Sylvia Plath's Poetry

When I first read Sylvia Plath's writing in high school, I was amazed. I had never read anything so powerful and honest. Her poem "Daddy" which was the first poem I read by Sylvia Plath, was nothing like any other poem I had read. It was different and unique, full of endless possibilites. Sylvia Plath does not try and hide behind her emotions or problems that occur in society, she embraces them and instead of shoving them away, she writes explicitly about them and does not try to cover them up. She writes what society wants to be swept under the rug and to remain passive and silent, but she cannot stand for that. I especially believe Sylvia Plath does this in her short stories. I have read Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams which contains some bizaare stories but which also question the role of women in many of them and the way women were treated by society in the 1950's when Sylvia Plath was alive.
There are a few lines that I find particularly fascinating in her poems. In "Daddy", I especially like the line "The boot in the face, the brute
Brute heart of a brute like you".
I believe she is speaking not only of her deceased father in this line, but also any man who demeans women and pushes women down intellectually. I also find her personal passage in this poem intriguing "Bit my pretty red heart in two
I was ten when they buried you.
At twenty I tried to die
And get back, back, back to you.
I thought even the bones would do.

But they pulled me out of the sack,
And they stuck me together with glue".
Sylvia Plath was a beautiful woman and I think she tried to live the way society told her too. She flirted with men and would get dressed up and go to parties. She married Ted Hughes and had two children and was a successful writer. Society told her that this would be enough for her to be happy, but she wasn't. When Sylvia Plath says "they", I think she is talking about society and how they tried to put her life back together after she made her suicide attempts, but that kind of a life was not good enough for her, and I don't blame her for wanting more. I wonder if she lived in a different time period, like the 1980's or the 2000's, if she would have been content with her life or if she still would be unsatisfied. I think that is one of the messages Sylvia Plath is trying to portray in her poems. She talks about marriage and the cultural patriarchy and how women were taught to be silent and passive, but I think she wants the readers to think about their own life and if life has changed, or if it's still the same when she wrote these poems. I know the United States has come a long way since the 1950's, but we still have a long way to go. I was with a group of friends, mainly men, there was only one other woman in the group and one of the men said "Want to hear a joke? Women's rights!" All of the men instantly started laughing. I was extremely uncomfortable and upset, and I wonder how much has changed if some men still think that women having equal rights is some kind of a joke. I know this was only the opinion of a few men, and not all men are like that. But I still wonder. I also had a woman in her forties tell me that she does not think any woman should be the President of the United States. I do not understand this kind of thinking. Even though women are supposed to be paid the same as men for doing the same amount of work legally, that still does not happen in every job situation. I am not trying to say that women are victims and that men are evil. Women are not victims, we are human beings, the same as men are, and should be treated the same way as men and given the same opportunities. When I turn on the television, I still see women microwaving something for their children, or baking cookies, not men. I think these stereotypes need to be changed, and I believe that is one of Sylvia Plath's points in her poetry. Each person is a unique individual, and should not be judged solely by their gender.

Antonia's Line

Antonia's Line was quite different from the films we have been watching thus far. This movie created a different way of living in the village. There were definetly aspects of Utopia in the village. Antonia was able to live with her daughter, Danielle, without having a husband. Danielle could also raise a child without a father. Two women are able to have a relationship together in this town. Crooked Finger freely expressed his opinions and beliefs without being afraid of the consequences for doing so. Althought there were moments of Utopia, there was also dystopia. The character Pitte definetly destroyed the Utopia in the village by raping Deedee and Therese. Mad Madonna and the Protestant are not able to be in a relationship. Not everyone in the town got along, hence the death of Pitte. Crooked Finger also hung himself. In a Utopia, I feel like these events would not occur.
There were also many relationships in the film. Most of the time, when the characters lost their virginity, it was not with the person they would spend the rest of their lives with, but they would find their true love later in life. Antonia lost her husband, and I presume that she loved Farmer Bas more than she loved the father of Danielle. Danielle sleeps with a man to have a child, but she does not even know him. She later finds her true love with Therese's teacher. Deedee is raped by Pitte and she marries Looney Lips later in the film. Therese is also raped by Pitte and sleeps with one of her students and another man, but finds her "soul mate" is Simon.
As opposed to the Cavell films, this movie shows many children in it. Letta has thirteen children, but one dies. Antonia has a daughter. Danielle has a daughter. Therese and Simon have a daughter. Deedee and Looney Lips have at least one child together. The movie revolves around producing children, but not necessarily marrying the person they had children with. Marriage is not the important thing in this village, like it was in the Cavell films. Children, not marriage, is what makes the village keep on living.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

