2nd Sem. ISP: The American Dream

UnJi Nam

Mrs. Elliott

AP English Literature

21 May 2009

ISP: The American Dream and its effects on literature

The American Dream has always been a siren of sorts for people, standing for upward social mobility, economic comfort, and material wealth. Since the formation of the nation, the U.S has stood for opportunity. Especially with the turn of the 19th century into which America became the economic powerhouse it is today, the American Dream however began to stand in more and more for fiscal wealth and attainment of material goods. Its economic standing depended on being able to sell the maximum amount of goods and services to its consumers, and the idea of the American Dream began to tie more and more into the economic system and values of the time. The American Dream is an ambiguous concept. It has been touted as signs of a meritocracy where those with talent and determination clamber to the top. It has been criticized as a tool of the social aristocracy to keep the lower classes behaved and well endorsed in the economic and social system not always the most congenial to the penurious. It has been described as something transcending a mere rat race, but of the discovery of personal identity, ideals and of the rare state of happiness. However, whatever ideals can be tied to the American Dream’s existence, there is no mistaking that the fiscal mobility aspect of it will always be a part of the American Dream. Ignoring this only handicaps the viewer into seeing clearly the concept of what the American Dream truly is, an idealistic system as well as a dark tool of conformity and loss of personal identity. Like all systems made by human beings, its nature grapples between its inherent bright and dark side. As a playing ground for the similarly ambivalent nature of human beings, it is without peer in allowing people to truly delve into human nature unmasked as it is. As a peculiarly American institution, it is much a part of the American psyche and hence a strong influence on its literature. A concept riddled with both greed and generosity, with both good intentions and guilt, with ignorance and irresponsibility as well as idealism.
Babbitt is one American novel that introduced the all-encompassing influence of the American Dream, with the economic aspect overriding all other facets. For George Babbitt the main character, the pursuit of social respect and all the newest modern comforts is all he lives for. True, he has vague passions and desires for something more, shown by his friendship with his philosophical artistic friend Paul, and his constant dream of “the fairy girl”, a lovely being that promises hope, beauty and magic for him, but is always slipping always from him even in dreams. Babbitt subscribes to the system of garnering wealth and prestige even when it obviously doesn’t fulfill him as an individual or even a human being, all because he needs respect from others. Emptiness with his life can be found with lines such as these describing the important aspects of his life: “The Babbitts’ house was five years old. It was all as competent and glossy. Throughout, electricity took the place of candles and slatternly hearth-fires. In fact there was but one thing wrong with the Babbitt house: It was not a home.” Later on in the novel, Babbitt goes on to abandon his square existence to take on a life of stereotyped hedonism as a Bohemian, in order to pursue an idea of what life should be like. However, Babbitt really only escapes the frying pan for the fire, as he enters a world fueled with as much materialism, shallowness and hypocrisy as the one he left. And in the end, his desire for his peer’s recognition is so great that he goes back to his old life and habits gratefully. “Within two weeks no one in the League was more violent regarding the wickedness of Seneca Doane, the crimes of labor unions, the perils of immigration, and the delights of golf, morality, and bank accounts than was George F. Babbitt.” Sinclair Lewis, the author of this novel, was obviously presenting to American society the dark side of the American Dream, with its overwhelming emphasis on material wealth being the goal in life. Babbitt is the tragedy, who forever is trapped in this rat race, and is unable to extricate himself to find any true meaning or passion in his life. Instead, much like his name, Babbitt is reduced by society to nothing more than machinery gear, made to conform seamlessly to the values of whatever society he was in. The American dream is depicted as a tool as well, one that keeps individuals in check for the pursuit of material goods. Written in the Roaring Twenties when the whole of America seemed to be swept off its feet with post war prosperity and materialism with the advent of easy credit, Lewis intended to show the darker side of the American dream. One where people essentially sold their souls for physical comfort.
The Grapes of Wrath also parses through the American dream and its effects. The Great Depression in which the novel is set can be seen as the aftermath from the previous decade’s subscription to the idea of the American dream economic aspects. The sharecroppers who march onto the golden land California do so in pursuit of the American dream, not the bloated and avaricious dreams of rich men who seem to gain their wealth by skimming it off other’s backs, but a simple desire shared by all for food, shelter and security. With the sharecroppers lie the very heart and driving force of the American dream—and this desire is often manipulated by richer men to create a cheap labor force, a captive market, and a focus for dislike and arrogance. However, by reinforcing the sharecropper’s dignity and strength of character even in the face of hardship, Steinbeck emphasizes the basic value of the American dream that they represent. Both the value, and its darker promise. America a century ago colonized the west by hordes of men hungry for land and a living, so much so that they cleared the land of the original inhabitants. Steinbeck, writes of how “The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river; and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quicklime, and in the eyes of the people there is the failure. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy for the vintage.” By doing so, he emphasizes the common value that every man has, and each owns’ inalienable right to survive. For the sharecroppers at the end of the novel, oppressed by the upper and middle class, hungry and with no shelter, Steinbeck suggests that these oppressed have the right to fight back for their bread and meat if they have to. That even if it means embracing some form of socialism, revolution and re-ordering of the social hierarchy, the people have the right to do so to survive. Thus, Steinbeck reveals not only the downfall of evils in the system, but the redemption of the American Dream in the common man. No longer a tool to keep the workforce submissive, but a tool for revolution as well. A promise to the masses that all deserve a measure of physical security and comfort, and should get it, by whatever means.
In the end, the American dream can be seen as a truly American concept. It is both a tool for conformity as well as a philosophy advocating revolution. This hope by the people to better themselves, whether it be by economic, religious, political or idealistic measures, is something that has driven the path of this country, from the founding of the colonies, to the American Revolution, to the Industrial age, to the civil rights and environmental movements of today. The American Dream allows the U.S to take advantage of other nation’s, in terms of post-colonial control as well as manipulating cheap labor forces that enter the country. But it’s inherent idealism and the basic belief underwriting it that believes every person has a right to happiness, not just the elite, is what also drives ideological movements to better the less fortunate in America, such as programs to support third world countries or take a hand in stopping human rights violations abroad. The American Dream will continue to affect the views and values of this nation, and does so as a paradoxical force just like the country that created it—both idealistic and cynical, dark and yet drawing people towards the light and the happy ending.

