Sound and the Musical Quality in "Anthem for Doomed Youth"

“Anthem for Doomed Youth” by Wilfred Owen

            The poem “Anthem for Doomed Youth” was written by Wilfred Owen during the time of World War I. The poem illustrates the two extreme views and understandings of the war at that time. It shows the realistic side to war, with its terrors and deaths that the soldiers encounter, and the softer, more easygoing attitude of the people who are back safe at home. The sounds and the musical quality of the poem bring a mental image of war’s destruction along with a deeper understanding that the war is more severe than the citizens at home think it to be.

            Throughout the first stanza, anger and gunshots are heard in the words. The onomatopoeic repetition of the sound r, in the phrases “monstrous anger” (Owen Line 2) and “rifles’ rapid rattle” (3), makes the first stanza thick with the enraged feeling of the soldier narrating the poem. The r sound is similar to the growl of angry animals. Following the rs lead, the onomatopoeic repetition of the t sound creates the sound of gunshots within the poem. Words such as cattle (1), stuttering, rattle (3), and patter (4) fill the stanza with the earsplitting sound of gunshots. These onomatopoeic sounds convey the emotion of the men who are at war are livid about a situation in which they have to listen to constant gunshots and noise. The first stanza   is also loaded with cacophonous words. The ts and rs, as well as other harsh, sudden consonants like the ka sound, lend a highly unpleasant and shrill quality to the tone. This is creates a picture of the soldiers being surrounded in a hostile and tough environment.

            In the second stanza the mood changes dramatically, from a dominantly cacophonous air to a smooth and euphonious sound. The words contain more vowels and soft consonants to reflect that home is where security and refuge is found. The use of the letter l, in the words all (9), Shall (11), pallor, and pall (12),  is in similitude of children’s lullabies. The men at war want to regress into their childhood because that’s where they felt sheltered; there were no gunshots or mass deaths in their childhood. The men wish they could see war as calmly as those who have not experienced the chaos see it; they wish they could be ignorant children again. The lines “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle” (1) and “And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds” (14) explain the different viewpoints of death in the war. The first line states that the men are killed in the same way that cattle die in huge groups. In these huge groups there are hundreds of soldiers whose bodies aren’t taken and whose names are not written down and reported to families as “killed in action.” They are unrecorded, missing soldiers. Following line 1, the onomatopoeic sound of gunshots in the rest of the stanza creates a loud and brutal situation; their death is with no respect or moments of remembrance. However, in the last line, the death at home is slowly dealt with, grieved, and has closure. When the blinds are shut against the darkness of death, there is a conclusion.

            Along with the sounds, the pace affects the story. The way some of the lines are indented past the others indicate that it is supposed to be read in congruence and in sequence with the line above. This makes the lines speedy, and connected with the onomatopoeic rs, makes the first stanza an angry rant. The swiftness of the lines and the t words make the gunshots feel like machineguns. This is how fast moving their world is when they are in combat. Nothing will stop for these men, not even when it’s for their death. The second stanza slows everything down and then keeps it that way by using the indentations in a different way. Indentations are used to break up the single sentence in lines 10 and 11, making it read at a slower pace than the first stanza. The speed of the second stanza draws a parallel to how the citizens feel back home. They are under the freedoms and safety of a peaceful home, and there is no need to rush, fight, or run for their lives. They have time to find closure for the loss of their loved ones.

            Wilfred Owen’s “Anthem for Doomed Youth” conveys the different views of war through the eyes of a soldier who’s in war through specific words and sounds. The two contrasting stanzas that show that this soldier knows how war is looked at back home, but hears a different story when he listens to the sounds of bugles and shells. The poem “Anthem for Doomed Youth” reveals how the war is more horrible and chaotic than what the citizens at home realize.

Works Cited

Owen, Wilfred. “Anthem for Doomed Youth.” Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web.

