Integrated Journal

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Integrated – Class Journal

INTEGRATED CLASS JOURNAL Volume 5(1) Spring 2014 Contributors: Atsuho Matsumoto Ayako Mikami Emi Uchida Hiroki Kikuchi Kan Fujita Kana Furumizu Kosuke Hanada Kyoka Morita Mana Ando

Sophia University

Masa Zhang

Integrated Skills Class

Masafumi Ogawa

Spring Term 2014

Miho Inagaki Moeka Murakami Moemi Onda Rika Aoki Saki Tashiro Saya Fukuda Shoki Kase Shuto Furuya Takayuki Tanikawa Wataru Tateuchi Yui Nakagawa Yukari Tsushima Yumiko Mezaki

Editorial

Edited by Richard Pinner. Front Cover design by Kana Furumizu

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Editorial ................................................................................................................8 Essays ....................................................................................................................9 In Focus Article: The Symbol of the Crow in Ted Hughes........................................ 10 Masafumi Ogawa Sylvia Plath’s idea of death seen in “Lady Lazarus”, The Bell Jar and “A Birthday Present” ................................................................................................................................... 13 Saki Tashiro The Value of Poetry, Love and Death for Sylvia Plath .............................................. 16 Hiroki Kikuchi Sylvia Plath and the Theme of Death ......................................................................... 19 Rika Aoki Sylvia Plath’s contradiction between fear and loneliness .......................................... 21 Emi Uchida The correlation between Sylvia Plath and males ....................................................... 23 Miho Inagaki The road as the resistance against the universal conception of family and home in On the Road by Jack Kerouac ....................................................................................................... 26 Masa Cho The Influence of William Blake in the Poetry of Allen Ginsberg.............................. 28 Kana Furumizu The Beat generation and spiritual liberation .............................................................. 30 Moeka Murakami The Beatles and The Beat Generation in 1960s ......................................................... 33 Ayako Mikami Three important persons of Beat Generation ............................................................. 37 Kosuke Hanada The Influence of Neal Cassady on Jack Kerouac ....................................................... 39 Yumiko Mezaki Mayan Culture and Burroughs ................................................................................... 41 Atsuho Matsumoto William S. Burroughs’ Brilliance in Craziness .......................................................... 44 Mana Ando The Relationships between the Beat Generation and Other Groups .......................... 47

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Wataru Tateuchi The similarities and the differences between the two famous obscene trials－Howl by Allen Ginsberg, and Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs ................................................. 50 Kyoka Morita Messages contained in The Lord of the Rings ............................................................ 53 Saki Tashiro The difference between two main characters, Frodo and Aragorn ............................ 55 Shuto Furuya The true protagonist of The Lord of the Rings........................................................... 57 Saya Fukuda The role of three female characters in the Lord of the Rings ..................................... 59 Yukari Tsushima The Relationship between J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis ........................................ 61 Moemi Onda The Mythology in The Lord of the Rings and Narnia................................................ 63 Yui Nakagawa In Depth Article: The Similarities between Finnish and Quenya ............................... 65 Takayuki Tanikawa

Reaction Pieces...................................................................................................68 Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath: Reaction Piece ........................................................... 69 Yui Nakagawa “Crow” Reaction Piece ............................................................................................. 70 Masafumi Ogawa Ted Hughes’s religious eye ........................................................................................ 71 Saya Fukuda Reaction Piece of “Daddy” ........................................................................................ 72 Kana Furumizu Reaction piece: Sylvia Plath ....................................................................................... 73 Hiroki Kikuchi Reaction Piece to Sylvia Plath ................................................................................... 74 Miho Inagaki Reaction Piece of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes ........................................................ 75 Yumiko Mezaki Rika Aoki Reaction Piece on Sylvia Plath, “Daddy,” and Ted Hughes ...................................... 77 Wataru Tateuchi

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Reaction Piece on the movie Sylvia ........................................................................... 76

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Reaction piece of Sylvia and Ted ............................................................................... 78 Shoki Kase Reaction peace about Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes .................................................. 79 Shuto Furuya Reaction Piece: The Beat Generation......................................................................... 80 Hiroki Kikuchi Reaction Piece on the Beat Generation ...................................................................... 81 Emi Uchida America and Ginsberg................................................................................................ 82 Atshuho Matsumoto Reaction Piece of a film, “On the Road”................................................................... 83 Kana Furumizu Reaction on the Beat Generation and William S. Burroughs ..................................... 84 Wataru Tateuchi Reaction Piece of Beat Generation............................................................................. 85 Shoki Kase Reaction Peace on The Beat Generation .................................................................... 86 Takayuki Tanikawa The Lord of the Rings: Reaction Piece ....................................................................... 87 Yui Nakagawa Tolkien Reaction piece ............................................................................................... 88 Moemi Onda Reaction peace: J. R. R. Tolkien ................................................................................ 89 Shuto Furuya Reaction piece on The Lord of the Rings ................................................................... 90 Yukari Tsushima My reaction to J. R. R. Tolkien .................................................................................. 91 Kosuke Hanada "Lord of the Rings" as British Mythology ................................................................. 92 Kan Fujita Reaction piece of Gollum........................................................................................... 93 Shoki Kase

Reviews ...............................................................................................................94 Review: Lord of the Rings ......................................................................................... 95 Masafumi Ogawa The Lord of the Rings "The Return of the King" Movie Review ............................ 95 Yui Nakagawa

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Never Let Me Go ....................................................................................................... 96 Onda Moemi Easy Rider .................................................................................................................. 96 Wataru Tateuchi Movie Review of Gravity........................................................................................... 97 Kan Fujita Boy by Roald Dahl ..................................................................................................... 99 Saya Fukuda Shakespeare in Love .................................................................................................. 99 Saya Fukuda The Shawshank Redemption ...................................................................................... 99 Shuto Furuya The Murder of Roger Ackroyd ................................................................................ 100 Shuto Furuya Review of West Side Story ...................................................................................... 100 Atsuho Matsumoto Review of the Movie: Frequency ............................................................................. 100 Hiroki Kikuchi

Creative Writing ..............................................................................................101 The Curious Incident of the Woman in the Night Time........................................... 102 Masafumi Ogawa Being Blurred in the Rain ........................................................................................ 103 Masa Cho The Lost Children .................................................................................................... 107 Kan Fujita Master of Life........................................................................................................... 108 Shoki Kase When He Wakes up Early in the Morning ............................................................... 110

Editorial

Wataru Tateuchi

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“

W

hen you stop growing you start dying.

William S. Burroughs, Junkie, 1953

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EDITORIAL Phew! This has been a rollercoaster of a term for me, what with being in the middle of data collection for my PhD, writing a book and being video recorded of Open Course Ware! Each year, Integrated Skills is the class I enjoy the most. I think this is because I’ve put so much work into the materials, and I feel I know the content well. But that’s not the only reason. It’s also because of the great work that students each semester put into making the class journal. This year has been an exceptional year on that front, with quite frankly a record breaking number of submissions. Especially notable this year is the return of the reaction piece. Last semester I was sorry to see that only a few reaction pieces were submitted, but this year they comprise almost a quarter of the journal. Also worth noting this year are the high number of creative writing pieces submitted. Some of them mysterious, some of them chilling, all of them excellent! The quality of the essays this issue is also something of a matter of pride, with many new themes coming into focus for exploration, despite this being volume 5 of the journal! It already feels like an established academic repertoire now, and yet the new themes being explored are a testament to the imagination and creativity of this year’s group. I would also like to personally thank Kana Furumizu for her wonderful cover design. I would especially like to give a sincerely heartfelt thank you to all the students this year as well for their patience and understanding with the video recording process for Sophia’s Open Course Ware. Almost every one of our lessons has been recorded to be made available to watch as streaming online videos. A terrifying prospect at first, I think it did have an inevitable impact on the class, and yet the group have been incredibly understanding and carried on as usual despite the cameras. So thank you all for your hard work this year and I am pleased to say that I think this is one of the best issues of Integrated to come out so far, and each contributor should be proud of their work and cherish this issue, which will be a value resource for future students.

Editorial

Sincerely,

Richard Pinner richardpinner@live.com Page | 8

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ESSAYS

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IN FOCUS ARTICLE: THE SYMBOL OF THE CROW IN TED HUGHES M ASAFUMI O GAWA There are a lot of animals in the world. Some like cats because they are pretty, and others like tigers because they are strong. There are, however, few people who like crows. They are dirty, troublesome, and ominous, and they are sometimes tied up with death.

Ted Hughes (1930-1998), who was one of the Poet Laureates in Britain, published a collection of his poems, entitled Crow in 1970 (Harrington). A black crow is the main character in the work. The main character is described as an incomprehensible creature, but in fact, the crow is the symbol of Hughes's hostility toward the other people.

One of the reasons why the crow is the symbol of Hughes's hostility is the relationship between crow's inability to speak words and Hughes' silence and the dangerous aspect of words.

It is clear that crows cannot speak anything. They can only caw loudly. In “Crow's First Lesson,” too, the crow is described as a bird unable to speak (Hughes 20). Hughes's silence is very similar with the crow's inability to speak. His wife Sylvia Plath committed suicide and a lot of people criticized Hughes, saying that her death was caused by him (Ishimaru 125). Hughes kept silent about the affair and did not show the last part of Plath's diary which was written some days before her death (Ishimaru 125). He probably hated the people who criticized him and felt isolated from the world. His thought was not understood by people, and this situation is similar with that of the crow in that his thought was also not understood.

Words, which neither the crow nor Hughes had, are described as what is formidable. In “A Disaster,” words sucked many cities and drank out all the people until they die (Hughes 33).

The crow, however, does not die in the disaster. He has no word so he is not influenced by it and can survive from the disaster. In that point his superiority to the other people appears (Kimura 24). In Crow, Hughes tells that words are aggressive and sometimes kill people, and suggest his hostility of the people who attacked him by saying heartless words.

The failure and the fabrication of Christianity are also the reasons why the crow is the symbol of Hughes's hostility toward the other people. Christianity is very important in Europe

means breaking with Christianity and Christians. In Crow, there are some scene which shows the fabrication and the failure of Christianity.

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and a lot of people believe it, so to describe the failure or fabrication of the religion probably

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In “Crow's First Lesson,” God tries to teach the crow how to speak “Love,” but the crow cannot speak the word, becomes tired and gives a yawn (Hughes 20). That is, the crow does not receive the concept of love. Love is a very important idea in Christianity, so such an attitude of the crow intimates that he is against Christianity. In addition, the crow nails the heaven and the earth together and creates a new world in “Crow Blacker than ever” (Hughes 69). Christians believe that in the beginning of the world God divided the earth and the heaven (“New International Version.”Gen 1.1), so the crow's banding them means the fight against God. Furthermore, the creation story in Crow contradicts that written in the Old Testament. In “Lineage,” A scream appears in the first and God is born after the scream in the beginning of the world (Hughes 14), but In the Old Testament God is the Creator and creatures, which include crows were made by God (Gen 1.11-13). Moreover, the crow binds not only the heaven and the earth but also God and man (Fernandez 157). By the attachment of God and man, people cries with using the voice of God, and man's bloods run through the God's body (Hughes 69). Human beings become non-human and God becomes non-God, and Christianity is corrupted (Ishimaru 133). In these scenes the hostility and the fabrication of Christianity is discovered. In addition to the creation, the crow becomes the king of the new world, which is written in “King of Carrion” (Hughes 91). The king crow keeps silence in the new world, and Ishimaru says that the crow's silence intimates Hughes' silence and the hostility toward the other people (134).

The crow's superiority to human being is the last reason why the crow is the symbol of Hughes' hostility toward the other people. In “Examination at the Womb-door,” Hughes writes that everything is owned and is inferior to death, but only the crow wins it (Hughes 15). All the creatures in the world absolutely die at last, but the crow does not die forever. Hughes often personified animals (Herbert 413). In the scene the crow is the same as Hughes, so although the other people someday die, Hughes never dies. His immortality is also described in “Notes for a Little Play.” In the poem flame fills all over the place and only two creatures survive from the fire (Hughes 86). One of them is very similar to the crow and the huge flame make readers think of an atomic bomb (Kimura 22). The bomb kills all the creature but the crow or Hughes is not killed by the bomb, which shows Hughes's superior to the other people. Moreover, the crow is tempted by some words, but he does not care about them in “The Battle of Osfrontails” (Hughes 34). The words are such as life insurance policies, blank cheques, Alladin's lamp, vaginas, and so forth (Hughes 34). They are all what people want but the crow is not interested in them because

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he cannot understand the words. That the crow does not care about the sweet words shows Hughes' superiority in spirit to the other people.

By the failure and the fabrication of Christianity, the inability of the crow to speak words and the superiority of the crow, Hughes tells us his hostility toward the other people in Crow.

Readers can read this idea of his from the work. Hughes wanted to tell them his hostility which was caused by those who criticized him about his wife's suicide through the crow. He expressed his indignation in such a big scale, so his hostility is possibly tremendous.

WORKS CITED Bentley, Paul. “Depression and Ted Hughes's Crow, or through the Looking Glass and What Crow Found There.” Twentieth Century Literature 43.1 (1997): 27-40. Print.

Fernandez, Charles. “Crow: A mythology of the Demonic.” Critical Essays on Ted Hughes. Ed. Leonard Scigaj. New York: 1992, 153-62, Print.

Harrington, Peter. “Rare books by Ted Hughes, including first editions and signed copies.”

Peter Harrington. N.p., n.d. Web. July 15, 2014.

Herbert, Lomas. “The Poetry of Ted Hughes. The Hudson Review 40.3 (1987): 409-426. Print.

Hughes, Ted. Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow. London: The Riverside Press, 1976.

Print.

Ishimaru, Sachiyo. “詩集「Crow」における言葉” [“The Word in Crow”]. Kasumigaoka review 5 (1998): 123-136. Print.

Kimura, Keiko. “黒い獣: Ted Hughes' Crow”[“The Black Beast: Ted Hughes' Crow”]. Keio University English and American Literature 48 (2006): 1-30. Print.

Essays

“New International Version.”Bible study tools.com. N.p., n.d. Web. July 16, 2014.

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SYLVIA PLATH’S IDEA OF DEATH SEEN IN “LADY LAZARUS”, THE BELL JAR AND “A BIRTHDAY PRESENT” S AKI T ASHIRO Sylvia Plath is considered as one of the greatest American poets in 20th century. However, on the other hand of her successful career as a poet, her life was a full of misery. At the age of ten, she experienced the death of her father. She struggled with depression and attempted suicide at the age of 20 (Alberge). Moreover, her unsuccessful marriage with a famous poet, Ted Hughes, gave her pain. He has long been blamed for her suicide at the age of 30 (Freeman). Nevertheless, these difficulties gave her great inspiration. She expresses her pain in her works thus, many of her works are confessional. She writes about depression, anger, and especially death, which was one of her major themes. Her varieties of depiction of death, similes and metaphors, are unique and outstanding. In a poem, “Lady Lazarus”, she says dying is “an art”. In her novel, The Bell Jar, she depicts death as “peace” (89), and in a poem, “A Birthday Present”, she express death as “a birthday present”.

Sylvia Plath depicts her idea of death as an “art” in the poem “Lady Lazarus”. The poem is inspired by the one of the mysterious stories in Bible; Jesus revives the dead character Lazarus from the grave (Bassnett 20).

Dying Is an art, like everything else.

I do it exceptionally well.

I do it so it feels like hell.

I do it so it feels real.

I guess you could say I’ve a call.

The movie, Sylvia, begins with the bitter tone narration of this extract with dark background and minor scale of piano quietly played as background music. This beginning

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undoubtedly gives the audience the impression of mystery. Art is an visual form of created work, aiming to be appreciated. She successfully visualized death by the unusual method of dying. Also, it can be said she effectively entertained people. The news of der death has been the most interesting gossip for people. An news article says, “In the wake of her violent death, reams of material have been published”, and “she has been dismissed as a case study in female neurosis and Freudian guilt, held up as a victim of a male-dominated society, enshrined as tragic heroine, explicated as a symbol of contemporary angst” (Kakutani). Ironically, she became more famous after her death, winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1982, which was 29 years after her suicide (Nuwer).

From the words “art” and “theatrical”, it can be understood that Plath thinks dying is just a performance, aiming giving enjoyment and entertainment for people.

The use of unique metaphor is seen in the novel, The Bell Jar, to illuminate the author’s positive image of death. The Bell Jar is the semi-autobiographical novel published in 1963. Plath states, “Death must be so beautiful” (89). The grammatical form, “must be” suggests that it is a strong deduction and yet it gives the impression that the speaker, thus Plath, strongly hopes death to be “beautiful”. Moreover, reader gets the impression that the speaker says it with admiration and long for death. Then it continues with emphasizing lines, “To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one’s head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no tomorrow.

To forget time, to forgive life, to be at peace.” (89). The author believes that death is relaxing on the green field and enjoying the nature, the grasses, wind and the sunshine. “To have no yesterday” expresses the idea that there is no regretting, shaming or fearing what happened in the past days.

Moreover, as it says, “no tomorrow” (89), frighten for the coming future is unnecessary either.

From “listen to silence” (89) and “to forget time” (89), it can be assumed that the speaker’s fatigue of busy life. Finally, “to be at peace” (89) clearly states her positive idea of death. If death is “at peace” (89), then living is desperation, discord or hatred for Plath. Therefore, the quotation shows that the author thinks that death frees her from the painful living life.

The author demonstrates her strong desire for death in her work, “A Birthday Present”.

From the title, “A Birthday Present”, reader must expect cheerful poem. Birthday is the most

the life. The title makes reader to imagine the feeling of excitement when he/she wonders what his/her birthday present would be and anxiously waits for it. For Plath, it is death. In her poem,

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pleasant annual event and birthday presents are the most gorgeous and important gift receive in

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she expresses her excitement for wishing death to be her birthday present. The poem is written in 1962, three weeks before her 30th birthday and four months before her suicide (Bannett 44). The date openly suggests it is her suicide note. Yet, the poem begins with a delight tone by saying, “what is this…beautiful?” Therefore reader does not realize it is a suicidal poem until line thirteen.

Reader notices the change of tone in the line which shows her unwillingness for living, “I do not want much of a present, anyway, this year./ After all I am alive only by accident”. Moreover, in the next stanza, she insists “I would have killed myself gladly that time any possible way”, which suggest her suicide. At the end of the poem, she finally defines, “There is one thing I want today, and only you can give it to me”, “if it were death”. In the poem, Plath noticeably illuminates her will for death by unique ironical metaphor.

Sylvia Plath expressed her obsession with death in many of her works. She compares death to “art”, “peace” and “a birthday present”. The meaningful metaphor and similes effectively shows readers her positive image of death. Not only having an optimistic idea of death, she even longs for death. It is strongly seen in the poem “a birthday present”. The experience of the death of father, and the struggle with separation from Ted Hughes are considered as the reason for the author started having such idea. In addition to, her career as a poet was not as great as her husband.

Ironically, Plath becomes well known poet after her death. Although it is a questionable either it is her intention or not, the death successfully brought her fame and liberation.

WORKS CITED Alberge, Dalya. “FBI files on Sylvia Plath’s father shed new light on poet”. The guardian. 17 Aug. 2012. Web. Bassnett, Susan. Sylvia Plath. London: Macmillan, 1987. Print.

Freeman, Hadley. “Sylvia Plath: 50 years later and the same bitter arguments rage on”. The guardian. 20 Jan. 2013. Web. Kakutani, Michiko. “Sylvia Plath”. The New York Times. 23 Mar. 2009. Web. Nuwer, Rachel. “Fifty years after Sylvia Plat’s death, critics are just starting to understand her life”. Smithsonian.com. 11 Feb. 2013. Web. Plath, Sylvia. “Lady Lazarus”. Ariel: The Restored Edition. Faber & Faber, 2010. Print Plath, Sylvia. “A Birthday Present”. Ariel: The Restored Edition. Faber & Faber, 2010. Print.

Plath, Sylvia. The Bell Jar. Harper. New York: Harper & Row, 1971. Print.

Sylvia. Dir. Christine Jeffs. BBC films, 2003. Film.

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THE VALUE OF POETRY, LOVE AND DEATH FOR SYLVIA PLATH H IROKI K IKUCHI Sylvia Plath is one of the most admired poets of the twentieth century. Not only are her works admired, but also her personal history is well-known, which is very unique rather than unusual. She seems generally an ordinary and sympathetic character, while in some situations she gets angry and bold or she becomes extraordinary. These situations are concerned with Poetry, Love and Death. She places a peculiar value on these three. These values are different from others, and they make her lifetime and legacy unique. By taking a look at her biographies, poetries, and analyses of her works and diary, it is easier to understand the characteristic of Sylvia; the value of Poetry, Love and Death.

Firstly, I will examine Poetry. Now she is always said to be a great poet, but she became famous after her death. Susan Bassnett writes, “[y]et unlike those poets, whose international reputations were established during their lifetime, Plath’s fame came more slowly, growing gradually after her death in 1963. . . .” (1). Therefore, she was not admired while she was living, so that she might not be satisfied with her writing activity. It is unusual case with famous poets.

Actually, 19 years after her death, Plath became the first person to win a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in 1982 (“Sylvia Plath”). It is true that, however, she came to be admired after her death, but she has been interested in poetry and started to write poetries since she was very young. She won many prizes while she was still in teens, and these achievements helped her to win a scholarship to Smith College (Mondragon). It can be said that she was successful in writing and satisfied with the quality of her own poetries at that time. However, it was also this time, in 1953 when she tried to commit suicide for the first time. The reason is related to the studying: “The stress of June, and the disappointment of learning that she had not been accepted to a particularly desired course at Harvard Summer School led her to believe she was a disappointment to everyone around her” (Mondragon). Later, she describes the situation in The Bell Jar, which is published one month before her death in suicide. These means that she always lived with poetries in her childhood and college, and all her life is directly connected with poetries. Poetry can be a

Secondly, Love with men is also one of the most influential elements for her life. Another reason for her first trying to commit suicide is thought to be a trouble with a man. One year before

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manifestation of her feelings, thoughts, and life.

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she tried to commit suicide, she was separated from Dick Norton, whom she loved. Soon after, she moved to New York, and suffered from a deep depression (Minami 9). The sense of isolation in New York is one of the reasons for her trying of commit suicide in 1953. When she was separated from another mam, Richard Sassoon, she wrote in a diary of February in 1956 about her disappointment and self-hatred (11). In this case, however, soon after, she went to a party with her friends and met Ted Hughes for the first time (Minami 13). Encountering him is helpful to encourage her to recover the disappointment and prevent her from being suffer from isolation.

Actually, she loved him very much, and four months later, Plath married Hughes on June in 1956.

Love with Hughes was thought to make her life happier, but it turned out to be very troublesome.

For her life, the disorder of love means that of mind, and it appears in her work: “The end of her marriage in 1962 left Plath with two young children to care for and, after an intense burst of creativity that produced the poems in Ariel, she committed suicide by inhaling gas from a kitchen oven” (“Biography”). At last, the lack of love led her to death even though she left two children.

She seems to be always requiring Love, which keeps her from isolation.

Lastly, this made her life end mysteriously and made her famous: Death. Plath has always been close to Death since her childhood. Every point in her life, she shows melancholic character.

Actually, there are many expressions related with Death in her works. When she could not be satisfied with her own poetry or she was separated from men, she came to be so deeply depressed that she could not do anything. For Plath, Death is one of the ways to escape that difficult situation and relieve her physically and mentally. The final trying to commit suicide in 1963, however, is different from other depressions ever in that she made a decision to finish writing poetries before she died. She wanted to complete the poetries and leave her own words in future: “Plath’s poetry is often associated with the Confessional movement. . . .” (“Poet”). She has been always living with Poetry, and the works she created remain as legacies of her life in history. After she died, her works would be read by the future generation. That is why she decided to complete her works before committing suicide, exhausting the rest of energy. It might be one of the positive reasons to commit suicide. For Sylvia, Death means nothing; she lives on through her Poetry.

The sense of value often appears in her life, which is filled with troubles, Loves, and Poetries. Love sometimes encourages her Poetries and sometimes disturbs her Poetries. It is very descriptive that she commit suicide by the reason of the troubles with Love and she left behind her works. The sense of the value of the three, Poetry, Love and Death made her life more extraordinary. I do not know whether she spent all her life happily, but it is true that spent all her

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life in her way as a great poet. Poetry and Love, Love and Death, and Death and Poetry are intertwined, and she always lived with their interesting relationship.

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WORKS CITED Bassnett, Susan. Sylvia Plath: an introduction to the poetry. 2nd ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Print.

Mondragon, Brenda C. “Sylvia Plath.” Neurotic Poets. 3 July. 2014 <http://www.neuroticpoets.com/>.

“Biography Sylvia Plath.” The Poetry Foundation. 3 July. 2014 <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/sylvia-plath>.

"Sylvia Plath." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 04 July 2014.

Minami, Akira.『詩人の素顔―シルヴィア・プラスとテッド・ヒューズ』[The True Face of Poets: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes] Tokyo: Kenkyusha, 1987. Print.

“Poet Sylvia Plath.” Academy of American Poets. 5 July. 2014 <http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/sylvia-plath>.

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SYLVIA PLATH AND THE THEME OF DEATH Sylvia Plath has written one of the most passionate poems in her life. She is famous for her confessional and emotional writing style, such as The Bell Jar and “Daddy”. However, to understand Plath, it is note-worthy that she is also famous for her tragic life and her committing suicide by putting her head inside a gas oven. In fact, Plath's life was always closely related to death; she has attributed theme of death in many of her works. Moreover, she had attempted suicide at her age of 20 and actually committed suicide at her age of 30, however her new biography Mad Girl's Love Song : Sylvia Plath and Life Before Ted written by Andrew Wilson has claimed that Sylvia tried to slit her throat when she was only 10 years old. In this paper, I will discuss about Sylvia and the theme of death, firstly from her Father's death, secondly from her religious thoughts, and thirdly from her positive idea towards death in her last poem, “Edge”.

Firstly, I will discuss about Sylvia's first encounter to death, that is her father, Otto Plath's death. Otto died in 1940, and it was only nine days after Sylvia`s 8th birthday. Sylvia's shock for losing her father was so strong that Edward Butscher states about this as below; "...Otto's death was bound to have a traumatic effect on a girl of Sylvia’s sensitivity and imagination. Somehow she had to struggle with the fact that he had left her...and that his departure (death) was in some way a "deliberate" act of betrayal"(13).

Sylvia was unable to get over this traumatic experience for the rest of her life. Perhaps one of the reason why was because she could not attend her father`s funeral. This was Sylvia`s mother, Aurelia`s decision not to attend, for the purpose to soften Sylvia`s grief. However, Sylvia assumed this as a mistake regarding it as “her mother`s major sin, a sign that she had not really loved her husband” (Butscher 15). Therefore, encountering her father`s death has definitely influenced Sylvia`s life, as she attributed her father in many of her works, with the image such as “Freud’s pivotal father figure, as icon and divinity, as totem and demon, and as ultimate modern monster, a Nazi "panzer" man" (Butscher 13).

Secondly, I will discuss about Sylvia's religious thoughts. She was brought up in a mixed family of completely different religious thoughts; her father Otto was an atheist and her mother Aurelia was brought up in a Catholic family (Ferretter 101). However Aurelia changed to a Methodist after her marriage and made her daughter attend the Unitarian Church in Wellesley after Otto`s death (Kirk). If Sylvia had a deep belief in Catholic, her life may had been very different, since Catholic Church preaches that suicide is a sin. However, Sylvia did not believe in supernatural existence of god, and the reason why she chose herself to be a Unitarian was because it emphasizes moral belief and humanism. Somehow like her father, Sylvia was not a religious person, and “In a paper of her religious belief … Plath added that … she disbelieve in the existence of God and the afterlife…” (Ferretter 102). Thus, Sylvia did not consider death or afterlife as a religious features.

Thirdly I will discuss about her last poem “Edge”. This was written only 6 days before her death. Even though the situation of the poem is ambiguous, Sylvia has wrote many clear expressions to regard death as a positive factor. For example, the beginning line, “The woman is perfected. / Her dead/ Body wears the smile of accomplishment,” (Line 1-3) shows the scene of a dead woman who had accomplished her suicide has now become a perfect being. Sylvia then refers to “The illusion of a Greek necessity” (Line 4) which is another example because “Greek

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did not believe that suicide was unequivocally bad; in many cases, it was perceived as honorable” (Osborne). Moreover, it is said that she is also referring the Greek myth about “the Medea who avenges her husband`s betrayal by killing their two children” (Osborne). As she folds her dead children back inside her body “… as petals/ Of a rose close when the garden/ Stiffens and odors bleed” (Line 13-15) which represents their rebirth, the moon looks down at them but “The moon has nothing to be sad about”(Line 17) because “She is used to this sort of thing” (Line 19). This expression of the moon is ironic in some ways, because it gives us the impression that the moon is indifference. In my interpretation, as the sun is often regarded as the same, the moon is suggesting god. As I cited above, Sylvia had a very little belief in god, and she also wrote “I don`t belief in god as a kind father in the sky” (Ferretter). And like the moon, god is said to be watching down at us with a sort of neglected way; because even though Christians think that god has almighty power, god never changes the world into a better place. Thus the moon described in this poem is a metaphor to criticize god, because god never helped the poor woman until she committed suicide, and never helps human to create peace or lead us to eternal happiness.

However, the woman is now perfect, as she succeeded to escape from the hopeless world. Thus, “Edge” has a conspicuous message that Sylvia had considered death as an accomplishment of life, and death is perfect because it is a certain way to escape from depression.

