Carnival Post

There seems to be a increasing number of…err, odd poets in the later half of this semester, focusing heavily on Emily Dickinson and Edgar Allan Poe. And I don’t seem to be the only one who has noticed. It’s seems many in class have a distinct opinion of Dickinson and Edgar, either loving them or hating them or a combination of both. As Esther mentions, Dickinson is very good at writing visually by “build[ing] a very distinct picture in my head of what this death may look like. (which, really, is pretty creepy considering it's her own death.)” 

Both of these iconic poets very distinctive styles, and as Tanisha examines, “Edgar Allen Poe rounds off the top five. His work has a unique mixture of dark and light. While it appears to be very melancholy, there is still some illumination on characters/ideas present.” 

After reading everyone else’s posts on Poe and Dickinson, and well, just poetry in general, it was comforting to know that I wasn’t the only one who had difficulties understanding and sometimes relating to the poetry we read of the semester; this was a huge relief to this English major…I was beginning to worry. Anyways I digress, whether you hate, love, or just don’t get Dickinson or Poe (I’m sure there were many family/friends who didn’t get them either) it is difficult reading their work without having an opinion one way or the other. 

Emily Dickinson

As far as odd poets go, I think Emily Dickinson and Edgar Allan Poe would have gotten along famously. Having that said, I find her writing interesting and I like her almost as much as I do Poe. After reading her background introduction, I think I would have liked to meet Emily Dickinson; based on the little information surrounding her life and her take on darker themes present in her poetry, I cannot help but think that she would have been an intensely interesting person to listen to or on the other end of extreme-so introverted you wouldn’t be able to get two words out of her, maybe a poem, but not a word. After reading the poems listed for class, I still found one of my favorite being the one I read for poem of the day, which was the one about riding in carriage with polite and courteous grim reaper. (I believe the bracket number was 712). I think I find it interesting because Dickinson has a way of getting her audience to look at the darker aspects of life from a different point of view. 

Uncle Tom’s Cabin Part V

While I was not too surprised when Eva passes away in the novel, St. Clare’s death caught me by slight surprise in its sudden occurrence, which was surprising in itself as most of the novel had felt very predictable up until this point. As previously mentioned, once Tom gets sold to Legree, I found myself more interested in his story line again as it contained more drama, and I kept hoping that Tom would escape somehow and try to make his way home or that Mrs. Shelby and Chole would raise enough money to purchase Tom from Legree. But then Stowe surprises me a second time with Tom’s death; I’m a sucker for happy endings, so I found it really frustrating when Tom died in the novel. It left me thinking, “If only George had gotten there a few days sooner” type of sentimentality, which is ironic since we discussed how many critics find Uncle Tom’s Cabin to be overly sentimental. In some ways, I have to agree with that, especially in some of the previously stated “wishy-washy” scenes. Overall, I liked the story and the way it was executed as far as multiple storylines go. 

Uncle Tom’s Cabin Part IV

As the story progressed, I found myself being more and more disappointed in St. Clare’s character, much as I did with Mr. Shelby. I found it difficult to be continuously sympathetic to such a apathetic character. As a reader, I wanted someone to shake some sense into him and to take a stand for the injustices of slavery, when he clearly knows it's wrong on every level.

By the time I was over half way through the novel, Eva and Tom have established a really close friendship; it was here that I realized that while some parts of Stowe’s writing contains emotional and moral depth in the various relationships among characters, I found some parts of it to be a bit fluffy in nature that made it hard for me to keep interest in the story. As in the beginning, I began to find myself more interested in Eliza’s story that at least kept the dramatic suspense going. I think a lot of it has to do with Eva’s two-dimensional personality and St. Clare’s apathy. I felt that Tom’s story began to turn a bit wishy-washy, for lack of a better word; although by this point, I must add, I started getting the suspicion that something significant was going to have to happen soon.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin Part III

What can I say about St. Clare and his family? Well, I rather enjoyed reading those particular chapters, mainly because St. Clare is such an enigma. As, we discussed in class out of all the characters in the novel he is the most three-dimensional and complex; many like Eva and Mr. Shelby are fairly flat and two-dimensional, which probably adds to their cliché natures, as I mentioned in my last post. Like Mr. Shelby, I found it very easy to be sympathetic towards St. Clare’s life, especially since he ended up marrying Marie and not his initial true love from his past.

Speaking of Marie, she reminds very much of one of the wives from the Real Housewives of whatever shows. While, it does become quite clear that Marie loves her daughter very much, I just could not get past her shallow, demoralizing attitudes towards the slaves on their plantation-sounds like an oxymoron, I realize, since that how I’m sure it was commonplace for the majority of people’s attitudes towards slavery was back then. 

Uncle Tom’s Cabin Part II

Even the title of the book is called Uncle Tom’s Cabin, I found myself more interested in Eliza’s storyline than Tom’s; I am assuming that was not Stowe’s intention while writing the novel. I remember when reading Eliza’s chapters, I just kept mentally rooting for her, and while reading Tom’s chapters I kept wanting to get to the next chapter to find out what was going to happen to Eliza and her son. It wasn’t until a little bit later in the novel when Haley comes back for Tom that I began to take interest in his storyline; his part in the book seems to start out slower, while Eliza’s is more drama packed from the very beginning.

I think it was about the time that Eva steps into the picture that Tom’s story picks up momentum. This may seem odd, but as the story progressed with the relationship between Tom and Eva, especially when Tom jumps over the ship to save her, I kept thinking how cliché it all seemed; I’m sure though in the mid 19^th century Stowe’s novel wouldn’t have appeared so as it does today where everything and anything has been made into a film by Hollywood. 

Uncle Tom’s Cabin Part I

When I first started reading this, I found the flipping back and forth between the dual story lines to be interesting; I may be wrong, but that to me seems to be a writing technique you do not often see in Stowe’s time. I am actually quite fond of that particular approach; I feel it creates an edge-of-your-seat/can’t-wait-to-see-what’s-going-to-happen-next tension that you see more commonly in modern day television dramas like Lost and Once Upon a time.

Anyways, while I felt initial sympathy for Mr. Shelby (he seemed to be a decent sort...you know, for a slave owner), my sympathy for him quickly turned into a form of lack of respect; Mr. Shelby has no back bone and if I was Mrs. Shelby I think I would be ashamed by his lack of effort to prevent from selling Tom and Eliza, who both have families of their own, despite his financial problems.  

The Raven-Edgar Allan Poe

While I know who haven’t at least heard the name Edgar Allen Poe and as embarrassing as the may be for an English major, until this class I had never read any of Poe’s works. Now, I wish I had; I’ve never been a big fan of poetry, but I found Poe’s writing to be surprisingly absorbing. I do not know if it is his writing or if it is the mystery surrounding his life (probably a combination of the two), but Poe exudes the persona of a fictional character out of fantastical urban legend and not a contemporary poet of the 19^th century.

I think what I like best about The Raven was its ability create one of those life-like atmospheres while you’re reading it; it goes back to what I said about it pulling the reader in. It’s like when an author describes the smell of the sea in great detail; you begin to imagine the smells and feelings of the scene as if the story was unfolding a few feet away from you. Or another example would be when you’re reading a Stephen King book before bed and as you’re trying to go to sleep you begin, letting your imagination run wild and freaking yourself out over little creaks and house sounds. I admire Poe’s skill in creating goose-bump, chilling/weird-what-did-I-eat-before-bed-dream-like poetry; I don’t think many people could pull off what Poe wrote today let alone back in his time.

PS. I kinda want to see the film adaptation of The Raven now…