Assignment 14: Examination of Exam questions

Dulce et Decorum est.

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, 

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, 

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs 

And towards our distant rest began to trudge. 

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots 

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; 

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots  

Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling, 

Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; 

But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, 

And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . . 

Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, 

As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. 

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, 

He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. 

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace 

Behind the wagon that we flung him in, 

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, 

His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin; 

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood 

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, 

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud 

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, 

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest  

To children ardent for some desperate glory, 

The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est 

Pro patria mori.

-Wilfred Owen

1. In Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum est." uses poetic language to get his message across. Examine his message, and specify what language he uses to make it clear.

2. Using one of the short stories we've read, describe the theme and support it using evidence.

Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum est." is about how distasteful war is, despite the propaganda being spread at home. To best convey just how horrid war really is, he makes liberal use of simile, comparing the soldiers to all manner of vile things. He emphasizes the terrifying reality of war to counter the glorious picture painted by those who haven't actually experienced it.

"Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel hawthorne is a story about a man's loss of faith in his community, caused by his own suspicious activity. The titular character has an experience where his own shady dealings have influenced his view on his neighbors and even his wife, conveniently named Faith. 

Assignment 13: Headline Hilarity. Halibut.

-Citizens head over heels after new ice clearing bill slides by.
-High Court to legalize marijuana - Suspected of subject bias.
-Zombie attack in downtown St. John's. Locals remark, "George Street has never been more peaceful."
-Man arrested after alleging town mayor is a bear. When questioned, mayor's responded: "Rawwugh!"
-Man after awakening from coma: "Never gotten more rest in my life!"

Assignment 12: Informal writing on Irish writing

James Joyce's short story Araby shares a similar theme to his short story Eveline, that of struggling with escape. Each story features a character who is in a transitional period trying to escape their background and their past.

The main character in Araby has a strong religious background, and has related this to his infatuation with his friend Mangan's sister. He sees her deified, raised to divinity in his mind by the places he encounters her, and quickly offers to win her favour by going to the 'Araby' and fetching her something. He struggles over his new crush, which reveals to himself how he is "a creature driven and derided by vanity". 

The titular character of Eveline is planning to leave her home and start a new life in Buenos Aires, leaving her family and her responsibilities behind. She considers the events that have lead her to this decision, and struggles with her reasoning: whether it was too selfish to just up and leave it all for her own sake.

Assignment 11: Detailed Descriptions Deserve Doing

The cat crouched low while it stared intently at the elastic band on my wrist. Purring audibly, it eyed its prize: the dangling length of rubber would amuse it for hours if I let him have it. It stares at me with it's sickly greenish-yellow eyes, unsettling with it's mottled brown and black striped coat, with white splotches marring his chest and paws.. He rises, back arching and mouth stretching wide, tail flicking from side to side it steps in front of my computer monitor. Perhaps thinking to convince me to take the elastic off and give it to him, or seeking to divert my attention from my English assignments, he paces back and forth before the white glow of my word processor.

The cat stared at the band of elastic while it sat at my computer desk. With green eyes, striped brown and black fur with white splotches on chest and paw, it rose and stretched before standing in front of my computer monitor.

The cat stared wonderingly at the elastic band wrapped around my wrist; it's glowing green-yellow eyes drawn to the object that otherwise would dangle tantalizing in a most erratic manner. Noticing me watching him, the cat challenges me with a glare, focusing the air of superiority all cats seem to embody. Quickly dismissing me, he rises to his feet and stretches, before striding confidently in front of my screen. Back and forth he marches, knowing just how annoying it is when he does it, knowing that I'll have to pick him up to get him out of the way. Lifting him gently I place him back on the floor, as I finish the last of my English blog.

Assignment 10: Outlining Theme

Chinua Achebe's "Dead men's Path" is a story about the conflicts caused by African colonialism.

  1. Obi is young and zealously interested in modern ideals, thinks the school unprogressive before he gains authority.
    1. Obi has a secondary school education, making him a prime candidate for a headmaster, and was "outspoken in his condemnation of the narrow views of these older and often less-educated ones"
    2. Makes the school into a compound, drastic changes to modern designs.

  2. A path intersects the school, represents the village's resistance to new ideas.
    1. Obi's attempt to block the path is imposing what he thinks is better on the villagers.
    2. The priest tells him "this path was here before you were born, and before your father was born"

 3. The lack of compromise between the school and village, leads the superstitions of the villagers to damage the school.
    1. Obi offered to move the path, but the priest didn't agree.
    2. The white supervisor writes a scathing report on the school, and the "tribal war situation developing..." "Arising in part from the misguided zeal of the new headmaster"

Alice Munro's "Boys and Girls" is a story about a girl who can't escape the gender roles of her family

   1.  The girl likes to work with her father, but her mother wants to have her in the house to help.
     1. She associates the work with her father with good things, and enjoys the outdoors
     2. The mother is counting the days till the son, Laird, is old enough to work
 
  2. The girl grows attached to the two horses, seeing herself and her brother in them
     1. The male horse was slow and easy to handle, sooty and indifferent, much like her younger brother until she drags him with her to watch the horse be shot. Afterwards he shows more interest in working with his father.
     2. The female horse was energetic and regal, when it comes time to kill her, she sets it free instead of keeping it penned.