Introduction 2nd semester

Well, the year is over.
It’s been an interesting year. Now, “interesting” is a word that one could use in various ways. Interesting can be a polite way of saying “It’s been living hell.” Interesting can be a muted way of saying “It’s been a romp of chaos and destruction, but, yeah, interesting.” Interesting can be a subtle way of saying “Nothing much happened, but since you’re my mother’s bestest nosiest friend, I’ll act like I didn’t squander my best years.” Interesting can be the plain way of saying “Yup, this was a year filled with hijinks and tragedies. This was a year where I’ve made my best friends, my worst enemies, and the acquaintance of many more. This was a year where I found my strengths and my faults. This was a year where I discovered more of the person that I am and not of the person others wish or perceive me to be. This was an interesting year that could fill a book. And of which I am writing down as to have material for that bestselling novel in the future.”
Well, my name is UnJi Nam and I’m here to tell you I’ve had an interesting year. In all the senses of the word. I’ve spent the whole year in one sense doing nothing at all interesting. After all, AP homework, essays, projects and the time spent complaining about the coursework to friends isn’t exactly palm-gripping material. But in another sense, the year has been hectic and chaos, full of tears, silence, and loneliness. And in another sense, this year I’ve made my best friends, a coterie that looks out for each other’s bad and happy times. I’ve experienced phenomenal bits of luck, like being able to indulge in my hobbies. I read somewhere that a life is not yet complete unless a birth, a wedding and a death has been experienced in it. Well, I’ve seen the birth of a new acceptance in myself that whoever I am is who I am. My close friend is actually literally going to get married after high school, the start of a new epoch where my friends and I will make new lasting foundations for the future. And I’m present at the death of many things—my childhood, carefree days, and old idealism.
Who knows what the future holds. Whatever it does, it probably will be even more hectic, chaotic, fun—more “interesting” than the year before. It’ll be at least four years of college ahead, after all. Lots of promise of long classes, boring professors, and quirky people letting loose after years of parental guidance. Whatever it does have, I look forward to maturing more and learning more of life. And also of long all-nighters in a row, tons of very late night study/lets-raid-McDonalds fests, and time to find fellow members of fandoms. I plan to study my head off, have fun, and go climb tall campus buildings without getting caught.
But whatever does happen, I know I’ll be the better prepared for it thanks to the lessons that writing English essays taught me. Every word I typed of the first semester E. P. essays was a stark reminder to never, ever procrastinate so much on essays that one has to do two all nighters to finish them all. The week where first semester ended was a dark, foggy, time of which I have little recollection of except being in a sleepy haze and wanting to kill someone. But on a more serious note: I’d say that it was the Poisonwood Bible essay that expanded my idea of what defined right and wrong. Writing this essay, and hence being forced to look more into what constituted responsibility, I realized just how much people are a community, not a collection of individuals with full control over their actions and their consequences. And also, of the human resiliency and will to redeem themselves. The novel taught me that it doesn’t matter so much what one does to correct a wrong as long as the individual acknowledges this wrong and addresses it in some way, to correct their responsibility for it. An individual has to address their responsibility in order to grow as a person.
Another essay that expanded my knowledge of people was delving into the Frankenstein essay. Writing this essay also opened up the idea of responsibility, but also more of the shades of grey in morality. And also of how human selfishness can taint morals. One has to be open to other viewpoints, to the lives and will of others as a factor to being a good person. Another essay that widened my viewpoint was writing an analysis of Tess of the D’Urbervilles. This made me realize the importance of honesty, and acceptance of what one truly is. With hypocrisy and denial is the death of goodness, as shown with Tess.
One day, I know I’ll end up using these lessons to guide my own way through life and situations. So thank you, AP English Literature class. You helped pave my way and make it a little less bumpy for when I have to find the path in tough times.

