Author Archives: RISHI GILL

The story, “And of Clay are We Created”, by Isabel Allende, is a story of a natural disaster caused by the volcanic eruption reinforces the fragility of life and the formidable power of nature. The reinforcement of fragility of life and the power of nature largely connects to our current reality in this global pandemic. Media has a large influence in unfolding the story of the global pandemic, like Rolf Carle has in Allende’s story. Everyday we hear or see the numbers of cases rise, vaccine developments, 24 hour deaths, stay-at-home orders, and/or business re-openings. Many of us have probably even heard of stories of the virus taking to lives of multiple family members of the same family. These stories make us appreciate the little things in life and value the connection we have with family and friends. The same can be said with Rolf, since after Azucena’s death, he is able to see things clearly. The narrator states, “I wait for you to complete the voyage into yourself, for the old wounds to heal.” Suggesting that Rolf needs to process Azucena’s death, and feels that he could have done better to save her. Many of us probably feel like reflecting on their past during this quarantine and valuing the things we take for granted. One thing media can do well is connect us to other’s sufferings, we are able to come together as a community to help individuals. Many of us have probably seen many charity organizations and events organized by celebrities to help individuals directly affected by the onslaught of the virus.

Explain the significance of the story’s title, “This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.” What seems strange about it?

I initially thought the title was humorous because the way it is phrased reminds me of an = a carnival where one is leading someone to a game or ride. However, in reality it trivializes how serious the gas chambers were and what they meant for millions of Jewish men and women. This title fits the odd nature of the Holocaust fiction where the author has the leeway to change the tone of his subject and create some levity. The author’s choice of a seemingly humorous title creates an uncomfortable feeling for the reader who is about to experience the Holocaust through his voice and I believe that was his purpose due to the nature of the subject.

“Are we good people?” asks our narrator.  What is this exchange about? What do you think?

When the narrator asks this, it shows that he’s dealing with inner conflict. He has to listen to the Nazis and is tasked with making women take dead babies that aren’t even theirs. In this exchange, he questions whether he’s still the same person he was before the concentration camps. He thinks that the horrible things he’s doing is unforgivable and has changed him into an evil person. He is searching for hope that in his heart he is still a good person by asking his friend such a loaded question.

What did you learn from this story that you did not previously know about life in Nazi concentration camps?

With this story I learned that people being oppressed by the Nazi officials were oppressing people that had less power than they did. For example, in this story the Nazi officers were cruel to the people at the concentration camps but the people who were at the concentration camps were being cruel to the ones who were just arriving. That is horrifying to me because I did not think this was the case. I believed that the people already at the camp before new arrivals would be nice to the new people. It makes me question my previous views. This made me realize that they must have been so horribly oppressed that at that point, its “survival of the fittest”  and everyone for themselves.

Personally, I believe “The Metamorphosis”, by Franz Kafka is a great work of literature, What qualifies a work of literature to be a “great work” for me is its relevance to present time. I feel as though the protagonist, Gregor Samsa, resonates with many individuals in today’s society. Although a cockroach, Gregor’s drastic change of life and relationships provide much relevance today. Kafka shows Gregor to be a man who hates his job and wishes he can quit, but cannot because of financial priorities in his life. Personally, I have met many people in my life who despise their job, but they continue to work at their job to benefit the rest if their family financially. Now when Gregor wakes up one morning as a cockroach, his life drastically changes. His relationship with his family weakens and he becomes a burden to his sister, mother, and father. I relate this to when people make tough decisions in their life that their family members do not necessarily agree with. Although tough decisions are usually planned, unlike transforming into a cockroach, they still have an immense effect on relationships. An example that comes to mind is from my very own culture. As an Indian-American, parents expect their kids to get a degree and a job that is stable and secure. However, many kids fall into the trap of doing something for their parents rather than themselves. Thus, leading them to make tough drastic decisions that hurt their family relationships. Most of the time parents of Indian-American parents get aggravated when their son/daughter chooses to pursue something in life that is not “secure” like a career in the arts. Often times, parents then treat their kids in a despising way up until they finally accept it. This has some similarity to Gregor as he was drastically changed and completely treated differently by his entire family. Sadly, for Gregor his family could not accept him and decided that he must go. Although very uncommon, the same can happen for Indian-American households, where the parents never accept their son/daughter’s decision for their future life. The relevance of Gregor Samsa’s relationship with his family resonates with my culture in an unorthodox, but meaningful way.

Leo Tolstoy’s novella, “The Death of Ivan Ilyich,” serves as an extraordinary depiction of the agony the protagonist, Ivan Ilyich, faces because of an intense illness. Throughout the text, Tolstoy elucidates the mental and physical responses of Ivan Ilyich because of his illness. This elucidation provides a similar depiction to the my battle or the common individual’s battle against the COVAID-19 pandemic.  Many people, including myself, are anxious because of the interruption of our lives by a disease that gives each of us mental and physical responses like Ivan Ilyich.

