Ichiyo's "Child's Play"

Background
- Stories about children on the fringe of society
-abnormal amount of education for the time period (westernized education)
Setting Red Light District, outskirts of Tokyo

"The name may sound a little saintly, but those who live in the area will tell you it's a lively place"

Town is full of prostitutes and poverty.

Otori Days - fairs held at various shrines
Tanka Poems japanese poetry that focuses on nature and seasons
Characters
Midori - main girl, pretty young lady lives an extravagant lifestyle
Nobu - priest's son; eventually sent to a seminary, likes Midori but involved with Chokichi

  "Odd, how her one gesture moved him, and yet he could not bring himself to reach out and take the cloth. He stared at it vacantly, and as he looked at it he felt his heart break"

Midori brings Nobu a cloth to fix his broken sandal.

Chokichi - chief's son
Shota - little boy who likes Midori
Omaki - Midori's sister, a prostitute


Themes
1. Coming of Age
"Growing up, she plays among the butterflies and flowers. But she turns sixteen, and all she knows is work and sorrow."
2. Naivety
"What do you mean? That'd be wonderful! Next year I'm going to open a shop, and after I save some money I'll buy her for a night!" -Nobu referring to Midori becoming a prostitute

Ozick's "The Shawl"

Characters: Stella and Rosa, baby Magda

Symbols
1. Magic Shawl
    - kept the baby alive for a time period by hiding her and nourishing her
    -muffled her cries keeping her safe

Themes
1. Motherhood
2. Survival
3. Nurture
4. Betrayal
5. Choices

Borowski's "Ladies and Gentlemen, to the Gas Chamber"

Upon arrival, the news of their death was kept from the people until the last minute because...

- They wanted to keep them under control, and avoid any rebellions or attempts at escape

- They didn't have the heart to tell them what they were about to do to them

- They needed to make sure the people would bring everything of value with them so that after they were killed, the Germans would be able to collect all of their valuables for their own profits

Note: Officers were described as healthy, well fed and clean because of their lack of involvement from all of the "dirty" work involved

Symbols

1. Red Cross Ambulance - carried the gas to the chambers that would in the end kill them; while the Red Cross is a symbol of health, hope and an international organization of taking care of people)

2. Crematorium - "smoke stack"

   - people themselves turned into the smoke/ashes

   - described like hell

   - described in normal terms "oh theres the door"

3. Women

   -represent humanity - the old woman smiles, the young woman embodies beauty and health and the

    crippled lady shows respect to those above her (calling him sir) even though they are doing terrible

    things to her

4. Lice
   -both the people and the lice are both being exterminated using the Cyclone B
   -Lice present an image of how easily the people can all be exterminated like pests to the "greater race"

Themes

Moral Dilemas - main character and his job

Never Ending Cycles - death, trains, lost hope

     "Whoever has once entered here will never again pass the sentry post, not even as a handful of ashes, will never return to his former life."

Note: Politeness in the story is mocked through the title and through the attitudes of the soldiers.

Mansfield's "The Fly"

Themes
1. Loss & Forgetting
2. Suffering Until a Breaking Point - Frailty
     - The Boss - anger and sadness from the death of his son
     - The Son - hardships of war lead to his death
     - The Fly - kept trying to come out of the ink but eventually could no longer
     - Mansfield - written on her death bed, mentality of being taken from life
3. Power vs. Powerlessness - Perception of Power
     - The Boss/The Fly - fly cannot set himself free from the overbearing ink
     - The Boss/Death of his son - emotions are overtaking his everyday life
     - War/Government - losing support of the people, destroying the nation, losing money, losing men to  
       fight
     - War/Son - hardships of war lead to his death
  **Power isn't always so powerful!

Symbols
1. The Boss & The Fly
     - Fly symbolizes the things that lead up to his son's death therefore he wants to destroy it
     - Fly symbolizes the lost generation and the Boss represents the mistaken war
     - The Fly symbolizes the boss struggling with the pressures (ink) associated with his son's death
2. Nameless Characters - all of the deaths in the war that weren't on a personal level; death doesn't have a
    name in war
3. Boss' Inability to Cry
     - Angry and Bitter
     - Lost dream of son running the business, death of son = death of business (his life's work)
4. The "Boss"
     - Decider of all fates but no role in the actions
     - Different power levels, no control at the bottom and all of the control at the top
     - Someone who can't be gotten in trouble
5. Whiskey
     - Windsor Castle - represents the government involvement - home of the Queen
     - Sympathy for the Woodifield?
6. 4 Drop of Ink - 4 years of war that got progressively worse to recover from - lead to the eventual total
    destruction of Europe
7. Woodifield
     - Reminder of what's been lost - bringing up the losses to the boss
     - Reflects society's insensitivity towards the deaths that resulted from the war
8. Death
     - Death touches everyone during war time in different ways

