I strongly believe that Catherine did not hold the same love that Heathcliff held for her. It was not true nor sincere. Heathcliff holds a deep love for Catherine that would never end and where no one else will do. However, as does Catherine with Heathcliff, the love was more superficial where she did not generally love Heathcliff. After Catherine dies just after giving birth to Cathy, Cathy learns to love the correct way; enforcing Brontë's method of true love. Where as Catherine chooses to be with Edgar due to his financial health, good looks, and social class; while Cathy chooses to actually spend time with Hareton in order to understand and realized the love she held for him. If you are truly in love, death cannot separate you spiritually. While Lockwood’s unexpected stay at the Heights, he had witnessed a ghost luring near his bedside window, crying and screaming for Lockwood to “let [her] in!”. Once Heathcliff is notified of the strange ghost instead his house, he is not terrified nor hesitant. Heathcliff simply sits by the window and cries out to the voice, “come in! Come in! Cathy, do come. Oh do-once more! Oh! My heart's darling, hear me this time-Catherine, at last!” Just a glimpse of Catherine would trigger the long-suffering Heathcliff, who believes in communication beyond the grave.  Heathcliff feels Catherine's reach beyond the grave, which holds out the promise that their love doesn't have to die. Rather than being stunned, Heathcliff is begging and encouraging the voice, referred to as Cathy, to enter his home. He is far from afraid of ghosts and has clearly spent a lot of time trying to get Catherine to haunt him. Being in her ghostly presence would mean anything to Heathcliff. As Catherine got the chance to be with Heathcliff for better or for worse, she chose Edgar. If Heathcliff was not brought down into such low standards, perhaps things could had been different. Several individuals view Heathcliff as an outcast and less worthy. However, “if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, [Catherine] shouldn't have thought of [marrying Edgar].” With the conditions of how things are currently, Catherine believes marrying Heathcliff “would degrade [her].” No matter what their “souls are made of, his and [hers] are the same…” (9). Catherine refuses to marry Heathcliff due to the way society views him. Ever since Heathcliff was a young boy, he was constantly put down and called outrageous name, lots of hatred was thrown at him. Due to this, if Catherine marries Heathcliff, she will not be looked at with as much respect as previously, it will indeed wreck her reputation although she does care and love Heathcliff greatly, for she sees herself in him. As for Cathy, she was suppose to be marrying Linto in order for Heathcliff I gain wealth and land. Howeber, she went against the odd so and decided to marry Hareton after spending a great amount of time with him and truly getting to know him.

Alright, I probably have this completely wrong but I'm not the best with poetry so please bare with me.

 

When I first took a look at the title, embarrassingly enough, I actually had no clue what the poem would be about. The words base and detail did not really stand out to me nor spark my essay. Possibility, no, mainly because I literally had no military knowledge. However, after repeatedly reading through the poem it sort of began to make sense to me. I soon realized it was a poem of war. The "base" in the title may refer to the military base and the writer gives details of this. Of course I got the sense of it when I began reading towards the end of the poem and the word "war" allowed me to fully comprehend. Sassoon uses a sarcastic tone, visual imagery, as well as irony to convey the speakers attitude throughout the poem. In the beginning of the poem, the reader is introduced with an image: "bald and short of breath". I'm not sure about you guys but that automatically gives me an image of a large old man sitting on the couch eating dozens of donuts. This image represents the group of officers in the military base. Furthermore, the speaker then refers to them as 'heroes' and the speaker would enter the scene with "puffy petulant face, guzzling and gulping in the best hotel". I took this line as what he actually dislikes about the officers. The reader can identify a sarcastic tone in the readers poem, being that the writer does not necessarily view them as heroes, but yet they are considered to be heroes due to their high position. Because of this, the officers are given amazing treatment, "guzzling and gulping in the best hotel." All the officers do is eat and act as of they are doing so much but nobody realizes and gives them all the credit for things they did not do. When others begin calling out heroes those large men are first to get credited. After a real solider had passed those large men, including the speaker, would be able to do the honors and claim that "I used to know his father well". But, in reality, the speaker did not but they would still get the honor to do so regardless because they're well respected. On the other hand, those who did know more than enough about the fallen angel did not get to speak and do the honors, but instead, listen to someone who was more respected with not even the slightest idea of who the man in the casket is. Once the war is over, the large bald men would go home safely. The speaker also mentions "safely home and die". Perhaps this means that the large men die in bed due to their laziness or size. Also, it could more likely refer to the fact that those men do not have to face the war because they are cuddle up in their hotel so if they were to pass away it would be snuggled up in bed, peacefully, rather than dying due to a bullet through the head-like the "real" heroes of war.

