Speaking of boxes...[Paper 2: unpacking the question]

November 2003 (b) : Work and professions are one defining element for characters in fiction just as they are for people in real life.Compare how writers in your study have used one or more of the following to provide depth and interest to characters in their novels or short stories: work,professions, work enviroments.
My own words: How do authors use work,profession, or work enviroment to characterize certain characters and or persuade the reader's emotions about the character.
EOF: characterization
Techniques: diction of proffessions
Works: Meramorphosis The Bluest Eye

November 2007(b): In the telling of a story, flashbacks,reversals,and digressions can add richer dimension to events.Explore in depth no more than three instances od any of these techniques showing how they enhanced at least two works you have studied.
My own words: How does the use of flashbacks enhance the plot or add insight into events
EOF: Plot
Works: The Bluest Eye and Darkness at Noon

Unseen Commentary Passage W unveiled

1. Introduction:
   
   1. Thesis: John Reed, through his use of techniques such as figurative language, imagery and diction, creates a beautifully complicated and interrupted setting in his novel The War in Eastern Europe.
      
2. Body
   
   1. Visual Imagery
      
      1. Young crops…rich hills
         
         1. Magnificence of the country side
            
         2. Seasonal
            
         3. Youth signifies the country itself
            
      2. "of Romania"
         
         1. Location
            
         2. Implications of being in that country
            
      3. The horses woke…
         
         1. Laziness of the day
            
         2. Strange foreignness of the horses
            
         3. People in the town are doing nothing
            
   2. Thermal imagery
      
      1. Windless moist heat
         
         1. Uncomfortable
            
         2. Sticky= irritable?
            
   3. Auditory imagery= implies a certain sense of barbarism or agitation from the peasant driver as he escorts the narrator
      
   4. Personification
      
      1. Sun rose
         
         1. Unnatural
            
         2. Violentà poured down
            
      2. Rose the rich hills
         
         1. Hills part of the country
            
         2. Couldn't miss them= massive
            
   5. Figurative language
      
      1. "like Zeus hidden in his cloud"
         
         1. Scene looked mythical and unreal
            
         2. Zeus= they are powerful and god like?
            
3. Conclusion: All aforementioned devices used by Reed paint the paradoxical setting which is the juxtaposition of the beautiful country sides of eastern Europe with the war zones and mass casualties of war.

Darl

Of all of Hawthorne's characters in As I Lay Dying, Darl is the most hypnotic, understandable and eloquent because he though this book has multiple narrators appears to be omniscient and so troubled in a way that no other character nor himself truly understands him. He, of the members of the Burden family, appears the most distant, educated, and misunderstood due to the fact that he is continually impersonal when address issues of his mother or that of his other family members.

Darl's education can be seen in both the general language of his paragraphs and also through his interaction with his family members. Specifically his grammatical correctness sets him apart from the majority of the characters in this book because not only does he have a limited amount of grammatical errors, he usually lacks any hint of the southern dialect that plagues the passages of others. The visual imagery used by Darl offers an eerily timeless and emotionless perspective of every situation that the family finds themselves in. For example describes his setting in ways that are completely unexpected such as, "the chips look like random smears of soft pale paint on a black canvas"( page 75) which is a stark contrast to the uneducated speech of his brothers and sisters. His educated status can also be seen in his analytical ability as he acknowledges the fact that he is socially criticized when speaking to Vardaman when he somewhat jokingly says "that's why I'm too much for one woman to handle". While there is some ambiguity as to how much of the town gossip the characters are aware of, Darl is the only one who is brave and sensible enough to address what is going on outside of the family. By addressing the gossip Darl also shows that he is not consumed with family and is able to be a member of both his family and his external environment as well.

Darl is primarily misunderstood in this book because he refuses to ever reveal his true intentions in the book. Yes there are a few moments in the book wherein he expresses animosity toward Jewel or laughs mindlessly at the family's situation in the back of the wagon but outside of that his journal entries are purely narrative and talk about all other family members. This disconnects that Darl shows can also be seen in his reaction to his mother's death and also just his general reaction to stressful or intense situations. When his mother dies Darl is not at home because he forced his brother to come into town with him to get enough money to bury her even though he knew she would die while they were gone. Darl does not display the same distress and nervousness of his other brothers who either choose to consume themselves with their passions (husbandry or carpentry) or try to rationalize the events. Darl seems to not care about not being around his mother when she dies which is somewhat unusual but in this situation there is also some ambiguity as to whether or not he leaves to get the money because the family will need it or if he doesn't care.

The characterization by other characters is also contradictory from his narrative pieces due to the fact that while in his passages he appears to always be watching and assessing situations instead of really interacting with others. However from the persepectives of Cora and Vardaman he is always acting compassionately or seen as being the most considerate of the Burdens.

