A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Analysis of Quote:

(I am far too AP-literature-exhausted at this point to search through this entire book for a quote to analyze, so here's an analysis of the first paragraph of the book. Hey, I'm still making a good effort, right?)

"Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo... His father told him that story: his father looked at him through a glass: he had a hairy face. He was baby tuckoo. The moocow came down the road where Betty Byrne lived: she sold lemon platt" (Joyce 3).

This quote, not because it's the first one in the book, is actually one of my favorites in the novel. It's not often that you read a college-level novel with childish language and imagery in it, and I really enjoy this unconventional use of juvenile language. Despite the belief of many that children are difficult to understand, I believe this actually helps the reader to understand the book better. When Stephen was a young child, as most children at this age do, he used very literal and matter-of-fact terms to describe what he was seeing, without any figurative language or sophisticated vocabulary like a person such as Stephen with a passion for language would use. He repeats the exact same phrase more than once, for example he says "the moocow coming down the road" three times in just two paragraphs. Although this coming from a young child would typically be viewed as a juvenile attempt to express ideas through speech without the necessary experience with words to make a sentence sound intelligent and clear, I actually viewed this as a foreshadowing to the development of his passion for words and writing poetry. A very common and effective literary device in sophisticated and respected poetry, after all, is repetition. (*Sidenote- you can tell I just spent four hours analyzing the literary devices used in poetry)

Analysis of Symbol/Theme:

Birds and flight

There are many religious allusions throughout the entire novel such as the Bible, Latin phrases used in the Catholic faith, Greek mythology, etc. Stephen Dedalus' name itself is an allusion to the Greek god Daedalus, who designed a Labryinth for King Minos and is imprisoned by the king on the island of Crete, but he is able to craft a set of wings and use them to escape by way of flight. This desire of Daedalus to escape from imprisonment in Crete parallels the desire of Stephen to escape from his artistic and expressive imprisonment in Ireland, the home of his family and the Catholic church. At the end of the novel, Stephen sees birds flying freely in the sky, and this symbolizes his finally successful attempt at breaking away from the constraints of the church, the state, and his family to pursue his lifelong passion for art, despite the difficulty of the decision to leave everything he had ever known in life, especially his own family.

Reflection:

This novel was not the easiest one to get through, as we were all warned about before we started reading it in class, but I found that I was actually able to understand it fairly well after discussing it, but not just from reading it. Ultimately, I would say that I enjoyed the book mostly because I liked the uncommon structure used by Joyce (beginning it with Stephen as a young child and changing the style and language throughout the novel to reflect Stephen's changing personality as he ages and develops as an artist and a person). It was definitely no Heart of Darkness, as even though I didn't completely understand it and it was often frustrating to read on my own, I ended up coming to enjoy it the more I thought about it and listened to other people's reflections and interpretations.

Since I haven't done one since the last blog assignment, here's a rant

It's amazing how easy things are to get done once you're under enough pressure to finally start them and finish them in a limited amount of time. These five blogs are due today, and I started them about four hours ago with a few breaks here and there including a drive to Franklin just to get a $2 bagel, a fifteen minute "nap," some time on Webkinz, and of course, some time to write one of these rants that keep me going. I'm doing far better than I thought in my analysis of these poems. Instead of looking at them and going "Huh?" I've been able to look at every single one and write an intelligent analysis of it without struggle. Now that I've had the chance to point out to myself that I'm doing really well with completing this assignment, I'm going to go do my Portrait blog, and then I will be done =)

#238- "Riddle"

Analysis of Speaker/Rhyme/Meter:

Speaker: The speaker of this poem is a victim of the atrocities of the Holocaust. This is made apparent in the third stanza of the poem "My friend Fritz Nova lost his father-" (9), "My friend Lou Abrahms lost his brother" (11). By referring to these victims as his friends, the speaker is able to give the poem a better sense of reality. Like all Holocaust stories, those told by people who actually experienced it are more real, more memorable, and have a much greater impact on their listeners than the accounts found in textbooks and factual information sources. For this reason, the first-person perspective of this poem, although not obvious throughout the entire poem, makes it much more effective in making an impact on the reader.

