Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption

Plot
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption is a short story (or novella, as us English profs call it) written by critically-acclaimed horror/suspense novelist Stephen King, and was first published in 1984. The plot centers around two characters, Red and Andy Dufresne, and their time at Shawshank Prison in Maine. The plot is revealed through Red, and the majority of the narration consists of stories of Red, Andy, or the two interacting. In the end, both men actually cause the other's freedom; Red smuggles in the rock hammer for Andy, and Andy's philosophies on the life of a free man lead Red to seek a new life rather than return to the prison. Although most of the story takes place in Shawshank, it is Andy's escape and journey to Mexico that carries significance in regard to the meaning of the work. With Andy's twenty-seven year long tunnel dig, we see that hope does exist even in the biggest "hellhole" on earth, Shawshank. This is reinforced by Red's final realization of the importance of this hope, and he himself hopes for the future in the closing lines.

"I hope Andy is down there. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope." -- pg. 107

Point of View
The entire story is a first-person narration (Red calls it a 'memoir' in the actual story) as told by Red, although most of the story he is talking about Andy.  In the novella, Stephen King does a huge favor by telling the reader (through Red) that, even though he talks about Andy, the story's main focus is Red.

"Well, you weren't writing about yourself, I hear someone in the peanut-gallery saying. You were writing about Andy Dufresne. You're nothing but a minor character in your own story. But you know, that's just not so. It's all about me, every damned word of it." -- pg. 100

Red narrates the story of Andy's trial, imprisonment, and subsequent escape as a medium with which to tell his own story.  By receiving details in the story (e.g. living conditions, bargaining with 'screws', solitary, etc.) from Red's relatively astounded viewpoint as a longtime 'lifer' directs readers toward an emphasis on Red's importance, as opposed to Andy's.

Characterization
A lot of characterization takes place in the short amount of pages allotted (107) for Shawshank.  Whether it's intense descriptions of the different types of homosexuals found in the prison, in-depth segments devoted to the interactions between Red and Andy that reveal more about who they are, or even the simple defiance (and hasty detraction of such insolence) Gonyar shows Warden Norton once Andy is found missing, King makes a great effort to name every character, even cursory ones, and build upon this by following up with at least a short sentence giving more scope for the reader.

"The skinny guard's name was Rory Tremont, and he was not exactly a ball of fire in the brains department." -- pg. 88

Ultimately, it is Red's character that impacts the meaning of the work the greatest, and this characterization is done both directly and indirectly.  Red tells the reader that he is the contraband king, that "I'm the guy who can get it for you", and other times we see his persona develop based on his reaction to Andy's words and actions.  When Tremont pukes due to all the sh- er, sewage, in the tunnel, Red laughs his way into solitary.  Ok, that part was really gross.

Setting
The majority of the story takes place in the actual Shawshank Prison, with most action happening there as well, ocassionally a story flashes back to past events like Andy's and Red's trials.  Later, Red is released on parole and spends the remainder of the story in local Maine, traveling frequently to Buxton and eventually deciding to leave for Mexico to join Andy.  The importance of the setting to me was the impact on the reader.  Prison is a pretty negative place in most's minds, and the connotation carried with it is not at all good.  The descriptions of the prison by Red help explain the lost hope most inmates experience, and makes Andy's release of the 'tiger' that much more captivating.  Even in an environment as depressing as Shawshank, Andy still defends himself on multiple occasions, from the sisters, from Hadley, and from Norton.  Rarely did he lose his composure in the hostile atmosphere and this stubbornness lends itself to both Andy and Red's ultimate goal, to be free.

Theme
Because we have already established (largely with help from ol' Red) that Red is the heart of the story, it stands to reason that the theme also primarily deals with Red.  Even though it doesn't seem to be so, Andy is a minor character with regard to the theme, because his role is simply to change our main character, Red.  Without Andy, Red probably still would've been released from prison on parole; however, as mentioned by Red himself, Andy was the reason he didn't commit some petty crime to get himself right back into the quiet routineness of Shawshank.

