Blog #28: Open Prompt Revision 4

1987. Some novels and plays seem to advocate changes in social or political attitudes or in traditions. Choose such a novel or play and note briefly the particular attitudes or traditions that the author apparently wishes to modify. Then analyze the techniques the author uses to influence the reader's or audience's views. Avoid plot summary.

    During the time in which Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice, marriage customs were much different than those of today. Young woman were expected to marry older men only for the purpose of reproduction and the accumulation of wealth. However, Austen sought to change this standard and create a marriage the contains love and a true desire to be with each other. By creating relationships between characters that are foreign and unusual of her time and the tone used throughout the novel, Austen attempts to persuade readers that the marriage standards of her time needed to be changed. 

     One marriage custom of Austen’s time was marriage within families. Although this idea differs from that of our time, in the nineteenth century it was deemed acceptable for two cousins to get married to each other. This type of relationship can be found in Pride and Prejudice. In the novel, when Mr. Collins comes to town he decides to marry one of the Bennett girls, his cousins. After much thought and consideration, Mr. Collins decides to propose to Elizabeth, who ultimately rejects his proposal even though she had no other suitable prospects at the time. Mr. Collins goes on to marry Charlotte Lucas, with whom he was not related to. Although marriage between cousins was allowed at the time, Austen’s decision to have Elizabeth reject her cousin was deliberate in showing her disapproval of the custom and her tendency to agree with the need for change in marriage. Because Mr. Collins ends up with a woman that was of his own social class and that was not related to him Austen shows something that she may want to see in a marriage. 

     Although Mr. Darcy has the option to marry whomever he wants, he chooses to marry Elizabeth Bennet even though she is of a lower social class than he. She has significantly less money, her family name is not one that is important to carry on to further generation and in the beginning, shows no interest at all in Mr. Darcy. Darcy fights to win Elizabeth, and in time he does. The love-struck couple soon decides to get married and not worry about the financial and social difference between the two. This was not like many relationships of the nineteenth century. Typically men of the time would marry rich women for their money and status in order to maintain their own family status and inherit the wealth of their wife.. Mr. Darcy however does neither of the two by marrying Elizabeth. With this relationship the key components of a modern day marriage are present. This is very similar to the relationship depicted by Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, showing a strong resemblance to marriages of modern times and Austen’s probable approval of marriages now.
        The tone that Austen uses throughout the novel seem to mock the ideas of the time. In the first pages of the book, Austen pokes fun at the over-bearing tendency of parents of the 19th century by showcasing a conversation between the parents of the Bennet girls. The tone of the conversation is highly critical and harsh towards not only the girls but the parents as well. The tone of the first line of the novel also draws attention to the disapproval that Austen comes to show throughout the rest of her novel. The ironic tone and nature of her first line regarding how all women want a man to marry showcases the theme of the rest of the book, that love isn't always what people thought it would be.

      The relationships shown is this novel defy the standards of 19th century marriage and are a cry of help from Austen asking for change. Not only does Austen defy the standards, she creates many solutions as to what a marriage should look and be like. Though risky at the time, Austen work foreshadowed the marriage concepts of our time and possibly inspired the change.

Blog #27: Ceremony Summary and Analysis

Ceremony: Summary

Author: Leslie Marmon Silko

Setting: Set after World War Two after Tayo comes home from the war taking place a Laguna Pueblo reservation in New Mexico. Some flashbacks do occur taking place in the Philippines during WW2 and other past events in Tayo's life.

Plot: After fighting in WW2, Tayo returns home to a Laguna Pueblo reservation. Once arriving home Tayo must deal with the PTSD (although that's not what the novel calls it) and to bring the rain back to his community. The first flashback appears when Tayo is fighting in WW2, he believed that he saw his uncle Josiah's face in a group of Japanese soldiers he was supposed to shoot, this led Tayo to become mentally unstable during his time in the war. After staying at a hospital to recover, Tayo is allowed to go back home to his family at the reservation. Once returning to the reservation, Tayo feels guilt for the drought occurring, believing it is his fault due to him begging for the rain to cease during the war.

Beside Tayo, other Native Americans fought in the war as well.  Harley, Leroy, Emo, and Pinkie were a few of Tayo's friends that also fought and also came home with the same mental trauma that Tayo faced. These boys only point of the difference between the white people and Native Americans, which is a big problem in Tayo's mind. To help Tayo recover from his mental troubles, Ku'oosh is called to perform a ceremony to help Tayo return to his original mental state, but it is feared that it won't work. After the ceremony, the novel opens up the events of Tayo's past. His cloes relationship with Rocky before his death, the relationship between Josiah and the Night Swan, and the cattle that Josiah and Tayo tended to. Persuaded by the Night Swan, Tayo performs a ceremony to make the rain come again. Tayo is then seduced by the Night Swan. Back in the future, it becomes clear that the ceremony to cure Tayo didn' work. He is then sent to see Betonie who is thought to be able to help Tayo more.  Learning of  Tayo problems, Betonie creates a new ceremony to help Tayo heal. Throughout this process, Tayo learns much about the Native American culture through Betonie.

