The Savagery of the Civilized

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            “Savage peoples are ruled by passion, civilized peoples by the mind. The difference lies not in the respective natures of savagery and civilization, but in their attendant circumstances, institutions, and so forth…Even the most civilized peoples, in short, can be fired with passionate hatred for each other.”  This quote by Karl von Clausewitz fully exemplifies what Mark I. West is trying to say in his critical essay called “Mastering the Macabre.”  This review is about how all the short stories of the author Roald Dahl have a distinguishing configuration in that the main characters do not respond well to pressure.  Once evil characteristics such as fear, greed, and anger are experienced, the passion of civilized men overtakes the well-mannered surface.  The innate passion combined with these feelings lead to poor judgment, savage, immoral behavior, and bad outcomes.

          Many of Roald Dahl’s stories, including “Man From the South,” are composed together in a collection called Someone Like You.  These stories start out with the characters being average, every day, civilized people.  However, West argues that in all of them, once faced with pressure, these people drastically can change.  In “Man From the South,” the naval cadet could obviously see that the old man willing to give him a car in exchange for the cadet’s finger off a mere bet was irrational.  The sailor’s initial judgment is that the man is crazy, but in the end his greed takes over.  A once well-behaved naval cadet is now completely reckless and accepts the bet, merely because he could not handle the pressure.

          Another one of Dahl’s stories in this collection is called “Lamb to Slaughter.”  This story is about an average married couple that eats dinner together every night.  One night, as the woman is preparing the meal, the man confesses to be having an affair and wanting a divorce.  The woman takes a frozen lamb leg and kills the man with a bash over the head.  The rest of the story she cleverly is able to hide that she was the murderer.  This savage behavior is brought on by the feelings of fear and anger.  Fear that her husband is leaving her coupled with anger that he is cheating on her, causes the woman to respond in a way no one would have expected.  Also, the fact that she is able to hide the murder like she was a trained assassin brings to thought if she was ever really civilized to being with.  Or if she had murder potential in her the whole time, and had just been able to suppress this aspect of herself until the pressure was too intense.

            Through various examples of short stories by Roald Dahl, West clearly displays the underlying theme in all of them.  The theme that no matter how educated and gentleman-like a person may appear, they are still capable of evil deeds when confronted with difficulties.  Whether the main characters experienced a feeling of greed, of jealously, anger, or fear, an innate characteristic came out in them that caused them to act uncivilized.  West is trying to show Dahl’s readers that his main message in his stories was to never believe what you see, as there is always more to people than seen at first glance.  He is also teaching readers a little about themselves by telling them to keep their emotions in check and try to avoid bad situations, as anyone can do something out of character if they give into evil characteristics.

Works Cited

West, Mark I. "Mastering the Macabre." Roald Dahl. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1992. 36-59. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 173. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Literature Resource Center. Web. 27 Sep. 2011.

Comedy According to Edgar Allen Poe

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          In the short story of Hop Frog, Edgar Allen Poe basically calls his readers fat and oily monkeys that love to make fun of others pain. Hop Frog is one not only written for entertainment and illumination, but also one written to show the readers of Poe’s other short stories the meaning of comedy. This story that hinges on revenge and practical jokes shows a comedy that Poe doesn’t show in his other short stories. Thomas H. Pauly the author of the article “Hop Frog – Is the Last Laugh Best?” argues that Poe’s reasoning for writing Hop Frog was to show the readers of his previous works that his writing contains much intellectual humor that they overlooked.
          In the opening paragraph of the article Pauly states that Hop Frog is a story of revenge that defines the central idea of comedy. Pauly goes on to describe the opening paragraph of the story, saying that Poe associates a certain type of humor with the character of the King and his ministers. It is a comedy that deals with practical jokes and physical pain and harm to others. It is not an intellectual comedy but a debase crude sense of humor. In order to show how rudimentary this type of comedy is, according to Pauly, Poe characterizes the King as a corpulent oily being that doesn’t understand verbal ingenuity and relates it to the readers who failed to understand Poe’s previous use of intellectual humor.
          In order to back up this thesis that Pauly presents he uses many examples from the story that describe the essence of the comedy that Poe is describing. In the article one example given to show the grotesque comedy that Poe doesn’t want in his stories, is how Hop Frog is a deformed creature that walks funny and looks quite different from everyone else. The King makes fun of Hop Frog for the disabilities that he has and he finds humor in it, and when the King gets tired of the same deformed Hop Frog he makes him drink wine to cause Hop Frog to go mad in a drunken stupor. This cruelty shown by the King shows that his practical jokes are vial and are not the true type of comedy that Poe wants to present in his short stories. Poe tries to show that his readers are like the King in Hop Frog if they do not understand the highly intellectual humor that he includes in many of his other shorty stories. 

