“When my father returned from Milan, he found playing with me in the hall of our villa, a child fairer than pictured cherub—a creature who seemed to shed radiance from her looks, and whose form and motions were lighter than the chamois of the hills.  The apparition was soon explained.  With his permission my mother prevailed on her rustic guardians to yield their charge to her.  They were fond of the sweet orphan.  Her presence has seemed a blessing to them; but it would be unfair to her to keep her in poverty and want, when Providence afforded her such powerful protection.  They consulted their village priest, and the result was, that Elizabeth Lavenza become the inmate of my parents’ house—my more than sister—the beautiful and adored companion of all my occupations and my pleasures.”  -Page. 35

This passage from chapter one, describes the first time Victor’s father met Elizabeth and how she came to stay with the Frankenstein family.  Victor describes this interaction as almost seeing an angel like figure in Elizabeth because of how beautiful she was and how graceful she moved.  She became a blessing to the Frankenstein family who everyone adored.

I am very interested in this passage due to how Victors describes Elizabeth.  It is clear that sense they were kids Victor has loved Elizabeth, and she has always been his “more than sister.”  Not only does Victor love Elizabeth but they whole family does.  Victor’s mother and father went to the priest so that she could become a part of their family because they were so fond of her.  But my question then is why does Victor refer to Elizabeth as “the inmate of my parents”?

The term “inmate” can best be described as a person confined to an institution, in most cases prison.  I believe Victor refers to Elizabeth as an “inmate” because he sees her as more than a regular person.  Victor sees Elizabeth as an angel who is confined to Earth.  The first thing Victor compares Elizabeth to is a “cherub,” which in itself is a child angel sent from heaven.  The next line he says is “a creature who seemed to shed radiance from her look.”  Angels are often depicted with halos and light radiating off them and their wings.  When Victor looks at Elizabeth all he sees is brightness from her beauty.  One last line Victors says her “form and motions were lighter than the chamois of the hill.”  These are antelope that climb the sides of mountains, these animals must have perfect and graceful steps to stay on the mountain.  When comparing these chamois to Elizabeth, Victor is saying every move Elizabeth makes is perfect and graceful.  Victor feels as though Elizabeth is more of an angel than she is a human, and is not just an “inmate” to his parents, but an “inmate” on Earth.

Nearing the end of Chapter 4, Shelly illustrates the scene where Victor Frankenstein builds his creation. Although I was tempted to write about the famed scene of the monster’s emergence, I think this passage, on page 54-55, is extremely powerful and sets the tone for the rest of the novel. In the first few chapters, Victor paints a very picturesque portrait of his essentially perfect childhood. He discusses his family, Elizabeth, his friend Henry, where he grew up, his love for knowledge of science, math and philosophy. He proceeds to attend school and becomes passionate about natural philosophy.

In chapter 4, his passion turns into an unhealthy obsession, which leads him to isolate from his friends, family and society around him. He soon discovers the “secret to creating life” and decides to build his very own creature.

Just by skimming down the page, we see him speaking of himself in a very pretentions and arrogant way as he narrates this story. “ I found so an astonishing power in my hand” (53). The specific passage that intrigued me is when he is in the midst of creating his work. The way Victor describes himself is frightening. He explains the “horrors of [my] secret toils” by depicting how he became sick and emaciated due to his loneliness and how he visits the graveyards to collect body parts and tortures living animals until they become like clay. These horrifying images makes me wonder if Victor is in fact as monstrous as the beast he is about to conceive. I also wonder how his love for knowledge, understanding human anatomy and life turned into something evil.

Another question I posed was, for what reasons does Victor feel the need to build his creation?

As aforementioned, the scene I picked gave me the impression that Victor was turning into this monster! It puzzled me how he went from having this perfect life to becoming the way he did. He had a very stable family with his parents and Elizabeth. So, what made him leave all that behind to go build his creature? One could assume that he was using his knowledge and understanding of life for good purpose. Perhaps Victor performed this project to better mankind, or to find a way to create a “new human”.

Yet, he says, “A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. I might in process of time (although I now found it impossible) renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption.” (54) This sentence exemplifies his ulterior motive to become a G-dlike figure to this new breed of human. I believe that Victor Frankenstein used his knowledge for very selfish and egotistical purposes.

In the Torah, (the Jewish Bible) knowledge is compared to fire. Like anything, fire can be used for positive and can also be extremely detrimental. You can use fire as a source of light and warmth, but at the same time if used improperly, it can cause severe damage. So too, in Frankenstein’s case, his brilliance and knowledge of chemistry and philosophy could have been used in positive ways, but ended up having a devastating result.

I believe that another reason Frankenstein decides to build this creature was to have a sense of control over the ideas of life and death. His mother’s death evidently took a toll on his attitude towards life and he though that if he had the proper solution, he could fix this notion of fate.

