great works ii – 2850 jta 12:25-2:05: love letters from the world

Below are some of your more salient comments. Please think about these carefully, as you will also see similar themes in previous works we’ve read. They will also be of use on the final exam!

 Themes that seem to connect all three works to Endgame:

Emptiness and a sense of purposelessness; “darkness” that cannot be obliterated by the “light”; life as struggle and pain; an individual being “crushed” by the world around; the idea of existence being incomprehensible, and therefore meaningless; life being full of “random objects and garbage” and therefore any meaning we may give life is at best horrifying (and ultimately Nihilistic); the use of dark color and dim lighting as a metaphor for the purposelessness of our existence; the individual (Clove and the Swan) as ultimately helpless, and a “victim” of life; Tara makes a very good observation about “The Chestnut Tree” and its connection to Endgame:

“We were a heap of existences, uncomfortable, embarrassed at ourselves, we hadn’t the

slightest reason to be there. none of us, each one confused, vaguely alarmed, felt

superfluous in relation to the others,” as Roquentin is describing human existence as

something that does not have an influence on anything, and in essence doesn’t exist at

all.

Other comments that bring these three works together: the idea of life as suffering; the idea that the only thing we can do about our pain and suffering is take a “pain killer,” a metaphor for simply being able to mask the pain, temporarily, but not being able to actually cure our pain; the idea of the individual’s isolation from all others; Keauna makes the comment (from “The Chestnut Tree”) that existence must be embraced, and I wonder if there is a glimmer of hope for all of these characters (and us!) in this idea? Jamie also points out that in both the poem and Endgame there is the opportunity for beauty and hope, even if the characters don’t take this opportunity; Jorge G. seems to point to the other side of this issue when he says that “Life can be magnificent on the surface but with no real identity or purpose”; the idea that although we can act, our actions are essentially meaningless; the idea of being “stuck” in our existence; the idea of hopelessness; the idea that existence is only that, we exist, end of sentence (or end of game?)