Metamorphoses

Uno 6

Melinda Uno

Campion 

English 165: Short Story Masters

University of California, Berkeley

11 April 2010

Metamorphoses

“Metamorphosis /mettmorfsiss/   • noun (pl. metamorphoses /mettmorfseez/) 1 the transformation of an insect or amphibian from an immature form or larva to an adult form in distinct stages. 2 a change in form or nature.” (AskOxford.com).

“Metamorphosis n. (pl –ses) a change of form or character.” (Hawker 388).

The concept of change is the primary focus of “The Metamorphosis”. In Franz Kafka’s arguably most well known short story, the first change has already happened. This is the obvious change in Gregor Samsa’s physical makeup revealed in the first sentence, from the body of a human into one of “a gigantic insect” (Kafka 67). Kafka uses the extreme notion of Gregor’s physical metamorphosis as a tool of understanding the metamorphosis of the Samsa family’s lifestyle. In other words, the nature of understanding Gregor’s transformation of form is parallel to the change in the general character of the Samsa family. Gregor’s change is pivotal to the development of the Samsa family as a unit. The coping methods of each of the family members, most specifically the dialogue and Gregor’s own thought processes described in the story expose to the reader the nature of the Samsa family at a very unprotected and vulnerable moment. 

The nature of the stubbornness, unwillingness or inability for the Samsa family to change without an extreme event is primarily apparent in the first section. Gregor’s room is “a regular human bedroom, only rather too small”. The Compact Oxford Dictionary defines regular as” “forming or following a definite pattern; occurring at uniform intervals; conforming to an accepted role or pattern” (Hawker 512). Interestingly, the room is already uncomfortable for Gregor prior to his transformation. This is symbolic of the lack of a comfortable emotional state in his previous lifestyle. When something functions outside of this pattern, everyone is aware. First, the entire family is alerted to the fact that something is wrong: Gregor does not go to work. The fear of the loss of Gregor as financial support to both the family and Gregor’s job sparks immediate response. A higher ranking coworker visits Gregor in attempts to persuade him to work and investigate his absence. The mechanized system to which Gregor works is compared in his mind to a mass of insects and the parts dependent upon each other: “even if he did catch the train he wouldn’t avoid a row with the chief, since the firm’s porter would have been waiting for the five o’clock train and would have long since reported his failure to turn up. The porter was a creature of the chief’s, spineless and stupid” (Kafka 69). The vocabulary of the chief clerk’s dialogue echoes that of something mindless: “I am speaking here in the name of your parents and your chief, and I beg you quite seriously to give me an immediate and precise explanation. You amaze me. You amaze me” (77). It sounds as though everything the clerk says is rehearsed. The motions of Grete’s cleaning of Gregor’s room in section II is also systematic: “she always pushed the char back to the same place window… if he could have spoken to her and thanked her… he could have borne her ministrations better; as it were, they oppressed him” (98). The lodgers are the epitome of this zombie like state which Gregor loathe: “… the lodger really did go with long strides into the hall, his two friends had been listening and had quite stopped rubbing their hands for some moments and now went scuttling after him as if afraid that Mr. Samsa might get into the hall before them and cut them off from their leader” (130). Just as Newton’s First Law of Motion states: “Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it”, the Samsa family in a state of consistency must have an external force applied to it in order to change. The external force is the uncontrolled change in Gregor’s physical appearance.

Gregor’s stunning reveal provokes awe and horror into the very hearts of his family and coworker. The extreme lack of fear that Gregor feels upon learning that he has the body of something resembling a multi legged beetle and cockroach like insect is in opposition to the other responses.  Irony does not elude Kafka and is humorous in the fact that Gregor’s chosen profession is a commercial travelling salesman and the primary human functions Gregor loses are his ability to move and his ability to communicate. Gregor’s main concern is the fact that he cannot go to work. He wonders more about how his alarm went off but did not wake him (69) for many more sentences than the length his thoughts about how he transitioned from a human into an insect. Gregor is the one who changed and doesn’t even believe at first. This calm reaction contrasts the panic distress of the other Samsas. Gregor’s main focus is keeping his job, then soothing the chief clerk, and then soothing his family. Yet Gregor is unsuccessful because of the horrific nature of his physical appearance and later his lack of the ability to speak. The clerk flees the scene and Mrs. Samsa dictates action (85), while Mr. Samsa gets angry and cries (81), then forces Gregor back into his room (86). Each of these events is unproductive in helping Gregor transform into a human, a reversal that is a very logically assumed concern of Gregor’s family. Mr. Samsa even prevents Gregor’s emergence from the chrysalis like confines of his room.

Gregor’s room is the main setting for most of the story, and this physical state is a microcosm of the relationships between Gregor and his parents and sister. Gregor’s room is attached to several others by means of locked doors, solid wood that muffle sound and block sight. The change in Gregor’s voice and appearance is unknown until Gregor speaks and reveals himself. Gregor’s room is attached to both his sister’s room and the living room and in the beginning of the story, the Samsa’s communicate through it (70-80). Gregor is both between his parents and his sister physically early in the story and also emotionally divided between them in the section II. Then, as Grete tends for Gregor and cleans his room (105 etc.) Gregor’s emotional interests are guided by his sister’s interests (i.e. her taste for music and his desire to pay for her musical education). Then, acting in what they believe to be Gregor’s best interest and in accordance with his desires, Grete and Mrs. Samsa clear out Gregor’s furniture from his room: “They were clearing his room out; taking away everything he loved… they were now loosening the writing desk which had almost sunk into the floor, the desk at which he had done all his homework when he was at the commercial academy… (104). Gregor associates his desk with human memories and by removing this item and his other belongings, his mother and sister are controlling Gregor’s immediate stimuli. When Gregor acts in his own interest, his sister scolds him for not accounting for his mother’s sensitive sentiment (104). The problem of Gregor’s state is locked away and dealt with according to the rest of the Samsa’s conditions. Grete will care for her brother, but only if she doesn’t have any contact with him, while Mrs. Samsa faints and cannot even tolerate the sight of Gregor, and Mr. Samsa chooses to not interact with Gregor unless forced to do so. Although Gregor is the most obviously oppressed in the story, there are hints of oppression of the women of “The Metamorphosis”. After hearing of his wife and daughter’s encounter with Gregor, he says: “Just what I expected… just what I’ve been telling you, but you women never listen” (107). This is an example of a misinterpretation in communication, a common occurrence in the story. Mr. Samsa hears what reinforces his fears, while his sister fails to accurately dictate Gregor’s intent. The communication issues of the family are also a result in Gregor’s inability to speak. He can hear everything said but say nothing himself. His actions are all that can be interpreted and because of his appearance every action he makes sparks an involuntary response in the other characters. 

