Fences

Fences by August Wilson

Wilson's play is one that toys with change, family, and dreams. The play is about Troy, his wife Rose, and the lives of their children: Lyons, Cory, and Raynell. Troy's mentally handicapped younger brother is also a main character in the story, along with Bono, Troys best friend. Troy and Bono have been friends for years, and they met while they were in prison. They now work together and every Friday (payday) they have drinks together. The men talk of their childhoods and Troy ends up getting drunk and telling stories while "eyeing" other women. Though Troy thinks of himself as an accurate moral compass, Bono seems to keep Troy in line and offers advice that is aimed to steer Troy in the right direction.

Troy's son Lyons is aspiring to be a musician, and he stops by on Fridays to borrow money from his father. Troy always makes a big deal about it but ends up lending the money to Lyons anyway. Cory is busy with football, which angers Troy because he never finishes his chores and he has stopped working at the A & P. Cory has been recruited by a college in North Carolina, but Tory refuses to sign papers that will allow Cory to attend and play football. He insists that Cory must get his job back at the A &P, and this is where the conflict builds between Cory and his father. 

 

Rose has always been a loyal wife to Troy, and though he knows she is the best thing to ever happen to him, he still manages to get another woman pregnant. He tells Rose and explains that "after eighteen years I wanted to steal second". Troy felt stuck on first base for eighteen years, and this woman became his escape, and she inspired Troy's desire to go for second base. Rose is hurt and explains that all those years she had dreams too, but she remained loyal to Troy and hoped that one day things would change. Rose agrees to raise Troy's daughter after her mother dies in childbirth, but she is no longer Troy's woman. Cory and his father get into a fight and Troy kicks Cory out of the house after he proves he's the strongest.

Everyone returns back to the house for Troy's funeral, and Cory is now a marine corporal, while Lyons is serving time for stealing money. He quotes his father saying " You got to take the crookeds with the straights" to describe that with every positive thing comes something negative, and vice versa. Though the boys are different, they both are very much like their father. Rose tells Cory "Your daddy wanted you to be everything he wasn't... and at the same time he tried to make you into everything he was. I don't know if he was right or wrong... but I do know he meant to do more good than he meant to do harm. He wasn't always right. Sometimes when he touched he bruised. And sometimes when he took me in his arms he cut." In my opinion, this quote wraps up the whole story. 

In many ways, this story is one about regret and lost dreams, seen in Rose and her regrets in giving all of herself to Troy, and letting him swallow up her identity. It is also seen in Troy, who missed out on a baseball career because he was in prison for all of his "crooked deeds". Cory surely resents his father for not letting him attend college in North Carolina, and he never really lets go of the anger that resulted from his father holding him back from his dream. Wilson also toys with history and change in time and culture, with the African American population becoming more integrated in sports in Cory's generation than in Troy's. This is what causes much of the conflict between them; they cannot understand one another. The family that Troy grew up with, an evil father and an absent mother, also affects his parenting and views on life. Bono talked of his father being absent from his life, and he decides not to father any children so that they are never abandoned the way he was. He remains loyal to his wife and all throughout the story he is the character that is most morally sound.

"Lady Lazarus"

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tvSDw84ArQ

Sylvia Plath’s poem “Lady Lazarus” is one about about her close encounters with death through her numerous suicide attempts. She starts off with, “I have done it again./ One year in every ten/ I manage it-“ to convey that she has a breakdown and attempts suicide once in every decade. She explains that this current attempt is “Number Three” out of her “nine times to die”. Plath’s first encounter was at the age of ten, and it was an accident.  She writes “ They had to call and call/ And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls” to describe how her second attempt was nearly successful.

            Plath asks the reader, “Peel off the napkin/O my enemy./Do I terrify?-“ , and she knows that she does spark fear in the reader. Her mere escapes from death are seen as miracles and are put on as a show for an audience to gawk at. She mocks the show and the audience for their interest in her miracle. “For the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge/for the hearing of my heart-/ it really goes.”

            At the end of the poem Plath describes herself as something of value, somebody’s “pure gold baby” that melts and shrieks and turns. This could be referring to her father, who she referenced in many of her other poems. She ends the poem by telling all beware, that out of the ashes of her successful death she will rise and defeat her men, “eating them like air”. Plath uses many metaphors and similes to create a mood and express her emotions, which are dark, raw, and sarcastic all wrapped in one.

