On the Road Again

To me, this course provided a refreshing reflection on many literary works and styles that I used to enjoy and seek out but have since become too busy to dive into as much as I would like. Throughout high school and a few short years after, literature classes such as this and the works contained within were some of my favorite topics to study and digest. However, since then my life has become much busier and time a much more precious commodity causing me to shamefully push my love for classic literature to the side. Furthermore, the last few years of my college experience have been mostly focused on my major specific classes, and with that being national security, the readings and writings I focused on have been quite different from what this class provided. While I enjoy researching and studying international politics, war, terrorism etc., this class provided a break from this often very narrow focus in terms of literature. As a result, this course helped me to reconnect with works I enjoyed many years ago and familiarize myself with authors and writings that I never had the fortune to enjoy before. It also provided a much-needed break from the often tense and convoluted world of political and historical literature that I so often fall into a sort of tunnel vision throughout my other courses.

When it comes to specific authors or works that I closely identified with throughout this course, I would have to say that “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac was both my favorite work we covered and the one that I often times found to be surprisingly identifiable to my own life. Oddly enough, I had read other works by Kerouac such as “Big Sur,” fittingly while living near Big Sur, prior to this course, but I never read “On the Road” for some reason. As someone who has lived almost as many different places as years I have been alive, I found one of the central themes in the novel, the constant urge to travel and find something more in life, particularly close to my own life. For instance, a few days prior to starting this novel I decided on a whim to drive to Los Angeles to see one of my best friends who had just moved there following his own 6-month journey around North and South America. On the way, I stopped in Denver to see some friends who are occasionally there in between their own travels. None of us are wealthy, we travel by car or train or discount air, stay at hostels or in our cars, and attempt to find something more out of life no matter how cliché that may sound. I quickly discovered that this was oddly similar to “On the Road,” and in that manner I identified with Kerouac’s work better than almost any other novel I have ever read. While many of the experiences in the novel are not in any way a reflection of my own life, I think most of that is simply due to the novel taking place almost three quarters of a century ago and the vast cultural and societal changes over those many years. However, I still feel that many of the core themes at the heart of “On the Road” are ones that I found to be surprisingly close to many of my own life experiences. Fittingly, much like Sal does in “On the Road,” I soon plan to attend grad school and to use my GI Bill money as a means to travel when I have the opportunities. I have many friends scattered across America who do the same, and while it hopefully turns out better than most of Sal and Dean’s trips throughout their journey’s in “On the Road,” it is a literary work that I find to be strangely identifiable and oddly inspiring.

The Impacts of Gender

I think authors such as Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Porter all offer their own interesting and unique takes on not only gender roles, but on changes taking place throughout the World around them in terms of society and literature. While I agree with Mary Gordon’s statement to an extent, I feel that it is too simplistic and definitive in its understanding of Hemingway and Porter. Yes, both of these authors, and Fitzgerald and Welty as well, portray many stereotypical aspects of masculinity and femininity, but I do not think this isolates their writings’ concerns to that of only male or female viewpoints. I think that all four of these authors use gender in their writings as a means to an end, but to an end that is more often than not much more complex and meaningful than a simple address towards male or female concerns.

Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald are both recognized as some of the 20th centuries most important and respected authors. They are also known for some of their strong views and writings when it came to gender roles with Hemingway, in both life and literature, embodying seemingly every description of masculinity in existence while Fitzgerald often used more traditional roles for men and women in many of his writings. However, while many of their stories may appear on the surface to only talk to “male” concerns, I feel that this is a very surface-based observation of their works. For example, in Hemingway’s short story “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” the main character Harry embodies many of the masculine aspects seen so often in Hemingway’s work. Harry is on an African safari and is facing death due to injury, but in a very mundane and occasionally sarcastic way. He asks for whiskey, reminisces and embodies other traditional masculine tropes, but this does not necessarily represent the whole story. While many of these aspects do point to a “manly” story, it is also a tale about a man who has slowly been dying in terms of his life and soul for much longer than just this injury. In a sense, the gangrene he physically experiences in his leg is a manifestation of the slow decay in his life as a whole. Of course, this is a rather deep interpretation, but I think it points to a writer in Hemingway who, while indeed using a lot of masculinity, actually focuses on much more than just male concerns in his writings. Similarly, Fitzgerald often uses traditional gender roles in his writings with what many see as more of a focus on male concerns. In his story “Babylon Revisited” the young girl Honoria is a symbol of honor and purity which is indeed a stereotypical descriptor for women. However, much like Hemingway, I think it is important to look past these instances of often surface based descriptors at what lies underneath which is often times, especially for Fitzgerald, a much richer and complex tale that does not particularly address male or female concerns over anything else.

