In chapter 6, “Narrative” Jonathon Culler discusses the important parts of the story which are important to make the story stand out to the audience and the readers. According to Aristotle, a story should have a beginning, middle and end, and the plot is the main focus of the story rather than individual characters. When writing a tragedy, Aristotle also said that a tragedy should have the plot changing from good to bad but not from bad to good, thus the tragedy will be more interesting to the audience. In all the books that I have read in my life, I have always noticed that the plot starts from something good and continues to progress towards tragic events. Eventually, in the end, the plot will come to a resolution.

After reading the chapter, “What is literature and does it matter?” by Jonathon Culler, I was able to understand how he defines that the literature can be used in many ways and can have different meanings based on the context of the literature. Literature includes poems, songs, verses, etc and there can be multiple interpretations of literature. People are not bound to believe in one kind of interpretation and everyone can explore the literary meanings and can make different interpretations and relations based on their understanding.

In this chapter of “Rhetoric, poetics, and poetry”, Jonathon Culler discusses different metaphors, poetical and rhetorical language techniques when it comes to writing any literary pieces. The use of metaphor is very common in literary writings as it helps in getting a full understanding of the text. Writers use metaphors in almost all poems to give the poem more depth and explanation. For example, in the poem, “Diving Into The Wreck”, the author Adrienne Rich included metaphorical phrases to compare our real lives with stories written in books.

Whenever we are trying to compare one thing with another, it is good to use metaphors so the readers will be able to understand the comparisons that have been shown there.

In “Raisins in the Sun”, the hero Walter Lee in this drama is a typical black male image. As a black man, just like his other African ancestors, he encounters inequality in American social life everywhere. Treatment, living at the bottom of the society, living in distress; as an American, like other Americans, he has his “American Dream”-to become a successful, wealthy and admired man and improve the living conditions of his family. This “dual identity and dual consciousness determines that they must face two traditions, namely their own African cultural traditions and Western cultural traditions. The former is their cultural origin, while the latter is their reality of existence.” The collision and conflict of two identities and two consciousnesses makes black men like Walter Lee fall into an identity crisis. As men, their masculinity also faces the threat of being “castrated” due to racial discrimination and economic difficulties. Therefore, they urgently want to prove the existence of their masculinity in some way to gain self-identity.

The author Hans Bailey Lorraine provides two ways to seek identity. One is to improve economic conditions and promote social status in order to gain self-affirmation and social identity; the other is to trace the history of black people in order to be in history. To find a sense of belonging in order to obtain a certain rather than erratic identity.

In American society, due to the disadvantaged position of blacks in society, it is difficult for blacks to fundamentally change their situation through the improvement of their economic status before changing the chronic illness of white supremacy and white centrism. Like the protagonist Walter Lee in “Raisins in the Sun”, black men question and lose themselves because of the embarrassment of life and the blow of reality. However, by recognizing their position in the long history, black men can also find their own sense of belonging, liberate the sealed masculinity, and gain self-identity.

In “A Raisin In The Sun”, Lorraine Hansberry sets the stage in a way for us to expect our characters to be in a spot of hardship, feeling stuck, and left wanting more. The description of the Younger’s apartment shows that this family is treading water at best, both economically and emotionally; despite efforts to keep it up, it still manages to be a bleak and overcrowded mess. As the morning begins, we see the struggle to even get out of bed and how Travis and his father Walter must hurry to use the bathroom to get ready for school and work respectively. Ruth seems to be the driving force in the household; rallying her husband and her son to get things done, but as everyone comes to notice, she just seems “tired” of everything; almost pessimistic and certainly critical. We see Walter as bitter and possibly jealous, yet optimistic and longing for support from his family; financially and otherwise. When he berates his younger sister Beneatha, who apparently gets whatever she wants and is care-free, it is understandable. He firmly believes that with this investment in the liquor store, he and his family would finally be set for success. But between his wife’s criticism, his sister’s lack of interest, and his mother’s Christianity blocking the investment, he feels unsupported by his own people. Beneatha is introduced as impatient, annoyed, and looking for identity; this is shown to us as the other characters chastise her for not sticking with any one thing too long before she moves on to the next. It makes sense when Asagai is introduced to us, proud of his African culture and heritage, and wanting Beneatha to feel the same, Beneatha is uncertain in her thoughts and actions. Mama is introduced to be a respectable, graceful older woman, who attempts to remind the others of what is truly important. She serves as the glue that keeps this family together as she reminds everyone that money is not as nearly as important as they make it out to be, and explains the other’s tendencies and motivations in an effort to make them all understand each other.

