Owl Creek

Action packed, excitement, and surprising, these words came to mind after I read “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce. This story gives you a lot of images, it’s almost like a movie is playing in your head, and there was a part in the story when he describes how the noose felt on his neck. He described the pain so well, I believe he used similes to describe how the noose felt. You won’t stop wanting to read it, this story is a little different too, it was broken into 3 parts, the first part describes the situation, the second part introduces the person who is about to get hung, it gives a brief story of how he got into that situation, and finally the third part, where you think he escapes, but it was all in his imagination, he imaged him escaping as he was falling through the bridge and the noose breaking his neck. The story's point of view is difficult to say, it keeps changing throughout the story and it makes the story even better, the story has a weird transition, there are some parts where you think the author is describing the situation, but really it’s the guy in the story’s view. To summarize it up, if you like shocking twisting endings, that deal with the civil war, this story is for you.

Bartleby's Facebook

If you were to see Bartleby’s Facebook it would contain nothing really great. It is plain and simple, the only application he has is an application called “brick wall”, I don’t really think that application exist, but it’s Facebook anything can be created there. He has no wall post, and has one friend, and it’s not really a person, it’s the New York law firm he worked in. He left a wall post and it reads “I prefer not to”, he has a few pictures on his profile, and they consist of, brick walls, doors and screens. His profile picture is of an invisible figure behind a white background. Also his status is set as “I prefer not to do anything”, he never usually logs on, he logs on whenever he feels like it, but for the past month he hasn’t. Not sure why, he might be tired of doing the same routine of logging in and out.
I chose to give these features to Bartleby’s Facebook because his mysterious and interesting ways. Every time there was a confrontation between Bartleby and his boss it would never escalade to the “anger” level, he would end up saying “I prefer not to”. A usual person would argue back and take it to the extreme with their boss; however Bartleby is not like that, he is mysterious person. As I was getting to the end of the story I began to see Bartleby not as a person, but as a symbol. The thing that made Bartleby interesting was him challenging his boss’s power, whenever he was told to do something he would reply “I prefer not to” and the boss would let him get by. If the boss was to assert his power I think Bartleby would have listened but yet again Bartleby is a mysterious figure.

Photo Credit: http://elyacare.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/tapa-bartleby.jpg

Montresor & Fortunato

It was last year when I wanted to seek revenge on my cousin. I had the perfect plan, I was going to continue to act as his friend and slowly lead him to the trap I have set for him. When he least expected it I got him! I don’t want to go into details about what happened, but I can relate to Montresor, the narrator of Edgar Allen Poe’s short story. The only difference between my situation and the narrator was I did not go to great lengths to do this, and I did not kill my cousin. In the mere beginning Montresor was already giving off hints that he is up to something “My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met…But I have received a pipe” (127) in this case pipe has the meaning of cask. He lures Fortunato with this line, and Fortunato wants the pipe.
They both head to a cave to look for the cask, now Montresor offers Fortunato a drink, purposely getting him drunk as they continue down the cave “My own fancy grew warm with the Medoc” (129) I believe Montresor meant that the more Fortunato got drunk, the more he grew excited which gave me a hint that Montresor might have some loose nuts in that noggin of his. He is slowly trapping Fortunato, and the poor guy does not know what’s going on, he believes that they are both out there to find the cask but when really Montresor wants him dead. Montresor wasted no time trying to kill Fortunato “I discovered that the intoxication of Fortunato had in great measure worn off” (130) This quote sort of threw me off, I was not sure whether Montresor wanted to kill Fortunato when he was drunk or when he was sober, because if he was to kill him drunk it would show that Montresor cared a little about Fortunato, because he does not want Fortunato to “fully” suffer. Over all I think Montresor is a crazy guy according to what I read and the reasons I stated above.

Introduction: The Tyger

A popular science author Richard Dawkins once said, “Cloning may be good and it may be bad. Probably it's a bit of both. The question must not be greeted with reflex hysteria but decided quietly, soberly and on its own merits. We need less emotion and more thought.” As we are gaining more and more technology, we are being able to create things that we thought once only god can create. We are almost beginning to prove religions wrong with new technology advances. I was talking to my religious leader a few months ago, about the sheep that was cloned. I spoke to him and he said that people nowadays are trying to become like “god” and that they want that authority and respect that comes with it, he then said that sooner or later humans will be cloned and then will ask who created them, and that those human clones would be confused throughout their lives. Now I know it may sound ludicrous, but this is what he really told me and when he was talking I immediately remembered the poem “The Tyger” by William Blake. It deals with the idea of what I am talking about, William Blake states in his poem “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?”(20)
Blake brings up some key words that made me wonder if he was describing how the tyger was made, “What the hammer? what the chain?”(13) From what I read this quote to be is that the tyger was built from man. Because he uses “hammer” and “chain” which are words that describe building machines or something man-made. Blake also says in his poem, “What immortal hand or eye”(3 & 23) making it seem that the tyger is asking if he was created by a god-like figure, because he mentions immortal, and god is immortal. God can never die, but Blake clearly made this poem to show us that humans are becoming and are trying to become “immortal” or like god.