            5 Feb. 2014

"A Good Man Is Hard to Find" analysis essay

“A Good Man Is Hard to Find”

            A story is made up of many elements. A short story with many elements can be used to employ an interesting piece of literary work. Flannery O’Connor’s cynical tale, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” uses the elements of characterization, symbolism, and theme to make an account that has many confused about whether the story is a horror story, a black comedy, or a depiction of God’s works through humans. “Maybe it's even all of these at once” (Shmoop). The story presents the debate that good versus evil is more than a typical war story. When one examines humans, it is seen that inevitably all good is tainted with bad and every bad is threaded with some good.

            The characterization in a story supports the theme by showing realistic humans in extreme situations. “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” demonstrates the point by showing the grandmother as representing a majority of the good that’s in the world and The Misfit as an example of the evil in the world in the situation of facing a murderer. The mother and children embody the innocent in the world who are subjected to the wrong doings of evil. The family have to deal with a situation that was only skewed and dangerous because of the grandmother’s, the “good” person, interference with the plans.

The grandmother’s goodness is implied as she insinuates herself as a “lady” (O’Conner 421). She is seen pleading for the sake of the children in the beginning of the story, pleading for the sake of their safety (420). In addition, the grandmother shows that on this earth, nobody is perfect. Everybody has a humanistic downfall that brings them closer to the side of evil. This is portrayed in the judgmental character of the grandmother. She judges the mother of the children by criticizing her parenting skills and then compares her face to a cabbage (420). Inside the car, she rebukes John Wesley for his lack of pride and respect towards Georgia saying that a little boy should have a higher opinion toward his native state (422). She starts to judgmentally talk about her views on current state of the world and how people have all turned into untrustworthy and appalling people (424).

The grandmother is a static character. “‘Maybe He didn’t raise the dead’” (432) wasn’t an epiphany for her or a change in faith because it goes on to explain that she didn’t know what she was saying and “she sank down in the ditch with her legs twisted under her” (432). She was a judgmental old lady who stayed that way. In the end of the story, she hadn’t really changed, she was crumpling under pressure. The grandmother was doing what she could to convince The Misfit not to shoot her. In her last act of crying out, “‘Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!’” (433) and by touching his shoulder, she was seeking to lessen her blow. She had tried this method of handling situations before when the car crashed; she hoped she was badly injured so “Bailey’s wrath wouldn’t come down on her all at once” (426), and then she cried out, “I believe I have injured an organ” (427) but to no effect. The grandmother, although shown to be more virtuous than some of the other characters, is a static character who tries to manipulate people from the beginning of the story up until her last words.

            The Misfit, on the other hand, shows his wickedness through his actions and then what he thinks about them. He claims “‘…the crime don’t matter’” (431) and he says that the criminal will forget what they did and receive unfair punishment anyway. He also states that there is “no pleasure but meanness” (432). The Misfit is a static character who starts as a murderer and ends by killing a whole family. The Misfit cannot understand what good is. He thinks that Jesus threw the world off balance because of what he did (432). He does terrible things the way most people do normal things: relaxed. The Misfit represents the evil in the world, but as ruthless and calloused as he is, he isn’t always uncivilized or hasty. The grandmother recognized The Misfit as the escaped prisoner she read about and The Misfit didn’t react swiftly to silence her. Instead, he comforts her (after her son makes a shocking remark) by saying, “‘Lady,’ he said, ‘don’t you get upset. Sometimes a man says things he don’t mean. I don’t reckon he meant to talk to you thataway’” (428). He respects ladies; even  if it only is by apologizing for his naked chest or speaking politely to them, The Misfit shows that he isn’t a savage beast (430).

            The grandmother’s daughter-in-law and her three kids are primarily viewed as innocent characters who don’t provide much opposition to good, or resistance to evil, in the story. Though everyone has bits of good and evil in them, these characters’ actions are so few that it’s hard to analyze. There is little insight into how the characters deal with The Misfit when confronted with mortal danger. Even when knowing that they are going off to die where Bailey died, the point of view doesn’t reveal any sort of emotion or thought from the family members (431). It is difficult to tag any of them as either mainly good or mainly wicked because their actions never pushed them too far one way or the other. The mother and her children represent the people in the world who walk by; they are not closely observed and go by unnoticed the majority of the time. Their motives are never analyzed within the story so judgment is difficult to make.

