Daddy by Sylvia Plath

Daddy by Sylvia Plath is one of the works that we discussed in class that I thought was very intriguing. It reveals to us the nature of the person’s relationship with her father as well as the impact that her father's death had on her. Plath pours her emotions as she feels abandoned by her father after his death. It starts as a deceptively simple strange nursery rhyme than an angry depiction of the speaker’s father. The language is relatively free from the kind of ominous and dark imagery and terms that will arrive as the poem progresses. The mood and tone of the poem Daddy reflects the anxiety that was common during the Cold War. The feeling of abandonment and loneliness is reflected in the context in which she was writing as a character of someone at that time that started to doubt the existence of God and thought they were all alone in the universe and thus their existence had no meaning. Her suffering is further reinforced by the allusions to the Nazi concentration camps. The image of the poem helps the reader to relate to Plath’s harsh life. An example of this is when the devil is introduced with “A cleft in your chin instead of your foot/But no less a devil for that”. (53-54). Again there is the reference to the foot, this one being suspicious just like the origins of the father. The cleft in the foot, the devil’s hooves, is compared to the cleft in the father’s chin. This is developed further with the images of the father and the husband who is like the father being a “vampire” (72)—a bloodsucking zombie who still haunts her long after his death. Likewise, Plath describes how her life was being drained away as the result of a marriage, similar to that of how a vampire drinks the blood of its victims; If I've killed one man, I've killed two--/The vampire who said he was you/And drank my blood for a year,/ Seven years, if you want to know’- the man had emotionally drained her. It is obvious that she has struggled very much with the emotions felt towards her father.

Rear Window

In Rear Window Hitchcock purposes a process through which people gain more satisfaction from viewing than living. Jeffries is a photographer who landed himself in a leg cast due to an accident. To entertain himself he watches out his rear window the people the surround him and it becomes an obsession. Their lives become more important than his. After all, they are vital and mobile; he is trapped. It is like the camera is trapped within the confines of his room, never venturing outside. Hitchcock tells the story through Jeffries view. We are given peeks into the rooms of many of Jeffries' unknowing neighbors: Miss Torso, Miss Lonelyhearts , Thorwald and his wife, a songwriter, the newlyweds, and a local busybody. Even though many of them never interact with Jeffries, except as an object for him to watch we still become curiously engaged by their personal stories.

Jeffries girlfriend, Lisa is young, beautiful and successful, which seems to intimidate him. They didn’t really have much in common, but it was made clear that she had very strong feelings for him. When she tried to being up taking the relationship further he would change the subject. He fumbles for reasons why she wouldn't make a good wife, the only fault he can find is that she's "too perfect, too talented, too beautiful, and too sophisticated." The newlyweds related to their relationship by possibly reflecting their relationship’s possible future. He was scared of commitment. But then again he notices Miss Lonelyhearts and how lonely she is and that’s not what he wants either. Miss Torso, that dancer, is a beautiful woman that fights off men everywhere she goes trying to find the right person.

One day, Jeffries observes something that forces him to abandon his safe, cocooned role as a spectator and become a participant. Mr. Lars Thorwald and his nagging wife were one of the main characters that Jeffries watched constantly. That was not what he wanted in a relationship. He sees or thinks he sees one of his neighbors, Thorwald, commit a murder. However, with restricted mobility Jeffries can only watch through his rear window as Lisa puts herself in harm's way, and, when danger strikes, he is helpless to go to her rescue. This is when he realizes that she does mean more to him and starts to fall more in love with her.

The second part of the movie is constant to the murderous act. For the most part, we see only what Jeffries sees, but, in one critical scene that determines the issue of whether or not there was a murder, Hitchcock allows us to observe an incident that occurs while Jeffries is asleep. It is when Jefferis and Lisa team up to investigate the murder that Hitchcock increases the tension. Practically the entire film is shown through Jeffries' window, including when Lisa sneaks into the killer's apartment. When the neighbor returns to the apartment the tension multiplies and we can feel the powerlessness because all we can do is watch due to Jeffries’ restricted mobility. In Jeff's rear window world, each story is resolved: Miss Torso is reunited with her boyfriend, Miss Lonelyhearts hooks up with the songwriter, whose music prevents her from committing suicide, Thorwald apartments are being repainted, the newly-weds are beginning to have marital friction.

Glengarry Glen Ross

When I read or watched something with bad language I think that it is an unnecessary accessory and automatically makes you look like a person that doesn’t deserve respect, but when I got into Glengarry Glen Ross I started to understand the strategies and issues that were coming about I though that it’s probably really like that in the real world of sales. I think that Mamet's use of profanity in the play has a reason and it is not just simply gratuitous. I think he used profanity to let the reader know how strongly the men felt about their job and how in depth the job was in the sense of interfering with their lives. The business of sales is a nasty job and I think he did a good job if showing that in the play and the movie. I realized the business was greedy and cruel when I was reading through the play and noticed all the profanity that was being used. These men were ruthless and would do anything to get ahead in the game. During the movie when we got to know these characters they lied, stole, and tried to bribe others. The foul language helped get this point across very quickly. It seemed as if the men would use anything for their excuses to getting ahead. But if you think about it and imagine a world where time is money and its basically sell or no pay. These men had to live on a sell by sell pay check, so they would do what they had to to put food on the table, shelter over their heads, and clothes on their backs.
I think profanity played as a sense of masculinity. They wanted seem like the top dog and act untouchable, it gives them a feeling of empowerment. By doing this it played physiological games with the others. For instance, Roma talked the talked but then he also walked the walk, so when he talked people listened and it gave him a step up. Therefore when Shelly made a sale he began to show out and let the competition know he was there and making a come back. When the men felt superior it gave the confidence that their work would succeed.

