MODERNISM- Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway

Hills Like White Elephants

Summary:

How It All Goes Down

The story opens with a description of the view of the river Ebro, and the white hills (mountains) beyond it, from a train station in Spain. An American man and a woman are having some beers outside the station bar as they wait for the train to Barcelona.

As the couple drinks, the woman tells that man that the hills in the distance remind her of "white elephants." This sparks a little argument between them, which the woman sidesteps by pointing out that something has been painted on the beaded curtain that hangs over the doorway of the bar. The painting advertises a liquor called Anis del Toro, which they decide to try.

Their conversation remains tense, and soon the man begins trying to convince the woman, Jig, to have an abortion, but only, he says, if she wants to. She wants to know if this will solve their problems, and get their relationship back on track. He tells her that their relationship is on track, but that he is distracted because of his "worry" over the pregnancy. She agrees to have the abortion, but says she is only agreeing because she no longer cares about herself. The man says she shouldn’t do it for that reason. 

She expresses despair over the situation and a feeling that all is now lost. The man tries to reassure her that this is not the case, and finally tells her (without actually saying it) that he is willing to marry her instead, but makes it clear he would prefer that she have the abortion. She becomes anxious and asks him to stop talking. He responds by saying he doesn’t want her to have the abortion if she doesn’t want it. Jig threatens to scream.

The woman who has been serving their drinks tells them that the train will soon arrive, and the man gets up and takes their luggage over to the train stop. Then he goes into the bar and has another Anis del Toro. When he gets back to Jig, sitting at the table outside, she gives him a smile. He asks her if she "feel[s]" better," and she responds by insinuating she never felt bad in the first place. And that’s the end of the story.

The Theory:

             Modernism display a relatively strong sense of cohesion and similarity across genres and locales. Furthermore, writers who adopted the modern point of view often did so quiet deliberately and self consciously. Indeed, a central preoccupation of the modernism is with the inner-self and consciousness.

Criticism:

           Hills Like White Elephants is a short story by Ernest Hemingway which is about a young couple drinking liquor and contemplating on an abortion while waiting for a train. The short story is a good example of a modern literature that expresses many of it's characteristics. One of its characteristics is the questioning of the traditional value referring to the abortion. Another characteristic that solidifies that the story falls under the theory of modernism is the experiments on how the story is told referring to the usage of dialogue. by the characters.The story also lacks happy ending. Hills Like White Elephants uses tools and characteristics common to Modern literature.

ARCHETYPAL LITERARY CRITICISM- Goddess of Spring (Walt Disney) directed by Wilfred Jackson

Summary:

In the world of long, long ago, the animals and flowers of the forest enjoy perfect weather all year 'round, courtesy of the beauteous, redheaded Goddess of Spring. Persephone, seated on a throne while animals and flowers dance happily around her and birds place a floral coronet on her head. At this point Pluto, God of the Underworld ascends from beneath the earth on a rotating platform and, as his demons chase away Persephone's friends, declares that he will make her his wife. He takes her to the Underworld, where the demons celebrate; some dance around fires while another plays a hellish organ. Though she is given gold and jewels, Persephone is deppressed, causing the world above to become an icy wasteland. She pleads to return to the earth, and is allowed to do so once a year, provided she returns. This differentiates the seasons, spring and summer taking place while Persephone is allowed on earth.

The Theory:

               Archetypal criticism argues that archetypes the form and function of the literary work that a text's meaning is shaped by cultural and psychological myths. Archetypes are the unknowable basic forms personified or concretized in recurring images, symbols and patterns.

Criticism:

            The Goddess of Spring is a Silly Symphonies animated Disney short film. It falls under the theory of Archetypal Criticism simply because of the usage of mythology as the central theme of the story. The recognizable effects god and Goddesses was also being used and particularly concerned in making the story full of fantasy.

DARWINISM- The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins

Summary:

In his choice of the title for this book, Dawkins refers to the watchmaker analogy made famous by William Paley in his book Natural Theology. Paley, arguing more than fifty years before Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, held that the complexity of living organisms was evidence of the existence of a divine creator by drawing a parallel with the way in which the existence of a watch compels belief in an intelligent watchmaker. Dawkins, in contrasting the differences between human design and its potential for planning with the workings of natural selection, therefore dubbed evolutionary processes as analogous to a blind watchmaker.

In order to dispel the idea that complexity cannot arise without the intervention of a "creator", Dawkins uses the example of the eye. Beginning with a simple organism, capable only of distinguishing between light and dark, in only the crudest fashion, he takes the reader through a series of minor modifications, which build in sophistication until we arrive at the elegant and complex mammalian eye. In making this journey, he points to several creatures whose various seeing apparatus are, whilst still useful, living examples of intermediate levels of complexity.

In developing his argument that natural selection can explain the complex adaptations of organisms, Dawkins' first concern is to illustrate the difference between the potential for the development of complexity as a result of pure randomness, as opposed to that of randomness coupled with cumulative selection. He demonstrates this by the example of the weasel program. Dawkins then describes his experiences with a more sophisticated computer model of artificial selection implemented in a program also called The Blind Watchmaker, which was sold separately as a teaching aid (open source implementations are currently available, as are more advanced versions of the idea).

The program displayed a two dimensional shape (a “biomorph”) made up of straight black lines, the length, position, and angle of which were defined by a simple set of rules and instructions (analogous to a genome). Adding new lines (or removing them) based on these rules offered a discrete set of possible new shapes (mutations), which were displayed on screen so that the user could choose between them. The chosen mutation would then be the basis for another generation of biomorph mutants to be chosen from, and so on. Thus, the user, by selection, could steer the evolution of biomorphs. This process often produced images which were reminiscent of real organisms for instance beetles, bats, or trees. Dawkins speculated that the unnatural selection role played by the user in this program could be replaced by a more natural agent if, for example, colourful biomorphs could be selected by butterflies or other insects, via a touch sensitive display set up in a gardenIn an appendix to a later edition of the book (1996), Dawkins explains how his experiences with computer models led him to a greater appreciation of the role of embryological constraints on natural selection. In particular, he recognized that certain patterns of embryological development could lead to the success of a related group of species in filling varied ecological niches, though he continued to maintain that this should not be confused with the ideas associated with group selection. He dubbed this insight the evolution of evolvability.

