Reflective Blog on Documentary 'Rivers and Tides'

Andy Goldsworthy Working With Time is the most spiritually literate documentary you will see this year. It won the Golden Gate Award Grand Prize for Best Documentary at the 2003 San Francisco International Film Festival. The DVD includes a gallery of images so you can see again the sculptures that caught your eye; and a filmography of German director, cinematographer, and editor Thomas Riedelsheimer; and a brief biography of Andy Goldsworthy which lists his books. This extraordinary documentary will enchant you in many ways with its startling images, its exotic music by Fred Frith, and its ability to stimulate your inner artist, who will likely begin dreaming up creative projects to do with all the materials at hand around your own place.

And, as if that were not enough, the DVD also includes seven short films. Storm King Wall is a 20-minute look at that impressive work. Autumn Works, also shot at Storm King, shows various pieces, including a circle with a black center surrounded by yellow and red leaves. In Garlic Leaves, filmed in Scotland, the artist is seen drawing with a thorn on garlic leaves. He's perched on a rock overlooking the river, and as the camera pulls back, we see that his line of leaves is aligned with the path of the river and the drawings recreate its flow. Ice Arch shows him building an arch out of sheets of ice in Nova Scotia; Goldsworthy pays tribute to the "elusive energy" of the cold, which comes and goes. In Black Stone, filmed during the summer in Scotland, he talks about being drawn to work with a particular stone in the field, noting that these elements all have a sacred quality to them. In Leaf Works, he explains how he learns from dialogue with trees and allows forms to grow out of the shape of his materials. The result in this instance is a spiral made of leaves, which he places on a tree branch. The Old Studio, shot in his home village in Scotland, shows a small interior space completely filled with stone arches.

D. H. Lawrence said wonder was the sixth sense and called it "the natural religious sense." You cannot watch this documentary without being astonished again and again. Goldsworthy opens our eyes and all of our senses to the beauty and the multiple enchantments of the natural world that we so often take for granted. He is also a spiritual teacher of play, demonstrating a child-like capacity for curiosity. He seems to enjoy kneeling down in the mud or creating something in the face of a cold stiff wind. He doesn't worry about who will see his art or whether it will stand the test of time. He accepts failure as part of the learning process and moves on to new challenges.

Goldsworthy is also a practitioner of what Albert Schweitzer called "reverence for life." He salutes the individuality of stones and muses over the memories they carry of the things they have seen and the changes they have experienced. He relishes the particularity of place and the deep resonances that a certain milieu can have with our souls. And last but not least, Goldsworthy is a connoisseur of mystery. He is not frightened of death or the destruction of things. He accepts that everything is ephemeral and subject to the ravages of time. Day by day, he plunges into new marvels and stays with the present moment which is unrepeatable and precious. Just like this extraordinary documentary.

Talk on Journalism by Dr. Jay Mehta

On 15th January we had guest lecture on Mass Media & Communication by Dr. Jay Mehta sir. Again we got the chance to attend the lecture of Jay sir. The lecture was on mass media and communication. 

Whenever we want to hear our favorite song, watch our favorite show, or see the latest current events, wherever we go, all time we are connected with mass media. Some of the most popular forms of mass media are newspapers, magazines, radio, advertisements, social media, television, Internet. So, Jay sir gave us information about the history of mass media, cinema social media. He is a translator so he has good Information about the newspapers and the some fact of it. 

Media is one strong pillar of Indian constitution. If we talk about today so, media becomes so glamourous. Advertisement is one part of mass media. It deals with language and human psychology. In most of the adds they focuses on the language that can we attract people towards our products. Cola launched one of the most successful add, “Thanda Matlab Coca Cola.” which is given by Prasoon Joshi. 

Types of Cinema, 
Mainstream cinema and
Parallel cinema.
Infotainment/edutainment, which is a new form of cinema. Nowadays we can see the trend of film adaptation of literature. 

So, we are again thankful to Head of the department, Dr. Dilip Barad sir to invite Jay sir, who enlighted the knowledge of mass media and communication. 