We can assume that Sylvia had a hard life from the fact that she had committed suicide many times in her life. Her life was closely related to death from her early days and it has influenced her life and works in many ways. Furthermore, by considering her life and works from the content of death, I think it is possible to say that she may had been eager for or half attracted to death. Her last poem “Edge” is one of her most powerful poem for its statement of a positive idea of finality. Thus, Sylvia`s strong ideas still influences many people even today.

WORK CITED Butscher, Edward. Sylvia Plath: Method and Madness. IPG, 2003. Web. Ferretter, Luke. "What Girl Ever Flourished in Such Company?: Sylvia Plath's Religion." The Yearbook of English Studies. Modern Humanities Research Association, 2014. Web. Kirk, Connie Ann. Sylvia Plath: A Biography. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004. Web. Osborne, Kristen. GradeSaver (TM) ClassicNotes: Sylvia Plath Poems. Ed, S. R. Cedars.

GradeSaver LLC, 2013. Web. Plath, Sylvia. "Edge." The Collected Poems. Ed, Ted Hughes. Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2008. Print.

Wilson, Andrew. Mad Girl's Love Song : Sylvia Plath and Life Before Ted. Simon & Schuster UK. 2014.Print.

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SYLVIA PLATH’S CONTRADICTION BETWEEN FEAR AND LONELINESS The poem “Daddy” written by Sylvia Plath is full of hate and rage to her father.

However, why did she need to get angry so much to her father? Did she really hate her father from the bottom of her heart? In this essay, I will discuss about Sylvia Plath’s contradiction between fear and loneliness to her father Otto Plath analysing her relation to her father and Ted Hughes, and her poem “Daddy”.

First of all, I will explain about Sylvia’s life, especially the relation with her father and Ted. Silvia Plath was born in Boston in 1932. Her father worked at Boston University as a professor, but he became ill and died of diabetes when Sylvia was only eight years old. Sylvia’s first poem appeared about that time. After she entered Smith College, she started her career in earnest. However, she gradually became depressed and tried to commit suicide when she was twenty, but she could not die. In 1956, Sylvia met Ted Hughes at the launch party for the magazine and they soon married in a few months. She gave birth to two children. However, six years after their marriage, Ted had an affair with other woman. In 1963, Sylvia committed suicide by putting her head into an oven while her two children were sleeping. She was only thirty years old. In Sylvia's life, the death of her father and the existence of Ted were very important. They influenced her consciousness of death and her works. I will mention it later.

Second, I will analyse two poems, mainly “Daddy” written by Sylvia, and “The Minotaur” written by Ted. In this paragraph, I will focus on Sylvia’s aspect of fear. In "Daddy", "you" stands for Sylvia's father and she narrates as if she is talking to her father.

She described the relation with her father like these: “Any more, black shoe| In which I have lived like a foot” (2－3). or “An engine, an engine| Chuffing me off like a Jew” (31 －32). In these sentences, Sylvia's father was compared to a black shoe and an engine, in other words, Nazi. Then, she said “I have always been scared of you,|…” (41). In addition, her father is described as the Minotaur, who is a man-eating monster in a labyrinth in Ted Hughes’ "The Minotaur”. Ted also regarded Sylvia’s father as a threat for Sylvia because he made her angry and depressed. Judging from them, Silvia’s father was a threat for her.

Not only her father but also Ted was a threat. For example, Silvia said "I made a model of you,| A man in black with a Meinkampf look". (64－65) about Ted in "Daddy". Ted was also described as “The vampire who said he was you| And drank my blood for a year,| Seven years, if you want to know”. (72－74). However, there are a few contradictory points. For example, Sylvia would not die young and leave her mother and two children like her father if she really hated him. It is also a little strange that Silvia made a model of her father though she had hate and fear for him. Even if it was for revenge, it is no use because Ted was not the same person as Sylvia's father.

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To solve these contradictions, I will focus on Sylvia’s unconscious loneliness in this paragraph. Ted explained about the relation between Sylvia and her dead father comparing Otto to Prince Otto, who was said to be a great power in the underworld.

When she pressed for a more personal communication, she would be told that Prince Otto could not speak to her directly, because he was under orders from The Colossus. And when she pressed for an audience with The Colossus, they would say he was inaccessible. It is easy to see how her effort to come to terms with the meaning this Colossus held for her, in her poetry, became more and more central as the years passed.

(Hughes 89) This means that Sylvia wanted to have a contact with her father. Of course, she could not do it because he was dead and lay in his grave, so her wish and loneliness gradually became stronger. What is worse, unfaithfulness of Ted also led to her loneliness because he was a substitute of her father. It could be said that these are why Sylvia tried to commit suicide. Actually, she said "At twenty I tried to die| And get back, back, back to you.| I thought even the bones would do.| But they pulled me out of the sack,| And they stuck me together with glue" (58－62). in "Daddy". In addition, "So, daddy, I'm finally through" (68). is A proud declaration of her independence; but the pronouncement also suggests its opposite-that in being through his heart, through with him, through with her vitriolic utterance, she is herself through, finished, at the end of her poem and of her life. (Ramazani 1152)

Like these, Sylvia's suicide has a strong connection with the death of her father.

For her, suicide was the only way to contact her father. I mentioned Sylvia's fear for her father in the second paragraph, her fear might come from strong loneliness because it always seized her heart and depressed her.

In conclusion, Sylvia Plath lost her father Otto Plath when she was only eight years old, but she was too young to accept the fact. She always felt lonely unconsciously though she had a fear for him. She wanted to contact her dead father, so she tried to commit suicide, but failed. After that, she married Ted Hughes and considered him as a model of her father. By changing her fear and loneliness into hate and rage, she expressed her contradict feeling in "Daddy". However, her loneliness became stronger partly because Ted had an affair, so she committed suicide. Sylvia's contradict feeling between fear and loneliness distressed her for the rest of her life after her father's death and influenced her works.

WORKS CITED Hughes, Ted. "Sylvia Plath and her journals." Grand Street 1.3 (1982): 86-99.

Plath, Sylvia. "Daddy" Ariel. 1965. London: Harper Perennial, 1999. Print.

Ramazani, Jahan. ""Daddy, I Have Had to Kill You": Plath, Rage, and the Modern Elegy."

Publications of the Modern Language Association of America (1993): 1142-1156.

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THE CORRELATION BETWEEN SYLVIA PLATH AND MALES M IHO I NAGAKI Sylvia Plath was a writer who sought affection and described her feeling of depression in her works. She always tried to feel content with her situation particularly relying on males. She is famous for sick and disliking-men writings. This is almost true. However in her life there are many elements that made her so. She did not hate male originally without reason. In this essay, I look at reasons – her father and husband through her poems mentioning them with the background of her age and the environment of her family and the effect to her works.

First, I will explain her family and the background of her age. She was born in Boston in 1932 between the German man and an American woman whose parents were Austrian. In her young age, her family lived in Winthrop, the town along the shore near Boston. During eight years here she was very happy and this time made her model of world-recognition. The images of the sea were accumulated in her conscious. For her the sea was the symbol of peace and sometimes became awful violence. The bad image of the sea would be from her experience of hurricane. Sea has aspects of life and death. Then this image became a part of her way of thinking. Her youth time was around the war, the Second World War. She felt a lot of things from the event because of her sensitive age. Not only the event but also her father's blood made her consider deeply.

American enemy in the war was German. Even though there was little criticism for those people, the fact that her father was German hearted her as least and the cause of an imbalance of her mind.

Her father who gave Sylvia much inspiration died for diabetes when she was eight. I will look at the feeling she felt from this event and the effect to works in the next paragraph. She was very sophisticated woman and entered Smith College in 1950. She attempted suicide during around this time because of many failures in several aspects such as feeling not to be able to write novel and quitting a part-time job. Treating with shock therapy, then she recovered and entered Cambridge University on a scholarship in 1955. It was there that she met Ted Hughes who became her husband. They had got along with each other. However at last they broke because of Ted’s affair. This also gave her much inspiration and finally became the cause of her committing suicide.

I will look at Ted’s effect on her works too after her father’s effect.

Secondly, in this paragraph I mention her father’s effect to her poems. At first I look at her poem about her father. In “The Beekeeper’s Daughter” she mentioned him.

From this poem, it is stated that she was under her father's control. When he was alive he was very strict man to his family including Sylvia. However she had both feeling to him, frightening and affection. Even though for her he was scary, memories with him in the nice place were very precious for her. This circumstance changed after his death. There is no doubt that her father was the important person for her. She got quite a few inspirations from him and she did not think he would die truly. The event felt her betrayal. The person who she thought never go away

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Essays

Hieratical in your frock coat, maestro of the bees, You move among the many breasted hives, My heart under your foot, sister of a stone.

Integrated – Class Journal

was dead. From this time she was haunted by his shadow. And also she became seeking affection which covers up the lack of her father. Then, Next poem about him is as follows.

I have always been scared of you, With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo, “Daddy” She likened him to a Fascist, ordering continuously in a violent voice. "As the poem progresses, the I-speaker becomes able to declare her feelings for her father, her hatred and fear for the figure who is depicted as Nazi, vampire, torturer and devil." (Bassnett 91) This poem is described her hatred of a blood relative. Actually for her, his blood was important particular in the war time. His father was German and he was fearful. Therefore she compared him to a Nazi.

A common point to these poems is that even though he was already dead in the past, she has scared him all the time because of her feeling of betrayal.

Thirdly, I mention her husband’s effect on her poems. She called for the muse as her husband. Ted Hughes had both this element and one of being as a good supporter. Their married life was very nice at first and they were blessed with children. The symbol of her good feeling to him can be seen as follows.

There is a panther stalks me down : One day I’ll have my death of him ; His greed has set the woods aflame, He prowls more lordly than the sun.

“Pursuit” In this poem, her respect toward him is appeared. However once Ted's affair has come to light, she could not stand for the situation and came to think of Ted in a negative way. Under the influence of her father, her feeling of betrayed again was so great. She became to stick to affection much more than ordinary people after her father's death. So the affection toward her husband changed completely to hatred and she wrote many poems in order to reduce her dissatisfaction.

"Plath seems to have defended against depression by almost literally throwing herself into her poetry." (Axelrod 52) For a long time, she disliked her father and felt dissatisfaction with a lack of affection. However at last she made it in climbing over two men also through her poem.

If I’ve killed one man, I’ve killed twoThe vampire who said he was you And drank my blood for a year, Seven years, if you want to know.

“Daddy” "One man" expresses Ted. "Two" are him and her father. If she killed him, she also killed her father. Ted was expressed as a person who drank her blood for seven years. This means that he has inflicted pain on Sylvia. Then her father was expressed the person who said he was you.

This means that for a long time his shadow was with her and had an evil effect on her. Through the poem, she tried to get over the troubles. “No longer haunted by the thought that she had something crucial to do with Otto Plath's dying." (Wagner 130) Her trying seemed to success.

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However she could not get over them completely, and as a result she committed suicide in 1963.

Through Sylvia's life, she was affected by male very much and a reason of her death was deeply related to them. For herself, she was not feminist writer because she mentioned just her relatives in her works. In general she did not give messages for women. However because of much effect of males’ influences, eventually they inspired her and made her write and also the reason of her death was from troubles with male.

In conclusion, from a young age, Sylvia had a contrast image of love, affection and peace and death, evil and violence. This is because of the environment of having lived near the sea and her father's death. Her father was strict man and died when she was young. It was hard to believe this event, his death for her. This made her feel betrayal and in her heart a lack of affection remained. To make up with it, she relied on her husband, Ted. As a result he made a lover. This attacked her much more and her depression became so deep. She tried to come over these negative elements by writing poems. However it did not success at last. Through her life, male was very big existence for her. Affected very much, her way of thinking was composed. For her, the life must have been tough and difficult. Also it is true that her father and her husband motivated her to write poems and made it be able for her to be creative.

WORKS CITED

Essays

Axelrod, Steven Gould. Sylvia Plath- the Wound and the Cure of Wounds. The Johns Hopkins University Press. London. 1990. Print.

Bassnett, Susan. Sylvia Plath- An Introduction to the Poetry- Second Edition. Palgrave Macmillan. Houndmills. 2005. Print.

Minami Akira, Atsumi Ikuko.『シルヴィア・プラスの世界』[The World Of Sylvia Plath] Naneido, Tokyo. 1988. Printed.

Plath, Sylvia. "The Colossus: and Other Poems". Random House LLC, 2011. Print.

Wagner, Linda. Sylvia Plath- A Literary Life. Macmillan Press LTD. London. 1999. Print.

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THE ROAD AS THE RESISTANCE AGAINST THE UNIVERSAL CONCEPTION OF FAMILY AND HOME IN

ON THE ROAD BY JACK KEROUAC M ASA C HO In the 1950s, culture of family was settling in families and small town and owning houses (Cresswell 257). In On the Road by Jack Kerouac, Sal paradise and Dean Moriarty keep moving from place to place. Though they stop moving, they start it again soon. They also meet girls and break up with them many times. Cresswell says "In exuberant resistance to hegemonic ideals of home and family they find their meaning in mobility" (254). As he says, the resistance against the universal conception of family and home drives them to be on the road. It can be seen through what women and men represent in the novel and the autobiography of Jack Kerouac, who is the author of this novel.

In the 1950s, the ideal of family was that men worked outside to provide for their families and women worked at home to support their husbands (Moen and Roehling 3). Sal, who is males, keeps being on the road. Terry and Lucille, whom Sal meets, represent homes for Sal. When Sal is with Terry in Sabinal, which is the Terry’s hometown, he seems to like the role of a husband, a father and a laborer and enjoys it. He likes such peaceful days for a while. However, he finally decides to leave Terry because he feels the part of his own life calls him back and still has the book to write. After a while, Sal wants to marry Lucille, whom Sal meets at the school on the G.I. Bill, for resting his soul with her till they get old. However, Lucille does not like Sal's crazy friends and the behaviors of Sal when he is around them. Thus Sal rather chooses his friends than the woman. Cresswell says that these women are connected with the idea of home (258). So does the women Dean meets. Camille has child and Dean lives with them in San Francisco for a while.

Marylou, though she crosses over the countries with Dean and Sal, she confesses to Sal that she thinks Dean is too crazy and wants to have a more normal life, for example having a house and a baby. However, Dean brakes up with them many times. Through the fact that Sal and Dean keep leaving these women who are connected to the idea of home, it can be seen that there is a resistance against the conception of family in them.

However, it can be seen that “In On the road, travel in space is connected with masculinity while place and home are feminine” (Cresswell 258) through the fact that Sal and Dean keep moving and on the other hands, the women they meet remain in a place or desire to settle down.

Cresswell says this idea seems to accord with the ideal of family in the 1950s and it is paradoxical (258). In the ideal of the family in the 1950s, the purpose of men who were outside was to work and provide for their families, but Dean and Sal neither continues their jobs in long term nor provides for their families. Almost everything they earn is spent on their own lives or journey.

Thus the idea in On the Road and that of home in the 1950s do not accord.

Through this novel, either Sal or Dean never settles down with a woman and just keeps going without any particular goals like a jazz solo. As stated above, Cresswell says females are connected with place and home (258). On the other hand, the road of Dean and Sal has no future as Cresswell says (258). The future he mentions is that “families have children and tradition is continued” (258). Dean, though he has a child with Camille, he leaves those who should be his family. As for Sal, he lives with Terry and her child and, though he is not Sal’s own child, they

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live like a family. However, Sal decides to leave them. It seems that either Sal or Dean somehow avoids making a family or settling down as a family.

The resistance in the novel can be seen through his experiences. Jack Kerouac Jack Kerouac was born in Lowell which is a mill town in Massachusetts. The citizen of this small town worked, learned and loved. They went to school and church and had big suppers. Their lives were family-centered and Kerouac was one of the members who spent such life. Theado says "Kerouac spent his youth living the Great American Dream among other immigrant families who labored and learned and loved" (13). However, as Kerouac grew, he desired to go to city where he felt there were possibilities of university, football fame and writer. The Town and the City, which is first his novel, deals with the theme of the difference between "the neighborly, family-centered life in Lowell and the rather immoral, decadent life in the city" (Theado 13). When Kerouac was a teenager, he met Mary Carney, who was of Irish descent and they were in romantic relationship.

She was depicted in Kerouac’s novels. In Maggie Cassidy, Kerouac projects Mary Carney on Maggie Cassidy, who has Irish roots. Mary Cassidy comes to New York from Lowell but she finally makes Jack choosing between her and New York. Theado says Mary Carney “always represented for Kerouac the simple, small-town life he might have had if he had settled down in Lowell and become a mill worker” (13). Because the works Kerouac wrote were based on his experience, the works mentioned upon are of course connected with his autobiographical On the Road.

In On the Road, either Sal or Dean keeps leaving women they met, who are connected with the idea of home. Though they temporarily live with some women like a family, they finally leave them. In the ideal of the family in the 1950s, the purpose of men who were outside was to work and provide for their families. Thought Sal and Dean keep being on the road, which means that they keep being outside, and women in On the Road remain in their places or desire to do so, either Sal or Dean does not continue the same job and provide for their families. In addition, their road does not promise the future which is having a family and children and succeeding the tradition. Thus they do not submit their selves to the universal ideal. Jack Kerouac, who is the author of On the Road, actually desired to leave his hometown for city and felt the difference between them. Through his other several works, it can be seen that he compared the city and his hometown. The reason Kerouac desired to leave Lowell, which was his hometown, seemed to be to go to university, gain the football fame, be a writer and have adventures. To seek these dreams, he had to leave his small hometown. It was against the culture of family in 1950s that settling in families and small town and owning houses. On these reasons, Jack Kerouac expressed his resistance against the universal conception of family and home in 1950s through On the Road.

Cresswell, Tim. “Mobility as Resistance: A Geographical Reading of Kerouac’s ‘On the Road’”, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series, 18: 2 (1993): 249-262. print.

Moen, Phyllis and Roehling, Patrica. The Career Mystique: Cracks in the American Dream.

United States of America: Rowman & Littlefield publishers, 2005. Print.

Theado, Matt. Understanding Jack Kerouac. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2000. Print.

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THE INFLUENCE OF WILLIAM BLAKE IN THE POETRY OF ALLEN GINSBERG K ANA F URUMIZU Allen Ginsberg is the one of the most important American poets of the Beat Generation, a writer group that led the counter cultural aspects and movements after World War II. One of his poems, “Howl”, was hard to be published because the poem has many sexual expressions, hallucinations and drugs. However, those counter cultural aspects in his poetry were strongly influenced by William Blake, an English poet in the Romantic Age, who is a poet that Allen Ginsberg respected. In this paper, I prove the influence of William Blake in his poetry, considering the connection between Blake and Ginsberg’s use of drugs, and appealing similarities of the two poets with regard to their thoughts of freedom and religious concepts.

Firstly, there is a connection between the influence of Blake and the use of drugs in Ginsberg's poetry. Ginsberg mentions about many drugs in his poetry. For example, in “Howl”, "who got busted in their public beards returning through Laredo with a belt of marijuana for New York" (9), "Peyote solidifies of halls, backyard green tree ceremony dawns, wine drunkenness over the rooftops, storefront boroughs of teahead joyride neon blinking traffic light" (13), and in “Paterson”,“I would rather go mad, gone down the dark road to Mexico, heroin dripping in my veins/ eyes and ears full of marijuana” (11-12), “eating the god Peyote on the floor of a mudhut on the border” (13). Marijuana, heroin and Peyote are drugs and teahead means a habitual marijuana smoker. Those drugs cause a hallucinatory world in his poetry, and actually the use of drugs in his real world inevitably made him write those poems. As to the reason why he was used to smoke drugs, Brewer explains that in 1948, Ginsberg heard Blake’s voice while he was reading one of Blake’s poems, which made him deeply understand the poem, therefore, after that he “tried to recapture that experience by experimenting with mind-altering drugs: marijuana, mescaline, heroin” (304). As to that experience of Blake’s voice, Ginsberg explained that he “heard a very deep earthen grave voice in the room” and “it was Blake’s voice and the voice was something unforgettable because it was like God had a human voice” (Merrill 29). That voice affected Ginsberg powerfully all his life and he named that experience Blake vision, and it is not too much to say that Blake vision made his poetry have the expressions of drugs and hallucinations.

Secondly, there are similarities of the thoughts about freedom that Blake and Ginsberg had, which can appeal that Ginsberg’s poetry was influenced by Blake. William Blake believed in the existence of God, but he had a rejection of religiosity because he thought people were restricted by religion. For example, in "Proverbs of Hell" he said, "prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion" (46). This means that many restrictions of the society made people not free and in his poetry he seems to suggest that people should be liberated from social, religious and political limitations. Blake was against material restrictions of the society and “he came to see every hindrance to man’s imaginative self-liberation ad a fiction bred by the division in man himself” (Kazin 3). In addition, Kazin says that Blake “was against society in toto: its prisons, churches, money, morals” (3). While, Allen Ginsberg is one of the most important poets of the Beat Generation that is a writer group which was basically against the social restrictions and political restrictions. Therefore, Ginsberg also had a thought that people should be unrestricted. Then, he wrote poems that include many counter cultural expressions such

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as various drug names, sexual expressions and homosexual expressions that would not be easily approved at that time. However, the reason why he expresses the freedom in his poetry is not only because he is a member of beats, but also because he had the same consciousness about the freedom as Blake had. Diggory says that Blake believed that human can desire what they want to do only when they let be free from law, which is one of the Blake’s thoughts that Ginsberg captured when he heard the Blake’s voice which is reading out “Ah Sunflower” (107). We can see that Blake and Ginsberg both insisted freedom in their poetry and the insists of freedom in Ginsberg’s poetry were, of course, influenced by beats’ concepts, but also by Blake’s thought of freedom that can be apparently seen in his poetry.

Thirdly, I found that Blake and Ginsberg had similarities in that they were not enthusiastic over their religion. For instance, Blake was a Christian, but his disliking of church and the concept that religion makes limits made him an extraordinary Christian for that time. The idea that religion makes limits means that the faith in God forces priests to do something and prohibits them from doing something; priests must follow what God says. While Blake was a Christian, Ginsberg embraced Buddhism and he was deeply interested in Zen Buddhism. The Western traditional religious concepts that does not consider about an authority of personality were not acceptable by the Beat Generation. With regard to his Buddhist faith, the concept of guilt that the Western traditional religion has is inherently antagonistic to the extreme humanism which is at the heart of Beat Thinking. The solution to the problem is simply to relieve the tension between Good and Evil. Zen Buddhism effectively does so (Merrill 33).

As Merrill says, Ginsberg tried to take a neutral stance and thought that people should be relieved from the restrictions due to the faith of God. This is one of the similarities of the two poets’ religious thoughts. As Trigilio suggests that the most important person who led Ginsberg to embrace Buddhism is Blake (11), Ginsberg was influenced by the mild way “between Good and Evil” (Merrill 33) that Blake pursued because Ginsberg respected William Blake and read his poetry that express religion as a limitation many times and actually he mentioned that he was deeply influenced by Blake vision.

Following these points I mentioned, this article concludes that Ginsberg was influenced by William Blake and in his poetry some apparent influences appear especially in his use of drugs, thought of freedom and religious concepts. His counter cultural aspects were results of his age in which he lived, but also of Blake's existence.

Brewer, Gwen. “Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997): On His Own Terms”. Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context. Ed. Bullough, Vern L. New York: Harrington Park Press, 2002. Print.

Diggory, Terrence. “Allen Ginsberg’s Urban Pastoral”. College Literature 27. 1 (2000): n. pag.

Web. 11 July 2014.

Kazin, Alfred. The Portable Blake: selected and arranged with an introduction. New York: Penguin, 1976. pp. 1-62. Print.

Merrill, Thomas. Allen Ginsberg. Boston: Twayne, 1969. Print.

Trigilio, Tony. Allen Ginsberg’s Buddhist poetics. The US: Southern Illinois University, 2007.

Print.

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THE BEAT GENERATION AND SPIRITUAL LIBERATION M OEKA M URAKAMI The Beat Generation influenced on spiritual liberation with their works and their behavior which we can see in their works. From 50s to 60s in the U.S., the time was after the Second World War and traditional cultural norms were seemed to be important and many people followed such a society. Because of these norms, it was taboo to discuss or speak sexual contents and homosexuality was disgusted in society (Rahn). The U.S. government stated that homosexual people were “not proper persons to be employed in government for two reasons; first, they are generally unsuitable, and second, they constitute security risks”- [because] -“they lack mental stability” (Laurier). In such a society, the Beats were against for such a conformed norm by their literature and their trial. In this paper, I argue that they encourage spiritual liberation in the U.S. because of their works and their winning of the trials of Howl and Naked Lunch.

Firstly, the Beat generation thinks that the freedom of speech is path to spiritual liberation. For example, Allen Ginsberg says that censorship of the literary works could be invasion of people’s thinking in his interview; “I had the impression that censorship and burning books was a sign of totalitarian invasion of the mind and that it could result in physical domination and pain and blood and wounds that first step was the aggression, the suppressing of books” (Stefanac). Also, their works could be thought that they were against for “internal constraints” (Stimpson374). According to Stimpson, the Beats tried to remove boundary between inner and outer by mixing up and express their experience; “…nakedness did not exist simply as an aesthesis standard, it was to become a symbolic public and private stance, making art and action inseparable” (Stimpson374). According to these factors, we can say that The Beat viewed censorship of the freedom of speech become as an invasion of people’s thinking, and they tried to liberate thinking.

Secondly, it could be said that the Beat’s works encouraged people to liberalize their spirit because their books contains homosexual sex, which was which was taboo and illegal at the time.

According to Allison, around 50s, homosexual people were more repressed than just before the Second World War in the United States. Before the Second World War, homo sexual activities were criminalized if it was done in public or non-consensually. However, because of fear for Cold War, the government regarded homosexual people as threats for the U.S. soon after the Second World War. As a result, it became illegal to have homosexual activities, sodomy, even in private space or consensually. Moreover, in such a society, even to suggest or propose ideas about sodomy was illegal. She also says that all states in the U.S. had prohibited sodomy until 1961, though there was some campaign to decriminalize of homosexual sodomy when it was happen consensually and in private space (Allison). In such a harsh time for homosexual people, the Beats wrote homosexual activity in their works. Many Beat Generation members are known for their homosexual experiment such as Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Neal Cassady and Jack Kerouac. Their homosexual experiment was written in their letters, journals, essays, fictions, and poetry (Stimpson 374). For example, Allen Ginsberg said “About 1953 I wrote a big, long, beautiful love poem to Neal Cassady called ‘The Green Automobile’ ”, and he also admits that he had homosexual experiment with William Burroughs (Ginsberg394, 399). According to Stimpson, sodomy was also described in their works. The sodomizer has male characteristics such as dominant, powerful, potentially cruel. On the other hand, who sodomized has female

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characteristics such as submissive, powerless, potentially victims (Stimpson380).Thinking that when their works was written was the time of reaffirming so that the homosexual people was looked down at the time and homosexual activities such as sodomy was illegal, we can say that the Beats encouraged homosexual people through their works, because they wrote their homosexual experiment in the works. Therefore we can say that Beat Generation liberalize people’s spirit.

They motivated spiritual liberation by their controversial books and their trials. There were two series of trials concerning their obscenity; the Howl trial and the Naked Lunch trial. The wining of the two trials could be said that they helped spiritual liberation from the censorship because the center of the problem was its obscenity and freedom of the speech.

Howl, written by Allen Ginsberg, was published in 1956. Because of its obscenity, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the publisher of Howl and Other poems, was arrested by San Francisco Police Department though he won the trial (“Allen Ginsberg”). Looking at the script of the trial, we can say that disputed point, in the trial, was whether “Howl” is really obscene or not, and if Ferlinghetti willfully committed the crime by publishing and selling obscenity work (Stefanac).

Certainly, “Howl” contained sexual language and sexual contents, but it was difficult to state that the work is decided to be obscene just because of the sexual language and contents because American constitution guarantees the freedoms of speech (Stefanac). In First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, the freedom of the speech is protected. Hon. Clayton W. Horn Judge, who was the judge of the “Howl” trial, said “The Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution prohibits any State from encroaching upon freedom of speech and freedom of the press to the same extent that the First Amendment prevents the Federal Congress from doing so” (Stefanac). After all, the judge stated that “Howl” contains the vulgar language and sexual contents, but it was also everyday use words and important for the characters in “Howl” to be the characters. Also he stated that the other poems in Howl and the other poems, such as “Supermarket,” “Sunflower Sutra,” “In the Baggage Room at Greyhound,” “An Asphodel,” “Song” and “Wild Orphan” actually were not to be thought obscene. Finally, “Howl” won the trial because it was “redeeming social ideas” (Horn). About this trial, Kevin O’Sullivan says it is “considered by many to be a revolutionary event in American poetry” in Newsmakers, though he admits the poem is sexually explicit. Richard Elberhart, also criticize the poem as “it is howl against everything in our mechanistic civilization which kills the spirit” (Stefanac). From these points, we can say that the trial helps to liberal the literary works.

Naked Lunch, written by William S. Burroughs, also helped literary liberation by its trial.

The work was published in 1959 and three years later, the book was banned in Boston because it was obscene. On January 12th in 1965, the courts concluded the book was obscene, but soon it was appealed to the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. In the trial, the other beat generations and writers, such as Norman Mailer, Allen Ginsberg, John Ciardi, Paul Hollander, Gabriele B. Jackson, Norman Holland, Stanley E. Eldred, John B. Sturrock, and Thomas H. Jackson, helped to call its literary value. In The Boston Trial of Naked Lunch, Allen Ginsberg claimed the social importance of Naked Lunch. He stated that there is a theory of drug addiction in the book, but it is written to imply the other addiction, such as homosexual addiction, “the United States addiction to materialistic goods and properties”, addiction to money, to power, and to controlling other people (“The Boston Trial of Naked lunch”). Finally, the court decided that Naked Lunch is not banned because it recalls social importance. Because of these points, we can say that its trial also liberate literary work by making the court admit its social importance, though it has rude expressions.

