Kafka & Ensor

IB English HL
January 27^th, 2012

Journal 5: Kafka & Ensor

There are several connections between Kafka’s Metamorphosis and The Skeleton Painter, a painting by James Ensor.
First, both pieces of art reveal something about the artist himself.
In The Metamorphosis, we learn about Gregor, who transforms into a bug as a consequence of overworking, isolation and pressure. His miserable conditions in guilt and shame are due to the high expectations of his family, especially his father. Similar aspects apply for the author’s own past: He had a dominant, irascible and conservative father who was consistently dissatisfied with life. Kafka, insecure about his father’s unpredictability, evolved into a diffident, brooding and insecure man as a result.
In terms of Ensor’s painting, the connection between artwork and artist is much easier to detect. The Skeleton Painter is a self-portrait of the Belgian he made in 1895. The artist is surrounded by lots of painter’s accessories: different sized paintings, easel, palette, but also by scary masks and skulls which are turned towards him. Emotions in the picture are difficult to identify, but it seems like Ensor himself is smiling mockingly – his head replaced by a skull. The meaning of this change is approached below.
Another connection is pride and emotional meaning of objects.
Gregor in the Metarmorphosis is proud of the frame he has built on his own (p. 3, p. 8). The frame is the only item he tries to hide from his mother and sister to remove (p. 26). He artfully crafted it in his freetime. It might have been the result of the only productive activity that was not part of Gregor’s job. Moreover, the frame symbolizes Gregor’s former humanity. He wants to save it as an attachment to his human past.
The frame could also symbolize Kafka’s writings which he hid from everyone and later gave to his friend Max Brod in order to burn them.
In the case of Ensor, we can assume that he is really proud of his work, because he shows himself in the middle of his art studio where he is in the middle of many of his paintings. The differences in size and color may represent Ensor’s potential for variety. Certainly, the artist was emotionally bound to the paintings - he put part of himself into each of his paintings in some way. By displaying himself in the middle of skulls and masks, he becomes part of his art. It is notable that each skull shown in the room has either a paintbrush or sits atop the easel, as if Ensor would watch himself from within the artwork. It can be imagined that he was eager to be situated in his painting’s world for one time, a world that he has created on his own.
A further connection between The Metamorphosis and The Skeleton Painter is the aspect of inhumanity.
The figure of Ensor in the painting is quite small compared to other objects in the room, for example the chair, the easel or the door. The smallness is emphasized through the large number of paintings in the room. It seems very crowded, but Ensor’s duplicate has already adapted and transformed into a skeleton. Thus, he is less human, similar to Gregor by transforming into a bug. Gregor, however, changes as a consequence of living to work instead of working to live. He is obligated to provide money for the family because they have to pay off debts to his boss. Although he dislikes his job, he continues and gets used to the bitter conditions. As his body and mind can not stand the distress any longer, it is inevitable that he transforms into a bug.
This realization provokes the question of why Ensor portrays himself as a skeleton. Skulls are mostly associated with death and toxicity, so why did Ensor keep integrating them in his paintings? Relating back to the observation of the skulls and masks being focussed on the artist, it can be assumed that Ensor’s creations began to haunt him. Like a toxin, the bizarre figures of skeletons, puppetry, masks and carnivals infect Ensor. Either he yields and allows his art to take over his real life or he wants to illustrate the intensity of his imaginative art by changing his real self into a theatrical skeleton. Or alternatively, he questions the veracity of his artistic talent, much as Kafka does. He is almost making fun of himself; similar to Kafka, who makes a critical yet mocking perspective of the life of Gregor Samsa or himself.

