Exploration of the Text : Trifles (Q2, Q3, & Q4)

2. What clues lead the women to conclude that Minnie Wright killed her husband?

At first, women started to develop their clues by getting known Minnie’s background closely. Before married with John Wright, she is well known as Minnie Foster. She used to be a happy, appeared with pretty clothes, socialize, and also lively girl who sang in the local choir, but after she married John Wright, her life became unhappy and forlorn. Secondly, Minnie’s canary was died. Her husband kills a part of her as well as the only thing left in her life that gave her beauty and pleasure. The canary was the only thing she had to help her feel better about being solitude and isolated from the world. Lastly, the quilt itself. Women can see the evidence of turmoil in her quilt. They wonder if she was going to quilt it or just knot it. The stitches change. Thus, they actually see the evidence of unhappiness and troubled times everywhere in this house.

3. How do men differ from the women? From each other?

Men differ from the women in their thinking, attitude and emotion.  Things in this play that the women see as important were not important for the men. The men claim that it just another common trifle that the women are concerned about. For example, when the Sheriff reaches up into the cupboard and comes away with a sticky hand, the woman express sadness that her preserves fruit had frozen. Rather than recognizing all the hard work that went into making those preserves, the Sheriff exclaims, "Well, can you beat the women! Held for murder and worrying' about her preserves". Secondly, the men never once question their way of doing things. They are looking for something "big" in the house, some big clue. The women, on the other hand are looking at the smaller things and thinking about the emotional impact of the smaller things. The men dismiss their methods knowing that they will never find anything that way. Even at the very end, when the men have found nothing, they make fun of the women once again. "Lastly, women rely more on emotions rather than facts, while men do the opposite. Women in this play agreed that the basic sense of self is connected to the world, while the basic of masculine sense of self is separated from it. For example, when Mrs Hale said, “what we need is a motive. Something to show anger of sudden feeling”. Women see their self as interdependent whose moral judgment are tied to feeling and see moral problems as problems of responsibility in relationship. Women’s consciousness could empower women to take actions together which they not take as individuals by sharing their experience. They could act out of a new respect for the value for their lives as women.  In this play, women tend to find the clues and conclude the suspect of the murder.

4. What do the men discover? Why do they conclude “Nothing here but kitchen things”? What do the women discover?

As the play states “Trifles”, the men seem to focusing on the smaller and unimportant elements of the crime scene and just have no time for the women. At first, they went to upstairs, the barn and around the house rather than discover the kitchen. For men, there was nothing important in the kitchen that would point to any motive. Kitchen is just a part of domesticity for women. On the other hand, the women discover the clues by using “the homemaking instinct” and the main reasons why Mrs Wright was killed his husband.

Major Playwrights

            1. William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born on 23^rd April 1564. John Shakespeare and Mary Shakespeare were William’s parents. His father was a successful glover, and town alderman while his mother was coming from Alderman wealthy family. They married in 1557 and had eight children. Only five children survived to adulthood. William was the third children. William was born into a well-to-do middle class family. They were not rich, but successful in business and respected in the community. His parents had a Catholic background which was not safe, because on that particular time, Queen Elizabeth I enforced Protestantism. She had spies who looked for people like the Shakespeare’s who still held onto the “old” beliefs. He grew up in the little country town of Stratford-on-Avon where he went to the local Grammar School and learned the 'small Latin and less Greek' which Ben Jonson attributed to him. Others lesson taught were, dictated primarily by the beliefs of the reigning monarch, debate, social responsibilities, and he had to participate in Drama. Shakespeare was removed from school around age thirteen because of his father's financial and social difficulties. William’s daily activities after he left school and before he re-emerged as a professional actor in the late 1580s are impossible to trace. There were suggestions that he might have worked as a schoolmaster or lawyer or glover with his father and brother. Some arguments also state that Shakespeare studied intensely to become a master at his literary craft, and honed his acting skills while travelling and visiting playhouses outside of Stratford. But, it is from this period known as the "lost years” that we obtain one vital piece of information about Shakespeare which was, he married a pregnant orphan named Anne Hathaway. He had three children.

