Graven Images by Saul Bellow (Text TOW#10)

   Immortality, power, and fame are what many people pursue in life and why, according to Saul Bellow, photograph is so powerful. Published in 1997 in the “News from Republic of Letters”, “Graven Images”, one of Bellow’s later essays, contemplates on the increasing role of digital photography in human society and its relationship with human ambition and privacy. As a winner of the literature Nobel Prize and numerous other literary awards, Saul Bellow continues to amaze the literary society with a brilliant essay

       Though the essay is open to everyone, the primary audience is mainly the literary citizens in advanced societies, such as in Europe and the United States. Bellow is clearly assuming that his audience knows the photograph phenomena he is describing, and will have the ability to reflect upon his own contemplation of digital photography and human nature, which, in Bellow’s eyes, is both fragile and grandiose.

       In discussing the nature of photography and human, Bellow most prominently used imageries and an intimate diction to both condense his reasoning into a concrete and seeable form and encompass the audience into his essay. As he described the fragility of human privacy and the power of exposure of photography, he used an image, saying “photographs will meaninglessly enlarge the pores of my skin and the huge paisley-shaped bruises under your eyes” (Oates 565). When Bellow portrayed the power of photographs to bring immortality, he detailed a photograph of his grandfather, “his beard is spread over his upper body; his elbow rests on the top of his walking stick and his hand supports his head”(Oates 568). The images Bellow describes are powerful as they show, not tell, the nature of photographs and human.

       The intimate tone Bellow uses consistently throughout the essay simply adds on to his brilliancy as a writer. As he discusses human desire for approval, he states “Amour prompre, with all its hypocritical tricks, is the product of your bourgeois outlook.” (Oates 565). When he turns the topic to photography and humanness, he wrote “photograph reduces us to two dimensions.”(Oates 567). The use of an intimate diction encourages the readers to connect with the text and impose their own reflections on the topic, not only from Bellow’s point of view but their own.

       Photography is new, but the humanity it portrayed, as Bellow successfully asserts, did not change.

Coatesville by John Jay Chapman (text TOW #9)

A black man was tortured and put to death on August of 1911 in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. Dozens of American citizens committed the heinous act, hundreds of American citizens stood idly witnessing the event happen, and one man, after reading the tragedy through news, was enraged and depressed. The man is called John Jay Chapman, and he was a then a mildly known lecturer and literature critic. The speech he delivered in Coatesville the following year, however, went beyond the boundaries of either academic discussion or literature analysis. Chapman articulately condemned humanity’s tendency of inaction and questioned humanity’s belief in educational progress At first, only two people attended to his commemoration of the black man and heard his speech, but many more gradually became aware of his address, even to the extent that the speech was recognized in “Memories and Milestones”.

       Chapman’s speech did not become great because it compelled listeners to reflect upon their unconcern The speech became great because of itself, because of how Chapman crated it. Chapman deliberately opened his speech with heart-touching imageries to emphasize on his views of humanity’s natural sinfulness. He described how “a few desperate, fiend-minded man had been permitted to torture and burn a Black man(Oates 71), he emphasized on how “hundreds of well-dressed American citizens, idly watching, made no attempt to stay the wickedness”(Oates 71), and he then remarked “I seemed to be looking at the heart of a criminal” (Oates 72). The American people, the educated and well-dressed people, were permitting evil to happen. Chapman saw the education but not the heart.

       Chapman, after overwhelming his listeners with disturbing imageries, then brilliantly connected the imageries to his listeners and even the American public through the emphasize on “we”. He anticipated a possible rejection to his argument, saying “some may argue we cannot act” and gave a forceful answer “we can, we are involved, and we are still looking on” (Oates 73). “we” to Chapman represents the nation, it represents humanity, and Chapman’s speech, as himself stated, represents the “truth that touches all age and affects all souls in the world”(Oates 74).

       The truth, as Chapman asserted, is still with us today.