  

Chinua Achebe’s The Novelist as Teacher

IB English
September 14^th, 2012

Chinua Achebe’s The Novelist as Teacher

             Chinua Achebe argues that writers, just as historians explore history or politicians deal with politics, have to fulfill their assigned duty: To educate and regenerate their people about their country’s view of themselves, their history, and the world. He openly and impregnably expresses his firm conviction about how Europe influenced Africa’s self-image, and his arguments are designed to announce this opinion. Assertively, he makes it clear that Africans would suffer from the belief that racial inferiority is acceptable. He wants to change this view and calls African writers to be responsible for - and dedicate themselves to - their society. Throughout the essay, he uses several tangible occasions as supportive examples for his claim.
             Achebe begins by clarifying that “the kind [of writing he does] is relatively new (40)” in Africa. By explaining that the Africans have been educated by the Europeans in terms of the common relationship between writer and society, he shows that the European’s view has been injected into the African mind: According to the Europeans, an artist - in particular a writer - would be in “revolt against society (41).” Achebe, however, hints that his people should not “reproduce (40)” the Europeans . He is eager to explore what society expects of his writers instead of what writers expect of society. By doing so, he wants to concentrate on the situation at his homeland, stating that he “know[s] that [he does not] have to [write for a foreign audience] (41).” This sentence is one of the examples for when his language reveals that he is very autonomous, even a little bit arrogant, and willing to express his opinion overtly.
             In the next segment, Achebe indicates that most of his readers are young, which implies that they still have a lot of capacity to get educated. Thus, hope on a better self-image of Africa arises. Achebe claims that many of his readers regard him as a teacher, a statement which is almost pretentious. In this part, he also includes a letter from a Northern Nigerian fan in order to show what a reader like him expects from the author, Achebe. Suggesting that “it is quite clear what this particular reader expects of [him] (42)” is a false dilemma because it seems like there is only one option of looking at the situation, which manipulatively guides the reader to view things like Achebe.
             Through an encounter with a young woman teacher who complained about the progress of the course of events in Achebe’s No Longer at Ease, the author realized that he needs to make his novels afford an “opportunity for education (42).” He  does not think the woman’s opinion is right. In this part it becomes clear again that Achebe is very self-assured, as he points out that “no self-respecting writer will take dictation from his audience [and] must remain free to disagree.” However, he cleverly depicts himself as merciful because he comprehends that his European-influenced society needs to be efficiently educated.
             His concern comes into sharper relief in the next segment. Achebe sardonically illustrates one of the differences between Europeans and Africans by the example of “turning hygiene into a god (43),” a peculiar blasphemy in Achebe’s eyes. He admits, though, that Africans have their own respective sins, the most significant being their “acceptance of racial inferiority (43).” He confesses that not only others need to be blamed; African people, too, would have to “find out where [they] went wrong (43).”
             It follows a short anecdote of 1940’s Christians who where shocked to see Nigerian dances on an anniversary, which exemplifies “the result of the disaster brought upon the African psyche in the period of subjection to alien race (43).” Achebe uses appeal to pity here and in other parts, as he only presents the picture of the pathetic African. In this way, he disregards the fact that the West does indeed know many educated, highly respected men, tales, and traditions from Africa.
             His next example further describes the “traumatic effects of [Africa’s] first confrontation with Europe (44).” Achebe tells about a student who wrote ‘winter’ instead of the African trade wind ‘harmattan’ which occurs during wintertime - just because he was afraid to be called a bushman by his peers. Achebe does not want his people to be ashamed of their origin, he wants Africa to “regain belief in itself and put away the complexes of [...] denigration and self-abasement (44).” It seems like Achebe tries to rectify the sentiment that has been inflicted to his African people through post-colonialism. Achebe maintains that education needs to be advanced in order to “get on [their] own feet again (45).”
             Achebe’s theme becomes most clear in the next part when he requests his society to confront racism and rediscover themselves as people. In order to achieve these goals, he obliges writers to educate society with their works. He glorifies the writer as “the sensitive point of [...] community,” and brings up the argument that each job carries certain duties that need to be fulfilled as society expects them to be. Achebe himself almost seems to crave for these expectations, as he “would not wish to be excused (45).”