Gregor’s account of events and his thought processes play an important role in the makeup of “The Metamorphosis”. Gregor’s failed persuasions to the chief clerk are a sign of Gregor’s inability to express himself. Gregor makes a lot of excuses for events over which he has no control, and even blames his love for his sister’s music on his insect state: “Was he an animal, that music had such an effect upon him?... He was determined to push forward until he reached his sister” (121), even though he expresses his love for her music earlier in the story. Also, because his family cannot understand him, Gregor’s reaction to their conversations is often extreme. Gregor seems to be selling himself of a lifestyle that he doesn’t want, in order to do what he feels he must do, but the general laziness and unhappiness of the Samsa family suggests that Gregor is facilitating this condition for everyone. 

The extremity of the contrast in the emotional and physical reactions to Gregor’s change reveal why the change was unlikely to occur without some sort of emotional trauma such as the death in the Samsa family. This along with the idea that stages in the development of the Samsa family over time resemble the metamorphosis of an insect or amphibian supports the notion that Gregor’s death is inevitable; as distinct as the states of life and death. Gregor is the lifeline that financially supports the whole family up to the point of his metamorphosis. Mimicking phases of development, the story is divided into three sections and in the first section the family is the least autonomous and Gregor’s ignorance of the nature of his new form is the least developed. He attempts to get out of bed and contemplates asking for help: “Two strong people- he thought of his father and the servant girl- would be amply sufficient... ignoring the fact that the doors were all locked, ought he really to call for help? In spite of his misery he could not suppress a smile at the very idea of it (73-4); (It is noticeable that Gregor omits the presumably physically weaker members of his family, his mother and sister, and yet it his sister who has the strength of will to take ownership of Gregor’s care). The family is dependent entirely on Gregor’s income and it is not until section II that the reader learns the details of the family’s financial situation. After the initial shock of Gregor’s change has dissipated, the remaining human Samsas converse monetary subjects while Gregor listens through the door and contemplates: “Now his father…could not be expected to do much… Gregor’s old mother, how would she earn a living with her asthma, and was his sister to earn her bread, she who was still a child of seventeen…” (97). Gregor’s opinion of his old father’s strength barely includes caring for Gregor (and Mr. Samsa fails to even do that). Indeed, Gregor’s fears seem to come true in Section III, as the family is exhausted by caring for themselves (112), but the resolution of the story is sufficient evidence that the family gains something from Gregor’s change. The Samsa family at the end of “The Metamorphosis” is very different from the Samsa family in the beginning. The Samsa family in the beginning is infantile, unmotivated energy that must be charged into action by an event such as Gregor’s change. As extreme as turning on a switch, the Samsa family is pushed through a slow and tough transition stage until they can move forward with their lives. 

​While “The Metamorphosis” is a fitting title in more ways than one, the title would also work as “The Metamorphoses”, the plural, for there are many changes that occur in this story. Gregor’s physical state reflects that of a phase in the Samsa family’s life, and his transformation and death serve as milestones or markers of the beginning and ending of a period of growth. Although Gregor’s physical makeup changes, his internal state remains constant. For his family, the changes are reversed, and the other Samsas emerge from this time in a more developed and prosperous state.

Punishment Corresponding, Condign, and Classical

Melinda Uno

Professor E.V. Thornbury

Medieval Literature: Visions of Heaven and Hell

5 October 2010

Essay #1, Prompt #1

Punishment Corresponding, Condign, and Classical

“...This is the place where the road divides in two.      

To the right it runs below the mighty walls of Death,

 Our path to Elysium, but to the left-hand road torments

The wicked, leading down to Tartarus, path to doom” (ll.629-633). - Sybil to Aeneas

As seen in the Aeneid by Virgil, the motif of visions of separate realms of punishment and reward in the afterlife litters texts of antiquity. These and other themes have spread with the history of conquest and religious reformation specifically with the dissolution of Greek religion and mythology into Christian ideology and liturgy. Generally concerning the idea of what happens to a soul or body after death, these visions are of mythical lands and divided according to the nature of a soul’s or group of souls’ character while in a live body. A comparison of the homily Poema Morale, St Paul’s Apocalypse, and Bede’s Drythelm’s Vision to the Aeneid exposes the transgression of corresponding sins and condign punishments. Specifically, the sin examined is one of betrayal and hypocrisy in respect to the church and God while the punishment varies in different realms of hell in each vision.