After arguing that evolution is capable of explaining the origin of complexity, near the end of the book Dawkins uses this to argue against the existence of God: "a deity capable of engineering all the organized complexity in the world, either instantaneously or by guiding evolution ... must already have been vastly complex in the first place ..." He calls this "postulating organized complexity without offering an explanation."

In its preface, Dawkins states that he wrote the book "to persuade the reader, not just that the Darwinian world-view happens to be true, but that it is the only known theory that could, in principle, solve the mystery of our existence."

The theory:

               Darwinism integrate literary concepts with a modern evolutionary understanding of the evolved and adopted characteristics of the human nature. It suggests that all knowledge about human imagination can and should be subsumed within the evolutionary perspective.

Criticism:

                The Blind Watchmaker is a book that presents an explanation and argument for the theory of Evolution by means of natural selection. It falls under the theory Darwinism because the novel itself represents an evolutionary perspective. it is about the contrasting differences between human design and workings of the natural selection. It is also a theory that in principle can solve the mystery of human existence.

TERRITORIALISM- A sky so close by Betool Khedairi

Summary:

The narrator, whose name we never learn, is a victim of sorts. Not of her own oppressive government; not of neighboring Iran or even the United States, though war-time violence will certainly affect her life; but of the constant culture-based battling of her parents. The narrator's mother, who insists that she attend the School of Music and Ballet and forbids her to play with the shoeless neighbor children, is English. Her father, with whom the narrator identifies more (she refers to him as "you," as though writing the story to and for him), is Iraqi. The narrator is constantly pulled first in one direction then another, never knowing which language she should speak to stop her parents' yelling; aware as she matures that she is somehow a pawn in their east-meets-west conflict. It is a struggle Khedairi must be familiar with, as her own mother is from Scotland and her father is from Iraq.

The first argument witnessed by the reader involves the narrator's enrollment in the School of Music and Ballet. Her father insists that she will become spoiled, to which her mother retorts: "But the schools here are so deprived." Although attending the school does awaken a love of dance in the narrator, at the age of six, all she cares about are the forbidden hours of play with her beloved neighbor and best friend, Khaddouja. For several years the troubled family continues life on the small farm, the mother becoming slightly more acclimated to life in Iraq and both parents placing more emphasis on their daughter's education. Then, a turning point: wading barefoot in a stagnant river causes Khaddouja to become critically ill. With the death of her best friend, her father's failing health, and the family's move into the city of Baghdad, the narrator begins to change from a girl into the person she will become.

As her father's health continues to decline and her mother spends more time with her English friend David, the adolescent narrator begins to learn her father's trade, which has to do with naming food flavorings and scents. Her mother drifts further from her family until finally her husband cannot handle her western indiscretions and begins trying to impose restrictions, claiming he's given her "too many liberties." One evening, after lessons, her father says: "My daughter, there's something very important you must know about." 

"You're getting a divorce?"

"No, a war with Iran has started." And so it begins, filling life with blackouts, supply shortages, "volunteering" toward the war effort, and the constant fear of bombing raids. Although many students at the School of Music and Ballet leave to attend "real" schools, art having become superfluous, the narrator stays to study with a ballet dancer referred to only as Madame. Madame becomes a mentor and driving force in the narrator's life, and even introduces her to a man who will become her first lover.

The third stage of the novel takes place after the narrator has gone to university and her father has died of a heart attack. Her mother, having lost her husband and her lover as well, is now sick herself, with breast cancer, and wants to return home to England. This is the point where the detached, impersonal tone of the writing begins to become, in my opinion, a flaw in what is otherwise a beautiful novel. The narrator moves to England to be with her mother in her illness, and it is clear that she is not content with the decision, though she never says why. We are left to guess at her motivations and feelings as her mother does not get any better and the United States begins bombing Iraq in the Gulf War, a conflict that this time the narrator is only aware of through news reports and Madame's sporadic letters. We do, however, absorb the feeling of melancholy and helplessness through the narrator's failed English trysts and friendships, and the relentless gray and rain of the country where her mother was born.

The Theory:

             Territorialism discusses how an individual tries to protect his/her possessions. it is creating a specific boundaries or markers on certain things.

Criticism:

             A Sky So Close by Betool Khedairi is a novel that falls under the theory of Territorialism. The story is about the young the young woman whose name was never mentioned recalls her childhood in a small village of Zafraniya, outside of Baghdad. The whole story was enclosed with a war between Baghdad and Iran claiming for a territory. The whole story rotates on how the war affect the lives of people and especially the girl's emotional and psychological aspect.

CULTURAL STUDIES- Apocalypto by Mel Gibson

Summary:

While hunting tapir in the Mesoamerican jungle, Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood), his father Flint Sky (Morris Birdyellowhead), and their fellow tribesmen encounter a procession of traumatized refugees. The group's leader explains that their lands were ravaged, and asks for permission to pass through the jungle. When Jaguar Paw and his tribesmen return home, Flint Sky tells his son not to let the refugees' fear infect him.

