Friday, September 6, 2013

The Lost Doll

Maria Del Carmen is the only child of Roberto and Rosa Soto. She is beautiful, right, kind and loving child. However, she is sick from the day of her birth. As time passes, she becomes more and more weak and finally she dies when she turns four. Since everyone in the village loves the child, all of them attend her funeral. They bury the child in the cemetery outside the village.

After some days, Rosa gives Carmen’s clothes and playthings to the priest from another village. She gives them so that she will be able to forget Carmen easily. Moreover, the doctor says that she won’t be able to give birth to another baby after Carmen. But Roberto doesn’t become happy to hear this. He wants to save the things because he still hopes that Rosa will give birth to another child. He consoles her that because Rosa was busy in taking care of Carmen, god didn’t send her another child. Roberto then remembers the doll with which Carmen often used to play and asks Rosa whether she has given that doll too. But Rosa says the doll was not with other things. They search for the doll everywhere but they can’t find it.

Rosa becomes pregnant and on the first anniversary of the death of Carmen she gives birth to another baby. It was good news for them so the priest also gives the name ‘Evangelina’ to the child which means good news. As Evangelina grows up she looks more and more like Carmen. Her actions and characters are also similar to her sister. The only difference is that Evangelina is healthy. One day, when Evangelina turns four, she asks her mother whether she was sick for a long time back. But the mother says it was not she but her sister was sick. Evangelina insists that she remembers it very well and also asks her auntie about it. She also adds that she had a doll with blue eyes and red dress and she had put it under a big tree in the yard. She then takes them to that place and asks to dig there. When they dig the ground they find the doll there. Rosa can’t believe her eyes and becomes speechless. But when Rosa’s sister asks Evangelina to tell everything about what she remembers, she says that when she was sick the priest prayed with his hand on her head. Then she went to sleep. A real nice man woke her up and took her. But he didn’t allow her to take the doll with her. So, she put the doll under the tree. Rosa becomes shocked when she hears the whole story.

This is the story of reincarnation or rebirth in which Carmen is reborn as Evangelina. She is not only reborn but remembers everything that happened to her in her previous life.

The House Call

It is a day after Christmas, 1903, 9:30 in the evening. A famous German Surgeon, Dr. Emil Braun is sitting in the dining room of his apartment in Berlin. He had performed and supervised difficult surgical operations that day for more than eight hours. So, he is trying to write notes and have dinner also. But he is too tired so he becomes asleep on the table. He wakes up when he hears a doorbell and also hears a girl saying to his wife that her mother is very sick. The doctor then goes to the door and there he sees a thin little girl wearing cotton dress, old shoes and shawl. The girl wants to take the doctor because her mother was dying. Though the doctor was very tired, he becomes ready to make a house call because he is very dutiful.

The doctor picks up his black bag and goes out in the night. In the light rain he follows the girl but the girl walks very fast in the street. She stops only at each corner for a moment to see if the doctor is coming. The doctor tries to catch up with her to ask few questions but he can’t meet her. The girl takes him through the poorest part of Berlin to an old tenement house. Then she starts to climb the stairs of the house. There also the doctor follows her but could not catch up. Finally they reach the fifth floor. Standing in front of a doorway she says that her mother is in the room. She thanks the doctor and the doctor also thanks her for being obedient daughter and enters the room.

In the dim light, he sees a woman lying in a bed. He recognizes the woman as Elda who once worked as maintenance staff at the hospital. He also finds she was suffering from pneumonia and gives some medicine. Elda had gone to the country to live with her brother and the doctor didn’t know that she is back. He starts talking to Elda and tells her that her daughter is much bigger whom she had sent the night to call him. But Elda says that she came to the city after her daughter died of flu in September before three months. She also shows the shawl and shoed of the little girl which she has kept to remember her daughter. The doctor becomes very surprised and looks around the room. But he can’t find the girl. When he closely looks at the shoe and shawl he finds them wet too. Elda says that the doctor is mistaken about her daughter. The doctor agrees and doesn’t say anything to Elda about what happened that night and when Elda becomes asleep he comes out of the room.

The little girl of the story can be taken as the spirit of Elda’s daughter who perhaps hears the praying of her sick mother and comes out of the grave. She takes Dr. Braun to her mother and returns back to the grave.

Fear

Fear is a psychological story from Mexico with Armando Gonzalez as its main character. The story examines how baseless fear results in nervousness and how things get worse when people become unnecessarily nervous.

Armando goes to a bank in Mexico to withdraw 50000 pesos. He has a dream to buy a house with this money. The bank teller asks unnecessary questions and counts the money loudly which helps to increase Armando’s fear. As he leaves the bank he puts his hat on backwards due to nervousness. A number of people look at him and a heavy man looks at Armando twice in the bank.

Armando starts sweating with fear because he thinks that somebody is going to rob him. His mouth becomes dry and his heart starts beating faster. He holds the wad of money tightly because the amount he had was the whole world to him and his family. As they had many people to feed, the couple has earned the money with great difficulty. Their dream is to buy a house to live which will be a house that they could call their own. It will be the happiest day of their life. But the dream is in danger now because Armando thinks that he could be robbed at any moment and the dream would be stolen from him. He regrets having not taken the cheque.