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In conclusion, we can say that the Beat generation helped to liberate from spiritual censorship from people around 50s because their works and their behavior influenced on society through their homosexual mention and their trial. From 50s to 60s in the U.S., it was important to follow the norm so many people followed the constructed norms. Along with such a norms, it was censored to talk about sexual things or homosexual things frankly, and it was seemed to be obscene so that to be suppressed. However, such suppression could suppress freedom of speech and invade people’s thought. The Beats writings were influenced on the issue over the freedom of the speech by homosexual contents in their works and by winning the trial over the obscenity of their works. Therefore, we can say that the Beat Generation influenced on spiritual liberalization in the U.S.

WORK CITED “Allen Ginsberg.” Poetry Foundation .N. p. n. d. Web. 6 July. 2014. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/allen-ginsberg> Allison, Gary D. "Sanctioning Sodomy: The Supreme Court Liberates Gay Sex and Limits State Power to Vindicate the Moral Sentiments of the People" Tulsa Law Review 39.1(2003):95-154.Web.17July.2014. <http://digitalcommons.law.utulsa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2432&conte xt=tlr> Ginsberg, Allen. “Gay Sunshine Interview.” College English 36. 3. (1974): 392-400.

JSTOR.Web. 15 July. 2014.

Horn Judge, Hon. Clayton W. “The People of The State of California Plaintiff vs. Lawrence Ferlinmghetti Defendant.” N. p. n. d. Web. 28 June2014. <http://mason.gmu.edu/~kthomps4/363-s02/horn-howl.htm> Laurier, Joanne. “Sex and censorship in America.” The Notorious Bettie Page. N. p, 5 June 2006. Web. 4 July. 2014. June 2014. <http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2006/06/page-j05.html> Rahn, Josh, “The Beat Generation.” Literature Periods & Movement. 2011. Web. 3 July. 2014. <http://www.online-literature.com/peroids/beat.php> Stafanac, Suzanne. Interview with Allen Ginsberg. N. p, August.1989. Web. 28 June. 2014. <http://www.zorca.com/ginsberg/> Stimpson, Catharine R. “The Beat generation And the Trials of Homosexual Liberation”.

Salmagundi. 58/59.1982.P373.

“The Boston Trial of Naked Lunch.” Reality Studio. A William S. Burroughs Community. n. d.

Web. 7 July. 2014. <http://realitystudio.org/texts/naked-lunch/trial/>

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Spring 2014

THE BEATLES AND THE BEAT GENERATION IN 1960S There are many popular musicians all the time such as Elvis Presley, ABBA, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, Queen and so on. Above all, the Beatles are particularly popular. Almost everyone in the world has at least heard the name of the band or their songs. In Japan, their songs are still used in many TV programs and their pictures are printed on many T-shirts. That is, their popularity and power have lasted even today although their heyday was 1960s. They were regarded as a cultural phenomenon and they had a great impact on culture in those days. It is said that they created the base of music today (Evans 15). The sixties were also the golden age of the hippie movement, which appeared after that of the Beat Generation. The Beat Generation influenced the Beatles and it can be seen that they changed the name from “the Beetles” to “the Beatles” (Bisbort 57). In this paper, I will research the connection between the Beatles and the Beat Generation, considering their time.

To begin with, it is important to think about the sixties. This decade were thought to be revolutionary from a cultural point of view (Nakano 40). Britain’s economy in the forties and the early fifties was deeply affected by World War 2 and the people had to live in a modest way.

However, it was reconstructed slowly in the late fifties and the sixties. Writer Arthur Marwick says, “New production techniques brought down the price of consumer goods while making it possible to pay higher wages” (110). So people could got more times and money to enjoy their free time. As people had much more money, the boundaries between classes were weakened (Inglis 71). Especially, the working class people and young people, who were underprivileged until then, got more power to buy (Marwick 123).

When it comes to young people, they are always discontented with the existing social structure and traditional culture in all ages (Nakano 42). In 1950s, the Beat Generation appeared in United States. This word was made by a writer, Jack Kerouac, and it was sometimes called ''the Beats'' or "the Beatniks." They were writers that resisted the conservative value and custom. As major best writers, there were William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. Their works were so powerful that changed the way people thought (Foster 1). In case of Britain in the sixties, young people hated the Victorian moral (Marwick 147). Also, the hippie movement emerged in United States at the same time. In 1960, Vietnam War occurred. Many young men left their home to escape from joining the army. Author Ian Inglis says they were active in San Francisco and California, and their purpose was to bring about a revolution against the society peacefully and find a better future (88). The hippies were regarded as the followers of the Beat Generation because they also rebelled against the old value. They used drugs, which were the symbols of Beat subculture, to break through the limit of creativity and expression (Inglis 89). They mainly used marijuana and LSD. LSD’s other name was “acid” and it could make users’ perception more intensive and warped. Dr. Timothy Leary was enthralled by LSD and promoted this drug. He said, “Turn on, Turn in, Drop out.” In addition, the hippies were closely connected with music and they promoted free love. The hippie movement also influenced the Beatles in that they had long hair and used LSD.

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A YAKO M IKAMI

Integrated – Class Journal

Next, it is necessary to know about the Beatles, which are regarded as a legend in the history of popular music. According to Ray Connolly, John Lennon formed the band “the Quarrymen” with his high school friends in Liverpool in 1956. This band changed their name several times and settled down as “the Beatles” in 1960. John was vocal and guitar. A year later, he met Paul McCartney and let him join the band as vocal and guitar. Also, Paul introduced George Harrison to John and George joined as a lead guitar in 1958 (Evans 18-23). John’s friend Stuart Sutcliffe joined the band as a bass and Pete Best joined as a drum, but both of them dropped out of the band before debut, and Paul’s role changed from guitar to bass. In 1962, Ringo Starr joined as a drum. Anyway, all four members came from lower or lower middle classes (Marwick 132).

They were actually talented, but they were not exceptional. George Martin, who would be an able producer of the Beatles, says, “I didn’t think a great deal of the songs or the singers.

But I did think they produced an interesting sound” (Hunter 163). Brian Epstein, who would be their honest manager in 1961, was surprised at their performance when he saw it for the first time, but he soon liked it (Evans 57). He devoted his life to the Beatles and always took care of them, so it is no exaggeration to say that the Beatles succeeded all over the world thanks to him. Also, George supervised the recordings, arranged their songs and played musical instruments in many songs of the Beatles, so it can be said they owed their success to him. They were especially popular among the young because they rebelled against the boring old ways of living. Writer Peter Gammond says, “As personalities they were endearing, arrogant, witty, cynical by turns; interesting and articulate, but out to have a good time; with a self-deprecating honesty that cut through the publicity hype” (46). Their fans were very enthusiastic. They were called “Beatlemania” and always chased the band so that they had no privacy. To escape from the pressure, members often used drug. Also for businessmen, the Beatles had an immense commercial value. Many Beatles goods were sold such as wig, jacket and boots (Evans 104). In a Christmas season in 1963, stores were full of Beatles goods. Their power and influence on people was so strong that their tour was unsuccessful after John said that they were popular than Jesus (Evans 201).

To think about the connection between the Beatles and the Beat Generation, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is a good example. This is the eighth album of the Beatles which was released on June 1st, 1967. At first, the songs of the Beatles were influenced by black music such as blues, rock a roll and skiffle, which was a popular music style in London in 1950s (Inglis 75).

However, they changed their style and challenged many kinds of music. At that time, they made this album. In this album, they used Indian musical instruments called “sitar,” “tabla” and “dilruba” in “Within You Without You” and the orchestra “A Day in the Life” (Evans 243-246). Also, this album is very important because this is the first concept album in the world. At first, Paul came up with an idea that he created a fictional band to be more free and creative. Then he decided the title and asked the members to give people’s names that they liked. As a result, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was composed of many famous people from various professions such as William S. Burroughs, Marilyn Monroe, Albert Einstein, Edgar Allan Poe, Bob Dylan and so on (Miles 404). All of them were appeared on the jacket of the album designed by Peter Blake and Jann Haworth. Burroughs was adopted thanks to Indica Gallery & Bookshop, which mainly collected and sold the avant-garde works of the Beats. Indica was important for the Beatles because Paul helped it to open, John also came to the store and talked about the Beatnik, and it was here that John met Yoko Ono (Miles 308- 315).

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One of the similarities between the Beatles and the Beat Generation is both used drugs.

Author Hanif Kureishi says, “Musicians have always been involved with drugs, but the Beatles were the first to parade their particular drug use –marijuana and LSD- publicly and without shame” (89). There were also many songs that were thought to be associated with drug in this album. For example, “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” was largely regarded to be a psychedelic song because the capital letters stands for LSD, although the members and George Martin denied (Miles 415). Not only the title of the song but also the lyrics was psychedelic. Also, “With a Little Help from My Friends” and “Fixing a Hole” was thought to be songs about drug (Mellers 126).

Moreover, “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!” adopted cut-up technique, which was used by William S. Burroughs. The producer George Martin was trouble with finding a good sound effect to create an atmosphere of circus. He corrected some tapes of Calliope and gave them to his tape operator, Geoff Emerick. And he asked Geoff to cut them in 15 inches and throw into the air and connect them randomly. After that, they played them backwards and succeeded in making a perfect sound (Evans 248).

By the way, Paul actually met Burroughs many times in the studio in 34 Montagu Square.

This studio was originally Ringo’s house and John and Yoko lived there after it wasn’t used as a studio anymore (Miles 326). Paul was also a friend with Allen Ginsberg and they performed “A Ballad of American Skeletons” at The Royal Albert Hall in 1995 (Goldmark Gallery). Allen also praised their song, “Lonely People” because they had “classical elements of real musicianship, poetry and world weariness coming at the height of fame of a popular bubble gum rock n’ roll group, introducing high intelligence into the universal lyric poetry” in the BBC documentary in 1995 (Dancing in the Street). Moreover, John and George attended the 39th birthday party of Allen Ginsberg (The Allen Ginsberg Project).

Therefore, it is clear that the Beatles were greatly influenced by the Beat Generation, especially William S. Burroughs. Both of them tried to rebel against the existing society even if they used drugs. The Beatles were not the members of the Beats or hippies, but they also expressed the wishes and opinions of young people in the sixties through their songs. In other words, if there were not for the Beat Generation, the Beatles’ success today also wouldn’t exist. Thanks to the Beatniks, the four men who came from Liverpool changed the world and still live in people’s heart.

“Allen Ginsberg on Beatles.” Dancing in the Street. BBC. London. 1995. Television.

“Allen meets the Beatles/The Beatles meet Allen.” The Allen Ginsberg Project. N.P., 9 Feb. 2013. Web. 16 July 2014.

Bisbort, Alan. Beatniks: A Guide to an American Subculture. Santa Barbara: Greenwood Press/ABC-CLIO, 2010. Print.

Evans, Mike, ed. The Beatles Literary Anthology. Trans. Onzou Shigeru and Nakayama Keiko.

Tokyo: Popura, 2006. Print.

Foster, Edward Halsey. Understanding the Beats. South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 1992. Print.

Gammond, Peter. The Oxford Companion to Popular Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993. Print.

Goldmark Gallery. “Allen Ginsberg and Paul McCartney playing ‘A Ballad of American Skeletons’.” Online video clip. YouTube, 13 Aug. 2012. Web. 16 July 2014.

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WORKS CITED

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Hunter, Davies. The Beatles: The Authorized Biography. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1968. Print.

Inglis, Ian, ed. The Beatles, Popular Music and Society: A Thousand Voices. London: Palgrave Publishers Ltd., 2000. Print.

Kureidhi, Hanif. “Eight Arms to Hold You.” London Kills Me. London: Faber&Faber, 1991. 8194. Print.

Marwick, Arthur. British Society Since 1945. Penguin Books, 1990. Print.

Mellers, Wilfrid. Twilight of the Gods: The Beatles in Retrospect. London: Faber&Faber Ltd., 1973. Print.

Miles, Barry. Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now. Trans. Shibuya Yoichi. Tokyo: Rockin’ On Inc., 1998. Print.

Nakano, Osamu. 『ビートルズ現象』Tokyo: Kinokuniya, 1978. Print.

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Spring 2014

THREE IMPORTANT PERSONS OF BEAT GENERATION The Beat Generation is one of the movements of literature in 1950s, and there are three important persons when we describe it. Allen Ginsberg is one of the most famous persons who contributed to the Beat Generation, and he met Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs when he was in New York. After they met, they began to construct strong relationships for all of their lives.

In this paper, I will argue these strong relationships of three people and consider about the fact that they influenced to the Beat Generation.

First, I will consider Ginsberg’s biography until he met Kerouac. He was born in 1926 in New York. His mother was ill and had madness and actually he was influenced by her for his writing styles. Some of his works were influenced by her mother. Her mother had ill and mad, and she was interested in racism and segregation of Southern America. According to Jonah Ruskin, there is a quote about his mother; "Chicago teenager Emmett Till was brutally murdered in Mississippi in 1955, and that same year his courageous mother Mamie Till, spoke on Television and described to the world the horrors of southern racism and the brutality of segregation."(11) In this way, his mother seems also famous for her strong concern about racial discrimination and segregation. When he entered Columbia University in the 1940s, he soon met Jack Kerouac and other famous poets, such as William S Burroughs and Neal Cassidy. They began to establish good relationships, and contributed to the prosper of the Beat Generation.

Second, I will consider Kerouac’s biography. He was born in 1922 in Massachusetts.

Some of his works were actually influenced by his brother, who had died due to fever in 9.

According to William Todd Schultz, “Kerouac pictured his life unfolding in the complex shadow of a saintly and probably highly idealized brother named Gerard, who died at age nine when Jack was four-years-old.“ In this way, his brother Gerard influenced his styles of some works. Soon, he met Ginsberg and other Beatniks, and established good relationships.

Third, I will consider about Burroughs. He was born in St. Louis in 1914. He entered in Harvard University, and studied English Literature. After he graduated university, he moved some countries and in New York, and soon he met two Beatniks, Kerouac and Burroughs.

These three people met at the same place, and established good relationships each other.

Actually, they were introduced by Lucian Carr, and met each other. Carr is also an important person when we describe about the Beat Generation. According to Davin. J. Krajicek, there is a quote about how they met by Carr; "Carr is often characterized as muse to the Beats, but he was more than that. Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg were acolytes, captivated by Carr’s profane rants about bourgeois culture and the path to transcendence through pure creative expression — his “New Vision,” after “A Vision” by Yeats." In this way, they were introduced by Carr, and that is why they were able to meet and establish relationships. It seems that if they had not met there, the Beat Generation would not have appeared. They played an important roll about Beat Generation.

Then, I will consider their relationship about Beat Generation. Actually, the word “Beat Generation” was first named by Jack Kerouac. According to Gregory Stephenson, there is a quote about the naming of the Beat Generation; "Kerouac added to the word beat his own special understanding of it."(2) After this name appeared by Kerouac, they began to launch new projects.

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Essays

K OSUKE H ANADA

Integrated – Class Journal

According to John Lardas’ s statement, “ Burroughs, Kerouac, and Ginsberg had begun a collaborative project of literary and spiritual development, what they termed “new vision”.(5) In this way, the Beat Generation seems innovative projects at this time. When they met at the same university, they collaborated to establish Beat Generation and tried to spread around the world.

In addition, their works had something religious points, because they were all belonging to Buddhism. Lardas also says; “Together in the 1940s, long before any in Buddhism, Scientology, or psychedelic drugs, Kerouac, Burroughs, and Ginsburg spoke of their world in religious terms.”

(6) Indeed, some of Ginsberg ’ s works have something religious, but his works seems influenced

by Buddhism. According to John Whalen and Gary Storhoff, there is a statement about Beat Generation and Buddhism; “Buddhist writers from this period such as J. D. Salinger, Gary Snyder, and Allen Ginsberg, to name some of the most famous Buddhist popularisers of the 1950s, did both.“(1) In this way, some of the Beatniks, as well as Ginsberg were influenced by Buddhism.

For example, one of his poems “Sunflower Sutra” suits this Buddhism. The word “Sutra” means “Okyo” in Japanese, and he compares sunflower to sutra. Like this, some of their works include religious meaning or facts. Also, one of the most famous works of Burroughs’ s was “The Naked Lunch”, and this work also includes something religious. In other words, their works seems have something similar facts about their religions.

From these facts, these three people seems playing an important roles when we describe about the Beat Generation. Since Kerouac declared the word and they collaborated, the Beat Generation became popular among young people, especially hippies. According to Kenneth Rumsey, there are some meanings about the word "Beats"; "It was quickly becoming a slang term in America after World War II, meaning "exhausted" or "beat down" and provided this generation with a definitive label for their personal and social positions and perspectives." In this way, the word "Beats" means "exhausted" or "beat down" and these two meanings seems describing hippie' s personality at this time. Like this, the Beat Generation became popular among young people, and seems one of the big slangs of the forms of literature.

In conclusion, Ginsberg, Burroughs and Kerouac seems played an important role when we describe about Beat Generation. They developed a new forms of literature, and the Beat Generation seems still popular around the world.

WORKS CITED Krajijec, David J., Where Death Shaped the Beats. 2014. 7. 12 Web accessed. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/books/columbia-u-haunts-of-lucien-carr-and-thebeats.html?pagewanted=all> Lardas, John, The bop Apocalypse: The Religious Visions of Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs, pp5, January 2001, print.

Whalen, John -Bridge and Gary Storhoff, The Emergence of Buddhist American Literature, pp1, January 2010, print.

Rumsey, Kenneth, The Beat Page is a Rooknet project. 2014. 7. 10 Web accessed. <http://www.rooknet.net/beatpage/> Raskin, Jonah, American Scream: Allen Ginsberg's Howl and the Making of the Beat Generation, pp11, February 2006, print.

Stephenson, Gregory, The Daybreak Boys: Essays on the Literature of the Beat Generation, pp2, print Schultz, William Todd, The Prototypical Scene: A Method for Generating Psychobiographical Hypothes. 2014. 7. 10 Web accessed. <http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~ogilvie/schultz.html>

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Spring 2014

THE INFLUENCE OF NEAL CASSADY ON JACK KEROUAC Jack Kerouac is the man who is famous for writing the book On the Road (1957). This book was recently made into a movie directed by Walter Salles. The main characters of the story are Sal Paradise and his friend, Dean Moriarty. Since Jack wrote the book from his own experience, the characters are based on the real people, Jack Kerouac himself and Neal Cassady.

In this paper, we are going to prove that there are certain relationship between Jack and Neal, focusing on the influence of Neal on Jack. To prove that thesis, two pieces of information which are how the Beat Generation appears and how Jack and Neal grew are given in the first paragraph and second paragraph. In addition, to prove the thesis, in the third paragraph, why and how Jack was influenced by Neal is shown using the information in the first and second paragraph.

Firstly, The Beat Generation was the small group of the young people who had doubts to the state of America (Traubert) which appears in 1950s (Rahn). After World War Ⅱ, America became richer than before, because they won the war. However, the people who got the benefit were only people who were in the Middle-Class or the Upper-Class. Even if the hard work with the low wages of the people who were in the Working-Class was the reason why the materialism was able to prosper, the people in the Working-Class were still poor. It seemed that there was no equality. For that state, the Beat Generation had a doubt and it is said that the members who were from the Working-Class made the other Beats conscious about the class issue (Whiston 1).

Moreover, they were against “the clean, almost antiseptic formalism of the early twentieth century Modernists [because] the taboos against frank discussions of sexuality were seen as unhealthy and possibly damaging to the psyche” (Rahn). Hence, they made new cultures and innovative ways of writing novels and poems. It means, since the Beats were opposed to the inequality of the materialism and the antiseptic formalism, the Beat Generation appeared and influenced American society, culture and literature.

Secondly, their upbringings are hugely different. Jean Louis Lebris de Kerouac was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1922. He had his father, mother, older brother and older sister and his family belongs to the Middle-Class. Since he was born in French-Canadian family, he could not speak English until he entered the parochial school. This background as an immigrant made his love of America strong. He lost his brother when he was nine and his father when he was twenty-four. Since he went to Columbia University until his dropping out there, we can see that he had already received certain education (Huebel 5-7). As for Neal Cassady Jr., he was born in the family which belongs to Working-Class in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1926. It means Neal was four years older than Jack. He had his father and mother. His mother died when he was 10, so he was raised only by his father who drunk alcohol heavily. He was constantly in and out of reform school, so it can be assumed that he did not educated well. He even had experience of kept in a jail (Foremski). Hence, in terms of class and education, they had big differences.

Lastly, as we confirmed, "Beat Generation" had questions to the state of America and Neal was the answer to those questions for Jack. The reason why Jack was influenced by Neal was that everything about Neal was totally new for Jack because of their backgrounds (Hubel 8).

As we confirmed, "Cassady was a product of the urban slums of Denver, but to Kerouac he was the personification of the cinematic West" (Hubel 8). Jack was always surprised by Neal and his

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Y UMIKO M EZAKI

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love of America made himself interested in Neal more and more. Jack seeks for the true America with Neal and tried to go to west again and again (Eichi 4, Traubert). On the way to the west, Jack was heavily influenced by Neal. Jack learned some ways of writing and thinking from Neal, "the young man who initially told Kerouac that he wanted to learn to write from him" (Theado 6).

Basically, Jack was not satisfied with his own way of writing, because it seems that there was no "feeling" at all (Hubel 8). Then, Neal taught him new way of writing with letters. It was called "Spontaneous prose" (Hubel 9). Kerouac says "the spontaneous prose" is the thing as follows.

Undisturbed flow from the mind of personal secret idea-words, blowing (as per jazz musician)....If possible write 'without consciousness' in semi-trance ... allowing subconscious to admit in own uninhibited interesting necessary and so 'modern' language what conscious art would censor. (Kerouac, 57-58) Moreover, to make Jack's autobiography more genuinely narrated, Neal recommended him to write the biography with what Jack called "picaresque narratives"(Huebel 9). That is the way to write the autobiography with only what you have seen and what you remember. (Huebel 9-10) Jack tried to make it in his own writings and often took drugs. Hence, Jack was influenced

by Neal in terms of ways of writing and thinking, because all about Neal was totally new for Jack.

In this paper, we focused on the relationship between jack and Neal, especially, the influence of Neal on Jack. This was able to have been seen, firstly, from how the Beat Generation appears, secondly from their upbringings and in the third paragraph, we proved why and how Jack was influenced by Neal. In conclusion, we can say that Neal Cassady influenced on Jack Kerouac in terms of ways of writing and thinking and the reason why Jack was influenced by Neal was because everything about Neal was totally new and helpful for Jack.

WORKS CITED Eichi. Hishikawa. “内なる西” “The west in people’s mind” The newsletter of the course of the Innovated Ethics. 2004. Print. 2: pp, 3－6.

Foremski. Tom. "The new and old Beatnicks celebrate Neal Cassady's birthday" Silicon Valley Watcher, 2006. Web. 08 July 2014.

Huebel. Harry Russell. Jack Kerouac. America. The Caxton Printers. 1979. Print.

Kerouac, Jack. "Essentials of spontaneous prose." In Charters, Ann. (Ed) The Portable Beat Reader. New York: Pengiun (1992): 57-58. Print "Neal Cassady Jr." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 08 July 2014.

Rahn. Josh. “The Beat Generation” Jalic Inc. 2011. Web. 06 July 2014.

Theado. Matt. Understanding Jack Kerouac. Columbia, South Carolina. University of South Carolina Press. 2000. Print.

Traubert. Takeshi. “◇そしてポエトリー・リーディングにまつわる小史 あるいは【お ぼろげな白書】◇” “The short history of the poetry reading” Takeshi Traubert’s notebook of prose. 2011. Web. 01 July 2014.

Whiston. Paul. “The Working Class Beats: a Marxist analysis of Beat Writing and Culture from the Fifties to the Seventies.” United Kingdom. Sheffield Online Papers in Social Research (ShOP). 2000. Print. pp, 1-17.

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MAYAN CULTURE AND BURROUGHS In the 1950s, it is no exaggeration to say that every writer who belonged to beat generation used drugs. They used drugs, obscene languages and did eccentric action. One of the most strange writers in beat generation is William S. Burroughs. He is known as lover of guns and drugs, and made marvellous works such as Naked Lunch. His life was full of ups and downs. For instance, he is known as a heroin addict. Writers from beat generation, like Allen Ginsberg also loved drugs but Burroughs’s love for drugs were more remarkable than others. However, some of his works were based on his certain experience though his works seemed like rambling one. His life in Mexico in 1950s made a big influence on Burroughs. Actually, he moved to Mexico, and started to study Mayan codices and culture at Mexico City University in 1950 (Wild). He lived in Mexico for 5 years (Hibbard xix). He learned about Mayan culture, language and religion. He was impressed by that, and then he published many books such as Junkie, Naked lunch and The Nova Trilogy. Especially, The Soft Machine which is one of The Nova Trilogy, was influenced

by Mayan culture, and also Burroughs would like to connect Mayan culture and the present American situation at that time. In addition, he found that the drug was not just a hobby for him but a metaphor on Mayan culture. Thus, He might have claimed that the present American system was wrong by his works which based on Mayan culture.

At the beginning, Burroughs used Mayan symbols in his works, The Soft Machine. In The Soft Machine, there is a chapter of “The Mayan Caper” and person who represents William S. Burroughs himself. Burroughs travels time in that story because he wants to resist against the control of Mayan priests (Wild). From this fact, Burroughs complained against Mayan control system. In Mayan era, the priest had to sacrifice human and Mayan people believed blood sacrifice was effective to survive (Maya Civilization). That is, in this period, it was indispensable to kill people to get divine protection and live without any threat. Mayan people could not escape from authority like priest. According to these historical evidences, Burroughs wanted to refuse the pressure from priest. Therefore, Burroughs might have think it was similar to the situation of America at that time. In 1950s, after World War II, America flourished as victorious nation. At the same time, Red Scare became a problem. Red Scare was suppression by Joseph R. McCarthy, and he controlled people or organization which were related to communism (Red Scare). Also, Hollywood films and arts were suppressed to oppose against communism. Moreover, at the same time, “Lavender Scare” occurred by McCarthy that controlled homosexual people (Friedman).

Burroughs was homosexual, and he lived as homosexual living under McCarthyism (Russell 50).

From these things, United States looked flourishing even after the war, but inside of America, people could not express freely and were suppressed by the power. For one purpose, the government killed many people’s thoughts. Burroughs might have been angry with that situation in America, so he compared with Mayan cruel control system.

Secondly, Burroughs thought that drug which always helped him in many ways could be a symbol of control in Mayan system. Burroughs addicted drugs, such as heroin and morphine very much, and he wrote books about drugs, The Yage Letters and Junky. However, in The Yage Letters, he shows his hatred against the control system of Mayan (Wild). Also, he recognized that drug was a symbol of control and the domination against the people (Wild). Moreover, Burroughs said that repression by Mayan priest was a pure psychological control without dangerous weapon (Hibbard 75). That is, when people use drug, they will be crazy or lose their

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normal minds. People might lose their abilities to judge or right thoughts. From these things, Burroughs might want to show that it is very dangerous to use drug because it might control or dominate people’s thinking without external damage. However, Burroughs thought that drug could help his creativity (Hibbard 93). Thus, Burroughs often used drug for his works though he thought drug was a symbol of control. Looking at another book, he had an idea that drug was related to gender problem, in other words, drug could make people free from race, especially homosexual identity (Russell 28). As it was mentioned above, in 1950s, people who were homosexual were repressed. It might have been mental suppression without heavy weapons.

Therefore, Burroughs claimed the minority could not express what they really felt, so he was willing to use drug which was a metaphor of psychological control. After all, Burroughs wanted to escape from the mental suppression system like Mayan society in America by using drug.

Finally, Burroughs showed his anger against World War II in his work, Ah Pook Is Here which is associated with Mayan myth. In Ah Pook Is Here, there are many mysterious names in early part. For instance, “Itzama,” “Ixtaub” and “Ixchel” appears in that work. They mean that “Itzama” is a founder of Mayan culture and teach people arts. “Ixtaub” is a goddess of suicide, and “Ixchel” is a goddess of cosmology (Joshua). From these things, Burroughs must have named these characters on his knowledge of Mayan gods. Moreover, “Ah Pook” means a god of death (Joshua). In the text, “Ah Pook” is described as “the destroyer.” Thus, “Ah Pook” is not so separate from original meaning. In addition, Burroughs thought that god of death is not a god who is needed to sooth by blood sacrifice, but is a priest who control people mentally (Wild).

That is, In 1950s, bloody war like World War II was over, but some people began to suppress people’s ideas. Mental freedom came to be taken by authoritative people. According to these facts, “Ah Pook” is a symbol to destroy people’s mind like a Mayan priest. Besides, there is sentence which associated with Hiroshima, 1945 in the text. After that sentence, there is an expression which “The Ugly American” (Ah Pook Is Here) to the answer of “Who gave that order?” (Ah Pook Is Here). In 1942, Burroughs was enlisted to U.S. Army once (Hibbard xvii).

Though the year was different, he must have known fear of war. Therefore, Burroughs must have not understood that America dropped atomic bomb on Japan during the war, so that he might have expressed American as ugly. Surely, Atomic bomb destroyed everything. He might have felt that America is like a destroyer after and before the war.

