Narrative Criticism of Gillian Welch’s “Caleb Meyer” Essay Example for Free

Narrative Criticism of Gillian Welch’s â€Å"Caleb Meyer† Essay Throughout this essay I will identify â€Å"Caleb Meyer† as a rhetorical narrative, criticize its form and function, and evaluate its effectiveness. In order to criticize â€Å"Caleb Meyer† using Rowand’s method of narrative criticism, I must first establish that it meets all of the criteria of a narrative according to Sonja Foss. The first criteria Foss requires is that the artifact contain two events. The song in fact includes multiple events, but for explanative purposes we will assign those two events as Meyer drunkenly wandering into the narrator’s yard and raping her, and the narrator slicing his throat with the broken bottle. Foss then requires that the two events in a narrative happen in a sequence of some sort, which, using the examples above, we can easily find to be true in a chronological nature. Meyer first assaults the narrator, and it is not until he does that she retaliates. Foss’s third standard for a narrative requires that the sequential events have a casual relationship. Again, using the events above, we can easily argue that without the first event (Meyer assaulting the narrator) the second event (the narrator slicing his neck with the bottle) would not have occurred, for there would have been no reason for her to retaliate against Meyer. The last criteria Foss requires is that the sequential, casual events be about a unified subject. All of the events that take place in the artifact, including those aforementioned, are about the interaction between Caleb Meyer and the narrator from the time he gets drunk and rapes her to the time she cuts his throat. Now that I have satisfied Foss’s requirements for a narrative and determined â€Å"Caleb Meyer† to be such, I am able to apply Rowand’s method of narrative criticism. According to Rowand, the main components of a narrative are the characters and their roles, the setting, the plot, and the theme. While on the surface many of these things may seem obvious to the audience, in order to discover the artifact’s rhetorical purpose it is important that we uncover more than just who, where, and why. There are two main characters in Welch’s song: the antagonist, Caleb Meyer, and the protagonist, the narrator. Caleb Meyer is established as a lonely, drunken abusive male whose purpose in the artifact is to create conflict to allow resolution (he rapes the narrator and pays the price). The narrator is a married woman whose husband has left her home alone while away on business. Her function is to tell a story and create Welch’s message. She is established as religious (prays to God and believes in Hell [Caleb Meyer your ghost is gonna wear them rattling chains]), brave, and resilient. Meyer represents the abusive, alcoholic male figure in society, while the narrator represents women who are taken advantage of and decide to put up a fight. A secondary character, Nellie Kane, is minimally important but adds to the severity of Meyer’s actions, as he is the narrator’s husband whom Meyer knows is not around to protect her. The setting in the narrative is a wooded area on a mountainside, although it is unspecific where exactly. Meyer asks the narrator if her husband has gone down the mountainside after emerging from where he lives â€Å"in them hollering pines. † This setting, including the fact that the narrator’s husband has gone to Bowling Green for work, creates a picture of a helpless, isolated woman in the woods. This forces the audience to empathize with the narrator as the antagonist attacks, knowing that there is no one to aid her after being thrown down by her hair and pinned beneath a drunken man. It is because of intrinsic humanitarian values that the audience cannot help but wish they could come to her relief, which makes the persuasiveness of Welch’s message more powerful. The plot of Welch’s song first provides that Caleb Meyer lives alone and drinks to pass the time, implying that he is an alcoholic. Lonely, he stumbles to the back of the narrator’s home and yells until she comes outside. We then hear the chorus, which consists of the narrator claiming that Meyer’s ghost will wear rattling chains, implying either that he is going to hell or that he will forever be tormented in the afterlife. Meyer then asks the narrator where her husband has gone and if he has left her alone, to which she replies that he has indeed left on business. Meyer then grabs her by the hair and pins her hands above her head as he lay across her dress, implying that he is attempting to rape her. The narrator begins to pray and finds the bottle of whiskey that Meyer had dropped, slicing his neck open as he bleeds all over her. Welch provides a fantastic crescendo into a climax, which includes a conflict and resolution in order to keep the audience engaged. The theme of â€Å"Caleb Meyer† stems directly from the plot. Meyer represents generic abusive, womanizing, and drunken men that sadly exist in society, while the narrator represents women who are imposed upon by them. Welch’s â€Å"Caleb Meyer† sends a message to women to be strong and independent, while it sends a message to men to mind their belligerence and forcefulness or there will be consequences, as seen in the death of Caleb Meyer. Another message that Welch may be trying to get across is that alcohol is wicked and leads to sinful behavior. One could even go as far as saying that her message is intended to warn men of the dangers of leaving their loved one’s side, however the supporting evidence for these two arguments are insignificant in comparison to the support for the message to women to stand against abuse. Gillian Welch’s â€Å"Caleb Meyer† not only meets all of Foss’s requirements of a narrative, but also establishes itself as a powerful narrative by persuading the audience to feel hatred and anger toward the actions of Caleb Meyer. It forces the audience to identify with the narrator, and understand that what she is experiencing is wrong. Certain audiences, women in particular, and abuse victims especially, identify greatly with Welch’s narrative because rape is the greatest fear of many women. However, men too can see the pain in the narrator’s words as Welch does a wonderful job evoking the emotions of the audience. It is because of her ability to do so that the crescendo is so effective, creating great relief when at the end of the song she sings â€Å"Then I felt his blood pour fast and hot / Around me where I laid† as the antagonist meets his rightful demise.