Talk with an author Vishal Bhadani

On 1st January 2019,We had a guest lecture of Dr.Vishal Bhadani. He talked on his collection of short stories entitled 'Fictionalay' and its significance in the common people's life.Vishal Sir read his two stories and also given tips to write short stories or any work.

              I had read three short stories of  'Fictionalay 'that is  'Mara Hath ni wat nthi ','Sansi ane Ranjana ' and 'Museum of innocence '.All these stories are connected with middle class people.

● Mara Hath ni wat nthi :- 

               In this story the writer covers all basic things but the title itself challenging. Author connects problems of society with the different parts of hands.Like Plam, Finger, thumb etc.He connects various parts of hands with different things like ,Buddha, Lord Vishnu,Goddess Laxmi, Vasco Di Gama etc.This way author uses lots of symbol in his work.

● Museum of Innocence :-

               The Title represents the modern world.But the reality is different .The story is totally contrasted with the title.The story is about villagers.There is one letter from Istanbul pass to the village.In this letter Istanbul is asking for innocent thing for the new ' Museum of innocence '. All villagers become curious that which innocent thing they will send to Istanbul. After so many discussion when they didn't get answer from anyone than they called old Kadvi Doshi.

             She spoke only satiric language That's why here her name used as a symbol.After so many thinking she find solution and send fruit of Banayan Tree.

            According to Kadvi Doshi,  from many years people used to sit under Banayan tree and it still standing there without any complaint and giving shadow to other.These all reasons which seems silly to us but carries deeper meaning.

           In this way two short stories can be interpreted in many ways as possible. We also remember that author believe in Back to nature.And that's why his setting of the stories are village side.

Translation :-

            After the session of short stories we have Translation session in which Vishal Sir spoke about the job opportunities in the field of Translation. Translation is very tough as well as great work.We had done one task of translating phrase.

           In this way we get knowledge about how to write short stories and also about translation.

Interaction with the French Professors.

On 22nd January 2019, we get chance to interact with French Professors from the University of Lorraine. Thanks to Prof.Kishor Joshi from Economics Department, who brings French Professors for fruitful interaction. Prof.Saeed Paivandi and Prof.Fontanini Christine talked on various social, economical, Political  trends of France.

           Prof.Fontanini Christine talks about the gap between rich and poor. She has thrown light on the Social issue of France. In France ,if you are educated than you get more job opportunities, but in India that is totally different.

             This way we get many information about France and also idea about society of France and also education system.

Post Viewing Task on 'The Da Vinci Code'

1. Brown states on his website that his books are not anti-Christian, though he is on a 'constant spiritual journey' himself, and says that his book The Da Vinci Code is simply "an entertaining story that promotes spiritual discussion and debate" and suggests that the book may be used "as a positive catalyst for introspection and exploration of our faith."

Dan Brown asserts that his books are not anti-Christian, and it is right also because he wants to reveal the facts. He also says that he is on the spiritual journey as he portrays the characters who have faith in the religion. Through the murder mystery he unfolds the factual things about the Christianity. The painting of Leonardo Da Vinci, The Last Supper, which tells about the relation between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Seemingly it is an entertaining story murder mystery, the puzzle, paintings of Da Vinci. As a part of spiritual discussion Dan Brown attempts to raise the issue of blind faith in religion, people like Bezu Fache, Silas, Bishop Aringarosa, who have faith in Opus dei. 

2. Although it is obvious that much of what Brown presented in his novel as absolutely true and accurate is neither of those, some of that material is of course essential to the intrigue, and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman has retained the novel's core, the Grail-related material: the sacred feminine, Mary Magdalene's marriage, the Priory of Sion, certain aspects of Leonardo's art, and so on[1].” How far do you agree with this observation of Norris J. Lacy?

