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

Thesis:

The Minotaur and the Labyrinth model connects to Felipe’s choice to enter the old, dark house and Consuelo’s constant attempts to seduce him with a young Aura lead to Felipe’s blindness of reality.

The infinity loop symbolizes Felipe’s journey from the moment he answers the advertisement. The red mark represents Felipe moving through his journey. As the story goes there are moments when Felipe is thinking of escaping the house with Aura when Consuelo is away, that’s when the red dot would be located in the thinnest parts of the infinity loop. Also there are moments when Consuelo’s completely blinded Felipe and he is not even considering leaving such as when he is in bed with her saying that he will always love her. The wider areas of the loop represent the moments when Felipe is so deep in the darkness that hes not even aware of the truth. There are moments when it seems like Felipe might break free, and shorty after some event happens and it takes him farther in the darkness, its a constant cycle.

The theme I chose to point out from “My Cloud” is that everything gets old even one’s “cloud”. This theme re-appears throughout Aura numerous times, since the novel is essentially based on Consuelo’s effort to relive her youth. The theme of everything getting old is clearly brought to light when Felipe looks through the third portion of the memoirs and finds the pictures of “Aura” and the gentleman in the military uniform. “Then the photographs of Aura, of Aura with her green eyes, her black hair gathered in ringlets, leaning against Doric columns…in the third photograph you see both Aura and the old gentleman, but this time they’re dressed in outdoor clothes, sitting on a bench in a garden. The Photograph has become a little blurred: Aura doesn’t look as young as she did in the other picture, but its she” The clear progression Consuelo aging from the first picture to the third re-affirms the theme of everything getting old. Even the photograph, over time became blurred, again going back to the theme that everything gets old.

I think that the idea of desperation is a bit too much, especially when connected to both cartoons.  In the Acrostic I think that the characters just want to be in a better place, not something uncommon to wish for, but their focus on their unhappiness and problems makes their problems seem much worse than they are. They are so occupied with daydreaming of a better place that they neglect their actual lives. The wish of going somewhere better only seems to have them trapped in the present, where their wishful thinking is the only thing they have to enjoy.

A common theme between Kaspar and the Acrostic is the feeling of loneliness and seclusion.  In Kaspar the protagonist was lonely for his whole life; it didn’t even occur to him that there are others outside of his dark cellar. After the dark man helped him act like a modern human being, Kaspar ended up alone, confused once again by the many directions of life. In the Acrostic, the theme of loneliness is supported by the constant dissatisfaction of the current circumstances, and the constant strive to find a better place that is everything we ever wanted, but by focusing on escaping a place rather than making it our own people forget about the most important thing, living and enjoying life regardless of the circumstances. Visually, both works are very simple and the artists’ use of only black and white shades reinforce the central theme of loneliness and isolation from others.

I disagree with the idea that Mr. Samsa was angry with Gregor, on the initial discovery of his metamorphosis, initially he “clenched his fists with a pugnacious expression” which is an understandable reaction to such a discovery, and afterwards he “covered his eyes with his hands and cried, his mighty chest shaking with sobs” again there was no anger towards Gregor, only disbelief in the condition of his son. From what i grasped, Gregor’s father was more sorrowful then angry. And his father was chasing, and threatening to strike Gregor only when he “must have put the worst possible construction on Crete’s all to brief account, and supposed that Gregor gad perpetrated some act of violence.” Mr. Samsa was only trying to defend his family from Gregor, which was so little and still caused much havoc in the household.  Mr. Samsa regained his composure when his wife woke up from her faint and encouraged him to leave Gregor go back in his room.

The initial reactions to Gregor’s metamorphosis from the chief clerk and Gregor’s father were of fear, surprise and disbelief. As soon as the chief clerk laid eyes on Gregor he was surprised and frightened, his initial reaction was a sharp “Oh!” and his body language made his fright and disbelief obvious ” his hands pressed against his open mouth, and slowly retreating”. Gregor’s father was taken up by the surprise as well, “His father clenched his first with a pugnacious expression…covered his eyes with his hands and cried” the word pugnacious is key because it tells us that he had no time to analyze the situation, he instinctively became agitated. Just as the chief clerk, he also used his hands to stop himself from gazing at Gregor’s metamorphosis. The reaction to Gregor’s death was one of humanity, as the chair woman offered to get rid of Gregor’s remains, Mr Samsa “put up a hand to cut her off” telling us that even though Gregor’s condition was a huge burden on the family, the humane thing to do was to treat him with dignity, which they did.

Initially, the quote that embodies Miss Julie is “Tonight Miss Julie is crazy again, perfectly crazy.” at the begging of the text, throughout the play Miss  Julie has numerous crazy woman moments. Because her fiance left she began looking  for a fit partner somewhere else, even where she shouldn’t be looking at her own staff. The second quote shows the change in power throughout the play. In the begging miss Julie was the one giving the orders but when Jean  told her “Go up and dress yourself and see to it that you have traveling money and  then come down.” This tells us that Miss Julie’s role changed, Jean was the one telling her what to do instead of the other way around as it was in the begging of the play. Her role as the woman of the house changed as well, she was no longer viewed as their lady.