it and feels death will come if he does lose his love, also meaning he knows what love really is.

            For the poem “Morning” by Billy Collins and “Love” by Musiq Soulchild both share the theme of appreciation, and share the tone joy. The poet in this poem just like the  first poem and Musiq’s song describe the title of their works of literature. Collins discusses how he appreciates the morning and what it brings, and his joyful because of it. Musiq discusses (like earlier), love and the joy it brings to him and makes him. To support this Collins says “Why do we bother with the rest of the day, the swale afternoon, the sudden dip into evening, then night with his notorious perfumes, his many-pointed stars?” (Collins 1-5). The poet is straight up saying that the afternoon is a low and hollow, as for the evening it is too sudden of a transfer from the afternoon, and the night is just known for the stars and nightly smells, and that these parts of the day are pointless. He embraces the morning so much his joy is undeniable. The morning brings the cold floor on his feet, splashing his face with vitamins, and enjoys drinking coffee so much he mentions it twice, all thanks to his good friend the morning as seen on line 8-12 as “feet on the cold floor, buzzing around the house on espresso, maybe a splash on the face, a palmful of vitamins, but mostly buzzing around the house on espresso”, which again shows his gratitude for the morning and how happy he is to have it. Musiq shows his appreciation for love in his song “Love” when he says “Ever since the first moment I spoke your name, from then on I knew that by you being in my life, things were destined to change cause…..” basically suggesting that since he said I love you to whoever, his life is now different because of love changing his life. Musiq is appreciative and joyful for Love in his life.

Expressing a feeling or emotion has its ups and downs, as well as ways around it. Verbally from the top of your head (which is extremely difficult), or from a poetic or musical form. Poets like Bronte and Collins, and singers like Musiq demonstrate their way of expressions which is coincidental that from anytime of year to present they could be so alike. The authors use poet musical forms, where they can use metaphors, similes or personification as well as tones to help their demonstrations.

WORK CITED PAGE

ALISON BOOTH. THE INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE. :W. W. NORTON

01/29/2010

Soulchild, Musiq.  “Love”  Aijuswanaseing. Touch Of Jazz production crew, 11/14/2000

Ben Williams

Outline

1.     Coincidence 

Expressing a feeling or emotions is an extremely difficult task. Many people have tried to verbally describe their complications, but found it to be very challenging. What many people do to express their self is to write a song, or poetry which is very coincidental throughout history and time period, since a lot of them are alike.

A.    Signification is the theme in the poem “The Night-Wind” by Emily Bronte and the song “Love” by Musiq Soulchild. The tone for the two is sorrow.

1.     How Bronte use signification and tone of sorrow.

2.     Quote/Evidence.

3.     How Musiq uses signification and tone of sorrow.

4.     Quote/Evidence.

B.    For the poem “Morning” by Billy Collins and “Love” by Musiq Soulchild both share the theme of appreciation, and share the tone joy.

1.     How Collins uses appreciation and tone of joy.

2.     Quote/Evidence.

3.     How Musiq uses appreciation and tone and joy.

4.     Quote/Evidence.

C.    Expressing a feeling or emotion has its ups and downs, as well as ways around it. Verbally from the top of your head (which is extremely difficult), or from a poetic or musical form. Poets like Bronte and Collins, and singers like Musiq demonstrate their way of expressions which is coincidental that from anytime of year to present they could be so alike. The authors use poet musical forms, where they can use metaphors, similes or personification as well as tones to help their demonstrations.

Paper 2

Ben Williams

Mrs. Brady

EGL 102

28 October 2011

Say What You Need To Say

Since the beginning of time, the best way to express yourself and your ideas would be to actually present them to viewers. Rather than holding your ideas in, revealing them is not only the best way to express yourself, but also a great burden off yourself. “Say what you need to say”, best describes that theory, it is the best way to express yourself, your feelings, and ideas. In A&P by John Updike, and Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway the main characters display how keeping your thoughts inside does not help. In “Say” a song by John Mayor the song proves that expressing yourself is important.

