The Ogre Day 4

I think Ephraim represents clarity, spirituality, etc., the typical things one would expect to find in a prophet. This is the embodiment of what Tiffauges was looking to carry the whole time, but because he was looking at all the wrong signs, he didn't find it until the end of the novel. Yeah, sure he kind of got this twisted euphoria when he went recruiting and kidnapping children to serve as soldiers, but that was an insubstantial joy that did not produce longterm happiness or fulfillment. But Tiffauges finally found those things in Ephraim--a worthy cause to support. It is the only mirror image that is positive in the story, a parallel of what he felt when he went riding on Bluebeard, except he was the horse instead of the rider, and the rider had a brain this time. With this in mind, I think the ending had a redeeming quality, although it is a little vague. I think the star is an important clue, however, being a symbol for hope, a light through the darkness, and a guide for the right direction.

The Ogre Day 3

The emphasis on hunting is another example of how myth is being played with. In myth, there are several different types of creatures that our known to have wild hunt parties, as well as some gods who are associated mystical hunt leaders, such as Pan and Cernunnos. Both of these gods are associated with horned animals, especially stags, and thus even today are revered for being the ultimate expressions of masculine energy and fertility. Yet Tiffauges and his superiors seem to be leading a gross inversion of ceremonial hunts, since the author makes it clear that they are still in a childish state of mind and body which are reflections of malnourished souls. Thus they are hardly fit to represent the archetypes of Pan and Cernunnos, so their hunting becomes a way to capture something that they lack, which is perhaps why they emasculate the poor stags. This is the same reason why Tiffauges bonds with Bluebeard--horses are also phallic symbols and represent authority. Through Bluebeard he can enjoy almost literally carrying authority.

The Ogre Day 2

It's interesting that Tiffauges has finally gotten to the same status that Nestor has. His old school was an imprisonment for him in many ways, but Nestor was able to use his liberties to Tiffauges' benefit. Now we are seeing some sort odd parallel of their old school days at the camps where Tifauges is being held. It seems that by making himself more simple than he actually is has given him the same sort of freedom that Nestor had. He has often thought of himself as Nestor's heir and messenger, so I think this aspect of the story will be important later. Tiffauges has now found his own messengers in the pigeons, which I think will be carriers for these "symbols" that he is looking for.

The Ogre

This book at first did not strike me as being particularly complicated until references from the early beginning began showing up in later pages, with myth building on myth. I don't really know where to start analyzing except when Tiffauges' memories of St. Christooher's. Mystics and theologians often describe someone's inner mind and personality as the "interior person", usually expressed as an enclosed garden or a mansion, or another type of building. For Tiffauge, I think St. Christopher represents his interior person as well as the playground he frequents. Children can be wild on the playground as described in the story, so for him it must be his emotions and desires raging. I think it represents a kind of Eden for him that he never knew he had until it was too late, so he reconciles the passage of time with trying to serve and accompany children as much as he can.

100 Years of Solitude 16-20

Considering that Macondo was founded on incest and murder, and has continued spawning those things ever since, of course it has to be destroyed. The biblical version of the flood story says the flood was caused because God needed to rid the world of evil, which at the time, was most of the population. Macondo has lived through every tragedy and evil possible, and since that is what it fed on, it is now time to be destroyed. Ursula becoming doll like is a signal that there is no more spiritual glue to hold the place together, its moral conscience. She is too old to fulfill that role, and no one who might be a decent successor to the position. There really isn't anything more for the town to go through except death.

100 Years of Solitude 11-15

Ursula's clairvoyance always hits the nail on the head, time is always going in circles in Macondo. But at the same time it is adding some new elements. If Petra is fertility, then Fernanda must represent barrenness. There is a huge disconnect here--Fernanda still seems to be living as if it were about the 1600s. While it isn't completely her fault since that's just how she was brought up, her trying to impose her traditions on the Buendía household can't be a good thing. She does not belong to the present, in fact she shouldn't even exist. In this way, I think she and Rebecca are parallels of each other. Rebecca only forces isolation on herself for the most part, and represents the unwillingness to accept change. Fernanda, on the other hand, although raised in isolation she does not remain that way. As a result, instead of trying to keep reality out of her life, she tries to change it in an unhealthy manner with expectations that most humans would not be able to fulfill.

100 Years of Solitude 6-10

These chapters focus a lot on the corruption of war and motherhood. Aureliano becomes heavily involved in the war, and eventually becomes one of the most important figures of the Liberal side. The book says that he joins this side because they have more humanitarian qualities, but his intent becomes tainted later. He himself admits that he now only fights because of his pride. The novel also plays with the sense of motherhood and time. I get the impression that the founding mothers in the village are living for such a long time that they have a pretty clear view of how the war has messed with their children. If anyone's relatives could rise from the dead, I think many of them would have the same reaction--except the difference here is that the mothers are living long enough to see it happen. As a result, the mothers in this novel seem to represent the moral conscience of Macondo and making sure it doesn't completely loose its original identity.

