Bob Dylan's 'Mr. Tambourine Man'

          Dylan's 'Mr Tambourine Man' (also covered by The Byrds), written and performed in the 1960's, tells the story of a young man wandering lonely city streets on sleepless nights dodging in and out of insanity. The contrast between the main character's external circumstance to his internal indifference draws attention to a disconnect that exists between him and his environment, which in this case is society.
          If 'insanity' can be termed by repeating the same action and expecting a different outcome then it can be confirmed that the character in 'Mr Tambourine Man' is insane. Assuming that the tambourine man symbolizes entertainment of any form, drinking, 'partying', music and other art forms, the character then is really attempting to find fulfillment through similar outlets every time he says:

Hey ! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to
Hey ! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.

The activities he partakes in however, only send him further and further away from contentment. As each stanza only serves to emphasize his isolation.

First Stanza:

My weariness amazes me, I'm branded on my feet
I have no one to meet

Second Stanza:

 I'm ready to go anywhere, I'm ready for to fade
Into my own parade, cast your dancing spell my way
I promise to go under it.

Third Stanza:

  Though you might hear laughin', spinnin' swingin' madly across the sun
It's not aimed at anyone, it's just escapin' on the run

           Though throughout the poem the character is supposedly walking around the city at night, in the final stanza he goes on to describe sights not usually seen on a midnight stroll. The speaker describes a diamond sky over top of a seaside circus, insinuating he desires to be some place else, if not physically then mentally. He reiterates this idea in his closing line. "With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow."

 

The Sunset Limited Perspective

A video explaining how our minds 'trick' us into believing some pretty unbelievable things.
           If someone walks in on their spouse cheating on them, but doesn't want to be aware of such an occurrence he or she could justify the situation by saying something like "They were just watching a movie." or "She probably spilled spaghetti sauce on her shirt and took it off to wash it and tripped coming out of the bathroom and fell on top of my husband." People can manipulate their surroundings to better fit their ideal reality, no matter how insane it sounds. Some of the most 'out there' theories come from humans, mortal beings, trying to explain immortality, or the afterlife. In a movie written by Cormac McCarthy The Sunset Limited two men get into a heated discussion about faith versus reason. Each character relies on his sole perception of world events to defend his ideals.
           There is a white man, who works as a professor of English. The white man's history is one reliant on education, denying some of life's other aspects such as compassion or empathy. A story is shared of a time when the white man's father was dying of cancer and he never went to visit his deathbed. Not soon after this the white man criticizes the black man for trying to help 'junkies' claiming that people don't change and some simply cannot be helped. It becomes obvious, rather quickly, that the white man is jaded by his use of facts and dependence on scientific thinking. His opinion that nothing comes after death is a direct result of his life occurrences, that ultimately molded his pessimistic perception.
            On the other end of the conversation is a black man, whose shaggy apartment sets the background for the entire movie. He tells stories of fights and arguments he was a part of while in prison. The contrast between his dark past and his present, where he works in some factory and leads an honest simple life at home, may attribute to his strong faith in God. Whereas the white man never encountered a significant change, that the audience is aware of, the black man is able to trust in the good rather than the bad because the 'good' is what personally saved him.

