Harry the Hyena

In the Snow of Kilimanjaro, Hemingway uses animal forms such as the leopard in the beginning of the story and the Hyena in the illustrate different personas of Harry. For example, in the beginning, the dead jaguar was describe as “no one being able to explain what the leopard was seeking at that altitude”. Unlike the Hyena, the Jaguar is seen as a clever, strong, powerful animal. The most interesting similarity between the Jaguar and Hyena is the theme of death. The jaguar is found death and Harry dies at the end of the short story. It could be assumed that the Jaguar died shortly after courageously climbing the mountain, while Henry dies because of an infection “because he had not used iodine two weeks ago when a thorn had scratched his knee”. The way Harry dies is sort of pathetic and weak which are attributes closely related to the Hyena because unlike the Jaguar, Harry did not die because of a dangerous, courageous climb. Hyena’s are scavengers, always stealing meat from the lion, in this case, a lion could symbolize Harry’s wife since he calls her a “rich bitch” and states that the reason why he’s with her is because she’s rich and a quiet woman, “he would as soon be in bed with her as anyone; rather with her, because she was richer, because she was very pleasant and appreciative and because she never made scenes”.Like the hyena, Harry is not a noble character, and as a hyena lurks around a lion for their meat, he lurks around his wife for mainly her money and sex.

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Bernice Bobs Her Hair

As I was reading “Bernice Bobs Her Hair,” I was constantly picturing the Fitzgeralds from the film Midnight in Paris. It gave me a better picture of how men and women interacted in the 1920s. When Bernice asked Charley, “Do you think I ought to bob my hair…” it looks as though she needs the approval of a man. When she explains that the reason she wanted his advice was because “she had heard he was so critical about girls” allows the reader to assume she is not confident enough in herself because of a man’s opinion. This suggests that women should get the approval on anything that changes their appearance. The approval does not only come from the women, but this story suggests that a man’s opinion is the most encouraging. Some of the opinions come in a non verbal manner as seen through out the text. On page 1473, G. Reece asks, “Do you believe in bobbed hair?” Fitzgerald adds that it is said in an undertone. This gives the impression that the nonverbal communication is negative.

Bernice’s Bob and Britney’s Shaved Head

In Fitzgerald’s “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” hair obviously plays an important part. This story is set in the 1920’s and when the town finds out that Bernice plans to bob her hair they are shocked. It’s an exciting and new idea. When bobbed hair first came around and into style in the 20’s, it was seen as scandalous at first. Long hair on a woman was seen as a symbol of virtue and beauty. To abandon all of that would be almost unthinkable during the time. It’s funny how much a scandalous haircut bothered people in those days compared to the present. I suppose that people even now can be upset by a scandalous haircut, but the definition of a scandalous haircut is vastly different than what that definition was in the 1920’s. A bob is a little bit out of the ordinary in modern times, but no one would think twice about it. Now it takes a lot more to shock a crowd with a haircut. I remember the uproar that was caused by Britney Spears shaving her head and how some people called her crazy and others felt the bare-headed pop star required pity from them. But does a haircut really matter? In this regard, are we that much different today than we were in the 1920’s? I think we still perceive women’s hair as a symbol of beauty and of their virtue even though we might deem more styles “acceptable”. It just takes a Skrillex haircut or a shaved head or a frightening color on a girl’s head to cause uproar nowadays.

Bernice Bobs Her Hair

After reading Stein, Hemingway, and now Fitzgerald this week its very clear that the three of them wrote about what they new. You can see their lives and how they lived reflect off their work. The entire time I was reading Bernice Bobs Her Hair I could just picture Fitzgerald standing against the wall observing this party and Zelda off somewhere running her mouth and drinking about 5 glasses of champagne. Right off the bat in this story Fitzgerald paints the perfect picture. He really gave us a sense of what life was like if you were young and wealthy and living in the twenties. After he set the tone and setting for the story he introduces the two main characters of this story: Marjorie and Bernice. They were cousins. Bernice is described as a lot more feminine than Marjorie. Bernice took it upon herself to give Marjorie a make over and teach her how to be more feminine and talk to boys. However, Bernice taught her a little to well and she became jealous of what a hit she had become with the boys, especially with the boy that Bernice liked. Of course, because jealousy brings out the worst in people, Bernice convinces Marjorie to cut off her hair to a bob. Which “de-feminizes” her. The long hair that Marjorie had was a symbol of beauty and feminism and once it was cut off it took away from all that beauty and gave her a masculine quality.

“The Grand Inquisitor” from “The Brothers Karamazov”

In this chapter it talks about how Jesus comes back to earth and performs miracles. The people recognize him and praise him for his good works. He is then arrested to be burned to death by the government. The Grand Inquisitor goes into his cell to speak with him. What I found so interesting about this chapter, is that it mimics what the bible tells us actually happened when Jesus was still living. The whole idea of Jesus returning to town after a long journey and the people loving him is no surprise to you if you have read the bible. After they have greeted him with love and open arms, something changes. In the original story he is being prosecuted for blasphemy, but here he is supposedly interfering with the mission of the church. Yet again, man is convinced that we do not need any help when it comes to establishing religion on earth. As a reader, this chapter is mocking all of the decisions we have made, and quite honestly, it is pretty accurate in doing so. People are so convinced that they can do no wrong and that they are all knowing, that when Jesus comes back to earth to possibly lend a hand in establishing religion we burn him to death. Not only is this repeating history, but it shows how truly ignorant the people in the story are. What is even more min boggling is that the grand inquisitor then sits in the cell and badgers Jesus with a bunch of questions and barely lets him speak up for himself.

Random Commentary

I am going to go a little off topic on this one but I had an interesting experience this morning.

