“Close Reading of a Passage”

“Yet, as I drew nearer home, grief and fear again overcame me. Night also closed around; and when I could hardly see the dark mountains, I felt still more gloomily. The picture appeared a vast and dim scene of evil, and I foresaw obscurely  that I was destined to become the most wretched of human beings. Alas! I prophesied truly, and failed only in one single circumstance, that in all the misery I imagined and dreaded, I did not conceive the hundredth part of the anguish I was destined to endure.”  (Shelley 47)

“Close Reading of a Passage”

    I find this to be a very important paragraph in the story because it is at this very moment that V. Frankenstein comes to the realization that he will only continue to suffer during the remainder of his life. It is, in a way ,foreshadowing the events which are to come. When V. Frankenstein states, “Yet, as I drew nearer home, grief and fear again overcame me.” (Shelley 47), he is not yet aware of the full repercussions of his creation, however, it appears that he somehow knows that he is to blame for the terrible misfortune his family has endured. This is further shown when he professes, “ I prophesied truly, and failed only in one single circumstance…” (Shelley 47). He is feeling an overwhelming amount of guilt over the circumstances surrounding the last six years. He is remembering the day which his life turned from utter excitement experienced in the final days of bringing life to his finest creation to the instantaneous change to complete fear and disgust and what he had done. How does he know at this moment that these events, the creation of the monster and the death of his brother, are intertwined? When he says, “ … and I foresaw obscurely that I was destined to become the most wretched of human being” (Shelley 47),  it is as thought he knows that this is only the beginning of his suffering and he will never again feel happiness.
    This is the point in the story when a vast transition takes place; a point in which the reality of his actions abruptly overcomes him. He knows, without any factual evidence, that he has cause an enormous amount of pain in the lives of the ones he loves. In concluding this paragraph V. Frankenstein confesses, “ … I did not conceive the hundredth part of the anguish I was destined to endure” (Shelley 47). He is overwhelmed with guilt. He seems to be reassuring himself that he did not intend for the misery, which has bestowed his family, to occur. The feelings presented in these sentences hold a great deal of importance to the entire story.


Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. J. Paul Hunter. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1996. Print.

Visit: http://www.maryshelley.nl/  to learn more about Mary Shelley and her novel Frankenstein

“Dread”

Prieto 1

Essay #2: Writing about poetry
Rebekah Prieto - ENG102

“Dread”

    The poem by Mary Karr, “Field of Skulls“, is one which is full of dread and horror. The imagery presented could rattle you right down to your bones. When Karr writes, “a field of skulls, angled jaws and eye-sockets, a zillion scooped-out crania”(10-11), she is making thoughts enter your mind that you never thought possible; thoughts which make you want to purge any defilements you possess. This poem, written about a twisted and disturbed individual, shows how incredibly demented ones mind can become if fear is allowed to take over.
    The representation of fear is present anywhere you look. In the beginning Karr writes, “let’s say the window you’ve picked is a black postage stamp you spend hours at, sleepless, drinking gin “ (2-5). I wonder why this individual, who I see as a man, is so afraid, is it because he has had something terrible happen to him? Is it because he is mentally ill, maybe. I think it is because he has been a drunk his entire life, he has never been successful, and he has become deeply depressed about his status in life. He fears, or could it be that he wishes, he will be taken to live in the concentric sphere surrounding the earth which carries the celestial bodies of the worlds most feared and malicious demons.  How can one person become so demented? He looks at the night sky and all he can see is evil. He feels that demons are closing in around him.
    Perhaps this is a man who has done wrong to someone. Perhaps he has succeeded in an unrighteous act of evil and now he must pay for his wrong doing. He is afraid. His acts are schizophrenic in nature. “Perhaps that disgruntled mail clerk from your job has already scratched your name on a bullet—that’s him rustling in the azaleas” (17-20). His hallucinations are

