Why Are Plays Critical To Understanding?

Why Are Plays Critical To Understanding?

Death and the King’s Horseman written by Wole Soyinka is a play that depicts not only cultural differences between the British and African communities, but tells a story of a man and his failure to complete a life-long task. Why didn’t Soyinka write a novel which is the most popular literary outlet? He knew better than to go the most obvious route because he wanted immediacy and a fast reaction which can’t be perceived from reading a book. Soyinka wanted his work to have a big impact on those who watched the play, and it did.
Plays are written to be performed in front of a live audience. Stage directions are written and the dialogue is carefully chosen to make sure it conveys the correct message. Without reading the author’s note before reading “Death and the King’s Horseman” the reader may interpret the play to be about cultural differences and how colonization is a terrible thing. Though Soyinka does address these issues, he states, “The Colonial Factor is an incident, a catalytic incident merely. The confrontation in the play is largely metaphysical…” (3) The metaphysical aspect of the play is transition which in Yoruba cosmology is the space between life and death (3). The true meaning of the play is about how a man (Elesin) fails to accomplish the only task that his job requires of him which is to commit a ritual suicide after the king dies so the king will be able to continue his journey to the next life. If one were to write about this aspect in a novel, the message may be clear about colonization, but the true meaning and the impact on the Yoruba culture may get lost in translation.
By watching a play instead of reading a book, the viewer is more in touch with the plot because everything is happening right in front of them. The viewer is more likely to understand what is going on because they can see the actions and reactions of the actors that are portraying the characters. Facial expressions and hand movements are very important to getting a point across as well as changes in the tone of voice and emotions that need to be produced by the actors. By seeing and hearing all of these things together, a bigger impact on the viewer is more likely because of the type of delivery. Reading a book just isn’t the same as going to see a play because a reader can’t truly feel the emotion and sense the reality without some sort of visual. A film may seem like the correct way to go because it could possibly reach a larger audience, so now the question arises, why did Soyinka not make a film? Films are not always taken as seriously as they should be. The actors are hidden by a screen and the smell of popcorn instead of being right there in the viewer’s face, nearly touchable. A play condones an immediate reaction whereas a film isn’t as up close and personal. Soyinka states “…that drama, like any other art form, is created and executed within a specific physical environment. It naturally interacts with that environment, is influenced by it, influences that environment in turn, and acts together with the environment in the larger and far more complex history of society,” (89)
Even though Soyinka is of Yoruba descent, he decided to write his play in English and use a British publishing company. This is interesting because in his play, the British come into the Yoruba community and try to seize it for themselves. Why would someone who is a native Yoruba want to seemingly side with the British? He wants to reach the biggest group of people, that’s why. If he had chosen to write his play in his own language, it would be read and acted out, but only in the Yoruba community. By writing the play in English, which is the second most recognized language in the world, he is attending to a much wider audience and the message he is portraying will reach many more people than it would if written in Yoruba.
When the British came into the Yoruba community and started their massive takeover, they didn’t realize they were ruining a culture that had been thriving. British rule soon became a part of the daily lives of the Yoruba and thus began the downfall of their community. By turning some of the Yoruba into guards or servants, like Amusa in Death and the King’s Horseman, the viewer can see a different side of the Yoruba community. Amusa is a key character in the first part of the play because he helps the viewer see how the British are mocking the Yoruba community by dressing up in costumes that are considered a “uniform of death” (19) in their community. Even though Amusa is a police officer for the government, he still carries his traditional background with him and gives insight to his community that is slowly losing a battle within a war of takeover.
On the surface the play seems to be about cultural differences and British colonization. Though the play incorporates these ideas, its main point is far more important and complex than a takeover. Elesin (the king’s horseman) fails to complete the only task that he is asked to do, which is to commit suicide so the king has a companion in his next step on his journey after death in the physical world. This situation is clashing with Soyinka’s identity as a Yoruba. He is recreating an actual event that happened right after World War II just with a few changes here and there. Elesin does not carry out his task, and by publicizing this, Soyinka is showing that his community can make mistakes. He is putting the Yoruba in a compromised position by showing their weak side, but by doing this, he is grabbing the attention of the British invaders. Getting the oppositions’ attention is key because then by seeing or reading the play, they will also see the effects of colonization on the Yoruba community. Soyinka is very intelligent to write with an underlying purpose so the British can see their mistakes.

Another key character in Death and the King’s Horseman is Olunde, which is the son of Elesin. In the play, Olunde has returned because he has assumed that his father has committed the ritual suicide since the king is dead. When Olunde arrives, he hears the drums which signal that the suicide is about to occur. The drums stop and Olunde thinks his father is now dead. He shows no emotion and Jane, the wife of Pilkings (the chief of police) is awestruck. Jane says, “How can you be so callous! So unfeeling! You announce your father’s own death like a surgeon looking down on some strange…stranger’s body! You’re just a savage like all the rest,” (45). Jane makes the viewer see that there is no hope for the British to ever understand the culture of the Yoruba by her reaction to Olunde’s apathetic feeling towards his father’s death.
Wole Soyinka won the Nobel Prize for literature for a reason; “broad cultural perspective…” (vii). Death and the King’s Horseman has two different perspectives; the British and the Yoruba. Realizing both perspectives are a part of the play is a key factor to understanding that the play is not only about colonization, but about Yoruba culture. Soyinka’s play makes such a forceful impact on the readers and viewers because of the specific dialogue and characters that he brings to life through perfect stage direction and conversation. Writing a play may not have been the most popular way to present his argument, but it was definitely the most effective.

Works Cited

Soyinka, Wole. Death and the King’s Horseman A Norton Critical Edition. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2003. Print.

Chitra’s Setting and Its Importance

Chitra’s Setting and Its Importance

In the play Chitra by Rabindranath Tagore, the stage directions have been omitted on purpose according to Tagore’s wishes if the play were to ever be put into print. The setting is very minimal which is noted at the beginning of the play when the editor says, “The dramatic poem “Chitra” has been performed in India without scenery–the actors being surrounded by the audience” (4). With this type of play, I think it would be beneficial to create a vast, beautiful setting as described by the characters thoughts and what they say during the play. Making this shorter play into a movie would also create a bigger audience and give more room for creativity. By doing these two things the Western audience would have a better understanding of the meaning of the play and it would create a wider viewing area so the play would become more visible in the drama world.(I will mainly talk about the setting as if it was being directed on a stage, but I will add in parts about directing a movie as well).
Since Tagore opted for no stage directions, there is no exact setting mentioned in the preface to Scene I. In Arjuna’s character description, the reader finds that he is of “”warrior caste,” and during the action is living as a Hermit retired in the forest.” (3) Having no specific setting can change a play drastically but it also has no limitations on what a director can do with the play to make it more entertaining. Going through the play scene by scene, the setting can be changed many times from a lavish forest or a sparkling river to a place in the sky where humans can meet and talk to their gods.
Scene I starts with Chitra speaking with two gods, Madana and Vasanta to which no setting is clear because the characters do not give a description in their dialogue. For this scene, I would create a stage with colorful blue, pink, yellow, and white clouds completely covering the floor. Madana and Vasanta would be walking together towards the center of the stage and Chitra would meet them halfway, speaking her first line as both parties stop in the middle. There would be a background screen showing the different seasons of spring, summer, fall, and winter at a very fast pace. The background represents Vasanta who is “Lord of the Seasons” and the year that Chitra has to be beautiful. The clouds give a depth to the  meaning that Madana and Vasanta are not mortal and they represent Madana who is “Lord of Love.” The clouds and the background would help the Western audience understand that the gods are not human and the setting is not on Earth.
Scene II begins with Arjuana saying, “Was I dreaming or was what I saw by the lake truly there?” (11). In this scene, I would re-create as realistic a lake as I could on a stage. Putting grass around the stage would be pertinent because I think that it would make the beauty of the new Chitra stand out while it reflected on the lake. The lake would be made of mirrors since Arjuna says, “She bowed herself above the shining mirror of the lake and saw the reflection of her face,” (11). The mirrors could show the reflection perfectly and in turn, the audience would know that the play was about self confidence. The grass would reflect in the mirror lake as well and create a beautiful scene which would represent Chitra’s transformation from a woman who was boyish, to a very feminine figure. This scene feels as if it takes place in the late afternoon as the sky turns to dusk so on the background screen I would have a sun slowly setting as Chitra and Arjuna spoke with each other to show the passing of time. The scene ends with a bit of a fight between the two, so I would have the stage darken to show the feelings between Chitra and the man she is in love with.
Scene III has Chitra speaking with the gods again, so I would bring back the scenery from scene I, but I would have fire on the background screen to emphasis Chitra’s anger toward her own decision to become beautiful. Chitra says, “Ah, god of love, what fearful flame is this with which thou hast enveloped me!” (19). The vast array of clouds from scene I would be included, but the stage would be a bit darker as to downcast them so the focus would be on the fire in the background. Also, in scene III, Chitra describes what happened the previous night with Arjuna which is very important. If this were a movie instead of a play I would have the actors re-create this scene before scene III actually happened so the audience could see the relationship between Chitra and Arjuna forming. By showing this scene it would also help the audience understand the passing of time.
Scene IV beings with Arjuna and Chitra sitting together and Chitra is weaving a garland. I would make the garland full of beautiful flowers such as white lilies and pink roses to reinforce Chitra’s newfound beauty as well as her innocence (the white lilies) and her feminine features (pink roses). I would keep the setting the same as in scene II because of the lake and its beauty and the grass would contrast well with the garland. At the end of the scene, prayer bells begin to ring, so to show that the scene was ending, I would dim the lights and sound prayer bells to cast a bit of an eerie effect on the audience to keep their attention.
Scene V is extremely short with just a few lines between Madana and Vasanta. For this scene, I would have the actors of the two gods on the stage, but the stage would be completely blackened so only the outlines of the figures could be seen. This would keep with the eerie effect at the end of scene IV and also add to the effect that these two are not mortal and they are a step above humans. Time has been fleeting and soon the year of Chitra’s beauty will be up. To emphasize this, I will have a clock on the background screen with the hands moving very fast after the gods have spoken to show the Western audience that the play isn’t in the span of just a few days, but a whole year.
Scene VI is another scene with Chitra and Arjuna speaking to one another. It is a shorter scene, so I would keep the stage clear of most items and use the background screen for effect. On the screen I would have pictures of flowers blooming then dying because of the lines that Chitra says at the end of the scene involving the death of flowers. The stage would be dimly lit and only the actors and background screen would be visible so the audience would focus on the dialogue which is very important in this particular part of the play.
Scene VII are the gods and Chitra talking about how her beauty will be ending that night. The stage will remain dimly lit and the gods will be on ladders, only their outlines visible to the audience. Chitra will be below them on her knees begging for her beauty while a moon is present in the background. A spotlight will remain on Chitra encasing her beauty to the audience and letting it radiate because it is her last night.
Scene VIII is when Arjuna meets the villagers so I would have a path of stone on the stage with grass surrounding it where the villagers and Arjuna meet on the path and have their discussion. Chitra and Arjuna would then be sitting together after a quick scenery change in a tent where they discuss that he will not be with her that night. I would have a spotlight on the tent so the audience focuses on the couple and what they are saying, but they won’t be able to see the couple speaking; they will only be able to hear them. As he leaves her from the tent the stage grows dark and Chitra weeps.
Scene IX ends the play and is important because the audience finds out that Arjuna accepts Chitra as she is because she is a great leader and he finds her beautiful anyway. Arjuna and Chitra would be standing on the stage with no props and just a few lights so the audience can make out the actors. They would say their lines and the background would change to clouds floating in a blue sky to create a sense of calm and serenity for the audience to show acceptance and love.
The staging that I have created for the drama Chitra is important to the understanding of the Western viewing audience so they can perceive the moral of the story much easier. With more scenery and props used as well as a background screen it helps viewers who aren’t familiar with Indian culture and traditions incorporate the meaning into their culture. Every culture has women who think like Chitra; as if they aren’t good enough for the person they love. This play shows that no matter what your culture is, you are not alone and staging can help enforce this concept.

