Universality and the Particular
“History,” Gilman writes, “is, or should be, the story of our racial life” (Gilman 216). Eliot is a bit less succinct, but perhaps he could be most pithily summed up as saying: “The business of the poet is not to find new emotions, but to use the ordinary ones and, in working them up into poetry, to express feelings which are not in actual emotions at all” (Eliot 1919, 23). It is not immediately evident what either author means by these statements, however, they both contain the core of the argument. Both authors have their individual aims and intents with their writings, however, in spite of the differences, their arguments find more common ground than disagreement. Their terminology is certainly different, but they see the purpose and aims of literature as by and large the same.
Literature, according to Gilman, originated as the “legitimate child of oral tradition, a product of natural brain activity” (218). Implicit in this, and made explicit elsewhere, is that literature is inherently a form of communication. And, “since our very life depends on some communication,” Gilman indicates very strongly that literature, both in its ancestry and in its current incarnation, provides an extremely important role in our existence” (218). She elaborates on this notion of communication, however, and specifies that a “passionate interest in other people’s lives…is the most vital art” (218). To her, the expression of the “great field of human life” is the task of all literature and is crucial to the very existence of society (218). We can presume that there is some bias in her argument, as people tend to think highly of their chosen craft. The essential element, however, is Gilman’s focus on th...
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...e essentially expansionist, forcing the borders outwards to include women in literature. Eliot, on the other hand, seems to be moving inward and examining and rejecting a certain type of reader, a certain type of poet. However, both, ultimately see literature as capturing the entirety of the human existence. The mechanism for doing so in their arguments differ greatly, but the intent and the final goals are the same. Where one speaks of the human soul, the other speaks of impersonality and mean the same thing.
Works Cited
Eliot, T.S. “The Impersonality of Poetry.” Issues in Contemporary Critical Theory: A Casebook. Ed. Peter Barry. London: Macmillan, 1987. 23.
Eliot, T.S. “Hamlet and His Problems.” Hamlet. Ed. Cyrus Hoy. New York: W.W. Norton, 1963. 180-184.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Writings. New York: Bantam, 1989.
John Cheever does not merely state the theme of his story, he expresses his theme, as a good writer should, in a variety of metaphors and analogies coupled with powerful imagery. In The Swimmer, Cheever writes and underscores his primary theme of alcoholism in many ways, such as his use of autumnal imagery and the color green. However, there is also some very prominent symbolism and allusions that serve to highlight the theme while also augmenting the artistic and poetic nature of the story. One very important use of symbolism is in the “perverted sacraments” as originally pointed out by Hal Blythe in 1984. Along side these symbols, Hal Blythe, along with Charlie Sweet, later discovered a clear allusion to Ponce de Leòn in 1989.
Shakespeare, William. "Hamlet." Madden, Frank. Exploring Literature. 4th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. Print 539-663
Hamlet (The New Folger Library Shakespeare). Simon & Schuster; New Folger Edition, 2003.
Seymour Glass is a war veteran on vacation with his wife Muriel. He seems to suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome because of the war. He recently has tried to commit suicide twice. Once by driving his father-in-law's car into a tree and again by trying to jump out a window. J.D. Salinger's story, "A Perfect Day for Bananafish," seems to be a simple story about a couple on vacation in Florida and his encounter with a child named Sybil on the beach. Seymour's relationship with Sybil after further examination allows one to see that what really is taking place is Seymour's search for truth and innocence in the world.
Cheever, John W. “The Swimmer.” Charters, Ann. Story and Its Writer. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. Print.
This long poem consists of the narrator musing to an unknown audience, expressing his frustrations in a complex way. This poem, like others of Eliot’s, is hard to interpret and typically has a deep unseen meaning. It is thought to be a narration about a man and his issues. According to some, it is thought that to be a criticism of “Edwardian society” and the narrator’s problem is that he cannot find reasonable idea for himself to live. This poem, along with The Wasteland, is considered to be the beginning of Modernist poetry. Before these poems existed, most all poetry was Romanticism and Augustan poetry.
A Perfect Day For Bananafish was written in 1948 by the American writer Jerome David Salinger. This was just three years after the ending of World War II, where Salinger was stationed in Berlin, Germany. From further analysis of the short-story I have come to the conclusion that Seymour is Salinger’s role model. Seymour has just returned from World War II, as well as Salinger had when he wrote the story. Seymour returns to his native country very confused, dysfunctional and with some psychic issues.