Rhyme: There is an ABCB rhyme scheme in all but the fifth and sixth stanzas of the poem, the eight lines of which all begin with the same two words "and some" (17-24). In four of the remaining six stanzas that rhyme, one of the words in the pair of rhyming words is "Jews." Each of the lines containing this word is "Who killed the Jews?" The title of the poem is "Riddle," suggesting a mystery, or something that is questionable or unknown. One of the other rhymes in the poem is "engineer" (6) with "Albert Speer" (7). The riddle of the poem is obviously the riddle of who was responsible for the killing of the Jews during the Holocaust, but the other riddle contained in this is who specifically, meaning which of Adolf Hitler's Nazi officials, facilitated this mass genocide? By rhyming one of the names of a Nazi official, and beginning all the lines of the stanza with "not I," the poem expresses how denial of responsibility for murderous and permissive actions was an enormous part of the Holocaust that enabled it to continue for so many years without persecution. By not rhyming the lines of the fourth and fifth stanzas, the stanzas that list the various duties of Nazi officers at the concentration camps, duties that involved doing their part in the extermination of Jews, the poem portrays these jobs as silent, trying to make them as little known by outsiders as possible in order to prevent persecution of the officers for their actions. It places further emphasis on the denial aspect of the question of responsibility "Who killed the Jews?"

Meter: Although each of the eight stanzas has four lines of relatively even length, they are not all the same structurally and rhythmically. The first, third, fourth, seventh, and eighth lines have a similar meter pattern and a common idea of the losses and horrific experiences that the Jews endured during the Holocaust, such as "[...] a crate of gold teeth" (1), "[...] Fritz Nova lost his father-" (9), "David Nova swallowed gas" (13), "Some smelled the smoke" (24), and "[...] gold, [...] shoes, [...] skin" (29-31). The remaining stanzas, the second, fifth, and sixth, have similar rhythm and meter amongst themselves, unlike the previously mentioned stanzas with their own different meter pattern. These three stanzas have the rhythm of stress being placed on the first two words of the line, "not I" in the second stanza and "and some" in the fifth and sixth stanzas. While the previously mentioned stanzas focus more on the victims of the Holocaust, the latter mentioned stanzas focus more on the Nazi officials who caused them to become victims of genocide. By giving these stanzas a more pronounced rhythm than the stanzas focused on the victims, it makes it obvious that those who participated in the Holocaust were most concerned with covering their own tracks and denying all faults than they were concerned with their victims having a voice and an identity.

Analysis of 2 Literary Devices:

Personification: Personification is not used until the last stanza of the poem, but in just these four lines, this device contributes significantly to the overall meaning of the poem. The three things that are personified as having memories, the stars, the sun, and the moon, are elements of nature that are always present in the sky, no matter what the conditions are on Earth. These three celestial objects are present in the most beautiful and the most horrific situations on Earth, and they oversee both situations alike. By personifying them as being the only ones that can always remember the atrocities and evils of the Holocaust, it contributes to the meaning of the title of the poem, "Riddle." The stars, the sun, and the moon may be able to remember the events that happened in the concentration camps, but the last line, the final question "But who killed the Jews?" still remains a riddle, a mystery to humans on Earth who were not there to witness it. One thing the stars, the sun, and the moon cannot do as humans is answer this ultimate question.

Repetition: The three phrases in this poem that are significantly repeated are "not I" (4-7), "and some" (15-24), and "Who killed the Jews?" (4, 12, 28, 32). The first two repeated elements emphasize the secrecy and denial of the aggressors of the Holocaust as well as the enormity of their actions involved in creating the machine that killed so many millions of Jews. "Not I" (4-7) obviously stresses the fact that the Nazi officials want the world to believe that the genocide was not their fault, and they refuse to admit to being the answer to the question "Who killed the Jews?" "And some" (15-24) refers also to the actions of the Nazi officials during the Holocaust, stressing the reality that so much was done to allow this mass murder of Jews to happen, despite the fact that none took the responsibility for this long list of actions such as standing guard (15), dropping the pellets (18), and clearing the rails (24). "Who killed the Jews?" gives meaning to the title of the poem. Despite how many times the answer to the question is repeated with the names of those who committed the crimes "[...] Adolf Eichmann,/[...] Albert Speer" (7-8) and their multitude of duties they fulfilled in taking part in the genocide, the repetition of this question expresses how we still aren't, and perhaps will never be, able to make the perpetrators take responsibility for the murder of the Jews.