         Another example in the article by Pauly that is used to portray the bad sense of humor, is the part of the story when Hop Frog decides to takes his revenge upon the King for harming his dear and only friend, Trippetta. In an act of rage Hop Frog has the King and his ministers dress up like monkeys for the masquerade. They tar and feather themselves and then chain themselves together. Hop Frog finally gets his revenge when he sets them all on fire. The King and his ministers are completely oblivious to Hop Frog’s ingenious plan for revenge and humor. This lack of awareness by the King echoes the idea that Poe’s readers are unaware of the ingenious humor Poe includes in his other works. However, Pauly also includes in the article the idea that Hop Frog did not necessarily win the battle of comedy. In an effort to show original humor Hop Frog goes mad and essentially loses himself and has to run away for his crime, thus showing once again the grotesqueness of practical jokes and humor that pokes at the pain of others.                         
         Thomas H. Pauly’s article on the story of Hop Frog shows that Edgar Allen Poe was very sensitive to the inspired humor that he uses in his works. He defines true comedy to be of an original and resourceful source, not something that distortedly makes fun of other peoples pain and suffering. Comedy and use of humor is an art and Poe desperately tries to show this idea in the story of Hop Frog. 

 Works Cited
 Pauly, Thomas H. ""Hop Frog-Is the Last Laugh Best?"" Studies in Short Fiction11               (1974):   307-09. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 20 Sept. 2011.

Reconsidering Traditions: A Review of "Censorship and 'The Lottery'"

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            Why does it always seem that horror movies begin with a pleasant scene that lulls the observer into thinking that the movie will not be so scary? Take a minute to think about how it feels when the movie does suddenly turn violent. Does the observer not feel somehow violated or tricked? This is a technique that not only directors of cinema use, but also writers of short stories. It is widely accepted that most readers try to “predict the coming events of the plot based on prior events”, so when the plot suddenly goes in a direction that the reader was not expecting, the effect will be more profound, and the point of the story will become clear (Bogert 46). Such a story is “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, in which a seemingly harmless story about a pastoral town concludes violently. Edna Bogert reviews “The Lottery” in her article “Censorship and ‘The Lottery’”, in which she discusses the effectiveness of tricking the readers in this way, the purpose of the violent end, and how this story has impacted the present world.

            When the reader finally comes to the end and realizes their mistake in assuming what the end would be, he or she cannot interpret the beginning of the story in quite the same way he or she did before. “The Lottery” is one of those stories in which it never has the same effect unless the reader is unaware of the ending. Due to the reader’s inherent urge to “use narrativity when they read fiction”, the reader predicts what they believe will occur according to the pastoral setting and the “‘clear and sunny’” scene that enfolds in the first paragraph of the story (Bogert 46). As the story progresses, readers begin to become confused by the way characters act, events that are taking place, and shift in the story’s tone. This leads to a questioning of the prediction their mind had already made about the conclusion of the story. Readers begin to ask themselves what is really going on in the story, and they start to reformulate their predictions, but more suspiciously and hesitantly. “The Lottery” really uses the technique of tricking the reader as discussed in Bogert’s review, but it’s the way that Shirley Jackson concludes the story that Bogert really focuses on in the article.

            In her review, Edna Bogert considers possible options concerning why the story ends in such a violent way, and for what reason the villagers feel they must conduct the lottery. Perhaps due to the fact that the town has a “population of 300 and ‘likely to keep on growing’”, the citizens wish to use the lottery as some sort of population control, but as Bogert reasons, this makes no sense due to its ineffectiveness (Bogert 46). Instead, maybe the town does it for entertainment, but again, evidence does not support this claim either. The townspeople do not seem to be enjoying themselves, and the setting does not seem to be so primitive, that the citizens would enjoy such brutality. Finally, Bogert reveals the true purpose behind the lottery for the citizens: tradition. The citizens go along with the lottery simply because that’s the way it has been done for generations. Clearly this town is based on tradition, since Jackson makes it a point to highlight the traditional male-female roles, and it is the male that draws the slip of paper from the lottery box. As Bogert points out, the village also associates this tradition with the harvest in a semi-ritualistic way, as if the harvest will be poor if the lottery is not performed. In this way, Shirley Jackson prompts the reader to consider traditions and whether they should be blindly followed. What would our world be like if no one was willing to think for themself?