The world is in a large era of capitalistic wealth and materialistic gain. Every day it is shoved into the faces of the masses to consume what is being made, what is being sold, and what is trending. In a society where vanity and materialism go hand in hand, it is easy to forget other people in your life; thus, leading to neglecting those around you. In the story “A Perfect Day For Bananafish,” J. D. Salinger employs the devices of symbolism using the Bananafish suggesting mental illness and consumerism, a restricted third-person narration showing miscommunication, and contrasting characterization exemplifying vanity versus being pure. Salinger asserts how this materialistic world creates a perfect environment for neglect by being too busy in your own self and gossip to notice or really care about anyone around you. In turn, this can lead to the neglected to seek out some form of relief;
In her poem, Poetry, Marianne Moore writes, poets create “imaginary gardens with real toads in them.”(439). The quotation in the poem suggests that the poet’s works reflect her personality, experiences, and creativeness. In other words, a poet cannot be completely separate from her own works because her experiences come alive through her works. Unlike Marianne Moore, T.S. Eliot takes a different approach to his work and his experiences. He claims that a good poet is supposed to be able to separate himself from his works so that it does not reflect his personality. In addition, he believes that poet’s mind is a mere facilitator that incorporates his experiences and various ideas. Besides their approaches to their own works, the two poets
“April is the cruelest month, bleeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.”-T.S Eliot. Eliot was one of the giants of 20th century literature. Eliot helped define the contours of modern poetry in the early 20th century. Most of T.S Eliot’s poems are based on religion. Eliot began to write because of the depression of his father’s death. Eliot’s depression caused him to suffer writer’s block. His depression did not allow him to appreciate the greater things in life, but he still continued to be successful. Eliot, the youngest of seven children, attended Smith Academy when he was sixteen. Eliot was introduced to a girl through one of his friends and later married her, Eliot had many accomplishments (Garraty, John and Mark C. Carnes, eds. Eliot’s Life and Career).
The beginning of “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” starts of with . Right from the get go we find the story introducing the fatally consumerist American. The story goes onto describe a girl wearing a Saks blouse reading a pocket-sized magazine called “Sex is Fun-or Hell”. Here, it...
Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot on Modernism On Ezra Pound’s quote on modernism, he claims that "the modern age wants a literature that reflects an image of itself: "accelerated" and mass produced ("a mould in plaster/Made with no loss of time) as well as superficial." This means that today’s society wants a literature that resembles itself, fast paced and shallow. Society want literature that is direct and straightforward simply because people find it too "time consuming" to think for themselves. They would rather resort to the "work" already being done for them. Instead of experiencing the true beauty of literature and the arts, they would rather use "Cliffs’ Notes ("the classics in paraphrase")." As a result of various "time savers," the people of the modern age are left without the feelings that only reading the literature itself would provide. The people are hollow, dehumanized, and utterly superficial. Society lacks creativity and originality. The people are left numbed in the sea of clones. They fail to give acknowledgement or praise to those who do dare to be different and unique. Instead, they are cast out from society for being different. Ezra Pound states that, "Introspection ("the obscure reveries/of the inward gaze") in this age is unthinkable." This means that the people are afraid to examine their own thoughts and feeling because they are afraid of what they will see. T.S. Eliot’s works, "Preludes," "The Hollow Men," and "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" substantiate Ezra Pound’s statement. "Preludes," by T.S. Eliot, is a literary work depicting city life. Although it was written some time ago, it contains a universal theme and is applicable even in today’s world. Eliot expresses the lonely, isolationist environment of the city. The people of the city seem dull, dreary, fatigued, and lifeless. The city dwellers repeat their daily mechanical routines; there is no change or break in the cycle. They come home tired and worn out from a day’s work, sleep, wake up, head towards coffee stands for a jolt of energy, and off they are to work again. Eliot expresses that people put on false fronts so that people do n...
Corum, Richard. Understanding Hamlet: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1998. Print.
Eliot's poem with its abstract imagery, incoherent stanza structures, and attention to the concepts of individualism and alienation is a clear example of literary modernism. His "love song" exists as a poetic commentary on his society, critical of the frivolites of the upper-class socialites and sympathetic toward the members of society who felt the intense isolation that results from, essentially, not "fitting in", and in a society dominated by wealthy tycoons and modern industry, Eliot used his skill to challenge the ideals of the ruling class and to draw attention to the most simplistic, yet modern, concept of all: the individual.
Yeats and Eliot are two chief modernist poet of the English Language. Both were Nobel Laureates. Both were critics of Literature and Culture expressing similar disquietude with Western civilization. Both, prompted by the Russian revolution perhaps, or the violence and horror of the First World War, pictured a Europe that was ailing, that was literally falling apart, devoid of the ontological sense of rational purpose that fuelled post-Enlightenment Europe and America(1). All these similar experience makes their poetry more valuable to compare and to contrast since their thoughts were similar yet one called himself Classicist(Eliot) who wrote objectively and the other considered himself "the last Romantic" because of his subjective writing and his interest in mysticism and the spiritual. For better understanding of these two poets it is necessary to mention some facts and backgrounds on them which influenced them to incorporate similar (to some extent) historical motif in their poetry.