Vardaman Character Analysis

Vardaman is the youngest of the family, the baby Bundren. He is by far the most immature and is very innocent in many of his actions. He is the best representation of a simplicity in the book, as he is the youngest and the most innocent and has the least idea of what is going on around him. He is in essence the most oblivious, not due to inattentiveness, but sheer misunderstanding or lack of understanding of what is occurring. His lack of understanding in the world is shown best by his reaction to death. He views of death are very basic, and they aren't so much as something has died, but that they are not alive. He can recognize a change and knows that it is not a good thing, but he lacks the acknowledgment that they are dead, they are not what they used to be, such as a not fish or not mother. This pushes his views of his mothers death into a violent manner as the only other death he has experienced was the death of that fish, which he killed and and "cleaned" with an axe (in reality he actually hacked it into bits with the axe) This gives his views of death a violent and harsh tone that causes him to react violently to his mothers death, as death to him is supremely based on his violent killing of the fish. His line "my mother is a fish" is a simple statement that shows just how innocent he is and his misunderstanding of death. The best analysis for vardaman comes from this association as it shows that he is simple and mixed up soul who knows what he knows and doesn't know what he doesn't know.He doesnt know what death is and so has no idea what to make of it, and infers best he can on past experiences that he has had, which are few. Vardaman is a quaint person, who stands for what is in front of him, he doesnt think, he only reactes, which is the gift and curse of his age. His age we can infer from the fish that he killed, which poured out of his arms as he carried it. As many fish arent larger than a full grown man or even a teenager, we can tell that he is infact a young boy.

Red Fox

In Margaret Atwood’s red fox we see the use of conceit to portray a sense of savage actions that humans take in life, and diction to highlight specific characteristics of that conceit. We are humans savage and cunning to get a scrap of food and survival.
The conceit in this poem is very clearly the red fox, hence the title, as carrier for the symbol of humans, and the savage things we do as humans. The first stanza shows that the fox is not bothered by what is going on in her life, but only focused on one thing, survival. This is compared to how when humans see something that they lust after, that they think they need and desire, they don’t stop to wonder about the collateral damage that could b done and just focus on attaining that goal.
Another notable instance of this conceit and diction is in the third stanza where the speaker talks of the slyness and the lies that this trickster can tell. This shows that humans are liars and tricksters to get what they want, and are as sly as the Grinch to get it. This further highlights the savageness of humans and how we will do anything to get what we want, to get what we think we need to survive.
Another wonderful instance of diction that adds to this conceit is the line about the white knife of a smile. This shows that humans ill be nice and sly when they are trying to get what they want, but when they don’t get it they will turn on you and stab you in the back. Behind every nice gesture is a dangerous and savage motivation that drives the human to act.
The key line that underlines the thesis is “hunger corrupts, and absolute hunger corrupts absolutely”. This beautifully shows the savage nature of animals and beasts when survival is brought into the question, and for humans, for Americans, survival is the material worth that we often kill for. This line best shows that the human being is a savage monster that will do anything when it wants to get something of value that it desires.
Red fox by Margaret Atwood is a wonderful social commentary on what we as humans have become. She shows this through her use of conceit and diction to show humans as savage conniving creatures that will do anything to get what they want, and to survive.