"For the life of him, he could not remember" - Final Sentence
     - No life left within the boss to remember the life of his son
     - Loss of memory = refusal to admit the mistake
         - Gov. doesn't acknowledge that the war was a mistake
     - Represents the war and the numbness everyone felt towards it
     - Boss forgets thought = Europe forgets why they're fighting the war

Effect of War on Literature of the time period
Connected people because people no longer wanted to talk about such a depressing topic so it brought them all together on their common emotions and experiences without individuals having to talk about their  personal feeling (too vulnerable)

Compare and Contrast Woodifield and The Boss.

James Joyce's "The Dead"

In response to the question about the occurrence and reference to death in this piece of writing, what I found most interesting had to do with the very end of the story when Gretta refers to her late lover, Michael. It seems at this point, Michael is still very much alive in Gretta's mind. It's a interesting concept to see how death continues to play a role in Gretta and Gabriel's relationship even though it occurred so long ago. At the end of the novel as well, the freshly fallen snow seems to cover up Gabriel's past life, a type of death, laying a fresh slate for his new beginning.

Characters
Lily - caretaker's daughter
Gabriel Conroy - Gretta's husband, thinks he's better than everyone with his Shakespearean speech
Michael Fuery - Gretta's childhood lover who died from a "broken heart", she never got over him
Mrs. Ivors - woman at the Christmas party who continually demeans Gabriel
Aunts - hostesses of the party, getting old

Symbols
1. Death
   - Michael Fuery
   -Gretta and Gabriel's relationship
   -Almost the aunts
   - priests and sins
"He was astonished to hear that monks never spoke, got up at two in the morning and slept in their coffins"
2. Snow
   -at the end of the story, provides a clean slate and new beginning for Gabriel as he leaves his wife
"His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead" - covering up his past with his wife and covering the grave of her dead lover
3.Three
   - greek myths, 3 old witches weave 3 threads and when your time is up they snip your thread
4. Ghosts
   - ghostlike descriptions; everyone floats around, barely alive, don't hear anyone coming

Kafka's "The Metamorphosis"

Metamorphosis - a profound change in form from one stage to the next in the life history of an organism-a complete change of form, structure, or substance-a form resulting from any such change

I believe that Gregor's metamorphosis was literal in Kafka's story. It seems that there is really no metaphorical comparison that could explain why Gregor would suddenly turn into a bug. Aspects of his life seem the same before and after, such as his constant worry about supporting his family. Although after his metamorphosis he is no longer to support his family (obviously, because he is a beetle), he still constantly worries about them while hidden away in his room because he knows his parents are too old and his sister too young. Eventually they do get to working, so maybe his metamorphosis into something less useful helped the rest of his family get on track and become more productive in order to take care of themselves, thus suggesting that the family is the unit going through the metamorphosis.

Kafka's references to hunger and food seem significant because food is what continues to link Gregor to his human life. In the beginning of the story, his sister continues to place foods in his room that he liked in his human form, suggesting that she still believes that the old human Gregor is somewhere within this newly transformed bug. As the story goes on, his appetite changes, forcing him to seem more and more like a bug and less like a human. Another aspect of food in the story is when Gregor's father throws apples at him. This image of food is physically driving him away from his human life and further into his hole as a bug.

GROUP DISCUSSION
1. Characterize:
         - Maid - nasty but still checked on Gregor daily
         - Sister (Grete) - dynamic "butterfly" - metamorphosed from a caring sister into a self dependent
                                   woman, who denied the existence of the brother she had cared for so much
         - Gregor - traveling salesman/workaholic yet unhappy with his life; values his work and his family
2. Gregor's Transformation - NEW PERSPECTIVE
         - Completely changed from a life of being depended on where he was the one with value and
           control to a bug who is pretty much completely helpless
         - Always an outsider to his family (maybe this is why he isn't as shocked by his transformation) but
           now he is a literal manifestation of how much of an outcast he is
         - Eventually begins to shrink, physically (undernourished) and mentally, as his self worth towards
           his family diminishes completely now that he no longer brings home any money
         - Treated less and less like human → begins to give up being a human and therefore loses his human
            qualities, making it less apparent he is still Gregor (which is sister eventually denies)
3. Theme = power and control struggle
         - Especially between Grete and Gregor, as she gains more control he loses his control
         - As she rises, he falls
         - Strength and reactions to serious change, survival?
4. Parasitic Relationships
         - First, the family feeds off of Gregor and his income in order to survive but once Gregor actually
           becomes a parasite, he must rely off of his family like they have done to him
         - Then, after Gregor's death, the parents continue to be parasitic towards the daughter, deciding
            they must now build her up and set her up so they are in fact setting up their futures depending
            on her
5. Metaphor about people and human nature?
         - Possibly about the relationships between ugliness and humanity

