A Tale of Two Cities

Analysis: Literary Device; foreshadowing

Dickens writing is thick with literary devices. One imparticular was used quite well in the beginning of the novel A Tale of Two Cities. Through his metaphorical writing, he foreshadows the French Revolution early on in his book. Many other literary devices were used through this foreshadowing, such as the use of metaphor, descriptive language, and repetition of the word hunger.

The scene where the peasants are lapping up the muddy wine from the streets shows great poverty and desperate measures. The impoverished people are drinking the muddy wine from the streets, almost like animals. This shows how bad things have gotten in France and that the standard of living is so so low that the people have to start acting like animals in order to survive. This scene is then followed by a paragraph with the repetitious word of "Hunger." This paragraph produces even more of an idea of the poverty that is going on, but mainly portrays the people's hunger for wanting more than what they had. They were not yet satisfied with their standard of living and hints to an overthrow.

The author also metaphorically uses red wine and mud to represent the blood that will be shed in this revolution. The red wine is not only trying to satisfy their physical hunger, but also their political hunger for change. The blood stains the streets as well as the peoples hands and faces. This represents the people who are marked to die during this bloody revolution that will occur. Blood will be poured in the streets, and the people will use that actual blood to satisfy their hunger for political change, rather than the muddy wine to satsify their physical hunger.

Passage Analysis: Book One, Chapter 3

"A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. A solemn consideration, when I enter a great city by night, that every one of those darkly clustered houses encloses its own secret; that every room in every one of them encloses its own secret; that every eating heart in the hundreds of thousand of breasts there, is, in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it!"

This passage contains such a wonderful thought: that everyone has their own secrets. It is again bringing forth a bit of humanity that gets lost when talking about large numbers of people such as a town. The author immediately pulls you into one house, one beating heart, and the secrets that may never surface out of it. But at the same time, he takes us to absolutely every house in that town.

He hits upon an important issue: how some peoples secrets may never surface to the public. They never are fully understandable by outside minds. Everyone's secrets are unique to themselves and cannot be interpreted 100% accurately to an outside mind. This is evident in Manette who begins to have physical problems as a result of his private secrets (almost like a Dimmesdale character.)

Opinion:

This book was alright. I feel like I can appreciate how the author wrote and why he wrote like he did. I do believe I could have enjoyed this book further if I was not so pressed to read. My new understanding is that Dickens is something that one must stumble upon sometime in their life, but must have it happen at their own pace. Using my new understanding, this may not have been the right time in my life to read Dickens, but the reading was still slightly rewarding.

The Importance of Being Earnest

Analysis: Food Fight

In the third act, Gwendolen and Cecily have a very heated fight, all using food and verbal formalities as their choice weapon. Cecily asks if Gwendolen would rather have cake or bread and butter and if she would like sugar in her tea. When Gwendolen suggests she would like no sugar and bread and butter, Cecil responds with absolute evil! She gives Gwendolen a slice of cake and lumps of sugar in her tea!

This absolutely shows the values these women have. Instead of getting angry and expressing that, they still want to maintain the their "proper" and "polite" behavior. The ladies believe they are engaged to the same guy!! It seems that throughout this entire book, things that should be important and skipped over lightly, and things that should not matter at all are held with the highest regard (such as both Jack and Algy wanting to be Earnest.) The food fight clearly demonstrates to the reader just how far formalities and etiquette extend into the lives of these shallow characters. Even in a moment of embarrassment, anger, and frustration (such as realizing you are engaged to the same guy as someone,) both Cecily and Gwendolen put appearances and formalities before the expression of true emotion.




Passage Analysis:
"
Lady Bracknell: ...Now to minor matters. Are your parents living?
Jack: I have lost both my parents.
Lady Bracknell: To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness...
"

The absurdity of this statement does what it is exactly intended to do; make the reader sincerely question the I.Q and mental health of the character Lady Bracknell. She does not have an emotional bone in her body and instead the only values that guide her are the shallow ones of looks and materialism which she holds so dear to her heart. Etiquette guides her rather than morals.

Lady Bracknell makes a comment about something that is supposed to be a tragedy and turns it around to look like Jack's carelessness. This question is part of a series of questions that she uses to evaluate Jack to make her opinion on weather Jack would be a good fit for Gwendolen. She also starts off the inquiry about Jack's parents by saying "now on to more minor matters." This shows how she would not even care if Jack's parents did did not approve of their marriage, and that her opinion is the only true standing one. She also does not even think about the mental toll that may have been placed upon Jack for having no parents. Instead of thinking about if Jack is okay, she merely scolds him instead saying he was "careless." She scolds him because she is obsessed with how things look from the outside, and for Jack not to have any parents is no longer an inquiry, but a value judgment and social judgment that will be put on him in society. Lady Bracknell does not want the best for her daughter, but instead wants to live in the physical picture of how she thinks Gwendolen's world should look like. Her motivation is far from caring about ones character, and more about their pocketbook and famous (family) name of some sort.