For example, there are instances in which Ivan questions whether the life he has lived up until the illness is the life he wanted to live, “‘Maybe I did not live as I ought to have done,’ it suddenly occurred to him”(773). As inevitable death approaches Ivan, he begins to wonder how could he possibly he die when he felt as if he did “everything properly”(773).  Although not to the extreme as Ivan, I think this mental questioning Ivan is doing is very similar to many others questioning amongst this pandemic we are facing. Personally, I have realized that through this pandemic that one can be living life and doing “everything properly”, like Ivan, and have it all stripped from them due to an unprecedented illness. We have all witnessed small business owners who flourished have come to a complete halt indefinitely because of this pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, have they not done “everything properly” to flourish?

Also, in the text, Ivan eventually gives up on the medicine he is given to be treated for his illness. His wife, Praskovya Fedorovna Golovina, offers him his medicine to his response, “‘For Christ’s sake let me die in peace!'” In an unorthodox way, this is very similar to my family and my response too the pandemic. Ever since the start of this pandemic, my family has been constantly obsessed with home remedies that can possibly cure the disease. Multiple studies have shown most of the remedies do not do anything to cure COVAID-19. Thus, leading to my response to my family being much like Ivan’s, much less dramatic, but against these home remedies that do little to nothing.

All in all, Tolstoy’s novella applies profoundly to the current situation of the global pandemic. The ideas conveyed in his work through the words of Ivan Ilyich display the interruption of one’s daily life due to an unprecedented disease.

1. Do you think that Gregor is more powerful BEFORE or AFTER his metamorphosis? Explain your response.

I believe Gregor is more powerful after his metamorphosis. Prior to his transformation, Gregor was the sole provider to his family. He worked countless days as a salesman to give his family a roof on their heads and repaying debts. After Gregor’s metamorphosis, he stands up to the Chief Clerk, who shows up to his house enraged that Gregor has not shown up for work. For instance, he states, “As you know all too well. I am under a very great obligation to the director. In addition, I have responsibilities for my parents and my sister. I am in a jam, but I will work my way out of it. Only don’t make it any harder for me than it is already!”(218). This expression of frustration out of Gregor at the Chief Clerk elucidates how much more powerful he is after his metamorphosis. Gregor knows that he is “in a jam” and is truly frustrated at the Chief Clerk. He wants to express that he is trying his best and that is very powerful of him to do so.

5.Gregor emerges from his room one last time when he hears his sister playing her violin for the lodgers. What is the significance of this scene? What meaning does music hold for Gregor here?

Gregor emerging from his room one last time to hear his sister playing the violin is significant because it brought up the question, “could he be an animal, to be so moved by music”(236)? The music infiltrates Gregor’s emotions; sparking feelings he desires. Kafka does a phenomenal job of illustrating how Gregor wants to go up to his sister and ask her to play the violin for him in his room, “He was determined to go right up to his sister, to pluck at her skirt, and so let her know she was to come in his room with her violin…”(236) Kafka delineates how Gregor wants to be rewarded with such music because it makes him feel good, yet, still uses animal-like verbs like “pluck” to describe how he wants to grab his sister’s attention. The music is the sole feeling that makes him feel like a human again.

Rabindranath Tagore’s phenomenal short story, “Punishment”, displays the issues of domestic violence and its ability to cause a chain of lies. Tagore elucidates betrayal through the relationship of Chidam and Chandara, his wife. The fabrication of a story that Chandara killed Chidam’s sister-in-law, Radha, fueled Chandara’s feeling of betrayal by her husband. At the very end, Chandara felt she rather be hanged than live a life with a horrible husband, she states “To hell with him!”

Tagore’s short story reminded me of “Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger”, by Feng Menglong. Although Menglong’s story portrayed love and money as the prominent themes, betrayal is a theme prominent towards the end of the story. When Du Tenth finally sinks the jewel box into the river at the end, she illustrates us that she feels betrayed by the man she fell in love with, Li Jia. The fact that he was willing to give her away for money to impress his father over their love left her heartbroken. Her action of jumping into the river herself showed that she had given up on Li Jia.

Both Du Tenth and Chandara face betrayal and it is likely of their position in society as being women. Chidam fabricated his plan to ultimately help Chandara at the end, but in reality, he just wanted to protect his blood related brother. Chidam even states he could get “another” wife. Sun, the man who offered to buy Du Tenth,  described her as an “unchaste woman”. This suggests that in the end she is of lower position in society and Li Jia should prioritize restoring his honor in his family, rather than protecting their love.

5. Filial piety is when children put the desires of their parents over the desire of their own. This is common in Chinese culture. In Lu Xun’s “In The Wineshop”, an example of filial piety is when Weifu comes back into town to do his mother the favor of reburying his brother’s grave to avoid the likely destruction of the grave. When arriving at the grave, he finds no remains of his brother. However, he still buries the new coffin and fulfills his duty as a son. Weifu does this is to respect his mother’s spiritual need of protecting her son’s grave.