            The symbolism throughout the story shows the mix of good and evil and foreshadows the events to come. The grandmother’s hat (421), for instance, symbolizes a moral code. The moral code that the grandmother has made up for herself is that she is a lady who will always let it be known. She made her dress and hat look perfect in case of an accident where she ended up dead on the highway; people would know that she was a lady (421). She didn’t seem to care that in this scenario she was dead; she just found that presenting herself as a lady was an important thing. Ladies are generally good-natured and respected so the grandmother’s want to be perceived like that is a respectable thing. However, being unconcerned about her family’s, and her own, safety is distinguished as an immoral thought.

While the grandmother’s hat symbolizes something good natured and respected, there are many items that symbolize and foreshadow terrible events. While driving to their destination in Florida, the family passes through a town. As soon as they exit the town of Toombsboro, the grandmother wakes up and remembers a house she once visited. Toombsboro is brought up right before the family is introduced to the character of The Misfit (425). The name indicates the word “tomb”. This name foreshadows the event that leads the family to their grave.

The woods are hugely symbolic. The woods are described as “tall and dark and deep” (427). The woods symbolize the Grim Reaper, the personification of death. “The most common embodiment of the Grim Reaper is a tall, dark figure, clad in the black robes of a monk” (Paranda).

“Alone with The Misfit, the grandmother found that she had lost her voice. There was not a cloud in the sky nor any sun. There was nothing around her but woods” (O’Connor 432). This passage foreshadows the intimate and unescapable demise of the grandmother because it describes her setting as solitarily death surrounding her. These are the woods that five members of the family go off and are murdered, confirmed when The Misfit, after shooting the grandmother in the chest, tells Hiram and Bobby Lee, “‘Take her off and throw her where you thown the others’” (O’Connor 433).

            The theme, “the unifying generalization about life stated or implied by the story” (Arp and Johnson 191) is that there is no purely righteous person in the world, nor is there a wholly wicked person. We come to see through “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” that though many try to be perfectly good, human’s idiosyncrasies bring mistakes. The grandmother is judgmental, although she tries to appear virtuous by her clothing and posture (O’Connor 421). People who are devilish in their actions can have good qualities. The Misfit kills people with seemingly no second thought, but he takes the time to have a conversation and treat the grandmother as a colloquial equal (428).

            Through the characters in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” show that no person can be simply black or white. By analyzing the characterization, symbolism, and the main theme, O’Connor reveals that there are shades to every human that can be seen through their motives.

Works Cited

Arp, Thomas, and Greg Johnson. Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. Tenth Ed.

 Ed. Thomas Arp and Greg Johnson. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.

O’Connor, Flannery. “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and

            Sense. Tenth Ed. Ed. Thomas Arp and Greg Johnson. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage

            Learning, 2009. 420. Print.

Paranda. “Grim Reaper.” Everything2.com. Everything2 Media, LLC. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.

Shmoop Editorial Team. “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc.,

            11 Nov. 2008. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.

Theme in "The Darling"

“The Darling”

            “The Darling” is a short story written by Anton Chekhov in the late 1890s that expresses a “negative commentary on the sort of woman who has no intellectual life of her own” (Coulehan). By writing this story, Chekhov is making the statement that women need to be more than merely “darlings” (Coulehan). He points out the fault in the main character, Olenka; this woman fell for everything. She accepted what came at her like it was the only thing to do, such as, adopting the opinions of another, accepting emotional abuse, and being a pushover when it came to business. By not being independent, Olenka showed that when one stands for nothing, they could fall for everything.

