Analyzing the Flesh and the Spirit by Anne Bradstreet

Analyzing the Flesh and the Spirit by Anne Bradstreet Five Literary Criticisms Throughout history, there have been many religious faiths and practices that aim the same goal in different ways. One of them was Puritanism and the Puritan believed that the best way to gain admission to heaven was to focus on how sinful they were. Anne Bradstreet was the first Puritan figure in American Literature and in her poem titled The Flesh and the Spirit, she discussed Puritan practices. This essay will analyses the poem with 5 literary criticisms, including Marxist Criticism, Feminist Criticism, New Criticism, Reader-response Criticism, and Psychoanalytic Criticism. Starting with the Marxist Criticism, we need to look at the eras economic conditions first. Anne Bradstreet lived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the colony was highly dependent on the import of staples from England. The Puritan dislike of ostentation led the colony to also regulate expenditures on what it perceived as luxury items. Items of personal adornment were frowned upon. In the poem, we see two characters discussing what kind of life people should have. The sister named Flesh tries to explain to her sister named Spirit that the World has everything that could keep them happy and content. Fleshs this kind of approach to the earthly goods is totally against Puritan believes. As the colony Bradstreet lived in already frowned upon luxury items, the sister Spirit says, My Crown not Diamonds, Pearls, and gold, / But such as Angels heads infold. Here, she means that she doesnt have a materialist personality. The poet, Bradstreet, reflects her colonys world-view for the economic matters in those lines. When we try to analyze this poem using the Feminist Criticism, we simply need to ask some questions regarding to poets sex, education, and then look at the characters. The poet was a woman. And when we read her biography, we see that she didnt attend any school but was educated by his father. This informs us that she lived in a male-dominant society because girls didnt attend school even if her father was a steward. The characters in the poem are also girls and they discuss religious matters. Here, the author breaks the male-dominant society and makes her female characters question the religious matters, especially the Puritanism. When the subject is religion, one shouldnt even question the most unimportant thing. But the sister Flesh questions it and all she says is totally against the Puritanism seen in the poets colony. Since the poet herself is a woman, we can assume that a woman discusses a religious practice in a male-dominant society. Analyzing a poem with New Criticism requires a person not to take background information of the poet, poets other works or the story in the poem into consideration. When we read what Spirit says about earthly goods and how she criticizes what Flesh claims that people need to enjoy them, we can understand that this poem reflects the Puritan beliefs. Words used in the poem belong to the English spoken at least 350 years ago. Metaphors were also used in the poem. The character Flesh is a metaphor for earthly items, such as diamonds, pearls, and gold. The poem is not also in a stanza form. It looks like a wall of text. This means that the poet didnt want to separate what is wanted to mean. It means that the poem is all about the same thing. Rhymes used in the poem also makes it sound better and that way it attracts readers attention. When I try to analyze this poem as a reader with the Reader-response Criticism, I can directly say that this poem is about Puritanism; therefore, religion. Since Spirit seems to be more dominant in the poem, the poets environment is a Puritan society. Id say this poem is not different than other religious poems because they all aim one goal: Heaven. It is the way they discuss what to do in order to go to Heaven. Flesh seems to be a sinner character whom readers should avoid. I dont know whether its okay to blame a character to praise a religion or religious practice, but this kind of behavior would make me more uninterested in that religion or practice. As the verses say, No Candle there, nor yet Torch light, / For there shall be no darksome night. they just sound to be impressive sentences that attract people to that religion no different than that of all religions have. To analyze this poem with the Psychoanalytic Criticism, we need to analyze the characters thoughts, their fears, and what they do to suppress their fears.   When we look at what Spirit says in the poem, we can understand that her core issue is fear of God; thus, she adopted the Puritan beliefs in order to go to Heaven. On the other hand, Flesh is just opposite of Spirit. She displays everything that is against fear of God. This can also be interpreted to be an avoidance as her defense mechanism, since she tries to avoid any religious thoughts and want to enjoy all earthly pleasures. To sum up, this essay tried to analyze the poem titled The Flesh and the Spirit by Anne Bradstreet with 5 literary criticisms. With the Marxist Criticism, we looked at the eras economic conditions and tried to reflect Bradstreets colonys world-view for the economic matters in her poems verses. Using the Feminist Criticism, we tried to explain how Bradstreet broke the man-dominated society and used her female characters to discuss religious matters. With New Criticism, we tried to show figures of speech and what the poems form means. Reader-response Criticism was used to explain what the author of this paper understood from the poem. And finally, with the Psychoanalytic Criticism, we tried to identify characters core issues and their defense mechanisms.

