ATTN: I am Nikki Hansen. This is MY blog. This is MY work. I post these AFTER I turn them in! Thanks :)
Nikki Hansen
Dr. Dan
10.12.09
ENGL 3001w.004
Nikki.m.hansen@gmail.com
“The Good Doctor”: The Fight between Carnival and Lent
“The Good Doctor” by Adam Haslett is similar in structure to a Russian nesting doll; there’s always something more. As a Russian nesting doll is taken apart, its pieces become smaller and smaller, yet the artistic details remain bold and significant. As “The Good Doctor” unfolds, multiple stories are uncovered until we are introduced to its final and seemingly least important piece: a painting titled The Fight between Carnival and Lent. This painting depicts a town square filled with “all manner of people” busying themselves with various activities from eating to praying, to vulgarity, resulting in a chaos that cannot be organized or undone. This painting is not only a symbol of the life of Mrs. Buckholdt, who combats poverty, illness, addiction and trauma, it also acts as a symbol of the story itself: bits and pieces of chaos that cannot be controlled.
The use of The Fight between Carnival and Lent in the story can first be compared to the lives of the characters within “The Good Doctor.” Doctor Frank Briggs, for example, is trying to solve and organize his own disorderly life: he has lost funding for his job, he hates his location, he is combating homesickness, and he has a hangover. At one moment in the story Doctor Briggs has an epiphany, he realizes why "he'd become a doctor: to organize his involuntary proximity to human pain." This “human pain” does not only emanate from his patients; to some length he is trying to organize his involuntary proximity to his own pain. Unfortunately, the only way he knows how to “treat” himself is by treating others. If he cannot diagnose, organize and treat Mrs. Buckholdt’s pain, then he will not be able to treat his own. At the end of the story Mrs. Buckholdt refuses Doctor Frank Brigg’s offer to help; she turns him down. At this moment, chaos is eminent yet again: “Frank’s stomach tightened, the panic beginning before his mind could form the though: he didn’t want to lose her, he didn’t want the telling to end.” But, for Frank, the stories have ended and this is not something that he can fix or control.
The story of Mrs. Buckholdt’s life is broken down into a tragic sequence of events that seem to come together in The Fight between Carnival and Lent. As she relays her story to Doctor Frank, she refers to the painting several times, reflecting on the way it makes her feel, and how she has changed her view of the painting so that she can like it. This reflects how she is forced to accept her current way of life. She makes the connection that her existence, like the painting, isn’t overtly lush, but she “see[s] how much there is, how much life” and is driven to continue living. At one point Mrs. Buckholdt says, “Brueghel was a moralizer, his paintings full of parables.” Mrs. Buckholdt’s life is included in this painting; her chaotic, tragic story is a parable just the same. And, while Mrs. Buckholdt appreciates what medication does for her on the days she needs them, she also states that she can “manage without them.” When Doctor Briggs pushes his treatment plan for her again, suggesting extensive therapy, Mrs. Buckholdt replies, “ Dr. Briggs… didn’t you hear what I said?” Her refusal of treatment from Doctor Briggs brings her life and the painting together one more time by suggesting that her life, full of tragedies, wonder, questions and heartache, poverty, addiction and trauma all contributing to an outrageously chaotic life cannot be undone or fixed by pills and talking, just as The Fight between Carnival and Lent, a painting full of the chaos of every day people living their lives, cannot be undone after it has already happened.
“The Good Doctor” is not a story about a good doctor at all. It is a story about how life is not fixed or controllable and how nothing can change the events that construct ones existence. It is a story, in a story, in a story, a parable in a parable that is hidden in a non-impressive, but nonetheless realistic painting. The Fight between Carnival and Lent encompasses all human life, from peasant to priest and from doctors to depressed mothers. While Doctor Briggs’ may not be aware, his life correlates to The Fight between Carnival and Lent in that he cannot undo the events in his life. He cannot bring funding to his program. He cannot leave desolate Nebraska. He cannot take back the phone call to his ex girlfriend. On the other hand, Mrs. Buckholdt is fully aware of her situation and is just trying to do the best she can on a day-to-day basis. Both of these characters are prime examples of how the chaos of everyday life cannot be re-written, no matter what you attempt. Together, these characters and this painting show us that these bits and pieces of chaos are the things are real and that as agonizing as living can be, there is no way to escape the things that have already been done.
Showing posts with label College Essay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label College Essay. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
A paper I wrote on the Grimms!