 

IRB Introduction- The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier

Napoleon is forever remembered as a military genious, and his army, a fearsome war machine. However, humans are more than just what they had accomplished, and to show the world that Napoleon is a man, that his army are composed of people made with flesh and blood and soul, Jakob Walter, a common foot soldier in the Napoleonic army, wrote the first and the last collection of memories about his general and about himself. Spending over 6 years in the famed Napoleonic army, Walter's memoirs span from the initial Prussia campaign Napoleon used to secure his ditatorship to the infamous Russia campaign that caused Napoleon's downfall. The book catched my attention while I was searching for a good non-fiction primarily because of author seemed to emphasize more on the cruelties of war than glories. Walter not only describes the fallacies of the great general but also his own gradual lost of innocence and the pain of many others. So many people say great things about Napoleon, it will be interesting to see the contrary. Hopefully, a fuller depiction of Napoleon and his man will  be presented to me.

Atomic fear (TOW #8Visual Text)

       World War II was a time period characterized by ambiguity and depression, and the overarching fear of humanity’s destructive potential was, ironically, manifested at its height during the end of the gruesome war, characterized most prominently by the devastating power of atomic bombs on Japanese land. Responding to the fearsome atomic bombs, on August 8 of 1945 an American newspaper, The Anderson Independent, published the political cartoon “We have come to stay” and straightforwardly and effectively questioned the future of humanity under such precarious foundations.

       Both the newspaper’s influence and the cartoon’s simple manifestation helped readers to instantly grasp the core idea of uncertainty in an atomic age yet to come. The newspaper was popular and widely read throughout the United States, especially in the South, and in turn the political cartoon targeted all Americans in the United States, literate and illiterate, with a strong certainty that it will receive many readers. In addition, the simple outlines with dark and white contrast also made the whole message of the cartoon explicit to the readers. The two gigantic monsters, shaped like the common perceived representation of death, in the picture each carried a suitcase that together became “atomic bomb”, directly referencing the horrible and possible long-lasting effects of atomic power. On the other end, the human is portrayed as defenseless and weak, with only an umbrella to protect himself. The image instantly allows the reader to contrast the mere strength between atomic bombs and humanity, and forces the readers to consider about the huge destructive potential of atomic bombs and the uncertain outcomes of the future if these bombs continue to exist.

       What made the implications of the political cartoon seem even more convincing was its use of historical reference. When the cartoon was released, the news of Japan being nuked was widespread around the world, and most, if not all, of the American people were probably aware of the fact. In the cartoon, the human wearing Japanese traditional clothes, shoes, and umbrella is definitely an representation of Japan. The atomic bombs had already visited Japan, the readers knew it and the author knew it. Yet, what neither the author nor the readers knew, and what the author was driving toward, was if the United States, if humanity, would follow the same fate as Japan in the future.

       The answer was and still is uncertain.

The Future is Now by Katherine Anne Porter (Text TOW #7)

       Written in the 1950s, a time period of uncertainty and fear, of the over-arching shadow of atomic bombs, The Future is Now presents a new perspective of viewing destiny and another reason to be progressive. Though initially aimed at mainly mature college readers as the essay was first published in Mademoiselle, a young adult magazine, the essay gradually diffused throughout the American public over time.

As it was primarily written to encourage the doubtful people of their brighter future ahead, the article itself is an intricate philosophical reflection detailing the narrator’s puzzlement about the inescapable depression of the atomic age and his final regain of faith in human progress. Porter knew the silent suffering of not knowing what the next second will become as she admitted her puzzlement over “why waster energy on a table that was to be used merely for crawling under at some unspecified date” (Oates 194). However, she also wants the people to know that life is far from over, that “when people want something better, they may have it” (Oates 198).

Yet, what made Porter’s essay successful was more than her message; it was the way she conveyed the message. Porter as an author had already won several writing awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, before she wrote this essay. The fame of her being a renown writer already adds sincerity and trustworthiness to her insight. In addition, Porter convinces her readers that she know their silent suffering of uncertainty. She knew the horror living under the atomic age, that “real safety seems to lie simply in being somewhere else at the time, the farther away the better” (Oates 193). Yet, all uncertainty , both her’s and the reader’s, was washed away when she offered a simple anecdote, a men cleaning his table and her realization that “he is doing something he feel is worth doing” (Oates 195). The action itself is trivial, but the power of the men to focus on the present and trust in that the future will be rewarding to the actions taken in the present, that the table will not be used simply as a shelter for bombs but as a faithful company to the men, is insightful.