Prieto 2

overcoming reality; he fears that everyone is out to get him. He is no longer able to function
normally. Has he become mad beyond recovery? Will the vexed demons teach him a lesson?
    “You caress the thought, for it proves there’s no better spot for you than here” (20-22). He has become a hermit; he is afraid to leave to safe corridors of his home. These lines only help to prove his fear and dread of the night’s monstrosities. Or is it he who is the monster? He sits on his sofa telling his fears to no one but the emptiness which surrounds him. Why is he talking to himself? What is he plotting? He has no one to turn to; he is completely alone. He is trying to decide if this world, with all of its deceitfulness and spit, is worth being a part of.
    This poem is written as if it is his mind speaking to him. I hear it as a woman’s voice. She is reminding him of all the evil he is made of. She is threatening him. It is a dark and frightening poem full of intense imagery. I feel the fear running through my blood as I read line after line, “for criminals roam your very block” (13-14) and “plus minor baby-eaters unidentified, probably in your very midst”(16-17). I can see this disgusting man, dirty, hasn’t shaved in days, and sweating from the fear and alcohol running through his ragged veins. His blood runs cold. His thoughts of the evil that roam the earth’s surface are merely comparisons of himself. His conscious is eating him alive. Will he survive?
    I am disgusted by most every line. The images is my head make me want to cry in fear. The dimensions of evil intertwine in my mind. I can’t help but think that the author is talking about someone she knows; what else could possess her to create such evil thoughts. Maybe this is a man who has done her wrong; killed her soul. Now she is out to torment his every thought. Will she torture him until he is no more? Does she wish for him to become a part of the “Field of Skulls”? “You stare and furious stare, confident there are no gods out there” (24-25). She is

Prieto 3

telling him that he can look for as long as he wants but no one will ever come to save him. She is telling his that even God can not save him now. He will pay for his wrong doings. He will suffer.
Like Chinese water torture he will sit in confinement; a prisoner in his own home he will remain until he can take no more. The thoughts of what is waiting for him in the dark of night are pulling on his emotions. He stares out of the blackest window and as he cringes at the dark; he is afraid, yet he cannot help but to stare. He fears that if he stops looking that will be the moment the demons will take him. She is succeeding in her devious plan to make him suffer.
    Towards the end of his battle his conscious seems as though she is feeling some guilt about the anguish she is causing him when she says, “In this way, you’re blind to your own eye’s intricate machine” (25-26). She is telling him that if he just opens his eyes he will see that there is nothing there; there are no demons waiting to gobble him up. She is saying that he has allowed himself to become blind and now his eyes are playing tricks on him. The suggestions help you see that even though she has been out to cause him the ultimate fear, she has a heart. She is feeling some guilt about the hurt and fear that she has caused and the numbness she has created. Then she comes to her senses and regains her focus. She is angry about the wrong doing he has imposed on her and now she will make him suffer. She can feel that the end is near; her plan to end him is now within reach.
    He is unable now to see reality, ”If the skulls are there” (28) “could they not stare with slack jawed envy at the fine flesh that covers your scalp, the numbered hairs” (30-32). He is frightened to his core now. The demons and monsters are licking their lips; they want to take his very flesh. This cannibalistic imagery is used to further implement the fear and dread he is feeling. The idea that they are staring at him with “slack jawed envy” (31) represents that his

Prieto 4

demented thoughts have completely taken over his soul, and will soon take his flesh.
    He can no longer take the torments of his mind, of his conscious, and of his body. He will now end his own life, “at the force your hands hold?” (33). With his own two hands, the force, he is no more. His conscious has succeeded in her mission; her goal was to make him suffer and ensure that he would possess the ultimate fear. She drove him completely crazy to the point of death. He has now received what he must have deserved.
    The fear and dread in this poem are enough to make anyone fear the night, fear demons that roam the earth, and dread the very thought of going crazy. Her propose was to show how the mind has the power to drive someone to taking their own life. There is amazing yet disturbing imagery through out the entire text of the poem.  Mary Karr’s “Field of Skulls”, is an ultimate example of extreme monstrosity and horror.

Prieto 5

Work Cited

Mary Karr, “Field of Skulls” from Viper Rum. Copyright © 1998 by Mary Karr. Web. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171884


Comments: My formating got a little screwy when I copied and pasted
 
I am still unsure if I am summarizing or analyzing??? I would like any input you have whether it is on my grammar or the content. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Response to a poem

I chose this poem for two reasons; first because as a young girl I always dreamed about fairy-tales and hoped they really could come true, and second because as a mother I often read fairy-tales to my children.

The poem by A.E. Stallings takes the idea of stories we all have learned and loved as children and disassembles all of their appeal. A seemingly harmless child’s story all-of-a-sudden becomes frightening and unattainable. She seems to sabotage the idea of a fairy-tale right from the start when she points out all of the “impossible tasks” that they hold. I can’t help but wonder what made her feelings toward fairly-tales so jaded. Yes they are full of fantasy and adventure but these are the ideas that help children engage their imagination and creativity. When she says “Gather the chin hairs of a man-eating goat, Or cross a sulphuric lake in a leaky boat”.( 2-3 )she is exaggerating the obstacles that most be overcome. Is she referencing obstacles in life? Is she saying that we shouldn’t dream of sustaining things in life that seem to be impossible? Is she suggesting that because things are difficult we should just give up?

