For the Final Project, I plan on writing a research paper based upon the theme of freedom. I plan on using to works of Frederick Douglas, Walt Whitman, and the painting of the Wanderer above the Sea of Fog. I believe that these three pieces will work very well together for they all have different takes on freedom. In terms of outside works that I would need for the research paper, I am thinking of using the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a Dream” speech. I think that the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address ties in very easily to Frederick Douglas, while Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech ties in well with Walt Whitman and Wanderer about the Sea of Fog. While all of these explore freedom, they each have different meaning, which would make for an interesting argument on how our perception of the meaning of freedom has changed over time.
I choose these pieces because they all have to deal with the theme of freedom, but they are all iconic pieces that people would easily be able to associate with freedom. It also gives the option of personal thoughts on freedom, because I know that growing up the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech were all pieces that I felt inspired people to truly look at freedom and want it. I think pairing them with Frederick Douglas, Walt Whitman, and Wanderer about the Sea of Fog will give these pieces a more symbolic meaning that people can truly understand what freedom is, but also why everyone hopes to have it.
Alexis, this sounds like a good topic for a paper. Since freedom was a main theme of the course, you have a lot you could choose from. I like the idea of bringing in iconic texts from outside the course and of mixing different kinds of texts, art, poetry, autobiography, speeches. -MH
Week 13 – Art Museum
Going to the art museum allowed me to see how political messages can be shown in a different medium than I previously assumed possible. Dafna Koffenam created many one of a kind pieces that looked at the political and social messages surrounding her time in Israel. Her use of embroidery and glass mixed with silicon created new combinations of art available to view whenever one wants.
Based off of this, I found that there were two pieces that really stuck in my mind. The first was one about the protest movements in Tel Aviv. The art piece was of a letter written by a man who committed suicide by burning himself. I found that this piece was interesting because of the message that it gave. The letter, that was embroidered, told of how the man blamed everyone else for his troubles, after having served in the army and thus for the country. It makes sense that a person would feel this way, because as a veteran, you put yourself in harm’s way to show defend the place you call home. Thus if the government abandons you, it is natural to feel betrayed. The letter called for action, which I think was a major theme of Koffenam’s collection. I feel that she wanted people to not only realize the problems within their society, but to look for ways in which to fix these problems. Coming to a solution seems to be one of the things that Koffenam’s pieces seemed to want.
The other piece that I found to be interesting would be the two wolves. The one lying down and hiding seemed to be what people are like when they simply want to forget that problems even exist. The other wolf that was standing with its head held high seemed to show what people are like following their “awakening”. This is the point at which people realize the problems within society and begin to try and find a solution to them.
Week 12 – Paper Due
Week 11 – Art and the Unconscious
I wanted to take a look at the Salvador Dali painting, The Persistence of Memory (1931). This painting takes a look at the perception that people have of time and memory. Time becomes distorted in memory, like memory becoming distorted over time. Freud inspired this painting with his thoughts on dreams and wish fulfillment. I believe that this painting shows that people want time to distort it self and melt away. Without the passing of time, people would not grow old or receive any bad news. The stoppage of time would also allow people to live in the moment that they truly desire to be in. We often as humans say things like “I wish this moment would never end” or that “I wish I could live this time forever”. This desire for us is to always be happy and to live as we wish to live, without negativity around us. This is similar to the Freudian theory that people use their dreams to show the wishes they desire.
The painting shows the wish fulfillment theory that Freud proposed through its use of symbolism as well. Dali shows one set moment, with each clock set at a different time. This is to symbolize each different person wanting time to stop and melt away at different moments. For each person, this is different, for my time would be much different from anyone else’s time. The clocks melting is also a symbol because they show that time cannot be restarted. After melting away, none of the clock would be able to physically work, leaving the owner with no concept of time but also no need to check the time. Without time, there would be no moving forward or backwards, and instead a simple moment that would capture the person in pure bliss.
