Poem

2. Riches and Honor
   By Cheng-Ao (Cheng Yun-Son) 
   
   
   A fair lady makes her toilet;
   Her whole head is streaked with jewels,
   How can she guess that two cloud-like tresses
   Carry the tribute from many villages?

ü Twenty Questions in the Study of Literature

                                     I.      Reader-Response

1.       How do you feel about this work? For example, what feelings did it evoke when you read it? Pity, fear, suspense, surprise, joy or humor?

Ø    Joy, because what the poem is telling about the girl who realizes that in order to make herself beautiful, feels in luxury and feels comfortable she must experience sufferings to enjoy the good results.

2.       Does your attitude toward or understanding of the work change as you read it? What brings about conditions that change? How many different ways can the work are read?

Ø  Yes, because at first we can say that the girl was just playing but then as we read and analyze the poem, we can conclude that it is not about playing but we can say that it was just the mirror of one who is motivated to have a good life.

3.       By manipulating such literary devices as tone and point of view, authors try to establish a relationship between their work and their readers does this work (or author) assume? What elements of the work help establish this relationship?

Ø  Symbols, because through this, the reader can visualize of what the author wants to imply.

                                   II.      Formal

4.       Make an inventory of the key words, symbols, and images in the work by listing those that seem most insignificant to you. What meanings seem to be attached to these words, symbols, and images?

o  Toilet      -    comforts

o  Jewels    -    luxury

o  Tribute   -    eager

5.       How do these words, symbols, and images help to provide unity or define the overall pattern or structure of the work?

Ø  By using symbols, the author covers the meaning or the things she wants to say to the readers which become deep words.

6.       Under what genre the work should be classified? What generic conventions are readily apparent? If it is fiction or drama, what does each of the five structural elements – plot, characters, setting, theme, and mood – contribute to the work? If it is poetry, how do meter, rhyme, and figurative language contribute to your experience of the poem?

o    Meter: The first two lines have 8 syllables while the other two   lines have 10 syllables.

o    Rhyme: the second line to fourth lines are rhyming, and the first line is not

o    Figurative Language: None.

Ø  With these, we can finally say that the structures have different contents, and it doesn’t have any figurative language. These elements helps the reader to analyze the poem

                                III.      Traditional

7.       How does the work reflect the biographical or historical background of the author or the time during which it was written?

Ø  It reflect by using a lady as character in the poem which could be possibly her and what her works could be based to her surrounding that she might want the reader wants to know.

8.         What are the principal themes of the work?

Ø  Eagerness makes everything successful

9.         What moral statements, if any, does the work make? What philosophical views of life or world does the work present?

Ø  Without effort, nothing can achieve. If you want a life with full of enjoyment, you must have initiative in order for you to fulfill your dreams.

                                IV.      Psychological

10.    What are the principal characteristics or defining traits of the protagonists or main characters in the work?

Ø  The girl is striving so hard to accomplish her goal.

11.      What psychological relationship exists between and among the characters? Try to determine which characters are stronger and which are the weaker? What is the source of their strength or weakness?

Ø  The source is her dreams to have luxurious life even it is not directly written in the poem.

12.    Are these unconscious conflicts within or between characters? How are these conflicts portrayed in the in the work?  Is the Freudian concept of the id-ego-superego applicable?

Ø  None, it has no conflict at all.

13.    Is sexuality or sexuality imagery employed in the work? Are there implications of Oedipus complex, pleasure principle, or wish fulfillment

Ø  None, there is no implications of that.

14.    How do the principal characters view the world around them and other characters in the work? Is that view accurate or distorted?

Ø  Through the use of symbols to make an image by the reader about the poem

                                  V.      Mythical-Archetypal

15.    Does the work contain mythic elements in plot, theme, or characters? Are there recognizable mythic patterns such as rebirth/fertility/quest/journey, or struggle/ return of the hero?

Ø  None, there is no recognizable mythic patterns.

16.    Are there archetypal characters, images, or symbols, such as the great mother, the wise old man, the sea, and the seasons?

Ø  None, there are no archetypal characters.

17.    Do you find Jungian archetypes, such as shadows, persona, or anima, growth, and individuation?

Ø  No, there is no Jungian archetypes

                               VI.      Sociological

18.    What is the relationship between the work and the society it presents or grew out of? Does it address particular social issues either directly or indirectly – such as race, sex, class, religion, or politics?