I always enjoy my Friday night when I am chilling in my room with some beers and movies. Especially disaster or thriller movie, I found that I really get relaxed after traveled through those heartquake dramas. I appreciate Hollywood for offering so much thrilling adventure. One reason that I am so attracted by movies is they made those movies so real that I can’t help believe that I was there in person. Not only the technology is an advance but also character’s acting contributed to delivering the emotion of the certain occasion.

Mary Shelley did very well in building characters and portraying the feeling of her characters’. In first few paragraphs chapter V, Shelley successfully created an atmosphere by describing the emotion of the main character, Victor Frankenstein. At the start of this chapter, Frankenstein had his “dream” finally came true after long struggles and conflict on both his body and mind. It is obviously too much for Frankenstein to face the “monster” he created. At the moment, there were multiple feelings combined all together and busted at the same time that he was not able to take them all. And finally realized his dream of creating life was vanished only vain and regret left.

Mary Shelley took the advantage of using the first person in her book which helped a lot to deliver characters’ emotion. At the very first of the book, Shelley made Frankenstein as a storyteller so the plot can be very subjective but make sense. At the second paragraph of chapter V, Shelley wrote “His limbs were in proportion and I selected his features as beautiful.  Beautiful! —Great God!”. Notably, Mary Shelley captained three letters “Beautiful! —Great God!”. I have no idea whether it was Shelley’s initial intention or revised by editor later, but it did present Frankenstein exclamation. He was shocked by the completeness of his work and pretty pride of it. Then Mary Shelley used a long paragraph to describe Frankenstein’s mental active. She not only piling up emotion words but also described character’s physical active like “rushed out of the room” “threw myself on the bed in my clothes” which gave readers image. Especially “bed in my clothes”, it presented how messed Frankenstein condition was. I think it is great to do so. The novel is different from movies and music, readers have to picture the plot themselves which is not very direct and immediate. Physical actives would help readers to trace what character’s doing like the painter of a renaissance would use shadow and light to give portray life. Also, there are lots evidence showed that Shelley was fond of using details. Thanks to those details, readers are able to gather information indirectly. At the same paragraph, Shelley wrote: “a cold dew covered my forehead”. This line tells how nervous Frankenstein was by using an indirect way. And this is why we love to read—- there are rooms for us to picture.

As I continue to read Frankenstein, I realize how different some people can react to difficult situations that tend to happen throughout life. In this case when a mother passes away. The passage that I would be focusing on is when Victor is about to leave his family in Geneva to pursue his studies at the University at Ingolstadt. This whole situation that I’ll be focusing on takes place throughout Chapter three and four. As he’s about to leave, his mom, sadly catches scarlet fever from Elizabeth and because of this illness unfortunately passes away. Although, Victor is present when his mother dies and griefs for a bit he still decides to go to the University at Ingolstadt. Once he arrives there he gives himself no time to recuperate from what has happened back home and he immediately starts working on his sciences.

The major question that I have to ask “Is why didn’t he just give himself time to feel better ?”. Viewing it from another perspective I think that it’s kind of absurd that he would just leave like that because most people in his situation would just stay home in Geneva with their family and grief about their loss. Time is essential in situations like these because time heals all wounds. I understand that he was really interested in the creation of life and the discussion about science after having the talk with Professor Waldman; but I believe that he acted this way and at a quickly manner because he didn’t know how to cope with the situation of losing his mother. In other words he didn’t want to go through the process of being sad or emotional and in a way put it to the side and do something else to distract himself. Although, this can seem like a good idea in the long run it will always comes back and affect you.

Putting all his time into his work also affected him later on in the story because we noticed how passionate he was getting about actually creating human life. With all this excitement that he had about his creation and basically having no social life we can also infer how disappointed he would be if it were to fail. Anyone who spends so much time doing something expects their project to come out correctly and just as they imagined. In Victor’s case when he finally finished he wasn’t happy with his end results instead he was terrified because it didn’t turn out the way he planned it to. He expected it to be beautiful and it was horrific. The question that I would like to ask here is “Was the death of his mother in the back of his head when he was working on his creation ? Is that the reason why it came out wrong ?”. I believe that the reason why he messed up wasn’t because he didn’t know how to actually do the work but because he probably got distracted along the way with his past.

The passage that I will be focusing on is Victor Frankenstein’s nightmare. The important question I have for this section is why did Victor Frankenstein have a nightmare at this time? After all he did just complete his life’s work which encapsulates his interest in the natural sciences from a very young age. This should be a monumental moment of triumph, but instead his studies and accomplishments are stricken by horror. Victor Frankenstein terror of the monster is what I find interesting. It is not as though Victor Frankenstein never saw the creature before. He had selected every fiber of its being and only chose the best qualities to put into his so called monster. He gave it lush black hair and pearly white teeth, but when the monster finally arose, Victor Frankenstein was scared to death. I feel that the reason for his horror stems from his family which he has distanced himself from. I will answer this, by explaining the meaning of his dream.