Class theme

The monsters we create. What does that mean exactly? At the end of the road, one has delved into the myriad of monsters that plague humanity, and they exist at every level. Nothing is free from taint—not the individual, and not the system that controls them. The one certain thing is that neither can exist without the other. In the novel Invisible Man, the nameless narrator realizes that even though he is victimized and rejected by society, his attempts to leave it to its own destruction are futile, for society holds the key for his existence and meaning as an individual. Without society, he waxes irresponsible and selfish, but with it, he at least struggles against it to reaffirm his values of justice and worth of every individual. And society at large cannot do without the individual, as the Brotherhood learns. Without the individual, an organization cannot run smoothly, can be doomed to be nothing but history as individual move on with their lives and leave the organization with its outdated ideas behind. Without the individual, the organization loses more of its conscience, and is eventually rejected by individuals. Monsters can be things to dance with on the edge of a knife, always a balancing act. But monsters can often be the consequences of good intentions, spoiled by ignorance of human nature. The Poisonwood Bible can illustrate this, with the Price family entering the Congo with the idea that they would civilize the heathens. But instead, the family members learn that they themselves are the savages and morally ambivalent. They learned that the civilization they brought was not beneficial to their neighbors, that in fact, it was used as a tool by Western nations to subjugate and bleed their respective colonies clean of resources. Some monsters arise because of tragic ignorance of one’s own culpability. In Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein never really understands his own responsibility for the monster. He created it, and did so not because of pure ideals or a pursuit of science but for human desire to conquer death, to better his own situation. Having created the beast, he instead shirks responsibility for its care and instead continues to try and live his old self-centered life spent caring for his own wants and needs. He blames the monster, blames others for their actions that led to his beloved ones’ deaths, but never really blames himself. Irresponsibility is a major root of the monsters we create. We, the irresponsible, have never really known the world, and expect it to be black and white. And if it is not, we assume superiority and rush in on white horses and good will to save the world. We, the irresponsible, create the monsters of pollution, crime, imperialism, and refuse to see our culpability in them, pointing fingers at other men in blame—politicians, ambassadors, officials. But who were the ones who sent them to conquer? Who were the ones whose materialism caused the poisoning of the earth? Who were the ones who fled from the deteriorating streets to the safer suburbs? It started with society, and its values of materialism and imperialism. It started with echelons of powerful elites, who shaped the world for their own gain. It started with the individual, unit of all human organizations, who invested in society’s wrongs in order to experience privilege. The individual has to admit responsibility first, for any change. So it was in Invisible Man, The Poisonwood Bible, and Frankenstein. (It was the monster, ironically a more rounded human being than his own creator.) The individual is the spark of change. The individual is the heart of darkness. Within us are the seeds for our redemption, and our destruction. We are the monsters we see in the dark. We are the seraphs we seek in the light.

