Questionable Trustworthiness: The Cask of Amontillado

When I was on the cheerleading squad during my senior year of high school, I constantly heard stories about other people’s lives. Even though I did not care about the information that was given to me, I questioned the reliability of the news that I was being told. Did this person make up this information? Did the situation really happen? Can I trust these words that I’m being told? Come to find out, fifty percent of the stories were usually gossips and lies. This time in my life can be used as an example towards the importance of questioning the reliability of a storyteller. In Edgar Allen Poe’s short story The Cask of Amontillado, the narrator, Montresor, is not trustworthy because his reliability is questionable.

Montresor is not trustworthy in my opinion because he lives his life living with two different faces. In the beginning of the story, Montresor complements Fortunato (ironically that this man’s name means “fortune”) by reassuring the reader that Fortunato is “respected and even feared”. Montresor also complements Fortunato during a coughing episode while walking into the wine cellar. He tells Fortunato, “Your health is precious. You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as once I was.” Complimenting Fortunato as many times as Montresor has, creates Fortunato to gain trust within Montresor. However, Montresor disguises his true feeling of revenge with a kind of demeanor that lures Fortunato into a deadly trap.

Another event in the story that lead to me to disbelieving Montresor was at the end of the story when Montresor is restacking the piles of bones after burying Fortunato between the walls. He says, “For the half of a century no mortal has disturbed [the bones].” This line is significant in how the Montresor complements himself in the murders he has done for “half a century”. He begins his story by complimenting someone he despises but by the end the story, by compliments himself. No one has realized that Montresor has committed such terrible acts because in the outside world, above the wine cellar, he appears to be a genuine guy. No matter how trustworthy or nice someone may seem, appearances can be conceiving.

Introduction of "God's Grandeur"

When you hear the word “nature”, does any image recall an experience or moment in your life? If you’re like me, you probably thought of an image where the world seemed at peace for a brief moment. I automatically think of the time when I went to Tahoe to learn how to ski last weekend. I was left breathless when I saw the white snow that covered the mountaintops and slopes along the mountainsides. I could not help but constantly think how gorgeous the scenery was and how the snow sparkled in the sunlight. Since I am use to the chaotic grey city life, I do not see snow as frequently as I did that weekend. However, with all the beauty that surrounded me, I constantly saw machines, lifts, hotels and cars populate the new world that I was becoming accustomed to. Somehow, the beauty that nature contained was smothered in the ways we, citizens, entertain ourselves with the help of the advancements in our world.

With all the good visions we think of when we hear an abstract word like nature, no one thinks about the dark experiences that nature goes through, such as forest fires, pollution, or the extinction of animal species throughout the passing years. In the poem “God’s Grandeur”, the author, Gerard Manley Hopkins, reveals the good and bad images that nature has claimed as part of its own existence. Even though the good and bad images create two different feelings, one of dread and fear while the other contains the feeling of fulfillment, they need each other to coexist.

The coexistence I just mentioned appears in the various images in the first and second stanza. The first stanza, which represents nature being neglected, contains colors of dark grayness by the use of “oil” (3) and fire. The second stanza is given reassurance through the presence of the Holy Ghost (13) and an angel (14). Usually the coexistence of two extremes, for example world peace and terrorism, is questioned by the intention of a higher power, which in this case is God.

"Into the Gentle Heart We Must Meet" written by Brittany Moso

Into the gentle heart we must meet

Afraid to damage the place

From which he does beat

Two pairs of young feet

Walk with the same pace

Into the gentle heart we must meet

The sense of being complete

Comes from such embrace

From which he does beat

Angelic kindness-oh how sweet

Lives within the smile that lays across his face

Into the gentle heart we must meet

What a wonderful treat

The delicacy of the chase

From which he does beat

With every single greet

The cycle ends with the race

Into the gentle heart we must meet

From which he does beat

William Blake's "The Tyger"

“The Tyger”, written by William Blake, poses many paradoxes throughout the poem. Underneath the poem, Blake included his own illustration of what the tiger appears to be. The tiger appears to be an animal that would come from a collection of childhood stories. The poem also has a child-like quality due to the rhythm of the words. Throughout the poem, questions are being asked about the existence of the tyger. The constantly asked questions about the actions, appearance, and construction of the tyger are questions that can be inferred to come from a child.

As a person experiences their childhood, the world seems to have no complications and no evil anywhere. Children are seen as innocent, pure and as a gift from God. However, as the person grows up, they begin to notice life in the real world for the bad and for the good. The child-like atmosphere, that includes the questions and the curiosity of how the tyger came into existence, is from the mindset of Blake as a poet. It can be inferred that Blake opposes the building of the industries and machines around him. Due to Blake living in the world of wishing things to be simple like they are in one’s childhood, he can not see past the need to advance in life with the use of machines.

In stanza five, the narrator asks the question, “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” This question contains a sense of bewilderment and wonder. The narrator is more in awe with the existence of the tyger instead of being impressed that the tyger could have been created by God.

As stated in the poem, God created the Lamb. The Lamb represents purity, innocence, delicacy, and peacefulness. However, the tyger is seen as a ferocious, wild, evil being; opposite of the Lamb. This parallel plays on the co-existence of good and evil. When an unexpected event occurs in a person’s life, that person usually tends to turn to God (or a higher power) for answers. For example, when the Twin Towers fell in September of 2001, questions such as “Why did this happen to me?” or “How could You let this happen?” were asked throughout the nation. The wonderment of how can the tyger exists, as evil as it maybe, proves that good and evil can co-exist in the world. This parallel plays on the coexistence of good and evil. Just because the tyger is created from the industries does not make the tiger evil. Likewise, even though the tyger looks like a harmless robot, as shown in Blake’s illustration, does not make the tyger a beastly animal.