"If I had never known Andy, I probably would have done that." -- pg. 103

I suppose I'm not being entirely fair.  Andy Dufresne certainly plays a vital and key part in the story and contributes to the significance of the theme.  Andy's integrity, strong will, and total determination serve as an inspiration not only to Red, but to the reader as well.  Truly, Shawshank was a moving work of fiction.  In all honesty, I'm excited to watch the movie.  I've never seen it, and I hear it's good.  We shall see...

Poor Miss Brill!

Man, I didn't like this story.  I felt really bad for Miss Brill at the end, and the last thing I want to read about is a lonely and sad elderly lady whose only enjoyments in life are these Sunday strolls where she gets to 'act' in the play called life, only to have that one pleasure ruined by some snotty little PDA-oholic lovers who indecently talk mean about her right within earshot.  As if she couldn't hear!  Hmph, this post is getting me really worked up.  On to a question then, I suppose.

#7. What is the purpose of the fur piece? What is the source of the crying in the final sentence of the story?

I saw the fur piece as her little confidence booster.  She felt stylish with it on, and only wore it on what I would assume to be Sundays.  It made her feel special and important, and she obviously has a strong connection with it (at one point talking to it and fantasizing about simply stroking it), and so it possibly holds some sentimental value with her.  The source of the crying is Miss Brill, and this was the part that really got me the most.  She truly is acting in this life of hers, putting on an act and thinking that her life is some perfect little series of repetitions: going to the Jardins Publiques, listening to the band play, watching young couples mysteriously from 'her' special bench, even the trip to the baker where she may find an almond in her cake.  When she gets home, she realizes that these things don't fulfill her life, and that she is actually very lonely in her cupboard world.  This story made me want to cry.

And We Continue With the Weird Name Authors

This next story is by Eudora Welty, and is titled A Worn Path.  I've noticed from reading other people's blogs that this one wasn't exactly the favorite of the week, but I think it takes a lot of heat.  Sure it was a little too long for the message it was driving home, but all that boring descriptive stuff is necessary to get the point across.  The story was about an old woman's devotion to her grandson, and the measures that she takes (has taken, and will continue to take) in order to keep him healthy.  She is self-described as uneducated, yet she is able to make a journey that a strapping young hunter claims to be too much even for himself.  Her love for her grandson is intense, and although we don't realize that's why she makes this journey until the end, in retrospect we see that all the obstacles she faced must have been overcome with the thought of the boy always in her mind, the crazy old woman talking to herself was just a coping mechanism.  She steals from a hunter, which is kind of cool, and we don't really feel bad for him because he points a gun to her head to try and get a reaction.  The one thing I'm confused about is why everyone called her Grandma.  She's not your Granny.

I Have Irish Blood in Me!

Just go ahead and watch this video a few times before your read my next post.  You won't be able to concentrate/focus otherwise.  Multiple viewings are also completely necessary; personally I can't watch it once without viewing it about ten more times.



Phew. Now that we got that out of our systems, we can move forward with the post. Relevancy, you ask (as always)? Well, you try sitting through a small or large group discussion about a short story titled Eveline when all you can think about is a six second video of a girl named Eveline getting unsuspectedly smacked across the face. Now, to formally answer a question.

#8. Joyce said that this and other stories he wrote about Dublin dealt with the "spiritual paralysis" of its citizens. What evidence in this story supports that idea as a major theme?

Obviously, there is a clear physical paralysis of Eveline, as she gets cold feet at the last moment before boarding the boat to Buenos Aires with Frank and freezes on the dock. She literally cannot move. But there is evidence of this spiritual paralysis, for instance, when she does make a decision (or lack thereof) and stay in Dublin, her face registers no emotion, no pain or loss of a love as one might expect in the circumstances. Also, at the end of paragraph 9, she describes Dublin as "hard work - a hard life - but now that she was about to leave it she did not find it a wholly undesirable life." This indecisiveness and nostalgia lends itself to a culture that is paralyzed, and in Eveline's case, afraid to make tangible choices that lead to change.