As Armando waits for the right bus, his fear increases more when he sees the same heavy man standing next to him. After getting on the bus he finds the heavy man there too, it greatly adds to his fear and horror. He thinks the heavy man and the other three boys talking to him are the members of a street gang and are going to rob him. He has the same feeling when other people in the bus look at him. He thinks that they are looking at him because they know he has money in his pocket. Actually people are looking at him because he has still his hat on backwards. He becomes very nervous and can’t think straight. With this in mind Armando decides to change the bus so that he will be safe from potential robbers.

To his great surprise, the three boys get off the bus at the same station as Gonzalez. At this, feelings of hot and cold run through his body. He finds himself in an area without buildings nearby. The boys walk in the direction of Armando. He thinks they are after him and cries frantically for help. He goes to an area full of rubbish and junk and stumbles over something. Though he asks the scavengers for help they can’t hear him. The three boys come near him and he weeps like a baby. He asks them to leave a poor and honest man alone. The boys ask him if they can help him, Armando can’t believe his ears because he had thought that they are there to rob him. The boys introduce themselves as students who had come to the city for a football tournament. The boys also explain that they had taken the wrong bus and had to get off.

After asking the boys many questions, Armando confirms that he is safe. He stops sweating and puts his hat straight. His dream of buying and living in his own house is not harmed.

The Loving Mother

The story The Loving Mother is about a mother’s love for her child. It talks about how a mother’s spirit is not in peace after leaving behind a small child. Even after the death the mother comes back to the child in order to look after her. Since it talks about spirit and ghost it is a supernatural story.

Shoji Sakota is a pharmacist in Sapporo, a city in northern part of Japan. He lives alone in an apartment behind the drugstore. His wife has died earlier. The building being the same he sometimes works till late. One stormy night Shoji Sakota is busy preparing his annual business report. At about midnight there is a knock at the door. He ignores the knock and goes back to his work. When there is s knock for second time he thinks it could be the wind. The knock is louder next time and he goes towards the door thinking that it could be an emergency. He turns on the light and is surprised to see a young woman standing there. Thinking that it might be a trick to rob him he doesn’t open the door. Rather, he says that the pharmacy will be opened at 8 o’clock next morning.

But the woman pleads that her daughter needs something immediately. Thinking it to be an emergency he lets her in. A thin, young woman stands in front of Mr. Sakota bending her head. Her dress is worn out and her hair is uncombed. But as she raises her head and looks at Mr. Sakota, it seemed that her eyes are looking through him and not at him. She says that she needs ame for her baby. The doctor gives her ame and she goes her way. For him it was a strange request in the night. Not long after he is back at the desk, he decides to stop working for the night because he can’t remove the image of the strange visitor out of his mind.

The next two nights the same thing happens. It is strange why she comes at night and not during the day when the shop is open. When she comes for the fourth night the pharmacist’s photographer friend takes some photographs of the woman from a hiding place. When the film is developed, the things of the store are there but not the picture of that woman. When she comes the fifth night they decide to follow her so that they could find out who she was and what she was doing. The woman finds that she is being followed but it doesn’t matter to her. She acts as though she wants them to see where she is going.

A few blocks away, she enters an old apartment building and disappears through a door at the end of a dark narrow hallway. They go inside and find the switch despite darkness. They see a baby, perhaps eight or nine months old, licking ame on a stick. The child looks happy and satisfied. Beside her a woman lies, appearing to be asleep. They think that it is the same woman and couldn’t be asleep so fast. They think she is perhaps acting. Mr. Sakota goes near her and touches the shoulder. Finding her body cold and lifeless he says she is dead. He looks more closely and finds that she has been dead for a number of days.

“MY HEART LEAPS UP WHEN I BEHOLD”

The poem “My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold” is written by William Wordsworth an English poet and worshiper of nature and simplicity. The poem is based on the recollection of poet’s childhood experience and feelings that bear the stamp of continuity.

The poem deals with the spontaneous overflow of those powerful feelings and joys as felt by the heart of the poet in his childhood and manhood at the sight of rainbow in the sky and the poet hopes to feel the same in the old age.

The poet describes the influence of a rainbow upon his heart. According to his words, he feels overjoyed to see it in the sky and his heart leaps up every time he notices a rainbow. He further points out that he used to feel the same joy and happiness when he was a child and he does feel the same experience in his old age. In the absence of such feelings, the poet admits he will prefer death as an alternative. The poem ends with the wish of the poet for his days to be bound with each other by natural piety.

The poem consists of a well-known paradox “The child is a father of the Man”. It implies that as a child for the first time he felt the joy while looking at the nature in the form of a rainbow and every child does have some kind of experience before he attains manhood. In this regard he is senior to man and therefore the father of the man.

“SPEAKING OF CHILDREN”

- By Barbara Holland

Q. Does this essay speak in favour or against having many children? Give reasons.

The essay “Speaking of Children” is written by an American Writer, Barbara Holland. It is an informal piece of writing made lively and effective through the device of conversation. It examines the negative aspects of having more than one child. Hence it speaks against having many children.

