Author Archives: QUINTON LEE

I have chosen the Poem The Chimney Sweeper because of how dark this poem is towards child labor and chimney sweeping. I had find the line He’d have God for his father & never want joy perplexing due to the fact that why would children want to be devoid of joy and instead have God as his father. I can understand that having God as a father may give you all the necessary knowledge you need, but why deprive a children not to want of joy? I feel like this passage is for chimney sweepers exclusively the children that are chimney sweepers for doing child labor and to be comparative of the colors black and white between soot and heaven between struggling to live and why they should keep doing their jobs. I think the overall theme of this passage is death and heaven. By connecting the metaphors soot and the dreams of a children of going to heaven I believe these are the two themes that connect the whole passage together.

This shows the child labor of chimney sweepings and its abusiveness nature of it. The image allows me to see more of the children’s pain and suffering through the soot on their face and abuse from their boss. The child was probably given away before he could formulate words.

What stuck with me while reading the poem was that God is an omnipotent being that we can never understand according to the Pope or should try to understand that we should stay content with what we have. Another issue that I had with the pope is that Section 7 said reason is the main value we should hold to give our action why is it believing in God is based on our inapprehensive when we could easily be fooled by something like an Evil Genius. Evil Genius can be omnipotent and he can easily fool all of us believing that it is a reality when it is in fact a illusion of our mind. I didn’t understand why isn’t it good to complain against good if we can’t understand it because if we do understand it it might or might not give us a sense of comfort instead of relying on the belief that knowing is just misery. The class went very well for me because I believed I had gotten the easiest section out of everybody for some reason. The section was just a summary of the other sections plus two ideas that about submitting to God and taking for whatever happens as is it suppose to happen. Plus I got the learn the most famous quote of the poem in my section thanks to the Professor. I believe scientific exploration is a key dynamic to finding unknown answers that we can empirically conceive. However, there should be a boundary with consciousness, morality, ethics, nature vs nurture, etc. I say boundary but not exclusively limited to because of the fact that there is a lot of gray areas to be had with and therefore the rules should be dynamic to what could be appropriate at a universal time. One impression that hit me the most was “Whatever is, is right” because how can you argue against destiny when its such an abstract idea that can’t be exactly refuted or agreed upon so easily.

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The image corresponds to not only the devils in the story but it also symbolizes what they are represented in the story which are evil and fertility. “Manago and Maroya…But the old man recognized them. “You devils!” he grumbled” (Bewitched p.643). Manago who is actually a serpent is using her powers in order to seduce and mate with its victim in order achieve its malicious intent. “That devil is really a huge old serpent-a lecherous monster… Its evil attachment is so tenacious that you must be constantly on your guard. Otherwise you will lose your life”(Bewitched p.644).  This is another sign of its fertility as it shows that it will mate with anything and kill it at the same time. The serpent also took control of an innocent girl that the main character Toyo-o was suppose to wed showing its malice and its tenacity “Though her appearance was different, her words were spoken precisely as Manago, the devil, would have spoken them.” (Bewitched p.645) The protagonist even had to suffer jail time due to the fact that the serpent had given him a sword that is of high value would incriminate him as well. The serpents beauty was almost incomparable as the protagonist Toyo-o fell immediately in love with the devil as the devil shows the prowess of seduction which will lead to fertility. “…bewitchingly voluptuous” (Bewitched p.633). Appearances can be deceiving is a theme that could be held accountable due to the devils power. Women being as deceiving as serpents could also be another theme.