Passage Essay: Ellison

UnJi Nam

Mrs. Elliott

AP English Lit

22 March 2009

Passage Essay: Invisible Man

In the novel Invisible Man, Ellison delves into the complex issue of individual identity, analyzing how it is repressed, molded, and exploited by others and by even oneself in society. The author explores the various methods of control and also concrete examples of repression of individuals, such as racism and self-serving philanthropism that paralyzes men into positions of benevolence and gratitude. A particular tie-in of how individual identity and lives are stifled by forces beyond them can be found in the passage before the battle royale scene, where the nameless protagonist encounters a dancer. This scene deftly shows by symbolism in the dancer the allure of the American dream—riches, opportunities, and ideals—and how she is used to mollify and scare the lower echelons of society into behaving for those men in power. With use of imagery the reader find hints of Ellison’s tone, an author who looks with disgust at the scene of men lusting after the symbolic dancer, but also at the same time sympathy for the basic desire for better things that drive men witless. One can also detect satire of this bundle of dreams and ideals that is the cornerstone of American idealism that is depicted as little better than a cheap whore to all. With this passage, Ellison does not only introduce the start of the dissolution of the narrator’s idealistic Washingtonian dreams of social value with hard work and virtue. The author also explores deeper into how individual identity is oppressed by both outside forces and with the consent of the individual themselves, how the seemingly virtuous and admirable in society is not always the good it promises. The individual identity is constantly preyed and manipulated by forces, be it good or bad, from others or even oneself in society.
Symbolism in the passage adds greatly to the theme of how identity is encroached by outside forces; in the passage, the dancer is quite crudely tied to American ideas and systems by the flag tattooed on her belly. The colors red, white and blue that are associated with her reinforces her ties to American ideals. “The face heavily powdered and rouged, the pink and erected nipples…the eyes hollow and smeared a cool blue, the color of a baboon’s butt.” It is interesting to note how American ideals are personified in this woman, cheapened and made sluttish for the masses that do not respect or uphold what she stands for. She is basely lusted after by white men, and manhandled by them as well as little better than entertainment. “They caught her just as she reached a door, raised her from the floor, and tossed her…I saw the terror and disgust in her eyes.” But yet this toy of powerful men is still dangled in front of the black boys as unattainable, the white woman and the freedoms and opportunities of America in one, both upheld as too pure and good for the unworthy lower classes. This dancer is the prize for the boys—she represents the economic opportunities, full breadth of civil rights, and social acceptance that they so badly desire, as shown by their lust. Men would become little better than animals to win her, giving up their high ideals and philanthropy. One can see how this pursuit of the American dream of betterment for the individual ultimately cheapens people to little more than characters, and in doing so lose their individual self.
Imagery in the passage is used to develop the author’s attitude towards this small playacting of American society at large. The woman who represents the chase of material goods and freedoms is cheapened by descriptions such as “the color of a baboon’s butt” and “yellow like that of a circus kewpie doll”, showing how the narrator can recognize the woman’s essential cheapness to the individual. And yet with the description of her physical body, which can tie into the desire for the solid and physical things of the world such as economic opportunities and civil rights, the narrator betrays his lust as well. With description of the somewhat obscene desires that the narrator undergoes, Ellison shows his own disgusted but sympathetic stance towards the pursuit of happiness and especially those who undertake it. Both can recognize how the pursuit of property and happiness is used by society to control the lower masses to servility and powerlessness. “On my right I saw one boy faint…his head hung and moans issued from his thick bluish lips. Another boy began to plead to go home. He tried to hide himself with his boxing gloves.” But both can also recognize the legitimate human need for such things. With the continuance of the cold-blooded dance of the woman, and the rush of the powerful for her, Ellison portrays the chaos of the scene and how human ideals break down in the face of animal wants. The whole scene is barbaric and pitiful for all involved at the same time. No man, whether rich or poor, white or black, escapes the woman’s effects. All have subscribed to the cheap pursuit of her, forsaking the growth of higher and more enlightened purposes. While author, narrator and reader may be disgusted by this animalistic chase, one realizes that this is part of human nature. As the story progresses, Ellison directs both his character and the audience to the realization that to blind oneself to the reality of base human wants is to blind oneself to the truth. To assume that ideals of virtue, sacrifice or the righteousness of rage can define everything about a human being is to not know the truth, to order the world according to lines that do not exist. And as a member of the lower echelons of society, the narrator as a poor black man often bears the brunt of such dehumanizing ideals of others that would force him to be something other than what he truly is. Whether he is seen as a hard worker, criminal, motivational speaker or scapegoat, none of them can truly define what he is. And the truth of one’s own identity is arguably the most important thing a person has. It has been called the last freedom, the soul, and the one thing that is carried with a person beyond death. One’s choice to react to circumstances as they see fit, one’s own truthful wants and opinions. Things that are all ruthlessly stripped away by others, and one such way to do so is by the dangling of the carrot known as the American dream. With it, men swallow blood and speak irony; for it, they would betray their own; for it, they would deny themselves and their true colors.
In the end, Ellison was not advocating the removal of the American dream from society, or the downfall of society at large that oppressed individuals to fit into a scheme like machine parts. What Ellison called for was simple knowledge of the fact of how the American dream was used, both to oppress and to integrate people to be the same. And also, for his readers to follow the actions of the invisible narrator and try to effect change in society. Change as that society could function together without having to lose one’s own soul for betterment in life, change as so others could recognize and accept both the idealistic and the base in humanity without rejecting both the ugly and the people associated with it in the world.

