A paper on the imagery in Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, by Harry Maugans.

Chopin eloquently laces “œThe Story of an Hour” with vivid imagery to accentuate the contrasting segments and offset social paradigms, enchanting the reader to perceive the situation from her slant. Employing strong irony in a nearly satirical fashion, Chopin utilizes vivacious descriptions as a literary tool to portray the unexpected and coerce the reader to their own conclusions, instead of explicitly stating them. Her masterful crafting of graphic illustrations, employed at the appropriate places, brings a revitalizing light to the story.

In the story, Chopin waits until Mrs. Mallard received the news of her husband”™s death before diving into her visual exhibition. “œWhen the storm of grief had spent itself,” introduces a weather-oriented theme that vibrantly enhances the spike of mental anguish felt upon first receiving the ghastly news. This imagery depicts a violent and dismal entity, setting the oscillation”™s trough low for elevated contrast when juxtaposed against the later inundation of euphoria.

As Mrs. Mallard proceeds into her room, the reader immediately notices a peculiar shift in the imagery”™s façade. The dark and gloomy atmosphere is penetrated by her sitting in “œa comfortable, roomy armchair,” a less than distressing description. She then gazes outside and a gush of serenities pour into the reader”™s ears: a bombshell hits the ambiance.

She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.

This unexpected twist adds a whole new shade of color to the story. The unforeseen irony leaves the reader dumbfounded, struggling to make sense of Chopin”™s disconnected logic. Why would a distraught widow notice such a radiant image as “œnew spring life,” atop the trees outside her window? Chopin uses this imagery to serve as metaphorical symbolism to Mrs. Mallard herself. An important reference to the time of the year is made, spring, which is associated with new life and growth. As she breathes in a “œdelicious breath of rain,” she is being reborn without the implicit oppression in her past. This section of the story also extends the weather reference in the beginning, serving as a peaceful break from chaos, or the eye of the storm.

In the next paragraph, Mrs. Mallard notices “œpatches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds.” This imagery is bursting with metaphorical connotation. The blue sky, symbolizing serenity and delight, is starting to appear through the clouds, symbolizing the last pieces of the turbulent storm in the previous scene. This also reinforces the reader”™s assumption that a bizarre joy is emerging. The clouds and sky continue to play off the weather theme, acting as a guide to her mindset. Like most other imagery in the story, this landscape is directly metaphorical of Mrs. Mallard, with her happiness beginning to show through her preceding anguish.

To support the postulation of oppression and dismay in Mrs. Mallard”™s past, Chopin masterfully adds that the clouds “œhad met and piled one above the other.” This image of unity is symbolic of the happiness she has never felt before. This emotional divergence overwhelmed Mrs. Mallard, leaving her “œthrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.” In comparing her to a child, this image goes to further support the metaphorical rebirth she”™s undergoing. The emotional influx is such that she reverts to an innate state of mind, waiting for it to all sink in.

Chopin continues to strengthen her illustrative ties in the eighth paragraph, describing Mrs. Mallard”™s “œyoung” face with “œdull [eyes] whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky.” The word “œyoung” is a concrete reference to her childhood-like state- with the dull gaze emphasizing her overwhelmed condition. The “œpatches of blue sky” revisits the reader here, continuing the weather theme, while demonstrating a yearning for that happiness. This scene mirrors a youthful school-aged child staring out the window, wishing he wasn”™t sitting in a classroom. The child wants to play outside instead of working on English assignments all day, and Mrs. Mallard, like a young child, craves escaping her captivity and enjoying life as well.
As Mrs. Mallard”™s happiness began to build, she “œfelt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air,” using powerful imagery to personify her weathered state of mind, “œreaching” toward her, switching from a passive to an active voice. This image alleviates her personal guilt, as the happiness is reaching towards her: she”™s not pursuing it. When she “œfelt it, creeping out of the sky,” it shows reserve and hesitation in admitting a positive feeling”™s presence, yet exposed with such radiance, the reader can only assume she”™s craving those feelings with a passionate heart. The air has sound and color, clearly symbolic of a very upbeat mood transcending her.

Mrs. Mallard”™s “œbosom rose and fell tumultuously,” describing her state of raising anticipation and nearing acceptance. She describes the feeling as, “œapproaching to possess her,” reiterating her previous guilt scapegoat and further enhancing her child-like image through circumventing responsibility, even for her own thoughts and feelings. She engages in a graphic fruitless attempt to battle back that feeling, “œstriving to beat it back with her will,” ironic and juvenile since she hungers for her opposition, however quickly abandoned when “œa little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips . . . free.” And there was light. The entire story from the beginning up to this point is summarized into one word: “œfree.” The word free today symbolically stands against any despotism and injustice, the very same evils the reader speculated earlier. This confirms her gloomy past, and explains the use of such intense positive imagery after receiving the news of her husband”™s death.