The advantages of parents for having one child are quite obvious. One child is an appendage and it can be outnumbered by parents. It can be carried along on pleasure trips. The most important of all is the privacy, which remains intact. On the contrary, plural children will be the end of advantages and the beginning of disadvantages. They will be counter-culture in the house and the parents will be outnumbered. There will be no place left in the living room because of the toys all over. Long pleasure trips will be shortened. The parents will be obliged to adjust themselves according to new situation. First priority will have to be given to the children and their matters. The house will be at sixes and sevens. Above all, there will be no privacy for the wife and the husband. They will be interfered and interrupted by the children at every possible moment. Surprisingly enough, due to lack of proximity, the husband and wife will be reduced to the state of strangers unless some solution is found out to end the new problem.

Since the writer has focused on the enlargement of the disadvantages for having plural children. It is clear that she against having plural children.

Question: Summarize the main idea of this essay in one paragraph.

Write down the second paragraph of the above answer.

“LOOK AT TEACUP”

“Look at Teacup” is a complicated essay with a great deals of hidden meaning to be read in between the lines. The essay abounds with rich as well as vivid description of China dishes especially tea cups and scattered information about the writer’s parents, her relation with mother and her views.

As for the tea cups, they were made in Czechoslovakia and bought in 1939 by her mother. These cups which have been given to the author have a tiny “Czechoslovakia” stamped on the bottom. Each piece is thin and transparent having the palest water-green shade. One can see thin bands of gold around the edges of the saucer and cup. There is also a band of gold on the inner circle of the saucer. Inside the cup, flowers are depicted in different falling attitudes. It seems that as if someone had scattered a bouquet and the flowers appear to be caught in falling motion. One tends to notice a special significance attached to the cups because frequent references are made throughout the essay. In one place, the writer admits that there is a slur of recollection about the flowers, something imprecise, seductive and foggy, but held together with a bright bolt of accuracy-perhaps a piercing glance from a long dead uncle, whose face, all the features has otherwise faded. In another occasion, she wonders if someone with an important black umbrella had considered the future of teacups. A Prior to that she refers to an English politician his shaking a nation away while furling his black umbrella. Further she alludes to the falling of bodies, bombs and countries. Once can see a thread of associations. They indicate the degeneration that took place in Europe in general and disintegration in Czechoslovakia in particular during the Second World War. The teacups with the painting of falling flowers are relies of the disintegration process that began in Czechoslovakia with Munich Agreement signed on 29 September 1938 by the leaders of UK, France, Germany and Italy. Under this pact, the country was compelled to surrender its Sudetenland to Germany, Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister of Britain and his policy of appeasement failed to prevent the war. The umbrella he carried to Munich with him was called as the taint of Munich. The writer seems to suggest that the English politician with an important black umbrella also played a role in the disintegration of Czechoslovakia that is in the fall of Flowers from bouquet.

The close association between the cups and a country is obvious in many expressions. One can notice it in the following expressions that “the cps was discontinued because a country was discontinued” and a country” lost its pure science of flinging glowers into the sides of teacups. Hence “the cup” stands for the relic and the evidence of the mid-century bonfire that is Second World War.

The second aspect of the story is concerned with the unusual treatment of marriage, family and mother – daughter relationship. The writer is said to have been married in 1939 at the offing of the Second World War. This helped her escape the magnitude of history by retreating into pragmatism. Hence the writer associates the marriage with the fall of the flowers.

At one place in the essay, she mentions that her mother’s cello voice was drowned somewhere in the sound of falling flowers, in marriage, in the thought of bombs falling on women with flowers, with teacups. Her marriage was the old bow pulled across the cello followed by the long low moan of another generation. On account of such association, the writer uses the word “fall” as the synonym of marriage and refuses to marry at all. Her announcement “We don’t get married anymore” indicates that she is not alone in having such interpretation. Likewise, one can see the similar treatment given to the concept of family and mother-daughter relationship. For the mother, family is the most important thing in the world where as for the daughter, the writer; the work is the most important thing. In spite of such an opinion, mother’s voice sounded a farewell, the first of all those good-byes mothers say to their daughters. She seemed to know that family and separation would always go together. Mothers and daughters are bound to say good-bye to one another. Their relationship ends with parting. The writer’s mother illustrates the same point by saying that they did not have any emotional relationships with their mothers.

“A WORN PATH”

“A Worn Path” is the story about an old Negro woman, Phoenix Jackson who undertakes a long hazardous journey from her country area up to city. She does it to fetch medicine for her grandson suffering from chronic throat trouble. It is written by An American novelist, Eudora Welty. She takes the readers into old phoenix’s mind with great delicacy and discloses her firm dignity. The story is filled with such minute details about various obstacles overcome by Jackson that it gives the impression of a story of heroism. During a Christmas time Phoenix Jackson leaves the country for the city with dreadful cold around. Being rather old and small, she walks along a path slowly through the pinewoods. She comes across various obstacles till she reaches the hospital for medicine. The first obstacle that old woman of about hundred years old encounters is the frozen earth in front of her. While tapping it with a thin small care, she moves ahead. Because of her shoe-laces trailing along from her unlaced shoes. She is about the stumble down at one place.

