War?

As Catch-22 progresses, it continues to shed light on the nature of war and continues to amuse the reader. The many characters in the story each help show a different aspect and side on war, helping the reader to analyze and think more about the realities of war. Besides Yossarian, there are many dilemmas that the characters face that shed light on a previously unthought-of aspect of war.

One of the most amusing scenes of the novel is when Yossarian meddles with the official plans of the war. Before the bombing of Bologna, Yossarian moves the lines of the bombings to falsely show that Bologna has already been bombed. Yossarian is able to mess with the plans of the highest commanders and mess with the highest plans of the war. It is interesting to think that Yossarian, an ordinary man in the readers’s eyes, is able to mess with grand schemes of operations. The reader begins to wonder how many things such as this are possible in a real war. How many plans in wars were skewed by mischevious prankster-soldiers? Though people do not think of war as susceptible to pranks and mischief, Catch-22 shows that it is entirely possible and sometimes unnoticeable.

One aspect of war that Catch-22 reveals more about is romance. Typically we think of husbands and men going to war away from their loved wives and sweethearts. The reader rarely gets to see much of romance during the actual war scene, but Catch-22 is able to show how romance exists during war. The issue of romance during war can be associated with the characters of Yossarian and especially Nately. Both characters fall in love with whores that soldiers frequently are involved with. Though this relationship should seem purely for physical happiness, the characters become love-smitten. The whores call both Yossarian and Nately “crazy” many times, and this shows the soldiers may actually be “love crazy”. They feel as though there is no time in the world and must settle down with a loved one immediately, for there might never be another chance for love. The relationship between the soldiers and the whores show the sense of urgency that is involved during war. Though the reader may typically think of love as an object that is set far away for soldiers during war, love is sometimes right in front of the soldiers, dangling with a sense of urgency.

These two issues seen in Catch-22 are associated with war, but are shown in a different light. The beauty of Catch-22 is that it helps show different angles to a stereotypical issue. The reader’s mind is opened with new possibilities and the reader starts to question what really can and did happen in war.

When I Have Fears...

Many people frequently wonder what happens after death. What will they lose? What will death be like? What will they find? These questions are asked very often, and it almost seems that one time or another, in one’s lifetime, these questions will be asked and tried to be answered. John Keats also asks these questions about deaths, and places his thoughts on death in his poem “When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be”.

The poem, “When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be” can be better understood by connecting what the speaker says in the poem with John Keats’s personal life history. Keats died at a young age of twenty six years, because of a serious case of tuberculosis, the same disease that killed so many of his family members. This premature death had an important effect on Keats’s writing. Also, Keats had a troubled relationship with a woman named Fanny Brawne. A series of letters between the two show that Keats and Brawne’s relationship caused Keats much pain, not joy, and this was a source of trouble for Keats. Keats did not maintain any strong relationships during his short-lived life. His troubled love life can be seen to have an effect upon “When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be”.

The first four lines of the poem show Keats’s fear of not being able to complete his writing and thoughts. The line, ”Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain” shows that Keats feels that his brain is brimming with important thoughts and the only way he can get them out of his head is to use writing. Keats does not want to die without leaving what he feels and thinks unsaid or unwritten. To Keats, his thoughts are like a storage house filled with grain that has not been used yet. Keats does not want to let this grain, or his thoughts, get wasted. Keats’s fear of “unfinished business or writing” is extremely common; many people are afraid of wishing they had done things before death. They regret not saying “I love you,” “I’m sorry,” or not having gone and done certain things before death. Keats knew his death was approaching at a young age, and in his poem he chose to write about his fear about not being able to accomplish all that we wanted to as a poet.

The next eight lines of the poem are a testament of Keats’s regret that he had not been able to experience a true feeling of love before his death. Keats through the line of “When I behold, upon the night’s starr’d face, Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance” shows that he has and will continue searching for a true “romance” or a true emotional attraction. Keats regrets that his death will not allow him to use the “magic hand of chance” to find the true emotional attraction that could have existed if Keats had not died so early. Keats, near the end of the poem talks about his regret that he put so much time into an “unreflecting” love. This regret can relate to his painful love for Fanny Brawne, a love that was “unreflecting”. Keats’s tone starts to turn from regret to bitterness, which is seen in the last few lines of the poem.