In conclusion, Burroughs was influenced from Mayan culture a lot. At first, he might have went to Mexico for not academic reasons, but Mexico gave him a good ideas finally. Mayan culture is different from American or European one very much because their tradition is a little bit bloody. Mayan people offered human sacrifice to survive by order of priest. Priest just prayed for gods and they killed people without weapon for gods. Priest already united people’s ideas because he controlled them. From this mysterious culture, Burroughs might have thought that people like priest increased in America. People who has power suppressed people’s thoughts and controlled. This can say to outside of the country. Thus, Burroughs must have thought control like Mayan culture was abominable and showed it in his works.

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WORKS CITED

Essays

Ah Pook is Here. Dir. Philip Hunt. Perf. William S Burroughs. Film Academy BadenWürttemberg, 1994. Film.

Friedman, Andrea. “The Smearing of Joe McCarthy: The Lavender Scare, Gossip, and Cold War Politics.” American Quarterly 57.4 (2005): 1105-1129. Web. 06 July, 2014.

Hibbard, Allen. Conversations with William S. Burroughs. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. 1999. Xvii-xix, 74-75, 93. Print.

Joshua, Mark J. “The Mayan Pantheon: The Many Gods of the Maya.” Ancient History Encyclopedia. 2012. Web. 06 July, 2014.

“Maya Civilization.” Canadian Museum of History. N.d. Web. 06 July, 2014.

“Red Scare.” History.com. 2010. Web. 06 July, 2014.

Russell, Jamie. Queer Burroughs. United States of America: Palgrave, 2001. 28, 50. Print.

Wild, Paul H. “William S. Burroughs and the Maya Gods of Death: The Uses of Archaeology.”

College Literature 35.1 (2008): 38-57. Web. 06 July, 2014.

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WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS’ BRILLIANCE IN CRAZINESS M ANA A NDO The Beat movement came into prominence in the 1950s and early 1960s by people who rejected the conventional society, and put value on free self-expressing. Although it was very controversial movement and continued to be criticized especially by instigative media and cultural conservatives, it cannot be denied that this movement had a great power so that it has continuously influenced on a lot of people and cultures heavily even to future generations (Johnson).

William S. Burroughs (1914-1997) is a legendary person for one of the key figures of this Beat movement. He was a very crazy person with a lot of the world, for example, he was a drug abuser for a long time, a gun enthusiast who accidentally killed his wife by shooting while playing a target practice game, a homosexual who cut his little finger off when he was rejected by his boyfriend, and so on (“William Seward Burroughs”). In spite of the extreme madness, he was definitely brilliant at the same time. During his 83 years lifetime, he has been active in expressing himself besides writing novels, making visual arts, appearing on the media, and so on. It can be said that he succeeded to break down what is called “social convention,” that symbolizes the Beat movement, especially through his writing (“William S. Burroughs 100”). Therefore, throughout the 1960s, he and his works were constantly under controversy, being criticized both positively and negatively, and became somehow symbolic of the times (Skerl 6). In any case, it is an indisputable fact that his works have tremendous fascination which includes certain literal and social significance.

Firstly, his works are famous for their “obscenity.” His most important work, The Naked Lunch was even taken to the court because of its impure content. This novel is composed of subsequent cut-up stories which are seemed not to have any plot and developed characters. The cut-up is a montage technique he skillfully used in a lot of works. This novel was first published in Tangier, Morocco in 1959 with the help of Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac who are also leading figures of the Beat movement and got acquainted each other during Burroughs’ travel in New York in the mid -1940s, but it was governmentally banned from bringing out in the United States until 1962 and in Britain until 1964. Moreover, it failed to pass censorship and was taken to trial in 1965 (Skerl 4).

There are mainly three reasons for being objected to at the censorship trial. The first matter was definitely its obscenity. Burroughs described the world of violence, sexuality, and drug with obscene and grotesque expressions throughout the story. As a result, whether it had a moral and social significance gave rise to a heated discussion (skerl 6). The second issue was whether the structure was appropriate: whether pornographic passage should be allowed in this structure even if such an experimental technique. The last problem was of its morality: whether Burroughs had any purposes to write this novel with certain moral intention (Skerl 5). Actually, he had just returned to Tangier, Morocco from London where he had taken the apomorphine cure and succeeded to overcome the morphine poisoning, but he ate cookies containing cannabis resin while writing it. Thus, he says that he has almost no clear recollection of writing it. As a result of the trial, finally it was cleared by Massachusetts Supreme Court in 1966.

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One of the main reasons why The Naked Lunch could win the case was because of testimony by some powerful writers including Allen Ginsberg at the trial. It can be said that being praised by other major literary figures was one of the most important factors to win the case and to create somehow a sensation (Skerl 5). They strongly defended The Naked Lunch believing that it has impressive power and serious messages with moral sense enough to have merit as a moral and social publication. The story begins with the narration of a man addicted to the use of drug, being pursued by New York police and escapes to Mexico crossing America. He confesses the experiences in the underworld of drug addiction with obscene and filthy occurrence such as violence and sexual perversion including grotesque humor as well (Skerl 76). Although Burroughs had overcome the morphine addict when he wrote it, the story is largely based on his own experience of the addiction which brought him feelings of both Heaven and Hell (McConnell 669).

In the story, “addiction” stands for not only a kind of illness but also as a metaphor for authoritarianism which controls over the society and each person (McConnell 671). At first, the junkie protagonist seems to be sick in need of society’s protection to overcome his weakness, but at the same time, he is a victim of society, especially by the drug market as is found in this quotation, “Junk is the ideal product… the ultimate merchandise… The junk merchant does not sell his product to the consumer; he sells the consumer to his product. He does not improve and simplify his merchandise. He degrades and simplifies the client” (Skerl 85). Moreover, from the quotation, “Everyone is an addict of one kind or another” (Skerl 36), it can be said that Burroughs describes the fear of addiction besides to drugs, like violence, power, money, sex, and so on as a powerful object that everyone can be unconsciously controlled and depraved like the case of the junkie in the story (Skerl 85). At this time, he was in position of opposition to all addictions as he mentions in public in response to too many misunderstanding reviews for The Naked Lunch, so making use of drugs in the story is just one example of symbol of negative aspect of addiction (Skerl 7). From this point of view, it can be said that Burroughs succeeded to bring the taste of drug and the sense of fear for the addiction into the area of literature and effectively satire the society.

In addition, the testimonies at the trial see its obscenity and grotesqueness of The Naked Lunch as a mean to express Burroughs’ “outrage” against conventional society (Skerl 59).

Moreover, they justified its cut-up structure as an “art” and insisted on its underlying unity.

Certainly, by using the cut-up technique, he tried to expose the goals of regulated society in which everybody is controlled and to break through the situation very effectively (“William S. Burroughs 100”). According to Burroughs’ literary theory, reality seems to be playing back events and thought processes that are recorded in advance: it becomes possible to create a completely new shape of “reality” by rearranging recordings of past. As a consequence, Burroughs sought for the hyper reality that no one has ever seen. From this point, it becomes clear that Burroughs’ aspect of surrealist, moralist and social innovator who expresses his point of view with deliberate disconnected obscene story. As a result, it can be said that he succeeds to give readers the vision of the world of addiction and his criticism against not the drug itself but the social systems, as his implied satire in the story.

In this sense, it can be said that the fascinations of The Naked Lunch lie in the deep place: although the story itself is composed of nightmarish images, there are certainly Burroughs’ severe criticism against the contemporary society and the impression of somehow painful and beautiful remain in reader’s mind.

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In spite of these factors which should be highly evaluated in Burroughs’ writing, it received strong negative criticisms perhaps even more than positive reviews (Skerl 5).

Considering the possible factors for these extreme criticisms, his life and personality can be one of the reasons. His crazy behavior and open revealing of his drug addiction, homosexuality, murder experience, and so on may give people a great impact that even affects their points of view to look at his works: people look at his works through somehow prejudiced eyes including strong hatred which result in their emotional criticisms (Skerl 5). Nevertheless, Burroughs has a lot of aspects, so it is nonsense to easily defend or attack him without comprehending his essential vision.

Therefore, it can be said that there are a lot of fascinating points including literal and social merit in Burroughs’ writing as it can be seen in The Naked Lunch. Although he is a very crazy person, he has definitely a talent for influential writings, for example, he made positive efforts to break down the social convention by attacking and resolving taboo subjects such as the underworld of drug through writing. Moreover, he made use of them and also his own experiences to make satires and criticisms against the contemporary society because he was afraid of people’s corruption which is common in every person as a result of being sacrificed by the control of society where they live. It can be said that he was like a scientist in creating his literature, so his experimental way of writing like the use of the cut-up technique and free expressing of his point of view should be allowed and readers should find his moral messages in them. As a result, in his seemingly irresponsible style of seeking for freedom and engaging in writing self-deprecatory, sensually, violently and as an anti-establishmentarian, there are his valuable moral intentions and hidden genius as an influential writer.

REFERENCE Johnson, Joyce. "The Beat Generation." The Literature Net Work. N.p.n.d. Web. 06 July, 2014.

McConnell, D Frank. William Burroughs and the Literature of Addiction. The Massachusetts Review. Inc. 8.4 (1967): 665-680. Print.

Skerl, Jennie. Lydenberg, Robin, ed. William S. Brroughs at the Front: Critical Reception.

Board of Trustees, Southern Illinois University. 1991. Print.

“William S. Burroughs 100.” Burroughs 100 The Official Website. N.p.n.d. Web. 06 July.2014.

“William Seward Burroughs.” Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 06 July, 2014.

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THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE BEAT GENERATION AND OTHER GROUPS The counter-cultural movement was not only the Beat Generation but there were other groups. In this paper, I will discuss three trends, the Lost Generation, Angry Young Men, and Hippie Movement, and compare them with the Beat Generation and see every movement's features.

The similarities of four movements are that the motivation of their actions was deprived from wars and they were against it. They felt the order after wars were wrong and insisted on it by literature or their life style.

The Lost Generation happened in the 1920s and the 30s. The Angry Young Men and the Beat Generation happened in the 50s, and Hippie Movement happened in the following 60s and 70s. All these phenomena occurred successively, except the 40s when World War Ⅱ broke out.

The Lost Generation means those who were born in the end of 19th century, and in particular refers to the group of American writers which appeared after World WarⅠ.

The famous writers are Earnest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, and E. E. Cummings. The Lost Generation's works describe hopeless young people and they created the form of the Lost Generation. World WarⅠgave a lot of men the horrors of battle, and after the war they felt vanity (Jaracz 2). The Lost Generation writers tried to establish their own morals and indulged in alcohol or sexual things, and many of them rejected the American government and traditions and moved to Paris (Jaracz 1, 2).

The roots of the counter-cultural idea of the Beat Generation were derived from this Lost Generation. As an apparent example of the influence, there is the relationship of their names. The name 'the Beat Generation' imitates 'the Lost Generation' (French). Also, the origin of the name of the Lost Generation comes from a conversation of a female writer, Gertrude Stein, with Hemingway. She said, "You are all a lost generation" and later Hemingway used these words in his work, The Sun Also Rises (Jaracz 1). This episode has a resemblance to the origin of the name of the Beat Generation, which is that the word, 'Beat,' used by Herbert Huncke, is soon used again by Jack Kerouac (Drabble 76). As for their works, when On the Road was published, it was said that The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway is the symbol of the Lost Generation, and On the Road can be that of the Beat Generation (Millstein). However, the Beats had the definite direction of the counter-cultural things, such as drugs or Eastern philosophy, while the Lost Generation just avoided America. The Beat Generation seems to have become more drastic, passing the Great Depression and following the Second World War. Angry Young Men is the contemporary movement with the Beat Generation, happening in Britain. This movement started with a performance of a play Look Back in

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Anger, by John Osborne on 1956, May 7th. Angry Young Men did not have the philosophical background or use drugs, but it had a great power. As soon as the play was performed, it was praised by critics, and some works published before and after the play, such as The Outsider by Colin Wilson, who died in 2013, and Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis, were regarded as the group, 'Angry Young Men,' although not all of the writers, at least Colin Wilson, were actually angry at society (Wilson). These three works, Look Back in Anger, The Outsider, and Lucky Jim can be compared with On the Road by Jack Kerouac and “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg (French).

Angry Young Men is not called ‘Generation’ and it seems that this name was produced by critics and other media (Wilson). Therefore, it seems that they did not act as a group. They were angry at strictly ruled society after the war like other groups and angry at very personal things as well. The Beat Generation and Angry Young Men sympathized and each writer contributed to each group’s development. Compared with two groups, Angry Young Men seems bitter while the Beat Generation seems positive. These two movements both started and faded out at the same time, on both sides of the Atlantic (French).

Hippie Movement happened in the 1960s in America and all over the world. This was not a literary tide but a trend of the whole culture. Hippies sought pleasure, peace, love, and personal freedom and tried to realize them by using drugs. They insisted on free love and sexual liberation as beatniks, but they stressed on ones for women, while Beat Generation was mainly by male (Bhaddock). In this sense, hippies can be said to have been more liberal than beatniks. The name 'hippie' comes from 'hipster' which was the name invented in a song Harry the Hipster by Harry Gibson, in the 1940s. This 'hipster' means "beatniks who had moved into New York City," and the name 'hippie' is first used by an American journalist in 1965 (Bhaddock).

Many beatniks moved from New York City to San Francisco in the late 1950s, and they made the base of Hippie Movement (Bhaddock). Hippies rejected the Vietnam War, as well as nuclear weapons. The Vietnam War happened from the late 1960s to the early 70s, and Hippie Movement greatly protested it. The preceding movements, the Lost Generation and the Beat Generation, had been against wars, but in reality the war happened, which would be one of the major reasons of the rise of this movement.

The Beat Generation is one group in the big historical stream of the 20th century. It is notable that the Lost Generation and the Beat Generation, and the Beat Generation and Hippie Movement, are related somewhere in their names. This is evidence that their spirits influence each other. The literary or cultural trends which this paper discusses might be thought to be corrupt and weak in a sense. In other words, however, they have a power not to conform to society, and it can be said that only to surrender to society and to be a part of it is suspension of thinking. The battle of personality and society develops culture and literature, so it is worth learning the counter-cultural idea from four movements, the Lost Generation, the Beat Generation, Angry Young Men, and Hippie Movement. They are not the past things but what still have a power at present. In

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conclusion, the more time passed, the more the counter-cultural current in the 20th century became gradually liberal, radical, practical, and extended, affected by the precedent group.

Essays

WORKS CITED Bhaddock. "The 1960's Hippie Counter Culture Movement." Mortal Journey. March 9, 2011.

Web. 6 June 2014. <http://www.mortaljourney.com/2011/03/1960-trends/hippiecounter-culture-movement> Drabble, Margaret. Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th Edition. Oxford: Oxford UP. 2000. Print.

French, Philip. "On the Road – review." The Guardian. 14 October 2012. Web. 10 June 2014. <http://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/oct/14/on-the-road-review> Jaracz, Jill. “How the Lost Generation Works.” howstuffworks. n.d.. Web. 8 June 2014. <http://people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/generation-gaps/lostgeneration.htm> Millstein, Gilbert. “Books of the Times.” The New York Times on the Web. 5 September 1957.

Web. 7 June 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/09/07/home/kerouacroadglowing.html> Wilson, Colin. “Outline of the Rise and Fall of the Angry Young Men.” Colin Wilson World. n.d.. Web. 9 June 2014. <http://www.colinwilsonworld.co.uk/Pages/TheRiseandFallofAngryYoungMen.aspx>

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THE SIMILARITIES AND THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE TWO FAMOUS OBSCENE TRIALS－ HOWL BY ALLEN GINSBERG, AND NAKED LUNCH BY WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS K YOKA M ORITA Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs were the two most representative writers of Beat Generation. Their works, Naked Lunch written by William S. Burroughs and Howl by Allen Ginsberg were both criticized for containing some ‘obscene expressions’. The two writers’ way of writing were so similar and the context they wrote strongly related to each other. Also they were best friends and Burroughs was even absorbed in Ginsberg through his life. He had been in love with Ginsberg (Workman). However, the results which their works got were different. Naked Lunch and Howl were both controversial as obscene books, but one won the obscenity trial and the other was banned by court at first. What was the common thing and what was the difference between these two famous trials? And why was the ruling of Naked Lunch overturned after it lost the trial and was banned. I am going to dig down about this topic by various point of views. How the trials were, who was accused, what was the reason of the accusation and who helped them to win the trial. In fact the objections of suits were different, and of course the theme they dealt with were different. Many other elements which were similar and also different between the ‘obscene problems’ of these two books. Also I would like to consider who can determine what does ‘harm’ to society. Who can decide what has no social value and why the court has the power to derive us from the rights of reading whatever we want to?

At first, these two books have so similar backgrounds. The writers of these two books have a lot of factors in common. They were both bright schoolboy. Allen Ginsberg had a short attend to Montclair State College and after he won a scholarship to the University of Columbia (Irwin Allen Ginsberg Biography). William Burroughs attended prep schools and later studied English literature at Harvard University (William Seward Burroughs Biography). Both of them were enthusiastic for studying. Also they were suffered from the addiction of drugs. Allen often said about the use of drugs in his works. There is also a collaboration work of these two writers named The Yage Letter Redux. In the homepage of City Lights (The Yage Letters Redux), it is said that this book was completed by the addition of Ginsberg’s account of his own experiences with yage as he traveled through South America in 1960, and by the addition of other Burroughs letters and texts. In this book they wrote about the phenomena of drug addicting. It was a record of Burroughs looking for drugs persistently and Allen being intoxicated with drugs. Furthermore, Allen and Burroughs were homosexual (Workman). This fact had an important role on their creating. Their experiences of heterosexual intercourse and love for the same sex person were appeared in their writings so often.

The common thing between the two obscenity trials was that the testimony by the authors’ friends were helpful to the winning of the trial so much.

Actually, at the obscenity trial of Naked Lunch, at first the defendant lost the trial and the book was banned in Boston. However, in 1966, the Massachusetts Supreme court reversed the decision with the help of testimony by Burroughs’ friends (Jhamann). At the trial of Naked Lunch,

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the court and Burroughs’ attorney named Edward de Grazia asked some questions to Norman Mailer and Allen Ginsberg. They stood up at the court as witnesses. By looking at the record of the trial (The Boston Trial of Naked Lunch), we can find that Mailer and Ginsberg gave a favorable testimony which was vital to Burroughs. For example, when Mailer was asked the impression for Naked Lunch, he answered about Burroughs like this: “Possibly he is the most talented writer in America. As a professional writer I don’t like to go about bestowing credit on any other writers”. Also he mention another work of Burroughs and gave a comment such as “the work was more of deep work, a calculated work, a planned work”. Mailer praised Burroughs more and more by saying “he also has an exquisite poetic sense. His poetic images are intense. They are often disgusting; but at the same time there is a sense of collision in them, of montage that is quite unusual”. By using the word such as ‘exquisite’, ‘intense’, ‘disgusting’ and ‘unusual’, he expressed how precious and how unique Burroughs’ works were. Furthermore, Mailer likened Naked Lunch to Ulysses, the masterpiece by James Joyce, in order to tell the court how he was fascinated by Naked Lunch. He said “I found it absolutely fascinating because it draws me to read it further and further, the way Ulysses did when I read that in college, as if there are mysteries to be uncovered when I read it”. Could there be any other admiration beyond these words?

Allen Ginsberg also defended Naked Lunch and William Burroughs in his testimony.

About the sentence which was regarded as offensive, Allen demonstrated it was not offensive at all. For example, the court mentioned the sentence which wrote about Jews; “The Clerk looked at the card suspiciously: ‘You don’t look like a bone feed mast-fed Razor Back tome… What you think about the Jeeeeews…?” The court asked Allen whether this sentence was offensive, grossly offensive to him. Allen answered “I am Jewish; and I should be offended. What Burroughs is doing, he is parodying this monster; he is parodying this anti-Semite”. The court also asked directly, “It is not offensive to you?” and Allen answered clearly “No” (Boston). He did not only testify that it was not offensive, but also said it was very funny actually. In addition, about the sentences which were considered to be obscene, he asserted that those expressions were part of the literary art. Also he mentioned the importance to express what the writer felt directly (Boston).

These two friends of Burroughs largely contributed to the winning of this trial.

Second, I am going to say about the case of the trial of Howl. In this case the object which sued to the court was not the book itself but the publisher, Lawrence Ferlinghetti. At this trial, socalled ‘nine expert witnesses’ helped him to win the trial (People). Of course some thought the book obscene, others a work of art. According to the record (People), the court of the trial thought that whether the book was obscene or not had to be decided by the court. So the court did not allow any of the experts to state an opinion of obscenity. Instead, the main topic was if the book Howl and the other poems had any literary merit or not. All of the nine experts agreed that Howl had literary merit, represented a sincere effort by the author to present a social picture, and the language used was relevant to the theme. In Howl’s trial those testimonies by the nine expert witnesses were helpful for the victory. Having good witness was one of the similarities of these two obscenity trials.

The difference between them was the contexts of the two works. Both topics they used were so shocking and had strong impression on us, but it had a little differences when we looked it in detail. In Howl it was written about drugs, sexual practices both heterosexual and homosexual.

Allen criticized the depressed American society through those kind of theme. Howl begins with following sentence: “I saw the best mind of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, / Dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry

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fix” (1-3). Here we can feel his disappointment with the society at that time. He wrote the description of using drugs and homosexuality openly. On the other hand, Burroughs set child murders and pedophilia amongst the montage of horrible images in Naked Lunch, not heterosexual or homosexual. I suppose that for people at that time in the United States the contexts Burroughs used were simply more shocking than those of Allen used in Howl. This is the difference between the two trials, and is the fact which divided the result of the first judgment into winning and ‘banned’.

As I said above, there were many elements not only common thing between the two trials but also different ones. I think the most common thing in these two trials was the problem of ‘social value’. Both in Naked Lunch’s trial and Howl’s trial, witnesses were asked by the court about their idea whether those works had some important influences on the society. As a result thanks to the testimonies these two books spread all over the world, however, I wondered how the court could judge the importance on the society of a book. What kind of authority did the court have? Who could decide the value of a book? I think the impression a book give us depends on the individual. It cannot be determined by the court what is valuable for the society and what is not. In these days, people may have little doubt about this problem. We had better have more interests on those kind of rule that the ‘social value’ of literature is decided by the court. We must judge what we see and what we read by ourselves.

WORKS CITED Burroughs, William Seward, and Allen Ginsberg. The Yage Letter Redux. Ed, liver Harris. San Francisco: City Lights, 2006 “The Yage Letter Redux”. City Lights booksellers & publishers, Web. 17 July. 2014. http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100299370&fa=description “Irwin Allen Ginsberg.” Bio. A&E. Television Networks, 2014. Web. 16 July 2014. http://www.biography.com/people/allen-ginsberg-9311994 “William Seward Burroughs” Bio. A&E. Television Networks, 2014. Web. 16 July 2014. http://www.biography.com/people/william-s-burroughs-9232376#!

Jhamann. “The Trial at Boston”. The Obscenity Trial over the Publication of ‘Naked Lunch’ by Willliam S. Burroughs. 10 June 2014. Web. http://jhamann.hubpages.com/hub/WilliamS-Burroughs Burroughs, William S. Naked Lunch, 1959. Modern Classics. London: Flamingo, 1990. Print.

“The Boston Trial of Naked Lunch”. RealityStudio-A William S. Burroughs Community. 7 July 2014. Web. http://realitystudio.org/texts/naked-lunch/trial/ Workman, Chuck, Dir. The Soure: The Story of the Beats and the Beat Generation. Perf. Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Johnny Depp, Dennis Hoper. WinStar Cinema, 1999.DVD The People of the state of California Plantiff vs. Lawrence Ferlinghetti Defendant. N.d. Print.

Ginsberg, Allen. Howl and other poems. San Francisco. City Lights; 1956.

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Spring 2014

MESSAGES CONTAINED IN THE LORD OF THE RINGS The Lord of the Rings written by J. R. Tolkien is the most beloved fantasy. The series of movie created in 2001 to 2003 was also a huge hit and the story became even more popular, that over 100 million copies has been sold around the world (Tolkien The Official Online Book Shop).

Although it is considered as the children’s literature, it attracts all the generations. The complexity of the story, use of interesting language (As a philology professional, Tolkien created a new language and used it in the story), and his dense mythology interests all kinds of people. Yet, the biggest reason is the themes of the story and messages the author includes in it which can be extended to many situations in the real world. Readers can easily find connection between the story and their world, and feel close to them. The themes of the story make it possible. They are plenty of moral lessons and the author’s messages. As readers read the story, they understand and learn them. There are three lessons that can be understood from the story; friendship over the races, self-destruction by greed, and a great ability of small lives.

A friendship over the races is one of the messages in the story. The Middle-earth is composed by a variety of races, such as hobbits, elves, and dwarfs. Each race has different lands, life style and history, thus culture. In their long history, some races fight and become enemies.

Especially elves and dwarfs are in a bitter relationship. Legolas, one of the elves, and Gimli, one of the dwarfs, unwillingly spends time together on the way to find the ring. As they share the common experience on the journey, they develop their friendship and overcome the strained relations between their races. The battle of the Hornburg, a comedy scene where Legolas and Gimli have an entertaining competition, counting the numbers of orcs they defeat, effectively shows that they cements their friendship by admitting each other as great warriors (Thordarson).

Gimli asks, “Forty-two, Master Legolas!...How is it with you?” (Tolkien 566). Legolas gives congratulations and teasing yet warm comment by replying, “You have passed my score by one…But I do not grudge you the game, so glad am I to see you on your legs” (Tolkien 566). Not only in the Middle-earth, but also in the real world, the racial issues, racism and discriminations, are one of the most serious global issues. Such hatred often comes from the strife in their history, similar to the case of Legolas and Gimli. An article points the severe relationship between Japan and neighbor countries by saying, “conflicting idea about history are becoming an increasingly intractable problem between japan and its neighbors” (Shiraishi). However, the story of these two characters suggests that racial conflict can be solved with understanding and forgiveness. People can communicate, cooperate, and collaborate, regardless of racial stereotype or bitter history. The author successfully shows this theme through the two characters.

In the Lord of the Rings, villains play an important role of portraying the message of how greed can negatively change people. Gollum and Saruman are the examples of it who shows their changes from moral characters to the greediest villains. The ring stimulates their greed and turns them into evil characters. Gollum is originally a peaceful hobbit. Once he witnesses his friend finding the ring, Gollum's ego awakes. He cannot control his hunger for the ring and finally murders his friend. The influence of the ring clearly appears on his physical appearance as well; he becomes gaunt and sickly pale light. Readers hardly imagine that he is at first a good hobbit.

Saruman is also depicted as a cunning character who uses violent magic in order to get the ring.

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At the beginning of the story, he is the most respected wizard, wise and moral wizard thus called "White wizard". However, strong power of the ring fascinates even Saruman. His ambition for domination of the whole world turns him into a vicious wizard. At the end of the story, he is tragically casted out of the wizards council and finally murdered. He loses his dignity, respect and finally his life. Just as his name, Saruman, "searu-"means "treachery" in Anglo-Saxon English, he becomes betrayer (Stanton). From these two characters, the author conveys a moral lesson that excess of greed is uncontrollable and it eventually leads to self-destruction.

The story includes the author’s message that one’s ability or value cannot be judged by his/her outward appearance alone. Frodo, a hobbit, plays a significant role demonstrating it.

Hobbits are peaceful race that prefer farming and socializing to adventures. The most featured characteristic of them is their physical size; noticeably short in height. Therefore they are assumed of Elves and Dwarves as insignificant and powerless (Thordarson). At first, Frodo struggles with physical difference between other fellows in a dangerous tough journey. As he goes through many difficulties, he proves, not physical strength, but his mental strength. Under any circumstance, he never abandons the journey even after the loss of Gandalf. He never loses himself even when facing the seduction of he rings, or have fear on the battle against fierce enemies. His braveness is unlike to his appearance. As there is a say, “do not judge a book by its cover”, a book with a plain cover and simple title might be more important, more entertaining than a book with decorated cover. This metaphoric idea can be extended to people. Small can be powerful. Young can be wise. Frodo symbolizes the theme that judgment on one's ability by external appearance is not reliable.

Lord of the Rings, the world-famous fantasy and J.R Tolkien's masterpiece is not just a story of adventures. The story is full of moral lessons and messages which readers can extend to their life situations and learn from it; especially friendship over the race, influence of greed, and unreliability of judgment based on appearance. These themes create more in-depth and interesting story which entertains all the generation. Lord of the Rings is just the tip of the iceberg. Tolkien’s other work, The children of Hurin is settled in the time long before The Lord of the Rings, when before hobbits appears. Then The Hobbits is the story of Bilbo Baggins, the grandfather of Frodo.

For further understanding of Tolkien’s mythology, The Silmarilion, the story of the creation of the universe and the destruction of the Two Trees, may be necessary. Moreover, the size of iceberg is understood from the book, The History of Middle-earth, which is a twelve volume series of books. Yet, these are only parts of Tolkien’s work. J.R. Tolkien's world is enormous and still unfathomable.

WORKS CITED Shiraishi, Takashi. “The History Issue Clouding Japan’s Relations with Its Neighbors”. nippon.com. May 31, 2013. Web. Stanton, Michael N. Hobbits, Elves, and Wizards. Palagrave, 2001.

Thordarson, Magnus Orn. “The Theme of Friendship in J.R.R.Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings”.

Skemman. May 2012. Web. Tolkien, J.R.R. The Return of the King: being the third part of The Lord of the Rings. London: Harper Collins, 1984. Print.

“The Lord of the Rings”. Tolkien The Official Online Book Shop. Web. The Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring. Dir. Peter Jackson. New Line Cinema, 2001. Film.