Yes, the observation of Norris Lacy is true. We can say Akiva Goldsman has conserved the story line and it is much like novel. The grail related material, definite aspects of Leonardo's art and many things. The screen writer is successful to keep the core content through the use of all the symbols and secrets about the novel. We can find the scenes in Louvre museum so it is much realistic. Dan Brown's major materials for the novel is taken from the book 'The holy blood and the holy grail'. The idea of feminine sacredness is much live as Sophie Nevue leads to Robert Langton. 

3. You have studied ‘Genesis’ (The Bible), ‘The Paradise Lost’ (John Milton) and ‘The Da Vinci Code’ (Dan Brown). Which of the narrative/s seem/s to be truthful? Whose narrative is convincing to the contemporary young mind?

Milton's narrative seems more truthful, because the novel has some evidence about the Christianity but it's somehow confusing. People keep on doubting on the paintings of Leonardo Da Vinci, he was known for his mirror writing, but there is nothing like that he was suffering from Dyslexia, so there is nothing like code hidden in his paintings. Dan Brown's narrative has so much lies so, Milton's narrative can be more convincing.

4. What harm has been done to humanity by the biblical narration or that of Milton’s in The Paradise Lose? What sort of damage does narrative like ‘The Vinci Code’ do to humanity?

As the earlier argument the narration has so much lies. It can decrease the faith of humanity from the religion. Milton displays woman as downfall of a man and in many narrator there is woman who is the reason of downfall of man. People like Saint or Pope who leads the humanities to the wrong path so, it becomes the cause of the lost of the faith in the religion.

5. What difference do you see in the portrayal of 'Ophelia' (Kate Winslet) in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet, 'Elizabeth' (Helena Bonham Carter) in Kenneth Branagh's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or 'Hester Prynne' (Demi Moore) in Roland Joffé's The Scarlet Letter' or David Yates's 'Harmione Granger' (Emma Watson) in last four Harry Potter films - and 'Sophie Neuve' (Audrey Tautau) in Ron Howard's The Da Vinci Code?

There's much difference in portrayal of women characters in films and novels. Ophelia, we can see that her character is objectified, as it is the character of Elizabeth also, there is no such scenes between Frankenstein and her. So in the film, there is a close up of lovemaking scenes which remains very minor in the novel. As it is Demi Moore as Haster Prynne in the Scarlet letter, also objectified as her appearance of her whole body. In Harry Potter, the scenes between Hermione and Ron is worthless. Where as in Ron Howard's Da Vinci no nudity at all. Director remains faithful to the novel and cinematic goal is achieved.

6. Do novel / film lead us into critical (deconstructive) thinking about your religion? Can we think of such conspiracy theory about Hindu religious symbols / myths?

Yes, these kinds of novel and film leads us into critical thinking. We can find the lose stone about religious theory, there is no proof about the relation between Jesus and Mary Magdalene as they are husband and wife. Chapel do not have code about Mary but it's deaide and the picture of music. As it is in Hindu religion also some ideas about religion which needs to critical thinking. The Ramayana is a myth so it raises the question that it actual or just myth to keep everyone's faith in the religion.

7. Have you come across any similar book/movie, which tries to deconstruct accepted notions about Hindu religion or culture and by dismantling it, attempts to reconstruct another possible interpretation of truth?

Yes, we can find in films like 'OMG' and 'PK', which deconstructs the idea of God and the existence of God. 

Thinking Activity on 'Sense of an Ending'

1) How do you understand memory and history with reference to your reading of this novel.

The concept of memory and history remains significant in whole novel.  After reading about memory and history we can say that it helps in widening the horizon of mind.  Because after reading,  we can say that an accumulation of a memory can be wrong. We remember only those moments which we like. By passing the time it gets darker.  We narrate constructed memory only and as a consequence of it, it creates unreliable history.  Sometimes we may take benefits of defeated( Who is not present)  in describing the history. It can be said that whatever person narrates,  truth may be some where near but role of characters might be different.
         

          In addition to it,  we can take the quote of Michiko Kakutani.  " The Sense of an Ending " looks at the ways in which people distort or tailor the past in an effort to mythologize their own lives. 