100 Years of Solitude 1-5

I think José Arcadio Buendía represents the foundation of the town, its basis for stability at least when he isn't obsessed with alchemy. He seems to be generally well-liked to the point where he is an unofficial leader that people in the community go to before starting any expansive project. One thing I noticed was that he was the first outsider to pick up on alchemy. He gave it up after a while, but it is important that he came across it, since if he hadn't his sons would have never developed an interest in it. So as the patriarch of the town, naturally all traditions must stem from him. He is essentially tradition, but at the same time, he does not impose it. This is clearly demonstrated when the magistrate more or less invades their town trying impose a dictatorship that never applied to Macondo. José confounds the magistrate by telling him the villagers can paint their house any color they want while presenting him with old-fashioned role of an accommodating host and making sure to state that despite José's generosity they are still enemies.

Fairy Tales day 2

Today's fairy tales seem to focus on generosity and defeating all odds with virtue, faith, and perseverance. For example, in the Golden Goose, we see the first two brothers punished punished because of their stinginess by getting a hard blow from their own ax. In the meantime, the third brother has the worst and smallest breakfast which he ends up sharing anyway and is aptly rewarded with a golden goose that eventually leads him to a large fortune and a pretty wife. Bearskin also follows up on this theme with a few added elements. The soldier's generosity also earns him a bride after he saves her family from debt, but also plays with this by having only the youngest daughter see beyond his physical appearance and only pay attention to his good deed. And she still remains loyal to him while he stays away for three years in fulfillment of his supernatural ordeal, which he eventually conquers and is finally able to show everyone what he was hiding. Thus the moral is good things happen to good people.

Fairy Tales day 1

Part of the reason fairy tales have remained in the popular mind is because of the their universal messages, or else they would have never survived for thousands of years. They are one of the most integral ways children are taught right wrong--for example to be wary of strangers in "Little Red Riding Hood" and to see beyond physical beauty in the "Frog Prince". These are lessons that exist in every culture, although they are made to be whimsical in order to grab the attention of young and old alike, and be made understandable to both through the use of archetypes. In real life, there are always versions of the wicked witch and other opportunistic characters that everyone has to face eventually. And many times, the violence and tragedies in fairy tales help children to understand how to counter act these problems with their wits. As stupid as the boy who didn't know what shivering was, he knew not let to let any of the spirits in the haunted castle have an opportunity to kill him, from tricking the hell hounds and cats to tricking the old man.

Don Quixote Day 46-52

I don't think Don Quixote has become un-quixoticized. He may haves slowed down, but he still thinks right up to the end that everything bad that happens to him is caused by "enchantment" even when Sancho tells him that the masked people kidnapping him are people he knows in disguise. Whether he really gives up on his fantasy cannot be clearly known since this is only the first portion of the story.

Don Quixote Day Five

I am not sure that Lela has multiple identities as she does several different pieces of her character that contribute to the whole. For example, she is still linked to her old culture by knowing the language as well as still dressing in her old clothes, while her husband and her desire to convert to Christianity links her to Spain. Whether she has more or less agency than the other women in the text depends on perspective. In my opinion, she seems to have a huge amount of agency considering she organized her own escape. And since she has left her father behind, his absence could indicate that there is no one else to ensure that she remains hidden away from the world. She pursued freedom, making her a little like Don Quixote, so of course she must appear at the inn. She demonstrates that Don Quixote has a way attracting miraculous happenings thus making it look like everything is possible and that there are stranger things than Don Quixote.

"'By God, sirs', said Don Quixote, 'so very many strange things have happened to me in this castle on the two occasions when I have lodged here that I dare not give a clear answer to any question about anything in it, because I imagine that everything that occurs here is carried out by enchantment."' (XLV, 419)

Don Quixote 28-35

I really like some of the social commentary Cervantes makes in chapter XXVII about some of the ridiculous courting customs and the incentive for these customs. Like Don Fernando's wife says, it was never her idea that Don Fernando should come after her, and even her parents were not terribly thrilled with the idea. "My parents' firm promises and the truths they were telling me strengthened my resolve, and I never replied to Don fernando with a single word that could have given him the remotest hope of fulfilling his desire." (252)

