Poetry Prompt

In the poem “Here” the poet, Philip Larkin uses many techniques to convey his attitude toward the places he describes; like image, personification, and simile. He uses these to get his message across to the readers in the best way possible. The tone of the places he is describing is vacant; lost; quiet; dead. The poet portrays this once great city that is abandoned and is writing for people to return.
Through this entire poem, the poet uses imagery like in line 8 “The piled gold clouds, the shinning gull-marked mud,” and in lines 19 and 20 “ fishy-smelling mud pastoral of ships.” These show that there was more meaning behind the clouds, they weren’t just clouds they represent something else they are gold clouds. This whole poem is basically imagery because the poet is trying to make the reader picture in their mind what these places look like and all the poet has are words.
The poet also uses personification to the tone, like in line 13 “The dead straight miles…flat-faced trolleys”. Miles can’t really be dead and trolleys don’t really have faces. He uses personification to explain more in detail the straight miles and the trolleys, it gives the objects more depth and meaning. The poet shows that he wanted to explain in detail really how vacant this place is because the miles are dead; the poet wants to give some life to the trolleys by giving them faces. It makes each thing he talks about have different meanings when he uses personification.
Simile is also used by the poet to emphasize more the object, so the reader can truly get what the poet pictures, his tone. He uses this in line 23 “fast-shadowed wheat-fields, running high as hedges,” and in lines 25 and 26 “Here silence stands like heat.” The poet wants to compare to things that are some what alike so the reader can have a better understanding of the wheat and the silence.
All these techniques that the poet uses in this poem are to get his point across better to the readers, he only has a short amount of space to tell the story he wants to tell and these techniques aid to mission. He can say what he means and have the reader understand in so few words because of these techniques.

Meta Essay

In Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis Kafka has Gregor Samsa, the protagonist turns into a bug in the first sentence, which eventually causes another metamorphosis to occur to his family specifically his younger sister Grete. Her change isn’t as drastic as Gregor’s her physical being isn’t change but her personality changes; instead of being considered a child she becomes a more independent young woman, who can take care of herself without the financial support Gregor provided. Grete gets a job and takes care of Gregor while he is a bug and her parents start to view her as an adult not a child. Grete’s metamorphosis is the opposite of Gregor’s metamorphosis because Grete got stronger and Gregor got weaker and eventually died. Gregor and Grete have different outlooks on life. Grete’s and Gregor’s metamorphosis contributes to the overall meaning of the work: the existentialism idea that you are alone in the world and you can’t rely on anyone including your family.

Gregor is a workaholic; has no friends; hates his job, but without it his family wouldn’t be able to survive (so he thinks); he also thinks that things happen for a reason and you can’t change them so you should just take things as they are. After Gregor is turned into a bug he becomes even more nonexistent than he was before, his family has forgotten him, ashamed of him, has shunned him, they have done everything to make him seem like he was never there. Gregor knows this and the only thing keeping him alive is Grete but when she gives up on him he has no reason to live anymore, and dies.

Grete though thinks of life as a big opportunity to grow up and find herself. She hates being treated like a child, by her parents and when Gregor turns

Meta Chapter 3 Questions

4. I think Gregor’s family blames him for their current situation because he was the only person in the family that made the money that provided for the entire family after his father’s business went under. Then all of a sudden he turns into a bug and can’t work anymore, which forces Grete to have to get a job because they won’t be able to survive and I think somehow his family thinks its his fault why he turned into a bug no one else is to blame, even though there really is not one specific thing to blame its unexplainable. Even though they have money now, it is still all his fault because they had to pull money out of savings and Grete had to work and he wouldn’t have been turned into a bug maybe these things wouldn’t have happen.

6. I think Gregor feels more relieved than sad because he was a huge burden to his sister, when she took care of him, he felt horrible all the time for putting his family in that situation. When he died I think he really felt like he was doing the family good by dying they treated him like a bug and not like family so I think he figured it would best for them if he was not in their lives anymore.

8. Gregor’s family got over his death so quickly because after a while his family feels that Gregor is not the same Gregor anymore, maybe not even Gregor at all; so they feel he is not part of the family anymore he is not their son and he is not Grete’s brother and when he was turned into a bug that’s when he really died, not when the bug in Gregor’s room died.