Nikki Hansen
Ger 3610
The Brothers Grimm: Preservation Through the Compilation of Fairy Tales
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm wrote and collected their fairytales prior to the unification of Germany. Although they may not have anticipated this effect ahead of time, their folktales acted as a device that preserved the tradition of the German states in the early to mid 1800’s prior to Germany’s unification. They also preserved the innocence and the simplistic nature of the Romantic writers at that time. Within these simple folktales, the Grimm brothers also exposed a hope for their culture: “they were striving to make their own generation, and future generations conscious of the national soul that, so they believed, had lived on subconsciously in the traditional stories of the folk (David 181).” However, while these tales are widely accepted and of key importance to us today, they were not always seen as such, and were misread as children’s stories, when in fact the Grimm brother’s wanted a wide audience and stories with a childlike nature; not stories written primarily for children.
As was stated in Yale French Studies, by Roberts and Powell, the stories written by the Grimm brothers “preserved the tradition of the German states [prior to their unification].” Unbeknownst to many readers of the Grimm fairytales, the Grimm brothers did not actually fabricate all of these stories themselves. Instead, Jacob and Wilhelm invited storytellers into their home, many of whom were aristocrats or middle-class, who told the tales they had heard from their servants. Alongside fairy tales, the Grimm brothers also collected the legends that they heard. Eventually they arranged these in a book named Deutsche Sagen and arranged them chronologically in order of the historical events and how the stories were related to each other, either culturally or through similarity in plot. These tales and legends came from a variety of the different states of Germany, and by bringing them together, the Grimm brothers preserved this tradition of storytelling, and the culture of what would eventually become a unified Germany.
Along with preserving the actual myths, tradition, the brothers also preserved the innocent, simplistic nature of the Romantic writers from about 1818- 1854. Romantic writers circa 1900 were often focused on the past. They emphasized women and children, purity and child-likeness, and “supernatural” or magical happenings, all of which the Grimm fairytales encompassed. More specifically, the Grimm fairytales embodied the popular German Romantic techniques, which included stories involving travel, nature and myths. The works of these writers often associated innocence and simplicity with childhood and family hearth. There was a childlike air and moral straightforwardness, which the Grimm’s admired in fairytales, and attributed to the earlier Germanic literature. Also, these works collected and written by the Grimm brothers preserved the Romantic use of colorfulness and the admiration of unity, whether familial, cultural, or through friendships and being re-united.
Opposite to what the Grimm brothers had hope, the childlike air and moral straightforwardness possessed in these fairytales caused audiences to push these stories towards the nursery. Wilhelm Grimm wrote about how these stories were not just for children, saying, “These stories are pervaded by the same purity that makes children appear so marvelous and blessed to us” essentially meaning that these stories aren’t necessarily for children, so much as they are like children, have “lived” among children and have been adored and passed along by families for generations. However, as the stories continued to be pushed towards children, Jacob and Wilhelm worked towards more specifically suiting their fairytales for children and families, but continued to strive to share their stories and ideals with like-minded people as themselves.
In more modern times, many of these once adored fairytales have been shunned or forgotten or revised, due to their graphic nature. Stories such as the original “Cinderella” included descriptions of birds pecking out the eyes of the wicked step-mother, and women cutting off their toes in order to fit their foot into the glass slipper. While the moral message shouts “bad things happen to bad people,” modern audiences are less worried about the didactics of fairytales, and more concerned with the poor example a story such as “Cinderella” (as originally written) may set for their children.
On the other hand, these stories are still widely accepted and are of incredible importance to us today. While they may be edited for the modern media, the compilation of these stories are still exceptionally significant to us today because they not only preserved a piece of German culture, but they introduced new elements into literature. The Grimm tales introduced a greater standardization of language, the removal of sexuality, the addition of Christian fundamentals, a tendency to change mothers into stepmothers, and in some tales, extreme violence. Unlike many other fairytales, the Grimms tales feature peasant heroes or heroines, and often show royalty and upper classes as deceitful as opposed to the lower classes, making the Grimm brothers much more class-conscious than other fairytale writers. The Grimms' fairy tales also cover a wider spectrum than other authors, including trickster tales and folk tales that include no magic at all, and also holy legends.
Over all, the Grimm fairytales resulted in more than children’s entertainment. Through a simple act of compiling and writing stories, the Grimm brother’s preserved a German tradition, preserved Romantic writing styles used both nationally and internationally at the time, and provided linguistics with a new law which is now used to better understand past and present language changes.
