"APO 96225"-Larry Rottman

    People are fickle.  They want to her the truth but then again, they don't want to hear bad news.  Therefore, when the two are one in the same, the human race reaches a dilemma.  Do we want to hear the bad news or is ignorance bliss?  In Rottman's poem, for the soldier's mother ignorance is bliss.  She does want to know that her son is safe, but she does not want to know all the gory details of war.  "And the father wrote right back, 'Please don't write such depressing letters.  You're upsetting your mother.'" (Rottman, 846).  Hence, the son returns to writing letters that are more light in nature for his mother's sake.  People tend to do this almost as second-nature in a social sense.  Someone asks us "what's wrong?", and the answer always tends to be along the lines of "nothing" or "I'm fine".  We present ourselves in a way that undermines the reality to make it easier on other people.  Therefore,  I think this poem has its roots in human nature as opposed to non-fiction.

"Much Madness is divinest Sense"-Emily Dickinson

"Dispute not with her: she is a lunatic"-William Shakespeare 

     Though I don't believe Ms. Dickinson was ever medically diagnosed as insane, her poems often make a case for her being so.  In this poem, the speaker claims craziness is sensible, and sensibility is for those who are insane.  For most, this is paradoxical.  Yet, the speaker legitimately recognizes the disparity that society will likely find in this poem.  She claims that the majority of society suffer from much sense and are labelled as normal.  However, the speaker preaches the opposite.  In the end, she is implying that those who are societally labelled as insane actually are the most sensible but are handled in chains.  "Demur--you're straightway dangerous--And handled with a Chain--" (Dickinson, 830).  I believe many geniuses would concur with the speaker.  Many times insanity can create the most genius, beauty, and art. 

Madness

"I felt a Funeral, in my Brain"-Emily Dickinson

     Many of Dickinson's poems are very dark in nature, and this one is no exception.  This poem recounts the speaker's slip into insanity.  The scariest part for both the speaker and the audience: she was mentally competent enough to realize what was going on.  Throughout the stanzas, the audience can see the gradually worsening of the mental disorder.  Initially, the problem is relatively slow.  Then, it become worrisome and scary.  By the end, the speaker, mentally, has left this world.  "And I dropped down, and down--And hit a World, at every plunge, And Finished knowing--then--" (Dickinson, 776). Based on Dickinson's diction, I am unsure whether or not the speaker dies literally or figuratively in the end.  When the speaker's declares she "Finished knowing", I initially understood this as she had lost her mind, and there was no chance of salvaging.  I believe the speaker also nonchalantly refers to the way society treated her as the madness set in; however, she calls this group of people the general "them".  Therefore the audience knows not whether she is speaking of society or her close group of family and friends.  

"Bartelby, the Scrivener"-Herman Melville

Who is the protagonist?  Whose story is it?

   This story can be interpreted two ways in regards to this question.  The protagonist may be Bartleby, and the story may focus upon the way he affects the world around him.  On the other hand, the protagonist could be the unnamed lawyer and how he chooses to respond to Bartleby's ways.

     The main support of the lawyer being the protagonist is the fact that he is the narrator.  He is able to offer more insight than any other person on Bartleby.  Additionally, he is able to expand on the background and environment of the story as a whole.  He presents the contrasts to Bartleby: Turkey and Nippers.  Both of whom at times are either sharp-tongued or completely calm.  The speaker also symbolizes kindness in his own way.  Even though he constantly considers Bartleby's eccentricities, the lawyer is relatively kind to Bartleby and shows concern for him on various occasions.  For example, when the lawyer conjures up the idea that Bartleby lives on ginger nuts, he expresses this sentiment: My mind then ran on in reveries concerning the probable effect upon the human constitution of living entirely on ginger nuts" (Melville, 653). 

    However, it is obvious that the entire story revolves around the character of Bartleby and how his odd qualities govern the world around him.  His speech begins to take hold as various members of the office start repeating this manner of speech.  The lawyer remarks, "I thought to myself, surely I must get  rid of a demented man who already has in some degree turned the tongues if not the head of myself and clerks"  (Melville, 661).  This makes it apparent that Bartleby has the largest impact on Melville's short story.  

"Miss Brill"- Katherine Mansfield

  In a way, Miss Brill causes her own "demise" primarily because she commits a moral wrongdoing that many are guilty of: eavesdropping.  Had she not been so curious about the conversation of strangers, she would not have heard the hurtful conversation between her characterized "hero and heroine" that causes her heartbreak.  When Miss Brill is incapable of eavesdropping, she imagines the goings-on of the world around her.  Surprisingly, everything is rather "odd" in Miss Brill's made-up world.  She remarks, "...there was something funny about nearly all of them.  They were odd, silent, nearly all old, and from the way they stared they looked as though they'd just come from dark little rooms or even--even cupboards!" (Mansfield,184).  The funny aspect of her characterization of the society is that she ends up exactly like them, she may have even started out this way.  In the conclusion, she goes home and "went into the little dark room--her room like a cupboard..." (Mansfield, 186) just like the the "funny" and "odd" members of her imagined society.  From the condition of her clothing, the audience can also infer that she is rather "old" as well.  The fact that her preferred art is eavesdropping additionally suggest she prefers "silent" observation over taking an active role in conversations.