Bees have come to mean tragedy and death spiritually and in literature.
From what I have read so far in this book, it has vastly exceeded my expectations. I was recommended to read The Secret Life of Bees by a classmate who gave me a brief depiction of the plot. My initial thought was that the story would be simple, a story about a young Caucasian girl moving in with an African American family in the 1960s. However, the novel is much more complex.
Each chapter begins with a small quote or excerpt about bees. The main character, Lily, makes several references to bees as well from the very start of the book while incorporating the background of her life into the story. The novel is written in small parts; a few pages with tell a story of a specific event, and then a break will occur causing the story to seem almost choppy. Lily begins by narrating her current life, and then flashes back to old memories. The only memory Lily has of her mother was of the day she accidentally killed her. She was four, and her parents began to argue for a reason unclear to Lily. As the argument progressed, her mother produced a gun from the closet when her father, also known as T. Ray, hit the gun out of her hands. At that time, Lily vaguely remember picking up the shiny object from the floor and hearing it go off. She shudders every time she recalls that day.
In the present day, Lily has no motherly figure other than Rosaleen, the African American who worked on T. Ray's peach farm and also nannied Lily. She resents her father because he is a very cruel and demeaning man. T.Ray claims girls have to reason to go to college, and he hardly shows any emotion towards his daughter. Lily is the type of hopeless outcast who needs a huge event to occur in order to change her life around. The spark that ignited this future change were the three keepsakes Lily has found from the attic and kept for years- a pair of white gloves, a picture of her mother, and a picture of an African American Mary with "Tiburon, S.C" written on the back.
After being punished the night before, and being with Rosaleen while she was sent to jail, Lily decides to run away from home. She leaves a horrible note to T. Ray saying she was leaving plain and simple. She then manages to break Rosaleen free and the pair flee to Tiburon. It is here that Lily assumes her mother had been, and therefore wants to learn all she can about her. She winds up a "fugitive," as she calls herself and Rosaleen, and finds a home of three black women- May, June and August. This house produces honey with the African American Mary on the mason jar, identical to the picture that Lily owns from her mother's old stash. August welcomes the two in and Lily lies about her situation in order to get a chance to learn about her mother's past. As she spends more time with the "calendar sisters" she begins to find her true feelings and what really makes her up as a human being. She assists August in the upkeep of the beehives and the producing of usable honey. June feels burdened by Lily and Rosaleen, but August insists that Lily will leave when she's ready, and also hints that she will spill the truth as well.
Lily lives on a fine line; racism, cruelties from her father, the unknown of the past, her possible future, and bees all surround her life. The bees have come to play a significant role in the development of her character. She realizes that bees have been associated with the negative times in her life, but she is trying to make it a positive outlet in the present. While learning about her past and where her mother had been, she learns that "every little thing wants to be loved," including herself (92). Lily is looking to feel like she belongs and that she is welcomed. She ultimately wants to free the chains that T. Ray has tied her down with and create a life in which she sees as suitable.
-A. Pruett
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
The Old Man and the Sea
Hemingway, Ernest. (The Old Man and the Sea) New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1995. , 122pg
Reviewed by Kyle Fischer, Los Osos High School, Rancho Cucamonga, CA
This previous week I read the book, The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway. In the beginning of the book we meet our main characters, Santiago and Manolin. We learn that since the old man hasn’t caught a fish in 84 days he is ridiculed by the other fishermen. The young boy has a strong compassion for the old man and doesn’t like it when the other fishermen ridicule him so the boy offers to buy a beer for both of them. This tells us that the young boy will serve as an advocate for the old man and that they will develop a strong bond.
In telling the story Old Man and the Sea, Hemmingway uses visual imagery and symbolism. On the 85th fishless day the man wakes up and sets out to his skiff with high hopes of catching a big fish to show the other fishermen. Hemmingway makes a reference to the old man’s faith and to his Catholic religion. Previously the old man had set up boundaries that he knew that his skiff must stay within. But this day the old man chose to remove the boundaries and rely on his faith. After passing the boundaries the old man almost immediately catches two little flying fish then hooks a massive marlin. When the old man catches the marlin he says in his head that he is going to catch this fish or die trying. This marlin takes the man on a journey of a lifetime, a three day adventure at sea. This symbolizes mankind in its daily struggle. The lesson here is that if we remove the boundaries that confine us, good things may happen in life.