But of course he comes after her anyway or rather emotionally imposes himself on her anyway, marries her, and finally decides he wasn't really that into her anyway. Normally, a woman in this time period would not have been able to do anything to resolves the situation, but then Cervantes plays with karma by making so that Luscinda was already married to someone, a satisfying punishment sent by the divine for his going back on a promise made to his legitimate wife as well as God. "...the door of reparation hadn't slammed on me; and it occurred to me that it might have been heaven that had put this impediment in the way of the second marriage, to make him remember he was a Christian and should have more regard for his soul than for mere human concerns." (258)

Day three

One episode that represents Don Quixote's ability to find good in everything and everyone is when he lets the prisoners free, after determining that all of them were unjustly being held captive over things that are not the business for any person to judge. "Let each answer for his sins in the other world...it is not right for honorable men to be the executioners of others, if they have no personal concern in the matter." (Pg. 184) Most of the crimes that were listed would have been a huge scandal at the time, especially since there was more of an opportunity for brown-nosing because of a lack of mobility. Yet Don Quixote takes these semi-fictional codes of chivalry to a new level by defending even these somewhat questionable characters and going so far as to say that the pimp didn't deserve to be there: "...for being a pimp alone he does not deserve to go to row in the galleys, but rather to be the admiral in charge of them. Because the pimp's trade is no ordinary trade; it must be carried out by intelligent people and it is absolutely essential to any well-ordered society..." (179)

Don Quixote 10-18

One of Don Quixote's acts of chivalry that stood out to me was when he tried to avenge his horse, Rocicante in the fifteenth chapter. As Rocicante was left to graze, he made the mistake of going to flirt with some mares that belonged to a nearby group of muleteers. As a result, the muleteers gave him a thrashing which caught Don Quixote's attention and impulse to come to his aid, even though their little group was severely outnumbered. But that didn't stop him: "'I am the equal of a hundred men,' retorted Don Quixote.

And without further thought he seized his sword and attacked the men from Yanguas, and so did Sancho Panza, encouraged by his master's example." (Pg.116)

In spite of their courageous, and somewhat stupid endeavor, further down the paragraph reveals that they failed and received a beating of their own. But their failure isn't the point--it is Don Quixote's care and sweetness towards his horse that stands out in a time when most animals would not have been given as much respect as that.

Another noteworthy scene takes place in the next chapter in the second inn that they stay at. As usual, Don Quixote goes off in another equally eloquent and windblown speech to thank the inn keeper's family for taking him in. But for once, his sentiments are taken seriously without the usual humoring that goes with it: "...and since they weren't used to such language they stared at him in amazement, and thought that he wasn't at all like normal men; and then thanking him for his offers in the most expressive innkeeperese, they left him..." (XVI, pg. 124)

Don Quixote 1-9

For this post, I'd like you to pick two scenes in which you see Don Quixote as a radical character within the novel thus far. What do you find radical about Don Quixote? Why? What do you think the text states about him as a character?

As always, I'm looking for your own ideas and analyses.

(On a related note, you may want to look up the term "quixotic" and see to which people it has been applied).

Don Quixote is radical because of his "madness". He mistakes common place objects for things that are far more grandeur. For example, he mistakes an inn for a castle after becoming weary of traveling in search chivalrous wrongs to right. "And since whatever our adventurer thought, saw or imagined seemed to him to be as it was in the books he'd read, as soon as he saw the inn he took it for a castle with its four towers and their spires of shining silver, complete with its drawbridge and its deep moat and all the other accessories that such castles commonly boast." (Pg. 32)

So, not only is his madness radical, but the imagination it expresses furthers how radical he is perceived to be by other characters, such as the prostitutes he mistakes for nobility near the same inn, who don't understand why a strange man in a cardboard visor is referring to them as maidens or how to address Don Quixote without laughing.

"The girls had been peering at him and trying to make out his face, hidden behind the ill-made visor; but when they heard themselves called maidens, a term so much at odds with their profession, they couldn't help but contain their laughter." (Pg. 32)

Final Canti

I think this quote summarizes one of the main concepts we have been discussing throughout the Inferno. As Dante and Virgil come across another character of myth, Virgil promises fame to the creature in order to pacify it: "...this man can give here what is desired; therefore bend down and do not twist your snout. / He can still repay you with fame in the world, for / he is alive and expects long life still, if grace does not call him before his time." (Canti 31, 124-129)

Although the Inferno is fiction, Dante is once again manipulating the plot to give his tale moral credibility. Since myth is a fiction in which truths can be found, Dante writes as if this journey was real in order to put the story on par with traditional mythology. By inserting himself into the story, he is able to actively engage the audience so that they feel as if they took the journey as well, leaving them more open to absorbing the lessons offered. And if the lessons are remembered, the Inferno does indeed become like myth because it has achieved something that is partially eternal since morals are inevitably passed down to each new generation.

