"Loneliness" continued

I’m going to continue my discussion on “Loneliness” from the week before because it’s such an interesting story.

1. On pg. 171, the speaker says, “He wanted most of all the people of his own mind, people with whom he could really talk people he could harangue and scold by the hour, servants, you see, to his fancy.” The quotation is the speaker’s explanation of Enoch’s actions and imaginary friends. Basically, Enoch wanted people to agree with him and think that he is the best. However, I think that there is more. He needs some sort of mutual respect and love as all the characters do in Winesburg, Ohio. Since he has that love and respect through his imaginary friends and then loses it, he could perhaps be one of the most pathetic and loneliest characters in the novel.
2. Enoch then “married a girl who sat in a chair next to his own in the art school and went to live in an apartment house in Brooklyn. Two children were born to the woman he married, and Enoch got a job in a place where illustrations are made for advertisements” (171). The quotation shows Enoch’s confinement during is marriage. The illustrations he makes for advertising must be confined to certain standards. In addition, he “felt choked in a walled in by the life in the apartment.” Why? He can’t be accepted within the society and he must conform to certain standards, and, like a child, he cannot handle that. In the narrow room, he doesn’t feel walled in because he doesn’t have to conform to societal standards with his imaginary friends.
3. How is George Willard significant? George Willard and Enoch Robinson can understand each other because of certain sadness and even need for maturity “sadness was in the heart of George Willard.” In the story, it rained on the evening that they met which could represent a possible Foster connection. It foreshadows some sort of a renewal that Enoch gets by talking to George Willard. It could also possibly deal with his release and catharsis since almost every character in the novel seems to experience a type of release. In addition, the rain occurred in October which means that Enoch is reaching middle age and has finally gained a certain maturity and solemnity.
4. When he falls in love, he gains a certain maturity and can no longer understand and justify his actions with his imaginary friends. However, his newfound maturity accompanies a newfound sadness. In regards to the girl he falls in love with, Enoch says, “I thought that she was bigger than I was in that room” (177) He can’t handle her realness and understanding though, and he was furious when “she had understood all the time” (177). It seems that all he has been searching for understanding but can’t handle it in the end. Enoch would rather crucify himself by letting the girl and the imaginary go than accept the understanding of others. Part of the problem is that she understands his childlike tendencies, and he finally understands it too so he can’t accept his imaginary friends. Why do the imaginary characters leave with the girl and why can’t Enoch accept the girl’s company?

There seems to be so much in the story, and there are still some things that I don’t understand. A really important part of the story is the beautiful girl in the painting, but I am finding it hard to find out what she really represents. I think it might have to do with Enoch’s idea of an ideal woman.

Enoch Robinson

Because we had such limited times during our fishbowl discussions, I am going to share some of my insights concerning the story “Loneliness.”

1. Windows are a recurring item within Winesburg, Ohio. In “Loneliness,” the “farmhouse was painted brown” and “the blinds to all of the windows facing the road were kept closed.” It’s important to note that the blinds were all closed, which shows Enoch’s desire to hide from others and thus explains his loneliness. Even when Enoch tries to connect with others and have human relationships, he isn’t successful. For example, Enoch tries to have an affair with a woman, but, after walking for a bit with the women, Enoch “grew afraid and ran away” (168). He then, “crept off to his room trembling and vexed” (168). Why can’t Enoch interact with others normally? Does he have some sort of mental disorder?
2. There are many indications of mental disorder, as the quotation, “He could draw well enough and he had many odd delicate thoughts hidden away in his brain that might have expressed themselves through the brush of a painter, but he was always a child and that was a handicap to his worldly development. He never grew up and of course he couldn’t understand people and he couldn’t make people understand him. The child in him kept bumping against things, against actualities like money and sex and opinions. Once he was hit by a street car and thrown against an iron post. That made him lame” shows. Generally, those that have mental disorders act childlike and tend to be very creative in one area. Since Enoch seems to excel at painting and hasn’t matured, Enoch could have slight mental disorder, perhaps schizophrenia. However, although he has this mental disorder, he is not the only one that’s lonely. Maybe, his disorder makes Enoch lonelier and that is why the title of the chapter is “Loneliness.” Why would Sherwood Anderson create a character with a mental illness?
3. Why does he invite the artists? For him, the move to New York means getting out of Winesburg, which represents an attempt at maturity. Enoch inviting the artists shows that he wants some sort of communication or understanding with the artists. The reason he becomes an artist is because of his nonverbal skills, and he thinks that he may be able to communicate with other artists. However, there is a major contrast between Enoch and the others. The artists are composed and can articulate their thoughts well (“Words were said about line and values and composition, lots of words, such as are always being said” (169)). However, Enoch cannot talk coherently (“He was too excited to talk coherently” (169)) so there is lack of understanding. As the Enoch’s naïve artist’s inability produce sophisticated speech contrasts with the other artist’s superficial sophistication, Anderson conveys great differences in maturity.
4. The speaker also says, “The room in which young Robinson lived in New York faced Washington square and was long and narrow like a hallway.” Generally, we think of a narrow room as a suffocating experience. However, it is only suffocating when he meets the real people that have a lack of understanding. The room is narrow with what Enoch thinks are narrow-minded artists, but is “long” and perhaps even expansive when it is filled with his “imaginary’ friends.

