Crustacean

 

{Artwork by Bria Williams}

         

            I rinsed the blood from my fingernails, being cautious of the blisters covering my aged hands. I glanced up from the sink to the mirror hanging above. Looking at myself wasn't what it was like 30 years ago. My dark black hair had turned gray like the wolf I occasionally spotted on my lawn. My olive skin drooped from my gaunt cheeks like the curtain’s that hung from my living room window. My green eyes that were once so agile were now clouded with all the evil I had witnessed. Where did the years go?

            I drank my coffee and slipped my boots back on then left through the back door. I entered my truck, which like myself looked a hell of a lot better 30 years ago. I drove seven miles down an icy road to a place I knew very well. “Uncle Joe’s” wasn’t much, but it was the only place you could get a drink and God knows I needed one. Staring through my Ford’s fogged window, I watched snow falling onto “Uncle Joe’s” decrepit sign as drunk men left; stumbling into their trucks. I too would’ve gotten out of my truck, treaded through the snow, sat down and drank my age in beers. It was a cycle; every day the same. Wake up, go to the docks, lower my cage into the half frozen sea, hoist it back up, repeat, go home, wash my hands, and drink just so I could do it all again tomorrow. As I sat in my car all I could do is think about those lobsters I caught every day. My life was no different than theirs. I was the lobster, robbed of everything he knew. Robbed by life. Robbed by the man. Robbed of free will. What happened to me? I used to be so young! So full of ambition! I used to have dreams! I used to have passion! I used to have romance! But now all I have is “Uncle Joe’s.”

            I Left “Uncle Joe’s” and headed to where I knew I would end up. I took a shotgun and a half-frozen lawn chair out of the back of my pickup and walked them down to the end of the dock. I rustled with that damn frozen chair until it finally sprang open. I sat down and softly laid the loaded shotgun down into my lap. I looked deep into the snow-flurried abyss, not being able to see where the ocean and the sky met, and I listened. I was waiting for a scream, a rustle, a jump, something, anything! But. Nothing. I heard nothing. I opened my mouth and listened hoping to hear something, anything! But. Nothing. Nothing came out. So then if nothing would come out I would force it. I closed my eyes. I felt my hair turn back to black and my skin draw back into place. The fog clouding my vision was gone! I opened my mouth to sing for everyone to hear!

*click*

...So Does Season

Chapter 20 of Thomas C. Foster’s “How to Read Literature Like a Professor: …So Does Season” examines the symbolism and meaning behind the seasons and how they affect literary events. The most basic analysis for the seasons is pretty obvious; Spring means birth and new life/ a beginning, Summer is symbolic of youth and young adulthood, Autumn is connected to middle age when all your hard work has paid off, and winter is symbolic of old age and death.

            Spring is always associated with happiness and purity. Whenever you see references to spring in modern day life its always accompanied with sunshine and flowers and baby rabbits or ducklings. This is because spring is naturally when animals typically give birth. Flowers begin to bloom again and the weather begins to heat up. Because of this, whenever it is spring in a piece of literature it usually is at the very beginning of the novel or some great struggle has just been overcome (the winter). Characters will often times be represented as extremely fertile and there will often times be festivities. A sad spring does not exist in literature.

            Summer is known as the season of love and passion. In the natural world it is when many animals mate and all wildlife is thriving with plenty of food and water. Thus if a character finds a love interest or is fully coming into their physical maturity it will most likely happen in the summer. Characters will often times appear to be the most heroic and or immensely stronger than their foes if the season is summer because summer is the peak of performance. Do not expect to see your hero run into any serious trouble or challenges in the summer, they will surely slay anything in their path.  

            Autumn / Fall is the season of harvest, when you literally reap what you sow. Naturally the fall is the very last harvest for the year, no more food will be grown and animals will become scarce so if you have not prepared yourself you are in for a terrible winter. This is why autumn is such a good analogy for a middle-aged person: they are now past their prime and will not be getting any stronger. If someone wasted their youthful energy and didn’t work until they made something of themselves then they will either have an uncomfortable retirement or possibly never be able to retire. The flip side being that their hard work has really paid off and they get to live in the lap of luxury until the day they die. Expect to see many festivals and bountiful feasts if you read about the fall… Unless your character made unfortunate choices in the summer, in that case, beware the struggles ahead.

            Lastly we have the dreaded season of winter: the season of death, despair, depression, evil, hate, emptiness, old age, dread, and so on. Its pretty easy to see why winter is the season of death; there are no leaves or fruit on the trees and everything needs shelter to survive. Winter is all about survival and extremely powerful struggles. Characters will often times be facing deep intrapersonal problems, fighting their own demons if you will, and or be faces with a seemingly impossible foe. What I find interesting is that western culture, especially America, has turned the winter into the most joyous time of the year. Our idea of winter is Christmas and jolly old Saint Nick. Americans praise the winter as “the most wonderful time of the year” which is extremely ironic. I believe this is most likely due to the fact that Americans have a very high standard of living, therefore the winter is not a struggle.