Well, It's Not Exactly 'Shrek'...



Imagine a kid tangled up in this bad boy. Queasy yet?

 
   Once upon a time, in an AP Lit class, I read a short story called Once Upon a Time, by Nadine Gordimer.  I decided to start off with this story because I read it last so it's the freshest in my memory, and also because it had a really twisted ending (no pun intended).  I liked the 'fairy tale' for the most part, but after doing a little research on the author, the relevancy of the context just added so much more credibility to the story.  Throughout the work, it is relatively easy to pick up on the disdain the speaker has for separated socio-economic class societies, and the story declares this message even when taken as an individual piece.  But there's more...

I understand that we have this strong sense of 'speaker does not equal writer' or whatever in this class, but I do believe that in this case that doesn't apply.  The opening section of Once Upon a Time describes the author, Nadine Gordimer, and her current living conditions in South Africa (at the time this piece was written in the late 80s, apartheid was still going strong and internal resistance was culminating).  Gordimer reflects on being afraid of break-ins because these were commonplace at the time, and the short story she writes about a rich, fairy tale, happily ever after family that lives in constant fear of riots from the lower class coincides with the situations occuring in South Africa perfectly.  With this in mind, and with the story ending with the family's only son graphically and gruesomely dying of their own accord, the theme can be defined as such: racial and social segregation leads to pain and suffering for not only the oppressed, but the oppressor as well.  Gordimer made a political statement by suggesting that apartheid destroys an entire country, and the rich or upper class are not spared.  Cool stuff.

Characterization

Since I felt that none of the short stories this week deserved to have more than one blog entry spent on them, I decided to dedicate my fourth blog to characterization, since that is this week's focal point.  Characterization is the process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character.  Within this, there are two types of characterization: indirect and direct.

1. INDIRECT CHARACTERIZATION the author reveals to the reader what the character is like by describing how the character looks and dresses, by letting the reader hear what the character says, by revealing the character’s private thoughts and feelings, by revealing the characters effect on other people (showing how other characters feel or behave toward the character), or by showing the character in action.
2. DIRECT CHARACTERIZATION the author tells us directly what the character is like: sneaky, generous, mean to pets and so on.

The majority (if not all) the characterization in this week's pieces was indirect, as is common in modern literature.  Through characterization, the author paints a picture for the reader as to what type of character each person is in the story.  Some categories that most characters fall into include the following: static, dynamic, flat, and round.

1. STATIC CHARACTER is one who does not change much in the course of a story.
2. DYNAMIC CHARACTER is one who changes in some important way as a result of the story’s action.
3. FLAT CHARACTER has only one or two personality traits. They are one dimensional, like a piece of cardboard. They can be summed up in one phrase.
4. ROUND CHARACTER has more dimensions to their personalities---they are complex, just as real people are.

Most of the time, a central character or protagonist is round and dynamic, although this is not always the case.  For the men in Hunters in the Snow, Kenny nor Tub undergo any significant change, and even Frank's change of heart toward Tub seems temporary, or as though that nature of his personality had at least existed all along.  Mama, the narrator of Everyday Use, experiences a dynamic change of character when taking the blanket from Dee and giving it to Maggie, symbolic of her rejection of Dee's principles and staying steadfast in her belief that her way of raising Maggie is best.  In Bartleby the Scrivener, it appears that Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut are flat characters, defined by what time of the day they work best.  A conglomeration of these different types of characters is what gives a story its flavor and contributes to the work of the meaning as a whole, regardless of what that meaning may be.