Works Cited

Tagore, Rabindranath. “Chitra a Play in One Act by Rabindranath Tagore.” Scribd. Market Thing. Web. 01 Apr. 2011. <http://www.scribd.com/doc/44894003/Chitra-a-Play-in-One-Act-by-Rabindranath-Tagore>.

How Globalization Has Affected Aboriginal Traditions

How Globalization Has Affected Aboriginal Traditions

Globalization is a term that is loosely defined because it can have both a positive and negative connotation. When a society or culture becomes globalized it accepts the traditions of another culture and incorporates these traditions into its own. This can be seen as a good thing because it shows acceptance of other cultures but it can also be perceived as bad because the original traditions can be long forgotten once globalization occurs. Rolf de Heer does an excellent job of portraying the original Aboriginal culture in his film Ten Canoes showcasing two different time periods of the culture. Ernie Blackmore encompasses globalization in his play Buckley’s Hope in Australian aboriginal society. By watching the movie then reading the play a person can see the vast differences and what globalization has accomplished within the Aboriginal culture.
Australia is a continent that has been around for tens of thousands of years but up until recently (the 1800’s) it was not on the map because no one had really paid any attention to it. Until the British realized that Australia was a great place to hold prisoners, the aboriginal cultures were thriving throughout the land. “But on the east coast the white sails of the English ships were a symbol of a gale which in the following hundred years would slowly cross the continent, blowing out the flames of the countless campfires…silencing the sounds of hundreds of languages, and stripping the ancient Aboriginal names from nearly every valley and headland,” (Issacs 279). There were both inland and coastal tribes that inhabited the beautiful landscapes throughout the continent. Sadly, their cultures dissipated after the British invasion and many traditions were long forgotten.
The role of men and women was very important during the time when aboriginals reigned over the Australian continent. Everyone had their place in society and this worked very well to keep their tribes alive. Men hunted big game and women were considered the gatherers. “In Yamminga times, there was once a tribe of jandu (women) who used to live by themselves, at a place called Yardagurra, in the Great Australian Bight. Now it is the law of the tribe that men and women should live together, not separately, and that the men should hunt for wallee (meat) while the women go out to gather mai (vegetable food). But these jandu did not observe the law: not only did they live by themselves, but they went out meat-hunting each day, armed with men’s weapons…” (Issacs 166). From this quote one can see there were different ways of living in each tribe, but most women and men lived side by side. In the film Ten Canoes Rolf de Heer shows a great presentation of what life was like ten thousand years before the British invasion. The main character Ridjimiraril has three wives (Nowalingu, Banalandju, and Munandjarra) each with a different role in the relationship as well as in the tribe such as caretaker of Ridjimiraril, the provider of food for Ridjimiraril, and the lover of Ridjimiraril. Each woman also helps provide for the tribe, but their main focus is their husband. Aboriginal men are the hunters and if war comes between two tribes, they are the ones who fight. Men also pass down the traditions to the children in the tribe and teach them to hunt, gather, and provide for everyone once they are of age. These roles worked well for everyone because it kept the tribe running smoothly and created bonds between the tribesmen.
Aboriginal diet thousands of years ago was an interesting one yet it can still compare to some foods that the people of Australia eat today. “The food-debris in the Oenpelli camp sites shows that the diet of these people included tortoises, bandicoots, possums, fish, shellfish, nuts, and the root of the lotus-lily, foods still abundant in the area, and used by Aboriginal people leading a traditional life style today,” (Issacs 25).  These foods were easy to find and because of their availability it was easy to feed an entire tribe. Women were an asset to the finding and cooking of food as Issacs says, “Women were expected to gather vegetable foods and fruits, grind seeds, cook damper and dig for roots. Of course if small edible animals came past they were not forbidden to capture them, thought it was often the young children, accompanying their mothers, who pursued small lizards and marsupials,” (Issacs 166). Also more gamey animals were hunted and eaten such as “kangaroo, wallaby and emu,” (Australian food and drink).  Honey was a food that was a little more scarce yet loved by many in the tribes. Birrinbirrinn in the movie Ten Canoes shows his love for honey by constantly speaking of it and wanting the smaller children to climb trees to fetch it for him. BirrinnBirrinn is the tribal leader in the older time period of Ten Canoes and because he is eldest he makes important decisions for the tribe although not always by himself.
The Sorcerer in Ten Canoes was not just an added character for comic relief or interest. This was an actual person that lived with the tribe in Aboriginal culture thousands of years ago. Their importance to the tribe was great because they were often consulted with the death of a tribe member or when a decision of going to war had to be made. In Ten Canoes the sorcerer is consulted when both of these problems arise in the ancient time period and the tribe waits for an answer. The Sorcerer is a respected elder that uses magic to help aid the tribe in their decision making process. When The Stranger arrives at Ridjimirail’s campground the sorcerer is called upon to see if the man is there to cause harm and what he wants with the tribe. The Sorcerer also assists in the passing of Ridjimirail by easing him into the afterlife. His magic is only used for a good cause in Ten Canoes.
Their means of transportation was mainly walking, but canoes were used to go longer distances or to help the men with their hunting and fishing. The men were extremely fit because of the long walks they had to go on to find food to bring home to the rest of the tribe. By building canoes the men were able to travel across swampy areas to locate goose eggs for nourishment as seen in the more recent time period in Rolf de Heer’s Ten Canoes. The lack of transportation was difficult for the tribes especially when they had to relocate because food was scarce.
Recreational activities were few and far between in the time of the Aboriginal tribes. So much other work had to be done such as building camps, hunting and cooking food, and raising children. When the people did have time for fun they usually spent it hunting small game with spears, paint and engrave stones, and tell stories about their heritage. “The earliest Indigenous art forms were paintings and engravings on boulders, rock shelters and cave walls, some of which date back 30 000 years,” (About Australia: Indigenous). Aboriginals also used song and dance to pass the time when they were able to. “Traditional Indigenous music was predominantly vocal but musical instruments like didgeridoos were used as accompaniments,” (About Australia: Indigenous). The didgeridoo is an instrument that is extremely hard to play but the Aboriginals loved to use it in spiritual dances.
There was no set religion but each tribe had special rituals that they performed when certain events happened such as a death ritual. Death was not taken lightly and the ritual that was performed when a person died was sacred. In Ten Canoes Ridjimirail is injured during a spearing from another tribe in a fight. His fellow men return him to the camp and his wives begin to care for him. The sorcerer even visits, but there is no hope for him to continue living. Once this is discussed, Ridjimirail gets up and dances his last dance because he knows his death is looming upon him. He dances until he can’t stand anymore and when this happens the men of the tribe take over the dance and continue it until Ridjimirail dies. This tradition helps him go safely into the afterlife. Without these special customs, the Aboriginal culture would have been forgotten long ago. “Amongst Aboriginals, however, death is seen as inevitable only in the very old. Death of a healthy man or woman must have been caused by evil magic and sorcery of some enemy of the dead person. Natural causes of death are seldom admitted except in the case of very young babies and very old people whose death causes little disruption to the pattern of society,” (Issacs 213).
As time passed by the Aboriginal culture slowly changed. Racism and hatred soon became part of the original people that lived on the vast land of Australia. These people began adapting more to newer ways of life through the threat of force yet they still kept their Aboriginal roots active in their daily lives. “Many children were sent to training schools and then apprenticed to white people. Typically, boys were sent to work as farm hands and girls as domestic servants,” (Wilson). The old traditions of living in tribes, hunting, and sacred death rituals had to be left in the past. Though these things are no longer practiced, the Aboriginal population has not forgotten them. As seen in Buckley’s Hope the traditions are still remembered and passed down from generation to generation. The man known as “Uncle” in the play makes sure that Maree’s sons will continue to learn the way of their ancestors when he says:
UNCLE: Who’s going to teach them their culture?
MAREE: What? What bloody culture? Yours?
UNCLE: That’s one of your problems. You don’t know nothing about your people, and you don’t care. It’d do you good to listen sometime. (Blackmore 2.8)
Uncle is referring to the old traditions of Aboriginal culture like the ones I spoke of earlier. It is important for present day Aboriginal people to keep their culture alive through stories because if the storytelling ceases to exist, so does the culture.
The role of men and women has changed drastically over the course of thousands of years. Women were once looked at as an essential part of the society, but now they are looked down upon and even shunned for being Aboriginal. In Buckley’s Hope Maree, an Aboriginal woman living in the 1950’s  is looked down upon not only because of her race, but because she is Aboriginal. Maree’s role is a provider as well as a mother because her husband was killed and left her with two small children. Although she is a strong independent woman she has been through a lot because of her race including being raped by cops as she tells Lydia her sister, “The bastards put me in a “Black Maria” and took me somewhere and four coppers raped me. I don’t even know if Paul’s father was Kenny or one of those dirty fuckin’ coppers,” (Blackmore 2.1). The male role has taken on a more violent theme but he is still supposed to be the provider and continue the oral traditions that the tribe has either created or become accustomed to. Uncle is an excellent example of an Aboriginal man who has let time make him into a violent person, yet he still upholds his duty to provide as he states, “And that’s another thing. Why should I go out there all bloody night shooting to feed you and your kids, eh?” (Blackmore 1.9) and to continue teaching Aboriginal culture, “Them boys of yours is the last men in this family after me. You take them away and they don’t learn about the old ways, our history dies,” (Blackmore 2.8). Even though time has changed the men in Aboriginal culture, they still realize their duty to uphold the customs and continue teaching as long as they can.
Present day Aboriginal diet is a lot different than the ancestors as well. Diet today is much like an average American diet. Since globalization has occurred throughout Australia there have been fast food and restaurant chains built on every street corner. Foods from every part of the world have migrated to Australia including Indian and Chinese cuisine. “Where once the Australian diet was based strongly upon its British and Irish heritage, by the end of the 20th century, Australians were regularly enjoying Italian, Greek, Chinese, Indian and Vietnamese cuisines cooked in restaurants and homes,” (Australian food and drink). Beer and wine are also popular items in Australia as well, both with the Aboriginal cultures as well as the rest of the population. In Buckley’s Hope Eric offers an invitation to John saying, “We’ve got a great RSL Club. You should come over. The first drinks are on me,” (Blackmore 1.4). An RSL Club is a club for men that are part of a social group (a lot like the Eagles club in the United States). Kangaroo is no longer a meat that is eaten often and is considered a specialty meat (Australian food and drink).  Many other items have also disappeared from the Aboriginal menu such as emu, wallaby, and crocodile but shellfish still remains as a staple in their diet.
Transportation has evolved a lot since the times of canoes. There are buses, planes, cars, boats, and trains as are depicted in Buckley’s Hope. “They had been on the same train and ended up sharing a compartment for the last hour and a half of what had been a marathon journey from Sydney to Buckley’s Creek,” (Blackmore 2). All of these modes of transportation act as a helping hand to the Aboriginal people because they can easily visit one another in a much faster way than by foot or a canoe. By having different types of transportation, Aboriginal communities can be connected easier than before as well.
Recreational activities have changed immensely over the course of thousands of years as well. Activities such as walking through a man made park and going to a soccer game have become popular things to do on a weekend. Even though many years have passed since spearing small animals was something to do for fun, some things have stayed the same. Dancing is a large part of Aboriginal culture and even in present day society it is still a popular way to pass the time as seen in Buckley’s Hope:
JOHN: There’s a dance at the RSL next week. I was wondering if you wanted to go with me. Are you planning on going?
MAREE: We might.
JOHN: We?
MAREE: Lydia and me. If we go, we’ll be going on our own. (Blackmore 1.6). Though the dancing is very different and not as spiritual the act of it still thrives within the Aboriginal people today. Art is another form that has continued to live on throughout the many years. “Today, Indigenous performing arts feature in cultural festivals across Australia. New styles of Indigenous music have developed and merged with other musical genres, like rock music,” (About Australia: Indigenous). Globalization has taken music to a new level and now Aboriginal music can be heard throughout the world just like their dancing seen throughout the world.
Religion and spiritual beliefs have continued to live on through the changes in the Aboriginal culture. “Most Indigenous belief systems centre on the ‘Dreaming’ or ‘Dreamtime’ to explain life and the origin of the world. In the Dreaming, ancestral beings created features of the land, sea and sky, as well as humans, animals and plants.” (About Australia: Indigenous). This spiritual belief has surpassed all of the other religions including Christianity which is the religion the British brought with them when they came to Australia. “Indigenous Australians have their own unique religious traditions and spiritual values,” (About Australia: People).  Though Australia is predominatenly Christian, the Aboriginals have kept their values alive well over 60,000 years which is longer than nearly every other religion known to the world.
Globalization on the Aboriginal people of Australia does have positive effects and this can be shown over time. One positive element of globalization is the growth and use of technology. Computers, television, and telephones have all been implemented into the Aboriginal societies allowing the people to easily connect with one another. Before this technology the Aboriginals mainly kept to themselves and only communicated to those in their own tribes who were located close by. Now with the use of technology the Aboriginals can spread their special culture and customs to the entire world.  Another positive aspect of globalization on the Aboriginal culture is the myths that the culture itself holds. In Issac’s book, she writes about the many myths and legends that the Aboriginal people handed down from generation to generation. Each myth has a special meaning and by knowing the myths, the Aboriginals can learn more about their rich history and where they came from. “Instead of dying out, many local art forms are flourishing as never before in the new global marketplace, because they’ve been able to find so many new patrons,” (Cowen 80).  Technology can help preserve these myths because of the ability to record videos of  a reenactment of a myth or the ability to type them into a book like Issacs did.
Globalization can negatively impact culture because it can tear apart the people and turn them against one another. Blackmore uses Maree and John’s relationship to show the negative aspects of globalization by turning their co-workers and families against them. “The attitude of the townspeople creates the tension when MAREE tries to lift herself from the institutionalised way of life the local Aborigines endure. The family conflict, MAREE’s indomitable attitude to life, the relationship with JOHN HODGSON and his inability to accept the townspeople’s attitudes push the drama to the limits,” (Blackmore 3). The racial tensions are high in this play because of the dislike of the Aboriginal people by the British who now call Australia home.
When they invaded, the British took over most of the continent, “In general, as the white men pushed further into the continent, taking over land for farming and cattle raising, the Aboriginal population was decimated,” (Issacs 286). The British also brought new diseases that took the lives of many Aboriginal people since medicine was not widely used. All of these things started to impact the Aboriginal culture in a harmful way causing disruptions and eventually disbandment from the original traditions of the Aboriginal people. “The Aboriginal instinct for survival and adaptation was very strong, however. Communities of part-Aboriginals developed in many areas of Australia where the tribes had broken down and these perpetuated the links with the Dreaming past and continued to follow the way of life of the Ancestors,” (Issacs 288).