The next morning, after Jaguar Paw wakes from a nightmare involving the refugee leader, he sees warriors entering the village and setting the huts on fire. The raiders, led by Zero Wolf (Raoul Trujillo), attack and subdue the villagers. Jaguar Paw slips out with his pregnant wife Seven (Dalia Hernández) and his little son Turtles Run (Carlos Emilio Báez), lowering them by vine into a deep vertical cave, tying the vine off so they could climb out later. Jaguar Paw then kills a raider and returns to help the village. He is eventually subdued and a raider named Middle Eye (Gerardo Taracena), whom Jaguar Paw almost killed, slits Flint Sky's throat while the bound Jaguar Paw can only watch. Before the raiders leave with their prisoners, Snake Ink, one of the raider captains, notices Jaguar Paw staring toward the cave. Suspicious of the tied-off vine hanging into the cave, he cuts it, trapping Seven and Turtles Run. Jaguar Paw and the other captives are then led off into the jungle.

A short distance from the village they join another group of raiders who have captured the refugees Jaguar Paw met the day before. Later, Cocoa Leaf, a wounded captive tied to the same pole as Jaguar Paw nearly tumbles off a cliff, but Jaguar Paw and the others are able to pull him back up with incredible effort. Though Middle Eye, who is guarding them, is impressed by this show of brute power, he kills Cocoa Leaf by cutting him loose and pushing him off the cliff.

The raiding party march toward a Mayan city, encountering razed forests and failed maize crops, along with villages decimated by plague. A little girl dying of plague prophesies that there will be a solar eclipse and a man running with a jaguar will bring the raiders to those who will scratch out the earth and end their world. In the city's outskirts, where the prisoners come upon slaves working in lime quarries, the female captives are sold as slaves while the males are escorted to the top of a step pyramid. The high priest sacrifices several captives, including Jaguar Paw's friend Curl Nose (Amílcar Ramírez), by cutting out their beating hearts before beheading them. When Jaguar Paw is about to be sacrificed, a solar eclipse occurs. The high priest looks at the emperor and the two share a knowing smile while the people below panic at the phenomenon. The priest declares the god Kukulkan is satisfied with the sacrifices. He asks Kukulkan to let light return to the world and the eclipse passes. The crowd cheers in amazement and the priest orders that the remaining captives be led away and "disposed of".

Zero Wolf takes the captives to a ball court. The captives are released in pairs and forced to run the length of the open space within the ball court, offering Zero Wolf's men some target practice, with a cynical promise of freedom should they reach the end of the field alive. Zero Wolf's son, Cut Rock (Ricardo Díaz Mendoza), is sent to the end of the field to "finish" any survivors. The raiders target the runners with spears, arrows and large stones. The first pair are Jaguar Paw's last living friends, Smoke Frog and Blunted (Jonathan Brewer). Smoke Frog is struck by a heavy stone, then finished off by Cut Rock while Blunted is impaled through the stomach by a spear launched using a spear thrower.

Next up are Jaguar Paw and the refugee leader from the beginning. Although they almost make it, the refugee leader is shot through the head with an arrow. Jaguar Paw is shot in the waist with another arrow although he is able to break off the arrowhead. As Cut Rock approaches to finish Jaguar Paw, the not-quite-dead Blunted trips Cut Rock, buying Jaguar Paw time. Cut Rock gets up and savagely kills Blunted, then turns to finish off Jaguar Paw, who reaches up and slices through Cut Rock's neck with the broken-off arrowhead. Jaguar Paw then pulls the arrow from his back and stumbles away towards the jungle.

As Cut Rock bleeds out with Zero Wolf easing him into the next life, Jaguar Paw runs through a withered maize field and an open mass grave of sacrificial victims before finally reaching the jungle. The enraged Zero Wolf and his eight men pursue Jaguar Paw into the jungle and back toward Jaguar Paw's home. Eventually Jaguar Paw climbs a tree. The pursuers move past him, but a black jaguar who has made the tree its home is angered by him, and gives chase. The raiders see Jaguar Paw and the jaguar. At first they only see Jaguar Paw. They move to intercept him, but the jaguar kills one of the raiders. The raiders are forced to stay and kill the jaguar. They ponder this next fulfillment of the girl's prophecy.

Again in pursuit, another raider, Drunkards Four, is killed when a venomous snake bites his neck. Eventually, after running all night, Jaguar Paw finds himself caught between a high waterfall and the raiders and is forced to jump. He survives and declares from the riverbank below that the raiders are now in his homelands, echoing his father's challenge to the refugees at the beginning of the film.

After listening to Jaguar Paw's challenge, Zero Wolf says they must pursue him over the waterfall, but Snake Ink says they will climb down around the side after Jaguar Paw. Zero Wolf stabs Snake Ink for his impudence. Zero Wolf then gives the order that he and his men will jump the falls. While most make it alive, one smashes his head on the rocks below and is killed. The remaining men swim to the shore and restart their pursuit. Jaguar Paw escapes a pool of black quicksand and, now camouflaged in black mud, resolves to become the hunter rather than the hunted. First he disables his pursuers by throwing a bees' nest into their midst. The coating of mud protects Jaguar Paw from the bees. Next, Jaguar Paw prepares poison darts with poison he extracts from a tree toad. The darts allow him to kill another raider. This leads to his showdown with the sadistic Middle Eye, whom Jaguar Paw bludgeons to death with the Mayan war club of the raider he just killed. Now, to add to Jaguar Paw's worries, it begins raining heavily. The cave where Jaguar Paw's wife and son are trapped is starting to flood. As Jaguar Paw rushes to save his family, Zero Wolf confronts him and shoots him again with an arrow. As Zero Wolf advances to finish Jaguar Paw, he blunders into Jaguar Paw's tapir-hunting trap from the opening scene; he is impaled and killed.