             The essay concludes with Achebe quoting a Hausa folk tale in order to show that art and education do not need to be mutually exclusive. He leads the reader onto a “slippery slope” here, as he claims that if one considers the tale’s ending “a naïve anticlimax (46)” then one would not know much about Africa. This expressive conclusion can make the reader feel like he would be uneducated and prejudiced.
             Achebe’s urge to make African society stand up for autonomy and to make them find self-confidence is approached in a very subjective manner. It is questionable whether he is too subjective at some points. Reading his essay raises the question: When is subjectivity proper? It depends whether Achebe’s claims and false dilemmas base on historical facts, common opinions, or his personal observations, which can not absolutely be detected through this essay. However, regardless of where his claims have their origin, he overgeneralizes too forceful; for example by demanding that each and every writer should take upon the task of education society. Achebe could as well just speak up for himself and announce that he proudly embraces the task that he himself has given to him. He could be satisfied with that and leave the rest alone, but his emotion come into play. Due to his troubled attitude towards African’s self-perception and its history with Europe, Achebe’s views are inevitably colored with a sometimes direct, sometimes indirect call for change. He strives to present the world a different image than the self-conscious one he assumes exists persistently. By the time he wrote the essay, this assumption might have been true, but reading the essay today, it leaves an impression of an author who desperately tries to force the righteous image of Africa onto the public.

Commentary: “The Pit and the Pendulum”

IB English
October 11^th, 2012

Commentary: “The Pit and the Pendulum”

            The 40 lines of “The Pit and the Pendulum” by Edgar Allan Poe make clear that true horror is not the physical experience of death, but the moment in panic when one realizes that there is no choice but to die. The first person narrator emerges out of despair but reaches a state of hopefulness despite the threat of the pendulum. Through figurative language, Poe crafted a text that makes the reader feel the sensations of the narrator and the atmosphere in which he is situated: A terrible, panic-evoking torture.
             The narrator seems completely present with his mind and strictly examines how the pendulum makes its way more and more close to him. It is notable that he claimed at the beginning of the short story that he has lost the capacity of sensation, but in this excerpt it is obvious that he has a sharp perception. The despair and anxiety of the narrator becomes clear through “proximity of the steel (line 28)” he describes. He knows that the pendulum will eventually kill him, which makes him panic. His feelings are emphasized by the anaphora “down (line 1, line 6, line 12),” because it emphasizes suspense and creates a dangerous, pinnacling atmosphere. While observing the pendulum “steadily cre(eping down) (line 1),” he personifies the pendulum and compares it with a tiger of “stealthy pace (line 3)” and a “damned spirit (line 3).” Despite his fright, however, he is still capable of thinking quite rationally. For example, he calculates that “some ten or twelve vibrations would bring the steel in actual contact with my robe.” After that observation, he begins to think, “for the first time during many hours (or) days (line 23-24)” as he claims. He realizes that he has gained hope, especially after “the unformed half of (an) idea of deliverance” appears to him. Although in the given 40 lines the reader does not get to know what exactly the narrator’s idea is, one assumes that he is somehow going to unwind himself and detach “the bandage, or surcingle, that enveloped (line 25)” him. This creates a shift in the atmosphere; now there is still the sense of danger, but a glimmer of audacity, determination, and willful hope have joined.
             It is unusual for Edgar Allan Poe to end a story hopeful like this. Apart from this abnormity, the story is similarly horrid. At first one is not completely certain whether the narrator will survive or will be killed by getting sliced in half by the swinging pendulum because Poe creates so much suspense and panic. His usage of many rhetorical devices chain the reader to the story just like the narrator is chained to the wooden board.

Paragraph about two sentences in Great Gatsby

IB English HL

October 25^th, 2011

Paragraph about two sentences in Great Gatsby

“She was only extemporizing, but a stirring warmth flowed from her, as if her heart was trying to come out to you concealed in one of those breathless, thrilling words.” (p. 14)

“I waited, and sure enough, in a moment she looked at me with an absolute smirk on her lovely face, as if she had asserted her membership in a rather distinguished secret society to which she and Tom belonged.” (p. 17)

     Daisy is wearing a mask. As well as Miss Baker and Tom, she apparently tries to hide a larger issue within herself. Covering her fragility with treating Nick (and maybe other people, too) very affectionate and warm-hearted is only slightly successful; deep despair shines through her virtual attitude. When she improvises by making the statement of Nick being like a rose, she reveals helplessness, since the comment is really awkward. But just with looking at it superficially. A rose in literature stands for love, desire, happiness, gratefulness, caring, purity and sympathy – qualities that Daisy doesn’t receive in her relationship with Tom. Due to the first quote, we can see that Nick seems to have this hunch as well.