                                     

                                      Susanna, Hamnet, and Judith Shakespeare

In the 16th Century, he became a great entrepreneur.  He managed 'The Globe' and companies of actors, and that’s where he made the good living for his family. This time was referred as the golden age of English drama. That’s because theater was very popular during that time. His plays were not only being performed in the theater but also at court, not only for Queen Elizabeth but also for her successor, King James 1. He also seems to have been interested in writing poems and he started work on the sonnets. Several works by him :

• The Histories- Henry IV Part 1, 2 and 3, Pericles & King John
• The Comedies – Winter’s Tale, Midsummer Night Dream & As You Like It
• Romance – Romeo & Juliet, The Tempest, & Cymbeline
• The Tragedies- Othello, Hamlet & Macbeth

Shakespeare was very talented in being able to summarize the span of people and emotions. People say he is the most remarkable storyteller. Shakespeare's stories transcend time and culture. Shakespeare created brilliant characters, especially his tragic heroes. in addition,  Shakespeare is deeply admired by actors, playing his characters is considered the most difficult and most greatly outstanding achievement an actor can do. Shakespeare’s expressions are the most commonly used expressions and you may not even know you’re using them. Shakespeare is truly an outstanding human being and has most definitely changed history. 

REFERENCES

http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/shakespeareeducation.html

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2. Susan Glaspell

Susan Glaspell was born on 1^st July 1882 in Davenport, lowa, United States. Elmer Glaspell and Alice Keating were Susan’s parents. Her father was a farmer, while her mother was a teacher. Susan lived as the middle class family that was not very-well-off. She attended Davenport public school and graduated from Drake University. She worked as a journalist. Later, after finding that her stories were published in Harper's and the Ladies' Home Journal, Susan Glaspell quit her job as a journalist for the Des Moines Daily News.

In 1915, Susan Glaspell met George Cook, a stage director, and the two moved in together in Provincetown, Massachusetts. The couple decided to join a group of left-wing writers. Basically, left-wing writers are writers who express what society is today and through their writing they show how things should be transformed so that happiness can be achieved by many instead of so few. They believe that property should not be privately owned, but instead should be socially controlled, that this is the solution to unemployment and war. This is the way that writers revolt in society and try to get their point across of a revolution of change. The two, along with several of the left-wring writers, discovered the Provincetown Players in Cape Cod Massechusetts, a group formed of actors, directors, and writers that wanted to perform new and experimental plays.

                                                    

                                                   Proviencetown Playhouse

Much of Glaspell's writing is strongly feminist, dealing with the roles that women play, or are forced to play, in society and the relationships between men and women. In addition, Glaspell's plays argued social and political issues as well as the role women held in society compared to men. Glaspell was passionate about standing up for what she believed was just. Susan wrote over ten plays for the group some including:

• Women's Honour
• Bernice
• Inheritors
• The Verge
• A Jury of Her Peer
• The People
• The Outside

As well as writing plays for the Provincetown Players, Susan Glaspell acted in several of them. Eventually,  Susan Glaspell and George Cook finally got married in 1922. They had a strong marriage even through Susan's miscarriages. After having so many troubles with the Provincetown Players, Susan Glaspell and George Cook left to live in Greece. George Cook suffered from typhus and passed away 14th January, 1924.She wrote Brooke Ecans in 1928 and The Fugitive’s Return in 1929. Susan won the Pulitzer Prize for her book, Allison’s House in 1931.

