shallenb’s Blog

Here are examples of drug use found in the poem:

• dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix
• Laredo with a belt of marijuana for New York
• with dreams, with drugs, with walking nightmare, alcohol
• Peyote solidities of halls, backyard green tree cemeteries
• who chained themselves to subways for the endless ride from Battery to holy Bronx on Benzedrine
• who burned cigarette holes in their arms protesting the narcotic haze of Capitalism
• in policecars for committing no crime but their own wild cooking pederasty and intoxication
• East River to open to a room full of steam heat and opium

The motif of drug use does not change much throughout the poem.  We first see its context in the search for an “angry fix” and it stays fairly consistent.  People are using drugs because they are fed up with society. To Ginsberg, drugs seem to be a liberating force which allow people to free themselves and protest the oppressive society we live in.  He is attacking the notion that drug use makes people villainous.  Throughout “Howl,” the “best minds of the generation” are using drugs to free themselves.  By repeating this motif, the poem is like the drug user; it brings up drugs again and again.  “Howl” shows that society is the cause of people’s madness, not drug use.  Drug use is an option to protest and escape society’s madness.

They way that loyalty works in Arthur Miller’s play, A View From the Bridge, is strange because Eddie is not directly and maliciously betrayed, yet he still feels betrayed, which causes him to betray Marco and Rodolpho.  The reason then that the idea of loyalty is so tragic in the play is because, it would seem very difficult, if not impossible, to maintain.

Loyalty is so important in this blue-collar, ethnic community because in many ways it is all that they’ve got.  The people in this community are poor and steady work is not a guarantee.  They are crammed into slummy apartments and struggle everyday.  They don’t have much; however, they do have their families and their reputations.  Eddie lives a rough life, but still has Beatrice and Catherine.  When this situation is shook up though, he feels betrayed by them even though they are guilty of nothing.  Beatrice only wants to be Eddie’s wife, and Catherine only wants to marry Rodolpho, which is perfectly natural.

This would have been a complicated issue for Miller, who was writing this play in the 1950s, because he was being told to snitch on communists to the US government.  Miller refused to snitch, thus staying loyal and retaining his reputation as a loyal man, but ended up having to pay a price because the government punished him for his unwillingness to talk.  He was fined and sentenced, and eventually acquitted, but it still took a lot of courage not to talk.  His friend Elia Kazan did talk, and for this he suffered worse than Miller because he will always be a snitch, and like Eddie, his name was damaged.

The idea of loyalty is a tragic one in A View from the Bridge because it seems that even when one is loyal it can still make someone else feel betrayed.  And then if the trust actually is betrayed, it carries a death sentence as we saw with Eddie, and possible with Vinny Balzano too.  I can say that I have never felt truly betrayed like Miller or any of the characters in his play have.  I have never been in a situation where i had to name names or anything like that, but if it came down to it I like to think that I would not talk.

Hemingway portrays the Indians in more of a Romantic light rather than a realistic light.  He plays on the stereotype that Native Americans are more in tune with the natural self, and that they are not as rational as white Americans.

Nick, a white child, is in between these two mind sets and his Dad is hoping to show his son how to but aside emotions and be a scientist.  When they first arrive on the birth scene in the shanty the boy just wants her to stop screaming he does not like it.  This is somewhere in between the reactions of the Dad and the Indian Father-to-be.  His Dad is able to completely block out the screams “because they do not matter.”  The Indian man, however, can not tolerate the screaming any longer and commits suicide.

I don’t care how gut-wrenching the screams are, committing suicide is not a rationale response.  It portrays the Indians as primitive and impulsive.  The doctor is able to become something more than a primitive being because he can put aside his feelings for the scientific cause.  The Indians are completely unable to do this so it makes them seem below Nick’s dad.

After taking a tour of the Armory Galleries, we can see how complex modernism is. The art featured there was drastically different from what artists were producing in the past. Modernism is many things, but one clear element of modernism is that it is an attack on the limits of traditional art. Modernism wants to tear down everything you think you knew about painting, sculpture, and literature. We can see from the Armory Galleries that artists completely threw away the rules that had governed art, and didn’t make up any new rules either.

The paintings featured in the galleries took a drastic shift from traditional works. For example, Marcel Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase” is so different it was shocking to viewers. It barely resembles anything, let alone a nude person walking down stairs, yet there are enough traces to allow the mind to see how it could be a nude. In the past, artist had, for the most part, attempted to faithfully recreate the natural world realistically. Duchamp, however, represented the motion, the colors, and the shape of reality all in one painting. Cameras can recreate reality better than any artist, so what is the point of portraying the natural world as our eyes perceive it. Like other works of modernism, “Nude Descending a Staircase” questions whether it is more important to focus on the world, or our perceptions of the world.

The sculptures featured in the Armory Galleries also attack the importance of realistically portraying reality. Constantin Brancusi’s “Mademoiselle de Pologany” was so dramatically abstract that people did not even know how they should handle it. Its title indicates that it is meant to portray a sleeping muse; however, many people thought it looked like a “hard boiled egg balanced on a sugar cube.” Classical sculpture tried to portray the subject as it naturally was, or somewhat embellished to make it as beautiful as possible, but Brancusi and other modernist artists attacked what beautiful art is. They were creating beautiful art, but on their on terms. They did not create art according to someone else’s standard of beauty; they completely redefined what it was to be beautiful.