According to quote two, Daisy definitely knows about the monotony of the inherited social position of her environment. However, she can do nothing but pity. After telling Nick about her hopes for her daughter to become a fool, her sorrow rose and got very clear. Daisy’s destiny lets the reader feel sad, especially because she is described as such a lovely person all the time. Her inner emptiness is, nevertheless, understandable: Her husband treated and still treats her rudely by having not shown up at their child’s birth and by cheating on Daisy. With smirks and impassive behavior, Daisy consequently tries to cover her real, hurt emotions.

Commentary on Robert Frost’s “Our singing strength”

IB English
November 10^th, 2012

Commentary on Robert Frost’s “Our singing strength”

             The poem “Our singing strength” by Robert Frost presents a snow in spring; its flakes do not show until a layer builds up. It then covers everything except for one road on which migrating birds gather because there is no other place to go. Although the late snow confuses and limits the birds, the narrator of the poem realizes the good side of the snowstorm, namely that the singing of the great number of birds that assembled finally heralds the beginning of spring. Frost appreciates the nature for its strength and creates the overall effect that despite hard and unpredictable circumstances, there is always the chance of new beginning.
             The poem consists of three stanzas and 53 lines in total. Using iambic pentameter and primarily couplets, Frost crafted a traditional structure of a poem, however the rhythm and flow within his poem is outstanding. For example, there are some forced rhymes such as “warm” and “form” in lines 1 and 2 or “snowed” and “road” in lines 9 and 10. Moreover, lines 19 - 21 and 22 – 24 rhyme with each other respectively, which disrupts the rhyming couplet pattern until then. This break in pattern happens in lines 41-43 again. It adds to an impression given by the melting snowflakes of the first stanza; they “could find no landing place” (line 2) and “failed of any lasting hold” (line 4) and thereby suggest that nothing is permanent. The disruption in rhyming pattern goes hand in hand with this interpretation since Frost surprises the reader by breaking the traditional pattern one expected; the rhythm changes. Another time this phenomenon of non-permanence is brought up is in the second stanza, when it is declared that the majority of the birds that rest on the road are migrating birds, and only “a very few” came “to build and stay” (line 24).
             Despite this clear depiction of the non-permanence of matters, the living organisms in the place of the poem have to deal with the snow. Its intensity becomes greater throughout the poem, starting with non-impactful snowflakes that melt directly, then an overnight snowfall that causes heavier consequences such as that “the grass lay flattened under one great tread” (line 12), and finally a “snowstorm” (line 49) that covers everything but one road. While plants such as a “rangey bough (that) anticipated fruit with snowball cupped in every opening bud” (line 14) can not defend themselves against snow, the birds – representing animals - try to resist the nature force and derive a safe haven from the warm, snow-free road. Finally, the narrator – the human figure – forces the birds to disperse because he walks the road,  seemingly as a recreational act.
             This presentation of plants as immobile and handicapped, animals as limited in their possibilities, and humans as all-mighty, shows the hierarchy in nature, which could be interpreted as being an indirect hint on human arrogance. It is to say that in the end one can not resist nature’s unpredictable demands; the poem thus suggests a moment of contemplation about everything affected by the powerful nature in either good or catastrophic ways. Frost uses many personfications in order to show the force of nature, such as “the earth sen(ding) back (the snowflakes)” (line 6). He also uses auditory and visual imagery throughout the poem in order to illustrate the nature’s impact closely. For example he uses onomatapoeia when describing the birds with “a talking twitter all they had to sing” (line 38). To realize the power of the nature further, the reader is asked to consider the exemplary, almost tender cooperation between the birds and the plants. The birds “sing the wildflowers up from root and seed” (line 53) and thereby free them or make them strong and alive; with the birds announcing spring, the plants seem to be able to resist the snow finally. It can also be assumed that the narrator himself feels better, as the previous “thought repressed and moody with the weather (is) nonetheless there ready to be freed” (line 51 - 52). Therefore, the birds are able to bring about a positive effect on their environment.
             With this poem, it becomes clear that Robert Frost appreciates our nature’s ability to overcome obstacles through interaction and solidarity. Seemingly, he wants the reader to see the wisdom that one may gain from birds. He even gives them the appellation of “the country’s singing strength” (line 50), indicating his respect for them. Moreover, he makes the whole poem a metaphor for optimism, showing the birds make the best out of the situation because they can not change the conditions anyway.
 