Humanism The Renaissance And M Essays -- essays research papers

Humanism   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The introduction of the concept of humanism greatly affected the Renaissance. The Humanistic influence shaped Renaissance art, writing, education and thinkers, its ideas were spread among all aspects of life. Machiavelli’s writings during the Renaissance were also affected by the ideas of humanism. His ideas reflect the thoughts of humanism in the way he thought governments and societies should be organized.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Humanism’s influence on art was very obvious, it could be seen slowly infiltrating all art throughout the Renaissance. At the begging of the Renaissance, most art was very dark and dismal. The works portrayed people doing very menial labor, the people did not seem happy and their clothing was very plain. As the Renaissance progressed and humanism’s influence was more felt the paintings used lighter colors, the people in them were smiling and their clothing many times included gold trim or accents. The late Renaissance art also has a larger focus on religion, as humanism inspired people in many forms by the use of religion.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Humanism came about with the idea that a person should have a very rounded education covering many aspects of society especially history, geometry, and art. During the renaissance as the ideas of humanism spread, especially in its educational sense, more schools and universities were erected and a much higher percentage of people were forma...

Notes on History of Dhammapada Essay

According to Wikipedia, Dhammapada is the most famous book of the Tipitakas. It is also the book that has been translated into English and other languages more times than any other book in Buddhist literature. According to Ven. K Sri Dhammananda (1988), the founder of Sudharma Buddhist Institute, Dhammapada (literally meaning The Words of Truth or The Path of Noble Truth) consists of 423 verses in Pali uttered by the Buddha on some 305 occasions for the benefit of a wide range of human beings. These sayings were selected and compiled into one book as being worthy of special note on account of their beauty and relevance for molding the lives of future generations of Buddhists. It is also surprising that according to Britannica Encyclopedia, Dhammapada is accepted both in Theravada Buddhism and in Mahayana Buddhism although there is a difference in the number of verses in the two versions. However, according to Encarta Encyclopedia, the most translated version is that of Theravada. The history of Dhammapada is also not so different in both branches of Buddhism. The Lord Buddha historically had to go round the northern India and Nepal preaching his Dhamma, meeting many people. According to the prescribed text book (Module no. A -Ya 2004) of the second year university students specializing Oriental Studies in Myanmar ), the Lord Buddha preached his Dhamma ( guides and sermons for the cessation of all the sufferings) both in the form of speech called â€Å"cunniya† and occasionally in poetically versed form called â€Å"gatha†. According to Ohn Myint , Daw (2004), the verses uttered by the Lord Buddha had been compiled by 500 Buddhist Senior Arahants in Rajaghyo, India, in the First Dhamma Council (Pathama Sangayana) in 483 BC. Venerable Buddhagosa, the most famous commentary author in Theravada Buddhism, wrote the commentary of Dhammapada named Dhammapada Atthakatha in Sri Lanka. In his commentary book, Ven. Buddha Gosa, studying thoroughly from the elderly monks and old canons, noted the historical backgrounds of the verses in Pali Language. In this book, he told the story of each verses including whom theses verses were uttered by Buddha for, where, how, when and why these verses were uttered by Lord Buddha and so on. According to Subhodha Lankara, a famous Buddhist Literary Guide throughout the history of Buddhism, the verses in Dhammapada and Buddhist Literature are composed and uttered by systematic rules of rhythm, rhyme and meter. Moreover, Thanissaro Bhikkhu (1997) writes as follows: â€Å"As the Buddha himself is quoted as saying, ‘Meter is the structural framework of verses. According