Thursday, October 25, 2012

Angry For Two, Please


            In the beginning of Frank Norris’s novel McTeague, a young bachelor lives out his life quietly and contently as an uneducated dentist. Throughout the most of the first quarter of the book a docile, and overall mute, McTeague ends up falling in love with a woman named Trina, who doesn’t love the monstrous man until he embraces her, and that’s when it’s decided the couple will get married. And at first, the couple is happy: “There she was, his little woman… her adorable little chin thrust upward with that familiar movement of innocence and confidence” (Norris, 98). Both McTeague and Trina find themselves increasingly attached, so much so that they tell themselves it would be hard to imagine being with anyone else. I believe Norris sets up this romantic scene in order to detour the audience away from what is down the road for each person. It keeps the readers immersed in the seemingly ordinary and natural world the newly wedded couple exists in, and yet later this seemingly impenetrable love dies away and anger, with the help of greed, fills in the gap for both spouses that once held their eternal appreciation for one another.
          After being married for a year, Trina becomes frustrated by her rash decision to marry McTeague. She soon rationalizes her way out the conflict by giving up what little self-determinism is left and professes to being entirely McTeague’s:  “it was only AFTER her marriage with the dentist that she really begun to love him… She loved him because had given herself… unreservedly; had merged her individuality into his… she belonged to him forever” (Norris, 112). This sudden switch of mentality into a submissive demeanor, one so salient that Trina literally “merges her individuality” and no longer cares how McTeague acts, but instead only knows she will never abandon him I think Norris uses this scene to demonstrate the slow but sure shift of the couple’s relationship. Even more so, it seems to relate to what was going on between men and women during the early twentieth century: men were, as they frequently still are today, considered to be the “bread-winners” of the household; women simply existed as a sort of pleasurable object that, if well-bred and capable enough, should be able to meet any and every desire thrust upon her by the husband. Fast forward to where McTeague loses his job as a dentist and it’s obvious where the marriage is head: complete erosion.
          Zooming near the end of chapter nineteen the audience witnesses the abrupt disappearance and reappearance of McTeague, who, before taking a short sojourn, steals all of Trina’s hidden savings. Her uncontrollable ire boils hotter than ever as the frail wife finds her money stolen: “I could have forgiven him if he had only gone way and left me my money… I could have forgiven even THIS’—she looked at the stumps… But now… now—I’ll—never—forgive—him—as-long—as—I—live” (Norris, 214). Trina no longer feels any love toward her brutishly stupid husband who has taken from her what she values most, what has planted itself and grow into an indomitable force like her affection for McTeague used to be, and vows to never help the asinine giant ever again (not that she did very much in the first place). As the wife’s rage solidifies into lasting bitterness, McTeague becomes savagely cruel toward his wife, i.e. biting her fingers, pinching her incessantly, and smacking her with a hairbrush.
Circling back to the original wedge between the spouses, consuming greed caused the division between Trina and McTeague that then kicked into motion the angry felt by both; Trina hates her husband for stealing the four hundred dollars and the dentist hates his wife for being an over-the-board miser. True to the pessimistic style of Naturalism, the audience later on reads about the dentist’s raging behavior and his destroying of Trina: “[McTeague] all at once sent his fist into the middle of her face with the suddenness of a relaxed spring… his enormous fists, clenched till the knuckles whitened, raised in the air” (Norris, 224). Finally through dealing with his wife, the inebriated husband finds Trina’s trunk of cash, and picking the canvas sack, goes out into the street, void of any remorse for the death of Trina. I believe that Norris presents these cruel details to his audience because he wants them to realized being angry will only end in death for everyone, or perhaps worse in some aspects, people will their lives feeling bitterness toward another person because of a disagreement or conflict that should have been dealt with in a more healthy and productive manner. Even near the beginning Norris seems to hint at this: Marcus Schouler acts as a nasty caricature of what tragedies are soon to befall both Trina and McTeague, and even though the dentist has a chance to make amends he chooses not to which, I believe, seals the unfortunate fate of him and his wife. Needless to say one should probably stray from sequestering negative emotions like angry.
          

Friday, October 19, 2012

Twain on Society


Samuel Langhorne Clemens, aka Mark Twain, remains at the height of American literature because of his creative manner that he used to criticize the culture around him in a subtle, yet sometimes vicious manner; and of course, Pudd’nhead Wilson shines brightly as one of his best works. “Adam was but human—this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple’s sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden” (Twain, 5). A perhaps notorious line from the main protagonist’s calendar of witty sayings humorously demonstrates the essence in which Twain sees many Americans behaving. In doing so he is gently prodding the reader to ponder how such a seemingly obvious phrase alludes to in everyday life. I believe the dichotomous author is commenting that the only reason the average person engages in unlawful or taboo actions is simply because they are told not to. If left alone, perhaps, an individ-ual might not venture or even notice what they have yet to interfere with. The use of an ancient figure from a well-known source (Adam) causes many persons to stop and ruminate also. Regardless, there is a great deal of these unwonted quotes at the beginning of each chapter, but the next one in particular seems to strike a note of considerable interest to what the writer thinks of race.
Something truly vital to the composition of Pudd’nhead Wilson is the idea that our environment, and ourselves as well, shapes who and what we eventually become. “Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education” (Twain, 22). It’s intriguing how Clemens compares a sweet fruit to a coarse seed and then goes on to use cabbage as a lesser form of vegetable. However, the choice of cabbage is, I think, well plucked because it denotes a rugged sense of poverty and uncouth manual labor. The cauliflower on the other hand is a sophisticated and refined vegetable that few bother to understand and appreciate for its unusual taste. That said, I believe this metaphor elucidates the unfair and sometime cruel way that slaves, and individuals believed to black, were treated like stupid animals just because of their skin color. Along those lines a person should then realize that everyone is equally valuable and should be given a chance to succeed as far his neighbor. This I believe is the over-arching theme of Twain’s story.
           

