Water as Salvation and Destruction?

In a lot of the Heaney poems we read, there was a very strong evident and strong connection that he (and his family before him) felt to the earth. The roots that were planted in his head by his father awoke in him a connection to the elements that fill Ireland. I don't have the book of poems in front of me, but I at least remember that there were several poems about his connection to the water (or the shoreline) and the land of his ancestors. The presence of elemental connections in his poems tie him to the past, but also discovers that they make up who he is.

In "Girl Is A Half Formed Thing," we can trace a theme of elemental connections throughout the novel. The strongest ones are the motifs of suffocation (a lack of air), and drowning (or being cleansed) in water. There are also roots here, except they're broken roots in the brother's  head. Throughout the first parts of the book, there are also quite a few times when the girl refers to her and her friends in relation to the muddy, sloppy earth. In the last section (page 194), there is the long passage about the dream she has that ties her (and every human) to the earth and their ultimate return to it in death.

Using these themes, I'm going to argue that Irish people are being portrayed as "nature" itself. Their relation to the earth and the elements have strong Pagan ties,  but there is a strong presence of Christian dominance in both Heaney and McBride. In Christianity, water is meant to cleanse us of our sins and provide us with hope for forgiveness. For the Irish "pagans," however, water is the opposite of hope because it cuts them off from the rest of the world, symbolizing the encroaching flood and destruction of their beautiful land (at the hands of the Christian invaders). In "Girl," as religion suppresses her natural self (the grandfather, the mother), she looks for salvation in the earth and the water. Instead, it ends up being her demise, just as it will be Ireland's.

GIRL post 2

      Sometimes, I read this book and I confuse it for a satire for the sole reason that it seems to always be reaching for that next level of absurdity. Every time I think I just got to the weirdest past, it turns out that it always gets more strange. And that's not even the aspect that bothers me the most about the book. The thing that plays most in the forefront of my mind is my reluctance to tolerate the main character. I find it nearly unbearable to force myself to get through the recount of her near constant sexual endeavors and her general indifference for the woes of everyday life. Her lack of interest and emotion makes the stream of her consciousness sort of tedious to read, and the only reason I keep going is to see what messed up thing this girl will do next.
      One of the passages I feel that I understood the best was from page 105 to 106, the one that started with "I met a man." I think it holds a lot of relevance to the story but not in the way that it lists all the different men she encounters in her sexual escapades. The end of the passage contains the line "I met a man and many more and I didn't know you at all" as she addresses her brother internally. A line that can get buried by the length of the list, I think its significance lies in the fact that it essentially summarizes the girl's inability to connect with anyone emotionally. Although she loves her brother, and has this kind of obsession with what he thinks about her, she is unable to know him because she barely has any emotions (at least in what we read. She talks about crying, but we don't really see any of it). This isn't meant to suggest she has incestuous ideas about her brother (although there is still another hundred pages, so maybe?), I just think she has this desire to connect with him emotionally and is unable to because all she knows is sex and physicality. In this same passage, she pinpoints this emotional distance by highlighting her acceptance of his money but never saying thank you. She claims "I don't really know what I was up to," in which the reflective narration shows that she now sees how awful she was and that she was emotionally distant from anyone that was good to her.
     Despite my distaste for this girl narrating the story, I find myself wrapped up in the plot that is unfolding. It sort of reminds me of how I felt reading Nabokov's Lolita: unable to put it down because of the genius and the power of the writing. It takes a lot of talent on the part of these authors to make us want to keep reading a book focused on characters we don't particularly like.

