The Tiger vs. The Lamb

Thesis: In the two poems, William Blake contrasts the creation of a Tiger and a Lamb, by the same God.

Body One: Both poems discuss the creation of a being by God. The first poem describes the who created the Lamb, and the second poem describes who creates the Tiger. Each animal is spoken to in a different, contrasting tone.

• "Little Lamb, who made thee?/ Dost thou know who made thee?" (The Lamb 1-2). In the The Lamb, the speaker asks the Lamb, in a superior tone. The speaker looks down on the Lamb as one would with a child. 
• "Tiger! Tiger! burning bright/ In the forests of the night,/ What immortal hand or eye/ Could frame thy fearful symmetry" (The Tiger 1-4) In The Tiger, the speaker speaks to the tiger at an equal level. The tone used by the speak in The Tiger is fearing and ominous than the tone used in The Lamb.

There are two distinct tones used in either poem. While each talks about the work of God and his creations, the tones of each poem contrast each other. 

Body Two: The speaker in both poems addresses that the animals are created by God. In The Lamb, the speaker is sure that the Lamb is a creation of God. However, in The Tiger, the speaker questions if God could make such a fearful being.

• "Little Lamb I'll tell thee!/ He is called by thy name,/ For he calls himself a Lamb" (The Lamb 12-14). The speaker is sure that God (Jesus - The Lamb) would create a creature that bears his own name. He is sure that the such an innocent and pure animal, such as the Lamb, must be created by benevolent God.
• "When the stars threw down their spears,/ And watered heaven with their tears,/ Did he smile his work to see?/  Did he who made the Lamb make thee?" (The Tiger 17-20). The speaker asks a rhetorical question to the tiger: "Did he who made the Lamb make thee?" (20). He does not understand how God could make such a intimidating being. 

Body Three: The overall comparison of the poem is between God's creations. The Lamb is a perfect creation of God. The tone towards the Lamb is innocent, and the speaker does not question the animal's existence. But the Tiger is seen as a frightening beast. The speaker of The Tiger questions if the God created the animal, for it is so unlike his previous creations (the Lamb). The tone towards the Tiger is negative and foreboding.

PODG 5

The relationship between Dorian Gray and his portrait shows a role reversal in the views of aestheticism. In aestheticism, life's purpose is to imitate art, and art's purpose is to look beautiful, and to be enjoyed. However, this element of aestheticism is flipped in the relationship between Dorian and his painting. Dorian's painting is a reflection of his conscience. The painting imitates life; it's picture changes and reforms to represent Dorian's sins and actions. On the other hand, Dorian is a physical representation of art. He even admits it to Basil that he values, and enjoys himself very much. Dorian describes, "'more than I owe to you. You only taught me to be vain" (79). Dorian is a person that values himself over others. He is a beautiful walking art piece that is admired by Basil, Lord Henry, and many others. While he succeeds at imitating art, his portrait does the opposite and imitates life.

PODG 3

The conversations between James, his mother (Mrs. Vane), and Sibyl foreshadow the the ultimate demise of of Dorian and Sibyl's relationship. In the conversations about Dorian and Jame's father, Mrs. Vane refers to both Dorian and Jame's father as gentleman. Mrs. Vane says, "But there is no doubt that the young man in question is a perfect gentleman" (47). She then later on states, "He was you father, and a gentleman. Indeed he was highly connected" (52). In drawing this parallel between Dorian and Jame's father, Mrs. Vane also foreshadows the ultimate fate of Dorian and Sibyl's relationship. Jame's father was not married to Mrs. Vane when they conceived children, and he went on to die, leaving Mrs. Vane, James, and Sibyl alone. By connecting Dorian and Jame's father because they were both gentlemen, Mrs. Vane unknowingly also connects the two by their failure to maintain a proper relationship. The dialogues between Mrs. Vane and James show the possible demise of Sibyl and Dorian's love through comparison with the late father of James and Sibyl.

PODG 2 - 11/19

Lord Henry indulges in influencing the minds of his friends and acquaintances. While talking to the people attending Aunt Agatha's dinner, Henry reveals his love for attention and his ability to attract the minds of anyone. The scene is described as "[Henry] felt that the eyes of Dorian Gray were fixed on him, and the consciousness that amongst his audience there was one whose temperament he wished to fascinate seemed to give his wit keenness and to lend colour to his imagination" (31). Henry is able to capture the minds of those he speaks to. His flamboyant speech, full of half-truths and 'dangerous' comments intrigues people which allows him to plan ideas into their heads. Henry's wife speaks about her husband saying, "I always hear Harry’s views from his friends" (33). Henry's ideals clearly rub off on his friends. He has the ability to influence anyone with his bold personality.

