Hello Readers! This blog is a response to the Thinking Activity which is assigned by Yesha ma'am, Department of English, MKBU. In this blog I am dealing with one or two questions of Novel 'For Whom the Balls Tole'.
Introduction of Writer:-
Ernest Hemingway ( 1899 - 1961 ):-
"There is nothing to writing all you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed."
- Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American Novelist, short story writer and Journalist. His economical and understated style - which he termed the Iceberg theory - had a strong influence on 20th century fiction, while his adventures lifestyle and public image brought him admiration from later generation. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1954.
He published seven Novels, six Short Story collections, and two Nonfiction work. Many of his works are considered as classics of American Literature. His writing career begun as a journalist, and he worked for various newspapers and magazines before becoming a full time writer. He was also an avid outdoorsman, and he often wrote about his adventures in nature. He lived a colourful and adventurous life, and his writing reflects this. Many of his works have been adapted into films, and he is considered one of the most influential writer of the 20th century. In Mid - 1961, he committed suicide. His Notable works are as below.
The Sun also Rises
A Farewell to Arms
For Whom the Bell Tolls
The Old Man and the Sea
About For Whom the Bell Tolls:-
For Whom the Bell Tolls is a Novel. It was published in 1940. Hemingway has covered Spanish Civil war ( 1936-1939 ) as a journalist and that was the basis for this Novel for Whom the Bell Tolls. It is a Set in the Sierra de Guadarrama Mountain range between Madrid and Segovia.
It tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American Volunteer attached to a Republican guerrilla unit during the Spanish Civil war. As a dynamiter, he is assigned to blow up a bridge during an attack on the city of Segovia. His writing style in 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' is characterized by its simplicity and directness, as well as its use of dialogue to convey character and advance the plot. The Novel was well received upon its publication and has since became one of Hemingway's most popular and enduring works. It was adapted into a film in 1943, Starting Gray Cooper and Ingrid Bergman. It was published just after the end of the Spanish Civil War whose general lines were well know at the time.
What is The Iceberg Theory:-
The Iceberg Theory is also known as the 'Theory of Omission". It is a style of Writing coined by American writer Ernest Hemingway. The theory is so named because, just as only a small part of an iceberg is visible above water, Hemingway's stories presented only a small part of what was actually happening.
Q.1 In What way is Robert Jordan a typical Hemingway Hero ?
Ans. Robert Jordan is the protagonist of for whom the Bell Tolls. He is a young American college instructor of Spanish who has come to Spain to fight for the loyalist in the civil war. Hemingway said that only the tip of the iceberg showed in fiction- your reader will see only what is above the water but the knowledge that you have about your character that never makes it into the story acts the bulk of the iceberg. And that is what gives your weight and gravitas. He is known as a typical hero of Hemingway's heroes. Hemingway's heroes have their own brand of uniqueness in their characterization. They are not less than Shakespeare heroes in their unique traits of heroism. His heroes are successful in their presentation of action and adopt themselves as the action follows the critics dub Hemingway as a successful writer of tragic heroes. The elements of pessimism is very much evident in it. He creates his own fiction style in his writing.
Some Example of Hemingway's Heroes :-
Santiago in The Old man and the Sea
Romero in The Sun also Rises and
Jordan in For Whom the Bell Tolls
Hemingway's writing because his heroes often fail in the their struggle and get nothing in the end. A tragic hero in the play or novel is that person who achieves greatness at the tragic death of a hero turns a play or novel into a tragedy and it is the appeal of the tragedy. The hero intentionally does everything for the good of the public and it is his death for the fulfillment of his mission which fills the heart of the readers, with sympathy and respect. The greatness of the tragedy depends on the bigness of the goal of the hero.
In For Whom the Bell Tolls, we see that Robert Jordan plays a role of such character who fight for an ideal in a foreign land. He has a firm belief in the Republican cause because he love Spain. He is of the views that if there establishes a government of fascists in Spain then the future of this County will be in danger and the county might be spoiled. The novel has been written in order to test the quality of Jordan's idealism and the chain of obstacles in his path forms the basic structure of the novel. As the action of the novel proceeds, Jordan's task gets more and more complicated. Pablo is absolutely against Jordan's plan.
Hemingway's heroes are always brave in their acts. Jordan is brave in his great risky task of blowing up the bridge. The reason being, Hemingway's heroes always like to face risks like Santiago in The Old man and the Sea. Jake Barnes in The Sun Man and the Sea, Fredric Henry in A Farewell to Arms and Jordan in For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Some critics raise objections by saying that sometimes, Jordan appears like a dummy but Hemingway makes him a convincing and imitable personality by his superb art of characterization. So, their objection does not remain for a long time when we see that it is Jordan who fights against many abstraction: Liberty, Equality, Rights of the people, democracy and atrocities of the fascist.
