Write, Think, Critique
As I "grow-up", so to speak - I find that my writing is no better or worse than when I was in high school. No matter how many times I try, I can't seem to find the patience to do the painstaking research on a particular subject as some of my peers here on Livejournal can. Of course, I never set out in life to be a writer. In fact, to this day I still have no clue what exactly I wish to do with the rest of my life in terms of career or pursuits of happiness.
However, writing is an important skill in almost any profession I end up moving to, whether it's banking (which I am currently in now) or graphic design, which is what I was (and will continue) going to school for.
In that light, I present seven very short writings submitted for a second level fundamental English course on literature and critical thinking.
Despite how I really down deep dislike critical (but constructive) comments on my style (or lack thereof), punctuation, grammar.. I could certainly use them now. I promise not to get too defensive based on your comments either >;-)
Seriously -
Joseph Palmer
English II GE-102
October 16th, 2004
Response Paper 1 - Metaphor & Metonymy, The Secretary Chant by Marge Piercy
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I chose The Secretary Chant by Marge Piercy and two advertisements for liquor - Miller Lite, a beer and Cotes du Rhone, a red wine in this brief study of metaphor and metonymy. Piercy illustrates a sense of self, stuck in an office, feeling like a piece of used equipment while the two ads encourage you to feel complete if only you drink their products. While on the surface the prose and advertisements portray opposite feelings, the prose - a feeling of a woman in angst over being used and mistreated and the advertisements - a feeling of comfort and well being if you drink their products, each has a connected effect of feeling subservient to something. The most striking use of metaphor and metonymy can tell a perspective consumer how to live a fuller life by consuming their product or reinforce the idea that you don’t need to feel like a mechanized dull object waiting to be abused when the need arises.
In Piercys’ Chant, she uses metaphor in describing the various pieces of office equipment as an appendage of woman’s body. Indirectly she also connects those feelings using metonymy to describe a sense of pain and anguish the body feels both physically and mentally as those devices are used to fulfill a daily function. In the Miller Lite ad, there ad contains a picture of a cropped, but large full bottle of beer with small white text at the top right stating, “Great Taste.. Less Filling” and the bottom left again in small white text, stating “Live Responsibly with the Miller logo”. Those metaphoric statements are connected with large white text in the middle, stating “You can have it all, Great Taste and ½ the carbs of Bud Light” The implied metonymy here is that you can live life if you drink a product that is only half the calories of the regular product and it’s competitor Bud Light as well. In the Cotes du Rhone Red Wine advertisement, the top half contains a picture of roses most of which are a dark grey with one being a bright red. As you read down the ad text states “Life’s just no the same without . .” skip down a line and in red text, “RED” it goes on to describe the place where the wine comes from followed by a red logo with text underneath stating, “Think Red, Think Cotes du Rhone” The implied metonymy here is that drinking this particular wine sustains and fills you body with life, hence the one red rose is life, set against the darker roses, which illustrates a sense of lifelessness. They make the perspective consumer feel as if life itself is not worth living until you tried their product.
While the advertisements are trying to tell the perspective consumer that if you drink their product you’ll enjoy yourself and feel complete, their message can be considered degrading in the sense that we really know life can be enjoyed without ingesting a mind-altering substance. We can contrast that feel good feeling to Piercy’s Chant where she says “My breasts are full of Mimeographed Ink”, which tells you a woman’s abilities are put to the test in very extreme measures. Percy really wants to say that women are indeed very talented, and dedicated hard workers, but are tired of being used and abused. Today, women in the workforce are working very hard to achieve an equal status with their male counterparts. Working as a subservient secretary, pushing buttons is no longer considered acceptable.
As I’ve described the two liquor ads and briefly explored Piercy’s Chant we see that each piece uses metaphors and metonymies to connect substances to feelings of good times and mechanical office implements to show how a secretary’s life is a real drag. While a woman’s body appendages aren’t really pieces of office equipment and life isn’t necessarily fulfilling if only because we ingest an alcoholic beverage, advertisement creatives and writers achieve a similar goal of conveying to the public that life just sucks.
Joseph Palmer
English II GE-102
October 23rd, 2004
Response Paper 2 - Feminist Critique, The Birth Mark by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne lived during a time in which science was taking on a whole new meaning and giving a purpose to live more freely in society. Hawthorne’s time was also a period of growth and hardship. The United States of America was young and had just proven to be a fiercely free and independent country. It was also a time of civil unrest towards his later years, with the country torn apart between the North & the South. Each side having a fundamental difference in how the country should be governed and who really had control over your life, you, or the government. In his story, The Birthmark, Hawthorne takes this idea of control and focuses on the dominate nature of men and the role women played in determining what is considered beautiful, especially if beauty could now be achieved by manipulating science alone. To Hawthorne, the idea of a perfect harmonious relationship meant that the genders were equal, but only so in the sense that each complemented each other if only each were perfect in their god given talents and natural forms.
In this story we see Aylmer, a most intense and deeply spiritual - intelligent man attempting to remove a crimson mark - in the shape of a human hand, but so small that it was the size of two fingertips from his otherwise beautiful wife Georgiana. Georgiana recognizes her beauty, but at the same time fears deeply that this mark is causing so much emotional anguish for her husband that as she puts it, “let the attempt be made at whatever risk. Danger is nothing to me; for life, while this hateful mark makes me the object of your horror and disgust, - life is a burden which I would fling down with joy.” The mark as we read was perhaps left by a fairy’s touch, nature’s hand left this mark from the mold of her birth; a mark of mortality, of which she so desperately wishes to be rid of so that in her husbands eyes, she can live free. We also are introduced to Aylmer’s assistant, Aminadab. A man so perfectly suited to compile the hardships of which Aylmer is too intellectual and less inclined physically to endure. We read that Aminadab does not wish to see the mark removed. Hawthorne alludes to the fact that Aminadab knows something Aylmer and Georgiana do not, that the mark is really part of a angelic soul that intertwined itself to Georgiana’s physical body.
Georgiana’s classic female gender is a perfect study of a time when women were not considered equal to the male gender, but rather they needed to exude beauty in order to be considered a prize catch for their husbands. Aylmer on the other hand represents the successful dominant male who is seeking the knowledge of the all powerful science and physical attributes necessary to be a successful man in life. In this sense, Georgiana is so desperate to become perfect so that she doesn’t distress her husband, because it’s so important for her to feel complete. Beauty to her is the ultimate perfection and the ability to create perfection is Aylmer’s goal. All throughout the story we read how Aylmer attempts to keep his work from his wife’s prying eyes. He attempts to portray a sense of competence about his work. She eventually trusts Aylmer because of her enduring love and her dying wish to have the mark removed and he by way of his domination of her spiritual beliefs portrays himself as a god of sorts, his abilities to control nature by proving to her that he can cure any living creature of it’s ills. Aylmer creates a potion where he claims that no living being, especially a king would last a second is he so chooses. This tells her that while he would not hurt her, he impresses upon her that she needs to be faithful and trust him implicitly. It also tells us that in Hawthorne’s time, women were not to be trusted around science, that some aspect of the female gender was too easily tempted towards frivolous pursuits. While we will never know if a potion could really have had the power that Aylmer describes, we do know this was a way for the male to exert his control over anyone that did not feel confident in their own self to stand up and challenge his ideas and beliefs.
In the end, Aylmer succeeds, Georgiana drinks the potion and the mark is removed before his very eyes, the consequence of his “magic” is that she dies. Aminadab has the last laugh though, as the secret unfolds, the mark truly was a soul intertwined so tightly in Georgiana, and Aylmer lost it all. The twisted beauty and accomplishments Hawthorne gives the genders and the complementary nature of Georgiana and Aylmer in that they each succeeded in doing the impossible, to this end Hawthorne had the foresight and was not blind to the powers that both men and women would soon discover in science that would enable people to change what nature had bestowed upon them.