The shared thematic elements are not just what is exposed, but is understood by what cannot be shown or seen. Just as Sybil says to Aeneas: “No, not if I had a hundred tongues and a hundred mouths/ and a voice of iron too -- I could never capture / all the crimes or run through all the torments...” (Virgil ll.724-726) hell is unquantifiable and many of the tortures of Hell are indescribable. This open-ended quality is common in each of the three Middle English texts as a predecessor to a homily, sermon and/or exegesis. The narrator of the Poema Morale confesses: “I have never come into hell, or care to come to that place, /though I might fetch each world’s wealth there” (Poema Morale ll.225-6), but continues describing the torments of hell founded on earlier vision texts. This narrator has not actually had a vision neither of heaven nor of hell and this lack of immediate experience may account for parts unexplainable, although Sybil’s statement supports the argument of this nature as characteristic to aspects of hell. Like the Sybil, this narrator finds the souls in hell to be innumerable: “No heart may think it and no tongue may tell/ How much pain or how many are in hell” (ll.289-90). Although the Poema Morale was written around 500 years after the Aeneid the Middle English text is undoubtedly founded on the preceding Latin work. The homily cites traditional concepts of antiquity perhaps out of respect to the text but also serves as a source of credibility. This innumerability is an element also found in Drythelm’s Vision and St Paul’s Apocalypse1. This provides a sense of finality about the location of hell as a place supremely terrible where certain realms are inescapable2.

Each vision is stylistically unique, most likely due to the difference in the time in when each text was written, yet the popularity of exegesis as a result of the lack of other written works and the long term popularity of these visions allows for the repetition of basic elements. For example, the punishment for people who refuse to repent is often torture between fire and ice.

 1: Vision of St Paul: “‘Do you weep now, when you still have not seen the greater torments? Follow me, and you will see seven times worse than these” (Gardiner 42) (Before showing the deepest pit of hell).

Drythelm’s vision: Now since an innumerable multitude of deformed spirits were alternately tormented here and there without any intermission as far as could be seen, I began to think that perhaps this might be hell, whose intolerable flames I had often heard discussed. My guide, who went before me, answered my thought, saying, “Do not believe it for this is not the hell you imagine’ (58)

2 The concept of penitence is also a common theme, particularly regarding the Last Day/Day of Judgment

The Poema Morale emphasizes the lack of rest for these souls:

They go from heat to cold, from cold to heat... Both do they suffer enough; they have no peace. / They do not know which of them does worse with any certainty, / They walk eternally and seek rest. But they are unable to find it/ Because they would not, while they could repent their sins (ll. 236-242)

This punishment is exemplary of the idea that in hell, punishments are condign and therefore appropriate. This hot/cold polarity is an extreme reflection of the sin of uncertainty of the soul regarding the absolute nature of God’s forgiveness. While this area of punishment is generalized and inexact in Poema Morale, in Drythelm’s Vision the narrator meets a valley where the same punishment is distributed:

…when the wretches could no longer endure the excess of heat, they leaped into the middle of the cutting cold; and finding no rest there, they leaped back again into the middle of the unquenchable flames (Gardiner 58).

In both the Poema Morale and Drythelm’s Vision, there is no rest for these souls until the Day of Judgment a concept directly corresponding to passages in the Book of Revelations in the New Testament3. These texts advocate penitence in a person’s lifetime, should they refuse to do so (or as in Drythelm’s Vision the guide continues: ‘That valley you saw so dreadful because of the consuming fires and the cutting cold is the place to try and punish the souls who delay to confess and amend their sins (61). This specification implies that the sins of these souls have been confessed and amended at the very end of life, all too late to avoid punishment, but not wrong enough to subject the souls to eternal damnation, without a trial on the Day of Judgment.

3 12-14 Revelation 20: And I saw the Dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works….

In many of the texts, the topographical areas of hell are sectioned off; reserved for certain punishments for specific vices, while the realm of paradise is often supreme and delineated from a realm of rest (refrigerium).  For example, Drythelm’s Vision of the valley makes this area in an earthly realm between the fields of heaven (on top of a wall) and the pit of hell into bottomless darkness. It is in these realms that the narrators of each text encounter punishments dating back to antiquity.  A scene of disembowelment in St. Paul’s Apocalypse is directly correspondent to the punishment of Tityus: “his immortal liver and innards ever ripe for torture. / Deep in his chest it [a hideous vulture] nestles, ripping into its feast/ and the fibers, grown afresh, get no relief from pain” (Virgil ll.690-694). Tityus’ fate is an echo of the punishment of Prometheus. Each of these images in Greek mythology distributes this punishment for some sort of violation of trust; Tityus for attempted rape and Prometheus for the theft of fire from the Gods. This similarity exposes a tradition of exegesis: the elaboration of and ‘borrowing’ of themes in religious and historical texts.  

In St. Paul’s Apocalypse, a similar extreme punishment is reserved for a priest who contradicts his role in the church by acting contrary to the behavior expected of a chaste and virtuous priest:

… I saw there a man caught by the throat by angels, keepers of hell, who had in their hands an iron with three hooks with which they pierced that old man’s entrails… ‘He was a priest who did not fulfill his ministry well, because when he was eating and drinking and whoring he offered the sacrifice to the Lord at his holy altar.’ (Gardiner 37-38))

The vision continues to depict increasing severity of torture as the status in the Christian order increases, perhaps because these men ought to know better, they are learned in scripture. This punishment is historically condign for this sort of violation of trust; contradiction of holy vows is hypocrisy, an act against the church and God. Conversely, the punishment for similar acts in Poema Morale is not exact4:

There are those heathen men who were lawless/.../ Evil Christian men are their companions,/ Whose Christianity badly endured here,/ And yet they are in a worse place than the bottom of hell,/ And they shall never come out, for a penny or for a pound./ Prayers may not help them there, or alms,/ For nothing shall offer forgiveness there. (ll.295-302).