   This quote gives an important aspect to look at the history. What we can say is that if person has not good relationship with others then he/she will try to distort the history. ( But in future he/she might feel remorse also)    But if person describes his own history then he/she try to tailor the history. ( Because, inadequacies of documentation )  So,  at the end we can say is that what one tells about himself can't be true. One needs to go to check history of the historians. ( That can be wrong also )

    Thus, we can say that what Adrian says is quite true... History is that certainly produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation. 

2) How do you understand the concept of suicide with reference to your reading of literature ranging from Renaissance play Hamlet, 20th cen Existentialist philosophy and this 21st cen novel The Sense of an Ending?

During our whole life we find so many characters in literature (and also in real life)  who commits suicide.  In the case of 'Hamlet' we can say that because of the moral concern he doesn't commit suicide. ( But it can be possible that 'Hamlet' has still desire for a throne ) 

         When we see from existentialist angle,  suddenly, we can recall Albert Camus.  Who explains the idea of philosophical suicide.  Means one who commits suicide they tries to escape from the responsibilities. One should grapple with the struggle in total absence of hope.  So,  Existentialist sees suicide as an act of a looser.  

            After reading The Sense of an Ending, we get different notion related to suicide.  It breaks the idea of morality. ( which is constructed by social norms)   We can say that both characters ( Robson, Adrian) suicides by their own. ( We doesn't get proper idea about their suicides. Because everything is represented by Victorious)  It seems that after living/ enjoying / Experiencing  such a life,  they thinks that they have lived their lives,  they played their role wholeheartedly and now they don't want to live furthermore. (Eros and Thanatos) ( There are such a films which shows that types of characters.  In  Ramayana also we find Rama Who drowns himself in the river. Where's Sita asks Mother Earth to take herself in her arms. And the daughter of Earth merges into her mother.

Thinking Activity on 'The White Tiger'

• 
  
• How far do you agree with the India represented in the novel The White Tiger?

• • first of all darkness is responsible because of the religion. Village people are superstitious in these matters. Balram satirizes on the religion first. Also he makes fun on the God and Goddesses of India. 

“ It is an ancient and venerated custom of people in my country to start a story by praying to a Higher Power.

I guess, Your Excellency, that I too should start off by kissing some god’s arse.

Which god’s arse, though? There are so many choices.

See, the Muslims have one god.

The Christians have three gods.

And we Hindus have 36,000,000 gods.

Making a grand total of 36,000,004 divine arses for me to choose from.

How quickly do you think you could kiss 36,000,004 arses?”

• Hanuman- the Indian God came. No doubt that the representation of God Hanuman is in satirical way but the fact is that he is serving his master. Every mythical story teach something so if this story taken by people so the hidden agenda or background reading may told the same story as Adiga tries to told us.

• The reference of divine goddesses Ganga in the form of river also presented here in this novel.

“ But the river brings darkness to India- the black river.

Which black river am I talking of – which river of Death, whose banks are full of rich, dark, sticky mud whose grip traps everything that is planted in it, suffocating and choking and stunting it?

Why, I am talking of Mother Ganga, daughter of the Vedas, river of illumination, protector of us all, breaker of the chain of birth and rebirth. Everywhere this river flows, that area is the Darkness.”

• Do you believe that Balram's story is the archetype of all stories of 'rags to riches'?

• Balram’s story is the Archetype of all stories of ‘rags to riches’. Balram has decided to share his own story of entrepreneurial success. He believes his rags-to-riches tale will show the premier “the truth about Bangalore”, representing all that fascinates and appeals to Balram about the Light of urban coastal India. He controls light and darkness, where he once was a slave to circumstance and others.

