In Kafka’s “Before the Law” reveals  a sense of control. Here we have a citizen who is trying to make his way past the gate but is having a hard time getting through. When people attain a a certain position in life especially of authority, it somewhat  reveals their personality. There is a deep routed issue with some authorities over using their power feeling they are better than the citizens below them. The gatekeeper watched this man suffer and repeatedly  denied his request . It is unclear the reasons why his request was overturned for all those years but from a readers point of view shows a man of authority taking advantage of a powerless man. For example (Kafka Before the law pg 19) The gatekeeper says, “If it attempts you so much, try going inside in spite of my prohibition. But take note. I am powerful”. The gatekeeper uses his power as a way to control the situation by scaring the man. This shows that as much effort as you put in to succeed , sometimes you can’t win. The man was near death and gave up almost everything however the gatekeeper didn’t  want to make him feel like he was a failure because he got a personal gain. This indicates a form of bribery that happens all the time especially in the governments. Unfortunately, this is what it came down to. The gatekeeper had control over this situation.

During the Romantic Era , the literature represented art , emotion and the Age of Enlightenment while Realism in literature represented a whole new movement of reality. In George Eliot’s theory of realism and Elaine Freegood’s reading depicts  its effects of realism arguing  that it is a real form of thinking . Realism is something we experience and are able to communicate it with out false claims. The position on realism is the human conception . In Adam Bede she displays the realism through a literary genre in which she developed.  The realism intersects with the representation of social class because it is nature and it is what humans go through on a daily basis. She believed that through writing, the fictional stories should be told through real life experiences and not be romanticise for our own pleasure, it’s simply not always glitz and glamour. Realism is a moral choice and it is ethical to represent the truths of society.

In chapter 17 of Adam Bede, she stresses the importance appreciating life at its finest but we should appreciate the pains of life. Art is the nearest form of life and through art , we learn to accept who we are. The Victorian era was a very difficult and strict period for women. The didn’t have the right to vote or own anything. The roles of men and women became sharply defined . Going back to the ideology of the roles of men and women of that time,  women were considered weak and men strong. These were faced because when it came literature, they had to realize they were women first and artists second. These were the sciences of human nature and according to Elaine Freegood, we should look beyond symbolism. Because the Victorian literature avoided deeper meanings, she tried to bridge the gap between the importance of meanings and realism.

In “Incidents in the life of a Slave girl”  Harriet Jacobs describes her life experiences as a slave girl in first person form. She describes many of her traumatic experiences as  a child slave from being tortured to the deaths of her loved ones. in the beginning , Linda (Harriet) as a small girl was naive and thought she lived a simple and happy life but it wasn’t until she was six years old, she realized she had no real freedom and suffers through the pressures of  slave life. She states that slavery had a bad influence on their morals because parts of their behavior and  personalities are left undeveloped. The slaves were brought up with no strong ethical sense. While in contrast to  Frederick Douglas “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July”, he  attacks the white man in a speech regarding the celebration of this holiday. Frederick describes the injustices and cruelty of the black man. The Black man shouldn’t be included in this anniversary because it is a deception and this a day for the black man to mourn. Frederick’s style of writing is very blunt and straight forward in this particular speech. The differences between the two narratives is the battle between the sexes. While Douglas Douglas focuses on the struggle  to achieve manhood, Harriet(Linda) focuses on the sexual exploitation of women. There is definitely a distinction between the value and focus between the two genders. Frederick Douglas describes the deception of the black man but seems to leave out the Black Woman.

In contrast Between “Incidents in the life of a slave girl “and “The Seneca Falls Declaration” discusses the injustices  of women in the North and in the United States. Although it addresses the issues of women , it doesn’t necessarily address the mistreatment of  the slave girl/ women and to people of  color overall. The criticism of this speech only fights in efforts to secure the education , social and civil conditions of White women. It’s obvious it doesn’t mention the treatment of slaves in general especially women slaves. White women didn’t understand the strugglesd and psychological effects of the black women. Assuming from a woman and a human perspective they would show some sympathy, not really. In “Incidents of a Slave Girl” page 19, “She Called me to her , and asked what I had about me that made such a horrid noise. I told her it was my new shoes. “Take them off”, she said; “and if you put them on again, I’ll throw  them into the fire.” After this incident , she ended up walking bare foot through the snow which is extremely cruel to do to someone. These acts of behavior just shows the way black people were treated and they were looked upon  as less of a human.

I think the advantage Harriet(Linda) had to make her unique arguments is her speaking from her own actual experience and giving evidence. The reader is able to visualize to try to put ourselves in her shoes to better understand.

What I found captivating about the “English lyric” by John Keats and the “Arabic lyric by The Koran is, they both  believed in a higher power. They are affirming the  presence of God. God is the creator of the heavens and earth.  In contrast, they both testify of what and who God is. Keats seems more in tuned with nature such as the sun , the trees , the flowers and the bees. He links nature with God for example in stanzas 1-6 he says ,

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core. 

These are all images of God through nature. The maturing son gives testimony to the existence and care of God but Keats seems not to acknowledge him. He doesn’t realize that nothing can hide from the sun and nothing can hide from God.  In stanza 13 he says ,

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find

Whatever you search for , you will surely find it. Keats in this stanza seems to be searching for Autumn . By sitting down waiting for something to be handed to you is impossible, you must go out and get what you want. At the same time, it is impossible to look for a season, you simply have to wait until it arrives.