Much like Hemingway and Fitzgerald, but from the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of gender, Katherine Anne Porter uses gender roles in her writings, with a stronger focus on femininity. However, like Hemingway and Fitzgerald, I once again feel that these are just tools used by an expert writer in her craft more so than any one-sided argument in terms of male versus female concerns or traditional masculinity versus femininity. For instance, Porter’s short story “Flowering Judas” is indeed an excellent example of utilizing gender, often times traditional femininity, to prove her point. I think Mrs. Braggioni is a great example of a women who embodies the place women were traditionally forced to occupy in terms of being subservient to men in their life. She is the opposite of the protagonist Laura who is individualistic, but also isolated and repressed. These themes played out not only in Porter’s story, but in society as a whole during this time to a very strong degree. Thus, While I agree that Porter certainly utilizes gender roles, I do not think the arguments she puts forth in her writings are solely female concerns. Yes, they certainly take on these concerns, but overall her works take on issues facing society as whole, of which one of the most glaring and enduring has been the struggle for equality and freedom for women. However, through that I do feel that Porter is a bit closer to being considered more extreme in her usage of feminine gender roles or concerns simply because it was a reflection of not only her own life, but of a major issue facing society in terms of female equality. Thus, Porter, like Hemingway and Fitzgerald, does focus on a gender specific slant in order to attain deeper meanings within her works, but she also leans a bit more heavily on the concerns of gender simply due the struggles faced in her own life and in society as a whole being a women in a time of growing social change and upheaval over inequality.

Reflection Through Poetry

I have enjoyed reading poetry from a young age, and I remember checking out poetry books from my school’s library as far back as middle school and even elementary school. In high school I was particularly fond of a certain literature class due to my teacher’s focus on poetry, and even into my first year after high school at a local community college I decided to take a class solely dedicated to poetry writing and analysis. Unfortunately, over the past few years life has seemingly gotten in the way of my love for poetry. While I still enjoy reading it when I run across it, I have gotten away from seeking out new poets and new anthologies of poems to digest in my free time. However, this class has provided an ample opportunity to reengage myself to an activity I once enjoyed both in and out of the classroom with regard to reading poetry. While not all poets and poems are necessarily to my liking, there have been quite a few throughout this course so far that have both enticed me and provided me time to reflect on my past experiences with poetry. In particular, “Sunday Morning” by Wallace Stevens stood out as one of my favorite readings so far in class, and really poetry in general, while Robert Frost allowed me to reflect on what poetry used to mean to me when I was first “forced” to consume his famously inspiring poems.

Prior to this class I was only vaguely familiar with Wallace Stevens to the point that I could have likely identified that he was a poet, but which was more so because his name sounds like one rather than any strong affirmation as to his identity. However, while I certainly recognized a few of his poems, it was his lengthier story in “Sunday Morning” that I was both surprised I had never read, and very intrigued by due to its amazing detail in storytelling and quotable word usage and phrasing. I have always found religious stories and inspired writings to be very interesting, despite not being very religious myself, and as a result this poem managed to be one of the most intriguing that I have read not only in this class, but throughout my life. His contrast of Christianity to Paganism, and really humanism, throughout the poem provides for amazing and complex descriptions that make this poem much deeper than what it is on the surface. Furthermore, his expert craftsmanship of words and phrasings throughout this poem rally drew me in and allowed this to be one of the most memorable poems I have read. For example, Stevens writes “death is the mother of beauty; hence from her, / Alone, shall come fulfillment to our dreams / And our desires” (287). These few lines alone could almost make up their own poem in terms of the words’ impact and powerful meaning, but together with the rest of this similarly enticing poem they demonstrate how powerful and intriguing “Sunday Morning” truly is, at least in my own eyes.

