Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Anthony Mahfood

Dr. Ellis

Understanding Literature

March 13, 2011

Relationships

The three readings for this week are all related through the theme of relationships. In the poem “I Sing the Body Electric” by Walt Whitman, Whitman shows how important the body is and how it connects people. The second half of “Frankenstein” shows the effects emotions can have on people. The last reading “One's-Self I Sing,” by Walt Whitman show that communities are build on the relationships of the people who live in them.

Walt Whitman shows the relationship between the body and soul and how they work together to create the person you are. When he talks about the body it is not only the out parts he is referring to but also the inner parts that make up a person. The mind and the soul create who one is and the body keeps it all together. The length of the poem is unusual and shows how strongly Whitman feels about the topic.

“One's-Self I Sing,” by Walt Whitman was a very short poem, but has great meaning behind it. The last line of the poem when he says “The Modern Man I sing” ties up what he has being saying about passion, pulse, and power, they are put together to create the modern man. The speaker is showing how all aspects of life are used to create the modern man.

In Frankenstein the monster is the one who shows us how necessary relationships are because without relationships we are empty and that emptiness creates anger. The monster wanted nothing more than to fit in but people couldn’t accept him because he was not like them and therefore pushed him away. The relationship between victor and Elizabeth is the relationship that the monster was looking for and because he couldn’t have it he decided to destroy the one Victor and Elizabeth had.

The readings show how complex human interactions are and that material things are only so important. When I went to help mentor children you could see there desire for attention they constantly give trouble and do think that will turn you attention towards them. It is often difficult because all the students want attention so it becomes chaotic and normally ends in the children being punished. This is what the readings are telling us that the human body is complex and often hard to please.

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