Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Picnic, Lightning by Billy Collins

With the start of this poem, the reader first thinks that the speaker is going to talk about his fear of death given that his "mother died in a freak accident" (1).  However, the speaker goes on to discuss his accepting of the fact that death will find everyone no matter what he or she does.  The speaker gives examples of freak accidents that could happen in one's home at any time, showing how death is eminent: "It is possible to be struck by a meteor / or a single-engine plane / while reading in a chair at home" (3-5).  By giving these specific examples as opposed to preventable scenarios or events that happen outside of the house, the speaker is showing that death is not something one should avoid by not living one's life to the fullest and by living in fear.  However, the speaker also expresses that he thinks about death's inevitable nature far beyond what is healthy as he says that "This is what [he] think[s] about / when [he] shovel[s] compost" (20-21).  Although the speaker does not express extreme amounts of anxiety and fear regarding death coming for him, he does express and unnatural, unhealthy fixation on its inevitability.  But, in the end, he considers how time is forever passing, "as one hour sweeps into the next," and death is one step closer for every person (40).

Monday, February 22, 2016

My Number by Billy Collins

In this poem, the speaker personifies death in order to express his fear and nervousness regarding death's approaching him.  The speaker first personifies death in a subdued way, talking about the things that death can do, such as "tampering with air brakes, scattering cancer cells like seeds, loosening the wooden beams of roller coaster" (5-8).  Progressively, the acts in this list become more dramatic and scarier ways to die.  By having a list of scary ways to die, as opposed to common and peaceful ways, such as in one's sleep, the speaker is expressing some fear in death and how it will come to get him.  Then, the speaker personifies death in a very stereotypical, frightening manner, where he is "shaking open the familiar cloak, its hood raised like the head of a crow; and removing the scythe from the trunk" (13-15).  Here, the speaker is clearly conveying his terror of death, as death is being portrayed as a dark, violent being, that is ready to slaughter anything in its path.  Throughout the poem, the author expresses concern for death not being able to find him since he lives in a "hidden cottage," but in the end, he explains what he would do if death were to find him (9).  He would "start talking [his] way out of this," which truly shows how fearful he is for death's eminent visit (17).

Monday, February 1, 2016

Heart of Darkness 5

Through varying viewpoints, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness can be perceived as both racist and tolerant towards the African people.  One of the greatest examples of this ambiguity is the presence and role of the cannibals that Marlow encounters.  On one hand, Marlow is describing the worst image of an African culture that a racist European society can imagine.  He expresses slight fear of being eaten and hope towards looking "unappetizing" (Conrad 116).  However, with the descriptions of the cannibal people, though not completely positive, Marlow expresses admiration for their restraint.  He expresses some sense of sympathy towards the men after realizing that they must not have eaten recently and that they have consequently become weaker.  He describes the men as "with courage, with strength, even yet, though their skins were no longer glossy and their muscles no longer hard" (Conrad 116).  In this sentence, he both compliments the men, calling them courageous and strong, and feels bad that they were forced to become physically weaker.  In addition, Marlow recognizes their strength and willpower of the restraint it has taken for these men to temporarily not eat usual food source.  He compares their restraint to that of "a hyena prowling amongst the corpses of a battlefield" (Conrad 117).  Through one lens, this description could be seen as a racist remark, referring to black men as manipulative and sneaky animals.  However, on the other hand, Marlow is commending the men for the great strength and expressing how hard this experience must be for them.