Week 10 – Heart of Darkness
I want to further analyze our presentation that we did on Wednesday. There are a number of things that I thought we did well. I liked the fact that we did not have any bullet points on our PowerPoint. The pictures fit perfectly with what we were talking about.
I also liked our simulation, though there are certain parts that I wished we had changed. I think the simulation was a good idea; it got everyone to move and wake up a bit. I feel that it was different from the group work that we do normally or the awkward standing around waiting for people to shout out answers to questions. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and it made sense to do it for the topic that we were doing. We had planned on having everyone there, or only missing one or two people. The goal was to divide the class into three groups of seven. Since that did not work, we had to improvise and make sure that we had all of the leaders established and colonists given out. Out in the hallway, I explained everything that was going to happen to the “Africans” within the classroom. We had hoped not to kill everyone off so quickly, so we needed more resource cards, or we needed to stack the deck, so that more were at the beginning. I think it went well until the end. I think we could have done a better job debriefing the class after the simulation, or we could have kept everyone in their groups and continued with analyzing characters. We could have given everyone a different person or group to analyze, such as giving one group “The Africans” another “Europeans” and finally “Colonists”. I think that would have made the final part of our presentation better. It would have kept everyone involved.
Week 9 – Realistic Heroines and Feminist Revisions
I believe that a comparison between Nora, from A Doll’s House, and the Narrator, from The Yellow Wallpaper, is necessary. The two characters share a common situation of male oppression by their spouse. Nora finds that her husband treats her like a doll, something to play with and manipulate because she is lacking the knowledge and ability to stand up to him. In comparison, her husband, because of her depression, locks up and constantly watches the Narrator. These two women are under the control of their husband and both rebel against them, though for different reasons.
Nora finds that she does not love her husband, and that in the eight years that they have been married, she has been control and manipulated and unable to learn. She finds that she must leave, by herself, to further her learning. While being a mother, she finds that she could not fulfill her duties because she has been treated as a doll during her life.
The Narrator finds that she is depressed because of her confinement in her role as a women and mother. Social expectations dictate that she would not have time to write, without taking away from her duties as a wife and a mother. Remembering that this was written during a time when women did not work and only managed the household, the Narrator is confined to her room and goes crazy from being locked up alone.
These two characters, though their situations are different, find that they are in the same basic situation. They are independent women, who find themselves oppressed in a society with defined gender roles. Women were to manage the house and children, while the men were to work and go out in the public sphere. These women seek to push past these boundaries and explore their own definition of their lives outside the social norms.
Week 8 – A Doll’s House
Today in class, our discussion of the differences between The Death of Ivan Ilych and A Doll’s House led me to the conclusion that the most importance difference between the two is the fact that Nora is a female and Ivan is a male. I believe this because of the fact that society had very different expectations of both of these characters during the times of their writing, but also the fact that in certain regards, both characters seem to flip flop their gender roles. Ivan, the one who ends up staying in his marriage, seems to personify what society would expect of a female of the time. They were expected to stay within the family, even if they were married. Leaving was out of the question. On the other hand, Nora, the one who leaves on her own, does exactly the opposite of what society deems as the role of the female. Society would have had less of a problem if a male had left than a female.
In another regard, both seem to show their gender’s typical emotions. Nora opens up, while Ivan bottles everything inside him. Nora is passionate, while Ivan is more concerned with his pride. Nora wants to live by love, while Ivan realizes that he must keep up social expectations presented by society about his position in life.
Starting with the simple idea of the difference between male and female, one is able to expand and cover other aspects of both. Taking the one difference, it is easy to apply it to the other differences that we covered in class, since this one difference explains the majority of their actions. It covers all societal norms, but also gender expectations as well. Modern day gender roles still hold some of the same sway that they did during this time period.
Week 7 – The Death of Ivan Ilych
Looking at The Death of Ivan Ilych, the meaning of life comes to mind. In class, many people pointed out religion, experience, relationships, and self-meaning as different reasons for living. Expanding from personal thought, I found that relationships to be the most important of these four mentioned. I believe this to be because relationships are what gives meaning to our lives. Friends and family members are the ones we turn to for advice, comfort, and many more things.
