Llt week 9
AboRedha
replaytothestudent.docx
Symbol ,allegory and myth
Literature employs different techniques to pass the message to the readers; the most commonly used are symbol, allegory and myth. Of the three symbols widely used compared to the other, there are two types of symbols, universalReplay to the student
YesterdayJul 25 at 10:49pm
The Life and Journey of Jaqcues Austerlitz Expressed Through Photographs
Sebald’s work in Austerlitz encompasses much of the human experience, primarily the search to find oneself and where you can from. It is the ultimate journey of self-discovery and the idea that pushing through grief is still better than simply giving up and never knowing your true self. Sebald incorporates photographs throughout the entirety of his novel. The photographs contain a wide range of subjects, from pictures of Austerlitz himself as a child or pictures of his mother whom he scarcely recognized, all the way to many photographs of building such as an old petrochemical plant and other such architecture. The use of photographs throughout the novel allow for the reader to have not only a visual example of Austerlitz’s life, but also a way to feel more connected to him. It is almost as if Sebald wants the reader to discover these images at the same time as Jacques finds them himself. Jacques is going on this journey to find himself and learn the truth about the past, and by integrating these photographs into the text the reader is able to feel immersed in the story and feel almost like a companion rather than a viewed. As Austerlitz discovers the truth, so does the reader.
The use of photographs gives the story a very real feeling, instead of this simply being another story to be forgotten once the book is finished and the covers are closed, it becomes something true, something definite. A telling of the real struggles a man went through, mentally, emotionally and physically in an effort to find the truth about his past. While not everyone can relate specifically to this struggle, everyone can understand the need to know the truth. The photographs incorporated throughout the novel, although they give us a clear visual representation of the state of life for the characters in the novel, they often bring about more questions to both Austerlitz and the reader than they do answer previous questions. An article written by S. Pane articulates this idea very nicely, “Ironically, Sebald relies on images to anchor his tangential approach. In virtue of their peripherally, the photographic images in Austerlitz simultaneously constitute and fail to constitute historical evidence. This paradoxical status defies the legibility purported by photographs as articulated by Sebald. As such the narrator and the eponymous character of Austerlitz are never satisfactorily informed through photographic viewing… This paradoxical and traumatic viewing experience of photographic media in Austerlitz is inextricably linked to the novels narrative desire.” (Pane 21.) Pane expresses his frustration about the fact that many of the photographs leave the readers wanting more with even more unanswered questions rather than the conclusions that the viewer is searching for.
Another use that Sebald takes advantage of is the fact that photographs are known to help with memory. There are many examples of instances where people cannot remember certain events or other people, but when they are presented with a photograph of a relative or event they have a sudden rush of memories come back. Anne Fuchs touches on this idea in her article. “The growing body of literature on Sebald’s use of photography shows that Sebald employs the text–image relationship to disturb the binary opposition between life and death, remembering and forgetting, authenticity and fiction, or absence and presence. The uncertain ontological status of the majority of photographs enhances the ghostly quality of a prose that makes the recuperation of ‘die Schmerzensspuren, die sich [. . .] in unzahligen feinen Linien durch • die Geschichte ziehen’, the painful traces of history, its primary concern.” (Fuchs, 186). Fuchs is explaining how Sebald is trying to use the startling visual representation of images in text to break up the ordinary experience of reading. Much like the way Austerlitz’s life would have been disrupted by the sudden sight of seeing a photograph of his long lost mother would have greatly disrupted his state of mind at any given point in his life.
Throughout the novel, Jacques experiences many hallucinations of things that he remembers from the past. In Richard Crownshaw’s Article “Reconsidering Postmemory: Photography, the Archive, and Post-Holocaust Memory in W.g. Sebald's ‘Austerlitz.” He explains how these hallucinations were able to be either confirmed or denies by the photographs that he found, and how they were able to help him move forward with his life. “Having hallucinated his origins and remembered who he is, Austerlitz becomes aware of how he had, up to this point, screened these origins with a monumental archivization of the past he had worked toward forgetting, but in doing so left against its best endeavors, not a material trace of the past but a spectral residue- seen only on the point of oblivion.” (Crownshaw, 222). Richard shows us how the hallucinations would have brought up memories that he tried so hard to suppress for so much of his life. Once Austerlitz finally allowed himself to remember and try to learn about his past he was able to understand much more about these hallucinations.