Some other rhetorical devices in the poem:

- Anaphora: Lines 5 + 6 (“They (...) They”), Lines 22 + 23 (“Some (...) Some”), Lines 38 + 39 (“A (...) A”), Lines 50 + 51 (“The (...) the”)

- Simile: Line 34 (“like ripples over rocks”)

- Personification: Line 2 (“The flakes could find no landing place to form), line 4-5 (“and still they failed of any lasting hold. They made no impression on the black.”), line 9 (“did grass and garden ground confess it snowed”), line 28 (“the trees they’d had enough of with once trying”)

- auditory imagery: Line 38 (“a talking twitter all they had to sing”), Line 41 (“a whir among white branches great and small”)

- visual imagery: for example line 11 ff. (“next day the scene was piled and puffed and dead. The grass lay flattened under one great tread. Borne down until the end almost took root, the rangey bough anticipated fruit with snowball cupped in every opening bud. The road alone maintained itself in mud”), line 33 (“the road became a channel running flocks of glossy birds like ripples over 

Commentary on 40 lines of “The Fall of the House of Usher”

IB English
October 6^th, 2012

Commentary on 40 lines of “The Fall of the House of Usher”

            In the first 40 lines of the short story “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Edgar Allan Poe expresses the narrator’s uncomfortableness when arriving at and regarding the house of his childhood friend Roderick Usher. Through numerous rhetorical devices, Poe constructed a world charged with atmosphere in which the narrator struggles, but still meets the desire of his friend.
             “With the first glimpse of the building (line 6),” the narrator already feels uncomfortable; he is overcome by a gloom which he emphasizes as “insufferable (line 6-7).” Not really knowing why it happens to him, he becomes unnerved and feels a little bit scared by the “vacant and eye-like windows (line 12).” This personification suggests that the house is looking at the narrator; however, through the word vacant and other descriptions of the house as being bleak, one imagines the setting to be empty, desolate, and lifeless. The “view of the melancholy House of Usher (line 5)” is another personification that enhances the creepiness, and it becomes clear that the place where the narrator has arrived conveys feelings of dreariness and even depression. The surroundings of the house, including a “dreary tract of country (line 3-4),” “ghastly tree-stems (line 31),” “white trunks of decayed trees (line 12 – 13),” and “rank (...) gray sedge(s) (line 12, 30),” increase this impression.
             Not only the gloomy atmosphere created by Poe, but also symbolism contributes to the feeling that something dark is happening at – or rather in - the House of Usher. The narrator arrives on a “dull, dark, and soundless day (line 1)” in autumn; it is evening and the “clouds hung oppressively low (line 2).” These words symbolize that something comes to end; perhaps they foreshadow that a death or something dark is about to happen in the house. Another symbol is the house itself, described as a “mansion of gloom (line 32).” It makes the narrator “ponder (line 21),” “reflect (line 24),” and “pause to think (line 18),” thus acting as an embodiment of something the narrator is reminded of. Through a continuous change between internal and external action, it becomes clear which effect the appearance of the scene has on the narrator. He indicates an experience with opium, which is probably what he is reminded of by the house – he compares the “utter depression of soul (line 13)” that overwhelms him when looking at the house to “the bitter lapse into everyday life” after an opium high.
             The narrator uses very formal terms when talking of his visit, which adds to the feeling that he does not feel quite comfortable being at this house. His decision to help his friend, who was a “boon companion in boyhood (line 34),” seems to stem from a feeling of obligation. Having noticing the “nervous agitation (line 37)” of Usher’s handwriting, the narrator might have thought it was very urgent to aid his old friend.  He states that he “proposed to (himself) a sojourn of some weeks (line 32 – 33)” after having received the “wildly importunate (line 36)” letter. Nevertheless, when he arrives after a long distance of riding his horse alone, he does not seem to reconceive his decision to help this person, who is, after all, nearly a stranger after the “many years had elapsed since (their) last meeting (line 34 – 35).” Perhaps he felt liable to care about diseased Usher who has described him as his “best, and indeed only personal friend (line 39 – 40),” a fact that does not add to a favorable opinion of Usher.
             All in all, Poe’s wordchoice, rhetorical devices, and creation of atmosphere give a scary and frightening sensation. Switching between external and internal action with smoothest transitions, the narrator’s inner conflict in response to his dark surrounding becomes terrificly clear. Through emphasis on the ghastly setting, the reader experiences the same shiver as if listening to a horror story. The passage suggests that the narrator does not only feel uncomfortable through having the impression that the house watches him, but also through his assentation to help Usher.

