March 3rd will be the one year anniversary since I left Missouri. Interestingly enough, I left the state almost six months to the day after I left Arizona. I don’t think I realized this fact at the time, since my life was a bi...odd. . It’s February 13th as I write this and I can’t help but think about the weeks preceding my departure of the Show Me State. The year hasn’t been the easiest so far (It started out with me being run over by a gasless and driverless car and has been a roller coaster since) but it is nothing compared to what I was going through personally at the beginning of 2013. To understand where I was in the middle of February of last year, I have to give a bit about what went on before it.
My stay in Missouri was beset by struggle. I lived in a long term motel that was run by some very decent people. However, I kind of became trapped there. It was a temporary situation that became permanent because I couldn’t get enough funds up to leave. Most months I made between six hundred and eight hundred bucks. My rent, when I first got there, was around one seventy-five a week. That comes out to seven hundred a month. There were many months that I wouldn’t have eaten if not for the Grace of God and help of a few different people. It was a time where ten or twenty dollars meant I could eat instead of sitting in my room starving. I also slowly started to become really lonely and started to feel a bit cut off from society. Despite a good friend coming to visit me on occasion, this feeling wouldn’t go away.
Every single week in Missouri was a struggle. I rarely had a time where I could just relax and de-stress. I felt the burden building up on my shoulders like an invisible wall slowly being constructed on my b...
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...ll was very glad to get real breakfast food. After that I slept for six or seven hours. Waiting for my brother in that hotel room was the first time in years I felt no pressure or stress from life. I gotta admit that it was a wonderful feeling.
The next day my brother made it to Missouri and we started our thousand mile trip to Sayre, Pennsylvania.
I haven’t really thought about all this in detail since I moved back east. I left Missouri in a dark haze, my life experiment having gone awry. Yet, God has seen me through those times. I started thinking about what I went through because I’ve recently decided to start focusing on making money on my own writing. The time leading up to my leaving Missouri reminds me a little bit of how I’m feeling right now, but I am in a totally different place. However… I think I’ll leave my thoughts on that for another post.
The Wife of Bath’s Tale In the magical days when England was ruled by King Arthur, a young Knight was riding home when he saw a beautiful young maiden walking all alone in the woods and raped her. T his outrageous act created a great stir and King Arthur was petitioned for justice. The Knight was condemned to death according to the law and would have been beheaded if the queen had not mediated on his behalf. After many pleas for mercy King Arthur finally told the queen to decide the Knight’s
You are on a small boat, cramped with scruffy men outfitted in full combat gear. Nervous and pensive they shift about, while you stand and wonder, “What the hell is going to happen to me?” Suddenly, an older man yells, “Get ready! We’re going in!” The boat slows down, and a ringing bell goes off. The front ramp slowly opens forward…and then all hell breaks loose. A hail of bullets rips and thunders, tearing up your comrades into pieces of flesh and organs, spewing forth the liquid of life. Yet you
Capitol Punishment: Toy of Evil Men One might believe that because capital punishment plays such a large role in Charles Dickens’ A Tale Of Two Cities, that Dickens himself is a supporter of it. This just simply is not true. Dickens uses capitol punishment as a tool to define the evil embodied in both the French ruling class, and the opposing lower class during the French Revolution; as well as comment on the sheep-like nature of humankind. In the beginning of the novel, capital punishment serves
Squire's Tale The Squire's tale ends two lines into its third section, and following this abrupt termination is the "wordes of the Frankeleyn to the Squier." The Franklin praises the young Squire's attempt at a courtly romance and says that he wishes his own son was more like the Squire. This is followed by the "wordes of the Hoost to the Frankeleyn." Many critics believe that the words of the Franklin to the Squire are intended as an interruption of the tale that threatens
The Lover's Tale Whan that the goode Wif of Bathe hadde hir tale ytold, with ful light herte thought she, “Whan that I go again from Canterbury, Sekirly shalle I have a soper at the cost of alle.” Anoon a yonge lovere saide in parfit Englisch, “Lordings, now leten me tell the tale of most solas and best sentence.” The young lover paused for a moment: “Surely the tale would be much more enjoyable if we stop with all the Middle English.” The pilgrims nodded in agreement, wondering why they had
