An Extended Research Essay of Edgar Allan Poe

Born in Boston, Massachusetts to parents who were itinerant actors, Edgar Allan Poe marked a different sensation to his readers. Not only he was an American poet and a short-story writer, he was also an editor and literary critic to numerous papers during his time.

As an editor Poe struggled to raise American literature to the level of his own formidable intelligence and talent. His instability doomed this ambition to failure, but his own artistry somehow survived his impulse for self-destruction. Poe added the concept of professionalism to the role of the writer in America. For him language and its artful use was virtually an end in itself, transcending ideology.

He was born Edgar Poe but when his parents died, he was taken by John and Frances Allan of Richmond, Virginia, who never formally adopted him. After spending a short period of his time at the University of Virginia, and briefly attempting to join military, Edgar Poe and John Allan parted ways due to some misunderstandings brought about by Poe’s apathetic behavior. In spite of the hardships that Poe encountered, he was able to survive and make out all the things that seem to have vanished because of his being negligent.

Poe’s publishing career began humbly with an anonymous collection of poems credited only to a “Bostonian”.

Poe’s unbelievable gift and knowledge had created lots of amazing works of literature though at first were not given attention to, but were later on credited by his fellowmen. Poe’s most well-known fiction works are Gothic, a genre he followed to appease the public taste. Edgar Allan Poe’s most recurring themes among his works deal with questions of death, and mourning and many of his works are generally considered part of the dark romanticism genre.

One of his many amazing works is the ever-famous short and to the point story The Tell-Tale Heart.

The work shows how Poe’s mastery in literature created such an outlandish yet strikingly remarkable piece of tale. It is very much different from other forms and types of common stories that one would usually read. A usual story or tale essentially contains a clear and complete description of the setting, a precise representation and portrayal of characters having names and also a lucid identification of the stories point of view. But in Poe’s tale, the narrator remains a mystery to the readers having no name and sex at all. The setting and characters, on the other hand, are also not given the entire focus of the story. The setting is basically irrelevant; all that is known of it is that it is the home of an elderly man to which the narrator is his caretaker and apparently most of the action occurs here each night around midnight.

In the story of Poe, he has chosen to be very elusive with the characters. The characters remain nameless throughout the story, being given only the titles of “the narrator” and “the old man”.

In the story, the narrator insists that he is not in sane.

“Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Mad men know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded- with what caution, with what foresight, with what dissimilation I went to work!”

It is very obvious by the narrator’s actions- the very fact that he murdered an innocent old man because of his “evil eye”- that he is neurotic and mentally imbalanced. The narrator’s motivation for killing the man is notably obscure.

“It is impossible to say how Te first idea entered my brain… Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire.”

The only motivation of the narrator for killing the old man was plainly the old man’s deformed eye.

Poe’s tale is completely armed with strong foreshadowing, subtle irony, and vivid symbolism, which lead to an enormously improved story- a story of suspense.

The Tell-Tale Heart is in fact a great story to be considered. It is full of suspense and thrill enabling the readers to read more rapidly in order for them to know what the end story is.

Having gone through a lot of struggles, sufferings and hardships, Poe indeed is considered a great father of literature.

His love for literature motivated him to write his beautifully crafted poems and stories in spite of the hardships he’d been through due also for his being irresponsible and negligent.

In his supernatural fiction, Poe usually deals with paranoia rooted in personal psychology, physical or mental enfeeblement, obsessions, the damnation of death, feverish fantasies, the cosmos as source of horror and inspiration, without bothering himself with such supernatural beings as ghosts, werewolves, vampires, and so on.

The historical Edgar Allan Poe has appeared as a fictional character, often representing the “mad genius” or “tormented artist” and exploiting his personal struggles. Many depictions also blend in with characters from his stories, suggesting Poe and his characters share identities.

Many works of Poe is said to be similar to his very own life story. His famous poem entitled “Annabel Lee” is said to be dedicated to his wife Virginia Clemm who died because of consumption. Its subject, Poe’s favorite, is the death of a beautiful woman.