I have often thought about erasing memories and how that would effect a person and their lives so I found this movie fascinating to watch. I had no idea what the movie was about before I watched it, but I heard from several people who watched it that it was bizarre, and indeed it was. On the Wikepedia website, it says that although human memories cannot be erased, scientists have been successful at erasing selective memories on lab mice. I am sure that in the future they will be able to erase memories from human beings because technology is continually expanding and it's only a matter of time.
There was a sense of Adam's Rib in this movie. The audience got to see how Joel and Clementine acted around each other all the time through Joel's memories, similar to seeing Amanda and Adam in their home together. The audience saw Joel and Clementine doing routine things together, such as going out to eat and eating take-out in their bed while watching television. We saw them having fun together in the snow and on the ice. We also saw them arguing. Their lives seemed realistic to me. I also noticed that Clementine had complained to Joel saying, "I tell you everything...you don't trust me". She was upset that he did not tell her things, but he showed her memories of his past when he was in the middle of the procedure, which he might not have done if he had not undergone the procedure.
As opposed to the earlier Comedies of Remarriage, this movie portrayed that children were ignored and this was a negative thing, whereas in the earlier movies, the children were a nusance. While Joel is having his procedure, the audience sees him as a child in his old house and his mother is ignoring him. She does not care what he is doing and she keeps asking where he is, but she does not bother looking for him. Clementine says, "How lonely it is to be a kid...like they don't matter". Mary also says, "Adults are a mess of sadness and phobia". Clementine also says that she wants a child in the film, but Joel says they are not ready to have one. Even though this movie explores children's needs, the two characters are not ready to have a child yet.
This movie also brings up Valentine's Day, which is a holiday that is made up by the card companies, according to Joel. This aspect of buying something for someone on Valentine's Day reminds me of the conversation with Sister Mara Faulkner. Joel had orginally bought a necklace for Clementine for Valentine's Day, which Patrick gave to her instead. He probably felt that he was obligated to give her something otherwise he would not be considered a "good" boyfriend, which I find ironic because we were just talking in class about how giving someone flowers does not mean anything. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was a unique movie and I am sure when I watch it again, there will be many things I did not pick up on the first time I watched it. That is the sign of a good movie.

Hannah and Her Sisters

Out of the three sisters, I enjoyed Holly the most. Which evidently, Dianne Wiest won best supporting actress that year for playing Holly. Holly was quirky and she was always open to new ideas. I thought the scene where Mickey and her are listening to a rock band was hilarious. And then the switch from the rock band to the blues singer was priceless. Holly dabbles in different career choices: as an actress, caterer, and a writer. Everyone seemed to rely on Hannah though. Holly constantly went to Hannah for money. Whenever Hannah offered advice to Holly, Holly reacted strongly and would get upset at Hannah. But Hannah would apologize and would not be upset. Hannah was independent and strong, but I thought she needed to be tougher at times. She was passive in some ways. Lee is an interesting character. Even though she loved her sister, she continually slept with Hannah's husband. She would not take responsibility for what she did. When the three of them are eating at the restaurant, Lee yells at Holly for arguing with Hannah. She is taking her own guilt and using that to argue with Holly instead of arguing with herself for what she was doing to her own sister. Elliot also "loves" Hannah even though he is sleeping with Lee. It seems like in many movies, a character says they love their spouse, but they cheat on them anyway. I am not sure what Allen and other directors are trying to say. Maybe love isn't enough...? Frederick was a dispicable character. I thought he was pathetic because Lee was his only connection to the real world. The scene where Lee breaks up with Frederick was sad though, because the audience saw how much he relied on her. That was an extremely realistic break-up scene. Woody Allen depicts break-up scenes well I think. He does that in Manhattan also.
The body language in the first and last section were very evident to me. Elliot is leaning against the wall in the first scene, lusting over Lee. He also does this in the last scene, staring at Lee and her new husband. There are also many Nazi references again in this film. Frederick tells Lee that "there was a dull TV show about Auschwitz" on. He also says that the question is not how could something like the Holocaust happen, but "Why doesn't it happen more often?". He says it does happen, just not as drastic as the Holocaust was. At the end of Holly and Mickey's date, Mickey says, "I had a great time tonight. It was like the Nuremberg Trials". When Hannah is asking Elliot if he is seeing another woman, he says, "What is this? The Gestapo?" During that scene, Elliot also mentions Connecticut, a flashback to the Cavell films. When Mickey is talking to his parents he asks them, "Why were there Nazis?" As all of these Nazis references come up in Allen's films, I wonder if he had any relatives who were in the concentration camps during the Holocaust. Or perhaps he does not want people to forget the horrendous things the Nazis did to Jewish people during World War II.
This film had one of the most in depth plot lines of the Woody Allen films we have seen thus far I thought. Hannah and Her Sisters had fewer jokes than the previous films but had more serious and thought provoking ideas. There were also more tragic and underlying messages throughout the movie. I also did not feel that New York was the center of this film, as I had felt with Annie Hall and especially Manhattan. Mickey does briefly mention that New York is his town and they show architecture that David presents to April and Holly. I felt that Thanksgiving took the place of New York in this film though.