In A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry uses stage directions to contribute in the portrayal of the characters and environment of the play to the reader. The use of detailed stage directions help readers decipher the characteristics and specific behaviors of the Younger family. Hansberry introduces the Younger family to the reader as living in poverty through clear stage directions of the home, “Its furnishings are typical and undistinguished and their primary feature now is that they have clearly had to accommodate the living of too many people for too many years and they are tired.” Readers can picture through this stage direction that the Younger family live in an underclass home. Hansberry also uses stage directions before addressing the characters to give a comprehensive description of each characters persona. For example, as a reader, we can pick up that Walter is a very driven and ambitious character. Walter defies the Younger families pessimistic nature through his business idea when speaking about a potential liquor store investment, “You see, this little liquor store we got in mind cost seventy-five thousand and we figured the initial investment on the place be ’bout thirty thousand, see.” Readers can expect that Walter is a rather optimistic and aspiring character despite living in an underclass family. Hansberry delivers thorough descriptions in her stage directions which help guide readers into each characters persona so we can perceive the characters in the way she intended.

Herman Melville depicts slavery in his novella Benito Cereno as a violent and dehumanizing act. I believe Melville depicted slavery in its most realistic and explicit regard which is brutal, barbaric and dark. Melville was able to present the slaves suppression of anger and resentment, which was depicted primarily by Babo’s character and his extreme retaliation plan on his master Cereno. The novella depicts enslavement in a negative light, Melville suggests that slavery encourages malevolence when Delano says, “Ah this slavery breeds ugly passions in man.” Melville is highlighting the idea that the enslavement of man ignited the violent killing spree that took place in the ship. At the conclusion of the novella, I sympathized with Babo. Although Babo essentially acted in a cruel and violent manner much like Cereno and the slave-owners, he only did it for justice for him and the slaves. I also sympathized with Babo at the end of the novella because of his death which I thought was a tragedy because Babo consequently for fighting for his freedom and release, was killed. Delano’s blindness in the novella highlights the ignorance and dehumanization that existed in the period of slavery. Delano is wary of Babo’s character throughout the novella, but continues to brush-off any of his suspicions brought up by Babo’s questionable actions. This represents the oppression of slaves and the degradation slaves faced by their owners because they could not possibly be painted as logical, cunning humans, but as objects only existing to serve their masters.

1. A film that I recently watched in which the narrative included a plot and discourse as introduced by Jonathan Culler in Chapter 6 of “Narrative” is Parasite by Bong Joon-Ho. The plot of Parasite circles around two families of different social classes. The Kims are a family of four that live in a dark and grungy basement who get entangled with a family of excessive wealth when the son of the Kim family Ki-Woo gets an opportunity to tutor the daughter of the wealthy Park family. The Kim family takes this window of opportunity to get the entire family working for the wealthy Park family for their own advantage. The naive Park family hires the father as the driver, mother as the housekeeper and daughter as the sons English tutor. The entire Kim family swiftly entwined themselves into the Park family to live off their wealth, enormous mansion and lavish amenities. However, things go awry for the Kim family as their plan of new-found fortune gets interrupted as it turns out they weren’t the only con-artists leeching off the Park families wealth.  The narrative of the movie completely changes from this point on.  The plot of the movie goes through a change from a lighthearted comedy following a family of con-artists into a plot of a suspenseful, creepy thriller that reveals the monsters people will turn into in order to leech off others success and fortune.
2. Culler discusses narrative in “What Stories do” as giving pleasure to its audience. Culler discusses narrative as almost a craving that audiences get because it gives a surge of desire for its audience to want to uncover the truth of the narrative. Culler suggests that narratives place within us the internalization of social norms which lead us to believe that scenarios of heterosexual desire, love and youthful illusions are foundations of our true identity. However, Culler questions that fictional narratives may have a misleading effect to its audience. He questions if narratives are a source of knowledge or illusion. Culler says we do not know the answer to if narratives are a source of knowledge or illusion and I agree. I believe that narratives pose a false sense of expectations in reality for many of us. We tend to romanticize many parts of our lives that I believe may stem from the exposure to fictional narratives as we grow up. However, I also believe that as humans we are given the abilities to distinguish ideas to reality.

A poetic technique mentioned by Culler in Chapter 5 of Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction that I was able to identify in “Diving into the Wreck” by Adrienne Rich was the use of metaphors. Culler states, “because a metaphor can carry an elaborate proposition, even a theory, it is the rhetorical figure most easily justified (72).” I believe Rich uses metaphor in comparing her exploration of the wreck to self-discovery. Rich states, “I came to explore the wreck. The words are purposes. The words are maps. I came to see the damage that was done and the treasures that prevail (52).” Rich displays metaphor in her use of the texts wreck, damage and treasures. Rich signifies throughout the poem that although she endured abuse from the patriarchal society, she was able to gain a sense of identity and self-discovery through diving into the events that led her to herself. I believe the authors use of metaphor was important because this set the theme for the reader. Readers are able to identify that by diving into the wreck, the author was able to reflect how patriarchy has built her identity. This helps shape the meaning of the poem because the reader is able to grasp through the metaphors that although the author experienced wreckage and despair in her life, it served as a significant experience for the authors journey to self-discovery.

An idea from the chapter, “Literature, Meaning, and Interpretation,” by Jonathan Culler that I found most interesting regarding the relationship between language and meaning was the role of intention in the determination of literary meaning. Culler argues that interpretation of an authors work is not settled by consulting the author, but by what he or she was able to successfully embody in the work. I found this to be interesting because I agree with this theory  that literary works are open to interpretation by the reader based on what the author was able to deliver. I believe that oftentimes, the message that the reader or audience takes away from the authors work is different from what the author initially desired to deliver. This does not mean that the author failed to deliver their message in a successful way, but proves a point that it is truly important for authors to communicate exactly what they desire for the reader to grasp. However, authors sometimes intentionally leave endings ambiguous for readers to interpret.