The Amontillado Cheeseburger & Revision

In "The Cask of Amontillado," Edgar Allen Poe gives the reader an example of the use of an unreliable narrator along with the many uses of irony throughout the story. Montresor, the unreliable narrator, tells his tale of revenge on Fortunato in effort to honor his family motto: "Nemo me impune lacessit" or "No one can attack me without being punished." Montresor invites the reader to praise his ingenuity as he tells the story from his perspective. Poe does not want the reader to feel sympathy towards Montresor because Fortunato has wronged him, but rather to judge him. By telling the story from Montresor's point of view, Poe compels the reader to look deeply into the workings of a sinister mind.

Revision

In "The Cask of Amontillado," Edgar Allen Poe utilizes an unreliable narrator who has a tendency to hold grudges and exaggerate drastically along with many uses of irony throughout the story. Montresor, the unreliable narrator, tells his tale of revenge on Fortunato in effort to honor his family motto: "Nemo me impune lacessit" or "No one can attack me without being punished." Poe employs one use of irony by calling one of the characters Fortunato, who is anything but fortunate, and dresses him like a fool since Montresor intends to make a fool of him as part of his diabolical plan. Montresor invites the reader to priase his ingenuity as he tells the story from his perspective, which in turn intensifies the effect of moral shock and terror. Poe does not want the reader to feel sympathy towards Montresor because Fortunato has wronged him, but rather to judge him. By telling the story from Montresor's point of view, Poe compels the reader to look deeply into the workings of a sinister mind.

The first thing I changed was the first sentence where I wrote "...gives the reader an example of.." because as Jodi pointed out to me, Poe is not teaching the readers about an unreliable narrator, but utilizing an unreliable narrator. I also provided an example or evidence of the irony because in the original paragraph I didnt even provide an example or evidence for the uses of irony.

I want to thank Jodi for her feedback on my paragraph and giving me advice on how to revise my paragraph to make it sound more prominent. 

Miss Emily's Facebook

Emily Grierson

Status: Emily Grierson is at home like always...

Basic Information

Network: Yoknapatawpha, Mississippi

Sex: Female

Relationship Status: In a relationship with Homer Barron

Interested In: Men

Looking For: Friendship, Dating, A Relationship, Networking

Personal Information

Activities: Teaching china-painting lessons, sleeping with the dead body of Homer, & isolation.

Interests: Homer Barron, father, &money.

Favorite Quotations: "Life's an awfuly lonesome affair. You come into the world alone and you go out of the world alone yet it seems to me you are more alone while living than even going and coming." -Emily Carr

"We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone." -Orson Welles

About Me: My name is Emily Grierson, I have been an "orphan" at a young age when my father died. My beloved Homer, "left" me suddenly sometimes ago, now I am all alone in my home with my servant. I like to be isolated in my cozy home from everyone else in town.

Contact Information

Email: EmilyGrierson@gmail.com

Aim: MissEmily

Groups

Member of: How to buy & use arsenic poison, Why wont he marry me? Commitment Issues & Solutions, Quick & Easy Steps to Making Money, China Painting & Decorating, etc.

Wall (Best with 4 posts instead of 3)

Mayor & Tax Collectors: Miss Emily, why have you refuse to pay your taxes for the past years?

Emily: "I have no taxes in Jefferson. Colonel Sartoris explained it to me. Perhaps one of you can gain access to the city records and satisfy yourselves."

Mayor & Tax Collectors: We have nothing on the books in the city of records to show that.

Emily: "See Colonel Sartoris. I have no taxes in Jefferson." 

     "Tobe!" 

     "Show these gentlemen out."

