Memoirs of a Geisha Journal Entry

" My father was more at ease on the sea than anywhere else. He smelled like the sea even after he bathed" (9)

"When I was six or seven, I learned something about my father I'd never known. One day I asked him, "Daddy, why are you so old? (10).

Golden's first describes Chiyo as a very blunt little girl. Chiyo is no afraid to hold back thoughts or questions when concerning her father. Like most little girls, Chiyo has many questions and have a desire to learn. Also, Golden's ability to show how calm Chiyo's father was when at sea almost describes her father to be like the sea. The sea is always smooth and peaceful. Much like Chiyo's father.

Study Guide; Hamlet's Soliloquy

In Act 1 Scene 5, Hamlet reflects what’s life is like without his father. In the soliloquy, Shakespeare describes Hamlet as a weak and insane person. Shakespeare is able to this through use of tone, word choice, and repetition.In the first part of Hamlet’s soliloquy, I believe Hamlet’s fall to the ground because he just cannot physically stand up anymore. He looks up at the sky for a quick moment then falls shortly afterwards. Thinking about his father knocks his off of his feet and the thought also affects his breathing. Hamlet sounds like he is short of breath. Also, in the clip, Hamlet looks up towards the sky as if the sky is King Hamlet and whispers “remember thee”. It’s like Hamlet is telling his father not to forget him and he will meet up with him in heaven. “O all you host of heaven! O earth! And shall I couple hell?” (92-93). I believe the reference of heaven, earth, and hell is significant. Hamlet references to earth because he is living on earth at the very moment, but he feels like living on the earth is “hell”. Halmet wants to be in heaven with his father. When the actor Hamlet speaks from line 92-95, his eyes are closed. It’s like he can’t come to grasp reality. He can’t live without his father. He needs him in his life. “O fie, hold, hold, my heart”, the word fie, as I looked up meant disgust. I think Shakespeare uses fie to describe his uncle. Hamlet’s uncle is fie and is holding his heart. The uncle is holding Hamlet’s heart as to break it or destroy it in a physical manor. But Hamlet’s uncle did already break his heart, mentally, when he killed King Hamlet. In the middle of the soliloquy, Hamlet finally rises from the ground. As Hamlet rises, there is dark music in the background and his breathing grows harsher. His voice also becomes harsh and painful. His eyes are closed, just like the beginning of the soliloquy. His eyes also appear to grow larger. He is screaming, and his screaming is geared towards his mother, Queen Gertrude. He calls his mother a “pernicious woman”, as if she does not deserve a name. This is another sign of how Shakespeare describes Hamlet insanity. Most young boys will not call their mother a “pernicious woman.” Also, Hamlet makes a reference to Denmark. “And smile, and be a villain”, Shakespeare writes as if Hamlet ever had the chance to send his mother to Denmark, he would. And Denmark at this time is a prison, so Hamlet wanting to condemn his mother to Denmark shows his madness. At the end of the soliloquy, Hamlet’s voice is harsher than ever before and his eyes grow wider. He ends his soliloquy with “So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word.” It is “Aideu, aideu! Remember me.” I believe these lines are foreshadowing how Hamlet is going to kill his uncle. . “Now to my word”, this is Hamlet’s promise for his father to carry on the deed of what he told him to do. And the deed is to kill the current king. Also in the video, Hamlet recites these lines he is slowly raising his sword, as if he is practicing how to kill him. Through use of word choice, tone, and repetition, Shakespeare is able to captivate his reader’s mind to believe the insanity and weakness of Hamlet. Repetition usually is a sign of insanity and this is the main reason why I believe that Shakespeare choose to repeat many words in the soliloquy.