Presentation paper no 12

English Language; How Much important in India. from Ramiz39

Presentation Paper no 11

Hybridity and National identity in Post Colonial World from Ramiz39

Presentation Paper no 10

Situation of Women in Various Countries with Sepcial Reference to Hester Prynne from Ramiz39

Presentation Paper 9

Representation of India in Modern British Literature from Ramiz39

Daybreak; H. W. Longfellow

Daybreak

The fifth poem in the Class XI WBCHSE English B syllabus is 'Daybreak' written by the internationally  popular American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.The poem is very lyrical in nature ('Lyrical' has been used only as an adjective here and this poem is not grammatically a 'Lyric'.)Longfellow was one of those poets who had the ability to create magic with almost anything! This poem can definitely the reader imagine how a jolly rush of wind is blowing cheerfully,making the components of the environment respond to its flow.

Read on to find the complete analysis of the poem.

Daybreak

Credit : Source

A wind came up out of the sea,

And said, "O mists, make room for me." 

It hailed the ships, and cried, "Sail on,

Ye mariners, the night is gone." 

And hurried landward far away,

Crying, "Awake! it is the day." 

It said unto the forest, "Shout!

Hang all your leafy banners out!" 

It touched the wood-bird's folded wing,

And said, "O bird, awake and sing." 

And o'er the farms, "O chanticleer,

Your clarion blow; the day is near." 

It whispered to the fields of corn,

"Bow down, and hail the coming morn." 

It shouted through the belfry-tower,

"Awake, O bell! proclaim the hour." 

It crossed the churchyard with a sigh,

And said, "Not yet! in quiet lie."

Poem Analysis,Summarisation And Explanation

'Daybreak' has been written in 9 rhyming couplets and follows the spirited progression of a gush of wind as it rises out of the sea and crosses onto the land,announcing the arrival of the day. (Adding a little note,due to phenomena of high and low pressure arising from the difference in temperature because of the climate around the sea,winds generally flow from the sea to the land at day and the vice versa happens at night.)

As given in the textbook,Longfellow presents day as a special presence that is hailed and before whom everybody bows.However,it can also be interpreted and personified as a source of joy and freshness that it keeps spreading around itself.

Primarily,the wind rushes out and clears the mist as if almost telling the mist to make room for it.It announces the beginning of a fresh morning giving an indication to the mariners who can now set sail as they would be able to steer their ship through the waters,now that the night is gone.And then it ultimately leaves the sea and makes its way towards the land ending the reign of sleep and announcing the rise of day.

It makes the foliage in the forest move along merrily as if almost telling them to hang their leafy banners out.It awakens the wood-bird (possibly a Wood thrush,owing to the fact hat is found in North America and is reported to have one of the sweetest vocalisations among birds.) and encourages it to sing by touching it's wing.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

(Photograph Source)

The sixth couplet describes the surroundings and the time by adding the fact that the wind encourages the rooster (expressed in the poem as the chanticleer) to bellow her clarion as it is the arrival of day.

The next couplet again shifts to the merry journey of the wind and makes the corn fields bow to the morning.It makes the church bell ring (belfry tower refers to the tower that houses the bell in a church.) and thus makes it announce the arrival of the hour,that of an early morning.

The literary term used in this couplet particularly is personification.The morning here is personified as a respectable personality in front of whom the corn fields show reverence by bowing down.

The last couplet is a legendary touch and transforms the entire mood of the poem.As the wind passes the churchyard,it slows down ('with a sigh' has been used to describe that the wind now is decelerated) and it does not disturb the souls sleeping under the ground in the churchyard as it feels it is not the hour for them to wake up.

This brings out Longfellow's style of imparting cultural and moral values in his poetry.

The Slave's Dream (H. W. Longfellow)

The Slave's Dream

The poem "The Slave’s Dream" opens with a vivid and startling image of a man lying near a field of “ungathered rice.” In his hand, he holds a sickle, apparently for use in harvesting the crop. However, he has been lying long enough for his “matted hair” to form an imprint in the sand. The man, a slave, sleeps and dreams of his native homeland.