Since, it is a journey through pinewood. She should be quite careful so as the avoid snakes and wild animals on the path. So switching at the brush with her cane, she manages to keep out of the obstacles one after another. The path leads her up hill. No sooner does she pass this obstacle, she is caught by a thorny bush. Once she stands free of it, she finds another one ahead of her. This time it is log across the creek and she has to walk on it with balanced steps. At this juncture she speaks to herself that she is not as old as she thinks. This reminds the readers of an Egyptian myth of bird phoenix that consumers itself by fire after every five hundred years and rises renewed from its own ashes. Likewise phoenix Jackson by undertaking the painful and hazardous journey rejuvenates herself every now and then.

Thus obstacles continue to appear all along her path. At one place, she has to move through a barbed wire fence. Then she passes through a failed of dead corn, a maze. In one place, she mistakes a scarecrow for a ghost. A dog also knocks her down. On the way she meets a white man and diverts his attention to a dog so that she can pick up a nickel that has fallen off his pocket. Finally she reaches the hospital, takes medicine for the grandson and comes out with a nickel given by an attendant. She decides to buy a windmill for the grandson. Now her steps begin on the stairs, going down. The story may have allegorical and symbolical reference for the movement of the black against the violation of their rights.

THE THREE DAY BLOW

“The Three Day Blow” is a story with an analogy between the three day blow and the mental ordeal of the protagonist Nick. The story, which is written by an American writer Ernest Hemingway, traces a movement from conflict, through separation and suffering to reconciliation. It conveys the fullness of a formal ritual.

It is the story of Nick Wemedge who intended to marry Marjorie. In order to get married with her, it was necessary for him to get back home to find a job and earn money. That was his original plan in the beginning and later he decided to stay in Charlevoix all winter so that he could be near Marge. He made a plan to go to Italy with her, visiting different places while having a lot of fun together. Unfortunately they had to break away and his plans went astray. All of a sudden, their relation came to an end. Marjorie’s mother could be responsible for it because she was regarded as being terrible. Nick was grieved to realize that he had lost her. He felt that she was gone and he had sent her away. He had no hope to see her again. The separation between Nick and Marjorie seemed to have been the outcome of conflict between Nick and Marjorie’s mother. It caused him to have a mental strain.

In such an agony, he happened to visit the cottage of Bill when the first autumn’s storm broke out. The terrible weather condition reflected the mental agony of Nick. Being struck with grief due to the separation, he got into the cottage of Bill with a view to spend three days of his time three during the terrible wind blow. Bill was pleased to have his company. Both of them got into a long pastime activity while drinking wine and having conversation on different matters ranging over different topics such as drinks, baseball, and writing. Nick’s break up with Marjorie etc. Bill evidently looked happy for he had negative approach towards the married life. He held the view that a man is absolutely bitched and done for once he is married. He referred to Nick’s break up as a wise act. Nick was obliged to confess the matter with a tragic tone. In course of the conversation, Bill casually mentioned the possibility of Nick’s getting into it again. Nick had never thought about it. It had seemed so absolute. It made him feel better. It brought about a sudden drastic change in his way of thinking. He found himself on high spirits. He felt happy and lighter. According to the writer, nothing was finished and ever lost and also there was always a way out.

With a new spirit, Nick suggested that they should take the guns, go down to the point and look for Bill’s father. Soon they were seen moving across the meadow towards Bill’s father. Nick was no more in a tragic mood and the wind blew everything out of his mind. This story ends with Nick being reconciled to the loss of his beloved. One can also interpret the happy ending of the story as the hint and hope of reconciliation between Nick and his beloved.

As for the rhetorical strategy, the weather condition as described in the story presents a redaction and analogy of Nick’s suffering. The whole setting with story wind around acts as a stage with separation at one end and the reconciliation at the other's end. Being a dramatic story, it is presented in a sequence of approximately seven scenes: drinking wine, chat about baseball, discussion about literary works, habit of drinking, activities in Kitchen, view about marriage as well as Nick’s love affair with Marjorie and finally the scene of reconciliation or change of attitude.

“THE POPLAR TREE”

- By William Cowper

“The Poplar Field” is a poem remarkable for its celebration of the rural and it is a nostalgic poem. It was written by William Cowper in a second half of the eighteenth century. The poem is based on the recollection of the poplar field in whose shade the poet passed his time listening to the melody of the blackbird. Now all the trees have been cut down. There is neither shade nor the whispering sound of the trees. The wind and the rustling song of the leaves are distant things of past. Twelve years have passed since he took a look of his favorite field. Now the trees are lying in the grass, providing seats to the people around. One can no more hear the song of the blackbird in the particular place for it has flown to another shelter. The poet is struck with grief because of it and feels that he will be dead soon before another grove will appear in the old place. The reference to his death in the near future vindicates the adverse effect of deforestation on him. Moreover it seems to suggest that it does not take as much time for deforestation as it does for reforestation. In the last stanza, he strikes the philosophical note by declaring that life is short but the pleasures of man are shorter than life. It makes the readers feel that the pleasures given by nature are unparalleled and unfortunately man himself is responsible for the destruction of these unforgettable pleasures.