A Visual Explication

On page 12 of Tom Phillips' Humument, Phillips suggests that life is a path with many obstacles, challenges, and choices. The choices, obstacles, and challenges will not be easy. Phillips knows this and is able to show his viewers through use of color, word placement, and many other techniques, Phillip is able to convey his readers to look more closely at life and what it throws at us. Life is not meant to be simple, it is meant to be complicated. First looking at the picture, the viewer can clearly tell that the humument is mainly constructed of dark colors with little specs of white. I believe the dark colors that Phillips uses in the humument represented the obstacles that life throws at a person. While the little specs of light represent hope. As the viewer can see, there is much more dark colors of green then there are colors of white. I think Phillips purpose for the excessive green and the limited white was to show how many obstacles a person would have to overcome in his or her life and how much hope he or she will have while overcoming the obstacle. But the use of the color green could also have a split meaning. Green could also mean spring, renewal, or growth. There is also controversy at the top of the picture. There are two different shades of color with a slash of green between the middle. The brighter side which consists of pink, blue and white, is one side of the pathway, and path with the darker colors is another. It depends on how the viewer views the picture to choose which side he or she determines to follow. Just like with the split meaning of green, they can choose which way to perceive it. Green could be sought as an obstacle, or it could be sought as growth or renewal. Leaving the viewer to decide the meaning is also saying what choices a person can choose in life. There is never only one option; there will always be many options. A significant thing I noticed about the humument was how the words were arranged. The words as the viewer can see starts from the very tip of the left hand side then moves slowly to the right then takes a dramatic drop to the left again and finishes at the very tip of the left hand side. As the viewer can see, the words are arranged in what appears to be like a path. The arrange of words could easily be translated to how life is a path. First, people are born and have no knowledge of the world yet, they are "condemned to life" as Phillips puts it, but as a person grows older, when they are in their teenage years they understand life more, but stray away from it. Teenagers, as most people know, are probably one of if not the hardest age group to understand. Which is the second little packet of words is away from the first on the opposite side of the page and very far away from the next. Phillips purpose for this how people in the teenage age group usually tend to stray away from life. The word choice he uses clearly demonstrates what he thought “this good book looks for nobody". Replace the word book with teenager and the line makes perfect sense. Between the years of 1970 and 1975, Phillips probably created his humument gallery. This was also the time of the hippie era, liberation for teenagers and young people. Teenagers were dressing wildly and doing acts that people were just no yet use to. This is why I believe that the little set of words is so far away from the other sets. Hippies were also misunderstood for the most part; another reason why I think Phillips cast these words away as far as he did. The next set of words is on the left hand side again, where the humument began. The set words at the bottom left hand side are more dense and abundant than the previous sets of words. I believe Phillips made the lines this way was because the last set of words symbolizes adulthood. The first set of words symbolized a baby, the next set, a teenager, and the last set belongs to adults. I believe the last set of words is denser than the other pairs are because the last set of words is the path of adulthood. As an adult, people are more knowledgeable of the world and what’s around them. They challenged more obstacles than teenagers and babies. In general, they have more knowledge. It’s the road to success, they (adults), figure out their lives pretty much. Teenagers on the other hand, are just coming to grasp what life is and has yet to learn the definition of life. Another thing significant about the humument is that there is a patch of mud brown that begins in the top middle that goes down to the bottom of the page. Looking from far away, the patch of mud brown could easily be seen as a pathway. There is also what seems to appear as a door in the bottom right hand corner. The path as it appears seems to be going towards the door. Through many obstacles and challenges life throws at, the door to this humument is a person’s salvation. Also, the door is surrounded by a bunch of flowers; which symbolize life and nature. People worked hard in life to travel through this door, as Phillip tells his viewers. As the viewer can see, there are many obstacles in life to overcome. Life is never as simple as it seems. There is never just one option; there will always be many options. And it’s up to the person to decide which option would be right for him or her. Life gives people paths; and it’s up to the person to decide which path to take.

