Poetry

            In Wide Sargasso Sea, it’s easy to see Daniel Cosway as an antagonist who plants the seeds that ultimately destroy any possibility of a stable relationship between Antoinette and Rochester. Cosway’s letter is what confirms Rochester’s fears about some secret being kept from him and drives him to act coldly towards Antionette. The series of events that follows is what leads to Antionette getting taken to England and eventually taking her own life. In a sense, all of that might have been avoided if Daniel just hadn’t sent that letter.             While Daniel claims in his letter that he is writing to Rochester out of a sense of duty as a Christian, it’s clear that his reasoning for writing has far more depth than this. He seems incredibly spiteful when writing to Rochester and when Rochester meets him in person, it’s pretty clear just how bitter of a pe...

I think one of the most interesting relationships in The Stranger is that between Raymond and Meursault. Right from when they meet, their dynamic is interesting, with Raymond basically just asking Meursault to help him write a letter to his mistress so that she is tricked into coming back to Raymond and he can take his revenge on her. Raymond serves as a really good foil for Meursault. At the beginning of The Stranger , one might think Meursault is cold and heartless for smoking and drinking coffee at the vigil for his mother. It’s even worse that Meursault then goes to the beach, meets a woman, takes her on a date, then has sex with her within days of finding out about his mother’s death. When the character of Raymond is introduced, this complicates things. While Meursault’s actions are definitely insensitive, they aren’t inherently wrong. It’s just that it’s kind of weird for someone to be so nonchalant about their mother’s death. The same can’t be said about Raymond. I...

Over time, as Gregor's family begins to realize that he will never be able to work, they begin to see Gregor in the self-deprecating way that he sees himself. They come to view Gregor as a burden on them. Their view of Gregor shifts to viewing him as less human as Gregor seems to become more human. At the beginning of the story, Gregor is solely focused on work and it seems like his whole life revolves around his job. He wakes up and leaves the house early and does not get back home until late. Even when he turns into an insect, he can only focus on how this change will impact his ability to perform his job. It seems like his only defining personality trait is that he works as a traveling salesman. In the beginning, Gregor sees himself as totally worthless because he can no longer work and provide for his family. When he first transforms, his family treats him as a human. While they aren't exactly the most welcoming of him, they do do things like provide him food and move the f...

            I think there is a connection to be drawn between the way that Hemingway depicts Jake’s injury and modern concept of BDE. For anyone who doesn’t know BDE is an acronym that stands for Big D**k Energy, which Urban Dictionary defines as “having confidence without cockiness”. It’s supposed to be a healthy, lowkey way of feeling yourself. In essence, it means that you’re secure in yourself. While one doesn’t have to be well endowed or even have a penis at all to have BDE, the basis behind the term being named that is pretty self-evident. As a society, we conflate this feeling of confidence with masculinity. There’s a reason that we make reference to a penis in a term whose meaning doesn’t imply a gender.             This brings us to Jake. To the outside, Jake seems like the most masculine person there is. He is interested in things like fishing, bo...