Globalization throughout the 60,000 years that the Aboriginals have inhabited the continent of Australia has both positively and negatively impacted their traditions. Technology has helped to keep traditions alive as well as decimate them as well. By comparing Ten Canoes that uses ancient Aboriginal themes and Buckley’s Hope that has a more modern aspect of Aboriginal culture, one can see that their traditions have been greatly changed by globalization.

Works Cited

“About Australia: Indigenous Peoples: An Overview.” Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Homepage. Australian.gov.au. Web. 01 May 2011. <http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/Indigenous_peoples.html>.

“About Australia: People, Culture and Lifestyle.” Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Homepage. Australian.gov.au. Web. 04 May 2011. <http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/people_culture.html>.

“Australian Food and Drink.” Australian Government. Australian.gov.au, 23 Sept. 2008. Web. 23 Apr. 2011. <http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/austn-food-and-drink>.

Blackmore, Ernie. Buckley’s Hope. Hobart: Australian Script Centre, 1999. Print.

Cowen, Tyler. “The fate of culture. (Two Faces of Globalization).” The Wilson Quarterly 26.4 (2002): 78+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 27 Apr. 2011.

Isaacs, Jennifer. Australian Dreaming: 40,000 Years of Aboriginal History. Sydney [u.a.: New Holland Publ., 2009. Print.

Ten Canoes. Dir. Rolf De Heer. Perf. Crusoe Kurddal, Jamie Gulpilil and Richard Birrinbirrin. Adelaide Film Festiva, 2006. DVD.

Wilson, Tikka. “Racism, Moral Community, and Australian Aboriginal Autobiographical Testimony.” Biography 27.1 (2004): 78-+. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 24 Mar. 2011.

Swinburne’s Love of Sin and Religion

Swinburne’s Love of Sin and Religion

            Algernon Charles Swinburne was a one of a kind poet who used themes such as sin, religion, and love in his poetry. These themes don’t seem too abnormal or grotesque at first glance, but once you read a Swinburne poem such as “Laus Veneris” or “The Leper” the themes take on a new, more vibrant meaning. Swinburne uses alliteration to strengthen the meaning of these topics throughout his poetry, especially in “Laus Veneris.” Each of the above poems encompasses all three themes but show different views of them.

Swinburne was born into aristocracy in 1837 in London, England. “His appearance was very unusual and in some ways beautiful, for his hair was glorious in abundance and colour and his eyes indescribably fine,” (Hyder, Algernon). This description makes the poet sound very effeminate and in certain ways he was. His hair was his most famous feature because of the bright red color and its long length. He was a fairly small child and when all grown, also a small man at only five feet tall. After being expelled from Oxford because his “behaviour became more and more extravagant and he failed to pass his exam in classics…” (Henderson 37), he started writing poetry that was very different than the other poetry being published at the time by authors like Tennyson and Browning. His first publication came in 1865 and was entitled, Atalanta in Calydon to which was received well by Tennyson who said, “he envied his ‘wonderful rhythmic invention’,” (Henderson 106).

Shortly after Atalanta in Calydon was published, Swinburne went on to publish Poems and Ballads in 1866 which included “Laus Veneris” as well as “The Leper.” This work was not taken as well as Atalanta in Calydon because of the themes that the poems contained which rooted from his classical education. Morley states of Swinburne’s Poems and Ballads, “He is so firmly avowedly fixed in an attitude of revolt against the current notions of decency and dignity and social duty that beg him to become a little more decent…” (Henderson 118). His religious views were not of Christian origin and this shined through in his poetry. He became what most thought of as an atheist, but still had vast knowledge of the scripture in the bible though “…Swinburne, however, often outrageously satirizes, parodies, and directly attacks both Christian belief and the Christian establishment,” (Landow). This is true in both “Laus Veneris” and “The Leper” which is a good reason to discuss both poems in accordance with religion. Darwinism could have had something to do with the turning about of Swinburne’s belief (though not a proven fact) since Origin of Species” was published in 1859, shortly before Poems and Ballads came about.

The end of Swinburne’s life lasted about 30 years. After becoming a well-known poet, he began, “drinking past excess to unconsciousness,” (Everett).  Eventually his legal advisor, Theodore Watts-Dunton took him in and got him to start living a healthier lifestyle. Swinburne died at the age of 72 from influenza in 1909 after becoming less sociable because of deafness. He is still remembered today because of his versatility in technique and addictive personality (Everett).

“Laus Veneris” was published in 1866 when Swinburne was just 29 years old. This poem includes the themes of sin, religion, and love because the main character, Tannhauser, is obsessed with the goddess Venus but his love for God is trying to overcome his obsession for lust throughout the poem. In the end, his love for God prevails, but when he asks the Pope for forgiveness for staying with Venus and being her lover, the Pope denies him and says that he will not be forgiven unless flowers bloom from his papal staff. Thinking this miracle could never happen, Tannhauser returns to Venus to continue his life of sin not knowing three days after asking for forgiveness, flowers did bloom from the Pope’s staff. This poem is a reinterpretation of a German legend (Houghton 659-660) of one man vying for two loves: Christ and Venus.

Tannhauser is considered a sinner in this poem because he is a knight and truly believes in God, yet he goes with Venus to her home and stays with her for a year because he feels that he is in love. His love for Venus isn’t real because it is not love he is feeling, it is lust which is one of the seven deadly sins. This sin would be one of the worst a knight could commit because he is to remain faithful to his religion, but Tannhauser doesn’t represent this in the poem. “In these first stanzas Tannhauser introduces the major preoccupations of the poem – the conflict between Christ and Venus, the erotic power of the latter, and also the sterility of that eroticism,” (Roberts 89).  His temptation is most clear during the beginning of the poem when he says, “Inside the Horsel here the air is hot; / Right little peace one hath for it, God wot; / The scented dusty daylight burns the air, / And my heart chokes me still I hear it not,” (25-28). Here the reader can tell Tannhauser knows he is sinning but he is choosing to ignore it so he can be with Venus, the goddess of beauty.

Religion and sin go hand in hand so religion is also a major theme in this work. Tannhauser is contemplating his faith in Christ throughout the poem because why would God put him in such a position if he truly existed? After being with Venus for a year, Tannhauser realizes that God is the way he should choose, “For I was of Christ’s choosing, I God’s knight, / No blinkard heathen stumbling for scant light; / I can well see, for all the dusty days / Gone past, the clean great time of goodly fight,” (209-212). Tannhauser can see that God is right and Venus is wrong and he knows that he must make his life right again. His days of lust (dusty days) are gone and he wants to become a knight of God once more. Hyder states, “…one can find a reflection of religious heterodoxy in the insistence on conflict between the claims of Christ and those of Venus,“ (Hyder, Swinburne). The relationship between Tannhauser, Venus, and Christ is a tangled one that intertwines because of love.

Love is the third major theme of the poem and one of the most important since it involves sin and religion. Tannhauser has a love for two people, Christ and Venus. Though he feels that the love he feels for Christ is the same as the love he feels for Venus, he is mistaken. He feels true love for Christ because he renounces his belief in Christ towards the end of the poem and asks for forgiveness. What he feels for Venus is lust, not love. He only goes back to Venus because he feels that if forgiveness can’t be obtained, he has no other choice. His love for Christ is still present after he returns to Venus to be with her until the end of time because he states, “For till the thunder in the trumpet be, / Soul may divide from body, but not we / One from another; I hold thee with my hand, / I let mine eyes have all their will of thee,” (417-420). His belief in the Last Judgment is evident in the first line, and only those who believe in Christ believe in the Last Judgment. The entire stanza sums up the poem as a whole because Tannhauser’s “love” for Venus is also present since he doesn’t want to leave her. His love is a false love though since he is only deciding to love her because there is no other option.

