Category: Coffeehouse #4 (Page 1 of 2)

Diana Castillo

Professor Scanlan

English 2001

29 October 2020

Redemption

Gothic literature is a style of writing that encompasses many elements of horror and death. The overall mood of this writing is gloomy for the most part, but it can also include romance within natural events, individuality and intense emotion of fear and suspense. A major theme of gothic literature that I noticed was redemption. Redemption is present in the character of Emily Grierson in William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” and character Bartleby in Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street.” 

Emily Grierson is the main character in “A Rose for Emily”. It is a short story about a woman who appeared to be in denial over the death of her father, who was in complete dominance over her life. An example of this is, “None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such.” (Faulkner 3) This death causes a stir of events towards her redemption.   The particular type of redemption Emily Grierson sought out was absolution to redeem her character. Her redemption was sought through killing her husband, Homer. The towns people had already begun to pity her after her father’s death and when she married Homer, then everyone knew she was marrying beneath her and she appeared not of sound mind. She bought arsenic and the townspeople’s reaction indicated she may have been suffering from mental illness. “She will kill herself… and we said it would be the best thing. When she has first begun to be seen with Homer Barron…” (Faulkner 5) On the contrary, she had intended to use on her husband to keep him forever. He had no intention of staying with her so it drove her to such a rash decision. Emily stated “What was left of hum, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay; and upon hum and upon the pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust.”

Another example of redemption seen in the gothic literature stories is that of Bartleby in Herman Melville’s “Bartleby: The Scrivener.” In this story, Bartleby is a copyist for a real estate lawyer who began the job with excellence and slowly drove the other employees crazy. Similar to “A Rose for Emily,” Bartleby appears to have sought out redemption when he refused to examine a document when asked by the lawyer by stating “I would prefer not to”. The second example of his attempt to redeem his character was his response of “I would rather not” during a meeting at his work to a request to make copies. This makes it clear that he was not a very motivated employee and may have had a goal and could possibly have been religious. In another instance, Bartleby also had refused to eat while he was in jail. This was the most serious of his attempts at redeeming his character because it ultimately caused his death. He had shown multiple attempts to seek something other than his complacent position in life. 

In conclusion, redemption was a common theme between the two main characters Emily Grierson and Bartleby of “A Rose for Emily” and “Bartley’s Scrivener.”  Both of these characters presented an absolution type of redemption. Emily Grierson did so through the murder of her husband, Homer. Bartleby may have desired a new life as he was not content with how he was living his current one and did so through his attitude in his job and eventually with his in his final times in a jail cell.  Although not a lot of information is given by the narrator on Bartleby, so we can only assume he may have sought out to redeem his character. 

Midterm Essay, English 2001 

Oct 20, 2020

The spirit of perverseness  is described as a driving force that allows characters in a story to do things that they knew would be bad for themselves and others around them. I believe this theme is prevalent in  both “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gillman  and the “The Black Cat” By Edgar  Allen Poe. Both gives first hand narration about characters  who seem to have a mental slip induced by things that happen in their lives or things they brought upon themselves. However, the stories are not the same by means of content or conflict and by the end of each the reader is faced with  the fact that, one narrator knew his actions were wrong by law and the other was so wrapped up in her own mind/depression that she almost couldn’t help herself.   

In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte P Gillman is a sad story told from the point of view of a wife. She lets us know that both her and her husband a doctor names John believed she had a form of depression. Which he viewed as no big deal.  As the plot unfolded the narrator who is the main character becomes so fixated on the wallpaper in her bedroom, that she wanted it removed. She brought these concerns to her husband who stayed in his resolve. “It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate, and provoke study, and when you follow the lame, uncertain curves for a little distance they  suddenly commit suicide…”.  She became obsessed with the wall paper so much so that it seemed to invade all her daily spaces, and thought. In my opinion the spirit of perverseness  rare its head when the narrator had finally had enough. When she could no longer contain her hate for the wallpaper and maintain the illusion of getting better for her husband. Her hysteria came to ahead when she gave life to the wallpaper as she pulled and tugged in a fit of desperation and until every peace was down. To her husbands dismay.