In a bit of different vein, Robert Frost has also stood out to me through our class’s poetic readings so far, but not because I was excessively intrigued or surprised by his poems, but more so because reading Frost allowed me to reflect on my past poetic experiences. Robert Frost is of course one of the most famous poets of all time, and as a result his poems are part of most any literature class no matter the level. I remember first reading some of his work in middle school and delving much more deeply into it during high school. Looking back, I remember it sticking out in my mind at the time as being quintessential poetry, and what poetry “should look like.” While my views have changed, and in a sense matured, over the years and I no longer see Robert Frost as the end all be all in terms of poetry, reading some of his famous works again such as “The Road Not Taken” allowed me to reflect on why I enjoyed literature and poetry so much in the first place. It has also allowed me to realize that I have gotten away from something I used to love and that while life may have barged in the way, it is important to me to reconnect with myself and certain things such as poetry that I used to feel so strongly about.

Racism in the World

It is always interesting how relevant literature, at times, manages to be decades, and even centuries past its publishing. While there is always going to be content, opinions and writing styles that are drastically different from that of the modern day, many of the themes and arguments can maintain a surprising similarity to issues that still plague many of us today. Personally, I have found this to be true time and time again, but I am always a little bit shocked that text from over a hundred years ago can discuss issues and controversies that I myself still deal with and experience in my own life. This has certainly been true of many of the works we have read so far in class, especially since they were all written over a century ago. For instance, the issue of racism continues to be a major issue in America, and the World, just as it was in many of our class readings, and it is something I have found to be a very important issue to my own life in the modern day due to experiences in my career. In a sense, these writings enhance struggles I face directly at work when it comes to conflicts between people over what should seemingly be superficial issues.

I spend my working days attempting to solve a litany of problems and associated questions facing national defense and policy makers, an oversimplified description of a sensitive job, but one of my key functions is to provide cultural expertise and insight that may affect or change certain decisions. Through this job, and associated schooling and research, I have learned quite emphatically that the issue of race/ethnicity is something that is certainly not isolated to America and is often much more severe around the World in comparison. Much like America’s Civil War, conflicts regarding racial issues, and much more directly so than the American Civil War, continue to plague the World in the modern day.

Sadly, trying to figure out who can work with whom in a country or conflict area versus who will kill whom simply based on ethnic lines is an all too often struggle I face in my 21st century job, at least from the relatively detached eyes of an American. This has provided me a view into just how far America has come on racial issues in a relatively short time period that I otherwise would not have without my career and experience, and our readings from class have provided a look back into the immense change, but also continued struggles regarding the issue of racism an equality in the World. To me, W.E.B. Dubois’s argument of immediate suffrage and equality is something that many still argue for and should seemingly by the forgone conclusion/goal for humans of all races. Unfortunately, much like in his own time, W.E.B. Dubois’s argument does not necessarily garner the attention or action it deserves. Instead, I think Huckleberry Finn provides a better example of how many view racial issues. Yes, Jim is one of the most noble and caring characters in the book which prompts the reader to empathize with him. Yet, it is also a story based around feeling rather than action in terms of racism. People can feel bad or sympathetic which might make themselves feel better by giving some sort of “care” to the issue, but there is still no action and thus no quick change as called upon by past and present activists such as Dubois. To me, this is where Huck Finn is an oddly good representation of why, in some part, the issue of racism continues to loom so large over the World.

While America continues to struggle with institutionalized racism, and some cases of more outright racist ideals, it has overall made much progress for a country that is perhaps more ethnically diverse than any other. I work a lot with the Asian Pacific region, and particularly Korea, and the levels of racism within the often ethnically homogeneous cultures of Asia makes achieving true equality a much larger struggle than somewhere such as America where it has been at the forefront of literary, political and ideological arguments for well over a century due to its ethnic diversity as evident by our class readings alone. However, it irritates me more and more that this is an issue that continues to divide major portions of the World. While it is always hard to look into another nation’s way of life, culture and condition and judge it as an outsider, my experiences at work along with readings such as those in class make me realize that this has been an issue for centuries and makes me question when, if ever, it can truly be solved on a Global scale when so many places have not even touched the progress America has made over the past century or so, especially when somewhere as diverse as the U.S. continues to deal with racism an inequality on a daily basis.