Another work of Poe is “The Fall of the House of Usher”. In the story the narrator visits the crumbling mansion of his friend, Roderick Usher, and tries to dispel Roderick’s gloom. Although his twin sister, Madeline, has been placed in the family vault dead, Roderick is convinced she lives. Madeline arises in trance, and carries her brother to death. The house itself splits asunder and sinks into the tarn. The story has inspired several film adaptations. The story also is said to represent the dark and complex life of Poe and the lost of family and loved ones and the lost of a home where love and caring should have been possible for him.

The dark poem of lost love, “The Raven”, brought Poe national fame. But as usual, connection and similarity was evident.

Poe had loved many women, even married for several times and got lost of his beloved for several times also. The Raven is said to portray the lost of love for several times most specifically in Poe’s own life.

In Poe’s Tell-Tale Heart, it is pointed out that human nature is a delicate balance of light and dark, or good and evil. What may push one individual over the edge will only cause another to raise an eyebrow.

The life of Poe is unusual making him create unusual and remarkable works of literature, which mostly is based from his own life story. Through this technique of him, people recognized his works making him famous and a renowned figure in literature.

Lost and death may be considered as factors for Poe’s recurring theme in all his works. And being exposed to things like these molded him to be a very uncanny individual. But in spite of all, people loved and adored him because of his works.

Although he lived a short and tragic life, Edgar Allan Poe remains today one of the most-beloved mystery writers in history. His contributions to literature and the mystery genre cannot be underestimated.

Poe’s contribution to literature cannot be undervalued for it contains a well-crafted flow of story that are mostly based from his tragic yet beautiful life that has given a way for a good and forever living work of art.

Poe may have died in a very indifferent, mysterious way, but people will always treasure him and his works making them live through out generations.

References:

“Edgar Allan Poe”, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EdgarAllanPoe

“Edgar Allan Poe: Biography”, http://www.answers.com/topic/edgar-allan-poe

Lodge, Robert A. And Sarah E. Laubacher, “Introduction”, Perspectives in Literature: A Book of Short Stories-2, New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1969. p. 1

ANNE SEXTON

There are probably lots of poets that have contributed a vast involvement in the world of literature. These poets became inspirations for modern-day poets for them to be able to have an interesting and appealing work of literature.

One of these poets is Anne Sexton. Anne Sexton is among the most celebrated and tragic poets of the confessional school.

Born Anne Gray Harvey in Newton, Massachusetts, Sexton was the youngest of three daughters raised by her parents; her mother being a housewife and her father who was an owner of a prosperous wool company, in an upper middle-class home near Boston. Sexton graduated from Rogers Hall preparatory school for girls in 1947, where her first poetry appeared in the school yearbook.

Regarded as a confessional poet, Sexton's writing is in many ways a candid autobiographic record of her struggle to overcome the feelings of guilt, loss, inadequacy, and suicidal despair that tormented her. Inspired by years of intensive psychotherapy, Sexton's carefully crafted poetry often addresses her uncertain self-identity as a daughter, wife, lover, mother, and psychiatric patient.

Sexton’s poems were said to represent her life and experiences as a woman. Not only as a woman alone but also as a daughter, wife, lover, mother, and a patient of psychiatry. She was able to put together these experiences using her pen and as an output, she was able to create appealing and great works of literature that were able to fill the hearts and interests of readers and critics.

Her experiences and life struggles were the main recipe for all her works. She used these struggles enable for her to convey the guilt, loss, despair that her self is experiencing. It was also a way for her to escape reality and put herself in a moment of isolation to the real world.