Analyzing 'Baby Villon' by Philip Levine

        
           Imagine a random pole is taken on the streets of Nashville as well as Chicago and the corners of Los Angeles. People are asked to describe a snake. How often would participants respond with adjectives such as warm, cute, or soft? The likelihood of someone denoting a slithering, often venomous creature in this manner is similar to the chances of someone associating babies with bank robbers. Neither connotation would be common, if present at all. For this reason Philip Levine's poem 'Baby Villon' draws immediate attention. His purposely juxtaposed title sets a dismal tone for the piece, which goes on to reveal the story of a boy forced out of childhood and into war.
            The poem's first stanza introduces a traveler who faces discrimination no matter where he stays. "In Bangkok he's robbed because he's white; in London because he's black". Obvious confusion of race demonstrates the prejudice of native people, who are often resistant to foreign soldiers invading their land. Being 'robbed' doesn't have to relate to loss of monetary value. Onlookers could be stripping the person of his sensitivity, his empathy, his humanity. Lines 7 and 8 of the second stanza help to draw this conclusion by stating "...There's no passion in his voice, no anger in the flat brown eyes flecked with blood." The speaker's use of alliteration between 'flat' and 'flecked' alerts the reader of the signifigance of understanding this person's emotional state.
            Imagery in the fourth stanza affirms all assumptions that the 'he' in the poem has had encounters of violence. A bakery, usually a place of warmth and sweet treats, is described as having it's windows "smashed and the fresh bread dusted with glass". This is presented as a memory being told by the character of the poem to the speaker. The warrior ends his reminiscing with words of advice "...Never disparage the stiff bristles that guard the head of the fighter." A phrase that could be interpreted to warn the speaker to always keep distance, especially mentally, from those closest to him. Such a defensive outlook would be reasonable from the mouth of someone who has witnessed death and the lack of integrity many men have right before they die.
             In the final two stanzas the reader becomes aware not only of the soldier's shockingly young age, but also of his fatal condition. The speaker explains that this is the "first and last visit" between him and the other boy, revealed as youthful through his physical demeanor of weighing only "116 pounds [at], five feet two, [and] no bigger than a girl". With everything that this young man has witnessed his death could be a literal one of physical illness or a metaphorical death, where the boy has lost his innocence and can no longer spend time with people his own age for lack of ability to relate with them. The second theory weighs heavier on the reader when the speaker explains this boy is "[him]self made otherwise by all his pain".

Interpretation of Shakespeare's Sonnet 116

[Let me not to the marriage of true minds]

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
   If this be error and upon me proved,
   I never writ, nor no man ever loved. 

          Being a poem about everlasting love it is fitting that Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 should begin with two lines mimicking the words announced by the priest at most wedding ceremonies (Shakespeare 472). The call to all those present, if any reject the two people joining together, to speak and explain why. I feel that what Shakespeare has written is a response to such a summon as well as a declaration or warning toward those who seek true love.
          The writing emphasizes the immortality of love and claims it as not just an emotion, such as anger or happiness, which can fluctuate depending on a person's surroundings, but as a state of permanent being "Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds" (Shakespeare 472). Shakespeare goes on to declare that honest love is so much embedded within a being that even when an inside force, such as unfaithfulness, pushes it and begs it to break, love will not falter or change.
          Love is described as reliable and ever present, to the extent that it is compared to the Northern star, a guide by which one leads his or her life (Shakespeare 472). The strong convictions of this poem leave the reader needing a brave, victorious ending. Shakespeare satisfies the need for closure by prompting that if love is not as he has described then he has never written a word and no man has ever truly loved (Shakespeare 472).

 Works Cited:

       Shakespeare, William (1609). [Let me not to the marriage of true minds]. In B. Alison, & K. J. Mays, The Norton Introduction to Literature 10th Edition (pp. 472). New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company.

theme of "The Birth Mark" by Nathaniel Hawthorne

          Whether hanging in a tree, floating in water, or sleeping in bed humans are an imperfect species. Seeing people as flawed beings is not a mere perception, rather it is fact, proven by the limitations of mental and physical dexterity. A single person cannot retain all the world's information any more than one man can live forever. Though such natural observations are undeniable they have perplexed some of human history's greatest minds. In Nathanial Hawthorne's "The Birth Mark" Aylmer, an elite scientist, is crazed with the idea of perfection and determined to create it by means of his beloved wife, Georgiana. However, he is met with grave consequence that leads the reader to ask "Should anyone contend with earth's natural order?".
            Hawthorne was an American writer during the 19th century (The American Novel). Though this biographical information does not define all of his works, it does help to widen the perspective of the reader. He was alive during the aftermath of a drastic world-wide shift, concerning just about every aspect of society, known as the Industrial Revolution. The scientist within "The Birth Mark", I believe, is symbolic of those who lead this radical transformation, explaining why the story carefully opens by describing him as belonging to the 18th century (Hawthorne, 218).

 

1. Hawthorne, N. (2011). The Birth-Mark. In A. Booth, & K. J. Mays, The Norton Introduction to Literature Portable Tenth Edition (pp. 218-231). New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

2. The American Novel - Nathaniel Hawthorne. (2007). Retrieved from PBS: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americannovel/timeline/hawthorne.html

symbolism in "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin

               What ignites the feeling of shock in a modern world person? Every morning, on the way to get coffee, America’s privileged walk past pregnant women, begging for change, and don’t so much as offer a smile. During the day we drive by wreckage of road side accidents and never reach to turn down the music. By midnight wild amounts of people are listening to sounds of gun shots and tropic storms as they drift asleep. But, what if that beggar was a friend, that victim a family member? A particular work of fiction titled “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin opens with the narrator receiving news that his younger brother has been arrested during a bad drug bust. Among many other literary techniques, Baldwin uses allegorical language to reinforce the tone and theme of his short story.