The differences in these relationships vary greatly from person to person. Such a thing as love comes to mind when the word “relationship” is said. Love is something that can be spiritual and physical, metaphorical and literal. There is love between a parent and child, between boyfriend and girlfriend, between friends. Love is something that gives meaning to these relationships. Without love, these are merely acquaintances; people who are on the fringes of our lives but who have no real bearing on them. Love gives people hope and understanding, forgiveness and comfort.
Relationships are something people turn to during times of distress. Friends and family offer comfort when needed, but also a good dose of reality when expected. It does no good to hide the truth from those we love, though it is exactly what we do in times of distress. However, we try not to burden those that we love.
Something striking would be the relationship between God and a person. There is love involved, sometimes tough love, but love nonetheless. But this spiritual love is something that many people turn to during times of hardship, and ignore during times of prosperity. God is love, something that Ivan begins to understand when he dies. Love is not material goods; love is based upon the relationships a person makes with others. Love is something that lives on long after a person is gone, a type of legacy for them.
Week 6 - Paper Due
Week 5 – Romanticism
This week I found the comparing the music with the painting to be quite inspiration, so to go with that I wanted to expand the activity that we did in class about it.
I found that the Chopin piano piece to reflect upon the Wanderer about the Sea of Fog painting the most because of many key reasons. First off, the piano piece seems like someone is walking to somewhere. This is heard by the constant beat that is coming from the lower notes, particularly at the beginning of the piece. This beat seems to be like someone’s footsteps that are constantly moving. The painting reflects this as well, for the man looks like he could just go anywhere that he wanted to. It seems like he is at the beginning of a journey that will take him far and wide for he has not seemed to pack much nor does he seem like he needs anything besides what he has on him.
The piano piece also seems to have an element of mystery to it, especially at the beginning. With the way that piano piece seems to flow lightly without many periods of a heavy sound creates this mystery. There is also a quality of mystery that occurs for the listener knows that while the piece has a constant beat, they do not know what might come in terms of a contrast to that. This mystery is reflected in the painting for the fog covers up everything that the person would be able to see should it be a clear day. This overcast look creates this mystery for the viewer. The ending of this piece also reflects this feeling of mystery for the end comes with heavier tones all at once and then the piece ends, leaving the listener wondering whether the journeyman completed his journey or if something happened to stop it. The other element of mystery that appears, or doesn’t in this case, is that one cannot see the man’s face in the painting. This adds to the mystery of who is he but also where is he going and what is he doing there.
Week 4 – Faust
Goethe devotes the second half of Faust I to Gretchen. I believe he did this because it shows the downfall of both characters while also showing how God saves one of them in the end. Faust becomes more manipulated by Mephistopheles as the second half goes on, though he does not believe it to be so. I think Faust believes that he is pulling all of the strings to get what he wants (to be young and Gretchen), while in reality Mephistopheles is allowing Faust to believe this when he is in fact control of the entire plot.
I think the second half is also about how Faust naively trusts Mephistopheles. Without Gretchen, Faust would go on living with this belief (to a certain extent, he does). We can notice this change by when Mephistopheles stops joking around and becomes serious. At this point, Goethe stops writing in poetic form and goes to prose. Gretchen is always weary of Faust’s friend and at the end finally resists his temptations and is ultimately saved by God.
Without Gretchen, the second half of Goethe’s Faust I would have lacked the emotional depth that Gretchen brought. She goes from being in love with someone she believes is perfect and amazing to going crazy and killing those around her. Should she have not be tempted by Faust and had instead avoided him, the death of her mother and her child (who would have never have been conceived) would not have happened. Her brother still probably would have died during Faust’s quest to seduce her. However, these all are important plot points to Faust’s story and one of the messages that I believe that Goethe is trying to instill in his readers. That message would be one in which it is not fair that unmarried women would take all the blame whereas the father was never brought to trial for any of their deeds.