Reflection:

After visiting the barracks of the Nazi concentration camp Dachau back in December when I went to Germany, the images in this poem as well as numerous other literary works I have read about the Holocaust, have much more of an impact on me. The mention of specific names of Nazis in the poem, Adolf Eichmann and Albert Speer, and the recollection of seeing their pictures on the walls in the museum at the camp, made the poem so much more effective in the poet's use of specific allusions to historical figures and places. Out of the four poems I chose to analyze, I enjoyed analyzing this one the most because I was most able to see the underlying meanings of the more subtle literary elements such as the rhyme scheme and personification used by the poet.

#232- "Snow White and the Seven Deadly Sins"

Analysis of Speaker/Rhyme/Meter:

Speaker: The speaker of this poem is omniscient. The lack of a first-person viewpoint helps the poem to be more thorough in its expression of the various allusions it contains. It allows the poem to encompass the meanings of all the biblical references, especially the Seven Deadly Sins. Also, the omniscient speaker connects to the idea of a fairy tale in the poem, as these types of fantasy stories are almost always told in third-person perspective.

Rhyme: The rhyme scheme of this poem, ABAB, is perhaps the most familiarly traditional pattern to readers of poetry and is consistent throughout the entire poem. The familiarity of this rhyme scheme and the fact that poetry is traditionally and stereotypically viewed as rhyming in this way, it emphasizes the idea that the poem is deeply involved with biblical and fairy tale references, perhaps the only two types of stories that can remain this solid and memorable and can withstand the test of time. Biblical stories and fairy tales are familiar to people of every generation, every age, and every historical period, and they never seem to become less effective or valuable as they are passed down through generations.

Meter: The meter of this poem (four lines of relatively similar length in each stanza), like the rhyme scheme of the poem, possesses perhaps the most traditional structure that a poem can have. Both the rhyme scheme and meter give the poem its classic and universally familiar tone, a tone of a fairy tale such as Snow White or a Bible story such as that of Peter, one of Jesus' twelve apostles.

Analysis of 2 Literary Devices:

Allusion: Allusion is the most obvious and effective literary device used in this poem. The two allusions in the poem are to the Bible (the Seven Deadly Sins in particular) and to the familiar fairy tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The connection between these two allusions are the significance of the number seven in both stories, and the concepts and corruptions of each of the Seven Deadly Sins and of the tale of Snow White, and especially how they relate to each other. The first stanza of the poem compares Snow White the princess to a "Good little Catholic girl,/ she didn't mind the cleaning" (1-2). Throughout the poem with the brief yet effective descriptions of the Seven Deadly Sins (emphasized with the use of italicization of the name of each sin), each of the sins are applied to Snow White's life and her work, for example "Pride's wall of looking glasses" (13) references the evil queen's Magic Mirror in the story of Snow White, "Gluttony's empties covered half the table" references the dinner that Snow White prepared for the seven dwarves upon their return from a hard day's work in the mines, and "Retrieving several pairs of Sloth's soiled drawers,/ A sweat-sock and a cake of hairy soap" (23-24) references the dwarves' lack of regard for personal hygiene and cleanliness prior to the arrival of Snow White to teach them better ways of living and to clean up after them. The last two stanzas point out perhaps the presence of lust and greed in the seemingly charming, fantastic, and happy ending of the tale when after she awakens, the handsome [lust] prince beckons Snow White to come with him on his beautiful, [and expensive] white horse [greed] and live happily ever after with him, the finest prince in the land, believed to be so because of his looks and his royal possessions. "In time to see a Handsome Prince, of course," (34). "So debonair! So charming! And so Male" (38).