My Son the Man - Sharon Olds

Thesis: Sharon Olds Alludes to great magician Harry Houdini in order to paint a picture of the relationship with her growing son.

Para 1: Olds compares her son to Houdini's escape strategies to characterize her son's physical maturation.

"Suddenly his shoulders get a lot wider,/ the way Houdini would expand his body/while people were putting him in chains" (1-3)

-Olds takes the visual image of Houdini puffing out his shoulders and chest and applies it to her son's growth. The visual image evoked by the allusion helps the reader to better understand the mother's view of her child; how the mother sees her boy turning into a man and growing up.

Para 2: Olds again uses allusion to describe her son growing older. She compares her son's separation from her with one of Houdini's famous escapes.

"Now he looks at me/ the way Houdini studied a box/ to learn the way out, then smiled and let himself be manacled" (14-16)

-In alluding to, and ultimately comparing her son's growth to, Houdini's escape, Olds capture the thoughts of her son. Olds is able to describe his need for separation from his mother and for independence. The allusion to Houdini describes the son's mental and emotional changes.

PODG 1

Wilde promotes the use of aestheticism through the character dialogue between Basil and Lord Henry. When discussing Dorian, Lord Henry and Basil touch on the fact that art should portray beauty. Henry says, "beauty, real beauty, ends where an intellectual expression begin" (2). In writing this, Wilde emphasizes that beauty and intellect have no overlap; aestheticism follows this same principle. Furthermore, Wilde advances the use of aestheticism when Basil describes why he does not wish to publish his painting. Basil states, 

"An artist should create beautiful things, but should put nothing of his own life into them. We live in an age when men treat art as if it were meant to be a form of autobiography. We have lost the abstract sense of beauty. Some day I will show the world what it is; and for that reason the world shall never see my portrait

of Dorian Gray" (8-9)

Basil does not wish to publish his picture because it contains more than just beauty. The portraits holds a deeper meaning to Basil and that goes against Aesthetic principles. The description of Dorian and his portrait by Basil and Lord Henry are used as a tool by Oscar Wilde to promote and justify the Aesthetic movement.

PODG - Preface 11/13

In the preface to Portrait of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde uses various suggestions and aphorisms to convey the meaning of art and aestheticism. Wilde supports the ideals of Aestheticism stating that art is not to be delved into; art is only to be enjoyed for its beauty. Wilde suggests that there is no moral purpose or use for art. He writes, "The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless". Through deductive reasoning, Wilde implies that art, because it is useless, is something to be admired intensely. Art serves no purpose besides enjoyment. The aphorisms and statements of Wilde in the preface outline the major ideals of Aestheticism.

In the preface, Oscar Wilde also outlines his attitude towards his readers. Because of his strict adherence to aestheticism, Wilde wants critics and readers to enjoy art, and his work, for it's outer beauty. Wilde does not wish for his audience to seek for a deeper meaning. He praises those that view art for only its surface elegance and wittiness; Wilde articulates, "Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty". Those that follow the principles of aestheticism are the ideal audience of Wilde. He does not care about the opinionsof those who think otherwise.

'The History Teacher' - Billy Collins

Thesis: In the poem 'The History Teacher', Billy Collins utilizes a specialized from of understatement, euphemism  in order to reveal the irony of the teachers actions.

Paragraph 1: The teacher uses euphemisms on multiple occasions in order to protect and shelter his children from the evils of the world.

"Trying to protect his students' innocence/ he told them the Ice Age was really just/ the Chilly Age, a period of a million years/ when everyone had to wear sweaters" (1-4)

-The teacher downplays the effects of the ice age and vastly understates the true importance that it had on    the world.
-The teacher, in an attempt to understate the importance of the ice age, uses humor saying: "when everyone had to wear sweaters" (4). With the humor he creates through obvious fallacy, that humans did not have sweaters in the ice age, the teacher shelters his kids from the true importance of very eventful eras.

"And the Stone Age became the Gravel Age,/ named after the long driveways of the time" (5-6)

-Again the teacher uses a euphemism to understate the importance of an important era in history. His avoidance of the truth is to protect the innocence of the children and to shelter them.

Paragraph 2: The teacher's understatements are ironic because of the fact that the kids are just evil and cruel despite the teacher's attempts at sheltering them.

"The children would leave his classroom/ for the playground to torment the weak/ and the smart,/ mussing up their hair and breaking their glasses" (14-17)

-Despite the teacher's attempts at downplaying important eras and violent excursions, such as the use of the atom bomb and how the Boers fight, the students ironically are violent. The euphemisms shelter the children, but the teacher's goal of protecting them fails when the children are let out on their own.