Owen Meany

What is the significance of the title of the chapter "The Dream"? How does Irving build up to the significance of this title with details from the chapter?

In the book, Prayers for Owen Meany, the significance of the title “The Dream” is that to show the event of Owen going to University of New Hampshire with a scholarship ending up being kicked out of the academy. The title of the chapter is “The Dream” because it is like at the very beginning of a dream where good things happen mostly beneficial to the person, but at the very end, it just went away and the person have to face the somewhat harsh reality. From the beginning of the book, Owen was having a good time with John and everyone he knows. Even Owen killed John’s mother, Tabitha, no one blamed him. Everyone still think highly of him as a Instrument of God, good actor of both Little Jesus and The Spirit of Christmas Yet To Come, and a student with intellect. He was the top of Gravesend Academy and accepted the University of New Hampshire's scholarship."University of New Hampshire never imagine that..."(338) would happen, since Owen could have chosen a more higher ranked school. It was because Owen want to be with Hester. It all ends when Larry Lish accused him of reproducing "fake identification cards"(398), so that Owen can profit off of them. He got expelled from school./ It ended his term of being the top of the "Gravesend Academy graduating class " (338). He would not be able to go to the college he wants. It is like a dream for Owen Irving use this way to show it. Irving created a situation for Owen where everything goes well and then end in a catastrophe. It is like a rising action and the climax of the story. It is like the turning point of Owen's life. It is also the end of his happy dream. Owen also envision his downfall, his death at the end.

What is the significance of the title of the chapter "The Shot"? How does Irving build up to the significance of this title with details from the chapter?

The significance of "The Shot" is that death that Owen was talking about . Two chapters before the current chapter, Owen foresee his death as a hero. Irving build it by having him be in a war and its end that "would not come soon enough to save Owen." It shows the sad memorys of Owen and his terrible downfall of his successful dream.

Hamlet portrayed by Kenneth Branagh

In the whole blog, Kenneth Branagh’s version of Hamlet’s soliloquy captures Hamlet’s feelings and mentality toward his uncle in the current situation the best. Compared to the other two videos, this version gives off a better understanding toward Hamlet. In the Branagh’s video, it set the stage in a room similar to a palace room, which is more relative to the setting of the actual play and the royalties of Denmark. The use of the mirror on the wall and the knife give a better view of Hamlet’s current state. The mirror reveals his inner soul and consciousness and the knife shows the state of mind.

As he stands several feet parallel to the mirror with his reflection in it and asks “To be or not to be, that is the question:” (81, line 55), it produces the image of Hamlet taking a deeper look at his own thoughts. As he continue with the words “Whether ‘tis nobler to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing, end them.” (81, lines 56-59), it reveals what is going on in his mind. It also gives a sense of his subconscious mind speaking directly to him. All of those words were spoken in a soft voice similar to a voice in a dream. The lines of “To die, to sleep” (81, line 59) are repeated more than once in the soliloquy giving the continuous feelings of a dream. It is as if he views of another world reflected through the mirror. Also as he pulled out his sword and point to the mirror, it reveals an image of another person that could be Claudius in a flash. It gives of him looking at an unreal world because of how he speaks and that flash of an image. It shows also he is thinking of revenge by that single image. His sword was pointing the knife at that image showing his consistent mindset of revenge.

Hamlet voices his words softly and draws toward louder tone as if he is going from sanity to insanity and also furious of the occurred events. Hamlet says the lines of “the law’s delay, the insolence of office, and the spurns that patient merit of th’ unworthy takes” (82, lines 71-74) shows the premonition of Claudius’s demise by his hand in his way. It shows his disturbed side to his hidden audience. Also as he speaks on the lines “no travelers returns, puzzles the will” (82, lines 79), he hold the knife to his head. It gives the evidence of his insanity or disturbed mind. It seems the anger, disturb, and insane mindset occur when his thoughts come upon Claudius because the flashing image appears just right after he predict Claudius’s demise and as he explain that about the mere knife which represent Claudius’s killing and the “fardels bear”(line 75) as in the guilt of killing king Hamlet.

In Branagh’s video, it shows Hamlet’s feelings and mentality toward his uncle directly. His disturbed mind and feelings are shown in a comprehensive manner. The other two is a bit confusing. The first video by Laurence Olivier portrays Hamlet’s soliloquy in a good way, yet the subject of who Hamlet is talking about is not clear. It is where Hamlet is all alone on a tower which give no indication of who he is talking about and a setting not relevant to the text. It shows that Hamlet is truly insane and that is all. The second video by Alexander Fodor portrays his version in a modern version, yet in a confusing manner. It is hard to connect what is going on in the background to the words. It seems that the lines and the actions do not match. The action of young people kissing a person who is either dead or sleeping does not connect to the idea that Hamlet is speaking the lines other than insanity.