There is much to praise in “Laus Veneris” for technical merit because style and alliteration. “Laus Veneris” takes its stylistic form from “The Rubaiyat” by Omar Khayyam with an aaba rhyme pattern in quatrains. In most of the quatrains, the lines spill over showing the speaker’s conflict in the style of the poem as well as the dialogue and speaker’s thoughts. “Laus Veneris” is full of alliteration to reinforce the themes of sinful lust, obsession, and sex. Alliteration is in every stanza, but more so when Tannhauser is pondering his obsession with Venus such as, “Her gateways smoke with fume of flowers and fires,” (125). Tannhauser is emphasizing the “F” and speaking of the beauty and the lust that he encounters when he is with Venus. The flowers represent Venus’ beauty and the fires represent the lust that Tannhauser feels as well as the fire in his heart for Christ. Alliteration happens again when Tannhauser is consumed by love but is starting to realize his mistakes, “Brief bitter bliss, one hath for a great sin,” (171). Tannhauser begins to contemplate knighthood and what it means and when he does this, the alliteration appears again: “I smell the breathing battle sharp with blows, / With shrieks of shafts and snapping short of bows; / The fair pure sword smites out in subtle ways / Sounds and long lights are shed between the rows” (213-216). The use of the letter “B” and the letter “S” are the most common throughout the entire poem and this quatrain has both sounds repeated multiple times. Alliteration is an important part of Swinburne’s writing style and his use of it in “Laus Veneris” is effective.  “Another way of describing this structure is to think of the sections advancing in pulses, just as each stanza does,” (Roberts 91). Roberts’ statement is very true especially if the poem is read aloud. A reader can easily get caught up in the rhythm and rhyme of the poem and ignore the content.

“The Leper” also encases the themes of sin, religion, and love but in a much more diverse way than “Laus Veneris.” Though the poem is only 140 lines, each line has special meaning. The poem is spoken by a man who is in love with a woman who has leprosy. This man also happens to be her servant and has known her previous to her contracting the disease. There is another man whom the woman loved, but this is the man that gave her leprosy: “That knight’s gold hair she chose to love / His mouth she had such will to kiss,” (27-8). The servant ends up having the leper all to himself because the other man is ashamed to be with her. Soon after this her life comes to an end and the speaker is distraught with God and why he had to love this woman so much. The poem is both corrupted and beautiful at the same time as Richardson states, “”The Leper” is not revolting but strangely poignant. In order to be repelled by the corruption and closeness seemingly inherent in the situation, one must step outside the speaker’s hallucinatory detachment and deliberately–and with some difficulty–reliteralize the narrative,” (Richardson).

Sin is an underlying theme in this poem, but the sin is once again lust but there are also hints of envy in the lines as well. The servant is lusting after this woman who loves another man and he also envies the other man because the leper loves him. It’s a very confusing love triangle that can only end up badly. The speaker is putting himself in an awkward position by loving a woman with a fatal disease. Wrath can also be found when he is speaking to God because he says, “Yea, though God hateth us, he knows / That hardly in a little thing / Love faileth of the work it does / Till it grow rip for gathering,” (90-3). His scorn for God is one of the biggest sins that a Christian man can have.

Religion covers a big part of this poem because the speaker is constantly asking God, “Why me? Why her?” He wants to know the answer to why God has betrothed such an awful disease on the woman he loves. He is pondering if he is committing a sin or not by loving a woman with leprosy as well. His religion conflicts with everything he is feeling as well as everything he is doing. Throughout the poem he mentions that God hates him, “Yea, though God always hated me, / And hates me now that I can kiss,” (14-5). I believe that the speaker wants to believe in God, but he feels as if he can’t because of all the bad luck he has had both now and in his past.

Love is the third theme of the poem and also the most talked about by the speaker. It is important to understand that the speaker is obsessed with not only the leper but the idea of love in general. The very first line of the poem says, “Nothing is better, I well think, / Than love;…,” (1-2). After being able to kiss the leper, the speaker goes on to say once more, “Nothing is better, I well know, / Than love…,” (21-2). Only one word changes which is the word “think” becomes the word “know” since he has been able to be with her, he now knows the act of love rather than just being able to think about it. All he wants is for the woman to feel no shame about her disease and before she dies, he gets his wish, “And she is dead now, and shame put by,” (113).

“The Leper” is written in quatrains like “Laus Veneris” and has a rhyme pattern of abab with only eight syllables in each line. The lines do not spill over because of the use of shorter words and very technical style pattern. This writing style helps the poem become more understandable to the reader since Swinburne’s use of vocabulary is limited because of the specific rhyme scheme and syllable count. Each poem has its own rhyme scheme and pattern, but “The Leper” is much more technical in style and form than “Laus Veneris.” This could be because of the subject matter or because the thoughts of each speaker are so different in the two poems.

Alliteration is sparse in “The Leper” but repetition is not. The word “sweet” and the different forms of the word are repeated constantly as to remind the reader of the leper’s soul not just the way she looks. It is often used multiple times in the same line such as, “How sweeter than all sweet she is,” (56). There is also alliteration in this line emphasizing the meaning of the line which is “don’t judge a book by its cover.” The speaker knows the leper isn’t beautiful on the outside, but he seems to think she makes up for it on the inside. He is jaded by his love for her and can’t see that she also loves another man and is using him for servant purposes at her will. By making this point, a reader can go back and re-read the poem and go away with a completely different meaning. The language flows well as Richardson says, “Often severely beautiful as dew on steel, his language is narrowed to invoke a world of clarity, purity, and violence.” Swinburne was a master of the grotesque in his early writing career and this poem is a prime example of that.

The speaker in “Laus Veneris” and the speaker in “The Leper” both have a few of the same qualities, yet they differ in how they handle the situations they are put in. Tannhauser is put into a situation where he is presented with the question of whether or not he is going to commit a sin and go against God’s will. He chooses to commit the sin but later on repents and asks for forgiveness. The speaker (who is nameless) in “The Leper” is already sinning before he is presented with the question of loving the leper because he is scornful of God and what has been brought upon him as his life as a scribe. Tannhauser only goes back to Venus because he has no other choice in his mind, not because of the fact that he loves her. He forces himself to feel love for her so he has a way out. The speaker of “The Leper” is different in this aspect because he feels true love for the leper woman and chooses her because of this emotion. They compare in the fact that they are both faced with a tough situation and they both act on instinct rather than using their better judgment to make a decision. Swinburne uses the characters to help the reader relate to problems of sin, religion, and love in their own lives.

“Laus Veneris” and “The Leper” both encompass the themes of sin, religion, and love much like other poems in the Victorian era. The only difference is that Swinburne used grotesque images and dysfunctional main characters to portray his messages. In Hyder’s book Algernon Swinburne the Critical Heritage he has a quote saying, “He is now, with all his wonderful gifts the most wretched man I ever saw,” (16). Swinburne did have many gifts but poetry was by far the best he was given.

Works Cited

Everett, Glenn. “A. C. Swinburne: Biography.” The Victorian Web: An Overview. Victorian Web. Web. 27 Apr. 2011. <http://victorianweb.org/authors/swinburne/acsbio1.html>.

Henderson, Philip. Swinburne; Portrait of a Poet. New York: Macmillan, 1974. Print.

Houghton, Walter E., and G. Robert Stange. “”Laus Veneris” by Algernon Charles Swinburne.”Victorian Poetry and Poetics. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1968. 659-65. Print.

Hyder, Clyde Kenneth. Algernon Swinburne the Critical Heritage. London: Taylor & Francis E-Library, 2005. Virtual_SU PDF.

Hyder, Clyde K. “Swinburne’s Laus Veneris and the Tannhäuser Legend.” PMLA 45.4 (1930): 1202-213. JSTOR. Web. 24 Mar. 2011.

Landow, George P. “A. C. Swinburne — Religion.” The Victorian Web: An Overview. 25 Aug. 2003. Web. 14 Apr. 2011. <http://victorianweb.org/authors/swinburne/religion1.html>.

Richardson, James. “Purity and Pain.” Vanishing Lives: Style and Self in Tennyson, D. G. Rossetti, Swinburne, and Yeats. University Press of Virginia, 1988. 116-136. Rpt. in Poetry Criticism. Ed. Laura A. Wisner-Broyles. Vol. 24. Detroit: Gale Group, 1999. Literature Resource Center. Web. 12 Apr. 2011

Roberts, Adam. “A Note on the Intrinsic of Swinburne’s “Laus Veneris”" Victorian Poetry 28.1 (1990): 89-92. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 24 Mar. 2011.

Swinburne, Algernon Charles. “The Leper by Algernon Charles Swinburne.” PoemHunter.Com – Thousands of Poems and Poets.. Poetry Search Engine. Web. 02 Apr. 2011. <http://poemhunter.com/poem/the-leper/comments.asp>.

Talking Flowers and Rare Pearls

Talking Flowers and Rare Pearls

            “Maud” by Alfred Lord Tennyson is a work that is disliked by most critics because of the extreme use of psychological aspects such as talking flowers and vast imagery. Although the poem has many emotions twirling around in the 1,361 lines, there is a great love story intertwined in the madness of the speaker who is a hero as well as a lover of Maud, a beautiful maiden. “Maud” contains a lot of imagery with enough symbolism fill up an entire classroom.

“Maud” has no rhyme scheme, pattern, or any other type of conformity throughout the poem. The stanzas are different sizes throughout the three parts with some containing rhyme and structure with deep thoughts and some that are just purely a mess of nonsensical fantasy and madness. Nature is a theme throughout the poem, whether the speaker is pondering about flowers or the hollow where he reminisces about his father’s death. The first mention of a flower comes in part I, group II where the speaker says, “an hour’s/defect of the rose” (1. 82-83) when he is describing Maud’s beauty and how he finds her to be perfect. A general symbol of the rose is love, but Venefica says, “The most common interpretation is that the rose symbolizes an immortal love or a union that will never fade – even through time or death”. This meaning of a rose goes beyond the term love and the speaker shows that he feels much more for Maud than just surface love; his love is absolute, maybe because of his impending insanity coming from his emotions.

The rose appears most of out all the different species of flower in the poem, so the underlying meaning of the poem is immortal love. When describing Maud later in the poem, the speaker reverts back to using a rose to mention her beauty:

Rosy is the West,
Rosy is the South,
Roses are her cheeks,
And a rose her mouth. (1. 575-579)

Two prominent facial features are spoken of during this segment of the poem with both having the faint color of a rose naturally. During the entire group of XVII, the speaker has a rhyme pattern of ABAB and addresses of the color red multiple times. He also repeats lines 575-579 at the end of the group to emphasize that Maud is much like a rose. During the group of lines, the speaker tells Maud how much he loves her, so the descriptions that are depicted here are his feelings and emotions in imagery rather than actual words. The speaker is thinking clearly because of the use of rhyme pattern and repetition.

Lilies are another type of flower that the speaker mentions multiple times throughout the poem. According to Lad, lilies are symbols of “pure life”, “sheer innocence”, and “chastity as well as virtue”. Different cultures have diverse meanings for lilies, but innocence and purity are common in all cultures around the world. The speaker calls Maud a “Bright English lily” (738) which is a symbol for “purity and the Virgin Mary” (Charles). Throughout the poem, the speaker refers to Maud as either “lain in the/lilies of life” (1. 160-161) and having a “garden of roses/and lilies fair on a lawn” (1. 490-491).