My insights so far only cover the first few pages of the story, and, next week, I will try to analyze the rest of the story. There are some questions to consider though…

What is the significance of Enoch’s painting and the “beautiful woman?” Who are Enoch’s imaginary friends? Why did he marry a girl in his art school and then leaver her? Does Enoch’s story parallel Anderson’s own story? How can you characterize the understanding between George Willard and Enoch Robinson? Why do his imaginary friends leave? Although most of the characters in Winesburg, Ohio experience a degree of loneliness, why is title of this specific story “Loneliness?”

Morally Ambiguous Characters

Since we just did a timed writing about morally ambiguous characters, I’m going to talk about two morally ambiguous characters in literature.

In Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, Gail Wynand is presented as a morally ambiguous character but according to Rand’s own moral standards. Rand glorifies man and believes that all men should have one single purpose to which they are passionately devoted. Although I think we never really get a sense of Wynand’s single purpose, there is potential for him to be a great man like Howard Roark is. Although Wynand gives up his soul to the public through The Banner, he has an art gallery that represents artistic individualism and integrity. In other words, Wynand understands the significance of individualism and can appreciate it, but can’t put it into practice. However, Wynand is still immoral despite his appreciation of individualism because he eventually compromises his standards and prints a public apology for supporting Roark. To Rand, such a betrayal to Roark is the epitome of immorality. Rand even says that Wynand was the “man that could be.” I always have trouble determining the meaning to the work as a whole, but I think that Wynand’s characterization is important in that it highlights Roark’s strong character when he is compared to Wynand. It shows that Roark is the most moral and the least incorruptible. It may even show that individualism is the key to becoming a moral character when considering Rand’s standards.

I’m also going to discuss Jack for Robert Penn Warren’s All the Kings Men because I wrote about him in my timed writing and would like to be more successful in conveying his moral ambiguity. I think that Jack is morally ambiguous because he is immoral in the beginning and then transitions into a more moral character. When he was younger, he shuts out life and the people around him because he doesn’t want to take responsibility for his actions. The Great Sleep and the Great Twitch are his attempts for apathy, but they just make him more immoral. Disregarding his wife and insulting his father prove that he doesn’t know the difference between right and wrong. In fact, I definitely dislike Jack in his early years, and I think that the dislike arises from Robert Penn Warren’s characterization of him as immoral. Jack becomes morally ambiguous though towards the end because he starts to realize his immoral ways. He accepts the spider web theory as evidenced by his finally finished dissertation. Jack realizes that he was connected to the deaths of Willie, Adam Stanton, and Judge Irwin. His realization shows that he has finally taken responsibility for his actions, and I believe such responsibility equals morality. In my timed writing, I said that his change in morality is significant because it parallels his change in theories. I still need to figure out how it parallels his change of theories.

Morally ambiguous characters are very interesting because they appear frequently in literature, but for different reasons. Later, I would like to talk about other characters, like Esther Greenwood from Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar and even Albus Dumbledore from the Harry Potter series.

"The Harlem Dancer" Analysis Continued...