Her first volume, To Bedlam and Part Way Back, consists of poems written shortly after her confinement in a mental hospital, during which she lost custody of her children. "The Double Image," among the most accomplished works of the volume, is a sequence of seven poems describing Sexton's schism with her mother in the imagery of two portraits facing each other from opposite walls. Other poems, notably "You, Doctor Martin," "Music Swims Back to Me," and "Ringing the Bells" relate Sexton's experiences and emotional state while hospitalized. "Unknown Girl in the Maternity Ward," which involves an unwed mother, who prepares to abandon her illegitimate child, alludes to Sexton's guilt at having lost her own children. Another significant poem from the volume, "For John, Who Begs Me Not to Enquire Further," is Sexton's response to poet John Holmes's criticism of her transgressive subject matter, representing Sexton's defense of the confessional mode and her own poetic voice. The poems of All My Pretty Ones further illustrate Sexton's aptitude for invoking musical rhythms and arresting imagery. Entitled after a line from Shakespeare's Macbeth, this volume contains the oft-anthologized poems "The Truth the Dead Know," written upon the death of her father, "All My Pretty Ones," "The Abortion," and "Letter Written on a Ferry While Crossing Long Island Sound," all of which probe emotions surrounding loss.

Her obsession with death, a prominent recurring theme in all of her work, is explicit in the poems "Sylvia's Death," about Sylvia Plath's suicide, and "Wanting to Die," countered by the life-affirming poem "Live" at the end of the volume. Another poem which talks about death is the poem “The Death of Fathers”.

The themes of alienation, death, and deliverance are also evident in the poems “The Jesus Papers” in the Book of Folly and the poem “The Death Baby” which reveals the poet’s desire and admiration to death.

In the poem which she dedicated to her close friend Sylvia Plath, she represented death in a very creative way through imagery:

under our heart, our cupboard,

and I see now that we store him up

year after year, old suicides

and I know at the news of your death

a terrible taste for it, like salt,

(And me,

me too.

And now, Sylvia,

you again

with death again,

that ride home

with our boy.)

And I say only

with my arms stretched out into that stone place,

what is your death

but an old belonging,

a mole that fell out

of one of your poems?

She used the representation of death in a presence of our boy which is in fact a creative and very original way of making a poem. Such poem also talks about death that Sexton very much desired.

The poem “Wanting to Die” also shows an evident proof how Sexton very much values and loves death.

But suicides have a special language.

Like carpenters they want to know which tools.

They never ask why build.

In this poem of Sexton, she freely chatters about suicide which is extremely related to her life for she has, for many times, attempted suicide for too much desire for death. Her poems are apparently correlated to the experiences that life has bestowed upon her. She is very much in ove with death that most of her poems are about it. She presents death in every possible representation and face that readers would not notice right a way just like what she did in her poem “Sylvia’s Death” where death is represented as a boy.

Another poem where death is present is the poem “Live” which is oppose to her other poem “Wanting to Die”. In here, she opposes what she wrote on the other said poem. She presses on the idea that she must continue to live and forget about death for there are many things in life that are beautiful and one of those would be the sun, the sun which she mentioned as the reason why she should and must live.

I promise to love more if they come,

because in spite of cruelty

and the stuffed railroad cars for the ovens,

I am not what I expected. Not an Eichmann.

The poison just didn't take.

So I won't hang around in my hospital shift,

repeating The Black Mass and all of it.

I say Live, Live because of the sun,

the dream, the excitable gift.

And just like her other poems, “The Death Baby” is a sequence of psalms that mostly talk about death. It is very visible through the use of her words that Sexton indeed desires death in a great extent and degree.

1. DREAMS

My sister at six

dreamt nightly of my death:

"The baby turned to ice.

Someone put her in the refrigerator

and she turned as hard as a Popsicle."

2. THE DY-DEE DOLL

My Dy-dee doll

died twice.

Once when I snapped

her head off

and let if float in the toilet

and once under the sun lamp

trying to get warm

she melted.

3. SEVEN TIMES

I died seven times

in seven ways

letting death give me a sign,

letting death place his mark on my forehead,

crossed over, crossed over

4.MADONNA

My mother died

unrocked, unrocked.

Weeks at her deathbed

5. MAX

Max and I

two immoderate sisters,

two immoderate writers,

two burdeners,

made a pact.

To beat death down with a stick.

To take over.

To build our death like carpenters.

6. BABY

Death,

you lie in my arms like a cherub,

as heavy as bread dough.