The last lines of the poem end with a sharp tone of bitterness that Keats purposefully creates. The last few lines also show Keats’s fears of death. The lines, “then on the shore. Of the wide world I stand alone, and think. Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.” show that Keats is afraid of being forgotten and unloved when he is dead. Keats, as the speaker, is also afraid of being alone when he is dead, which is one of the biggest fears of humans. The image of being alone on a shore of a huge world is extremely frightening and discomforting. Keats is afraid of what is to come in his approaching death.

Got My Vans On

Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 is a very humorous but thought provoking novel. The novel begins with introducing Yossarian to the reader. Heller’s writing makes the reader see a different side to the traditional image of war that has been imprinted on society’s mind. The character of Yossarian presents new perspectives to war as well.

The beginning scene in the hospital is a very interesting scene. Traditionally we picture soldiers in hospitals to be valiantly injured, horribly sick, or tragically-mentally affected patients. But in Yossarian’s case he apparently is none of those “typical” patients, other than the maybe slightly damaged mental patient. Yossarian uses the hospital as a subterfuge from the war; he is presented with whatever he desires: comfort, security, and complacency in the hospital.

This use of the hospital as a shelter from the war is interesting. We start to wonder, to think: how many soldiers did this in the war? Were all injured soldiers who were placed in hospitals really worthy of a purple heart? We also realize how logical it would seem for a soldier to use a hospital as a source of security and comfort from a hostile environment. Heller uses this scene to provide the reader with a different take on a traditional image.

One of the funniest moments of the beginning of the novel is the censorship scene, where Yosarrian censors letters during his hospital duty. Heller is able to make a scene of traditional importance seem very humorous. The method with which Yosarrian censors the letters is hysterical and it brings lightheartedness to a serious subject of war. Heller is constantly able to present a new angle on various ideas and topics in his Catch-22.

from man to monster

“A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen is a brilliant play that can be seen as a Bildungsroman. In the play, we examine Norma Helmer’s life and interaction with other characters and her family. Ibsen leads the reader through a series of systematic events that help us, as readers, understand how Nora develops. The surprise ending of “A Doll’s House” only helps to add to the finished feeling of a great example of a Bildungsroman.

A Bildungsroman is a type of novel that is a novel of development. This development can be moral, spiritual, psychological, or social. In Bildungsromans, characters transform into adults from children, they come of age. Also, in Bildungsroman novels, the main character usually takes a long journey or adventure to help enable the transformation.

In “A Doll’s House,” we see many strong characteristics of Bildungsroman novels. As the play progresses, we, as readers, are able to witness the development of Nora. In the beginning of the play, Nora acts very “child-like”. She is treated as a child by her husband, and is extremely idealistic and materialistic. Her behavior, thoughts, and speech are childlike in the sense that Nora is extremely eager and does not think things through. This behavior is seen when Nora and her husband are talking about the “pots and pots” of money that they will receive once Tolvod gets his new job, and Nora obsesses over buying new material objects.

Her childlike behavior begins to undergo a transformation once her friend, Ms. Linde, comes and visits Nora. Initially Ms. Linde calls Nora a “girl” who does not know real struggles in life. But Nora shows Ms. Linde that she has experienced difficulty in life and knows hardship to a degree. We are revealed a side to Nora that is not obvious when we first meet her. The transformation from girl to woman continues as the play continues.

When Krogstad enters the play and threatens to destroy the stability of Nora’s family by revealing the “secret” of Nora’s source and method of loan. When Nora finally reveals the truth to her husband, she comes of age through understanding. Nora reveals her mistake, but also gains understanding. Nora tests Tolvod’s love to understand the status of their relationship. Nora learns that though Tolvod stresses mutual dependence, he really does not mean it when his reputation is at stake. Nora comes to understand that she must live her life independently, because her marriage was based on idealism and dreams.

Nora undergoes a transformation from a girl to a woman through her understanding on the life and relationship she is living. “A Doll’s House” exemplifies perfect characteristics of a Bildungsroman, and after viewing Nora’s transformation we see how Bildungsromans do not just have to be applied to novels. Though Nora does not face a long and difficult journey or adventure like other Bildungsromans, she faces her own adventure and journey through the path of self realization. By reading or watching the play “A Doll’s House,” readers and the audience are truly able to understand the significance of the play to a greater degree and appreciate the plot and characters in the story.

To Blog or Not to Blog

SCENE IV. The Queen's closet.
Enter QUEEN GERTRUDE and POLONIUS
LORD POLONIUS
He will come straight. Look you lay home to him:
Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with,
And that your grace hath screen'd and stood between
Much heat and him. I'll sconce me even here.
Pray you, be round with him.