Myth of Oedipus in “The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”

In The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce portrays that the main character Stephen similar tragic hero while maturing through the state of adolescent. Mostly it is compare d more to the character Oedipus. The Myth Oedipus is a Greek legend of a prince who suffers the fate of killing his own father and marrying his own mother. Stephen, however, is not fated to similar be to Oedipus, but emotionally feel the same as Oedipus. Joyce displays the emotion that appears in Stephen’s life through the setting of the situation and the developing maturity with internal conflicts. The emotions that Stephen encounters flow parallel to the tragic feelings of Oedipus takes on as part of his fate.

In the passage when the students of the boarding school question him about kissing his mother, Joyce displays a common trait that both Oedipus and Stephen has. Stephen says that “he kisses his mother every night.”(26) The result of that the students made fun of him. After rejecting the fact that he kisses his mother, the other kids still make fun of him. Stephen shows that he has a feeling for his mother. Joyce created this situation to portray the trait by creating the internal conflict of which answer was right. His kiss represents the love for his mother. Questioning himself gives some significance relating to the love he has for his mother. He even thought of the very deep detail of how his mother kisses him. He describes that “her lips were soft” (27) and that it “wetted his cheek” (27) making the kissing. In the previous passages, Stephen shows great bond with his mother. He always wants his mother to help and protect him. When he was beginning his schooling, he thought of how nice his mother is. When he felt homesick, he called out for his mother. The love and dependence toward his mother gives the idea of Stephen having a mother complex to the readers.

Compared to Oedipus, Stephen is the same. Oedipus was fated to kill his father and married his mother which Oedipus shows love toward his mother. Oedipus does not know that he married his mother. He was taken in by the king and queen of another city when he was abandoned as a baby. He tries to avoid his fate, but his fate was sealed from the beginning. He never actually knows about the identities of his true parent. As he had already married to his mother, Oedipus can kiss his mother. They became intimate with each other. They bear two sons and two daughters from the relationship. To love his mother so much, Oedipus made incest to the one who gave birth to him. Oedipus has the same complex that Stephen has. Both of them have feeling toward their mother, but did not know it. All of their feelings come from their sub-conscience. Both of did not acknowledge that they have feelings for their mother. They have the Oedipus complex, where the child shows affection toward the parent of the opposite sex. James Joyce uses the concept of Oedipus Complex to describes how Stephen as a growing young adolescent have some feeling innocence and maturing to understand women sub-consciously.

As the book went along, Stephen does not only the similar mother complex. He felt the hatred toward himself as Oedipus did. In the chapter where Stephen’s dad gives off the feeling of being dead when he reminisces into his past, Stephen begin to feel humiliation because of his father and other factors. After the play, Stephen felt anger and humiliation for playing a certain part. His “pride and hope and desire” (87) were crushed and burning the “eyes of his mind” (87). His pride is wounded, hopes fallen and “baffled desires” (87). In the end, it clears away. His resentment toward himself cleared. Joyce created this effect showing the agony of Stephen by putting him in the situation where he has to play his part to the end. Joyce uses descriptions and setting to create the emotion. Joyce created this scene for the purpose of showing Stephen growing from his youthful childhood.

In a similar situation, Oedipus resented himself because he played the exact part in the prophecy. He played his role as the murderer of his father and his mother’s lover with out knowing. It pains him for following fate. His mother also known as his wife committed suicide. Out of humiliation and agony of horror, he blinded himself. He resented himself for following his tragic destiny, so he spends the rest of his life being a blind man and assisted by Antigone. Joyce use deep emotional words and show some of the myth into Stephen’s situation to show the similarity between the two. Stephen, at the end, has “a film still veiled his eye.” (87) It is similar to how Oedipus ends up blind though it is temporary. Blinding himself settled his resentment. Stephen and Oedipus were blinded by the “wounded pride.” (87) Stephen was wounded by the part in the play and Oedipus was wounded by the role he takes on in fate. After being blinded, Oedipus leaves his agony of horror and humiliation and continues living as a blind man. Stephen was the same. He leaves his emotion of humiliation after he was blinded by his wounded pride.