Sebald used many tools to tell the story of Austerlitz, photographs are one of the most arguably persuasive and efficient methods to pull a reader into the story. Through the photographs, Sebald is able to create a feeling of full integration in the story. It allows the reader to feel Jacques’ pain and fear in the face of uncertainty. The photographs fully immerse the reader into the story and show us a visual representation of the life Austerlitz is trying to uncover.
Student 2
Danny Kroll
Dr. Brinker
LLT4923
24 July 2020
Daughter, are you free?
“Ou libéré?” says Martine to her beloved daughter Sophie. In translation to English this phrase means “Are you okay, my daughter?”. In Edwidge Danticat’s novel Breath, Eyes, Memory it tells the unfortunate story of Sophie learning much more of the hardship life her mother lived. At the age of twelve, Sophie finally moves from her birthplace of Haiti to live with her mom in New York. Sophie has been living with her Aunt Atie, her mother’s sister, in Haiti while her mother was saving money for her to come live with her in New York. After living with her mom for a while Sophie learns that her mother was raped by a masked man at the age of sixteen which left her with massive amount of trauma, PTSD – post traumatic stress disorder. Years down the line this traumatic event leads to Martine testing Sophie’s virginity once she has suspicion of her seeing her with a neighbor, Joseph. The testing continues just as Martine’s mom did to her and Sophie begins to feel depressed and lonely. This eventually leads to Sophie breaking her own hymen and failing her mother’s test which causes her to be thrown out of the house. After being tossed on the streets Sophie then elopes and moves in with Joseph. After two years without speaking to her mom they finally make amends and try to rekindle their relationship when they’re both in Haiti for a short trip. Sophie returns to Haiti with their infant daughter when Joseph is away on a tour due to her hatred of her body and sex phobia due the traumatic tests her mother forced her to take. Once Sophie and her mother are on good terms Martine begins to explain how she is pregnant with her long term lover Marc. Her mother explains to her how the nightmares of the rape begin to get worse again and that the baby has begun speaking to her in the rapist’s voice which leaves her desperately wanting an abortion. The following day Sophie returns from her therapy session to an intense message from his mother’s lover, Marc. He informs Sophie that her mother has committed suicide by relentlessly stabbing herself in the stomach seventeen times. Martine died in the ambulance after telling Marc that she could not bear carrying their baby. At her funeral in Haiti, Sophie is struggling watching them cover her mother and runs to where her mother was raped, the cane fields, and begins attacking the stalks. Throughout this novel the phrase “Ou libéré?”, which means “Are you free, my daughter?”, is mentioned many times through the story which is meant to signify if Sophie is freed of the pain of her mother’s past and strict heritage.
The question “Ou libéré?” throughout this novel is meant to signify if Sophie is free from the pain of her mother’s traumatic past. Due to Sophie being the product child of her mother’s rape it brings a lot of pain to mind when her mother looks at her. As well as that the pain her mother carries with her makes an impact on Sophie as well. She feels horrible for the horrific event that occurred to her mother as well as the daily pain of her mother seeing the rapists face when she looks at Sophie. At the end of the novel Sophie’s grandmother tells her, “There is always a place where, if you listen closely in the night, you will hear your mother telling a story and at the end of the tale, she will ask you this question: ‘Ou libéré?’ Are you free, my daughter?” (Danticat 364). Her grandma puts her fingers over Sophie’s mouth and continues to say, “Now, you will know how to answer” (Danticat 364). These are the final remarks before the close of this story which leaves the audience with many thoughts. Through all of the struggles her mother had due to horrid day of her rape it leaves the question now that her mother is passed away, is the pain from her mother suffering gone from her as well. Her grandma says this to her at Martine’s funeral because she can see that Sophie is going through pain of losing her mother. Another reason for her grandma saying this to her is because she knows how much strain Martine subconsciously put upon Sophie due to her being the product of her mom’s rape when she was younger and that it has caused Martine even more pain from having a child from such a horrific event being consistently reminded of it by the presence of Sophie. Sophie is now free of the pain she’s been in from birth, childhood and adulthood. As mentioned in a Scholarly Blogs article, “Perhaps, unlike in the case of Martine, it is possible for Sophie to do so only because of her mother passed” (Unnamed). This is referencing that since Martine and her pain have passed away, it is possible that Sophie has the chance to be free of her mother’s pain finally. Although Sophie does not respond to her grandma before the story ends, it gives her possibility that she finally can drop all of the built up pain which she has endured through her mother. Sophie is now free from her mother’s pain and suffering.