Ger 3610
The Brothers Grimm: Preservation Through the Compilation of Fairy Tales
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm wrote and collected their fairytales prior to the unification of Germany. Although they may not have anticipated this effect ahead of time, their folktales acted as a device that preserved the tradition of the German states in the early to mid 1800’s prior to Germany’s unification. They also preserved the innocence and the simplistic nature of the Romantic writers at that time. Within these simple folktales, the Grimm brothers also exposed a hope for their culture: “they were striving to make their own generation, and future generations conscious of the national soul that, so they believed, had lived on subconsciously in the traditional stories of the folk (David 181).” However, while these tales are widely accepted and of key importance to us today, they were not always seen as such, and were misread as children’s stories, when in fact the Grimm brother’s wanted a wide audience and stories with a childlike nature; not stories written primarily for children.
As was stated in Yale French Studies, by Roberts and Powell, the stories written by the Grimm brothers “preserved the tradition of the German states [prior to their unification].” Unbeknownst to many readers of the Grimm fairytales, the Grimm brothers did not actually fabricate all of these stories themselves. Instead, Jacob and Wilhelm invited storytellers into their home, many of whom were aristocrats or middle-class, who told the tales they had heard from their servants. Alongside fairy tales, the Grimm brothers also collected the legends that they heard. Eventually they arranged these in a book named Deutsche Sagen and arranged them chronologically in order of the historical events and how the stories were related to each other, either culturally or through similarity in plot. These tales and legends came from a variety of the different states of Germany, and by bringing them together, the Grimm brothers preserved this tradition of storytelling, and the culture of what would eventually become a unified Germany.
Along with preserving the actual myths, tradition, the brothers also preserved the innocent, simplistic nature of the Romantic writers from about 1818- 1854. Romantic writers circa 1900 were often focused on the past. They emphasized women and children, purity and child-likeness, and “supernatural” or magical happenings, all of which the Grimm fairytales encompassed. More specifically, the Grimm fairytales embodied the popular German Romantic techniques, which included stories involving travel, nature and myths. The works of these writers often associated innocence and simplicity with childhood and family hearth. There was a childlike air and moral straightforwardness, which the Grimm’s admired in fairytales, and attributed to the earlier Germanic literature. Also, these works collected and written by the Grimm brothers preserved the Romantic use of colorfulness and the admiration of unity, whether familial, cultural, or through friendships and being re-united.
Opposite to what the Grimm brothers had hope, the childlike air and moral straightforwardness possessed in these fairytales caused audiences to push these stories towards the nursery. Wilhelm Grimm wrote about how these stories were not just for children, saying, “These stories are pervaded by the same purity that makes children appear so marvelous and blessed to us” essentially meaning that these stories aren’t necessarily for children, so much as they are like children, have “lived” among children and have been adored and passed along by families for generations. However, as the stories continued to be pushed towards children, Jacob and Wilhelm worked towards more specifically suiting their fairytales for children and families, but continued to strive to share their stories and ideals with like-minded people as themselves.
In more modern times, many of these once adored fairytales have been shunned or forgotten or revised, due to their graphic nature. Stories such as the original “Cinderella” included descriptions of birds pecking out the eyes of the wicked step-mother, and women cutting off their toes in order to fit their foot into the glass slipper. While the moral message shouts “bad things happen to bad people,” modern audiences are less worried about the didactics of fairytales, and more concerned with the poor example a story such as “Cinderella” (as originally written) may set for their children.
On the other hand, these stories are still widely accepted and are of incredible importance to us today. While they may be edited for the modern media, the compilation of these stories are still exceptionally significant to us today because they not only preserved a piece of German culture, but they introduced new elements into literature. The Grimm tales introduced a greater standardization of language, the removal of sexuality, the addition of Christian fundamentals, a tendency to change mothers into stepmothers, and in some tales, extreme violence. Unlike many other fairytales, the Grimms tales feature peasant heroes or heroines, and often show royalty and upper classes as deceitful as opposed to the lower classes, making the Grimm brothers much more class-conscious than other fairytale writers. The Grimms' fairy tales also cover a wider spectrum than other authors, including trickster tales and folk tales that include no magic at all, and also holy legends.
Over all, the Grimm fairytales resulted in more than children’s entertainment. Through a simple act of compiling and writing stories, the Grimm brother’s preserved a German tradition, preserved Romantic writing styles used both nationally and internationally at the time, and provided linguistics with a new law which is now used to better understand past and present language changes.
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