Week 3 – Faust
The readings on Faust this week showed a contrast between books and experiences. Books have the ability to take you to different lands that you would never be able to go to in real life, like the magical world of Harry Potter or the fanciful world of Lord of the Rings. Within each of these, though not real, the reader can experience many things that would not be possible. Growing up with the Harry Potter books, it is easy to get lost in the magical world that J.K. Rowling creates. It is possible to see the suffering and adventures of the characters without leaving the comfort of home.
Real world experiences in contrast allow people to see new lands and taste food, along with experience the highs and lows of life. These experiences are once in a lifetime opportunities. However, while books are relatively cheep, these experiences and adventures that Faust wanted to go on would cost a fortune, something that the majority of the world does not have. Faust’s comparison to the birds and flying to see everything would be amazing, but realistically it will never happen. So until then we will have to rely upon modern means of transportation, such as the airplane or car. This gives a much different experience than the one that Faust dreamed of.
There is another way in which to experience other lands. That would be movies. About the same cost as a book, they give a visual showing of the worlds that authors have created, such as the Hogwarts and Middle Earth. Movies offer a chance to experience everything within a book, while still offering a chance to go out with friends and create the life experiences that Faust would approve of while still visiting other worlds in comfort.
Week 2 – Walt Whitman
In Walt Whitman’s poem, Song to Myself, Whitman talks about freedom. His idea of freedom is completely different from that of others during his time. He mainly talks about the freedom to be oneself. This freedom is not something found during the Victorian Era that Whitman is writing in. Instead, there was a strict moral and ethical code that everyone was expected to follow. Unlike today where in many places people can express themselves however they choose to, Victorian society emphasized the need for specific qualities and values people should have. It was almost like everyone was expected to be from the same mold that was based upon gender, thus a separate mold for males and females.
Whitman also explores a sexual freedom that was unheard of during the time. The Victorian Era was one of prudishness. Sexual freedoms were unheard of. Sex was not something to be explored or glorified; it was simply to be the means of reproduction and nothing more. There was not to be pleasure in it, especially for females. Males on the other hand had more freedoms, but not to the extent that Whitman portrays in his poem. Whitman glorifies sex in a way that would have startled the population.
In today’s society, what Whitman wrote would not be surprising to anyone depending upon the location. Staying within the Western World, where Whitman would have been read during his time, freedom of expression is something we have come to enjoy. There are debates about things that limit this expression, such as school uniforms, but those are routinely shutdown very quickly. The limiting of this freedom tends not be something the American public wants to support. The sexual freedoms allowed today are remarkable in comparison to the Victorian Era. Today, you can find couple of all orientations, along with sex becoming something as enjoyment instead of simply for reproductive purposes.
Week 1 – Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass dances around the idea of learning and knowledge being a curse to a limited extent. He mentions this briefly in between his escape attempt and his actual escape. Though knowledge was the tool he used to facilitate his escape, he suffered from the fact that he was given all of these ideas and could do nothing but wait for the opportune moment to implement them. As his master, Mr. Auld, said, “…it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy” (528). To a certain extent, Mr. Auld was right. Douglass was unhappy. The ideas he read in newspapers about running away stuck in his mind. He learned that knowledge, while powerful, would make him miserable. He could not go back to being an ignorant slave like those around him. Instead, he had to act upon the ideas he read about, an act that would lead him to freedom.
Struggling with this newfound knowledge of reading and writing, Douglass felt obligated to help those slaves around him. With that, he knows he must censor how he escaped so that it would not possibly stop others from using the same means. This censorship goes with knowledge being a curse because it does not allow Douglass the chance to give his full story; instead having to leave parts out because of this knowledge could lead to further problems for others. Douglass also had to bare the burden of not being able to free those who were around him, though he was perfectly capable of the problem solving required doing just that.
While knowledge is the tool that Douglass uses to escape, it also hinders him. The ideas once formed in his mind from newspapers and books would not simply go away. Instead tormenting him to the point of wanting to die instead of being a slave anymore.
