The naturalism of the "Snows of Kilimanjaro" by Ernest Hemingway is seen throughout the main character's hubris. Harry's pride in his body manifested when he did not take care of his cut on his leg. He thought it would heal itself, because minor injurys had always healed themselves in the past. Consequently, the inattention to his injury led to his eventual demise.
Stream of consciousness is demonstrated by the narrator as he show, by italics, Harry's thoughts. Many of his thoughts are morose. Death is the major theme of the piece as the dying character dwells on his own dying process.
The writer, Harry, blames the rich women in his life for not allowing him the freedom to write, because of his great love for them. Their smothering love, he believes, distracted him.
Thinking of nothing but death and the regret of not having the potentioal life to write anything else, Charlie tells his present wife of his impending death, but only blames her in his mind.
I believe that if not for the encouragement by his present wife there would not have been a story. The spouse encourages Harry to believe that a plane is coming for him, which will take him to a hospital.
As the gangrene-filled man slips into a coma, he dreams that he is being rescued, but as they get to the place where the pilot and Harry see the snowy part of Kilimanjaro he sees his death in the cold snow topped mountain instead of a hospital.
Ultimately, Harry's wife's optimism did rub off on him, as evidenced by his last dream.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
My Blog on "Babylon Revisited" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald's modernism piece of work, "Babylon Revisited" about the main character, Charlie, was a work about the upper class and then upper middle class struggles of one man to regain custody of his daughter from his sister-in-law's highly protected guardianship.
The hardships Charlie emotionally endures to regain custody of Honoria are tremendous. Just when one thinks he will succeed in gaining custody of his little girl, a foreboding of defeat for the primary character is seen in the abrupt interrruption of Charlie's old friends. Lorraine and Duncan, drunk and insistant on resuming old relationships with Charlie, convince Marion, the child's present guardian, that Charlie is not ready to raise his child properly.
Surprisingly, after Mr. Peter's, Charlie's brother-in-law, tells Charlie that Marion has given him another six months to prove himself, Charlie does not go on a drinking binge as I thought he would. Charlie goes on enduring and living without his child for six more months, or will it be forever? The narrator vever completely ends the fable.
I like an ending like that. The narrator leaves it to my imangination as to the conclusion.
What amazes me about the work is the liberty the author took with the idea of a woman of that time period having the power to make a decision like that over the opinion of her husband.
The hardships Charlie emotionally endures to regain custody of Honoria are tremendous. Just when one thinks he will succeed in gaining custody of his little girl, a foreboding of defeat for the primary character is seen in the abrupt interrruption of Charlie's old friends. Lorraine and Duncan, drunk and insistant on resuming old relationships with Charlie, convince Marion, the child's present guardian, that Charlie is not ready to raise his child properly.
Surprisingly, after Mr. Peter's, Charlie's brother-in-law, tells Charlie that Marion has given him another six months to prove himself, Charlie does not go on a drinking binge as I thought he would. Charlie goes on enduring and living without his child for six more months, or will it be forever? The narrator vever completely ends the fable.
I like an ending like that. The narrator leaves it to my imangination as to the conclusion.
What amazes me about the work is the liberty the author took with the idea of a woman of that time period having the power to make a decision like that over the opinion of her husband.
My Blog on "The Streetcar Named Desire" by Playwright Tennessee Williams
I believe that there are four main characters in "The Street Car Named Desire" by Tennessee Williams. Blanche is the primary character at the beginning of the narrative in the movie, but the written play begins with Stanley Kowalski and his friend Mitch walking around the corner of a building toward Stanley's rented home in elysian Fields, New Orleans. Stella Knowalski, Stanley's wife is a third main character in the naturalistic play. As Stanley yells at Stella the character reveals his own hubris to the reader. Even though Stella seems to stand up to her husband commanding him not to "holler" (1162) at her, at the end of the story and even throughout, her submission is seen to his dominant pride.
Blanche is the focus of the other main characters as she, right from the start, plays the victim. Instead of accepting and living in the present she chooses to buck the system by continually critizing it and complaining about it. The cultural clash Blanche brings about by her refined Southern mannerisms end up creating a no-win situation in the Kowalski household.
Mitch is initially seen as a different kind of person than the rest of the lower class people in the play. However, at the end of the story, when he shows his true colors, he is actually not any different than Stanley as he tries to rape Blanche in the same room that Stanley later does.
The hubris of Blanche reminds me somewhat of a Greek tragedy herorine. Even though the character was not put to death, she sacrificed herself for her principles, however wrong they seem to be to the reader.
If a real person read the work and had been a victim of rape it could possibly be a very difficult piece to read, unless the memories are totally healed.
Blanche is the focus of the other main characters as she, right from the start, plays the victim. Instead of accepting and living in the present she chooses to buck the system by continually critizing it and complaining about it. The cultural clash Blanche brings about by her refined Southern mannerisms end up creating a no-win situation in the Kowalski household.
Mitch is initially seen as a different kind of person than the rest of the lower class people in the play. However, at the end of the story, when he shows his true colors, he is actually not any different than Stanley as he tries to rape Blanche in the same room that Stanley later does.
The hubris of Blanche reminds me somewhat of a Greek tragedy herorine. Even though the character was not put to death, she sacrificed herself for her principles, however wrong they seem to be to the reader.
If a real person read the work and had been a victim of rape it could possibly be a very difficult piece to read, unless the memories are totally healed.
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