Chopin follows the epiphany by describing Mrs. Mallard”™s fast beating pulse and “œthe coursing blood [that] warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.” This is another brilliant wrench on the reader, as normally this imagery would be cheery, but here it depicts grave foreshadowing of a pending heart-attack, from her known heart condition.

Mentally progressing toward analysis, she discloses that “œshe would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death,” a statement dripping with cynical undertone, as earlier she offered her dismay in her previous life. This imagery again touches on societal norms, symbolizing what she feels is expected of her, summarizing the antagonism in Chopin”™s absolute argument, and selfishly contending she followed her role until death.

All the while, Mrs. Mallard”™s friend “œwas kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhold.” This imagery goes to show a strong sense of being disconnected. Mrs. Mallard is the only person standing in that room, and the only person, according to societal norms, to have those feelings. She is not only disconnected from society, but now she is also disconnected from the oppression of her husband. She is alone, and she is free. She “œ[drinks] in a very elixir of life through that open window,” emblematic of her emotional cure; the “œelixir” is her remedy. In her cured state, Mrs. Mallard speaks of “œspring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own,” all images of joyous times- happier times. She “œbreathed a quick prayer that life might be long,” basking in the imagery of her liberated mindset. From a “œfeverish triumph in her eyes,” to carrying “œherself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory,” Chopin clearly depicts Mrs. Mallard”™s newfound bliss.

At the end of the story, Mr. Mallard enters “œa little travel-stained,” brilliant imagery of first impression, depicting him not as valiant, but as worn-down and meek. The juxtaposition of Mr. Mallard to his wife”™s elation is intensely ironic, as he depicts how the reader assumes Mrs. Mallard lived previously. Josephine’s “œpiercing cry,” highlights the shock of the situation, and serves as a curtain on that scene.

Chopin stuffs “œThe Story of an Hour” with strong imagery to effectively illustrate the vast unexpected twists she pulls off. From sarcasm to devastation, every graphical description helps entice the reader and pull them closer to the center cords of the story. As a master of prose, Chopin does not leave any reader in the metaphorical dark.

–
Parenthetical documentation dropped. Works Cited:
Chopin, Kate. “œThe Story of an Hour.” Third. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006

Warning: This paper may contain spoilers to the future and life itself. If you”™d rather be surprised in coming years when this speculation becomes a concrete reality, I”™d suggest you stop reading at this point. If the flux capacitor is an interest of yours, please continue.

We don”™t know what will happen in the future. However by looking at historical events and landmark discoveries we can more accurately predict it, namely with societal trends. Neuroscience is a very intricate subject matter with deep roots in society, affecting nearly everything in our daily lives. If a major breakthrough occurs, it could drastically alter anything from the way your pot of coffee is made in the morning, to an individual”™s religion, to the global economy. For this reason, it”™s not a subject matter to be taken lightly, especially with us making steps forward in Neuroscience everyday.

As we further expand our familiarity of the inner-workings of the brain, the religious implications become more apparent. In answering the questions of how intelligent life thinks with proven evidence, we began to dissolve the miracles at the foundation of religion. Understanding the mind may allow us to create further bridges of similarities between man and beast, adding more points on evolution”™s scoreboard and upsetting some religious people. Religion is based on miracles and blind acceptance, but as our culture progresses toward a more logic-focused mindset, science and the theory of evolution progress with it. Sweden is often thought of as the most Atheistic country in the world with an estimated 85% of the entire population disbelieving in a God-like figure (Zuckerman), which is astounding when one realizes that just a few centuries ago, it was rare to find a single atheist”¦ and even then, if one was found they”™d be sentenced to death. There has been an undeniable historical parallel between the increase in scientific evidence and atheistic beliefs, and with further research and discoveries in such an unknown area as the mind, it”™s only likely to continue.

Beyond understanding the mind, the first development of true artificial intelligence will probably cause an even more colossal overhaul of societal thinking. There will be buildings built with supercomputers “œthinking” of new circuit designs, trying to invent better equipment. There will be a massive influx of new technology, and we will need additional employees to govern, control, monitor, update, extend, test, patch, and fix all of it”¦ or at least employees to build more computers to do that for us also. There will be pods forming of anti-technology zealots who watched the 1999 Warner-Brothers movie “œThe Matrix” (IMDB) too many times. Engineers, mathematicians, secretaries, accountants, and even the guy who talks to cars in the drive-through at McDonalds, will all lose their jobs to be replaced with perpetually friendly and never erroneous cybernetics. This will cause a surge of unemployment, then subsequent depression will spread throughout our society. The economy will face a polarity greater than history has ever shown, with the leaders of the AI movement pressing forward in fascist persistence. This is of course purely speculative, however society will face less than frivolous changes.