Poem Analysis--Hardy and Hopkins

UnJi Nam

Mrs. Elliott

AP English Literature

9 March 2009

Poem Analysis

In both “The Darkling Thrush” and “The habit of Perfection”, the two poems delve into the relationship between man and spirituality. In “The Darkling Thrush” Thomas Hardy explores the human capacity for hope and faith even in the face of pessimism. “The Habit of Perfection” in contrast delves more into how an individual can expand spiritually by reining in one’s fleshly appetites and selfish desires. Both explore the idea of divinity and enlightenment beyond a person’s scope. However, the two poems differ widely in their methods suggested for how a person does achieve or even relate to higher spirituality in the universe. For Hardy, the speaker of his poem comes from an apathetic, degenerating world who sees no reason for hope nor belief in God or the good, “All mankind that haunted nigh had sought their household fires, the lands sharp features seemed to me the Century’s corpse outleant…and every spirit upon earth seemed fervorless as I.”. In contrast, “The Habit of Perfection” sees the redemption of man’s soul and purpose in life inherent in the individual themselves, who must self-discipline themselves to find spiritual elevation. Written in the same period in Victorian society, these two poems are singular in their contrasting views for mankind’s abilities and place in the universe, as well as differing attitudes of optimism for the former. For “The Darkling Thrush”, the general point of pessimism with acknowledgement of man’s limitations in understanding the universe beyond him is delineated by imagery and structure. In “The Habit of Perfection”, the poem’s meaning of how a person can transcend their earthly limitations by ignoring earthly pleasures is enhanced by the poet’s use of personification and allusion.
The use of imagery in “The Darkling Thrush” is key to its overall mood set throughout the poem. Repetition of the theme of death and degeneration is emphasized by the use of words such as the frost of the winter evening being “spectre-gray”, “The weakening eye of day”, and a whole stanza on the subject of “The lands sharp features seemed to me the Century’s corpse outleant, his crypt the cloudy canopy.” Such words and lines contribute to the first two stanzas pessimistic and contemplative mood, touched with melancholy that only the speaker gives voice to, but the whole world feels. “And every spirit upon earth seemed fervorless as I.” Other images used add to the depths of the speaker’s depression, such as the “household fires” that humans have retreated to, suggesting that man with their ambivalent ability to create and destroy have isolated themselves from the growing darkness of the world with artificial light. This suggest even further the isolation between man and the universe—the universe that includes divinity and the natural flow of life beyond human vanities and short-lived passions. But it is with the third and fourth stanza that the imagery employed changes from reminiscent of aging and death to hope and regeneration. With the use of the singing thrush, “A voice arose among in a full-hearted evensong of joy illimited, an aged thrush in blast-beruffled plume.” The song of the thrush is symbolic. Its symbolic of human hope, not only for better things in the physical world, but of humans and the natural universe—represented in the singing bird—having a truer relationship with each other, of when people can accept their fleshiness and their ultimate unimportance instead of gouging and shaping the earth with memorials to themselves and their selfishness. It also is a stand-in for spring, the season of hope and regeneration, for which the thrush is preparing for. The speaker, with the last line “So little cause for carolings of such ecstatic sound…that I could think there trembled through some blessed hope, of which he knew, and I was unaware.” is acknowledging that somewhere, there could be a higher purpose, a divinity, a higher state of human spirituality and enlightenment beyond his ken. Structure is also essential in delineating this change from matter of factual depression over the state of the world to hope for better things. The first two stanzas are quite structured and orderly, following a familiar rhythm throughout and written dispassionately. It is with the introduction of the bird that the stanzas rhythm and structure change drastically, the rhythm no longer it’s easy, familiar beat, but a rapid, emotional fluttering. The structure becomes more emotional in nature, with interjections added onto sentences and lines made shorter as the speaker is gripped with new feeling. The speaker, along with the thrush, ends the poem with hope, the eternal scourge and blessing of men.
With “The Habit of perfection” the poet comes from a different spiritual place. The speaker is almost exuberant with hope and resolution in comparison to Hardy. He claims that with deprivation and self-discipline comes a greater understanding of the divine in the universe, and that such understanding brings joy to its believers. The poet, Gerard Hopkins, works with the underlying assumption that divinity does exist, that it does care for the growth of the human soul, and that man has the capacity to elicit positive change in their life and the world permanently. In short, he is emphasizing the power and importance of the individual, whose hard work and dedication ends in such delightful rewards such as being closer to God, as opposed to Hardy who finds the individual powerless in the face of the universe to ultimately change anything, spiritual or physical, their efforts meaningless and ultimately marred by their own arrogance of their importance, and any divinity to be uninterested in the doings of men. Hopkins emphasizes his optimism of human individuals and the benevolent universe they live in by use of personification. The senses and human desires he speaks to are treated as sentient, separate beings from him “Elected Silence”, “Nostrils, your careless breath that spends” and “O feet, that want the yield of plushy sward.” By doing so, Hopkins elevates the position of these senses, and by doing so, also elevates the human individual by making a person and their fleshy accompaniments almost like a club of enlightened, reasonable beings who can consult each other to achieve higher spiritual elevation. By personifying and addressing these senses that often lead a person astray from a spiritual path to God, he also separates the human soul from its fleshly limits, further emphasizing the importance of a human individual. By allusion to the Bible, mainly in the last stanza, Hopkins ends the conversation between the speaker and his fleshly senses with the final result of spiritual elevation that comes by depriving one’s fleshly desires and senses. It all culminates in a marriage between the individual and poverty, “lily colored clothes not labored at, nor spun”, which is a reference to the teaching of Jesus emphasizing how God takes care of his believers, the final word in Hopkins point of a benevolent universe with a benevolent God with important human individuals.
In the end, both Hopkins and Hardy deal with spirituality being beyond human abilities, but they differ in the importance of the individual in finding this spiritual state, or even how advisable it is. Hopkins finds it the goal to aspire to in all humans, Hardy ends the poem ambivalently—it could be a true redemption, or yet another manifestation of human arrogance over its importance.

