Monogamous
Eternity
Mortality is one
of life’s most difficult and feared journeys. With every breath of life there
will always be a time where that breath will expire. Death is incorporated with
the chilly eerie feeling of darkness and nothingness. Therefore as humans,
death is excessively feared. In Emily Dickinson’s poem, “Because I could not stop
for Death”, her perception is the antonym of death. In the poem, Dickinson uses
the literary elements of personification and symbolism to convey the theme of
her poem: that death is part of the endless cycle of life; death should not be
feared but invited with calm regard.
The poem begins
with the author clearly admitting that she did not stop for “Death, /He kindly
stopped…” (l.1-2) for her. In the beginning, Dickinson personifies “Death” (l.1)
as a masculine, referring to death as a “He” (1. 2). In Babette Deutsch’s book Poetry Handbook: A Dictionary of Terms,
personification is defined under an “extensive metaphor” or an allegory
(Deutsch 88). Deutsch also defines personification as “prosopopeia” or
“abstract vices and virtues represented as person” (Deutsch 88). Dickinson uses
personification by attaching attributes of kindness in the man that stops for
her; the same man she couldn’t stop for. Dickinson describes Death as being
chivalrous and romantic to have stopped for her and pick her up. The author is
now riding with her romantic lover, Death, but is soon accompanied by another
person, “Immortality” (l. 4). Dickinson
also personifies “Immortality” (l. 4) as another traveler in their journey to
eternal life. As the carriage is moving Death “…knew no haste” (l. 5). Death
seems to be calm and unhurried to reach their destination, as if “He” is enjoying
“his” time strolling along the road. The author also feels that Death has been
so kind to that she has sacrificed her “…labor and my leisure too, /For His
Civility” (ll. 7-8). The author lets go of her worldly pleasures for Death,
because of his initial kind gesture. Dickinson
personifies Death as not only kind but polite and courteous. Dickinson does not
only personify Death and Immortality, but also personifies the Sun. As the
author and her lover, Death, pass by the key stages of her life they come to the
end of her stage, “…the Setting Sun-/Or rather-He passed Us-” (l. 12-13). Dickinson personifies the
Sun, as the Sun passing them by, which signifies that the Sun is traveling the
opposite direction from where they are heading. Near the end of the poem,
Dickinson describes what the author is dressed in, a wedding dress. Dressed as
a bride, Death can only be her kind chivalrous groom accompanying her to their
eternal abode.
Dickinson also
uses the literary element of symbolism. In Deutsch’s book a symbol is defined
as a:
…word or image
that signifies something other than what is represents and that even when
denoting a physical, limited thing carries enlarging connotations, so that it
has the reality, vivid yet ambiguous, the emotional power, and the suggestiveness
of a compelling dream or an archetypal myth.”
Dickinson is the best example in
the usage of symbolism in regards to the theme of the poem: serenely accepting
death. Death peacefully and calmly accompanies the author on a journey to and
immortal destination. Towards their calm and easeful journey, the author is
feels a breeze as “The Dews drew quivering and chill/For only Gossamer, my
Gown/My Tippet-only Tulle-” (l. 14-16). The author is adorned in a wedding
dress. The wedding dress symbolizes that her journey is a journey to a new
beginning, like being married is the mark of a new beginning in life. The
author’s attire represents her acceptance to the hand of Death and her joyful
everlasting journey to an immortal life. During their journey, Death and the author
“…passed the School, where Children strove/At Recess-in the Ring-” (l. 9-10).
The author and Death pass by a school and children playing at their recess
time. This scene symbolizes the authors childhood and school years. As Death
and the author pass the school the come upon “…the Fields of Grazing Grain-” (l.
11). The author again comes across another key stage in her life, her midlife
and working life as an adult. Death presses on forward and the author comes to
pass by “…the Setting Sun-” (1. 12). Death travels by the last stage of the
author’s life, the stage of old age and death, which is being symbolized by the
beautiful and romantic sunset. Death presses onward and they “…paused before a
House that seemed/A Swelling of the Ground-/The Roof was scarcely visible-/The
Cornice-in the Ground-” (l. 17-20). Death gently pauses in front of the
author’s abode, which is described as her grave, her eternal resting place. Dickinson uses the house
as a symbol of comfort and ease rather than a place of morbid attributes. Dickinson describes the
house as spacious and wide, where the roof can barely be seen in height. Hand
in hand with the author’s eternal companion they travel, “Were toward Eternity-”
(l. 24), toward a new eternal blissful life.