Ignorance is bliss. That is the reason artificial intelligence will cause a larger ripple in society than unlocking the secrets of the mind. When AI is invented, no one can deny it; ones asks a computer a question, and it answers in what appears to be a logical thought process. However demystifying the mental processes inside our brains begins to question divinity and the presence of an omniscient being. From this, people who are religious the majority of their lives may often choose to ignore or deny any conclusive evidence of such, mitigating societal impact through a delayed acceptance. A perfect historical example of society”™s delayed acceptance for controversial science is when Heliocentrism was introduced by Copernicus to replace the Ptolemaic model of Geocentricity in the 16th century (Artigas). Geocentricity, like religion, was the known standard among the population, and for anyone suggesting the Earth was not the center of the universe was declared absurd. Over the years, more and more concrete evidence was presented, such as ships disappearing from view as they move along the ocean, beyond the arch of the globe, and this treason become less of an offense. Eventually Kepler came along with his theory of planetary motion, Newton developed his theory of universal gravity, and everything began to fit together as a single, solid truth (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia). While it was hard for people to accept at first, eventually the evidence could not be denied anymore by institution”¦ identical to religion and learning about the mind in the 21st century.

People have an innate yearning to explain things they cannot. They jump to conclusions, they guess and check, and eventually everything is established. However when a theory comes along and upsets that balance by saying what they knew as the truth was in fact inaccurate, mental pandemonium tends to occur. Neuroscience and the study of the mind is in the very early stage of this process, where we are still grabbing for any square plug that fits in the round hole, and when we find a fit, it”™s a big deal. As technology progresses in the 21st century, there well be a substantial impact on society, and through it, we will become a more developed civilization.

Casual Bibliography

- “The Matrix.” IMDB. Internet Movie Database, Inc., 2006. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/

- Zuckerman, Phil. “œAtheism: Contemporary Rates and Patterns.” Michael Martin. Cambridge University Press, 2005. http://www.pitzer.edu/academics/faculty/zuckerman/atheism.html

- Artigas, Mariano. “œShedding new light on the Galileo Affair.” Science and Technology News. March 1, 2002. http://www.stnews.org/News-1885.htm

- “Heliocentrism.” The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Columbia University Press., 2003. Answers.com 20 Apr. 2006. http://www.answers.com/topic/heliocentrism

One scene in the film October Sky that is not included in the novel Rocket Boys (later published as October Sky) is the scene in which the “œrocket boys” intentionally burn the blockhouse and destroy their rocket launch site. This scene is not included in the novel and serves to change the focus of the piece. Where the novel is focused on the rocket boys and their attempt to break free of society and get out of Coalwood, West Virginia, the movie is primarily focused on the conflict between Homer Hickam, Jr., the leader of the rocket boys, and his father, who works at the coal mine in a management position and expects his son to follow in his footsteps.

In the film, the rocket boys decide to destroy their launch site when Homer”™s father tells him to stop building rockets. This helps to set up the main conflict in the movie, which is between Homer and his father. His father fully expects his son to become a coal miner in the mines of Coalwood, a small town built, owned, and maintained by the Olga Coal Company. However, Homer and his mother, have other plans. They see that the town will eventually be destroyed when there is no longer any coal to mines. The entire town is based on the mines, and if there is no coal left in the mines, the town dies. For this reason, Homer is insistent on leaving the town to pursue his dreams of working at Cape Canaveral. His father does not approve of his son”™s rocket building, most notably when Homer borrows company materials and labor through Mr. Bykovski, his friend who works at the company machine shop.

Although the same conflict arises between Homer and his father when he borrows materials from the machine shop in the novel, the overall conflict in the novel is between the rocket boys and society. When the group of boys decides to shoot for the moon, almost literally, by building their rockets, they are made outcasts in their society. It is the belief of most Coalwood residents that the sons of coal miners will always be coal miners, since that has been their way of life for years and years. At one point, Homer”™s brother and his football player friends, begin to tear down the blockhouse and launch pad out of jealousy. Later, the company bulldozes the site, claiming that launching rockets on company land, which encompasses all of Coalwood, is against company policy. In the novel the boys never destroy their own launch pad because of Homer”™s father”™s request. However, society destroys the site for them, but they persevere and rebuild their beloved “œCape Coalwood.” Also, when the rocket boys decide to build their rockets, they know little about the science of what they are dealing with, and thus the people of the town consider them lost teens who do not yet know that they will work in the mines for the rest of their lives. The only people that believe in them are Homer”™s mom, who offers the advice “œJust don”™t blow yourself up,” along with other words of encouragement, and Ms. Riley, their science teacher, who contributes a book on the science of rockets, including material on how to build an appropriate nozzle for the most thrust.

