Poetry Response #5

The poem “In Blackwater Woods” by Mary Oliver is about autumn and the cycle of life. Its simplicity, reliance on imagery, and focus on the beauty of nature reminded me of other famous poets like Emily Dickenson. Oliver seeks to understand life through being one with nature. In this poem, Oliver captures the essence of the fall season by having the leaves not only turn colors, but by having them give off “the rich fragrance of cinnamon.” By painting this vivid picture of an autumn scene and appealing to the sense of smell, Oliver draws the audience to her work. To further stress the importance of nature, she uses personification when referring to the bodies of the trees and describing the cattails floating over the “blue shoulders” of the pond. It is curious why she chooses to describe the banks of a pond as a shoulder. On closer reading of the poem, it appears the ponds turned their shoulders to the trees as they were burning. The ponds were not able to stop the great fires that burned the forest and ultimately brought it death. That is why Oliver describes the water as “the black river of loss” and the title of the poem, “In Blackwater Woods” reiterates this idea of death.

Oliver uses the natural phenomenon of forest fires to relate it to one’s mortality. She does not seem to be lamenting the loss caused by the fires but rather accepts death as one’s ultimate outcome. Instead of being pessimistic about dying or worrying about whether there is salvation, Oliver offers a quiet celebration of life. She finds solace and meaning in life. She advises the reader “to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.” Implied by this is the philosophy that man should live his life to the fullest. Man should ‘saisir le moment’ or seize the moment since he does not know how long he will live or what happens to him after death. One should enjoy life and appreciate the beauty in nature.

The Awakening Ch. 5-9

In Chapters 5-9, the reader learns more about the Creole society. The husbands typically do not get jealous when their wives hang out with other men because they do not expect them to be faithful. The other men know they can flirt, but it will never be taken seriously. In addition, the readers get a sense how Edna is drawn to the sea. The sea is mentioned several times and Edna catches herself staring. The sea “reached her like a loving but imperative entreaty”. Gazing and thinking about the “seductive” sea causes Edna to have an “awakening” and realizes her purpose in the world as a human being and their relationships around her. She starts thinking about her past and how religion has been part of her life and is a habit. She seems to think how her life lacks purpose because she feels like she is walking aimlessly.

The reader also learns more about Edna’s relationships with her husband and her children. We learn that the marriage was an accident. She was drawn to him because of his devotion towards her. Her family did not like the idea of her marrying him because he was after all a Creole when she was not. Edna was also fond of her children, but in a weird way. She did not miss them when they were away for the summer, but when they were around she would “gather them passionately to her heart”. She sometimes felt that her children were a responsibility that was forced upon her.

The Awakening Ch. 1-4

In chapters 1-4 in “The Awakening”, we meet Edna, her husband, Robert, and Adele Ratignolle. In the first page of the book, Chopin refers to a birdcage, which could be a symbol of Edna being encaged by her life. It seems that she is a possession to her husband because he looked at her as a “valuable piece of personal property” (4). He accuses her of not giving their children enough attention and care when he is the one who is away from the home at the billiards. Edna is not one of those “mother-women” and does not idolize her children or worship her husband who it seems to think he is superior to his wife. The perfect example of a “mother-woman” is Adele Ratignolle because she is graceful and worships her children and husband.

We learn that her husband (Mr. Pontellier) gives people gifts to win them over. He presents his wife and children presents so they will be pleased with him. In addition, we learn that he is a Creole, which means he is mixed with Spanish and French blood. This means they are part of the aristocratic society and within the society they view highly of themselves. Edna is not a Creole so she is not accustomed to their traditions.

Poetry Response #4

In the poem “Blackberries for Amelia”, Richard Wilbur describes how blackberries transform from leaves to petals to fruit. He is painting a picture in the reader’s mind of nature and how the seasons change from spring, summer, and fall. He uses the blackberries to represent the beginning of a new year that will hopefully be prosperous. It is when one would plant the seeds and anticipate their growth. The fruit itself symbolizes summer where one does not have to worry about anything and just have fun. In addition, the seasons will return each year just like the berries. They give life stability and meaning since they are a constant in our lives.

In addition to just talking about seasons and landscapes, Wilbur compares blackberry leaves and their flowers to stars. He says their leaves reach “out in fans of five” and their flowers have “small, five-petalled blooms of chalky white.” He is making a connection between the flowers and leaves to having five points just like stars do. In addition, they are milky in color just like the celestial bodies. From here, the author becomes pessimistic because he suggests that the universe (stars) and the blackberries might not last for forever. However, Wilbur does not seem too concerned with this idea since he does not have time to worry about it. It seems he has accepted the idea and would rather spend time picking the juicy fruit and spending time with his grandchild. In conclusion, it seems the general theme for this poem is that man should accept the reality of dying and that he should live his life to its fullest and spend time doing things that are important to him.

An Image of Africa- Chinua Achebe

“An Image of Africa” by Chinua Achebe is an article that is critiquing and analyzing “Heart of Darkness”. It took me a little while to actually pick it up and read it because I knew the author wrote “Things Fall Apart”, which is a book that I did not particularly like. However once I started to read it, Achebe makes it pretty obvious that he thinks Conrad was racist by his comments about the natives and how white people were superior. He calls the natives savages, refers them to animals like dogs, talks about how dark they are, and uses the “n” word. Achebe does not think this story is a “work of art” because of its dehumanization of Kurtz and Europe. Also, Achebe says how some of Conrad’s facts/location stuff is wrong in the book. He says how the Congo was unexplored and unharmed by Europe. Achebe thinks that Conrad is a good writer, but he just has wrong/misleading info and shows racism.