Although some critics were not able to see the real message and importance of Sexton’s poems, she, inspite of all the struggles that life offered her, was able to capture the interests and hearts of the readers. She up to now is considered as one of the best poets of her days and will always be remembered for her trademark having death as her recurring theme among her poems. Sexton remains among the most important female poets of her generation.

Psychoanalytic Approach on “On A Saturday Afternoon”

Today psychoanalysis is very familiar for the wide public after it has been either rejected or adulated for a long time. But, as a paradox, the success achieved for example in the fifth decade, especially in Europe, estranged it from its essence.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines Psychoanalysis as “A therapeutic method, originated by Sigmund Freud, for treating mental disorders by investigating the interaction of conscious and unconscious elements in the patient's mind and bringing repressed fears and conflicts into the conscious mind, using techniques such as dream interpretation and free association”. The OED also provides a secondary definition of “a system of psychological theory associated with this method.

Psychoanalysis spread everywhere but not only due to the interest incited by its therapeutical method. It could even say that therapy was shadowed by the virtues of the applied psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis applied in literature, sociology, anthropology and ethnology, religion and mythology, incited the interest of a public that had no inclination towards the clinical realm.

Psychoanalysis designates concomitantly three things namely, a method of mind investigation, especially of the unconscious mind; a therapy of neurosis inspired from the earlier method; and a new stand alone discipline who is based on the knowledge acquired from applying the investigation method and clinical experiences. Consequently there is nothing vague in the definition of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis is a specific mind investigation technique focusing on the conscious and unconscious state of a person.

The most fundamental concept of psychoanalysis is the notion of the unconscious mind as a reservoir for repressed memories of traumatic events which continuously influence conscious thought and behavior. The scientific evidence for this notion of unconscious repression is lacking, though there is ample evidence that conscious thought and behavior are influenced by non conscious memories and processes.

On the story of Aimee Bender explored the mind of a lonely, and yes, mentally-bothered single woman (probably in her mid to late 20’s). It is remarkably shown to us with her simple faculty of words. We see beyond the gestures (the nervousness, the drinking of the beer, the hugging, and the jokes) the building tension as the woman in the story gradually reveals her inner self to her male friends (one of which, she dated shortly and the other she has been flirting with for years) one Saturday afternoon.

The rising action was when they finally came back to her apartment at her request to fulfill her fantasy. Filled with curiosity, they came back. And they already have a slight notion as to what her fantasy might be. Sexual thoughts: these are usually the meat in all fantasies…especially adult fantasies. And the males know this. What they do not know is that they’re in for a surprise…

Instead of having sex with the woman, they ended up having sex together. And they happen to have ideas about it and have applied it right on the spot. With the woman guiding them the way a sex therapist does…only that, this is a therapy for the woman (the therapist is the one feeling “therapeuted” by the kind of therapy she employs).

This absurdness of desire is frowned upon by society and is kept in a repressed state constantly guarded by our civil judgment. But once they come out and take control, it reveals without hesitation our innermost fantasies and longing…sexual longing.

But according to psychologists, this is innate in every human being. These carnal desires are buried within each of us awaiting for its release. And if we do not channel it into something productive...something that mobilizes our desires, it could lead to serious psychological disorders and issues.

What the woman in the story is portraying is actually natural since all of us want to do it (subconsciously), it’s just that everyone is afraid to be known doing it…that’s why no one wants to talk about it.

As for the woman, we shouldn’t judge her immediately. She is merely letting her subconscious come into being. It’s a healthy way to release inner tensions.

The loneliness she feels is because of her longing toward her boyfriend. She feels alone and forsaken. To recuperate, she indulges in orgies. This is her defense mechanism. This is how she faces pitfalls. And we shouldn’t judge her for that. Her mind is a very intricate web of diverse thoughts…and messing with what her mind is set on will only reap harsh results.

A Comparative Analysis on “The Story of An Hour” and “Penelope’s Despair

In this analysis, we are going to give focus on the underlying things that we don’t have any control of, the conflicts, disunities and gaps by relating to the two literary pieces namely, “The Story of An Hour” and “Penelope’s Despair”.

