Friday, March 27, 2020

Adrienne Rich Essays - Guggenheim Fellows, Adrienne Rich

Adrienne Rich "From where does your strength come, you southern jew/ split at the root, raised in a castle of air". This is a quote from Adrienne Rich's 1982 essay, "Sources". Adrienne Rich is a southern jew who grew up in the forties. As she grew up, her father hid the fact that they were Jewish. Her father acted like he was fully assimilated and didn't show ethnicity in any way. He did this to fit into society that was against Jewish people. This quote reflects one of many themes Rich deals with in her poetry. The theme is racism, hate, and bigotry. In many of Rich's works she talks about being oppressed. In the poems, "1948: Jews", "Two Arts", and "A Vision" there is a theme of oppression. In the poem " 1948: Jews", Rich refers to her college years. At her college, she was to stay away from Jews. No matter how brilliant a person was, she couldn't unite with them as a group because socially it was less acceptable. She couldn't let herself get attached, she had to avoid her own ethnicity to survive in American culture. "Never mind just going to sleep like an ordinary person" Rich says about the situation in the end of the poem. An ordinary person; this portrays the feeling she had about the great discrimination that was going on at the time. Rich didn't feel like an ordinary person. She felt hate from society due to her background. This poem differs from Rich's other works in many ways. I found that most of Adrienne Rich's poetry was very hard to understand. I found threw reading Rich's poetry, she sometimes left the reader room to make his/ her own conclusions about the meaning. In this poem, Rich was very clear to the point. At her college, there was great racial tension and she felt she could not be herself there. I found, that I personally can feel the poem better, if I can really grasp the meaning. As opposed to left to wonder and draw my own conclusions. Another great poem by Adrienne Rich was " Two Arts". One theme in the poem, similar to "1948: Jews" is racism , hate, and being a southern Jew in the forties. In the poem, Rich talks about sculpting a perfect person free of any limiting factor, such as race or gender. This creation is great art. She talks about presenting this perfect person or work of art to the art instructor. I thought this represented her presenting her person to the public. It was socially acceptable and it was a piece of art. "This time they will love you, standing on the glass table, fluent and robed at last, and all your origins countered" Rich says. In this quote, Rich describes putting all your origins behind and being on a glass table for every one to see. You are robed and ready for life. You have been molded into the ideal person. This is another example of the theme of racism that Rich brings up in her poetry. This is also a poem in which Rich wrote it to give you a definite idea. She doesn't really give the reader much room to negotiate what the meaning of the poem is. I like reading poems that are more literal, to me they have more value. This poem differs from the others in many ways. This poem is more like a fantasy of what it would be like to be perfect. This almost seems like a childhood dream; to be someone your not. The poem "1948: Jews" is more factual. This type of poem are based on real life experience and therefor I feel they are of more value (Rich2 53) "A Vision" is another poem written by Adrienne Rich that discusses the issue of racism This poem is in memory of Simone Weil. Weil was a French, political activist, and social philosopher who was very influential in the early twentieth century. Her writings greatly effected French and English social thought. Later in Simone Weil's career, she would be denied a teaching position because she was Jewish. I believe this is why Rich talks about her. She can relate, they were both Jewish women in the forties. Weil died in the turmoil of WWII. She could not survive with the rations of food the Germans were giving. I would imagine she is one of Rich's heroes. She is a fellow women who lived the life of a Jewish person

Friday, March 6, 2020

Les Miserables Essays - English-language Films, British Films

Les Miserables Essays - English-language Films, British Films Les Miserables LES MISERABLES Les Miserables is a story, a very long story, which has been categorized as a classic. The story is about 1200 pages long. It is an epic saga, which covers about three decades in the early 1800's of France. The film is about the fugitive, Jean Valjean, following his release from jail after doing nineteen years of hard labor for stealing bread. Jean Valjean is chased by the cruel and self-righteous Inspector Javert, in a lifelong struggle to evade capture. The novel, Les Miserables is internationally known. That is because of its universal themes. These themes are: how society treats its outcasts, and how it views its criminals, prejudice, justice, doing what is morally right, and people can become better persons. The theme -how society treats its outcasts- can be seen in how the poor and homeless are are treated, and that is like animals. The rich treat them as though they are inferior and that they have no feelings or any form of intelligence. They are also not given the right to vote, which makes them not citizens of that nation. This theme is universal because every nation in the world has some sort of outcasts in their land. In America, this theme can be related to the blacks. In the beginning of the twentieth century they did not have as much rights and oppurtunities as the whites. Another example of how this theme can be related to America is how a person with a southern accent is perceived as less intelligent, which is a false misconception. The theme -how criminals are viewed by society- can be seen by how Jean Valjean is treated after he is released by prison. Although, he has served a sentence of nineteen years, he is still chased and wanted. In that period of time when a person commited theft it was viewed as a crime against the community and that person should be punished to the most extremes. That theme can be seen in modern America. When a person commits a federal crime heshe cannot hold a public job or teach for the rest of hisher life. Also, when a person commits a crime, that person and that person's career is scarred for life. The theme -doing what is morally right- can be seen in many instances in the novel. One instance is Valjean gives money to free Cozzette. Another instance is Valjean does not kill Javert to save his life. Also, Javert lets Valjean go free. There are also times where people do something that is morally wrong, but lawful. One might be when the students are executed. Another might be the arrest of the prostitute. A present time situation might be soldiers killing other soldiers. It is legal, but is morally wrong. In conclusion, the novel, Les Miserables, is a universal book with themes that many people from many countries can relate to. That is why it is put in the class of classics. It is also popular because it can be related with present time situations and events.