Emptiness and hardship are one of many themes connecting these three works. The characters portray some sort of sign of deprivation and suffering. Not only is this shown through emotion but setting as well. In the Endgame for instance, the story for the most part takes place in one grey room with very little natural light. Not to mention Clov’s parents living in trash bins. In addition, all of the characters seem to be losing their purpose and feel some sort of emptiness in their lives. In the video for example, it seems as if the purpose was to depict what the characters were feeling inside as opposed to what they depicted on the outside through their facial expressions. On the other hand, in certain situations one can only take so much hardship to the point where their lives come to an end, unfortunately.
As Farhan said certain situations one could only take so much hardship to the point where their lives come to end. In The Endgame all the characters are dealing with hardship, Clov’s parents live in the garbage, Clov is blind and disabled, and Hamm serves Clov. All these aspects don’t allow the characters to live a life filled with substance, which shows their hardship will lead to their lives ending. By watching Breath you are able to see hardship in the setting, the setting appears to be a room filled with garbage. Hardship is also seen in Breath by hearing the sound of breath and gasp of air of an absent character, then all of a sudden it goes silent making me believe their live came to an end. Lastly while reading Virginal, Vibrant, and Beautiful Dawn hardship is seen throughout the whole poem but the line that stood out to me the most was “Phantom whose pure brightness assigns it this domain, It stiffens in the cold dream of disdain”. This stood out to me because in my opinion it meant the Phantom was fighting his hardship, by looking for pure brightness but because a phantom isn’t supposed to be perceived in light so his life came to an end because he couldn’t overcome being a phantom.
-Katarina Stojanovic
Farhan and Kat provide great insight on the three pieces that come together sharing the ideas of hardship and emptiness. In Breath, the sound, the hard breathing as if you’re in pain, struggling to even catch a breath, show the hardship and the setting makes you feel alone. As if whatever it is that’s breathing so hard, is by itself, struggling in that moment. You don’t know for how long, or when, but you know there’s something uneasy about everything going on at that moment. In Endgame, emptiness and lonely surrounds the characters with their cold behaviors towards each other as well as the physical space they occupy. The house is empty, even if there is people in it. In Virginal, Vibrant and Beautiful Dawn, the swan as majestic as it is, it struggles alone in its environment. The environment gets the best of the swan, as does for Hamm and Clov or the odd voice that is trapped by its environment.
-Onu Mezbah
As my classmates previously mentioned all the pieces portray a very dramatic and dark setting. In “The Endgame”, the hardship and suffering is strongly expressed through the characters physical condition and situation in which they live. In “Breath”, the agony is shown through sounds and in the poem, the agony is expressed by using very words that illustrate a very negative imagery. The poem reminds me to “The Endgame” in a sense that they are both very hopeless with a dark future ahead. “The horror of the earth will remain where it lies.” It is one of the most clear sentences in the poem and I believe it connects directly to The Endgame’s constant pain and struggles. All in all, I feel both pieces share very sad and dramatic themes, “The Endgame” does it through imagery and characters while the poem through a very strong use of words.
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Ihara Saikaku depicts many different scenarios and relationships that the narrator has with men in his story, Life of a Sensuous Woman that took place in Japan in the mid 1600’s. This story mainly consists of symbolism for love, sex, and lust. The author reflects a society where women are simply portrayed as to what’s called, objective prosperity. In one instance the narrator becomes into a street prostitute. Saikaku also portrays a society where women that were originally born into poverty should sell their bodies as if it were an object. This directly symbolizes prostitution. She states that, “I just followed my desires wherever they went– and I ruined myself.” The author reveals to us how merchants deceives these women into becoming a prostitute. All the narrators occupations were in relation with one another. Being a wife/mistress, a teacher, and a prostitute, she experiences similar scenarios in each. It gave her insight regarding the different perspectives in each. After analyzing the author’s purpose, his first statement in the story made sense. “A beautiful woman, many ages have agreed, is an ax that cuts down a man’s life.” He illustrates the life of a young woman and her sexual life beginning with her childhood.
Ihara Saikaku had several different relationships with several different men, however in my opinion her first relationship was the most important because it was the only man she fell in love with. Throughout the story Saikaku explains all her different encounters with men and all of them are based on sex except the one with the young samurai, she says “he was of a low rank and wasn’t good-looking but his writing, even in his very first letter, sent me into another world.” This was the first time we are able to see Saikaku has feelings for this man, there were other men who were good looking and of higher rankings that pursued her but she was uninterested, she said “There’s nothing as strange as love”. When the samurai lost his life for being with her, she was distraught “I couldn’t tell whether I was sleeping or awake. I couldn’t sleep, but I couldn’t get up either.” Eventually Saikaku had learned to cope and forgot about this man, however every relationship Saikaku had after that was based on sex and not love.
-Katarina Stojanovic
The story is based in the different experiences and relationships Saikaku experienced throughout her life. As Katarina mentioned, the most important and crucial one is her first. When she was just a young girl she fell in love with a samurai, “Why have you come all the way here to see me, like wind visiting a rotting old tree” in my opinion a clear proof of a real love and real hope from someone who is experiencing strong feelings and expects the same in return. I believe she did that question waiting for an answer in return and unfortunately in never came and I feel that marked her at a very young age. The next experience she had was also disappointing in my opinion, “I’ve always been an unlucky woman, but with the lord I was fortunate. He was tender to me, and we enjoyed our lovemaking. But things didn’t work out.” Once again, another failed experience, that went from bad to worst and I believe was something that make her lose hope and giving up on love which explains the rest of her live and future experiences.