Daffodils are mentioned along with the other flowers, though not quite as much throughout “Maud”. The very first time daffodil is mentioned in when the speaker says, “the shining daffodil dead, and Orion low in/his grave” (1. 101-102). This is the beginning of the poem, and the speaker is extremely depressed and constantly contemplating death and since daffodils have the symbolism of “friendship and domestic happiness” (Anonymous), this is a contrast in the meaning. Although this is the symbolism that most people associate with the daffodil flower, there is also a Victorian symbolic meaning; “The hidden message of the Birth Flower, the jonquil, so favored during the Victorian era was “You are an angel” (Anonymous). These two lines take on an entirely different meaning since daffodil now can mean angel. In the famous part, XXII, the speaker also mentions daffodils, but in a different manner because this time, the speaker is happy, not depressed. In part III, the final grouping of stanzas, the speaker uses the daffodil flower again in a manner of death; “And the shining daffodil dies, and the Char-/ioteer” (3. 6-7)

The most famous group of stanzas is XXII in part I known as “Come into the garden, Maud” which is the first line of the grouping. This set of stanzas mentions roses, daffodils, lilies, violets, and the passion flower. The setting is Maud’s garden and the speaker is waiting for her to come and meet him in the very early morning. He is slowly becoming insane because he starts imagining the flowers talking to him, specifically the rose and lily:

The red rose cries, “She is near, she is near”
And the white rose weeps, “She is late”
The larkspur listens, “I hear, I hear”
“And the lily whispers, “I wait.” (1. 912-915)

Each flower symbolizes something different in these four lines. The red rose symbolizes love and passion (Stritof); the speaker wants Maud to hurry and meet him. The white rose symbolizes virtue and secrecy (Stritof); the speaker and Maud are meeting at twilight, so the meeting is secret. The larkspur symbolizes lightness and fickleness (Stritof); the speaker is patiently waiting for Maud and he is waiting to hear her in the garden. The lily represents purity (Stritof); the speaker believes that Maud is virginal and he will wait for her. This is the stanza that changes the speaker completely. He has gone from a desperate, depressed man to a man full of hope and light because Maud has entered his life.

Pearls, although they are not flowers, are repetitive throughout the narrative poem as well. Pearls are often thought of as a special jewelry item, rare and very expensive. When the hero mentions the word pearl, he is normally referring to Maud as in the following lines;

But now shine on, and what care I,
Who in this stormy gulf have found a pearl
The countercharm of space and hollow sky,
And do accept my madness, and would die
To save from some slight shame one simple
girl? – (1. 639-643)

The speaker is saying that he has found a rare woman in a sea of simplicity. Maud accepts the speaker as he is, insanity and all. He has finally found happiness, and he will do anything for Maud because he loves her so dearly. The word “Pearl” also comes to mind when thinking of the popular novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne entitled The Scarlett Letter. One of the main character’s names is Pearl who is a child and both innocent and beautiful. Tennyson may have unintentionally incorporated this symbolism of the world pearl into his poem, giving the word pearl a new meaning altogether.

With the use of many types of flowers and the special pearl, Tennyson’s famous yet underestimated work portrays symbolism and imagery at its finest. Flowers can showcase many things including emotion, feeling, and in this case, they can talk (well, sort of). The speaker refers to Maud as many different flowers throughout the poem, but she mainly coincides with the most popular; the rose. There is no doubt of the speaker’s love for Maud, and by using the flowers to symbolize different things throughout the course of his courtship with Maud, realization occurs that the speaker is slightly insane because of overwhelming feelings for the one he loves.

Works Cited

Anonymous. “March Birth Flower.” Birthstones. Web. 02 Mar. 2011. <http://www.birthstones.org.uk/birth-month-flowers/march-birth-flower.htm>.

Charles, Thomas. “Symbolism of Lily Flowers | EHow.com.” EHow | How To Do Just About Everything! | How To Videos & Articles. Web. 02 Mar. 2011. <http://www.ehow.com/about_6534748_symbolism-lily-flowers.html>.

Fraser, Amy E. “Pearl Symbolism.” EXALTED BEAUTY. Web. 02 Mar. 2011. <http://exalted-beauty.blogspot.com/2007/05/pearl-symbolism.html>.

Lad, Kashmira. “Symbolism of the Lily.” Buzzle Web Portal: Intelligent Life on the Web. Web. 02 Mar. 2011. <http://www.buzzle.com/articles/symbolism-of-the-lily.html>.

Roddey, Kristi. “Passion Flowers Meaning | Meaning of Passion Flowers | Passion Flower Information.” The Meaning of the Passion Flower | EHow.com. Web. 02 Mar. 2011. <http://www.arenaflowers.com/facts/flowers/flower_meanings/passion_flowers>.

Stritof, Sheri, and Bob Stritof. “Meaning of Flowers — The Language and Meaning of Flowers for Married Couples.” About.com. Web. 02 Mar. 2011. <http://marriage.about.com/od/flowers/a/flowermean_2.htm>.

Tennyson, Alfred. “Maud.” Victorian Poetry and Poetics. 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1968. 88-108. Print.

Venefica, Avia. “Symbolic Meanings Blog by Avia Venefica » Blog Archive » By Any Other Name, It’s Still Symbolic. Meaning of the Rose.” Symbolic Meanings Blog by Avia Venefica. Web. 02 Mar. 2011. <http://www.symbolic-meanings.com/2008/02/29/by-any-other-name-its-still-symbolic-meaning-of-the-rose/>.

Submissive Women in “Will You Always Love Me?”

Submissive Women in “Will You Always Love Me?”

            Joyce Carol Oates is a contemporary author who has written more short stories than one can even fathom. Her versatility with theme, characters, and setting are what make her famous. In the short story series, “Will You Always Love Me?” she has a running theme of women characters who place themselves in bad situations and end up being submissive. “You Petted Me and I Followed You Home,” “Life After High School,” and “The Passion of Rydcie Mather,” all include women who are faced with a difficult situation and they submit to their desires, fears, internal longing for companionship, and to God.

In “Stories That Define Me” Joyce Carol Oates states, “A”WOMAN WRITER” is an anomalous thing, lacking a counterpart, a grammatical equivalent, a mate. For there are no ”men writers.” Persons of either sex who write define themselves as writers, but roughly half of us are defined (by others) as women writers.” This shows that Mrs. Oates is a feminist so one would think her stories would revolve around giving power to the female role. This is not the case in “Will You Always Love Me?” In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Oates defines the women characters by their odd actions and how they cope with the unfortunate events that boggle their lives. “Joyce Carol Oates’ early female characters’ vulnerabilities and victimhood have too often led feminists to question her credentials for a feminist canon,” (Friedman 492).  Oates also states, “in fact, I’ve usually focused upon victims of violence who are likely to be women and children,” (Arana 18). This is very true, especially in the short story, “You Petted Me and I Followed You Home.”

“You Petted Me and I Followed You Home” is an odd story about a couple named Dawn and Vic who are leaving a party in the early morning and a dog happens upon them while they are trying to figure out how to get home since neither has a car. Dawn takes a liking to the puppy but has to say goodbye when a taxi is hailed by Vic. After arriving at their apartment, the couple finds the puppy moments later because he followed them home. Although Vic gets angry and kicks the puppy out of the apartment after he gets in, the puppy doesn’t give up. He ends up outside of their bedroom window yipping and scratching, begging for help. This story may seem rather boring to the conventional reader, but Oates has a way with words, and during her telling of the story, the reader is meant to be frightened by the dog’s antics.

“You Petted Me and I Followed You Home” is a story about regret and what could have been. The reader finds out that Dawn is recovering from a miscarriage that she had surgery for a few days prior to the party. The small puppy represents the unborn child that will never have a life. He comes into their life almost instantly after the loss of the baby and all he wants is a place to stay and some food to eat. Vic won’t allow this which in turn upsets Dawn because it’s a lost puppy that has no defense if left on the streets. Dawn thinks to herself, “It knows the difference between outside and in…The difference between living and – the other,” (Oates 27). It’s also quite odd that Vic won’t allow a small dog in the house because he doesn’t want to take on the responsibility, but he was ready to accept a child and the life-long responsibility that is associated with it. The eeriness of the story is when the puppy is representing the baby. Dawn keeps repeating throughout the story, “It isn’t a stray, it’s lost,” (Oates 30). Soon she comes to the realization that the puppy “knows” them. By Dawn recognizing this, she becomes angry at Vic because he won’t let the puppy stay inside the house. They begin to fight and after Vic tries to rape her but doesn’t succeed, Dawn keeps thinking about her lost baby, “Cupped her breasts in her hands, where they ached. No milk, never any milk but they’d ached,” (Oates 33). Normally this only happens when a woman produces milk for an infant, but since Dawn isn’t with child, the puppy is what is making her breasts ache. The last paragraph in the short story describes the puppy trying to get back into their apartment and it resembles a baby coming out of the birth canal and seeing light for the first time.

Dawn and Vic interact with one another very differently than most married couples. Vic is the powerhouse and Dawn usually gives into him because he is much stronger and more demanding. Oates’ feministic writing comes out when she writes Vic’s character because he is very masochist in his demeanor. He and Dawn fight a lot, have neighbor complaints “Complaining to the landlord of ‘noise and commotion’ – when Vic got a little loud…,” (Oates 27), and usually go to bed mad at each other, “…each bitterly aware of the other, but ignoring the other…,” (Oates 33). They are not equals in the relationship because of the miscarriage. Before the death they both had a strong desire for one another but after it they both only felt desire when they were drunk and even then, they were still angry at one another. Their relationship isn’t healthy and they both understand that fact but neither refuse to accept it.

Dawn is submissive in a few ways because of her refusal to leave Vic, her longing for the puppy, and her dwelling on the past. Dawn lets Vic overrule her in nearly every aspect of their lives including sex, how she dresses, and the puppy. She rarely stands up for herself because when she does, Vic gets very frustrated and usually yells and even hits her sometimes, “Vic pushed Dawn, not really hard but Dawn’s head struck the doorframe, it was like her head exploded…” (Oates 30). Vic obviously pushed her fairly hard for her head to feel as bad as it did, but Dawn refuses to accept the fact that Vic is an abusive husband. The clothes that she wears would be considered “slutty” because they include “spike heels,” (Oates 22) and Vic calls her clothes “sexy,” (Oates 22). Dawn only wears them to please Vic. When it comes to the puppy, Dawn wants to give it a home, feed it, and care for it. Vic wants nothing to do with this idea and he refuses to let his wife take part in it, mainly because it reminds him of a child; a child they would have had if she hadn’t miscarried. Dawn lets Vic have his way so the puppy does not get to stay in the house, but the puppy will not have any of this which is why it reappears outside of their bedroom window, whining and yelping to be let in. This is where the story ends leaving the reader to wonder if Dawn got what she wanted or if Vic once again took the reins.

“Life After High School” is a short story about the adolescent years in the lives of two completely opposite teenagers. Zachary Graff is the not so normal eighteen year old boy who would be considered a “geek” by most because of his intelligence, shyness, and how he is awkward in social settings. “Sunny” or Barbara is quite the opposite because she is outgoing, optimistic, and one of the most popular girls at school. Their only similarity is their intelligence and their relationship with God which is why Sunny decides to humor Zachary and actually spend time with him. During their twelve week friendship they see each other in between classes and Zachary gives Sunny a ride home every now and then. Zachary purchased a very expensive engagement ring and proposed to Sunny. Sunny said no of course, but in a polite way to which Zachary explained “that he could love enough for both,” (Oates 99) and “It would mean so much to him,” (Oates 99), and then stated, “Life or death,” (Oates 99). Sunny still refused and Zachary would not speak to her for a week. Around midnight a week later Zachary came to Sunny’s house and asked one last time for her hand in marriage and once again Sunny refused after Zachary forcefully grabbed her hand. She ran back inside and Zachary fled. The next morning Sunny found out that Zachary had committed suicide and she blamed herself for the death. Many years later Zachary’s only friend, Tobias, contacted Barbara (the name Sunny was never used again after Zachary’s death) and told her that Zachary was gay and he had also refused to go with Zachary the night of his suicide.