"The Story of an Hour" has probably inspired a great deal of women to oppose their husbands if they feel like their marriage isn’t quite as jolly as it ought to be. This short-story revolves around what goes through a person’s head when informed that a close family member has perished.
Louise Mallard, the protagonist of the story, is a young, yet married woman who suffers from heart trouble, and that is why her closest relatives feel that they have to break the news to her as gently as possible. After hearing the news about the tragedy her husband got involved to, she started crying and stormed immediately to her room where she stayed for a long moment of time. At the early parts of the story, readers actually are not given any hints of the feelings of Louise regarding her husband’s death. Readers probably would expect her to weep hard because of agony and pain, but it is narrated in the story that after getting inside her room, Louise just sat comfortably in a roomy armchair. Readers would have expected her to smash the chair and destroy all the things inside her room, brought about by the pain of loosing a loved one, but what happened was the other thing around. She just sat there and faced the open window studying the nature outside it and feeling the spring air on her cheeks.

"The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves."

All these images are beautiful descriptions of life that is so much ironic to the gloomy news of the death of Louise’s husband. But as portrayed in the story, Louise was not feeling gloomy at all. She was in fact happy for her husband’s death. As Chopin puts it:

"She said it over and over under her breath: ’free, free, free!”

This feeling; freedom, is obviously something Louise hasn’t felt for a really long time. She now rambles on about that she loved him, but now she is perfectly happy and more than that with the fact that she had regained her freedom.

But on the latter part of the story, it turned out to be very ironic for the protagonist’s side. Louise’s husband Brenty was in fact very alive and even had no knowledge of the said accident that was associated to him. And spotting her supposedly dead husband again makes Louise’s heart condition unstable, and she dies momentarily. This is undoubtedly the climax of the plot, although the situation is in the very end of the story. Chopin’s use of words in the end of the short-story is pretty neat:

"When the doctors came they said that she had died of heart disease - of joy that kills."

Now then, the reader can without doubt say that the title itself really makes sense - it describes the one hour she spends dreaming about her new life in freedom, from getting the incorrect death message until tragically passing away herself. There is really the presence of the irony of life and fate since Louise’s dreams eventually took a wrong turn and turned out to become her destiny which is death.

On the other hand the poem, “Penelope’s Despair” talks about a woman who gets upset because of the return of his husband who turns out to be like a dirty disgusting beggar after being far away for 20 years. In this poem, gothic elements are used to show despair, simile to illustrate disdain, and irony to example foolishness. These techniques enable Ritsos to develop a character in Penelope who in her level of distress is more rounded than Tennyson's flat "aged wife." Several components of a gothic story are present in this poem and are used to help define the narrator's anguish.

The author uses gothic vocabulary such as "dim light" and "cunning" to create Penelope as a distressed woman. Penelope's distress is also displayed by her actions when she "fell speechless to the floor" and her newfound unhappiness and lost love is shown when the narrator describes her "as if looking at her own dead desires" it is very apparent in this poem that Penelope is experiencing hopelessness after seeing the beggar-like individual standing before her.

Both literary works are to be considered as master pieces that are being treasured through time and generation. As for the comparative approach, we can deduce that both have the same root of issue that is very visible for the readers.

In the story of Louise Mallard, it was shown that the woman wasn’t happy at all of her husband’s return from the dead. She instead died because of too much happiness caused by her, believing to be free because of her husband’s death. On the other part, Penelope got disappointed and distressed because of the unexpected return of her husband who turned out to be like a dirty old beggar after 20 years.

It is very apparent that both stories contain two women who have the same life situations of being distraught and disappointed of their husband’s return. The other died which was eventually the reverse of destiny itself; the other had a cold welcome which is very indifferent for behavior for a wife to do to her husband who got lost into battle for more than a decade.

Back in 1894, the American writer Kate Chopin wrote the short-story "The Story of an Hour". Chopin, born O’Flaherty, wasn’t renowned as a writer during her time, but she has achieved recognition in the 20th century especially with her 1899 novel "The Awakening". Her stories about strong women have really been paid attention to in relation to this century’s sexual liberation debate.