Commentary on 40 lines of “The Cask of Amontillado”

IB English
November 3^rd, 2012

Commentary on 40 lines of “The Cask of Amontillado”

The first 40 lines of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Cask of Amontillado” reveal that the narrator Montresor is going to take a terrible revenge upon Fortunato because he has insulted him. The function of this excerpt is to build up the story’s skeleton for one final effect: Giving shocking insight into a murderer’s mind. Poe uses many rhetorical devices to create this effect.
             The story starts a hyperbole within a hyperbole. Montresor is upset about the “thousand injuries” (line 1) that Fortunato did to him, which is a hyperbole because Fortunato most probably did not injure the narrator as much as a thousand times. The hyperbole makes the narrator seem quite unreliable and dramatic due to this overstatement. Anyhow, Montresor is even more indignant about an unspecified insult of Fortunato. He pledges to take revenge on him, which is another hyperbole as it turns out that this revenge is going to be murder when Montresor mentions his “thought of (Fortunatos) immolation” (line 13)  – a very extreme, exaggerated reaction on an insult. It seems like Montresor is so affronted by the insult that he goes wild and makes such an insane plan to punish Fortunato.
             On a day of carnival, Fortunato is encountered drunk by Montresor. It turns out that Fortunato is a respected Italian known for his understanding of wine but also his fraud. This characterization turns out to be ironic when Montresor tells about his receiving of Amontillado, a rare wine, but says that he is afraid of having been subject to a scam. It effects the feeling that Montresor makes fun of Fortunato. Another irony is that Fortunato wears “motley” (line 24) clothes like a jester. Here it foreshadows that Montresor is going to make a fool out of him. The next irony follows immediately as Montresor claims that he is “so pleased to see (Fortunato)” that he can not stop shaking hands with him. Moreover, he pretendingly greets his “dear Fortunato” and compliments him for his good-looking appearance on that day. It is multi-ironic since Montresor is actually not happy to see Fortunato but already in a thrill of anticipation to take revenge; and secondly, because it is carnival season and therefore everybody looks kind of funny but Montresor fawns on Fortunato by saying he would look “remarkably well.” (line 29) Another irony is the name Fortunato; it is Italian for “fortunate” but it turns out that the man is not fortunate at all because Montresor will kill him. The setting and atmosphere, as it is “about dusk” (line 22) during the “supreme madness of the carnival season” (line 22-23) foreshadows Fortunato’s bad fate since evening settings allude to something coming to an end or perish and the carnival season, usually being a time of ridiculousness and folly, sets a contrast to the serious destiny that is waiting on Fortunato.
             In conclusion, Poe uses a lot of irony and foreshadowing in order to show how crazy Montresor’s plan of revenge. As a result the reader is directly woven into the story, especially through the use of first person narration. It becomes clear that fortune can not assist Fortunato. Montresor’s force of rage finds an easy opportunity of payback when Fortunato is drunk. This situation makes the reader realize that one does not always have control over other people’s minds and reactions, and that it can be dangerous in life under actual unconcerned circumstances.