Symbolism of the MOTH

After reading and discussing "The Moths" by Helena Maria Viramontes in class I came to find the story very interesting. Hearing everyone's view on what the moths released from Abuelita represented really had me thinking. I wondered if the moths represented freedom, releasing of her soul or her soul moving else were to continue life. All I found could be true in some sense as long as you looked back at Abuelita’s life and how it was shown with in the story. The life shown could then be connected to what the moths truly represent.

When thinking of the possibilities of what the moths symbolize I wondered why moths and souls were considered to be connected in some way. I found a moth to be ugly and a pest that flutters around and is attracted to light. I wondered why a butterfly would not be a better way to symbolize the soul being released from Abuelita because of how beautiful a butterfly can be. While thinking of all the creatures and insects that could have been released my mind of course went back to the moth. The ugly insect being released from Abuelita showed a cleansing of the soul. The wrong done with in her life was being released after her death and moving elsewhere. The hate she may have held or the troubles she endured were gone as was her soul. 

"Sweat" ---> "A Rose for Emily"

In Zora Neale Hurston short story "Sweat" and William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily"  it can be seen that each story has a independent women leading their own lives.  In Faulkner's short story Emily is found as the town misfit who came to be never seen but known by all. She is seen as a monument in the community and allowed to live there for free. In Faulkner's story Delia the main character and independent women of the story is completely different then Emily. Delia works for her money and has made a complete life for herself.

Looking at Faulkner's story by itself  Emily is a women who is crazy. She can be seen as a monument but becomes a recluse to the outside world.  After the vanishing of her newly husband Emily became insane cutting herself and house off from others. After the death of Emily at the age of 74 the town jumped at the opportunity to view the shut up house. "We noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair"(Faulkner 320). In Faulkner's writing I believe Emily was even more twisted then keeping dead human remains in her house but willing to lay with it. Through the description of the second floor room that was shut up you can see Emily with in some time towards the end of her life enter that room laying down with the remains because of the indentation of the pillow and the long strand of iron-gray here she had later in her life.

In reading "Sweat" Delia is seen as an independent women who has worked her whole life and made a earning all by herself. As she is married to a man who uses and abuses her she still places her sweat and blood into her work. She takes care of her house still supports her husband even though he cheats and spends her money on his mysterious Bertha. Delia still stands strong even when her husband what her gone in the hope of a snake taking her life. Ironically the creature that was going to take her life that she fears the most removes the person causing her the most pain. "She could scarcely reach the chinaberry tree, where she waited in the growing heat while inside she knew the cold river was creeping up and up to extinguish that eye which must know by now that she knew" (Hurston 386). During the time Delia waited outside ironically under a poisonous berry tree as her husband died. Not only did she wait as he died but as Hurston stated in her writing the cold river was creepy as the snake bite slowly killed him. I believe this represented the long years Delia put in working and going through the pain her husband caused her coming back to bite him.



Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily." 1931. The Story and its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. Ed. Ann Charters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 314-320. Print.

Zera Neale Hurston. "Sweat." 1926. The Story and its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. Ed. Ann Charters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 378-386. Print.

Midterm ---> Essay Article Practice

Possible Article:

Research to why children's literature studies are disappearing. Why is children's literature important?

http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.pegleg.park.edu/eds/detail/detail?vid=6&sid=9a5af2b8-7743-485b-95ba-116694b93aab%40sessionmgr110&hid=109&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWlwLHVpZCZzaXRlPWVkcy1saXZl#db=edsglr&AN=edsgcl.362727673

(Found through Ebscohost database)

"Desiree's Baby" ---> "The Story of an Hour"

In both "Desiree's Baby" and "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin's I found both endings unsuspected. How Chopin wrote both story’s made her writing mean so much more than words on a page. The story and situations in each piece made the reader think outside the box about how a person’s world can be changed in an instant. In “Desiree’s Baby” a happy family is changed by the color of their child’s skin with blame pointed to the wrong person. Again a person’s world was changed when Desiree’s mother finds that Desiree killed both herself and child in the bayou. Once more the story is flipped around when Armand the child’s father finds out he is partial African American and it was truly his fault for his child’s skin color.

In the Story of an Hour” it is easy to tell that the news of a death brought joy or at least a sense of relief. A wife who finds through others words that her husband dies begins to rejoice in her own ways. Through her relief others would find her very sinister. In this life changing event of freedom her life is changed. In the end of the story her changing event is proven wrong and her hopes are gone with a deathly collapse to the floor changing someone’s life once again. Does this mean she still has freedom through ultimate relief? 

"Oliver Twist" ---> "Through the Looking-Glass"

Reading both "Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens and "Through the Looking-Glass" by Lewis Carroll brought back many thoughts and memories of the past. “Through the Looking-Glass” reminded me of its prequel “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and how a child’s imagination can take them to a whole other world. Reading “Oliver Twist” by Dickens reminded me very much of “Annie” and how a child was faced with abandonment and poverty.

Lewis Carroll’s writings of Alice has brought happiness and has inspired imagination in many people’s lives especially children. I can remember watching Disney’s creation of Alice in Wonderland as a child and have many thoughts to why there was such a story made of nonsense. The nonsense inspired by Carroll’s writing of Alice and all the people she meets along the way opens the mind of children. Children love the adventure and the ability to create their own picture of Alice’s world in their minds just as many adults may have that same feeling. This was not apparent to me until recently when having our discussion about “Through the Looking-Glass” in class. Through our discussion I realized there is so many thought provoking moments in Carroll’s writings that it opens the rabbit hole or looking-glass for adults as well.  

Reading Dickens’ writing of “Oliver Twist” reminded me so much of “Annie” and how I would watch the movie as a kid. Yes, these two stories are different but they both have similar themes and outcomes that make them easy to compare. The theme of poverty and a broken system are things that face people daily and relate back to our current world and the people in it. 

"Candide" --- > "Don Quixote"

After Reading “Don Quixote” by Miguel de Cervantes and “Candide” by Francois-Marie Arouet de Voltaire, I find myself interested in “Don Quixote” more. Between the two stories that were read last week and then discussed in class I can vison Cervantes writing much more vividly then Voltaire’s. Cervantes overall voice spoken through the narrator gives insight to the life of Don Quixote and allows us to see what Don Quixote sees along with what it truly looks like. 

                                                                                                 http://themzinus.wordpress.com

Seeing a wealthier older gentleman live out a fantasy in his own life that he creates through his insanity of “reading too much” places a whole new twist on literature for myself. The very idea of insanity coming from reading to much, as well as seeing the metafiction produced in the reading of “Don Quixote” creates a whole new world of reading between the lines in someone else work. For example with the metafiction blatantly given to us by the active voice of the narrator, we see a rundown inn with prostitutes hanging out front.  In the eyes of the main character Don Quixote we see an astonished knight ride up to a gorgeous castle flowing with beautiful ladies. In the mind of anyone who can envision this scene can see the two different views and can clearly tell the full craziness of Don Quixote in his mid-life crisis. 

                                                             https://www.fimfiction.net/user/Scootareader

After reading “Don Quixote” and writing about censorship and the possibilities of what reading too much of one genre may possibly do to someone’s mind is something I would have never given thought to before. Lots of people talk about video games, movies and what television may do to your mind but never have I thought of reading to fall into the category of causing insanity. Cervantes work is most definitely thought provoking.