This short-story revolves around what goes through a person’s head when informed that a close family member has perished. However, I wouldn’t say that this is the theme of the story, which I’ll get back to. Louise Mallard is a young, yet married woman who suffers from heart trouble, and that’s why her closest relatives feel that they have to break the news to her as gently as possible. Immediately after hearing the shocking news, Louise starts crying, and storms into her room. Since Louise spends the majority of the short-story in her room, this is the setting of the story. No one really knows early in the story how Louise really feels about her husband's death. But the author certainly gives some evident hints.

The fourth paragraph’s content, which revolves around the period of time where Louise has just entered her room, is fairly surprising. Everyone would expect Louise to weep with agony and pain, but instead she sits calmly down: "There stood, facing an open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair." The interested reader will already here discover that something is terribly wrong, since a word like comfortable is used. A newly widdowed woman would probably not look upon a chair as comfortable shortly after receiving the terrible news; the most likely reaction would rather be to smash the chair into pieces! From her position in the armchair, she suddenly starts studying the nature outside the window: "The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves." All these descriptions are beautiful images of life, making the reader quite confused until Louise’s reaction is explained. As Chopin puts it: "She said it over and over under her breath: ’free, free, free!’" This feeling; freedom, is obviously something Louise hasn’t felt for a really long time. She now rambles on about that she loved him, but now she is perfectly happy and more than that with the fact that she had regained her freedom. As Chopin puts it; "What could love (..) count for for in face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!" Louise now has more positive energy and vitality than ever, and even calls herself a "Goddess of victory". Her sister, Josephine, is worried about the amount of time Louise has spent in her room all alone, and anxiously knocks on the door, asking whether she’s alright. Feeling better than ever and imagining a new life filled with happiness and freedom, she willingly opens the door and descends down the stairs.

Josephine and Louise are, together with Brenty Mallard (her husband) and his friend Richards, the only characters mentioned by name in the short-story. And according to the guidelines in which a short-story optimately should follow, having few characters with personal traits is entirely correct. The author doesn’t tell a lot about Richards, but the other characters can be personalised easily. I won’t describe Louise here, since it’s fairly easy to decide what she’s like by reading the rest of the analysis. It seems to me like Josephine is a typical sister, and presumably the oldest of the two. She’s extremely worried when it comes to exposing Louise’s fragile heart to pressure and sudden shocks and surprises, which generally shows that she loves her sister wholeheartedly, and doesn’t want something bad to happen to her.

Apparently, Brenty doesn’t treat his wife particularly well. Louise is unhappy with her marriage, and doesn’t feel a bit free. Generally, women weren’t liberated during the 19th century. Traditionally, they did all the hard work in the house. Female liberation wasn’t put on the agenda until the 1960’s. But I think it’s all fair and square to say that Brenty lacks some humanitarian values that are important to be successfully married. The end of the short-story comes extremely surprising to the reader and is fairly unimaginable to Louise, hence her reaction. Her husband didn’t die in the railroad disaster after all; he stands at the bottom of the stairs, eagerly waiting to embrace his seemingly dear wife with love and compassion. The fact that Brenty returns is clearly the turn in the plot.

Spotting her supposedly dead husband again makes Louise’s heart condition unstable, and she dies momentarily. This is undoubtedly the climax of the plot, although the situation is in the very end of the story. Chopin’s use of words in the end of the short-story is pretty neat: "When the doctors came they said that she had died of heart disease - of joy that kills."’

I’d say that this short-story has a certain ironic feel to it. The way Louise handles the tragic news is ironic, because the reader expects her to react in an entirely different way. And to top it off, ironic-wise, Louise is the person that dies in the end. Kate Chopin has written the story using an omniscient point of view, which works well. Her style of writing is gripping, and she describes the characters and the scenery thoroughly well throughout the story. The fact that she uses an omniscient viewpoint but nevertheless saves the information that Brenty wasn’t a participant in the railroad accident at all until the end of the story shows that a story written using an all-knowing style doesn’t necessarily have to end predicably.

