Zachariah helps Charlotte as she struggles with the foreyard sail. He appears when she loses her handhold on the the spar and pulls her back before she can fall. Charlotte then hears an explosion from below, and when she turns around, Zachariah is gone, making one question if he was really there at all. She also finds Mr. Hollybrass stabbed in the back with the dirk that Zachariah had given to her. Was Zachariah a ghost? Did Charlotte save herself and throw the knife in an adrenaline-induced fog? The crew members believe that Charlotte killed Mr. Hollybrass to avenge the death of Zachariah, and that is what the captain told everyone. I do not want to ruin the story by answering whether or not I think Zachariah was really there. What do you think? What is your prediction? Do you think that Zachariah is really dead?
Tuesday, July 2, 2019
How are women presented in the novel?
For the most part, it would appear that the female characters in Frankenstein—which include Justine Moritz (young William's governess) and Elizabeth (Victor's love and confidant)—are little more than victims whose untimely deaths provide turning points for the plot; slated for the Monster's murderous "conquests." The protagonist of this story is a man, and to a certain extent the reader could see it as a cautionary tale against masculine hubris. The implication is that men of science, in seeking to reorder Nature's act of creation, cannot help but see their plans go violently awry.
Another female spirit that influences the trajectory of the plot is the Monster's mate, but she's an abandoned abstraction—a further betrayal by Victor toward his wraithlike progeny—and not a character.
However, Mary Shelley's own life must have been informed by the structure and synthesis of contemporary (to the 1800s) affairs. Elizabeth is a credible stand-in for Mary Shelley herself, in that she has a formidable, questing intellect and is a possible foil for Victor's dogged scientific pursuits. While I’m not pointing to a direct equivalence between Shelley and Elizabeth, Elizabeth is a dimensional being in the novel, hardly one of the scream queens that she's reduced to in Frankenstein’s numerous media adaptions.
The novel has been seen as a cornerstone work in Women's Studies. Frankenstein scholar Susan Tyler Hitchcock notes that there were a considerable number of women-of-letters during the developmental era of the novel, but—as they were flying in the face of convention—they tended to publish under pseudonyms.
Barnard College professor Ellen Moers directly links Shelley's life experience (as a pregnant sixteen-year-old) with the creation of Frankenstein and has:
proposed a new feminist definition of the Gothic as literature whose purpose is to "to scare" by reaching "down into the depths of the soul" and getting "to the body itself, . . . quickly arousing and quickly allaying the physiological reactions to fear. (Frankenstein: A Cultural History, Hitchcock.)
State two instances which tells us that Pluto loved his wife, Proserpine, dearly.
In Ovid's Metamorphoses, Pluto is described as loving Proserpine from the moment he sees her (and with some help from Cupid):
While Proserpinewas playing in this wood, picking violetsand shining lilies, and, like a young girl,was keen to fill her baskets and her lap,trying to gather more than anyoneof her own age, Pluto caught sight of her and, in almost the same instant, loved herand carried her away—that’s how rapidlove can be.
Unfortunately, Pluto chooses to kidnap Proserpine and take her with him to the underworld without the consent of her or her mother Ceres. This leads Ceres to search and search for her daughter. The poet says "She searched the entire world in vain." Once Ceres discovers that Pluto has stolen her daughter, Jupiter, Proserpine's father, claims that it's "not a criminal act . . . this is love."
Beyond the explicit notes in the poem that Pluto takes his wife because he loves her, we could infer that his allowing her to go up to the earth for half of the year to spend time with her mother is an act of love. Knowing how close mother and daughter are, he would also understand how much happiness he could give his bride by letting her be with Ceres again.
Mention all the animal allusions.
The play alludes to dogs, horses, donkeys, birds, and foxes, among others. I will provide a few examples to give you an idea, and then you can track down others for yourself.
Dog allusions are frequent in the play; for example, Andrew says that he is "dog at a catch," to which Feste responds that "some dogs will catch well." Andrew also says that if he thought Malvolio was a Puritan, he would "beat him like a dog." Fabian compares Feste's request that he "not desire to see this letter" to "giv[ing him] a dog and in recompense desir[ing his] dog again."
There are a few other allusions to animals. In 2.3, Andrew responds to Maria's horse allusion—"my purpose is indeed a horse of that colour"—by comparing Malvolio to a donkey and stating: "your horse would now make him an ass." Feste refers to himself as "no fox" in 1.5. When he and Malvolio are speaking in the prison, they discuss how Pythagoras believed that someone might be reincarnated as a bird.
These examples should give you a start, and you can discover some more for yourself. You might consider searching for animal words in an online text of the play.
What are some thoughts on Solomon Gursky was Here?