Subtext: Polonius is telling Queen Gertrude to tell Hamlet that what he has done has been nothing but trouble for him and his family. He is almost begging Gertrude to correct her son and chastise him.

HAMLET
[Within] Mother, mother, mother!
QUEEN GERTRUDE
I'll warrant you,
Fear me not: withdraw, I hear him coming.

Subtext: Gertrude nods to Polonius and pushes him away quickly, but gently.
POLONIUS hides behind the arras
Enter HAMLET
HAMLET
Now, mother, what's the matter?
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.

Subtext: Pause after Hamlet speaks. Then Gertrude speaks slowly but firmly.

HAMLET
Mother, you have my father much offended.

Subtext: Hamlet looks his mother in the eye very firmly and answers back quickly. He is angry.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.

Subtext: Gertrude becomes nervous, and tries to defend herself through her words. She becomes agitated.

HAMLET
Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.

Subtext: Hamlet becomes even angrier and begins pacing.


QUEEN GERTRUDE
Why, how now, Hamlet!

Subtext: Gertrude fakes her concern and tries to prepare for verbal self-defense.

HAMLET
What's the matter now?

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Have you forgot me?

Subtext: She is trying to change the subject.

HAMLET
No, by the rood, not so:
You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife;
And--would it were not so!--you are my mother.

Subtext: Hamlet says this strongly and angrily. He means that he knows clearly who she is and clearly of the crime she has committed.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak.
HAMLET
Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge;
You go not till I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you.

Subtext: Hamlet approaches his mother very closely and utters these words in a quiet, but strong whisper to his mother. He is challenging his mother.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me?
Help, help, ho!

Subtext: Gertrude visibly panics. She understands that Hamlet is in much pain and is very serious about his anger. She begins to panic and move away from Hamlet. She thinks Hamlet is going to hurt her.

LORD POLONIUS
[Behind] What, ho! help, help, help!

Subtext: Polonius also begins to panic for Gertrude’s, his Queen’s, safety. He moves to look what is happening.

HAMLET
[Drawing] How now! a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!

Subtext: Hamlet becomes angry. He thinks it is Claudius and becomes enraged. He thrusts his sword into the curtains.
Makes a pass through the arras
LORD POLONIUS
[Behind] O, I am slain!

Subtext: He dies after he says his words.
Falls and dies
QUEEN GERTRUDE
O me, what hast thou done?

HAMLET
Nay, I know not:
Is it the king?

Subtext: I thought it was the King.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!

Subtext: Queen is shocked.

HAMLET
A bloody deed! almost as bad, good mother,
As kill a king, and marry with his brother.

Subtext: Hamlet is not visibly disturbed. He is still calm and in this bloodlust he is still angry about his mother and Claudius.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
As kill a king!

Subtext: This act is as bad as killing a king!

HAMLET
Ay, lady, 'twas my word.
Lifts up the array and discovers POLONIUS
Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
I took thee for thy better: take thy fortune;
Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger.
Leave wringing of your hands: peace! sit you down,
And let me wring your heart; for so I shall,
If it be made of penetrable stuff,
If damned custom have not brass'd it so
That it is proof and bulwark against sense.

Subtext: Oh! I thought it was Claudius. But oh well, you deserved it anyway. He is showing that he is ruthless and not thinking.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
What have I done, that thou darest wag thy tongue
In noise so rude against me?

Subtext: Gertrude is becoming confused and scared. She asks what has gotten into Hamlet’s mind.


HAMLET
Such an act
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty,
Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose
From the fair forehead of an innocent love
And sets a blister there, makes marriage-vows
As false as dicers' oaths: O, such a deed
As from the body of contraction plucks
The very soul, and sweet religion makes
A rhapsody of words: heaven's face doth glow:
Yea, this solidity and compound mass,
With tristful visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act.

Subtext: Hamlet is telling his mother that she has committed a horrible act that should be punished. He is explaining why is becoming so angry and that his mother should not be schocked or confused.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Ay me, what act,
That roars so loud, and thunders in the index?

Subtext: The Queen is “playing dumb”.