**What does it mean to be human?
         - Was Gregor ever connected to the human world?
                  - Although he did make some contributions to the world, he never was truly an "alive" person
                  - He was thoughtful about his actions

Gregor was truly imprisoned in his life, both before and after the metamorphosis. As a human, he was trapped in his constant routine where he supported his entire family. Once he transformed, he became trapped not only in the body of a parasite but in the role as one.

Ibsen's "A Doll's House"

Background
   -based off real life events
   -the role of men and women
   -19th century law=women don't have equal rights; husband has complete control of everything therefore  
     very controversial to write about a wife leaving her husband and children
   -all of the women are twistedly dependent on men
Themes
   -expectations of women
      -namecalling
   -resisting societal expectations; being true to yourself
   -dependence
   
Plot
1. Exposition: Christine comes and Helmer's new bank job. Relationship dynamic
2. Complication: Loan, Helmer's sickness, new job/power in relation to Krogstad, letter in the mailbox
3. Climax: Opening of Krogstad's letter and Helmer finally understands the circumstances
4. Resolution: Nora leaves everything


Characters: Nora (wife), Krogstad (owed debt from Nora), Christine (Nora's friend/widow/marries Krog), Helmer (husband), Dr. Rank

Basic Terms

Tragedy - a drama treating a serious subject involving persons of significance

Comedy - treats themes and characters with humor and typically has a happy ending

Monologue - extended speech by one character

Soliloquy - monologue in which a character expresses private thoughts while alone on stage

Aside - brief comments by a character who reveals thoughts by speaking directly to the
              audience without being heard by the other characters

Plot - the way in which a story's events are arranged

             -more than what happens

             -shaped by: casual connections, interactions between characters and juxtapositions of      

              events

4 Stages

1. Exposition - sets the story in motions, establishes the scene, introduces major characters

                          and suggests major events or conflicts to come

2. Complications (rising action) - crisis situations throughout the story
3. Climax

4. Resolution - the final stage of the plot that draws the action to a close and accounts for all

                           loose ends

Order and Sequence

In media res (Latin for "in the midst of things") - opens in the middle of a story and uses  
                       flashbacks to reveal crucial information

Flashback - examines an event or situation that occurred before the time where the story's
                      taking place

Foreshadow - introduced early in the story of situation, events, characters or objects that hint at
                          things to come *builds reader interest

Theme - the central or dominant idea of the story

                    -not the plot summary

                    -conveys values and ideas expressed by the story

                    -general idea that extends beyond the story and applies to the world outside fiction

                    -revealed through titles, symbols, conflicts and character statements and changes

                    -can be thought of as the moral of the story

Conflict - struggle between opposing forces that emerges as actions develops

                     -Clash Between: 1) Protagonist (principle character) and 2) Antagonist 

                      (someone/thing present in opposition)


Post Modernism - nothing is important by itself
Scientific Rationalism - everything can be explained
                   - therefore the universe is more rational and predictable with science
Modernism - universal truth we can understand through logic and rationalism
                          -response to scientific rationalism
Modernization - industrial process associated with "Westernization"
                                -values individualism, democracy, class etc.
Dadaism - cultural movement (WWI) involved visual arts, literature, and graphic design and
                    reject prevailing standards
                              -anti-war and anti-art
                              -no logic or reason; ignored aesthetic value
Realism - depicts subjects as they appear in everyday life
Surrealism - unexpected juxtaposition of elements (element of surprise)
                          -expressed the functioning of thought and free play of mind


Character - a fictional representation of a person
Characterization - the way traits of a character (created by the writer) are revealed to the audience/reader (such as appearance, reactions, actions etc.)
                         -usually revealed via narrator or thoughts & actions of the character
       Round Characters - well developed characters that are closely involved in and responsive
                                           to the action of the story
       Flat Characters - barely developed or very stereotypical characters
       Dynamic Characters - grow and change in the course of the story, developing as they react
                                               to events and other characters
       Static Characters - may face the same challenges as the dynamic character but will remain 
                                         unchanged or unaffected
       *** Most of the time, Round characters are also Dynamic and Flat Characters are also
            Static, although in some cases, Round characters may be Static
Foil - a supporting character that's role is to highlight a major character by presenting a contrast with him/her