This is a basic layout of Miss Emily's facebook. Emily's privacy setting would probably on minimum settings because she probably wouldn't care who looks at her facebook and what they think of her. Her friends list will probably consist of everyone in her town, but they are just there to show that she is well-known and supposedly respected. There will probably won't be too much photos available for the public to see, since most of the other photos are hidden and only allowed to be seen by herself. Some of the pictures are probably of Emily at different ages and changes throughout her life, one with her father, and one with Homer for the public to see. I'll leave the hidden photos up to your imagination, a possible hint could be pictures of other things leading up to Homer's death and post-death. She probably has a couple applications if none. These applications might consist of personality quizzes, love tests, Notes (so she can express her thoughts and feelings like on a blog), Interview (so she can answer interview questions from others finding out more about herself), and Compare People (so she can see what people think of her and how she ranks among everyone else in town based on work related, school related, dating, and personal questions). The quotes are expressing how she feels in life and isolation after losing her father and lover, Homer. The groups that she is a member of shows what she is interested in or is trying to do. All of the other information should be somewhat self-explanatory. Overall, this is what Miss Emily's facebook might possibly look like.

Thesis: Harlem

In "Harlem" (A.K.A. "A Dream Deferred") by Langston Hughes, he emphasizes on what happens to a dream when it is put on hold in which one should not delay his/her dreams because the more one postpone his/her dreams, the more the dreams will transform into something very different than it once was.

Free Response # 2

The poem that we read for this week that interested me the most besides Williams' "This Is Just To Say", is Brooks' poem "We Real Cool". This poem has somewhat of a straightforward message, but at the same time open to interpretation on certain line. The author ended each line with "We", it seems to be read ending each line in a soft tone. It also questions whether the seven pool players are a bit uncertain about their identities. They seem to be dropouts thinking that it is cool to leave school as stated in the 3rd and 4th lines. Since they are dropouts, they probably have some sense of their own defined selves, but not certain of the strength of it. The title "We Real Cool" seems to be created for this poem based on pride and boastfulness for leaving school.

On the other hand I would think the speaker of this poem is talking how his friends and him are "real" cool just doing what they want, but towards the end of the poem states that they are going to die soon. Does that mean, live freely and die young? It could also mean trying to do what you want in life now because any day can be your last and at least do it before it is too late and do it without regrets. I can relate to this poem in some ways except the leaving school and dying soon parts, I would actually like to get my college degrees and live long.

My Parody

Don't Be Mad

I have taken

the gun

that was in

the toolbox

and which

you were probably

saving

for someone

Forgive me

It was so tempting

so dark

and so cold

First of all, I want to make it clear that this parody poem has nothing to do with how I feel. I am not the least bit suicidal in any way. Since most of the poems we have been reading and discussing in class were about darkness, aging, and death, I've decided to do a similar topic.

My parody of Williams' "This Is Just To Say" is similar to the original poem in many ways such as similar wordings in certain lines. Both poems are similar with form, capitalization, consist of three stanzas, exact the same amount of syllables per line. The only difference would have to be the subject in each poem where the original is about eating plums where my parody is about taking one's own life in place of another. My parody isn't much of a mockery of Williams' poem, but more of a flattering poem.

The parody above has two interpretations, if not more depending how imaginative one can be. The first interpretation I had for the poem was about a housemate who is having a miserable time in his life at the moment and continuously bothering his other housemate about his problems. He found his housemate's gun hidden in his toolbox and used it to take his life so he can end his misery and pain.

The other interpretation I had in mind was about a friend who hid a gun with only one bullet in his toolbox, it was saved for someone, either it being for himself, an enemy, or his friend. I chose the words "for someone" so it can have an open discussion for who the gun and single bullet was meant for.

I couldn't really decide on which one I wanted, so I combined the two interpretations where the ending "so dark and so cold" is where the person who found the gun shot himself and his life is slowly fading away, as his vision begins to blur and the light dimming to darkness with the feeling of coldness & death creeping upon him. Hope the readers enjoy my parody =)

Digging With A Pen

Digging by Seamus Heaney is a free verse poem written in a first person narrative and has 8 stanza containing two couplets.  This poem compares a pen, spade, and gun using similes and metaphors. A metaphor is a language that directly compares unrelated subjects as in comparing one subject being or similar/equal to another subject in some way. A similes uses "like" and "as" while comparing two subjects. 

