A Poem and a Novel

This January, I have had couple of goals in order to keep reading and get my brain working: firstly, read, analyze, and relate poems that I enjoy and secondly, to read more books! Keeping these in mind, I would like to share a poem and a book I read recently. 

First for the poem: 

Great experiences should

be valued like silver,every day is as precious as a box of gold.If we only lived in this moment and made the most of it,we would experience joy, peace and love untold.~ Raphael Notch

When reading this poem, one common phrase rings a bell- YOLO. Y.O.L.O- a common slang phrase used among the high school crowd of our generation, almost like a savior. A savior we say? Yes, the ultimate haven for the frets in life. We use the saying "you only live life once" to contradict our affinity to try, our capital actions. Why try, why struggle, why search beyond the stars, when we only live once? Life is so short, live it. Is this dilemma, the scorching nag of laziness, a healthy habit for us? Is it the indicative immunization for our motivation? More so, are we stranded in the midst of introspection with no catalyst for progression, for our ultimate happiness we seek to find? Do we try, do we live?

Second- a sad yet lovely novel:

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in Love in the Time of Cholera, a tragic love story( NY: Editorial Oveja Negra 1988) , suggests that south American culture defines love as society's complications,  as a  physical and mental disease, and as an agent to retain youthfulness.  He develops such definitions first by describing why "it is impossible not to become what others believe you are;" second, by emphasizing that "there is no greater glory than to die for love;" lastly, by accepting that "age has no reality except in the physical world." Marquez's purpose was to prove that love is not controlled by a mutual feelings, but by nature's obstacles and mindsets. Because of Marquez's poetic and dense tone, he was able to communicate the essence of love in south American culture in many different aspects, creating a dynamic plot line that easily grabs attention from both adolescents and adults.

Walking through Hamlet- some theories, perhaps?

In class on Friday, while watching Hamlet, it was interesting to note all directors choices based on the text. Although scenes one through three were interesting, they were basically just laying the foundations...but when we get to scenes four and five, here is where the real play begins- Hamlet finally meets the "Ghost" of his father. Starting from the beginning of the play, Shakespeare introduces the Ghost as an omen. First of all, the scenery at the beginning of act one is gloomy, mirthful, and dark, and cautious (as the guard is keeping a look out for all the possible dangers that could disrupt the night); nonetheless, this is already indicative of something "bad." Once Shakespeare adds the ghost, the plot changes. Everyone's minds are geared towards finding this ghost, finding its purpose, and most importantly trying to find out why it is dressed in armor like the late king. Two things to note about the ghost: one, it does not speak and two, it is dressed in armor (just like the late king) from top to bottom. Hmmm....Why would it not speak? and why would the ghost state this clearly? Perhaps there is some sort of secret that this immortal being must confess, but only to Hamlet- this is only my theory, for we question this through our reading. The ghost is also dressed as if ready-to-fight. Why? Was there about to be dual? Fights over the won lands? Who knows...It's weird to note that all these men see the ghost, so we can clear the fact that it may be an hallucination. But knowing that all these men were devotees of the king and Hamlets best friends, it may be that they are just picturing the king, rather than the ghost actually being the king due to the fact that they all miss the kind, more so, dread his departure. The men could perhaps hate the new king, Claudius so much that they refuse to see Claudius in the kings armor that represents pride, prosperity, rivalry, and strength. Hence why Hamlet calls him a "satyr."
This brings up a good point in scene 4 when Hamlet further bashes on the kings affinity for wine, loudness, and rowdiness. This is quite opposite from the king described, who hold complete strength and is the same when seen in front of the palace and only. Therefore, Claudius can be described as 2 faced- just like the satyr who is half man and half animal. To society and the kingdom, he is like that of a human (gentle, king, compelling in nature) and when in hiding or infatuated with wine and festivities, he is like an animal (loose, carefree, and weak).
It can clearly be seen that Hamlet despises the new king, Claudius, in his long speech (scene 4). The speech pretty much states that Claudius will bring down the palace in terms of morality as he is highly obsessed with the pleasures of the scenes (wine and sex). Could this hurt the palace? Yes, perhaps..so this is exactly why hates the new king. He wants to preserve the kingdom. 