Work Cited
Deutsch, Babette.
Poetry Handbook: A Dictionary of Terms. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1974.
Print.
Dickinson, Emily.
"Because I Could Not Stop for Death." 100 Best-Loved Poems. Ed.
Philip Smith. New York: Dover Publications, 1995. 70. Print.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Poem of Poetry
It is the ballad of the Ancient Mariner,
the terza rima of the Divine,
the Japanese haiku and tanka,
the Italian canzone and sonnet,
the trisyllabic meter of Thing 1 and Thing 2,
the couplet of thee summer’s love,
a meter, a verse, a foot,
a gender based rhyme,
a happily-dactyl,
an onomatopoeic cock-a-doodle-do,
a heart as rock -simile,
a sea of troubles -metaphor,
call it art, a literary phenomenon,
or sing song silly rubbish,
but I dub it
the Pierian Spring of lexis.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Continental Threads
Imagine a thread of gun powder paved in a thin line across continents and oceans; creating a Hansel and Gretel trail of bread crumbs. Follow the powder, see where it leads. No doubt it ends up where it began and with no surprise only a small flame can ignite the whole world. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s film, Babel creates that gunpowder illusion, traveling through almost every continent on Earth. In the article, “Babel” by Leslie Felperin, she relates that this film is “ nothing less than the world's the stage for Babel,where the firing of a rifle sets off ripples of effect around the globe, its repercussions particularly felt in unhappy or divided families”(Felperin,41). One element alone is the match that ignites chaos to the perfect balance of four distant families, a hunting rifle.
Babel is a film that takes the viewer on a journey through three major continents, North America, South America, Africa, and Asia and into the lives four families, which interlock with one weapon which destroys them, a rifle. In the article, “Connecting Dots” by Daniel Eilemberg, he states: "Here, four different families living in different comers of the world are linked to each other by a circumstantial event, the accidental shooting of an American tourist in the mountains of Morocco. Yet, while the protagonists may not share the same country or language, there is a deep association between them: They are, in their own way, isolated--culturally, linguistically and physically"(Eilemberg, 37).Eilemberg’s reflection is clearly seen throughout the film. This explosive link starts in a small village in Morocco. Abdullah, a goat herder, buys a M70 rifle from his neighbor to get rid of the jackals that have been butchering his goats. Abdullah gives the rifle to his two sons, Yussef and Ahmed, and sends them out to tend the herd. Like many brothers, they compete between themselves testing the rifle out, not knowing the magnitude of the simple weapon. They decide to give the rifle a fun test run, aiming first at rocks, a moving car on a highway below, and then at a bus carrying Western tourists. The bullet goes through the window of the bus. The two boys realize that the bullet did more than just injure the bus, so they run away, concealing the gun. As clips of news programs reveal their "intel" that the shooting is a terrorist attack, Moroccan officials are pressured to find the gunmen. Tracing the gun back to Hassan, the Moroccan police charge quickly into his house and ruthlessly question him and his wife until they uncover the linking factor; that the rifle was gift given to Hassan by a Japanese man, and then sold to Abdullah. The two boys see the police on the road and from fear; they confess to their father what happened. Abdullah and his sons are on the run, retrieving the rifle as they flee. Soon the Moroccan police find and corner the family on a rocky hillside and open fire. In the crossfire, Ahmed is hit in the leg, and Yussef, in a protective measure, take the rifle and shoots back. The police continue shooting, eventually hitting Ahmed in the back, which seems to be fatal. As Abdullah rages with grief holding is son’s limp body, Yussef surrenders and confesses to all the crimes, begging mercy for his family and medical assistance for his brother.
Across continents, the movie simultaneously portrays the story of Chieko Wataya, a defiant, deaf Japanese girl, who is clearly traumatized by the suicide of her mother. She internally blames her father, Yasujiro Wataya. Chieko in her own way is troubled which leads her to act in an unruly manner. She eventually runs into two police detectives who question her about her father. She finds one of the detectives, Kenji Mamiya attractive to she invites him to her apartment. She assumes that the detectives are still investigating her father's involvement in her mother's suicide and tells him what happens. However the detectives were investigating a hunting trip Yasujiro took in Morocco. Yasujiro in the past was a fervent hunter and had been in Morocco. During his trip in Morocco, Yasujiro gave his rifle, as a gift, to his hunting guide and friend Hassan. As the detective leaves the apartment, he runs into Yasujiro and explains the situation with the rifle. Yasujiro replies that he did indeed give the gun as a gift to a friend and it wasn’t some black market deal. The link is now set between two continents, countries, cultures, and families.