In the 1930s,  Susan become addicted to alcohol and stopped writing altogehter. She lost so much money through her obsessive that she turned to get her life straightened back out. She became director of the Federal Theater Project, part of the New Deal. She died on 17th July, 1948. The last book Susan Glaspell wrote :

-The Morning is Near Us

-Norma Ashe

-Judd Rankin’s Daughter

            REFERENCES

            http://www.provincetownplayhouse.com/history.html

            http://blogs.shu.edu/glaspellsociety/sample-page/

A DATE WITH A LITERARY SCHOLAR

MR REFAAT ALAREER

He is a brilliant academic and writer from Gaza.  He claims that he is not a poet. He is working as a lecturer at Islamic University of Gaza and majoring in English Literature and Creative Writing. Most of his works are about Palestine which focuses more on dialogue, performance and drama in Palestine. For more information, drop by to his blog, Facebook and Twitter. I’m sure there will be lot of things to dig about Palestine!In this precious session, Mr. Refaat did tell us about: 

1.       The Historical of the Palestine

2.      Operation Cast Lead makes people start to resists. In the 22-day Israeli military offensive Gaza between 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009 some 1,400 Palestinians were killed, including some 300 children and large areas of Gaza were razed to the ground, leaving many thousands homeless and the already dire economy in ruins.Both the Israeli and the Palestinian sides have failed to investigate the violations of international law, including war crimes, committed by their forces. The responsibility now lies with the international community to take concrete steps to ensure justice and redress for the victims and accountability for the perpetrators on all sides. UN investigators, led by the internationally respected Justice Richard Goldstone, have now concluded their report on the Gaza conflict. Ensuring the implementation of the Goldstone report recommendations is a crucial step towards obtaining reparations for the victims and revealing the truth about the crimes committed. If those responsible are brought to justice others will be deterred from committing violations of international law in the future.

3.       The use of poem is actually to transcend society. In addition, he also introduced several famous poet that we should know :

Famous Palestinian Writer (in English)

Rafeef Ziadah (We Teach Life, Sir)

Susuan Abulhawa (Novelist, Wala!)

Remi Kanazi (Performance Poetry)

Famous Palestinian Writer (in Arabic)

Mahmoud Darwish

Tamim Barghouti

4.       How to start writing poetry?

-          Read a lot of good and high quality poetry.

-          Believe that you can write a good stuff

-          Have the willingness

-          Scrabble your thoughts (free writing)

-          Imitate

-          Be yourself

5.      Analyzing Poems

Mr. Refaat had gone through several poems. For instance, If I must die, Over the Wall and And We Live On... He recites the poem for us! To read more about his work, visit his blog. http://thisisgaza.wordpress.com/

6.       Q& A Session

This session was the important session, where we can gain information about his biography in deeply. So, this additional information will help us in understanding Mr. Refaat.

-          His favorite poet was John Donne.

-           The writing style of Palestinian before war was same as us. After war, it changes more to the resistance where it emphasizes on memory.

-          To write ≠ to be the person. Poem is used to express our own story and feeling.

-          Woman in Palestine was active than man.

-          Before war, Palestine was a simple place where the citizen works in agriculture.

-          The picture in his blog is actually symbolizing the specialties of Palestine.

Last but not least, this date was really a precious moment for me. I did gain information about Mr Refaat, his works, tips on writing the great poems and most important thing is to understand and aware about Palestine. I agreed with Dr. Haslina’s short poem where, even we are not in Palestine, our soul’s already there! May Allah bless Palestinian.

May this date remain in our memory forever. (21/10/13)

World War I (1914-1919)

World War I was an extremely blood war that engulfed Europe from from 1914 to 1919, with huge losses of life and little ground lost or won. Fought mostly by soldiers in trenches, WWI saw an estimated 10 million military deaths and another 20 million wounded. While many hoped that WWI would be "the war to end all wars," in actuality, the concluding peace treaty set the stage for World War II.

I've just watch this short documentary. This video will easily enhance our knowledge about WWI. Enjoy it!