Q3 Essay: Tess's Ending

UnJi Nam

Mrs. Elliott

AP English Literature

19 March 2009

Q3 Essay: Tess’s Ending

In Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Hardy ends the novel on the somber note of Tess’s death. It concludes the tragedy of Tess’s life on a distant, alienating way, jarring from the novel’s passionate characters and motives by not depicting the actual scene of her death. Instead, the finale focuses on two living characters directly affected by Tess, Liza-Lu and Angel Clare. While some may argue that this ending detracts from Tess’s importance in the novel and ultimately cheapens her life, the ending is actually very appropriate for the message of Tess’s tale, and how it affects others in society. Imagery is used predominantly in the ending chapter to emphasize the solemnity and tragedy of the scene, as seen in the description of the two characters. It is also used when describing the setting, a cheery morning belonging to a universe that doesn’t care about the unjust death of Tess, the sorrow of men, the death of mankind’s pretty ideals. This emphasizes even more the tragic quality of the execution, delineating the world not as the fair and beautiful world of Victorian society’s creation but an apathetic and self-serving one not guided by a kind divinity or moral human beings. Symbolism is also used to craft the mood and message of the final ending, such as thee two people walking away from Tess. All this is bound together by Hardy to make his point on his readers—Tess’s life proves that the world is not the just and happy place that people would have it to be. The question is, what will one do about it? By leaving the future actions of the characters who know this message ambiguous, Hardy leaves this question for the reader and society to answer.
The use of imagery is predominant in setting the mood of tragedy and apathy in the ending. The tragedy is woven in by the presence of Angel Clare and Liza-Lu, the two characters who arguably were the ones who loved Tess best, fleeing from her death. “Their pale faces seemed to have shrunk to half their natural size. They moved on hand in hand and never spoke a word, the drooping of their heads being that of Giotto’s Two Apostles.” The apathy of the world they live in to their pain is obvious by the cheeriness of the day, “amidst its convex and concave downlands in all the brightness and warmth of a July morning” However, the actions of the characters, by walking away from the bright and orderly city that sacrifices Tess, gives the novel ending it most vital hope, the quality that had always pervaded the whole novel. First it was the girlish hopes for happiness, justice; then when hope faded, actions were taken to secure these things. Actions that may not have accorded well with a hypocritical society that could not stomach the death of a vile man, but could easily ignore the downfall of a young girl with only blame to heap on her head. With Tess’s death, the characters that loved her best are galvanized into taking action again, against unfairness and striking for happiness that all men have a right to, those basic ideals that Tess died for, even against an unjust society’s mandates. They abandon the city, which stands for all the things that converged to ruin Tess’s life: wealth overriding even justice; pretensions to morality that demonize those who do not follow the rules and anglicize those who do; deliberate ignorance of the base and ugly in life in an attempt to make life more idealized than it truly is to the point of blotting out those who stand for such things. And with this action lies hope for the characters, that perhaps with this newfound knowledge the two can strike out for a better world. However, the ending is, just as life is, tempered with doubt as well. Is it folly to hope that men can change the world and society to a better place? Or the redeeming quality of mankind, that it can do so, painfully, stumblingly, but surely?
Symbolism is also present in the ending, adding a layer of depth to the tale. With the mention “the drooping of their heads being that of Giotto’s Two Apostles” Hardy emphasizes the divine quality of Tess again. Only this time, she acts as the Jesus figure in the novel, sacrificed so that the world can know of the truth in life—that the universe is cold; humans are not enlightened beings but often pretentious figures pretending they are superior to others; and that nature and its impulses, while often decried, is often the most truest and most honest things of human life. Not God, not philosophies, not social responsibilities, but our fleshy selves with its unruly desires and actions—birth, life, and death. Hardy is very pointedly comparing Angel and Liza-Lu to disciples—they will have to be the main purveyors of Tess’s message. With the death of their divinity, it is up to frail mankind to hold a new fire to society—questioning what humans really are. Not enlightened, not always good, not always bad, pretentious, and striving to establish their own uniqueness and importance as in the case of Angel and Alec. With the existence of a man and a woman who walks away with this knowledge, one can find similarities to Adam and Eve. Does Hardy see the birth of a new society starting with this couple? Or is it another mark for failure by mankind, to sin again and suffer another slow fall from grace—to let Tess’s message go for naught?
In the end, Hardy tempers his ending with much ambiguosity. The reader never discovers what route Angel and Liza-Lu takes to purvey Tess’s message in the world. The reader is left unsure whether to feel hope for the couple and a happy closure that at least Tess’s death wasn’t for naught. Such an ending would emphasize the redemptive qualities of mankind despite its evils and faulty systems. Or Angel and Liza-Lu could have simply abandoned society completely to its vices, emphasizing the decline of mankind into further hypocrisy and pretensions while individuals can only survive by fleeing altogether. This would delineate the inability of mankind to escape its circumstances, that humans are mired in their flawed human natures that would continue to trample on others to maintain its pretensions of religion, morality and enlightenment. But by leaving the ending fairly open-ended, Hardy made his point that it is up to the reader as well to purvey Tess’s message as well. There are three disciples of Tess’s ministry that leave the book at the ending. How the reader reacts to this, what one’s actions are determines whether Tess’s ending is truly the tragedy or not. As the author, Hardy is charging others to take responsibility for the truth of man’s dual nature of base and enlightened. Will one accept it, or fight against its evils, intended or not?

