Hungry for a Meaningful Life

In Franz Kafka’s “A Hunger Artist,” the main character spends his life as a Hunger Artist, moving from town to town performing his “art” of fasting. At first, the public is fascinated with him and his performances; he is celebrated and idolized as he slowly starves himself in a straw-filled cage. Over time, the public loses interest and moves on to newer interests yet the Hunger Artist continues to perform, albeit to an almost non-existent audience, until the day he dies. Through the character of the Hunger Artist, Kafka explores suffering as art, a meaningful life, and the meaning of humanity itself. Uses Irony Suggests that “normal” people can never fully understand Artists and their art. Presents a metaphor that all life is ultimately meaningless. Through the character of the Hunger Artist, Kafka puts forth the idea that we all live life in a cage of our own choosing.

The Guest

In Albert Camus’ “The Guest,” a mild-mannered schoolteacher finds himself stuck with an unwanted guest and obligation: taking his guest, an Arab accused of murdering his own cousin, to prison. Through this obligation, the schoolteacher, Daru, must deal with concepts of honor, choices, and individual responsibility. Ultimately, Daru decides the choice of whether or not to deliver the man to prison is a decision best made by the prisoner and not himself. The Arab decides to turn himself in to the prison, leaving the reader with the question of why. Although Camus does not give the reader easy answers to the question of why, there are several reasons the Arab chooses the path to prison.

Tennyson’s Ulysses

Lord Alfred Tennyson’s “Ulysses” is a lyrical continuation of the quest and life of Homer’s Odysseus. Starting shortly after Ulysses (Odysseus) returns home, “Ulysses” relates the difficulties experienced in adjusting to domestic life, his sheer boredom with the duties of being king, and his hunger for more travel and adventure. “Ulysses” explores the concept of the quest and the meaning of a life worth living, especially a life worth living for a man who had already lived life beyond the norm. Through “Ulysses,” Tennyson demonstrates that the quest is more than just an adventure: it is living life fully.

Surviving the Test of Time

In just fourteen short lines, Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Ozymandias” eloquently captures a moment in time and history. Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1792-1822, was born into wealth, educated at Eton and Oxford, traveled widely throughout Europe, wrote extensively, and died regrettably young in a boating accident (Wikipedia.org). “Ozymandias”, written in 1818, is believed to have been written “in competition with his friend Horace Smith, as Smith published a sonnet a month after Shelley's which takes the same subject and makes the same moral point” (Wikipedia.org). “Ozymandias” is not considered Shelley’s best work by experts, but has become his most well-known as it has been his most anthologized (Sparknotes.com). The obvious moral of “Ozymandias” is simple: the mighty and powerful are subject to, and victims of, the inevitable forgetfulness of time and history. Less obvious but far more profound is the idea that the work of the artistsans is what gains the respect and honor of history. Through use of theme, structure and word choice, Shelley’s “Ozymandias” shows that it is not the work of the mighty and powerful that stands the test of time, but the work of the artists.

Wandall, or Hopefulness

Wandall, or Hopefulness

Translated from the Yiddish of Toomuch Drincks, a good man

of a good town, with additions found in the stalls of the Tipple Inn's men's room.

With apologies to Voltaire.

CHAPTER I

How Wandall Came to the Good Town and met the Mayor and went to Church

There came to the town of Dekadent, in the land of Coolyuras, a world weary wandering woman known as Wandall, who had traveled far and wide in search of a good town filled with good people. Wandall, having heard from far away of this good town, arrived believing her search had ended. A town of golden streets, where good people helped their neighbors and all the high school cheerleaders were blond. A good town, with so little crime it needed but one cop, who worked only part-time.

O, What a Rogue and Peasant Slave am I!

With the simple, melancholy, yet profound words of “Now I am alone” (Shakespeare 2.2.500), Shakespeare conveys the poignant yet tortured inner struggle that Hamlet is experiencing over the death of his father, and his ghosts’ request to avenge his murder. In the third soliloquy – a mere 60 lines – Hamlet’s angst, cowardice, procrastination, melancholy, resistance, intelligence, reason, and even some bravery are superbly articulated.

Fleshing Out the Shakespeare in Shakespeare’s Sonnets

It strikes one as obvious that any artistic creation – whether it be music, painting, sculpture, poetry, prose, or any other creative work – would have within it the characteristics and personality of the creator. Look at the twisted, often tormented paintings of Picasso or listen to the complex, near-perfect mathematical harmonies of Beethoven and you will find yourself making assumptions about their intellect, personality, torments and loves. More so than painting and music, the creations of a writer contain details about the author: who they are, what they think, how they feel, what they believe, and more.

Cunning in Homer’s "The Odyssey"

More than 2,000 years after Homer first put The Odyssey to paper, the English essayist William Hazlitt stated that “cunning is the art of concealing our own defects, and discovering other people’s weaknesses” (Justin 462). So true are the words of Hazlitt, equally in the 1800s as in the 8^th century BCE when Homer wrote The Odyssey. The art of cunning – specifically, cunning intelligence – was a quality obviously honored by the Greeks, and is essential to the story of Odysseus in Homer’s The Odyssey.

Dramatic Conflict in Euripedes' "The Bacchae"

There are many examples of dramatic conflict in Euripedes’ play, “The Bacchae.” These include, but are not limited to: men vs. women, gods vs. men, wisdom vs. the rashness of youth, and others. One of the more significant examples of dramatic conflict is that of tradition vs. change, as shown through the character of Pentheus.

Although Pentheus is apparently young and inexperienced, he is surprisingly traditional and very resistant to change. He has strong beliefs in how the world around him operates, how people should worship, and especially, what is “proper” behavior for women.

Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale"

Brief Summary of the Book, Why the Author Wrote the Book, and your Reaction to it:

In The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, we are taken to a near-future America where society, as we currently know it, has drastically changed. During the 1980s, pornography, drugs, street violence and other social problems are common. Serious environmental damage by toxic chemicals, biological weapons and nuclear waste has caused widespread infertility and birth defects, leading to negative population growth. A group of powerful men – mostly right-wing fundamentalists – plots and succeeds in murdering the President and most members of Congress. They then take advantage of the subsequent shock and fear of the people to suspend the Constitution and the civil liberties it protected. Of course, this was all done in the name of “protecting” citizens from further potential violence – it was not known by the public that the very people who were “protecting” them were the ones that plotted the murders and succeeded in a hostile takeover of the government.

The Incidents Which Most Effectively Dramatize Pentheus's Blindness in "The Bacchae"

In The Bacchae, the author Euripides attempts to show the potentially negative consequences that await people who chose to not listen to reason, who refuse to open their narrow minds to the possibilities of other explanations and existences, and those that act before they think. Euripides does this through the character of Pentheus. Pentheus is “blind” to the truths in front of him, to the words of those who have more knowledge and reason than he, and most importantly, to the consequences of his actions and his own fate if he doesn’t open his eyes.

Ancient Sumerian Culture in "The Epic of Gilgamesh"

Imagine what a day in the life of a citizen of Uruk must have been like. Waking up in the morning, looking outside and seeing, once again, that the scorpion-men of the East Mountain had opened the gates and Shamash the sun god had been pulled across the sky in his chariot (University 1). Walking towards the Eanna temple, hoping that one of the priests would be available to interpret a dream you had during the night, imagine the awe you would feel seeing the sun glinting on the walls of the temple like copper. Carrying your offering, you would go through the open area towards the cella, admiring the interior walls along the way and smelling the burning incense (Kovacs 1:12).

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest-known work of literature found to date, we can find a surprising amount of information about what life in Sumer was like.