Following Zero Wolf's death, the two remaining raiders chase Jaguar Paw out to a beach where, much to the surprise of all three of them, they encounter conquistador ships anchored off the coast, with men making their way ashore. The amazement of the raiders allows Jaguar Paw to flee. He returns into the forest to pull his wife and son out of the flooded pit where they are hiding, and where Seven has just given birth to a second son. As the reunited family look out from the forest towards the Spanish ships, Seven wonders if they should go to them, but Jaguar Paw says they should return to the forest in search of a new beginning.

The Theory:

           Cultural studies is an academic filed of critical theory and literary criticism aiding cultural researches to theorize about the forces from which the whole of the humankind construct their daily lives. Cultural Studies is focused upon the political and its historical foundations, conflicts and defining traits.

Criticism: 

                Apocalypto is an American film that falls under the theory of Culture Studies. It is about the declining period of a Maya civilization, Apocalypto depicts the journey of a MesoAmerican tribesman who must escape human sacrifice and rescue his family and village. The film is about a certain cultural belief of a tribe and how they live based on this principles.

NARRATOLOGY - Safe by Susan Shaw

Summary:

          Safe. To Tracy, safe means having Mama close by. Years after her mother's death, Tracy still feels her presence. But the moment Tracy is forced into a car as she is walking home from school one day, safe is ripped away. In the aftermath of an unspeakable crime, thirteen-year-old Tracy must fight her way back to safety and find comfort in her mother's memory once again.

         Susan Shaw returns with a raw and moving story of a young rape victim's journey toward healing, empowered by poetry and music, family and friends.

The Theory:

                   Narratology in literary theory is the study of narrative structure. It looks at what way narrative have in common and what makes one different from another.

Criticism:

             An example of a narratology is the novel entitled Safe, written by Susan Shaw. In the story, the protagonist narrates about her suffering of being a rape victim and on how she recovered from such a horrific experience. Tracy was being attacked and raped but she never discussed in detail her whole experience. She suffered from a trauma and finds herself unable to go out of the house without her father. The story is not action packed but more on realistic view.The heart of this story is the recovery and reaching out. I like the ending on how Tracy emerged after a terrible experience.

ECO CRITICISM- The Land of Little Rain by Mary Austin

Summary:

East away from the Sierras, south from Panamint and Amargosa, east and south many an uncounted mile, is the Country of Lost Borders.

Ute, Paiute, Mojave, and Shoshone inhabit its frontiers, and as far into the heart of it as a man dare go. Not the law, but the land sets the limit. Desert is the name it wears upon the maps, but the Indian's is the better word. Desert is a loose term to indicate land that supports no man; whether the land can be bitted and broken to that purpose is not proven. Void of life it never is, however dry the air and villainous the soil.

This is the nature of that country. There are hills, rounded, blunt, burned, squeezed up out of chaos, chrome and vermilion painted, aspiring to the snowline. Between the hills lie high level-looking plains full of intolerable sun glare, or narrow valleys drowned in a blue haze. The hill surface is streaked with ash drift and black, unweathered lava flows. After rains water accumulates in the hollows of small closed valleys, and, evaporating, leaves hard dry levels of pure desertness that get the local name of dry lakes. Where the mountains are steep and the rains heavy, the pool is never quite dry, but dark and bitter, rimmed about with the efflorescence of alkaline deposits. A thin crust of it lies along the marsh over the vegetating area, which has neither beauty nor freshness. In the broad wastes open to the wind the sand drifts in hummocks about the stubby shrubs, and between them the soil shows saline traces. The sculpture of the hills here is more wind than water work, though the quick storms do sometimes scar them past many a year's redeeming. In all the Western desert edges there are essays in miniature at the famed, terrible Grand Cañon, to which, if you keep on long enough in this country, you will come at last.

Since this is a hill country one expects to find springs, but not to depend upon them; for when found they are often brackish and unwholesome, or maddening, slow dribbles in a thirsty soil. Here you find the hot sink of Death Valley, or high rolling districts where the air has always a tang of frost. Here are the long heavy winds and breathless calms on the tilted mesas where dust devils dance, whirling up into a wide, pale sky. Here you have no rain when all the earth cries for it, or quick downpours called cloud-bursts for violence. A land of lost rivers, with little in it to love; yet a land that once visited must be come back to inevitably. If it were not so there would be little told of it.

This is the country of three seasons. From June on to November it lies hot, still, and unbearable, sick with violent unrelieving storms; then on until April, chill, quiescent, drinking its scant rain and scanter snows; from April to the hot season again, blossoming, radiant, and seductive. These months are only approximate; later or earlier the rain-laden wind may drift up the water gate of the Colorado from the Gulf, and the land sets its seasons by the rain.

The desert floras shame us with their cheerful adaptations to the seasonal limitations. Their whole duty is to flower and fruit, and they do it hardly, or with tropical luxuriance, as the rain admits. It is recorded in the report of the Death Valley expedition that after a year of abundant rains, on the Colorado desert was found a specimen of Amaranthus ten feet high. A year later the same species in the same place matured in the drought at four inches. One hopes the land may breed like qualities in her human offspring, not tritely to "try," but to do. Seldom does the desert herb attain the full stature of the type. Extreme aridity and extreme altitude have the same dwarfing effect, so that we find in the high Sierras and in Death Valley related species in miniature that reach a comely growth in mean temperatures. Very fertile are the desert plants in expedients to prevent evaporation, turning their foliage edge-wise toward the sun, growing silky hairs, exuding viscid gum. The wind, which has a long sweep, harries and helps them. It rolls up dunes about the stocky stems, encompassing and protective, and above the dunes, which may be, as with the mesquite, three times as high as a man, the blossoming twigs flourish and bear fruit.