The Lord of the Rings The Two Towers. Dir. Peter Jackson. New Line Cinema, 2002. Film.

The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King. Dir. Peter Jackson. New Line Cinema, 2003. Film.

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Spring 2014

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TWO MAIN CHARACTERS, FRODO AND ARAGORN In Lord of the Rings, Frodo Baggins is the main character, and it seems that he is the only one protagonist. However, it is not true. Alexis Levitin says in his book that two protagonists, Aragorn, who is the brave and extraordinary one in epics, and Frodo, who is the quiet one in fairy tales, coexist in Lord of the Rings (Levitin 25-37). In short, there are two main characters, and their characteristics are not the same. We can say that Frodo is the object of empathy, so readers see the Middle-earth from his point of view. On the other hand, Aragorn is the object of respect and idol of all men. Possibly, women fall in love with him like the lady Éowyn. This paper explains the difference between two main characters, Frodo and Aragorn by focusing on their situation: first, their blood lineage and behavior, second, their travel and end of their lives.

Frodo’s blood lineage is not good, and his behavior in the Shire, a region inhabited by Hobbits, is unusual. In contrast, Aragorn’s blood lineage is really good, and he behaves like a king. According to Jane Chance, Frodo’s mother is descended from people around the Old Forest, which is hated by Hobbits, so it is thanks to his uncle, Bilbo that he is accepted in Shire (76). His parents are died when he was young, and he became an orphan. After that Bilbo adopted him as his son. Therefore, although Frodo seems to be descended from good blood lineage, it is not true.

With regard to behavior in Shire, he should be as normal as possible for not to be seen as different from others. Bilbo and he have a talent as a leader, but they cannot show that. This is due to the fact that to be the same means intimateness and safeness, and to be different means a stranger and danger (Chance 65-70). As for Aragorn, he is descended from Isildur, who was the king of Gondor.

His father is died when he was 2 years old, but he was fostered by an elf as if he was his own son (Aragorn). From the view point of being an orphan, Frodo and Aragorn are in the same situation.

However, Frodo is brought up not to be a leader, and Aragorn is brought up to be a leader. Aragorn behaves as a special leader in the Battle of the Hornburg. In this battle, their army is almost beaten, and soldiers abandon their victory. In this situation, he never gives up victory and encourages them. We can see his unbending spirit in this scene. Judging from these facts, we can say that Frodo is not a special man, but a usual man, and Aragorn is special man.

Frodo’s travel starts by being given and comes to an end by losing. On the other hand, Aragorn’s travel starts naturally and comes to an end with his precious things. Frodo is given the One Ring, which was made by Sauron, at his 50th birthday. The owner of the ring has to go to the quest. This quest is not just a gift, it is the best opportunity to be mature as hero (Chance 73-74).

Through this quest, Frodo has gradually developed as a person. Lin Carter says in his book that Frodo is a peculiar protagonist, and becomes a hero through his hard experience, so we can easily feel empathy for him (134-135). Frodo deals with his task as if it was proper and takes on shoulder a big emotional burden. He can share the burden only with his friend Sam. These two facts are the reason why we feel sympathy for him. At the end of Lord of the Rings, he throws away the ring in magma and destroys it. In addition, he is still so wounded by carrying the ring after the war that he leaves Shire and goes to Valinor, where he does not worry about his wound (Frodo).

As for Aragorn, he accompanies the sons of Elrond on their journeys during his life with elves (Aragorn). This is the start of his travel. He always has a gift as a hero during his life, but he cannot show that because there is dangerous of death if he shows his lineage. Carter says like the

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following. Aragorn is of course a perfect patriotic hero. His background and lineage is unclear like King Arthur, but later it is clarified that he is descended from kings (Carter 134-135).

Additionally, Aragorn deals with his task as a hardship and overcomes it. He shares his hardship with many people and people around him help him to overcome it. These two facts are the reason why we adore him. At the end of Lord of the Rings, he gets married to Arwen, his sweetheart, and rules the Reunited Kingdom of Gondor and Arnor for 122 years, and dies after 210 years of life (Aragorn). To sum up, he gets everything he wants and keeps them in his life. These facts above are the reason why we feel sympathy for Frodo and adoration for Aragorn.

In conclusion, Frodo and Aragorn are not the same in their situation, and readers see Frodo as an object of empathy and Aragorn as that of adoration. They have same background as an orphan, but totally they are different. That is to say, Frodo has not known that he becomes a leader until he starts his journey, and perhaps he does not consider him as a leader. However, Aragorn has known that he is descended from kings, and perhaps he foresees that he will be the king. Generally, people want to be a special, respected, adored person, but it is not easy to become such a person. Therefore readers feel sympathy for Frodo while want to be like Aragorn. It is because Frodo and Aragorn are totally different that they can accept one another and be outstanding each other. This may be one of the reasons why Lord of the Rings becomes such a popular story around the world.

WORKS CITED “Aragorn – Tolkien Gateway” Aragorn – Tolkien Gateway. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 July. 2014.

Carter, Lin. Tolkien: A Look Behind The Lord of the Rings. Trans. Hiroshi Aramata. Tokyo: Kadokawashoten, 2002. Print.

Chance, Jane. Lord of the Rings: The Mythology of Power. Trans. Akemi Itsuji. Tokyo: Hayakawashobou, 2003. Print.

“Frodo – Tolkien Gateway” Frodo – Tolkien Gateway. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 July. 2014.

Levitin, Alexis. The Hero in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Ed. J.T. Hansen. Tolkien Paper. Mankato: Mankato State College, 1967. Print.

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Spring 2014

THE TRUE PROTAGONIST OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS According to Dictionary.com, protagonist means "the leading character, hero, or heroine of a drama or other literary work." That is, heroism is the important element for protagonist. In The Lord of the Rings, which is the most famous fantasy story in the world, there are many heroic characters, for example, Frodo, Sam, Gandalf and so on and Frodo is known as the main character.

But from many incidents, it seems that the most heroic character is Aragorn, therefore, the true protagonist of The Lord of the Rings is the most heroic figure, Aragorn.

"A person, typically a man, who is admired for their courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities" is the definition of the hero in Oxford Dictionaries. This means, courage, outstanding achievements, and superb personality is the big three conditions for a hero.

According to Gregory Basshman, a professor of King’s college, and Eric Bronson, a professor of York University, “Aragorn is a role model of courage, independence, and commitment.” Aragorn always acted as a leader of a party and led and cheered his fellowship after his friend teacher Gandalf died. He nearly wiped out Saruman’s army at the battle of the Hornburg, saved Gondor at the battle of Pellennor Field, and moreover decided to fight for Frodo despite there being much possibility of loss at the battle in front of Black gate of Mordor. These actions mean nothing other than great courage.

Of course other characters overcame many difficulties with their bravery, but that of Aragorn was beyond comparison. British literary critic Angie Errigo said that “Aragorn has endured a kind of exile but commits to the right side in a battle of good and evil” (144). She meant that Aragorn animated and led his company to triumph meanwhile he fought with his own unfortunate destiny, such as disturbed love with Arwen. From these, it can be said that Aragorn is the bravest man in The Lord of the Rings.

With such great courage, Aragorn made many outstanding achievements in this story. As seen from the above, he led his colleague and won many wars against the side of Sauron. This is because Aragorn boosted his fellows' morale and guide them to the right decisions. In Gondor, Aragorn tried to make Theoden, the king of Rohan, fight against large number of Orks. And another thing, he won Men of the Mountains in Paths of the Dead over to his side, and brought victory to Gondor. It is clear that from these efforts of him, Aragorn and his fellows could win Sauron. Sauron was one of the evilest existence to Middle-earth, so his achievement that defeated Sauron was the most important one to the world. So, Aragorn’s achievement was the biggest one of fellowship of the ring.

These triumphs are already extraordinary achievements but add to this, in the end, he became the King of Middle-earth. David Harvey, a researcher of Tolkien, mentions that “Aragorn seeks his heritage as King of the Middle-earth, and to re-establish the Númenórean realms in exile and bring to Middle-earth the blessing of enlightened rule and order” (81). From the historical facts, there have been quite little number of good kings or leaders in this world and most of their evaluations from citizens were not so good and it is rare case that leaders were well backed and treated as hero. To govern big realm without losing piece is not so easy, and as clear from Errigo’s words that Aragorn is “wise and something like a Norse King Arthur,” Aragorn was really good

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king (152). King is only one in a country, so becoming king means the person made the greatest achievement in the country. From these things, it can be said that Aragorn made outstanding achievements and that surpassed those of his fellows.

Being able to govern Middle-earth peacefully means not only he was a good king but also he had superb quality of personality. As clear from his fights, Aragorn never lost hope even if he was in terrible adversity, and this indicates that he had really strong and superior mental. For example, Errigo pointed out that “Aragorn tells Frodo he has no interest in the Ring” (15). This must have brought about relief Frodo. Usual men, such as Boromir, are attracted and defeated by Sauron’s ring and once they are in such situation, it is really hard to keep their mind reasonable.

But Aragorn was different from ordinary men. He understood ring’s awful power sufficiently, and contact with Frodo with the greatest care in fear of be hung up by the ring and hurt Frodo.

He therefore fulfilled his role that protect and help Frodo without any accident.

In addition to this, he loved Arwen, a beautiful Elf woman, with all his heart. Aragorn was sheltered in Rivendel and raised by Arwen’s father Elrond after his father’s death. When he became twenty years old, he met Arwen and they loved each other, but Elrond did not allow their marriage until Aragorn became a king, so Aragorn traveled around many places as a strider to be a king. Then he joined the fellowship of the Ring, and experienced many things. During the journey, even if he met attractive woman (Eowyn) he kept on loving Arwen. At last, Aragorn became a king and married her. There were no one continues love or think about one person for a so long time like Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings, so this is evidence that he has the most sublime quality.

As is clear from these descriptions, Aragorn is brave, rendered distinguished service, and have a noble personality and this and those of him exceed those of any other characters in the story. From this, it can be said that Aragorn is the best hero, and it proves that the protagonist of The Lord of the Rings. He always led his fellows to the right way and contributed to the victory of Middle-earth in large part, so there is no question that he is the main character.

WORKS CITED Basshman, Gregory, and Bronson, Eric. The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule them All. Chicago: Carus Publishing Company, 2003. Print.

Errigo, Anfie. The rough guide to the Lord of the Rings. London: Penguin Books, 2003 Print.

Harvey, David. The Song of Middle-earth: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Themes, Symbols, and Myths.

London: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 1985. Print.

“Hero.” Def.1. Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. 2014. Web. 6 July 2014. <www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/hero> “Protagonist.” Def.1. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, LLC. 2014. Web. 6 July 2014. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/protagonist?s=t >

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Spring 2014

THE ROLE OF THREE FEMALE CHARACTERS IN THE LORD OF THE RINGS The Lord of the Rings are the book series written by J. R. R. Tolkien. The series are read by all over the world. In the text, there are so many characters, however, the number of female is few though it is the tale of the fight over the rings and the power. Actually, some critics blamed Tolkien to made few female characters and gave them stereotypical roles. Terri Windling wrote “I saw that there was no place for me, a girl, on Frodo’s quest” (226). Jes Battis said “women are not given easy identities to inhabit within The Lord of the Rings, and many are stereotyped to the point of excess” (Enlight 173). Tolkien was a member of the Inklings, which was the informal community its members were mainly Christian writers such as himself and C. S. Lewis, and scholars (Rosebury 141). Candice Frederic mentioned the circle was blatantly sexist (Enlight 172).

Although, females characters play important roles in the story. In this essay, I am going to focus on three females, Arwen, Galadriel, Eowyn, examine what roles they had in the Lord of the Rings and consider about what Tolkien wanted to mean with it.

First of all, I want to look at Arwen and her role. She is an Elf, who fell in love with Aragorn. She was an elf, so she was immortal. She decided to give up her eternal life because Aragorn have to die someday. However, her father, Elrond tried to persuade her not to do such a thing many times. Her choice to throw out her immortal life for love was suggestive of Christ. In other words, her action was encatastroph (Enlight 175). Eucatastrophe is the word created by Tolkien. It means the turning point that ensure the lead character from terrible events. Tragedy was the purest to Tolkien in regard to the drama, however, in terms of the fairy story, the purest form was the antithesis of tragedy (Noel 9). When Arwen and Aragorn fell in love each other, her father forbade to marry untill Aragorn get the kingship. This episode seems to be influenced by Tolkien’s own experience. Tolkien was raised by a priest, Father Francis Xavier Morgan after his mother died. He attended to King Edward’s School and came up against Edith Bratt, an orphan who lived in the lodging-house same with him. However, their romance was broken by Father Francis. Tolkien was prohibited to have contacts with her three years. After that, he wrote a letter to her and got a reply that she engaged with another man, so he went in haste to her home to get her back. Ultimately they got married and their marriage last fifty-five years, until her death (Rosebury 137). In the Lord of the Rings, Elrond have a role of Father Francis. Finally, Aragorn and Arwen married same as Tolkien himself.

Next, I am going to examine about Galadriel, the lady of the Golden Wood, the grandmother of Arwen. (Enlight 174). She was mysterious Elf-queen and she was one of the bearer of the Elven Rings. When Frodo and the fellowship of the journey reached Lothlórien, she welcomed them and gave each of the company gifts with some pieces of advice. Those gifts were simple at first sight, but it help the owners in the course of their journey. For instance, Elvencloaks hid them from their foes more than once, the clasp of cloaks helped Pippin and his rescue from Uruk-hai, the bow of Galadhrim which was gave to Legolas used to shot the winged horse of a Nazgûl, and a magical phial which Frodo received helped to beat Shelob, the giant spider living in the mountain of border Mordor back (Noel 119). These events look like encatastrophe.

Elves in the Middle-earth such as Arwen and Galadriel use the Elvish language, Quenya and

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Sindarin. These came up from Tolkien’s mother, Mabel Tolkien’s teaching of Latin at first (Rosebury 137).

Third, Eowyn is focused on. She is the niece of Théoden, the king of Rohan. When the warriors of Rohan faced the situation of fight with Saruman’s troops, she said many times that she wants to fight with them. However, everyone persuade her not to go off to the war. Males tell her that the war is men’s thing and she can say such a thing because she has no experience of the war. She told to govern Rohan instead of Théoden, but actually, she followed the warriors to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields by using an alias Dernhelm (Tolkien 787). At the battle, a Witchking of Angmar, the chieftain of Nazgûl appeared and Théoden is confronted with a crisis situation. At the same moment, Dernhelm came to help Théoden. The Witch-king of Angmar declared that “No living man may hinder me!” Dernhelm laughed and replied “But no living man am I! You look upon a woman. Éowyn I am” (Tolkien 823). She finally defeated the Black Rider.

After the death of the Nazgûl, she hurted and did not move, therefore thought to die. However, she was still alive. This course of story is associated with eucatastrophe. The most fulfilling form of eucatastrophe was denial of death to Tolkien (Noel 9). He would like to tell people that the important point is to believe whether it is brief or half in doubt that the death can be denied, which he got the idea from some pieces of old lore and mythology (Noel 10). Denial of death was also exemplified by Gandalf. He rose from the death to accomplish his quest (Noel 27).

As seen above, there are some examples about females’ archetypal roles and change of them in the story. They each have important roles to help the fellowship. Tolkien gave above three female characters encatastroph role in the story. They did not play the roles of just waiting men who went to fight. He often blamed by the less number of female in the story, but it seems that he did not think female are completely inferior than male or women should make homes and should not fight. In conclusion, it is an over-interpretation to read his books at the point of gender discrimination. Tolkien did not have particular meaning to made few female characters in his works.

WORKS CITED Enlight, Nancy. “Tolkien’s Females and the Defining of Power” The Lord of the Rings: New Edition. Bloom, Harold, ed. Infobase Publishing, 2008.

Noel, Ruth S. The Mythology of Middle-Earth Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. 1977.

Rosebury, Brian. Tolkien: A Cultural Phenomenon. Palgrave Macmillan Ltd, 2003.

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Return of the king: Being the Third Part of the Lord of the Rings.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012.

Windling, Terri. “On Tolkien and Fairy-Stories” Meditations on Middle-Earth. Haber, Karen, ed. St. Martin’s Press, 2001.

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Spring 2014

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN J.R.R. TOLKIEN AND C.S. LEWIS This paper will show the relationship between J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. At first they were good friend and they liked each other. But gradually their relation had gone cold. The reason why their friendship broke up seems to be a difference in their religion. J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis met at Oxford University. Both of them were a professor of Oxford. They became familiar soon as they spent the morning drinking a beer every Tuesday. And also they were the members of the Inklings. The Inklings was an informal literary discussion group associated with Oxford University. The purpose of meeting is to read and discuss the member’s unfinished works.

The Lord of the Rings is one of the novels first read to Inklings. Tolkien and Lewis spent a long time together as an Inklings member. But gradually Tolkien came to treat Lewis coldly. When Lewis noticed the fact, he got depressed because of Tolkien’s change of mind. The main reason why their friendship broke up is said to be a difference in religion (Tanase 86). There was a deep rift between them in the way of thinking about religion.

Tolkien was born in a Baptist family. Baptist is one sect of Protestant. And Baptist think baptism should be performed only for adult because children cannot understand Christianity yet.

His family was Baptist but Tolkien was an enthusiastic Catholic. That is because his mother changed her religion though her relative’s opposed to her. So Tolkien and his mother were expelled from their family. Four years after his mother died and Tolkien became an orphan. So he was taken by a Catholic priest who had a close relationship with his mother and brought up by him. After her death, Tolkien thought his mother died for her faith. Her death and the existence of the priest seem to have a great influence on his religious belief. By reasons of these two events, Tolkien came to believe Christianity enthusiastically. And his belief seems to be unsophisticated because Tolkien was Catholic since he was young. Therefore a prayer was most important thing to him. He did not care whether the bible is reasonable or not (Tanase 84).

On the other hand, C.S. Lewis was an atheist. He valued the bible and cared whether the bible is reasonable or not. That’s because he believed God does not exist until he met Tolkien.

His family belonged to Church of Ireland. But when he was 14 years old, he became not to believe God. So when Lewis met Tolkien, he was an atheist. But Lewis was influenced by Tolkien who was an enthusiastic catholic. Gradually Lewis came to believe the existence of God. But it was the Church of England he decided to belong to. For Tolkien it was an unpleasant thing because Tolkien disliked Church of England as a Catholic. Moreover Lewis thought the bible was most important thing because it justified Christianity intellectually. On the contrary Tolkien thought a prayer is most important thing. Like this they were different in the way of thinking about religion.

Next is how their works appeared in their works. In Tolkien's the Lord of the Rings, there are some elements of religion. For example, Gandalf can be called Jesus Christ. Gandalf dies after his fighting with Barlog at the bridge of Khazad-Dum. But he rises from the dead and changes from the Gray to the White, just as Jesus Christ rises again. (Okada 55) Furthermore, Gandalf plays the role of the leader. Gandalf leads Frodo to destroy the ring. Frodo cannot destroy the ring without his help. Also Frodo can be called Jesus Christ. It is Frodo who bears the ring and saves middle-earth from evil just as Christ bears the cross to save mankind from sin. Moreover he goes

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through the waste land with temptation of the Ring, like Jesus is led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Okada 56). Like this, in this work we can find some elements of Christianity. Tolkien himself said the Lord of the Rings was basically religious and Catholic work (Tanase 84). But at the same time, he also said he did it unconsciously (Tanase 84).

He wrote the Lord of the Rings as a religious work but it was not intentionally he include it.

C.S. Lewis is the author of the Chronicles of Narnia. After he became to believe Christianity, he wrote many theological books like the screwtape letters and miracles. After that he wrote the Chronicles of Narnia from 1950 to 1956. So it seems to be one of the theological works. For example Takada says Aslan which is main character of this work can be called Jesus Christ. Aslan is the creator of Narnia. He creates Narnia just as God creates the world. And Aslan is worshiped in Narnia as God. In addition, Aslan dies in substitute for a betrayer. In the story, he died to save Edmond who betrayed him just as Jesus Christ died instead for mankind. But there is a magic in Narnia that the person who died instead of someone can revive. So Aslan can revive in the same as Jesus Christ. For another example Narnia can be said the kingdom of God (Takada).

In this story, only children can go into Narnia. Main characters also cannot go into Narnia as they grow up. This is the quotation from Gospel of Mark. “I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it”. (Mark 10:15) In the same way, Narnia is the place only children can enter. Therefore Narnia seems to show the kingdom of God. Like this we can find some elements of religion in this work. Lewis himself said he wrote Narnia to make the idea of Christianity easy to understand for children. (Okada 84) So Lewis put some elements of religion into the Chronicles of Narnia intentionally.

Tolkien wrote the Lord of the Rings as religious work unconsciously. Lewis wrote the Chronicles of Narnia to make the idea of Christianity easy to understand. And Tolkien was a Catholic and valued a prayer. Lewis belonged to Church of England and valued the bible. Their attitude for their works seems to connect with the one for their religion. There is a great difference in their way of thinking about religion. So the great difference of religion broke up their friendship.

Tolkien seems not to be able to accept the difference between them. If Lewis had been Catholic, their friendship would have lasted.

WORKS CITED Okada Rika. “Theology in the Lord of the Rings”. Journal of Kogakuin University. Kogakuin University. Vol46-1. 49-62. Print.

English Standard Version. Salem, 2014. BibleGateway.2 July 2014. Web. Takada Kei. "The Chronicles of Narnia the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" Christian Culture and the Bible which can be Seen in the Movie.2 July 2014. Web. < http://movies-bible.seesaa.net/category/5927638-1.html.> Tanase Enya.” C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien —Faith and Works”. Journal of Hokusei Jr Col. Hokusei Gakuin University.Vol38.81-87.2002. Print.

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THE MYTHOLOGY IN THE LORD OF THE RINGS AND NARNIA Both The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia are long, deep stories. Each of the settings, languages and characters have meanings. The authors, J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, were working together in the same literature group and they were good friends. Since they learned together, they kind of had same ideas and influenced each other’s work. I would like to compare their master piece and find the similarities and differences, and think about how they effected on their stories.

Both Tolkien’s Middle-Earth and Lewis’s Narnia are imagined world. There are many species in the worlds and ruled by their own authorities. However, both of them are fantasy novel, they are a little bit different though. The Lord of the Rings is categorized as high-fantasy, while The Chronicles of Narnia is just a fantasy. The difference between the high-fantasy and fantasy is simple. Fantasy novels usually have two worlds, human’s world and the other world that magical creatures live. They are kind of parallel world like Narnia. In Narnia, a White Witch, speaking-animals, Minotaurs, Centaurs and other magical animals live, and the four children, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy from the normal world, the world the readers live, go into Narnia.

Narnia is not a place that was created in the children’s minds, it surely exists. Like this, two worlds exist in the fantasy novels. On the other hand, high-fantasy does not have these two worlds. The world characters live is the only world that exists. In the Middle-Earth, there are many countries, but there is no parallel world. Although it is a human society or magical world, if the story goes on in one place, that is a high-fantasy (Pinner).

The clearest similarly in two books might be the Christianity. Tolkien and Lewis were both raised up in Christian families, so it is natural that they adopted the way of thinking from the Bible. They created characters that embody Jesus Christ in their book. In Tolkien’s case, that is Gandalf. When the fellowships of the ring were passing through a dark cave, they were attacked

by Balrog. It is a strong creature and the fellows hardly fought back, and even Gandalf the Grey struggled. There, he confronts Balrog alone and falls into an abyss in order to save his friends. He sacrificed himself in this way. He did not technically die like Christ, but he went through a hardship and came back again. And the Christ-like character in Lewis’s book is Aslan. He was executed by the White Witch instead of Edmund even though the blame was not on him. He literary sacrificed his own life in order to save the other. This is what the Jesus Christ did according to the Bible. And he rose up again too. These two characters became more sacred and important after they revived. It cannot be doubted that the authors imitated the Bible.

The Judas appears in the books too. Boromir is Judas in The Lord of the Rings, and in The Chronicles of Narnia, it is Edmund. Boromir is a good man that loves his country a lot. His mission was to protect Frodo and help him destroy the ring. However, he was haunted and possessed by the ring and attacked Frodo to get the ring. It could be said that he “betrayed” Frodo.

Edmund is more selfish. He was fascinated by the taste of Turkish Delight, and since he was an adolescent boy and was rebellious to his elder brother, he was enchanted by the Witch’s entice, “You can be the King.” While he was heading to the Stone Table with his brother and sisters, they stopped by at Biebers’ house, but he sneaked out from there.

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The points that were written above were all similar points, but lastly, I would like to write about the difference. It is the way punishing Judas. In The Lord of the Rings, Boromir was killed

by Uruk-hai. He was shot by an arrow and died in pain. On the contrast, in The Chronicles of Narnia, Edmund did not die. He was saved by Aslan and forgiven by everyone even though he had Aslan be killed once and exposed Aslan’s people to danger. Moreover, he became the king of Narnia at the end.

This difference comes from the authors ideas about the relation between books and the Christianity. In Lewis’s book, the element of the Christianity is clear, but in Tolkien’s book, it is hidden. When Lewis started to write the book, he added some ideas of the Christianity to the story.

But Tolkien did not write the book in the same way as Lewis did, and he realized that his book contained these elements after he finished writing it (Tanase 84). Lewis seems more passionate about the Christianity. In Lewis’s theory, the world that is atoned by the death of Jesus Christ is already a kingdom of Gods. Aslan is the creator of Narnia, and at the same time, he is the king of Narnia. And if he is in a role of Christ, Narnia is the sacred place too. So, the pain and difficulty that people have in Narnia is given by Aslan on purpose, in order to guide them. And if these hardships are given by evil, the evil would be punished and atoned by the evil themselves.

Edmund was not completely evil since he regretted and shamed what he did and changed his mind, and because of that, he was given a chance to change. His way of writing seems based on an idea “rewarding good and punishing evil”, the typical pattern of the poetic justice. But Tolkien’s idea is unlike Lewis. He seems more realistic. Boromir regretted and ashamed of himself attacking Frodo, and furthermore, helped him although he knew it was so dangerous, but he died. Tolkien created the Middle-Earth as a Secondary World of ours and sub-creation, so it is reflecting our unreasonable matters. He thought, this is the real world and it is a beauty of people that to live without depending on a god with courage and hope even if the reality is so harsh for us. (Honda 157) As I wrote above, there is a difference between them how to express their own ideas about Christianity in the book, and the storylines and endings are showing their concept of the settings.

WORKS CITED Honda Mineko, "C・S・Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia and J・R・R・Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings", Journal of Gakusyuinjoshi Jr. Col, 32 (1994): 148-159, web Okada Rika, " Theology in The Lord of the Rings" Journal of Kogakuin University, 46 (2008): 49-62, web Pinner, Richard. “The Lord of the Rings.” Sophia University, Tokyo. 24 June 2013. Lecture.

Tanase Eriya, “C.S.Lewis and J.R.R.Tolkien-Faith and Works”, Journal of Hokusei Jr. Col., 38, (2002) :81-87, web Tolkien J.R.R, The Lord of the Rings The Fellowships of the Ring, Tokyo :Hyoronsya, 2002, Print

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IN DEPTH ARTICLE: THE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN FINNISH AND QUENYA There are many languages in the world and each language is classified as a language family. For example, Finnish is one of the Finno-Ugric languages, which is composed of Estonian, Hungarian, Finnish and so forth. Meanwhile, Quenya has not been classified because it is an artificial language created by J.R.R. Tolkien. For this reason, seemingly there might be no connection between Finnish and Quenya. However, there is strong relationship between these two languages because there are similarities in terms of vocabulary, grammar and phonology.

First of all, the reason why Tolkien decided to Finnish is that once he started to study Finnish, it stimulated and spurred him to read the original Finnish works (West 285). In fact, he had read Kalevala, which is a traditional epic in Finland, as a translation. It is usually said that when someone translates one language to another, something must be lost even though it is subtle.

However, Tolkien did not think in that way; on the contrary, he thought that since even the translated version is very interesting, the original one must be even more interesting (West 285).

Therefore, although Finnish is so complicated to learn, he managed to do in order to satisfy his intellectual curiosity.

First, vocabulary in Quenya is similar to that in Finnish. When Tolkien created Quenya, he loaned the words in Finnish (Carpenter 94). There are two patterns in loanwords in Quenya: one is a set of words which have similar meaning to Finnish words, the other is what have different meaning from the original words. For instance, there are such words as, “anta- in Quenya means ‘give’ and antaa in Finnish means ‘give’; kulda in Quenya ‘golden-red,’ kulta in Finnish ‘gold’; lapse ‘babe,’ lapsi ‘child’; rauta ‘metal,’ rauta ‘iron’ and tie ‘path,’ tie ‘road’.” (Rautala) This first pattern shows that Tolkien borrowed these words directly from Finnish into Quenya without changing the meaning of the words. Next, the other pattern is the following: there are such words as, “amme in Quenya means ‘mother’ and amme in Finnish means ‘bathtub’; arka in Quenya ‘narrow,’ arka in Finnish ‘shy’; harya- ‘possess,’ harja ‘a brush’; poika ‘clean,’ poika ‘boy’ and Vala ‘God,’ vala ‘oath’.” (Rautala) This second pattern shows that Tolkien borrowed words from Finnish, after he changed the meaning of the words. It is said that since Finnish influenced the invention of Quenya, there are large numbers of Finnish words (Perälä). Consequently, in the spellings and meaning of these words above, it seems that there are some connections between Finnish and Quenya. There is also relationship between these two languages in the names in the Tolkien’s world. For instance, Ilmarin in Quenya means ‘the mansion of Manwe [the Finnish god of winds]’ and this is similar to these words in Finnish: ilma for ‘air’ and Ilmarinen for ‘a Finnish god in the Kalevala’ (Perälä). Therefore, as Tolkien says, “It is clear that the Kalevala made a deep impression, both in its ‘queer language’ and in its ‘glimpse of an entirely different mythological world’.” (Tolkien 87, 345), there must be similarities between Finnish and Quenya words.

