FORM - continued

The blog topic for this week asks, "What types of "form" conventions do I see O'Brien employing in the story?" An exampled that is given is how the content of the story is given in a list form. Another question is "how do those conventions (or strategies) help enhance the story's theme or themes or ideas". Some of the forms that he uses are explanations using flashbacks used to explain the present activities. He also uses break offs from the main story to explain other characters related to him in the story such as the other soldiers. Tim O'Brien also splits up the whole recollection of the Vietnam experience in different "chapters" of the story where each chapter describes either a separate event or character that the protagonist is explaining, remembering, or just talking about. These conventions or strategies that O’Brien uses in the story helps enhance the story by allowing the reader to view what he viewed and experience as much as a reader can experience through the words of the writer of what was currently happening at that time and place of when the speaker was experiencing it. When O’Brien uses a list in the content of writing the short story, it allows the reader to experience it as if he were writing the content then and there. It seems more real and personal when the reader has the writer be informal in his writing as if writing in a personal journal. One doesn’t get the impression that the writer is writing for an audience, but more for his own personal recollections.

Form

This week's blog topic is to discuss the forms of the short stories, "The Use of Force" and "The Dead". In "The Use of Force", the form used was a single scene in a single room throughout the whole short story, whereas in the short story "The Dead", the story follows the form of a multi-scene short story, in which an epiphany takes place. A short story's form is supposed to help the story get it's morals or message across to the reader. If the form is not effective enough, the reader might have a little bit more difficulty understanding what kind of message the story is trying to portray. In the short story "The Use of Force", the usage of a single scene as the form of the story aides in presenting the meaning to the story. The story itself is short and abrupt like the form of the story. The plot is simple, as well as the characters are simple. Without any major complications of a complex conflict, the simple single scene allows the reader to easily understand the meaning of the story. As for the other story, "The Dead", the form of the story complicates the meaning of the story. In this story, the form includes a historical attempt at connecting the reader to the story and it's message. For the reader not to understand or have any background of the story to jump in and conclude the message of the story is difficult and extremely unnecessary.

The Metamorphosis

I'm quoting from a discussion of "The Metamorphosis", which is a short story written by Franz Kafka. He states, "The terror of art is that the dream reveals the reality." What I think he means by this quote is that it is pretty scary that our dreams and the subliminal messages that are incorporated into art itself are all forms of the truth in disguise. In many abstract paintings and art sculptures, the artist incorporates meanings and subliminal messages that they try to reveal amongst the public that they cannot verbally express without controversial results. He might also mean that we as a society like to sugar coat things that may not necessarily be accepted in the widespread scheme of things. We sugarcoat to avoid the harshness of what we can't accept as truth. In regards to how the quote pertains to The Metamorphosis, it shows how the story itself is trying to have an innermost meaning or message for the reader and audience to decipher. There is a underlying message that the reader or the audience must discover upon reading the short story in order to understand the particular message that Kafka is trying to imply. With this quote saying that the "dream reveals the reality" is the fact that by hiding the truth within something as medial as a short story, the author is allowed to express controversial ideas that may not necessarily be accepted out in the real world. Also in regards to the story, Gregor hopes that his family could accept him as the bug that he has turned into, but this is simply disregarded and revealed to just be too high of a hope to wish for.

ALLEGORY

First off, we need to determine the definitions of allegory and symbolism. The definition of allegory is "a representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms; figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another" (dictionary.com). The definition of symbolism is "the practice of representing things by symbols, or of investing things with a symbolic meaning or character" (dictionary.com). The similarities with the two are that they represent something bigger than what they are perceived as. They both represent something by using another physical object or idea. The two also use either physical or concrete objects or words to represent abstract and intangible ideas. The differences of the two are that an allegory represents more of a religious or spiritual meaning. Although symbolism can also represent religion or spiritual ideas, such as having a cross symoblize the Christian faith, or the six-point star symoblize the Jewish faith, an allegory uses symbolism to carry out its purpose. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown", the allegorical context of the story allows the reader some insight into Puritan beliefs and religion. The story as a whole represents the Puritan faith and allows the reader to understand the religion without having the author preach its beliefs. This story is used as an allegory for others to understand the religion without actually understanding the religion. The reader can put the morals and the beliefs that the Puritans have just by reading this story and having a brief insight to what they don’t previously understand.

Symbolism

The use of symbolism in fiction was quite popular and still is quite popular in recent short fiction stories. In the short story, "The Chrysanthemums", John Steinbeck incorporates the use of symbolism within the text. A chrysanthemum is a type of flower that is a vibrant yellow with plentiful petals. A literary tool that Steinbeck includes in this short story is the repetition of the color yellow and the association of the color to other multiple inanimate objects, such as the "yellow stubble fields" and the "positive yellow leaves". The color yellow itself is a positive one and the symbolism of this one particular outstanding color within the midst of the drab, gray, and foggy description of the rest of the setting allows the reader to examine the contrast between a gloomy mood and the one bright and positive thing in the story. The gloomy setting is also a symbolism of Elisa’s whole personality. The fact that Elisa’s personality is drab, dull, and boring creates the symbolization of the author’s description of the land. The one bright thing in Elisa’s life is her gardening of her chrysanthemums and this sliver of light her life is symbolized in the hints of yellow of the drab setting. The reader can pull from the dialog shared between Elisa and the man from the caravan regarding the flowers that Elisa is extremely passionate about her gardening. She seems to find a certain peace with tending to the flowers and the fact that she allows the man to somehow hurt her feelings over throwing her chrysanthemums away shows the reader how important these specific species of flowers are to her.