This morning I was able to participate in an activity in which we simulated a  potential investment business situation. As the investor you had the option of either investing your assets in hope of a gain or not investing your assets and receiving interest. The catch was if you chose to invest you had to invest in the decisions of another. This other players decision could be to either pocket the money you invested and provide you with no return or to perform the activity they were paid to do and you would both receive a greater reward.

The results from my experience in this experiment troubled me to say the least. I found that no matter how much the investor paid the employee said employee still chose to perform the minimum amount of work. I believe that this is a recent trend and one that is damaging and quite frankly un-American. This trend is also apparent in the world that we live in. Handouts are at an all time high and I don’t see that trend changing any time soon. Just a few years ago we had a massive housing crisis because people were buying houses they couldn’t afford with loans they had no business getting. The scary thing is, now that we have mostly recovered from that crisis we are about to witness it again. At the state of the union address our president made a point of condemning the fact that people weren’t able to get loans for houses and basically advocated for the same policies that got us into this mess in the first place.

To loosely tie this rant into our class discussion. I wonder how an author such as Fitzgerald, who spent his career writing commentaries on American culture, would immortalize this period in time?

An Outpost of Progress

I felt that there was a lot of irony in Conrad’s title “An Out Post of Progress”. I would think that this title would signify moving up and making society better, as well as living in colonized places.  Kayerts and Carlier are living in a tent in an isolated part of Africa.  Their intention is to trade ivory and get wealth for their company and also some wealth for themselves. This never really works though because both men are extremely lazy.   The irony can also be seen in the very beginning with Makola, the native.  His hut is very organized and built in a very neat manner.  Kayerts and Carlier, on the other hand, had a hut that was basically full of useless trash.  Generally, it would be assumed that the white European’s would be the one with the nice hut.  This trade also goes back to the roots of slavery, since the white European men would not be the ones obtaining the ivory.  The use of slaves is not progress.  One would also think that with “progress” there would be advances in technology and medicine.  However, we know that is not the case, both men get very sick and physically week throughout the story. It is also ironic how two white men are sent out to Africa to try to colonize them, when in reality they know nothing about it.  In the end both men die. Kayerts accidentally shoots Carlier, and then eventually hangs himself.  Ironically their boat was on the way to pick them up, but they died just before their rescue.

An outpost of progress

When I first saw Conrad’s title of his story, “An Outpost of Progress” I immediately thought that it was telling me right away what the story would be about. Looking at it, I came to the assumption that the story would be about some sort of great progress and success. However, I was surprisingly wrong. When we are first introduced to Kayerts and Carlier, the only thing we know is that they have been assigned to a trading post in the middle of the African jungle. We would expect these two men to know the circumstances they are getting themselves into, however the conditions in the jungle that they are presented with prove to be challenging. The isolation and only having each other out there cause the men to not totally get along. They begin to prove the title wrong here because they are making no progress out in the jungle. In fact, the men even get themselves into the ivory trade. Here we also see no progress because they still have no major duties to preform in the jungle, which only leads to more weariness between the two men. As a society now, we also find this story title ironic about the fact that two white men, who knew very little about Africa, are sent there to help colonize. They would be the least helpful people for Africa, and we see this when they get involved with slaves. In the end, both men end up dying, and maybe if they had viewed progress properly, their fates could have been different.

Snows of Kilimanjaro

I feel that Ernst Hemmingway’s story, “Snows of Kilimanjaro”, is about self-discovery and reflection. The main character, Harry, has spent his whole life being married to wealth and the upper-class lifestyle. In his early years, he felt it was right, there was no reason to believe that he had made the wrong decisions about marriage or the life he choose to live. It was not until a safari to Africa that made him reconsider his life’s choices. He made the journey with his wealthy wife Helen, and he choose to embark on this journey as a way of going back to his former roots. Being on a safari is not easy, nor is anything handed to you. Harry and Helen were in the jungle, and were forced to fend for themselves. Their true colors come out when the truck experiences some problems and they are stuck in the jungle by themselves. Harry got hurt, and because of this is experiencing the gangrene, he knows that help will not arrive in time and he will in fact die in the jungle. This ordeal is what causes Harry to reflect on his life. He realizes that he has wasted his life being married to wealth because he has thrown away his talent of writing, he did not need his writing because he had money through his wife. He discovers however that his love of writing is much deeper than the love he has for his wife. This is ironic because he is only discovering this because he is dying. In Harrys reflection, he dreams of being atop the mountain of Kilimanjaro, representing the good times of his life, and the things he regrets never doing.

Snows of Kilimanjaro

In the “Snows of Kilimanjaro” by Ernst Hemmingway, there was a lot of irony in the story.  Harry wasted all of his talents and luxury he had in his life by marrying Helen who he does not actually love.  Harry and Helen go on a safari, where his plan is to get his life back on track. Unfortunately this does not happen when their truck stops working and he gets a terrible infection in his leg.  I thought it was very ironic that the purpose of this trip was to start in the right direction again, and while on this very trip he sees his life flash before him.  Before he has a chance to make his life right, it is taken from him.  It seems that’s how life always works.  While he sleeps, and knows he will not wake he dreams of being on the highest mountaintop in Africa, Mt. Kilimanjaro, whose western summit is called the house of god.  This symbol of being on the highest mountaintop is basically talking about heaven; he is as close to god as he can get on earth.  Harry is stuck on the on the plains in misery dying, and the mountains remind him of the good times he once had.  Harry sees the leopard on the mountain, which is dead but preserved, representing immortality and taking the hard road.  This is symbolic of his life, like when he grew up poor, or when he decided to never admit to his wife that he did not really love her.