Slaughterhouse Five

Slaughterhouse Five focuses on the human dignity and advancement of machinery in wars. The protagonist is Billy Pilgrim and the author depicts him as funny looking guy. Moreover, the whole novel is concentrated in Billy's life and adventures in different periods. The first part of the novel tells about the Billy's involvement in Battle of the Bulge in Belgium where he was taken as prisoner from German soldiers. He is transferred in city of Dresden specifically in one prisoner camp. There he finds English officers that were captured from the Germans. The author tries to specify the fact that machinery of Germans was more advanced in comparison with Allied Forces.  After that, the story goes in different direction. For instance, Billy is kidnapped by the aliens or so called Tralfamadorians. They take him at Tralfamadorian planet and mate him with actress Montana Wildhack. Another interesting part is when Billy survives in a plan crash by which he gets brain injuries and is operated in one hospital in Vermont.  In the end, Billy Pilgrim predicts that he will die after an huge bombing by Chinese. 

Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut is writer and novelist born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is considered as one of the most influential American writers of the twentieth century. The literature that he cultivated consists of both science fiction and humor. He created a unique model of writing in which he made novels with the unusual characters particularly the alien race called Tralfamadorians in Slaughterhouse-Five. Other remarkable works are Breakfast of Champions , Jailbird, and Deadeye Dick. Although he face many problems during his life, Vonnegut never leaved his unusual writing style which magnified the world literature. He devoted his life to the literature thus he became an icon of global literature. Vonnegut died on April 11, 2007, at the age of 84 as a result of a fall at his house in New York.

The Unknown Citizen - W.H. Auden

The Unknown Citizen is a brilliant poem written by W.H.Auden. The concept of the poem is related with a political situation in which he emphasizes the representatives of political leaders of the state. In essence, the main idea of this poem is that it is dedicated to a citizen and the monument that the state representatives are erecting for him. This citizen is not special person or has special attitudes,however, the state decide to honor him because of being normal. In other words, it is symbolization of the strong commitment or servility to the state directives.

He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a
 saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community

That is, Auden use this as instrument to criticize the whole society of that time. Additionally, he makes appeal toward the society to raise awareness and to stop many irregularities of that time. The author illustrates the situation and hard times that labor experienced in that particular period.  In the end, Audin's real message was to show the difficulties of an average person in the his or her life.

The Awakening- Part III

Conclusion of the novel comes up when the  Robert makes a difficult decision to break up the relationship with Edna. Particularly,Edna finds the note from Robert in which he specifies the final decision thus creating a large impact at Edna's life. As a result, Edna realizes that she is trapped between her and society expectations. After that she acknowledges the fact that the only people who influenced and supported in her life were her boys Raoul and Etienne. In addition to this, she asserts the claim that she made prior to Adèle that she is willing to sacrifice her life for her boys, but not herself. Finally, at the end she decides to make suicide because in that way she believes that will save the life of her boys.The end of The Awakening is portrayed with significant moment when  Edna release herself to the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

The Awakening- Part II

In this part we can highlight the part where the Edna experiences despair , and the visits that she makes to her friends in Grand Isle, particularly the Mademoiselle Reisz. After many consultations with her friends, she takes the decision to move somewhere else in order to be free from anything.  Apparently, she understands that Robert moved back to the New Orleans. She tended to create new contact with , but it resulted unsuccessful. She tried to convince Robert to return home, and once again shows her love to him.  Therefore, the situation becomes worse, and Edna falls in deeper anxiety. Later on, she decide to return home after the call from Alcee. Nevertheless, Edna is aware by the fact that she will face the life with full of regret and despair prior to the problems that she has with Robert. 

Kate Chopin - The Awakening ( Part I )

The introductory part elaborates the family of Pontellier's, and describes different characteristics of each member. In particular, a father who is doctor, the protagonist mother who does not work, and their two sons. The story begins when they are on vacation with many of Mr.Pontellier’s relatives and associates. In the beginning,  the Pontellier's were family like the others, except their little internal problems. For instance, Edna Pontellier in essence is engaging and handsome. Moreover, she tells about her childhood in Kentucky and her sisters weeding which was upcoming.Many times she was confused in the way that how people acted around her. Her marriage is described simply as an accident, that she just ended up getting married. She was much younger than her husband who was in his forties. During her  stay at the cottage with the other families, she makes new friends, one of which is also the son of mrs. Lebrun, Robert. On the other hand, Robert has chosen one woman for every upcoming summer to whom he devotes himself as an attendant.. Yet, although Robert devotes himself to a different woman every summer, his playful attentions to Edna differ from his treatments of past women. From this perspective, Robert is viewed as quite flirty person which slightly affects the relationship with Edna.