Sonny's Blues

Sonny's Blues - James Baldwin

      Sonny's Blues is a story about two brothers and how their relationship has changed over time. The narrator's younger brother Sonny has been arrested for heroin use and is sent to prison. The narrator teaches algebra in Harlem, and he reminisces on how his brother used to be as a child, not so different from his students that he has now. The narrator feels icy towards his brother, not understanding why he has turned to drugs and crime. The narrator and his brother were not speaking terms, and the narrator does not contact his brother until after his daughter Gracie has died. Sonny replies back with a heartfelt letter to his brother trying to explain his struggle and how his life has become the way it is now. 

     As the brothers continue to communicate and as Sonny visits the narrator and his wife Isabel, old memories of the past are brought to light. The narrator has flashbacks of his late father and mother, and how he learns that his father once had a brother that was killed. The narrator's mother makes him promise to always hold on to his brother and look out for him, even when they disagree. She says "You may not be able to to stop nothing from happening. But you got to let him know you's there." His mother's advice suggests that he should be responsible for being a good brother, as well as a friend or someone who will provide Sonny with love and support. 

     The narrator and his brother don't interact again until after the death of their mother, and he is surprised to see that Sonny is a grown up. Sonny confesses his dream of being a musician, and the narrator disregards his future plans because he doesn't think they are good enough. Sonny skips school and runs away to go into the navy. The brothers meet in New York after Sonny returns and get into an argument that leaves them dead to each other. The narrator leaves saying that Sonny will need him someday. 

      When Sonny is released from prison after his arrest, he lives with his brother for a few weeks and the narrator starts to connect more with his brother. The brothers talk about struggle and suffering together, both adding their insight. "But nobody just takes it, Sonny cried, That's what I'm telling you. Everybody tries not to. You're just hung up on the way some people try- its not your way!" Sonny takes the narrator to a club to hear him play, and the narrator sees a whole different side to his brother. The narrator sees Sonny's struggle and pain while he plays his song, and starts to understand the way that music tells the musicians personal story and gives others a chance to really "hear" it.

      I personally loved this story, and I think that it brings to light the suffering and struggle that comes with drug addiction and how it impacts family members. It also uses time as a motif, going back and forth between the past and the present and contrasting how things are different at different points in life. The importance of supporting your family and being there can really make the difference, and realizing and respecting differences can teach you things that you didn't know before. I also loved that Baldwin connected listening and hearing on an emotional level through music to stir up feeling and emotions in the reader. Overall great read!

Babylon Revisited by F. Scott Fitzgerald

 

Babylon Revisited- F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitgerald starts off the story as Charlie comes back to Paris to see his daughter. The city is vastly different from what he remembers it being like. The once full and lively streets are empty and quiet. Americans that used to overcrowd this area are nowhere to be found, and nearly all people in the area are from Paris. Charlie and his wife came over from America to party and they spent their newly acquired fortune until it bottomed out after the stock market crash in 1929. Charlie’s daughter Honoria lives with her aunt and uncle, and there is pliable tension between them and Charlie. We later learn that after the death of her mother Helen, Honoria was sent to live with them because Charlie was recovering from alcohol addiction in a sanatorium.  He is sober now and wants his daughter to be a part of his life, and he struggles to gain the trust of her aunt and uncle.

            Charlie’s past haunts him in this short story, and I think that in some way readers can relate to him and how their past influences their present and future.  Charlie views the city differently when he visits from when he lived there. He thinks to himself, “I spoiled this city for myself. I didn’t realize it, but the days came along one after another and then two years were gone, and everything was gone, and I was gone.” (Fitzgerald 1146) This thought is heart breaking, but also very true. He got caught up in the parties, drinking, drugs, and shenanigans, and before he knew it his marriage was falling apart and he was left with no money. His life is the perfect example of the saying you “don’t know what you’ve got till its gone.

Fitzgerald also plays with the theme of trust, which is something that Charlie must fight to regain from his late wife’s sister and husband.  He must regain their respect and prove that he is a fit father for Honoria in order to start a new life with her.  Marion has issues forgiving Charlie and she has little trust in him after seeing how he locked Helen out in the cold snow when their marriage was on the rocks. After some debate with Marian and Lincoln, it seems as if Charlie will be able to take Honoria to Prague with him. In the end of the story, Charlie’s past haunts him yet again when “old friends” show up drunk looking for a drink at Marian and Lincoln’s home. Charlie had nothing to do with their appearance, but they upset Marian and Charlie must return back to his hotel alone. When all hope seems to be gone, Charlie sits at the bar, devastated from getting his hopes up, but he manages to only have one drink. He has hope for the future, and it leaves the reader with a sliver of hope for Charlie and Honoria.