HAMLET
Look here, upon this picture, and on this,
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
See, what a grace was seated on this brow;
Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself;
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;
A station like the herald Mercury
New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;
A combination and a form indeed,
Where every god did seem to set his seal,
To give the world assurance of a man:
This was your husband. Look you now, what follows:
Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ear,
Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?
Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,
And batten on this moor? Ha! have you eyes?
You cannot call it love; for at your age
The hey-day in the blood is tame, it's humble,
And waits upon the judgment: and what judgment
Would step from this to this? Sense, sure, you have,
Else could you not have motion; but sure, that sense
Is apoplex'd; for madness would not err,
Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thrall'd
But it reserved some quantity of choice,
To serve in such a difference. What devil was't
That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind?
Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,
Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,
Or but a sickly part of one true sense
Could not so mope.
O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell,
If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones,
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,
And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame
When the compulsive ardour gives the charge,
Since frost itself as actively doth burn
And reason panders will.

Subtext: Hamlet points to a painting that hangs in the room to explain the Queen’s crime as a symbolic act. He compares the two men in the painting to his father and uncle and shows the disgust he feels.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
O Hamlet, speak no more:
Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul;
And there I see such black and grained spots
As will not leave their tinct.

Subtext: Gertrude breaks down and stops trying to hid from the truth. She is feeling the sin that she has committed and starts to feel remorse.


HAMLET
Nay, but to live
In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,
Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love
Over the nasty sty,--

Subtext: Hamlet doesn’t stop. He continues to attack his mother. He compares his mother’s bed to a pig sty-representing sin and filth. Hamlet spits.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
O, speak to me no more;
These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears;
No more, sweet Hamlet!

Subtext: Gertrude is crying and asking Hamlet to stop speaking.

HAMLET
A murderer and a villain;
A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe
Of your precedent lord; a vice of kings;
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole,
And put it in his pocket!

Subtext: Hamlet continues his rant. He attacks his uncle verbally.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
No more!
HAMLET
A king of shreds and patches,--

Subtext: Hamlet continues to yell.
Enter Ghost
Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings,
You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure?
Subtext: What can I do for you father?

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Alas, he's mad!

Subtext: Gertrude thinks Hamlet is crazy, because she can not see the ghost.

HAMLET
Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by
The important acting of your dread command? O, say!

Subtext: Tell me why you came father!

Ghost
Do not forget: this visitation
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
But, look, amazement on thy mother sits:
O, step between her and her fighting soul:
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works:
Speak to her, Hamlet.

Subtext: Don’t forget what you need to do: exact revenge. The Ghost is telling Hamlet to keep talking to his mother.

HAMLET
How is it with you, lady?
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Alas, how is't with you,
That you do bend your eye on vacancy
And with the incorporal air do hold discourse?
Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep;
And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm,
Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,
Starts up, and stands on end. O gentle son,
Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper
Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look?

Subtext: The Queen is confused again about how Hamlet is acting. She does not see the Ghost but sees Hamlet talking to the air, in an odd state. She is becoming confused and scared.

HAMLET
On him, on him! Look you, how pale he glares!
His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones,
Would make them capable. Do not look upon me;
Lest with this piteous action you convert
My stern effects: then what I have to do
Will want true colour; tears perchance for blood.

Subtext: Hamlet is afraid at how angry the ghost looks at him.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
To whom do you speak this?

Subtext: Who are you talking to?

HAMLET
Do you see nothing there?

Subtext: You don’ see anything? Hamlet is a little confused.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Nothing at all; yet all that is I see.
HAMLET
Nor did you nothing hear?
QUEEN GERTRUDE
No, nothing but ourselves.
HAMLET
Why, look you there! look, how it steals away!
My father, in his habit as he lived!
Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal!
Exit Ghost
QUEEN GERTRUDE
This the very coinage of your brain:
This bodiless creation ecstasy
Is very cunning in.

Subtext: Hamlet you are imagining this.


HAMLET
Ecstasy!
My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time,
And makes as healthful music: it is not madness
That I have utter'd: bring me to the test,
And I the matter will re-word; which madness
Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,
Lay not that mattering unction to your soul,
That not your trespass, but my madness speaks:
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,
Whilst rank corruption, mining all within,
Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven;
Repent what's past; avoid what is to come;
And do not spread the compost on the weeds,
To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue;
For in the fatness of these pursy times
Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg,
Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good.

Subtext: Hamlet is telling his mother that he is not crazy or imagining anything. Hamlet is becoming impatient and extremely angry. He begins to pace the room and yell.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.

Subtext: Hamlet you broke my heart.