The end result of both the novel and film is the same. All of the rocket boys go to college, something uncommon of boys from Coalwood, and Homer very nearly misses being able to work with his idol, Werhner Von Braun, at Cape Canaveral, as he retires just a few years before Homer arrives. However, the way each piece approaches the end result is different. The novel, written by Homer Hickam, Jr. himself, is of course more accurate to the true story, as the rocket boys are able to overcome their upbringing as sons of coal miners to become college graduates, and, in the process, winning over Homer”™s father, who decides to look the other way whenever the boys need materials from the machine shop. In this way, there is a sense of resolution and understanding between Homer and his father. However, in the film, Homer”™s father is never truly understanding of his son until he witnesses the launch of the boys”™ last rocket, which flies to an astounding 31,000 feet, and even then it seems as though he only feels a hint of understanding.

The last 100 years have been a time of great progress for Physicists. The turn of the nineteenth century brought the end of the traditional deterministic view of the universe, bringing with it the birth of something new and radical: uncertainty. With the coming of such a counter-intuitive view, many preconceived ideas about reality were forever skewed. For over 200 years, it was believed that one knew the momentum and position of every particle in the universe, one could infer exactly where every single particle would be a million years from then, or, because the arrow of time has no hold on Newtonian physics, where it was a million years ago. Certainty may seem like a very abstract thing to lose due to a theory of physics, and may not even affect many individuals who learn about it’s demise, but there are far greater implications of these new Quantum Physics. In Search of Schrodinger’s Cat explains to the reader some of the old theories of light and matter, and then proceeds to explain how they were changed forever by the new physics.

The beginning of quantum mechanics came about over a simple paradox that physicists had been trying to figure out for some time: how much energy was available in an oven at a particular time and at a particular electromagnetic wavelength. Intuitively, the amount of energy available in a black body (such as the sun, or an electric stove), can be seen (roughly estimated) by the amount of radiation that it emits (the “color” of the electromagnetic spectrum that is manifest in the emitting body). Classical physics says that this amount of energy should increase without limit as the wavelength of the electromagnetic waves approaches zero. This aspect of classical physics was predicted by the law of Rayleigh-Jeans, and henceforth came to be known as the “ultraviolet catastrophe”. However, Max Planck proved (though without tangible physical evidence) that there was no way that this could be possible. In order to prove this, he assumed that all of the things that are “being waved” can only absorb and release energy in small, discrete packets called quanta. His hypothesis is quantified by the equation E = hf, where h is Planck’s constant, and f is the frequency. The results of this assumption can be seen below:

By simply assuming that energy came in only discrete packets, Plack resolved one of the main conflicts in physics during the early twentieth century. His results, however effective for the moment, went on to change the face of physics as it was known.

What is light? For centuries, scientists had speculated about the nature of light. Newton believed that light was a stream of particles (then called ‘corpuscles’, or ’small packets of light’). One of his contemporaries, Christiaan Huygens, believed that light was a wave. Many of the great minds of science, including Einstein himself (who wondered what it a beam of light would look like if only he could run fast enough to catch up with it) contributed to this speculation, but not much came of it, until a certain experiment revealed something that no one could have foreseen. When light is shined through an opaque object with two parallel slits in it, the phenomenon predicted by classical physics is that there will be two bands of light showing on the paper behind the opaque surface. Experiment, however, has shown that what results behind the object is an interference pattern. This result is not so strange- one of the theories was bound to be true. The strange thing is that if you are to turn down the frequency of the light so that only one photon is emitted from the source every ten seconds, the interference pattern still appears after enough photons have hit the wall behind the emitter. This means that light is both a wave and a particle, and that light particles can interfere with each other even after they’ve collided with a surface.

This strange finding can be applied to all subatomic particles. Price Louis de Broglie found that all matter can be described by waves with infinitesimally small frequencies, and that all bodies of matter wave to a certain extent. The concept of a matter wave is one that is not well explained by classical physics; in fact, it is impossible to explain matter waves in such a manner. In the early 1900s, physicists concluded that the waves of matter that they were finding didn’t show the matter at all- it showed where the matter might be. Given the new condition of uncertainty that physicists were just beginning to come to grips with, quantum physicists showed that the wave found emitted from a particle covered the entire universe, and the crests of the wave showed where the particle was most likely to be at a given time. Since it is impossible to know both the location and the momentum of a particle to infinite precision (even a macroscopic object), these wave functions fit perfectly into the newly defined architecture of quantum mechanics.

The book talks about not only these issues, but several other key ideas in the quantum world. Although this book is a bit dated, it still offers a comprehensive beginner’s look into the established world of quantum mechanics and the subatomic world of uncertainty that surrounds us.

Two of Jack London’s novels, White Fang and The Call of the Wild are remarkably similar in theme. Both novels revolve around a wolf facing internal and external conflict. While so many similarities exist, the time setting is perfect for The Call of the Wild to be a sequel to White Fang, yet it is apparent that London did not intend this by his sharply shifted view point and differing characters.