Teresa Lopez Ramos

Midterm Essay, English 2001 

Oct 20, 2020

Change v. Tradition 

            Emily Grierson is a mysterious character in William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” The author tries to share the struggle of trying to maintain the idea of tradition when social and radical change occurs. Emily Grierson; herself lives as a representation of the tradition that many people of the village have a desire to respect, honor, and keep however she is cut off from the outsider world – a true outsider that many ridicule her for. This essay is framed by the teachings and the causes of how changes can be dangerous because it helps us understand how traditions can be dangerous as well. 

            “A Rose For Emily” by William Faulkner writes this story in five sections. The first section recalls the death of the main character of Emily Grierson and how the town attended her funeral in her home which is described that nobody had entered from more than a decade. In this section of the story it had recall that once elegant and wealthy neighborhood – the Grierson house is the last standing, wealthy family. Colonel Sartoris – a previous mayor had suspended the Grierson tax responsibility to this specific town after the death of her father and abandonment of the love of her life. Once a new mayor has taken the position, there are unsuccessful attempts to get Emily to resume those payments. In section II, the narrator describes a setting thirty years earlier, in which Emily is also deferring/resisting a request on behalf of the people of the town – when there is a powerful and disgusting smell that is coming from the elegant manor. Judge Stevens (the mayor at that time) declares that lime should be sprinkled to get rid o the odor during the evening. The father – Mr. Grierson is also an important part as he dies. In section III – the narrator describes that Emily has acquired an illness after the death of her father. Though a new and important character is introduced Homer Barron – a contract worker/boss to pave sidewalks and etc… As Homer becomes a popular figure in town and is seen with Emily on rides on Sunday afternoon, making the townies to gossip, patronize, and pity Emily forgetting  the first thoughts of her pride and question of being involved with a man who is beneath her. In section IV, the narrator describes the action and emotions of the townies when Emily is seen buying arsenic. As this happens, there are also actions of buying a silver toilet set monogrammed for Homer as a potential marriage is setting. We see a repetition of actions from the first section of the story; Emily distancing herself from the town people, her door remains closed to outsider despite the China painting lessons she gave on occasion. Only her servant is seen the only going in and out of that house, even Homer was never to be seen. In section V, the narrator what happened after Emily’s death. He also describes that a particular room was unsealed to the people in over forty years, that they find the monogrammed toilet seat and serval items for a weeding and Homer body and a long stand of Emily’s gray hair on the pillow.  The question is: Does death engage as an important factor of the theme of the dangers of Change vs. Tradition?  

            In the story “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson; small town villagers are gather in the square on June 27 or how it is described to be a beautiful day. Tessie Hutchinson an important character to the story is flustered due to her inability to remember an important day to the community. This day in which draws a name out of a black box to decided who to be stoned which Tessie repeats that “it is not fair”. In order to answer the question above: I will examine the scene in which the community is blindly teaching the children to continue the steps of the tradition of the lottery. Then I will also examine the character of Old Man Warner who is extremely faithful to the tradition of the lottery that many decided to blindly follow this tradition so that they fear to return to their “primitive ways”. 

Karla Morales

ENG 2001-O525

The spirit of perverseness is the force that drives people to do things that they know will be bad for themselves and others. In the stories “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, both have a character who uses the force of perversion in order to destroy the lives of their loved ones. The narrator in the story “The Black Cat”, and John in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, both create an atmosphere that eventually leads to destruction and tragic events. 