Hamlet's Soliloquy

After closely viewing all three soliloquies, I concluded that the first one, by Laurence Olivier is the best soliloquy. Through use of color effect, sound effect, scenery, and how the lines are said, this one clearly dominates the others in performance, skills, and accuracy.The clip of the soliloquy first starts off a close view of the ocean. Then Hamlet's head quickly comes into the clip. I believe showing Hamlet's head and the sea at the same time shows the connection of how Hamlet's mind process. The sea is a symbol of madness and insanity, much like Hamlet's brain. In the very beginning of the clip, the camera zooms in on Hamlet's brain. The video zooms in right to the core of the brain. There appears to be some sort of liquid in Hamlet's brain, which I interrupted it to the sea. The sea, as I say again is a good representation of how Hamlet's mind is. Hamlet believes that mind is free and powerful, but the mind as Hamlet sees it is also condemned to the body. In the beginning of the soliloquy, Hamlet recites "to die, to sleep" his voice is very faint. He appears to have grown weaker and can't hold himself up any longer and the camera zooms in on his weariness. Also, another thing I noticed is that he draws out a knife, a very small one. He takes the knife out just a little bit before saying "to die, to sleep". There is a very thick fog behind Hamlet. I think the fog symbolizes the fogginess of Hamlet's character. The fog symbolizes confusion, lost of mind, and many other things. And this is interesting because the fog appears in the whole clip, but it is mostly dense around the time when Hamlet recites these lines. Since I believe that the fog is a symbol of confusion, I believe when Hamlet recites these lines is the time when he is most confused. Also, I found it interesting that "to die, to sleep" is repeated again. The second time when the lines are repeated, the camera zooms in on Hamlet's head. The second time Hamlet recites the lines; I believe he is being more serious.Hamlet takes a fall to his elbows after he recites "perchance to dream-", I believe he falls to his elbow because dreaming for him is hopeless. What could he dream for? He lost his father; people think he is crazy, his mother betrayed his father and him to his uncle, Claudius. These lines "perchance to dream", I believe this is Hamlet's breaking point. This is the time when he realizes that he has close to nothing. Dreaming is something out of reach for Hamlet. Also, there is a sudden change of music. Before he says these lines, there is a sad type of music, after; there are sounds of waves in the background. This, I believe is symbolic. The sound of the waves brings the scene back to the very beginning of the clip, when Hamlet is looking down at the ocean and deciding whether he should jump off not. “The pangs of despis’d love” when Hamlet said this, he looks around as well. Why does he do this though? It is because he knows he has no love. Nobody loves him. The only person who did love him is gone now, and that is his father. Instead of people loving Hamlet, people think he is crazy. Nobody loves Hamlet, and this is the reason why he feels the need to look behind him when he says the word “love”.At the end of the clip, I believe Hamlet is walking towards his faith. I believe this because sad, mourning music is being played and his head is down. He slowly disappears behind the fog and slowly walks towards the cliff and down the steps, his destiny. He is not longer the center of the clip; instead, he is just a mere image. His importance is not worthy anymore. Out of a three soliloquies, Oliver’s was the best. There was a lot of accuracy in tone and scenes. Lines were not cut out and the soliloquy did not sound like a speech, unlike the others. The delivery of the lines, scene, camera effects and sound effects is what made this soliloquy triumph over the other ones.

Invisible Man Blog #3

One passage really stood out to me. “Three white men and three black horses. And, as I turned to leave, one of the horses violently tossed its head and I saw the gauntleted fist yank down (292). This passage I believed was Ellison’s hidden way of showing the white dominance in the society the protagonist lived in. “Three white men and three black horses” Obviously, the men represent the white dominance, and the black horses, represent the black people. “One of the horses violently tossed its head”, I took this as a black person rising up against society. Also, the reason why I think Ellison addressed the horse” it” brings forth how much worth a black person held in this type of society. The horse wasn’t even given a gender. “I saw the gauntleted fist yank down”. Ellison’s purpose for writing this sentence I believed was to show his readers that even if a black person has enough courage to rise above the white dominance and try to make himself/herself worthy, a white person would come crashing down on their dreams and ego. Also, another passage that caught my attention was on the last page of chapter 16. “I thought of Bledsoe and Norton. By kicking me into the dark they’d made me see the possibility of achieving something greater and more important than I’d ever dreamed. Here was a way that didn’t lead through the back door, a way not limited by black and white. If one lived long enough and worked hard enough, they could lead to the highest possible rewards. For the first time, I could glimpse the possibility of being more than a member of a race”, (308). This is the first time in the book where Ellison does not make race a big deal for the protagonist. Instead of seeing everything black and white, the protagonist now acknowledged the fact that if one really does work hard enough, he or she will succeed. It’s interesting how much the protagonist has to go through in order to trust the white race. You’d expect to see some more trust between the races at this time since they suffered through the depression and WWI together, but there is still no unity. And Ellison does a good portraying the feud between the races.

Invisble Man Blog #2

There are quite a few things I don’t like about the novel. I really didn’t like how Ellison portrays the black people during the fight in the ring. He almost describes the Africans as dogs, fighting one another for the white people’s entertainment as if that is what the African Americans are made for. There is this quote when the protagonist was chosen to fight in the ring and then blindfolded. “I wanted to see, to see more desperately than ever before.” (25). The meaning of this quote I think is that the protagonist wanted to escape, escape from all the madness. But he wasn’t able to because the blindfold was too tight. “When I raised my gloved hands to push the layers of white aside….” (25). This quote I believe is extremely significant. The protagonist “gloved hands” I believe could be interrupted as the African Americans in the time when the white people believed they were the superior race. “Push the layers of white aside...” (25) the word choice Ellison uses for this quote I found to be rather interesting. Why did he refer to the blindfold as “layers of white”? Was it because the “layers of white” refer to the white people? As if the protagonist tried to push away the mounds of white people watching him fight away.

