ENGL 2200: Sunjata

How is the work an epic? How does this work depart from other epics we've read?

The work Sunjata is an epic for several reasons, the first being that when he was a baby he was born before his brothers were, however, the other servants reached his father with the news of their birth first, due to this he was kind of cheated out of the thrown. He was helpful and just to the griots even though all they wanted to prove was that he was a failure. When the sorcerers encountered him on his way back from a hunting trip he was generous and gave them one of the elephants he killed also proving that by killing the elephant he was a mighty hunter, not only that but later in the epic we see that he killed a terrible beast. When the sorcerers told him he was in danger he wouldn't leave without his mother and sister, along with a couple other things but mostly his mother and sister, showing his virtue, a characteristic all epic heros must have. The sorcerers, who were originally supposed to harm Sunjata actually warned him about returning to the city shows that people liked him, like in all epics the hero is liked by the people. Sunjata had to leave the city that he was once enthroned to behind and travel somewhere that he would be safe. This meet the qualifications of a epic in that he is going on a journey. This epic differs from previous epics we have read because he was supposed to have the crown but something interfered like in the case of Rama, however Gilgamesh didn't have this problem. He was also sent away from his city because he wasn't welcome at home just as it was for Rama, again however Gilgamesh didn't face this he went on his own.

ENGL 2200: The Tale of Genji

For blog eight I would like to talk about Genji and what I think of him as a man. In the very beginning of the Tale of Genji my expectations were that he would be aristocratic, refined, and what chivalry means to us in today's culture, just because when you think of stories that is what you want to believe. Aristocratic was correct, but the others not so much. Refined, well, he sleeps with married women, yes in the society at the time this was fine but it is still unnerving to me. Along with chivalry its not the same as I had anticipated, none the less he is supposed to be an elevated individual of his time. He kindof does what is expected of him which is going and sleeping around with married women and partaking in this forbidden romance that everyone seems awestruck by. Genji loved his wife and only her, but as time progressed he became more of a player. I feel like Genji manipulated the system, he had multiple affairs, just jumping around from one woman to the next. I believe that he did experience love, but I think it may have been a warped view of it, because he didn't have the expectation of being with a woman forever, when he was tired of her and things didn't go perfectly their relationship didn't have to continue. Which makes it so there is no accountability on Genji's part and he can do what ever he wants. If the woman wanted to change anything about this they would more than likely be labeled as not having the ideal personality or haveing a giant flaw which would make it so she wouldn't have any suitors.

ENGL 2200: Margery Kempe

Today, I would like to discuss the relationship between Margery Kempe and her husband.

In the beginning of the book Margery believes she is a terrible person, she thinks that she is seeing visions and hearing the devil, which in class we through out the idea that she may have had postmortem depression. Because of her past she now wishes to devote herself physically and mentally to God. Due to this she denies her husband several things, the most notable being that she doesn't want to have sex with him, but she still obeys him in which I take it that if he tells her that they are having sex then she will but she won't be happy about it. The next is that Margery Kempe's husband wants her to commune with him on Fridays. Instead she fasts and communes with God, which is understandable, however she also needs to make time for her husband. It seems to me almost that they are in a marriage, and they play the roles of husband and wife, to the minuscule extent that they can get away with. Maybe they are together strictly because divorce and separation are frowned upon at this time, whatever the reason, it seems that their marriage is not one that they are happy in, if one is more happy than the other I would say that it is Margery, because she gets almost everything she wants even if she has to wait a bit. Where as her husband seems to be giving into Margery and trying to get something for himself out of the deal.

ENGL 2200: The Tang Dynasty Poets

Nature is a key element in all the Tang Dynasty Poet's works. They all relate nature to how they feel, Wang Wei in To Subprefect Chang Wei discusses how he loves the stillness of the woods and nature, he relates it to peace stilling his troubles along with comfort of doing the things he enjoys and relaxing. Regarding Li Bai's Going to Visit Tai-T'tien Mountain's Master of the Way Without Finding Him we see he shows nature as conflicting, it can be calm yet chaotic. Dogs are barking, and the peach blossoms are stained both are an aspect of the chaos and disturbing point of nature. Whereas almost all of the rest of his poem is light hearted and everything is positive attributes, sounds of water, deer, the creek, a use of imagery with the waterfall, pine trees, and bamboo. One thing to point out is how he discusses that he can't hear midday temple bells, this is significant in that he has become so secluded in nature that there is no one to keep track of him, to hold him accountable, to dictate his actions. He is beyond society now. In Li Bai's Chang-Kah Village Song Nature is almost portrayed as a negative, because the "green moss buried your tracks one by one" because they had been gone for along time, but nature is keeping track and almost torturing and taunting her while she waits for him to return. Let's take a look at Du Fu's work P'eng-Ya Song, nature is again portrayed with a taunting twist. A family is forced to leave their home, and "Of ten days, half were all thunder and rain- mud and more mud to drag ourselves through." Nature isn't taking care of them, nature isn't comforting, nature is making this journey as painful and slow as possible, drawing out their days with each rain drop soaking them. Finally Bo Juyi's An Old Charcoal Seller. When "then one night an inch of snow falls in the city's foothills" knowing that the charcoal seller wants this snow, we see nature almost rewarding him for his hard work and diligence for his producing charcoal and wants him to prosper, granting him his desire of the cold. With all this, we see the different viewpoint that can be seen through nature. The Tang Dynasty Poets all decidedly involve nature because it was and is a key element in people's lives.