For the Final Project, I plan on writing a research paper based upon the theme of freedom. I plan on using to works of Frederick Douglas, Walt Whitman, and the painting of the Wanderer above the Sea of Fog. I believe that these three pieces will work very well together for they all have different takes on freedom. In terms of outside works that I would need for the research paper, I am thinking of using the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a Dream” speech. I think that the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address ties in very easily to Frederick Douglas, while Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech ties in well with Walt Whitman and Wanderer about the Sea of Fog. While all of these explore freedom, they each have different meaning, which would make for an interesting argument on how our perception of the meaning of freedom has changed over time.
I choose these pieces because they all have to deal with the theme of freedom, but they are all iconic pieces that people would easily be able to associate with freedom. It also gives the option of personal thoughts on freedom, because I know that growing up the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech were all pieces that I felt inspired people to truly look at freedom and want it. I think pairing them with Frederick Douglas, Walt Whitman, and Wanderer about the Sea of Fog will give these pieces a more symbolic meaning that people can truly understand what freedom is, but also why everyone hopes to have it.
Alexis, this sounds like a good topic for a paper. Since freedom was a main theme of the course, you have a lot you could choose from. I like the idea of bringing in iconic texts from outside the course and of mixing different kinds of texts, art, poetry, autobiography, speeches. -MH
Week 13 – Art Museum
Going to the art museum allowed me to see how political messages can be shown in a different medium than I previously assumed possible. Dafna Koffenam created many one of a kind pieces that looked at the political and social messages surrounding her time in Israel. Her use of embroidery and glass mixed with silicon created new combinations of art available to view whenever one wants.
Based off of this, I found that there were two pieces that really stuck in my mind. The first was one about the protest movements in Tel Aviv. The art piece was of a letter written by a man who committed suicide by burning himself. I found that this piece was interesting because of the message that it gave. The letter, that was embroidered, told of how the man blamed everyone else for his troubles, after having served in the army and thus for the country. It makes sense that a person would feel this way, because as a veteran, you put yourself in harm’s way to show defend the place you call home. Thus if the government abandons you, it is natural to feel betrayed. The letter called for action, which I think was a major theme of Koffenam’s collection. I feel that she wanted people to not only realize the problems within their society, but to look for ways in which to fix these problems. Coming to a solution seems to be one of the things that Koffenam’s pieces seemed to want.
The other piece that I found to be interesting would be the two wolves. The one lying down and hiding seemed to be what people are like when they simply want to forget that problems even exist. The other wolf that was standing with its head held high seemed to show what people are like following their “awakening”. This is the point at which people realize the problems within society and begin to try and find a solution to them.
Week 12 – Paper Due
Week 11 – Art and the Unconscious
I wanted to take a look at the Salvador Dali painting, The Persistence of Memory (1931). This painting takes a look at the perception that people have of time and memory. Time becomes distorted in memory, like memory becoming distorted over time. Freud inspired this painting with his thoughts on dreams and wish fulfillment. I believe that this painting shows that people want time to distort it self and melt away. Without the passing of time, people would not grow old or receive any bad news. The stoppage of time would also allow people to live in the moment that they truly desire to be in. We often as humans say things like “I wish this moment would never end” or that “I wish I could live this time forever”. This desire for us is to always be happy and to live as we wish to live, without negativity around us. This is similar to the Freudian theory that people use their dreams to show the wishes they desire.
The painting shows the wish fulfillment theory that Freud proposed through its use of symbolism as well. Dali shows one set moment, with each clock set at a different time. This is to symbolize each different person wanting time to stop and melt away at different moments. For each person, this is different, for my time would be much different from anyone else’s time. The clocks melting is also a symbol because they show that time cannot be restarted. After melting away, none of the clock would be able to physically work, leaving the owner with no concept of time but also no need to check the time. Without time, there would be no moving forward or backwards, and instead a simple moment that would capture the person in pure bliss.