There are also several famous poets writing about WWI. For instance :

• Wilfred Owen : " Dulce et Decorus Est"

• Siegfried Sassoon : " How to Die"

• Herbert Read : "The Happy Warrior"

• W.N.Hodgson : "Before Action"

• Wilfred Gibson : "Back"  

Other than that, there is a strong but neglected tradition of women's poetry written in response to the events of the First World War. Many of these poems are the products of direct experience of the processes of war; making weapons, nursing the wounded, the loss of brothers, sons, or lovers in the trenches by women on active service in the battle areas as well as by women involved in the war effort at home. The range of this poetry is wide. It is often experimental and in advance of the male poetic response. Some of the women poets are well known in other contexts like Rose Macauley, Edith Nesbit, and Edith Sitwell  while others are largely unknown. Below are some examples of such works by a number of women poets of the period.

•  Madeline Ida Bedford : “Munition Wages”

• Eva Dobell : “Pluck”

• Marian Allen :  “The Wind on the Downs”

• Sybil Bristowe : “Over the Top”

This is one of the poem :

The Call, by Jessie Pope

Who's for the trench—

Are you, my laddie?

Who'll follow French—

Will you, my laddie?

Who's fretting to begin,

Who's going out to win?

And who wants to save his skin—

Do you, my laddie?

Who's for the khaki suit—

Are you, my laddie?

Who longs to charge and shoot—

Do you, my laddie?

Who's keen on getting fit,

Who means to show his grit,

And who'd rather wait a bit—

Would you, my laddie?

Who'll earn the Empire's thanks—

Will you, my laddie?

Who'll swell the victor's ranks—

Will you, my laddie?

When that procession comes,

Banners and rolling drums—

Who'll stand and bite his thumbs—

Will you, my laddie?

For more collection of WWI poem, visit http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/poets-of-the-first-world-war .

Understanding Poetry and Drama

What is Poetry?

1      

        Definition:

• an imaginative awareness of experience expressed through meaning, sound, and rhythmic language choices to evoke an emotional response.
• Wordsworth : as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings;"
• Emily Dickinson : "If I read a book and it makes my body so cold no fire ever can warm me, I know that is poetry;"
• Dylan Thomas : "Poetry is what makes me laugh or cry or yawn, what makes my toenails twinkle, what makes me want to do this or that or nothing."

For more definitions, check this link.http://poetinthecity.wordpress.com/2011/03/16/what-is-poetry-50-definitions-and-counting/. It was really interesting!

2    Elements of Poetry :

·         Setting

·         Imagery

·         Theme

·         Voice

·         Tone

·         Structure and Poetry

Stanzas

Form

·         Sound Patterns

Rhyme

Rhythm & Meter

Word Sounds

·         Meaning and Poetry

Concreteness & Particularity

Denotation & Connotation

Figurative/ Connotative Devices

For more information about the elements of poetry,  drop by to this link! http://learn.lexiconic.net/elementsofpoetry.htm

3    Type of Poetry

            Epic- a lengthy narrative poem in grand language celebrating the adventures and accomplishments                 of a legendary or conventional hero.

Couplet- two lines of verses which rhyme and form a unit alone or as part of a poem.

Sonnet - a short rhyming poem with 14 lines. The original sonnet form was invented in the 13/14th century by Dante and an Italian philosopher named Francisco Petrarch. The form remained largely unknown until it was found and developed by writers such as Shakespeare.

Actually, there are many types of poetry. Let’s check this website for more information. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/glossary-terms?category=forms-and-types.

___________________________________________________________________________

What is Drama?

1      Definition:

-        a literary composition involving conflict, action crisis and atmosphere designed to be acted by players on a stage before an audience. This definition may be applied to motion picture drama as well as to the traditional stage.

2   Elements of  Drama :

 Aside - Lines whispered to the audience or to another character on stage.

Catastrophe - the final event in a drama (a death in a tragedy or a marriage in a comedy).

Comedy - A light play with a happy ending.

Comic Relief - A bit of humor injected into a serious play to relieve the heavy tension of tragic events.

Crisis - The turning point in the plot.

Dramatic Irony - occurs when the audience knows something that the character on stage is not aware.