 

Before all else, I believe we all can agree that the antagonist, Iago, without a doubt has inflected numerous amount of problems among his peers with his deceiving, manipulating, and cruel acts. The position he held had lead the individuals to believe that he is well respected and honest. Not to mention, the great Othello has put a lot of hope and confidence in Iago. The lies Iago told to keep his mischievous plan in place and people believing and reacting towards the lies was not Othello's fault. Iago is to blame, for he is not who he seems. Iago acts a certain way to one person and a different towards another. He purposely destroyed the life of Othello along with the people he cares for due to the fact that he did not receive the lieutenant position as well as a light rumor that Othello had made love with Emilia. As for Othello, although he did react in an impulsive manner, it was out of love and not to mention Iago did encourage and evoke it. Othello was in deep love with Desdemona, but the way Iago plotted and deceived, it was clear to why Othello reacted in such drastic matters. Othello puts a great amount of trust in Iago and never questions his loyalty. Not to mention, when Othello did slightly question Iago, Iago had came up with the devious plan in order to show Othello the proof he was desperately looking for. Manipulative as Iago is, he made Cassio believe that he was referring to his lover, Bianca, while Othello believed he was speaking in terms of Desdemona. With all that occurring, I do believe Othello could have simply confronted Desdemona, but he did not. When he has proposed to her, it should had been a promise, he trusts her and wants to be with her forever, for better or for worse. I believe this proves the amount of trust and loyalty held upon Iago. Yes, Othello should not had put that much trust into him and should had believed his wife, but with the position Iago held in Othello's life, it was almost clear to see why he had trusted him. Once again, Iago is most to blame for this tragedy because he not only ruined a true love but was also the reason behind several deaths in the play. Iago did  suggest the only solution was the death of Cassio's as well as Desdemona's, Imagine if he had encouraged Othello to communicate or ignore the situation, despite the little trust he had for Desdemona, he would obey. Othello probably would had obey because he believes that Iago only wants the best for him and to help lead him in the right path, be his right hand man. Iago is a very persuasive character and has gotten Othello to believe and follow through in many of his situations.  With Iago's character he not only betrayed and caused the death of  Othello but several others as well.