Major characters

In the story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find", written by Flannery O'Connor, one of the obvious major characters is the grandmother. The grandmother finds ways to let the reader remember their own experiences with their own grandparents. The grandmother's attitude with the family reminds the reader how the stereotypical grandmother acts. With the typical nagging and annoyances that a grandmother can offer the family, the reader recognizes this in the everyday life of their own family relationships. There is also the wise atmosphere about the grandmother in which she allows the reader to recognize that the saying, “the older you get, the wiser you get” is in fact true. The only thing that the reader doesn’t realize until later in the story as the story progresses is how the grandmother actually foreshadows and creates the climax and the conflict of the story. I was actually pretty annoyed at the grandmother because if it weren’t for her, the conflict and the problems of the story wouldn’t have happened. On the other hand, if it weren’t for her, the family wouldn’t have had the proper warnings of what would be coming to them in regards to the Misfit. If the family only listened to the grandmother, the family would have never encountered their inevitable troubles with the Misfit. The grandmother also portrays how religion rules the lives of many people and creates false hopes for those who expect that if they put their whole faiths in a religion and believe in a higher power to the fullest, then they would be saved.

Rules of the Game - Paper 1

Grace Shi
English 2305
March 2, 2008

Rules of the Game

One of the most important things a person can represent a name for would be their heritage. When people are able to dedicate pieces of art or works of writing to their heritage, one can truly admire another’s culture for what it really is. An example of such tribute to a culture can be found in Amy Tan’s short story, “Rules of the Game”. She incorporates her Chinese heritage into the characters, the setting, and the themes of the story. Tan uses exquisite methods in her style of writing to portray these exact topics.

The main characters of the story are a girl by the name of Waverly Place Jong and her mother, who raises a traditional Chinese family and thus are reflected in the values that the daughter learns from her mother in different situations in their life. Minor characters include the people that the mother and daughter both interact with and the son of the family, who is Waverly’s older brother Vincent. Amy Tan uses creative writing skills to portray these characters as those that one can imagine vividly. She uses great diction to portray the culture and lifestyle of a Chinese family and she includes the vernacular of a Chinese immigrant who doesn’t speak English very well in the mother of the family’s dialog. The reader can tell that the children of the family are first-born Chinese Americans from Chinese immigrant parents by the dialog portrayed in the story. The grammar that Waverly uses is quite clearly better than her mother’s grammar. The amusing thing about the mother’s dialog is that it is a quite accurate in the depiction of a Chinese immigrant. Amy Tan also includes descriptions of mannerisms that also strike a familiar chord in a reader who has either witnessed such behaviors. Waverly’s mother character has many traditional mannerisms that often replicate the more obviously known behaviors that a Chinese woman would exhibit. Tan’s style of writing also allows the reader to distinguish just about how old Waverly is, although her age is already mentioned in the first sentence of the story. The words that Tan has Waverly use indicates the young mind of child and the inquisitive nature that Waverly provides also is used as an indicator of her young age.

Amy Tan also includes many descriptions in the settings throughout the whole story. She incorporates city names with ease into the story in the narrator’s words while describing general information about the character’s lifestyle. By stating that they lived in “San Francisco's Chinatown”, one can already imagine the Chinese majority population in the near area of the family’s home. She includes traditional Chinese sweets and foods that most likely the reader, if not familiar with the culture, will find strange, such as “salted plums” or “dim sum”. The imagery used in describing the setting paints a picture in the reader’s mind that encourages the further imagination. The chaotic and bustling atmosphere of the market is brought to life with Tan’s literary usage. She includes many specific details with regards to Chinese traditions, sayings, and objects in creating the story line. The narrator is sure to include objects of Chinese culture such as the red jade that Waverly’s mother gave to her for luck, bone chopsticks that the family uses to eat with, and the rice itself that the family eats for dinner. Also included in the narrator’s descriptions are the less than commonly heard Chinese style foods that are heard yelled across the marketplace.

In the Chinese culture, respect for one’s parents is valued much more than the obvious respect that parents already deserve. One theme of the story that is recurring throughout the story is the relationship between daughter and mother and its hardships that come along with the good. Waverly’s mother comes off to the reader as one who is strict and wise. She possesses an atmosphere that is intimidating to Waverly and is capable of annoying her children with her know-it-all comments and assertions just like any other parent is. Waverly expresses this annoyance when she gives the example of how her mother shows her off to everybody when they go to the market on Saturday. She lets this annoyance get to her mind and eventually blows up at her mother, although she does this unintentionally. With this act of anger, the respect issue is highlighted as Waverly’s mother is in turn upset by her daughter’s rude reaction and words. She responds in a dangerously calm manner that automatically lets the reader, as well as Waverly herself, know that she is in extreme trouble. Tan reveals Waverly’s mother’s wise side with the strange, off-the-wall philosophical comments that seem to only make sense in her own mind. She repeats one quote throughout the short story, “Strongest wind cannot be seen”, which is in itself extremely profound. In this quote, she refers to the “invisible strength” that she successfully teaches Waverly throughout the story.

Amy Tan does an excellent job at bundling together the Chinese culture with literary techinques found within the characterizations of individual characters, the settings of the multiple scenes that the story occurs in, and the outlying theme of mother-daughter relationships having to do with respect. She uses delightful imagery, creative diction, and the multiple literary techniques she includes within descriptions to accentuate and acknowledge the Chinese culture. Out of any method of tribute, Tan selects a great way to show off her talent in the means of writing plenty of stories with regards to her Chinese heritage. She does an excellent job at allowing the reader a glimpse into the mindset and the experiences of a Chinese American young girl and in result, create a wonderful story full of culture and humor combined.