Joseph Palmer
English II - GE 102
October 30, 2004
Response Paper 3 - Marxist / Material Read, Life & It's Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara
Only in The United States of America will you probably find a first-world culture which pushes its citizens to live a third-world life while extolling the virtues of a “free” albeit market based society. Every chance I have to take observational tours of the city I try to get a feel of who and what every person around me is all about. I find people of probable higher-class qualities shopping on Michigan Avenue in one moment and then street beggars and the homeless in the next. Each of these classes interacts in such a way that they barely tolerate each other’s existence. Toni Cade Bambara explores those observations in her story Life and It’s Lesson to a degree, which is a sad testament to the separation, our society perpetuates every day. When Bambara wrote this story the Vietnam “Conflict” was coming to an end and many groups, especially the feminist and black civil rights groups were finally beginning to see the fruits of their hard work in the 60’s to become free and a more repressed-less members of society. Likewise corporations were growing larger, mostly because they could find cheap labor in third-world or developing countries. These corporations found that if they outsourced the labor, they could advertise their products more cheaply here in the U.S. which might feel good on one hand, but, in reality, hurts everyone involved. Unfortunately today, the class struggle between the haves and have-nots is ever strong, with more people falling into the have-nots class. In this Marxist/materialist read I will show thru Bambaras’ story that young people in society live for the material possession, and that the value of having people show you the opportunity to grow beyond that survival greed is lost when you feel like achieving a more fulfilling goal is impossible.
A Marxist Critique of literature looks to see the ways and means a writer portrays a particular view, assumptions of a society and it’s hold on the members of that society through it’s culture, race, class and power. The idea is to extend to the masses that social injustice is not to be tolerated if there means to be a selfish gain of power or material possessions. The most important goal brought forth is that literature is destined to be a political tool for change. It challenges the reader to make a conscious effort to understand their place in society and even compare/contrast how their life mirrors or does not mirror their own.
“Life and It’s Lessons” is rich in detail as Bambara describes how a group of minority children and their well to do, but still minority teacher make their way to the “ritzy” shopping districts of New York. The two main characters, “me and Sugar” describe Miss Moore as a lady with “nappy hair, proper speech and no makeup.” And at the same time compare her to the bums on the streets, both to be despised and hated for their very existence. They have a chip on their shoulders, they seem angry at the world, their parents for what feels like a lack of attention and while we don’t read these two as a violent pair, you can’t help but sense that they’ll do whatever it takes to survive and get ahead of the next guy or girl, they truly feel like a class all their own, “the right ones.” But, Miss Moore brings the kids the marvels of toys and play things of the rich at a F*A*O Schwartz toy store, which really isn’t to say there are impressed with what they find, rather, disgusted and puzzled as to why rich, white people would pay so much for something that could be had much cheaply at a five and dime store. At any opportunity Miss Moore extols some wisdom and knowledge and challenges the kids to think about what they do with their money.
Of course, Sugar asks, “Can we steal?” which shocks Miss Moore and made me chuckle. The brute honesty Bambara instills in this character is a subtle way of saying that kids do indeed know the value of money, and that it makes no sense to spend so much on something that doesn’t seem to be capable of producing an intended effect they have in mind. For “me and Sugar” the only way to survive is to have fun and that means buying candy, or junk food and going to see the movies on the cheap. Not wear fur coats in the summer time, or spend $300.00 on a microscope. A few of the kids have some really good, bright moments when they see something that sparks an interest; Ronald is interested in the microscope, but he’s not quite sure why. Miss Moore goes on to describe the useful purpose of the device, but the other kids just make fun of him. This is a classic way to put someone in his or her place on many levels. Even today, many parents will attempt to guide their children towards a specific career and shun an interest the child may have because they think it won’t lead to a successful life. Advertisements for many popular products use this same method to make you feel good if you buy their product, but make you feel like a loser if you don’t.
With that in mind Miss Moore and people in her position has a difficult task ahead of her. At the conclusion of the story she tries to impress upon the kids that money would be better served supporting the family and making sure everyone feels good. Unfortunately the kids don’t see it that way. Their trip to the toy store only reinforces in their minds that life is all about me and how much can I do to make me feel like a winner. When Miss Moore asks if anyone learned anything today, Sugar says, “Well, we got four dollars anyway.” Society is telling you kids, you are on your own; don’t expect any help from anybody. Where does the cycle of selfish fulfillment?
Joseph Palmer
GE 102
November 6th, 2004
Response Paper 4 - Dramatic Structure
Characters: Caucasian Male, African American Male both in their late 20’s and random angry motorist, voice off screen
Setting: Busy traffic on a main street in Anytown USA
CM, not paying attention to the traffic in front of him rams into the rear of AAM’s vehicle, both step out of their respective vehicles.
CM: Are you okay?
AAM: Oh, I am just fine.
CM: If I didn’t no better I’d say you were gellin’!
AAM: That’s right, Gellin like Magellan
Flash to a cutaway graphic of a foot soothed by a Dr. Scholl’s Ô gel foot pad, the background voice tells us this gel pad is all you need to feel comfortable and forget the harshness that results due to uncomfortable and sore feet.
Flash back to the scene of the accident, where CM & AAM reflect on each other’s okay condition even after the accident. An angry random motorist shouts, “get out of the way” and honks his horn madly.
CM: He’s not gellin..
AAM: No, he must be a felon!
In this Dr. Scholl’s ad, we see two men a part of and at the scene of a car accident. However we see the two get out of their cars and calmly walk to each other to make sure the other is okay. We’re led to believe by this ad that the comforting action of a Dr. Scholl’s gel footpad is all that stands between these two from being aggressive with each other as men might typically react when they are in a confrontational situation.
The comic plot in this ad is that the two men realize that they can achieve a sense of peace even when put into harms way because they are not affected by other bodily discomforts, notably their feet. I’ve change the outcome a bit by changing the African American Male’s response in this scenario by forcing him to make a judgment against the angry motorist, calling him a felon, which is saying that the Angry Motorist is not worthy or free to feel good because he’s not wearing the foot pads.
In that end, it’s in a sense a tragedy that a stereotype still in our culture is to think of African American men as a rugged type and more prone to be a “felon” just because of the color of his skin and his perhaps menacing way he treats other men. But, in this case, the situation is a double edged sword because while the gel foot pads might provide comfort to both men, the African American Male is taking his anger out on being treated unfairly by society on someone else who might complain about the situation at hand, regardless of how comfortable his feet feel.
Joseph Palmer
GE102
November 13th, 2004
Response Paper 5 - Gender Dynamics - Communication, Sex Lies, and Conversation by Deborah Tannen & IND AFF, or Out of Love in Sarajevo by Fay Weldon
Tannen's Sex Lies, and Conversation and Weldon's IND AFF, or Out of Love in Sarajevo are explicitly rich in the study of how the genders communicate with each other and the ways men and women interact when it deals with the heartfelt issue of love and how to communicate those intentions of love and feeling without pretense or judgment. Communication is the key ingredient in any successful relationship. If, in a heterosexual environment a man and a women are to co-exist on a pleasant level each needs to understand each other’s needs and wants. I will explore those needs in this paper and explain why we find it difficult to fully develop our true natures when the ego and preservation of self distorts and confuses what we want and need in a partner.
Gender dynamics or power between the genders has a stronger consideration today in all realms of modern life. Indeed, women are no longer using a sense of secrecy and deception to fulfill their needs. In addition, there is a shift in who holds the key so to speak in todays western and in some cases eastern cultures where we see women taking a more important role in shaping government, entertainment. And where it concerns the act of females talking to their male counterparts we see men coming towards a compromise in their own methods of communicating. However, this is not without a slight sense that men might still consider women not to be of a “first-class mind” as Peter says of the narrator in “IND AFF.” That is to say women are sweet and caring and have a good grasp of their feminine roles, but perhaps in terms of understanding the importance of how world events shape our current roles, women might not be capable of understanding. But if we compare this thought to the ideas Tannen says how men and women
communicate we begin to see the difference in communication shows that women do understand how things are suppose to work; each gender is focused on a different path of getting to that understanding that they loose sight of each other if they don't stop to realize that in fact, listening is going on.
