The Sound and The Fury: Question 1

To select the character that reflects on the past the most in this novel is a debatable and tough task. Quentin is constantly thinking and lamenting on what happened to and what has become of Caddy. Jason is consistently bitter at his perceived slights and his losses of what he believed was for whatever reason rightfully his. However, I feel that the answer to the question is that the character that reflects the most on the past is Benjy. His entire life is lived in what he has experienced throughout it. Faulkner even chooses to tell his chapter in a confusing "stream of consciousness" in which Benjy is constantly switching from the past to the present and everywhere in between. Whether it be the golf course that is no longer Compson property or a thought on Caddy, Benjy's life always seems to take place on the past, a past that to him is somehow still the present, and even the future. Also, Benjy uses these memories to tie into one another, when the golf players shout for their caddies, Benjy is reminded of his sister, and the narration flows back into a memory from his past.
To select the character that reflects the least on the past is, in my opinion, a much less daunting task. While all of the characters do so to an incredible degree, Dilsey does so less than any other character. She is abused by the family, and mistreated as a black. However, she is one of the few standing as the Compson family deteriorates around her. Although she too laments on the past, she is able to use her faith and devotion to the church to power through the struggle. Instead of focusing on the past (which ultimately leads to all of the other characters' demises) she looks outward, to the power of God and is therefore not brought down with the rest of the family.

Heart of Darkness Vs. Apocalypse Now

It is obvious to those who have viewed both pieces of media that the film "Apocalypse Now" is based off of the book "Heart of Darkness." Both follow basically the same plot, with a team of people going down an unfamiliar and intimidating river in a foreign country. Even the name of the person who is being searched for, Kurtz, is the same in both. However, the similarities, and even the differences of the two are found deeper in their meanings, in the tone and style of the pieces.
In terms of theme, both revolve around a sense of madness. In "Heart of Darkness," all of the characters are ignorant and even fearful of the culture (or as they see it, lack of culture) around them. They see the African villagers as savages, and wonder how any society could possibly that uncivilized. "Apocalypse Now" takes a bit of a different approach to reach the same conclusion. While the soldiers do know a bit more about the society that surrounds them as they traverse the river, the sense of unknowing about the environment and where they are headed is still prevalent. Also, in both pieces the madness is displayed in certain characters. The surfer in "Apocalypse Now" goes crazy after seeing the majority of his comrades die and towards the end is in a state of constant stupor on so many drugs. In "Heart of Darkness," Marlow's obsession with Kurtz also suggests a sense of madness as well.
Savagery and what is truly savage is another common theme between the two. In "Apocalypse Now" the Vietnamese are seen to be the savages, throwing hats with bombs into helicopters and being uncivilized people. However, when the soliders kill the innocent people on the fishing boat, and especially how the last lady is killed, a questioning of what and who is really savage is raised. In "Heart of Darkness," Marlow reflects on the European's abuse of the Africans (such as putting them in chain gangs) and wonders to himself if they are really just masking their barbarism with a cloak of illusional superiority.

Short Stories

I feel that the most complex short story that we read was The Dumbwaiter. I feel this way because this story leaves the most to the imagination. What is meant by the seemingly meaningless conversation topics? What happens to Gus at the end? Who is sending the orders from upstairs and why? This story was by far the most bizzare, and was definitely the most complex. Parts of the story that seem to resist interpretation include the idle talk. Discussing kids killing cats and old men under trucks seems like it should have a point, but perhaps doesn't, it is truly hard to tell. Deceptively simple parts include the orders sent upstairs from the dumbwaiter. While this is a simple act in and of itself, the reasons behind it are unknown and strange. The unanswerable question is what happens to Gus and why. The entire situation surrounding him I feel is never meant to be answered, only to be thought about. The title The Dumbwaiter I feel not only refers to the dumbwaiter in the story itself, but two "dumb waiters" who are innocently (as innocently as hitmen can wait) for an order, and who are entirely ignorant to the situation that they are in.

Religion To Game

To respond to this passage, I actually begin outside of Othello and refer first to what has become of organized religion in our world today. Man is inherently too weak to take responsibility for his own actions, and, voila, religion was born. Religion is just used as man's way of justifying his actions, and allows an easy way out for self-forgiveness after a wrongdoing. Furthermore, it is used as a means of control, with an elite few telling the masses what to believe and how to believe it, as a means for subduing the public from rebelling against their rule. While I do believe in a higher power than that of man, I do not agree with religion as it is practiced today. Way back in the day, even before TV, there was a series of Crusades in which a bunch of Christian dudes killed a bunch of other Christian dudes in the name of God. After that, indulgences were sold by the church, effectively absolving someone of their sins... for a monetary price. And more recently, families of sexually abused children have been paid by the church to stay silent, rather than the priests having to be responsible for their abhorrent actions. All of this is to say religion has come a long way from what I believe to be its noble intentions of teaching man to respect and love one another, to become almost a game to be played by those struggling to gain some sense of control of their and other people's lives.

Iago is a classic example of the type of person that really exemplifies the major problems with religion today. His intentions started well, a lieutenant under Othello, doing what he thought was right, going to war for his country. However, the evils of jealousy and envy eventually overcame him. Thinking that Othello was cheating with his wife, Iago allowed his good intentions to be shadowed by the easier goals of pretty much screwing everyone else over to meet his means. Just as in the case of religion, his life and his intentions turned into a game, in which he was able to manipulate everything around him to reach his diabolical plans. His morals turned into nothing but fuel for his fire against the people around him, hence the appropriate metaphor of "the moral pyromaniac"

About Me

"At times like this, it is important that we look back at the people and the events that got us to where we are today, for, in the words of a very wise dead person, 'A nation that does not know its history is doomed to do poorly on the Scholastic Aptitude Test.'" -- Dave Barry Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of The United States

"But then, obsessives have no choice: they have to lie on occasions like this. If we told the truth every time, then we would be unable to maintain relationships with anyone from the real world. We would be left to rot with our Arsenal programmes or our collection of original blue-label Stax records or our King Charles spaniels, and out two-minutes daydreams would become longer and longer and longer until we lost our jobs and stopped bathing and shaving and eating, and we would lie on the floor in our own filth rewinding the video again and again in an attempt to memorise by heart the whole of the commentary, including David Pleat's expert analysis, for the night of 26th May 1989. (You think I had to look the date up? Ha!) The truth is this: for alarmingly large chunks of an average day, I am a moron." -- Nick Hornby Fever Pitch

Walking Away

After reading Oedipus Rex, I walk away with a greater confusion of life as I know it. Are we really fated to fufill our destinys, or do we live life the way we want to, free to make our own decisions and our own path in life? This play really made me think about that topic, but I still feel that we are free to make our own choices in determining our course. No prophecy can truly be fulfilled, for everyone and anymore can easily avoid the fate they are "destined" to have, and cannot be tied down by the word of the gods. Also, I felt that the play was actually very repetitive. How many different metaphors did Socrates find for the dramatic irony that Oedipus killed his father and slept with his mother, all the while trying to find the culprit? All of his wordplay and illusionary writing really just repeated the same thing over and over. I am not one of those teenage students who just hates everything he reads in school, but this play was truly boring. Lastly, the themes in the play were not applicable in my life today, seeing as how I have no fate to be fulfilled.