Back and forth between lands and oceans, the movie creates puzzle pieces for viewers to slowly piece together. The movie's main plot is sprinkled with scenes of Richard and Susan, parents of two beautiful children, residing in San Diego. The couple is seen vacationing in Morocco to mend their marital complications. On a tour bus back to the main city, Susan is shot on the tour bus, and Richard orders the bus driver to the nearest village to seek medical assistance. With the help of the tour bus guide, Anwar, a local veterinarian sews up the wound to fearing that Susan will die of excess blood loss. Assuming it is a terrorist attack; the other tourists become impatient, and fearful for their own lives, and decide to abandon the couple to fend for themselves. The couple remains behind with Anwar waiting for any type of transport to a hospital by the U.S. Embassy. Political issues between the US and Morocco prevents quick attention as Moroccan officials hunt for the so called terrorists. It is clearly seen here that no matter the magnitude of the incident, it has grown into a bloodbath of political and media agenda. A small accident seems to transform into a foreign policy incident and the casualties are sucked in between. The loss of communication is clearly seen as the film crisscrosses four different and unique languages.
The gunpowder thread trails across seas and towards chaos free San Diego, or so it seems. Richard and Susan leave their two children in the care of their Hispanic nanny, Amelia, while they are vacationing in Morocco. Richard is seen in the beginning, calling home from the hospital. Because the parents are delayed in their return home, Amelia is forced to take care of the children longer than she had planned and becomes worried that she will miss her beloved son's wedding in Mexico. Unable to find a replacement, Amelia calls Richard for advice, who impatiently tells her to cancel her trip. Without his permission, Amelia decides to take the children with her to the wedding in a rural community near Tijuana, Mexico. Her unruly nephew, Santiago, offers to take her and the children across the border. Crossing the border easily, the children find themselves in a culture shock. The merriment of the wedding prolongs late into the evening, but rather than staying the night in Mexico, Amelia decides to drive back to San Diego with Santiago, who has been drinking heavily. At the border, the patrolman becomes suspicious of his behavior and the American children in the car. Amelia provides passports and all other paperwork, but when asked for a letter of consent from the children's parents, she becomes nervous and scared. Intoxicated, Santiago decides to run the border, fleeing from the patrol. He abandons Amelia and the children in the desert, attempting to lead off the police. Stranded without any provisions, Amelia and the children are forced to spend the night in the wild desert. Realizing that they will all perish, Amelia leaves the children behind to find help specifically ordering them not to move. She eventually finds a U.S. Border Patrol officer, who arrests her. However, she pleads the officer to look for the children. The officer and Amelia travel back to where she had left them, but they are not there. Amelia is taken back to a Border Patrol station, where she is eventually informed that the children have been found and that she is to be deported back to Mexico.
As families crumble into despair, their morbid fate link strong. Felperin in one sentence gives the underlining synopsis of this puzzling film: “Four interconnected contemporary stories, set in different countries around the world, are braided together” (Felperin, 42). In the article, The Power of Babel, by Richard Schickel, he also comments on the braid shared, and that Iñárritu’s “ three intercut stories become linked…each of them is, in itself, a powerful tale of fairly ordinary people taken gently down innocent-seeming roads only to find themselves, at the end, in desperate and life-threatening circumstances” ( Schickel). Worlds may be braided together but the main string that ties them all in one braid is the jackal rifle that changed the lives of four families, four countries, three continents, and one world in a matter of days.
Work Cited
Eilemberg, Daniel. "Connecting Dots." Hispanic 19.11 (2006): 36-37. Readers' Guide Full Text Mega (H.W. Wilson). Web. 13 Dec. 2012.
Felperin, Leslie. "Babel." Sight & Sound 17.2 (2007): 41-43. Humanities Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 13 Dec. 2012.
Babel. Prod. Alejandro González Iñárritu. Paramount, 2006. DVD
Schickel, Richard. "The Power of Babel." Time 168.18 (2006): 70. Readers' Guide Full Text Mega (H.W. Wilson). Web. 13 Dec. 2012.