So now even the title of the short-story makes sence - it describes the one hour she spends dreaming about her new life in freedom, from getting the incorrect death message until tragically passing away herself. She lived in the true sense of the word, with will, ambition and joy, for one hour only. In my opinion, the theme of "The story of an hour" is that women that lived a hundred years ago didn’t feel free. They felt that they weren’t able to do what they wanted to, since their family duties took too much of their time. Another possible theme is the irony of fate, since Louise’s dreams eventually took a wrong turn and turned out to become her destiny.

Women had, as aforementioned, literally no rights whatsoever at the time this short-story was put on paper. The situation has changed almost dramatically today. This short-story was written at a time where it was common sense and tradition that women were inferior to men in status and opportunities. Today, women can be found almost everywhere; even in prominent positions in large corporations. They have struggled to achieve more opportunities and rights, and they’ve come a long way, but they haven’t quite reached their target. In the story, Louise desperately wants to get more freedom, but it’s once she thinks that her husband has died that she starts dreaming about it. That shows that she has an enormous respect for her husband, and doesn’t dare to do anything that breaks or is in variance with his rights, restrictions and groundrules. Today we have procedures and laws regarding women’s rights when it comes to feeling trapped in a marriage and urging to end it. Getting a divorce from one’s husband is about as easy for women nowadays as opening a can of beer. Nevertheless, Chopin’s story tells a lot about the situation women were in a century ago, and its morale has blossomed lately following the recent liberation debate. "The Story of an Hour" has probably inspired a great deal of women to oppose their husbands if they feel like their marriage isn’t quite as jolly as it ought to be.

The Last of the Mohicans: Elements Further Explicated

Love and Romance

Many definitions are generally obtainable regarding love and romance and how it is possible to have an everlasting romantic love. But mostly, of these hundreds and thousands of definitions, 20 percent may be considered, personally speaking, as plausible.

Love isn’t just a feeling of want and like. It is for me, something mysterious and something that needs to be scrutinized profoundly for it to be wholly understood. It is something that tickles from this very moment and then later on aches after a single blink of the eye.

Love just like any other chances in this world chooses no one. It bumps to you right then and there without realizing how deeply troubled you are already and scared to fall in love.

In the story of the Mohicans, love is very visible among the lead characters who still find love in the verge of a disaster. It then proves that love chooses no one and chooses no day of the year whether it is third world war or not.

As for the characters, Uncas and Cora, who both find love in a situation where everyone would likely race their eyebrows. This is so because their relationship is a forbidden interracial coupling. But as everyone would say, love will find its way among all the circumstances it will undergo.

The story of the Mohicans does not only portray the war between the French and British colonizers but it also has a wonderful twist of love and romance present among the beautiful characters. The love and romance is even more emphasized because of the complicated situation and racial differences the characters have that might be a hindrance to their happy ending love affair.

Friendship

Most commonly, we often resort to friendship when we feel betrayal and unfaithfulness because of love.

Friendship is something that is very valuable, very precious, that even how grave a situation might be, as long as the friendship is true, it’ll always be there to comfort and ease the pain.

The very reason that I believe regarding the existence of friendship, is that, it is one of the resorting factors where we usually unburden the pain and soreness being felt by our hearts in times of grief and sorrow.

As for the story of the Mohicans, friendship can be seen through the link of Hawkeye and his Indian friends Chingachgook and Uncas. Apparently, Hawkeye belongs to a different race as that from Chingachgook and Uncas but Hawkeye exhibits friendship by making judgments without regard to race. In the way he exhibits friendship, he is able to create a link between the whites and the Indians and making it possible to see that both different people of different colors can still be friends and brothers.

Family

There’s no place like home as most of us say. As for the benefits it offers and for the shelter it gives, unquestionably, there is no place like home. But I consider that maxim to support my consideration having home as the best place to be and that reason is my family.