White Fang begins with an awkward and hardly related piece describing two men and a sled team of six dogs attempting to flee from a wolf pack. After a brilliantly written description of the fear within the last man standing, he is rescued and the book commences in a way of being told that will continue throughout the course of the novel. One of the wolves of the pack has a litter of cubs, one of which is White Fang. The novel progresses through White Fang’s birth and development, through it’s learning to hunt and survive. All the other cubs of the litter die except White Fang, which introduces the novel’s theme of survival of the fittest. White Fang gets abducted by an Indian child and sold a few times, eventually becoming a fierce fighting dog. As it almost faces death one day in a fight, it is saved by Weedon Scott. From here White Fang is domesticated and lives through the end of the novel.

The irony in Call of the Wild is the story begins with Buck, the part husky, part wolf, exactly like White Fang, living on a nice mansion under the care of Judge Miller. White Fang concluded with the dog living on a mansion property owned by Judge Scott, both judges. This is where it seems both novels could be sequential in order, though character names are changed, the ending setting of White Fang is near identical to the opening scene of The Call of the Wild.

The most noticeable difference between the novels is the point of view. Call of the Wild is written from an objective point of view, where White Fang is written from a third person point of view, following White Fang. White Fang goes from birth to domestication, while The Call of the Wild begins with domestication and goes to instinctual and free.

The novels examine two aspects of the wolves. The Call of the Wild focuses more on the dog’s life with people- the treatment, care, and behavior of humans to and around dogs. White Fang was more of an inside look into the dog’s mind. The reader watched White Fang kill by instinct in the woods and the fear from being captive by humans. It shows the feelings of the dog, rather than an objective sense of how the humans treated it.

In writing these novels, it almost seems that Jack London was experimenting. He obviously had a deep passion for wolves, and through writing two novels of similar caliber, as well as doing immense research to be able to scribe these books, Jack London dedicated a large chunk of his life towards this infatuation. After writing Call of the Wild, he received rave reviews and decided to write White Fang. Most authors would immediately seek to write a sequel or prequel to a successful novel, not a “companion” such as was done here. This adds to the uniqueness of these books and respect for Jack London’s style.

In an experiment conducted recently in the Netherlands, Dr. Van Someren attempted to earn a greater understanding of REM Sleep. He took young children, who sleep more and learn quicker than adults, and subjected them to a series of tests to see how their learning abilities were affected by a lessening of REM sleep, which we learned in class is hypothesized to be an area where memories are consolidated into the hippocampus for long term storage.

The experiment begins by the children being tested on general memory, such as remembering combinations of letters on a computer keyboard and memorizing groups of words for recall. That evening after a long period of testing, they”™re asked to stay overnight, and fit with headphones and sensors on their heads to create an EEG (Electroencephalogram) while they sleep. Throughout the night, the EEG monitors what depth of sleep their body is experiencing (as we learned in class, Stages 1 through 4 and REM sleep) based on scans every two-seconds. As soon as the machine detected the child begin to enter a deep stage of sleep, it created a quiet beep in their ears, trying to elevate them back to a higher stage. This usually cased the child to shift restlessly, but ensured their sleep stayed in one of the first stages. If the beep did not get a response from the child, it repeated the stimulation a bit louder, until it finally knocked the child out of a deep sleep. This is repeated all night, allowing the child a full night of sleep, in the upper stages only. The next day when everyone woke up, they went through the same series of testing and memory experiments, and noted the results.

While the analysis of this experiment”™s results aren”™t completed yet, preliminary evaluation shows a 20% decrease in memory retention with the children participating in the experiment, compared to the control group who were allowed a full night”™s rest without any beeping. Twenty percent is a very significant fluxuation, making this one of the first experiments to conclusively connect REM sleep with memory retention and learning ability. The importance of this experiment was recognized world-wide, as two American scientists from Harvard seized this opportunity to fly to the Netherlands and witness the procedure first-hand, aiming to then return to Harvard and obtain funding for similar research in the states.

Long term uses of this knowledge could be applied to developing and adapting sleep cycles for injured people trying to rehabilitate their memory from a mind-affecting accident, for example. It”™s findings could be used to construct learning programs used by school students in preparation for large exams such as the SAT or ACT. Even looking beyond initial academic learning, political leaders might slightly tweak or adapt their sleep schedule to allow an increased duration of REM sleep a few days before giving a major speech, to solidify memorization and prevent any errors in delivery. There are vast practical applications for research like this and it”™s importance should not be overlooked.

View Article

Animal Farm by George Orwell is the epitome of an extended metaphor. Throughout this novel, the fable presented is in constant comparison to the Russian Revolution of 1917. Instances surface outlining the quintessence of revolution through emblematic characters. From Squealer symbolizing a propaganda machine to Napoleon standing as dictator, the novel follows a revolution from inception to demise.

Originating as a archetypal farm, Manor Farm is governed by Mr. Jones- a symbol of the fatally-corrupt governments ripe and vulnerable to revolutionary ideologies. Old Major is introduced as a highly respected, but sick and dieing pig- the more intelligent of the animals on the farm. He can be compared to Karl Marx through his influential and persuasive means that eventually sparked revolutionary thought in the common people. Upon his demise, the plot truly begins. Two pigs, Snowball and Napoleon unite as an authoritative power gaining support through promising to work toward Old Major’s vision. Throughout the course of the novel, tensions grew between Snowball and Napoleon until eventually Napoleon evicted Snowball from the farm using his personally trained dogs, symbolizing the Gestapo.

