Though the lawyer in “Bartleby, the Scrivener” initially presents himself — through his own narration — as an emotionally-detached and analytical individual, Melville involves this character emotionally and directly in the conflict as the plot progresses. The development of the narrator’s character reveals the significance of the human spirit in a social context.
At first, the lawyer introduces himself as a detached, analytical narrator. He states that the nature of his “avocations” has brought him into “more than ordinary” contact with a somewhat “singular” set of men known as “scriveners”. His elevated diction and voice present him as an emotionally-detached individual. He makes the lengthy, scientific-like introduction for his scriveners in an analytical manner as if he were writing a scientific research paper. In this way, the narrator attempts to distinguish himself from his scriveners and establish a sense of authority.
Melville, the author, develops the narrator’s character — in contrast to the narrator’s own presented views — as the story progresses. After doing everything in the narrator’s ability to try to persuade Bartleby to leave the law office — including offering Bartleby twenty extra dollars and a good reference, Bartleby continues to camp lifelessly inside the office. Frustrated, the narrator describes himself as being “thunderstruck” by Bartleby’s polite, yet stubborn defiance. In a sharp contrast to the narrator’s earlier attempt to establish his superiority and authority in his narration, the narrator has become powerless even to his scrivener.
To further contrast his initial narrative image and show his inability in dealing with Bartleby, the narrator becomes emotionally involved in the conflict. The narrator feels a “charitable prompting” to visit “poor Bartleby” after relocating his office. We see a continued change in the narrator’s character — further contrasting his own narrative image — as he pities and becomes emotionally-attached to Bartleby.
Melville develops the narrator and shows the progression in character in this story to reveal, in a social context, the significance of the human spirit. Although the narrator attempts to portray himself as a superior individual, reality shows that he does not hold absolute authority over the “singular” set of men known as “scriveners”. Reality shows that he, too, has emotions. Reality shows that after all, he is, and we are all but human, that it is inevitable to find the human spirit in all of us.
26.Jun.08 
Writing 
Comments (2)
The passage from The Crossing, McCarthy challenges readers to decipher meanings beneath the text. He reveals and contrasts underlying elements of the passage - external matter such as blood and bone and internal qualities such as life and soul - through the main character’s enlightening experiences and through the use of paradoxes and structure.
McCarthy leaves unanswered questions through his complex use of language. With close analysis, we see that in a way, the passage is a riddle: we must work to discover its underlying point. The impact on the main character - his realization of the significance of life - is revealed through McCarthy’s narration as answer to the riddle, and is hinted by contradictory statements and run-on sentence.
The main character’s realization of life’s significance can be derived from McCarthey’s numerous paradoxes. Towards the end of the passage, he makes a number of references to a quality/idea that while being held “cannot be held”, that has already run “among the mountains” (55), that is what “blood and bone” are made of, but cannot itself be made on any “altar nor any would of war” (58). These statements are clearly contradictory. In this way, McCarthy makes references to the concept of life and soul.
While the body i s being held, the soul cannot be held as it runs among the mountains. Blood and bone, or the body, is made of life - which does not come from altars nor wars. The main character reaches a point of awareness and comes to a realization of life’s capability and importance.
McCarthy shows the movement from the external and physical aspects of the character to what is internal and psychological through his varied sentence structure. In the opening paragraph, only simple and concise sentences are used to describe the actions of the main character. McCarthy suddenly breaks the pattern and goes into a ten-line long run-on sentence at the second paragraph.
The simple sentences in the beginning describe actions which occur in the present, physical world. The run-on sentence immediately contrasts the paragraph before by transitioning into a philosophical world, with sentences that have meaning and depth.
The varied sentence structure shows contrast and further highlights the movement from the external into the internal world. furthermore, the layout of the sentences, with references to “rival sects” (23), relates to references to “wound of war” (59), which provides hints that it is indeed life that war cannot make. Along with contrast and similarities to other parts of the passage, McCarthy makes it so that the character’s experience - coming to a realization of life’s beauty and significance - can be seen through detailed analysis of the passage.
By using paradoxes to point out a quality that the main character becomes aware of; by using varied sentence structures to highlight and contrast the movement from an external into an internal world, McCarthy allows the full experience of the character to be conveyed.
