Revised Intro and Outline

In the poem "Digging," Seamus Heaney introduces an unnamed speaker about to write, but is distracted and worried when he thinks of his dad working in the fields. The speaker delves deep into his past as he admires and respects his family's incredibly strenuous labor. He then realizes and accepts that he can't follow his family's footsteps by digging, but will instead "dig" with his writing. Heaney uses moods and tones of anxiety, admiration, complacency, and eventually confidence to show the speaker's mix of emotions and his struggle between individuality and family obligation, pen and spade.

I. When Heaney introduces the speaker, we can tell he is anxious as he attempts to write.

a. "The squat pen rests; snug as a fun: (2)

b. "Under my window, a clean rasping sound when the spade sinks into gravelly ground" (3-4)

c. "I look down" (5)

II. As the speaker reminisces of his father and grandfather, Heaney uses prideful tone and language to show the speaker's admiration for his ancestors.

a. "The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft against the inside knee was levered firmly" (10-11)

b. "By God, the old man could handle a spade" (15)

c. "going down and down for the good turf" (23-24)

III. When the speaker snaps back to his own life, he complacently admits his inability to dig, but feels confident about his own writing.

a. "But I've no spade to follow men like them" (28)

b. "I'll dig with it" (31)

The Squat Pen Rests

In the poem, "Digging," the speaker retraces his past generations and admires his ancestors' hard work in the field, but feels ashamed that he isn't following their footsteps. Symbolization is a powerful tool to bury compelling and meaningful content into writing. The author of "Digging" takes advantage of symbols to depict the speaker's internal conflict of being different from his family; Seamus Heaney uses symbols to illustrate the struggle between individuality and family obligation, pen and spade.

Daydreamer

In the poem "Miniver Cheevy," by Edwin Arlington Robinson, Robinson depicts a man who "wept that he as ever born." Miniver "misse[s] the medieval grace," and daydreams of the past that he's never experience. Miniver Cheevy just seems like a bitter man who got stuck in the tedium of life. He reminisces of the past like a child writing a Christmas list, but he does absolutely nothing about it; instead he "call[s] it fate, and [keeps] on drinking."

I believe Robinson is trying to convey the theme: if you have a dream, go and make it true. Miniver serves as a symbol and a wake-up call to our lives and to proactively work to make our dreams into reality, instead of drinking at a bar a grumpily blaming fate. Cheevy's medieval fantasies were not unachievable; it is entirely possible to find and immerse yourself with a community that shares the same interests, even the medieval times. He could have joined traveling groups that pretend to be medieval for months, or tried to join the community of cosplay, or even just learned how to fight with a sword. There are so many ways to bring the past back to life that Cheevy refused to see. Miniver's lack of activity turned him into a bitter man who "cursed the commonplace and eyed a khaki suit with loathing," as well as led him to waste away at a bar.

Miniver Cheevy serves as a prime example for as to what happens when you don't follow your dreams.

Irony

Irony is a powerful tool. In "Barbie Doll," by Marge Piercy, Piercy uses irony to convey her theme of what's wrong with people's conventional ideas of femininity and beauty. Direct narration is bland when trying to get across a lesson; using irony, authors can mess with our heads and our flow of reading, by shattering our expectations to create an exciting and almost confusing tone that makes the story more lively and emotional. Piercy uses verbal irony, where her words seem to contradict themselves yet hide a deeper meaning.After the "magic of beauty," the young girl is made fun of for her physical appearance, so much that she kills herself. Magic is a very strange and ironic word to describe the beginning of this girl's downward spiral to suicide. Towards the end I believe she uses dramatic irony as well. "Doesn't she look pretty? Everyone said" at her funeral; I beleive this is dramatic irony because she's dead, and only we and the sub-characters see her "beauty," even though she's plastered with make-up and missing her legs. Piercy is also using irony as a tool to satirize womens' unrealistic standard of beauty. As harsh as the poem is, I can't help but see truth in it.

Summer Short Stories

Welcome, men and women, to my blog, Organick Literature. My name is Nick, and here I will share my thoughts and opinions of various stories and aspects of literature. My favorite text from this summer is by far "The Ones who Walk Away from Omelas," by Ursula LeGuin. After reading the story, I felt rather afflicted. LeGuin did such a fantastic job of burning this theme of morality into our heads, but lets us decide as to which road we take. The author builds up this utopia of happiness, yet just blows it away when she reveals that all the people of Omelas "understand that their happiness...depend[s] wholly on this child's abominable misery." How can all these people live their lives knowing a child's "buttocks and thighs are a mass of festered sores, as it sits in its own excrement continually." It boils down to these questions: Is our happiness worth the suffering of others? How do we respond when faced with a moral paradox of being selfish or selfless?