After hooking the marlin, the biggest fish he has ever caught, the man realizes that he does not have the proper tools to bring in the fish. Hemmingway creates a metaphor of the old man as a martyr just like Christ. The man has to hold the fishing lines with his bare hands and cuts his palms giving the reader the image of Christ suffering his stigmata. The stigmata is scars that Christ received when he had nails driven into his palms and feet at his crucifixion. The old man fights the battle for 3 days and towards the end of the journey the old man finally gets the fish and kills the fish. It was so big that the man had to troll the fish behind the skiff. On the way back the old man starts to feel guilty for killing the magnificent fish. He feels this way because along this journey the old man grew an alliance with the fish, after all, the fish is his savior. About half way back to the island the man encounters sharks and they devour the fish before the man could kill them. After the sharks devour the magnificent marlin, the old man realizes that he should have left it alive in the sea. The marlin now becomes the martyr just like the old man.
Eventually, the man gets the fish back to shore but is too tired to tend to it. He leaves the skeleton at the dock and shuffles home with the mast across his back and he has to stop 5 times before he finally reaches his home. When he gets home he gets a cup of water and passes out on the bed with his palms up and head down. This again symbolizes Christ carrying the crucifix and then suffering on the cross with his head down and his palms up nailed to the cross. In the final pages of the book we find the man being tended to by the young boy, Manolin, just as Christ is tended to by his disciples.
It is said by people that when Hemmingway wrote Old Man and the Sea it was towards the end of his writing career. In the book, the old man symbolizes Hemmingway’s struggles to write a good book and how he was being criticized by his peers. At the time he steps out of his boundaries to write something beautiful and it is destroyed by critics in the story those would symbolize the sharks that destroy the marlin. In a nutshell, the book illustrates his life and his struggles just like the old man’s in the book. I think that the book, Old Man and the Sea, is an amazing book that people should take the time to read.
-Kyle Fischer
Reviewed by Kyle Fischer, Los Osos High School, Rancho Cucamonga, CA
This previous week I read the book, The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway. In the beginning of the book we meet our main characters, Santiago and Manolin. We learn that since the old man hasn’t caught a fish in 84 days he is ridiculed by the other fishermen. The young boy has a strong compassion for the old man and doesn’t like it when the other fishermen ridicule him so the boy offers to buy a beer for both of them. This tells us that the young boy will serve as an advocate for the old man and that they will develop a strong bond.
In telling the story Old Man and the Sea, Hemmingway uses visual imagery and symbolism. On the 85th fishless day the man wakes up and sets out to his skiff with high hopes of catching a big fish to show the other fishermen. Hemmingway makes a reference to the old man’s faith and to his Catholic religion. Previously the old man had set up boundaries that he knew that his skiff must stay within. But this day the old man chose to remove the boundaries and rely on his faith. After passing the boundaries the old man almost immediately catches two little flying fish then hooks a massive marlin. When the old man catches the marlin he says in his head that he is going to catch this fish or die trying. This marlin takes the man on a journey of a lifetime, a three day adventure at sea. This symbolizes mankind in its daily struggle. The lesson here is that if we remove the boundaries that confine us, good things may happen in life.
After hooking the marlin, the biggest fish he has ever caught, the man realizes that he does not have the proper tools to bring in the fish. Hemmingway creates a metaphor of the old man as a martyr just like Christ. The man has to hold the fishing lines with his bare hands and cuts his palms giving the reader the image of Christ suffering his stigmata. The stigmata is scars that Christ received when he had nails driven into his palms and feet at his crucifixion. The old man fights the battle for 3 days and towards the end of the journey the old man finally gets the fish and kills the fish. It was so big that the man had to troll the fish behind the skiff. On the way back the old man starts to feel guilty for killing the magnificent fish. He feels this way because along this journey the old man grew an alliance with the fish, after all, the fish is his savior. About half way back to the island the man encounters sharks and they devour the fish before the man could kill them. After the sharks devour the magnificent marlin, the old man realizes that he should have left it alive in the sea. The marlin now becomes the martyr just like the old man.
Eventually, the man gets the fish back to shore but is too tired to tend to it. He leaves the skeleton at the dock and shuffles home with the mast across his back and he has to stop 5 times before he finally reaches his home. When he gets home he gets a cup of water and passes out on the bed with his palms up and head down. This again symbolizes Christ carrying the crucifix and then suffering on the cross with his head down and his palms up nailed to the cross. In the final pages of the book we find the man being tended to by the young boy, Manolin, just as Christ is tended to by his disciples.
