I Love Lucy!

I have found the novel by Jamaica Kincaid Lucy to be one of my favorites! I love the language, the colors, the images! I can't wait to start reading again!

The language is descriptive and makes me feel as if I am there with her; staring at the pale sun in winter or standing by the dancing yellow daffodils. The colors are vibrant and beautiful! I could picture the all yellow kitchen with the sunlight glowing through the window on the still figure with yellow hair.

I feel terrible for Lucy; she seems so upset about everything. She hates the flowers, is envious of Mariah, feels like her dreams are unfulfilled because the buildings in he new city are not what she imagined they would be, and will seemingly never really be happy. It makes me wish I could help her.

I am hoping everything improves for her as the book continues, but I have to say, I do not get that feeling. Let's just hope for the best!!

Destroying my Doubts...

"All my life I always wanted to fly. I always wanted to live like a hawk. I know you're not supposed to be jealous of anything, but... to take flight, to soar above everything and everyone, now that's living." - Hugo, "O"

"O" (2001) is a modern adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello. The movie takes much the same course as the play; following with the same themes such as jealousy and plots. The idea of jealousy is my main focus.

In the first scene we see this when Hugo mentions he is jealous of the hawk. The dark, beautiful creature that flies above all else. It is loved by all even though it is so very different. While watching the blurred doves fly around the enclosed room, I began to make a connection. The doves are small and white. They fly in their room, following one another. They are ignored. The hawk, on the other hand, is dark and mysterious. It is brought out at every basketball game. It is beloved. This shows what Hugo thinks of Odin. He sees Odin as the hawk, flying above all else, living life on a never ending high. He comes from a different background and is different in almost every way and yet nobody fears him. They respect him. Hugo is like everyone else and is simply ignored. He is pushed aside like the white doves.

When planning and beginning to write this post, I wanted to find the exact quote from the beginning of the movie. When searching, I happened upon this one:

"All my life I always wanted to fly. I always wanted to live like a hawk. I know you're not supposed to be jealous of anything, but... to take flight, to soar above everything and everyone, now that's living. But a hawk is no good around normal birds. It can't fit in. Even though all the other birds probably wanna be hawks; they hate him for what they can't be. Proud. Powerful. Determined. Dark. Odin is a hawk. He soars above us. He can fly. One of these days, everyone's gonna pay attention to me. Because I'm gonna fly too." - Hugo, "O"

It was exciting to see my theories proven in this way, but it also made me a little disappointed. Does the movie need to state this so clearly? Can they leave anything to be inferred? It seems as if the entire movie takes out all of the questions that one could get from reading Othello. In the play, we can question if Emilia knew she was doing something wrong, but in the movie we are shown quite clearly she did. In the play, we question if Othello and Desdemona consummated their marriage, but in the movie we see that clearly as well. Now, this one small mystery I greatly enjoyed analyzing, has been proven in the most obvious of ways. It could be the point of the film; trying to keep the viewer from leaving with doubt. I just found the doubt to be part of the fun in Othello. I absolutely loved sitting after finishing reading and discussing every possibility. Analyzing Shakespeare's every word. Now I am left to deal with the obvious and it has left me feeling a little angry. Did anyone else feel the same way? Or is do you disagree?

Source for quotes: "O"

Representative Reputation

Eyes are like open books; staring into them allows you to see a person's soul. Or so they say...

The two simple circles used to represent "self" and "reputation," as Caroline pointed out, look oddly similar to an eye. I have greatly enjoyed examining this theory and have decided this may have been on purpose;

The color of the eye (or iris) is, of course, the first thing we all notice. It may be the only thing we notice about the eye. Some we immediately recognize as beautiful while others are considered ordinary. Reputation is very similar to this. It is the first thing we hear about a person. This reputation is then what is used to judge what we think of the person. Some we immediately recognize as kind and others we fear or dislike.

Pupils are often ignored, as they are dark and difficult to see. They change often, growing and shrinking in the changing light. They control the main functions of the eye yet are still ignored in everyday life unlike their counterpart, the iris. This is similar to the self, or true personality, of people. It takes more than just listening to stories or hearing other people's opinions to truly get to know a person. You must focus on that small black ever-changing circle to truly learn the function of the eye just as you must focus on the ever-changing individual personality to truly understand a person.

The similarity I found between the figure and an eye is the idea mentioned above- staring into a person's eyes allows you to see their soul. It is a very overused, corny statement that holds significant importance to my argument. Just glancing at the outer circle (reputation) will not allow you to get to know a person for who they are. You must stare until the inner circle (self) becomes clear and separates itself from the rest.

In Shakespeare's Othello, characters boast the significance of reputation. This comes to be a rather important theme. Each character has a skewed perspective of another because of reputation, and that leads to trouble. Othello has a skewed perspective of Desdemona after Iago messes with her reputation with false stories. Roderigo has a skewed perspective of Iago because he thinks Iago is loyal and is acting as his friend when really Iago is quite the opposite. If any of the characters took the time to recognize that reputation is not everything (and true self is far more important) all this trouble could have been avoided.