Culture & identity

Often times in life one allow their culture/background to either help or hamper the creation of his/her own identity. Likewise, in the novel, Native Son by Richard Wright, we find the protagonist, Bigger, allowing his cutler to hinder and take forth of his identity. Before all else, Bigger constantly repeats throughout the novel on how the Caucasians have the upper hand and he feels an awkward sense of something terrible occurring to him due to his skin color, constantly reminding the reader that "we black and they white". Not to mention, as the novel progresses we find Bigger revealing some shame of his culture and how much of a burden he holds towards it. While being in the car and having Mary and Jan beside him, he was already knowingly "very conscious of his black skin"(84), but just by having Jan and Mary standing there, acting in a friendly manner, they allowed Bigger to feel his skin. Bigger allows his culture to act like a prison, for "he was something to be hated", he wore "the badge of shame" that was "attached to a black skin" (84). To explicate, due to his culture and background, Bigger was born into the inky skin that he is in now and due to the outrageous history colored faced, it was always in the Caucasian's nature to view colored as less than human. With this in mind along with living down South, Bigger had a near good idea about where he fits in this world, crowded in a box full of other colored people, labeled with the same stereotypes. Bigger grew to despise of his dark skin, for it held him back from several obstacles and defined himself before he could even figure out whom he truly was yet. In my opinion, due to society's profile of Bigger being the stereotypical black man during that time, caused him to become the violent and brutal character he is. In the beginning of the novel Bigger holds a great amount of fear, especially towards the white society, hinting why he only wanted to bring his protective gun along with him when going to rob the white corner store and visiting the Daltons for the first time in hope to receive a job. It amazes me that even though Bigger was going to the Daltons home in hope of something positive to better his lifestyle, he still had a heavy urge that he may need protection or that something terrible would happen to him. With this in mind, despite the outrageous stereotypes bought upon colored people of being brutal and thieves, they still hold fear towards the white society. If being told you're so dangerous and out of control, wouldn't you start to believe they may actually fear you since they believe they know what you are capable of? Instead, one must keep in the back of their heads, well "we black and they white." Not too long after into the novel Bigger commits an extremely huge crime: he murders Mary. Before he done so, he mentioned how their catering towards him made him very uncomfortable and felt as if they were only teasing him. It was extremely difficult for Bigger to believe in the idea that Jan and Mary truly wanted to become Bigger's friend and become apart of his life. Bigger never seeing such kindness towards colored from white, he did not know how to react to it and grew angry, believing they were purposely trying to make him feel worthless as well as ashamed of his heritage. After actually committing the crime he explains how he knows what is going to come for him considering the fact that he is a black man whom killed a white women rather than a white man whom killed a white women. With the knowledge of his culture and his inky skin, Bigger already acknowledges that the death penalty will be his punishment. However, if he was white, his life would not be taken from him in the sense of death, but instead, in the sense of isolation. All in all, Bigger's culture identified him as a person before he had the chance to. 

So I believe a "work of literary merit" is a terminology used to describe the value and importance of a work of literature as a whole. For example, Ellison's Invisible Man consist of a greater literary merit than, per say, Gayle Forman's novel, If I Stay. One would conclude that Ellison's novel holds more skill and is more "meaningful". I dislike this. I truly love the novel If I Stay and I wish I could through some similar stories in the amazing "work of literary merit" box. Okay, so clearly I'm sort of iffy on this whole literary merit thing. I mean, every story holds its own importance, value and meaning so why must we pick and remove specific novels and throw them in the category of a literary merit? Also, why does it have to focus so much on the skill of the writing? If its well written? Why can't it just be a good read that keeps us up at night? Some of the books placed in that category are (I'm sorry) *trash emoji*. They make me fall asleep, literally. I have to read a good portion of a work of literary merit about ten times over and over before I could wrap my head around it. Is that why it holds more skill? Or maybe I truly have the wrong view and interpretation of this. A story of literary merit that kept me up at night was Beloved. Its obviously holds a high level of skill in the writing and all this and that, but honestly, the thing that really made me through it in that category is the way she used foreshadowing. It was more complex. Morrison mentions incomplete allusions to events that are later carried on and shown in further chapters in the novel. The novel shows a meaningful representation of time and occurrences in which the story took place. 

I'd like to give a shout out to Mrs. Smith because I can honestly say I am actually enjoying reading Native Son.  The book fell open, and I fell in.

Hey, well, I'm Dany and I am an extremely impatient reader. I expect excitement in the very first chapter and if it does not come quick enough I lose interest. I am not a fan of reading, it gives me a headache. Don't get me wrong, at some point in my life I use to be fond of reading, however, it was mainly children books. Okay, scratch that, get me wrong because, that hardly even counts and reading has left my heart many years ago when my third grade teacher had notified me that Dr. Seuss books were apparently "not in my grade level." I still continued to read them though, she obviously failed to realize my love for Horton Hears a Who! and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Believe me, if I could read Dr. Seuss books and write essays based off of them for AP Literature (Sorry Mrs. Smith), I would in a heart beat. For those wondering, yes, I do wish my love for reading was up there and I do want to become a "D1" reader, hopefully I will find the love of reading through this blog. Let's make it simpler, maybe I will favor "grade level books" over children's book. Ah, who am I kidding? Children books will forever have my heart, but you know, a girls got to grow. So, I guess I'll start by reading Beloved, by Toni Morrison. Wish me luck!

PS, Outside of school reading, reading because I genuinely want to, does not happen at all and that needs to change as well. I honestly need to find joy in reading and maybe use it as an escape, really connect to the authors.