Research Paper Short Story: "A Hunger Artist"

The author that I am researching for my paper is Franz Kafka. We read a few of his most famous short stories in class, however the story "A Hunger Artist" is also an extremely unique and interesting piece of work by Kafka. The protagonist in the story is The Hunger Artist and he fasts for a living while traveling to different European towns. While in these towns he sits in a cage and fasts for all in the town to watch.

The Hunger Artist has a manager known as the impresario. The hunger artist believes that the impresario stands in the way of his full potential and makes him appear weaker than he actually is. The hunger artist mentions that the impresario only allows him to stay in the cage without eating for forty days when he says that in reality he could last much longer then that. The impresario also makes a big show of the hunger artist coming out the box and acts as though he is extremely frail; the hunger artist makes it clear that this is not the case at all. The hunger artist becomes frustrated by many things throughout the short story, the first being the impresario. Also he get annoyed that the people in the towns always think that he is cheating and secretly eating food when no one is looking. Later, when his fame begins to die down he gets frustrated by the lack of attention he receives.

Throughout the story the artist is separated from society which is shown through him being in a cage. He feels as if society does not understand him because of their accusations of him cheating. There is also an evident theme of pride shown by the hunger artist. His pride eventually leads to his downfall because he wants everyone to notice him and he wants to be the greatest faster but ultimately he dies in his attempt. The panther at the end of the short story is exactly opposite from the hunger artist. The panther is full of life and hunger as compared to the hunger artist who was lifeless and weak. It is ironic how much attention the panther gets in the very same cage that the hunger artist used to perform and get no attention at all.

Based on reading the Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka I am noticing a theme of Kafka incorporating loely, misunderstood characters into his stories. Also, the main characters of his stories usually have problems with male authority. This is significant because of the poor relationship that Kafka had with his father as a young boy. I look forward to being able to research Kafka more and exploring to see if these commonalities persist through more of his works of literature.

Explication of "Picnic, Lightning"

In the poem "Picnic, Lightning" by Billy Collins, the speaker is a girl named Lolita and Collins writes about her recount of her mother dying of a freak accident when she was three years old. This tragedy is revealed in an epigraph before the poem begins. This epigraph helps reders to understand the poem and the tone of the speaker.

Being struck by "Picnic lightning" is almost unheard of yet this is the tragedy that resulted in the death of the speaker's mother. Therefore the speaker goes on to mention other ridiculous ways that life can be taken from us. The tone of the poem is very cynical and pessimistic, the speaker seems to be bitter towards life after the tragic loss of her mother. She believes that if this atrocity could have happened so many years ago, then there is no telling what other possible seemingly harmless things could actually be life threatening. It seems as though the speaker lives her life in fear ever since the sudden death of her young mother.

The speaker relates her gardening to her outlook on life later in the poem. The girl talks about gardening flowers and flowers are representative of fragility. The speaker sees life as extremely fragile  as she has seen it taken away in a brief moment by something very strange and unexpected. Based on this, she creates a metaphor between this feeling and her gardening going on to talk about the life that exists within the soil which is representative of how life goes on and she has to learn to live with the tragedy she experienced at a young age. It seems as though the speaker is not really living life, she is just being careful and watching the hours go by on the sundial as she gardens. The tragic loss of the life of the mother has also resulted in the loss of life within this girl.

"The Sisters" & future themes in "Dubliners"

"The Sisters" is the first short story from the collection of  short stories called "Dubliners" by James Joyce. The story is about a young boy who is very close to his priest, named Father Flynn, who has had many strokes and dies at the end of the short story. Although we know the cause of his death there are still many lingering questions that Joyce leaves the reader with. Old Cotter is a character in the story who makes a comment about the boy's relationship with with Father Flynn yet when it is described by the boy it seems to be innocent. We also learn through the father's sisters that he began going mentally insane before his death. He was caught talking and laughing to himself towards the end of his life. This is all we learn, Joyce leaves the reader hanging with respect to finding out what was wrong mentally with the father.

Based on the first short story of the series of stories in "Dubliners", I would predict that two of the major trends or themes in the stories to come would be unfortunate death and unanswered questions. Joyce probably leaves many of his stories open ended so that it is up to the interpretation of the reader. Another theme in the book could be judgement because it seems as though many people were judging Father Flynn after his death and criticizing his life, everyone except for the boy. Tragedy will likely be a theme in the stories to come because it is tragic that the boy lost this role model in the first story and that trend will be likely to continue. The first short story, "The Sisters" definitely helps to hook readers and make them want to continue reading onto the next story to learn more.

Explication of "My Number" and "I had heard it's a fight"

The two poems, "My Number" by Billy Collins and "I had heard it's a fight" by Edwin Derby, are paired together in Sound and Sense because they both take a stance on death. In "My Number" Billy Collins personifies death, even capitalizing it's first letter, and explains it as an ominous and unpredictable terror. One never knows when death could be coming for them, it could be far away or right around the corner and we may never know: "Is Death miles away from this house" and he goes on to wonder if death may be at his front door. The speaker describes death's actions as if it is actually a killer who plots to kill certain people. Collins writes that death may not be after him at this moment because he is "too busy making arrangements" for others whose times have come.  In this poem the speaker believes that death is not only inevitable but also that it comes on its own terms and nothing we do to prolong it really matter, it decides to take a life whenever and wherever it chooses.