Opinion:

I rather liked this play. It was light-hearted and funny which always makes for a great read. It is actually funny and re-enforces my point that I found it light-hearted, when every issue in the book was actually incredibly important to the characters. It all the more characterized their ridiculousness because the reader is not going to go around and tell someone when the proper time to eat muffins is and when it is not appropriate. It was very funny and the author did a fine job developing (or underdeveloping) these shallow and snobby characters.

Some Music For Your Enjoyment: Bullet and a Target by Citizen Cope

Cat's Cradle

Analysis: Hundred Martyrs to Democracy and Science

The Hundred Martyrs to Democracy in the novel Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut stands for the stupidity of war, and how fragile human life is. Science vs. Religion is a dominant theme in this novel, but the Hundred Martyrs to Democracy is just a reminder to the reader that no matter how much technology advances and aids in the war effort, war and the killing of people will not become anymore humane. An atomic bomb can be dropped and the pilot just has to turn the plane around and not see the lives he destroyed, but it won't be any different than battles fought with foot soldiers in reality.


Human stupidity also plays a big role in this novel. The Hundred Martyrs to Democracy strengthens this theme. Here are one hundred men, sent to fight in a war and before they even get there and make an impact on anything, they died by a German submarine. Another ironic thing about this is that San Lorenzo is a dictatorship and sent a hundred men to fight in the name of "democracy." Even if these men were to have made it to the United States, they were fighting for a cause not of their own and it would not have made an impact in their life at San Lorenzo. Also, San Lorenzo said they declared war on Germany after Pearl Harbor. But San Lorenzo is a comparatively small island who declared war with a huge European power, Germany, and sending one hundred men to fight with the United States would probably have made little to no impact in the war effort even if these men did make their journey to the States. How stupid would these men be to fight for democracy when they are living in a dictatorship that does not even support their cause?


The Hundred Martyrs to Democracy shows the reader very clearly and almost humorously the stupidity of war and the stupidity of mankind. The reader can extend this idea to the modern world, commenting on how war does not solve all problems and how many people die in vain because of it. To the public, it is not an individual being killed in a war but rather a collective group of soldiers. This makes it much less personal. No one in the United States has even heard about this "great sacrifice" and Minton lies to "Papa" when he said every school child grew up knowing the great story of the Hundred Martyrs to Democracy.

The Hundred Martyrs to Democracy is Vonnegut's social commentary of war. He finds it ridiculous that human beings must die all for an ideal "cause." These causes that men and women die and fight for are intangible such as "liberty" and "democracy." What do those things mean anyway? They mean so many things to so many people. By the author over exaggerating the ridiculousness of war by using the Hundred Martyrs to Democracy coming from a dictatorship and fighting for democracy, he helps break down the complexity of war into simple and bias terms for the reader.

Passage Analysis: pg 170 Chapter 114

" 'And I propose to you that if we are to pay our sincere respects to the hundred lost children of San Lorenzo, that we might spend the day despising what killed them; which is to say, the stupidity and viciousness of all mankind.' "

This is a great excerpt from the speech Minton made in chapter 114. His speech was given as part of the ceremony for the Hundred Martyrs of Democracy

The way Minton refers to these great Martyrs as "children" helps bring his anti-war idea off quite well. Calling the soldiers children reestablishes to the public that these great martyrs were still human. When the people of San Lorenzo call these soldiers Martyrs, the seem to establish an underlying idea that these men were great heroes and died so honorably for a great cause, and that no one could wish to be honored so extravagantly as these men. Minton's speech brings everyone back to the facts, that these were really people who had their lives stolen from them in war. Calling them "children" makes the reader really be able to feel the innocence that every person contains, whether they are about to go off to war or not. It also adds a sense of background to the people who have died. They are no longer a statistic of one hundred men, but now they are someones child, someones father, someones husband or brother. Minton shows the humanity behind every depressing statistic when he uses the reference of "children,"

Also, when he suggests that they should all spend the day despising what killed these men, he is defining what the true problem is. The problem was not that democracy was in danger or that other countries disagree, the real problem that may be the only problem "worth fighting for (so to speak)" is war itself. Minton is asking them not to hate the reason why the Martyrs died, but to hate the fact that they had to die. This is also a nice compliment to the other themes in the book, one of which is that science and technology has developed incredibly fast and most of it for warfare. If all these new inventions are being created for warfare, why must men even have to go out and fight and die? What technology will take place of the soldier?

In this excerpt of Minton's speech, the words used were chosen very carefully for the sole reason of leaving an impression and feeling upon the reader.


Opinion:
Personally, I really loved this book. Vonnegut made great commentary's on the dangers of being overly committed to science and the dangers of being overly committed to religion. He did this in a humorous and light-hearted way that made the reading fun, but also gave the reader something to think about long after they put the book down. The plot was so bizarre and kept me wondering what was going to happen next. I love how he basically invented his own ridiculous religion which pokes mild fun at many other religions and starts off with "Don't believe a word I tell you, it is all lies." I also like how he ridiculed war and his presentation of it in the book. I think Vonnegut accomplished great writing by first entertaining his reader, and secondly educating them. And who knows? We may not be that far away from inventing ice nine.