It is understood that the worse place than the bottom of hell is a place of irrefutable and eternal punishment. The most severe punishments are reserved for members of the church who act immorally, named here simply as “Evil Christian men” while St. Paul’s Apocalypse names a priest, a bishop, a deacon, and a lector. A corresponding scene in Drythelm’s Vision groups the punishment for this sin along with other sins. First Drythelm observes the pit of hell, and then the souls dragged downward while the guide educates him:  

Among these people, from what I could see, there was one shorn like a clergyman, a layman, and a woman. The evil spirits who dragged them went down to the midst of the burning pit; and as they went down deeper… “That fiery and stinking pit that you saw is the mouth of hell, and whoever falls into it shall never be delivered for all eternity” (Gardiner 59/61).

In Drythelm’s Vision, like the Poema Morale the more severe and ultimate punishments are distributed to those who have sinned in this manner while the deepest pit of hell in St. Paul’s Apocalypse is reserved for other sinners (Gardiner 42).

            4: There is, however a preceding scene of animals tearing bodies: “There are adders and snakes, lizards and frogs/ That tear and fret those evil traitors, the envious and the proud” (ll.277-8).

 Death is not the end of all things according to those who envision worlds of heaven and hell (also called Elysium and Tartarus). Written accounts of those who have seen these realms (or have studied earlier accounts) depict scenes of torture in sensually unpleasant locales where certain areas allow for transcendence of this fate upon penitence on the last day. The punishments here are condign, proportional to the nature of the sinful act; however the specific sins that deserve ultimate and eternal punishment vary between texts. This punishment is depicted in a darkness that cannot be seen nor described (except by its terrible smell among other things) and no amount of prayer can save a soul doomed to this fate. Because of the lack of preceding accessible texts, these Medieval visions of heaven and hell share tropes and themes based off the same religious and mythological texts and ideas.

Reporters are Writers Too

Melinda Uno

C. Mujal History 124

UC Berkeley Summer Sessions

13 August 2009

Reporters are Writers Too

Style and vocabulary change drastically depending on to whom you are writing, and for what purpose. Novels drench the reader in description and require a plot worthy of a few hundred pages. Poems must create and image with a few carefully chosen words. Journalism tends to be direct and concise to accurately follow a fast paced and ever-changing world. The lines are not always clear for example, prose-poetry developed in America in the late 19th century with writers such as T.S. Eliot and Oscar Wilde. Writers famous in history are often known for the stylistic bridges gapped the revolution of a fresh new voice, and the audacity to speak out against the injustices of society. In the 1960s and 1970s, many common people, not just writers jumped on the bandwagon of open and vocal protest. Perhaps perpetuating the bandwagon journalistically is Tom Wolfe who first used the term New Journalism to describe the fusion of creative literary syntax with (at least partially) factual and concise traditional journalism. Most notable New Journalists include Hunter S. Thompson, Norman Mailer, Joan Didion, and Truman Capote, all of whom published novels and articles in prominent magazines including and not limited to The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and The Atlantic Monthly.

