R&G logic

" The scientific approach to the examination of phenomena is a defence against the pure emotion of fear. Keep tight hold and continue while there's time" (17).

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern show that education takes away fear and misunderstandings. By studying and observing things that one does not understand, one is able to learn about such things and therefore understands how they work. The newfound understanding turns what was once phenomena into something understandable.

"GUIL: Yes, I'm very fond of boats myself. I like the way they're - contained. You don't have to worry about which way to go, or whether to go at all - the question doesn't arise, because you're on a boat, aren't you? Boats are safe areas in the game of tag... the players will hold their positions until the music starts.... I think I'll spend most of my life on boats" (100-101)

T-Pain is obviously also fond of boats. Really, I chose this quote because it embodies the essence of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern ... their stupidity. Throughout the novel, their pointless, drifting conversations address everything from theories on coin-flipping to Hamlet's behavior; and everything else from boats to death. However, they manage to take seemingly deep, philosophical thoughts, and drain them of any cognitive substance. Every colloquial exchange between Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is utterly devoid of all substance and import. The best way to describe a vast majority of the exchanges in the play is sheer ignorant circumlocution. The pair runs around subjects over and again, managing, somehow, to escape any hint of rational thought. Tom Stoppard's play is a fun-filled, action-packed, profoundly inane, and thoughtfully thoughtless amalgam of dialogue. Reading Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead has given me a much deeper appreciation for plain logic.

Bless Me Ultima

In Tony's already confused world of magic versus religion, the Golden Carp signifies yet one more source for his doubts about Christianity. Cico introduces Tony to the Golden Carp, a pagan god who is a symbol of forgiveness, unlike the Christian God who Tony believes is cruel and unforgiving. The carp is beautiful and huge, a true source of awe. At the realization that, contrary to Christian belief, there are other gods, Tony begins to question who his mother is truly praying to- who is Jesus, who is the Virgen de Guadalupe? Tony's doubts about Christianity further deepen when he makes his First Holy Communion, a religious rite of passage in Catholicism where children eat God's body in the form of a wafer. Antonio expects to hear the voice of God at the moment the takes the Eucharist into his body. He expects that this will be a monumental event and that everything will be clear to him after that. After nothing happens, Tony is utterly disappointed. He wonders why he can see the carp and not God. Tony begins to believe that God may not be real because he is intangible, whereas the carp is easily recognized because it is a physical item; "The orange of the golden carp appeared at the edge of the pond. As he came out of the darkness of the pond the sun caught his shiny scales and the light reflected orange and yellow and red. He swam very close to our feet. His body was round and smooth in the clear water. We watched in silence at the beauty and grandeur of the great fish" (p. 115).

poisonwood bible

Quote: "He noticed the children less and less. He was hardly a father except in the vocational sense, as a potter with clay to be molded. Their individual laughter he could not recognize, nor their anguish. He never saw how Adah chose her own exile; how rachel was dying for the normal life of slumber parties and record albums she was missing. And poor Leah. Leah followed him around like an underpaid waitress hoping for the tip. It broke my heart. I sent her away from him on everypretense I knew" (98).

One of the unique features of Kingsolver's novel is the way in which it brings a feminist perspective to a history that has largely been told from a white, male perspective.
The novel, which is told from the perspective of the four Price daughters and their mother, takes on themes of activism and feminism. Instead of treating women as subjected voices, the novel brings their voices to the forefront. Their perspective on the family's missionary activities highlight the violence often inherent in the process of colonization. Nathan Price's story might have been told as the story of a hero who heroically ventured into the African jungle and was martyred for his work. Instead, through the feminist perspective, we see a man that was both violent and ignorant to the cultural situations into which he brought his family.Nathan exploits his wife and daughters to further his own agenda and wrestle with his personal demons, and does not seem to care if he sacrifices their well-being in the process. As the strongest driving force for their presence in Africa, Nathan also has the least understanding of the people he's trying to convert of anyone in his family. To varying degrees, the Price women adapt to their surroundings. Their experiences in the Congo eventually prompt Orleanna and Leah to stand up to Nathan and determine their own destiny. After Leah observes her father's self-serving motives in his interaction with the Africans, she refuses to allow him to control her behavior and begins to adopt some of the villagers' customs.

This describes the major theme expressed in the novel, the women's movement towards free will. This theme extends throughout the novel and builds through each of the Price women. Because the Price women are their own authors we can see each of their developments and growths leading to the breaking of the social forms forced on them by their father, Nathan.

-Alyssa G.