This depressing story is a life lesson hidden under a teenage romance. Zachary was using Sunny as a cover up to his sexuality because he couldn’t come to terms with being gay because of his religion and belief in God. “…immediately upon waking he scrambled out of bed, knelt, hid his face in his hands, and prayed. For his sinful soul, for his sinful thoughts, deeds, desires,” (Oates 96). Zachary’s beliefs coincided with Sunny’s since they both deemed themselves as Christians so he felt that Sunny could help him “see the light” and maybe make his sinful nature go away. Unfortunately Sunny knew nothing of Zachary’s inner thoughts because he didn’t share his feelings with her. The meaning of this story is a simple one found in many other loss of innocence and coming of age stories: be true to yourself. If all of the characters would have been truthful with themselves none of them would have lived with a horrible guilt; Zachary would have been happier after coming out to the world and Barbara would have known nothing of Zachary if she hadn’t acknowledged his existence that day in the hallway when he said “hi” to her.

Zachary and Sunny’s relationship was an interesting one. Since they are complete opposites on the outside their friendship was shunned by all of their peers. Sunny’s friends disliked Zachary yet they were jealous of him asking, “What do you two talk about so much? – you and him?” (Oates 94). Mainly their talks were about religion because it’s the one thing they both had in common. Sunny sees the relationship as completely platonic because she doesn’t read into Zachary; she takes him for what he is which is a geek. Sadly after Zachary’s death, Sunny blames herself and carries a heavy burden for many years of her life until Tobias clears it up one afternoon over lunch.

Barbara doesn’t seem like a submissive character at first glance of the story. After a thorough read one can see that Barbara submits to her inner feelings. She feels that Zachary deserves a good friend and since she is “ “Sunny Burhman! – an all-American girl too good to be true who is nonetheless TRUE!”” (Oates 96) she submits to the reputation she has made for herself. After Zachary’s death she submits to feeling guilty nearly her entire adult life repeatedly saying, “But it’s my fault he’s dead,” (Oates 103). The guilt engulfs her and she lives her life as Barbara Burhman from then on out. “She hadn’t even continued to be a Christian,” (Oates 104). This is the most submissive thing that Barbara could have done; giving up her religion, the thing that she was most attracted to throughout her life, because of the guilt she felt within herself about Zachary’s death. Oates does a wonderful job in portraying the character of Sunny/Barbara in “Life After High School” so that many girls of that age can relate even though most will never go through what Sunny did.

“The Passion of Rydcie Mather” is a story about a middle aged masculine woman who drives a school bus. She lives with her mother and her mother’s canaries. Her life is defined by routine. She drives the bus during the week and attends church with her mother every Sunday even though she doesn’t really believe in religion. During the story the reader finds out that Rydcie used to be a librarian before saving the life of Amanda Curle from drowning in a river. Soon after the rescue, Rydcie became the talk of the town and she despised it so she quit her librarian job and took on the duty of driving a bus full of middle school aged children who were wild and mean. Eventually her popularity and novice wore off and she became just another face in the crowd. Time passed and before long Amanda’s daughter soon became a young teen and started to ride Rydcie’s bus. Betsey Ann was an awful girl; mean-spirited and loud and Rydcie hated her. She knew something had to be done, and after her mother died she decided it was time. Rydcie Mather drove her school bus with eleven children off of Post Road into the river. There were no survivors.

“The Passion of Rydcie Mather” can be interpreted many different ways. The story can be taken as is; about a woman who was fed up with life and felt she had nothing to live for so she ran her school bus into a river. In my opinion, it’s much more than that. Rydcie was never truly happy because she had saved Amanda from drowning. She never wanted to be put in the public eye because she was self conscious and couldn’t love herself. She felt as if she had been manipulated into saving Amanda’s life even though that wasn’t the case. Her life dissipated before her eyes once she was a hero so she had to take a course of action to reverse her heroism. Betsey Ann, Amanda’s daughter represented Amanda to Rydcie. Rydcie’s knew that if she killed Betsey Ann then the world would be right again because she would be un-doing what she did many years before. Her twisted way of thinking is a creation that Oates is famous for and in this story it works to her advantage because Rydcie is a character that the reader both hates yet they sympathize with.

The relationship between Rydcie and God is extremely important. Throughout the story Rydcie despises God and all that he has done to her. She feels God is to blame for the fame she didn’t want. God is the one that told her to save Amanda and she hates him for that. Before driving her bus off the bridge and into the river, she visits Reverend Cogdon, the leader of her mother’s congregation. She says to him, “The worry of it is, He wants me in His bosom again. I’m determined to go to hell if I have to instead,” (Oates 284). God is trying to help Rydcie during the story, but Rydcie refuses His help and ultimately defies him by killing herself as well as eleven innocent children.

Rydcie is different than the other characters because she isn’t submissive towards another person, she submits to herself. Throughout the story she is a strong woman who doesn’t listen to anyone except her mother because she feels that her mother should be respected. Though she says she doesn’t believe in God, she talks to him a lot and even asks the Reverend “How do you get free of God…” (Oates 284).  She says to God, “Yet shall I defy You. Whether Hell, or oblivion,” (Oates 286). She is oblivious to her own feelings as she defies those along with everything else in her life. Rydcie also says, “And I refuse to stoop to hatred of my fellow man,” (Oates 285) yet it seems as if all she has is hatred towards her fellow man as well as herself. She has had inner struggle with her own self hatred ever since she saved Amanda from drowning and in the end, she submits to the self hatred by killing herself.

Joyce Carol Oates’ stories are that of everyday life. Her ability to turn the mundane into the extraordinary is fascinating and her use of violence is not grotesque but artistic. “Although she has often been observed to be a writer of extraordinary violence, Oates is more emphatically a writer of ordinary lives, of people in families. The changes she charts to familial configurations must be closely observed in order to understand their large implications for social and national issues,” (Friedman 491). Oates’ use of submissiveness is creative and not something one would expect since she is a feminist, yet it works well within her collection of short stories, especially those in “Will You Always Love Me?”

Works Cited/Consulted

Arana, Marie, ed. The Writing Life: Writers on How They Think and Work. New York: PublicAffairs, 2003. Print.

Barnhart, Sarah Catlin, and Nancy Barendse. “Joyce Carol Oates.” Concise Dictionary of American Literary Biography. Vol. 6: Broadening Views, 1968-1988. Detroit: Gale Research, 1989. Literature Resource Center. Web. 27 Apr. 2011.

Burgauer, Debra. “Oh, the Possibilities of ‘Life after High School’ by Joyce Carol Oates.” Eureka Studies in Teaching Short Fiction 9.1 (2008): 87-98. MLA Internatinoal Bibliography. Web. 24 Mar. 2011.

Friedman, Ellen G. “Feminism, Masculinity, and Nation in Joyce Carol Oates’s Fiction.” Studies in the Novel 38.4 (2006): 478-93. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 25 Mar. 2011.

Oates, Joyce Carol. “Stories That Define Me.” New York Times 11 July 1982. New York Times. Web. 08 Apr. 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/07/05/specials/oates-define.html>.

Oates, Joyce Carol. “To Invigorate Literary Mind, Start Moving Literary Feet.” New York Times 18 July 1999. New York Times. Web. 08 Apr. 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/19/arts/to-invigorate-literary-mind-start-moving-literary-feet.html>.

Oates, Joyce Carol. Will You Always Love Me? and Other Stories. New York, NY, U.S.A.: Dutton, 1996. Print.

Powers, Elizabeth. “Will You Always Love Me? And Other Stories.” World Literature Today 70.4 (1996): 959+.Literature Resource Center. Web. 8 Apr. 2011.

Wesley, Marilyn C. “Reverence, Rape, Resistance: Joyce Carol Oates and Feminist Film Theory.” Mosaic [Winnipeg] 32.3 (1999): 75. Literature Resource Center. Web. 27 Apr. 2011.

Renting Under 30

Renting Under 30

                Although owning your own home is comforting because you can call it your own, renting is a much better option for people under 30 who are just starting their careers because the tenant has less to worry about and isn’t tied down to once place for 20 to 30 years. The option of renting is better because utilities are usually cheaper, the landlord covers repairs, and for a small monthly fee snow and garbage removal are included. When a person owns a house, none of these things are included which can take up the homeowner’s time and use a lot of their money.

Home buying is a strenuous process that is lengthy and requires a lot of thought. First the person looking to purchase a home must find a realtor to help them on their search. A realtor is a paid consultant that assists a buyer in the search for the perfect home. Once a person has found the perfect house they must make an offer. The offer is a short page that the potential home buyer must sign and it is sent to the seller. The seller can accept, reject, or counter-offer, but until the seller returns a document, the buyer must wait, thinking about the unknown. Once an offer is finally accepted a down payment must be paid (this amount varies but it’s usually 5-10% of the final sale price), an extensive amount of paperwork must be signed, dated, and reviewed, and a home inspection must be done. Once these steps are completed in their entirety, the buyer is now a home owner.

Renting a place to live is much easier and more simple than purchasing a home. When a person decides to rent they have many options to choose from such as homes, townhouses, duplexes, condos, and apartments. Once the renter has settled on a choice they call the landlord and let them know they would like to put in an application to rent their property. After the application is filled out and filed the renter will know within a matter of days if their credit is worthy and their references were good. If this occurs the renter will pay a security deposit (about one month’s rent to cover any damages that may occur while the person is living there), obtain the key and move in. Very simple, definitely not as much paperwork and stress, and there are no realtor fees involved (unless the renter decided to hire an agent to help in the search).

When a person buys a house a lot of responsibility comes with it. The owner must attend to all maintenance such as landscaping, repairing things that are broken such as shutters, windows, and doors, as well as paying for the utilities like water, sewer, gas, electric, cable, internet, and other bills that involve owning a home.  Garbage and snow removal are the owner’s duty as well as fixing plumbing, electric, and any appliance issues. The owner has the ability to hire the required people to fix these issues but it becomes increasingly costly and time consuming since the owner usually has to be there when the repairs are being done.

Renters have it much easier when it comes to problems around the property. The easiest way to put it is that they don’t have to do anything. When renting, the agreement usually states that the landlord must take care of all issues of maintenance and repairs that need to be done during the course of the tenants stay in the building. These repairs come at little to no cost to the tenant because the rent and security deposit will cover it. Although it is common for the tenant to have to pay their own utilities such as those listed in the above paragraph, sometimes utilities are all inclusive so the renter has only one monthly payment for a slew of items. This option offers convenience to the renter so they don’t have to write out five or six checks a month and it’s much easier to keep track of because everything is listed on one bill.

When buying a home a person must take into account the extra expenses that many don’t think about. Taxes on the home and land, personal property tax (only in some states), and interest rates can all increase at any time and cost the homeowner more than what was originally expected. If a buyer based the monthly payments on their annual income, and the payments increase because of interest rates, the owner may not be able to make up the difference. Add on all of those taxes mentioned earlier, and the amount the owner is dishing out could increase by $200 to $300 monthly.

Renting on the other hand will never have tax increases or interest rate inflation. When a renter signs the rental agreement there is a clause that says their rent will not change over the course of the agreement so their payments will remain the same over the lease period. Renters will never have to worry about not having extra money because they have to pay their personal property tax twice a year. The landlord takes care of all of these things when they write out the agreement and they make sure they are charging enough rent to cover any hikes in taxes or interest rates.

Home buying can be a good thing for those over the age of 30 who have developed a career and have a bit of money saved up for a down payment on a house. People over the age of 30 are normally more mature and responsible with their finances so they can make wiser choices when buying a home. A person who is over 30 has decided what they want out of life and usually they know where they want to reside. Buying a home is a good option once a person has chosen a local that fits their wants and needs.  They can start a family, make improvements to the home to their liking, and eventually retire in the house they purchased.

Renting is a much better option for those who are 30 or younger. Now that young adults have the option to go back to college, many are in their upper twenties. During this time, buying a house would not be a good option because a person may want to continue their life in a town other than the one they attended college in. While they are in college, renting in a much more affordable option because the renter wouldn’t be tied down and they wouldn’t have to worry about taxes. Young adults also like variety in their life, so after a year, the person could move to a different rental unit to help satisfy their craving for versatility.

