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ENG45C - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Identity shaped by trauma
        
        In Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa Dalloway struggles with her identity throughout the novel. The memory of Peter Walsh projecting Clarissa's future as solely as a wife who's purpose is to plan dinner parties haunts her. "She had the oddest sense of being herself invisible, unseen; unknown…this being Mrs. Dalloway; not even Clarissa any more; this being Mrs. Richard Dalloway” (Woolf 11). She sees her current self in Peter's projection which makes her uncomfortable.
        
        In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo's identity is dictated by his masculine insecurity and fear of being anything like his father, which is problematic as he acts oppositely from his father in every way, even against positive traits. This hurts his relationship with his family, regularly physically abusing his wives and going as far as to kill his "son." "His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little children. Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness" (Achebe 16).
      - Septimus Warren Smith in Mrs. Dalloway suffers from post traumatic stress disorder from his service in World War 1. His trauma obstructs his perception of reality and hinders his relationship with those around him, especially his wife. "Septimus Warren Smith [...] had that look of apprehension in them which makes complete strangers apprehensive too. The world has raised its whip; where will it descend?” (Woolf 14).
    - - In Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa Dalloway regularly retreats into memories at her family estate Bourton in the countryside. She uses her memory as a place of solace when she is overwhelmed by her present reality and the bustling city.
  - - - In "Waiting for Godot," names are used to provide the reader with more information in a largely ambiguous play. "Godot" has "God" in its name. If the characters represent humanity, people are stuck in loops of waiting with the ultimate goal being a meeting with "God." Estragon is nicknamed "Gogo" as he is more interested in action than thought. Lucky's character is, in existentialism, lucky as his master gives him a purpose in an inherently meaningless life. He is lucky in that his life is purposeful, even if it is in serving another.
      - In *The Sound and the Fury,* names are reused in the Compson family. Names tie the members, liks Quentin, to the family's past. "The past is never dead. It's not even past" (Faulkner).
- - - - To what extent can we trust the Governess's account of the events in the *The Turn of the Screw?* Did the ghosts of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel exist outside of the Governess's mind, or were they illusions caused by the Governess's delusions? "She herself had seen nothing, not the shadow of a shadow, and nobody in the house but the governess was in the governess’s plight..." (James 37)
      - As Benjy Compson in The Sound and the Fury is mentally disabled, he is not able to discern between the present reality and his memories. Faulkner mimics his strain of consciousness by having the section Benjy narrates constantly jump back and forth from the present to his memories.
      - "To what extent
        can our knowledge of reality by separated
        from the psychology of the person we rely
        on for a faithful description?" (Bromwich)
    - - In Mrs. Dalloway, there is a scene where a car backfires and a plane advertises in the sky. Woolf's usage of a free indirect discourse shows the different individual perceptions of a crowd of people who are intrigued by the events. The different accounts of reality shown in the scene demonstrate that all narrations of events are, in a sense, unreliable in that no act interpretation can be free from personal influences.
      - In “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” Hughes argues that Black writers should not aspire to be like White writers. They must embrace their identity and adversity in their writing. This idea is especially shown in Hughes's poem "Let America be America Again," where he criticizes false promises of equality in American freedom.
- - - - In Mrs. Dalloway, although Clarissa Dalloway had never personally met Septimus Warren Smith, she believes that she is able to connect with him and empathize with his situation as both of their lives, although to different extents, are controlled by their past trauma. "“She felt somehow very like him – the young man who had killed himself. She felt glad that he had done it; thrown it away" (Woolf 186)
      - In "Waiting for Godot," Vladimir and Estragon's interdependence and mutual fear of separation symbolically demonstrates a close bond between one's mind and body. Vladimir is deeply concerned with his hat, a symbol of the mind, is able to remember and is much more logical than Estragon, who is deeply concerned with his boots, unable to remember in the second act and suggests rash and unreasonable activities such as hanging himself.
      - In The Turn of the Screw, the Governess's interest in protecting the children of Bly from the perceived ghosts becomes problematic as it becomes obsessive through the course of the novel. She begins to treat the children possessively, which literally and figuratively suffocates them. "‘Quint was much too free.’ This gave me, straight from my vision of his face – such a face! – a sudden sickness of disgust. ‘Too free with my boy?’” (James 39).
    - - The narrator and the mysterious man's relationship in "The Man of the Crowd" is parasocial.
      - Mother child relationships are known as one, if not the most, intimate interpersonal relationships. However, in The Sound and the Fury, Mrs. Compson cannot understand Benjy because of his non-verbal mental disability and her lack of care
  - - - Interpersonal Relationships redefined in the Industrial Revolution
        
        Rapidly progressive shifts in society during the Industrial Revolution of the early twentieth century due to technological advancements, redefining interpersonal relationships. "All human relations have shifted—those between masters and servants, husbands and wives, parents and children. And when human relations change there is at the same time a change in religion, conduct, politics, and literature" (Woolf).
        
        Faulkner comments on the effects of capitalism and its profit-driven nature in The Sound and the Fury through his character Jason Compson. Jason's obsession with monetary gain leads him to view his interpersonal relationships, even with his family, as purely transactional, hurting their relationships.
        
        "Bartleby, the Scrivener's" setting in a law firm details Melville's criticism agains the repetitive nature of industrial work, where people are essentially cogs in a machine. Workplaces distort and hinder interpersonal connections between people, as shown in the lawyer's struggle in creating a relationship with Bartleby.
      - In Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf utilizes the urban landscape of bustling London as a tool in her storytelling. Through the use of free indirect discourse, Woolf seamlessly shifts between the narratives of different characters through their presence in locations and at events in the urban city, something that could not have been done realistically in a more desolate setting.
      - Criticism against urbanism through connections between and urban landscape with nature in "In a Station of the Metro" and "To Elsie."
      - The boiling passion for civil rights and frustration against dreams deferred is depicted in "Harlem." Harlem is an urban neighborhood in New York and the birthplace of the Harlem Renaissance, an African American writing, music and art movement during the Civil Rights era. Music during this period is talked about in "The Weary Blues."
    - - The setting of The Turn of the Screw Bly is located in the countryside, separated from populous society. The setting disconnects and isolates the characters from the outside world. "Was there a ‘secret’ at Bly – a mystery of Udolpho or an insane, an unmentionable relative kept in unsuspected confinement?" (James 27).
      - Idyllic Conception of Nature
        
        Benjy in The Sound and the Fury narrates memories of his sister Caddy "smelling like trees," which noticeably comforts him.
        
        The beautiful depiction of nature in "Oread" and "Nude Young Dancer" along with a speaker's longing for it in "The Lake Isle of Innisfree."
        
        Racial identity's connection with nature in “The Negro Speaks of Rivers."
      - Faulkner writes in the Southern Gothic which "brings to light the extent to which the idyllic vision of the pastoral, agrarian South rests on massive repressions of the region’s historical realities: slavery, racism, and patriarchy" (Bjerre).