Q3 essay: Joyce Carol Oates feminist reading

UnJi Nam

Mrs. Elliott

AP English Literature

4 March 2009

Feminist Reading of Joyce Carol Oates

In Joyce Carol Oates’s short story, “Where are you going, where have you been?” Oates explores the effects of society’s expectations on the young, particularly on teenage girls. Through the main character Connie, Oates shows her readers the full effects of a society that emphasizes emotions, fleeting pleasurable experiences, and the tying in of romantic love as the fulfillment of adolescent dreams. Oates, by sketching Connie’s ultimate helplessness in the face of reality, shows her criticism of such standards. By use of imagery, Oates emphasizes the allure of the modern world with its promises of true love and hence excitement and social esteem for a girl. Details, however, also delve into the essential shallowness of such a world. Symbolism is used to shed light on the dangers of reality that exist hidden underneath the bright world of impressions and dreams that Connie buys into. Finally, with extensive dialogue throughout the story, Oates shows her audience the extent of Connie’s weakness in the face of male persistence, showing her ultimate lack of maturity in a society that has emphasized the need for girls like her “to be sweet and pretty and give in”. By all these techniques, the author delineates the need for change in a system that has made male attention and social popularity the driving goal for women. A system that emphasizes looks and attention above all is one that victimizes both the women who seek appearances, and the men who must adhere to them to win over women. In a sense, this short story is a rejection of romantic love and sexuality as marks of maturity and value for women: ideals that modern Western society has ingrained for decades.
Connie is sketched by Oates to be a typical teenage girl, who chafes under her mother’s authority and expectations, seeks romantic attention from older boys and in other times is carried away by materialistic hobbies such as shopping or daydreams. She encapsulates at heart the basic needs of the teenage youth to break away from tradition and blaze a new path in life, the childish dreams where anything is possible, and the needs to be accepted by society as a valuable member. However, society has channeled those desires into less wholesome and pure activities. Connie is taught that to be wanted by men and experience true love like the media portrays it is a mark of social value. Hence, being a physically attractive woman is essential for experience of such things—“She was right at that moment: she knew she was pretty and that was everything.” When she dreams of better things, she dreams of romantic love to fulfill all her desires—“dreaming and dazed…her mind slipped over onto thoughts of the boy she had been with the night before and how nice he had been, how sweet it always was, not the way someone like June would suppose but sweet, gentle, the way it was in movies and promised in songs” Ultimately, all of Connie’s energy and youth goes into getting male attention as the only mark of validation. It is this typical teenage girl’s self absorption and need for male validation that Oates sketches out, and in doing so, she criticizes the materialistic society that teaches girls so. A society that found that in order to sell their products more effectively, it was easier to groom girls to believe and search for dreams of love than how to respect their own selves irregardless of men and personal appearances. However, such values not only harm women and their self autonomy, but men as well. The reader can see the cracks in the disguise of Arnold Friend’s debonair persona “As if he was smiling from inside a mask. His whole face was a mask…tanned down onto his throat but then running out as if he had plastered makeup on his face but had forgotten about his throat” The details presented show a tragic tableau of a girl who blindly follows what society has deemed will make her happy, and a man who follows the ideals of female fantasy to get what he wants. Both characters are false to their public persona, and are made almost comical in how they take up disguises in order to seek self esteem. “Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home, and one for anywhere that was not home” And in this desperate attempt for validation, things become twisted and dark—Arnold Friend’s barely disguised threats to Connie if she doesn’t fulfill his desires—“But if you don’t come out we’re gonna wait until your people come home and then they’re all going to get it”; Connie’s basic shallowness and immaturity such as abandoning her friend for a boy, contemptuous of the women in her family for not being pretty and exciting. Though never mentioned explicitly, Oates’s use of details paint a picture of tense individuals in a society that cannot supply them with a true ideal in life, whose attempts to stay within the boundaries set by society are tempered with frustration.