In the slave’s dreams, he is back in his homeland, riding along the majestic Niger River. In his dream, he has been transformed into a “kingly” presence. He surveys the palm trees on the plain and hears the caravans of travelers descend from the mountains. In this vast expanse of land, there is freedom of movement and the dreamer avails himself of the opportunities.

The dreamer, now a respected family head, sees his lovely wife and their adoring children. His family grasps his hand and they affectionately kiss his face. Though he is sleeping, the dreamer cries and his tear falls into the sand. The image of a tenderly devoted family apparently presents a stark contrast his current realities.

In the dream, the dreamer then begins an uninhibited ride across his homeland. With chains of gold as reigns for his horse, he propels his horse onward, following the flight of beautiful flamingos. His ride carries him across the plains to the beautiful ocean side. These wonderfully colorful and vibrant visual images are accentuated by the free and native sounds of the wild. Animals, including the lion, the hyena and the river horse, march triumphantly through his dream, breaking the infinite silence.

The desert and the forest are personified, each conveying an exultant cry of freedom. The forest of his dream can boast of a “myriad tongues.” On the other hand, the desert “blasts” a claim to uninhibited freedom. Both prospects move the dreaming man so forcefully that he is startled by the mere possibility. They each gleefully, perhaps recklessly, suggest the potential for life without chains, without limitations. This freedom, this wild abandon, is what the slave most desires.

In the final stanza, the wearied dreamer has been discovered and is lashed repeatedly with “the driver’s whip.” Although he is lying in direct sunlight, he neither feels the scorching sun nor the stinging lashes. His body is “lifeless.” He has dreamt his final dream and his soul has been freed from the bonds of slavery. The system that perpetuates his enslavement offers no paths to freedom. Rather than live a life of enslavement, the dreamer dies because death is the only means of attaining freedom of any kind.

La Belle Dame Sans Mercy

La Belle Dame Sans Mercy

Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.

Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel’s granary is full,
And the harvest’s done.

I see a lily on thy brow,
With anguish moist and fever-dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too.

Analysis

There are two versions of this very famous ballad. The first version is from the original manuscript and the second version is its first published form. The first is generally considered the best; it was altered upon publication. We do not know who did the alteration.

The original version is found in a letter to Keats’s brother, George, and dated Weds 21 April 1819. Keats typically wrote a running commentary to George and his wife Georgiana in America, then loosely grouped the pages together as one long letter. The letter which contains La Belle spans almost three months, from 14 February to 3 May 1819. It also contains other famous poems, including ‘Why did I laugh tonight?’ which ends, prophetically enough, ‘Verse, fame and Beauty are intense indeed / But Death intenser – Death is Life’s high mead.’ Also included are ‘To Sleep’ and ‘On Fame.’ The letter ends with the beautiful Ode to Psyche, of which Keats wrote: ‘The following Poem – the last I have written is the first and the only one with which I have taken even moderate pains – I have for the most part dash’d of[f] my lines in a hurry – ‘

La Belle Dame Sans Merci (The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy/Pity) was dashed off, then, and largely dismissed by Keats himself. It was first published in the Indicator on 10 May 1820 and has since become one of his most celebrated poems.

Note: In 1893, the pre-Raphaelite painter John William Waterhouse was inspired by La Belle Dame Sans Merci to create one of his most famous works

The Bluest Eye.

The Bluest Eye.

One of Morrison’s common themes is community versus the individual. This theme confronts race issues through the consideration of the individual as other and the examination of a community’s unwillingness to provide for or support the oppressed. Early in The Bluest Eye, Claudia MacTeer relates how she and her sister Frieda learn about their community. Their conversation is like a gently wicked dance: sound meets sound, curtsies, shimmies, and retires. . . . We do not, cannot, know the meanings of all their words, for we are nine and ten years old. So we watch their faces, their hands, their feet, and listen for truth in timbre.

In listening to this “dance,” the girls learn how to behave, what to believe, and how to view the individuals in the community. Pecola’s pregnancy, specifically, is related through this communal gossip.

