Final Essay

SANE LITERATURE IN A MAD SOCIETY

This tale of Ambrose Bierce talks about a boy whose name is Boffer Bings who is narrating the honest and humble works of their parents, his father works in a factory of dog-oil and his mother works disposing of unwelcome babes. Boffer narrates the little responsibilities he must do in the familiar industry. In one of those duties one day he was in charge to delete one child’s body and the only solution he find was to throw the body to the cauldron in which the oil was prepare, the result of this accident brings to his parents a big ambition of produce the oil with this “secret ingredient” and as consequence they went mad of power and greed.

The main characters in the tale are:

·         Boffer Bings, The narrator of the story (First-person narrative)

·         Boffer’s parents

·         The constable

·         The child’s whose body was throwing to the cauldron.

In my own opinion this tale is so interesting because it is not in the common things we used to read. Since the moment the reader begging the tale the author makes us get interested on it, since the first four lines all a uncommon idea is introducing the whole text this makes that the reader wants to go deeper through the tale, other thing that calls my attentions is that in most parts of the tale is something that makes the reader get impact. I like the tale a lot and this type of literature is something that all of us must read.

            In this tale we can see something that is part of what all of us live, and this is the influence of the paternal figure and its importance in the development of an individual, in my personal case the powerful paternal figure I has is the one of my mother and I think in most of the cases each person has this influence that marks the way we think and act. Nowadays we can notice that the youth is so damage, and if we do not have a strong way of being (that like I say before is principal instructed by our parents) the bad influence of others will affect us; Bierce (1911) says “The holy influence of my dear mother was ever about me to protect me from the temptations which beset youth”. Bierce shows us how important is the paternal influence, it does not matter if is in a bad or good way.                     

Some of the things that we can see in this tale are the ambition, the madness and the violence and now I want to focus in the last one, especially in how the domestic violence is part of the daily life in Colombia in many families this is common, and this bring unrecoverable consequences as the ones we can see in the tale. In some occasions the greater affected is the kids that are obliged to face this things in their families since an early age; Bierce (1911) says ”  For one instant they looked into each other's blazing eyes and then sprang together with indescribable fury. Round and round, the room they struggled, the man cursing, the woman shrieking, both fighting like demons—she to strike him with the dagger, he to strangle her with his great bare hands. I know not how long I had the unhappiness to observe this disagreeable instance of domestic infelicity” Bierce wrote this in 1911 and I think that is not causality that he describes exactly what happen in Colombia with the domestic violence, I think it does not matter the place or the time, if we do not create conscience, this will happen during a long time.

Finally I can say that this tale is not “weird”, the weird thing here is that a normal person get scary about this type of text but they do not get scary when they turn on the television or the radio and they heard about violence, massacres, rapes and kidnappings… This is normal for the eyes of ignorance, and normally those people are the ones that do not do something to change the problems this tale show us.

This tale make me thing about the importance to read this type of literature, because is the principal things in which we are able to notice and to analyses some social problems in a more clear way, but that is not common.

-Angie Marcela Garay, Bogota D.C

24 of March, 2016

Bibliography:

·         Bierce, A. Text available in http://www.ciudadseva.com/sevacity/stories/en/bierce/oil_of_dog.htm

How the Widow Won the Deacon by William James Lampton

Online Literature 

I think that in most of the cases on online literature is not something that makes us get decide to buy a book.

For example the case of the short story How The Widow Won The Deacon in the web page boo ganga we notice that the only thing there,is a short description of the short story, and a little analysis of American literature and how the humor have been involved on it.

I think that in those web pages is important to be more descriptive in the books, and by mean of this give to the reader a bigger perspective of what he will read, like this the reader is able to choose, to analyze and to decide if is a good idea to spend money on it.

This story has lot of details, and many materials to do a description of it, to persuade the people to read and the web page that I consult do not take advantage of it.

I can say that this story is interesting and they show the absurd thing a woman would do for a man, in some occasions we as women so something for to avoid the pain to the person we love, without mattering the pain we will suffer because of that, can be a social critique or only a way to show something that happen since a long time ago.  I cannot compere my idea with the one of the web page, because nothing is there.

I think that is not a better way to buy literature that going to the library, search shelf by shelf until you find a book that calls your attention, and then read the description in the back part of the book and if you like the book then you will buy it and finally the best part is coming, you open the book and enjoy the smell of the book’s sheets.. This is what I used to call “The book soul”. 

That is something the online literature cannot, they can’t show the essence of a literary piece.

Bibliography:

1. americanliterature.com/author/william-james-lampton/short-story/how-the-widow-won-the-deacon
2. http://www.bookganga.com/ebooks/Books/details/5274823206509286316?BookName=How+The+Widow+Won+The+Deacon

The Hanging Stranger by Philip K. Dick

Colombian Context

 "They have the whole town. The City Hall and the police station. They hung a man from the lamppost” - The Hanging Stranger; Philip K. Dick

Something is taking the whole town…

Is an alien invasion? Is product of our minds? Or is only a real situation, happening to real people in a real country?

Is not product of our mind, is not that we are ill, and the solution is not go to the doctor because we are talking about something that is not real.

Sadly here is so common see how the people must face a lot of problems because of those ones that with them corruption are becoming rich mean while they are making the people poor. Those ones that already take the City Hall, the police station, the transportation services, the system of health and the educational system, all things that compound a society are already stained by that “unknown” thing that is surrounding us since long time ago.

“They take over one area at a time. Starting at the top—the highest level of authority. Working down from there in a widening circle. When they're firmly in control they go on to the next town. They spread, slowly, very gradually. I think it's been going on for a long time."

"A long time?"

"Thousands of years. I don't think it's new."

-The Hanging Stranger; Philip K. Dick

Each day for a normal person is more difficult to obtain at least the necessary things we need for survive and that is because something is wrong here, because the injustice is getting big and the equality is disappearing.  

But the corruption is not the only problem, we must notice also that while this is happening in front of the eyes of all people some of us are blind, we do not notice that we have to do something to put an end to this situation that is surrounding us.

I really do not know which problem is bigger here… The corruption of the ones in the upper part of the hierarchy, or the ignorance of people that notice it and do not do anything.

"And the strange part was that nobody else seemed to notice it" - The Hanging Stranger; Philip K. Dick

Bibliography:

• americanliterature.com/author/philip-k-dick/short-story/the-hanging-stranger