01.Feb.08 Writing Comments (4)
At the beginning of Ibsen’s A Doll House, Nora is a content housewife who fills the social roles accepted of Victorian women. First as a daughter, and then as a mother and a wife, Nora performs the roles her society assigns to women. Yet the loan that she has fraudulently negotiated ultimately takes her out of roles and brings her into conflict with reality. Through numerous attempts to keep the loan a secret, Nora steps into unfamiliar territory and discovers the real world as her problems with the loan becomes worse. As a result, Nora becomes alienated from her patriarchal society, beginning to question its values and to determine her values for herself.
In A Doll House’s patriarchal society, daughters are valued for accepting the values of their fathers. Thus the father moulds his daughter, as Nora’s relationship with her father demonstrates. In the opening moments of Act I, Torvald claims that Nora is “exactly the way” (1519) her father was. Heavily influenced by her father as a child, she carries many of his traits. Nora has absorbed “all his opinions” and as a result, she has “the same ones too” (1562). In this way, society manages to limit the independence of daughters.
As the dominant male of the family, the father also imposes rules on his daughter in order for her to grow up according to his vision. In the opening scene of Act II (a critical stage of the play as Nora undergoes her transformation), Nora tells the nurse, Anne-Marie, that when she was living with her father, it was always “so much fun” to sneak into the maids’ quarters because none of the maids would try to “improve” her (1546). Clearly, the patriarchal sense of control did not exist in the maids’ quarters, and Nora finds that in escaping there she gets a break from having to live up to her father’s rules.
Ibsen emphasizes the society’s influence over women – particularly daughters – by the usage of the word “doll”. Nearing the end of Act III, Nora realizes that she is simply her father’s “doll-child” (1562). Dolls have no intuition of their own, and are completely at the hands of their owners. As a “doll-child”, Nora was shaped by her father with his opinions, and had little choice but to accept his influence.
His influence continues to affect Nora as she fulfills the duties of a mother by taking care of her three small children. She finds it “fun” (1563) to play with her children. However, we might ask whether Nora has read influence over her children as their mother. In another important part of the play that contributes to Nora’s overall transformation, Torvald says that it is usually the mother’s influence on the children that is “dominant” (1536). Though, in reality, mothers are expected to be an extension of the father’s influence. When the daughter marries, she does not have opinions and personal influence over her children. For that reason, Nora’s motherly role is to primarily care for the children and pass on the influence of her father and husband.
One of the most significant roles Nora has to take on is that of the wife. Her society values wives who accept their husbands’ dominance of the family – as the daughter accepts the dominance of her father – and who care for their husbands’ well-being, as the mother cares for her children’s. As we see, the wife’s role has characteristics of both the daughter and the mother. This further highlights society’s expectation of women with dependent roles.
Throughout the play, the daughter’s role parallels that of the wife. After getting married, Nora goes from her “Papa’s hands” into Torvald’s (1562). The daughter is dependent upon her father for values and opinions, the wife is subject to her husband’s authority. Having been brought up in this patriarchal society, Nora readily accepts her role as a wife. She relies on her husband even in simple circumstances such as choosing a costume for a party. Torvald tells Nora that as a man, he will take on responsibility in times of trouble, when “it really counts” (1542). Societal values like these, with daughters who are taught to be dependent on men by their controlling fathers to ensure that they become submissive wives, lead Nora to believe that that Torvald would accept responsibility once the loan crisis surfaces. However, when Torvald does find out about the loan, not only does he not take on responsibility, but he also distances himself from Nora and claims that there is no one who “gives up honor” for love (1565). This leads to Nora’s realization that she has been Torvald’s “doll-wife” (1562), just as she was her father’s “doll-child”.
The names Torvald calls Nora emphasize this doll-like quality. Among the many animal names Torvald uses to address Nora, the use of “songbird” (1535) is particularly significant. When songbirds sing, they entertain. Torvald shows that his wife’s presence offers a sense of amusement. In both cases, as a daughter and a wife, women play a subordinate role and are controlled by men like dolls. The direct parallel between the two roles clearly reveals the society’s value towards women.
The connection between the roles of mother and wife is also shown when Nora takes care of her children as a mother, and similarly takes care of Torvald, by negotiating the loan. Indeed, Nora takes out the loan to save “his life” (1522). Evidently, she loves her husband, and does her utmost to care for him. The parallel nature of the roles shows the duties society assigns to women – they do not serve themselves, but others – and that society’s values confine them to their social status in such a manner that restricts them from surpassing these designated roles.