There are many areas in the desert where drinkable water lies within a few feet of the surface, indicated by the mesquite and the bunch grass (Sporobolus airoides). It is this nearness of unimagined help that makes the tragedy of desert deaths. It is related that the final breakdown of that hapless party that gave Death Valley its forbidding name occurred in a locality where shallow wells would have saved them. But how were they to know that? Properly equipped it is possible to go safely across that ghastly sink, yet every year it takes its toll of death, and yet men find there sun-dried mummies, of whom no trace or recollection is preserved. To underestimate one's thirst, to pass a given landmark to the right or left, to find a dry spring where one looked for running water--there is no help for any of these things.

The Theory:

          Ecocriticism is the study of literature and environment from an interdisiplinary point of view where all sciences come together to analyze the environment and brainstorm possible solutions for the correction of the contemporary environmental solution. Ecocriticism is an intentionally broad approach that is known by a number of other designations.

The Criticism:

             The Land of Little Rain by Mary Austin falls under the category of Ecocriticism simply because it depicts interactions between the human and their natural environment. The story tackles about how the citizens handle their ecological predicament since their land suffers because of the little rain.

GENRE CRITICISM- Ode on Solitude by Alexander Pope

Ode on Solitude

I

How happy he, who free from care 

The rage of courts, and noise of towns; 

Contented breathes his native air, 

In his own grounds. 

II. 

Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread, 

Whose flocks supply him with attire, 

Whose trees in summer yield him shade, 

In winter fire. 

III. 
Blest! who can unconcern'dly find 
Hours, days, and years slide swift away, 
In health of body, peace of mind, 
Quiet by day, 

IV. 
Sound sleep by night; study and ease 
Together mix'd; sweet recreation, 
And innocence, which most does please, 
With meditation. 

V. 
Thus let me live, unheard, unknown; 
Thus unlamented let me die; 
Steal from the world, and not a stone 
Tell where I lie

The Theory:

              Genre criticism is a type of literary criticism in which the work of literature is analyzed to see where it fits in terms of its genre instead of viewing it as a totally independent work. According to the genre criticism, works should be interpreted based on the characteristics of the genre under which they fall and on how they fit or break the conventions of that genre.

The Criticism:

                 Ode on Solitude is a poem that uses a third person point of view. In terms of poetry the parameter used are five quatrain stanzas with a rhyme scheme of a.b.a.b. The poem doesn't use many official poetic or literary devices and only use fair amount of repetition and a little alliteration. It is a really straight forward poem celebrating a quiet life. Satisfaction and contentment run as the central theme.

LOGOCENTRISM- Farewell to the Old Guard by Napoleon Bonaparte

Farewell to the Old Guard

'Soldiers of my Old Guard, I bid you farewell. For 20 years I have constantly accompanied you on the road to honor and glory.

In these latter times, as in the days of our prosperity, you have invariably been models of courage and fidelity.

With men such as you our cause could not be lost; but the war would have been interminable; it would have been civil war, and that would have entailed deeper misfortunes on France.

I have sacrificed all of my interests to those of the country.

I go, but you, my friends, will continue to serve France.

Her happiness was my only thought. It will still be the object of my wishes.

Do not regret my fate; if I have consented to survive, it is to serve your glory.

I intend to write the history of the great achievements we have performed together.

Adieu, my friends. Would I could press you all to my heart. I embrace you all in the person of your general. Come, General Petit, that I may press you to my heart!

Bring me, the eagle that I may embrace it also!

Adieu, my children! Be always gallant and good.

Do not forget me.'

- Napoleon Bonaparte

The Theory:

                 Logocentrism refers to the tradition of western science and philosophy that situated the logos, "the word" or the "act of speech" as the epistemologically superior in a system or structure in which we may only know or be present in the world by way of a logocentric metaphysics.

Criticism:

                 Farewell to the Old Guard is a great example of logocentrism using excellent text to persuade the reader or the listener however it turned to the usage of spoken language over the written language. It is a good example of a great oration and clear dialogue. Farewell to the Old Guard uses the power of good verbal communication making use of the words and language to illustrate the subject.

STRUCTURALISM- West Side Story by Arthur Laurents

Summary:


Two teenage gangs, the Jets (White) and the Sharks (Puerto Rican), struggle for control of the neighborhood, amidst police whistles and taunts (Prologue). They are warned by Lt. Schrank and Officer Krupke to stop fighting on their beat. The police chase the Sharks off, and then the Jets plan how they can assure their continued dominance of the street. The Jets' leader, Riff, suggests setting up a rumble with the Sharks. He plans to make the challenge to Bernardo, the Sharks' leader, that night at the neighborhood dance. Riff wants to convince his friend and former member of the Jets, Tony, to meet the Jets at the dance, but some of the Jets are unsure of his loyalty ("Jet Song"). Riff meets Tony while he's working at Doc's Drugstore to persuade him to come. Loyal to Riff, Tony agrees, but he wants no further part of gang life and imagines a better future ("Something's Coming").
Maria works in a bridal shop with Anita, the girlfriend of her brother, Bernardo. Maria has just arrived from Puerto Rico, and her family has selected Chino, a member of the Sharks, to be her future husband. Anita makes Maria a dress to wear to the neighborhood dance.
Maria is in a very happy mood at the bridal shop, as she anticipates seeing Tony again, ("I Feel Pretty"). Tony meets Maria at the bridal shop the next day, where they dream of their wedding ("One Hand, One Heart"). She asks Tony to stop the fight, which he agrees to do. Tony, Maria, Anita, Bernardo (and the Sharks), and Riff (and the Jets) all anticipate the events to come that night ("Tonight Quintet"). The gangs meet each other under the highway, and as the fight between Bernardo and Diesel is just beginning, Tony arrives and tries to stop the rumble. Though Bernardo taunts Tony, ridiculing his attempt to make peace and provoking him in every way, Tony keeps his composure. When Bernardo pushes Tony, Riff punches him in Tony's defense. The two draw their switchblades and get in a knife fight ("The Rumble"). Tony warns Riff to back away, but Riff shakes him off and continues the fight. In an important moment of the show, Riff has an opportunity to stab Bernardo, but Tony holds him back. After shaking off Tony, Riff returns to the fight but is accidentally stabbed and killed by Bernardo in the process. Tony then takes Riff's knife and kills Bernardo in a fit of rage. The two gangs then go into a free-for-all. The sound of approaching sirens is heard, and everyone scatters, except Tony, who stands in shock at what he has done. The tomboy Anybodys, who stubbornly wishes that she could become a Jet, tells Tony to flee from the scene at the last moment. Only the bodies of Riff and Bernardo remain.At the dance, after introductions, the teenagers begin to dance; soon a challenge dance is called ("Dance at the Gym"), during which Tony and Maria (who aren't taking part in the challenge dance) see each other across the room and are drawn to each other. They dance together, forgetting the tension in the room, fall in love, and try to kiss, but Bernardo pulls his sister from Tony and sends her home. Riff and Bernardo agree to meet for a War Council at Doc's, a drug store which is considered neutral ground, but meanwhile, an infatuated and happy Tony finds Maria's building and serenades her outside her bedroom ("Maria"). He appears on her fire escape, and the two profess their love for one another ("Balcony Scene"). Meanwhile, Anita, Rosalia, and the other Shark girls discuss the differences between the territory of Puerto Rico and the mainland United States of America, with Anita defending America, and a girl named Rosalia yearning for Puerto Rico, ("América"). The Jets get antsy while waiting for the Sharks inside Doc's Drug Store. Riff helps them let out their aggression ("Cool"). The Sharks arrive to discuss weapons to use in the rumble. Tony suggests "a fair fight" (fists only), which the leaders agree to, despite the other members' protests. Bernardo believes that he will fight Tony, but must settle for fighting Diesel, Riff's second-in-command, instead. This is followed by a monologue by the ineffective Lt. Schrank trying to find out the location of the rumble. Tony tells Doc about Maria. Doc is worried for them while Tony is convinced that nothing can go wrong; he is in love.
The dejected Jets are set on by Officer Krupke. A brawl ensues, and Officer Krupke is outnumbered and leaves. In an attempt to get their mind off the death of Riff, the Jets lampoon Officer Krupke, and the rest of the adults who try to understand them, ("Gee, Officer Krupke"). The Jets make Action leader of the gang. Just then, Anybodys, who has been spying on the Sharks in an attempt to ingratiate herself, brings news that she overheard Chino planning to hunt down Tony and kill him with a gun. Anybodys' persistence pays off- she is accepted into the gang, as when the Jets spread out to look for Tony, she is given a place to search. Not only has she gained acceptance, but she also begins a relationship with Action.Blissfully unaware of what has happened, Maria daydreams happily about seeing Tony with her friends—Rosalia, Consuelo, Teresita and Francisca ("I Feel Pretty"). Just then, Chino brings the news that Tony has killed Bernardo. Maria flees to her bedroom, praying that Chino is mistaken. Tony arrives to see Maria, she initially pounds on his chest with rage, but it is fake- she still loves him, and they plan to run away together; as the walls of Maria's bedroom disappear, they find themselves in a dreamlike world of peace ("Somewhere").
A grieving Anita arrives at Maria's apartment. As Tony leaves, he tells Maria to meet him at Doc's so they can run away to the country. In spite of her attempts to conceal it, Anita sees that Tony has been with Maria, and launches an angry tirade against him, ("A Boy Like That"). Maria responds counters by telling Anita how powerful love is, ("I Have a Love"), though, and Anita realizes that Maria loves Tony as much as she had loved Bernardo. She admits that Chino has a gun and is looking for Tony.
Lt. Schrank arrives to question Maria about her brother's death, and Anita agrees to go to Doc's to tell Tony to wait. Unfortunately, the Jets, including Anybodys, who has found Tony, have congregated at Doc's, and they taunt Anita with racist slurs and eventually attack her physically. Doc arrives and stops them. Anita is furious, and in anger, she spitefully delivers the wrong message, telling the Jets that Chino has shot Maria dead.
Doc relates the news to Tony, who has been dreaming of heading to the countryside to have children with Maria. Feeling there is no longer anything to live for, Tony leaves to find Chino, begging for him to die as well. Just as Tony sees Maria alive, Chino arrives and shoots Tony. The Jets, Sharks, and adults flock around the lovers. Maria holds Tony in her arms (and sings a quiet, brief reprise of "Somewhere") as he dies. Angry at the death of another friend, the Jets move towards the Sharks but Maria takes Chino's gun and tells everyone that "all of [them]" killed Tony and the others, and now she can kill, because now she hates, too. However, she is unable to bring herself to fire the gun and drops it, crying in grief. Gradually, all the members of both gangs assemble on either side of Tony's body, showing that the feud is over. The Jets and Sharks form a procession, and together they carry Tony away with Maria being the last one in the procession.


The Theory:
                  
                 Structuralism is a theoretical paradigm emphasizing that elements of a human culture must be understood in terms of their relationship to a larger, over arching systems of a structure. Structuralism is the belief that phenomena of the human life are not intelligible except through their interrelations.

Criticism:

               West Side Story has the same structure with Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet that's why one could easily point out the meaning of the play. The claim is that it is also about the story of two friendly families that arrange a marriage between their children despite the fact that the children hate each other and they commit suicide to escape the arranged marriage. The only justification is that second story's structure inverse with the first when it comes to the relationship between the values of love and the two pairs of families.

NEOCLASSICISM- I Know What You Did Last Summer by Lois Duncan

I Know What You Did Last Summer 

Summary:

              Four friends, Helen Shivers (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt), Barry Cox (Ryan Phillippe), and Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze Jr.) go out of town to celebrate Helen's winning the Miss Croaker pageant. Returning in Barry's new car, they hit and apparently kill a man, who is unknown to them. They dump the corpse in the ocean and agree to never discuss again what had happened.