In the story “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe, the narrator confesses his love for animals such as cats and dogs and he marries a woman at a young age. He has a favorite animal which is a black cat named Pluto. Shortly after, he starts suffering from violent mood swings which is the result of his alcoholism. He starts to mistreat his wife and animals, eventually he lashes out on Pluto after getting home drunk one night. The narrator proceeds to take a pocket knife and he cuts the cat’s eyes. The following day he hangs the car from a tree and on the night of Pluto’s death, his house sets on fire. The only thing left standing is a wall with the impression of a black cat. One night after being out drinking he stumbles into a black cat who resembles Pluto and the cat becomes a part of his household. The spirit of perverseness takes over once again leading to his murderous thoughts. One day he trips on the cat and he decides to grab an axe but unexpectedly , the wife defends the animal. The narrator disapproves of this and decides to bury the axe of his wife’s head. The police arrive on the fourth day and discover what he has done.

In the story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator begins by informing the reader that her husband has taken her to a summer vacation. They are staying at a house that has been empty for a while. She discusses that she suffers from depression and her husband John who also happens to be her doctor constantly disregards her illness and her thoughts.  The solution that is given by her husband John is to not do anything that will make her use her imagination such as writing. She makes the decision to keep a secret journal in order to relieve her mind. She starts to focus more on the house, especially the yellow wallpaper that has different patterns. She becomes more and more fixated on the wallpaper but John refuses to change the wallpaper because he doesn’t want to feed into her worries. She starts seeing a particular pattern and as she spends more time alone, her goal is now to figure out what the pattern of the wall is. The wallpaper starts to take over her imagination because it seems to be the only source of entertainment. She starts sleeping less and mentions that she can smell the wallpaper all over the house. Now the wallpaper starts taking the shape of a woman who is struggling inside the room’s yellow wallpaper. In an effort to help out the woman, she tears  it down. By the end of the story she has gone completely insane thinking that she is the trapped woman.

Kianna Carrington

Midterm Essay, ENG 2001

October 19th, 2020

Similarities In Gothic Fictions

Throughout the semester, we have read a number of gothic fictions that has a lot of gothic elements in them. While reading these stories, it came with confusion at first and a liking to them. The stories I truly enjoyed reading the most were “The House of Asterion” by Jorge Luis Borges, “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, and “The Black Cat” by Egar Allen Poe. Many of the stories we have read have a lot in common. But in “The House of Asterion” and “A Rose for Emily”, there are so many similarities between the two main characters, Asterion and Emily Grierson.

The short story “The House of Asterion” by Jorge Borges is about a Minotaur, half man half bull, named Asterion, who is feared by the people in the land of Labyrinth. He says to the readers that he is a prisoner in his castle but there are no restrictions holding him by his will, just society. It’s the people who made him feel like a prisoner because they judge him and make him feel less than he is, and they make up rumors about him. He can leave his castle whenever he wants but when he does go out, people are scared and they run away from him. Making him feel bad. He does keep himself entertained by constantly reminding himself that one day his “redeemer” will come, playing games with himself, and even talking to himself. Every nine years, nine people enter his home but they don’t leave, he kills them. He thinks he’s redeeming them by killing them.

Sajeevan Rangeswaran

Midterm Essay, English 2001

October 19, 2020

                                                            Black Cat Narrator vs Emily

            Gothic is writing that creates excessive emotions and actions related to nightmares, mysteries, terror, death, and madness. We have read so many Gothic fictions this semester and most of them have a different gothic element in the story. There were two stories in which I felt the character has some similarities. The two stories were “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner. The narrator from “The Black Cat” and Emily from “A Rose for Emily” had similarities in their gothic fiction.

           In the story “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe; the narrator is the main character, and he is an alcoholic who gets angry at everyone and beats his wife. One day he hanged his cat Pluto and after that, his house was destroyed by the fire. After that, he found a cat that looks like his cat Pluto. That cat followed the narrator even though the narrator did not like it. One day he could not tolerate the cat, so he decided to kill the cat with the knife, but his wife came in the middle, and instead of the cat he kills his own wife. Then he hides her body inside the wall where the cat will also get stuck. When the police came to his house, he got caught because the cat made noise from the wall. In the end, he was arrested for killing his wife and he is going to die now because of that.              