Foxy Lady

In Margret Atwood’s “Red Fox” the use of visual imagery, conceit and the diction of the words used comments on the desperation and the limits that humans will go to to preserve themselves and their futures.
The conceit of the red fox, which symbolizes human desperation and selfishness is the vehicle through which the meaning and intent of this poem is communicated. This poem focuses on this fox and in the third and most descriptive stanza of this poem Atwood describes this creature as having eyes filled with longing and desperation and also as having skinny feet which are adept at lies. These descriptors further the idea that this fox is human desperation because eyes are usually thought to reveal a person’s true purpose and by having eyes filled with desperation Atwood is suggesting that this animal is willing to do anything to survive due to the fact that it is so emaciated, “I can see the ribs” and is in dire need of sustenance. Also the description of the fox is also important in that Atwood speaks about the legs of the fox and we as humans and animals in general see our legs as a means to an end. A treacherous and dishonest past is implied through the line “skinny feet, adept at lies” this also furthers the idea that this animal is willing to do anything to get what it wants whether honestly or otherwise.
The rhetorical question that makes up the fourth stanza as well as the fifth stanza and the allusion presented there also contribute to this theme of human ambition and recklessness for a cause in that it challenges the implicit Christian belief of poverty being virtuous and presents it as a form of selfishness and self-neglect. The emaciated image of the fox is referred to in these sections as the speaker analyzes the effect that this hunger has on animals and people alike. The use of the phrase “hunger corrupts” suggests that this virtuous poverty creates a paradoxical circumstance in which this virtuosity leads to immorality and people committing evil or corrupt acts. Also the allusion the story of Hansel and Gretel in the forest illustrates that the corruptive powers of hunger are also seen in humans in that parents who were so hungry were forced to abandon their children.
Atwood, through this conceit of a simple red fox, comments on the animalistic nature of humans when faced with the most primal of situations: survival and self-preservation.

Blackberry-Picking

John Heaney through his use of contradicting visual images, similes, cataloging as well as the connotation of the words used in Blackberry-Picking contribute to the greedy and over indulgent tone of the poem.

The images used by Heaney in his first stanza most of which are positive and nostalgic images are directly contrasted by the many images of decay and loss which are present throughout the poem. One such example would be the contrasting images of a beautiful august day which implies serenity as well as the images of ripening blackberry clots which is contrasted by the imagery of summer's blood which is more gruesome and this violent imagery take away from the previously peaceful imagery of the season. The natural images of the hayfields and open air of the byre are also contrasted by the images of various jars which contain the essence of these beautiful hayfields. These images add to the tone because the seemingly genuinely appreciative images of summer and blackberries are contrasted by images which show the author's want to contain and preserve these images unnaturally whether by taking "summer's blood" from the berries or simply taking the berries out of their native habitat.

The gruesome diction of the words used by Heaney also communicate his greed because words such as blood, clot, and flesh while having negative and human connotations they are also necessary process/components of a human which implies that the author's want of these blackberries because he sees them as essential parts of himself.

The cataloging used by Heaney also adds to this tone because he lists all the ways in which he tried to contain and usurp all the beauty and nutrients that lied within these libraries even if it was a painful process.

Blackberry-Picking

Mid-term Break

The alienated tone of the narrator in Seamus Heaney's "Mid-term break" which creates the overall lonely mood of the poem is created through the use of tactile imagery, visual imagery, onomatopoeia and diction all of which imply the awkwardness that the speaker feels during this unexpected break.

The tactile images of hands in this poem help create the aforementioned tone because of the various emotions and social customs that are associated with these interactions. The touching of hands in our society means a personal and intimate connection between two humans because for that one second they are as close as is physically personal because their bodies are melding together. The alienation of the author is more importantly communicated through the different ways in which the speaker's hands interact with others. When shaking the hands of older men the speaker states that he is embarrassed. This statement implies that either he is not accustomed to this "manly" and formal greeting and feels uncomfortable shaking these men's hands or that maybe the entire exchange between him and these gentlemen embarrasses him because he is uncomfortable in these types of situations. Either interpretation of the speaker's feelings toward the situation establish firmly that he feels out of place and awkward at this funeral. While there is a customary shaking of hands between the speaker and the older men @ the ceremony when with his mother he is forced to hold her hand which is a more permanent and personal connection of bodies due to the fact that it lasts longer and also because its and exchange between family members. The difference between the tactile interaction with his mother and the older gentlemen also presents another field in which the speaker is at unsure and feels out of place: age. Having shaken hands with the older men to show that he too was man, holding his mother's hand is so reminiscent of the speaker's childhood that this elderly façade he previously tried to dawn simply evaporates as soon as his hands meet his mothers as they had done hundreds of times before as he was growing up.

Aside from the uneasiness that the author feels when having to participate in these physical connecting moments with people at this funeral, the tone of alienation is also depicted through the use of visual images. The constant reference of the author to time and how long he has been away from his family establishes that the speaker's separation from his family has affected the relationship with his family and all the attendants of the funeral. Whether talking about being "in the college sick bay", "away at school" or "[seeing] him for the first time in six weeks" the author communicates the strangeness of the situation because he has been away from his family for so long and in a way doesn't have the same connection with them that he used to have which could explain why he feels slightly disconnected from them and the situation because he can't quite relate because while he's been away it is as if he were in a different world.

More than any other technique the diction of the words used by Heaney connote the alienated and tone and awkwardness that the author feels. By using the words "blow" and "knocked" instead of a more delicate and gentle euphemisms suggest that the author has no reason to present this information delicately because to him they are just facts about the situation and not descriptions of his brother's death or his father's feelings. This lack of euphemisms or less graphic terminology is especially telling of the speaker's disconnect in the fifth stanza when he refers to the lifeless body of his own brother as "the corpse" and nothing more which suggests that to him this is just a random body and that he does not realize that it is his brother.

This poem through the use of powerful literary tools presents the difficult situation in which a speaker finds himself at his four year-old brother's funeral questioning the connection he has with his family and who he is.