Grammar of Quenya is also similar to that of Finnish. Both of them have complicated grammar, especially inflections. It is said that Finnish strongly affected the Quenya grammar (McWhorter). Besides, Tolkien himself once said, “It [Finnish grammar] was like discovering a complete wine-cellar filled with bottles of an amazing wine of kind and flavor never tasted before.

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It quite intoxicated me…” (Tolkien 214) For example, there are fifteen cases in total in Finnish: nominative, genitive, accusative, partitive, inessive, elative, illative, adessive, ablative, allative, essive, translative, instructive, abessive and comitative (Korpela). On the other hand, there are ten cases in total in Quenya: nominative, accusative, dative, genitive, possessive, locative, allative, ablative, instrumental and respective (“The Structure of Quenya”). For example, talo, which means ‘a house’ in Finnish, inflects by adding various suffixes: talon ‘of a house’, taloksi ‘to a house’, talossa ‘in a house,’ etc. (Korpela). On the other hand, cirya, which means ‘a ship’ in Quenya, also changes: ciryava ‘of a ship,’ ciryanna ‘to a ship,’ ciryassë ‘in a ship,’ etc. (“The Structure of Quenya”). Even though the form of suffixes are different, it is quite similar how words inflect. In addition, how to make numerals is very similar. In Finnish, for example, the following are a part of numerals: kaksikymmentä ’20,’ kolmekymmentä ’30,’ neljäkymmentä ’40,’ etc. (Yoshida 162). In Quenya, for example, yucainen means ‘20’, nelcainen ‘30’, cancainen ’40’ (“Quenya numbering rules”). It might seem that these words are not similar, but the structure is very similar. As an instance, neljäkymmentä can be separated into neljä and kymmentä. Neljä means ‘4’ and kymmentä does ’10,’ so four and ten combine to create forty, that is, neljäkymmentä.

In Quenya, also, cancainen can be divided into canta and cainen. Canta means ‘4’ and cainen does ’10,’ so like Finnish, canta and cainen combine to create cancainen. Therefore, even though the word itself is different, how to make numerals is the same, so there is a connection from the perspective of grammar.

Finally, phonology of Quenya is also similar to that of Finnish. In both Quenya and Finnish, vowel appears very frequently (Perälä). These words are this example: yulma ‘a cup,’ varna ‘safe’ and lunga ‘heavy’ in Quenya (Fauskanger); sillä ‘because,’ päivä ‘day’ and asema ‘station.’ In addition, Finnish and Quenya does not allow the final letter of a word to be a consonant except “n, t, s, r and l, which are dental consonants” (Tikka).In addition to this, there is a rule of “consonant clusters,” which means the first letter of a word should not be successive consonant, but one consonant (Tikka). In other words, most words start with one consonant words and end in vowels as the examples above shows. Lastly, this similarities are said by Tolkien himself that the language which he created “became heavily Finnicized in Phonetic pattern and structure” (Tolkien 214). Additionally, the author, West, says, “This influence [that Finnish phonetic pattern affected Tolkien’s artificial languages] is particularly strong on Quenya, the classical or ‘high’ language of Tolkien’s Elves” (286). Accordingly, there are similarities between Finnish and Quenya from the viewpoint of phonology.

In conclusion, there are similarities in vocabulary, grammar and phonology in Finnish and Quenya. Of course, sometimes it might be said that some similarities between them are just a coincidence. However, considering from the things abovementioned, it must be true that Finnish is similar to Quenya because it is also said that even though Tolkien actually studied other languages, Finnish was obviously the main resource in his inspirations (West 286).

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WORKS CITED

Essays

Carpenter, Humphrey. Tolkien: A Biography. London: George Allen and Unwin; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1977. Print.

Fauskanger, Helge K. “Quenya – English.” ambar-eldaron.com, August 25 2008. Web. July 14 2014. Korpela, Jukka Yucca. “Cases in Finnish.” Human languages. IT and Communication, February 9 2012. Web. July 6 2014.

McWhorter, John. “Are Elvish, Klingon, Dothraki and Na’vi real languages?” TED Conferences, LLC. n.d Web. July 11 2014.

Perälä, Harri. “History of Quenya From Our Point of View.” Are High Elves Finno-Ugric? n.d.

Web. July 6 2014.

“Quenya numbering rules.” Of Languages and Numbers. n.d. Web. July 6 2014.

Rautala, Helena. "Familiarity and distance: Quenya's relation to Finnish." Scholarship & Fantasy: Proceedings of The Tolkien Phenomenon. Ed. K. J. Battarbee. n.d. Web. July 6 2014.

“The Structure of Quenya: A Brief Survey.” Quenya - the Ancient Tongue. n.d. Web. July 6 2014.

Tikka, Petri. “The Finnicization of Quenya.” oocities.org, n.d. Web. July 14 2014.

Tolkien, J.R.R. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Ed. Humphrey Carpenter with assistance from Christopher Tolkien. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1981; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1981; London: HarperCollins, 1995. Print.

West, Richard C. “Setting the Rocket off in Story: The Kalevala as the Germ of Tolkien’s Legendarium.” Tolkien and the Invention of Myth. Ed. Jane Chance. Kentucky: Kentucky UP, 2004. 285-294. Print.

Yoshida, Kingo. Finnish Grammar Handbook. Tokyo: Hakusuisya, 2010. Print.

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REACTION PIECES

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TED HUGHES AND SYLVIA PLATH: REACTION PIECE Y UI N AKAGAWA

Reaction Pieces

Ted Hughes, the husband of Sylvia Plath, is often accused of his wife’s death since he had an affair with other woman even though he was married. Some says he was a cold-hearted man, but according to the poem “The Minotaur”, it seems he was not that ruthless. I found some points, so I’d like to analyze them one by one.

“The mahogany table-top you smashed” in the first paragraph shows Ted had consideration for her and forgiveness to her, because the table was very important for him since he had been using the table at any time. And, in the third paragraph, there is a sentence “‘Marvelous!’ I shouted” and that indicates he was trying to accept Sylvia even when she was furious without reason. Moreover, he suggests her to use that energy to write poems instead. These sentences tell us that he had affection to endure her hysterics and supported her.

There is an argument if he felt sorry for her or not. Some says he did not since he got married another woman soon after her death. In the fourth paragraph, however, he implies that he felt the blame was on him too. “The goblin” means her depression, and he thought he had led the “goblin” to the Minotaur, her father. Her father, Otto was a taboo to her, so he must had been making effort to keep her away from him. It seems that she thought about her father too much while she was writing poems, and that became the trigger to make her mad. Maybe he found out that his action had her do that even though he did not mean to.

We can see his anger from this poem too. In the fifth paragraph and the last paragraph, he wrote “Left your children echoing”, “Left your mother a dead-end” and “Brought you to the horned, bellowing grave of your risen father and your own corpse in it”, and these seem to blaming Sylvia. She was angry at her father because he left her and died, but she did exactly the same thing to her own young children. Moreover, his death was because of illness but she killed herself, and that is more sinful. Her suicide made her mother very sad as well as her children and even Ted too. Sylvia, who cursed her own father for dying, finally got to the place she hated. He expressed that situation with the last sentence I wrote above. Like this, Ted was angry and I think the anger is the emotion when people face to others straight and think about them seriously. From this reason, I think Ted had faced his wife and at least liked her enough to write a poem about her.

There is no possibility to know how much we can believe what he wrote about her in this poem, but I think he was caring about her at least a bit. It is true that he did a wrong thing but it could be said he loved her for sure at the same time.

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“CROW” REACTION PIECE M ASAFUMI O GAWA Ted Hughes' Crow was very interesting book, but I had a lot of difficulty understanding the poems. For me, some resources were necessary to understand them. Understanding them was very hard, but once understood them I found they were very interesting.

In “Examination at the Womb-door,” I think it is interesting that the crow is superior to death (Hughes 15). Living creatures absolutely die someday, but Hughes describes that the crow does not die. He is stronger than death. My opinion is that the crow is the symbol of Hughes himself, so I can guess his idea. It is that Hughes had a sense of superior to the other people who criticize him by saying harsh words about the death of Sylvia Plath.

Mythological ideas are also interesting in Crow. In Integrated Skills class, I learned that Hughes used mythological ideas in the work. Most of men are interested in mythology, I think. I am one of the members, too. In “Crow's Fall,” the crow flies up to the sun in order to attack and defeat it, but at last he is burned out and falls down (Hughes 36). Reading this poem, I thought that the crow was similar with Icarus in Greek mythology. His father warned him but he ignored his father's warning. He flew unto the sun and finally fell down. In Greek mythology, Apollo the sun god loves a crow, but the crow tells the god that the god's lover loves another man. Then the crow is burned and becomes black. The crow and Icarus are similar with each other in that they are arrogant. As I mentioned in the second paragraph, I think that the crow is the symbol of Hughes himself. I do not clearly know that what the arrogance of the crow means, but I guess that Hughes possibly shows his apology to Plath through such an arrogance. The change of her mind of the sun's god is also similar with Hughes.

The fabrication of Christianity is what I was impressed by, too. In “Lineage,” the first three words are “In the beginning was Scream.” That is, God appears after the scream (Hughes 14). In the Old Testament, however, God is the Creator of all the things. In “Crow's First Lesson,” God teaches the crow hot to speak “Love,” but he cannot say it. Love is a very important concept in Christianity.

The English poem is not familiar with me. Even Japanese poem is not familiar with me.

But I learned from Crow that poems have the diversity of interpretation. I think that if a hundred people read one poem, there will be a hundred interpretations. The reason why I chose Crow was only because I was interested in mythology. But more research I did more interested I became in poetry.

While I read some resources, I encountered ones which were very difficult and I was not able to understand. The due of my research paper of Crow will come soon, but if I have time I want to study more about Crow and the resources of the work.

WORK CITED Hughes, Ted. Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow. London: The Riverside Press, 1976.

Print.

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TED HUGHES’S RELIGIOUS EYE S AYA F UKUDA

Reaction Pieces

There are many poets who write about God or Jesus Christ in his or her works by using some symbols representing those. But among others, Ted Hughes, one of the greatest English poets, used unique icons and expressions for implying his religious eye. “Crow’s Fall” and “Crow Blacker Than Ever” are his famous poems and of course those main character is crow. The first stanza of “Craw’s Fall,” “When Crow was white he decided the sun was too white… He decided to attack it and defeat it” makes us think of Lucifer, who thought he himself was apt for God and led a rebellion within God. And also, we associate Icarus with the expressions of “He aimed his beak direct at the sun’s centre.” The common point of Lucifer and Icarus is that they got close to God too much and faced the wrath of God. That is, Hughes used sun as a symbol of God and crow as a sinful being. On the other hand, Hughes set crow as Jesus Christ in “Crow Blacker Than Ever.” Many words such as “Crow nailed them (God and man) together, Nailing heaven and earth together” or “redemption” remind us of the Cross and Jesus Christ. But in this poem, crow, in other words, Christ is described as a tormentor of man. These indications with crow are unusual and seem representing Hughes’s unique religious outlook. It means he sees religion and its belief skeptically.

Hughes was a husband of Sylvia Plath, an unbalance woman having many difficulties with her life, and I think this may influence his unique religious idea. Their relationship was electric and they did damage each other. Hughes had affairs with other ladies, Sylvia got jealous easily… But the most serious scar of Hughes may be Sylvia’s suicide in 1963.

He did not say anything about her death as a husband for more than 30 years and at last he spilled his heart with his book “Birthday Letters.” In the poem “The Minotaur” in “Birthday Letters,” he described Sylvia’s life as labyrinth and wrote the end of their marital life with the Minotaur.

The whole tone of “The Minotaur” is really devastating and shocking, such as “The mahogany table-top you smashed Had been the broad plank top Of my mother’s heirloom sideboardMapped with the scars of my whole life.” Her death and his painful memory of married life made this devastating tone of poem and use of creepy monster, Minotaur. Moreover, he was offended by feminists after Sylvia's death and they went as much as calling Hughes a murderer. This was also the big hurt for him and it won't be surprised if he doesn't believe other people and God anymore. From these things, he had many painful memories and those affect his way of thinking and end in sarcastic religious values like connect Jesus Christ to crow.

Recently, Hughes's unpublished poem was discovered, and the poem was written about his lament over the suicide of Sylvia Plath. They could not spend good time each other, but it was a fact that Hughes loved Sylvia. So, for him, torment memories of his life and feminists' criticism ripped him apart seriously and his way of thinking was influenced.

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REACTION PIECE OF “DADDY” K ANA F URUMIZU First, when I read the poem "Daddy", I felt that the author, Plath, was afraid of her father because he acted as if he has an authority or a power over her when her father was alive. Moreover, we can see that she thinks that she should have had killed her father before he died. We can see those from some sentences in the poem: I thought every German was you. And the language obscene (29-30). Chuffing me off like a Jew. (32). Daddy, I have had to kill you. You died before I had time (6-7). In the poem, she expresses herself as a Jew and her father as a German. I think this means that her father did not normally treat her as a child or treat her as Germans persecuted Jew. The reason why she expresses her father as a German is because he spoke German. I think that a father cannot take the same stand with his child is very unhappy and that he takes the strong stand on his child is very awful.

Secondly, I felt that the work was impressive because she wrote her thoughts about her father really directly. Some poets write their poetry using a sarcasm or an imaginary world.

Because of that, it is more difficult for me to read the author's theme in some poems. However, in the poem, "Daddy", Plath wrote, she speaks to her father directly. I think the style of the poem makes her work impressive and attractive to readers because she clearly writes what she thinks about him.

Lastly, the work, "Daddy" is an easy work to get interested in poetry or start studying poetry. The reason why I think that is because firstly, the work had a clear theme of the author, Plath’s hatred to her father. Secondly, his direct writing makes the work easy to understand and I think readers can attract the poem easily. “Daddy” has many impressive sentences such as “Daddy, I have had to kill you. You died before I had time” (6-7) so that readers can easily read what the author wants to say. Actually, I am not good at reading poetry, but I think I could enjoy “Daddy” when I read it. Therefore, I think for people who start to study poetry, the work “Daddy” is a good choice to read. For these things, I had an impression on the work and I would like to recommend to read.

WORK CITED Plath, Sylvia. “Ariel”. 1965. Print.

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REACTION PIECE: SYLVIA PLATH H IROKI K IKUCHI

Reaction Pieces

I felt strongly that Sylvia is a sympathetic character throughout the classes. At first, at the beginning of the movie “Sylvia”, she was described to be a strong and tough lady and I couldn’t imagine that she had tried to commit a suicide before. Actually, she herself goes to meet Ted, who would be her husband, and to complain about him criticizing her poetry when they met for the first time at a party. The earliness of deciding their marriage, even though marriage is one of the biggest event in one’s life, also made me feel that she is very decisive about her life.

In living after marrying Ted, she loves him very much and assists her husband to focus on his writing activity of poetry. Therefore, she focuses on housework and their child care. To the contrary, it is said that he often goes on dates with other women and makes his wife worried. Of course, she gets irritated, and I found a piece of her vulnerable mind. I knew a little why she had ever tried to commit a suicide. She seems to be a little mad lady. She is usually strong but she becomes mad when she faces troubles with love. So seriously she loves Ted and she values highly the love with him.

In her works, I found that she had many problems about her dead father, Otto Plath. Her work “Daddy” is very symbolic that she is afraid of her daddy. She is oppressed with his strict educating, as she uses the word “submission” in her work . After his death, however, she loses the existence of “father” when she is young, so that she has been always missing her “father” in all her life. In “Daddy”, she describes that she overlaps Ted and her father. A man she is eager to obtain was close to her father, of whom she is afraid. I’m very interested in that contradiction. In her poetries, she seems very open: she expresses her feeling in her own unique, perhaps peculiar usage. It may means that she loves creating poetries and she believes the potential of poetries.

Therefore, the living without poetry gradually irritated Sylvia. The living apart from poetry can be one of the reasons why she gets angry with her husband extremely and a little mad.

In Sylvia’s committing a suicide, actually she has some problems. The most affective motivation for her suicide seems to be her interest in death. She does not make her mind to commit a suicide by a special big reason. Even though she leaves her family when she dies, and she loves her mother very much she decides to die. I did not think that she regards “death” as a very big final event. Therefore, she does not hesitate to achieve “death”.

Totally, she is a great poet, but she is sometimes mad when she has problems about “love” and “poetry”.

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REACTION PIECE TO SYLVIA PLATH M IHO I NAGAKI When I first learned about Sylvia Plath, I was shocked by her deep depression and committing suicide. She put her head into the gas oven and committed suicide. This is amazing, I thought. There would have been no need to do so, even if she tried to commit suicide. My first image of Sylvia was being crazy somehow and insane for some reason.

However as I learned about her more deeply and I became to know her life much more, that image changed and I came to have other feeling to her. She was just lonely and just wanted to be loved. Each person must have such kind of feeling- to want to be accepted and to be liked or loved by other people. Of course I also have. She lost her father at young age and from this event she felt loss and betrayal. Before he died he had loved her, so her feeling of his loss must have been considerable. She tried to retake love and spend a happy life with a person who loves her and she loves. The person is of course Ted Hughes. He loved her deeply, however gradually his passion turned toward another woman. I learned this fact by her biographies and also the film.

The scene which she notices and knows everything about Ted’s affair was so dark and made me very depressive.

After I knew this I came not to see her only as a crazy and hard to understandable person.

Some elements made her so. One is her father’s death and the feeling of loss and the other is Ted’s betrayal. I thought “why she had to face these tough events?” She was too miserable. If I were her, I would not be able to stand for such kind of situation. What is more, she had children, so she should have been very busy and wanted him to help her raise them. In this circumstance, he did bad thing for her. To the contrary, she continued writing.

Therefore her writings in that time were very dark. In her work, she mentioned and implied two guys, her father and Ted. Through those I understand how she felt. Particular about Ted, she thought him in a negative way. What he had done to her was too cruel for her not to mention him in that way. So of course what he did is very bad and I cannot accept it. However when I also took attention to his effect to her, it is true that from the events caused by Ted, Sylvia was able to get intense inspiration and write her works. That would be so great that we cannot imagine.

Her life was greatly affected by particular Ted and she got many tough experiences. Her partner at last betrayed her, so I never come to like him. But in the point of his effect to her, he made it possible for her to write very impressive works. Only in this matter, I thank him.

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REACTION PIECE OF SYLVIA PLATH AND TED HUGHES Y UMIKO M EZAKI

WORKS CITED Nedoma, Jeannette. "Sylvia Plath-Tightropes Walk Between Genius and Insanity?" 2006. Germany: GRIN Verlag, 2006. Print.

Plath, Sylvia. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Daddyâ&#x20AC;? Ariel. 1965. London: Harper Perennial, 1999. Print.

"Sylvia Plath and Ted Hghes meet" A&E Television Networks, LLC. 1956. Web. July 9th 2014.

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Reaction Pieces

In the class, we have learned about two poets, Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. To know the outline of their life, I watched the movie "Sylvia" (2003) first. Then, I learned the detail of that in the class. The movie has story based on their real life. The movie starts with the scene which Sylvia and Ted meets each other at Cambridge University, England. Sylvia publishes her poetry in a students' newspaper and one of the people who gave comments on such poetry was Ted Hughes. They fell in love and got married. Since both Ted and Sylvia are good looking people and are poets, it seems that their married life going well. However, there were so many difficulties exist. Sylvia looks like having bipolar disorder and gets injured again and again by what "she thinks" Ted had done and sometimes destroys or burns Ted's belongings. Ted also hurts or maybe gets tired because of Sylvia's hysterics and he got a girlfriend and left from Sylvia. Therefore, unfortunately, they were not divorced, but separated in July 1962 (Nedoma 18). It was only seven years after they got married. Moreover, in the end, Sylvia chose to kill herself leaving her children. I often felt sad through watching movie, but the ending was most shocking scene for me. I wonder why such tragedy had happen.

We have read some texts and poems, had presentation time to know more about Ted and Sylvia and had so many discussion times to share what we learned and how we felt. Everything I learnt in the class was interesting for me, but especially, through the discussion, I was drawn to one particular question. That is "Who should be blamed for Sylvia's suicide?" Some says Sylvia herself and others say Ted, but I do think that none of them should be blamed for the suicide. That is because, as far as I am concerned, because of Sylvia's illness, they had no choice, but to do what they have done. The direct reason why Sylvia killed herself was Ted's left her and their children for the other lady, Assia Weavil (Nedoma 18). It seems that Ted could have been more careful and could avoid Sylvia's suicide, but that is wrong. It is because Ted was tortured by Sylvia's depression, he was not able to bear to be with her. It means he had left her because of her depression. However, it does not mean that Sylvia herself has responsibility to her own death, because even if she herself had a disease, she does not need to be blamed for her having got a disease.

Then, I wonder if there is anyone who should be blamed for her death and my answer is no.

When we first study about Sylvia's father, Otto Plath, I thought he might be blame, because she wrote about him in many poems and it seems that his death was the big trauma for her. For example, in the poem "Daddy"(Plath), in paragraphs 5-14 and 56-75, she writes about death of her father. She says she had prayed to make him better, but he died. After he dies, when she was twenty, she tried to kill herself to meet her father again. However, other people did not allow her to die. Then, she decided to make the "model"(64) of her father and that was Ted Hughes. She finally writes her father that he can be relaxed because she got Ted instead of Otto. It clearly shows that the death of father caused her to get depression. It means her father's death caused her killing herself. Although his death was the reason why she chose suicide, he also cannot be blamed of her death, because he did not intend to die. Hence, I got the conclusion that no one is responsible for the death of Sylvia.

Integrated – Class Journal

REACTION PIECE ON THE MOVIE SYLVIA R IKA A OKI The movie Sylvia portrays the life of the American poet Sylvia Plath and her relationship with Ted Hughes. It represents Plath as a very feminine character who is delicate and emotional, who also has a strong desire to be loved by man. In this paper, I would like to show my reaction towards Sylvia.

First, I will show my thoughts about Plath`s character in the movie. Throughout the movie, I think she represents women`s weakness towards men. She was very enthusiastic in writing poems in her college days, however she goes through a hard life fighting her depression that is caused by the death of her father and the Hughes`s adultery. She is especially influenced by Hughes in both positive and negative ways. After getting married, she chose to support his work rather than continuing her own work as a poet. She is very submissive to her family than to herself, and that is why she was so mad at Hughes betraying his family. Moreover, even though Hughes did such betrayal, they never got divorced; she even begs Hughes to come back to her before she commits suicide. Thus, her character is portrayed as stereotyped weak women, being a submissive housewife, who nearly cannot live without relying on men.

One of the memorable scene is where Plath reads her poem “Daddy” very emotionally.

Most of the part in “Daddy” is addressed to her father; however the movie convinced me to think that it is actually addressed to Ted Hughes. She has mentioned about Hughes in the last few stanzas, however I think when she is speaking to her father in other lines, she is speaking to Hughes through the existence of her father. I assumed this by the fact that in the movie, the poem was written just after Hughes left her, and the term Daddy can be interpreted as their children`s daddy, that is Hughes.

Moreover, I think it is noteworthy which how the movie represents the tension between Plath and Hughes. That is to say, the atmosphere between Gwyneth Paltrow and Daniel Craig was so intense; they had successfully portrayed Plath and Hughes. There as many scene which they respect each other as a poet and many scene which they conflicts, and it must have been difficult to keep the tense, however the theme of love and hatred in this movie was well represented by these great actors.

The movie Sylvia has portrayed Plath more as a woman, a wife and a mother rather than a poet, and because of that I find her character much more sympathetic. However I find it interesting to see how her poems turn out to have a completely opposite taste from her figure, that is, so powerful and strong. In the end, her emotional and confessional writings prove that writing poems were one of her passion in life. The movie has inspired me in many ways to learn about Plath`s life and her works.

WORKS CITED Sylvia. Christine Jeffs. BBC Films, Capitol Films, Ruby Films. Christine Jeffs. DVD. Focus Features. 2003.

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REACTION PIECE ON SYLVIA PLATH, “DADDY,” AND TED HUGHES W ATARU T ATEUCHI

WORKS CITED Plath, Sylvia. “Daddy.” Ariel. 1965. London: Harper Perennial, 1999. Print.

Rosenblatt, Jon. Sylvia Plath: The Poetry of Initiation. University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill, 1979. Print.

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Sylvia Plath's "Daddy" is a complicated, and at the same time an interesting poem. Her love and hatred for her father, Otto Plath, are metaphorically represented in it. I think she not only hated him but also loved him. She really loved him but he departed from her so early that she might feel frustrated with him and it would be the motivation of writing this poem. I felt her love toward her father from the sentences, “And get back, back, back to you. I thought the bones would do.” This part is the strong expression of yearning for her father and it means even to assimilate him. The only way for to do so would be suicide.

I thought of John Lennon, whose mother died when he was a boy. He had a special talent for music, but he also seems to have had unstable mentality. I guess that there is a similarity between him and Sylvia Plath. Their talents for art and eccentric characters may come from their experiences of losing their parents. However, Lennon was saved by his wife, Yoko Ono, while the relationship between Plath and Ted Hughes eventually did not last for a long time. She seems to have felt that she was deserted by both two men, her father and husband. These facts may make a difference between Sylvia, who attempted suicide, and Lennon, who wrote many songs for his wife.

Also, the Beat Generation is similarly rather personal, but it is a group and many writers were involved in its literature. On the other hand, Plath’s poem basically involved Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, and Otto Plath. This minimal relationship produces heavily personal and complicated poems.

Some people may criticize this poem because it treats Nazis and Jews, and they may think that such things should not be compared to personal things. However, this poem claims that intense of conflicts within one’s mind is equal to that of wars or discrimination.

As Plath herself indicates, “Daddy” includes an Electra complex. In addition, it can be analyzed in not only psychological but also historical and feminism ways. They can be a clue why she committed suicide. However, I did not have enough knowledge about them and I would analyze the poem better if I knew theory of criticism. Ted Hughes’ “Crow” is also a complicated poem and includes theology. I understood half, and could not half. And the metaphor in “Minotaur” is interesting because readers can feel what Hughes saw Sylvia and Otto Plath. Considering that this poem is included in “Birthday Card,” which was published after his long silence about Plath, this release of his feelings is even impressive. Readers can assume how Plath felt her relationships to Otto Plath and Ted Hughes from “Daddy” and how Hughes thought of two Plath from “Minotaur,” so it might be a meaningful way to analyze and compare with each other. There might be differences of their views, of male and female, for example, so I would also like to think of them, but I can’t because of the lack of my study, as I wrote. To realize their relationships, I need to study. They are too heavy and complicated for me.

Integrated – Class Journal

REACTION PIECE OF SYLVIA AND TED S HOKI K ASE From watching the movie of “Sylvia”, I will write firstly what I think about Sylvia Plath, who was an amateur poet, from the point of view of her, secondly about Ted Hughes, who was the husband of her, from the point of view of him, thirdly about the influence that they had on each other, and lastly I will conclude with what I feel in the movie.

First, I will write about Sylvia Plath. I think she is a much pitiful girl. Some people say that she committed suicide because she was crazy since she was a green-eyed monster, had some faults that make her difficult to communicate with other people, was easy to be angry and tended to kill herself. However, I think even if she did not have such difficulties in her character, she would decide to kill herself. She had also good points in her character, for example, she had much single-minded passion for Ted Hughes, she gave herself completely to housework such as cooking and taking care of their children, and she spent much her time to support his work to write a poem.

Thanks to her endeavor, her husband was able to get a prize of poem. Although she had such many efforts and much passion for him, he had an affair with a woman, whose name was Assia Weavil and made her pregnant. That is, he gave her tremendous shock and despair. Even for a strong-minded woman it is natural to decide to kill herself in this situation. So, I think she is much pitiful girl.

Second, I will write about Ted Hughes. Reading this second paragraph about Plath, you may think that I criticize him. But I consider he is also a poor man. If he said to get back to Plath, when she implored him to do it and after making a woman pregnant, I would look on him as just a playboy who tends to become emotional, learns nothing from failure and thinks only having a sex with a woman. However, in fact, he rejected her entreat. The reason why he did the decision, I think, must be that he swore not to repeat his mistakes such as the collapse of a family and hurting a woman. Loving Plath, he would be much impatient at not able to get back to her, even though he wanted to. Moreover, because of his decision, she committed suicide. Enormous guilty feeling would fall in him. So I regard him as a poor man.

Thirdly, I will write about the influence that Plath and Hughes had on each other. He had much effect on her life. Before she met him at a party in Paris, she had no hope in her life and tried to kill herself. However, thanks to meeting with him, she was able to find out happiness and pleasure in her life. Moreover, parting from each other, she got much angry at him and the anger made her write a best poem, which got a prize. But it was only after her death that she was awarded the prize and famous for the poem. So, the prize is nonsense for her. While he had such an effect on her, she also influenced him. By seeing and loving her, he learned the affection that could not be gotten only by sensual pleasure, and from her death, he realized keenly how sinful a playboy is. That is why, he published a poem of the relationship with Plath long after her death. It is the evidence that he continued to love her even after she killed herself.