If a friend o’ mine asked me: What makes this stuff modern? I would tell them that what makes it modern is that the works of art attacked art forms before them, and tried to redefine what art is. It was a new, and it had no limits. Modern artist were concerned with the impression one felt from viewing the art, rather than any connection to the natural world. Modernism is complex and tricky, and the art exhibited at the Armory Gallery shocked people with how avant-garde it was. It is fitting that the art exhibit was at an Armory because the art attacked people’s notion of art and changed how they perceived it.

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant — There is alliteration here. How do we tell the truth at a slant? Is that the same as a lie? the truth seems like it could not be told any other way than straight. What truth does the poem want to come forth?

Success in Circuit lies Lies must be a play on words. Playing on being a liar and where truth is. Circuit reminds me of a never ending circle. How can this bring success.

Too bright for our infirm Delight We can’t handle the truth! The line rhymes. We would not want to hear, nor tell, the truth. Infirm makes me think that our delight is unstable.

The Truth’s superb surprise Surprise rhymes with lies. People often do not tell the truth so to have the truth confessed is a surprise. It is superb because it is shocking and refreshing.

As Lightning to the Children eased Lightning is powerful and instantaneous like the truth.  Children are innocent and lack understanding about truth and lies.  Children are easily amused by lightning and the truth.

With explanation kind confessing the truth us kind. Confessing what is true is the right thing so explain it to be kind to others and yourself.  Kind also means things that are similar. confession and explanation are two of a kind.

The Truth must dazzle gradually The truth needs to be told but if it is immediately told it can be too shocking. Confess it but do so delicately.

Or every man be blind — The truth is like a light that can be blinding if not confessed gradually. Congress but do so carefully because it can be dangerous to have the truth known too suddenly.

From doing a line by line analysis of the poem I realize that this poem is as much about hiding the truth as it is about confessing it. The truth can be “too bright” and can “blind” people; however, it is also important that the truth be told.  It is a light which must dazzle, yet not be so bright that it damages.  People should know the truth but the confessor needs to hold some of it back for protection because the truth is just so powerful.

The major problem Whitman experiences is the separation he feels from the people around him and from nature.  He can only assume how the other commuters feel, and he is curious to understand who they truly are.  He also feels distanced from the environment which surrounds him because of its vast timelessness.  The river has been there forever and he will just be alive for an insignificant time.

The poem resolves this feeling of isolation by Whitman’s epiphany that he and the other passengers are united by their shared experiences.  They both see the same water, boats, sea gulls so they are not as different as they might sometimes feel.  People are united because they are all just souls on a similar journey.

I choose this image of a person waking up and admiring the morning sun because it is a beautiful moment that we often take for granted.  The “feeling of health” that comes from the simple act of rising from bed in the morning is a blessing each and every time. Each day leads to new experiences; there are new opportunities to capture.  It connects with Whitman’s text so well because we all see, and feel, the same sun when we are outside.  The same sun that shines on us has shown on every other person and creature to ever inhabit the Earth.  Recognizing this brings us closer to one another.

This image is one everybody can relate to.  Unless we are nocturnal, the sun shining in our window signals the beginning of a new day.  I had a wonderful experience today when i woke up. I took a minute or two to just simply stare directly into the sun.  For the rest of the day I have not been able to see very well, but you know what? I’m OK with that because I feel like I have a heightened sense of myself which is the only sense a man really needs to live a life of fulfillment.

Knowledge without action is nothing. Emerson refers to books as copies because they are only the recorded actions of intellectuals who have acted in the past. The groundbreaking books did not just spring out of thin air; a scholar hypothesized, observed, and recorded real, practical laws of nature, then wrote a book about the particular subject.

Emerson has noted that there is too much emphasis on the actions scholars have taken in the past, rather than on new action being taken. Books and knowledge of the past is helpful of course, but it is not necessary. There is far too much imitation of the past, when creation is the only act worthwhile. When we begin to create our own culture, then America can finally separate itself from its British traditions.

Then, early the next morning, I returned to that deplorable town. I could not believe my eyes! Could it have been a cursed dream? I spied that damned old minister! Walking the the graveyard cursing the fallen! What does it matter though, they too were sinners. I’m sure of it!

He spotted me. I gazed upon his fake, pernicious smile. He makes me sick. He came towards me to offer a “blessing.” It was obviously a curse, as I felt nauseous the minute he offered his prayer.

I could here Deacon Gookin in the church praying. What nefarious underlord was that scoundrel offering his undying allegiance to today?

Then I gasped with horror! Goody Cloyse was trying to poison the mind of a young child. I could not allow this to happen! I snatched the child free of her cold, evil grasp. The fear and surprise showing in her eyes was entirely fraudulent.

Then I saw the woman I once called my wife. My blood began to boil when I saw her over joyous expression to see me. That filthy whore! She put her disgusting lips on mine and I damn near slapped the sin right out of her mouth! But, alas I managed to bury my hate deep within the cockles of my heart and I moved on with out so much as a word to her.

It was more than just a dream! I’m sure of it! You must believe me! It was a vision of the truth! The dirty awful truth. Everyone around me is hopelessly polluted. When, on Sabbath Day, I hear the holy congregation I am filled ear to ear with the scream of sinners roasting in the deepest pits of hell! When I look at the lies which litter the Bible I get a taste of rancid milk in my mouth and face becomes just as pale. I wake in the dead of night, in a deep sweat, even on the most bone chilling of nights. I share my bed with a demon!