   3. The girl doesn't know why she let Flora go, even thinking it was just making more work for her father.
     1. She hopes to avoid being revealed as why flora got away, and would have gotten away with it had her brother not tattled.
     2. Her father dismisses her in the end, absolving her of guilt by saying "she's only a girl."

Assignment 9: Writing a Riveting Review

Following the massive success of Mineraft, a wave of survival games based in an open randomly generated world has flooded the market. One particular example I've discovered is indie gothic survival game, Don't Starve, developed and published by Klei interactive.

Taking place on an island made up of several different types of environment (called Biomes) populated by pig-men, birds, jackalope and much more dangerous creatures like boars and spiders, Don't Starve is an accurate title as you are left to survive alone. You must gather food and other useful items to ensure you can make it through the treacherous night of the island, when the hostile creatures emerge to feed.

The game is presented in a hand-drawn pen and ink look, all in a sepia tone that evokes a very dark and menacing atmosphere. The isometric camera really gives you a good view of the beautiful art style, looking down on the island and the player character from on high. The bleak color palette, and the dark heavy lines bordering everything emphasizes the creepy and lonely nature of the game.

Helping the menacing atmosphere is amazing sound design: the clear sounds of the island like the wind and the ocean mixes well with the plonky piano and deep horn bleats fit the old-timey feel of the game while you explore. Later, during the night, the dead silence punctuated by the growls of nearby beasts keeps you close
to your pitiful firelight.

 There is much to discover as you explore the mysterious island, survival takes a quick wit, and a cautious mind to ensure you make it through the days, maintaining your health, hunger, and sanity. At 15$ on steam, I recommend Don't Starve to any PC gamer, it's a truely unique experience that anybody would want in their game collection.

Assignment 8: Fantastic Firefly Fanfic

Based on the cult hit show Firefly, by Joss Whedon. The scene takes place shortly before the first episode.

Sergeant Malcolm 'Mal' Reynolds settled his dark brown long coat as he finished his wake up routine: the same way each cycle on the troop transport hurtling through space. Mal figured you couldn't call it morning without a proper sunrise, so the brown-coats relied on a 24 hour cycle of activity. Closing his footlocker and taking one last look in the mirror on his way out, Mal clambered up the ladder of his cubicle onto the barracks catwalk. Leaving his quarters exposed him to the hubbub of the barracks bay, a cluster of human activity in tight confines. The sound of people, fighting for their rights on the border of the galaxy. 

Stomping along the catwalk towards the officers quarters for the briefing set that morning, Malcolm considered their current mission. This was the last jump before their final destination: the last push against the Alliance of planets. Finally, the war of Independence would be ending, and the rebel brown coat army would have secured itself the leverage it needed to beat the oppressive Alliance.

He passed a handful of grunts cooking a can of beans near the end of the catwalk, among them his right hand woman Corporal Zoe Alleyne. A tough amazonian warrior-woman, she's saved Malcolm's life many times before, and more like than not would again. She nodded towards him as he passed, prodding the soldier making the food to check the pot again.

“How's the chow, boys?” Mal chimed jovially, stopping briefly.

“As good as we're gonna get out here, sarge” replied one of the men. A fresh face, Mal didn't recognise him. His name tag read 'Bendis'.

“Yeah? Well maybe you can get out and ask the Alliance for some of their rations, I hear they get actual meat with theirs!” Zoe added. “At least they have qualified people making their food.”

“Well, that's why we call ourselves 'Independents'. Do all our work for us.” Mal quipped as he continued down the catwalk.

“So where we goin' to now, sarge?” asked one of the other squaddies.

“The last stand of the Alliance, private. Only a few hours out is an agricultural world called Hera, and a little place called Serenity Valley...”

Assignment 7: Pilfering Prose for Plunderverse

We wear the mask, by Paul Laurence Dunbar
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,-
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be overwise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!


Mask of Evil

We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,-
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be overwise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!

Assignment 6: the Devilish Duty of Death

The Duties of Death.

The wheel of time turns, ages come and go,
Each day one learns, yet man will never know,
Bony faced Death. Til one breaths his last,
Rattles last breath, they see that rictus mask.

Astride a pale horse, the shadow of man
"Time runs its course, I haven't a hand."
No mind for our plight, he does his duty,
Recovers our last light, and sets it free.

Long misunderstood, that curious figure,
Agent for good, he works with great vigor.

In the poem, the author has presented death as a figure, personifying it as a person doing his job. He describes death as a bony faced man on a pale horse, common imagery used when writing about death, who is a lonely figure who none will ever know due to his onerous duty of gathering the dead. Death explains, "Time runs its course, I haven't a hand", trying to defend himself perhaps to someone he has come to visit for the last time: because his purpose is so villified, a misunderstood servant to those who would curse him for as long as they live. Yet even then, he knows how important he is, and so long as there are living beings, shall he have a purpose.