When a person decides to leave their home for good which can happen anytime after the purchase, they must go through a selling process. The selling process is a very long process that doesn’t always work out for the best. When a person decides to sell their home, they must contact a real estate agent and pay fees to them so the agent can list the home on numerous websites and in real estate papers. After this happens the seller can have an open house so people can view the home and see if they would like to purchase it. The homeowner must make the house presentable and likeable so the public will view the house as their potential new living space. After a seller has a potential buyer the process of buying a home starts over, but with a new person. The seller then has to sign more papers and eventually give up the property they have tended to for a number of years.

When a person decides to leave a rental unit, it’s much easier. The landlord will inspect the property to locate any damages. If none are found, the renter may get their security deposit back which can assist in the cost of moving their belongings to a new location. The keys are returned to the landlord and the renter is then able to leave. Although renters are usually required to give at least a 30 day notice before vacating their property they can avoid this if need be by paying the landlord an extra month in rent and vacating whenever they have to. No real estate agent is involved in this process and it’s very simple to change locations.

Home buying is an option that those over 30 should definitely consider because of their financial status and dependability. Renting is a much better option for those under 30 because of their need for versatility and the cheaper price tag for an apartment.  Either option is an exercise in responsibility, financial burden, and ownership; renting just happens to be the better of the two if a person is under the age of 30 and just starting their life.

Professional Athletes Deserve Their Money

Professional Athletes Deserve Their Money

            Some say that professional athletes such as Derek Jeter and Peyton Manning make too much money. I don’t understand the way those people think. Athletes are put through strenuous routines and dangerous working conditions on a daily basis. They deal with ridicule, mean-spirited fans, and stress along with constantly being in the media whether they want to or not. Professional athletes do all of this to give Americans entertainment and a good time. Just because they make millions of dollars does not mean they are overpaid.

Peyton Manning, a famous quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts, makes around $15 million a year according to USA Today. Sure, that’s a lot of zeros, but how long is Peyton’s career really going to last? In his prime, he may make this sum of money for about four or five years. After that, his salary will slowly start to decrease just like his playing ability because of aging. Soon he will be moved to a back-up quarterback and his salary will be cut to a much lower number. Eventually he will either be traded or given up as a free agent, which leaves him jobless if another team does not decide to pick him up. He will have to retire at the age of 37 (maybe a little older, it varies from player to player) and reduce himself to doing more endorsements, probably for lower grade companies other than Gatorade and DirecTv. Over his career span, he will have grossed about $100 million give or take a few million.

Being a football player pays a lot, but is it really compensating for what can happen on the field? Is $15 million enough money to replace a human life? I don’t think anyone can put a number on how much a human life is worth. Football is a dangerous sport with concussions and bone breakages occurring in nearly every game. Having the wind knocked out of you happens daily, either during practice or while playing against the Baltimore Ravens. Head injuries which can result in many chronic conditions like fainting, forgetfulness, and constant joint pain occur often in this contact sport.

Football season is the shortest season out of football and baseball. With just a mere four game pre-season and 16 game regular season it seems like not much work is done. This is the biggest misconception that I know about football. During the playing season most players practice about five days a week then they have a game against an opponent on the sixth day. When the season ends players get a break for a month or two from playing the game, yet they are still working out during the week and worrying about being traded or worse, dropped from the team. When training begins, players are in the gym seven days a week for at least four hours daily. Their bodies are more of a machine than human, working constantly to either keep weight off or put it on and turn it into muscle. In April, a draft takes place when college players get their chance to join the NFL if they have what it takes. The seasoned NFL players have to stress over their job possibly being taken away from them from a rookie who just got drafted to their team. After the draft, the routine of being a football player starts all over again in preparation for a new season.

Derek Jeter, a professional baseball player for the New York Yankees, makes about $15 million a year according to USA Today. Yes, baseball players do have a longer career than football players as long as they are good at their job, but they still aren’t being overpaid. Jeter has played shortstop for the Yankees since 1995 after suffering a slight injury when playing for a minor baseball league. After his debut, he was unstoppable which made his price tag skyrocket. Eventually though, Derek Jeter will have to retire, probably by the age of 45, maybe sooner. Even baseball players’ careers come to an end eventually.

The risk of being a baseball player is just as dangerous as that of a football player. Although not a full contact sport, baseball poses the risk of concussions, head injuries, and broken bones. Being hit with a baseball that is zooming towards you at 95 mph isn’t going to have a good outcome which is why the MLB players get a high annual salary. In baseball there is no salary cap so the owners of the teams can pay the players as much as it takes to keep them on the team which explains the high salaries the famous players get. Baseball has a season of 162 games. That’s a lot of stretching, warm ups, being cursed at by an angry coach, not to mention the sunburns and sore muscles. Baseball seems relaxing when watching it on TV, but most viewers don’t see the bruises and bumps the players get on a daily basis because they were hit by balls and bats and sometimes by other players. Their job is just as stressful as that of a football player because of the new players coming in and trying to take over the positions of the players that have been in the game longer.

Both sports also have the downside of the media and mean-spirited fans. Players that are as famous as Peyton Manning and Derek Jeter are always exposed to the media and it’s not always a good thing. They have no private life because they are being followed by paparazzi or having a microphone stuck in their face after winning a big game. Fans are a big part of the athletes’ lives whether they want to admit it or not. Without fans professional sports wouldn’t exist because they are the cement that holds the team together. The fans are the main reason why the athletes make their multi-million dollar salaries. Without fans, professional sports would not exist and these men would have to live a normal life instead of their media-filled, stressful, very physical life that they lead now. It is a big burden for professional athletes to bear because when they have fans turns their back on them because this could mean a loss of a career.

Now let us dive into the life of a few regular Americans and their salaries and risk of being killed on the job. An average doctors’ income is around $200,000 a year in the United States according to Payscale.com. Though doctors don’t make nearly as much money as a professional athlete yearly, their income adds up over the course of their career. Medical doctors graduate from med school around the age of 26 if they have taken the normal course of study then they work into their late sixties, sometimes early seventies. That’s about 45 years of working. Multiply 45 by $200,000 and that’s $9 million for a lifetime of work which is a lot of money for someone that has no risk of being killed on the job. Lawyers are another example of a higher end job that has no risk. On average a lawyer makes about $120,000 including bonuses according to Payscale.com. A lawyer’s career is about the same length of a doctor’s, so at retirement a lawyer will have banked $5,400,000 with a risk of being killed on the job at zero.

Doctors and lawyers will never make the salary of professional athletes (unless you’re Doctor Oz) but they will never have the risk of being severely injured while performing their job. Yes, being a doctor or a lawyer is very stressful. Working on a divorce case or performing open heart surgery both have risks involved, but these risks do not involve the doctor or lawyers life, only their conscious. Feeling guilty because of losing a case or because someone died of a fatal disease is part of being a doctor or lawyer. They know this when they enter medical or law school and they are willing to take this risk just like professional athletes knowingly take the risk of losing their life when playing a game.

Doctors and lawyers don’t have to worry about media as much as a professional athlete. There may be cases where a doctor or lawyer has to make a statement about a case they were arguing or a patient that just had surgery, but not for millions of people that either love or hate them. Their families are rarely put into the public spotlight and they don’t have to worry about their fans turning their backs to root for another lawyer or doctor.

In a lifetime, both professional athletes as well as regular citizens can have the ability to make millions of dollars before they retire. I will include the following statement because I think it is important to represent the average American household. Although I think that professional athletes earn their money rightfully, I also think that the average American job such as a cop, teacher, construction worker, or factory worker should have a higher salary because of their job risk and the amount of dedication these people have. Professional athletes being overpaid is pure nonsense and the public should stop arguing on this subject.

Sand Between My Toes

Sand between My Toes

                As soon as my big toe touches the first grain of white sand, I am at peace. Not the kind of peace one finds after devouring a delicious meal and feeling the perfect full though. No, this kind of peace is associated with Heaven; it’s the type of serenity that you can only achieve under the most perfect conditions, such as when a new life is born. This is the peace that I feel when I am at the beach.

Virginia Beach has always been a perfect getaway. In childhood, I would take the four hour trip with my grandparents to stay for a week, oceanfront in a nice hotel. We would hunt for imperfect seashells along the shoreline and build sand castles that held dreams of being a fairytale princess. Burying my brother in the sand was always the most fun because he loved it when I dumped the slurry of sand and water over his head. The bits of brown sand would stick to his hair in small clumps and my grandma would always yell, “Quit throwing sand everywhere!” I would pretend not to hear what she said over the roar of the waves and continue my burying frenzy until all but his eyes were completely submerged in grainy goodness. Zach would then proceed to rise up out of the mound slowly and scream at the top of his lungs, acting like a scary monster and I’d run into the ocean flailing my arms wildly as If I were being chased by a man with a chainsaw.

As if playing at the beach all day weren’t enough, my grandparents would always take us shopping and out to eat every night. It was a great tradition because as kids, seeing the boardwalk and being able to stay up past 9pm was a feat that we both enjoyed very much. The different restaurants at Virginia Beach were always fascinating to me. Seeing a giant fire red crab wearing a captain’s hat and sunglasses always meant an all you can eat seafood buffet. While driving downtown, my brother and I would always try to see who could spot the most crabs before we reached our destination. Sometimes we would get to eat at the places with the giant crabs, but they were never as promising as the signs professed. Usually all you can eat meant “all you can try to grab at the buffet tables before some 400 pound lady in a moo-moo pushes you out of the way so she can get first dibs on the crab legs.” Buffets weren’t (and still aren’t) really my style.

After restaurant dining, we would always window shop at places with names like “Waves,” “Pacific,” and “Sunsations.” All of these cheesy, brightly painted buildings held the same cheap trinkets and shot glasses saying “I Traveled to Virginia Beach and All I Got Were Crabs.” Even so, the shops were still a fun place for a seven year old looking to get into some mischief. I would try on silly hats, pet the hermit crabs and lizards, and beg my grandparents to buy me a tie-dyed t-shirt eight sizes too big for my small frame. All in all, my childhood trips to Virginia Beach were a blast.

Now, being older and more mature, I still go to the beach every year, but with my fiancé, not my grandparents. Virginia Beach has changed a lot since I visited as a child, but it’s still a little slice of Heaven in my book. Upon arriving at the beach, the first thing I like to do is step onto the sand and let my body get into a state of relaxation. Building sandcastles is a thing of the past, but I do enjoy digging my toes into the hot sand and burying my feet so they don’t get sunburned. Photography became a passion of mine over the years, so I always take a lot of pictures of the ocean and the waves. The ocean has a serene feel and it knows how to make me feel like I’m the smallest person on the Earth. The ocean is so vast; the color of sparkling jade in the sunlight. I enjoyed standing at the water’s edge and just taking a few deep breaths of salty ocean air to put my mind in a state of tranquility. After this, I feel as though I am free to enjoy my stay, which is usually a mere three days as opposed to an entire week in happiness. Normally, I end up falling asleep on my towel for a few hours after reading a book or watching some kids build a moat for their castles.

Upon awakening from my slumber, I realize that my fiancé and I are two of just the few people that are still left on the beach. The sun is setting and is casting an orange hazy glow on the surroundings. I pack up our things and we head back to the hotel to shower and scrub the sand from our hair, nails, and from in between our toes. Showering was always optional as a child because I didn’t care what I looked like, I was there to play in the ocean and eat shrimp and that’s it. After showering and putting on clothes that are presentable enough for a night on the town, we head back out to the boardwalk for some fun.