            Olenka is often seen taking the opinions of the one closest to her at that time. The first time there is any dialogue from her she is echoing the words of her current husband, Kukin. She is repeating what he had said the first time his character gets introduced. “They want a clown; what they ask for is vulgarity” (Chekhov 212). Olenka later recites, “What they want is a clown” (213). Olenka couldn’t bear to think for herself. In every situation she was in, she grabbed onto the opinions of those closest to her. “She repeated the veterinary surgeon’s words and was of the same opinion as he about everything” (218). “Her husband’s ideas were hers” (216). And those times when she had barely anyone around her, she clung: “Whatever Mavra, the cook, said she accepted” (219). It didn’t matter how irreverent the opinions were to her life personally, Olenka would take them into her life and make them pertinent. At the end of the story, the only person in the old and grey Olenka’s life was a pre-teen boy, Sasha. Since she had no true opinions of her own, she went on and on about the high school. She could speak about whatever Sasha had spoken about because “Now she had opinions of her own” (220). “Opinion transference” can be seen in mainly women, in their 20s, who aren’t sure of what they like and are willing to do and think anything for their boyfriend (Oxyious). Olenka showed that despite the nature of opinion, some women would follow anything when they don’t have anything of their own.

            Also typically seen in young women is their justification of abuse by their partner. It will be rationalized by saying, “But I love him, and I know he loves me” or “It was my fault; I’m so lucky he will still stay with someone like me.” Olenka is no different. Voloditchka “would seize her by the hand” and hiss about how she was not allowed to talk about his veterinary surgeon things and how it was annoying (Chekov 218). She wouldn’t stand up for herself because she knew that doing that might make him leave, which would signal the end of her opinions. Olenka admitted that when she had the veterinary surgeon or either of her husbands, she “could explain everything, and give her opinion about anything you like …” (219). She tolerated this emotional and verbal abuse full heartedly. She would apologize for these incidents, he would just smile and they would be happy. Olenka was happy because she still had opinions to cling onto and he was smiling and happy because abusers always are when their victim crumples beneath them. It’s easy to believe that Olenka would gleefully put up with that kind of behavior from someone close to her because she was so dependent on them. After the veterinarian surgeon had emotionally abused her, left her, and never returned, Olenka still tried to take him back into her life by offering him everything she possessed (218-220).

            That is exactly what he and his reconciled wife did to Olenka. When she offered to let the veterinarian surgeon, his wife, and their young son stay in her house and that she “wouldn’t take any rent” that’s what they did (220). When she started taking care of and living with their son Sasha, the parents did not stop them (221-222). Olenka had becoming a landlady and a child care all rolled into one. She had no thoughts of whether this was unjust to her. She was satisfied because finally, after all these years, she had someone’s opinion to adhere to: their pre-teen son, Sasha. While his mother had moved to Harkov and his father rarely saw them, Sasha was raised by Olenka. She did not see that she was being used, or that her house was being used. That was the kind of person Olenka was. She was a pushover because she did not know what to do. She let this family come in and use her.

            Olenka couldn’t make up her own mind. She had never been weaned from her parents’ opinions and henceforth she had to have someone else to rely on. This complete reliance led her to fall for and accept everything that came into her life. She accepted everything, even abuse a situation that is not uncommon. This behavior can be found in addicts who have lost the ability to control their own actions. This behavior is also present in every person in some degree. How many times has someone’s opinion been influenced by the world around them? Chekov asks the readers to ponder: To what degree are we like Olenka?

Work Cited

Chekhov, Anton. “The Darling.” Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. Tenth

            Ed. Ed.            Thomas Arp and Greg Johnson. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2009.

            213. Print.

Coulehan, Jack. Litmed. New York University School of Medicine, 13 Aug. 1996. Web. 18 Sept.

            2013.

Oxyious. (2011, July 14). Inability to form my own opinions while using- does this post resonate

with anyone? [Permalink]. Message posted to http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/

substance-abuse/231747-inability-form-my-own-opinions-while-using-does-post-resonate-anyone.html

"Hunters in the Snow" literary analysis

“Hunters in the Snow”

            “Any piece of work is given the label as ‘literary’ if it illuminates some aspect of human life or behavior with genuine originality and power” (Hunters). “Hunters in the Snow” uses some of the same features as “The Most Dangerous Game,” such as the hunt and the incident with dogs, but that is as far as they parallel. Tobias Wolff’s short story “Hunters in the Snow” exemplifies literary fiction. The setting shows that through the weather and the symbolism that it carries. The deep, complicated, and real characters show a parallel to this earth we live on right now and its people. The short story has disturbing twists and turns in its plot that are not intended to give pleasure to the reader, but instead show the chaos that is prevalent in the r human lives.