Invisble Man Blog

Well Laurie, my first impression of the book was similar to yours. I too thought I was about a man trying to find himself within the racist society he was living in. One time I noticed about the beginning of the book is its murkiness. There aren’t many clear details to anything. There is no setting, time, and most people don’t seem to have a name. Why do you think this is, Laurie?One thing I don’t like about the book is Ellison’s style of writing. The style is very different from most authors I read and the style is hard to comprehend at times too. Like the very first page in the prologue. The protagonist first says “I” am an invisible man.” But then adds “I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids- and I might even be said to possess a mind” (1). If he is invisible, what type of invisibly does he considers himself to hold? ‘Cause it seems so far that he is viewable to other people. Also, why did Ellison not give the protagonist a name yet? Is possible because he is black? Or maybe it’s part of his invisibly, not having a name. What I believe to think when someone isn’t given a name is that they are usually sought by other people as inferior. ‘Cause if someone doesn’t even have a name, an almost essential thing to life, what other things could they possibly have?

Precious Dreams

Here I am an old stage in life. In a powerful, demanding frame.
The air is cruel, forbidding, & drunk
On the way to escape the streetscape
I drink some vile atrocious, contaminated bacteria which hisses
And fogs to have depth and to come
In. The streets look for life, death, or me. Life
is far Death is near. Hell is close, heaven, it’s unreachable.
Tender crisp, deep illuminated night on me. I forge
Through it, them, as
My heart has been sipped on unchangeable now
10 years almost ago, the man comes close to me, swearing & telling.
Who would have thought that I’d be here, nothing
Nobody, no one to tell me that everything
Worth living for is not worth living for.
Life is not as precious as it seems.
Up in the world, far beyond the cloud, now
More than ever before?
Not that lecherous man, peering in taking off her coat
Eyes penetrating her voluminous body. Searching
& feeling in hunger. Not that annoying, petty teen, who was
Going to have to go, careening into the ocean so
To die, and to go on to heaven, imagine
So to go. Not that homeless man, who after very first meeting
I would never & never forget. Whom I visit every night and take him
Into the streets, where Hell fell on him, calling so demanded.
To love him & who will never leave me, not for fame, nor money
Nor even life itself. Which is
Only our human lot & means nothing. No, not anything.
There’s a song “ Live life to it’s fullest”, but no, I won’t do that
I am frustrated. When will I die? I live never die. I will live
To be famous, & I will never go away, & you will never escape from me
Who am always & only a person, despite this world. Spirit
Who lives only to haunt people.
I am only human, & I am in poverty, & I didn’t want my life to
Turn out like this
I came to your life to demand why you done this to me.
Why you done this to people.
Why love live your luxurious life.
Nothing will be done & I can’t depend on fate, nevertheless
I will continue to live cold, poor, and lonely. And watch
The world’s hunger and poverty only continue to grow.

Peter Bruegel Explication

Roles in Society
In the poem Corn Harvest, by William Carlos Williams, Williams’ use of language and tone penetrates the readers’ mind to suggest the different roles, lifestyles and hardships a woman and a man endures in peasant day society. While the women do the petty, behind the scenes work, the men are handling physical, outdoors work.
In the first half of the poem, Williams describes the hardships of a working male peasant. “Relaxed / by his morning labors”(7-8). Williams used of language propose that the reaper is physically drained and relaxing is his key to happiness. “Summer!(1)” Williams’ use of an exclamation point at the end of summer describes how much the reaper enjoys this season. Summer, people sees as a happy month, and everything grows and get nutrition from. The title “The Corn Harvest” ties well into why summer is the first word of the poem. Because summer also happens to be the season when all the harvesting is done and crops are collected as well.
While men’s roles are reapers, the women hold a more relaxed job. They had “brought him [reaper] his lunch”(14). As the reader could see, the women have a much more relaxed job according to the poem. Williams hints that since women have a lesser role in society then men, they are treated less as human beings. The women are treated more along the lines of servants. Also, the women do not relax by sleeping. They relax by gossiping. “They gather gossiping/ under a tree.” Williams’ use of language suggests that the tree is the women hangout spot, a place where they get together and socialize. The women huddle under the tree to gather their thoughts and ideas and discuss the latest gossip while the men, like the reaper, share his thoughts, and gossip only among himself.

Williams, though describes the hardships a man must endures in peasant day society, uses hypocritical irony to show how lazy a man could be as well. “Young// reaper enjoying his noonday rest completely”(3-6). According to this excerpt, Williams hints to the reader that the reaper’s “noonday rest” is not just happening that day, but happens on a daily basic, suggesting to the readers that the reaper is exhausted once noonday comes. Also, the reaper, though finished his work, becomes lazy once his morning deeds are done. The reaper doesn’t sleep sitting, but instead falls asleep “sprawled”(9). As if he is too tired or lazy to get up. His morning deeds had drained him of his energy and feels that he must rest quickly. As if he doesn’t, the chance of getting to sleep will have passed by and he had not had taken it.

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