Poetry 180 More

The poem "What is Written" by John Ashbery:














What is written on the paper
on the table by the bed? Is there something there
or was that from another last night?

Why is that bird ignoring us,
pausing in mid-flight, to take another direction?
Is it feelings of guilt about the spool
it dropped on the bank of a stream,
into which it eventually rolled? Dark spool,
moving ocean ward now- what other fate could have been
yours?
You could have lived in a drawer
for many years, imprisoned, a ward of the state. Now you are
free
to call the shots pretty much as they come.
Poor, bald thing.

The poem "What is Written" has the same concept of sacrifice and suffering. This poem is about a bird who suffers but ends up being free. He does sacrifice himself. " You could have lived in a drawer for many years, imprisoned" (209). It starts out with this feeling of abandonment which later turns into guilt and lastly gets connected with fate. these feelings and emotions are obvious when reading the poem but the epiphany and the experience from it is hidden. The reader tries to find the epiphany and the realization of it through the feelings that the main character in the poem has. The bird at the end of the story is finally free after so much pain and suffering. Yet, the main character of the poem is not only a bird. It is also about a work of writing. The writing is like a bird. It was locked away in a drawer and it too was imprisoned. The feelings the bird is feeling is the same for the piece of paper with writing on it. Therefore, the feelings the bird and the paper have are the same: pain and suffering. This is the end is turned into happiness when they both become free and they can "call the shots".

Short stories by Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami is a writer who has stories that consists of many hidden epiphanies. The main characters come to a realization because of an event and it changes their life dramatically. The experience from the epiphany in each story varies which is why I will just be focusing on one story. The short story "Lederhosen" by Haruki Murakami focuses on a main character who changes her life because of one trip she takes to Germany. The narrator's mother goes on a trip to Germany to visit her sister. She actually stayed there longer than she was supposed to. "Her mother extended the ten days in Germany to nearly a month and a half, with hardly a word back to Tokyo, and when she finally did return to Japan she stayed with another sister of hers in Osaka" (6). The narrators mother did not realize her epiphany until she saw lederhosen put on a man. She did not realize she was suffering or feeling pain until she actually saw what her husband wanted which was the lederhosen. "'That's something even Mother herself didn't understand at the time. It made her defensive and confused. All she knew was, looking at that man in the lederhosen, she felt an unbearable disgust rising in her. Directed toward Father. And she could not hold it back. Mother's lederhosen man, apart from the color of his skin, was exactly like Father, the shape of the legs, the belly, the thinning hair. The way he was so happy trying on those new lederhosen, all prancy and cocky like a little boy. As Mother stood there looking at this man, so many things she'd been uncertain of about herself slowly shifted together into something very clear. That's when she realized she hated Father'" (9). The narrator's mother was suffering throughout her life and finally when she goes on a trip she comes to a realization that she can not love her husband any longer. The smallest details about him brought her disgust. Although it does not make everyone happy in the end, the Mother is happy because after sacrificing such a long time with her husband, she is now free from him.