Ø  We can say that the author dedicates this work to human races for us to understand that without sufferings, we can’t achieve goals and if we don’t put ourselves into a situation that needs motivation we will never feel comfort after all 

19.    Does the sexual identity of the main character affect the relationships and ultimately the events in the story?

Ø  No it doesn’t

20.    Finally, does the story, poem, or play lend itself to one of the various interpretative techniques more than the others?

Ø  Yes it does have techniques, such as words that sounds funny but if you think deeper, you can get what the author means, also the poet uses symbols such as jewelry and tribute which means of luxury life after sufferings or sacrifices. 

Literature

Hills Like White Elephants

By Ernest Hemingway

ü Background of the story

"Hills Like White Elephants" from the 1927 collection Men Without Women is one of the most famous American short stories ever, by one of America’s most famous authors, Ernest Hemingway. You’ve probably heard of Hemingway. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953, and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. Hemingway is considered to be one of the great innovators in 20th-century fiction. 

You probably won’t be able to get out of high school or college without running across this very short story about a pair of lovers at a crisis point in their relationship. As can often happen in such situations, everything comes to a head in a public place. The narrator reports on their conversation. Sounds simple, right?

If it is simple, then why do so many people have such a hard time with this story? Well, the characters don’t ever specifically say what they are arguing about, and as the reader, we must infer what they're discussing. It's quite a good literary trick, and one that helped propel Hemingway to literary fame, while influencing generations of writers to come

ü Setting

In train station, overlooking the Ebro River, somewhere between Barcelona, Spain and Madrid, Spain

ü Characters

v  Jig

Jig is one of the most unusual characters in literature. The lack of physical and biographical details about her makes her seem like a blank slate onto which we can project whatever we want.

She’s often seen as a victim of the man – a woman forced into having an abortion against her will. Since the ending is wide open, and we don’t know what either of the characters does in the long run, such interpretations miss the point of the story. This is very much a story about the way people and stories communicate. To get at Jig’s character, we can ask this question: what is being communicated to us about Jig? We’ve made you a list of things we think are being communicated about Jig. She:

»         Speaks English

»         Doesn’t (or pretends not to) speak any Spanish

»         Relies on the man to translate for her several times

»         Has seen white elephants

»         Drinks beer

»         Has had absinthe

»         Is willing to try new things

»         Wants to settle down

»         Tells the man what to do

»         Communicates directly, and through simile and hinting

»         Is aware of nature and her natural surroundings

»         Is the only character in the story who has a name (or maybe a nickname)

»         Is pregnant

»         Doesn’t want an abortion

»         Is young enough to be called "a girl"

»         Has been traveling with the "American" man and staying in hotels with him

»         Doesn’t say she loves the man

»         Doesn’t call the man by his name

»         Wants the man to think she’s smart

»         Feels that she can only have an abortion if she no longer cares about herself

»         Knows women who have had abortions, and implies that things didn’t turn out well for them

»         Threatens to scream in public

»         Shuts down completely when the conversation with man seems to be going in circles

We can squeeze out lots of information on Jig, but none of it gets us closer to knowing what she finally decides to do, or really knowing her the way we might know some other fictional characters. You could probably make an even longer list of things we don’t know about Jig.

v  The American Man

Often vilified as an insensitive, uncaring man who bullies Jig into an abortion, the American is another unusual character. It's possible that we know even less about him than we do about Jig, and perhaps he's even more mysterious. To keep things consistent, we’ll follow the same strategy we did in Jig's "Character Analysis." This way we can compare lists, and see if this guy is really a villain or not. We’ll look at what the story expresses about the character. He:

»         Speaks English and Spanish, at least

»         Translates for Jig several times

»         Has not seen white elephants, but could have, no matter what Jig says

»         Drinks beer

»         Gets irritated when Jig brings up absinthe

»         Doesn’t want to marry Jig, but claims he is willing to do so

»         Is trying to convince Jig to have an abortion

»         Communicates this to her directly, but minimizes the reality of an abortion

»         Seems oblivious to the natural surroundings

»         Is identifiable as an American (by the narrator)

»         Is the father of Jig’s child

»         Has been traveling with Jig and staying in hotels with her

»         Tells Jig he loves her

»         Calls her by name (or nickname)

