Monday, February 21, 2011

Chaos Within

Spontaneous occasions
Stranger relations
Lifestyle mutations beyond recognition.
Moderation in incarceration by recreation.
Loss of deliberation as awareness dissipates.
The conscious unable to communicate
As notions resonate throughout the fibers of my being.
Trying to decipher what I'm seeing.
Not sure what I'm believing as my eyes are deceiving.
I cant concentrate on what I'm perceiving.
Filled with a desolate feeling that life is unappealing.
And people are demeaning as the nation loses its hearing.
I begin to grow more wary as people aren't treated fairly.
I start to get more daring as my fear is impaired.
Unable to get scared
and I try my best to care.
But I feel that all my efforts are going nowhere.
My emotions evaporate into thin air,
floating in despair,
am I really there...?
Gone in an instance with consistent persistence.
No point of resistance to the constant closing distance.
Trying to make sense of all this nonsense.
Confusing my conscience,
the interruptions constant.
Creating corruptions in my assumptions.
Misguiding my judgments,
As I try to amend my past by helping friends with tasks.
But my sanity wont last the journey to the past.
And lead me into fantasy
where reality's cast in chastity.
Holding on to charity by de-fogging my clarity.
I don't think I can last this way.
Trying my best to survive each day.
Searching for a path, seeking the way.
But my metaphorical compass has gone away.
The map in my mind in a state of decay.
The fibers in my brain begin to fray.
My vocabulary cant decide what to say.
Vanity hides from others eyes as I put looks aside in my eternal fight.
To try and brighten my mental night.
And awake one day blessed in light

Literary Analysis Of To Build A Fire

As generations pass and the quest for unlimited knowledge is reduced to a couple clicks on your favorite search engine, many of the youth today take what their elders say for granted and simply block it out with their iPod headphones, as though a slap of ignorance to the faces of the hoary. But what these feeble minded juveniles did not know is that what was overcome with sounds Ke$ha and Katy Perry, were the key ingredients to the perfect lifestyle. Through the writings of Jack London, we learn that we should cherish the past generations, for what they have learned is as valuable as life itself. 

“To Build a Fire” by Jack London is a short story about a man traveling along the Yukon River in the bitter, winter weather.  While warned against traveling alone in the frigid cold, he ventures out to meet his companions at a remote camp many miles away, with only a stray dog by his side. From the beginning, the reader understands that the man is undertaking a task where most would wait for more suitable conditions. The most important remark for this man is from The Old-timer from Sulpher Creek, who warned him about the dangers of the Yukon. His trip begins well enough, yet soon becomes disastrous when he breaks through the ice and “wets himself up to the waist.” He is more angry than worried as he begins to build a fire to dry his wet boots and socks.  His arrogance shows when he thinks to himself about how The Old-timer from Sulpher Creek "was rather womanish.”  With this arrogant insult against the elderly and the wisdom that they conceal, many may see that this gap between generations is may find that it connects with Ernest Hemingway’s infamous short story “A Clear Well Lighted Place,” where we find another epic fight between generations. As the story goes on the main character faces the icy bath of cold water again and has to make a fire once more. Due to a grave mistake on his part of building the fire under a tree branch overburdened with fresh snow, his fire is doused out when the heat collapses the branch.  Many may think that this may be a form of Karma towards our protagonist due to his rude comment about the Old-timer from Sulpher Creek.  His extremities are already numb from the cold and he lacks the dexterity to light another fire so begins to run in an effort to get to his companions camp as well as increase his circulation enough to warm up.  He fails in both attempts and soon collapses from exhaustion.  While lying in the snow, defeated and dying, he comes to understand that the old-timer was right.  “You were right, old hoss; you were right,” he says; further realizing how important the old-timer’s advice was.