She uses rhyming, which helps the flow of the poem but almost poses a type of irony. As she attacks the even idea of playful fairy-tales she is engaging in jaunty trickery. As she enters into the second verse she pulls your imagination back into play when she says “You have to fight magic with magic” ( 9 ). You begin to feel that perhaps her coarse negativity towards the idea of a fairy-tale is taking a turn towards playfulness, and then she sends your bliss into a spiraling decline when she says “Marry a monster. Hand over your firstborn son.” (14).

I can’t help but think that she has misinterpreted the point to all fairy-tales; the point is that regardless of the obstacles we are presented with in out lives we must fight the battles a keep looking until we find our happily-ever-after. When she says “Marry a monster” (14) is she saying that a happy, fairy-tale marriage is only an object of ones imagination? When she says “Always it’s impossible what someone asks” ( 8 )is she saying that people always set their expectations to high? Fairy-tales are created to engage your mind in playful dreams, to create desires and pull forth your imagination; Stallings rips the dreams from our fingertips an forces them into a pool of dread.


Help to encourage a life time love for reading! Whether it is a fairy-tale or an auto biography, make it fun!

http://www.readingfoundation.org/

  A. E. (Alicia) Stallings. Fairy-tale Logic. 2010. web http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/238826


Photo: http://www.deepintolove.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/wallpaper-Fairy-Tale-Lake.jpg

Summary vs Analysis

Example of a summary or plot synopsis for the famous story of Hansel and Gretel:

    Hansel and Gretel is a story of two young children, a brother and sister, who come from a very poor family. Their step mother convinces their father that they must take the children deep into the forest and leave them there because there is not enough food for the four of them. On her second attempt the stepmother is successful in loosing the children in the thickest part of the forest. As the story goes, the children search for three days trying to find their way home when the stumble upon a gingerbread house. This is an encouraging site to their hungry tummies and they begin to vigorously eat the house.
    The house in all of its glory is actually a trap created to catch young children. The evil witch who built it developed a malicious plan to fatten and then eat the children. On the day the children were to be eaten, Gretel cleverly decided to push the old witch into the oven and lock the door. She released her brother Hansel and they took the dead witches precious pearls and stones. They ventured back into the forest and eventually found their way home to their father.
 
In their absence their step mother had perished. Hansel and Gretel lived happily ever after with their father and they never had to go hungry again.

Example of an analysis for the famous story of Hansel and Gretel:


    This crude and unusual story is a common and classic children’s story. It’s interesting to think that this is the type of store parents wish to read to their children due to the frightening situations and scenarios which take place. Although the end result is rather pleasant, the events leading up to it are heartbreaking and evil. The story displays the harsh reality of hard times in the 1800’s. A time when this type of situation, such as the decision Hansel and Gretel’s stepmother forced upon their father to leave them deep in the thick of the forest to be eaten by wild beasts as to prolong their own lives, may not have been to far fetched.
    It is yet another story that portrays stepmothers as being ruthless, cruel, and vengeful. Just like popular fairytales such as Cinderella and Snowhite, Hansel and Gretel creates an uneasy feeling towards stepmothers. In a society, like the one we live in today, there are many families that are mixed with a combination of stepmothers, stepfathers, step siblings, and half siblings. This makes the thought of teaching children that stepmothers are cruel a very scary thing.  Parents should think twice before they expose their children to such a wretched story that is full of death, deceit and cruelty towards children.
    A positive side to Hansel and Gretel’s story is that it demonstrates the way siblings should work together and how creative their minds can be. When Gretel pushes the old witch into the oven and releases her brother from the cage, the store is showing us how willpower can help us become stronger both physically and mentally. While this story has some very positive ideas, it is frightening for young children. Parents should consider the negative affect this story may have on their children before they expose them.

Helpful websites that explain the difference between a summary and a plot synopsis are:

http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/summary.html

http://www.westga.edu/~mhenry/summary%20vs%20analysis.htm

Resources for Images:
Ginger Bread House Picture: http://www.dinikusuma.com/pictures/2010/12/Hansel-and-Gretel-09.jpg
Witch Picture: http://crookedkitty.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/hansgretfinalfornow.jpg