            A&P is about this boy named Sammy who had fantasies about these three girls that he admired and adored. The reason he adored them was his own, it could have been their skimpy clothing and temptation from puberty was to powerful to not see the girls as goddesses. Maybe it was the fact that the three girls were socially different from there dressing, and may have triggered a interest in his mind to also be socially different. Whatever reason Sammy had he felt that they should not be looked upon differently or spoke to in such a manor they were approached. What Sammy did was speak up and express his feelings and emotions, and said what he needed to say. As seen on page 413 Sammy says “I quit” then the boss asks again to make sure and Sammy then say “You didn’t have to embarrass them”. He quit his job to stand up for the girls, and doing so he expressed his emotion and feelings toward the situation. Another quote to show that he said what he needed to say was on page 414 when he stated “… and my stomach kind of fell as I felt the world was going to be to me hereafter”. This meaning he knew that life was going to be hard and society was not accepting what the girls did, he stood up and expressed his emotion toward the situation, and quit since no one would see where he is coming from he acted letting everyone know he is right in his mind.

            Hills Like White Elephants is about a couple who are planning to have an abortion, but decide to discuss about going through with the plan at a train station. The female wants to be ensured about having the baby would be fine and wants to hear the man say he wants the child, but the man obviously wants the abortion but doesn’t want to come out and say do it he rather keep saying don’t do it if you don’t want to but keeps saying it will get better and be better with an abortion. The female does not say what she needs to say. What she does do is hint to the man about the baby and tries to get him say what she wants to hear but never comes out and speaks her mind, and eventually she gets aggravated and just wants to get it done. On page 116 she mentions “Then I’ll do it because I don’t care about me” hoping the guy will say no don’t do it I want the child but instead he just like I care about you so there she does not mean what she really wants to say. In just about every page she mentions the hills that look like white elephants, which is here way of trying to discuss the baby and again get the man to just say what she wants to hear, but here not saying what she needs to and she keeps beating around the bush makes her get aggravated. On page 117 she eventually gets fed up with him not answering the way she wants him to answer so she says please seven times and then say stop talking, then man hushed for a few then mentioned something about the abortion again and she said “I’ll scream”. The female became angered because the man obviously wanted the abortion, which she did not and was hoping he would tell her not to get it, and also the fact that he was not giving her straight up answers, so she was losing her mind and about scream out of anger.

            The song “Say” by John Mayor is the topic exactly. He is saying “say what you need to say” and basically do not keep things cooped up inside you. He wants people to understand that it is that important to do so and makes a good catchy song to prove it. In his song the chorus is “Say what you need to say”, which again is the topic in deed. In his first verse he says “Take all of your wasted honor, Every little past frustration, Take all your so called problems, Better put them in quotations”. He basically is saying don’t hold your expressions in let everything out, all the things you did that you might think is a waste but should release just in case it is a good thing, and all your past frustrations and problems to put them in quotations or speak them and not to hold anger in let it go and talk about it so you don’t do anything drastic. The next verse he states “You better know that in the end, It's better to say too much, Then never to say what you need, to say again”, basically that you should not die with any secrets let them out and express yourself before it is to late the more you say won’t hurt anyone but the less you say will hurt you. His last verse is “Even if your hands are shaking, And your faith is broken, Even as the eyes are closing, Do it with a heart wide open”, which again mainly means even if you nervous and you lost all faith, and before you sleep or are dying or just ready to give in, express yourself, your feelings, your love, and heart (“Say” John Mayor).

            People have learned that to advance in life whether it is creations or emotions that expressing yourself is the best way to do so. John Mayor’s song “Say” summed up the topic perfectly. In the story A&P Sammy expressed himself by saying what he needed to say, this basically helped him grow and develop into a man, who made his own decisions and stand up for what he feels is right and spoke up to do so. As for the female in Hill Like White Elephants she never spoke up but in fact she beat around the bush hoping someone would hear her call or the man say what she wanted to hear basically. Once he didn’t she got aggravated and wanted to scream, if she would have expressed her true feelings she may have felt different and better than she did, so remember no matter what “Say What You Need To Say” as John Mayor would say.