Digging through Seamus Heaney

     Art plays an important role in a lot of Heaney's poems, and more specifically, the idea that art acts as link to the past, the present, and the future. Heaney's ability to find beauty in the most menial of tasks winds up creating an entirely new definition of what "art" is and what it can do for a society plagued with revolution and death. I am going to explore the role of the artist (Heaney and his father, Colin Middleton, and a blacksmith), and how their respective mediums reflect and impact the world around them. In an effort to create something that contributes to society and stands the test of time (like they hope Ireland itself would do), these artists connect the fundamentals of Irish tradition with the fleeting present and the looming future.
    In the poem "Digging," there are two artists that make an appearance, even if Heaney does not see himself in the poem as one. He views father's ability to work as rhythmic and beautiful, with his easy flow and skill he learned from his father before him. Heaney's father's connection to the past amazes him, as he knows he has "no spade to follow men like them." The cadence of the poem is highly musical, despite the lack of rhyme scheme, and the diction appeals strongly to the senses like all art does. In my essay I will talk about the "roots" his father plants in his head; roots that urge him to create like his father and grandfather did before him. That's why I think it is fair to claim that, in this poem, Heaney himself should be considered an artist. Like his father's spade, he uses his tool (a pen) to connect himself with the past through the study of his father, in attempts to create and grow as a poet instead of a farmer. This transition from the old value of hard work to the new value for words and beauty creates the dynamic of Heaney's present, and hopefully changes the future of Ireland by succeeding in ways that hard work has failed in the past.
     "The Forge" is a sonnet much similar to "Digging" in that it depicts hard, manual labor as something beautiful and artistic. The heavy reliance on the auditory sense creates for us a musical atmosphere of the ringing and clanging of a blacksmith shop. Since we can only imagine what Heaney guesses is inside the shop, we are left with sounds that form a symphony of work and creation beyond this dark doorway. The way Heaney depicts the forger is the same way he depicts his father, rhythmic and confident, and able to do things Heaney himself can't. The forger is also creating something from seemingly nothing, a skill that has probably been passed down through generations of blacksmiths. The line in the poem that plays a little bit with time and the transition from old to new is when the forger "recalls a clatter/ of hoofs" where there is now traffic buzzing and he grunts and goes back inside to "beat real iron out." Even though the need for blacksmiths was dwindling, the forger was unable to break from what he knows and accept the future.
     Another poem of Heaney's that deals, more literally, with art is "In Small Townlands." About his surrealist friend Colin Middleton, Heaney here depicts creating actual art as something beautiful and otherworldly. In my reading of the poem, however, I thought that the poem seemed more fascinated with trying to understand how Middleton was able to see these colors and lines that weren't really there and paint them. I think in this poem, instead of focusing on the art of the average laborers, Heaney sought out a kindred spirit that creates things with their imagination. It might be a little bit of a stretch, but the last line of this poem, I think, is what all artists strive for: "a new world [cooling] out of his head]. All artists, even the forger and farmers, want to create something that is going to last until the end of time and not embrace that the world is going to change. They strive to plant their roots and instill their same values in their children, but the need for the shift from labor to creativity is as evident in the continuous failure to achieve Irish freedom as it is in Heaney's inability to farm and work like his forefathers.

GIRL Reading Log

   One theme that is predominant in the book and is the violent nature of the story. There are a lot of harsh verbs used in non-violent sentences that give the story an overall feeling of suffering and pain. There is even abuse when the girls set up a fake church (page 24), so to me it just seem like violence and suffering infiltrate every aspect of these lives. And it's not as if they suffer because they are doing these things to themselves. From the brother's illness, to the girl's vision problems, and then the mother's clashing with her father (which lead to a brutal beating), there seems to be an unending flow of misfortune that befalls this small family. Also, whenever these things happen, the term "penance" pops up a lot (pages 24 and 27, that I could find). One woman at the dinner party in chapter 6 is said to "offer it as penance" (page 27) that she will not think ill of her husband because it goes against their vows and that's a sin (even though he is a cheater). There seems to be a lot of focus on suffering throughout these first 6 chapters, but more specifically on suffering these characters think they deserve because they have sinned (one of which I will get to later because I don't quite understand it still). Which leads to the other, and perhaps most obvious, theme of the book: religion. The constant references Jesus, or Mr. Christ, and how we should live to obey him relay to me as the reader the god-fearing traditions of the Irish we talked about previously in class. A fear of sinning and other blasphemies runs rampant through this first part of the book as the girl tries to discover the world. We aren't given any clear indication on what she thinks of it, but we know her mother and grandfather (and brother?) all live in this fear of the lord.

    In talking about religion, I want to go back that allusion I made earlier that I still don't quite understand. On page 22, the paragraph that starts "On my own, I draw on his picture flesh..." The girl seems amused to imagine what Jesus' suffering was like, and to make it up in her imagination. In this passage, I noticed that she focuses on eyes when she wants to make people suffer. She drew blood in Jesus' eye, but she didn't have any red market left because her other one got smushed in Tiny Tears's eye (whatever that means). I also noticed here that she has a fascination with blood. When she was beaten by her mother, she felt "intrigued" with the blood pouring from her nose. Now she seems obsessed with making Jesus as bloody as possible as he is crucified. I have no idea if this passage is making fun of religious beliefs, expressing the girl's curiosity in her faith, or just a child's rambling in her own head. Another passage that doesn't make sense to me is the scene where the teachers publicly berate the "tinker" students on page 30. We learned that tinkers are essentially gypsies, but why are they the ones who had to have been eating chalk? Is this some sort of inter-class conflict that is translating into bigotry? I don't know what to think about it.