The narrator is attracted to Peter in Weldon's story because of his deep passionate knowledge and the fact that he's living a double life. She's trying to feel him out. What is his desires for her, does he wish to be a scholarly “father figure?” Does he love her as much as she feels this infatuate love for him? When she tells us about the assassination of the Archduke of Ferdinand you get a feeling that she herself is in a slight internal panic, what do I do if he doesn't love me? Do I keep attacking the issue and force him to show his hand? She smiles at a cute waiter and this provokes him to act. She smiles out of compassion for another waiter who is not so cute and immediately has a sense that perhaps Peter is not the one for her. She also realizes that as much as he is saying and expressing his love is as important as what he is not saying. Likewise, Tannen illustrates that men perceive the “attack” as just that, an attack on their standing with other men, and that turns men off. If taken in a pessimistic light, Inordinate Affection is indeed a less-than desirable way of treating love.
I choose to take the idea of “IND AFF” in a positive light. It means to open your soul and see communication as a risk worth taking, not as a means of power to dominate. It also means that in order for humans, no matter what their gender is MUST get along and find the love within each and to give more than we receive. We MUST put our ego on hold and step out of the straight ahead, don't look around approach to expression of love - that strong emotion that resides in all of us. But most important of all, stride to find a balance, don't let the bad moments define the heroic efforts love has in store for us all.
Joseph Palmer
GE102
November 18th, 2004
Response Paper 6 - Dramatic Structure - The Tragic Hero - Oleanna by David Mamet
This film moved me in a very depressed way last Saturday. It happened to be my birthday and I had already been thinking about the ways I communicate with friends and in past relationships. I was feeling particularly upset because I recently had an incident where a classmate was trying to communicate with me and I refused to listen, not so much because I disliked this person, but because I was feeling stressed with school and work. In addition, this movie essentially repeated a scene in my mind of my last relationship. Before we started the viewing of Oleanna we were asked to choose a side and explore why we chose it. All throughout this film I found that I could side with characters, Carol, and the Professor. Carol was struggling to get an understanding of the material at hand and make sense of where her grade was heading and the Professor was struggling to get a grip on his professional and personal life not that he's made it ahead to a position of tenure. Knowing how my best intentions do not always translate into a workable solution, I sensed based on how I was feeling at the time that I would find it difficult to choose a side.
As we've studied, a tragic hero must embody these characteristics: he/she must be noble, have a tragic flaw which is usually a part of their character, the flaw must be extreme and justified, and the audience must relate to the hero. This hero is a universal character; we could find him or her in any part of our daily lives. In addition we learn, at least in theatre or movies that there are dramatic structures in place to help communicate the tragic hero' status and understanding how he/she makes a discovery or is held back somehow. In Oleanna, Mamet uses the telephone, cigarettes, Carol's notebook and the Professor's book to indicate a moment of distraction, stress, information gathering, and understanding.
There are other devices, but those mentioned make the strongest efforts in communicating both directly and indirectly (meta-communication). In Oleanna, Carol is troubled by her poor grade received on her paper. She goes to see her professor on a quest to figure out a way to improve her grade, but more important, how to gain an understanding of material the professor is trying to teach. In that end, she is also looking for where she fits in, as we learn it took her a great deal of financial burden to attend the prestigious school. I could connect with Carol in my own daily dealings with some of my classes and most certainly where it concerns financial matters. It is taking me a great deal to keep up with my financial obligations and attend school at the same time. This stress has also made me weary in one of my classes and I find myself always in discussion with the instructor on why I can not seem to grasp the concepts being discussed and shown.
That is where the similarity ends however between my situation and the one Mamet is portraying. The binding problem in Oleanna is the idea that her professor has sexually harassed Carol. But is she harassed? Yes, by contemporary standards. The professor gave a dangerous assumption of favor that if Carol came by to see him, he would make her grade an A for the entire class. In addition he asserted his “power” over her in his philosophy that higher education was essentially a waste of time. Forgetting his words, he bullies Carol, with at first giving her little chance to respond. When she does respond he treats her thoughts as a prolongation of her failure. All of this goes on while the professor says that he “likes her” when she asks why he seems to pay attention to her. Words are a powerful means to subdue and control a victim. There is no need for physical contact for any gender to feel or be harassed.
But the professor is not evil or for that matter an intentional harasser. His intentions are good, if his intentions are good if clumsy in execution. His weakness is power, and that power
corrupts him such that he’s blind and that turns on him in the end. Carol reports him to the tenure committee and he looses not his stature as a teacher, but his job and his livelihood as well. This is a situation most if not all people can relate to. At one time or other I've had too many situations where I’ve made mistakes in trying to fix a problem and learned the hard way that my intentions were shortsighted and lacking in knowledge and patience. Carol discovers her power and she uses it to attempt a correction in the professor’s belief. But, the professor’s other weakness is in his inability to adapt, to understand the change he needs to make to his way of thinking. Carol’s intentions are also not without a twist. She seeks to turn her righteous fortune into profit, another failing that the professor feeds upon, but which ultimately proves to fail them both.
In the end, their passion for what is right turns to violence and Carol’s outcome is tainted beyond repair. Such was the reason why I felt ill last Saturday I felt guilt and remorse in the way my last relationship ended. We both took sides, lost control of our passion; He went his way, as did I. So you see why I found it hard to choose a side. Neither of us understood each other’s needs and wants. That lack of knowledge forced me to see my weaknesses. I just hope that in the true end I am judged by how I lived to adapt, understand and correct my ways.
Joseph Palmer
GE102
December 3rd, 2004
Response Paper 7 - Love: A state of emotion-awareness and the Indefinable Variable
Love is the topic that has plagued man, both pre- and post- civilized, since the dawn of time. Even the gods themselves seem to be at the whim of Aphrodite. Yet for some reason we will despise the thought of it with one breath, and then cry ourselves to sleep because we do not have it in the next, but why? What is so important that this one base of human emotion’s fulfillment surpasses the needs of all others?
We live in a society where beauty is the predominant cultural drive. If a person is beautiful than they must be loved. It has seemed that beauty has gone hand in hand with love even before Helen of Troy ever existed. Short of blaming society it is because of that mind set that is instilled almost since being inside the uterus, that in order to live a happy existence one must have love.
It is bombarded at us from all sides. Regardless of gender most children’s first memories can be traced back to those images of a white picket fence with the 2.5 kids, and a dog frolicking in the yard. Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and all of the other fairy tale princesses had not necessarily charmed lives from the beginning, but lived as they say happily ever after. It is because of this preconceived notion that we think as small innocent children usually do that when I grow up my life is going to be wonderful. I am going to find the person of my dreams, and I will live happily ever after.
Then we grow up, and the evil of mans world comes to play. Start usually a few years after we get a firm grip on that fairy world, in junior-high; we are slapped back to reality. We learn that life isn’t perfect, it matters how you look, and that in order to maximize the possibility of finding love you better not eat that last piece of chocolate cake.
Although that is just one of the many aspects of love, and there are many other things that it can do. Love for one’s god(s) can drive a person to the brink of insanity with religious fever. It can make an old woman, who has just lost a child in war; call down wraith to decimate another civilization. Think about it the loss of one person can make another wish for death for millions upon millions of people that they have never met before. There has been nothing created in the course of history that could make one person wish something like that except love, or when their love has been hurt.
It is also one of the most sacred of human feelings. A practicing witch that I had recent conversations have been had with believes that it should not be touched. Many people have asked him to cast a love spell or to bring someone into their lives or even to make the emotions that they share with some more intense. Time and time again he has refused. When asked why he has always said, “Love is more sacred then magic. Love is the one thing in the world that should remain pure and untouched. Most anything can be manipulated with magic, but something that is so important would become a lie. It would become tainted and filthy and would not be true.”
Why do we live in a constant wanting of this emotion - a sacred to live without because of societal upbringing, but not wanting to change or cause it to happen? What is this one emotion so strong that its finding can cause undeniable joy, or cause the desire to destroy millions of individuals? We know what it can do and what it causes, but will anyone know “what is love?” Love is truly the most powerful of emotional states and an indefinable variable in the fabric of life!