Personification: The Seven Deadly Sins in the poem are described as having human possessions: "Pride's wall of looking glasses" (13), "Lust's magazines lay strewn" (15), "Gluttony's empties covered half the table" (17), "[...]Avarice's cards and chips" (18), and "[...] sloth's soiled drawers" (23). This personification allows the sins to be viewed on the same level with the same importance as the human characters in the loved and respected fairy tale of Snow White, despite the underlying immoralities and corruptions that are present in the people of this seemingly innocent and charming story. It compares the impulsive marriage of Snow White to the rich and handsome prince, "And she was out the window in a second,/In time to see a Handsome Prince, of course" (33-34), to the things defined as the most immoral by the Catholic church, the Seven Deadly Sins. Essentially, the personification of these sins also shows that Snow White the princess and her Handsome Prince are the human representations of these moral crimes.

Reflection:

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves has always been one of my favorite fairy tales, and I have always had an interest in the Seven Deadly Sins and the various different stories and metaphors written about them, but until reading this poem, I never made the connection between the two. I like how the poem is able to effectively compare two very unlike things, one of which is a childhood fantasy story and the other is a collection of the seven worst moral evils of the Christian faith. I really enjoyed the complexity of language and the parallels between these two familiar allusions. My favorite line of the poem was "No poisoned apple needed for this Princess" (29), showing how because there are already so many sins hidden beneath the innocence of the fairy tale, Snow White doesn't need an apple to be poisoned with evil.

#212- "Money"

Analysis of Speaker/Rhyme/Meter:

Speaker: This poem has an omniscient speaker. By not giving a first-person point of view in the poem, it makes the idea of the poem more effective by giving money (the main focus of which is to describe the ultimate control it has over people), sole control of the poem in the way that it conveys its meaning to the audience.

Rhyme: By having no pattern of a rhyme scheme, the poem expresses a more matter-of-fact tone to the audience. By the use of this tone, the poet is able to express his main idea: the idea that money is unavoidably a controlling, dangerous thing in one's life.

Meter: By using a variety of line lengths and no pattern in the number of lines per stanza, the poet is able to express the ultimate powerlessness of a person over money. The two shortest stanzas in the poem, two lines each, are the only two stanzas that suggest the possibility of one having control over money, and money having no control over the person. "At first it will seem tame/willing to be domesticated" (1-2), "Fold it frequently; it needs exercise" (16-17). The short length of these two stanzas suggests that they may be the least significant, the false ideas, despite the fact that they are nonetheless present in the poem. These two short stanzas describe money as if it is a dog, which is an important element of the poem in itself (which I will analyze below as a literary device).

Analysis of 2 Literary Devices:

Simile: This poem compares money to four things: a dog "It will delight your friends,/shake hands with men/like a dog and lick/the legs of women" (7-10), an amoeba "But like an amoeba/it makes love/in secret/only to itself" (12-15), a human "reciting softly to itself/ the names of the presidents" (6-7), and a plant "Water it every three days" (18). The most prevalent simile in this poem is that comparing money to a dog. Dogs are typically viewed, perhaps as money is, as "man's best friend." There are very few people in this world that don't like money, depsite those who may claim otherwise. By comparing money to a dog, the poet expresses the idea that money misleadingly appears as innocent and friendly as a loyal dog, not one to turn against you or do you wrong. But by the last two stanzas, this innocent image is proven to be a false one and money is revealed to be a dangerous and evil thing "There will be no pain/ but in thirty seconds/ the poison will reach your heart" (27-29). By comparing money to not only an animal, but also a human, a plant, and even a one-celled organism, this gives the reader the idea that money is in fact ubiquitous, just as living organisms, especially the mircroscopic ones, are ubiquitous on Earth.

Personification: Although money is only compared to a human in two subtle lines "reciting softly to itself/ the names of the presidents" (6-7), this is a crucial factor in the idea of the poem. Human qualities are generally given to inanimate objects in literature as a way to portray them as intelligent, powerful beings. Subtlety is in fact the most important aspect of this poem; money is not an obvious danger, in fact it is ostensibly the opposite. By giving money the qualities of an intelligent, powerful being, but being very discreet about it, these two lines themselves contribute the most to the overall meaning of the poem.