The disbelief about the tyger can be noticed in a comparison of the first and the last stanza. The last stanza is identical to the first stanza except for the word change of “could” to “dare”. The effect that the last stanza has on the poem is to emphasize the existence of the tyger. In the first stanza, the word “could” is said with a tone of questioning and uncerrtainty. However, the word change to “dare” in the last stanza is said with more conviction and fear towards the tyger’s character.

"In a Station on the Metro" written by Ezra Pound

The poem “In a Station of the Metro”, written by Ezra Pound, consists of only two lines. When I first read this poem, I was shocked by how quickly the poem ended. The intention of creating a short poem could be to have the reader play close attention to words and patterns. The words, such as “apparition”, “petals”, and “bough” compensate for the length of the poem because there is an unfamiliar connection between each word. As the poem ends quite abruptly, change also occurs quickly. As I looked closer at the words, I noticed that the poem had a sense of dread. This dread appears in both lines of the poem. The first line states, “The apparition of these faces in the crowd”. The “apparition” sets an image in my mind of people that have no capabilities to think for themselves and always do what they are told—ghostlike beings. The people, I imagine, are thoughtless and mindless of their own lives and the world around them. With the production of more technology in the last five years, more and more people are becoming dependent on laptops, Blackberry cell phones, and iPods. We (the consumers) are becoming mindless and thoughtless because we are allowing machines to think for us.

The second line states, “Petals on a wet, black bough”. The “wet” symbolizes weeping while the color black represents death. The death I am speaking of is not the death of a person; it is the death of the minds in the human race. Also, petals do not stand on a branch (“bough”) on their own. Petals are usually a part of a flower. However, as a flower dies and wilts, the petals fall from the flower onto the ground. This is similar to how technology has affected us as a nation. As our society becomes more reliable on technology and concerned with how to advance with technology, the human species will eventually fall apart like a petal on a flower’s stem.

On the other hand, change can occur for the better. There is also an insight in the poem of hope for what the future can become. Even though the word “apparition” means a ghostlike image of a person, it also means the appearance of something remarkable. Since there is said to be an “apparition of these faces in the crowd”, the faces in the crowd can be faces of new born babies since they contain the essence of the future.

The second line, “petals on a wet, black bough”, symbolizes the ending of winter and the beginning of spring. The coming season of spring brings upon new beginnings of change, hope, and life. “Wet, black bough” is referring to the trees that hold the petals of the flowers throughout the season. The “crowds” and “bough” are the elements of strength in the poem. Strength can come in numbers (“faces in a crowd”) or as a sturdy platform (“black bough”). There is a continuous cycle of life throughout this poem. As winter approaches, flowers die and life seems to come to a near halt. However, spring will approach once again as a new light. The advancement of technology in this modern era will bring upon opportunities to progress into a new way of living for the better of all mankind.

My interpretation of "Diving into the Wreck"

In the poem “Diving into the Wreck” written by Adrienne Rich, there are a number of images that caught my attention. The images that I noticed were the “wreck”, the “dive”, equipment such as a ladder, boots, camera, mask, lamp, and knife, and mermaids and mermen. By the third time I read the poem, I realized that the narrator was not talking about an underwater adventure but rather describing the events that occur during a war/battle. With the idea of the poem being about war, the “diver” becomes a soldier, the “wreck” is the disaster that has come upon the many people that are influenced by the war, and the “sea/ocean” is the land where the war is taking place.

In the first stanza, the narrator is suiting up for what ever task is at hand by getting ready for the dive (“loaded the camera, and checked the edge of the knife-blade, I put on the body-armor of black rubber . . . ). However, the narrator is not suiting up with other people as a team; the narrator is suiting up for his/her own personal war/battle. A ladder is introduced to the reader as a way for the diver to enter the ocean. The ladder works as a gateway into unknown territory as a diver and into unknown land of another country during war as a soldier. The narrator describes colors of blue, green, and black. The colors represent the change in the diver’s surroundings. The blue color is from the sky; green from the ground; and the black is from “blacking out” (36). Such colors as the ones that are used paint a portrait to what the diver/soldier may see in their surroundings. In stanza five and six, the “diver” has forgotten the reason for his/her existence in the unknown territory. The lines 53-54 state “The words are purposes. The words are maps”. The knowledge that the narrator obtained about the adventure of the “wreck” paved the reasons for him/her being there. The “dive” represents the journey to explore one’s life purpose and reason for existence.

The volta appears in stanza seven because this is the turning point where the diver notices the death of the “mermaids and mermen”. Since the ocean represents where the war is taking place, the “mermaids and mermen” are the soldiers that risked their lives for the fight of such battle. The narrator recognizes the equality of women and men in the duty of war, which appears in lines 72-73. In lines 82-86, the narrator says, “we are the half-destroyed instruments that once held to a course, the water-eaten log, and the fouled compass”. This part of the stanza creates an image in the reader’s mind of soldiers lying dead on the land they fought upon. The “fouled compass” and “the water-eaten log” symbolize the bullets that took the soldiers’ lives. As I read stanza ten, I quickly thought of a journalist or a historian going back to the battle grounds to tell the story of the battle. The person that “finds[s] our way back to this scene carrying a knife, a camera, and a book of myths” does not mention the names of the people that lost their lives. The dead are seen as invisible ghosts within the “wreck” of the ocean. The journey a person experiences through his/her lifetime shapes the way they react and live their life.

Rich, Adrienne. “Diving into the Wreck” The Norton Introduction To Literature. Ed. Peter Simon. New York: W. W. Norton & Company , 2005.
Vann, William. EduPic Graphical Resource. 2006. 30 Sep. 2008 .

Link for the diver image:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=diver&gbv=2

Link for the ship wreck image:

http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&hl=en&q=underwater+ship+wreck