This poem can be considered as a defense of nature conservation. It shows how the conservation brings joy through the melody of birds, shade and cool wind. On the contrary, the destruction of nature deprives the man of all the pleasures for decades. There can be neither pleasant wind nor shade nor the melodious song of the birds within his reach. In the absence of nature around, the lovers of nature will be low-spirited and wish themselves dead instead of living in a polluted atmosphere. Such an atmosphere and peace will not be suitable for such living things that find peace and tranquility in the lap of nature. Moreover, the poem clearly shows the link between the deforestation and life. In other words, the destruction of nature implies the destruction of pleasures of man, ultimately leading towards the destruction of mankind.

“UNCHOPPING A TREE”

Is unchopping a tree possible? What does this essay suggest about conservation and against deforestation?

The essay “Unchopping a Tree” is a persuasive discourse written by an American writer W.S. Merwin, It is typical of giving directions with the use of imperative form of the verb for the most part. However at the level of meaning and action, it ceases to be directive. Since the task directed in the essay is impossible, it is assumed to have a different meaning and message which is hidden.

The essay begins with the direction for unchopping a tree which implies the process of reversing the action of “chopping” a tree. Once can see the impossibility of the tack. Also the essay indicates the unpleasant consequences of our unwise chopping of trees. Unchopping a tree involves reassembling the leaves, twigs broken nests and eggs in their original order and restoring everything their respective places. It is Herculean task for which one may be obliged to use tackle and scaffolding. Despite the completion of the work, one can hardly believe that it will hold against the first breeze and the motion of the clouds. Thus it is an obvious fact that what is chopped is chopped forever. It also implies that reconstruction is not an easy task as the destruction.

Once a tree is felled, it is done forever, No man on earth can reassemble it in the same place with the same surroundings including the broken eggs, nests etc. hence conservation is the only solution. It saves us from the drudgery of restoring the trees to their former position. Impossibility of the task indicates the necessary of conserving the trees. The present essay makes it clear the act of chopping a tree is not an individual act anymore.

It is connected with an ecosystem and therefore upsets the balance of nature. For instance, chopping of a tree instantly shows its consequences in the destruction of its surroundings, nest, eggs etc. disappearance of shade, cool wind and the melody of the birds are another result of the act. Hence conservation of the forest is nothing but the preservation of the nature and environment.

Deforestation is not only the destruction of the vegetation and wild-life but also the end of the healthy environment. Hence to preserve the trees is equivalent to preserve the self in the healthy atmosphere. Hence it is our duty to bring the harmony in our surroundings. It can be done only when the members of the society move ahead with the determination of keeping things whole like the poet Mark Strand.

KEEPING THINGS WHOLE

"Keeping Things Whole" is a modern poem written by a Canadian – born poet, Mark Strand. It is a poem composed as a defense of nature conservation. The poem pleads for wholeness against the usual fragmentation that goes on in life. Owing to the minimalist style, the poem appears to be packed with meaning that conveys the message for taking step to end the fragmentation in nature.

By using simple expressions, the poet manages to include the complex knowledge of ecosystem. Hence the poem begins with the expression that he is the "absence of field in a field" and wherever he is, he is "what is missing". This ambiguous expression makes the readers feel that the speaker has objectified himself into those aspects of nature, which are missing. It denotes his consciousness about the missing elements of nature. It also implies that nature around is not complete because one thing or other is found missing in it.

In the second stanza, he views himself as the link that makes the movement of the air complete and harmonious. So he admits that he keeps on walking ahead without ever stopping so that the air fills the spaces that have been left by his body. It demonstrates the determination of the speaker to keep things whole and also his sensitive way of thinking about eh fragmentation. The speaker seems to suggest through this stanza that one should be conscious about the delicate aspects of the nature and act in a way that helps (in) the balance of nature.

In the third stanza, the poet makes his intention clear. He points out that he moves around to keep things whole unlike the people who mover about for different reason. By making the distinction between his movement and others, he seems to suggest that the people should think more about the importance of preserving the nature so that is can be whole and harmonious.

CONCRETE CAT

“CONCRETE CAT”

- By Dorothy Charles

The poem “Concrete Cat” is the best example of “Concrete Cat” in which the poet uses the words as the visual things. Such a poem is devoid of emotions and ideas. In the present poem, the poet has depicted the picture of a cat in a action by shaping the words such as ‘ear’, ‘eye’, ‘mouth’, ‘tail’, ‘whisker’, etc. in the visible form. While going through this poem, the readers are made to feel that the poet has worked like the one who makes the concrete doll of a cat by assembling the readymade components such as ‘tail’, ‘stripe’ etc. into the form of a cat.

In order to create the exact shape of ‘eye’, ‘mouth’ and ‘tail’ etc the poet used the words in a way that resembles the exact appearance of these things. This required the poet to capitalize ‘A’ in ‘ear’ and ‘U’ in ‘mouth’, and to use spaces between the letters in the words ‘tail’.