Here's my analysis for the next four lines of "The Harlem Dancer":

As the poem progresses, the dancer starts to embody elegance rather than the distaste one would expect of a night club dancer. She is “graceful and calm,” showing that she isn’t part of the excitement around her. In fact, her calmness suggests that she is physically, but not psychologically, in the night club. The dancer is also depicted as wearing “light gauze,” a translucent material that is often used to wrap up wounds. The wearing of gauze could symbolize the presence of emotional wounds. The speaker elaborates on the dancer’s wounds after the seventh line. To the speaker, the dancer was a palm tree, strong and able, and was “lovelier for passing through a storm,” as the dancer became more beautiful through the hardships she faced. The gauze mentioned earlier may represent covering up the wounds from her past suffering. Another contrast is established as the reader learns that the speaker appreciates the dancer for her inner strength while the audience values her for her outward beauty.

"The Harlem Dancer" Analysis

Because analyzing poems are such an important part of AP Lit, I am going to share my analysis for one of my favorite poems--“The Harlem Dancer” by Claude McKay. The following paragraphs introduce the poem and discuss the first four lines. For the next couple of weeks, I will continue my analysis.

Young men hold sleek drinks around a varnished, mahogany floor. Upbeat music floats through the air carrying the laughter and drunkenness of the night with it. But the men aren’t there for the merriment or alcohol. Instead, their eyes are transfixed on the mesmerizing female dancer in the center of the room. The men leer at her while shouting obscene slurs, and the sensual dancer struggles with the lack of respect she finds in the audience. During the Harlem Renaissance, such female dancers, who were often of black descent, were not uncommon in night clubs. Claude McKay’s poem “The Harlem Dancer” is significant in that it typified the discrimination that black women often had to endure during the early 1900s. The poem follows a dancing black girl through a night club while exposing themes such as youth, sex, and promiscuity. By incorporating these implicit themes and revealing hidden emotions within the dancer, McKay successfully conveys the effects of an audience’s prejudices on the objectified yet strong Harlem dancer, who is the victim of cruel misinterpretations.

“The Harlem Dancer” is seemingly about the attractive titular dancer sensually dancing, presumably in a night club, for an excited audience of young men and women. In the first line of the poem, the speaker characterizes the spectators in the club as “Applauding youths” and adds that the youths were laughing. The positive diction initially presents an image of gaiety and innocence. However, towards the end of the first line, the reader is introduced to the “young prostitutes” amidst the audience. The mention of the prostitutes challenges and contrasts with the innocence of the youths. Moreover, these prostitutes are young, and the reader is suddenly and unexpectedly transferred away from youthful excitement into a sordid place where girls prematurely discover their sexuality. The “perfect, half-clothed” Harlem dancer then enters in the second line. The line focuses on the audience watching the dancer’s ideal body, and it is evident that the audience is captivated by her sexual appeal and outward appearance as they “watched her…body sway.” For the youth, the dancer’s perfection lies in her body and sexuality. Being barely clothed, the dancer further characterizes the night club as a seedy place. The portrayal of two contrasting elements, such as sexuality and innocence, governs the rest of the poem.

The next two lines incorporate a simile which contradicts the sexualized characterization of the dancer in the second line. First, the speaker says that “her voice was like the sound of blended flutes.” By establishing that her voice sounded like more than one flute “blended” together, the speaker shows that her voice isn’t one-sided. Instead, the voice is depicted as intricate and complex. Perhaps, the speaker is trying to show that the dancer, like her voice, isn’t as simple as she might seem. The description of her voice also includes an interesting contrast. The speaker uses flutes to distinguish her voices, and flutes are typically found at formal events. Flutes would not be playing at a sleazy night club. Therefore, the speaker illustrates that the speaker’s voice is out of place in the midst of prostitutes and her “half-clothed” body. Through her voice, the dancer displays a refinement that contrasts with her profession. The fourth line of the poem elaborates on the simile in the third. Her voice isn’t just characterized by a multitude of flutes. Instead, the flutes are being played by black players on a “picnic day.” The mention of black players suggests that the Harlem dancer may be African American. In addition, the picnic day shows that her voice is light and fresh against the darkness in the night club. Again, the speaker points out unexpected contrasts, specifically showing that the dancer may not be as immoral as her profession and the night club.