Week 10 – Heart of Darkness
I want to further analyze our presentation that we did on Wednesday. There are a number of things that I thought we did well. I liked the fact that we did not have any bullet points on our PowerPoint. The pictures fit perfectly with what we were talking about.
I also liked our simulation, though there are certain parts that I wished we had changed. I think the simulation was a good idea; it got everyone to move and wake up a bit. I feel that it was different from the group work that we do normally or the awkward standing around waiting for people to shout out answers to questions. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and it made sense to do it for the topic that we were doing. We had planned on having everyone there, or only missing one or two people. The goal was to divide the class into three groups of seven. Since that did not work, we had to improvise and make sure that we had all of the leaders established and colonists given out. Out in the hallway, I explained everything that was going to happen to the “Africans” within the classroom. We had hoped not to kill everyone off so quickly, so we needed more resource cards, or we needed to stack the deck, so that more were at the beginning. I think it went well until the end. I think we could have done a better job debriefing the class after the simulation, or we could have kept everyone in their groups and continued with analyzing characters. We could have given everyone a different person or group to analyze, such as giving one group “The Africans” another “Europeans” and finally “Colonists”. I think that would have made the final part of our presentation better. It would have kept everyone involved.
Week 9 – Realistic Heroines and Feminist Revisions
I believe that a comparison between Nora, from A Doll’s House, and the Narrator, from The Yellow Wallpaper, is necessary. The two characters share a common situation of male oppression by their spouse. Nora finds that her husband treats her like a doll, something to play with and manipulate because she is lacking the knowledge and ability to stand up to him. In comparison, her husband, because of her depression, locks up and constantly watches the Narrator. These two women are under the control of their husband and both rebel against them, though for different reasons.
Nora finds that she does not love her husband, and that in the eight years that they have been married, she has been control and manipulated and unable to learn. She finds that she must leave, by herself, to further her learning. While being a mother, she finds that she could not fulfill her duties because she has been treated as a doll during her life.
The Narrator finds that she is depressed because of her confinement in her role as a women and mother. Social expectations dictate that she would not have time to write, without taking away from her duties as a wife and a mother. Remembering that this was written during a time when women did not work and only managed the household, the Narrator is confined to her room and goes crazy from being locked up alone.
These two characters, though their situations are different, find that they are in the same basic situation. They are independent women, who find themselves oppressed in a society with defined gender roles. Women were to manage the house and children, while the men were to work and go out in the public sphere. These women seek to push past these boundaries and explore their own definition of their lives outside the social norms.
Week 8 – A Doll’s House
Today in class, our discussion of the differences between The Death of Ivan Ilych and A Doll’s House led me to the conclusion that the most importance difference between the two is the fact that Nora is a female and Ivan is a male. I believe this because of the fact that society had very different expectations of both of these characters during the times of their writing, but also the fact that in certain regards, both characters seem to flip flop their gender roles. Ivan, the one who ends up staying in his marriage, seems to personify what society would expect of a female of the time. They were expected to stay within the family, even if they were married. Leaving was out of the question. On the other hand, Nora, the one who leaves on her own, does exactly the opposite of what society deems as the role of the female. Society would have had less of a problem if a male had left than a female.
In another regard, both seem to show their gender’s typical emotions. Nora opens up, while Ivan bottles everything inside him. Nora is passionate, while Ivan is more concerned with his pride. Nora wants to live by love, while Ivan realizes that he must keep up social expectations presented by society about his position in life.
Starting with the simple idea of the difference between male and female, one is able to expand and cover other aspects of both. Taking the one difference, it is easy to apply it to the other differences that we covered in class, since this one difference explains the majority of their actions. It covers all societal norms, but also gender expectations as well. Modern day gender roles still hold some of the same sway that they did during this time period.
Week 7 – The Death of Ivan Ilych
Looking at The Death of Ivan Ilych, the meaning of life comes to mind. In class, many people pointed out religion, experience, relationships, and self-meaning as different reasons for living. Expanding from personal thought, I found that relationships to be the most important of these four mentioned. I believe this to be because relationships are what gives meaning to our lives. Friends and family members are the ones we turn to for advice, comfort, and many more things.