Assignment 5: Typing two paragraphs Telegraphing Tone

The poem "Ozymandias" by Percy Shelley is written in a distant manner, emphasizing a solemn tone. The poem itself is a story twice removed from the audience: a tale told to the narrator by a traveller from an antique land who speaks of an ancient statue left to crumble in the desert. This removal supports the tone, and gives a better impression of the great statue that once stood, how all great things come to fall given time.

The traveller describes the statue, the shattered visage rests next to trunkless legs of stone, yet the expression survives to tell us of the sculptor who formed it. How the cold sneer, the wrinkled lip, yet survives the trials of the sand to tell the world of Ozymandias, King of Kings and the command he once bore. Reflecting on the ancient statue, the narrator says that "Nothing beside remains. Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away" speaks to the finality of the desert.

Assignment 4, Striving and struggling solving a sonnet.

All across the rolling cuboid landscape
A land of trees, rivers, pigs and creepers
Where one has the means to change the squarish shape
And carve your home despite frightful creatures.

Upon wits aloe one must rely
And the myriad tools you can construct
With which you dig the riches that bely
Though honestly one must rely on luck.

Beneath the earthen crust you must go
Through caverns dark lit by molten lava
Gather your wits, explore the depths below
Even when it's all programmed in Java.

But Minecraft is a game quite creative
It's just best not to upset the natives.

Whilst writing a sonnet I struggled with the content, being much more focused on the structure. Though once I got one started, it started to flow quite easily after I decided that it was going to be tongue in cheek and referential to a favorite game of mine, Minecraft. I did my best to prove that one can write about anything, and find beauty in a simulated landscape.

Assignment 3, haiku and limerick

Along it's path, courses
Cuts through stone and us alike
Time waits for no man

A man late for his usual mass
Worried where he might end up in the last
Well he shrugged and he said,
As he crashed into bed
Sleep is just too good to pass

Writing these, I found that it was actually easier to write a haiku than a limerick. The strict rules on syllables force me to think more creatively in the content, to really play with the words to find the right composition to fill the syllables and the meaning alike. Meanwhile, the adherence to a rhyme scheme is something I struggle to apply whilst writing a limerick, a similar challenge, but harder to fulfill. In the time it took me to write a single Limerick, I had written a handful of different haiku.

A cool wind blows east
Speeding the change of seasons
Winter is coming

A leaf on the wind
Carried along 'cross the ages
Watch how it can soar

Assignment 2, Musical poetic analysis

For my second blog post I have chosen to analyze the song "Limelight" by Canadian power trio, Rush. (The greatest band in the world.)

Living on a lighted stage           A

Approaches the unreal             B

For those who think and feel     B

In touch with some reality         C

Beyond the gilded cage.           A

Cast in this unlikely role,          A

Ill-equipped to act,                   B

With insufficient tact,               B

One must put up barriers          C

To keep oneself intact.             B

Living in the Limelight,              A

The universal dream                 B

For those who wish to seem.    B

Those who wish to be               B

Must put aside the alienation,   C

Get on with the fascination,      C

The real relation,                      C

The underlying theme.              B

Living in a fisheye lens,             A

Caught in the camera eye.        B

I have no heart to lie,                B

I can't pretend a stranger          C

Is a long-awaited friend.            A

All the world's indeed a stage,   A

And we are merely players,      B

Performers and portrayers,       B

Each another's audience          C

Outside the gilded cage.          A

The song describes the author as uncomfortable with adoration, finding it hard to deal with being put up on a pedestal. He explains that he feels unprepared for the attention that he's getting from his fame, and he's walled himself off to keep it from getting to his head, from losing himself. The fourth stanza especially tells us how he can't seem to relate to his fans, or the press, that he won't put on a show for people just because they recognize him.

The rhyme scheme is relatively consistent, ABBCA, except for the chorus which has it's own longer pattern of ABBBCCCB, and the second verse, which changes the last line to rhyme with the second.

The author is trying to give the audience a glimpse of what his life is like: a series of stages, the gilded cage he says he plays on and the world he sees beyond it, how he still has to try and act a part even when he isn't performing. It really sets the tone that the author regrets his fame, and how it's changed his perception of the world beyond the stage. How he yearns for a simpler life where he doesn't have to worry about being accosted by anyone who wants his attention.

Assignment 1, Myriad Approaches to Literary Criticism

Of the different approaches to interpreting literature presented in the textbook, the one that appealed to me the most is the Mythological, or Archetypal approach. It appeals to me the most because it examines common themes and techniques used in writing fiction, and the reflection of our myth, legend and history that is present in our creative works. With an Archetypal approach, I can identify characteristics in characters that fit certain roles such as "the untested hero" or "the wise tutor", and also identify common metaphor. With such context, it makes it easier for the reader to relate to the characters and their adventures, as each role can appeal to different readers, thus giving the stories a universal quality.

Putting this approach to practice reading "The Lamb" by William Blake (p.409) we can see the use of lamb as a metaphor for a powerless or innocent being, unawares of the world around it. The use of 'lamb' in this way is common in many religions and cultures, particularly a Christian background, and use of the metaphor gives any reader with these backgrounds a good idea of the author's intent in the use of the word.