HAMLET
O, throw away the worser part of it,
And live the purer with the other half.
Good night: but go not to mine uncle's bed;
Assume a virtue, if you have it not.
That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,
Of habits devil, is angel yet in this,
That to the use of actions fair and good
He likewise gives a frock or livery,
That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night,
And that shall lend a kind of easiness
To the next abstinence: the next more easy;
For use almost can change the stamp of nature,
And either [ ] the devil, or throw him out
With wondrous potency. Once more, good night:
And when you are desirous to be bless'd,
I'll blessing beg of you. For this same lord,
Pointing to POLONIUS
I do repent: but heaven hath pleased it so,
To punish me with this and this with me,
That I must be their scourge and minister.
I will bestow him, and will answer well
The death I gave him. So, again, good night.
I must be cruel, only to be kind:
Thus bad begins and worse remains behind.
One word more, good lady.

Subtext: Hamlet is telling his mother to take the good part of her heart and try and repent for her sins. He tells his mother to either forget Claudius or try and make amends. Hamlet apologizes about Polonius’s death in an uncaring way, almost using him to prove a lesson.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
What shall I do?
HAMLET
Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:
Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed;
Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his mouse;
And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses,
Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers,
Make you to ravel all this matter out,
That I essentially am not in madness,
But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him know;
For who, that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise,
Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib,
Such dear concernings hide? who would do so?
No, in despite of sense and secrecy,
Unpeg the basket on the house's top.
Let the birds fly, and, like the famous ape,
To try conclusions, in the basket creep,
And break your own neck down.

Subtext: Don’t go to bed with Claudius and let him poison your mind and continue the disgusting sin. Try to escape from his poisoning. Hamlet tells this to his mother in a bitter way.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Be thou assured, if words be made of breath,
And breath of life, I have no life to breathe
What thou hast said to me.

Subtext: Gertrude tells Hamlet that she feels dead after what she has heard from him. Gertrude is sincerely telling Hamlet how she feels and has left her pretense behind.

Lemurs Man, Lemurs

After analyzing the play Antigone, I came to a realization. A beautiful realization.

The dilemma that is presented to the readers and audience of the play is a similar dilemma that we, yes us Eagles, face today in our own community.

I don’t want to be annoying, and by that I mean all “presidential”. But, just as Antigone is faced with the dilemma of going against the law to do what she thinks is right, we are faced with a similar dilemma in our school elections.

Let me explain. Antigone had to decide between law and honor. If Antigone decides to bury Polynices, then she undermines law. This act would show that personal honor and believes trumps law. Now, if Antigone decides to sacrifice her personal believes by letting Polynices rot, then she shows the audience and readers that law comes first.

Now, which action is right? This truly is a dilemma. Do you put aside your personal believes and honor to follow law? Do you put aside everything you believe is right, just because someone else has told you that the law is what dictates righteousness? What if the law is wrong, and by following it you are doing the wrong thing? On the other side of the coin, what happens when you disregard the law just to do what you think is right? Does this create chaos? Is what you believe more important than what someone else calls “law”? Or is law meant for the greater good?

There is no true answer for these questions. I believe that the answer varies with each situation. In Antigone’s case though the burial was very important to her, by going ahead with the burial chaos would be created by her act. This would show others that the law was not important; this would cause chaos.

Back to my beautiful point. Our school elections are faced with similar dilemmas. Do we vote for our friends or do we do what is right for the school and elect the most able body representatives? Do we bury the man and vote for our friends who are running for positions, do we do what is right as “friends”? But do we do what is best for the Eagle Nest, as a citizen of justice, and vote for those who we really think would do the best for our community? Again it’s personal honor vs. community.

In this case, I believe that we must put aside our friends and personal “obligations” to do what is right for the community. As hard as it may be to seemingly go “against” your friends, in the end you are doing the right thing by thinking of the community first.

The example I brought up in this amazing blog is just one of the many modern day examples of the application of the dilemma found in the play. After reading this play, I started questioning everything. I started wondering whether life today is just one big play, with the same dilemma of Antigone. And then, I realized that this pondering and thinking are the aftermath of reading a good play. Those Greeks were good.

a modern tragedy

My Dear Former English Class,

I wrote this letter for you. I am glad this is not on paper, for the ink would be blurred by my tears.

My mother once told me that all good things must come to an end. And so I say, that today we must come to an end.

Please, do not take this personally. Believe me that this is not my choice, but it was God’s divine will that resulted in this change.

Though from now on we will not be able to enjoy the close company of one another, please remember one thing: our love transcends all physical feelings; our love will never die through our memories. I will always be in your heart, as you will always be in mine.

Don’t look back. Enjoy the extra seat.

I love you. Good luck. Goodbye.

Sincerely,

Until we meet again

Aravind Swaminathan