6. There are many aspects in this story that stroked it as being a modernist story. There is the obvious loss of faith in religion and patriotism. Both Weifu and the narrator grew up with dreams of being someone; they wanted to revolutionize China and move away from religion. They remembered the times where they used to pull beard off of religious statues, showing their secular motives. Also, both left their village in search of something better, depicting the modernist belief of urbanization. Essentially, Weifu and the narrator symbolize the modernist belief in the story.

“S’io credesse che mia risposta fosse
A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma perciocche giammai di questo fondo
Non torno vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero,
Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo.” (Epigraph)

Instead of analyzing a stanza of T.S. Elliot’s poem, I chose to analyze the epigraph of his poem because it provides prominent insight to Elliot’s poem as a whole. This epigraph is a direct quotation out of Canto 27 of the Inferno by the Renaissance Italian poet Dante Alighieri. In english, the epigraph translates to:

“If I but thought that my response were made
to one perhaps returning to the world,
this tongue of flame would cease to flicker.
But since, up from these depths, no one has yet
returned alive, if what I hear is true,
I answer without fear of being shamed.” (Language and Literature III 1) 

Initially, reading the epigraph made me wonder, why did Elliot choose to put this quote before his own work? After doing some research on the Inferno by Dante Alighieri, I came to understand the plot. It was about a guy(Dante) who essentially ruined his life and needed help from people in heaven. To scare Dante, heaven sends Dante a poet to guide him through hell and show him the horrors of hell. There, Dante meets many evil people of hell(enotes 1).

The quote is said by one of the evil people of hell called Guido da Montefeltro (footnote 1) . In the story, Dante is curious of how Guido ended up in hell, but Guido does not like telling his sins because he is afraid people will find out(enotes 1). However, since it is hell and “no one has yet returned alive…,” Guido is fine with telling Dante. Sadly for Guido, Dante can leave, hurting Guido’s reputation.

Then, why this epigraph? It could be possible that Elliot put this epigraph to show that the setting of his poem is not a good place, and it likely resembles hell. There are multiple instances where Elliot mentions dreadful settings like cheap hotels, sawdust restaurants, and yellow smoke (line 6-7 and 16). Also, it is apparent that Prufrock is worried about himself like Guido from hell.  What I do not understand about this epigraph is why he does not translate the quote?

Frederick Douglass & American Slavery

• Rishi, Eunice, & Kirk

Hey classmates!(Above) Here is our group’s creative project. We decided to make a powerpoint with links to resources that help give a better understanding to Frederick Douglass’s narrative and American Slavery as a whole. We provided brief synopses of the resources on the slides.

“I did not, when a slave, understand the deep meaning of those rude and apparently incoherent songs. I was myself within the circle; so that I neither saw nor heard as those without might see and hear. They told a tale of woe which was then altogether beyond my feeble comprehension; they were tones loud, long, and deep; they breathed the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish. Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains. The hearing of those wild notes always depressed my spirit, and filled me with ineffable sadness. I have frequently found myself in tears while hearing them. The mere recurrence to those songs, even now, afflicts me; and while I am writing these lines, an expression of feeling has already found its way down my cheek. To those songs I trace my first glimmering conception of the dehumanizing character of slavery. I can never get rid of that conception. Those songs still follow me, to deepen my hatred of slavery, and quicken my sympathies for my brethren in bonds. If any one wishes to be impressed with the soul-killing effects of slavery, let him go to Colonel Lloyd’s plantation, and, on allowance-day, place himself in the deep pine woods, and there let him, in silence, analyze the sounds that shall pass through the chambers of his soul,—and if he is not thus impressed, it will only be because ‘there is no flesh in his obdurate heart.'” (242).

In the narrative, Narrative of The Life OF Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, by Frederick Douglass, Douglass elucidates to the readers that slaves would often sing songs to express their feelings of their horrible slave life. This paragraph in the narrative is essential in understanding how Douglass came to the realization of why slaves sang these songs on the plantations. He states that “every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains.” This metaphor of a tone of a song to a “testimony” helps the reader gain the understanding of how important the songs were to the slaves. Throughout his narrative, Douglass lists multiple gruesome deaths and beatings given to slaves by their owners and overseers. These songs were a large coping skill developed by slaves to express their feelings out loud without punishment. Also, Douglass states how the songs, even at the moment of writing his narrative, “still follow” him. Therefore, the reader can understand how powerful these songs were to Douglass and American Slaves. He uses strong language to describe how the songs as writing this paragraph is forming tears, “an expression of feeling has already found its way down my cheek.” The songs provided Douglass with the dehumanizing conception of slavery in the form of a lasting song. As many know, songs tend to be easy to remember and can easily be “stuck in” someone’s head. It is possible that slaves intended to make these songs for future generations , like the reader, to inflict the dreadful experiences they faced in slavery. It is especially monumental to observe the ending of this paragraph created by Douglass, he gives instructions to anyone who wishes to hear the impactful songs of slaves and “analyze the sounds that pass through the chambers of his soul….” Furthermore, he explains if one is not impressed they have a stubborn opinion. This unique diction by Douglass emphasizes that he strongly believes in the songs’ impact and that a person who cannot be impressed is inflexible in their opinion.