In this journalistic style, news articles read like short stories and demand some creativity from the author. New Journalism is a revival of traditional literary social commentary that masks little and attempts to inform the reader and public in a creative way. According to author Tom Wolfe, New Journalism is defined as journalism that reads like a novel, using literary devices from the traditional dialogisms of the essay to stream-of-consciousness, and to use many different kinds simultaneously to excite the reader both intellectually and emotionally. New Journalism grew out of the ambition of would-be novelists in the journalistic field (Wolfe The New Journalism 15). The raw, unfiltered popular novels of the 1950s and the Beatnik generation fueled the notion that anyone could write the great American novel. For many, the reality of a career in writing meant journalism, and it seemed as though the time was ripe for a new literary genre: they had been practically crying for novels by the new writers who must be out there somewhere, the new writers who would do the big novels of the hippie life or campus life or radical movements of the war in Vietnam or dope or sex or black militancy or encounter groups or the whole whirlpool at once… The – New Journalists – Parajournalists – had the whole world crazed obscene uproarious Mammon-faced drug-soaked mau-mau lust-oozing Sixties in America all to themselves (Wolfe The New Journalism 31). As other areas faced change, it is logical that journalism would also adapt to a new cultural climate. It is impossible to discuss New Journalism without taking into consideration the immense radical political and social change that occurred when New Journalism was gaining popularity: “The ferment of social change of the last decades, and the exhaustion of certain forms of fiction that have dominated the novel since World War II, have created new opportunities for writers” (Hollowell 10). In many definitions of New Journalism, such as Wallace’s in Newspapers and the Making of Modern America include a discussion of the youth culture surrounding Free Speech movement and the Civil Rights and Anti-War movements. New Journalism is alternative press defined by: “its atmosphere, personal feeling, interpretation, advocacy and opinion, novelist characterization and description, touches of obscenity, concern with fashion and cultural change, and political savvy”. Youth oriented and fronterist community constructed through this writing (Wallace 126). During the sixties, when New Journalism gained momentum as a literary movement, the social and political events of the time were often driven by the media. Large name newspapers focused on Presidential speeches, riots, protests and assassinations while magazines and smaller papers focused on changing how these events were documented: “By trial and error, by “instinct” rather than theory, journalists began to discover the devices that gave the realistic novel its unique power, variously known as its ‘immediacy’, its ‘concrete reality’, its ‘emotional involvement,’ its ‘gripping’ or ‘absorbing’ quality” (Wolfe The New Journalism 31). Others seek to define New Journalism through categorization. It should be understood, furthermore that most New Journalists fall somewhere on the spectrum between these two extremes of a personal, creative art and an objective, researched exposure – and most toward the first rather than the second. in the first there are qualities of honesty, vision, and style that are grounded in the person; in the second those qualities are more a product of the facts, the data, and the form they can be given to make an argument, a scientific knowledge, an objective picture. it seems to me that the first, like the confessional style of much contemporary poetry is more unique to our age and, certainly more typical of New Journalism as a genre of journalistic writing. However, the writers at these extremes, as well as those along the spectrum in between, all share a strong commitment to the effective communication of informative and honest statements about the contemporary human situation (Johnson 88). Antagonized and disillusioned, the youth generation of (primarily) the 1960s is credited for sparking much of the social change in America. Social pressures at home for many of America’s youth perpetuated an anxiety and longing to establish a sense of self that seemed to be shared by most of the country at this time. Quite often, the ambitions of a minority group, whether it be on the basis of race, gender, or age have been suppressed, only to collectively and unintentionally gain momentum as a series of social movements. This is particularly true in the terms of the Free Speech movement of Berkeley in the 60s: “the most important aspect of the youth and radical scene is its character as a counterculture… it stands in clear opposition or indifference to the major American cultural and political scene. The student revolution and rock culture are certainly part of this counterculture, but there are other subcultures which, while they overlap these two, may also be distinguished from them in important ways” (Johnson 130). For New Journalists, this social setting provided an opportunity for change. “…All of these subcultures represent counter-cultural possibilities, alternatives to conventional and generally accepted ways of living, thinking, and feeling, in which many activist students and roc-culture people may or may not participate… Some of this journalism has been written by those involved in realizing these alternatives, some by sympathetic outsiders. Most of it is to be found in the publications of the underground press, but the best of it has appeared elsewhere” (Johnson 130). It is not an easy feat to credit every single New Journalist at this time, especially in consideration of the fact that at this time in history many small, privately owned “underground publications” featured strong and revolutionary writers. Tom Wolfe’s analysis is one of the first to define New Journalism and label certain authors as leaders in this movement. The ambitious-would be novelists, now turned journalists, the New Journalists simply forced the field of journalism to adapt to their skills as literary writers. Without ambition to revitalize the literary world, some of the journalists of this time found a unique niche. Journalistic writing provided interesting conditions for writers “According to Wolfe, the new journalists were reacting to a type of writing in which the novelist did no research and presented characters with no background and no history – even put them in no particular time period” (Shomette xviii). Many literary elements crucial to the novel are now omitted, as page space of a newspaper or magazine is more valuable and limiting than the numerous pages of a lengthy book. While Tom Wolfe is an accurate documentarian of this literary movement, he is also one of its pioneers. In the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Wolfe experiments with point of view as well as stream of consciousness to document his travels with Ken Kesey and others. Wolfe’s almost chaotic writing style puts the reader into the heat of the moment: “ Back in the jungle, Cornel Wilde. Heart still banging up to the edge of fibrillation, through the lush shadow danks of the jungle. Well, yessir, lookee here a minute, what’s this. A three sided hut in the jungle, some kind of woodsman’s hut, with a cot in it and a little hoard of mango papaya, some kind of pallid little fruit” (Wolfe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test 217). In this book, Wolfe utilizes slang and regional dialect to put the setting of the story into perspective as well as to describe the personality of the other characters of the novel. Kesey knew his characters intimately and had a personal relationship with them while at the same time he gathered facts for a story: “there was an unusually rich record of Kesey’s thoughts and feelings during this interlude. He had written at length to his friend Larry McMurtry about it at the time, he had made tapes even while he was in the jungle, and I had interviewed his companions in the flight… Much of the direct interior monologue is taken from Kesey’s letters to McMurtry” (Wolfe 204). For some, the idea of New Journalism is somewhat controversial. The book Critical Response to Tom Wolfe is a compilation of articles written in reaction to Tom Wolfe’s works including his bold statements in The New Journalism “Wolfe’s notions of New Journalism are considered somewhat inflated, particularly as he says the new genre “dethrones the novel” as the leading literary genre of the Post-Modern era”(Shomette 57). An article “the New Journalism” by Tom Curran, another perspective of the importance of New Journalism