After Snowball was driven off the farm, a few critical events occurred. Napoleon rose to unopposed power. He began forcing his influence on the animals of the farm, building his power as an absolute authority figure while hiding behind lies of his selfish motivation being for the good of the farm. Through further actions such as changing the very documents laid down during the birth of the rebellion, appending his own ways on the Seven Commandments, Napoleon’s control and grip on the animals tightened. The namesake of Napoleon becomes increasingly ironic as the reader develops a connection between the pig and Napoleon Bonaparte of France and his dominating control.

Squealer is the pig who constantly convinces the animals of the farm that they are superior to their old position being governed by Mr. Jones. He keeps the peace and ensures the animals that Napoleon is indeed doing the right thing. Squealer symbolizes the propaganda machine of a rebelling country such as Russia in 1917. All the animals hear is the good being done by Napoleon, so they give their unquestioned consent to his ways. At one point, Napoleon announces the uncovering of an attempted plot of rebellion against him and has a few animals executed, inciting fear in the animals, driving them farther under his control, very similar to the methods executed during the rebellion in Russia.

As the novel draws to a close, Napoleon begins straying further from the ideological ideas presented by Old Major at the beginning of the novel. He becomes power hungry and leads the animals into a death spiral. They begin running short of food, but keep up an illusion of prosperity to the outside world, much like how rebellious countries have done in past historical times. At the conclusion of the novel, Napoleon invites some humans over for dinner and refers to the other animals as a “lesser class.” The animals outside look into the house through the window, and realize in a moment of complete horror, that they cannot tell the difference in the pigs’ faces and the humans’ faces.

I’m usually not much on poetry, but it seemed very appropriate for this application. I wrote this last year as a reenactment of The Divine Comedy in first person, being escorted by the biblical Cain. The circles have been greatly simplified and associated with a few of the Seven Deadly Sins. In each circle, I meet people guilty of that sin, completely unrelated to the actual novel. It’s a bit of a stretch, but still an interesting read. Enjoy.
(Also note the form, you may recognize it. :))

Read the rest of this entry …

Excellent short 40 min documentary interview with Dr. Richard P. Feynman, one of the greatest quantum electrodynamics physicist (and professor) of our times and a Nobel Prize Laureate.

read more | digg story

I have recently been getting quite a bit of traffic to the article I wrote comparing Voltaire’s Candide with Leibniz. As such, I’ve decided to publish another paper I’ve written on Voltaire. Enjoy.

Voltaire”™s satirical style of writing is greatly influenced by worldly events occurring during the eighteenth century, in addition to personal afflictions encountered throughout the course of his life. Evident in the majority his philosophical volumes, his personal life and opinions of the world around him manifests itself throughout his work, usually presented with scientific reasoning and logical backing to either contradict or confirm the viewpoints of other published philosophers during his time.

Voltaire”™s plays are “œmainly classical, embodying the unities and dealing with highborn heroes” (Critical Survey 3305). This can be attributed to Voltaire”™s home life, raised by his father who was a successful notary. From this, “œYoung Voltaire grew up surrounded by wealthy, influential people” (UXL 1). He was always interested in social classes higher than his own, often writing about nobility, such as in “œLe Siecle de Louis XIV”- a piece demonstrating his dedication through immense research. From this one paper alone, Voltaire can be classified as a major historian (Critical Survey 3305). Voltaire”™s Godfather, Abbe de Chateauneuf, also played a major role in Voltaire”™s exposure to the wealthy and successful. At the age of twelve, Abbe took Voltaire to visit the Society of the Temple, which stood for all that was proper and worldly. “œVoltaire”™s taste for witty irreverence and for luxurious living was definitely encouraged by his company” (3307).

Voltaire, very outspoken and bold, was imprisoned at the Bastille for aiming satirical writing at Regent and Poet Antoine Houdar de la Motte (Critical Survey 3307). While in prison, he finished reading Oedipus, and promptly began writing La Ligue, pulling in Socratic philosophies (3307). He left prison in exile to go live in England for what would become three of the most malleable years of his life.

In England, Voltaire became friends with Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope (World Literature Criticism 3767). He respected them and studied their work, “œ[drawing] on his extensive reading as well as his experience of life” (Aldington 3773) in writing Letters Concerning the English Nation in 1773 (World Literature Criticism 3767). This piece showed a rare, impressionable side of Voltaire, as he painted a “œhighly sympathetic portrait of the English” (3767), something unusual for the satirical sharp-tongue. Also in England, he became very familiar with William Shakespeare”™s work, which is evident in “œBrutus”- a play he produced upon returning to France (Critical Survey 3307). In reading Swift”™s Gulliver”™s Travels, Voltaire was so intrigued by it”™s structure and layout (even though it was modeled after Montesquieu”™s story, Persian Letters [Critical Survey 3311]), he used it as a skeleton for his philosophical imitation, Micromegas (3311).