Joseph Palmer
Kimberly Baker
English II
December 18th, 2004
M. Butterfly - Henry David Hwang: A cultural upheaval
M. Butterfly by Henry David Hwang provides a view into a life of deceit, lies, and a fascinating look into gender identity, miss-communication and expectations of the performance of gender in the twentieth century. Based on a real story of a French Diplomat who falls in love with what he thinks is a female Chinese Opera star, who ironically is actually a male Chinese spy. The decade the events take place in, 1960 - 1970, was a hectic time of change around the world. The notion of achieving civil rights in the United States was in its infancy, while in China, a cultural revolution was beginning in an effort to keep its society from exploring anything outside of the Communist Party dictates. In addition, the United States was still reeling from the Korean Conflict, perhaps the first time the USA dealt with an Asian culture in war. A situation in Vietnam was forming where the Communist North was attempting to wrestle control of the South, in an attempt to rid the South of it’s French colonial hold. This was also the time of the cold war, where government ideologies were drastically different in its methods of unifying its citizens. By comparing East and West cultures we get a sense of the profound differences between men and women and how a society of oppression and a free society conflict, which Hwang’s Butterfly builds on as we muddle our way through fantasy and perception which are tools in developing, if a bit confusing, our self-identity.
At the beginning of Butterfly we see Gallimard in a prison cell, recounting his experiences as an assistant and then promotion to Vice-Consul of the French embassy in China. He uses his fascination with the Italian Opera, Madam Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini as the basis for his love affair with Song Liling who he thinks is a woman. But his fascination gets him into trouble because Song is a man and he is a spy for the Chinese Government. The Vietnam War was just starting and the Chinese needed intelligence on the American position. Gallimard was in a good position to give that information, and he was too infatuated with Song to realize that the object of his desires and love was not what he thought she was and it was hurting him emotionally and professionally.
Gallimard believed that Song was a needy creature while at the same time thinking that his “manhood” was bolstered in his so called ability to take a strong interest and caring of Song. He viewed all Asian peoples, but especially Asian women, as very needy and submissive people. Perhaps this was due to his own lack of connectedness of his needs, especially his love life. Gallimard’s love life was never a strong one; He always had trouble fitting in with his peers when it came to attracting women. He was not a very handsome man either which added to his lack of self-confidence. He viewed women as objects because he felt that they would never love him in the way he desired. When Song took an interest in him he felt confident for the first time in his life but it was a false confidence. Song played on Gallimard’s naivety of Asian culture to his advantage in pulling secrets from Gallimard. Asians are portrayed as silent, submissive, sneaky, and intelligent people.
Gallimard is not so innocent either. We see him engage in a third affair with a Renee, one of the pin-up girls he use to look at as a youth. He finds sex with her not to be as engaging because this woman is confident and embodies more of the characteristics of a powerful and independent woman. This does not fit well with Gallimard and soon he longs again for his Butterfly, Song Liling.
But, at the same time we learn very little about Song. We know that Song was trained as a classical Chinese Operatic performer, Travelguidechina.com describes Chinese opera as:
a traditional form of stage entertainment, weaving together elements of mime, dance, song, dialogue, swordplay, and acrobatics into one fluid continuous flow. Gestures, movements and expressions incorporated within each performer's script come together to bring forth an impressive performance. In contrast to Western stage entertainment, which is subdivided into different categories such as opera, drama and sketches. (travelguidechina.com 2004.)
With this in mind, Song uses elements of this in his dealings with Gallimard. Every action he takes is not necessarily linear in movement, Song's aspect of fluid motion, which can describe how a dance or actor does his job is despised among his own people. When Song checks in with his contact in the Communist Party, Comrade Chin mentions that even his own mother thinks actors are “weirdos” and comparing Song's chosen profession to that of gamblers and prostitutes. Chin reminds Song to be sure not to violate Communist Party principles in his dealings with Gallimard, homosexuality being the primary concern. As the Epoch Times mentions in a recent article that the Chinese Communist Party Principles were especially harsh -During the Cultural Revolution, fathers and sons tortured each other, husbands and wives struggled with each other, students and teachers reported on each other, and mothers and daughters treated each other as enemies. Party principles motivated the conflicts and hatred. During the early period of CCP rule, some high-ranking CCP officials were helpless as their family members were labeled as class enemies. This, again, was driven by Party principles. (The Epoch Times, Dec. 2004)
Hwang does not portray Song and Chin as mother and son, however, after reading the play and watching the movie M. Butterfly by David Cronenberg, I surmise a possibility that Chin was in fact Song's mother and that there was a connection between Chin and Song's fathers' death. Regardless if that was ever the truth, given the control the CCP had over its society and how tightly woven everyone was to each other, it made no difference if they were or were not blood relatives. The primary focus of the CCP was to ensure everyone stayed in line. In that regard, Chin made sure Song’s activities with Gallimard were always in question!
Gallimard is ecstatic over his relationship with Song. But that put him in a difficult and powerful position. Now he is not only married but has a mistress too and his colleagues now see him as a confident individual, someone to keep an eye on as he moves his career with the diplomatic service forward. In our western culture having a “fling” on the side is considered “wrong” but generally tolerated among the elitist class because it shows a man to have power in his life. The women who are in this role are not looked upon kindly and seen as cheap objects, ready to be disposed of on a whim. For Song, this position is perfectly suited for his role in gaining access to the thoughts and secrets needed for his superiors.
Moreover, it would seem that Song is infatuated with Gallimard as well. While Gallimard may seem to be aloof, his connections to the west fascinate Song. When Comrade Chin is asked by Song why in the Peking Opera that women's roles are played by men, Chin begins to answer “I don't know. Maybe, a reactionary remnant of male-” but Song interrupts and says “No. Because only a man knows how a woman is suppose to act.” Chin is disgusted by this but can not begin to think of an answer. Song is telling us that eastern culture is incapable of thinking outside of culture and the norm of how a woman should or could act and at the same time tells us that western culture seeks to experiment with the ideas of gender identity, albeit if only in secret. Moreover, Song's fascination with western culture also provides a chance to perhaps help Gallimard understand that while Asian culture might be deeply rooted in tradition, it is a strong yet delicately beautiful at the same time.
In an afterword by Henry David Hwang, he recalls his thoughts in developing the M. Butterfly story as a way to bridge the thought gap most people have about Asian culture. He seeks to tell us that essentially we need to begin looking outside of our “Western” way of thinking about the rest of the world if we truly want to understand how to get along with people that are essentially not all that different. Understandably, Hwang is telling us that having fantasies is dangerous when that fantasy helps to further a stereotype of how a particular culture is. He craftily uses Madame Butterfly as a way to show how deep these stereotypes run and how long it has taken for our culture to understand the dangerous impact they have socially and politically. Proof is in the pudding as in real life, a French diplomat is imprisoned simply because he refused to understand that what he thought was a woman was in fact a man, a man that was duping him for national secrets!
Self identity is both a curse and a blessing. In our culture, we have the freedom to be who we want, when we want. Baring committing illegal acts, for the most part it does not matter if we choose to express ourselves as man or as woman. But while that is not a criminal offense it does not mean that eastern or westerners “accept” those ways of thinking. This is how Hwang manages to weave in the concept of fantasy into his story and how his story, M. Butterfly is different from Madame Butterfly. In Puccini's tale CioCio San is victim to a man who deserts her simply because he can. Puccini portrays Asian women as objects to be tossed aside when not wanted anymore. Hwang turns that around and says Western people, and in this case men, are the objects to be tossed and used. But, Hwang is careful to point out that it is not just culture that creates these objects of desire, but political ideologies as well.
Hwang believes that through his play he hopes people will finally cut through all the misperceptions between East and West, men and women. In this aspect, a free society must be careful in its dealings with a society that is not so use to free thinking. Gallimard thinks Asian culture is weak and submissive And likewise an oppressed society must have citizens stand up to a rigid system who's need to control the free flow of ideas creates secrets and contempt. Song is deeply interested in freewill and the ability to choose his own destiny. But more importantly, Hwang is saying that everyone needs to take a deep look at their own constitutions and challenge the stereotypes and lies we have carried on for so long, when we have done that, our love for ourself and others will be complete and true!
Works Cited
Hwang, David. "M. Butterfly" Thinking and Writing About Literature, A Text and Anthology. Ed. Michael Meyer. University of Connecticut: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001.
Pages 1294-1341.