Reflection:

I found the similes of this poem to be extremely effective in conveying the meaning of the poem. Having a fairly sufficient knowledge of and interest in biology, I really enjoyed the poet's concept of comparing money to four different types of living organisms. I also liked the fact that the word "money" is used only in the title of the poem and not mentioned once in the poem itself, but I believe that even without the title, just by the poet's use of language (especially "reciting softly to itself/ the names of the presidents" (6-7), subtley describing a physical characteristic of money without using the obvious qualities of its green color), one would be able to make the connection that the poem is about money.

#200 "Woman Work"

Analysis of Speaker/Rhyme/Meter:

Speaker: The speaker of this poem is a housewife/mother with a long list of responsibilities that she must tend to "I've got the children to tend/ The clothes to mend/ The floor to mop/ The food to shop..." (lines 1-4). She is becoming exhausted with all the work she must do, and wishes she could get a break from it all. "'Til I can rest again" (22) and "Let me rest tonight" (26).

Rhyme: The first stanza of the poem is fourteen lines long and unlike the four stanzas following it, it has a rhyme scheme of AABBCCDD, etc. By rhyming the stanza that lists the speaker's duties as a mother and housewife in this pattern and using a different pattern for the last four stanzas, which talk about her desire to escape from it all and rest, the poem suggests very obvious, predictable structure and order in the speaker's everyday life, contrary to the resting period that she wishes to have. The second, fourth, and fifth stanzas of the poem follow the rhyme scheme of ABCB, while the third stanza has no rhyming pattern. The common element of the second fourth and fifth stanzas is that they describe the gentle qualities of nature, "Fall softly, dewdrops" (17), "Fall gently, snowflakes" (23), "Sun, rain, curving sky" (27), a large contrast to the harsh and fast-paced nature of her daily life at home. The third stanza however, describes nature in a much harsher way than these other stanzas "Storm, blow me from here/With your fiercest wind" (19-20). This stanza, although it describes a harshness and a state of unrest, expresses the speaker's desire to escape from her daily routine in any way she can, even if it means "being taken away by storm."

Meter: The meter of this poem goes along with the rhyme scheme. The number of lines in each stanza reflects the speaker's different attitudes throughout the poem. In the first and longest stanza of the poem, there are seven pairs of rhyming lines, fourteen lines total. The length of this stanza suggests a very tiring, long work day as a housewife and mother for the speaker. The last four stanzas, on the contrary, are only four lines long each. These four stanzas all describe the poet's desire to get away from her busy routine, and this is expressed by making them much shorter and more manageable in contrast to the first stanza. Even the third stanza, which talks about fierceness of a storm, is shorter and easier than her daily life as one can visualize from the first stanza.

Analysis of 2 Literary Devices:

Personification- The speaker of this poem personifies the elements of nature such as a storm "Storm, blow me from here/ With your fiercest wind" (19-20), "Fall softly, dewdrops/ And cool my brow again" (17-18), "Cover me with white/ Cold icy kisses and/Let me rest tonight" (24-26). By giving these elements of nature the importance of being as humans, the speaker emphasizes her desire to be "rescued" by them from her daily life of work and exhaustion. "Star shine, moon glow/ You're all that I can call my own" (29-30). By speaking to the stars and the moon as if they are human, she expresses her gratitude that they are there for her unconditionally, that they are "all she can call her own."

Repetition- The two key words that are repeated in this poem are "Again" (18 and 22) and "Rest" (22 and 26). By repeating the word "again," both times using it to describe relief from the speaker's strenuous daily life, this implies that at one time in her life, she was not faced with this long list of responsibilities, and she longs to return to these days when life was less stressful and she could have the time to rest. The repetition of "rest," in the poem obviously implies the overall meaning of the poem, which is the speaker's desire to break away from her routine.

Reflection:

I found the most effective element of the poem to be the transition from literal, tangible ideas when the speaker is plainly describing her everyday busy life, to the descriptions of nature as figures to express her desires of escape and rest. I liked how the poet didn't make the poem more complex and difficult to interpret than it needed to be, and this factor itself contributed to the overall meaning of the poem, which is the speaker's longing to rest from her difficult tasks as a mother and housewife. The imagery of nature also gave the poem an effective, relaxing mood to it in the last four stanzas, and I found this to make the poem more enjoyable to read.