With the ending of this tragic tail, one may consider this as a forewarning towards the youth of America; a dramatization of the dangers of ignoring the guidance of the elderly not only in nature, but also in the twenty-first century. In hopes that this work of fiction is not created in reality, for those you who have the time to change your moronic, rebellious ways, stop as soon as possible to avoid the same fortune as Jack London’s protagonist.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

A Response To Fight Club

Soap: a substance used for washing or cleaning, consisting of a mixture of sodium or potassium salts of naturally occurring fatty acids. As many of us use this detergent in our every day lives, we usually do not ponder the symbolic nature of this decontaminating agent due its unimportant cameos in literature. Though this is most commonly the answer to the literary conundrum, Chuck Palahniuk’s famous novel Fight Club shows how this inanimate cleanser, can hold such meaning. 

In the beginning of the story, we find our protagonist who narrates the story. Many may find this style of writing similar to H.G. Wells’ novel War of the Worlds, where we also have a nameless main character guiding us through the plot line, adding their own humerus dialogue along the way.  Continuing with the story, the protagonist, while on a plane trip, meets a very important character: Tyler Durden. When the narrator first meets Tyler, Tyler declares that he is a soap salesman, although Tyler has various other occupations including a night-time movie projectionist and a waiter. Tyler, however, most identifies himself with the job of selling soap, thus lending weight to the symbolic importance played by soap in the book. Tyler calls soap "the foundation of civilization" and tells the narrator that "the first soap was made from the ashes of heroes". He also uses lye, a chemical ingredient of soap, to introduce the narrator to the pain of "premature enlightenment." The act known as "premature enlightenment" is quite torturous due to it meaning Tyler pouring lye, which is a corrosive alkaline substance, onto the hand of our protagonist.  In this role, soap is a symbol of purification and cleanliness, of a culture lacking the hypocrisy and fraudulence of contemporary culture. However, in that Tyler makes soap by stealing fat from the liposuction clinic dumpsters and then sells these soaps "to department stores for $20 a bar", soap also represents a too highly refined culture, a culture where all traces of natural humanity are suppressed, effaced, and washed off. Rather than being made from the "ashes of heroes", soap is made from "selling rich women their own fat a**es." The fact that Tyler is a salesman for this product represents Jack's subservience to this culture. As the story goes on both Tyler and out main character create an underground fighting faction known as Fight Club. Fight Club is founded as a way for men to regain their primitive instinct that culture tries to wash off. In the end, the main character finds out that Tyler and his gang of thugs have used the discharged substance of soap making, glycerin, and mixed with nitric acid to create nitro glycerin, a very powerful explosive. With this hazardous material the group led by Tyler known as Project Mayhem, rig them to vans conveniently placed in major banks. By doing this the gang hopes to accomplish human equality where no one is based off the money in their wallet, but the skills that they posses.  In this instinct, soap being shown as the purity in this book has been demolished due to its violent ways of mankind’s equilibrium.  

Through out time, people have relied on soap for many of their predicaments. Sicknesses, they fight; filth, they defeat; the evil, they conquer. Through this, humanity created a mental picture of protection and purity. This idea was shattered with one novel: Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, showing us that even soap can be filthy.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Carnival

The day went by dry as desert muskrat; the air was thick, like slow moving syrup. Though the weather was anything but enjoyable, Father tore me away from the heavenly chill of the AC to go the carnival. Through the heterogeneous mixture of whining kids and bad dental hygiene, I there I found life; life that has been deep fried and powdered with love and happiness. Standing in line was worth the sweet texture and heavenly aroma of  the cake from a funnel. But then, it happened: Father saw a mechanical demon he called "the roller coaster." I begged Father that we stay away from this horrific machine and go play a game. He insisted that it would be great. 'The Fun', he had promised: the blessedness of joy he raved about; it was a lie.  High velocities of speed and fear pulsed through my veins; screaming with all of my might, I saw my dad laughing as we conquered this beast of machinery. After what felt like years of torturous screaming, the ride was over. Walking off the ride, I felt strange. The queasiness in my stomach... the light-headed feeling in my skull... that’s when I knew this wasn't going to end well. Up came my spongy funnel ,  up came whole cheese curds, up came pellets of my hot dog -- red as clotted blood. Hot acidic wave followed hot acidic wave -- each bilious spasms so horrific, I feared that my aesthetic may never fully recover. With blushes of embarrassment, Father rushed me to the car and headed home.