Question 3

That the demons can be tricked is a device Dante uses to demonstrate that while they have a little foresight, the pride they have in so small a thing makes them stupid. While they are physically capable of suppressing humans, they underestimate the intelligence some of the souls have. Dante may also be using them to portray that they were stupid from the start if they thought they could be like God--and even Virgil points out to Dante that there isn't much to fear since their safety has already been affirmed through divine providence. "Do you think, Evil Tail, that you see me here, once already safe from all your tricks, without God's will and favorable fate? Allow us to walk on, for it is willed in Heaven that I guide someone on this savage journey." (pg. 323, 79-84)

Canti 14-20, questions 1 and 5

1) I think the quote on pg. 556-557 is spot on: "Like the body of Satan, it is a representation of both the history of mankind and its present state, expressed in terms of the human body." In other words, as long as there have been materials and any kind of wealth, greed is created. Greed creates consequences for the entire world, and so the statue is representative of humanity's greed as well as the pain it causes that is unceasing because the lesson is never learned.

5) If someone were to overestimate the piety that is found in past centuries, then perhaps that person would also gawk at Dante's criticism of the church. But it is not surprising considering there were always power struggles with the church, so difference of opinion over just how holy its leaders are is to be expected. Dante makes it a point to distinguish between God and his followers--he is well-read and informed for the times so he knows that people, even when they are Christian, do not follow a Christ-like example, which is the exact point of the journey into Hell.

Dante is there so that he will learn what kinds of behaviors are not in the example if Jesus. And many times the audience sees that he is not beyond compassion for some of the damned souls, such as his reverence towards the homosexuals in Canti 15 and 16, as well as in several earlier chapters.

Canto 13

"Not green leaves, but dark in color, not smooth / branches, but knotted and twisted, no fruit was there, / but thorns with poison." (Canto 13, verse 4-6) I think it is interesting that Dante uses tainted trees as a symbol for "the violent against themselves". This punishment seems out of place from the others since it is less violent, although it serves the purpose of Dante's message. This first quote alludes to that suicide or other forms of self-harm poisons the soul, and as a result poison is produced in the afterlife. It is also important not to overlook that these trees do not bear any fruit, which could be a reference to the what is called the fruits of the Holy Spirit, which the condemned souls no longer have as a result of their offense.

As Dante proceeds further, one of the shades admits, "My spirit, at the taste of disdain, believing by death to flee, made me unjust against my just / self." (verse 70) Therefore, not only have they committed an act against the nine fruits, but also an offense against the four virtues, in particular the virtue of justice, which has already been established as one of the most important themes in the Inferno.

Dante Canti 1-6, Question 1

Dante immediately sets the atmosphere by showing almost immediately that there are divine powers at work—as Virgil explains that he was sent to guide Dante by the intercession of Beatrice, who resides in heaven. It is said through the story on an almost incessant level that Dante has a lot of "cowardice" in his soul, and is off to bad start along his spiritual journey or life, these two things being almost inseparable at the time the Inferno was written. Therefore, it is up to Virgil to show Dante what could happen to him if he continues down a crooked path. As they pass through the first few circles of Hell, Dante is frightened, repulsed, and saddened at what he sees, but cannot help questioning the events before him, acting to help provide a foundation for answers in order to keep the readers informed.

Question 4

The is sort of difficult to pin mythologically, partly because there were other objects, that I've read about in various locations, that pre-dated the grail. It is also difficult to pinpoint because the meaning of the Grail can change for the individual--what would make their paradise on earth. In the case of Percival I think it becomes a standard he is trying to achieve. Once his view of knighthood reaches a more mature level--after he avenges Blanechflor, reconciles the problems he created with the tent maiden and avenged the maid that Kay slapped--it seems he is more concerned with performing chivalrous acts as opposed being eager to battle and engage in violence. So, for Perceval the Grail becomes a proof of his becoming the ultimate knight--the strongest, wisest, and most compassionate as well as a proof that he has made up for past sins, such as the death of his mother.

Perceval Day 1

Perceval still has a lot to learn about being a knight. Mainly he needs to learn how to listen and be sensitive to the feelings and needs of others. He will never learn to become a knight until he learns this lesson. Look at the way he treats his mother, for example. He is about leave hoe for the very first time and doesn’t even bother to pay attention to what she has to get off her chest. And as he is leaving, she faints and he does not even think to take care of her until much later.

And in battle, he is too eager to kill—the knight he battles with for the sake of Blancheflor must remind him of the code of chivalry, which maintains that he must not remain beyond mercy or to strike a fallen knight. On the other hand, it seems that Blancheflor has caused him to partially open the doors to being sensitive, so with her help and with Arthur’s wisdom that will later guide him, he will be one of the only knights who will go on a quest for the grail.