                Near the middle of “Sonny’s Blues” the unnamed big brother reminisces on all the family gatherings that took place in his childhood home. The first few sentences concerning his memory are written in a playful tone, "...the old folks were talking after the big Sunday dinner"(Baldwin, 83) that quickly switches to a somber one as he begins to describe his family’s oblivion to the fading of the afternoon sun. Light is commonly used to symbolize good and here stands for the loss of what is good, such as the purity of his younger brother. The adults in the room quiet themselves and retract from conversation all together, trying not to admit to the darkening sky outside. The act of ignoring the circumstance stands for their positions in life. Each knows the hardships of crime or poverty or racial discrimination, but feels that these things cannot be avoided or changed. With animal-like instinct the children, scattered throughout, fear the sudden shift in environment as one boy "...hopes that the hand which strokes his forehead will never stop"(Baldwin, 83). What the young ones sense is a very real fear of being alone, without guidance, tossed into an unpredictable, dangerous world. (Baldwin 83-84)
               With one recollection, the speaker has foreshadowed the story's end and revealed its entire nature.  In a broad sense mankind all spawn from a central point. Every person is born small and defenseless. Though our upbringings can push us in different directions, there is a time when a boy becomes a man, or a girl becomes a woman, and can choose for his or her self what direction to follow. This moment is symbolized by the setting of the sun in "Sonny's Blues". Inevitably people choose different paths and grow to handle circumstances with separately molded outlooks, as the narrator grew to become a teacher and his brother a musician addicted to heroin.

Works Cited:

       1. Baldwin, James (2011). Sonny's Blues. In B. Alison, & K. J. Mays, The Norton Introduction to Literature 10th Edition (pp. 75-101). New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company.

diction in "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver

            Raymond Carver begins his short story, ‘Cathedral’, focusing on the initial encounter between a seeing man and a blind man, with blunt and honest language. The former narrates the experience from his point of view (pun intended), making no effort to censor himself. Only identified by 'Bub'(Carver, 36) or 'Husband'(Carver, 35) the focalizer's use of simple wording gives him credibility with his audience.
            By the end of the first paragraph the reader learns that the speaker’s wife has invited her long time friend, who happens to be blind, over to their home (Carver, 32). Immediately a sense of reluctance, from the husband, is introduced "...his being blind bothered me...In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed...not something I looked forward to"(Carver, 32). The choppy pattern of words is comparable to any person's thought process. Though the reader may not agree entirely with the narrator, everyone has been placed in a similar situation. Like being a dinner guest at a new friend's house when they serve tuna casserole. Though the cooking must be endured this does not stop someone from thinking up all sorts of heinous comments. The familiarity of the husband's tone allows the reader to maintain empathy when he makes politically incorrect comments such as his racial discrimination toward the idea of the blind man having a colored wife (Carver, 34).
            The language style, or diction, is what finalizes the growth of the narrator at the end. With everything the audience has learned there would be no reason for the speaker to suddenly soften. So after the two men have been forced to entertain one another for several hours, the blind man asks a favor of the narrator. He asks him if he would describe the look of a cathedral, since the structures were being discussed through a television left on in the room. The seeing man then fails to explain a cathedral using only words, so with the blind man’s hand lightly grasping his own he draws one (Carver, 42-44). As he draws the movement across the page and the attention to detail are recognized as his only means of expressing an idea to the blind man. During this action the narrator has a revelation, he understands, to the extent of which he can, what life is like for a person outside of himself. He learns another man's perspective, and is only able to describe it as “…really something” (Carver, 44).

It's easy to understand why the Narrator had such a hard time describing a Cathedral.

Monet spent nearly 3 years painting the same one.

Works Cited:

        1. Carver, R. (2011). Cathedral. In B. Alison, & K. J. Mays, The Norton Introduction to Literature 10th Edition (pp. 32-44). New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company.

        2. Paintings by Claude Monet from his Rouen Cathedral Series