Lastly, what I feel in this movie is that the lives of Sylvia and Ted were so pity that forming of a relationship with a green-eyed woman and a playboy causes a cruel result in the end for them. None of them are to blame

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Reaction Pieces

The movie, Sylvia gives a lot of information about Sylvia Plath's whole life. Through that movie, I feel her life was always affected by her father. It means that she was always haunted by her father's death. She lost her father when she was eight years old, and since then, she had been desired the father's love until her death. She needed the father's love; everyone needs one's own father's love. In the movie, I feel that she loved Ted instead of her father. She loved him because she feared him. This experience influenced her poems. This is the reason why her poem "Daddy" has a strong power that makes us provoke strong feelings. In this poem, she looked her as a Jew and did her father as a Nazi. She compared the relationship between her and her father to the relationship between Jews and Nazis. Nazis killed over million Jews in the Holocaust. If we tell a man that he is like a Nazi, he must be upset. It causes serious problems between us. She had such a strong feeling for her father. Judging from this poem, it seems that she hated her father.

However, it is not true. She did not hate her father. On the contrary, she deeply loved her father.

I feel that she did not know how to express her strong feeling to her father because she lost her father in her childhood. Maybe this is one of the reasons why I was provoked a strong feeling by her poem, "Daddy".

Judging from the fact that Sylvia Plath tried to commit suicide when she was in university, she was somewhat crazy and different from others like her mother tells her in the movie that Ted Hughes is different from others. Mad or crazy people often make good works like beat generations writers; some of them use drug, are arrested, and killed his wife by a gun. There are some people who say that Ted Hughes had responsibility for her death. I think that it is true, but I cannot say that he was the only reason for her death. If I were him, maybe I would be tired and go insane. I am not a person who can endure her madness and I cannot treat her like Ted Hughes did because I must feel sorry for her. In short, I think that of course Ted Hughes had responsibility for Sylviaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s death, but it was Sylvia Plath who has strong responsibility for her death. In addition, Ted Hughes's book which was published after Sylvia's death shows his character strongly. He pretended that he was not related to her wife's death, and he had no responsible for that. We cannot decide that it is true or not.

Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes created great poems. They are excellent poet, excluding their private life. However, poet's private life strongly affects their poems. Therefore I cannot say that their relationship was good or bad for them. The only thing I can say is that their poems are great and worth reading.

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Integrated – Class Journal

REACTION PIECE: THE BEAT GENERATION H IROKI K IKUCHI I had not known the name of “the Beat Generation” and its main members, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac until I learned about them in the classes. At first, when I read the introductions of the Beat Generation on the Internet, I suspected that they are really honored and admired by the public. I did not accept the reputation and popularity of them.

The first big reason is that almost all the members of the Beat Generation take drugs even when they are writing their works. In the twentieth century, drugs are regulated by the law of each state. Prohibition of drugs is not completely working. I can say, however, that drugs’ efficacy and toxicity are known to the public. Also, taking drugs is regarded as bad and immoral. Therefore it does not seem that they deserve to be respected and be great poets and writers. Then, I wondered how great their works are.

Looking at the criticism and reputation of their works, their works are valued not only high, but also low. Of course, it means that their works are great for some critics, and that is why they are famous and we learned in the class of the Department of English Literature. I could not find that reason until I take a look at their works. In the handouts about “The Beat Generation” in the class, I read “Naked Lunch” written by William S. Burroughs. And I saw a video on the moodle about “Naked Lunch”. In “Naked Lunch”, it has very unique and fantastic sensibility. It might be effected by drugs, but, even if it is so, it is really extraordinary. Actually, the writer Burroughs was taken to court after the publication of that work because it contains many obscene languages. Perhaps, the drugs lowered his inhibitions about using bad expressions, and it made the work what he wanted to write straightly and honestly. The boldness might be made a special, famous piece.

“On the Road” is another of the most famous poetries in “the Beat Generation” created

by Jack Kerouac. It is especially great and strange one. Before reading the work, it is surprising that he mostly finished the poetry in three weeks. When I learned the episode for the first time, I suspected that it does not have a deep meaning and contains only cheap expressions. However, the storyline is very good and very sophisticated. Of course, I could never know that he made it in three weeks unless I learned. Though I do not know what fantastic drugs he takes, drugs effect his writing activity in a positive way.

It is true that drugs are dangerous for people’s health or life and taking drugs is immoral and disrespected, but it is also true that drugs are wonderful and taking drugs is greatly helpful equipment for “the Beat Generation”. I never mean that I value drugs’ efficacy, and I could not respect them. I wonder how long it takes me to finish all writings if I take drugs―undoubtedly, I am not taking drugs now.

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REACTION PIECE ON THE BEAT GENERATION E MI U CHIDA As we learned, writers of the Beat Generation lived a very crazy life. Some people were homosexual or addicted to drugs and alcohol, taken to court because their books contained obscene contents. However, I think they were not just crazy but intelligent in a way. For example, Jack Kerouac finished writing On the Road for only three weeks. Ordinary people cannot do such a miracle thing. Many of the Beats travelled various places and some people have a lot of knowledge about special fields. Gary Snyder was interested in Buddhism and researched it. Diane Di Prima had knowledge about alchemy and Eastern philosophy.

Especially, I was surprised at William S. Burroughs. His life was full of surprising things.

For example, He was a heroin addict and homosexual. He went to Tangier in Morocco because the place was good for drug users and homosexual. He finished writing Naked Lunch though he did not have clear consciousness at that time. He published it later, but he was taken to court due to obscene contents of the book and lost the case. In addition, he killed his second wife by shooting her in the head accidentally. For me, his life seems to be the craziest of all Beats.

Not only himself but also his works are crazy. At first, I could not understand what Burroughs wants to tell us in "Ah Pook" because there are a lot of unknown words such as "Itzama" or “Ixtaub” and abstract things such as “Death” or "Control". However, when I understood that those unknown words stand for Mayan Gods, I thought that he was also not just crazy but intelligent. For me, these sentences were the most impressive: “Is Control controlled by its need to control? |Answer: Yes”. I felt horrible because people cannot judge good and evil when they controlled by an obsession that they should control.

In addition, “Ah Pook” reminds me of the poem "Thanksgiving Day Prayer" written by Burroughs. I researched and analysed it in my essay last year. In "Ah Pook", there were also a lot of criticisms to American society like "Thanksgiving Day Prayer". However, it was not just criticisms. Last year, I analysed that "Thanksgiving Day Prayer" implies a wish of Burroughs. He did not want America to repeat the same mistakes in the future. I think that he also expressed his wish in “Ah Pook” because he mentioned historical things such as Hiroshima, Stalins, and Hitlers.

It is certain that writers of the Beat Generation were crazy and caused a lot of problems.

However, they might have different view to other people, so they had negative feelings and complaints to American society. By taking extreme and obscene way, they express what they felt frankly. I think that their extremeness and obsceneness draw people’s attention to the Beats and their thinking. In addition, connection among the Beats were very strong. They helped and influenced each other. I think that the strong connection created their crazy but interesting works.

WORKS CITED Reaction Pieces

Burroughs, William S. “Ah Pook is Here.” New York: J. Calder, 1979. Print.

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Integrated – Class Journal

AMERICA AND GINSBERG A TSHUHO M ATSUMOTO "America I've given you all and now I'm nothing." This is part of America by Allen Ginsberg. This poem is not like typical form of poem because it has many long lines and no exact rhyme. However, this has a lot of Ginsberg's deep thought against the situation of America.

At first, I suppose that "America when will we end the human war? Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb." is very impressive stanza in the early part. Language is of course very obscene. I was very surprised that Ginsberg used the term of "atom bomb." I think that many Japanese writers do not often use that word because it might be thought as a taboo. Thus, it is very sensational for Japanese that American used "atom bomb." Yet, Ginsberg mentioned that the end of human war. This poem was written in 1956. 1956 is after World War II, and the midst of Cold War. America and Russia started the war without direct attack. Each country tried to expand national power than the other. From this situation, Ginsberg complained that America was still doing the war even after World War II. Thus, Ginsberg used the most terrible and violent word of weapon, atom bomb. He might have wanted to show that his metaphor to finish that horrible American situation in a moment by effect of atom bomb.

On the other hand, Ginsberg mentioned Burroughs in this poem. Burroughs went to Tangier during Ginsberg published this poem. Burroughs went to Tangier to be free from laws. He often used drugs heavily and collected guns. In Tangier and Mexico, he could devoted in what he loved, not in America. Burroughs could be free and got new ideas in new land. While, Ginsberg was still in America, that is, he could not escape from America. Also he guessed that Burroughs would not come back to America because America itself is “sinister.” Moreover, Ginsberg described the present American circumstance at that time was “everyday somebody goes on trial for murder.” From this thing, he thought that American people might have felt like locked up, so they might have committed crime. Ginsberg saw this situation in America, and he might have envied Burroughs though he thought as “I refuse to give up my obsession.” He might envied freedom but he kept pursuit his obsession in America.

In addition, in this poem, there are a lot of words which are related to Russia. From text, I think this part is very impressive, “America I used to be a communist when I was a kid and I'm not sorry.” I do not know that Ginsberg was a communist when he was kid. From this description, however, Ginsberg seemed to be like that he betrays America. In 1950s, Red Scare was occurred and things which might have been related with the communist were suppressed at that time.

Ginsberg could become like a heretic in American society by saying such things. He could show himself as a deviant and would like to be kept from America.

In conclusion, Ginsberg showed his ideas on America in America. After World War II, there still war happens in America. People cannot express what they really feel. In this modern society, many difficult problems happen, such as racial discrimination, gap between the rich and the poor, and so on. Ginsberg might have felt like locked up and wanted to get out from society.

Thus, he showed his feeling and acquired freedom.

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REACTION PIECE OF A FILM, “ON THE ROAD” K ANA F URUMIZU This story "On the Road" is based on the years that Jack Kerouac experienced while he was traveling with his friend, Neal Cassady and some other friends. This story starts from when Sal Paradise as Jack Kerouac meets Dean Moriarty as Neal Cassady and ends with their farewell.

I think this farewell is not sad event in this story and I write the way I feel about this story especially focusing on the relationship between Sal and Dean.

In this story, Sal respects Dean in that he can do anything that he wants to do because Sal is a mild character with a lack of decisiveness. At the same time, Dean respects Sal because Sal is intelligent and has a sense of writing. They are always together and hang out, smoke and travel together. However, gradually Sal recognizes that he cannot respect everything about Dean. For example, Sal sees Dean prostituting himself with a man for making money, but Sal cannot understand why he can do that for making just a few hundred dollars. And Dean makes relationships with many girls and makes them suffer, which makes also Dean suffer. These things make Sal recognize that Dean also has faults. They understand each other gradually, which cause their farewell, but this is not a sad farewell.

There are two separations between them. One is when Sal gets ill and Dean leaves him to keep going ahead. And the other one is after that, when Sal is working and Dean finds him. In that situation, Sal has become richer than when he traveled with Dean because of his writing. I think if Dean had not left him last time, Sal does not say good bye this time. But because of the last farewell, they recognize that they have to walk their own way individually. They recognize that they cannot go together anywhere forever, but they are friends forever even if they are separated as Dean says. So I think this is a good bye filled with a hope of their individual future (although there is a difference of their living conditions already) and a promise that they are friends forever. The most impressive event of this work for me is their farewell at the end of the story.

I think this story is worth watching not only to know about the Beat Generation but also to enjoy a work of the Beat Generation. Almost all characters of this story are based on the real beats and we can see many specific features of the Beat Generation. For example, we can see that they love jazz music and drugs, and they do not hesitate to express their sexuality, and each character has a distinctive characteristic: Dean Moriarty as Neal Cassady often steal someone’s car and Old Bull Lee as William S. Burroughs loves cats and guns. Not only for these, but also for the story line based on Kerouac’s experiences and that starts from their meeting and ends with their farewell which seems to be a little bit sad but hopeful, I think this story is interesting.

WORK CITED Reaction Pieces

On the Road. Dir. Walter Salles. IFC Films, 2012. DVD.

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REACTION ON THE BEAT GENERATION AND WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS W ATARU T ATEUCHI Works by the Beat Generation are above logic and have something strong. I envy very much the Beats' ability of thinking of weird ideas and Jack Kerouac's talent of writing a novel on very long paper in a short time. I hope to grasp the meanings of them from complicated contexts.

I like eccentric stories better rather than commonplace love stories.

The big reason I'm interested in the Beat Generation is the influence of the Beatles. I especially like their psychedelic songs, which often include incomprehensible words like the Beats' works. Drugs and anti-social life, such as wandering, are not basically allowed at present and literature also can hardly deviate from the norm. There were rules at that time, of course, but they fought against them. The impressive thing was Allen Ginsberg’s Howl was prohibited to be published in America. The relationship between art and society is a big issue and it is worth thinking of it more.

William S. Burroughs is the craziest and genius man of the Beat Generation. The more I learn about him, the less I understand him as a human. His talent is so eccentric that it is beyond comprehension. But the very craziness attracts me and makes him the top of the Beat Generation.

His family was rich because his grandfather ran a computer company, and Burroughs attended Harvard University, so he must have been under very god circumstance. Nevertheless, he had many strange stories such as his shot of his wife when they played Wilhelm Tell, or cutting of his own finger. And he once studied medicine in German. These episodes are ridiculous in a sense, but such incoherent life is very interesting for me. Everybody cannot do like him.

His another interesting point is the variation of his appearances and discourses. He reads his poem “Ah Pook” and we saw it in class. It is the mysterious poem and it was interesting for me to hear it with his own voice. And it was unexpected that he appears in Nike CM. It seems that there is no relationship between Burroughs and Nike, so I want to know why he was cast in it. The big surprise for me is that Burroughs joins as vocals "Be A Superman” and “I Tre Merli,”

by YMO (Yellow Magic Orchestra), the Japanese electronic band (Discogs). This is because these songs are incidentally included in my iPod, but I rarely hear them and I didn’t know the fact. Also, the strangest thing is his last words, “Love? What is it? Most natural painkiller what there is” ("Quote by William S. Burroughs"). It is hard to believe that these words are by a man who lived a stormy life and whose works are hard to understand. It is unsuitable that the theme is love in the first place, and the content is too romantic for him. One of his attractiveness is this breadth of his activities. It adds his mysterious personality.

Not everyone might like or is interested in him because of the craziness, but some people would greatly respect him. I am one of them.

WORKS CITED "Quote by William S. Burroughs." goodreads. n.d.. Web. July 1st 2014. <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/63180-love-what-is-it-most-natural-painkillerwhat-there-is.

“Yellow Magic Orchestra - Technodon (CD) at Discogs.” Discogs. n.d.. Web. July 1st 2014. <http://www.discogs.com/Yellow-Magic-Orchestra-Technodon/release/432896>

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Spring 2014

REACTION PIECE OF BEAT GENERATION S HOKI K ASE

Reaction Pieces

From learning about the beat generation in the class, I was much interested in the lives of the members, but particularly I found the life of William S. Burroughs wildest and craziest in them. So, I will firstly write about the three points in his life that I was especially surprised with, secondly about the reason why he did them, and lastly I conclude with what I think from the reason.

The first point is that he shot his second wife in the head, doing a dangerous game.

Although the content of the game was that he would shoot a glass on the head of his wife, he failed it and killed her. I was surprised that how he came up with the idea that he tried to do the game. If I were him, I would never attempt such a terrible game. Moreover, I was also amazed that his wife agreed with the ridiculous game. Would she do it in order not to make him dislike her, or, would she be afraid of him?

The second point is that he married the second wife. I never understand it because he was a homosexual. That is, he loves not a woman, but a man. I grasp he married the first wife because the reason why he did it was not that she loved her but that she was a German-Jewish woman and he wanted to save her from concentration camp. However, even though he was a homosexual, why did he marry the second wife?

The last point is that he purposely cut off his left pinky finger. I know there are many people who are forced to cut off his arm or finger by ostensible reasons such as a traffic accident.

However, I have never heard such a man who cut his finger by himself. If I were him, I cannot be patient with the agony. So, why did he do such a crazy thing? Did not he feel some pain by cutting it?

I think there is a basic and common reason why he did the three points. It is that he was a heroin addict and loved it. Heroin made him so crazy that he would cut off his finger with no consideration, would marry the second wife and would shoot her in the head. I consider that he might not look upon her as his wife, that is, his lover, and he would reckon her as just a woman who lived with him. In the movie,â&#x20AC;? Naked Lunchâ&#x20AC;?, his wife also was a heroin addict. So, she was so discreet with a judgment by heroin that she would agree with the game. However, surprisingly, when he was young, he graduated from Harvard University, which is the cleverest in all Universities. That is, although his life was great before being a heroin addict, thanks to heroin, his life completely changed. That is why, heroin is too cruel and brutal and I was able to understand the fear of heroin from learning William S. Burroughs.

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Integrated – Class Journal

REACTION PEACE ON THE BEAT GENERATION T AKAYUKI T ANIKAWA In this semester, I learned a lot of things such as, about translations, literary theories, Sylvia Plath, Ted Huge and wonderful “The Lord of the Rings” and so forth. It is no exaggeration to say that there were uncountable things to learn. Most of what I studied in this class were what I didn’t know, so everything was completely new to me. However, the section which I personally enjoyed the most is The Beat Generation.

Jack Kerouac is one of the great authors in those days. Actually, The Beat Generation composes of several great authors. Especially I like Jack Kerouac because the word, “The Beat Generation,” was originally coined by him. In addition, I also respect him all the more because he wrote the novel, “On the Road.” I was strongly affected when I read a part of that story. The following is the quote from this novel: The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!” (Kerouac 6) What is showed here is the people for whom Jack Kerouac and many authors in The Beat Generation were craving. That’s because beatniks undoubtedly preferred the way of living different from the rest of the public. They loved drugs, alcohol and the act which is now regarded as antisocial one. Therefore, it seems that they were searching and waiting for those people who were funny, crazy and abnormal.

There is another reason why I came to like The Beat Generation. It is that I believe The Beat Generation and “One Peace,” which is a kind of animations in Japan and I love the most, have something in common. Most of the beatniks and the characters in One Piece story act as though they were trying to break the socially accepted idea. Beatniks take too much drugs and alcohol. On the other hand, since “One Piece” is the story about pirates, it is usually thought they are bad. However, the characters are trying to break such widespread idea. Indeed, how and where they behave are different, but beatniks and the characters in “One Piece” were acting to break the prevailing social concept. In other words, it is common that both of them did what is considered as antisocialism.

Therefore, I like The Beat Generation’s novel because I like their antisocial act. There are a lot of books written by the many beatniks. Some of them I have just taken a glance at in the class, so I want to finish reading them. Now, I don’t have enough time to read their books, but in the future, I am going to read as many their stories as possible other than “On the road.”

WORK CITED Kerouac, Jack. On the Road. New York: Viking Press, 1957. Print.

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Spring 2014

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: REACTION PIECE Y UI N AKAGAWA

Reaction Pieces

I really like fantasy movies, so although I had to sit in front of a TV for more than nine hours in total, I enjoyed watching them. The original story must be great and written in detail. But I think the movie is pretty good too. I personally like their costumes and sets. They are so beautiful.

And moreover, the action scenes were great. The first movie was filmed more than ten years ago, but the CG scenes were beautiful enough. I like action scenes a lot, so the last battle which most of all the character gathered and fought together fascinated me. They had my blood tingle, seriously, I mean it.

We learned in the class that Adam Tolkien doesn’t like the movie since he thought it is not good enough to describe his grandfather’s master piece. But I think it is good enough. It is impossible to make a movie as good as the author wrote since the creator’s world is the perfect one. I’ve started to read the first chapter of the “The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring” and even though I haven’t finished reading it all, I found some points that I found in the movie as well. The story goes on along the story line from the book and the lines they say is almost same from the book too. And the appearance of the character is the same too. Hobbits are short, have curly hair and their feet are covered with hairs. Movies often cut some scenes from the book in order to make it a two-hour-long movie, for example, Harry Potter. But Peter Jackson made it a long movie and divided into three so that he doesn’t have to cut so much. I think he shows his respect to the author in this way. He did everything he can to make the movie great. I don’t know the whole original story yet and I can’t be sure, but at the moment, I felt uncomfortable when I read the article about Adam Tolkien saying he doesn’t like the movies.

Most of the girls say their favorite character is Legolas, but I kind of disagree with them.

I think Aragorn is the best. That is because, it is him that helped Frodo when he was poisoned by the Nazgul’s sword, it is him that led the fellows during the journey, it is him that brought up the rear every time they fight, it is him that rushed to Boromir when he was attacked by Ulk-hai, and I can give you examples more and more, but I think I should stop here. I like Legolas too, and actually he is my second favorite character, but he doesn’t make a contribution as much as Aragorn does. For example, he wasn’t there when Boromir was killed, and he wasn’t even there when Aragorn was fighting to save him and he came to them when everything is finished. I know Legolas is so cool but I hope people will realize that Aragorn is much more heroic.

I would say I like this film and would like to suggest my friends to watch it, but the problem is, they are too long to watch with popcorns. But I think it is worth watching, so I enjoyed all of the three films a lot.

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Integrated – Class Journal

TOLKIEN REACTION PIECE M OEMI O NDA I read J.R.R Tolkien: A Biography. After reading this book, I got an impression that Tolkien was the person who sticks to his belief. Tolkien seems to dislike departing from his principle. There are two reasons why I thought he is obstinate.

One reason is Tolkien believed his girlfriend loved him without seeing for three years.

Tolkien was brought up by a priest after his mother’s death. Tolkien lived with a lady who was the friend of the priest when he was 16 years old. In her house, there was a girl who was also an orphan. The girl’s name is Edith Bratt. Tolkien and Edith became good friends soon and fell in love each other. But the priest who heard the news ordered Tolkien to separate from Edith until he became 21 years old. The priest got angry because he thought Tolkien should study hardly.

Tolkien could not but follow the order of the priest because Tolkien depended on the priest financially. Tolkien kept on thinking of Edith while he could not see her. When Tolkien became 21 year old at last, he sent Edith a letter. In this letter, he confessed his love for her. Unfortunately her answer was no. Edith made an engaged because she thought Tolkien had forgotten her. If I received such an answer, I would get depressed dreadfully. But Tolkien was different. He believed Edith broken off an engagement if she got to know his changeless love. And then they could marry happily. Tolkien seems to be what we call carnivore man. I think Edith loved even his selfishness. In my opinion I like aggressive man.

Another reason is Tolkien became estranged from C.S. Lewis. Tolkien was close to C.S. Lewis but gradually Tolkien became separated from Lewis. The main reason is the difference in their religion. Tolkien was an enthusiastic Catholic and valued sacrament. On the other hand, Lewis belonged to the Church of England and valued the Bible. Their way of thinking about religion is quite different. When they met at Oxford University, Lewis was an atheist. Lewis was influenced by Tolkien who believed God enthusiastically and he got to believe Christianity. But unfortunately Lewis chose the Church of England which Tolkien was hostile to. After this event, Tolkien gradually separated from Lewis. I thought Tolkien has source in bad terms. It seems that Tolkien could not accept the different way of thinking.

For two reasons I thought Tolkien is the person who stick to his belief. It seems he cannot accept a different way of thinking because he always believes he is right. It sounds Tolkien is a difficult person judging from these information. But I think Tolkien could create the Middle-earth and many languages because he had an unshakable faith.

WORK CITED Humphrey Carpenter. J.R.R. Tolkien :A Biography. Trans.Sugawara Hirokuni Hyoronnsya.

1982. Print.

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Spring 2014

REACTION PEACE: J. R. R. TOLKIEN S HUTO F URUYA In this semester, we have learned many interesting people: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, beat generation writers, and J. R. R. Tolkien. I was interested in all these topics, and the most interesting topic for me is J. R. R. Tolkien. I knew Tolkien when I hear that we would study about him, because I have watched The Lord of the Rings during spring vacation. However, I thought that Tolkien’s works are only The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Through this Integrated Skills class, I was amazed to know how his works were created and how enormous world he created.

There are many surprising thing in Tolkien's work. First, I did not know that he created languages for each race by himself; especially, elf’s language, Quenya, is famous. Tolkien was the professor of philology, so he could create languages. People who plays elf in the movie speak Quenya. I wonder how they speak it. Second, I did not know that his works are not only The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He created his own world, the Middle-Earth. There are historical events before The Hobbit in the Middle-Earth. I did not know that Sauron is a subordinate of someone and Gandalf and Saruman are a kind of spirit. I want to read his other works, and a series of the Lord of the Rings. There may be new surprise and excitement. This may be how people become a fun of Tolkien.

With regard to The Lord of the Rings, Alexis Levitin says in his book that two protagonists, Aragorn, who is the brave and extraordinary one in epics, and Frodo, who is the quiet one in fairy tales, coexist in Lord of the Rings (25-37). In short, there are two main characters, and their characteristics are not the same. We can say that Frodo is the object of empathy, so readers see the Middle-earth from his point of view. On the other hand, Aragorn is the object of respect and idol of all men. I feel this is interesting viewpoint. It seems that Frodo, who brings the ring and tries to destroy it, is the only main character, but Aragorn is another protagonist. Furthermore, I feel Aragorn is more suitable for protagonist than Frodo is.

There are several viewpoints in The Lord of the Rings. I read three books: Tolkien: A Look Behind The Lord of the Rings by Lin Carter, Lord of the Rings: The Mythology of Power by Jane Chance, and Tolkien’s Ordinary Virtue: Exploring the Spiritual Themes of The Lord of the Rings by Mark Eddy Smith. They explain The Lord of the Rings from the view point of sociology, common point between the story and classical literature, and Christianity. After reading these books, I must enjoy watching the movie more than before and can read a series of The Lord of the Rings more deeply. During this summer vacation, I will try to watch the movie again.

Reaction Pieces

WORKS CITED Levitin, Alexis. The Hero in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Ed. J.T. Hansen. Tolkien Paper. Mankato: Mankato State College, 1967. Print.

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Integrated â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Class Journal

REACTION PIECE ON THE LORD OF THE RINGS Y UKARI T SUSHIMA When I was a junior high school student, I watched the film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers with my sister. However, I did not know it was the second volume of the series, so I could not understand the story completely. My impression about it was only scare with orcs and I became forget the story except names Legolas and Aragorn. Last month, I watched all of the series in two days. The stories were expanded in whole different world. It is still difficult for me to understand, so I watched them with writing down questions or words which I could not understand. After the class about The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien, I found most of them were words created by Tolkien. I was surprised at his imaginative power. Settings are difficult, but the landscape of the Shire was beautiful, hobbits were cute, and characters each have different thoughts and enchantments. They all attracted me.

When Gandalf arose from death, I did not believed the wizard of white was truly him at first. I thought the man was Saruman who acted Gandalf by his magic, because Saruman also the wizard of white. However it was needless fear. He was actually Gandalf, and he helped the fellowship and men same as himself before once die.

Aragorn was so cool and I like him, but I cannot choose the character I like the most.

Every elves were beautiful and mysterious, Pippin's character was adorable and his singing in the castle of Gondor was very enchanting. In addition, Sam was one of the most appropriate person to be praise, I think. He always follows Frodo and have a lot of apprehensions to him. Even after he was rejected to go to Mordor with Frodo and Gollum, he acted for Frodo. His behavior should be praised. Frodo said some times to Sam that "I am glad that you are here with me," (Tolkien 929). I was glad to know that.

In the second film, Saruman died in Isengard stabbed by Grima and fell from the tower.

He did not appear in the story after that. I was surprised at this. In the book, Saruman appeared in front of hobbits again when they came back to the Shire. He puppeteer some hobbits to break the beauty and peace of there. Merry and Pippin did great in the fight with them and finally triumphed.

Saruman went away at the last of the book. In the film, there were also cut the scene about the fight in the Shire, so I thought it is because the film have to edit in two to three hours. In the books, there were a lot of poems and songs such as poetry formed by Bilbo and songs Legolas sang.

These seemed to tell readers the history of the Middle-earth. I did not know about the Middleearth and its history enough, so I could not understand whole of them. I want to read them again when I learn more about Tolkienâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s world.

Tolkien, J.R.R. The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of the Lord of the Rings.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012.

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Spring 2014

MY REACTION TO J. R. R. TOLKIEN K OSUKE H ANADA In this time, we have learned about J.R.R. Tolkien, and I would like to describe three impressive things of his life.

First, I was impressed his unique language, which is called “Elvish”. In our class, we have written our name by elvish, but it was hard for me because I have not seen such a mysterious language. His style of language seems making his works mysterious and interesting. According to Ross Smith’ s statement, she describes about his language like this; “He explored this complex issue by means of his invented languages, where the fundamental question of the relationship between sound and meaning (phonosemantics) came into play, and also addressed it directly in some academic papers.” (1) In this way, he used this unique language to describe the relationship between sound and meaning. His style of language seems asking us an important question like this. We sometimes hear the departure of “phonology” in today’s s life, but when we will study this departure, we need to know a lot about Tolkien’ s investigations before. I think learning phonology is an important form, because sound and meaning relates closely.

Second, I was impressed by his life of professor. After he graduated Oxford University, he became a professor there, and he taught Old English, and English Literature. He was interested in languages, and his interest of languages makes his life of professor richer. If I were to return to 1920s, I would like to attend his English Literature class! In this time, he must have taught his unique language to the students.

Third, I will mention about Oxford Dictionary, which is called “OED” in today’s life.

Actually, he is one of the persons who compiled this famous dictionary. He mainly mentioned Germanic Language in this dictionary. I think his interest in many languages play an important role in compiling such a famous dictionary. In our class, we have mentioned that he was interested in many languages, as well as Old English. He produced 15 of his original languages, and uses in his some works. I was impressed his number of languages which he studied. I think he must have a “Gifted minority” all of his life!