      And finally, here is a list of questions that I have about these first 6 chapters:
What do banshees have to do with this story? And why is the girl so afraid of them? (pages 9 and 17).
What was the part about eating chalk about? (pages 29 and 30).
Why include the dream at the end? What does it mean?
Why, if the section of the book is called "Lambs," is there not even any imagery about lambs? Is it like a "lamb of god" kind of thing?

Half-Formed Sentences

    My first question as I began reading the first chapters of "A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing" was who is the narrator of this story. The first chapter was seemingly narrated by the mother of the young boy, but then also seemed to be narrated by the unborn baby. In reading the second chapter, it was obvious that it was the little girl telling the story. The narration jump was a little hard to follow, as I was barely used to the structure of story before it shifted. The style of the sentences is very difficult to follow because it can change from one thought to the next without any warning. The "stream of consciousness" is mirrored in the short burst of thoughts that are seemingly incomplete, but don't take away from conveying the story. I expected to be really confused by the choppiness, so I think that I was going in with that mindset. As soon as I was able to piece together the short bits of sentences, it became easier to read as I went along. It felt like I was reading from the mind of a child. Like whoever is narrating has a short attention span, forgets a lot of details (except for the important parts), and doesn't tell the whole story. I still can't quite place my finger on what is missing from the sentences, however. Is it articles? Action verbs? At first, I thought the entire thing was written in a passive voice but that wasn't it.
    I had a much harder time reading the six pages of "Ulysses." Even though the thoughts were more whole and complete, the lengthy paragraphs made it more difficult to follow along with Leopold's stream of consciousness. Joyce uses his paragraphs to show us how his attention is flitting around the room, and the sentences are reflective of how the brain works as we try to take in a new room all at once. We don't note every detail, but pick up on the ones that catch our attention. I think that Leopold Bloom is Joyce's attempt at creating an objective observer that allows a character to provides an inside look at the life of Dublin and its people. Unlike in our novel, we are in the mind of an adult in "Ulysses," so we are getting a much more mature look at the world, without any of the important details being left out.
   The point of a style that mimics the stream of consciousness is so that the reader is introduced to a narration style that reflects how their own brain works. We may not realize it but when our senses are being overloaded, most of the time we don't think in complete thoughts. In "A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing," the narrator is a child, and children are constantly learning new things about the world using their senses. So in that story, we see a lot of jumping around and distractedness. Adult thoughts are much more coherent and complete, that is why in "Ulysses," the paragraphs are longer and more detailed. It also provides a very intimate knowledge of the events to be 100% in the mind of a person experiencing them.

The Playboy of the Western World

    "Strangers are taken for saviors" is apparently quite a literal statement. Any patricidal maniac is welcome in Irish homes, as long as they don't lie about it. According to Michael, Jimmy, and Philly, it takes great bravery to kill ones father, and all real heroes are brave. This play again mocks the Irish hospitable tendencies, and their gullible nature to believe the good in all people. Christy Mahon, the heroic stranger in "The Playboy of the Western World," has come from a far away place on the run after killing his evil and abusive father. My first thoughts as I read this play were that it's interesting that a group of men (who are presumably fathers) were proud of a man that willingly killed his own father. Comparing that with the interesting relationship between Father Reilly and Shawn, there father/son dynamics in this play are all over the place.