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

In the novel Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse, the main character Siddhartha accepts the fact that he too, is like the child people, and realizes this after losing his son, young Siddhartha. After so much suffering and sacrifice throughout his journey in life he finally reaches his happiness. His epiphany taught him that he had to have sacrificed something in order to finally be happy. Siddhartha loses his son, which was very painful for him, but because of this he became stronger and was looked on as the "Sublime One". Siddhartha starts out his journey in life as a young intelligent son of the Brahmin. His father saw Siddhartha growing up as a "great sage and priest, a prince among the Brahmins" (3). Siddhartha, however, was not happy with his life. "He had started feeling that his father's love, and his mother's love, and also his friend Govinda's love would not make him happy forever and always, not please him, gratify him, satisfy him"(5). So in search for satisfaction Siddhartha leaves his family to become a Samana and Govinda is his follower. Seeing the child people made him disgusted and he knew he was more superior. "Everything was unworthy of his eyes, everything lied, everything stank, everything stank of lies, everything shammed meaning and happiness and beauty, and everything was unacknowledged decay"(13). This character had become a Samana so that he could "reach a goal: to become empty" (13). He conquered his ego and learned how to control his needs. Becoming a Samana, however, was not enough for Siddhartha. He believed that "he had grown no wiser, had gathered no knowledge, had ascended no levels"(17). His next stop in the journey was going back to the ego and fulfilling all needs and pleasures. At this point in life, Govinda and Siddhartha get separated due to their different beliefs. Siddhartha sets out into this foreign world and now -in contrast to before- the world is "beautiful, colorful, bizarre and enigmatic" (37). He decides that this is a new chapter in his life where he will start all over and be mentally reborn. He meets Kamala, a woman who is a courtesan and valued highly in society. Because of her, Siddhartha's love becomes clothes money and materialistic things. Kamala and Siddhartha share a very close bond. They not only share an intimate friendship but they also become close friends. They both need each other to survive in the society they're living in." "Perhaps people like us cannot love. The child people can; that is their secret"(65). Kamala and Siddhartha believe they are not like the child people; therefore, they can not love. For a while Siddhartha pursued his journey with Kamala, but the actions he made was not enough for him. He "was disgusted at himself" and he did not feel as if he had ascended any levels (72). "He had, it seemed to him, been leading a worthless life, worthless and senseless"(73). Since this journey is not fulfilling the dream and life Siddhartha was pursuing, he decides it's time for a change and leaves Kamala in search for something new and inspiring. Siddhartha is feeling very pessimistic at this point in his life. " Let the fish eat him, this dog Siddhartha, this madman, this foul and fetid body, this exhausted and misused soul! Let the fish and the crocodile eat him, let the demons dismember him (78). He felt that he had "lost himself in pleasure and power", and was not good enough to live anymore (88). While sitting all by himself, exhausted and disgusted from this entire life journey, Govinda meets Siddhartha, and after having some motivation and joy put back into him, Siddhartha is back on his feet and ready for another journey. He meets a ferryman named Vasudeva while crossing the river. Vasudeva invites Siddhartha to live with him where Siddhartha tells Vasudeva about his "hour of despair" (91). Vasudeva shows Siddhartha the river that teaches. " 'You will learn from it,'said Vasudeva,'but not from me. It was the river that taught me how to listen; you too will learn how from the river. The river knows everything, one can learn everything from it"(92). Because of the river, Siddhartha learns much about his life but it's not until Siddhartha gets to know his son that he learns from the river that he, as well as the child people, can love. Siddhartha is so delighted to have a son. "I, who was rich and happy, have now become even richer and happier. I have been given my son"(101). What seemed like delight and happiness actually turned into a pain for Siddhartha. His son did not want to be with him and it seemed that all the love Siddhartha gave his son was never returned. "Siddhartha began to realize that his son had brought now peace and happiness to him but sorrow and suffering"(103). Siddhartha wants his son to be with him and love him, but his son would rather be in the society he had lived in his whole life. His son decides to run away and Siddhartha goes looking for him without any luck. He is feeling pain and despair because of this loss. With the help of Vasudeva he learns to cope with his pain and suffering, but most importantly, the river helps Siddhartha to see why he is suffering like this. Because he left his family Siddhartha is feeling the same lonely pain that his father was feeling. "This face resembled another face, that he had once known and loved and also feared. It resembled the face of his father, the Brahmin. Had not his father suffered the same sorrow that Siddhartha was now suffering for his own son"(115). At this point in Siddhartha's life he realizes that he also has feelings and also loves people and things, just like the child people. He now realizes he is not superior or better than them. He is just like them and he accepts that. Siddhartha understands that he had to go through pain and suffering in order to come to this realization. After this loss, Siddhartha gains power from inside himself and becomes mentally stronger. His friend Govinda see this and knows that "everything about him radiates a parity, radiates a peace, radiates a mildness and serenity and saintliness, which he seen in no other person since the final death of the sublime teacher"(129). Siddhartha finally sees the light after going through many journeys in his life which had caused him only pain and disappointment. From his life, Siddhartha as well as the reader, see that because Siddhartha had gone through some stuggles and did lose something very valuable to him, he in the end becomes stronger and does reach hapiness.

Hesse, Herman. Siddhartha. New York: Penguin Books, 1999.

"The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka

The novel The Metamorphosis by, Franz Kafka, consists of many short stories but the short story "The Metamorphosis" is what I am looking at. The main character, Gregor, in The Metamorphosis obviously experiences an epiphany that is sacrificial. This main character started out as a human being and over one night turned into a beetle. His life was not very interesting or joyous to begin with. He had a stressful job to which he attended everyday and was never late to his job. "The business worries are far worse than they are on the actual premises at home, and on top of that I'm saddled with the strain of all this traveling, the anxiety about train connections, the bad and irregular meals, the constant stream of changing faces with no chance of any warmer, lasting championship" (65). Gregor was not pleased with the way he was living and the way he was working. To top it all of, Gregor turned into a beetle and now his family was trying to deal with all their emotions and feelings towards him. This was very hard for him as well as his family. Coping with his emotions, Gregor tried to be part of his family and just wanted to be accepted- as hard as that was. His family, however, did not want to deal with him anymore. They just liked when he brought money home since he was responsible for doing that and now he was a beetle and locked away in his room. This became very depressing for Gregor and moreover, for his family. His sister, Grete, whom Gregor had an obsession with treated her brother as if he was unwanted. She, who helped out her brother at the beginning and tried to make him feel like part of the family, wanted Gregor to do nothing but leave. At the end of the story Gregor comes to a realization that it would be better for him as well as his whole family if he just did not exist anymore. "It was true that he felt pains all over his body, but it seemed to him that these were growing fainter and fainter and would finally pass away altogether. The rotting apple in his back and the inflamed area round it, all covered with soft dust, hardly troubled him any longer. His thoughts went back to his family with tenderness and love. His own opinion that he must disappear was if anything even firmer than his sister's. In this state of vacant and peaceful reflection he remained until the tower clock struck three in the morning. Then his head sank fill down, of its own accord, and his last faint breath ebbed out from his nostrils"(106-107). Gregor sacrifices him own self which not only satisfies him but also brings happiness to his family. "And it was like a confirmation of their new dreams and good intention when at the end of the journey their daughter was the first to rise to her feet and stretch her young body" (110). Gregor's family has now reached hapiness because they no longer have to deal with Gregor who was a burden to them, but they can focus on their daughter who is growing and blossoming.

Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. New York: Penguin Books, 1992.