Albert Speer - Differing Historical Interpretations :: essays research papers

They are many factors influencing the different historical interpretations of Albert Speer. The most influential was Speer’s own character construction of himself in his defence at the Nuremberg trials. This view was held by a majority of historians until Matthias Schmidt found holes in Speer’s story. A large blow was dealt to Speer’s own construction of his role in Nazi Germany when the Walters’ chronicles were released containing various incriminating evidence. There are still a number of historians who prefer to view Albert Speer as the Good Nazi, even though most historians now believe that the image created by Speer of himself was self-serving and false. Speer’s well structured and thought out defence shaped historical interpretation for years to come. At Nuremberg he presented himself as a pure technician and not involved in the politics or ideology of the party. He also claimed collective responsibility for crimes against Jews but also his ignorance of the Nazi intentions. As he stated at a later time: â€Å"I just stood aside and said to myself that as long as I did not personally participate it had nothing to do with me. My toleration for the anti Semitic campaign made me responsible for it.† This admission of guilt won a fair amount of sympathy from the court. The reasons he gave for being with the Nazi party was that he was taken by Hitler’s personality and also realised that if he was to achieve his dream as an architect he will have to sell his soul to the party. This image of Speer was to be accepted for a while by most historians and was given little attention. This was probably because Speer was a litt le less ‘spectacular’ than Hitler’s other henchmen. There were however some suspicions. John Galbraith, a member of the US team that debriefed Speer before the Nuremberg trial, said in Life magazine 1945 that Speer’s claims contained â€Å"elements of fantasy†. He also believed that Speer’s confession was a part of his â€Å"well developed strategy of self vindication and survival.† Most historians believed in Speer’s testimonies until Wolters’ Chronicles were released. W Shirer The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1960), A Bullock Hitler a Study in Tyranny (1962), and Joachim Fest The Face on the Third Reich (1970) all portray Speer as the good Nazi, the apolitical technocrat and a repentant German. Raul Hilberg, in The Destruction of the European Jews (1973) discusses in passing Speer’s involvement in the ‘Jewish affair’ but he does not delve in the matter.