In Micromegas, the protagonist is exiled from his planet by the courts for writing about something as negligible as insects (Critical Survey 3311). This parallels his own personal experiences of getting exiled from France for his satirical attack on Regent Antoine Houdar de la Motte (3307). When the protagonist reaches his destination planet, Saturn, he finds a small dwarf, maliciously symbolizing Voltaire”™s personal enemy Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle (3311), though borrowed almost exactly from the Brobdingnagians in Swift”™s Gulliver”™s Travels (Aldington 3775). There is speculation that the entire work Micromegas was entirely malevolent against Fontenelle, despite the other small pieces of philosophical discussions that is sprinkled throughout it (Critical Survey 3311).

From 1734 to 1744 Voltaire lived in the Du Chatelet Castle with his mistress Madame du Chatelet (Critical Survey 3307). She was very interested in physics, chemistry, and astronomy, which eventually led to Voltaire”™s writing The Elements of Sir Issac”™s Philosophy (3307). Around then, Voltaire started to get into more trouble with the courts for his controversial publishings. The king and queen distrusted him, and in rebuttal Voltaire begins work on Zadig, one of his most famous pieces that satirized the courts (Critical Survey 3307). Zadig is a very optimistic work, with Madame du Chatelet by his side, he pulls from the philosophical studies of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz and Friendrich August Wolf saying “œthis is the best of all possible worlds” (3310).

“œI was sent to execution because I had written verse in praise of the king; I was on the point of being strangled because the queen had yellow ribbons; and here I am a slave to you because a brute beat his mistress. Come, let”™s not lose heart, perhaps all this will end” (Voltaire 162). This quote from Zadig summarizes Voltaire”™s reserve against the legal system and feeling of outward injustice from prejudice courts. The last sentence of the quote emphasizes the philosophical optimism this story carries with it, however that”™s all about to change. In 1747, Madame de Chatelet died during childbirth (Critical Survey 3307).

After Madame de Chatelet died, Voltaire felt there was no purpose in staying in France anymore, so he moved to Prussia, then Les Delices (near the Swiss border)(3307). Just three years after he wrote the optimistic philosophy Zadig, he began work on his famous story Candide (3307). The theme of Candide contradicts Zadig, losing hope for a perfect solution (3307). The philosophical question regarding the Lisbon Earthquake of 1756 as to why innocent and guilty people are simultaneously killed without cause greatly influenced Candide (World Literature Criticism 3767). Voltaire even went as far as writing a separate paper on the earthquake alone entitled “œPoeme sur le Desastre de Lisbonne” (3767). The deadly earthquake and the “œatrocities” recorded in the Seven Years War greatly influenced Candide (3767), leaving it with pessimistic underlying messages.

In the final 18 years of Voltaire”™s life following the creation of Candide, he was very active, “œwriting as many 6,000 letters, pamphlets, and plays” (Critical Survey 3308). Most of them were “œdirected against Christianity, the Roman Catholic Church, and the priests,” due to Voltaire”™s disagreements with the church operations (Aldington 3778). The poem “œHenriade” analyzes Henry IV”™s struggle against the Catholic League”¦ also paralleling his personal beliefs (Critical Survey 3305). A large percentage of his writings around this time were in the aid of a few large scale court cases going on (Calas and Sirven families, and La Barne), trying to free them from injustice or religious persecution (3308). Voltaire had many run-ins with French courts, causing him to form a prejudice against injustice which worked as motivation in these legal works (World Literature Criticism 3767).

Voltaire was one of the most influential philosophers of the eighteenth century. His works are still celebrated today, including Candide, which is often considered “œone of the most entertaining prose satires ever penned” (World Literature Criticism 3774). Living in a world with the Seven Year War raging, the Lisbon Earthquake killing, and the French courts ruling against him”¦ Voltaire stepped out in front of all other authors of his time and described the world as he saw it.

Works Cited

Richard Aldington. “œVoltaire.” World Literature Criticism: 1500 to the Present. Ed. James P. Draper. Vol. 6. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992. 3772-3778.
“œVoltaire.” Critical Survey of Long Fiction. Ed. Carl Rollyson. Vol. 7. Pasadena: Salem Press, 2000. 3304-3314.
“Voltaire.” U*X*L Biographies. U*X*L, 2003. Student Resource Center. Thomson Gale. 29 April 2005
Voltaire. Voltaire, Candide, Zadig, and selected stories. New York: New American Library, a division of Penguin Putnam, Inc., 1961. 102-172.
“œVoltaire.” World Literature Criticism: 1500 to the Present. Ed. James P. Draper. Vol. 6. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992. 3766-3768.