aids Wolfe’s arguments “Without New Journalism we might go on thinking that the sixties were another decade of war and political assassination, of activism and reaction, instead of “the decade when manners and morals, styles of living, attitude toward the world changed the country more crucially than political events”’ (Shomette 69). Wolfe credited the new journalists with creating journalism which reads like a novel – a non-fiction novel – such as Capote’s In Cold Blood. Wolfe recognized some earlier writers with the same efforts…” (Shomette xviii).Capote “a novelist of long standing… said he created a new literary genre, ‘the nonfiction novel’… Capote had spent five years researching his story and interviewing the killers in prison and so on, a very meticulous and impressive job. (Wolfe 28). Unlike some of the other New Journalists, Capote is an example of a writer who transcended literary categorization by adapting the novel to be more like an article: “Capote’s determination to reproduce the techniques of the novel in nonfiction is obvious… he uses the technique of parallel narratives that John Steinbeck was so fond of… One gets a curious blend of third-person point of view and omniscient narration. Capote probably had sufficient information to use point of view in a more complex fashion but was not yet ready to let himself go in nonfiction” (Wolfe 116). Part of what Capote’s contemporaries admire about In Cold Blood is Capote’s accuracy of information and detailed description: “... the dialogue is confirmed to short takes… [as] the reporter could not be present for the events themselves and has to reconstruct the dialogue from what his subjects can remember, and one’s recollection is almost invariably confined to highlights. On the other hand, Capote’s use of status details is quite effective …”(Wolfe 116). Undoubtedly, In Cold Blood is one of the texts credited as part of the origin of New Journalism: “Capote’s skill and experience as a novelist are everywhere evident in the final product. He could not, of course, record all of the events of the Clutters’ lives, nor did he dwell on each minute detail concerning the killers. Instead, he chose the scenes and conversations with the most powerful dramatic appeal” (Hollowell 70-1). It seems as though before New Journalism, the nonfiction novel was considered dry and factual, simply informational without any added personal flair from the author. Capote is credited for his informational accuracy as well as his ability as a writer to convey that information in an appealing way. Norman Mailer and his novel Armies of the Night are often mentioned with and compared to Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. “And then, early in 1968, another novelist turned to nonfiction, and with a success that in its own way was as spectacular as Capote’s two years before. This was Norman Mailer writing a memoir about an anti-war demonstration he had become involved in… within the literary community and among intellectuals generally it couldn’t have been a more tremendous success d’estime” (Wolfe 27-8). Like Capote, the basis of the novel at this point in Mailer’s career is based off of fact: “… [Mailer] demonstrates the power of fusing the journalistic idiom with the techniques of the novel. By applying the imaginative resources of fiction to contemporary history, Mailer transcends the cliches and formulas of conventional reportage” (Hollowell 101). In The Armies of the Night, Mailer fuses history and the Novel as well as the Autobiography, documenting events while concurrently creating an atmosphere that reads like a novel with the establishment of setting and character. Mailer, although the author of the text, writes about himself in third person: “Mailer’s arm was being held in the trembling grip of a U.S. Marshal – this trembling a characteristic physical reaction of the police whenever they lay hands on an arrest, or at least so Mailer would claim after noticing police in such a precise state for three out of four times he had in his life been arrested – yes they trembled quite uncontrollably” (Mailer 37). Mailer’s emotional description and unique third-person point of view change the non-fiction novel forever. Now much of the personal experiences of the events of the author are combined with his detachment from the protagonist or subject of the novel. Mailer’s “columns grew increasingly into rants, provoking letters from readers who saw him as both part of the problem and part of the solution… typical of his aggressive, audience-unfriendly approach, was his first column: “Greenwich Village is one of the bitter provinces – it abounds snobs and critics. That many of you frustrated in your ambitions, and undernourished in your pleasures, only makes you more venomous”’ (Wallace 127). Mailer epitomes Tom Wolfe’s definition of a “would-be novelist” working as a journalist until the book is finished. Mailer’s disdain for the upper-middle class “snobs and critics” and, we can assume, the Establishment is highly reflective of the social commentary that is crucial to New Journalism. Another author, Joan Didon, is known primarily for her literary works, as opposed to her journalistic works. However her articles titled Slouching Towards Bethlehem established her as a ranking New Journalist in 1968 (Wolfe The New Journalism 29). Didon’s articles exemplify New Journalism, perhaps without her initial intent from the very first few lines of the article: “This is a story about love and death in the golden land, and begins with the country. The San Bernardino Valley lies only an hour east of Los Angeles by the San Bernardino freeway but is in certain ways an alien place: not the coastal California of the subtropical twilights and the soft westerlies off the Pacific, but a harsher California, haunted by the Mojave just beyond the mountains….” (Didon 10). Almost sounding like a fairy tale with its “Once upon a time” opening, Didon’s article “Some Dreamers of the Golden dream” begins with a simple description of the location as well as the characters. Didon even acknowledges her lack of description of the personal backgrounds of the people involved in her story. “Unhappy marriages so resemble one another that we do not need to know too much about the course of this one. There may or may not have been trouble on Guam, where Cork and Lucille Miller lived while he finished his Army duty. There may or may not have been problems I the small Oregon town where he first set up private practice (Didon 15). Didon is one of the New Journalists that pushed the limits of journalism to be more like a short nonfiction story. Now in the 1960s and 70s, magazine articles provide more information than the articles of the past, but still lack the essential defining characteristics of the novel. Hunter S Thompson, well known for his drug-crazed articles and novels really began his career as a New Journalist with his book about the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. “I listened to the war talk and shouting for a while, then hustled down the mountain to call a Washington newspaper I was writing for at the time, to say I was ready to send one of the great riot stories of the decade. On the way down the road I passed outlaw bikes coming the other way” (Thompson 55). This quote from Thompson is stream of consciousness, much like Tom Wolfe’s Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. This is appropriate because both are similarly “out in the field” but write with a flair of personality to illustrate their experiences. “the rest of the day blurs into madness. The rest of that night, too. And all the next day and night. Such horrible things occurred that I can’t bring myself to think about them even now, much less put them down in print. Steadman was lucky to get out of Louisville without serious injuries, and I was lucky to get out at all” (Thompson 18). Part of what is considered to be important about Thompson’s writing style and journalistic research methods is the sheer amount of danger he put himself through in order to write a story. Thompson willingly follows a violent gang for the sake of documentation and social commentary. These five authors are credited for pioneering and serving as leading examples of New Journalism. Although some, like Capote and Mailer are more well known for their non-fiction novels, while others like Didon are known for their journal articles, each of these authors and many others not mentioned are part of a collective literary movement that redefined literary genres and writing methods. While these authors are not necessarily leaders of the counter-culture movement, they play an integral role in documenting cultural change and forming a new literary movement that also creates a unique outlet in a specific profession. 