In the “Arabic lyric” by the Koran acknowledged and spoke the word of God. He praises and worships him realizing he controls everything with unlimited and uninterrupted power . He  keeps  the universe constantly in motion. God keeps everything moving without having to exert any physical force whatsoever. It is whom that everyone needs. In stanzas 5-6 he says ,

It is You whom we worship

and You whom we ask for help

When in need it is God who we should seek for guidance and his presence though he is not always with us . Seeking God is a setting of the heart and mind.

In conclusion , the Arabic lyric and the English lyric, both have their ideas about God .

The adaptation chosen in comparison/contrast  to Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” is a mini screenplay called Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, created and directed by Paul Merelle on February 14th, 2016 with Assistant Director Nathan Marx. This video depicted two young boys trespassing into  a cemetery to kidnap a dead corpse . The two young boys decided to proceed by experimenting with this dead body, and suddenly the  deceased human comes  back to life. The human being seemed to have no soul.  Has the alive human being finished where he left off in his life? What I find interesting watching this video is, the two teen boys seemed to have planned it out  but at the same time didn’t know what to expect. Although, they disappeared afterwards we don’t know what their reaction was. Were they frightened and just ran away? Did they watch from afar to see what would happen once the human becomes alive again?  what I also found interesting was, the human being rising from his bed and walks out of the room as if he knows where he is going even though he seem to not have a soul in his body. He walks to a place which seemed familiar but then all of a sudden he’s helpless and clueless not knowing what to do.

This adaptation is true to the novel because they both demonstrate creating a creature and bringing back life to the dead and leaving it go about on it’s on without any sense of direction. The differences between the novel and the screen play is Victor created an actual creature and the two teenage boys dug up a dead body from the grave. Bringing life into this world means to care for it, train and nurture it properly. It is almost similar to a mother and father creating a life , the mother giving birth and making sure to take proper  care of the newborn child.  In Shelley’s book chapter 4 page 51, Victor says, “Whence , I often asked myself , did the principle of life proceed? it was a bold question , and one which has ever been considered as a mystery; yet with how many things are we upon the brink of becoming acquainted , if cowardice or carelessness did not restrain our enquiries.” This particular quote makes me wonder if Victor valued life in general. Perhaps the way he treated the creature by avoiding it happened to him in real life. is there a life after death?

https://youtu.be/cosd_X-E5-M

The passage i’ll be analyzing is from page 37, “My temper was sometimes violent , and my passions vehement; but by some law in my temperature they were turned , not towards childish pursuits , but to an eager desire to learn, and not to learn all things indiscriminately. I confess that neither the structure of languages, nor the code of governments , nor the politics of various states, possessed attractions for me. It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things, or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me , still my enquiries were directed to the metaphysical , or , in its highest sense, the physical secrets of the world.” My interpretation of this passage reveals Victors curiosity and his passion to understand the ways of the world. It becomes to complicated when it comes to government , religion , politics which is no interest to him. Human nature is a way of feeling, thinking and behavior. It becomes a question of culture, upbringing and nature versus nurture.  Are humans fixed?  Are we taught to react accordingly and to be tamed because its by law?  Victor had so much passion within him that sometimes he couldn’t control his urges but had to remind himself of his environment. Victors strong desire to understand why things  happen and why situations emerge.

Some questions that arise while reading this particular passage was, Where did his deep passion come from? It’s possible it could just be out of plain curiosity, he naturally wanted and needed to understand why things happened the way they did. My analysis of Victor is, he is just a human who wants to understand human nature by recreating and understanding. For example, in chapter 2 page 39, he says, “I chanced to find a volume of the works of Cornelius Agrippa. I opened it with apathy; this indicates he had natural interest to learn even though he brought it up to his father and his father rejected it. Even though his father disregarded it , he still took it upon himself to learn about Cornelius anyway.  On page 39 he says, “I have described myself as always having been embued with a fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature.”  As he grows older , his interest in the environment grows daily . His capacity far exceeds the average human being.

“Feelings” by Karen Opong

Attempting to achieve unity and balance in our daily lives is a constant struggle. I attempt to achieve this in my own life by taking each day one step at a time. Every morning when I wake up before I do anything , I meditate and pray that my day goes smoothly. I think to myself , if things don’t go the way it’s supposed to how will I solve it? Zen is a state of mind that we can all achieve as humans. Most of us lead lives in this era that is much more stressful that destroys inner peace. The difficulty for me is the focus and understanding of myself .

My thoughts on Basho’s poem is, he believed in naturalism and the simplicity of the world. Everything we do should be taken in small doses that could perhaps help us to achieve the calmness and balance. These days I have a lot on my plate such as school , work and outside activities which can be overwhelming because sometimes I feel confused and not manageable. When those overwhelming feelings start to arise, I usually am quiet because I am thinking.

Feelings of sadness takes over me

Trying to find a quiet place to think

Finding a solution

I also pay attention to the environment and the energies I am surrounded by. At times, different feelings come over me depending on where I am or who I am around and not sure why I feel the way I do. These feelings can also cause unnecessary stress and anxiety.

As I walk in a room full of different humans

The feelings I feel are confusing

Should I leave or should I stay?

There are things that I do to clear my mind such being alone in my room, perhaps go to a coffee shop or to the park to clear my mind trying to get away from the inner madness.

Looking out my bedroom window trying to find the answers

Closing my eyes

finding the solution