This is a step away from “Technology, BMWs, and Business”, however I just wrote this quick article on Candide and thought I’d share.

Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire constructed the novella “Candide” partially for the purpose of entertainment, but mostly to satirize the fallacy of Gottfried William von Leibniz’s theory of optimism. Throughout the course of his saga, Voltaire juxtaposes the raw, unrepressed optimism of one character in the story with exaggerated real-world adventures of pessimism and gloom. From gruesome war to disease, sedition, and deceit, Voltaire misses none of the bad in the “best of all possible worlds”.

Leibniz was a German philosopher and mathematician in Voltaire’s time. He argued that our world was the epitome of perfection, and all evils that transpire are for the betterment and evolution of our ideal society. God, he believed, was perfect, and as Earth is the conception of God, it must maintain such sound imperfections. However Voltaire chooses to begin writing on these premises alone to further accentuate his satire, purposefully overlooking the inescapable evil that comes with the “best of all possible worlds”. Leibniz was actually not suggesting our world was perfect, but rather the best of all the worlds available to God. Voltaire disregarded this in “Candide”.

Dr. Pangloss is introduced as the literary symbolic representation of Leibniz’s theory. Conceived early in the novella, the then naive Candide reveres Pangloss as the supreme authority on all philosophical matters and follows his teachings without question. Candide enters the world with this very closed-minded philosophy to further exaggerate Voltaire’s satirical aim, but throughout the story he experiences a fierce internal conflict between his childhood schooling and the realities of society. Voltaire also created the character of Martin, a very pessimistic antagonist acting as the devil whispering palpable cynicism into Candide’s ear. As their journey progresses, Candide finds it harder and harder to support the unyielding raw optimism of Pangloss.

At one point in “Candide”, the characters arrive at Eldorado, a utopia designed to metaphorically represent the perfect society described as “the best of all possible worlds”, a quote used by Leibniz and Pangloss to portray our “perfect” society. This city is “impossible” to find, and is described with details to make it seem as distant from reality as possible. By materializing Leibniz’s ideological perfection without laws, jails, or the need for material goods, Voltaire is showing Leibniz’s theory as laughable. This allows Candide to see for himself the quintessential essence of Pangloss’s teachings, just before being submerged again headfirst into the icy waters of society’s realism when they leave. Eldorado is one of Voltaire’s strongest examples of the philosophical collision in the novella, since it reaches beyond speculation and rumor to show Candide hard, physical evidence of the Atlantistic notion brought forth by Pangloss.

Chapter Nine is a hard hit for Candide’s faith in Pangloss’s teachings. He is forced to murder two men in an attempt to protect his own life and that of his mistress Cunégonde. They die in the exact same way for a nearly identical cause, and still the Grand Inquisitor is given a grand burial while the civilian man is thrown on a dunghill. They were both human beings- were their lives worth different values? Candide questions the ideological perfection of society’s injustice.

Voltaire also adds an interesting touch of satire through his choice of character names. Pangloss is loosely translated as “all tongue” or “windbag”, an ironically fitting name for one who offers no proof to support his claims. Candide is translated to “white”, a slightly deeper translation, but no less fitting. In the beginning of the novella, Candide is a very naive child, innocent and pure. He accepts the teachings of Pangloss, the only philosophy he is exposed to. As he makes his journey all over the world, his purity staggers in parallel with his maturity. He begins to question his personal beliefs, however always remaining true to his honesty, loyalty, and generosity” sparkling associations with the unblemished color white. His continued loyalty is apparent by maintaining his honest oath to always love Cunégonde, even after she grows old and loses her beauty. His generosity is illustrated when Candide offers some riches to the ousted king after hearing his tale from a world far less than the best possible.

In many ways, “Candide” is an allusion to Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales”. Voltaire uses “Candide” to poke ridicule, even to the point of criticizing, the endless flaws of the world. From government corruption to inhumane warfare, Voltaire tends focuses more on the issues at large, rather than Chaucer’s focus toward individuals like merchants and friars’ however there truly is no difference. Society is composed of merchants, friars, priests, physicians, knights, and pardoners, so essentially both authors are attacking the same body, but from different angles. Where Chaucer may compare the nun to a prostitute, Voltaire compares the Bordeaux police officer to a common thief. When juxtaposing both works, rather than seeing a contrast, you see a single large picture, seamlessly flowing from one source to the other. One might wonder how much influence Chaucer had on Voltaire.

“Candide” is a remarkable literary work written by the very embodiment of the 18th century enlightenment. Voltaire forever shifted the paradigms of modern satire through a witty, yet pointed assault on Leibniz’s blind theory of optimism. Devouring Leibniz’s premises with colorful, yet blatant, real-world contrasts, Voltaire reflects the sheer lunacy of such a theory. Moral of the story? If Voltaire disagrees with someone, he lets the world know it.