Chinese Opera. 16 Nov. 2004. http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/arts/chinese-opera.htm
“Epoch Times Commentary on the Chinese Communist.” The Epoch Times. 02 Dec. 2004.
http://english.epochtimes.com/news/4-12-2/24672.html
D.H.H. Sep. 1988. Class handout. GE102.- Afterword pp. 94-100.
However, writing is an important skill in almost any profession I end up moving to, whether it's banking (which I am currently in now) or graphic design, which is what I was (and will continue) going to school for.
In that light, I present seven very short writings submitted for a second level fundamental English course on literature and critical thinking.
Despite how I really down deep dislike critical (but constructive) comments on my style (or lack thereof), punctuation, grammar.. I could certainly use them now. I promise not to get too defensive based on your comments either >;-)
Seriously -
Joseph Palmer
English II GE-102
October 16th, 2004
Response Paper 1 - Metaphor & Metonymy, The Secretary Chant by Marge Piercy
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I chose The Secretary Chant by Marge Piercy and two advertisements for liquor - Miller Lite, a beer and Cotes du Rhone, a red wine in this brief study of metaphor and metonymy. Piercy illustrates a sense of self, stuck in an office, feeling like a piece of used equipment while the two ads encourage you to feel complete if only you drink their products. While on the surface the prose and advertisements portray opposite feelings, the prose - a feeling of a woman in angst over being used and mistreated and the advertisements - a feeling of comfort and well being if you drink their products, each has a connected effect of feeling subservient to something. The most striking use of metaphor and metonymy can tell a perspective consumer how to live a fuller life by consuming their product or reinforce the idea that you don’t need to feel like a mechanized dull object waiting to be abused when the need arises.
In Piercys’ Chant, she uses metaphor in describing the various pieces of office equipment as an appendage of woman’s body. Indirectly she also connects those feelings using metonymy to describe a sense of pain and anguish the body feels both physically and mentally as those devices are used to fulfill a daily function. In the Miller Lite ad, there ad contains a picture of a cropped, but large full bottle of beer with small white text at the top right stating, “Great Taste.. Less Filling” and the bottom left again in small white text, stating “Live Responsibly with the Miller logo”. Those metaphoric statements are connected with large white text in the middle, stating “You can have it all, Great Taste and ½ the carbs of Bud Light” The implied metonymy here is that you can live life if you drink a product that is only half the calories of the regular product and it’s competitor Bud Light as well. In the Cotes du Rhone Red Wine advertisement, the top half contains a picture of roses most of which are a dark grey with one being a bright red. As you read down the ad text states “Life’s just no the same without . .” skip down a line and in red text, “RED” it goes on to describe the place where the wine comes from followed by a red logo with text underneath stating, “Think Red, Think Cotes du Rhone” The implied metonymy here is that drinking this particular wine sustains and fills you body with life, hence the one red rose is life, set against the darker roses, which illustrates a sense of lifelessness. They make the perspective consumer feel as if life itself is not worth living until you tried their product.
While the advertisements are trying to tell the perspective consumer that if you drink their product you’ll enjoy yourself and feel complete, their message can be considered degrading in the sense that we really know life can be enjoyed without ingesting a mind-altering substance. We can contrast that feel good feeling to Piercy’s Chant where she says “My breasts are full of Mimeographed Ink”, which tells you a woman’s abilities are put to the test in very extreme measures. Percy really wants to say that women are indeed very talented, and dedicated hard workers, but are tired of being used and abused. Today, women in the workforce are working very hard to achieve an equal status with their male counterparts. Working as a subservient secretary, pushing buttons is no longer considered acceptable.
As I’ve described the two liquor ads and briefly explored Piercy’s Chant we see that each piece uses metaphors and metonymies to connect substances to feelings of good times and mechanical office implements to show how a secretary’s life is a real drag. While a woman’s body appendages aren’t really pieces of office equipment and life isn’t necessarily fulfilling if only because we ingest an alcoholic beverage, advertisement creatives and writers achieve a similar goal of conveying to the public that life just sucks.
Joseph Palmer
English II GE-102
October 23rd, 2004
Response Paper 2 - Feminist Critique, The Birth Mark by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne lived during a time in which science was taking on a whole new meaning and giving a purpose to live more freely in society. Hawthorne’s time was also a period of growth and hardship. The United States of America was young and had just proven to be a fiercely free and independent country. It was also a time of civil unrest towards his later years, with the country torn apart between the North & the South. Each side having a fundamental difference in how the country should be governed and who really had control over your life, you, or the government. In his story, The Birthmark, Hawthorne takes this idea of control and focuses on the dominate nature of men and the role women played in determining what is considered beautiful, especially if beauty could now be achieved by manipulating science alone. To Hawthorne, the idea of a perfect harmonious relationship meant that the genders were equal, but only so in the sense that each complemented each other if only each were perfect in their god given talents and natural forms.
In this story we see Aylmer, a most intense and deeply spiritual - intelligent man attempting to remove a crimson mark - in the shape of a human hand, but so small that it was the size of two fingertips from his otherwise beautiful wife Georgiana. Georgiana recognizes her beauty, but at the same time fears deeply that this mark is causing so much emotional anguish for her husband that as she puts it, “let the attempt be made at whatever risk. Danger is nothing to me; for life, while this hateful mark makes me the object of your horror and disgust, - life is a burden which I would fling down with joy.” The mark as we read was perhaps left by a fairy’s touch, nature’s hand left this mark from the mold of her birth; a mark of mortality, of which she so desperately wishes to be rid of so that in her husbands eyes, she can live free. We also are introduced to Aylmer’s assistant, Aminadab. A man so perfectly suited to compile the hardships of which Aylmer is too intellectual and less inclined physically to endure. We read that Aminadab does not wish to see the mark removed. Hawthorne alludes to the fact that Aminadab knows something Aylmer and Georgiana do not, that the mark is really part of a angelic soul that intertwined itself to Georgiana’s physical body.
Georgiana’s classic female gender is a perfect study of a time when women were not considered equal to the male gender, but rather they needed to exude beauty in order to be considered a prize catch for their husbands. Aylmer on the other hand represents the successful dominant male who is seeking the knowledge of the all powerful science and physical attributes necessary to be a successful man in life. In this sense, Georgiana is so desperate to become perfect so that she doesn’t distress her husband, because it’s so important for her to feel complete. Beauty to her is the ultimate perfection and the ability to create perfection is Aylmer’s goal. All throughout the story we read how Aylmer attempts to keep his work from his wife’s prying eyes. He attempts to portray a sense of competence about his work. She eventually trusts Aylmer because of her enduring love and her dying wish to have the mark removed and he by way of his domination of her spiritual beliefs portrays himself as a god of sorts, his abilities to control nature by proving to her that he can cure any living creature of it’s ills. Aylmer creates a potion where he claims that no living being, especially a king would last a second is he so chooses. This tells her that while he would not hurt her, he impresses upon her that she needs to be faithful and trust him implicitly. It also tells us that in Hawthorne’s time, women were not to be trusted around science, that some aspect of the female gender was too easily tempted towards frivolous pursuits. While we will never know if a potion could really have had the power that Aylmer describes, we do know this was a way for the male to exert his control over anyone that did not feel confident in their own self to stand up and challenge his ideas and beliefs.
In the end, Aylmer succeeds, Georgiana drinks the potion and the mark is removed before his very eyes, the consequence of his “magic” is that she dies. Aminadab has the last laugh though, as the secret unfolds, the mark truly was a soul intertwined so tightly in Georgiana, and Aylmer lost it all. The twisted beauty and accomplishments Hawthorne gives the genders and the complementary nature of Georgiana and Aylmer in that they each succeeded in doing the impossible, to this end Hawthorne had the foresight and was not blind to the powers that both men and women would soon discover in science that would enable people to change what nature had bestowed upon them.