The Revenge of Herman Melville

Alright, so I truly believe that the absurd names in Bartleby the Scrivener (Turkey, Nippers, Ginger Nut, and Bartleby himself) are the direct result of Herman Melville having terrible parents who thought it would be funny to name their child Herman Melville.  Critics say he was depressed because of poor Moby Dick sales; I say he was depressed because of his name.  But to the point.  This story was long, and really creepy, but similar in style to the afore-mentioned Moby Dick, also written by Melville.  The story contains slow, seemingly bland and mundane unraveling of plot, characterization, and action before picking up rapidly toward the end of the story in the climax.  The story itself I thought was funny at times; for instance, when Bartleby gradually becomes less and less mobile and completely refuses to work or relocate, the Lawyer moves his offices to another building instead of simply removing Bartleby.  The main character was the Lawyer, but I found his character hard to read and didn't really understand what he learned from the Bartleby situation or what he was trying to prove, if anything.  In any case, the "I would prefer not to" line was really creepy throughout, especially after playing Bioshock (yes, I'm amazing at connecting pop culture dots).  Now, if you're aware of the game, would you kindly watch the following?

Watch at your own discretion! Possibly offensive...

You really have to have played the game for any of this to make sense, I suppose...

Truffle Shuffle

16th century oil painting of the same name

I found it ironic that the author of Hunters in the Snow is named Tobias Wolff.  Obviously a wolf is a dangerous animal hunted in the snow, and I wasn't positive, but I had a hunch that the nickname Tub may have derived from Tobias.  Unfortunately, after a little research, I discovered Tobias looked more like an elderly Steve Jobs than a whiny, passive-aggresive fatty, so that theory was soon thrown out the window.

To combat this shameful loss of interest in the relevancy of the story, I went searching across the Internet for ways in which I could connect the work to things that are fun.  Naturally, I was still hung up on the Tub character and as such picked up this clip from The Goonies.  Enjoy!

In all seriousness, all three of the main characters (Kenny, Frank, and Tub) are jerks in their own right, yet somehow the author still makes you feel sympathetic towards each one at some time or another in the story.  Oh, and Kenny killed a dog.

What Kind of Name is Hakim-a-barber?

Or Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo, for that matter?  Bah.

Asalamalakim!, Wa-su-zo-Tean-o!, and Salutations!  This next entry deals exclusively with a little short story Ms. Alice Walker likes to call Everyday Use (for your grandmama).  As of now, I like this story best, because it offers a unique twist on the typical Civil Rights-era literature.  Oftentimes we read of an uneducated black family who graciously and anxiously waits for the day when their children won't have to grow up in the same world that they themselves grew up in; however, in this story it is the child trying to convince the mother and sister to update their views on life and how to live.  I understand that this week's theme is characterization, and I found it difficult to read some of the characters in this story (Dee/Wangero specifically), but I am fairly confident in saying that Mama is a complex dynamic character.  This is shown for her constant love and concern for both her dauthers Dee and Maggie, although in the final scene (paragraph 76) she stands up to the condescending Dee in an effort to save some hope for Maggie to cling onto in the world (literally the quilts to be used in "everyday use", not hung for cultural significance).

I think the part of the story I enjoyed the most was that it was told from Mama's point of view.  Her colorful colloquial diction and humorous analysis of the scene she takes in as it unfolds added some much needed insight into the criticisms that surround those who misapply the Movement.

Fun Fact! Alice Walker has been arrested.

Dead Old Ladies with Flowers

One word: Creep-y.  This Emily girl is totally wacky.  Unfortunately, someone ruined the twist at the end of this ghost story, but after reading it I feel like it still had the same effect.  Written by William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily is still creepy as it ever would be.  The author serves some significance to the plot, because apparently Faulkner enjoyed writing stories about old southerners who had fell out of touch with modern living and a new generation; this is essentially what happened to Ms. Emily Grierson.  Her house was the only one left of its kind, old, gothic, and a constant reminder of the era in which Emily grew up.  She is constantly isolated while living alone in her house, besides the negro servant, and after ending her painting lessons, completely cut off from her town and community.  I personally didn't really like the story.  It was too much like a scary movie, and I don't like scary movies.