With the ceremony still in progress, Tayo begins the "hunt" for his Uncle Josiah's cattle. On the way to finding the cattle, Tayo mets Ts'eh and then finds the cattle in a pasture. The cattle run away from the pasture but after honoring the mountain lion and meeting the hunter, the cattle are found again at Ts'eh's house. Finding the cattle however, does not end the drought. Tayo then returns the ranch with Ts'eh where he soon learns that Emo has sent to police after him. Tayo is able to avoid the police, however he must still run from the wrath of Emo, who has joined forces with Harley and Leroy. In order to hide from Emo, Tayo hides in a uranium mine where he discovers that this is the last step of completing the ceremony. From his hiding spot, Tayo sees Emo and Pinkie kill Harley. After making it through the night, Tayo returns to see Ku'oosh and completes the ceremony.

Significant Characters:
-Tayo- Main character of the novel, suffers through PTSD, must find a way to bring the rain back to his reservation through the completion of a ceremony.
-Betonie- Creates a new ceremony to help Tayo bring the rain back to the Laguna Pueblos, very knowledgeable in Native American culture.
-Josiah- Tayo's uncle who's death is never clear to the reader. The major father figure in Tayo's life, who continues to affect it even after his death.
-Emo, Leroy, Pinkie, Harley- Tayo's friends from the war and Laguna Pueblo that also suffer through PTSD, Emo ends up killing Harley in front of Tayo as he hides in the cave.
-Ts'eh- helps Tayo find Josiah's cattle and helps Tayo avoid the police in order for him to complete the ceremony.
-Ku'oosh- The old medicine man that sends Tayo to see Betonie, believe is traditional Laguna Pueblo culture.

Narrative Voice: 3rd person narrative, with an occasional poem in first person

Author's Style: The author uses a lot of diction and figurative language to help make the text seem more interesting and intriguing to the reader. Overall, this novel did not have a specific tone other than the changes between the different scenes of Tayo's life. This tone is mostly shown through a change in the syntax, which switches from typical poems to different forms of poems that correspond with the events occurring in the prose. Other techniques that are used are similes, metaphors, parallelism, repetition, and symbolism. The actions of characters were very clear because of the narration that was used throughout the novel. The third person narrative provides clear directions for the movement and the events occurring with the characters throughout the novel. Motifs and symbols were heavily relied on. Some of the most frequent included circles, colors, and the animals, all adhering to typical Native American customs.

Quotes:

-Quote 1- "Nothing was all good or all bad either; it depended." Probably my favorite quote of the novel. I think that it describes life perfectly and how everything is not all good or all bad, it just depends on how you look at it. I think in essence this quote is saying that life is what you make of it and if you want to find the good or bad in something you can.

-Quote 2- "Here they were, trying to bring back that old feeling, that feeling they belonged to America the way they felt during the war." This quote shows one of the main themes of the book, the importance of the need to combine the Native American and white person culture. This quote shows the desire of the Laguna Pueblo's that fought in the war to be a part of the white man's culture. Through Tayo's disapproval of this quote Silko's desire from integration can be detected. 

Theme: The integration of the Native American and white culture is very important for society to proceed efficiently.

Support of Theme: Syntax is used to show this theme quite often. Long lengthy sentences seem as if the are woven together just like that of a web that is meant to bring together the two cultures. The blurring of memories also achieves a similar effect. The hard distinction between memories is meant to show how the two cultures should blend together in order to create a complete society. Another way that Silko supports this theme is through her extensive detail of the Laguna Pueblo culture. The detail that the author goes into, shows the white people the importance of the culture in order to bring them closer together.

Blog #26: Response to Course Materials 8

After quickly finishing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, we began our study of the novel Ceremony. Finally, for the first time this year, we moved on to a real novel, no longer working with plays. At first, I was very happy to be reading our first novel, but after beginning to read the firs few pages, I discovered that I did not like this novel at all. I found the constant shift of time and the consistent use of circles to be annoying and made the book uninteresting and confusing to me. Another aspect that I struggled with, was the narrative this novel was put in. My favorite novels tend to be in first person narrative, and Ceremony was in third person which made deciphering the events even harder to do. 

It seemed like as soon as we started Ceremony, we finished it. I was very happy about that. Just a few days after finishing we began reading Fifth Business, another novel. This novel on the other hand, I really enjoyed. It moved at the right speed and have a very definite story line that was easy to follow. Many of the aspects of this novel remind me of Catcher in the Rye. The familiarity helped me differentiate what could be information given by an unreliable narrator.

Finally, we had a class presentation on Carl Jung. I found this very interesting. All of the different types of personalities were very interesting and applicable to the events and characters in the Fifth Business.