to Goinka S. N, the founder of Vissapana Research Institute in India, verses in Dhammapada were just orally handed down at first before the fourth Dhamma Council held in Tambapai [Sri Lanka] in 29 B. C in which all of the Buddhist Scriptures were recorded on written forms on palm leaves. According to the Commentary of Dhammapada by Ven Buddhagosa, these verses are intentionally uttered in accordance with the listeners’ background knowledge, their social backgrounds, and the situations in order to enlighten their mind. As soon as the Lord uttered the verses, Ananda, the chosen attendant and constant companion of the Buddha during the last twenty-five years of his life. memorized it and handed down again to the other monks and people. According to Mahaparinibana Sutta in the first book of Suttanna Pitaka named Mahavagga, after the Lord passed into the nirvana ( His death), the senior Buddhist monks met together and held the First Buddhist Council in order to preserve the holy teachings of the Lord Buddha. In the council, all of the Buddha’s teachings were divided into three parts. According to Goenka, S,N (1999), the founder of Vipassana Research Institute in India , the first part is known as the Vinaya Pitaka and it contains all the rules which Buddha laid down for monks and nuns.. The second part is called the Suttanna Pitaka and it contains the Discourses. The third part is known as the Abhidhamma Pitaka and comprises the psycho-ethical teachings of the Buddha. The first pitaka is Suttanna pitaka and it is divided into five parts according to the length and form of the discourses. The poetical verses that the Lord uttered were compiled into a book named Dhammapada. Dhammapada is included in the first part of Suttanna Pitaka named Khuddhakanikaya ( Short Discourses). According to Daw Ohn Myint, Professor of the Department of Oriental Studies, Yangon University of Distance Education ( 2004), throughout the history of Buddhism, Dhammapada has been studied and memorized by Buddhist monks. Even nowadays in Sri Lanka, the novices who want to be transformed into monkhood have to memorize all the verses in Dhammapada as a compulsory skill.

Celebrating the Queer in Amsterdam - 693 Words

I think the celebration of LGBT identities in Amsterdam from the article Gay Men and Lesbians in the Netherlands by Gert Hekma and Jan Willem Duyvendak to the movie we watched was an interesting look at LGBT struggles (or lack of struggles) and identities found in the Netherlands in comparison to the United States. At first glance, from both the movie and the article, Amsterdam just seems like a wild, amazing time for people of all sexualities. Equality has been reached. Hallelujah! Lets party! Beyond this outward appearance of equality and acceptance, Amsterdams LGBT culture must be unpacked and examined beyond just gay people partying a lot like in the documentary. I think the article Gay Men and Lesbians in the Netherlands did a pretty good job of unpacking Amsterdams LGBT culture but a criticism I have is that the article pretty much forgot bisexuals and trans people in its analysis of Amsterdams gay culture. Bi and trans erasure is a thing that regularly occurs in both straight and gay spaces so I was not surprised by this but it is telling about both the authors and Amsterdam in general. This is a connection that will be addressed because we did read articles on both bisexual and trans people. Amsterdam, in its goal to become the gay haven of the world, has conveniently forgotten about everybody else in the LGBT struggle including many people of color, and that must be tackled for positive change to occur. As the article Gay Men and Lesbians in theShow MoreRelatedZanele Muholis Photograph, Miss Lesbian2283 Words   |  9 PagesThis essay will focus on Zanele Muholi’s photograph entitled, Miss Lesbian. (Zanele Muholi, Miss Lesbian I. Amsterdam, 2009, C-print photograph of a performance taken by Sean Fitzpatrick, 76, 5 x 50, 5 cm.) To deepen the interpretation and analysis of this photograph, I will be using work done by John B. Thompson and will be using his theories of the five symbolic forms (Intention, Convention, Structure, Reference and Contex t.) along with some of John.B Thompson’s other theories, with some reference