Mentioned numerously throughout the novel “Ou libéré?” it is meant to signify if Sophie is free from the pain of her maleficent heritage. Along with Sophie constantly being reminded of her mother’s pain from the traumatic incident, she also feels pain from her heritage due to virginity of women being heavily praised and set as a standard of all Haitian women. Her mother’s rape was not ideal with the traditional values of the Haitian culture. Sophie, being the product of this horrible act and violation of her heritage values put a lot of stress on her upbringing and how she was raised. Due to virginity being a huge value in the Haitian culture Martine explained, “When I was a girl, my mother used to test us to see if we were virgins. She would put her finger in our very private parts and see if it would go inside. Your Tante Atie hated it” (Danticat 101). This is a very extreme strategy to make sure daughters’ virginities were still true shared among Haitians that their mothers constantly test their children like this even though it is very traumatic in itself and is not pleasurable. Although it scars the young Haitian women the values of the culture mandated it for the mothers to do so. As stated by Sophie, “I could understand why she had screamed while her mother had tested her” (Danticat 138). This is an explicit example of how torturing it is to women to have this tested because Sophie is talking about how she understands why her Aunt would scream because it was so displeasing. These are examples why “Ou libéré?” is stated to signify why Sophie is becoming free of the maleficent heritage traditions because they leave such an impact on the women clearly shown by Sophie’s words about it as well as her mothers and Aunts.
Through the novel Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat the audience joins the journey of Haitian native Sophie moving to a completely different culture, New York, while learning more than she ever thought possible about herself and her mother. She learns of the unfortunate events of her mother’s young life and begins to understand the way her mother treats her and acts. Sophie’s mother was raped in her teens which resulted in Sophie’s birth. Along with that Sophie learns the downsides of the Haitian culture and how extreme they are with preserving the young women’s virginity by having mothers test their own daughter’s hymen. While learning of all of this Sophie along with her family have their fair share of difficulties due to the past and with the Haitian traditions. Going on this journey of Sophie’s we see the phrase “Ou libéré?”, which means “Are you free, my daughter?”, numerous times in the novel. This mentioned in the story to signify if Sophie becomes free of all of the pain involving her mother’s past as well as the maleficent cultural values of the Haitian natives.
and convectional. Universal symbols have the same meaning for t different people in different cultures.
A good example is an older man or the mother, which is a representation of the long term experience and knowledge about life. On the other hand, the conventional symbol refers to the situation where the same symbol has a different meaning in the eyes of different people from different cultures around the globe. The owl is an example of a conventional symbol since it has different meanings. In African culture, mostly, it has bad omen, and in American culture, it means wisdom, in Asian Indians, means idiot. Therefore convectional symbol depends on the interpretation labelled to object, item or person in literature. Advertisements use a convectional symbol to attract a specific group of people. The symbol is used widely to bring different meanings in literature.
On the other hand, allegory is used to represent a specific thing. It has only one meaning in the literature. For instance, if the character is bad, no other different perceptions which can be interpreted. Allegory takes the role of moral principle in society one side, either good or bad.
Myth strategy of telling stories in literature based on the culture of the society. Myth is a natural way of explaining how an individual relates to society, like the origin, the creation story. Various societies and cultures have different myths about their origin and how the world was created. These myth stories are fair since they are a representation of society.