Works Cited

Didion, Joan Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays (FSG Classics).. 2008.

Everette. E, and William L. Rivers Dennis. Other voices: new journalism in America. unknown: Unknown, 1974. Hallowell, John H. Fact and Fiction: The New Journalism and the Nonfiction Novel. Chapel Hill: Univ Of North Carolina Pr, 1977. Johnson, Michael L. The New Journalism. The University Press: Kansas, 1971.

Mailer, Norman. The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel, the Novel as History. New York. 1995.

Murphy, James E.. The New Journalism: A Critical Perspective (Journalism Monographs 34). Columbia, SC : Assn For Education In Journalism, 1974.
Shomette, Doug. The Critical Response to Tom Wolfe. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992.

Thompson, Hunter. The Hell’s Angels, A Strange and Terrible Saga. New York. 2006. Wallace, Aurora. Newspapers and the Making of Modern America. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005. Wolfe, Tom. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Picador Books, 1958. Wolfe, Tom The New Journalism (Picador Books).. 1975.

Death by Pen

Uno 8

Melinda Uno

Julie Maia

English 6B, Honors World Lit

West Valley College

28 May 2009

Death by Pen

​Some people are killed for what they write. Publishing a work of poetry or literary fiction can be one of the most beautiful ways of speaking out against an aspect of society. Fearing ridicule from his family, sixteen year-old Ricardo Eliezer Neftali Reyes y Basoalto published poems and articles with his pen name Pablo Neruda. Anna Akhmatova’s poetry depicts the sorrow of Stalin’s Great Terror. The experience ofthe young student Aki in “The Rite” by Takenishi Hiroko documents a tragic part of history that is often censored in Western studies of World War II. Because of his literature, Salman Rushdie has the Islamic public of Lebanon rallying for his death. Edwidge Danticat’s short story “Children of the Sea” portrays two doomed lovers during the massacre of ten to fifteen thousand Haitians by the Dominican Republic. Through the perspective of men, women, children, the young, and the old, we can see the effects of displacement, poverty, sexual discrimination, oppression and suppression.

​Neruda speaks to the working class of Chile focusing on everyday items such as table salt. While some of his poems are bluntly full of propaganda, instead of a militant tone In “Ode to Salt”, Neruda shows tribute to salt miners with imagery of the history and origins of salt:

the entire

salt plain speaks:

it is a 

broken

voice,

a song full

of grief (22-29).

The voice of the salt becomes the voice of every person who contributed to its journey. The syntax is easy for a member of the working class to understand, along with the subject matter. Neruda writes directly to the working class, most apparent in his connection with the reader and the utilization of first person and second person point of view: 

Preserver

of the stores

of the ancient ships,

you were

an explorer

in the ocean (45-50)

By personifying the salt, Neruda infers to the importance of the working class and the product of it on every table, in every home. Neruda’s subtlety is partially what makes it so dangerous. Some view his poetry as communist propaganda, meant to inspire a revolt in the working class. However, by giving the working class a literary voice, Neruda is merely fulfilling what is required of a poet, outlined in “Poet’s Obligation”. 

​To whoever is cooped up

​In house or office, factory or woman

​Or street or mine or harsh prison cell:

​To him I come, and without speaking or looking,

​I arrive and open the door of his prison (2-6)

According to Neruda, it is a poet’s duty to utilize his/her skill with language to shed light on the experiences of the suppressed. Especially when the government in place fears a revolt, publishing such poems can have severe consequences for the author. 

​Like Neruda, Anya Gorenko utilized a pen name to save her family from public ridicule. Gorenko, now Anna Akhmatova utilizes her poetry to speak out against the government in Russia who had her son and husband imprisoned. During the 1930’s, the dictator Joseph Stalin executed thousands of Russian citizens in what is known as “the Great Terror” and Akhmatova‘s poem “Requiem” gives voice to the suffering of the Russian people at this time: “the stars of death stood above us/ and innocent Russia writhed/ Under bloody boots” (48-50). Two hundred and seven lines of poetry are wrought with Akhmatova’s suffering that can be the same or similar experience to many Russians during the Terror. Akhmatova utilizes natural, classic, and Biblical metaphors to allude to the everlasting nature of the suffering of the Russian peoples: 

A choir of angles sang the praises of that momentous hour,

And the heavens dissolved in fire.

To his Father He said: ‘Why hast Thou forsaken me!’

And to his Mother: ‘Oh, do not weep for me…’ (54-7)

Akhmatova’s own son was imprisoned, while her first husband was executed by Stalin’s regime. Clearly, the loss is very real for Akhmatova, who chooses to inspire change by documenting the injustice she faces: 

Then a woman with bluish lips standing behind me… whispered in my ear (everyone spoke in whispers there):

‘Can you describe this?’

And I answered: ‘Yes I can.’

Then something that looked like a smile passed over what had once been her face (8-12)

With “Requiem”, Akhmatova documents history, tells a story, fights the Russian government, pays respects to innocent victims, and portrays loss, despair, and imprisonment. The political nature of her poetry resulted in its ban for 18 years. The ban could have been the result of the threat Akhmatova’s poetry against the status quo of Stalin’s regime, proving the dangerous nature of poetry. 

​Part of what makes Literature dangerous is the powerful use of imagery that creates a strong emotional connection to the reader. Especially when the topic is death, Literature can be one of the strongest voices to speak out against an injustice. While in America, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan during WWII is mentioned in history books and classes, there is a disconnection between the contemporary student and the victims of the bombings. “The Rite” by survivor Takenishi Hiroko is a young Japanese student’s perspective of the bombing. In the beginning of the story, the setting is not distinctly Japanese. It could be any city: “Often on Saturday afternoons Aki would come to this shop for a late lunch of tea and pie. She had done so yesterday” (Takenishi 973). For many who survived the bombing, life continued with unforeseen consequences. Traumatized, Takenishi is still haunted by images of the day of the bombing: “There’s lightening flashing! Aki wakes up with the feeling she has just come out of a queer disturbing dream. She seems to have woken up in the middle of her own scream” (Takenishi 973). This prose –poetry style adds a rhythmic element to the story making Aki’s experience seem surreal. However, as Takenishi was a survivor of the bombing, no doubt the experience was horrifically surreal, and this literary device helps to create a similar feeling for the reader. For sixteen year-old Aki, the day the bomb is dropped is just an ordinary day. The issues that Aki faces are the concern of any sixteen year-old girl until sheer violent terror takes over: 

When she recovered her senses she found herself running in the direction of the sea, borne along in a rush of total strangers. Shirts in shreds, scorched trousers, blood-soaked blouses, yukatas with a sleeve missing, seared and blistered skin… When she looked back at the town it was engulfed in black smoke. As for what was happening inside it, at the time Aki had no idea, and even to think of it was too horrifying (982).