The boardwalk of Virginia Beach is a very entertaining place, especially during the summer months. There are tons of oceanfront restaurants and bars, a huge pavilion where summer concerts are held for free, and many carnival games and rides. Catch 31 is a very hip oceanfront restaurant/outdoor bar that I love, so we go there frequently when we visit the beach. The restaurant itself is beautiful, with crisp white tablecloths covered with cobalt blue glassware to accessorize. Inside, the architecture seems like it’s from the future with extremely lofty ceilings with stark white beams that accentuate the height. The smell is salty and lemon-y, immediately making me salivate, but even more so when I see the jumbo shrimp cocktail on a table next to the entrance. Although the inside is breath-taking, I enjoy eating outside because of the fresh air and exciting environment. A huge fire pit sits in the middle of a gigantic bar surrounded by palm trees and exotic flowers making the space feel comfortable yet exhilarating. Eating there feels like you are in the Caribbean, not off the coast of Virginia. The food is exquisite to the sight as well as taste.  Fried calamari is extremely hard to cook correctly, but they seem to have it down pat. It’s golden outside is buttery and the texture has just the right amount of crunch. Inside, the calamari is cooked to perfection because it’s not chewy and it literally melts in my mouth. This restaurant is by far the best seafood restaurant I’ve ever eaten at and I don’t think I will find another that can tingle my taste buds the same as Catch 31.

After eating, I like to walk down the pier and listen to the ocean at night. I believe this is the perfect time to visit the endless horizon because it’s not as crowded; the silence lets me really take in the ocean and how it sounds. The waves are rolling upon the shoreline, and I can make out the white foam when they crash. It sounds exactly like a conch shell when held up to my ear, only better. My ears can hear the people walking around me, but my mind blocks out everything but the comforting sound of the waves. The white foam sprays the sand and creates a frosting on the beach, as if a pastry chef were icing the perfect cake just for me. My fiancé puts his arm around my shoulder, and I feel that if I could capture any moment in time and bottle it up forever, it would be this one.

After listening to the ocean, I always go down to the boardwalk to get ice cream from the Dairy Queen right beside the pavilion. The line is always long, but when it’s 75 degrees outside at 11pm, it’s worth the wait for an Oreo Blizzard. Usually the area will be filled with live music from the pavilion, normally reggae. I retrieve my Blizzard and sit on the grass to watch the man with dreadlocks and unfashionable orange Hawaiian shirt play the steel drums and sing a version of Bob Marley’s “One Love.” Everyone is swaying back and forth to the music and the palm trees seem to follow the beat as well as if we are all one organism instead of many separate ones. The song ends and everyone claps and cheers for more, but the band starts to pack up because it’s late and they want to end the night on a good note.

Realizing that most of the crowd has dispersed, I get up and shake the sand off of my shorts and look at my fiancé. We decide that it’s about time to head back to the hotel because we know that early tomorrow, as the sun is rising and showering us with the warm colors of morning, we will be running on the beach to get in a workout before the hotel serves breakfast. We decide to take our ritual walk on the beach, barefoot while carrying our sandals before we retire to the hotel for the night.

The sand is much cooler at night and feels great on my feet that are worn out from all of the walking done earlier in the evening. As I slip off my sandals and sink my feet into the cool sand, a wave comes up and travels over my feet then retreats, leaving a perfectly formed seashell near my right ankle. I bend over and pick it up, knowing that when I get back to Winchester, I will be making some sort of hemp necklace out of the jewel that the beach provided me. We continue our walk until we reach our hotel. Slipping my sandals back on is bittersweet because my body is tired and I can’t wait to sink into a bed of clouds, but I hate to leave the paradise that I have created for myself. I longingly gaze back at the ocean one last time before stepping onto the sidewalk to make my way into the hotel. I silently say to myself, “Life is good when the sand is between my toes,” before falling asleep that night.

Old Marriage Versus New Marriage

Marriage is the union of two people whom supposedly love each other and want to spend the rest of their lives together. The marriage certificate binds the two lovebirds by a signature, a blood test, or sometimes both. But is a marriage really an ideal form of love? Why would two people want to spend the rest of their waking lives together and not experience the love of any other person? In the 1950’s marriage was forever, only between a man and woman, and child rearing seemed simple. In today’s society, marriage is a completely different concept with same-sex marriages in some states and child rearing has changed immensely. What has changed over the past 60 years to gratify such transformations and why have certain ideals stayed the same throughout these alterations?

In the 1950’s, marriage was a union of a man and a woman wearing white in a church with a pastor and witnesses such as a crying mother and a proud father of the bride. After the ceremony, a reception was held that involved dancing, a cutting of the cake, and lots of smiles and tears of happiness. After the reception, the newlyweds would take off in their convertible with a “Just Married” banner clipped to their tail lights and a few tin cans dragging from the trunk to their honeymoon destination. It was an exciting time in their lives not only because of the marriage, but the fact that children would soon be coming into the home to make the family complete.

Now, in the present time, marriage is still seen as a union, but not just between a man and woman. Woman and woman or man and man are also involved which was frowned upon in 1950’s society. A wedding could be anything from going to the justice of the peace and signing a document with a court appointed witness to flying your family out to Hawaii and getting married on the beach wearing swimsuits and leis. Sometimes newlyweds don’t even go on a honeymoon because it’s not in their budget or they just don’t like to travel. Most receptions include a lot of dancing, but even more drinking. A reception is more of a party for everyone rather than a celebration of the marriage. Tin cans on attached to a trunk are still optional since I’ve seen this once or twice at more traditional weddings. The happy couple can’t wait to get home to their parent’s basement turned apartment and start looking for a house to live in.

Even though times have changed, some wedding traditions are still intact and alive today. Wearing white will never go out of style for most brides although more colors have been marketed lately for more non-traditional brides. Most weddings still have bridesmaids, flower girls, ring bearers, and groomsmen to complete the wedding party customs. The couple will always feel nervous on their big day and have second thoughts (some rightfully so) even though they both know they will still go through with it. The union of a marriage will always end with a kiss to seal the deal and unite two people as one. Documents still have to be arranged and signed and witnesses still have to be present to view the marriage and vows. Weddings will always be special, even if the lovebirds are just going to a courtroom to sign papers.

Marriage was not a game in the 1950’s. After the union, the wife would settle in to her new environment and immediately start cooking, cleaning, and producing children for the man. The man would go off to work every morning with his lunch and return every evening to a home-cooked meal and a quick kiss from his wife. Before having children, they may sit and talk before bed, or read a book, maybe watch television if they were lucky enough to own one. Bedtime was always the same every night and routines were about the same every day. After bearing children, the wife would take on many new responsibilities, but the man’s duty would stay the same. The wife would bathe the children, help them with homework, and give them special attention that they needed. The man would watch all of this happening, sit back in his designated chair, and smile as his loving wife did all the extra work with a pretty smile on her face.

2011 rings in a different type of daily routine when you have a life partner. Cooking is a thing of the past, so most of the time the couple will go out to eat or choose to pick up dinner on the way home from a long day at the office. Since both partners usually work to have the biggest possible income, it’s hard for any cleaning to get done by either person. A maid service or cleaning crew usually stops by the house a few times a month to make sure things are spic and span. Children are no longer a necessity in today’s world because happiness can be found through other options such as traveling to exotic places or skydiving from 15,000 feet. If a married couple does decide to reproduce, it’s not necessarily the woman that has the child. Adoption, surrogates, and in-vitro fertilization are all popular ways to have children other than a nine month pregnancy where the child is held in the woman’s womb. After the children are born, they are shipped off to daycare or a sitter every day instead of staying at home with the mother.

Although the daily lifestyle has changed in the past 60 years, the emotions and feelings of those involved with marriage often are the same. Love is still a prominent factor in most relationships, both between the married couple as well as their children if they have any. The men in the marriage still have their special chair, at least from what I’ve seen. The fabric and size may differ, but the imprint his behind makes from countless hours of relaxation is remarkably similar. Women still cook and clean when they get the chance, but it’s not an everyday occurrence. Children are still loved and cared for, though they may not be seen by the parents as much today as they were back in the 50’s.

Rearing children has always been a controversial topic, no matter what the year is. In the 1950’s, children were raised to be outstanding citizens, no matter what social class they came from. They were taught manners at an early age and they learned to obey their parents as soon as they learned to talk. When children were of school age, they completed their homework, tried their hardest at sports and music, and accomplished a lot during their high school days. If a child disobeyed, he or she may have been smacked on the rear, or even worse, beaten with a belt or a switch. Soap was a popular child-rearing tool that was used if a young one cursed or said something inappropriate. A bar of soap would be placed in a child’s mouth and left there until they learned their lesson. The cult classic, “A Christmas Story” shows this type of punishment when Ralphie uses an obscene word in front of his father and a bar of “Lifebuoy” soap is stuck in his mouth by his mother. This type of punishment is what made the baby boomers the strong willed and well mannered people they are today.

Child rearing in 2011 is much different than in 1950. Sticking a bar of soap in a child’s mouth is considered cruel and unusual punishment. Beating a child with a belt or stick will land a parent in jail for at least a few months, if not much longer. Acceptable punishments today are much less harsh and consist of time-outs, no television or computer privileges, and no dessert. Kids are not taught manners nor do they learn to respect their parents and elders in today’s world. When a child does something inappropriate, they may not even be punished for it because their parents don’t have the patience to discipline them. Children are growing up to be less successful and ill-mannered with an apathetic outlook towards life rather than the productive citizens that they could be.

Bringing up children is extremely difficult, whether they are being raised in the 1950’s or 2011. A parent must have patience, discipline, and most of all love to raise a successful child. Because marriages have changed so much over the past 60 years, the way children are raised has changed as well. Some similarities in raising children still exist, although they are few and far between. [Most] parents try their hardest to raise successful kids so they can grow up and live happy lives. No parent wants their child to be discontented or futile, so the emotions of the process are still the same. Children are still punished, though the punishments differ greatly nowadays. Child rearing is the one thing that has changed most in a marriage over the past 60 years.

The impact of movies and television changed the way that many American’s view marriage. The popular television show from the 1950’s, “I Love Lucy” was about a very loving couple, Lucy and Ricky Ricardo who showcased the all American dream of being well off, semi-famous, and well, perfect. Sure, Ricky and Lucy fought, but every episode always ended with them resolving their differences and a peck on the lips. Their best friends were Ethel and Fred, a couple around the same age who were Lucy and Ricky’s neighbors. This television sitcom showcased the perfect marriage of a housewife and an orchestra leader (or breadwinner) at its finest.

2011 sitcoms about marriage are much different than the black and white ones from the earlier years. An extremely popular sitcom over the past few years is “Two and a Half Men” starring Charlie Sheen who plays a music composer named Charlie oddly enough. He lives with his brother Alan and Alan’s son, Jake. The living situation is an odd one, but it works out well for them. Alan and Charlie are both single males, so there is not a true marriage in the show. Alan and Charlie both date, so the viewers see multiple women brought into the household, most of which are never seen again. Jake sees these dates and flings going on around him and pokes fun at his dad and uncle. None of these things would have been remotely acceptable in the 1950’s because it’s the complete opposite of what a “real” family is.

Both shows represent family values, though they do so through very different means. Each show depicts relationships between people of the opposite sex, though in “I Love Lucy”, the relationships are much more traditional. In “Two and a Half Men” the relationships are very casual and lack any traditional marriage qualities. The way that television represents marriage (or lack thereof) shows how much America and the marriage traditions have changed over the past 60 years.

Marriage is an important part in today’s society just as it was back in the 1950’s. Without marriage, people would stay lonely their entire life. They wouldn’t have someone special to share moments with, to talk to when they needed advice, or to make them feel better when they are at an all time low. Companionship is good for the heart and soul, and that will never change.