The narrator has lived a life with many adventures that were all different and yet very similar. The common trait in all these stories seems to start or end with curiosity & love which evolves to many other things. When she was a little girl, she was infatuated with the concept of love and felt like she understood what it meant. And because she wondered how the feeling would feel she acted on that curiosity and satisfied the physical need. However, the actual need for love was absent and she was always searching for that love to truly satisfy her curiosity. She says how she would over hear other couples making love, “Naturally I began to want to make love myself.”. That was when it was sparked and it continued to adulthood where she manipulated a man and said “Why don’t you love me instead?”. What turned into a favor, became feelings and she yearned for the love that she never really got but always wanted from someone.
-Onu Mezbha
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Monkey was locked away for his behavior in the heavens and was eventually released from captivity when he accepted his new life and journey that was about to begin once he agreed to the new terms. He served his time for his punishment and was given a second chance and joined Tripitaka on his mission and I feel that was the threshold on the heroic journey list. He realized he couldn’t go back to his old life and accepted and was ready to move on and help himself and Tripitaka on this new journey he was about to embark. “Not long ago the Bodhisattva Kuan-yin, whom Buddha had ordered to look around for someone to fetch Scriptures from India, came here and promised me that if I would amend my ways and faithfully protect the pilgrim on his way, I was to be released, and afterwards would find salvation.” That is the deal and that was his ways to accept his fate and to move on to achieve what was needed. “I will protect you faithfully to the end”, after a small retaliation, he realized that this journey was the only way to get to the life he must have had at one time or achieve something greater.
Continuing with what my classmate said, Monkey had to undertake a personal journey of self discovery that he was not really happy to do. He did not like the idea to respond to Tripitaka and even though at the beginning of their journey he promised to help him he struggled with authority. “All right, I’ll give up being a priest, and won’t go with you to India.” Monkey’s reaction to his differences with Tripitaka wasn’t look for common ground but to fight and constantly go against him. It is only when Tripitaka learned the magic spell that dominated Monkey that he surrendered and accepted the fact that he had to obey and follow his word of helping and accompanying Tripitaka through his journey to India. Even when Tripitaka first used the spell on Monkey he dared to fight him and once he realized the spell was stronger than him and there was nothing he could do he accepted his fate, “I’ll give in, I’ll give in”. This personal journey in which Monkey doesn’t make the decisions and has to follow somebody’s else way of thinking is a huge challenge for him. This journey will force Monkey to grow and mature if he really wants to complete his journey, achieve something greater and understand his true self.
Throughout Tripitakas heroic journey I noticed that he faced many challenges before he was able to reach bliss. For an example when Tripitaka and the hunter began the journey to find the scriptures they were attacked by a tiger, when monkey joined the journey another tiger attacked them. According to the text in these two examples Tripitaka was scared to face the tiger, the hunter dealt with the first attack and monkey dealt with the second attack. Tripitaka has heroic qualities and goes through the heroic journey but he is not the hero of this story. In my opinion a hero must be a leader and Tripitaka is not, he needs protection of others in order to find bliss. When monkey killed the robbers Tripitaka said, “One has no right to kill robbers, however violent and wicked they may be.” This portrays that Tripitaka has a good soul, which is a heroic quality, but when monkey left Tripitaka because of their argument he was unable to continue the journey alone. Tripitaka said, “I hadn’t the heart to go on, and was just sitting here waiting for you” which to me shows he isn’t the hero because he couldn’t face what was coming, in order to be a hero you must find a way to overcome your fears which is something Tripitaka couldn’t do.
During Tripitaka’s expedition with his three disciples (Monkey, Sandy, & Pigsy), they face excruciating circumstances in their journey to find Buddhist scrolls and scriptures. These challenges ranged from attacks from tigers to trials. As my partner previously stated, Tripitaka (the Monk) could not have completed his voyage to the West if it were not for his disciples, especially for Monkey who was his most valuable asset. Monkey provided protection for him against the tigers and Tripitaka was dependent upon this to find his bliss. Tripitaka is described as being caring and compassionate. But when his enemies take advantage of this, Monkey along with the rest of his disciples are there to defend him. “What you must do is lure the monster from its hiding place, but be certain it is a fight you can survive.” This advice was given by Monkey before facing one of his enemies. These are the traits of a true hero, unlike Tripitaka. However, despite Tripitaka’s lack of leadership skills he does indeed have a kind soul like my partner previously mentioned once again. When monkey killed the violent thieves, Tripitaka was the one who had the kind heart and felt some sort of sympathy. “To save one life is better than to build a seven-story pagoda.” In other words, the life of a human is far more important than to achieve any materialistic things in life. Lastly, in order to be a hero, one has to have the ability to overcome all these challenges which Tripitaka proves otherwise.
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As human beings we are born with with imperfections that characterize, differentiate and make each one of us truly special. This different features should not be something that makes us feel inferior in any way. Different is good, different is unique and unique, as mention before is special. In my opinion the poem refers to humans excessive pride and lack of understanding that in most cases doing mistakes is exactly what we need to grow and better ourselves. That is why the text is constantly talking about “accepting misfortune” and “accept disgrace willingly”, because it is more than okay to make mistakes as long as we accept it as a beautiful part of our true self. At the end of the poem I believe the author wants to make mistakes general, not as something unique of individuals but as something universal of the world we are living in. First we should accept and love our mistakes and our disgrace, after that we will be able to see the beauty in everything and we will be able to love the world with the good and the bad by finally caring for all things.
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