One of the best traits of his personality is that he is not : an ordinary hero like other heroes of Hemingway but a complicated one. His complicated nature of psychology vacuum is filled by the dream like love of Maria. He is not a coward like his father who committed suicide. That's why he idealized his grandfather more than his own father.
There is no doubt in saying that he becomes a new man after living only for Maria's sake but it does not mean that his sense of Dutifulness eclipses at any cost. His love for Maria and his risky mission of blowing up the bridge becomes one because fascists have now becomes one because fascists have now become his personal revenge for him as they rape his sweetheart. This very thinking of him leads him further to his fight for Republicans and Republic Spain and Maria becomes one of him.
Thus, we can say that Jordan is typical hero of Hemingway's heroes. His loyalty becomes personal loyalty and he is just a husband covering the retreat of his wife whom he loves by the cores of his heart. He sacrifices his life for Maria and her people. He is justified in his act of sacrifice because his idealism is worth imitating and practicable for many others.
Hello Readers! This blog is in response to the Thinking Activity which is assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad sir, Department of English, MKBU. In this blog I am dealing with the Frame Study of Charlie Chaplin's Movie The Great Dictator.
Frame Study:-
A Frame is a single image of Film. A frame study is the study or understanding of the frame by a camera which is describing or indicating a lot of things to actually understand the meaning behind the fixed camera image.
The Great Dictator:-
The Great Dictator is an American anti-war political satire and black comedy film. Which is directed, produced, scored and starring by British comedian Charlie Chaplin. Having been the only Hollywood filmmaker to continue to make silent films well into the period of sound films. Chaplin made this his first true sound film. Chaplin's film advanced the expression of very strong disapproval of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Fascism, anti-Semitism and the Nazis. The Great Dictator Conveys Chaplin's view that people must rise up against dictatorship and unite in peace. It was released in 1940.
Frame 1
This first frame suggests the Ending of the first world war. The period of madness and lack of humanity. This frame is beginning of the movie which displayed condition on the border, fight with the heavy weapons, bombs. It suggests the malevolence of machines, the horror of war, and the senselessness of destruction. So we can say that the 20th century was time of war and weapons.
Frame 2 Dictatorship
This frame suggests the Hitlar playing with the world. It shows the Dictatorship. Hynkel playing with the balloon. Dictatorship stays at the centre of this film because it is based on the decision taken by a leader to keep his personal ego. They drill them, diet them and treat them like Cattle and use them as cannon fodder. The Dictators are unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. They begin to believe that he is the only one who can be the dictator of the whole world. This frame suggests that "How Dictators play with the people or with the peace of the world".
Frame 3
This frame suggests the mindset of a political leader or Dictator that for photos and love from the public. The public feels the leader is so lovely and caring towards children as kind hearted humans are easily attracted towards the children. This kind of thing we see in the contemporary time, also the political leaders playing with other children to show themselves as emotional and kind.
Frame 4 The Final Speech
This frame is all about the final speech in the movie given by the barber. He is the voice of Charlie Chaplin himself. Here are Some lines from the movie - 'The Great Dictator':-
You are not Machines!
You are not Cattle!
You are men!
You have the love of humanity in your hearts!
You don't hate!
Only the unloved hate - the unloved
And the unnatural!
Probably the most famous sequence of "The Great Dictator" is the 5 minute speech that concludes the film. Here Chaplin drops his comic mask and speaks directly to the world, conveying his view that people must rise up against dictators and unite in peace.
So we can say that both the movies of Charlie Chaplin's play a very vital role in the understanding about the economic and social condition of the 20th century.
( Click here )For the understanding about Second Frame study of 'The Modern Times'.
Hello Readers! This blog is in response to the Thinking Activity assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad sir, Department of English, MKBU. In this blog I am going to present a frame study of the film 'The Modern Times' by Charlie Chaplin, For a better understanding about the setting of the 20th century.
Introduction:-
Charlie Chaplin:- ( 1889-1977 )
Charles Chaplin was an English comic actor, filmmaker and composer who rose to fame in the era of Silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona. From childhood he showed so much poverty in his life. His mother too suffered from mental problems. He used to wander everywhere for food. His acting career was difficult. It could be the reason that he chose silent movies. And we got Charlie Chaplin as the satirist who can satire without saying any words. He received an Honorary Academy Award for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures, the art form of this century" in 1972 as part of a renewed appreciation for his work. His Notable works are as below.
Modern Times
The Great Dictator
The Kid
City Light
Limelight
The Gold Rush
The Circus
The Tramp
Frame Study :-
A frame is a single image of Film. A frame study is the study or understanding of the frame by a camera which is describing or indicating a lot of things to actually understand the meaning behind the fixed camera image.