Aside from friendship as resorting factor, family is another thing we divulge to in times of grief and need. This is so because we feel secured and safe in the care of our family.
In the novel, we could see how family brings forth unity and how family can move mountains. We could recall how the daughters of Colonel Munro took risk to travel in the time of war just to see and be united with their father. Basing on this part of the story, we could see the intense and intimate bond that holds the family of Munro together. We could also simplify that family is the best trusted factor of confiding and the best shelter- giving aspect in the world. Seeing how both Cora and Alice struggled just to be with their father, gives the thought of having family as the most important aspect that an individual like us would really treasure and keep forever.

Also, we could see how a family unconditionally gives love just basing on the situation of Cora as half Negro and half sister of Alice. Alice unconditionally gives her love to Cora as her older sister without regarding the thought of being just half sisters. Acceptance and openness is exhibited and it brings forth the family to unity with a strong hold of love just like Munro’s family.

Race

In the novel, racial differences have really something to do in coping up with everyday life.

“The Hurons love their friends the Delawares. . . . Why should they not? They are colored by the same sun, and their just men will hunt in the same grounds after death. The redskins should be friends, and look with open eyes on the white men...”

Magua speaks these words in Chapter XXVIII in an attempt to race-bait and anger the Delaware council. In the novel, racist whites often argue for unity in the face of their sneaky foes, the Indians. Here, Magua uses the same argument against the whites. He argues that the same sun shines on all Indian cultures, and Indians should unite against the untrustworthy white men. Magua turns the stereotype on its head by suggesting that the Indians, not the whites, have something to fear from a shiftless race.

Cooper presents Magua’s words as nothing more than a calculated attempt to stir up the emotions of the Delawares. However, outside the world of the novel, Magua’s words take on another meaning. Cooper wrote during a time when the U.S. government carried out a policy of exterminating Native American peoples. Although Magua speaks from personal malice, the words he speaks should be heeded by all Indians who must live in fear of the conquest of their white oppressors.

Up to now, racial discrimination is still being practiced by some who have small brains and are not open-minded. Blacks are usually the ones who are being discriminated and singled-out from the others, more specifically the whites.

Color has really nothing to do with anything. We all live in the same place and we all are created by the same Creator, and therefore, we should learn how to keep one another on tract and not be a racist. We should also weigh in the circumstances that racial discrimination brings like emotional and psychological matters.

I, as one, am very much not into racial discrimination. For if we discriminate, it is like discerning our own self and discriminating what God has created.

Vengeance

I consider vengeance as a sin. But as humans, we are capable of doing such thing making as evil and corrupt.

Vengeance is a way of avenging in order to satisfy the thirst of getting even against a foe. It is a way of showing how corrupt we can be when revenge is in our mind. It enables us to forget what we are and disregard that revenge is a sinful act that may lead to burning of the soul.

In the story of the Mohicans, the novel’s villain Magua who is a cunning Huron, is the character who is very much capable of vengeance against his people.

Magua is driven from his tribe for drunkenness and because the English Colonel Munro enforced this humiliating punishment, Magua then possesses a burning desire for retaliation against Munro.

But as usual, evil will always be defeated against the good. Magua’s psychology becomes slightly more complicated by the end part of the novel, when sympathy tempers his evil.

Because of Magua’s too much desire to take revenge, his very own wickedness corrupted him.

Loyalty

In this very changing world were everyone seems to be thirsty of power and position, it is very hard to find a loyal and trustworthy person.

When it comes to friendship, I consider loyalty as the first factor in choosing a friend. A loyal friend who will always be true to someone, who trusts him fully.

When we are loyal to someone or something, we gain more trusts from people around us and we are able to put up a respect coming from them.

In the story, loyalty is very much needed, for the situation is in the boundary of a war where someone might be disloyal to the other just to run off defeat or just to attain higher power and position.

We could see how Hawkeye plays as a loyal friend to the Indians and how he disregards everything just to stay loyal and faithful to his friends. He cherishes the value of individuality and chooses to stay with Chingachgook and his son Uncas. In this very behavior of Hawkeye, he is able to showcase loyalty in the highest manner by having it offered to the blacks instead of offering it to the whites where he is supposed to offer it.