Chapter ten, “Never Stand Next to the Hero”, of Thomas C Foster’s book “How to Read Literature Like A Professor” discusses the roles and dangers that go along with being close to the Hero or protagonist. This can apply to family members, allies, those of romantic interest, and close companions. Foster elaborated on characters that meet these qualifications, specifically in epics. However the analysis can be easily applied to almost any story with a defined hero.

         The first thesis Foster presents on the topic is that a hero’s men, one hundred percent of the time, get killed and quickly replaced. He relates this to the famous epic; “The Iliad”. Foster states that the average space between a charioteer of Hector’s being named and their death is about five lines. This is absurdly short and makes me wonder why bother even adding the characters if you’re just going to immediately kill them off? The reason, and the one who is truly to blame for these deaths, is the hero, simply off the fact that they are a so-called “hero”. The hero cannot, and will not, die half way through the story because they are destined to complete a quest or overcome some power. If an ordinary character can complete the same task as the hero, without dying, then there is no need for a hero. Therefore each character that falls only makes the hero appear stronger and more heroic.

         But what if the death of a character hurts the hero in some way? In some cases it may appear as if the hero is devastated and/or held back by the death of a character because it was, say, of a loved one such as a parent, sibling, or romantic interest/significant other. However the death is most likely benefiting them in some major way. Authors often use the death of certain characters as symbolic lessons and plot devices. A death can cause a fiery rage to build in the hero giving them the strength and courage to avenge the fallen. Sometimes hero’s rise because of a death or their relationship with death. Two hero’s who are heavily tied to death are Harry Potter and Hercules. Harry Potter is known as “The boy who lived” because he was meant to die as an infant but his mothers love protected him from harm and evil. Therefore if it were not for his parents’ death, which is symbolic of strong unconditional love (specifically a mothers love), Harry Potter would not exist. In contrast, Hercules being the son of Zeus and a mortal woman was technically a mortal but had the powers of a god and was in fact stronger than most gods. Because of his powers Hercules became the greatest hero ever known in mythology. He was so highly regarded that the gods decided to reward him for all of his heroic triumphs. At the time of his death while his mortal body fell to the underworld, the gods brought his soul up to heaven to live eternally as a god.

In chapter two of How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C Foster, Nice to Eat With You: Acts of Communion, Foster explores the different underlying events and symbolic bonding/community forming (i.e. communion) that occurs during a meal in a novel. One of the most obscure analyses of a feast the author puts forward is looking at the event as if it was a sex scene. This can work especially well for novels meant for youth or when an intimate bond is needed but a sexual relationship is inappropriate.

I had never really looked at eating together in a novel as a G-rated sex scene, however the analogy fits perfectly as eating with people can be a very personal and intimate experience. Everyone has to eat, it is one of the most basic needs of any living thing, therefore when people eat together it is in some ways a primal and animalistic act much like sex. It is not uncommon for people to slightly moan and breathe heavy while eating, and if the food is especially good then all conversation may stop completely because everyone is too engulfed in the meal; as if it is too powerful of a feeling that they can not control their actions.     

The other most prevalent evaluation, in my opinion, is to look at a meal, especially dinner, as a ritual. This applies very well when the topic of death is at the table. Whether it is the potting to kill another character that isn’t present, the food or drink is poisoned, or a character is going to be murdered at the table during the meal. Any time death is involved at the table in a plot, it is a ritual killing and or sacrifice. I personally found it easiest to identify this idea when it is related to the Italian Mafia. I would say ninety percent of the time that the mob is involved in a plot there ends up being some plan to kill another high ranking gang member that includes inviting them to a fancy dinner and then assassinating said gang member towards the end of the meal.

Now if this is actually in any way accurate to real life mob tactics is beyond me, never the less it has been engrained into the public’s mind as the traditional and most respectful way that the Italian Mafia families go about killing another person. In other words, it is their ritual way of taking a man’s life. In fact it fits the profile of a ritual killing very well. There is a special sacrifice: a high-ranking mobster. They are to be respectful of the sacrifice: what better way to show respect than to wine and dine the person before their demise. Lastly the death must be swift, clean, and follow a method (however it is not necessarily painless): traditionally the mobster is to shoot the target once in the head and leave the gun at the scene.

This book continues to fascinate me with how deeply and abstractly a novel can be analyzed.