            Though this short story has not technically been censored out of reading material for high school and college students in the United States, “The Lottery” is among the 48 works that are frequently challenged as to whether it should be in the curriculum (Bogert 45). The reason being how this story relates to the past and even more so, the present. Mrs. Hutchinson, the woman in the story who is murdered, can be termed the innocent of the story, the one that gains the reader’s sympathy. Similarly, two decades ago what the citizens of Germany did “was to go along with a leader who’s expressed goal was the extermination of a group of people”, and those people seem to be the innocents in the story of history over time (Bogert 47). Shirley Jackson was making a parallel between the horrifying traditions of a pastoral town and some of the traditions that are currently upheld all over the world that need to be reconsidered. Jackson points out that she feels proud when a country bans her short story because she feels like at least they understand it. They understand how dangerous it could be for their citizens to start questioning traditions. The United States is currently undergoing pressures from conservatives to keep traditions intact, but as Bogert points out, maybe our fear of this short story should prompt citizens to reconsider. Why is it proponents of tradition fear this short story in the first place?

            In Edna Bogert’s review of “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, Edna discusses the reader’s initial dismay at the twisting plot of the story, the meaning of the ritual portrayed, and the effect the story has on the reader and the world. Both the story and Bogert’s interpretation challenge the reader to consider a world in which traditions governed all. If no one person had ever thought for themselves, then people today would still be sacrificing to the gods and killing the first born son. Thanks to people who fought against ideals they believed were wrong; society has progressed from children stoning their mothers, as in the story. But it cannot stop there; the world remains imperfect and in some places, as cruel as the practices in “The Lottery”, so it’s up to individuals to conclude for themselves what their idea of right and wrong will be.

Work Cited

Bogert, Edna. “Censorship and ‘The Lottery’.” The English Journal, Vol. 74, No. 1 (Jan.,

1985): 45-47. Web. 17 Sept. 2011.

           

Citations

         We believe that citations are important because people deserve credit for their own ideas and innovations. Without giving credit to the original author, the writer would be stealing work that is not his or her own, which is plagiarism.  It’s also important because it shows how the ideas have changed and evolved over time with new research and input, and the reader must be able to trace the information contained within the essay back to its original source. People who are very interested in the subject are able to look up and read more in depth with particular ideas they found intriguing.

         We decided to use MLA citation style because it’s the style with which we are most familiar. In high school, when writing critical essays that require cited sources, we were taught to use this particular style of citing. MLA style also includes the year that the work was published and used, which is important for web information as it may change over time. It is important to recognize the aging of information when evaluating the credibility of a statement. MLA also uses in-text citations with names and titles, which make it easy to see where the information came from without having to refer to the bottom of the page or the works cited after the conclusion of the essay. Thus, our posts will have in-text citations with detailed MLA citations for each source cited internally in the bibliography, which will follow the text.

A Story From the Past

           

            Many times in literature, authors will write short stories that will carry messages or lessons in them that will stand the test of time.  No matter the time or situation, these lessons can still be relevant generation after generation. However, some pieces of literature only hold true for the audience that it was written for in the time it was written. So much changes from one decade to the next, that many times young, current readers have nothing to identify with in the stories that they read. Roald Dahl writes the short story, “Man From the South,” that unfortunately is not very relevant to young readers because it is so hard to relate to. This irrelevance is shown through the different features of the outdated time, uncommon setting, and the unusual situation that the characters are in.
            The “Man From the South” takes places down in a tropical island.  This setting is completely different to where the average young reader lives, or has ever even been to.  This setting makes it much hard for the reader to visualize the story.  This can lead to the reader trying too hard to picture what it looks like in their head, and not pay attention to what actually is going on throughout the text.  

            The story “Man From the South” is set in a tropical resort, back around the 1930s or 1940s.  This time period is multiple generations removed from young readers of today.  So much as changed since then, including world events, technology, and just day-to-day life of the average young adult.  This story is hard to relate to, because nowadays, naval cadets would not be training off a tropical island, and if they were, they would be much more disciplined and trained.  

            The old man and the young naval cadet make a ridiculous bet about the young man’s lighter.  Not only is this bet childish, but the stakes placed on the bet are so high, that they tend to seem unreal for the reader.  The fact that the old man would be his nice Cadillac, just based on chance is quite.  However, this is nothing compared to what the naval cadet is putting on the line, his left pinkie finger.  There is no contract signed in this bet, or not legal force watching over it.  The trust that the cadet places in the old man is something that readers today cannot even imagine.