               One year later, Julie is returning home from college. She has not spoken with Helen, Barry or Ray since the accident. Upon returning home, Julie receives a letter that says "I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER!" Panicking, Julie goes to see Helen at Shivers, a department store where she works. Julie shows Helen the letter and they decide to visit Barry. After going over the incident, Barry accuses Max. The trio go to see Max (Johnny Galecki), but Barry insists on going in the factory alone. Barry persuades Max to go into the back room and angrily attacks him, telling Max he should keep his mouth shut. Julie finds Ray working on the docks. Ray tries to make up with Julie but she runs off.

              Inside the factory, Max is brutally murdered with a meat hook to his neck by an anonymous figure in a raincoat. The killer attacks Barry next, running him over with his own car, but he lives.

Julie arrives at the hospital to see Barry and finds Helen and Ray there. Julie believes the man they hit was named David Egan, because a newspaper article a few weeks after the accident mentioned his body washing up on shore. Helen and Julie go to visit Missy (Anne Heche), David's sister. Missy tells them she had a visit from a man claiming to be David's friend named Billy Blue.

               As Helen goes to sleep that night, a figure enters her room with a pair of scissors. The next morning, Helen wakes up with the crown on her head with most of her hair cut off and the word "SOON" written on her mirror.

               Julie gets a call from Barry, who tells her to come to Helen's. On the way, Julie hears rattling in her trunk. She opens the trunk to find it full of live crabs and Max's dead body. She shuts the trunk, runs to Helen's and brings her and Barry to her car, but the body and crabs have disappeared. Julie is convinced the killer took the body and that they are not safe.

                 Later they run into Ray back at the house, in which Barry punches Ray in the face, fell to the ground and tells them he got a letter. Julie decides to see Missy again while Helen and Barry watch each other's backs at the parade.

Julie meets Missy again and Missy admits that David committed suicide that night. David had been wracked with guilt after accidentally killing his fiance, Susie, in a car accident on the same road on the same night a year before. Missy shows Julie an alleged suicide note written in the same style as Julie's letter from the killer. Julie tries to explain that she was in a car that hit and killed David that night, but Missy becomes irate and tells Julie to leave.

At the Croaker pageant, Helen sees Barry murdered by the killer during a performance of Irene Cara's "Fame". A police officer (Stuart Greer) drives Helen home. The killer lures the cop into an alley and kills him.

Helen runs to the store where Elsa is working, but the killer finds both of them and, whilst Elsa is locking the back door, he kills Elsa. Helen manages to elude the killer by jumping out of the window into a dumpster and she flees through the back alleys to the parade. Helen then turns around and is then stopped by the killer who shoves her into a stack of tires and slashes her to death, her screams are to no avail as the noise of the parade drowns them out.

Julie goes to see Ray on his boat and tells him the story, but he does not believe her. Julie notices the name on his boat is "Billy Blue", the same name used by David's friend who had visited Missy, and accuses him of the murders. He chases her but is knocked unconscious by a man who tells Julie to get on his boat. The man is Ben Willis (Muse Watson), a fisherman who is revealed to be the murderer. He murdered David Egan after Ben's daughter, Susie, died in the car accident Missy told Julie about. Ben blamed David and killed him a year later, making it look like a suicide. On the way home, Ben was hit by the group.

Willis then pulls out the hook and proceeds to chase Julie. In a room full of ice, Julie finds Helen and Barry's bodies. Ray climbs aboard and is almost killed by Ben, but is caught in the boat's net. Then ensues an old fashioned fisticuffs between Ben and Ray, the latter administering a fairly hearty and heartfelt beating to Ben. He climbs back aboard and saves Julie. Ben gets his hand caught in a rope and Ray hoists him into the air where Ben falls into the ocean.

On land, Ray tells Julie that the reason he went to see Missy was because he was guilty and had to know who they hit. He tells her he loves her and they embrace. When a policeman asks for any reason why Ben would want to kill them, Julie and Ray both say they don't know. Ben's body is not recovered.

A year later, Julie is in her sophomore year of college and is planning a trip to New York with Ray. Julie receives a cell phone call from Ray as she is in the bathroom turning on the shower. She steps out to take the call, and she receives a letter resembling the one she had got from Ben, but it only contains a pool party invitation. Julie returns to the bathroom, which has now filled with steam. On the shower door, "I STILL KNOW" is written. Ben jumps through the shower door and Julie screams.

Criticism:

                 Neoclassicism is a revival of the styles and spirit of a classic antiquity inspired directly from the classical period which coincided and reflected the developments of philosophy and was initially a reaction against the excesses of style. Neoclassicism in each part implies a particular canon of a classical model.

              I Know What You Did Last Summer is a book written by Lois Duncan in 1973. It falls under the category of Neoclassicism where in the book was being produced as a film with the same name by the year 2006. The movie centers on four friends namely Helen Shivers, Julie James, Barry Cox and Ray Bronson who are being stalked by a killer one year after covering up a car accident in which they here involved.
I Know What You Did Last Summer is a classic in its genre and the film was the revision of the classical work where in surprise plot twists and turns was added to make it modern and catchy but the plot of the book is kinda different and far better then the movie itself. 

DECONSTRUCTION- Ernest Hemingway – ‘Cat in the Rain’

Ernest Hemingway – ‘Cat in the Rain’ 

Summary:

There were only two Americans stopping at the hotel. They did not know any of the people they passed on 

the stairs on their way to and from their room. Their room was on the second floor facing the sea. It also faced 

the public garden and the war monument. There were big palms and green benches in the public garden. 

In the good weather there was always an artist with his easel. Artists liked the way the palms grew and the 

bright colors of the hotels facing the gardens and the sea. 