Kng Lear

I believe the failure of the “mother” presence is because of Lear’s eternal instincts of being a king. In the text he seems to see emotional awareness to be weak and unstable. He believes that women should only have these feelings and emotions and be able to control. He draws a fine line between femininity and masculinity. When it the time come for Lear to give away his territory to his daughters and the events that occur to him are vents that he never thought he would face in spite of his family, so he sees the other side of masculinity. He is betrayed, becomes venerable, and feels the hurt of losing his favorite daughter to the tow that betrayed him. The phrase "These are the tears of ashamed self-knowledge, manly tears caused by a realization of what his original childish demands” tells me that is finally accepted his human nature to feel defeated and unloved. He realized that even the ones he thought were the closest ones to him and told him what he wanted to hear are not always trustworthy and honest for the right reason. I agree with Kahn’s statement that King Lear admitted feeling the power of feminine presence into his world as the situation began to get out of control. The tears that he cried were not longer considered a “woman’s weapon” in which he felt to defend himself. All of Lear’s reactions towards Cordelia do seem like he is resisting the “mother” presence but I do not think agree with Kahn’s statement that Lear’s action is the repressed identification with the mother. I think that deep down he knew what was happening but didn’t want to believe it. He knew that he was feeling vulnerable but didn’t want to show it to his daughters or their husbands. He knew that he had been fooled but wanted to keep the tough king exterior.

Persepolis

I do not think that Marji agrees with her dad that "politics and sentiment don't mix". She is so devoted towards her country and her independence as a woman is much stronger and makes her father’s statement seem anything but not true. She has a very good relationship with her mother, father, and grandmother and their opinions meant a lot to her. When the problems turned dire in her country she started to feel and think separately from her family and wanted to make changes and be apart of the revolution. When her father decided to stand down and take no part in protest anymore she thought wasn’t as patriotic as she was, but then she realized that much more was going on and that he didn’t let his feelings get in his way thinking straight. Her grandmother and mother seem to be extremely independent according to the dialogue and in the comic. I definitely think she got her strong personality from the women side of the family. He mother was very emotional throughout the whole attack. She just wanted the safety of her family and friends and just go with whatever changes and rules were make, but not Marj. She wanted her opinion heard and acknowledged. The bond between the family helped then tremendously through the war. I think that is why Marj was so involved with the news and what was happening around her. Satarapi’s grandmother meant a lot to her and made her feel at ease. She would give her advice and tell her not to ever forget who she was or where she came from. When Marj moved to France she was afraid to let people know the she was from Iran. The war had reflected Iranians as ‘crazy’ par say. Eventually she was over the down grading that people were doing and finally stood up for herself because she felt so strongly about her country. At the beginning of the book I could tell that Marj was a strong individual and wanted to stand out in the crowd. She was the one that always gave her opinions in class and outside of class. Politics and sentiment to go together because a person is going to do what the feel is right to them and the feelings they have can alter the decision they make. Even though her father said politics and sentiment don’t mix, he knew that it happens and nothing can put a barrier between them.

The Great Gatsby

As Nick journeys out to East Egg and reconnects with his cousin, Daisy, he learns about her relationship with Tom and gets introduced to Jordan Baker. The type of life style Daisy and Tom have revealed to Nick is so distance from what he has experienced. As the summer continues he gets invited to one of Gatsby’s parties and meets him. He came off as a surprisingly young man with an English accent, a remarkable smile, and calls everyone “old sport.” Nick immediately found Gatsby interesting as Gatsby did Nick due to the relation between him and Daisy. I think Nick does turn out alright in the end. He is no longer impressed with the wealthy and the lifestlye they live. He soons realizes that the need to relate to them is no longer important. Nick's personality gave him the upper hand the whole time especially after Gatsby's death he took the responsibility for him.
I think that Nick relates to Gatsby at the end of the story because he realizes that Gatsby is just a normal guy with real feelings just as he is. Nick didn’t realize this till the end of the story because Gatsby was so calm and secretive about his ways of doing things. He started to see the real side of Gatsby during the time of the first meeting with Daisy in Nick’s house. His story became clear after the events of the last night out with Daisy and Tom. The whole story had a lost concept of love and relationships. He thought the only thing keeping them apart was is social standard. His used his extravagant lifestyle to impress the woman of his dreams. He saw money as the free market and opportunity to achieve the vision of making Daisy his own.
After Gatsby’s death, Nick realized that no one was interested personally. He had friends within his “business” but once they got the news they had no part in his life. They said it was too risky. When the funeral came and the other person that showed up was a random man from the library, Nick knew Gatsby’s dream was ruled by nothing but money and dishonesty. He came from a lower class community and thought that he deserved to have an equal chance to become part of something bigger. The parties and wild jazz music was a way for him to become apart of the upper class and bring him closer to daisy. This corrupts the American dream by be concerned of wealth and fame. Gatsby’s power to transform his dreams into reality is what makes him “great,” to Nick. Even though Gatsby got so close to fulfilling his dream, Nick knew it was over before he started. The American dream of happiness and individualism has down grated into the pursuit of wealth. Nick reflects that both Gatsby’s dream and the American dream is over. The social and moral values are evidenced of greed and empty pleasure.