For showing the cattiness of cat in action perhaps, the poet has used the word ‘mouse’ upside down. This suggests that the cat has just killed the mouse whose dead body is lying down behind it.

Since the chief concern of the poem is to present the physical appearance of the cat having stripes all over the body, the word ‘stripe’ is repeatedly used for the exact representation of the striped cat. That can be the possible pun in the act’s middle strip.

Discussion Q (1) since the poem is supposed to be the expression of poet’s emotions, feelings and attitudes of life. “Concrete Cat” cannot be considered a poem because it lacks all conventional elements of poetry.

CONCRETE CAT

“Concrete Cat” is an experimental poem known as “Concrete Poem”. It is drawn by Dorothy Charles. A glimpse of this poem is sufficient to make the reader see the different between traditional poems and the concrete poem. Unlike the given poem, a traditional poem consists of ideas, emotions, feelings and attitudes of the poet towards life and society. Above all, the poet makes use of the figurative language with many literary devices such as alliteration, assonance, metre, metaphors, simile, symbols etc.

"Concrete Cat" is not like traditional poems because it has included neither figurative language nor ides and emotions. It is a poem made for the eye. Hence the physical appearance of the cat is given the importance. As in other concrete poems, language is reduced to the level of the word. In addition to it, the words are used in a way that once can see the shape of a cat on the paper. For instance, the words such as 'ear', 'eye', 'mouth', 'whisker', 'tail', 'paw'. 'stripes', etc. are used in such a way that one sees the physical appearance of the things they stand for. In order to do so, the poet has rearranged the words in an untraditional manner. Capitalizing 'A' in ear, 'Y' in eye, and 'U', in mouth as well as using spaces between the letters in the word 'tail' indicate the attempts of the poet to create the picture of a cat.

The given poem makes the readers perceive that the poet of such poems appears to be more an artist than a poet. The other details added in the poem such as the word 'mouse' in upside down position and the word 'dish' in one corner show the 'catness' in action. The pun in the cat's middle stripe is the only place where language aspires towards poetry and becomes figurative. If one is asked the question. Whether one calls such a work of art as poem, one tends to answer that it is a poem from the experimental point of view. Otherwise, one is quick to give the answer in the negative.

OOPS! HOW’S THAT AGAIN

“Oops! How’s that Again?” is a humorous essay about bloopers with a great deal of psychological information about such verbal errors. It is written by an American writer, Roger Rosenblatt. The essay deals with different types of errors and psychological causes from such errors and types of laughter.

While illustrating the errors, the writer divides them into slips of the tongue, mistranslation, bloopers and spoonerism and faus pas. He cites number of examples for each type of the error committed by celebrities. A slip of the tongue refers to the verbal error which is relatively a minor error that takes place in course of conversation. He gives some of the instances when the great personalities like Nancy Regan, France’s Prime Minister Raymond Barre and Businessman Peter Balfour etc. committed such errors. As for mistranslation, the writer explains that such errors result when different expressions are translated from one language into another. For instance, the slogan “Come Alive with Pepsi” was translated in German as “Come Alive out of the Grave with Pepsi”. Germany’s President Heinrich Lubke is one more example as a person known to have committed this type of error. Bloopers are embarrassing errors made in public. The writer gives the example of Radio Announcer Harry who announced the name of Herbert Hoover as Heaver on the radio. Spoonerisms are the errors committed when the syllables of the words get replaced with one another.

The writer presents the explanations given by psychologists and linguistics. Victoria From kin of the linguistics department at U.C.L.A. regards slips as clues about how the brain stores and articulates language. She believes that thought is placed by the brain into a grammatical framework before it is expressed. Freud removed the element of accident from language with his explanation of slips as being the result of the operations of unconscious wishes. A psychiatrist, Richard suggests that the incorrect words exist in associative chains with correct ones known as a kind of ‘dream pair’. Errors result when incorrect word is articulated Psychoanalyst Ludwig suggests that a slip of tongue involves the entire network of id, ego and superego.

The writer points out different reasons for laughter at such mistakes. One of the reasons is that conventional discourse is so predictable and boring that any deviation comes as delightful relief. Another reason is our meanness. It makes us laugh to see the embarrassment of the miss peaker, similarly the most charitable and optimistic thoughts of the blunderer cause kindly laugh. For instance, Gerald Ford’s famous error in 1976 that Poland was not under Soviet domination showed his optimistic thought about Poland’s freedom in future and it caused a pleasant laugh. Sometimes the bizarre mistakes disclose a whole new world of logic and possibility. This also causes laughter which is the most interesting one. Finally there is sympathetic laugh that sees into the essential nature of a slip of the tongue with a perfect understanding.

MALINI

Malini is a poetic play composed by a Bengali Indian poet, writer and philosopher. Rabindranath Tagore. It is a story of love and hatred. The play deals with a conflict between love and hatred as well as selfish way of thinking and broadmindedness. It is based on the concept that Love in its absolute and pure form is all radiance, all pervading, and all compassionate. They play also shows that petty selfishness assumes the name of love and rules the world with hatred.