            This is not quite relevant to young, current readers because young people today are not nearly as trusting as they were back in this time. They have learned not to trust people they do not know, but to build trust in people. This young cadet trusted that the old man was telling him the truth in that he would give him a car.  The cadet was willing to risk his finger off of someones word that he had just met.  In addition, even the biggest gamblers in Las Vegas do not bet parts of their bodies.  Young readers, especially, have never been in a situation where the stakes were so high.  This situation is just not very relevant at all.

            Through the time period, the setting, and the circumstances of the short story, “Man From the South,” it is not quite relevant to young, current readers of today.  Many times in literature, writings are quite timeless and can retain relevance from one generation to the next.  However, in this story, the times of the story until now are too different.  The time allows for the situation to be different than any situation that a young reader today would have encountered.  Even if a few young, current readers have experienced a situation like this, it was doubtfully in this setting.  The combination of all three unusual circumstances, combined with the lack of a strong message being sent, result in the short story, “Man From the South” by Roald Dahl, as being quite irrelevant to young, current readers today.

Bullies, Not Just Modern Villians

 

     One in seven students in America have either been bullied or have bullied someone else in their lifetime. Over half of students in various schools have personally witnessed an act of bullying occur. From these statistics we can see that bullying seems to be a major problem in our society today. However, bullies are not just modern villains, bullies have been around for a very long time, as we can see in Edgar Allen Poe’s short story Hop Frog which took place around the 16th century. In the story Hop Frog the act of bullying and its repercussions can easily be made relevant to current young readers that deal with bullying on a daily basis.

        In the short story of Hop Frog, the main character named Hop Frog is a dwarf and a cripple who is tortured relentlessly by the cruel and rotund King and his council.  Hop Frog, as the King’s jester is forced to do ridiculous things usually against his will. At one point during the story the King forces Hop Frog to take a sip of wine. Wine is a torturous substance for Hop Frog that makes him go crazy to the point of insanity. The fact that the King forces Hop Frog to do something that he begs not to do is a common act of bullying that occurs often in modern schoolyard situations. Many students and young adults all across the country experience this sort of brutish harassment. Walking to lunch one day a student may encounter a bully that forces them to give up their lunch money leaving them hungry and vulnerable. When students get older and move onto college there is still instances of bullying, for example, in fraternities the act of hazing can be seen as an act of victimization that can cause some psychological and physical damage. Bullying has always been around and the fact that it is a theme in Hop Frog shows this idea. It also shows that Edgar Allen Poe’s short story is still relevant to the young people of today because we can learn  a lot from events of the past. History does not always have to repeat itself, bullying can stop if people realize that harmful things can come of it.

         Another aspect of the short story Hop Frog that is pertinent in today’s young society is the idea of revenge that greatly goes along with bullying. In the case of Hop Frog, after being tortured by the King and having his companion physically harmed by him, Hop Frog decides to take revenge. In his insanity Hop Frog decides to trick the King and his companions and have them cover themselves in tar, chain themselves together, and act like monkeys. In the end he humiliates them and sets them on fire in his rage, basically burning them to a crisp.  In todays society revenge might not be quite so deranged but it is prominent among the young adult population.  Even outside of the context of bullying, revenge is an act used by many people in certain situations.  In many extreme cases of bullying the victim will often take action and seek revenge on their bullies. For example, the Columbine massacre occurred because the killers were bullied in school and they wanted to take revenge upon their classmates.  In one bullying statistic it is said that revenge after being bullied is the main motivation for school shootings. Revenge for bullying is a tragic but somewhat common theme in society today, and the events that occur in Hop Frog greatly correlate to the problems occurring with young people today.

        The story of Hop Frog written by Edgar Allen Poe years ago is still relevant to the world of young people today. The themes and the characters that Poe creates in the story are significant to young adults today because they resemble what is going on now and they show the disastrous affects of bullying and revenge. Young people that have been bullied can look to Hop Frog and see that his actions were a little drastic and they can learn that revenge does not need to be so lethal. They can also look to see that they are not alone as victims. People have been bullied for a very long time, since the very beggining of time, and we can see this in the story of Hop Frog.       

The Unlucky Soul: A Comparison of Today With the Town of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”

Let’s be honest, the young people of past generations are certainly very different from today’s youth. In the 70s, when it was cool to be a hippie, I don’t think they would have understood the social media-savvy teens of today. Consequently, when reading a short story, which is set in a different time completely, it can be hard to relate to the setting, the morals, and the traditions of various characters. Such is the case in the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, in which the town is tiny, the women are not equal, and violent traditions shape the lives of the townspeople, making it hard for young people to relate to this story at all.