Solomon Gursky was Here, by Mordecai Richler, is more than just the saga of a Jewish family; it is a novel with a moral about culture, consumption, corruption, and rage. In telling the story of the struggle of a Jewish family in Canada and a coming-of-age tale of a Jewish boy growing up in Montreal, Richler exposes subversive motives and self-defeating practices that characterize the Jewish experience and the struggle for success.
The plot of Solomon Gursky was Here is similar to that in The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, another novel by Richler that reveals the plight of the Jewish man. In a sense, Richter satirizes the Jewish experience by pushing Solomon’s adventures to the extreme. After Solomon disappears, the story revolves around the search for him. As the search continues, the struggle for power does, too, and the Gurkys’ rage is directed toward each other, toward the tenets of capitalism, and toward the ideals that led his people astray and that engendered the corruption. Richler’s story is one of oppression, betrayal, absurdity, and greed. The author appears to be saying that corruption was inevitable in the history of Canada and in the history of the Jewish people, as was the rage and moral turmoil those vices engendered.
Monday, July 1, 2019
What were American colonial schools like?
Early colonists were more interested in survival than education, and a majority of the settlers in the colonies had little or no formal education. Education was not always a priority, as matters of growing food, construction of homes, and establishing a framework for governance took precedence. Depending on the region, colonial schools were small and usually housed in the local church. In the earliest times, the minister would have been the best educated in the community and would also serve as the schoolmaster or teacher. Females did not attend school, as the schools were all-male. The schools had a traditional British curriculum with emphasis on the teaching of apprenticeship, basic economic skills of the trade, and a spattering of history, reading, and rudimentary math. Math and reading were generally taught at home and were not part of the earliest curriculums.
By the 18th century, schools were two-tiered, consisting of private academies and common schools. Wealthy landowners had the choice of a private academy education, while other families were educated in small colonial schools. An example is the Boston Latin School, established in 1635. It is the oldest public school in America, but the definition of public is somewhat of a misnomer, as only the wealthiest, elite students could take time from their farming duties in order to attend. Five of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, as well as many of the prominent leaders of the early colonies, were alumni. The school was unique in that the curriculum was classical with an emphasis on the humanities and Classical Greek culture. The Boston Latin School continues in operation today.
Common schools and church schools were often the choices of most colonists who sent their children to school. Children of any age could attend common schools. The age ranged from nine to seventeen years in the same room. Common schools were funded by parents who could supply goods and financial support. These schools taught a practical curriculum, including math and reading.
By the eighteenth century, girls attended schools, but after completion of what we think of as middle or high school, their choices for education were very limited, if available at all. Women were schooled in what was termed the domestic arts, or managing the household. The education of males was much broader; the opportunity to attend universities existed for males, but in general this was not true for females.
If you have wondered why schools in the United States take the summer months off, you can thank colonial America for that! Schools were organized around key dates related to agriculture—students did not attend school during harvest and planting seasons, which occurred from late spring through August.
Students sat on benches and wrote on boards with charcoal or chalk. Textbooks did not exist, and few educational resources were available. Most of the learning was done by memorization. In most of the colonies, education was not compulsory, meaning students could be absent without penalty. For the most part, students attending colonial schools were taught from the Bible, as it was the one book most of the colonial families likely owned.
The move to improve public education began in the late 1700s when some leaders became concerned that young people were not sufficiently educated to carry on the business and traditions of the original settlers. Though public education was mandatory in some of the northern colonies, there was a broad interpretation and uneven implementation of what public education should focus on. It was not until the 19th century that many of the academy education facilities began to be replaced with publicly-funded schools.
How was Paul Robeson different from Marcus Garvey?
Both men were black and were mainly active in the United States in the early to mid-twentieth century, although Garvey was a bit older. Marcus Garvey (1887–1940) was born and raised in Jamaica, where he became a journalist and printer. His activism included founding and directing the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in Kingston. In 1916, he moved to the United States. Based in Harlem, he became an increasingly outspoken black nationalist and Pan-Africanist. The movement that came to be called Garveyism, or the Back-to-Africa movement, featured the promotion of reclaiming African roots and encouraged black Americans to move to Africa. Garvey was also a racial separatist, however, which linked him to white separatist groups such as the Klan. His involvement in fraudulent stock sales for his steamship company led to legal troubles and, ultimately, the discrediting of his ideas. Deported from the United States, he moved to England and lived the rest of his life there.
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) became well known as a performer (he was a singer and an actor) and for his political beliefs, as he was a communist. Robeson broke the color barrier in numerous ways, including his Broadway appearances in Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones (playing a character based in part on Garvey). However, conservative politicians attacked him for his politics; he was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Robeson left the United States and traveled widely. He suffered serious mental health problems and returned to spend his final years in the United States. Since his death, he has become even more revered as a civil rights pioneer.
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/twenty/tkeyinfo/garvey.htm
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/paul-robeson-about-the-actor/66/