Blackberry picking by Seamus Heaney

In Black Berry picking by Seamus Heaney we see the speaker reminisce about the childhood memories he has about picking will black berries. we see him recalling the beauty and the joy of picking them and delighting on the sweet flesh. We then see the speaker turn from unbridled joy to sadness as the berries are devoured by mold, and his acceptance of this, thier sad fate. Below the surface the speaker is actually commenting on the fact that in life it take time to reach our prime, and once we are there, we love it and experience a nirvana never before experienced, and it seems like it will never and, then just when you least expect it, you have began to age and your body decay, and although you wich it to never happen, you realize that its part of life and accept it. He does, namely, this through the uses of structure, imagery, and symbolism.
Heaney uses structure to show the transitions of life with the breaks in stanzas. The first stanza, or more like paragraph, is long and very descriptive, mostly emphasizing the prime of ones life, as it is full of beautiful imagery and its lasts a very long time without changing topics, it stays on how wonderful it is that the blackberries are ripe (blackberries act as a symbol for ones life). This is then contrasted with the second stanza, which is significabtly shorter, which talks about the decaying of the berries, and thus our life. The shortness and the topic of the second stanza signifies how in life, when we reach our end, it comes abruptly, and while we know that it is coming it alsways come too soon and is over too quickly.
Imagery is also used to show the progress of ones in and out of ones prime. When we first are in our lives we have obviously not hit our prime, we are still maturing, still ripening, just like the "bunches of red and green ones that were hard as knots". Then when we begin to matuer, we ripen likle the berries, and just as the berries become sweet like summers blood, we find the beauty in ourselves and have the time of our lives. then as we die and age, we begin to decay like the berries, and realize that nothing is forever, and the good times do eventually end.
Imagery is probably the most widely used literary technique in this peom. It is the basis for all of my interpretation as they provide the evidence for the interpretation that the poem is about the passage of time through one life and ones prime. THis largest use of symbolism is the use of barries as a symbol for ones life, and the transformation fot eh berries symbolizes the transformation of someones life through stages in and out of ones prime over a period of time.
Blakc berry picking is one of my personal favorites of Heaney. His use of structure, imagery, and symbolism create a passage of time through ones life in and out of ones prime, and also add to my personal thoughts on this poem.

"Punishment" by Seamus Heaney

In punishment by Seamus Heaney, the author uses diction, and enjambment to underline the feeling of a distant and disconnected intimacy between the speaker and and victim in the poem. The poem itself is about the young women that is found in a peat bog compressed under branches and stones who is naked and was killed for being an adulteress. This alludes to not only the historical finding of a girl in a peat bog that had been there 2,000 years, but also a reference to an adulteress being tied to lampost and being tarred and feather. The two situations were ocmbined into Heaneys punishment.
When reading a peom, you can determine alot about the poem from its structure. The most obvius example of literary structue is enjambment, which is the breaking of clauses between lines of verses(stanzas in this case). This shows the distance between the two, the speaker and the victim, as the broken thoughts between stanzas shows a disregard for intimacy and closeness, and is written in a form of broken thoughts. These breaking of thoughts show the distancing between the two as the speaker is reluctant to break convention and what is a set stencil of the peom for his lover/the adulteress.
Diction is used to not only create intimacy, but also show a distancing between the speaker and the vctim. Intimacy is creatd between the two the the uses of sexual an dintimate word such a nipples, beauty, adulteress(passion), and finally intimacy in the last few lines. This shows that there was some connection between the two and they were close. He also speaks of her in a possesive voice as if she is his. This further highlights the closensess between the two. Diction however also creates a distancing between the two as he almost objectively describes how she was found. He seems to be using a catalouging technique as if he were writing and article about her, thus, as journalists write, he reports the information devoid of emotion.
Seamus Heaney's Punishment has both and intimate and as distanced feel to it. This is created through the diction of the poem and the enjambment of the stanzas. The reasoning for this could but multitudinous. The speaker could have been ashamed for being invloved with an adulteress, and not want to tarnish his name. He could have had his heart broken by the victim and although he hated her for it, he still had a feeling of longing and forlorn for her. All we can deduce is there is an internal struggle on the part of the speaker that is harnessed in the thoughts and feelings captured in the poem.