The weirdness begins- Invisible Man

When reading the prologue of this book, the one thought that sparked my mind was emphasis of "blind."  The invisible man, thus far, nameless, seems to suffer from this disease of blindness- being a black man. The invisible man is not blind to his environment, rather vise-versa. It is sad to hear that during this time period, full of Armstrong Jazz and blues, was the racist side- undermining the African Americans and framing them as "bad." The one incident the invisible man faced when the white man accused of "muggling" annoyed me. Perhaps it was because of the ignorance the man faced, more so society at that time period. It's weird how this "invisible man" does everything secretly and unknowingly- hence the title, the invisible man....first of all, he lives under, in a basement and steals power from a company. Now this is a bit ironic. Why? Well first of all, these white tenants refuse to go anywhere close to the basement, showing how egoistic and status-obsessed they are. Nonetheless, they are technically blind to all that is going around, especially with people unlike their kind. Another interesting aspect that I noted was the importance of time and illusion- he mentions that whenever he is high, under the influence of marihuana he loses a sense of time, but I feel it was more than just this. With such intoxication, one no longer is part of this egoistic, self-centered world, he is part of his own world- one that is invisible to everyone. It is ironic how to society he is invisible, yet he impacts their life to a certain extent. Take for example the tapping of power- the whole town is searching for the man behind such crime, yet they can't find him. He is almost like a ghost- a spirit who does actions, without anyone finding out.

Now moving on to chapter 1, which i find rather disturbing and cruel.  I question the beginning of the chapter- why is a white girl (who is suppose to have a higher rank than a black man) exposed in the center of these men? What is the significance of this? Another point to consider is, why do they me young experience this horrendous defeat for money...that is fake? It seems that through this chapter, and including the prologue, a motif of power is seen. Firstly, power is what he steals from the white men, yet when in the rink, he is hurt from this electrical power that is running through the coins that the young men fight for. Another symbol that is noticed is the illusion of dreams. In the prologue, the narrator states that he uses drugs to feel a sense of relief and when he is dreaming in chapter 1, he dreams of his grandfather giving him something to laugh about. These illusions are what keeps him going, keeps him calm, and perhaps sane.

An Echo Sonnet- By: Robert Pack

The poem titled "To an Empty Page," by Robert Pack, is an echo sonnet, in which the speaker carries a conversation with himself (the voice) and the Echo (his conscious). In order to completely extract meaning from this poem, I did some research in regards to "Echo" and Greek mythology. Echo, a beautiful young girl lived in the woods, denied of the loved of any man or god due to the curse (or punishment) by Zeus's wife. The punishment was that she could only echo, or repeat the last words of others, she could never answer them.  Similar to the Echo is the speaker, who talks to nothing but a blank, empty page (a title reference) in order to extropolate on "nature's call," what I see as the essential theme of the poem. Starting from verse one, the word "empty" and it's forms are used repeatedly, including the title, hence the importance of emptiness lies in his ability to talk to his conscious without disruption from an outside force; in essence, he is talking to nature (himself). Notice how after each line, the echo repeats the last word of each sentence. Perhaps, this notion of the echo interfers with his stubbornness to think otherwise (in reference to line two). He questions whether he must master joy or grief, and answers grief as the echo's ability to repeat is constraint to the last word or a rhyme of it. Keeping this in mind, the pattern of a,b,a,b,cc,d,e,f,e,f,g,g, also known as a Shakesperian sonnet, plays a significant role in defining the meaning of poem. When analyzing this rhyme scheme, I noticed that every action is followed by some form of nature; for example, start-art and grief-leaf. Seen here is push from nature, or perhaps destiny that guides his actions. His start is based on nature's art, perhaps the abnormalities of it too. This abornormality is seen in  line when when he states "Leaf blooms, burns red fefore delighted eyes." It is bizzare how a leaf blooms (we do not know whether the blooming is pretty or wild), but we do know that after this leaf transforms and grows, it is immediately burned, but before "delgihted eyes." The connotation of eyes are awakening, life, passion, finding, and discovering, which is paradoxical in line 5 because instead of continuing to grow, it is burned, but they are delighted. This hints that nature's beauty, comes from the grief of our perceptions, that contribute to art. We can take this further and say that this art, fostered by nature's destruction is vital to "consolation in the heart" (line 3). Because nature's destruction is now framed as a usual for relief, It can be said that is starting form grief, in order to reach this state of happiness or joy- grief gives him joy, rather than the other way around.