My Hatred: Lois

Lois, Lois dam you woman
I tried to kill you many times
No matter what, I see you as my villain

Like the time I almost killed you when I dressed like a doorman
Or when you almost died choking on all those limes
Lois, Lois dam you woman

God dam Lois, you would always ask “Stewie what are you doin’?”
Remember Lois when I joined the gang of mimes?
No matter what, I see you as my villain

I tried to get help; I asked the dog, Chris, and even Megan
My dream is to see you dead covered in your slimes
Lois, Lois dam you woman

I remember pushing the car to the ocean with the fat man
Oh I know what to do! I’ll make you slip and break your neck on a pile of dimes
No matter what, I see you as my villain

Lois you remind me of a sour fruit, Lemon
Also of this dam villanelle I need to rhyme
Lois, Lois dam you woman
No matter what, I see you as my villain

I chose to write about the relationship between Lois and her son Stewie. I chose to write about this because first of all i love Family Guy, second is because i find it interesting to write about this relationship because it has a humor to it. I chose to write a villanelle poem because villanelle poems are usually used for comical purpose's and i thought that the relationship between Lois and Stewie is funny. If i have chosen a sonnet it wont give off the humor cue like the villanelle does. I hope you enjoyed this poem, it took me a while to do it!

William Blake "The Tyger"

The poem “The Tyger” by William Blake is not like the other poems I have read so far this year. This poem seems like the ones you read to little children in the 1st grade. The whole poem rhymes and it sort of has a joyful feeling to it. Even though this poem seems like a children’s poem, it has so many paradoxes and controversies. He describes the “Tyger” like as if it was a robot, he uses words like “hammer”, “chain”, and “anvil” These all describe machines and the industrial life. I think he used “Tyger” as a symbol instead of the actual tiger, because when we think of tigers we think of the fast, powerful, free animal, but this poem makes the tiger seem like a machine we use.
The poem seems to be from children’s description and William Blake, I can imagine a kid thinking “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” but that’s really about it, the rest of the poem comes from William Blake’s thoughts. Let me go back to this line from the poem again “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” this line made me think of the clone the scientist made of the sheep named “Dolly” the scientist used technology to clone the sheep, when I read this poem all I can think about is the technology we have and what we can do with it. We are almost like god, with our new technology we are being able to create things that no one thought can be created only by god himself. This poem really speaks to me and how we are changing and how technology is advancing. Now instead of telling children that god created them or a higher being did, in the near future we might tell the children that we created the creature.

P.S. I have included a link about Dolly the sheep in case you want to read more about her and how she was cloned

Link: http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/dolly/

In a Station of the Metro

The first time I read this poem I really did not know what it meant. It took me a good 15 minutes to really grasp the meaning of the poem, well to what I think the poem means to me. Ezra uses the word "apparition" which means that the faces he see's on the metro station are unknown, and that he basically sticks out. Another line that caught my attention was "petals on a wet, black bough" I can visualize a colorful petal on a dark branch, again making the petals stick out on the black branch. From what I have read, he is basically trying to say that being out in the modern world there are a lot of things out there that you need to familiarize yourself with otherwise you see yourself sticking out, just as Ezra did.
The poem can also go the other ways, as Ezra being the normal person and everyone else seems to be gone. We can take the same word he used “apparition” which means ghostly, and it can mean that he seen everyone’s face appear to be like a ghost, which means that the people in the metro are relying heavily on technology. When is the last time you went to a metro station and seen no one using technology? It never happens, everyone seems to be ignoring each other, making it seem like the other people are ghost, like they don’t exist due to the technology we are always on. Also the line “petals on a wet, black bough” can mean he is the only one seeing it (him being the petal) and everyone else is the black stuff on the bough. Even though this poem is two lines, it is so powerful, you may think it’s not when you take a quick glance but if you pay attention to the words and how he used them, you see the beauty of it, I believe this poem is written in a haiku style, but I am not sure about that.

P.S if you pay attention to the station picture you can see that the people have no faces, which is like Ezra said "apparition of these faces" this is something i thought i would share with the readers