Symbolism is used to add depth to the story. Music has a particular place for Connie. It is the stuff of dreams, and hence often about love. “’My sweet little blue-eyed girl’” It is the sign of her self-absorption and childishness, giving importance and meaning to everything in her newly unfolding life, “it might have been the music…She drew her shoulders up and sucked in her breath with the pure pleasure of being alive.” For Connie, it is almost a religious, divine experience, and in many places, serves as her stand-in to religion. “The music was always in the background like music at a church service” or the fact that she chooses to listen to the radio program on Sunday rather than go to church. Music, among other things, promises her fulfilling, exciting things: grand opportunities and experiences just beyond the horizon. It is the symbol for her teenage youth, found at teenage haunts such as the drive-in restaurant, teenage items such as ostentatious gold cars, and hanging around Connie on a Sunday afternoon like perfume. At the end, when she leaves with Arnold Friend, the symbol has changed along with Connie. Arnold murmurs a line of music “My sweet little blue-eyed girl” and it no longer has the simple connotation of romance. Now music has become false to her, “a half sung sigh that had nothing to do with her brown eyes.” a shallow tool of the society that she is leaving behind as she leaves. This marks Connie’s maturity, as she realizes all her teenage dreams of love and attention proving false and insignificant. These dreams, used by Arnold Friend to manipulate her into leaving with him, are left behind for a wider world beyond feminine submission to romance and men as in the movies and promised in songs. Arnold Friend also takes on a symbol in literature of the dashing tempter of the world, dressed in black, driving a gold car, decked out in all the familiar things of an appearance-driven world. However, the male seducer in literature usually proves to be a scoundrel that ruins the purity of the heroine and leaves her in appropriate distress to be rescued by a hero who would whisk her back into the arms of society’s conventions. In Oates’s tale, Connie is empowered by her leaving with Arnold, taking on new knowledge of a world without the illusions of romantic love and exalted human experiences.
By dialogue, Oates brought home the extent of Connie’s innocence in the face of real danger, and also just how much she was just a typical teenage girl. She poses and preens for attention “craning her neck to glance and mirrors or checking other people’s faces to make sure her own was all right.”, takes much of her actions from pop culture, including her slang and dreams. She does not initially react to Arnold Friend as a danger because he comes in a blaze of glory, recognizably brass as the men in the movies, and hip to teenage culture’s fads. “She recognized most things about him…that sleepy dreamy smile that all the boys used to get across ideas they didn’t want to put in words.” Her words and actions to Arnold at first are also studied and almost scripted, taken from a tradition of teen culture that demands the girl to be not too eager, cool, distant but ultimately still available. “She spoke sullenly, careful to show no interest or pleasure…Connie smirked and let her hair fall loose over one shoulder. She pretended to fidget, chasing flies away from the door.” As the story progresses, she gets more and more panicky, reacting to Arnold’s words in a more childlike way, instead of taking action to protect herself. “’Shut up! You’re crazy!’ Connie said. She backed away from the door. She put her hands against her ears as if she’d heard something terrible.” The reader develops sympathy for Connie, despite her shallowness and posing—she is depicted as the little girl she still is. And hence, the reader has to wonder at the end of the story how the current system of inculcating rosy dreams and ideals to girls is justified in existing. If it can’t protect Connie from Arnold, what good is it for her to trust in true love and the innate goodness of the universe?
Ultimately, Connie discovers the flimsiness of the world she was brought up in. That love can be used for a darker agenda by men instead of sweet ideas of protection and admiration. That the things of the world she loved such as music and boys can be used to violate her free will. Oates showed that Connie reaches maturity not by following the dictates of society which prescribes make-up, edgier fashions, edgier behaviors and boyfriends as marks of adulthood for women. Connie grows up by realizing that there is good and evil in the world, a basic part of the human condition. At the end of the tale, Oates is subtly advocating for the end of such traditions in society that ultimately delay maturity of women as they pursue surface things, and for a broader society that can include the widespread maturation of women as fellow human beings struggling in an uncertain world, instead of idealistic beings to be cosseted and protected. A society that Connie can enter into, with her newfound knowledge of life.