            The town is said to consist of three hundred people, which is so unfamiliar to today’s teens, who mostly live in bigger towns or cities. Though I’m sure there are a few tiny towns left in the United States, not many young adults experience an entire town meeting in a centralized location. In fact, it rarely occurs. The fact that the citizens of the town can simply gaze about them to find if someone is missing is strangely mind-blowing to today’s young teens. While “in some towns there were so many people that the lottery took two days”, in this town it only takes a couple of hours for each male of every household to draw a slip of paper from the black box, while Mr. Summers, the man in charge of the proceedings, reads out every single last name.

            Speaking of the male of the household, this town is highly patriarchal, which makes the story unrelatable to young women of this generation. The ladies enter the square only after the men have already gathered, and then they must join their husbands when they get there, meaning they really have no choice whether or not to attend the lottery. The woman is expected to be standing by her man’s side at all times, but she is not even allowed to arrive at the same time to the square. For example, when Mrs. Hutchinson is late, she becomes the butt of many jokes, including a reference to her washing dishes at home. Clearly, in this society, a woman’s place is in the home, which most teenage women are clearly unaccustomed to those constraints.

            The final reason why young people today would not relate to this short story is also the most obvious reason because people of this generation do not usually have a lottery to decide whom they are going to throw rocks at that day. The fact that this town has a lottery each year to decide who will be the unlucky soul who gets killed by the other townspeople would be considered absurd in this day and age. The biggest theme in this story is how these people blindly follow a tradition, even though they know it is wrong. Blindly following traditions just does not happen for young people today. Though peer pressure is abundant, most teens have figured out how to be individuals and how to speak out against things they believe are wrong.

            “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a story about a small town in which following a tradition gets extremely out of hand. The young people of today have trouble relating to this story because most teens do not live in towns with three hundred or less people. Also, women are not subjugated to the command of men today as they are in the story. Finally, the violent tradition of stoning would not be accepted in today’s world. Though some short stories set in the past still hold common themes for young people of today, “The Lottery” is very hard with which to connect. However, this story does challenge people to think for themselves.

           

           

           

We are freshman at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This semester, we are in English 102i, which focuses on the liberal arts. We are writing this blog so that we can complete assignments on literature, history, and art history. We will be writing about a short story, an article about each of our hometowns, and a piece of art. As authors, we are a diverse group. As far as the high schools we attended, they vary from public school to private, to catholic school. The fact that we are freshman at UNC is what unites us and gives us a common interest. Diversity is what makes us unique. We are writing about our adjustments and changes as freshman entering college. This blog will interest seniors in high school wondering what to expect or freshman like us who wonder if they share the same experiences. Our tone is going to be a bit sarcastic because when reporting the daily life of a freshman in college, humor is essential.

Martha Upton
Currently a freshman at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I grew up in Wake Forest, North Carolina, and attended a small, private school in Raleigh, Ravenscroft, for thirteen years of my life. During high school, I was a member of the cheer leading squad, Vice President of the Quill and Scroll Society, and an active member of our school’s yearbook. This past summer will make the second summer I have been a lifeguard. As of now, my major is the ever-popular undecided, but I really enjoy history.

Helena Archer 
I was born in Canada, but I moved to Chapel Hill when I was six and decided to remain local for college. My major is listed as Comparative Literature/International Studies, but I’m still unsure of what I want to study. I like to play sports, write short fiction/poetry, and work part-time as a cashier, although I’m taking a break from that for the first year of college.I LOVE to travel, and plan to do a lot more of it in college (in the photo I’m with my sister in Morocco), although I have no idea where. I’m also trying my hand (unsuccessfully) at writing music, and still picking through the emails from the million and one clubs I signed up for.
(on right)

Becca Sikora
I am currently a freshman at UNC Chapel Hill, majoring in Chemistry with a Biochemistry track. I was born and raised in Greensboro, North Carolina. I attended Northwest Guilford High School where I was a part of the Varsity soccer team and track team. I participated in Science Olympiad, and I was a member of my school’s We the People team. My high school was located in the middle of nowhere, so diversity was something my school lacked. Everybody was very similar, so meeting so many new and different people has been a new experience as a freshman at a large university.

James Hickey
I was born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina. I attended Catholic school my whole life, so moving to the much larger, public University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a big change. I am really into all sports, especially football, which I played in high school. During the summer, I live and work at the beach. I am fairly undecided about my major, but I am leaning towards business.