10. Grete called Gregor a monster because she does not feel that his is her brother anymore, he doesn’t eat the same foods, he can’t communicate with her, he looks different, he acts different he has completely changed to her there is no glimpse of Gregor in the bug it’s a whole new thing, not a person and it’s very large so she calls him a monster. I don’t think she can forgive him either, for what him turning into a bug has done to their family.

13. This chapter satirizes family life today by saying no one supports their family anymore, they shun very easily they don’t help when help is needed they don’t try to resolve problems. Most families aren’t a unit they don’t stick together anymore it’s only about the individuals, people are very selfish and don’t really care about people, sometimes in their own family.

15. I thinks his feelings are more humane now that he is a bug because his family and the rest of the world has basically shunned him, wiped him from existence. He may not have had friends and been close to his family as a human, but now as a bug it’s even worse no one cares about him and no one is interested in trying to make it easier on him, nothing he feels completely alone and he begins to have these feelings that he never experienced because even though he was miserable at least he was treated like a person, now he is not and he hates it.

16. Gregor’s family abandons him because they have given up all hope that he will ever turn back into a human and they don’t feel he is part of the family so they just leave him alone all the time pretending he does not exist because that’s the way they want it.
18. Gregor still feels love and affection for his family even after they start to forget about him because to him they will always be his family even though they don’t treat him like he is family. It’s the only besides him room before they cleaned it out that made him feel connected to his old life.

21. I think there is significance to the maid finding him instead of his family, they never check on him and they never even visit him in his room he could be dead for years and they would never know if they didn’t have a maid.

23. I think Kafka makes Gregor die because there wouldn’t be as big of an impact to the story if he was just a bug living in a room forever. The story would be insignificant if he didn’t die, I think the message of the story is family and how you can’t rely on them and without him dying the message wouldn’t be as strong and significant.

Writing Prompt 2 -9/19/02

In 1984 by George Orwell, Winston Smith the protagonist, is the perfect example of a character trying to free himself from the power of the others. Winston is trying to escape the power of the Party and Big Brother; he feels trapped and in a terrible society that won't let him become independent and have freedom.

The leaders of Oceania claim they have no laws, but so many things are punished by death if a character in the story is caught, like in Winston's case keeping a journal. Julia and Winston are having an affair within the first or second chapter and Julia is really the only person who Winston can talk to because she is also against the Party. Without Julia, Winston may have not rebelled as much as he did.

The struggle begins in the first chapter when Winston is explaining his apartment in Victory Mansions and he informs the reader that he is breaking a rule by writing in a journal, which he got from a store where the proles live which is also breaking a rule. Then it continues when he and Julia begin to have their affair that lasts a long time; in Oceania the Party prohibites sexual anything. Winston still continues to break free when Winston finds out that O'Brien a member of the inner party is part of the secret society called the Brotherhood. As soon as Winston finds out about O'Brien he immediately goes to see him and he joins the Brotherhood.

Winston still wanting to have freedom decides to search for anything that could hint at what Oceania was like before the War, and within this search he stumbles upon a prole in a bar and he has a few drinks with the prole, but the prole can't really tell him much, but Winston feels a little better that someone remembered something. He also learns a song that makes him so happy because it has the churches and buildings in the song that aren't in the same condition anymore, it really is the highlight on his struugle at finding some happiness and freedom in such a cruel and depressing place. Since Julia and Winston are always sneaking around and they are afraid they are going to get caught Winston rented a room above the prole shop where he brought the journal and learned the song, and found a glass paperweight with coral inside of it that he thought was absolutely gorgeous. The room was heaven to Julia and especially to Winston, there were no telescreens and they could do whatever they wanted, like when Julia stole real food, not the Victory food they were served at any place that had food.

In all this new happiness from breaking all the rules to get freedom there were some major struggles in keeping it and trying to get more. Winston got caught by the thought police because there was a telescreen in the room Winston rented and when he got caught he turned in Julia so he could stay alive in the end he didn't keep his freedom.

The author used this power struggle to enhance the fact that one can't over power or free oneself if they don't have enough will and are strong enough to make it and escape and to get people to join the rebellion. So in Winston's case he wasn't strong enough and he didn't get people to join his cause and he didn't plan his attack on the Party and Big Brother in a smart way that could be effective.