Monday, March 21, 2011

The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber is a short story written by author Ernest Hemmingway that delves into the nuances between manhood and courage. Macomber in the story starts out as a coward and throughout it he works his way up from running from his fears to finally facing them. Another main character, Wilson, are the complete opposite of Macomber and is there to show the reader who he wishes he could be as Wilson is the complete opposite of him. Wilson is a courageous single man the complete opposite of the fearful Macomber, who is not only afraid of the animals but also of his wife. The ending of the story shows Macomber overcoming his fear and as I believe ascending into manhood and becoming who he always wanted to be a ‘Wilson’ like figure, but at the same time his wife, Margot, shoots at the animal and misses killing her husband destroying the man that he became instantly.

The first poem of this weeks reading was that of Emily Dickenson, titled: “Tell all the truth but tell it slant”. This poem focuses on knowing the truth of something but telling it in a way to not harm the readers, as Dickinson does not believe the readers to be ready for the truth so she tells it with a slant. This slant is used both literally and figuratively as Dickinson writes these poems in a way that is confusing to the reader and tries to hide the real truth but in her writing she gives out hints to show that what she is saying in this isn’t truly what is real by using the word “lies” incorporating both meanings of the word into the poem.

The next poem I read was also by Dickenson named “Success is Counted Sweetest—“. This poem focuses on the idea of what things mean to a person. Dickinson claims that people who win, or have everything do not know the meaning of anything, but when people lose they can and will appreciate the times they win a lot more than the ones who always win or in some cases always will have everything they want.

“I heard a Fly buzz--when I died” was the third poem I read by Emily Dickinson for this week. This poem is about the speaker lying on her deathbed and the thoughts that run through her head, as her time grows nearer and nearer. The last thing she hears is a fly buzzing around her as her life slowly ends. I believe this symbolizes that the closer she gets to the end of her life she can concentrate on every detail in the world, even the most unflattering parts like a fly buzzing around a room, which relates back to her previous poem about how when everything is lost you can really focus on something and see the meaning of it.

“Because I could not stop for Death—”, was our last poem we had to read for this week and is written by Emily Dickinson once again. This poem deals solely with death and the speaker’s passage to it as she is talking from her grave. It shows the immortality one gets from dying and how time becomes blurred together showing the meaning of life being more important and how the speaker realizes this as they always comes back to the day they died.

All the readings for this week seem to focus on a theme finding meaning in whatever you do or the quest to find meaning. Emily Dickenson’s poetry is either directly related to that theme or loosely bound to it but can be found if read very closely. The short story by Hemmingway posses the part of the quest to find meaning as he is unsatisfied with his life he goes to try and become a ‘Wilson’ like figure in order to find meaning in his own life.

The event I attended this week was the viewing of the movie: Young Frankenstein. This movie is based off of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein and although it is not an accurate depiction of what happened it shows the prominent themes Shelley tried to portray to the reader in it. This movie did it in a particular way though as it was done in a comedic way. The movie doesn’t follow the story but takes the themes of Frankenstein, the monster, trying to fit into the normal human lifestyle, as Shelley portrayed him in the novel. With this said I still believe Young Frankenstein is a good movie to see, but to get the full effect of Frankenstein and what Shelley tries to tell the reader one must read the novel, and not fully look into any of the movies that have been created.

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