Edwin Derby expresses a different view of death in his poem "I had heard its a fight". He also expresses that death is inevitable but goes on more positively than Collins does in his poem. The poem starts dark saying that death touches you: "The afternoon it touched me / it sneaked up like it was a sweet thrill", this scare with death makes the speaker look differently upon life. He starts living better: "Cut out the liquor, went to the gym, and did / what a man naturally does". Derby looks at death as being inevitable yet it is possible to prolong it by living a healthy life. Instead of being scared of death the speaker in this poem decides to live life to the fullest without fear of death, which is a much more positive view than Collins presents about life and death in his poem.

Comparing Apocalypse Now to Heart of Darkness

The movie "Apocalypse Now" has many similarities to Joseph Conrad's novel, "Heart of Darkness". The movie takes place during the Vietnam war  in Saigon and the main character, Willard, was assigned a mission to kill a colonel named Kurtz because he has lost his mind and is dangerous. The book, "Heart of Darkness" takes place during the time of the Belgian Congo and the main character, Marlow, also aspires to find a powerful man named Kurtz. Both Marlow and Willard take on command of dangerous and difficult journeys and the book and the movie are both depictions of the main character's recall of the events that occurred.

In Apocalypse Now Kurtz was once described as a brave soldier who deserved a lot of respect and somewhere along the line lost his mind and order the assassination of four people. In Heart of Darkness Kurtz is a mysterious character who no one really knows much about. This is similar to Kurtz in Apocalypse Now because Kurtz is difficult to find and the main character is told to keep his mission to kill Kurtz a secret.

Both Marlow and Willard look grimly back on their experiences leading a team down the river. The characters both do things that they now regret looking back. Both settings have violent natives as an obstacle as well as many other similar dangers along their journeys. The diseases and dangers that Marlow and Kurtz encountered in the Congo are similar to those that probably caused Kurtz to eventually go insane. In my opinion the movie Apocalypse Now effectively captures many details and concepts and follows a similar story line to Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness, but each of the works also have their own individual differences. The movie highlights a lot of the violence that might have been more difficult to imagine through reading the book. Even though the settings in the book and movie were different seeing the immense violence that was present in the movie helped me to better imagine the atrocities that Conrad described in his novel.

Explication of "My Son the Man"

The poem "My Son the Man" by Sharon Olds is told from the point of view of a mother. The speaker is the mother of a boy who she is witnessing grow up into a man. The mother is sad about this transformation and wishes she could slow time down. The author's tone is one that would be relatable for most parents. The speaker seems as though she wishes that she could stop time and prevent her young boy from maturing and growing into a man.

In this poem the author effectively uses an allusion to portray the message and meaning of her poem. An allusion is a reference to something in history or previous literature. In the case of this poem Olds makes an allusion to the famous escape artist Harry Houdini, mentioning him twice throughout the poem and comparing him to her son. First the speaker says "his shoulders get a lot wider, / the way Houdini would expand his body". In this case the speaker is comparing her son growing to the way that Houdini pulled off his magnificent escapes. The mother feels as if her son is escaping from her because he is no longer a child and will not need to depend on her any longer. She goes on to say at the end of the poem that "he looks at me / the way Houdini studied a box / to learn the way out". The speaker is convinced that her son growing into a man means that he will no longer want to spend time with her and that he will immediately want to run away from her as if he is an escape artist. Sharon Olds effectively uses an allusion in her poem "My Son the Man" to portrays a mother's negative feelings about herdson growing into a man becasue she feels that he will leave her.

The Congo Free State

The Congo Free State was a colony that was controlled by Leopold II, king of the Belgians. He had wanted control of the region for many years and finally Leopold formally acquired the rights to the Congo territory at the Conference of Berlin in 1885 and gave it the name of the Congo Free State. His major reason for striving to gain power of the Congo for so long was to control the profitable ivory market in Central Africa by establishing a secure trade route between the upper and lower Congo. It was also known that the colony was rich in mineral resources. Leopold eventually lost respect of the people in the Congo due to the increasingly harsh treatment of the people and the decrease of natural resources. Leopold's main objective during his reign was to gain money and power and was not concerned with the well-being or quality of life for his people.

Under Leopold's reign the Congo quickly became one of the largest international scandals of the early twentieth century. Many people died due to the brutal treatment they endured under Leopold's reign, the estimated number of deaths during these years is around ten million. The report of the British Consul Roger Casement led to the arrest and punishment of white officials who had been responsible for killings during a rubber-collecting expedition in 1903 that was aimed to expand the Congo's international market while Leopold was still in rule. Europe and the United States exposed the conditions in the Congo Free State to the public in 1900. By the year 1908, public pressure and diplomatic moves led to the end of Leopold II's rule and to the addition of the Congo as a colony of Belgium, which came to be known as the Belgian Congo. The loss of life and horrors that many experienced in the Congo Free State under the rule of Leopold II inspired great literature such as Joseph Conrad's novel, "Heart of Darkness".