My View of The Elephant Man

Reading plays tends to be difficult for me, but when I was reading this play one major idea seemed to confuse me. There is one part at the very end of scene VII where Treves, Bishop and Gomm are speaking and they want to make Merrick just like them. The tone of the bishop sounds like it is almost in wonder and smiles as if he thinks the others are joking. As though he is thinking, "really? like us? why would you want more of us?" but then later in scene XII they are all talking about the ways in which Merrick is like them and those are things that he seems to have been like even before he went into the hospital. They all take what they believe are positive attributes and say that these are the ways he is like them. What I did not really like is that everybody seems to agree that he is just like them but without the experience of the outside world and yet they do not allow him out of the hospital to experience that outside way of life. It seems as though that would be the best and that he would have to learn to deal with the people staring or asking questions eventually and that he may be able to get closer to normality that way. The whole point of him agreeing to go into the hospital was so that he may have a chance at a normal life and they said they could help him get it but he seems farther away from it after going in the hospital then he was in the freak show. It seems as though when he was working and living in the circus that he was just acting the part like the Mrs. Kendal was doing for her job. It just so happens that it was a very rare person could do his job whereas many people can learn to do her job. I do agree that depending on which people are around him changes how Merrick acts, but we as "normal" people do that all the time, we do not speak to our parents or our children the same way as we do our teachers or for that case other students. Many people hide who they are from everybody for all their lives and are able to live like that. I think it is wrong for them to judge Merrick by a different standard that the one that they follow for themselves. It seems that these people are not very good role models and should not be trying to teach another person how it is appropriate to act when they are hypocrites. Merrick seems to be abnormal to these people only because they do not understand why he does not want to be honest about who he is in front of them, when it is he that can see right through them and can realize that they are fakers and he should just go with them and they can give him what he has wanted for a long time, a “normal” life. 

Looking at "woodchucks"

Looking at “Woodchucks”

           The poem “Woodchucks” by Maxine Kumin was interesting to read for me.  It was funny and light-hearted in the style it was written. The poem was about woodchucks eating all the vegetables in the garden and the frustration of the author to rid themselves of the woodchucks. I was surprised at the feelings that came out of the author. The base feelings we have as humans to protect what is ours even from nature and the attempt to control nature. The confusion of the author as to what to do with the woodchucks is fascinating. They had tried gassing them first and the woodchucks were smart enough to dig another tunnel to hide in until it was safe. It is the ultimate battle between man and nature. It shows the deepest feeling of satisfaction at the death of another animal, but we do not see ourselves as animals.

It is interesting that the baby was the first to fall under the bullet. This seems to be showing that the female is strong and smart and that this is a feminist poem. When in line 15 the author makes a comment about “falling from grace” it is reminiscent of the religious stories and then in the next line to talk about Darwin was very ironic and carefully done. The author then tells us that he died under the rose bushes, which turns something beautiful and natural into a gravesite which is usually thought of as sad.

Then the author manages to get the mother with the gun and, although the baby is described in plain language, the mother is seen as more negative with, “…her needle teeth still hooked in a leaf of early Swiss chard.” (ln.20-21). So now the mother is now not only harder to get to and stronger and smarter, but more vicious and determined to keep the food she has risked her life for. Although there is another baby woodchuck that is killed it is almost said in passing as though this is commonplace to take one life after another. This time there is no depiction of how it looked once it died or how well the aim was. It is then that the author recognizes the killer within and the protection instinct and adrenaline that helped her along to murder these woodchucks.

Then we are left with only the one woodchuck. The author specifies that it is a male woodchuck, rather “old” and “wily” (ln. 25). The fact that the older male woodchuck is left directly contradicts the idea that this is a femi9nist poem. The author is so frazzled by this fact that she sits out there day after day with her weapon and waits to see him again. Even when she sleeps she dreams about this one woodchuck and wonders why they could not have died in the easier way which is the gas that she first attempted to use before the story even began.

When the last line comes up I have to wonder if the author is writing it because of a sense of guilt for killing these woodchucks by shooting them or if she sees them as the same level as the Jewish population that died by the gas chamber. This story was written in 1972 which was only about 30 years after WWII ended. Many people would have still been around that remembered that time and may have gotten upset about the way that she worded the poem at the end. I’m not sure of the message that was intended but I know that it seems to me that she was showing that you can only feel regret after you have done something wrong, before that you feel righteous.

My reflections on the poem "Singapore"

I really liked the poem “Singapore” written by Mary Oliver as it really touched my heart as the way it has been written. In the poem, what was particularly interesting was that Oliver’s perception kept changing as she kept thinking about the woman whom she saw washing the ashtray of toilet at airport with a blue rag. At times she is disturbed to see what she is seeing and the next moment her disturbance turns into a beautiful picture of nature in her mind. It looks like that those images come to her automatically and she wasn’t comparing the real life to her imagination. The face and personality of that cleaning woman kept giving her image of Mother Nature. The poet has used metaphors and simile in order to show similarity of her observation and imagination.

At first she was surprised and had no idea when she was a woman washing the ashtray in women’s restroom and then all of a sudden the images of waterfalls, birds and river came across his mind. It was as if she was looking at the image of Mother Nature and her care for the living beings. Then again she was speechless as soon as that woman turned around and smiled at her and that led to the series of thinking objects running in her mind. She was not sure how to respond to the smile of that woman and the again all of a sudden an image ran  in front of her mind which compared her hair to the wings of a bird and her movements to a river. Once again an image of Mother Nature came in front of her eyes.

Oliver suddenly realized that she woman loves her life as the same way Mother Nature cares for everyone without any complaints. Her actions such as folding and unfolding of her cleaning cloth and her smile that she gave to that woman kept reminding Oliver of the Mother Nature. It was as if mother nature and its beauty was picturized  in the form of that cleaning lady.

Perhaps the base of this poem is to accept the reality of life in a positive manner. Sometimes reality is not exactly what our eyes show to us or makes us to belief. Life is full of different colors which also include the colors of black and white. It all depends how we view that.  Perhaps the poet is from a rich background and that’s why she felt pity at the life of that cleaning lady but when she saw that the lady is actually happy with her life and is not complaining with it, the poet’s negativity of thoughts turned into a positive image of Mother Nature. Life is not something that we rich or middle class people think and happiness is not exactly what we understand subjectively. It all depends on how an individual looks at his life and define his/her own happiness. Perhaps that ‘s the message the poet wants to reveal to the readers.

Welcome

Hi,
My name is Tahani. Welcome to my blog.I am an international student at Fairmont State University and I am from Saudi Arabia.