Joseph Palmer
English II - GE 102
October 30, 2004
Response Paper 3 - Marxist / Material Read, Life & It's Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara
Only in The United States of America will you probably find a first-world culture which pushes its citizens to live a third-world life while extolling the virtues of a “free” albeit market based society. Every chance I have to take observational tours of the city I try to get a feel of who and what every person around me is all about. I find people of probable higher-class qualities shopping on Michigan Avenue in one moment and then street beggars and the homeless in the next. Each of these classes interacts in such a way that they barely tolerate each other’s existence. Toni Cade Bambara explores those observations in her story Life and It’s Lesson to a degree, which is a sad testament to the separation, our society perpetuates every day. When Bambara wrote this story the Vietnam “Conflict” was coming to an end and many groups, especially the feminist and black civil rights groups were finally beginning to see the fruits of their hard work in the 60’s to become free and a more repressed-less members of society. Likewise corporations were growing larger, mostly because they could find cheap labor in third-world or developing countries. These corporations found that if they outsourced the labor, they could advertise their products more cheaply here in the U.S. which might feel good on one hand, but, in reality, hurts everyone involved. Unfortunately today, the class struggle between the haves and have-nots is ever strong, with more people falling into the have-nots class. In this Marxist/materialist read I will show thru Bambaras’ story that young people in society live for the material possession, and that the value of having people show you the opportunity to grow beyond that survival greed is lost when you feel like achieving a more fulfilling goal is impossible.
A Marxist Critique of literature looks to see the ways and means a writer portrays a particular view, assumptions of a society and it’s hold on the members of that society through it’s culture, race, class and power. The idea is to extend to the masses that social injustice is not to be tolerated if there means to be a selfish gain of power or material possessions. The most important goal brought forth is that literature is destined to be a political tool for change. It challenges the reader to make a conscious effort to understand their place in society and even compare/contrast how their life mirrors or does not mirror their own.
“Life and It’s Lessons” is rich in detail as Bambara describes how a group of minority children and their well to do, but still minority teacher make their way to the “ritzy” shopping districts of New York. The two main characters, “me and Sugar” describe Miss Moore as a lady with “nappy hair, proper speech and no makeup.” And at the same time compare her to the bums on the streets, both to be despised and hated for their very existence. They have a chip on their shoulders, they seem angry at the world, their parents for what feels like a lack of attention and while we don’t read these two as a violent pair, you can’t help but sense that they’ll do whatever it takes to survive and get ahead of the next guy or girl, they truly feel like a class all their own, “the right ones.” But, Miss Moore brings the kids the marvels of toys and play things of the rich at a F*A*O Schwartz toy store, which really isn’t to say there are impressed with what they find, rather, disgusted and puzzled as to why rich, white people would pay so much for something that could be had much cheaply at a five and dime store. At any opportunity Miss Moore extols some wisdom and knowledge and challenges the kids to think about what they do with their money.
Of course, Sugar asks, “Can we steal?” which shocks Miss Moore and made me chuckle. The brute honesty Bambara instills in this character is a subtle way of saying that kids do indeed know the value of money, and that it makes no sense to spend so much on something that doesn’t seem to be capable of producing an intended effect they have in mind. For “me and Sugar” the only way to survive is to have fun and that means buying candy, or junk food and going to see the movies on the cheap. Not wear fur coats in the summer time, or spend $300.00 on a microscope. A few of the kids have some really good, bright moments when they see something that sparks an interest; Ronald is interested in the microscope, but he’s not quite sure why. Miss Moore goes on to describe the useful purpose of the device, but the other kids just make fun of him. This is a classic way to put someone in his or her place on many levels. Even today, many parents will attempt to guide their children towards a specific career and shun an interest the child may have because they think it won’t lead to a successful life. Advertisements for many popular products use this same method to make you feel good if you buy their product, but make you feel like a loser if you don’t.
With that in mind Miss Moore and people in her position has a difficult task ahead of her. At the conclusion of the story she tries to impress upon the kids that money would be better served supporting the family and making sure everyone feels good. Unfortunately the kids don’t see it that way. Their trip to the toy store only reinforces in their minds that life is all about me and how much can I do to make me feel like a winner. When Miss Moore asks if anyone learned anything today, Sugar says, “Well, we got four dollars anyway.” Society is telling you kids, you are on your own; don’t expect any help from anybody. Where does the cycle of selfish fulfillment?
Joseph Palmer
GE 102
November 6th, 2004
Response Paper 4 - Dramatic Structure
Characters: Caucasian Male, African American Male both in their late 20’s and random angry motorist, voice off screen
Setting: Busy traffic on a main street in Anytown USA
CM, not paying attention to the traffic in front of him rams into the rear of AAM’s vehicle, both step out of their respective vehicles.
CM: Are you okay?
AAM: Oh, I am just fine.
CM: If I didn’t no better I’d say you were gellin’!
AAM: That’s right, Gellin like Magellan
Flash to a cutaway graphic of a foot soothed by a Dr. Scholl’s Ô gel foot pad, the background voice tells us this gel pad is all you need to feel comfortable and forget the harshness that results due to uncomfortable and sore feet.
Flash back to the scene of the accident, where CM & AAM reflect on each other’s okay condition even after the accident. An angry random motorist shouts, “get out of the way” and honks his horn madly.
CM: He’s not gellin..
AAM: No, he must be a felon!
In this Dr. Scholl’s ad, we see two men a part of and at the scene of a car accident. However we see the two get out of their cars and calmly walk to each other to make sure the other is okay. We’re led to believe by this ad that the comforting action of a Dr. Scholl’s gel footpad is all that stands between these two from being aggressive with each other as men might typically react when they are in a confrontational situation.
The comic plot in this ad is that the two men realize that they can achieve a sense of peace even when put into harms way because they are not affected by other bodily discomforts, notably their feet. I’ve change the outcome a bit by changing the African American Male’s response in this scenario by forcing him to make a judgment against the angry motorist, calling him a felon, which is saying that the Angry Motorist is not worthy or free to feel good because he’s not wearing the foot pads.
In that end, it’s in a sense a tragedy that a stereotype still in our culture is to think of African American men as a rugged type and more prone to be a “felon” just because of the color of his skin and his perhaps menacing way he treats other men. But, in this case, the situation is a double edged sword because while the gel foot pads might provide comfort to both men, the African American Male is taking his anger out on being treated unfairly by society on someone else who might complain about the situation at hand, regardless of how comfortable his feet feel.
Joseph Palmer
GE102
November 13th, 2004
Response Paper 5 - Gender Dynamics - Communication, Sex Lies, and Conversation by Deborah Tannen & IND AFF, or Out of Love in Sarajevo by Fay Weldon
Tannen's Sex Lies, and Conversation and Weldon's IND AFF, or Out of Love in Sarajevo are explicitly rich in the study of how the genders communicate with each other and the ways men and women interact when it deals with the heartfelt issue of love and how to communicate those intentions of love and feeling without pretense or judgment. Communication is the key ingredient in any successful relationship. If, in a heterosexual environment a man and a women are to co-exist on a pleasant level each needs to understand each other’s needs and wants. I will explore those needs in this paper and explain why we find it difficult to fully develop our true natures when the ego and preservation of self distorts and confuses what we want and need in a partner.
Gender dynamics or power between the genders has a stronger consideration today in all realms of modern life. Indeed, women are no longer using a sense of secrecy and deception to fulfill their needs. In addition, there is a shift in who holds the key so to speak in todays western and in some cases eastern cultures where we see women taking a more important role in shaping government, entertainment. And where it concerns the act of females talking to their male counterparts we see men coming towards a compromise in their own methods of communicating. However, this is not without a slight sense that men might still consider women not to be of a “first-class mind” as Peter says of the narrator in “IND AFF.” That is to say women are sweet and caring and have a good grasp of their feminine roles, but perhaps in terms of understanding the importance of how world events shape our current roles, women might not be capable of understanding. But if we compare this thought to the ideas Tannen says how men and women
communicate we begin to see the difference in communication shows that women do understand how things are suppose to work; each gender is focused on a different path of getting to that understanding that they loose sight of each other if they don't stop to realize that in fact, listening is going on.
The narrator is attracted to Peter in Weldon's story because of his deep passionate knowledge and the fact that he's living a double life. She's trying to feel him out. What is his desires for her, does he wish to be a scholarly “father figure?” Does he love her as much as she feels this infatuate love for him? When she tells us about the assassination of the Archduke of Ferdinand you get a feeling that she herself is in a slight internal panic, what do I do if he doesn't love me? Do I keep attacking the issue and force him to show his hand? She smiles at a cute waiter and this provokes him to act. She smiles out of compassion for another waiter who is not so cute and immediately has a sense that perhaps Peter is not the one for her. She also realizes that as much as he is saying and expressing his love is as important as what he is not saying. Likewise, Tannen illustrates that men perceive the “attack” as just that, an attack on their standing with other men, and that turns men off. If taken in a pessimistic light, Inordinate Affection is indeed a less-than desirable way of treating love.