The differences in these relationships vary greatly from person to person. Such a thing as love comes to mind when the word “relationship” is said. Love is something that can be spiritual and physical, metaphorical and literal. There is love between a parent and child, between boyfriend and girlfriend, between friends. Love is something that gives meaning to these relationships. Without love, these are merely acquaintances; people who are on the fringes of our lives but who have no real bearing on them. Love gives people hope and understanding, forgiveness and comfort.
Relationships are something people turn to during times of distress. Friends and family offer comfort when needed, but also a good dose of reality when expected. It does no good to hide the truth from those we love, though it is exactly what we do in times of distress. However, we try not to burden those that we love.
Something striking would be the relationship between God and a person. There is love involved, sometimes tough love, but love nonetheless. But this spiritual love is something that many people turn to during times of hardship, and ignore during times of prosperity. God is love, something that Ivan begins to understand when he dies. Love is not material goods; love is based upon the relationships a person makes with others. Love is something that lives on long after a person is gone, a type of legacy for them.
Week 6 - Paper Due
Week 5 – Romanticism
This week I found the comparing the music with the painting to be quite inspiration, so to go with that I wanted to expand the activity that we did in class about it.
I found that the Chopin piano piece to reflect upon the Wanderer about the Sea of Fog painting the most because of many key reasons. First off, the piano piece seems like someone is walking to somewhere. This is heard by the constant beat that is coming from the lower notes, particularly at the beginning of the piece. This beat seems to be like someone’s footsteps that are constantly moving. The painting reflects this as well, for the man looks like he could just go anywhere that he wanted to. It seems like he is at the beginning of a journey that will take him far and wide for he has not seemed to pack much nor does he seem like he needs anything besides what he has on him.
The piano piece also seems to have an element of mystery to it, especially at the beginning. With the way that piano piece seems to flow lightly without many periods of a heavy sound creates this mystery. There is also a quality of mystery that occurs for the listener knows that while the piece has a constant beat, they do not know what might come in terms of a contrast to that. This mystery is reflected in the painting for the fog covers up everything that the person would be able to see should it be a clear day. This overcast look creates this mystery for the viewer. The ending of this piece also reflects this feeling of mystery for the end comes with heavier tones all at once and then the piece ends, leaving the listener wondering whether the journeyman completed his journey or if something happened to stop it. The other element of mystery that appears, or doesn’t in this case, is that one cannot see the man’s face in the painting. This adds to the mystery of who is he but also where is he going and what is he doing there.
Week 4 – Faust
Goethe devotes the second half of Faust I to Gretchen. I believe he did this because it shows the downfall of both characters while also showing how God saves one of them in the end. Faust becomes more manipulated by Mephistopheles as the second half goes on, though he does not believe it to be so. I think Faust believes that he is pulling all of the strings to get what he wants (to be young and Gretchen), while in reality Mephistopheles is allowing Faust to believe this when he is in fact control of the entire plot.
I think the second half is also about how Faust naively trusts Mephistopheles. Without Gretchen, Faust would go on living with this belief (to a certain extent, he does). We can notice this change by when Mephistopheles stops joking around and becomes serious. At this point, Goethe stops writing in poetic form and goes to prose. Gretchen is always weary of Faust’s friend and at the end finally resists his temptations and is ultimately saved by God.
Without Gretchen, the second half of Goethe’s Faust I would have lacked the emotional depth that Gretchen brought. She goes from being in love with someone she believes is perfect and amazing to going crazy and killing those around her. Should she have not be tempted by Faust and had instead avoided him, the death of her mother and her child (who would have never have been conceived) would not have happened. Her brother still probably would have died during Faust’s quest to seduce her. However, these all are important plot points to Faust’s story and one of the messages that I believe that Goethe is trying to instill in his readers. That message would be one in which it is not fair that unmarried women would take all the blame whereas the father was never brought to trial for any of their deeds.