The Hairy Ape- Eugene O'Neil

The Hairy Ape by Eugene O' Neil

Eugene O'Neil's play The Hairy Ape is one that plays upon class differences and the social divide between the upper class and the working class. In the first few scenes of his work, O'Neil sets the stage describing Yank and the other workers as dirty, half-dressed, strong, and uneducated laborers. Yank stands taller than the others, and he is a man of steel and raw power. Mildred is portrayed as a fragile, delicate,  and clean young woman dressed in white. She lounges on the ship deck with her aunt fighting about her service work and how she wishes to help and connect with the poor. Her elitist aunt replies with "After exhausting the morbid thrills of social service work on New York's East Side- how they must have hated you, by the way, the poor that you made so much poorer in their own eyes!-you are now bent on making your slumming international." (pg 1062-63)

Mildred decides to go under the ship to see the men work, and when she goes down she decides to leave on her white dress. While Yank yells and curses at the whistle blower, Mildred stands horrified in the work room until she nearly faints and is carried away. She says "Take me away! Oh, the filthy beast!" (pg 1067) Yank thought at first that Mildred was a ghost, but he feels insulted, and her comment really makes him "Tink" about who he is and he has somewhat of an identity crisis. O'Neil contrasts the upper class and working class (especially in scene 3) with the stark contrast seen between the artificial Mildred and the animalistic Yank. She dresses in stark white while he is covered head to toe in black coal dust.

Yank wants revenge on Mildred, and he starts a fight with upperclassmen in New York and lands himself in prison. He is confused at first and thinks that he is at the zoo. His fellow inmates tease him but try and tell him that he is in jail. Yanks situation is ironic because he is caged in by what used to be his element: steel. He is infuriated when he also realizes that Mildred's father is a steel tycoon and he gets angry and attempts to escape from prison. He is stopped by guards, but is later released. He is uneducated and lost, and when he asks a man where to go the man answers: "to hell." Yank wanders to the zoo and relates to an ape in his cage, eventually setting him free. The ape kills Yank and puts him into his cage. I think that O'Neil had a purpose ending the play in this way, showing how Yank deteriorated mentally and how the one thing that used to inspire him caged him in the end.

Carl Sandburg’s “Chicago”

Carl Sandburg wrote his most famous poem “Chicago” in 1916 while working for the Chicago Daily News. In the poem, Sandburg transforms the city of Chicago into a living, breathing human being. Through his use of personification he reveals the characteristics and qualities that the city holds: whether good or bad. Sandburg uses many other literary techniques, one in particular being counter arguments. First he reveals the bad qualities that Chicago possesses. “They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.” (6) This line shows the evil and corruption of innocence and the temptation that lies in the city. 

Opposing the evil that Sandburg reveals, he goes on to show the redeemable qualities that Chicago holds. “Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and course and strong and cunning” (10) Sandburg is clear that Chicago acts as a live human being. It is in his way of transforming the city into a person that Sandburg captures the audience, turning Chicago into man.

  Sandburg also uses many similes to show connections and similarities between people and Chicago. “Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness” (12)  His style is particularly powerful and is evident in his use of rhythm in both the beginning of the poem and towards the end. He compares Chicago to the hard working common men that work in its city to show the vigor and energy that it encompasses. 

Edgar Lee Masters- Carl Hamblin

Carl Hamblin starts off with the presumably dead narrator explaining that he was tarred and feathered for wrecking the reputation of the Spoon River Clarion by publishing a story on the day that four anarchists were hanged in Chicago. The short work introduces a beautiful woman standing on a marble temple holding a sword in one hand and a scale in the other. Though she has bandaged eyes, she strikes at people in the crowd, and those that get away from her throw gold coins onto the scale. A man in a black gown reads a manuscript saying "She is no respector of persons" while a crowd member rips the bandage from her eyes. The crowd sees that her eyes are oozing with a white mucus and that her eyelashes are all gone and they understand why she keeps her eyes covered.

Masters uses allegory to represent justice, or injustice, through the beautiful woman. The scale that she holds is often used to represent fair, weighed judgement or balance. The sword symbolizes punishment or enforcement of the law. The fact that she is blind can be seen as something positive, implying that justice is equal for all and blinded from bias. As the story progresses, however, we see that she covers her eyes because they are infected and sick, which symbolizes corruption and evil in the judicial system. "In her right hand she held a scale; Into the scale pieces of gold were tossed by those who dodged the strokes of the sword." The woman manages to avoid striking those who have gold to add to her scale. Those that have money seem to get away without any harm. It seems also that the woman seems to strike on those who are the weakest in society: "She was brandishing the sword, sometimes striking a child, again a laborer, again a slinking woman, again a lunatic." I think that Masters is trying to send out a message stating that though the judicial system's facade seems fair and equal, behind the mask lies corruption and evil.