I choose to take the idea of “IND AFF” in a positive light. It means to open your soul and see communication as a risk worth taking, not as a means of power to dominate. It also means that in order for humans, no matter what their gender is MUST get along and find the love within each and to give more than we receive. We MUST put our ego on hold and step out of the straight ahead, don't look around approach to expression of love - that strong emotion that resides in all of us. But most important of all, stride to find a balance, don't let the bad moments define the heroic efforts love has in store for us all.
Joseph Palmer
GE102
November 18th, 2004
Response Paper 6 - Dramatic Structure - The Tragic Hero - Oleanna by David Mamet
This film moved me in a very depressed way last Saturday. It happened to be my birthday and I had already been thinking about the ways I communicate with friends and in past relationships. I was feeling particularly upset because I recently had an incident where a classmate was trying to communicate with me and I refused to listen, not so much because I disliked this person, but because I was feeling stressed with school and work. In addition, this movie essentially repeated a scene in my mind of my last relationship. Before we started the viewing of Oleanna we were asked to choose a side and explore why we chose it. All throughout this film I found that I could side with characters, Carol, and the Professor. Carol was struggling to get an understanding of the material at hand and make sense of where her grade was heading and the Professor was struggling to get a grip on his professional and personal life not that he's made it ahead to a position of tenure. Knowing how my best intentions do not always translate into a workable solution, I sensed based on how I was feeling at the time that I would find it difficult to choose a side.
As we've studied, a tragic hero must embody these characteristics: he/she must be noble, have a tragic flaw which is usually a part of their character, the flaw must be extreme and justified, and the audience must relate to the hero. This hero is a universal character; we could find him or her in any part of our daily lives. In addition we learn, at least in theatre or movies that there are dramatic structures in place to help communicate the tragic hero' status and understanding how he/she makes a discovery or is held back somehow. In Oleanna, Mamet uses the telephone, cigarettes, Carol's notebook and the Professor's book to indicate a moment of distraction, stress, information gathering, and understanding.
There are other devices, but those mentioned make the strongest efforts in communicating both directly and indirectly (meta-communication). In Oleanna, Carol is troubled by her poor grade received on her paper. She goes to see her professor on a quest to figure out a way to improve her grade, but more important, how to gain an understanding of material the professor is trying to teach. In that end, she is also looking for where she fits in, as we learn it took her a great deal of financial burden to attend the prestigious school. I could connect with Carol in my own daily dealings with some of my classes and most certainly where it concerns financial matters. It is taking me a great deal to keep up with my financial obligations and attend school at the same time. This stress has also made me weary in one of my classes and I find myself always in discussion with the instructor on why I can not seem to grasp the concepts being discussed and shown.
That is where the similarity ends however between my situation and the one Mamet is portraying. The binding problem in Oleanna is the idea that her professor has sexually harassed Carol. But is she harassed? Yes, by contemporary standards. The professor gave a dangerous assumption of favor that if Carol came by to see him, he would make her grade an A for the entire class. In addition he asserted his “power” over her in his philosophy that higher education was essentially a waste of time. Forgetting his words, he bullies Carol, with at first giving her little chance to respond. When she does respond he treats her thoughts as a prolongation of her failure. All of this goes on while the professor says that he “likes her” when she asks why he seems to pay attention to her. Words are a powerful means to subdue and control a victim. There is no need for physical contact for any gender to feel or be harassed.
But the professor is not evil or for that matter an intentional harasser. His intentions are good, if his intentions are good if clumsy in execution. His weakness is power, and that power
corrupts him such that he’s blind and that turns on him in the end. Carol reports him to the tenure committee and he looses not his stature as a teacher, but his job and his livelihood as well. This is a situation most if not all people can relate to. At one time or other I've had too many situations where I’ve made mistakes in trying to fix a problem and learned the hard way that my intentions were shortsighted and lacking in knowledge and patience. Carol discovers her power and she uses it to attempt a correction in the professor’s belief. But, the professor’s other weakness is in his inability to adapt, to understand the change he needs to make to his way of thinking. Carol’s intentions are also not without a twist. She seeks to turn her righteous fortune into profit, another failing that the professor feeds upon, but which ultimately proves to fail them both.
In the end, their passion for what is right turns to violence and Carol’s outcome is tainted beyond repair. Such was the reason why I felt ill last Saturday I felt guilt and remorse in the way my last relationship ended. We both took sides, lost control of our passion; He went his way, as did I. So you see why I found it hard to choose a side. Neither of us understood each other’s needs and wants. That lack of knowledge forced me to see my weaknesses. I just hope that in the true end I am judged by how I lived to adapt, understand and correct my ways.
Joseph Palmer
GE102
December 3rd, 2004
Response Paper 7 - Love: A state of emotion-awareness and the Indefinable Variable
Love is the topic that has plagued man, both pre- and post- civilized, since the dawn of time. Even the gods themselves seem to be at the whim of Aphrodite. Yet for some reason we will despise the thought of it with one breath, and then cry ourselves to sleep because we do not have it in the next, but why? What is so important that this one base of human emotion’s fulfillment surpasses the needs of all others?
We live in a society where beauty is the predominant cultural drive. If a person is beautiful than they must be loved. It has seemed that beauty has gone hand in hand with love even before Helen of Troy ever existed. Short of blaming society it is because of that mind set that is instilled almost since being inside the uterus, that in order to live a happy existence one must have love.
It is bombarded at us from all sides. Regardless of gender most children’s first memories can be traced back to those images of a white picket fence with the 2.5 kids, and a dog frolicking in the yard. Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and all of the other fairy tale princesses had not necessarily charmed lives from the beginning, but lived as they say happily ever after. It is because of this preconceived notion that we think as small innocent children usually do that when I grow up my life is going to be wonderful. I am going to find the person of my dreams, and I will live happily ever after.
Then we grow up, and the evil of mans world comes to play. Start usually a few years after we get a firm grip on that fairy world, in junior-high; we are slapped back to reality. We learn that life isn’t perfect, it matters how you look, and that in order to maximize the possibility of finding love you better not eat that last piece of chocolate cake.
Although that is just one of the many aspects of love, and there are many other things that it can do. Love for one’s god(s) can drive a person to the brink of insanity with religious fever. It can make an old woman, who has just lost a child in war; call down wraith to decimate another civilization. Think about it the loss of one person can make another wish for death for millions upon millions of people that they have never met before. There has been nothing created in the course of history that could make one person wish something like that except love, or when their love has been hurt.
It is also one of the most sacred of human feelings. A practicing witch that I had recent conversations have been had with believes that it should not be touched. Many people have asked him to cast a love spell or to bring someone into their lives or even to make the emotions that they share with some more intense. Time and time again he has refused. When asked why he has always said, “Love is more sacred then magic. Love is the one thing in the world that should remain pure and untouched. Most anything can be manipulated with magic, but something that is so important would become a lie. It would become tainted and filthy and would not be true.”
Why do we live in a constant wanting of this emotion - a sacred to live without because of societal upbringing, but not wanting to change or cause it to happen? What is this one emotion so strong that its finding can cause undeniable joy, or cause the desire to destroy millions of individuals? We know what it can do and what it causes, but will anyone know “what is love?” Love is truly the most powerful of emotional states and an indefinable variable in the fabric of life!