»         Claims to be very worried by the situation

»         Doesn’t seem to think the abortion is a big deal

»         Knows women who have had abortions, and implies that things turned out well for them

»         Claims to think that the unborn child is the only obstacle to their happiness

»         Persists when Jig asks him to stop talking, but eventually does stop

Like Jig, the man seems to feel that there are only two options available to them, marriage or abortion. He doesn’t appear to want any part of marriage and babies, but he doesn’t seem to take into account how difficult a decision this is for Jig. This might mean that he’s uninformed, or it might just mean that conceiving a child means something very different to him than it does to Jig. Also remember that the man, like Jig, probably hasn’t received much in the way of sex education.

As with Jig, we’ll leave you with a few questions: why does the narrator identify him as American? Does this imply that the narrator has seen the man around, and knows a little about him? Is there something that identifies the man as American? What are some things that could identify him as American? Does anything within the conversation between the man and Jig identify him as American?

ü Problem

The emotion of Jig makes her confusion and lead to a decision to have an abortion. The American, her boyfriend who doesn’t really care to her is just taking advantage to her confusion and convincing to do the operation.

ü Plot

The story takes place at a train station in the Ebro River valley of Spain. The year is 1927. This particular day is oppressively hot and dry, and the scenery in the valley is barren and ugly for the most part. The two main characters are a man (referred to only as "the American") and his female companion, whom he calls Jig.

While waiting for the train to Madrid, the American and Jig drink beer and a liquor called Anís del Toro, which Jig compares to liquorice. Their conversation is mundane at first, but quickly drifts to the subject of an operation which the American is attempting to convince Jig to undergo. Though it is never made explicit in the text, it is made clear (through phrases of dialogue such as "It's just to let the air in" and "But I don't want anybody but you," among numerous context clues) that Jig is pregnant and that the procedure in question is an abortion.

After posing arguments to which the American is largely unresponsive, Jig next assents to the operation, while saying: "I don't care about me." However, he then responds, "You've got to realize that I don't want you to do it if you don't want to." He continues, "I'm perfectly willing to go through with it if it means anything to you." She attempts to drop the subject, but the American persists as if still unsure of Jig's intentions and mental state. She insists, "Would you please please ... please stop talking?" He is silent a while, and repeats, "But I don't want you to," and adds, "I don't care anything about it." She interjects, "I’ll scream."

The barmaid comes out through the beaded curtains with two glasses of beer and puts them down on the felt pads. She notes, "The train comes in five minutes." Jig was distracted, but then smiles brightly at the woman and thanks her.

The American leaves the table and carries their bags to the opposing platform, but still no sight of the train in the distance. He walks back through the station, and everyone else is still waiting reasonably for the train. Pausing at the bar, he drinks another Anis, alone, before rejoining Jig. He then asks her, "Do you feel better?" She again smiles at him, "I feel fine. There's nothing wrong with me. I feel fine." The story ends.

ü Solution

Think many times before act or decide and what may be the result of it, because regret is always in the end.

ü Summary

An American man and "a girl" sit drinking beer in a bar by a train station in northern Spain making self-consciously ironic, brittle small talk. The woman comments that the hills look like white elephants (hence the story's title). Eventually, the two discuss an operation, which the man earnestly reassures her is "awfully simple . . . not really an operation at all . . . all perfectly natural" .

The woman is unconvinced, questioning "what will we do afterward," but says she will have the operation because "I don't care about me”. A few moments later, however, she avers that they "could" have everything and go anywhere, suddenly as earnest as he had been earlier. When the man agrees that they "can" do these things, however, the woman now says no, they can't, her change in verb tense suggesting that the possible lives they once could have pursued (and produced) are even now, before any firm decision has been spoken, irrevocably out of reach. When the man says that he will go along with whatever she wants, the woman asks him to "please please please please please please please stop talking" or she will scream. The train arrives during this impasse, and once the bags are loaded, the woman, smiling brightly, insists she feels fine.

ü Conclusion

Abortion is a sin of a person who’s taking out or killing the unborn child because of regrets even it is causing emotionally stressed that leads to confusion. Some people think that abortion is a best way to escape from reality yet never. It will never be the best answer to a problem which being untimely pregnant. So to avoid this kind of decision, everyone must think very carefully before act because pain and regrets were always at the end.