Its Simply A Bunch Of Grass, It Signifies Nothing

As I continue reading Walt Whitman’s poems in Leaves of Grass, I start noticing something about the structure of his lines. After some reading, I wanted to take a break and started scrolling down pretty fast to see if anything caught my attention. I started to see how Whitman always started his sentences with the same word. Not that all the lines in his poems start with the same letter, but out of nowhere he goes 10 straight lines starting with I and then with The or Do, If, A and others like this. For example on poem 15, which is one of the longest ones, he starts with The almost the whole poem. This is another thing about his style that I noticed and wanted to write down.

There was one particular poem that really caught my attention because of what it said and because of its length. It is poem 17 which goes like this:

These are the thoughts of all men in all ages and lands—they are not original with me;
If they are not yours as much as mine, they are nothing, or next to nothing;
If they are not the riddle, and the untying of the riddle, they are nothing;
If they are not just as close as they are distant, they are nothing.
This is the grass that grows wherever the land is, and the water is;
This is the common air that bathes the globe.

This poem said a lot of things to me. Walt Whitman had a very original, defined style, in fact we were talking about clichés in class and I couldn’t fins almost any in his work. Starting with his title, Leaves of Grass, he gives it a very original style, I mean, who would dare to call them Leaves and not blades as the rest of the people do. What Whitman says in this poem is that people are not original, and that they actually nothing. This remembered me of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and how in Act 5 Scene 5 he says the famous phrase, “It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. (Line30) it is the same as Whitman says, that those not original, are nothing, if you are not the one creating a riddle but trying to solve it, you are nothing. Then he talks about the grass, and this is a metaphor about the people, and how they all grow together the same, and that is why only few can be different from the rest.

Blades of Grass

As I read Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, I start noticing how he has a defined style of his own. Starting with the title, I know that Whitman is a very original writer, and there are no clichés in his writing. You don’t say Leaves of Grass, you probably refer to it as blades of grass and leaves of a tree. But saying it this way takes away the clichés and adds the originality. As I read I notice that something with the structure probably is telling me something, but reading it through the computer I can’t find it. I noticed how the lines were all different lengths but couldn’t figure out why it was this way. During class, my teacher explained what it was, if you look at the book sideways, it looks like blades of grass! I couldn’t believe it, it was so obvious yet I wasn’t able to recognize it. I remembered Flaubert’s style, and how his structure showed us what was happening. Another stylistic effect I found, or at least I think I did, was again with the title, Leaves of Grass. The letter S, gives it some representation. This letter with its curves feels like a path, a prairie and perhaps mountains, all of these are covered in grass. There is an alliteration in the letter S, by repeating the consonant S and therefore adding the style to the title and the whole book of poems.

The Stylistic Effect

Flaubert definitely plays a lot with the placing of punctuation points. This stylistic change makes a great difference in the way we read and understand his book A Simple Soul. He uses sentences with up to seven commas, “When Virginia’s turn came, Felicite leaned forward to watch her, and through that imagination which springs from true affection, she at once became the child, whose face and dress became hers, whose heart beat in her bosom, and when Virginia opened her mouth and closed her lids, she did likewise and came very near fainting.”(A Simple Soul) this sentence feels like a race to the goal line. I when I actually saw this today in class, I was amazed and really started noticing Flaubert’s style which is the whole point of his book.

Another interesting part I found was, “Felicite evoked Paradise, the Flood, the Tower of Babel, the blazing cities, the dying nations, the shattered idols; and out of this she developed a great respect for the Almighty and a great fear of His wrath. Then, when she had listened to the Passion, she wept. Why had they crucified Him who loved little children, nourished the people, made the blind see, and who, out of humility, had wished to be born among the poor, in a stable?” (A Simple Soul) This book is definitely not a satire but it does contain elements like for example irony. The quotation above is a lot of irony. It also includes some stylistic effect as she cites the capitalized events and the non capitalized by threes.

As I continue reading through chapter three of the book, I find myself with another funny name in the book, Mike Fallopian. Yet another funny name in the book, but why does Pynchon use so many funny names? He hasn’t given us a clue about this in the book up to this point.

Oedipa Mass is starting to turn into some sort of detective. Everything she does seems so mysterious that we feel like something might be wrong or that she is not simply executing Pierce’s estate. In chapter three, Oedipa and Metzger go to a bar and she finds in the restroom a message. The message was that “Interested in sophisticated fun? You, hubby, girl friends. The more the merrier. Get in touch with Kirby, through WASTE only, Box 7391, L.A” (Page 38) and symbol to the left.

I don’t see why she puts so much interest in this, but without a doubt it is important for her. She even writes it down to investigate it. The more into the book, the more I feel like Oedipa is acting as a detective.

Soap Operas

In class, we discussed how The Crying Of lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon might be a satire on the 1950’s women. The first thing that makes us notice this is when the author states that “came home from a Tupperware party” (Page 1). This is a type of party that women used to attend to in the mid XX century. As I continue reading the book, I start noticing the story getting boring in my opinion maybe I might not be getting what the author is saying. As Oedipa has an affair with the lawyer, Metzger, as the author says, “With a cry Oedipa rushed to him, fell on him, began kissing him to wake him up” (Page 29). I feel like watching a Colombian soap opera. All of them include at some point someone cheating and have dozens of scenes identical to this one with Metzger and Oedipa. I am sure that there is satire behind this, and will try to identify it.

The Name Game

The first thing one might notice in reading The Crying Of Lot 49 by Thomas Pincher was probably the names of his characters. I don’t really know is there is a reason or a connection he wants us to make but it’s very early in the book and I will have to see that later. The first name that caught my attention was the name of the character who appears to be the main one, Oedipa Mass. The first time you read this name, you will probably think about the famous ancient Greek tragedy by Sophocles, Oedipus Rex. Maybe this might be something further on in the book. The next character name that caught my attention in the first chapter was her husband’s name, Wendell Maas, but this is not the interesting part, it is how they call him, Mucho Maas. As soon as I read this I found myself laughing out loud at the book. The reason of this was because what this means in Spanish is “Much More”. So this is another name that I will try to find a reason for because someone called “Much More” is pretty uncommon. The last name that also made me laugh out loud was the name of her doctor, Dr. Hilarious. I don’t remember laughing at a book in al long time but Pynchon’s characters are exactly that, hilarious.

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