I Don't Know What the Title Means, by Author with Weird Name

Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri, wasn't my favorite short story of the week, but I can see some merit in discussing a topic from it that has grinded me since reading.  I am here to defend Mr. Kapasi.  I wasn't going to originally, but after meeting in my small group, where multiple people analytically assaulted the Mr. Kapasi character (see Katie, Ashley, etc.) I felt a literary duty to back up the man in what I see as reasonable disillusions.  The poor guy has a struggling marriage.  His job doesn't live up to the high expectations he had as being a diplomatic connection between cultures.  He is isolated in his own life and feeling lonely all the time.

And then he meets Mrs. Das.

When I read this story, I didn't see his fantasy about Mrs. Das as his true intentions.  It was simply his method of escape.  When she finally does open up to him intimately, he is disgusted.  His ideas of life with Mrs. Das were unrealistic, for sure, but I believe he never truly thought they were in the works either.  He's just a sad old man, and well, that makes me feel sorry for him.  So leave him alone.

How I Met My Husband, the Mailman with the Weird Face, not the Handsome, Dashing War Vet

How I Met My Husband was just so good I had to blog about it twice.

Anyways, there's a surprise ending to the story that I'm sure no one saw coming.  The topic is discussed in #8 and as such I will start my investigation there...

8. Discusss the effectiveness of the surprise ending. How does Carmichael differ from Chris Watters? Can it be argued that the surprise ending is also inevitable and appropriate?

Ok, I lied.  I totally saw this surprise ending coming.  How could you not?  As soon as the Carmichael character was introduced, you knew she was going to marry him.  By that time, you got the sense that the 'Chris Watters' thing wasn't going to work out, and the author was running out of pages to explain the obviously revealing title.  Carmichael is no doubt less handsome than Chris, less exciting in the sense that he probably never fought in the war (he's a mailman), and kind of a nerd, the complete foil to Chris' appealing persona.  It's good that she picked him though, because in the end he definitely would be a better father.  Back in the time this was written, a man picking up and shoving off every time he gets discontent with the area would not work out so for the wife and kids.  In this way the surprise ending was inevitable, and even more appropriate.  The last sentence on page 146 gave me a good chuckle, but also carried with it some significant meaning.  It reads,

"He always tells the children the story of how I went after him by sitting by the mailbox every day, and naturally I laugh and let him, because I like for people to think what pleases them and makes them happy."

I think that line really speaks to the character and integrity of Edie.  We obviously know the real reason she went to the mailbox was Chris, but she lets her husband believe it was him.  What a great wife.

How I Met My Husband

In the first short story of the week, How I Met My Husband, by Alice Munro, explores Edie the hired girl's life in the home of the wealthy Peebleses.  Question #5 in the book says...

5. Evaluate Chirs Watters as a potential husband for Edie.  Does her evaluation of him differ from the reader's?

Although the story is told from Edie's older, more mature persona, the reader still gets the sense that Edie remains to see Chris in a younger and naive light, a potential relationship that unfortunately never happened.  Edie fails to see Chris as we, the reader, see him.  Well at least the way I seen him.  Chris is a veteran from the war (WWII) where he used to fly, and now he takes people up in his plane; however, once he gets tired of a particular spot, he flies on to continue his "hobby" elsewhere.  As an informed reader, I can see this as a manifestation of Chris' sense of restlessness following the traumatic fighting in the war.  He continuously avoids his girlfriend (and his past life along with her) as if he is searching for meaning in life.  To me, this is a clear sign of a man incapable of supporting a normal family or any family at all really.  Edie, though, sees only the handsome war hero who can fly a plane and smooth talks his way into her pants.  Because of this, she waits by the mailbox everyday for a letter from him.  The letter of course won't come, and it takes her much longer to realize this than the reader.