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Timeless Tragedy


          The avoidable tragedy of Captain Ahab’s ships is foreshadowed throughout most of Melville’s novel Moby-Dick. After spending several months hunting down a supposedly antagonizing Sperm whale the Pequod stumbles upon the White Whale at last: “the whale was now seen some mile or so ahead, at every roll of the sea revealing his high sparkling hump, and regularly jetting his silent spout into the air” (Melville, 595). This is merely the beginning of a three day conquest across frothing waters. I believe this scene acts a subtle omen of the tragedy to come because it involves an exciting chase that ends with everyone but Ishmael dying. Oddly enough, a few lines down Ahab claims that he spotted the alabaster leviathan first and therefore gets the golden doubloon: “Not the same instant; not the same—no the doubloon is mine, Fate reserved the doubloon for me. I only; none of ye could have raised the White Whale first” (Melville, 595). I believe that by purloining Tashtego of what seems to be rightly his emulates a heavy sort of tragedy because Ahab’s delusional obsession to find Moby-Dick has whittled away the capacity for rationality and fairness. He no longer cares about the safety of his worn-out sailors, and as result Fate veils him along with the crew in a blanket of infinite sleep. However, Ahab isn’t the first to have been deranged enough to sacrifice innocent kinsmen.
          In Euripides’ Medea a betrayed mother and wife seeks to destroy her husband and the royal woman he wishes to wedlock. She soon devises a plan to burn the princess of Corinth alive via poisoned clothing, but after doing so realizes there is no place for her two boys in the country as refugees; she then decides to murder them: “They must die and since they must I, who brought them into the world, will kill them” (Euripides, 30). The disturbing passage reflects a character lost in her eddying emotions, and as result has lost all sense of logical thinking. In the end Medea butchers the children with a sword but not before she can escape unnoticed by her husband Jason. The final dispute between them reveals just how indifferent Medea has become, and in this way I believe Euripides and Melville hit on a similar note. A person who loses himself or herself in rage turns into a mindless machine capable of a tragedy that should have been prevented, and instead creates a maniac chaos in which the innocent suffer ineffably. 

Picture Source: http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=667&tbm=isch&tbnid=_MINCmOiJc22pM:&imgrefurl=http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/euripides/tp/051910EuripidesBacchaeStudyQuestions.htm&docid=kFzMIw7VLZN-OM&imgurl=http://0.tqn.com/d/ancienthistory/1/0/n/x/2/MedeaMurdersChild.jpg&w=380&h=598&ei=PUx3UPHLEuaIiAKJyIG4Dg&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=428&sig=116158649283764553725&page=1&tbnh=121&tbnw=77&start=0&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0,i:83&tx=23&ty=74 
Works Cited: Euripides, and C. A. E. Medea. N.p.: n.p., 431 BC. Print.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Rage's Immolation of Sanity


          Again and again in Melville’s densely arranged novel readers encounter the idea that uncontrollable rage not only consumes the soul but eventually the physical host as well. “They think me mad… but I’m demonic, I am madness maddened! That wild madness that’s only calm to comprehend itself!” (Melville, 183). Here Captain Ahab expounds upon his ineffable anger toward a white whale in the form of a portent soliloquy. In one way he is delivering a fatal sentence on himself by declaring the only thing crazier than insanity is him. This idea of rapacious rage  elevating someone to a level higher than the average contour of such a deadly emotion is not as unwonted as it may seem. How often have you, or if you prefer someone you've seen, thrown a puerile fuss because of unfavorable circumstances or interactions with other people? I’d vouchsafe a claim that most if not everyone has at least witnessed this particular behavior, and so the idea of Melville’s batty sea traveler living his doomed life through an ire-plated mask is nothing uncanny.
Moving along, another seemingly fortuitous occasion plays itself out in the figure of a zealous diatribe. “Aye, aye! and I’ll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition’s flames before I give him up” (Melville, 177).  Regardless of the tremulous crew’s growing fear, Captain Ahab refuses to step down from his calloused pedestal of insanity as he informs the sailor of an indomitable mission. This is the point at where Melville’s reader began to understand the intensity of Ahab’s rage, so much so that it’s plausible to theorize that most of his sanity has already been devoured. I believe the author uses this key scene to unveil the manner in which some individuals of his time were pursuing their goals. For example, many “Christians” of the nineteenth century continued to stalk the streets at night looking for prostitutes and other possible “heathens”. I’m sure everyone can instantly picture a judgmental person ready to prey on the less for-tune or the out group people. By portraying Captain Ahab as an impious and conceited man, I believe Melville brings to life the idea that we all must be wary of falling into the trap of arrogance; more than once have I unfairly categorized a human being based on how they act, but as time passes thankfully I’ve gotten better. And this re-deeming quality is something else I like to think Melville encrypted within the words of his idealist tome. 
Picture Source: http://new.assets.thequietus.com/images/articles/9574/moby_1343990249_crop_550x480.jpg