Week 3 – Faust
The readings on Faust this week showed a contrast between books and experiences. Books have the ability to take you to different lands that you would never be able to go to in real life, like the magical world of Harry Potter or the fanciful world of Lord of the Rings. Within each of these, though not real, the reader can experience many things that would not be possible. Growing up with the Harry Potter books, it is easy to get lost in the magical world that J.K. Rowling creates. It is possible to see the suffering and adventures of the characters without leaving the comfort of home.
Real world experiences in contrast allow people to see new lands and taste food, along with experience the highs and lows of life. These experiences are once in a lifetime opportunities. However, while books are relatively cheep, these experiences and adventures that Faust wanted to go on would cost a fortune, something that the majority of the world does not have. Faust’s comparison to the birds and flying to see everything would be amazing, but realistically it will never happen. So until then we will have to rely upon modern means of transportation, such as the airplane or car. This gives a much different experience than the one that Faust dreamed of.
There is another way in which to experience other lands. That would be movies. About the same cost as a book, they give a visual showing of the worlds that authors have created, such as the Hogwarts and Middle Earth. Movies offer a chance to experience everything within a book, while still offering a chance to go out with friends and create the life experiences that Faust would approve of while still visiting other worlds in comfort.
Week 2 – Walt Whitman
In Walt Whitman’s poem, Song to Myself, Whitman talks about freedom. His idea of freedom is completely different from that of others during his time. He mainly talks about the freedom to be oneself. This freedom is not something found during the Victorian Era that Whitman is writing in. Instead, there was a strict moral and ethical code that everyone was expected to follow. Unlike today where in many places people can express themselves however they choose to, Victorian society emphasized the need for specific qualities and values people should have. It was almost like everyone was expected to be from the same mold that was based upon gender, thus a separate mold for males and females.
Whitman also explores a sexual freedom that was unheard of during the time. The Victorian Era was one of prudishness. Sexual freedoms were unheard of. Sex was not something to be explored or glorified; it was simply to be the means of reproduction and nothing more. There was not to be pleasure in it, especially for females. Males on the other hand had more freedoms, but not to the extent that Whitman portrays in his poem. Whitman glorifies sex in a way that would have startled the population.
In today’s society, what Whitman wrote would not be surprising to anyone depending upon the location. Staying within the Western World, where Whitman would have been read during his time, freedom of expression is something we have come to enjoy. There are debates about things that limit this expression, such as school uniforms, but those are routinely shutdown very quickly. The limiting of this freedom tends not be something the American public wants to support. The sexual freedoms allowed today are remarkable in comparison to the Victorian Era. Today, you can find couple of all orientations, along with sex becoming something as enjoyment instead of simply for reproductive purposes.
Week 1 – Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass dances around the idea of learning and knowledge being a curse to a limited extent. He mentions this briefly in between his escape attempt and his actual escape. Though knowledge was the tool he used to facilitate his escape, he suffered from the fact that he was given all of these ideas and could do nothing but wait for the opportune moment to implement them. As his master, Mr. Auld, said, “…it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy” (528). To a certain extent, Mr. Auld was right. Douglass was unhappy. The ideas he read in newspapers about running away stuck in his mind. He learned that knowledge, while powerful, would make him miserable. He could not go back to being an ignorant slave like those around him. Instead, he had to act upon the ideas he read about, an act that would lead him to freedom.
Struggling with this newfound knowledge of reading and writing, Douglass felt obligated to help those slaves around him. With that, he knows he must censor how he escaped so that it would not possibly stop others from using the same means. This censorship goes with knowledge being a curse because it does not allow Douglass the chance to give his full story; instead having to leave parts out because of this knowledge could lead to further problems for others. Douglass also had to bare the burden of not being able to free those who were around him, though he was perfectly capable of the problem solving required doing just that.
While knowledge is the tool that Douglass uses to escape, it also hinders him. The ideas once formed in his mind from newspapers and books would not simply go away. Instead tormenting him to the point of wanting to die instead of being a slave anymore.