Dying of Heartbreak.

 

Most people exaggerate when they say they're dying from heartbreak, but maybe that's not the case in literature. Just like every other little thing in literature, illnesses has a symbolic meaning. Heart disease can reflect the lives of characters' to revel the honest truth, since the heart is the organ that is most associated with emotions. Take for instance the story of Gregor in Metamorphosis, the tale about a man that one day turns into a giant roach. After being the caretaker for their family,  with a father who doesn't want to work,  a mother who feels like she can't, and a sister who's going to school to be the next family provider. Day in and out he does nothing but work. His boss doesn't care for him, and neither does anybody else. One day as he is waking up to go to work he realizes something is off. He gets a glimpse of himself to see that he is a human size roach. From here Gregor's life goes from ordinary to horrible. He's boss stops by to see why he hasn't come to work, and runs away from his grotesque figure. His family all shuts him in the room by himself and doesn't let him come out. Slowly Gregor is dying from the loneliness; he went to providing for the family, to them running away from him. His sister tried to bring food for him but over time stopped after an incident he had with the mom. This incident led him to get attacked by his father and injured his spine. He crawled back in his room and slowly allowed himself to die. Most would argue that Gregor died due to giving up, but I think it's deeper. He went from a guy who lived to please his mother, even though he never spoke to her, and him and his sister were hardly close, but he still felt a sense of importance. Knowing that he was the one to provide gave him a sense of belonging, and shutting him off in his room took that away. He already knew that his life wasn't the best, but it was all he had. You could say he died of his heart giving out, but it was really love and purpose that stopped it. Another story you could apply this too is The Notebook. I know it's a chick flick but it has its own hidden messages. Take for instance the old couple that the movie is centered around. The doctors tell the older man, Noah, that his heart is getting worse. Allie, the older women, was dealing with Alzheimer. The doctor tells him they don't know whether or not she'll make it. Throughout the rest of the movie it's revealed that they're a couple, and that he's telling her this story is to help her remember. She relapses and they end up having to take her to the hospital, shortly after the man has a heart attack. They end up dying in their bed together while holding hands. Their death wasn't a result due to their bad health. It was a way for them to cross over to the next life together. These deaths allow an unspeakable bond with the connection to  human's need of love; illnesses and heart attacks are just other ways in literature to show it. 

Classical Literature is Rated R?

          

    In the real world violence is looked at as problem solving. A bully hits you, you hit back. Another country has something thing of value and money, you send the troops and destroy their homes to find it, so what about literature? Does it apply in their story world too? Of course it does, however, sometimes violence in literature can have deeper meanings. Take for instance the story of Oedipus Rex, a man whose name means swollen foot. He got this swollen foot from being thrown down the mountain as an infant, because his father got word from the oracle that he would kill him. Let's pause for a second and think about the mountain part. If someone wanted to kill someone, there's many other ways they could've gone about it, but the Greeks wanted that shock value, in which they succeed. You think about poor little infant Oedipus being thrown off the mountain and become enrage. Wondering how anyone can do that to a poor little baby, but knowing literature everything happens for a reason. Chapter 11 of Thomas Foster's How to Read Literature like a Professor, talks about violence moving the plot along and being a symbol. The Greeks didn't have to throw him throw him down the mountain, but they did. This gave him a character trait that could be easily noticed, so when Oedipus grew up and killed his biological father this trait could show, so one of the men that day could connect Oedipus to the killing, and Oedipus could come to the realization that he's the one that caused all the mess. With the marrying of the mother, and crazy stuff happening in the kingdom. This pushing the plot along so we could come to the ending. I know you're thinking well why couldn't they just stab him, and the scar would be a characteristic? One, because these are times where riding down to the market to trade, you could come across thieves and wars, get stabbed and have no medical attention, equaling everybody is getting stabbed and have scars to prove it. Two, people can get stabbed and survive, not a lot of people can fall of a mountain and survive. Three, it's the Greeks they're dramatic, give them a break. The same goes for other classical literature like King Lear. Even with all the violence and deaths it still has a symbolic meaning, and pushes the story on. Did they have to poke out Gloucester's eyes? No, but it gave him a way to make amends with his son, since he would've been too embarrass to seek him out. Did Cordelia really have to hang herself? Of course she did, this gave King Lear a reason to curse them all, so he could realize the mistake of shaming his favorite daughter, the only one that really loved him. Most classical literature has very gruesome violence, due to the fact they're trying to get a point through. The more violence, the more that's a stake for the character. 

One Flew Over the Promise Land?

                                                              

                                                                    
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a classic book and movie that people love and adore. Between the funny patients and crazy ideas of McMurphy, how could you not love this book, but is it more of a story behind it? We all know that the story is about an Native American who witnesses a psych ward turned upside down by a new member, but what about the story under the surface. In Thomas Foster's book How To Read Literature Like A Professor he talks about repetition. We enjoy the familiar nature of the stories we read or movies we see. This gives us our eureka moment and allows us to tie it to other stories. McMurphy shows up and starts to change the rules of Nurse Ratched. He tells her this is no way for them to live, and tries to break them out, does this sound familiar? In the bible, the story of Moses tells how a man got word from God to get his people back from the Pharaoh Ramesses II; he goes through many trials to get his people, just like McMurphy goes through many trials with Nurse Ratched. The gate of the ward can be the symbol of the Red Sea, since the fishing trip was the first time of freedom.Even though the story gets a little different it still resembles the biblical one. Even though McMurphy wasn't the most angelic person, he gives us something to root for, which appeals to our emotions. It's human nature to want something good to happen to you. So for a lot of people they can relate to McMurphy and Moses. The fight to do something great and make a difference is in all of us. That's why story repetition is so prominent, it's a story that's a universal truth, however, repetition doesn't only relate to these two stories, you can tie any story together and get the same result. Lion King II with Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet tells the universal story of young love and family feuds, or you can even tie the first Lion King to Shakespeare's Hamlet and the human nature way of wanting revenge. Even though these stories are years apart they still relate in modern day. Years from now people will still sympathize with McMurphy's sacrifice to Nurse Ratched, and their blood will boil with the thought of feeling the defeat. You will feel the sadness as you realize McMurphy is slipping away from the world, as an elder loved one could. You can feel the anger when you see it was all a figment of  the imagination, since no one got out. This anger is caused by the disruption of the repetition. At the end Moses got his people to the Promise Land, but McMurphy didn't. This disruption cause us to become angry because we were cheated out of an happily ever after. These surprises can sometimes respond negatively, or positively and become a story that is repeated itself. At the end of the day every story has a truth. No matter the story, you will always relate to it for the simple fact that we're all human.