WORK CITED PAGE

ALISON BOOTH. THE INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE. :W. W. NORTON

01/29/2010

Mayor, John.  “Say.”  Single. 11/27/2007

Raft Assignment

Ben Williams

Sammy from “A&P”

Many would agree after reading John Updike’s “A&P”, the main character Sammy is both a growing young man and a heroic teen. His life at work was the same social norm of a life everyone at that that time was living. He tried to change his boring replay of a life that was the same as everyone else’s at that time to more of how he wanted to live and express himself, instead of the way society expected him to live. Sammy also stood up for the females he fancied and admired, not only their attention but because of a split second decision that he made. In a sense one could say Sammy had succeeded in his goal of growing and becoming a heroic teen.

            Sammy was bored and who doesn’t get bored every once in a while? He took his boredom and made a change from a typical working class young man to a man making his own decisions. He did this by a change of lifestyle; so he quit his job at the supermarket. Knowing that his parents would not be happy, as his boss explained (Updike 413) he had to then quickly access that yes, his parents would be unhappy, because at that time he lived within the social norm for a teen, who would want to make his parents proud. His parents may have gotten him the job, so his decision to quit would make his parents look bad in society; which is another way his parents would be unhappy. Today, many kids or young adults still want to please their parents, but will make themselves happy before others. Sammy made that advanced decision during his time, to quit even though he knew his life would be harder. He even said, “I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter” (Updike, 414) From then on he was looked at as a growing young man who made his own decisions.

            Sammy is a hero. When he stuck up for the girls and their horrid unacceptable attire and quit to show that not everything should be how society wants it to be, this displayed his heroism. Also, he showed that people have the right to do what they want and how they want for it’s their constitutional right, and just because society thinks differently, they should not be looked down upon it. An example was when Sammy said, “You didn’t have to embarrass them” (Updike 413). Sammy was saying, let people be who they are and he was on the side of change. His boss responded, “it was they who were embarrassing us” (Updike 413), knowing that society would not accept that. So Sammy quit hoping the girls would hear, but they kept walking. This is not to say they might not have heard him, but perhaps they later on could have thanked him. He also did this to prove a point. Sammy’s actions made him appear as change but his bosses actions made him look like normal non-changing society. Sammy, by fighting for what he believed in against his evil boss, turned him into a hero.

            Sammy knew what he was doing was right. Since it was his decision, he could not be wrong. He could have started a trend that might have taken society to where we are today in. Who is to say the people he quit in front of did not see his message the same way he did? No matter if that happened or not, Sammy was in fact a hero and a growing young man in his own eyes, and much like his decision, he did no care how society reacted.

Paper 1

Ben Williams

Mrs. Brady

EGL 102

1 October 2011

Inequality

            For many years since the beginning of time women were treated unequal compared to that of men. In the stories A Streetcar Named Desire by Williams and Antigone by Sophocles’ examples of such gender inequality. Since both stories took place when women were not what they are today such as having the freedom and independent lifestyles in today’s society. The stories represent some great comparisons to how they both are true to these inequalities for women. Antigone takes place in the B.C. time period and A Streetcar during the 1940’s displays how both are great stories to still be read today and the authors gave a new outlook on women and there equality.

            Antigone is about a tragic hero name Antigone whose two brothers died at war with each other. Polyneices who fought against Eteocles the for the throne had his body sentenced to remain on the streets for the birds to eat. Antigone felt differently about this law and decided to bury him and was sentenced to death. The amazing part of what she did was she is a female. Again back then females were not treated the same and that was not expected from a female. In fact when the king Creon was looking for the one who opposed him he expected it to be a man but happen to be Antigone responsible, like when he said “Only if you don’t bring light those men who done this…”(Sophocles, 1139). Another event is when Sentry returned with the news of it being Antigone he didn’t want to accept the idea of her doing so and even questioned it when he said “Do you know what are saying? Do you mean it” (Sophocles, 1141). After finding out it was Antigone she was brought in for questioning. Antigone accepted her accusations but for good reason, because she believed his order was wrong this is confirmed on page 1142 in Sophocles Antigone said “I did not believe your proclamation had such power to enable one who will someday die to override God’s ordinances, unwritten and secure”. This was maybe the strongest line of the story because she displayed that though she was a female she will stick up for what is right not only because she feels that way but because the god’s would want that.