The critical, underlying concept of the loan drives Nora towards self-awareness. When Krogstad threatens to blackmail her near the end of Act One, Nora discovers for the first time that her actions are illegal and will be “judged according to law” (1534). Yet Nora cannot believe him, believing, as she does, that her actions – as a wife saving her “husband’s life” and as a daughter protecting her dying father from “anxiety” (1534) – are socially acceptable. Thus she learns for the first time that what she had believed as the right thing to do, fulfilling the society’s roles of a daughter, wife, and mother, is in fact illegal. As a result, Nora begins to question the values she has always been taught to believe in.
When Torvald tells Nora that Krogstad poisons his own children with “lies and pretense” and that he is “morally lost” (1536), indirectly, what he said applies to Nora’s present situation as she lies to prevent Torvald from finding out about the secret loan. As a result, she is “poisoning” her very own children. At this point Nora is in a state of anxiety and confusion as her actions increasingly conflict with the values of her society. When Nora refuses to “let [the children] in” to see her, fearing to “hurt” her children and “poison” her home (1536), she begins to question her society. From a content housewife who plays the defined roles society has given her, she now questions the very values of the society that she grew up in.
Nora is a highly dynamic character who transforms herself by revealing the values and stepping out of her patriarchal society’s boundaries. While Nora’s attempts to fulfill the roles her society assigns to women, her attempt leads her to question the very roles she fulfills. She experiences bittersweet aspects of real life through her experience, and finds herself in an increasingly alienating environment. Her experiences with the loan lead her to question the accepted values and roles of her society, discovering that her personal experience is at odds with society. Confused, she can only “educate” and fulfill “duties” for herself (1563), before she can be a functioning member of society.
29.Jan.08 Writing Comments (2)
Vancouver 2007
The filthy streets and hidden alley ways,
of Vancouver’s Downtown east side,
where despair and confusion is spread wide,
has been the city’s underbelly for how many days?
Lawlessness and poverty has put the area to decay,
what’s in it for the city to improve its sight,
but alas! in 2010 the Vancouver Olympics proves all of the city’s mighty might,
crackdowns… need not be the only way.
Stopping public protests and preventing civil disobedience,
is not the solution,
but instead the city’s needed cooperation, the people refuse.
Only with plenty of effort, empathy, and patience,
will the city put social and employment programs into adaptation,
and put the tax dollars to better use.
03.Jun.07 Writing Comments (0)
Thank you.
Good afternoon: principal, teachers, fellow students.
My name is Eastwood, and as a grade 12 next year, I would like to be your next Byng Arts President.
First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to thank our out-going presidents and all the members the Byng Arts Student Council, who have worked so hard all year long to bring us such a wonderful school year. Particularly, I want to thank my good friend, Jack. Though him, I have gained a lot of experience both in and out of the council.
As a member of the student council, I have sat on administration, advertising, and food committees. Apart from organizing for the Coffeehouses, I have also played a significant role in the planning of Master Classes and seminars. I designed and currently maintain the website of the Lord Byng Symphony Orchestra, and have worked for the World Bank (which, by the way, is a United Nations Organization) on Non-Motorized Transportation in African Cities. I have a high standing on Principal’s List, and will be the saxophone section leader of both the Senior Jazz Band and Senior Wind Ensemble. Fellow students, please give me your vote and I will carry all of my experiences and qualifications with me to better serve you as Byng Arts President.
As I’ve mentioned to many of you, there will be positive changes. You may ask, what are these positive changes? If I am voted as president, I will work together with my team, the student council, to create an electronic newsletter that reinforces a better communication and relationship within the council, between the council and the students, between the different arts, between Byng Arts and the main school, and between student, teachers, parents, and the community. I will also plan for more diversified activities that will allow every single one of you, in all aspects of the arts, to fully develop and show your potentials. Just imagine… Byng Arts students going to the Dunbar Community Centre and performing for the whole community, just an hour would mean a lot. Through these positive changes, we will continue to strengthen the common bond that will make us unique!
So please make your voices heard and your votes count and vote Eastwood for Byng Arts President!
Thank you very much! Merci beaucoup! Xie Xie!
03.Jun.07 Life, Writing Comments (0)