Death be not Proud

In death be not proud we see excellent uses of cataloging and diction to show the mocking of death, and to belittle his power and reasons to fear him. The speaker in this poem, who may be john Donne and who may not be John Donne, we can never really tell, uses diction to bring top light reasons to not fear death, and to show death as less of a powerful being, and more of a weak servant. then later we see uses of cataloging to reinforce this theme of mockery towards death as told by the speaker.
Diction is used to mock death in many instances. First of all we see the uses of rest and sleep as the pictures and instruments of death. this is because when we see dead people, they look peaceful and almost as if they are sleeping. This takes the fear out of death as sleep is a happy and wonderful thing that i personally look forward to, and if sleep is an instrument of death, how can we fear it? Then later down towards the end of the peom, we see that we have but one short sleep and then we wake enternally. this means that we die only briefly and are then born into heaven and all its glory, or something along those lines, as John Donne was christian. this takes even more fear and stigma away from death as he take us to heaven, and how can anything that takes us to such a fabled, beautiful place be scary or bad?
Catalouging is used to destroy the power that death lords over us. This is done in the middle of the peom with the line "thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men". this line clearly says that death is a slave, and because he is a slave to the action of kings and desperate men, key word desperate, and forces such as fate and chance, how can he have any real power. Death makes nothing happen, he only reactes to what has been done, thus he is merely the bus boy of life. The next instance of catalouging is seen in the very next line where death is said to dwell with poison, war and sickness. As he is among poison war and sickness, he is not among good company, and has a horrible existence, thus he has no power, and in fact is pitied by the reader.
I personally really like death be not proud as it was pretty straight forward and although it was still a peom, i wasnt totally lost in the language, which in most of Donne's poems holds me back from the understanding them. I personally theorize that the speaker could actually mocking death, or he could be trying to belittle death for his own sake as he actually fears death and is reassuring himself and trying to improve his own confidence.

The Good Morrow

John Donne's The Good Morrow uses wonderful diction, word choice, to highlight the he was just drifting through life until he met his true love. We see this play out in all three stanzas, and overall it creates the tone of being lost and walking with a blindfold until love open his eyes to the world. This word choice leads to the eventual poetic voice which he uses to show his desire for love, and how his life really inst a life until he has met his love.
The Good Morrow narrates Donne's feelings towards love, and of love for his significant other. I personally think that it does so in a very round about way that befuddles the reader, but that is just my personal opinion. Diction plays a very large part in The Good Morrow, and it creates the overall meaning of the poem like pieces of a puzzle. In the first stanza we see hsi diction showing the meaninglessness of his life until he found love with " i wonder, by my troth, what thou and i did, till we loved?" he is wondering what his life consisted of and what meaning his life had before he found his love, showing that life without love is not life at all. Another instance in the first stanza of diction reinforcing the theme of this poem is near the bottom when he says that any beauty he saw prior to his love was just a dream of her, his lover.
The second stanza further underlines the theme of being lost when with out love with all the references to discoveries and maps. He discovered what life was like when he discovered love. the sentence "let maps to others, world on worlds have shown..." this says that he discovered a true life, a new world, with the help of a map, and that without that map he had nos sense of direction.
Finally, in the third stanza, the references to the hemispheres further brings to light how he was not complete and his life had no meaning without love. He was one hemisphere and his lover, his partner, was the other hemisphere, creating a complete, new world.
The Good Morrow speaks to Donne's romantic side, and also his philosophical nature. This unravels to the reader through the diction of the poem, which illuminates that in life we are ever moving, ever discovering, but we only begin to understand and respect the gift of life when we are given the gift of love. Donne has received love, and as such he has seen the difference between a life with and without love.

Acte de Résistance

My personal act of resistance was not the most clever, but my personal version took some cajones. On black friday, when i was at my grandmothers house, which is in conservative territory, i spent about 2-3 hours at the local shopping mall, and by local i mean the largest one that was available, and protested people going shopping on black friday, in order to let people know that they don't have to be pulled into the shopping ploys and marketing scheme like cattle to a slaughterhouse, and that by supporting businesses that use near slave labor, and in some cases real slave labor, to get cheap products, they are only furthering our social debt to humanity. I of course thought about printing off pamphlets, but before printing off huge amounts, i sent out a control group, and the response was resounding, they were all thrown into the garbage and into the street. It was then that i decided that not to hand out any more pamphlets, as they would just add to our environmental crisis, as well as they were difficult to make and cut. I personally felt that i tried hard, and froze my ass off, but it wasn't all that successful. I think i may have jumped in too deep too quickly as i was resisting outside of a very conservative areas shopping center, and i wasn't prepared for what it would take. One thing that i would like to comment on was that i loved the rush i got from informing people of their choices and what is wrong with the status quo, and i would definitely protest again, and hopefully very soon, if anyone knows of any protests, let me know, for what cause, and when i will try to be there.