Italians came from a long way off to look up at the war monument. It was made of bronze and glistened in 

the rain. It was raining. The rain dripped from the palm trees. Water stood in pools on the gravel paths. The sea 

broke in a long line in the rain and slipped back down the beach to come up and break again in a long line in the 

rain. The motor cars were gone from the square by the war monument. Across the square in the doorway of the 

café a waiter stood looking out at the empty square. 

The American wife stood at the window looking out. Outside right under their window a cat was crouched 

under one of the dripping green tables. The cat was trying to make herself so compact that she would not be 

dripped on. 

‘I’m going down and get that kitty,’ the American wife said. 

‘I’ll do it,’ her husband offered from the bed. 

‘No, I’ll get it. The poor kitty out trying to keep dry under a table.’ 

The husband went on reading, lying propped up with the two pillows at the foot of the bed. 

‘Don’t get wet,’ he said. 

The wife went downstairs and the hotel owner stood up and bowed to her as she passed the office. His desk 

was at the far end of the office. He was an old man and very tall. 

‘Il piove,1

’the wife said. She liked the hotel-keeper. 

‘Si, Si, Signora, brutto tempo2

. It is very bad weather.’ 

He stood behind his desk in the far end of the dim room. The wife liked him. She liked the deadly serious 

way he received any complaints. She liked his dignity. She liked the way he wanted to serve her. She liked the 

way he felt about being a hotel-keeper. She liked his old, heavy face and big hands. 

Liking him she opened the door and looked out. It was raining harder. A man in a rubber cape was crossing 

the empty square to the café. The cat would be around to the right. Perhaps she could go along under the eaves. 

As she stood in the doorway an umbrella opened behind her. It was the maid who looked after their room. 

‘You must not get wet,’ she smiled, speaking Italian. Of course, the hotel-keeper had sent her. 

With the maid holding the umbrella over her, she walked along the gravel path until she was under their 

window. The table was there, washed bright green in the rain, but the cat was gone. She was suddenly 

disappointed. The maid looked up at her. 

‘Ha perduto qualque cosa, Signora?’3

‘There was a cat,’ said the American girl. 

‘A cat?’ 

‘Si, il gatto.’ 

‘A cat?’ the maid laughed. ‘A cat in the rain?’ 

‘Yes, –’ she said, ‘under the table.’ Then, ‘Oh, I wanted it so much. I wanted a kitty.’ 

When she talked English the maid’s face tightened. 

‘Come, Signora,’ she said. ‘We must get back inside. You will be wet.’ 

‘I suppose so,’ said the American girl. 

‘It’s raining.’

‘Yes, yes Madam. Awful weather.’

‘Have you lost something, Madam?’They went back along the gravel path and passed in the door. The maid stayed outside to close the umbrella. 

As the American girl passed the office, the padrone bowed from his desk. Something felt very small and tight 

inside the girl. The padrone made her feel very small and at the same time really important. She had a 

momentary feeling of being of supreme importance. She went on up the stairs. She opened the door of the room. 

George was on the bed, reading. 

‘Did you get the cat?’ he asked, putting the book down. 

‘It was gone.’ 

‘Wonder where it went to,’ he said, resting his eyes from reading. 

She sat down on the bed. 

‘I wanted it so much,’ she said. ‘I don’t know why I wanted it so much. I wanted that poor kitty. It isn’t any 

fun to be a poor kitty out in the rain.’ 

George was reading again. 

She went over and sat in front of the mirror of the dressing table looking at herself with the hand glass. She 

studied her profile, first one side and then the other. Then she studied the back of her head and her neck. 

‘Don’t you think it would be a good idea if I let my hair grow out?’ she asked, looking at her profile again. 

George looked up and saw the back of her neck, clipped close like a boy’s. 

‘I like it the way it is.’ 

‘I get so tired of it,’ she said. ‘I get so tired of looking like a boy.’ 

George shifted his position in the bed. He hadn’t looked away from her since she started to speak. 

‘You look pretty darn nice,’ he said. 

She laid the mirror down on the dresser and went over to the window and looked out. It was getting dark. 

‘I want to pull my hair back tight and smooth and make a big knot at the back that I can feel,’ she said. ‘I 

want to have a kitty to sit on my lap and purr when I stroke her.’ 

‘Yeah?’ George said from the bed. 

‘And I want to eat at a table with my own silver and I want candles. And I want it to be spring and I want to 

brush my hair out in front of a mirror and I want a kitty and I want some new clothes.’ 

‘Oh, shut up and get something to read,’ George said. He was reading again. 

His wife was looking out of the window. It was quite dark now and still raining in the palm trees. 

‘Anyway, I want a cat,’ she said, ‘I want a cat. I want a cat now. If I can’t have long hair or any fun, I can 

have a cat.’ 

George was not listening. He was reading his book. His wife looked out of the window where the light had 

come on in the square. 

Someone knocked at the door. 

‘Avanti,’ George said. He looked up from his book. 

In the doorway stood the maid. She held a big tortoiseshell cat pressed tight against her and swung down 

against her body. 

‘Excuse me,’ she said, ‘the padrone asked me to bring this for the Signora.’ 

The Criticism:

           Hemingway's "Cat in the Rain" falls under the theory "deconstruction". The title of the story itself is the contradictory and carries multiple meaning than the literal cat in the rain. Indeed, the story talks about a cat stuck in the rain but this is not the true meaning of the text. The meaning is actually implied and hidden.The character which name was not mentioned and was only known as the American Wife was the hint buried in the title of the story itself by presenting characteristics similar to the cat. The cat in the rain symbolizes a cat who want to be free but has something holding it back and something was out of its control. The title also reflects how the wife feels controlled over her own life. She is just like the cat in the rain unable to take chance because something restraint her from doing so.