       Trivial actions are being performed all the time, and in these actions, Porter argues, hold the key to the future.

How it feels to be colored me By Zora Neale Hurtson (Text TOW#6)

      Published in The World Tomorrow in 1928, Zora’s essay, How it feels to be colored me, stands incongruous to its surroundings. At a time when racial segregation and racial identities were emphasized heavily, Zora portrayed to her audience an African-American girl accepting and embracing the melting-pot American society. Such an idea of human uniformity may be a shock to many at the time period, especially since the essay is published in a popular American magazine consumed by people of all races, but it fits perfectly for Zora, as an anthropologist and human rights activist.

Through her description of an American African-American girl accepting the shared culture of America, Zora attempted to convince her readers, the American public, that similarity people share is much more important that their differences, such as color. As she appeals to her audience, Zora emphasizes upon the value of individuals, and cautions the readers not to categorize anyone simply based on race and color.

 What makes Zora’s essay successful and impactful to her audience is the fitting use of imagery and analogy. She remarked “When I set my hat at a certain angle and saunter down Seventh Avenue, feeling as snooty as the lions in front of the Forty Second street… the cosmic Zora emerges” (Oates117). The actions and feelings of Zora, how she sauntered down Seventh Avenue and felt as snooty as the lions, gave Zora a human face for readers to connect to. Zora, in this description, is enjoying life and ignorant of the racial problems in the world. She gave the audience an impression that she is Zora, an individual belonging to neither race nor time. In later paragraphs, Zora also presented her audience an imagery of bags, “white, red and yellow” (Oates 117) and how the bags can be “all be dumped into a single heap and refilled without altering the contents greatly” (Oates 117). Likely many readers are more insensitive to “bags” instead of “race” at the time. Zora, instead of talking directly about race, chose to talk about different color bags so that she can connect to all parts of the American public, and let all of them at least ponder about the similarities shared by human beings.

Bags are universal. They can be dumped and refilled without changing much; Zora asserts, so are human.

Hiroshima by John Hersey (IRB TOW#1)

       Life was never the same again for the people who experienced the flash known as the atomic bomb in Hiroshima in 1945. Millions lost their lives, families were torn apart, and cities destroyed. John Hersey reflected all of these tragedies in his chronicle Hiroshima and examined the fate of two doctors, a clerk, a widow, a Japanese pastor, and a German Jesuit whose lives were changed forever. However, beyond drawing the public’s attention to the impact of weapons, Hersey also put much emphasis on how the six main characters coped with the disastrous change in the latter of his book, and he spent over fifteen years researching and interviewing the Hiroshima survivors in order to do so.

       The final version of Hiroshima, included with the complete follow up of the six main characters, was translated into many languages and published in1979, a time period characterized by change and uncertainty through events such as the Cold War. Many people were overwhelmed and uncertain of the future. Yet, Hersey thought otherwise. He looked at change from another angle and his chronicle of the aftermath of Hiroshima bombing presented a universal theme of the continuation of life.

       An important device Hersey used to comfort his readers of changes was anecdotes, and he did so through the detailing of how the six main characters lived after the Hiroshima atrocity in a third-person perspective and an objective tone. While describing the life of Dr. Sasaki, one of the survivors, he wrote “Dr. Sasaki decided quit working for the hospital and to set himself up…”(Hersey 103); when describing Jesuit Takakura, he wrote “he felt enterprising, and, had builders add two rooms in the chapel.”(Hersey 113). Though bombarded with changes, none of the characters Hersey detailed gave up, which fits the theme of life’s continuity and appeals especially to readers who were in times of change themselves. In addition, not much imaginations can be associated with these descriptions, which gives the author a sense of authenticity and authority and makes events seem believable from a historical perspective.

       As readers began to be drawn into the anecdotes of survivors and their strong hold on life, Hersey then successfully sent out his message to society: life moves on.