The Modern Times:-
Modern Time is a 1936 American Satirical romantic black comedy film. It is written and directed by Charlie Chaplin in which his iconic Little Trampstruggles to survive in the modern, industrialised world. The film is a commentary on the desperate employment and financial conditions many people faced during the Great Depression - conditions created, in Chaplin's view, by the efficiencies of Modern industrialization.
It is notable for being the last time that Chaplin portrayed the Tramp character and for being the first time Chaplin's voice is heard on film. In 1989, Modern Times was one of the first 25 films selected by the Library of congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "Culturally" historically, or aesthetically significant.
Frame 1
The movie begins with this frame of a clock. The clock is a suggestion of a mechanical life. It symbolises how time controls us and How they control us. It also symbolises how we live a mechanical life from morning to night. Earlier people used to work in the sun setting. When the sun rises people start working and when it sets they stop working. But now clocks take the place of the sun. In the industrial world life becomes artificial. So we can say that by this frame people are controlled by the Mechanical world.
Frame 2
In the beginning of the movie there comes a second frame of a herd of sheep. And in the fade in transition comes the frame of a people who are moving in a crowd with one destination that is industry. This frame symbolises that people don't have different ideologies. We can also say that a herd of sheep follows the order given by a shepherd similarly a crowd of people follows the order given by their owner of industry. We can say that 'Shepherd flow'.
Frame 3
This frame suggests the mind power rulling over muscle power. A physically powerful man is nothing in front of the industry. Now machine do everything and there is no need for men to show physical strength as such. In monarchy muscle power was force, strength with its help kings ruled their nation but in the 20th century mind power ruled to muscle power. So we can say that in Modern Times only money power and mind power speaks.
Frame 4
This frame suggests technology development and machines. These are called Automatic food feeding Machines. The failure of machines shows the failure of humanity. It shows the rise of 20th century. We can observe that technology is not used to make life easy but to increase the physical workload of the workers. So we can say that if you have no proper knowledge of machines you can not use them properly.
Frame 5
This frame suggests the social economic condition of the society. This girl is stealing the food. They don't have anything to eat and the condition is the people had to steal the food for their living. Comparing it with present times we can see that even today, a crore of people need to give free food for their living because they are not employed and don't have money even for buying food. This is a reality of 20th century.
Frame 6
This frame suggests how industrialization was at the peak in the period that the unemployed working class people had to fight for their liberation, for their employment. They have no food to eat, no shade to live in which shows the image of the 20th century; the working class didn't have even the basic amenities of life like Roti, Kapda or Makan. It shows the social condition of the 20th century.
Frame 7
This is the last frame of the movie. It shows hope. The Tramp walks down a road into the unknown, is more than a reprise of Chaplin's signature finale. This long road of hope always helps us to keep living.
Thus, we can say that Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times present bitter realities of the time in which he lived. It is an entertaining piece but also serves as a political and social commentary criticising the flourishing industrialization, commercialization and big business America.
(Click here )For the understanding about the another Frame Study of the Movie 'The Great Dictator'.
Hello Readers! This blog is in response to the Thinking Activity which is assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad sir, Department of English, MKBU. This blog is dealing with two poems of W. B. Yeats, ' The Second Coming' and 'On Being Asked for War Poem'.
Introduction of Poet :-
W. B. Yeats ( 1865-1939 ):-
He was an Irish poet, dramatist and writer. He was born in Dublin, Ireland. He was the greatest poet of the 20th century. He was one of the founders of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. In 1922 he became a senate of the Irish state. He won the Nobel prize in literature in 1923. He is also known as a Symbolist poet. His use of symbols is physical that is both itself and a suggestion of other, perhaps immaterial, timeless qualities. He was deeply rooted in Irish Culture with its Folklore. In 1899 he fell in love with Maud Gonne, a beautiful actress and passionate Irish nationalist who refused to marry him and she is the subject of most of his love poems. His Notable poems are as below.
The Tower
A prayer for my Daughter
The Second Coming
The Wandering of Oisin
On Being Asked for War Poem
In Memory
Sailing to Byzantium
The Second Coming:-
Turning and turning in the widening gyre The Falcon cannot hear the Falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed,and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned ;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight: somewhere in Sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
The Second Coming is a Poem. It was written in 1919 and first published in 'The Dial' in 1920. And Afterwards included in his 1921 collection of verses Michael Robertes and the Dancer. Poem is also known as the Apocalyptic poem. It is considered a major work of Modernist poetry. The poem was written in 1919 in the Aftermath of the first World war and the beginning of the Irish war of independence.