      3. Types of Drama :

Tragedy -- In general, tragedy involves the ruin of the leading characters. To the Greeks, it meant the destruction of some noble person through fate, To the Elizabethans, it meant in the first place death and in the second place the destruction of some noble person through a flaw in his character. Today it may not involve death so much as a dismal life, Modern tragedy often shows the tragedy not of the strong and noble but of the weak and mean.

Comedy -- is lighter drama in which the leading characters overcome the difficulties which temporarily beset them.

Problem Play -- Drama of social criticism discusses social, economic, or political problems by means of a play.

Farce -- When comedy involves ridiculous or hilarious complications without regard for human values, it becomes farce.

Comedy of Manners -- Comedy which wittily portrays fashionable life.

Fantasy -- A play sometimes, but not always, in comic spirit in which the author gives free reign to his fantasy, allowing things to happen without regard to reality

Melodrama -- Like farce, melodrama pays almost no attention to human values, but its object is to give a thrill instead of a laugh. Often good entertainment, never any literary value.

To gain more information, click this link, http://homepage.smc.edu/jones_janie/TA%202/2FormsofDrama.htm

Turtle Soup, Marilyn Chin (1994)

You go home one evening tired from work, 

and your mother boils you turtle soup. 

Twelve hours hunched over the hearth

(who knows what else is in that cauldron).

You say, "Ma, you've poached the symbol of long life;

that turtle lived four thousand years, swam

the Wet, up the Yellow, over the Yangtze. 

Witnessed the Bronze Age, the High Tang,

grazed on splendid sericulture."

(So, she boils the life out of him.)

"All our ancestors have been fools.

Remember Uncle Wu who rode ten thousand miles

to kill a famous Manchu and ended up

with his head on a pole? Eat, child,

its liver will make you strong."

"Sometimes you're the life, sometimes the sacrifice." 

Her sobbing is inconsolable.

So, you spread that gentle napkin 

over your lap in decorous Pasadena.

Baby, some high priestess has got it wrong.

The golden decal on the green underbelly

says "Made in Hong Kong."

Is there nothing left but the shell

and humanity's strange inscriptions,

the songs, the rites, the oracles?

_______________________________________________________________________

QUESTIONS
1. Notice the author’s choice of the word “cauldron” in line 4. What images or connections does this word evoke? Why might the author have chosen “cauldron” rather than “pot”?
2. Chin refers to “the Wei”, “the Yellow”, and “the Yangtze”. Why does she reference these rivers in China? Why not include the Nile, the Amazon, or the Mississippi?
3. What is the tone of this poem?
4. ESSAY: “‘Sometimes you’re the life, sometimes the sacrifice.’” Write about this quote within the context of an immigrant family. What might a family gain or lose by moving to a new land?

ANSWER
1. “Cauldron” images the place for the mother gives all her child needs. In line 3, “‘Twelve hour hunched over the heart’, (who knows what else is in that cauldron).” The time shows the timing for the soup to cook and only mother knows what the best is for her child.  The author choose “cauldron” rather than “pot” because pot is small and it is not enough to portray the quantity of child’s need.

2. She refers to the rivers in China because it symbolizes the author’s background.  The rivers were close to the narrator. It was the historical place for China. It shows that they are the migrate family from the China. In the second stanza, “that turtle lived four thousand years, swam the Wei, up the Yellow, over the Yangtze”. The turtle soup was originally come from the China.

3. The tone of this poem is melancholy. As in the third stanza, “Remember Uncle Wu who rode ten thousand miles, to kill a famous Manchu and ended up, with his head on a pole?”, this stanza shows the sadness of the Chinese people about being obey to their believe.

4. Essay :

Nowadays, immigration has been a common world phenomenon. Migrate is an action which is move to one country or place to live or work. Usually, people immigrate to survive in their life. The people are called as immigrant. According to the quote, “‘Sometimes you’re the life, sometimes the sacrifice,’” it is clearly state that there are advantages and disadvantages of being an immigrant family.