            One characteristic of a literary piece is symbolism. “Hunters in the Snow” is full of symbolic references, such as the weather. In this case, the weather is snowy, cold, and miserable to be in. Tub had to trudge through almost knee deep snow and “the edge of the crust bruised his shins” (Wolff 89). This is near the beginning of the story when Tub was the main character getting picked on. This hostile weather represents how the people in his life are hostile. A change of events occurs after Tub shoots Kenny and Kenny becomes the weak, picked on friend. Kenny is dropped, rolled down snow, brutally throw in the back of a freezing pick-up truck, and even his blankets are taken away by his friends to keep them warm and leave Kenny to the elements (91-99). This cold weather that Kenny’s experiencing is also a symbol to the coldness of peoples’ hearts. The way his friends leave him in the cold conditions shows their lack of concern for Kenny and their lack of empathy and responsibility as friends. Another example of symbolism comes at the end of the story. “Right overhead was the Big Dipper, and behind, hanging between Kenny's toes in the direction of the hospital, was the North Star, Pole Star, Help to Sailors. … They had taken a different turn a long way back” (99). The North Star is a classic symbol, often used as a compass during the night. In opposition, Wolff uses the North Star to show that they are going in a direction opposite their desired destination.

            The characters make this piece literary because of the depth Wolff gives them and their realistic qualities of being egocentric and insensitive toward others. Man has an inborn desire to lean toward his own self-interest and his own needs. There was the self-interest and insensitivity when Frank and Tub took Kenny’s blankets near the end of the story, but Kenny also has acted in self-interest. Earlier, Kenny asked permission to hunt on a farmer’s land and he was asked to shoot the dog (91). One might figure that Kenny figured if he didn’t agree to put the dog down, the farmers wouldn’t let him hunt. So when Tub and the reader found out that Kenny was actually requested to shoot the dog, one might think nothing of his motivations but it could be that Kenny was completely self-driven and just wanted to go hunt his deer. Also, Frank shows a rather selfish quality when buying Tub the pancakes. He didn’t want to feed his food-loving friend, but to justify his own vices. If Tub gave in to his weaknesses so lustfully and eats four plates of pancakes, then he has justification to his own affair with a fifteen-year-old girl. Wolff shows readers a view of humanity that most people don’t want to see.

            Evidence that “Hunters in the Snow” is literary work can also been seen in the plot. Unexpected and disturbing plot twists induce the reader to analyze the intricate reasons for the story’s events (Hunters). The plot twists are not designed, nor intended, to give readers the pleasure or the suspense that commercial fiction gives. These plot twists make the reader jump back and question why the characters chose that course of action; they make the reader question people as they really are and their motivations. The sudden shooting of Kenny (91)  is unexpected and shocks the readers. Before this, there was no evidence that Tub even had it in him to shoot a man. This scene leaves the reader confused and wanting to figure out Tub as a character. The unsettling ending also takes this work away from the commercial fiction realm because it is not a happy or resolved ending. It is an unsettling and indeterminate ending that consigns a reader to think about the story long after they’ve finished reading it, pondering, and how they would have functioned in that sort of situation.

            Wolff helps readers see into humanity at an up close point. It may use some of the same elements as the commercial fiction story “The Most Dangerous Game,” such as the hunt and the presence of dogs, through the symbolism, character motivations, and plot twists, the reader is left to ponder about the world they live in.

Work Cited

“Hunters in the Snow.” Wikispaces. N.p., 13 Sept. 2009. Web. 15 Sept. 2013.

Wolff, Tobias. “Hunters in the Snow.” Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. Tenth

            Ed. Ed. Thomas Arp and Greg Johnson. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2009.

            86. Print.