Another community issue is intraracial tension. Maureen Peal, the wealthy light-skinned girl who temporarily befriends Pecola, and Geraldine, the light-skinned Southern mother of Junior, personify the issue of skin tone. Their denunciation of Pecola reflects the rejection of African Americans through white oppression.

Family is the strongest example of community in the novel. While the MacTeer family protects Frieda from Mr. Henry’s advances, more important is the contrast between the MacTeer parents and the Breedlove parents. Claudia’s father protects his child, while Cholly Breedlove is his daughter’s predator.

Pauline and Cholly blame segregation from the broader community, because of poverty and racism, for their life choices. Furthermore, the community’s lack of concern for Pecola or her baby is another example of a failure of responsibility. Many of the adults blame Pecola for her pregnancy, and only Claudia and Frieda seem to care about Pecola’s baby. The cruelty of the women in the community extends to their condemnations of the baby. She [Pecola] be lucky if it don’t live. Bound to be the ugliest thing walking. . . . Can’t help but be. Ought to be a law: two ugly people doubling up like that to make more ugly. Be better off in the ground.

Claudia remembers that we were embarrassed for Pecola, hurt for her, and finally we just felt sorry for her. . . . I believe our sorrow was the more intense because nobody else seemed to share it. . . . [W]e listened for the one who would say “Poor little girl,” or “Poor baby,” but there was only head-wagging where those words should have been.

At the end of the novel, Pecola is left wandering, both literally and symbolically, on the edges of the community that has rejected her.

One distinction between community and individual is self-hatred. Morrison explores this through Pecola’s desire for blue eyes, through Claudia’s hatred of blond-haired and blue-eyed white icons, and through the variety of characters. The Breedlove family member’s self-hatred stems from their belief that they “were not relentlessly and aggressively ugly.” Cholly, alone, is ugly because of his actions.

Another critical concern is the novel’s narrative form. Morrison begins the novel with a passage from an old-fashioned elementary-school primer. This passage presents the typical white family as Dick and Jane, who live in a nice home, have solid parents, and enjoy life. Pieces of this primer are used as a contrast to start most chapters. Immediately following is a brief reminiscence from Claudia, providing basic thematic concerns. The rest of the novel is broken into the four seasons that pass as Pecola’s story is revealed, intertwined with Claudia’s observations. The chapters in each section vary in point of view: first-person, omniscient, and objective.

Claudia’s chapters are always first-person, but in some chapters, she tells the story as a child. The chapters about Pecola also are often presented in first-person; however, she is further victimized because she is never the narrator. Instead, through the words of others, she is pitied (by Claudia), overlooked (by her mother), raped (by her father, Cholly), used and manipulated (by Soaphead), and objectified (by insanity).

Critical Overview of 'Moby Dick'

Moby Dick 

Although his early adventure novels—typee (1846), Omoo (1847), Reburn(1849), and White Jacket (1850)—brought Herman Melvile a notable amount of popularity and financial success during his lifetime, it was not until the 1920’s and 1930’s, nearly fifty years after his death, that he received universal critical recognition as one of the greatest nineteenth century American authors. Melville took part in the first great period of American literature—the period that included Edgar Allan Poe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Walt Whitman, and Henry David Thoreau. For complexity, originality, psychological penetration, breadth, and symbolic richness, Melville achieved his greatest artistic expression with the book he wrote when he was thirty years old, Moby Dick.

Between the time of his birth in New York City and his return there to research and write his masterpiece, Melville had circled the globe of experience—working as a bank messenger, salesman, farmhand, schoolteacher (like his narrator, Ishmael), engineer and surveyor, bowling alley attendant, cabin boy, and whaleman in the Pacific on the Acushnet. His involvement in the mutinous Pacific voyage, combined with accounts of a notorious whale called Mocha Dick that wrought havoc in the 1840’s and 1850’s, certainly influenced the creation of Moby Dick.