    Pegeen Mike and her father seem to be on good terms, with just the right amounts of respect and back talk. Father Reilly never makes an appearance in the play, but we still get the sense that he is a force to be reckon with by the way Shawn is "afeared" of him so often. It must be an uneasy relationship if Shawn is too scared to do anything against his wishes, even if he would be doing something for his possible future wife. Lastly, as the second act progresses, we are introduced more and more to the relationship between Christy and his father. This one confused me the most because why did the father keep coming back after nearly being murder two or three times? What would drive Christy to be so angry with his father? It couldn't have just been the wedding to someone he didn't love. It doesn't make sense to me, but maybe it doesn't need to. Every generation goes through a stage when they feel they need to break away from their fathers, and do things in their own way. That's how change occurs. The three relationships highlight we read about are what happens when things get too extreme (Christy), or aren't pushed far enough (Shawn). Pegeen Mike is really the only one that logically voices her opinions to her father and breaks free from the traditional in her own way. It could be nationalistic, if we consider it to be a play about the newer generations fighting against the old to provide a brighter future and protect their posterity.

    Another one of my preliminary thoughts as I began this play were about the strangeness of the language used by the characters. Other than the unordinary syntax, I couldn't quite place my finger on why I found it so jarring, so I took to the internet. Apparently, the language was one of the reasons for the riots at the play's debut. Irish viewers were outraged that a play that claimed to be nationalistic was conforming to the language of the oppressor. Maybe this was Synge's intention, to rile everyone up about how tolerant they have been to the English rule. Maybe he wanted them to get angrier and more violent, even if some of the initial riots were centered around fighting the stigma that the Irish are inherently violent people (ironic, right? Let's riot to prove we aren't violent people). It could be nationalistic in that way, as well, if it we read it as a play meant to anger the Irish about their tolerance, or revert them to violence and anger.
 
     But the plot still confuses me if each play is meant to make a comment on everyday life. I can say  I am certain that Christy is no hero, which all the people in the play agree with at the end. But does Christy's inability to kill his father, and Shawn's inability to fight back against Father Reilly, really equate to the Irish being doomed to fail? If we look at it that way, then no, because we are given the relationship between Pegeen Mike and her father that gives us hope that it could actually happen. Even though she is still obedient to her father, she has a bit of fight and spirit in her that allows to speak her mind. I'm still not quite sure how to get at the meat of this play, because I'm unsure about what part of life it's commenting on.

"The Pot of Broth" and "Cathleen Ni Houlihan"

    The very first similarity I noticed about both "Cathleen Ni Houlihan" and "The Pot of Broth" is that both are centralized around guests in the homes of the Irish folk. In the former, an old woman weary of traveling from thieves and sadness; in the latter, an unwelcome tramp in search of food. It is important to note that the woman is welcome in the home of the Gillanes, while the tramp is in the house of the Coneely's unbeknownst to them and unwelcome. However, what they represent is something quite opposite. Although there is something supernatural about Cathleen, it soon becomes clear that she is meant to represent Ireland itself, and that she and her people have been robbed and pillaged by strangers of foreign rule. Her songs speak of the lives lost and the lives soon to be lost in the unending fight towards freedom. The tramp, on the other hand, I had a harder time placing what he may symbolize. At first I thought he might symbolize the government coming to collect things he has no right to. But then I began to think that maybe this tramp symbolizes England and it's rule over Ireland by conning the lower class out of their food by telling lies and stealing. His first song is much more malicious and selfish in tone and shows the true nature of the tramp's stories.
      After writing that first paragraph, the second thing I noticed in both plays is the use of songs by the weary travelers. Historically in theater, the use of songs in choruses is meant to show the truth of what is happening on the stage to the audience, sort of like a narrator that is not seen but knows more than the characters. I think the same principle applies here, in that the songs of the guests reveal to us as readers what their actual intentions are. Even if the characters think that they're  just songs, the audience knows that mood and intentions are being hinted at in their lyrics.
       Another thing I noticed after I had read both plays, is the differences in the way the scenes are set. The first page of "Cathleen Ni Houlihan" describes to us a normal family scene at the Gillanes, where they hear cheering from their window as they prepare for their son's wedding the next day. This is a relatively normal scene, full or curiosity and hopes for the future. This is much the way the rest of the play goes, until the old woman begins singing of all the people that are going to answer her call to battle but will eventually die as the rebellion is squashed. What makes the opening so interesting is when we compare it to the opening of "The Pot of Broth." As this play opens, the Coneely's are not even in the same room as the tramp, let alone aware of his presence there. And his actions as he rummages through their limited food supplies suggest a much more malevolent and bleak situation. The irony of it all is that the Coneely's only end up with their food tricked away from them, with no way to feed the expected  priest. But the story that started to so hopeful, ended with a promising son running from his own bride to fight in rebellion where his death is all but guaranteed.