Use of Symbols in Poem:-
This poem is known as the Symbolist poem. Poet use the different symbols like Spiritus Mundi, Winding Gyres and Falcon. The Falcon is described as "Turning in a Winding Gyres" until it can no longer "hear the Falconer", its human master. A gyre is a spiral that expands outwards as it goes up. Yeats uses the image of Gyres frequently in his poems to describe the motion of history towards chaos and instability. Spiritus Mundi is a Latin term that literally means, world spirit. In the poem, according to W. B. Yeats, "a universal memory and a muse of sorts that provides inspiration to the poet or writer. Its simple meaning is a shape with lion body and the head of a man. This makes it similar to a sphinx or a Manticore, both of which were mythical creatures said to be predatory towards humans.
The Second Coming as Pandemic Poem:-
The poem is also connected with flu e Pandemic (1918-1919). His wife George Hyde-less caught the virus and was very close to death. In that period the highest ratio of death was among pregnant women, around 70% of pregnant women were dying because of influenza. This information easily helps us to read poem as war poem or flu e pandemic poem. Elizabeth Outka in her text "Viral Modernisms: The Influenza Pandemic and Interwar Literature" explain about pandemic.
We have seen this condition in the corona pandemic when the people were dying and getting infected by the Corona Pandemic. We can imagine the Influenza Pandemic must be the reason behind writing these lines: 'centre cannot hold' the things were in control and everything was 'Falling apart'.
So we can say that in this poem, Yeats suggests that out of the Chaos of that era, something is arising that is darker and more evil. Good people don't know what is worthy for them and bad people are full of desire and intensity. Presentation of W. B. Yeats and his poems are as below.
On Being Asked for War Poem:-
I think it better that in times like these
A poet's mouth be silent, for in truth
We have no gift to set a statesman right;
He has had enough of meddling who can please
A young girl in the indolence of her youth,
Or an old man upon a winter's night.
About Poem :-
This poem was written in 1915 and published the following year. It was first published in Edith Wharton's The Book of the Homeless in 1916. It was later reprinted in The Wild Swans at Coole. It's one of Yeats's shortest well-known poems, comprising just six lines, and sets out why Yeats chooses not to write a 'War Poem' for Publication. Years changed the poem's title from "To a friend who has asked me to sign his manifesto to the neutral nations" to "A Reason for Keeping Silent" before sending it in a letter to James, which Yeats wrote at Coole Park on August 20, 1915.
Structure of Poem :-
It is a small six line poem with an ABC ABC rhyming scheme. Here we find a contradiction where the poet is writing in the poem that he or she should remain silent it seems the poet has used Metonymy.
Analysis of Poem:-
The poem is a response to the request of a friend to write a political poem in response to war. The poem begins with a question about the role of the poem in society. As Shelley, a great Romantic Poet, once called poets "the acknowledged legislators of the world". An ancient philosopher, Plato, even thought that poetry should be banned as corrupting and that poetry should be banned as corrupting to society. The poem's line ' A poet's mouth be silent', indicate that Yeats is supporting Plato's view of the poet being silent 'in times like these' which suggests the time like war, the difficult time of the nation or the world.
'We have no gift to set a statesman right',third line suggests that if poet or writer speak or write about political leader or issues they have no rights. 'He has had enough of meddling who can please' in the forth lines of the poem that can be read in the two ways as a statesman. As the words statesman is used recently we will first read with that Statesman have done enough 'medding' the other word used for interference in the life of a youth and the life of the old man. And in other way we can read with positive connotation that youth and the old both the generation enjoy with its romantic verses while old enjoys his Ballads.
This poem is a contradictory poem, it has an act of refusal as assent. It consists of an air of irony. The poet himself is asking poet's to be silent and he himself is writing through a poem. In a letter of the same year, sent to John Quinn, Yeats wrote that the first world war was 'merely the most expensive outbreak of insolence and stupidity the world has ever seen and I give it as little thought as I can'. Also his poems like 'Easter 1916', 'An Irish Airman Foresees his Death' suggest his unhappiness towards the war. Ireland was a colony of the British, Irish soldiers had to fight a war not of their patriotic duty but by force of Britisher. We can interpret that it might also be the reason why poet is not interested in wars. Irish people were fighting in war but they had no profit, they were bounded by Britishers. So we can say that poem is about refusing to write a war poem when asked to produce one. For easy and better understanding about poem below, the video is very useful.
Conclusion:-
Thus, we can say that Both poems 'The Second Coming' and 'On Being Asked for War Poem' are considered war poems. Biography of W. B. Yeats is vividly reflected in his poems. We find almost all cultures and traditions as well as history of Irish people in his poems. As his career developed and literary innovations came with modernism in the early decades of the 20th century, Yeats's work retained its focus on traditional verses forms and rhyme scheme, but he became more political, more allusive, and more elliptical.
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