Dead White Males Essay Essay

The two opposing ideologies in this play are liberal humanism and post-structuralism. How are they represented? How does the play operate to position the audience to finally prefer one above the other? Dead White Males is a play about a sexually deprived lecturer, Dr Grant Swain, who attempts and almost succeeds in bedding one of his students, Angela Judd, by utilising his position in the university, and by imbuing his views upon his students. Alongside this plot is the conflict between two ideologies, liberal humanism and post-structuralism. Angela, the main character of the play is compelled to make a choice between post-structuralism represented by Dr Swain, and liberal humanism, (Shakespeare), who is constantly opposed and criticised by Swain. By the end of act one it is quite obvious who the villain of this play is. In the opening scene the villain first shows his destructive nature through his unnecessary violence. â€Å"ANGELA How is it that you know so much about us? [SHAKES PEARE is just about to answer when a MAN in his thirties, dressed in fashionable casual clothes appears behind him.] MAN He doesn’t you know. [The MAN pulls out a pistol and shoots SHAKESPEARE dead. ANGELA looks at the MAN, horrified]† (Pp 1) The man in this scene is of course Dr Grant Swain, and his dramatic entrance encourages us to dislike him, because we feel it is wrong to shoot people for no apparent reason. Swain appears to us the villain, due to his unmistakable character, for, aside from his violent episodes, we find that he is interested in only one thing. Sex. He tries to hit on Angela, but she declines his offer. After Melissa accepts his offer of dinner later on, he quickly and conveniently loses interest in Angela making it obvious that he was concerned with only one thing. Another quality we disfavour him for is his over-confidence. From the beginning of the play, when introducing himself and his course, he is â€Å"animated by the intense certainty that he has a supremely important message to communicate and is enormously well equipped to deliver it.† Swain endeavours to shoot Shakespeare several times, and although this is only in Angela’s imagination, we are positioned to agree with Angelaà ¢â‚¬â„¢s attitude towards Swain because she is one of the sympathetic characters. The audience sees Angela as one of the â€Å"good guys†. She is a sympathetic character, and her circumstances as well as her attributes position us to see her as such. Sympathy is evoked for her: 1. Because she seems naive, and readily falls prey to Swain’s way of thinking 2. Because she is a victim of the villain 3. She has been deprived of the nurturing her mother should have provided 4. Because she has suffered through her childhood as a result of her parents’ â€Å"happy marriage† 5. When she is embarrassed in front of Steve Also she defends Col, and takes on the rest of the family. In doing so she becomes a sort of heroine, defending the helpless and upholding the truth, and this positions us to like her character even more. The warring ideologies in this play are represented not only as favourable and unfavourable in this play, but also by certain characters. By establishing who are the â€Å"good guys† and who are the â€Å"bad guys†, the representation of the characters’ respective ideologies are also determined. Post-structuralism is without doubt the unfavourable ideology in this play. This is sim ply because it is expended through the villain of the play. Even though Angela admits that she ‘think(s) there is some truth in what he (Swain) says’ (Pp 80) the fact that Swain subscribes to post-structuralism still conquers, causing post-structuralism to seem as flimsy as its subscriber does. Even when Angela reprimands Shakespeare for his disgraceful casting of women, liberal humanism still holds its approval above post-structuralism, as Shakespeare asks to be wished back to an era of sanity, implying that Angela’s views are insane. Because post-structuralism is the unfavoured ideology, liberal humanism has no other option but to be seen as the favoured one. It’s values and attitudes are mouthed by unobjectionable characters and so are preferred over that of post-structuralism. The play operates by using conventions such as characterisation/casting, tone, dialogue, and conflicts, as well as using our own ideologies to position us to view all the characters and ideologies as we do. When there are conflicts between the characters we instinctively choose sides, as we look for a character to feel for and a character to be disinclined to. This helps to support liberal humanism throughout the play, as in each individual conflict we find that the pitiable characte rs are those that speak the patriarchal type ideologies, whereas the aggressive characters mouth the more modern ideologies. This occurs between Swain and Shakespeare, Col and his daughters, Col and Sarah, and Sarah and Martin. The casting and characterisation of Dead White Males plays a major part in determining who and what are preferred above the others. By having certain  characters approve certain ideologies, it encourages the audience to also approve or disapprove of those ideologies. Swain an objectionable character is so very offensive because of his character. He is power hungry, as well as sex orientated as we see in his reaction to Melissa’s let down. ‘SWAIN You’ve really made and idiot of me, haven’t you? MELISSA Are you saying the marks you gave me weren’t genuine, because if you are – SWAIN Of course there were genuine, but – MELISSA Good marks equals sex. Is that what was going on in your mind? SWAIN No! For God’s sake this was not a case of exploitation. I have grown extremely fond of you! [ANGELA enters. SWAIN makes a great effort to control his anger.’ (Pp 91) By using him to mouth the more passive ideology, the audience becomes less receptive to it. However it is not enough to just have the good guys endorsing the dominant ideology, and the more offensive guys endorsing the bad one, for the audience to accept the prominent ideology. So the good guy (Angela) becomes a victim of the evil post structuralism, and then is shown the light. In the end she succumbs to liberal humanism causing the audience to look upon it favourably. Ironically, the majority of the males in this play are far from the liberal humanist version of the typical dominant male. They are all somewhat spineless to s certain extent and are all victims of their dominant ideology. Swain, being ridiculed for his view, Col being abused by his family for being loyal to a mate, Steve and Martin, both being not very assertive and so are run down by their lack of confidence. The females too are far from their docile liberal humanist stereotype. Sarah is a headstrong feminist, Melissa is ready to give Swain exactly what he deserves and Angela is almost bullies her father a s much as the rest of the females do. In fact the characters although mouthing liberal humanist beliefs (well, some of them) actually conform to post-structuralist stereotyping. However, this juxtaposition of the cast with the plot only reinforces liberal humanist attitudes, suggesting that if the males and females had been playing their respective roles then perhaps the story would not have been so miserable. The play uses our own ideology as well to make us choose one of the plays ideologies above the other. Note that it is very difficult to gain the support for an alternative ideology from an audience when dominant ideology of our society is liberal humanism. The two opposing ideologies in this play are liberal humanism and post-structuralism. Dead White Males operates by  using techniques such as characterisation to position us to prefer one ideology above the other. The main way the play does this is by having an objectionable character, mouth the values and attitudes of post-structuralism, causing us to prefer liberal humanism. In the end I feel there is only a slight preference of one over the other because although Swain is the villain who shoots himself in the foot, much of what he says is historical fact. Bibliography : Dead White Males by David Williamson

Federal And State Laws Play Essay - 1202 Words

Student and families can have collaborative partnerships with educators, by having contact and involvement opportunities created by the school that build connections with parents. Creating and involving parents in meaningful roles within the school can strengthen this partnership. Opportunities for parents and students need to be created by educators that will allow parents to show their interest in their child (Amatea, 2013). California Department of Education advocates with policies and laws to support parent involvement to support student’s academic success. Federal and state laws play a role in linking families and schools together to build and strengthen social, emotional, and academic growth of children (Amatea, 2013). Parent Involvement Parents should always be an essential and ongoing part of school curriculum; just because their child starts school it does not mean they need to stop teaching them or not be a part of their child’s learning process (Lindberg, 2014). According to Lindberg, parent involvement is described as, â€Å"an ongoing and systematic approach involving such activities as providing knowledge and skills in needed matters in order to ensure and support both student’s academic and personal development, the establishment of ongoing and active communication with teachers and school administration, recruiting and organizing parents’ help and support by volunteering in the activities demonstrated in one’s school and classroom, and creatingShow MoreRelatedAnalysis of Domestic Abuse Response808 Words   |  4 Pagesviolence and both our state and federal legislation have chosen to partake in this fight against domestic violence. In today’s society there are a number of things that have resulted in the government’s need to get involved and make laws in order to help bring order and peace to communities. For instance, domestic violence has not only created the need for states to take action but the federal legislation as well. 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