It is said by people that when Hemmingway wrote Old Man and the Sea it was towards the end of his writing career. In the book, the old man symbolizes Hemmingway’s struggles to write a good book and how he was being criticized by his peers. At the time he steps out of his boundaries to write something beautiful and it is destroyed by critics in the story those would symbolize the sharks that destroy the marlin. In a nutshell, the book illustrates his life and his struggles just like the old man’s in the book. I think that the book, Old Man and the Sea, is an amazing book that people should take the time to read.
-Kyle Fischer
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Travis' Review of Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Over the weekend I completed Vonnegut's most famous work, Slaughterhouse-Five, also known as Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty Dance with Death, by Kurt Vonnegut, a Fourth-Generation German-American Now Living in Easy Circumstances on Cape Cod [and Smoking Too Much], Who, as an American Infantry Scout Hors de Combat, as a Prisoner of War, Witnessed the Fire Bombing of Dresden, Germany, ‘The Florence of the Elbe,’ a Long Time Ago, and Survived to Tell the Tale. This Is a Novel Somewhat in the Telegraphic Schizophrenic Manner of Tales of the Planet Tralfamadore, Where the Flying Saucers Come From. Peace.
As can be inferred from the second humorous title, Slaughterhouse-Five is not meant to be taken completely seriously. The main event of the novel is the horrible fire-bombing of Dresden, Germany in WWII, in which 25,000 were made casualties. The protagonist Billy Pilgrim survives the leveling of the city by fortune of being in a meat locker at the time of the bombing. However, Vonnegut balances this tragedy with quirky science fiction: Billy is abducted by a race of aliens known as the Tralfamadorians who see in 4 dimensions and consider life as a whole rather than an instantaneous snapshot of the present. Billy also becomes "unstuck in time" and time travels to different moments in his life and lives them out accordingly.
Mrs. Elliott told me she had never read SH-5 because she was nervous about what she heard of Vonnegut's stream-of-consciousness like approach and sporadic, timeline defying delivery. However, I found that Vonnegut was charmingly simple to read and I powered through the novel without getting snagged on any stylistic quarks. Vonnegut uses many line breaks throughout the text to separate his nonlinear thoughts which allows the reader's eye to reset.
For me, SH-5 has its most revealing messages on the topic of the inevitability of death, and treats it with a very stoic nonchalance. Every death in the novel is followed by the line "So it goes.", blunting death's effect. It's hard not to find the book funny at times, despite its gravity. Billy is put at peace by the Tralfamadorian view of never-ending life, and even predicts and accepts his own demise. The Tralfamadorians, in their 4th dimensional wisdom, also advocate returning to the best moments of life and seeing them as eternal fixtures in a chain of events.
Admittedly, I first treated the book as science fiction, accepting that Billy was abducted by aliens from Tralfamadore and had really become unstuck in time. However, as I finished the book, it dawned on me that Billy had gone insane from what he had seen in the war, and his time travel was merely a delusion of a PTSD-stricken mind. The book became much more powerful to me after this realization.
I would recommend SH-5 to anyone, as it has been unlike any book I've read before. It is of the post-modern style, so it should be a new experience to anyone whose literary journey has been predominantly limited to the high school canon like my experience was. SH-5 was very refreshing to read and I hope to explore Vonnegut's other works in the near future.
-Travis S.
Proof of Blog Access January 24
This blog post is to prove that Team Surreal is competent with the blogging platform.
We responded today in class to the poem The Children's Hour by Henry Wadsworth Longellow.
A copy of the poem can be found at this location.
Team Surreal analyzed the social critique brought on through Wadsworth's words. Our questions included:
1.) What sort of society is set up?
2.) What are the rules? Consequences? Enforcers?
3.) What does the writer seem to like/dislike about society?
4.) What changes, if any, are being advocated?
5.) What pressures are put on the members of society?
6.) How do the members respond?
Our responses, summarized:
1.) Society is simply Papa Longfellow and his three innocent, little girls in their home.
2.) The rules are composed of a typical family structure with the father as the head of the household.
3.) Longfellow cherishes his memories of his little girls and holds them "forever and a day", "fast in my fortress."
4.) The writer is not advocating any change, but is encouraging familial love.
5.) There are pressures for the girls to behave, but the Children's Hour is a time for the girls to unwind and have fun.
6.) The girls respond to their freedom with a childlike sense of playtime.
The poem takes a heavy, emotional turn at the last two stanzas. There is a wistful sense of longing imparted to the reader, leading us to believe this poem was written after the children have grown and Longfellow is recollecting his most cherished thoughts.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
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