According to the story of the play, Malini, the princess, happens to be influenced by Buddhist way of thinking. As the result of the influence, she emerges as the embodiment of LOVE, PEACE and COMPASSION. This has an adverse effect upon the people following the ancient creeds and dogmas. These people under the leadership of a conservative thinker, Kemankar, demand for the banishment of the princess. Although Kemankar's intimate friend Supriya does not approve the idea of banishment, he is obliged to give his consent.

Some of the Brahmins, who are the followers of Kemankar, are shocked to hear the support of the army in their agitation. They feel that it smells of rebellion and suggest that they should have victory through their faith. After that, they start invoking the Goddess of their faith. Just then, Malini makes her entrance with a determination to accept the banishment.

Her appearance has a strange effect upon the people. Although they mistake her for the Goddess of their faith in the beginning, soon they perceive the fact. However, they turn into her followers because of her radiant love, peace and compassion. Kemankar and Supriya are left behind. The former declares his intention of visiting Kashi for the army to attack the kingdom that belongs to Malini's father. Although Supriya appears to be skeptical about the blind faith of Kemankar, soon he is motivated by his friend.

THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN

"The Six Million Dollar Man" is a memorable essay written by Harold J. Morowitz, who is also a scientist. In this essay, he tries to make the specialized knowledge of science clear and engaging to non-specialist. Through this essay, the author reveals the complexity of the human body and amazing aspects of its creation. He seems to suggest that the human being is priceless.

He makes us draw a philosophical conclusion in the infinite preciousness of each person. The explanations given to have such conclusion are highly convincing. The author moves step by step, preparing the readers for the grand philosophical conclusion. He shifts his subject. He starts the essay by talking about the human body and ends up by talking about the human being.

The essay begins with a greeting sent to him by his daughter and son-in-law. It is found to have a caption with the information about the worth of the human body according to biochemists. The author becomes eager to read that its worth is only 97 cents. In order to verify the truth, he lists all the ingredients of the human body such as hemoglobin, human DNA etc. with the prices per gram.

“ON THE VANITY OF EARTHLY GREATNESS”

“On the Vanity of Earthly Greatness” is a modern poem written by an American poet, Arthur Guiteman. It is a flawless poem, which shows the remorselessness of time and the vanity of human greatness.

Through this poem, the poem announces his philosophy of life or outlook that all those entities that symbolize earthly grandeur, greatness and power such as the tusks of mastodons, the sword of Charlemagne the Just, the Grizzly bear, Great Caesar etc will be reduced in course of time into things of non-entity.

The presentation of subject matter is quite ironical. Without using the negative words, the poet turns the things of earthly greatness into mere showpiece and nothingness. Each sentence is well balanced with splendid things in place of subject being linked up with worthless objects at the other end. Each sentence of the poem brings out the image of balance with a grand figure on the side and cipher on the other side. The irony is obvious when the readers notice the tusks transformed into billiard balls, the sword of Charlemagne into rust, the grizzly bear into rug etc.

One can trace out the signs of vanity in the last couplet where the poet admits that he does not feel so well himself in the presence of Great Caesar’s bust on the shelf. This implies that even the poet is not a exception because to some extent he also seems to suffer from vanity complex of greatness.

“THE GARDENER”

- By Kipling

The Gardener is the story to be read in between lines. It is written by Rudyard Kipling. It is a well-written story with such a great craftsmanship and surprise ending that the readers find it necessary to go through the second reading and make readjustment in the relation between one and the other character. In other words, the end of the story acts as a switch back to the beginning of the story of the re-reading.

The story deals with the life of Michael who is said to have been the child of unmarried couple George Turell, an Inspector of Indian police and the daughter of retired non-commissioned officer. It is said that George Turell died of a fall from a horse in India a few weeks before Michael was born. After that, s admitted by George’s sister Miss Helen Turell, who had been to south of France for her lung trouble took the charge of the child. The baby was brought to her hometown from India. Later she took the whole responsibility on her shoulders by cutting all the connection with the mother and the non-scandals would only increase if one tried to hush them up. She vowed that the boy resembled his father George all over. She also explained to the public that the boy could cal her ‘Mummy’ if it delighted him. Michael was provoked to see the things made public and declared that he would dies soon. However they were instantly reconciled with tears as their attachment was not skin-deep.

Although he was disturbed to know that his status was not regular due to his birth, he recovered that balance. He decided not to talk of it with Helen any more for it would make her cry. Later the war began and he was directly enlisted in the army, which was a great shock to Helen. In the battle-field while writing a letter to Helen, he was killed by a Shell-Splinter and his body lay covered by a barn wall that was laid down by another shell. With his death, her world stood still having no concern to her. Later she got an official intimation about Michael’s body being found, identified and re-interred in Hagenzeele third Military cemetery.

She set for the cemetery, on the way a stolid, plain-feature English woman volunteered to come with her. The woman, Mrs. Scars forth, was visiting the place for the ninth time. She would visit may graves, which were commissions. Yet she confessed to Helen that she had come there to visit a particular grave. After that Helen looked for the tomb of Michael. A gardener came to help for while looking at her with infinite compassion. To the surprise of the readers, he told her that she would show her where her son was lying.