Through the eyes of Aki, Takenishi utilizes Modernistic elements to recall the experience. The story does not follow traditional rules of chronology, as the modern day Aki continually remembers the day of the bombing. By becoming connected to Aki, the victims of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are no longer faceless victims. They now have a voice and a literary identity that can be translated for people all over the world. The numbers and statistics are daunting, yet with Literature, the reader is now emotionally involved, and the ‘other’ is now like the reader, and humanized. After the bombing, Aki and we can assume Takenishi begin to question human ontology and attempt to go about life in a healthy manner. However, with every visit to an old friend, walk down a street, or even a sunset, the victims of the bombing of Hiroshima are haunted by the terror of that fateful day. 

​The narrators of “Children of the Sea” also face the consequences of war. Daily tragedy and calamity haunts the citizens of Haiti. Edwidge Danticat focuses on the perspective of individuals attempting to retain sanity in a chaotic and emotionally trying environment. Some are successful, while others meet an untimely end. The tradition and the importance of dreams and spirituality to Haitian life helps each person cope with warfare is apparent. Danticat utilizes the correspondence between a young man and woman to tell of the danger of civil warfare in Haiti. Many nationalistic Haitians attempt to flee from the forces of the Dominican Republic on tiny boats, like the young man, while others are left behind, forced to fight for their lives. The young girl expresses her frustration: “yes, just the way you left it. bullets day and night. same hole. same everything. i’m tired of the whole mess… they make me so mad. everything makes me mad. i’m cramped inside all day. They’ve closed the schools since the army took over” (Danticat 1399). The informal grammar suggests that the young correspondents do not have the most privileged literary education. The voice of the young man and woman echoes the voice of all young men and women separated by the Haitian-Dominican Republic conflict. The young man on a boat writes: “I think it would break my heart watching some little boy or girl every single day on this sea, looking into their empty faces to remind me of the hopelessness of the future in our country. It’s hard enough with the adults. It’s hard enough with me” (Danticat 1399-1400).Danticat, as an example of a refugee from Haiti, sheds light on the experiences of an underrepresented group in literature. 

​While Danticat’s politics are somewhat nationalistic, Salman Rushdie’s stories have a different political message. A Westernized Indian Muslim man, Rushdie’s opinion of the politics of Iran has militant zealots publicly calling for his death. Rushdie’s experience as multicultural writer gives him unusual insight into the politics of the East. It is partially because of Rushdie’s assimilation that he is disliked in Islamic countries. While “the Courter” is not the text for which Rushdie is condemned, this text focuses on the experience of a community of Indians in Britain. For many displaced immigrants, language is a daunting barrier between success or assimilation and alienation. The very nature of the title speaks to the language barrier: “English was hard for Certainly-Mary… The letter p was a particular problem, often turning into an f or a c… So thanks to her unexpected, somehow stomach-churning magic, he was no longer porter but courter” (Rushdie 1262). The colorful characters in “The Courter” bring humor to the experiences of many Indians in Britain. However, in the end of the story, the narrator, a young man is the only member of his family who chooses not to return to India. The narrator of “The Courter” faces the anxiety many immigrants face between the absolute nature of the new homeland, and the Old world: “But I, too, have ropes around my neck, I have them to this day, pulling me this way and that, East and West, the nooses tightening, commanding choose, choose… Ropes, I do not choose between you. Lassoes, lariats, I choose neither of you, and both. Do you hear? I refuse to choose” (Rushdie 1277). The narrator refuses to accept the absolutism of an immigrant, and attempts to bridge Indian and British cultures because, he is neither completely British nor completely Indian, but at the same time embodies both. 

​Many of these works of fiction are semi-autobiographical, allowing readers to gain insight into many different real-life experiences across the world. Although one person’s life may not be exactly like that of a young woman fleeing her homeland to escape poverty and racism, there are parallel themes and images to which the reader can relate. With creative imagery, rhythm, allusion, and metaphor, readers can peek into the life of someone else, and learn of the consequences of globalization and war. This is the power of literature to liberate and educate in an unconventional and uncensored way.

Works Cited 

Akhmatova, Anna. "Requiem." The Bedford Anthology of World Literature. 1st ed. Vol. 6. Boston: Bedford/St Martin's, 2003. 561-67. 

Danticat, Edwidge. “Children of the Sea”. The Bedford Anthology of World Literature. 1st ed. Vol. 6. Boston: Bedford/St Martin's, 2003. 1398-409. 

Neruda, Pablo. "Ode to Salt." The Bedford Anthology of World Literature. 1st ed. Vol. 6. Boston: Bedford/St Martin's, 2003. 689-90. 

Neruda, Pablo. "Poet's Obligation." The Bedford Anthology of World Literature. 1st ed. Vol. 6. Boston: Bedford/St Martin's, 2003. 691-92. 

Rushdie, Salman. "The Courter." The Bedford Anthology of World Literature. 1st ed. Vol. 6. Boston: Bedford/St Martin's, 2003. 1261-277. 

Takenishi, Hiroko. "The Rite." The Bedford Anthology of World Literature. 1st ed. Vol. 6. Boston: Bedford/St Martin's, 2003. 967-90.