Joseph Palmer
Kimberly Baker
English II
December 18th, 2004
M. Butterfly - Henry David Hwang: A cultural upheaval
M. Butterfly by Henry David Hwang provides a view into a life of deceit, lies, and a fascinating look into gender identity, miss-communication and expectations of the performance of gender in the twentieth century. Based on a real story of a French Diplomat who falls in love with what he thinks is a female Chinese Opera star, who ironically is actually a male Chinese spy. The decade the events take place in, 1960 - 1970, was a hectic time of change around the world. The notion of achieving civil rights in the United States was in its infancy, while in China, a cultural revolution was beginning in an effort to keep its society from exploring anything outside of the Communist Party dictates. In addition, the United States was still reeling from the Korean Conflict, perhaps the first time the USA dealt with an Asian culture in war. A situation in Vietnam was forming where the Communist North was attempting to wrestle control of the South, in an attempt to rid the South of it’s French colonial hold. This was also the time of the cold war, where government ideologies were drastically different in its methods of unifying its citizens. By comparing East and West cultures we get a sense of the profound differences between men and women and how a society of oppression and a free society conflict, which Hwang’s Butterfly builds on as we muddle our way through fantasy and perception which are tools in developing, if a bit confusing, our self-identity.
At the beginning of Butterfly we see Gallimard in a prison cell, recounting his experiences as an assistant and then promotion to Vice-Consul of the French embassy in China. He uses his fascination with the Italian Opera, Madam Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini as the basis for his love affair with Song Liling who he thinks is a woman. But his fascination gets him into trouble because Song is a man and he is a spy for the Chinese Government. The Vietnam War was just starting and the Chinese needed intelligence on the American position. Gallimard was in a good position to give that information, and he was too infatuated with Song to realize that the object of his desires and love was not what he thought she was and it was hurting him emotionally and professionally.
Gallimard believed that Song was a needy creature while at the same time thinking that his “manhood” was bolstered in his so called ability to take a strong interest and caring of Song. He viewed all Asian peoples, but especially Asian women, as very needy and submissive people. Perhaps this was due to his own lack of connectedness of his needs, especially his love life. Gallimard’s love life was never a strong one; He always had trouble fitting in with his peers when it came to attracting women. He was not a very handsome man either which added to his lack of self-confidence. He viewed women as objects because he felt that they would never love him in the way he desired. When Song took an interest in him he felt confident for the first time in his life but it was a false confidence. Song played on Gallimard’s naivety of Asian culture to his advantage in pulling secrets from Gallimard. Asians are portrayed as silent, submissive, sneaky, and intelligent people.
Gallimard is not so innocent either. We see him engage in a third affair with a Renee, one of the pin-up girls he use to look at as a youth. He finds sex with her not to be as engaging because this woman is confident and embodies more of the characteristics of a powerful and independent woman. This does not fit well with Gallimard and soon he longs again for his Butterfly, Song Liling.
But, at the same time we learn very little about Song. We know that Song was trained as a classical Chinese Operatic performer, Travelguidechina.com describes Chinese opera as:
a traditional form of stage entertainment, weaving together elements of mime, dance, song, dialogue, swordplay, and acrobatics into one fluid continuous flow. Gestures, movements and expressions incorporated within each performer's script come together to bring forth an impressive performance. In contrast to Western stage entertainment, which is subdivided into different categories such as opera, drama and sketches. (travelguidechina.com 2004.)
With this in mind, Song uses elements of this in his dealings with Gallimard. Every action he takes is not necessarily linear in movement, Song's aspect of fluid motion, which can describe how a dance or actor does his job is despised among his own people. When Song checks in with his contact in the Communist Party, Comrade Chin mentions that even his own mother thinks actors are “weirdos” and comparing Song's chosen profession to that of gamblers and prostitutes. Chin reminds Song to be sure not to violate Communist Party principles in his dealings with Gallimard, homosexuality being the primary concern. As the Epoch Times mentions in a recent article that the Chinese Communist Party Principles were especially harsh -During the Cultural Revolution, fathers and sons tortured each other, husbands and wives struggled with each other, students and teachers reported on each other, and mothers and daughters treated each other as enemies. Party principles motivated the conflicts and hatred. During the early period of CCP rule, some high-ranking CCP officials were helpless as their family members were labeled as class enemies. This, again, was driven by Party principles. (The Epoch Times, Dec. 2004)
Hwang does not portray Song and Chin as mother and son, however, after reading the play and watching the movie M. Butterfly by David Cronenberg, I surmise a possibility that Chin was in fact Song's mother and that there was a connection between Chin and Song's fathers' death. Regardless if that was ever the truth, given the control the CCP had over its society and how tightly woven everyone was to each other, it made no difference if they were or were not blood relatives. The primary focus of the CCP was to ensure everyone stayed in line. In that regard, Chin made sure Song’s activities with Gallimard were always in question!
Gallimard is ecstatic over his relationship with Song. But that put him in a difficult and powerful position. Now he is not only married but has a mistress too and his colleagues now see him as a confident individual, someone to keep an eye on as he moves his career with the diplomatic service forward. In our western culture having a “fling” on the side is considered “wrong” but generally tolerated among the elitist class because it shows a man to have power in his life. The women who are in this role are not looked upon kindly and seen as cheap objects, ready to be disposed of on a whim. For Song, this position is perfectly suited for his role in gaining access to the thoughts and secrets needed for his superiors.
Moreover, it would seem that Song is infatuated with Gallimard as well. While Gallimard may seem to be aloof, his connections to the west fascinate Song. When Comrade Chin is asked by Song why in the Peking Opera that women's roles are played by men, Chin begins to answer “I don't know. Maybe, a reactionary remnant of male-” but Song interrupts and says “No. Because only a man knows how a woman is suppose to act.” Chin is disgusted by this but can not begin to think of an answer. Song is telling us that eastern culture is incapable of thinking outside of culture and the norm of how a woman should or could act and at the same time tells us that western culture seeks to experiment with the ideas of gender identity, albeit if only in secret. Moreover, Song's fascination with western culture also provides a chance to perhaps help Gallimard understand that while Asian culture might be deeply rooted in tradition, it is a strong yet delicately beautiful at the same time.
In an afterword by Henry David Hwang, he recalls his thoughts in developing the M. Butterfly story as a way to bridge the thought gap most people have about Asian culture. He seeks to tell us that essentially we need to begin looking outside of our “Western” way of thinking about the rest of the world if we truly want to understand how to get along with people that are essentially not all that different. Understandably, Hwang is telling us that having fantasies is dangerous when that fantasy helps to further a stereotype of how a particular culture is. He craftily uses Madame Butterfly as a way to show how deep these stereotypes run and how long it has taken for our culture to understand the dangerous impact they have socially and politically. Proof is in the pudding as in real life, a French diplomat is imprisoned simply because he refused to understand that what he thought was a woman was in fact a man, a man that was duping him for national secrets!
Self identity is both a curse and a blessing. In our culture, we have the freedom to be who we want, when we want. Baring committing illegal acts, for the most part it does not matter if we choose to express ourselves as man or as woman. But while that is not a criminal offense it does not mean that eastern or westerners “accept” those ways of thinking. This is how Hwang manages to weave in the concept of fantasy into his story and how his story, M. Butterfly is different from Madame Butterfly. In Puccini's tale CioCio San is victim to a man who deserts her simply because he can. Puccini portrays Asian women as objects to be tossed aside when not wanted anymore. Hwang turns that around and says Western people, and in this case men, are the objects to be tossed and used. But, Hwang is careful to point out that it is not just culture that creates these objects of desire, but political ideologies as well.
Hwang believes that through his play he hopes people will finally cut through all the misperceptions between East and West, men and women. In this aspect, a free society must be careful in its dealings with a society that is not so use to free thinking. Gallimard thinks Asian culture is weak and submissive And likewise an oppressed society must have citizens stand up to a rigid system who's need to control the free flow of ideas creates secrets and contempt. Song is deeply interested in freewill and the ability to choose his own destiny. But more importantly, Hwang is saying that everyone needs to take a deep look at their own constitutions and challenge the stereotypes and lies we have carried on for so long, when we have done that, our love for ourself and others will be complete and true!
Works Cited
Hwang, David. "M. Butterfly" Thinking and Writing About Literature, A Text and Anthology. Ed. Michael Meyer. University of Connecticut: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001.
Pages 1294-1341.
Chinese Opera. 16 Nov. 2004. http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/arts/chinese-opera.htm
“Epoch Times Commentary on the Chinese Communist.” The Epoch Times. 02 Dec. 2004.
http://english.epochtimes.com/news/4-12-2/24672.html
D.H.H. Sep. 1988. Class handout. GE102.- Afterword pp. 94-100.