The mysterious presence of the gardener in the graveyard reminds readers of Jesus Christ and makes them feel that it was Him. His words induce the readers for the second reading and help them find out that a great deal of information about Michael was supplied by Helen for which there was no evidence. Her so-called visit to France, death of her brother with a son being born in India, her deep attachment with Michael and above all, her attempts to over-expose their relation throw the light on the hidden aspect of the story. In the end, readers find Helen emerging as another Madonna, the mother of Jesus Christ.

“ESSAY ON THE POSITION OF WOMEN IN OUR SOCIETY”

The position of women in Nepal is found to have differed from one generation to another. In days of yore, they were given the subordinate treatment in spite of the respect given to mothers and sisters. The ruling class regarded them as a mere thing to yield pleasure to men. They were deprived of education because the guardians did not think it necessary. they were considered as the machines to serve the man and bear children to him. There used to be Sati System in which the wives of the dead husbands had to burn alive on the same funeral pyres where the dead-bodies were placed. Gradually with every decade that passed away, the outlook towards women changed bringing about the improvement in their situation.

As a result, presently they are equal to men in every walk of life. In the field of education, they have proved that they can be second to none. They have been successful as men in every profession. One can cite thousands of examples of women being the lead as doctors, engineers, lecturers, etc. The new constitution of Nepal has granted equal status to them. If they are given unfair treatment on account of their sex, they can invoke the law of the country for justice. The Government is supposed to preserve their fundamental rights. Like men, they can have property in their names. Gone are the days when they were treated as slaves.

Unfortunately, they are still victimized in the conservative circles. In respect of their right for legal inheritance, they are found lagging behind. The representative-body of parliament has not yet suggested any solution to this achievement. Undoubtedly, the day will come in Neal when parents count their daughters on the same footing as their Sons.

Saturday, August 31, 2013

Write in one sentence of the summary

1. My Heart Leaps up When I Behold

The poem “My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold” is about the joy the poet feels at the sight of rainbow which has been source of his ecstasy since his childhood and will continue to be so till his old age.

2. Speaking of Children

One child is appendage and the parents can be privacy and proper guidance of the child whereas the plural children are the end of privacy and the beginning of the obligations.

3. Look at a Teacup

The writer, who has decided to remain unmarried fearing disintegration, inherits china cups from her mother which were bought in 1939 and they have the pictures of falling flowers, which are significant and symbolical.

4. A Worn Path

“A Worn Path” is the story of an old Negro woman, Phoenix Jackson, who undertakes a long hazardous Journey up to the town to fetch medicine for her grandson suffering from throat infection.

5. The Poplar Tree

The poem “The Poplar Field” is the lamentation of the poet over the destruction of The Poplar Field that once provided shade, whispering sound, cool wind and melody of birds.

6. The Nightmare Life without Fuel

The essay “The Nightmare Life without Fuel” is a hypothetical situation in America during the late 1990s when dwindling fuel resources have pushed the developed nation towards the pre industrial state of 1800s.

7. Unchopping a Tree

However hard we try and succeed in unchopping a tree by using tackle and scaffolding, it will not be as strongly held as it used to be before chopping the tree and restoring things to their former state is literally impossible.

8. Keeping Things Whole

In spite of the fact that the presence of one thing in the absence of to her is an unavoidable situation the poet is determined to move for keeping things whole.

9. Concrete Cat

The poem “Concrete Cat”, being an example of a concrete poem presents the word picture of a striped cat with raised tail, upside-down mouse by real feet and whisker around the mouth showing its catness in action.

10. The Gardener

“The Gardner” is the story dealing with the dual relationship between Helen Turell and Michael Turell as aunt and nephew on the one hand and on the other hand the unmarried mother and illegitimate son who gets killed in the battlefield.

11. On the Vanity of Earthly Greatness

Through the poem “On the Vanity of Earthly Greatness”, the poem announces his outlook by saying that all the things of earthly grandeur and power will be reduced in the end into things of non entity.

12. Malini

Being the story of love and hatred, the poetic play “Malini” presents the character Malini, the embodiment of love who wins the hearts of people demanding for her banishment in contrast to other character Kenanker, the conservative man of hatred who rewards his well-wisher Supriya with death.

13. “Oops! How’s That Again”

The Essay “Oops! How’s ! That Again” gives a humorous account of tongue slips, spoonerisms and mistranslation with psychological explanations for such mistakes and the reason for our laughter to hear them.

14. The Six Million Dollar Man

The essay “The Six Million Dollar Man” is an interesting and scientific evaluation of each human being as infinitely precious and priceless although the dry weight of the human body costs 245.54 dollars a gram and six million dollars for the person having 24, 436 grams of dry weight.

15. In the Bed

The essay “In Bed” gives the elaborate description of migraine headaches with the touch of author’s personal experience that ranged over irritation in the beginning, acceptance in the middle and the habit of stoic endurance.

http://hsebsolution.blogspot.ae/