However, Joyce created Stephen to be similar to Oedipus in a way but not fated walk the same path that Oedipus was destined to. They are both linked by the emotions and feeling that they both feel due to the events that occur. It gives a sense of things that Stephen’s upbringing is similar to Oedipus. They are mostly linked through emotion. Oedipus shows his love toward his own mother similar to Stephen who also loves his mother. Both living with the Oedipus Complex. They both felt shame and humiliation toward their part. They hated themselves for the roles that they are pitched up against. Hurting in pride, desire, and hope, they suffer the pain. They resolve it with their own power. Stephen is like the modern version of Oedipus by feeling. The emotion of Oedipus was linked to Stephen to show the difficulties in life that Oedipus is going through and how he feels as he grow in to adolescence. Joyce uses Stephen to portray the modern version of Oedipus through emotions to show a path from child to adolescent years of a human being.

Plum Plum Picker

In the short story, The Plum Plum Picker, Raymond Barrio suggests that human beings have dignity and will power that make them different from the nonliving machines. Barrio shows it through the portrayals of the characters and the conflict between them. He uses the third person view through the eyes of the protagonist as the main point of view to reveal his idea. Barrio sets up a situation where the protagonist and his fellow workers are like machines that work so hard to earn money and have it taken away from them.


Barrio set this story based on a working day of the protagonist, Manuel, who is a prune and apricot picker. In the first paragraph, it shows the beginning of the day where Manuel is working in “an endless maze of apricot trees”. (40) Manuel is describing his day and thoughts Barrio added in between the descriptive sentences one word phrases, which show the hectic action in the beginning of the day and the fast speed that the workers are working at in their mechanical state automatically doing things without unnecessary commands. Barrio used the word, “locked” (40), to show how Manuel and the workers are unable to leave the place. As Manuel continue his train of thoughts, “animal”, “brute”, “beast”, and “savage” (40) phrases appeared. Manuel describes his very own “exhausted body” (40) as an animal with “brute cells” (40) and “animal pores” (40). Barrio use that to portray both the protagonist and the worker appear as animals than humans. It shows how they have no honor working as pickers and treated as harshly as animals. Barrio used single word to divide two paragraphs along the beginning of the story. It sets the time in which the event occurs. The second paragraph sets during the lunch time where things are calmer than the beginning for a short period. The paragraph begins with longer sentence than the one word phrase to show that the speed of work has slow down. Manuel’s “short rest” (40) shows how short the time is for lunch. Afterwards, it became hectic again. “The trees” (40) and “the branches” (40) were used to show that there is no movement forward in the work because no action occurred.


In Manuel’s picking of apricots, he was like an n machine. Manuel picked the “mountain of cots automatically” (40). He act similar to an “automator” (40) that continuously doing the same thing over ad over without thoughts about it. It shows how the workers are so uniform and lifeless. Barrio introduces another character by the name of Robert Morales. The name, Morales, represent the person as a person without morals. It is similar to Manuel’s name, which represent a simple man or manual. It tells the characteristic of the people just by their names. Morales is truly a person with out morals and is the “worst kind” (40). He is described as “a gentlemanly, friendly, polite, grinning, vicious, thieving brute” (40). Barrio shows the layers toward Morales’s true personality by using contradictions to describe Morales. Mid afternoon shows the near end of work for the people. In the end, it shows Morales trying to steal money off of the pickers to satisfy himself. Unlike a machine at this point, Manuel spoke up and spurred the others to rebel. Instead of being an obedient machinery or beast that does what the master want, Manuel and the others did not forfeit their money over. He and the others “moved toward their buckets” (41) and kick it in attempt to stop Morales’s rule over them. Barrio made Manuel show “his defiance” (41) to create Manuel’s dignity, will power and realization of the purpose of men. It shows that the workers who are constantly working like machines “are dead before they die” (41). Barrio uses the two characters to create a situation where the people have to strike back and show the actual life that they hidden while automatically doing their work.


Barrio show his idea that human beings have dignity and will power that makes them truly alive. Humans are not machines that would follow every order given without questions. It show that they have a will and they will not stand to be treated like machine just because of superiority ranking. They have their dignity to protect the things they rightfully earn.