In the story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, Emily is the main character who lives with her father in the southern united states. One day her father dies, and she lives alone in the house. One time she meets Homer Barron, who she falls in love with. Homer Barron told everyone in the area that he slept with Emily, which made Emily so angry. Emily decided to kill Homer Barron because of that. Even though she killed him; she kept Homer Barron dead body with her in the house. After a few years, she dies also because of aging.

Melanie Alvarado

Midterm Essay, English 2001

Oct 19, 2020

Reading “the black cat” and “a rose for Emily” we discover that they are two Gothic stories that have much in common. First, we will talk about what the stories are about to better understand the plot. After knowing the stories, we are going to explore two characters that have a lot in common and how the Gothic elements help their development.

              “The black cat” by Edgar Allan Poe is about a man who loved animals, he married a woman who loved them too. They have many animals roaming around it, they were both thrilled and very in love with their animals. Throughout history, the man gave himself up to drink and while doing that he neglected the animals, he also yelled at his wife, but he never mistreated the cat, the man still loved his cat. But after a while the black cat receives the same consequences as the other animals and the man’s wife. Another day the man returned home drunk and hatred ran through his body when he saw the cat who looked at him with fear. So, he grabbed a rope and the cat, to hang it on the branch of a tree in a house where he hanged it. They moved, but in their new neighborhood, there was a one-eyed cat with a white spot around its neck. With fear running through his blood, he grabs the ax to kill the cat. His wife, in defense of the creature, claims him, telling him not to kill this new animal; The man, as he saw that she would not let him out, killed her. The police arrived, and in search of the wife’s body, they broke down the wall. In which there was a black cat with fire coming out of one eye and a white spot that surrounded its neck, on the corpse of the wife. 

“A rose for Emily” by William Faulkner is about a woman called Emily who loses her dad and start to have strange behavior. People in the neighborhood found out she was going to get married. However, she did not get to marry since Homer her fiancé disappeared. From that moment coming and going. A very strong smell was felt, and the neighbors complained about the smell, but one day that smell disappears. At 74 she dies at home, and the neighbors go to her funeral and discover a room that no one had entered there forty years ago. When they entered the room, they found some men’s objects on the dresser and a suit. On the bed lay a man, and next to it was a pillow that had the marking of a head and gray hair.

Both stories have two characters in common, the unnamed narrator who tells the story in “the black cat” and Emily from “a rose for Emily.” These two characters are similar. In both stories, we can see the “spirit of perverseness” is was makes people do things they know will be bad for themselves and others. “Spirit of perverseness” is used to explain and show why they both behave like this. In “The black cat” the narrator shows that has a violent and aggressive emotional behavior and that he does not feel any remorse or guilt for his actions when he kills the cat he feel nothing and he knew that he doing something wrong but he kills it anyway. In “A rose for Emily” she buys the poison knowing it is dangerous and with the idea of killing her fiancé, she knew she was doing wrong, but she did it anyway so he would never leave her. This shows how the spirit of perverseness works in both stories. We can also see in both stories many gothic elements like the black cat and the Emily’s house to represent the death. The strand of hair like reminder of love and the perverse thing that a person could do to find the happiness.

As humans we all could relate how the spirit of perversity has affected our lives whether at a low cost or a large one. The story “The Black Cat” Edgar Allan Poe and “The yellow wallpaper” Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s both have a character who plays the part of spirit of perversity at a high level. The narrator in the story “The black cat” and the narrator in the story “The Yellow wallpaper” are both two characters whose behavior created many impacted moments in the story. Both of these characters took decisions and actions that needed to happen through the spirit of perversity. The spirit of perversity can be affected more when the characters are experiencing a mental illness. 