Firstly, immigrants have to go through assimilation process. Assimilation is the process of two different things coming together to blend and in some cases, create a new thing all together. However, that is a very simplistic understanding of the process itself as there are many different types of assimilation. For instance, immigrant family will face assimilation towards culture, new idea, religion and language. For instance, in the poem of Turtle Soup by Marilyn Chin, the immigrant family just against the Chinese believe. The mother cooks the turtle soup even though the dish symbolize the luxury in Chinese culture. It is different with the United States country. In this process, they will lose several things because they live in the country as the minority. However, the immigrant family tend to learn and explore the new things that might be interesting.

Secondly, immigrants also have to face the adaptation process. Adaptation is the process of adjusting. In this case, culture adaptation is the evolutionary process by which an individual modifies his personal habits and customs to fit in to a particular culture. It can also refer to gradual changes within a culture or society that occur as people from different backgrounds participate in the culture and share their perspectives and practices. Adaptation can be occurring in several aspects such as dress, food, holidays, music and other forms of art. In this process, there is probability for the permanent residents to adapt the immigrant’s culture. Hence, this process will gain the immigrant’s family culture.

Thirdly, immigrants have the probability to get discriminate by the local residents. Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment or assumption of different categories of people toward race, religion and others. As the immigrants, they have to be patient and just follow the law.

As the conclusion, immigrants will probably go through all the process which is, assimilation, adaptation, and discrimination process. Although there are both advantages and disadvantages of immigration, people still continuously moving away from their own native land to live in some other country for have a better standard life.


GROUP LEADER : MOHD NOOR RAMDAN

Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note, Amiri Baraka (1961)

Lately, I've become accustomed to the way

The ground opens up and envelopes me

Each time I go out to walk the dog.

Or the broad edged silly music the wind

Makes when I run for a bus...

Things have come to that.

And now, each night I count the stars.

And each night I get the same number.

And when they will not come to be counted,

I count the holes they leave.

Nobody sings anymore.

And then last night I tiptoed up

To my daughter's room and heard her

Talking to someone, and when I opened

The door, there was no one there...

Only she on her knees, peeking into

Her own clasped hands

___________________________________________________________________________

QUESTIONS

1. What is the mood of the speaker in the opening lines? What images suggest his feelings?
2. What is the significance of the daughter's gesture of peeking into "her own clasped hands"?
3. What does this title mean? How does it explain the closing line?
4. Why does Baraka have three short lines, separated as stanzas? How do they convey the message of the poem?
5. Why does Baraka begin stanzas with "Lately," "And now," and "And then"? What do these transition words accomplish?
6. How does the speaker feel about his daughter? What does she represent to him?

ANSWER
1. The mood of the speaker in the opening was discouragement. This can be proved by stanza one. Everything done by him looks common and uninterested. In addition, he thinks a lot. Hence, it also proven that he/she was depressed.

Each time I go out to walk the dog.

Or the broad edged silly music the wind

Makes when I run for a bus...

2. The significance of the daughter's gesture of peeking into "her own clasped hands" is, the daughter still have some hopes. it was really different with her father who just pessimistic.

3. The title itself ‘Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide’ shows about death. It’s not about the natural death, but it’s about an action that might be happens in the stage of loose of hope because of depression. Finally, he gets inspired by his own daughter. No matter how, he have to face all the problems.


4. All the three short lines represent the conclusion for each of the stanza. “Things have come to that” summarize about his daily activity becomes uninterested to him. “Nobody sings anymore” summarize about the loose of hope. Finally, “Her own clasped hands” summarize about his daughter’s action that inspired him to not getting in suicide.

5. He begins all the stanzas with transition words because he wanted to make it as a timeline. Reader can easily understand about what he felt and what his decision was.

6. The speaker feels his daughter also can understand or realize with what he had go through. His daughter also represents an answer from God that he still get chance to change the action and as a hope that motivates him to continue his life.

REFFERENCE

Schmidt, Jan Zlotnik and Lynne Crockett, eds. Portable Legacies. Boston : Cengage Learning Wdsworth, 2009. 405.