            In A Streetcar Named Desire it was a different form of gender bias. It was still an unfair unequal time in history but just a different scenario. There is Blanche the crazy sister who comes to visit her sister Stella and husband Stanley because she got fired and basically evicted from her home town in Belle Reve. Stanley is a man among men who is different from the type of guys Stella and Blanche used to date back on Belle Reve, Stella states this on page 1171 Williams “you’ll get along fine, if you’ll just try not to-well-compare him with men that we went out with at home”. Since Blanche is not used to this kind of behavior she tries to drive Stella away from Stanley, but she is in fact madly in love with him as he is with her, and probably would not be able to function without each other. Through the play gender bias is a conflict with both women on different sides of the table. Stella being the usual typical female who is depending on the man and listens and complies to his every will, while Blanche is not and does not agree with Stanley’s way of affection, but at the same time she is a little crazy probably because she lost her husband who was a homosexual who killed himself after being exposed and is very promiscuous from the men that she had affair with in the flamingo hotel or when she had an affair with the young boy when she was a teacher. This made Blanche want to hide herself from the light which was her true self and live in her ugly past which was the darkness. This is why she lived and searched for compliments and to live in her own world like when she told Mitch “I don’t want realism. I want magic!” (Williams, 1223).

            Both these stories did deal with the Gender bias conflict in the stories. I would suggest Stella was much like Antigone’s sister Ismene and Antigone is more like Blanche amongst the gender bias route. Ismene and Stella were both typical females of the inequality error. Both females were in the background citizens, and did things to please other. Ismene at first disagreed with her sisters acts and says “you are so headstrong. Creon has forbidden it.”(Sophocles, 1131) opposing her sisters decision. Stella acted similarly by telling Stanley that his idea about Blanche doing the things she did was lies. Ismene later gets caught and accused of her sister Antigone’s crime, and though she is not in a apart of the crime and disagreed on it she wants be a part of the summoning of death with Antigone and states “I did it, yes- if she will say I did” (Sophocles, 1144) which jus suggests that she is trying to side with her sister in front of the king just to make Antigone’s actions seem justified.

Stella however was not open about her feeling toward Stanley’s words about Blanche but you could tell she felt like some where true for example on page 1217 Sophocles Stella “ sadly and doubtfully from the kitchen says do your Blanche?” then while the scene is being described is embarrassed and sad. As for Antigone and Blanche Antigone has her motive and decision from the start of the play, you could say she is strong headed and Blanche was the same way upon Stanley. These two females were not typical females of their inequality error. Antigone decided on going against the law and burying her brother. Doing an illegal act and knowing the consequences she decided to follow through because of how she felt and what she needed to express such as what the right thing to do is. Blanche did the same thing but she had an affair with a seventeen-year-old-boy. (Sophocles 1214), doing so to remind her of her young husband who killed himself that she was “not just love him but worshipped the ground he walked on!”(Williams, 1215), which is her reason for doing her illegal acts.

WORK CITED PAGE

ALISON BOOTH. THE INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE. :W. W. NORTON

01/29/2010

           

Greatest Book I Ever Read (in detail)

It's A Life Changer

Stories to check out first:
Antigone
A streetcar named desire
A&P
Hills like white elephants
Interpreter of maladies
The yellow wallpaper
The birthmark
Spice up your life with some poems from Romantic love: An album
Test your understanding of poetry in:
Theme and tone
Family: An album
Speaker: Whose voice do we hear?

Hey Ben, if you had to compare yourself to one thing, what would it be?

I am a tree, I start young with my roots absorbing the world and what it gives me. As I grow I change in identity from roots to stump to tree. As i become a fully grown tree, I show off my leaves and branches of knowledge and wisdom to the world, and what i have to offer.

Human Condition

TO LOVE

Expose all of many faces of man

Understand ourselves

Malleable