In Digging, the first two lines:

"Between my finger and my thumb

The squat pen rests; snug as a gun."

These two lines compares a poet's pen and gun as a simile where the pen might not be as strong as a gun, but it has its own power like a gun does. The gun is a small object, but packs a punch within itself.  The pen may seem small and powerless, but in reality just as the gun, it is small, but is actually more powerful than one may think. In the poem, the speaker isn't trying to say that the pen is mightier, but just as on an equal level of that of a gun. Also the poet is trying to get across a message through writing poetry with his pen, which is merely as effective as a gun threatening someone to clearly get one's message understood. The picture presented in this portion of writing is actually a stinger gun pen, where it may look like a harmless pen, but when used right, it can transform into a gun and have a powerful impact.

The metaphor Heaney tries to get across is comparing the spade and the pen. These two tools are being used for the same purpose ("digging") in the poem.

 The metaphor is basically saying that the spade is the pen where the speaker will use the pen to dig just as his father and grandfather did with an actually spade, which represents their hard work and labor that makes up one's identity. The only difference is that poet doesn't have "[any] spade to follow men like them," so the poet uses a pen to "dig" to pass on his tradition with and through his writing. This image here represents a person using a spade digging whereas the pen can do the same "digging" resulting in a metaphorically imagery of a spade being a pen.

Free Response # 1

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot

This poem was really interesting, yet at the same time makes one thinks about the certain lines throughout the poem. After reading this through and listening to the discussion in class, the question is why the poem is called "The Love Song", the term seems to be used loosely because it doesn't really seem much of a love song. The title that Eliot gave this poem about Prufrock is that, the lines in the poem is generally the thoughts and feelings of Prufrock, which in turn is his own lyrical associations.

Prufrock doesn't really seem to interact with anyone although he talks about tea time and wanting to talk to the women that come and go talking about Michelangelo. He seems to be a reserved guy or in a coma as someone brought up the possibility last class. To me, Prufrock has no hope of being understood by others, he is like in his own personal space or sphere, which is basically his mind or consciousness. Prufrock could just be reserved and shy to talk to the women who he seems attracted or interested in. He must be uncomfortable since he is eager to talk to them, but probably afraid of not knowing what to say and leading to awkward silence.

Overall, this poem by T.S. Eliot is about J. Alfred Prufrock's thoughts and feelings as a love song where Prufrock feels insecure and isolated when it comes to interacting with women.

Poetic Form vs. Prose

Shakespeare's Sonnet 73

The third quatrain in Sonnet 73:

In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire

That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,

As the deathbed whereon it must expire,

Consumed with that which it was nourished by.

The third quatrain in prose:

I am the glowing remnants of a fire,

Which lies on the ashes of the wood that once enabled me to burn,

And will soon be consumed by my own creation.

The third quatrain in Shakespeare's Sonnet 73 is having the speaker refer himself to the glowing remnants that is aging or inching closer to his death. Like most fires, fires naturally extinguish their own flames as it sinks into the ashes, which its own burning created.

The sonnet is one of the most common forms of poetry where it follows a set of rhyme scheme and logical structure. Shakespeare's Sonnet 73 follows the traditional pattern of a Shakespearean Sonnet which is basically 14 lines consisting of 3 quatrains and a heroic couplet. The rhyme scheme for is generally ABAB CDCD EFEF GG with an iambic pentameter, meaning that there are 10 syllables per line, and every other syllable is naturally accented. The sonnet poetic form often uses a poetic diction, which is based on vivid imagery, but with each move from quatrain to quatrain leading to the heroic couplet make them a useful form for any subject.

Poetic form enables the reader to imagine the changes throughout each part of the poem by playing around with the words from rhyming schemes to structured lines. It also allows the writer to express him or herself more freely. In prose, it is so bland and straightforward, but more appropriate for most situations. Prose is basically getting straight to the point or bottom line with an exact structure. Overall, poetic form accomplishes one's thoughts expressed freely and creatively.