    The narrators of both “The black cat” and “the yellow wallpaper” suffer from mental health which creates a lot of violence and actions that harm themselves and their surroundings. In the story “The black cat” the narrator used alcohol to cure his depression and anxiety but alcohol also led him to be alone. In the story the narrator had his broken point and decided to push all his anger into Pluto” his cat. In the story the narrator describes the ways he tried to harm and attend to kill pluto. He knows it is wrong to harm Pluto but his impulsive actions made him do it. 

The narrator in “The yellow wallpaper” shows the readers how the spirit of perversity can be affected more when the person has a mental illness. In the story the narrator suffered from a depression or a postpartum depression. As the narrator explains her depression she was experiencing a lot of anxiety attacks and began to cured herself through writing about the yellow wallpaper in her room. Her husband John tried to cure her depression by keeping her out of writing but she refused and wrote behind him. The narrator had an illusion that thought the yellow wallpaper in her room was moving. She began to write about it and little by little began to pull the yellow wallpaper out.  As a comparison to the narrator of the story “The Black Cat” the narrator blames Pluto for all his misfortunes and finds every excuse to blame him. The narrator creates this mentality that the cat is his enemy. 

Cody Santana

10/17/20

                             The Spirit of Perverseness

               In the two stories we will be discussing today which are Kafka’s “A Hunger Artist” and Melvilles “Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street”we have two prominent characters which both have a desire to achieve something greater and in many ways that makes them alike, but they also have a lot of characteristics which separate them, and these are shown through how they attempt to each achieve their individual goals, and how each of their decisions in this pursuit effects the other characters around them in each of their stories. I believe both these characters share one common characteristic that will be the main theme of the essay which is defined by Poe the writer of the Black Cat the ‘Spirit of Perverseness”. His definition is “”What makes people do things they know are bad for themselves”. A very simple way to define such a complicated topic but where does this relate to our two characters? Each of these characters are trying to achieve their goals by doing things that are ultimately bad for their own wellbeing, the difference between the two characters is that one of them we know what their end goal is while the other character we will have to take a deeper dive to even try to piece together what they want to achieve in the story. 

              In the story written by Kafka “The Hunger Artist” we see a man who is not named (so we will just call him Hunger Artist) being used as a circus act of sorts. He is essentially known as the Hunger Artist, a man who starves himself for several weeks at a time. He is also monitored and locked within a cage. People come out to see the hunger artist in his cage just to see what a man who doesn’t eat anything for so long looks like. He is a very popular attraction for the circus and as such the people who run the circus want to keep him maintained. They give him a strict time period where he can and cannot eat. The Hunger Artist wants to surpass 40 days, it is his ultimate goal to break his own record, but the people who run the show won’t allow him. This always infuriates him and his way of retaliating he just doesn’t speak, which heavily affects the way the show works because when people come to see him they like to talk with him in the hopes of their questions being answered. Without him speaking the show is more or less just people staring at a hungry man. This man lives and breaths the spirit of perverseness. His own goals derive from something he very much knows could kill him down the line.

              In Melville’s story “Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story on Wall Street” we have Bartleby, who isn’t the main character per say, but is very much the center of the story. When he first starts working at the lawyers office as a scrivener he is very efficient at his job, gets things done very quick and is quiet, and he is not in anyone’s way. But over time he begins to just stop doing his work, whenever he gets asked to do something he simply replies “I would prefer not to” or “I would rather not”. Even when he gets fired he comes to work and just kinda sits around and gets in everyone’s way. Eventually the lawyer tries to help him but is not met with a good response so he ends up getting Bartleby arrested and sent to jail. Even when he is locked away he continues to refuse to do what anyone says, he even refuses to eat the food given to him when asked to eat it which leads to his eventual death in the story. Now there are a lot of things to cover here but what i want to look at is how Bartleby shows his own spirit of perverseness. He simply chooses not to listen to anyone and pretty much all the time it’s to his disadvantage, he gets fired, sent to jail, and then dies because of his actions. I am certain that Bartleby knows he shouldn’t be doing this, but there has to be something that drives him to do all these nonsensical things.