Victor Frankenstein’s mother wishes that he and Elizabeth get married as her dying wish. And in his dream, Victor Frankenstein sees, “Elizabeth, in the bloom of health, walking in the streets of Ingolstadt. Delighted and surprised, I embraced her; but as I imprinted the first kiss on her lips, the became livid with the hue of death; her features appeared to change, and I thought that I held the corpse of my dead mother in my arms” (58). This is a direct reference to the sacrifice of his mother to save Elizabeth from Scarlet Fever. In the hopes to stop any future occurrences of the aforementioned, Victor Frankenstein completely abandons his family and friends in order to devote all of his time to his study of life and death. When he finally accomplishes his sought out task, he realizes all the people he left behind.

His mother’s death took a major toll on him. He idolized her as she is the woman who nursed his future wife back to health from Scarlet Fever. In a way to cope with his sorrow, he tries to understand everything that causes life and death. Just like Caroline gave up her life in order to save Elizabeth’s, Victor Frankenstein is devoting his life to understanding why diseases happen in the hopes that he can stop them. Victor Frankenstein is carrying out this entire experiment to fulfil some grandiose feeling of regret he has for leaving everyone behind. It is only when the monster is created, that he realizes nothing he has done has helped bring his mother back to life. Even worse, he has neglected his mothers dying wish. That is why I believe the entire reason as to why he created a monster can be summed up in his dream. He sees all of life’s beauty in Elizabeth, but once he understands the complexities of life and meddles in its vast greatness does he realize that it can only bring pain, hence the transformation of Elizabeth into his dead mother.

The creature, figuring out what to write about for his class blog post.

This assignment, due Thursday evening (2/23) requires that you first read up to page 63 in the novel (through chapter 5). Also make sure to read the two short introductions beginning on page 5 in our edition: they tell the famous story of the novel’s composition, and we’ll come back to these in class next Monday.

As we’ve read so far, we’ve focused on noticing aspects of form and content featured in poems and other texts and then sharing those observations. This time, we’re going to think about how to turn those observations into analysis. Another way to put it might be that, instead of just noticing things in the text, we’re going to start working on interpreting those observations. Interpretation means offering what you think is the most convincing way of answering questions that your observations about the text raise. It may be tempting to think of interpretation as just arbitrary (just one interpretation among many), and it’s true that the texts we’re reading for this class are open to many possible interpretations. However, when you offer your analysis of a particular passage, you’re trying to show, with evidence, that your analysis is not only sound (based on clues that the text itself gives rather than just your own assumptions or preconceived ideas) but also compelling (able to persuade your reader that other possible interpretations aren’t as capable of taking all of that evidence into account). Analysis is not just a paraphrase or summary of the passage but instead goes further than a superficial reading, inferring from details to produce a deeper account.

You should start by choosing a passage (of no more than a page) from the reading for this week that is interesting to you, one that raises questions or that you initially find puzzling. This time, your post should (in around 500 words) provide an analysis of that passage, one that offers your most compelling interpretation. Your post will have three steps: 1) Make sure to begin by letting your reader know which passage you’ll be analyzing by citing the passage and briefly summarizing. 2) Then, tell us briefly what important question or questions that passage raises for you. 3) Finally, give us your analysis of the passage: your best answer to that question, backed up with evidence that you’ve observed. The title of your post should preview this analysis in some way.

Don’t be afraid to takes risks in your analysis! Bold interpretations will be rewarded, and this is a good opportunity to try out your analytical skills before you work on a more formal essay in the coming weeks.

If you have any questions, let me know. And make sure to read through page 149 before class next Monday (2/27).

The relentless crowd struggle to fit into a train car that’s already packed like sardines. It seems although New Yorkers usually do not like to make contact with other riders while on the train, it is times like these where they’re willing to make an exception. “Sexual Harassment is a Crime in the subway, too – A crowded train is no excuse for an improper touch. Don’t stand for it or feel ashamed, or be afraid to speak up. Report it to an MTA employee or police officer” plays over the intercom while I struggle to find room to breathe.

Train stops, doors open.
Hurried crowds quickly get off.
There is peace again.

As I make my away out of the seemingly worst part of my day, I feel the weight lifted off my shoulders. The cold air nips at the tip of my nose, and my breathe seems to cling to the air. For a couple of seconds, I feel as if I’m free of all this confusion. However, a new weight immediately replaces the one prior and I start to feel the impending doom in my stomach once again. I am not nervous, but rather cynical. I cannot allow myself to get enveloped by all this disarray, but I am partially hoping that if I leave it alone, it will all go away. I know it will take too long–I must make sense of it for myself.

Imminent deadlines,
What is the point of all this?
Don’t forget to breathe.

In the midst of all of this daily chaos, I sometimes forget how to breathe. However, I find that setting aside just five to ten minutes to sit down and feel the warmth of the sunlight from a seat by the window helps me unwind the chaos and feel less anxious. This pause allows me to ponder about things other than schoolwork. My breathing slows and my leg falls asleep, but I do not care.

The warm sunlight streams
Into the cold empty room.
Shadows luminous.

“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