"Invisible Cities- Trading Cities 3"

Trading Cities is the story which tells about the city of Eutropia, the capital of a specific territory. The traveler sees Eutropia in different ways,essentially its size which is partially unequal. Additionally, It appears like a rolling plateau. The city consists of several cities that are waiting to be discovered by other inhabitants, therefore to start a new life there. However, the idea behind the story is that it reflects the rotation effect by which people are used with , but are not aware in general. Furthermore, the rotation effect in a way indicates the habits of people ,and how they change places continually. Another variant of rotation effect is partly illustrating the life cycle , where Calvino succeeded to generalize it as ongoing process. 

"Call Me" by Frank O'Hara

This beautiful poem by Frank O'Hara really impressed me in the way that he offers the reader with the something unique, something which rarely can be found in other poets. "Call Me" is built by his personal style and spontaneity, therefore combining these two and creating desired outcome. Additionally, he contributed in developing so called 'the new romanticism'.

As a consequence, he is shown to us with unique style of urbane and genuine poem; therefore, his unconditional work makes the reader to acknowledge his great work throughout the life. 

Elizabeth Bishop's " One Art "

The poem consists of authoritarian model of writing , in which the author shows tendency to repeat lines. 

This line is repeated throughout the poem to reinforce the importance of the line. By doing this, the reader gains a deeper perception of understanding because of such repetition. It implies the fact that  modern traditions and society forces us as people to hide our feelings and emotions.In my opinion, I think that this poem appears to be a relatively complicated story of a women who is desperately trying to convince herself that loosing various things such as people, places, and things, is not a problem for her.  Bishop used repetition to try and convince herself of the things she was writing but eventually knew it was not the case.

"Invisible Cities-Hidden Cities 1" by Italo Calvino

In this post I will discuss the next part of the Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. The subject here is the hidden city of Olinda and its magnifying panorama.

In general, the city is kind of mysterious place where only its inhabitants can observe its enlarging. With the observing eye, they somehow reveal the roofs, antennas, the skylight, the gardens, the pools, the kiosk in the squares, and so on. However, Olinda is not the only the one that is growing faster. Calvino makes a difference between the concentric circles and tree-trunks, which each year add one more ring. Olinda is struggling to adopt the new infrastructure,however, the city preserves the old architecture such as old walls maintaining their original proportions. On the other hand, in the heart of the city the new Olinda is becoming larger and larger in its reduced dimensions.

"Invisible Cities- Cities & Eyes 3" by Italo Calvino

Another interesting story from Calvino's novel - Invisible Cities. This is a short story which mainly consists of explanations about the city of Baucis. The city is characterized by its wilderness and methods that people use to live there. I found it very impressing the way that the author describes the standards of living in this city while he constantly uses his broad imagination. He indicates that these people are far  from the rest of the world. Particularly, Calvino describes their perception of the world filled with hate and dislike. On the other hand, they respect it so greatly that they avoided all contacts with the world. The author tries to emphasize the fact that they are  technologically and culturally in disadvantage. 

Italo Calvino- Invisible Cities

Italo Calvino was an Italian journalist and writer mainly in short stories and novels. Some of his main works are The Castle of Crossed Destines  and Cosmicomics,a collection of the short stories. In particular, he became famous with Invisible Cities ,a novel where the Calvino used a wide imagination. Specifically, he explains the cities which were discovered by the explorer, Marco Polo. The book consist of conversations between the two main characters in this book, Kublai Khan and Marco Polo. The part that I was highly impressed  is the "Cities & Memory 3".

"Cities & Memory 3"

 Here the author explains the city of Zaira, illustrating as city of high bastions. Calvino describes Zaira in several details starting from infrastructure of the city and then continues with his broad imagination. He assumes that memory is part of each period of our life,and we cannot escape from it. It follows us everywhere despite that we are not aware of it. The climax of this great short dialog is when the Calvino define memory with the words

“ As this wave from memories flows in, the city soaks up like a sponge and expands”.

This story enables the reader to feel unique experience of the Calvino's perception about memory. Moreover, the author provided us with great imagination from which we have a clear picture as we easily conceive the real message of this story.