Miller's Tale and Merchant's Tale Alison in the Miller's Tale and May of the Merchant's Tale are similar in several ways. Both are young women who have married men much older than themselves. They both become involved with young, manipulative men. They also conspire to and do cuckold their husbands. This is not what marriage is about and it is demonstrated in both tales. What makes the Miller's Tale bawdy comedy and the Merchant's tale bitter satire is in the characterization. In the Miller's tale we
Chaucer introduces all of the characters who are involved in this fictional journey and who will tell the tales. One of the most interesting of the characters introduced is the Knight. Chaucer refers to the Knight as “a most distinguished man” and, indeed, his sketch of the Knight is highly complimentary. Another Knight seen in the “Canterbury Tales” is the rapist knight in the Wife of Bath’s Tale, who is not a very noble knight and doesn’t follow a chivalric code. This knight seems more realistic as
A Comparison of the Miller's Tale and the Knight's Tale It is common when considering The Canterbury Tales to discuss how some tales seem designed to emphasise the themes of others. Two such tales are the Miller's Tale2 and the Knight's Tale3. At first glance these two tales seem an incongruous pairing. The Knight's Tale is told by an eminent person, is an historical romance which barely escapes a tragic ending, and its themes are universal: the relationship of individuals to providence,
A Look at the Pardoner: the Genius of Chaucer The Canterbury Tales is a literary masterpiece in which the brilliant author Geoffrey Chaucer sought out to accomplish various goals. Chaucer wrote his tales during the late 1300’s. This puts him right at the beginning of the decline of the Middle Ages. Historically, we know that a middle class was just starting to take shape at this time, due to the emerging commerce industry. Chaucer was able to see the importance and future success of the middle
The Knight's Tale As the Knight begins his tale, which he embarks upon without preamble, we are instantly reminded of the stateliness of the Knight, his overwhelming human dignity and moral world view, which Chaucer described in the general prologue. The Knight is the epitome of a man of the first estate - noble and humble, courageous and gentle, a warrior and a saint. As befits his elevated class, he speaks with elegance and seriousness about the important attitudes and values that any
The Miller's Tale and The Reve's Tale "The Miller's Tale" and "The Reve's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales are very closely related. They both deal with the relationship between a jealous man, his wife, and a young scholar(s), and they both are immoral stories that contain sex and violence. This proves that the Miller and the Reeve are two very corrupt individuals. However, these tales also share some differences. For instance, the main character in "The Reeve's Tale" is a Miller
before fairy tales were recorded on paper, they were passed on through word of mouth from person to person. The term “fairy tale” is an English translation of “conte de fees” in which Madame D'Aulnoy referred to at the start of her tradition. Though fairy tales were originated in France in 1697, they are now widespread throughout the world. Fairy tales of course are not realistic; the dead come alive, animals talk, rugs fly, and so on. Children and occasionally adults look up to fairy tales not only
of the Catholic Church in the Summoner’s Tale and the Prioress’s Tale Many pilgrims in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales held a religious position. Some of these people’s personal ideas have caused debates and criticism over Chaucer’s opinion of the Catholic Church. Critics have discussed the ideas that were presented both subtly and openly. Two of the pilgrims and their tales will be discussed: the Prioress and the Pardoner. Both of these tales offer points of criticism in the Catholic
Love in The Knight's Tale, Wife of Bath's Tale, and Franklin's Tale The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer around 1386, is a collection of tales told by pilgrims on a religious pilgrimage. Three of these tales; "The Knight's Tale", "The Wife of Bath's Tale", and "The Franklin's Tale", involve different kinds of love and different love relationships. Some of the loves are based on nobility, some are forced and some are based on mutual respect for each partner.
Women in the Merchant's Tale and the Manciple's Tale The Wife of Bath's extraordinary prologue gives the reader a dose of what is sometimes missing in early male-written literature: glimpses of female subjectivity. Women in medieval literature are often silent and passive, to the extent that cuckolding is often seen as something one man (the adulterer) does to another (the husband). Eve Sedgwick argues in Between Men that in many literary representations, women are playing pieces or playing