The tangled themes of this mighty novel express the artistic genius of a mind that, according to Hawthorne, “could neither believe nor be comfortable in unbelief.” Many of those themes are characteristic of American Romanticism: the “isolated self” and the pain of self-discovery, the insufficiency of conventional practical knowledge in the face of the “power of blackness,” the demoniac center to the world, the confrontation of evil and innocence, the fundamental imperfection of humans, Faustian heroism, the search for the ultimate truth, the inadequacy of human perception. Moby Dick is, moreover, a unique literary form, combining elements of the psychological and picaresque novel, sea story and allegory, the epic of “literal and metaphorical quest,” the satire of social and religious events, the emotional intensity of the lyric genre (in diction and in metaphor), Cervantian romance, Dantesque mysticism, Rabelaisian humor, Shakespearean drama (both tragedy and comedy), journalistic travel book, and scientific treatise on cetology. Melville was inspired by Hawthorne’s example to give his story the unifying quality of a moral parable, although his own particular genius refused to allow that parable an unequivocal, single rendering.

In style and theme, Melville also was influenced by Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, Dante, Miguel de Cervantes, Robert Burton, Sir Thomas Carlyle, Thomas Browne, and vastly miscellaneous reading in the New York Public Library (as witnessed by the two “Etymologies” and the marvelous “Extracts” that precede the text itself, items from the writer’s notes and files that he could not bear to discard). It was because they did not know how to respond to its complexities of form and style that the book was “broiled in hell fire” by contemporary readers and critics. Even today, the rich mixture of its verbal texture—an almost euphuistic flamboyance balanced by dry, analytical expository prose—requires a correspondingly unique sensitivity on the part of the reader. The most remarkable thing about the plot is that Moby Dick does not appear physically until after five hundred pages and is not even mentioned by name until nearly two hundred pages into the novel.

Whether it be the knowledge of reality, an embodiment of the primitive forces of nature, the deep subconscious energies of humanity, fate or destiny inevitably victorious over illusory free will, or simply the unknown in experience, it is what Moby Dick stands for that occupies the narrator’s emphasis and the reader’s attention through the greater part of the novel. In many ways, the great white whale may be compared to Spenser’s “blatant beast” who, in The Faerie Queene(1590-1596), also represents the indeterminable elusive quarry and also escapes at the end to continue haunting the world.

Moby Dick is often considered to be the American epic. The novel is replete with the elements characteristic of that genre: the piling up of classical, biblical, historical allusions to provide innumerable parallels and tangents that have the effect of universalizing the scope of action; the narrator’s strong sense of the fatefulness of the events he recounts and his corresponding awareness of his own singular importance as the narrator of momentous—otherwise unrecorded—events; Queequeg as Ishmael’s “heroic companion,” the folk flavor provided by countless proverbial statements; the leisurely pace of the narrative with its frequent digressions and parentheses; the epic confrontation of life and death on a suitably grand stage (the sea) with its consequences for the human city (the Pequod); the employment of microcosms to explicate the whole (for example, the painting in the Spouter Inn, the Nantucket pulpit, the crow’s nest); epithetical characterization; a cyclic notion of time and events; an epic race of heroes (the Nantucket whalers with their biblical and exotic names); the mystical power of objects (Ahab’s chair, the gold coin, or the Pequod itself); the alienated, sulking hero (Ahab); and the use of lists to enhance the impression of an all-inclusive compass. Finally, Moby Dick shares the usually didactic purpose of a folk epic; on one level, its purpose is to teach the reader about whales; on another level, it is to inspire the reader to become an epic hero.

All this richness of purpose and presentation is somehow made enticing by Melville’s masterly invention of his narrator. Ishmael immediately establishes a comfortable rapport with the reader in the unforgettable opening lines of the novel. He is both the objective observer and a participant in the events observed and recounted, both spectator and narrator. Yet he is much more than the conventional wanderer/witness. As a schoolmaster and sometime voyager, he combines his intellectual knowledge with firsthand experience to make him an informed observer and a convincing, moving reporter. Simply by surviving, he transcends the Byronic heroism of Ahab, as the wholesome overcoming the sinister.