Heart of Darkness Pages 64-END!

In the last section of the book, many events happen. Kurtz is sick on the ship, but then he escapes and goes back on the island. Then, Marlow chases after him and finally catches up to him. He manages to persuade Kurtz to get back on the ship by saying Kurtz might get lost. Back on the ship, Kurtz’s sickness starts to worsen and he starts to say random things that are thought to be from newspaper articles Kurtz wrote. From there, he gives Marlow some important papers and dies. His last words were “The horror! The horror!”. After he dies, they bury him on the shore. People start to bother Marlow about the papers because they want to see them and find out what is in them. However, Marlow feels like it is sort of his duty to not let them see. In the end of the story, Marlow goes and visits Kurtz’s Intended and gives her the letters. Even though it has been over a year since Kurtz died, she is still mourning. She wanted Marlow to tell her what Kurtz’s last words were but Marlow did not want her to know the truth. Instead of telling the truth, he said that the lasts word he spoke was her name. He does this to give her meaning and tells her what she needs to hear for protection of Kurtz. It helps control her happiness by hiding the truth.

Kurtz last words were vague and could mean several things. It could mean that he realizes what he has done and sees the impact of it and he is ashamed. He sees how what he has done is the start of more to come (people taking over the natives). On one of his last days he was looking out a window and he asked Marlow to close it. It seemed that he did not want to see what has happened to the Congo.

Also, Marlow starts to ponder about death and his destiny and purpose in life. He thinks that in your life you should gain knowledge about yourself. You should have something to say and say it. Something interesting that happened in this section is that Marlow started talking about grayness. It seemed he was relating death to gray. He is not using black and white like he had throughout the story.

Heart of Darkness Pages 54-64

In pages 54 to 64, we learn more about Kurtz from the Russian. We learn how raided the country in his search for ivory. Kurtz thinks he can shoot and kill whomever he wants if they had something he wants (aka ivory). He starts wanting more and more ivory. Also, we learn how Kurtz has lost himself in all of this. He forgot himself around these people and would get lost in all the adoration the people had towards him since he was seen as some sort of god. The wilderness had started to take over him and started to “whisper” things to him. You see Kurtz insanity when the Russian talks about how he went to his house. There were savage heads on stakes with their heads turned towards the house. The Russian even talks about how the first one he saw was a “black, dried, sunken, with closed eyelids…and with the shrunken dry lips showing a narrow white line of teeth, was smiling too” (57). This contrasts black and white. In addition, earlier in the book it said how Marlow’s helmsman died with a frown. However, this black man died with a smile.

Also, in this section we see that Kurtz is sick and he comes aboard Marlow’s ship. By doing this, Marlow gets to see Kurtz’s “mistress”. The crew doesn’t like the idea of this since she is a black woman and Kurtz is white. Marlow notices how magnificent she is as she is covered with ornaments. It seems that she could be covered in wealth because Kurtz has given her the possessions to show off his success and wealth from the ivory. From the book, we have seen that Marlow believes that women represent the ideals of civilization. Their beauty is supposed to symbolize the way of life and their country.

Heart of Darkness Pages 42-54

In pages 42-54, Marlow and his ship sails on toward Mr. Kurtz. During dawn one morning, there is dense fog and the men on board hear a loud, wild cry that is followed by savage voices then silence. The white crew members are very scared while the black crew members are just quiet and alert. Marlow decides to not sail on until the fog clears up in fear of hurting the ship. He does not think the savages will attack. However, he is wrong. The ship goes by the shore which is filled with natives and the pilgrims start shooting at them. In this fight, Marlow’s African helmsman is struck with a spear and dies right in front of Marlow. To stop the fight, Marlow sounds the steam whistle which drives off the natives. Marlow then starts to wonder if Kurtz is still alive or not because of this encounter.

In this section, it seems that Marlow goes back and forth from being racist and not being racist. At one point, he views his helmsman as a “fool n-----” when he is trying to shoot at the natives. He shot at them without knowing where he was shooting and he stood right in front of the opened shutter. Later, he felt bad when the helmsman died and how he “was no more account than a grain of sand in a black Sahara” (50). He felt they had some sort of friendship or partnership since he had steered for Marlow while he looked after him. There was a bond.

Also, the reader sees how Marlow is becoming obsessed with meeting Mr. Kurtz. He feels like he would lose his purpose if Mr. Kurtz was not alive. It was like he would have been “robbed of a belief or had missed (his) destiny in life” (47). Mr. Kurtz was like some sort of hope for Marlow. Also, Marlow realizes that it is not so much him seeing Mr. Kurtz, but rather that he hears him. Supposedly, Mr. Kurtz was a “gifted creature” and had a great ability to talk.

In addition, there are several switches between narrations in this section. It shows how Marlow is reacting when he is telling this story. Also, Marlow again starts to think about the meaning of life. He realizes that you must rely on yourself, especially in the darkness, to get meaning from life.