After finished reading Benito Cereno,  I found that Herman Melville has clearly depicted the enslavement towards the positive note. I feel really happy to know that, Herman Melville has truly speake about the slavery in his novel on back in time. He try to see people equally in his  novel. Melville shows that how the slaves have to serve their masters and make them happay in any manners, but in return slaves always receive the crulity. As Benito Cereno was a Rebellion for those slave on the board  try to stop the whole confusion but  instead , he had to suffer physically and emotionally and moreover he has been killed for no reason. Inaddition, Bebo was the character that  try to prove black people also capable and strong in doing things as compared to the white people but unfortunately had to die. So I wanted to sympathized to Bebo for his rebellion for the freedom, who just want to go back to his home. His death is a tregedy. In this novel, Delano’s blindness  has shown us the existences of ignorance on back in time of slavery. I believe that in any sitution voice should be raised if it is wrong and that voice will turn into the insperation for all people to fight back for their freedom.

In “A Raisin in the Sun Act I” by Lorraine Hansberry mentions about the younger family lives in a confined, swarmed apartment that is obviously excessively little for its five inhabitants in one of the less fortunate areas of Southside Chicago. Walter Lee needs to put Mama’s $10,000 insurance check in a liquor store adventure with two of his companions. In light of her strict feelings against alcohol drinking, Mama is uninterested in Walter’s fantasy about getting rich rapidly with this plan. Ruth, Walter’s better half, is so depleted from exhaust that she also is unsympathetic to Walter’s fixation on target. Mom clarifies that portion of the check will go toward Beneatha’s education in medical school. Toward the start of the play, money is the point of convergence of everybody’s discussion, prompting contentions and making a state of mind of contention. Walter leaves for his driver’s work, and Travis leaves for school. Ruth gets ready for her occupation as a cleaning lady as Mama censures Beneatha about her new talk. Toward the finish of the scene, Mama finds that Ruth has swooned and tumbled to the floor. The next morning, Saturday, is the day that the check is relied upon to show up. Beneatha and Mama are occupied with doing end of the week housecleaning when Ruth comes in, reporting tragically that she is pregnant. Mother is vexed when she understands that Ruth is pondering a premature birth. Joseph Asagai presents to Beneatha A gift of African records and some Nigerian robes. After he leaves, Travis acquires the protection check from the letter box, and Walter takes advantage of this occasion to examine his field-tested strategies once more. Mom, notwithstanding, disregards Walter similarly that Walter prior overlooked Ruth’s endeavors to educate him concerning her pregnancy. Mama in the long run must be the one to educate him regarding Ruth’s problem and is astonished that his craving for the money eclipses his anxiety for both Ruth and his unborn kid.

Benito Cereno is often cited as a powerful statement on enslavement in the U.S. Now that you have finished the novella, what are your thoughts about how Herman Melville depicted this practice? Does the novella depict enslavement in a negative or a positive light? Who do we sympathize with at the conclusion of the story? What should we make of Delano’s blindness?

Ans: Delano’s blindness is not able to recognize fully. He was there to help also and he was thinking something else also. Ans also, through out the story, Delano was not clearly aware about what was wrong with San Dominick because Delano doesn’t understand the story of the Cereno as he doesn’t quite add up. Even Herman Melville through the story depiction of Delano’s articulate blindness to the slaves potential to act violently and it is less clear what picture of dark character we end with. Melville does not think the complications are completely opened and clear from the reality that he does not end the story there. Instead, he combine a totally unreliable trade between Cereno and Delano follow  to the recovering of the dispatch, in which Delano endeavors to induce Cereno to move past what has happened and Cereno answers that he will never be able to avoid the shadow cast by slaves upon his life. Hence, I don’t think we do sympathize to anyone with at the conclusion of the story.

The comprehensive dual logical structure predicted by Melville in his thought: the exploration of this abstract solution to life problems is one of the idols in the closet. Melville’s synthesis is embodied in behavior and deeds. In his early adult years, he wandered around the world, estimated to survive under the stars, and was busy working on a boat. His environment, his experience, and his important relationships were all a single whole.

I think we have to sympathize with that era. The era created people, and people in turn created the era. In addition, I think the author described it from a positive perspective. For example, when Melville was summoned among the whalers, he died several games Yes, the lie expresses the universality of this effort, which connects nature and culture, reality and meaning, fact and form.