Paintings of the research paper

Big Bird
2004
Mixed media and resin on wood panel
48 x 48 in. (122 x 122 cm)

Doppelganger Effect
2004
Photocollage, pills, leaves, acrylic and resin on panels
96 x 96 in. (244 x 244 cm)

3rd painting is in (3rd one out of the 9 painting in the website):

Hang Over 2005

Reseach Paper painting descriptions

The first painting I am going to focus on Big Bird by Fred Tomaselli. He created the painting in 2004. It shows a beautiful design of the nature. It also shows some surreal details hidden in the background. Both of these design all merged together revealing a beautiful drawing.

In the foreground of the painting, it shows a bird on a tree branch. The tree branch looks flat in the painting. The leaves upon the tree branch look something similar to illustrated young oak leaves with blunted ends. Some of the leaves on the branch are in olive color darkening into black with a touch of a yellow color that is a split between gold and goldenrod and others have the similar colors but more in the color olive green dark turning into brown. Also not only on the tree there are flowers that is a similar type to Clematis Festoon Bonanza, mauve-blue flowers with yellow stamens. The flowers look like illustrated daisies in the color of ultramarine blue and with a yellow center. Both the leaves and the flowers were connected to a branch that looks realistic having the texture revealed by the varies of shading of brown that varies from brown, brown ochre and sienna with a little bit of lighting with the use of light goldenrod, yellow, and melon yellow. The whole branch and its attachments are contradicting each other. The leaves turning brown or black represent autumn, while the bloomed flowers represent the spring. The branch show a hint of light which means it is in a place during the daylight, while the background is of the night.

The bird stands out the most in the painting with its mosaic texture except its legs. The tail feathers and the back of the neck and halfway down the back it is painted with the colors of Indian red, English red, light salmon, black, white, orange, orange red and aureoline yellow. On the crown or the top part of the head, it fades from the back of the neck into cadmium lemon, green and the shades of orange from the back. The beak is a mix of cadmium lemon and light orange. The wings are composed of the different shade of slate blue, light violet, white, spots of orange red, spots of crimson red, floral white ivory, and antique white. The belly of the bird has the same colors of white shades in the feather with splotches of blanched almond, light melon and light goldenrod. The crown of the bird and the tail feather gives an effect of tiny rays coming from it. The bird outshines the background and the branch.

The background has a base of black decorated with white specks which could be depicted as snow or stars. Along with the white specks, there are things similar to snow flakes glowing in the dark. They come in shades orange, white, green, and red. It might be stars. There is also a circular object towards the left of the bird’s neck. It has a wire spiral in the color of Mars yellow and orange red rays. It could have represents the sun. It also contradicts with the base of the back ground in the same way as the tree branch. It shows that there is some form of light coming out of the darkness. It adds to the picture some interstellar effect making the background surreal to the foreground and the leaves to the flower or the other way.

The next painting is the Doppelganger Effect created by Fred Tomaselli in the same year as the first. It is the most interesting piece of art. It shows how Tomaselli thinks of doppelganger effect.

The background of the painting is black. In some way, it might be relative to space. The main object and the foreground of the painting are the lines or the strings that hung from the top of the painting down to the bottom. On each of the strings it is filled with beads or rock shaped objects. Each line of beads had at least one colors in its various shade. In the beads it alternate in different order none the same. There is the color of red, blue or violet, orange, and others more. There are some with the same colors all throughout the string like the beaded maroon color string about the sixth string inward from the left side of the painting or the floral white beads that look a lot like strings of pearls in various location of the painting.

It is also showing the doppelganger effect in a perspective view directly looking inwards to the center. The colors in each strand can be seen near the edges, but going towards the center, strands intertwined with each other. It is like it is wild vines uncontrollable and unclear. The strings might even be connected. One might never predict what is in the cluster.

The third painting is Hang Over created by Tomaselli in 2005. It looks like Tomaselli use some of the techniques from the beginning two choice in this painting. The painting is a close up scenery of a tree with fields of flower surrounding it. The background is black. The trunk has the same colors as the branch in the first painting. The difference between this tree from normal trees is that its leave were replaced by strings of beads hanging lazily on the tree with varies colors on each string. It might not have leaves to begin with. The might be a possibility that the leaves had wilted off. The field of flowers has varieties of flowers. Some have the shape of stars, some similar to dandelions and others similar to everyday wildflowers varying in color. All along with the grass, they have wavy stems. It seems like the wavy like stems are similar to the plants in the water such as seaweed. Among the wavy flowers, there are these wild leaf plants. The leaves on the plants were in shades of dark yellow going into mud color with a little bit of green in it. It shows the contradiction of season between the leaf plant and the flowers.

Memoirs of a Geisha cover