Walker Brothers Cowboy

2. “Walker Brothers Cowboy” has many interesting parts to it, however the title itself is one that really sticks out. The title comes from a song that one of the main characters makes up about himself. He is a salesman for Walker Brothers and uses songs and rhymes that he makes up to keep him entertained on his routes. This story is told from the prospective of this salesman’s daughter, she talks about a day on her father’s route and the song that he sings while on the route. After his job, they go to visit someone from her fathers past and she knows that she has to keep this a secret upon returning home. The plot is interesting because it is not something that you would expect from the title of the story. This short story shows how the world wide depression affected one family and sent them from owning their own business to living in poverty and resorting to other means of providing for themselves such as working for Walker Brothers. The song shows how this man copes with the new life he lives.

4. The first two line of the walker brothers cowboy song starts lit this, “Old Ned Fields, he now is dead, so I am ridin’ the route instead…” This is important because it refers to what the story has been titled after; it also shows that he was only able to get this job because the salesman before him had died. “One yard after another, then, the old cars, the pumps, dogs, views of the gray barns and falling-down sheds and unturning windmills.” This excerpt resembles poetry in a way, it has flow and rhythm but also really describes the boring and dull job that this man endures everyday. At the end of the story, the speaker states, “My father does not say anything to me about not mentioning things at home, but I know, just from the thoughtfulness, the pause when he passes the licorice, that there are things no to be mentioned. The whiskey, maybe the dancing.” This shows that there are some things in the family that are not shared, and that the family is being hurt by the depression. These three excerpts from the story show the melancholy tone of the story and life during this time. 

Sonnet 14

           Sonnet 14 is about John Donne and his relationship with God. Although it is only fourteen short lines, it describes his feelings toward and his relationship with God vividly. He is repenting for his sins and asking God for his forgiveness, speaking not only of God’s greatness and power but also of his own faults and mistakes. He asks for punishment and help while still showing the love he has for him.  This sonnet resembles a prayer and a confession with great detail and imagery.

            There is a lot of content packed into these fourteen short lines, however it is not just “crammed” into the sonnet, it is carefully and beautifully places into an artistic and aesthetic arrangement. John Donne uses many different literary devices to create a piece that seems more like an emotional prayer than a sonnet.

           

The use of alliteration in this sonnet is key for describing the darker parts. When he talks about God’s powers to bend, break, blow, and burn it creates an image of destruction and chaos, this image that is created in the readers mind is intensified by the alliteration that is used. It makes the words seem more alive than they would on their own.  In lines two and three, he also uses words that rhyme but contrast each other. The word mend conveys a positive emotion, whereas the word bend creates a negative one.

Donne also uses irony to show the relationship between him, sin, and God. He describes himself as being betrothed to sin or God’s enemy. He asks to be divorces, to have the knot untied and broken. Donne explains his relationship with sin as a marriage, something considered sacred and close to the heart. This irony exemplifies how bad his sins are, or at least how bad he feels about them. He asks for a divorce, which is frowned upon in the church.

Before he talks about his marriage with sin, he speaks of his love of God. It is ironic to me that he loves God and yet he is married to sin. It makes is seem that he has a closer tie to sin than he does to God even though he is listing the reasons for his love for God in the lines just before these. This is also very ironic because he is praying to a God that he shows to be very important to him in previous statements.

The voice of the speaker is what makes this sonnet what it is. The speaker speaks as though he is praying to the lord asking for forgiveness. He presents his case with a great deal of inferiority and obedience. There is a great deal of begging and pleasing for punishment and forgiveness that gives the sonnet the tone and feel that makes it seem so real. His tone allows the reader to feel like he or she is inside the speakers head and really feels what the he feels. In my opinion, the tone is the most valuable part of this sonnet.

Sonnet 14 is a piece of art that is full of emotion and feeling. The author shows his need to repent and his love for God in this sonnet by using many literary devices and techniques. This sonnet is beautifully written and put together and although it has some dark images, it is aesthetic. This writer does a wonderful job of showing the reader the pain of sin, the need for forgiveness, and the love of God that the speaker feels in this sonnet. He is able to do this all while providing true beauty in this piece. 

Waiting for the Barbarians

In the novel, the magistrate learns many things but to me, one of the most important is by far that the barbarians are not really the barbarians. He sees that the special forces in the book can be seen as the barbaric characters in the book, and the barbarians are not as barbaric as they may seem at first. This reminds me of Brave New World, by Adolus Huxley. Throughout the book, it becomes apparent that the real savages are not the uncivilized people, but the ones that have been controlled and fixed into molds. The magistrates learns a new way to view people and what barbarian really means.

The second important thing that he learns is the difference between what is civilized and what is barbaric. The book describes civilization as having a government, when this disappears and becomes corrupt the civilized people become the barbarians. The civilized people almost give up their ability to call themselves civilized when they do this.=, showing that they might be the real barbarians.

Robben Island

http://africanhistory.about.com/od/apartheid/p/RobbenIsland.htm

-Nelson Mandela was locked up here for over 25 years
-He was only allowed to leave his cell to do manual labor in a quarry, like many other anti-apartheid political prisoners.
-In 1652 Jan van Riebeeck established the first permanent settlement by Europeans in South Africa in the area that today is the city of Cape Town.
-Van Riebeeck was sent by the Dutch East India Company, a company based in the Netherlands which traded goods between the East and Europe.
-Five years later, in 1657, he decided to use the island as a place of banishment, sending exiles and slaves to dig out the white stone found there.
-In 1959 the island became a maximum security prison and between 1961 and 1991 over three thousand men were incarcerated here as political prisoners.
-June 1990 saw the start of the removal of political prisoners by then-president FW de Klerk, the last leaving the island in May 1991.
-It is now a world heritage site.

Pride and Prejudice

Ahearn Thesis: Ahearn discusses the social classes and their importance in the novel. 

Gray Thesis: Gray discusses money and income and their importance in the novel. 

Ahearn Points: He talks about the different classes and jobs, for instance, aristocracy, gentry, clergy, layers, businessmen.

Gray Points: He talks about the earnings of the characters in the book and of Jane Austin. He says that Darcy makes 800,000 and Bingley makes 165,000. Jane Austin made less than 700 pounds in her lifetime form her novels. 

I agree that both money and social status are a big part of the novel and Austin's England. They are both considered when a marriage is in the works. I think that both authors made good points when they spoke about money and status. 

Having a better background on the classes was helpful in understanding both pride and prejudice. It especially helped me to understand Darcy's arrogance. Knowing more about Jane Austin's history and her money matters was helpful in understanding the Bennets because had them  making less money than herself.