From these three facts, I think he is a specialist of languages. He interested in 15 of languages, and introduced original languages by himself. At first sight, he is only famous for his works such as “Lord of the Rings”, but I think we should not forget the fact that he actually engaged in compiling famous dictionary, and he taught languages in some Universities.

In conclusion, Tolkien is famous for his interest in languages, as well as some works of literature. His unique style of languages plays an important role in many of his works, and his interest in languages seems having a strong connection in today’s our life.

Smith Ross, “Fitting Sense to Sound: Linguistic Aesthetics and Phonosemantics in the Work of J.R.R. Tolkien” 2006, Published by West Virginia University Press, Vol. 2006, 1 Print

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Reaction Pieces

WORKS CITED

Integrated â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Class Journal

"LORD OF THE RINGS" AS BRITISH MYTHOLOGY K AN F UJITA Even it was not shown that the story of the "Lord of the Rings" is a myth for British people, there are many proofs. Undying lands was the key to understand "Lord of the Rings."

The ring was a tool of ruling the world in peace by witchcraft. The rings of power were made by wish of Elves to protect beauty and preciousness of the world. But their wish already had weakness and it was used by Sauron for evil purposes. It shows that peaceful world is a dream for every people, but it is impossible without any effort. The destruction of the ring shows human being was given right and responsibility to rule the world. It has same question with today's environmental and international situation, especially for British citizen, who used to be lived in "British Empire." It is same as Adam and Eve who was given choice by god in Genesis. Still, it would be remained as question why the ring bearers can go there. Ring must have feature as relics such as Moses's ark or Holy Grail, that made one who touch or own it weakened or apart from the world. As Christian saints did, Bilbo and Frodo was suffered from burden of the Ring, they left to Undying Lands where Elves live. It may suggest that mysterious aspects of the world were shut in closed space.

Both "Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings" have a story of a journey to sacred Mountain. The lonely mountain is Dwarfish home land and where fortune and power came from. The mount doom is a place where Sauron's ring was made and also a battle field where Human and Elves fought against Sauron's army for freedom. Even though the mount Doom is an evil and cursed place, it is obviously legendary and mysterious place. From ancient age, mountains have been sacred place where people pray for god. For example, Moses was received Decalogue at the summit of Mount Sinai. Each story takes a form of quest for the Holy Grail.

Mount Doom exists in Mordor, even though volcano did not exist in England. Tolkien's mythology of middle earth also has Geological chronicle aspect. The whole world of middle earth, Arda, became the continents of the Earth that we know today. The theory of continental drift was not believed before 20th century, and Tolkien must have liberal view for science of modern society.

Some would have question why Eastern are described as barbarians and the center of middle earth became today's Middle East or Africa, where ancient civilizations were born. In short, the story seems to have an idea of European centralism. But it must be noticed that mythology is just one of ideas of creation of world, not an ideology.

Races of Middle Earth must symbolize the situation and origins of England. Elves symbolize noble aspect of human being, Dwarves symbolize strength, human being symbolizes foolishness and braveness, and Hobbits symbolize humbleness and simplicity.

The language of Wesron strength the aspect of British mythology of "Lord of the Rings."

Westron have concept of English language. Many races of middle earth used Weston's as English was used in 4 nations of the United Kingdom and many countries today. The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings take the form of Tolkien's English translation of "The book of Westmarch" by Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. Tolkien used English to tell his mythology.

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Spring 2014

REACTION PIECE OF GOLLUM S HOKI K ASE

Reaction Pieces

From watching the movie, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Lord of the Ringsâ&#x20AC;?, which is the work of Tolkien, one of the characters, whose name is Gollum, gave me much impression. That is why, I will write about him and the reasons why I was interested in, and there are two reasons.

The one reason is that his character looks like human`s, and particularly shows the folly of human. He was originally hobbit, and his looks was normal. However, when his friend happened to find a ring in a riverside, Gollum liked it and wanted it. To get the ring, he killed his friend and robbed him of the ring. The scene describes Gollum as the very foolishness of human.

He had too desire to get the ring to stop killing his friend and seizing it. Even in Japan, which is popular in the world, there are many incidents such a thing. Also, when Frodo and his companions tried to destroy the ring, went to a mountain and put it in the volcano, Gollum also participated in them. But when they almost reached the mountain, he completely betrayed them, and tried to kill Frodo and to rob of the ring. However, not only he failed it, but also he jumped into the volcano to get the ring and lost his life. Only in this scene, there are three stupidities of human. First is when he betrayed them. Second is when he tried to kill Frodo. He repeated the same mistake which he made when he firstly get the ring in the riverside. Last is when he jumped into fire. He was defeated with his desire, so he threw away his life, which seemed to be most important thing of him. These three things are silliness of human and the feature of it. Tolkien seems to want to describe the foolish and ugly points of it. So, the act of Gollum looked like the part of ridiculousness of human.

The other reason is that although I expressed Gollum as the part of ugliness of human in the second paragraph, I also consider he is much pitiful guy. After he got the ring, by the power of it, he lost much weight, he was reduced to a mere skeleton and his hair disappeared. That is, he was not fit to be seen in public. So, he lived alone for a long time in the depths of the earth.

Since he lived in such painful way, he got a mind disease and had double personality. What a pitiful life he was!! A moment desire changed completely his lifetime. It looks like a drug which human tends to be addicted to. In this point, Gollum seems to be human.

From these two reasons, I was given much impression about Gollum, and was much interested in him. From learning about him, I got to think that I never give myself up to desire, and it is important to look and imagine forward.

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Integrated â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Class Journal

REVIEWS

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Spring 2014

REVIEW: LORD OF THE RINGS M ASAFUMI O GAWA I watched the movies of Lord of the Rings. Before I watched them I thought that they were just a fiction and not interesting. But once I watched them I forgot time and my eyes were riveted on the movies. They are the most interesting fantasy movies I have ever seen!

If I had watched the movies when I was elementary school pupil, I would have excited about the fighting scenes. When I watched them a few weeks ago for the first time, I was very impressed the characters' attitude in the movies. Generally speaking, the older we become the more we resign ourselves. We rarely do our best. But Frodo, Sam and the other character all had difficulty a lot of times, but they did not give up. They did their best and finally succeeded in throwing the ring into the magma. I feel that the movies gave me what I forgot some years ago.

In addition, since I became a university student, I often act and spend time alone. I have not cooperate with others many times. When I finished watching the movies I recall my junior high and high school days. I played a lot of games, did my homework, made movies, and so on with my friends.

But now I often read books, do my homework, play internet games alone. When I finished watching them I decided to spend more time with my friends.

Lord of the Rings is, I think, what not only the young but also the middle old and old people should watch. I myself think that Sam is a very nice character because even though he is not handsome, he is very kind and has a rigid faith in his action.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS "THE RETURN OF THE KING" MOVIE REVIEW Y UI N AKAGAWA

WORKS CITED The Lord of the Rings, Dir. Peter Jackson. Pony Canyon. 2010

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Reviews

I've been wanting to watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy because I love fantasy films, but I was hesitating to watch them since they are too long. But I think it was worth watching, and the DVDs I watched were extended editions, so I think there were more interesting and important scenes.

My favorite character, Aragorn was especially dashing in this movie. He fought against the evil army bravely. He is just a human, unlike Legolas , but he brought up the rear at the battle all the time. Before he begins the fight with orcs, the last battle, he step forward and turn back his friends, Legolas, Gimli and Gandalf, and said "For Frodo.". That was so cool and even though his tone was calm, his words had dignity. He was so talented and had a power to lead the people. I think Aragorn is the most important character in the movies. I would rather say he can be the main character, not Frodo. (But I do not hate him) When he became the king of Gondor, I was like "YES!!!" because he was so beautiful and that was the happy ending I imagined.

Gimli and Legolas are funny too. They hated each other because of their race, but through the journey, they got to know each other and became friends at the end. At the last battle, they had very important conversation that showing their friendship. Gimli said "Never thought I'd die fighting side by side with an Elf", and Legolas said to him "What about side by side with a friend?" Gimli glanced at Legolas and nodded and said "Aye, I can do that." That is one of my favorite scenes in the film.

The Lord of the Rings films are all good with computer graphics, stories and actors. I got very tired when I finished watching all of the three films but I enjoyed them all.

Integrated – Class Journal

NEVER LET ME GO O NDA M OEMI Never Let Me Go which is written by Kazuo Ishiguro is one of my favorite works. I will concern about this story from not content but a style. This work takes us into the world we never know. In this world, there are children who are born to only offer their internals. But at first we cannot know who they are and where there is.

Kazuo Ishiguro does not inform us of the strange world at all. So further and further we read this story, more and more we can understand the structure of the world. Also in this story children do not know who they are and gradually come to know the cruel truth. That is why I favor this book. This story is not a mystery. But it gives the impression like a mystery. We are thrown into the strange world. So we have to grope our way in the dark. Like children of characters in this story, we come to know the truth. I could not stop reading because I was anxious about the continuation of the story. We can enjoy this story through the solving of a mystery. Moreover, this story is written from main character’s point of view. The main character whose name is Kathy narrates her memories of childhood. So it is what is called unreliable narrator. The main character’s memory is so subjective and ambiguous that we cannot believe completely. So there is a blank we can imagine what Kathy does not know. As stated above we can also enjoy as if a detective solve a mystery. The content is so dark but I want to enjoy with a light heart.

WORKS CITED Kazuo Ishiguro. Never Let Me Go. Trans.

Tutiya Masao.2006. Print.

EASY RIDER W ATARU T ATEUCHI Easy Rider is an American movie released in 1969. The plot is very simple, which is that two men, by Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper, ride big motorcycles and aim for carnival. This movie is about hippies, so it has much to do with the Beat Generation. The movie shows many hippies, their life and even their

using drugs, which cannot be done again at present. They attract me and the movie can be a precious record which tells us the atmosphere at that time. Another thing that interests me is the appearance, at the beginning of the movie, of Phil Spector, who acted once as a producer of the Beatles.

One of the features of this movie is its background music. Most of the songs are not made for the movie but rock music which had already existed. Of them, the most impressive song is “Born To Be Wild” by Steppenwolf. This song are very suitable for the image of two men running on the wide road by bike and the song may confirm the whole image of the movie.

Also, the background of the movie is wonderful. The roads on which two men are running are very magnificent and they cannot be imagined in Japan. This reminds me of the size of America. Viewers can enjoy the background apart from the plot and feel as if they watched a sightseeing program. And the motorcycles two men ride have characteristic forms and fit for two men. The figures of two men running on the wide road are very cool.

The most notable character would be a lawyer by Jack Nicholson. He acts a strange person, but has a mysterious fascination. The scene where he talks to two men of freedom at night is one of the cores of the movie. The theme of it would be freedom and those who resist it. It is doubtful whether he is a good lawyer, because he is almost always drunk and arrested when he met two men for the first time, but he seems to know humanity a lot. He might be passed on to the spirit of the Beat Generation.

In the latter of the movie, the mood of the movie suddenly completely changes into psychedelic and erotic. The viewers are probably embarrassed by the change, but this scene prevents the movie from the monotonous impression, and it may be another core of the movie. This scene is representation of using drugs.

The ending is shocking (I do not write it here) and it seems to mean that eventually freedom is defeated. It implies the end of antisocial culture and shows its problem to the viewers.

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MOVIE REVIEW OF GRAVITY K AN F UJITA Gravity is a science fiction thriller film, directed by Mexican director, Alfonso Cuaron.

This film got seven academy awards for the best cinematography, directing, music, sound editing, sound mixing, visual effects, and film editing.

Losing beloved one is one of important parts of Cuaron`s films. Most of his film, main characters had lost their family. Children of Men is the most close example to Gravity. The main character, Theo Faron, played by Clive Owen, had lost his baby by influenza in 2009.

At the time Matt asked her why she had been given boyish name. She answered “Dad wanted a boy” and her word suggests that she was raised in conservative family which had value on male. She had lost her 4 years old daughter, Sarah. Her name was not revealed to Matt.

Other important part of this film is selfsacrifice. It can be expressed as symbolic inheriting life. Matt was drifted release the rope to save Ryan. This part too, the closest example is Children of Men. The film is science fiction, but also a road movie, and story of main character, Theo and the first pregnant girl in 18years, is taken to another character to another. Most of them sacrifice themselves to save her, and Theo died on boat from shot in guerrilla battle, Key was taken to Human Project, and the movie ends.

Matt`s self-sacrifice encouraged Ryan to survive.

This film is also about individual`s development of religious belief. Icon picture of infant idol in Soyuz and small idle of Buddhism in Shenzou were put on almost same place, in front of pilot seat. They must be talisman for astronauts to remember their religious belief in time of emergency and show that idea of religion is universal, not depending on cultural difference.

From her word, “If you see a little girl”, it becomes sure that she gained religious belief. It seems realistic, because many astronauts suddenly got religious or spiritual lifework after returning from space.

Names of Chinese spaceship and space station have religious

implication. Chinese space station, Tiangong stands for a palace in heaven and spaceship, Shenzou, god`s ark. Ryan from Soyuz to Tiangong and re-entry by Shenzou; She had refugee in a palace in heaven, and traveled back by god`s ark to living world.

In the film, conversation and languages are important keys of story. At first, Ryan was not willing to have conversation with Matt, because of her anxiety and sad experience in past.

But Matt kept talking to her and she started to open her mind. Most of Ryan`s dialogues are on radio communication in blind to Huston and it expresses her loneliness. Her conversation with Aninngaq shows her difficulties of conversation with others. It was good choice not to put scene of Huston or Greenland. Anningaq`s story can be seen in Jonas Cuaron`s short film, Anningaq.

Matt started to talk about his searching his friend`s sister in Marti Gras, but his story was interrupted by impact of debris. Ryan asked the end of the story when she tried to communicate with Matt from International Space Station. That scene suggest human though and existence is made by language; experience makes life and past and telling experience makes personality which is to recognized by others. At re-entry scene, Ryan reminded a story and it may suggest that she had become an individual who speaks with confidence and communicate with others.

There are some shocking or wired scenes for some audience. Ryan`s illusion scene may seem to be wired because story was shown by realistic way with longshots before and it suddenly became imaginary and subjective. It may be wired too that the scene was shot in one cut.

Matt in her dream is metaphorical expression of her changing mind. Depiction of Sharif and 2 astronaut`s dead bodies may be too frightening, but they were good implication of how death in space is like and made the story even more thrilling and exciting.

Metaphor of rebirth is used successfully in the film. Ryan curl up body into ball, floating in air pod as unborn child in mother`s body.

Rope around her stomach is similar to umbilical cord. That sequence shows that her rebirth begins. Spaceship is a symbol of women`s womb and water of lake is of amniotic fluid. A frog

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passing through camera symbolizes evolution from aquatic life to terrestrial. The scene is similar to a scene that crews of Notilus walk underwater in 20,000 leagues under the sea.

As Matt`s word, “mother earth”, the film has message of eco-feminism. , and the scene reminds audience borderless glove.

Children of Men also had same theme.

The depiction of the earth reminds audience borderless glove. Ryan and Matt drifts above earth, passing above countries, such as Egypt or Italy. Even debris impact was caused

by Russia`s destruction of its own satellite, the story was not focused on international conflicts.

Destruction of the space shuttle well symbolizes weakening strong nations. It was ironical that Ryan was saved by Chinese spaceship, because China actually did what Russia did in movie in 2007.

There are hidden humor in the film; parody of existing genre and sarcasm to authority.

At the first scene, the mission of restoration of Hubble telescope, the image is not so much different from space documentary, but it suddenly changes to dark and uncanny images like Alien, and Ryan`s story begins. The film seems to be realistic space adventure, but in fact it is a story of individual and parody of existing genre of space documentary. Children of Men was also parody of charity movement video, such as Michael Jackson`s “We are the World”, which includes lyric, “we are the children”. Human Project John Tavener`s music.

Cuaron often uses people who use their privileged rights for bad purposes to criticize authority and power; sometimes not for bad purposes. In Y Tu Mama Tambien, Frio and Tenoch use private membership pool which Tenoch's father is one of members, and even do master-bating there. In Children of Men, Theo works at the Ministry of Energy, and asked his cousin, who was a minister of art, to get passing permit for an illegal immigrant girl. In the film,

there are not such a person, but most of the astronauts seemed to enjoy their time in space as possible, as Matt`s word, “Let`s let the boys down there worry for us”.

Finally, if Y Tu Mama Tambien is a question, Gravity is an answer. 2 Mexican boys, Julio and Tenoch, after graduated high school, got to know with a married Spanish woman, Luisa, and drive with her to a beach named "Heaven's Gate".

Ocean plays a role as a symbolic world of afterlife, as space did in “Gravity”. Even after Julio and Tenoch left the beach, Luisa remained there and walked along beach to sunset and dive to water, and then shot changed to street of Mexico City 6 month later. Julio and Tenoch met in chance and had a talk in a cafe, and Frio heard that Luisa died from cancer. She had said to them before they back, "Life is a stream of river. Let yourself on it" by narrator. It would be easily noticed that he accepted her death and decided not to fear.

“Gravity” has similar scene, which Ryan talks with Anningaq and gives up to survive. But Gravity goes farther. Ryan made her mind to live, return to the Earth, and rises from water. The last scene is symmetry to Luisa`s last scene.

First watch would be surprising for Cuaron fans. Even most scenes are told by symbols, some parts depends on dialogue too much, Matt`s words are too direct to show theme of the story, especially “What`s point of living?”.

Moreover, the story itself may be too optimistic.

By the way, it must be sure that Gravity was absolutely aimed to be watched in theaters. At Ryan`s drifting scene, the theater literary gets dark, and silence after maximum volume expressing air leaves only audiences` blesses.

Gravity can be called best film in 2013, for constructive script, thrilling actions, Steven Price`s beautiful score, and incredible visual effects.

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BOY BY ROALD DAHL S AYA F UKUDA Roald Dahl is a famous author of children's literature, and many of his works are used for movie. In Japan, many people watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I like that movie and story, but his autobiography Boy is more interesting for me. Roald Dahl's life was so complicated, but he accustomed to it and live uniquely. His works, particular Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, has a special kind of unfoldment of story and this make us laugh. As same as this, his life also makes us laugh. Usually, autobiography is written about his/her glory and so it becomes kind of serious book.

But Boy is different. It is the book that keeps one interested enough to keep turning the pages. My high school teacher give us (classmates) this book and reading whole of this book is the summer vacation. So I first read this when I was 16 years old. Words and sentences are too difficult for me, but content was so funny, so I read whole part by short time. Even now, I often reread this book, and every time I enjoy Dahl's eccentric story. If someone wants to read hilarious book, I strongly recommend Boy and I am sure that everyone become to like Roald Dahl after reading the book.

SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE S AYA F UKUDA William Shakespeare is one of the most famous poets and playwrights in the world. He lived in Britain under the Elizabeth I's reign, but his life is still filled with mysteries, some people even questioning his existence. Shakespeare in Love is the movie that based on Shakespeare's works and portrayed his life. Of course, some of them are fiction, but we can get a flavor of what his life might be. Add to this, we can learn atmosphere of Britain in that age, environment surrounding plays, and religious problems. So, this movie is really good study material for students of department of literature.

I learned things above, but also enjoyed story itself. Shakespeare fell in love with Viola, who has promised to the dour Lord Wessex. Their love is so passionate one and this links Shakespeare's works such as sonnets, his tragedy, and comedy. I think the scene of play "Romeo and Juliet" is the most romantic one and its story matches their love, so as play progress, their romantic feeling also run high, and this makes story attractive and interesting. Whether or not liking Shakespeare and literature, people can enjoy this movie, so I recommend Shakespeare in Love.

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION I want to introduce about the movie, The Shawshank Redemption. This movie is based on “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption”, by Stephen King. When I was doing my homework in the mid night, I turned TV on and saw this movie is broadcasted. I had have heard famousness of this movie, so I tried watching it. Finally, I watched whole story. This movie is such a great, interesting, and attractive one. I remember some impressive lines. First one is ‘Get busy living or get busy dying.’

Second one is ‘Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies.’ These lines are said by the main character; he is in prison for many years because of a fake crime. Almost all prisoners lose hope in prison, but he never gives up hope. These lines made me brave. The prison is not familiar to us, but we feel sympathy for the situation. This is because The Shawshank Redemption teaches us as the following. We do not have to give up hope even if the situation around us is so hard and it is hopeful to escape from it. We have to believe that there is another world, which is different from the real and filled with hope.

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Integrated – Class Journal

THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD S HUTO F URUYA The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was written by Agatha Christie. In this story, a celebrity is killed, and his family, fiancée, and many servants in his mansion are suspects. I felt that this story was a model of classic mystery novel. Each person tells little lie, because they have some secrets or guilty and dishonourable feelings. These lies are not related to the celebrity’s death, so they will be innocent if they say the truth. However, people have things that they do not want to say; usually we have something we cannot told our friends. The famous main character, Hercule Poirot, reveals these lies by using his gray matter, which means his great brain. He reveals lies not for embarrassing them. It is for revealing the truth of the celebrity’s death.

This story is told from the point of view of Poirot’s assistant, who has the same roll as John H. Watson for Sherlock Holmes.

This is the most important point in this book.

At the end of this story, a sudden reversal happened by good use of this viewpoint. I was amazed to understand the true. This book is worth reading.

REVIEW OF WEST SIDE STORY A TSUHO M ATSUMOTO "You all killed him." This is from the last scene of West Side Story. This film seems to be a happy and positive musical, but it is not true. West Side Story is related to racial discrimination and prejudice deeply. The protagonist of this film is Tony, and he belongs to Caucasian gangs group, the Jets. The Jets always battles against another gangs group, the Sharks. The Sharks is consisted of Latinos, especially Puerto-Ricans. One day, Tony fell in love with Latin girl, Maria. They began to know each other, but two gangs group did not think it good. Their love made one tragedy between these groups. In this film, songs and dance are very amazing. For example, the beginning of this film is very impressive scene because the Jets and the Sharks battled with singing and dancing. However, Anita, who belongs to the Sharks, sings song about what

she feels on Puerto Rico. Also, she does not have a good idea against her home town. From these thing, West Side Story is very enjoyable musical, on the other hand, it can be an opportunity for thinking about racial problems.

Hatred against different race only makes conflict and sorrow. Every People have to understand each other, like Tony and Maria.

REVIEW OF THE MOVIE: FREQUENCY H IROKI K IKUCHI This is my favorite movie that I came across on TV. After I watched on TV, I went to Tsutaya, and I watched it many times. It is a fantasy suspense movie in that a police man talks with his own father in the past, who has died when he was a child, by an old transceiver.

His father was a firefighter and was killed in a fire.

It is a story about the bond between father and son across space and time. At first, his father did not believe that the speaker of the transceiver is his son in about 30 years, but he survived in a fire by his son’s words that he would be killed in a next fire, and he came to believe that the speaker of the transceiver is his son. They sometimes communicate with each other across years by inscribing on the desk in his house, which his son keeps using until now.

It is a very interesting idea that changes made in past changes the present time.

The main character’s mother was killed by a serial killer right after his father was killed in a fire. However, now the past is changed; his father was saved. This time, his father and he try to save his mother, which is the main plot of this movie. The ways of their cooperation to save her is very fantastic. He tells the past events to his father, the future events for his father. The present situations are attributed to his father’s actions.

Finally, his father sends evidences to his son by putting them on the bottom of the closet, and his son finds and arrests the serial killer. At last, he, his father and his mother are in the present house together. It is very difficult to describe the story at all, because the timeline is very complicated. You can enjoy the movie, thrilling and touched by the bonds of them.

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CREATIVE WRITING

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THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE WOMAN IN THE NIGHT TIME M ASAFUMI O GAWA It was at about 10 o'clock at night when I lost my way in a forest. Weird trees grew thick and there was no light. I was about to rest by the tree, when I found one house, which was made of wood and seemed 50 years old. I knocked the door and then a young woman came out. She seemed about 20 years old, tall and very thin. I asked her to stay me at her house, and she received that. I was quite relieved and deeply appreciated her reception.

She gave me some meal. I ate them quickly because I was very hungry. But she ate only one grain of rice. I thought she had eaten dinner already, but she said it was the first meal of the day. She said she did not eat much every day. I thought she was telling a lie.

We talked about some topics. She had no family member. They died when she was young.

Since then she had lived alone in the house. I asked her how did she get food but she didn't answer.

I went to bed at 12 o' clock. I thought about the very thin woman. She was very beautiful and thin, but it is unbelievable that she survived by eating only some grain of rice. I kept thinking about her.

Then I heard some sound from the entrance. What happened? I got up, opened the door slowly and saw the entrance. The entrance door was closed and there was nothing strange. But I noticed that her shoes had disappeared. She went out to somewhere! It was very strange she went out at such a late night. There was no interesting place around here. Where is she going? I decided to go and look for her.

I found her going out the gate. She was walking with a beautiful posture, like a good lady.

She walked about one kilometre and arrived at an awful graveyard. She looked around and went to one tomb.

Then I saw an unbelievable scene! She digs up the dead in the grave and started eating it!

She smashed the skull and ate the brain. She was a monster! I started running back to the house, but I tumbled down. She noticed and dashed toward me. I wanted to escape but I wasn't able to move my legs.

I wake up with a large quantity of sweat. I found that the curious incident was just a dream.

Then the woman came to me and asked me whether I was all right or not. She went to the kitchen to bring water to me. When I saw her there were some dark stains on her back. Then I found someone's legs at the corner of the room. I thought those legs were what she had brought from the grave! I must escape from here! I tried to stand up and run away...

But I was not able to stand up.

The End

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BEING BLURRED IN THE RAIN M ASA C HO PART 1 WESLEY JEFFERSON Ⅰ All the people pass by me, without any caring. So do I. I pass by them without any caring. It is the rule in this city. Pouring rain makes everyone's view blurred. As such is this city, people should pretend to be uncaring.

However, people always desire caring. Not only to be given caring but also to give caring, they desire.

Actually, this weirded rule is not truly existing. The Government and the court have never mentioned this rule, but people make this rule true in their own minds. They are not brave enough to brake it, to be released from it and I am the one who is more coward than any other is.

A weak old man is standing in the train, but no body speaks to him. The blind is going down the stairs carefully, but no body would lead her. Neither am I brave enough.

Whenever I miss the chance, the shame shows up in the inside of me. The offended words from his mouth obsess me, like an evil pulling me down to the Hell. This feeling came to me a year and a half ago.

It was a snowy winter day. All this city was covered by light gray and fragile skin.

He, a man at age of sixty or seventy, was stumbling about. I looked at him, walking slowly. He was walking as if his feet had been two heavy stones. The skin of snow was printed by his feet. Each of them were clear.

He breathed so hard that I could hear it. It was not rhythmic. Each his breath was deep and restless. Further he walked, slower he walked.

As to me, I just looked at him. I was by no means cold-hearted. I was sort of worried about him, but he was a stranger to me, who I had never talked with.

'How he will react if I lend my a hand to him? Will he think I am interfering?Is he just drunken and will be mad to me? But what if something serious happen to him?'

Speaking to him or not, this two choices came to me. I hesitated for a while. For my cowardice, I finally left him be alone.

When I was in "DAILY NEED", the supermarket I usually went, I kept thinking of that weakened man.

'What if he was really weaken but not drunken?’

'If I helped him, he might be saved.’

I walked around almost without seeing commodities on the shelves.

'All because of my cowardice!! If I were braver, I wouldn't be worried like this.

What a pity and selfish man.’

'It's no use keeping being worried.

What is done cannot be undone.’

Thus I tried to stop thinking of him.

On the way back, I saw an ambulance stopped at where I saw the weaken man and I saw the man was carried into the ambulance.

'He was sick! He wasn't drunken!'

'If something happened to him, it would be because I haven't helped him then.'

Of course I was worried about him, but rather than it, I had a sense if guilty. I just hoped he would be saved.

I saw the rescue worker checked the lying man by shining his flash light. Then, he sighed "15: 23" and covered the face of the body.

The evil whispered to me. Every words from his mouth tried pulling me down to the hell.

"You are no better than a murder."

Horrible words.

The truth that I abandoned a person to his fate was carved on my mind, my brain, my body, my soul as an tattoo that would never be rubbed out.

Whole this a year and a half, I've felt as if I've been possessed by something. It was his death, which perhaps would not have come, if only I've been brave enough.

What I can predict now is that I should keep bearing this blame. It is deserved to me.

It was what happened to me a year and a half ago. Ⅱ I am siting on the bench of "Xinleave Park". I am just trying to think nothing, receive the view around me into my eyes and the sound around me into my ears and calm myself down because I've just been so depresses recently because of his death.

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I often do like this. This is the only moment that I can be released. I just see around without thinking. Then, something catches my consciousness. I return my glance. A boy of the age around 5 is lying on the bench at the opposite side. There is no body that seems to be his parents and it is unusual that a child sleeps in a park alone. Even after a while, no body comes and wakes him up. It is really strange, I think. I think I should wake him up, but I also feared that when I wake him up, his parents come just in time and they would suspect me if I am going to do something bad to their priceless child.

It is really strange a child lies here alone. I suspect if he is sick. It is really hot today. He might develop heat illness. If that is the case, he must go to hospital right now. The horrible winter day comes to my mind and I just think I do not make the same mistake anymore. Moreover, he is still a little child. It is too early to die for him. Then I take the plunge and approach to him.

I find he is breathing hardly. His face is streaming with sweat. He develops heat illness as I thought. I immediately take a bottle of water from my bag and arise his body. I shake his body to wake him and bring the bottle to his mouth. I make him leaning on my chest and use the other hand to call an ambulance.

At the hospital, the Doctor says he is all right but need to take a rest for a while.

I am really relieved and realize a tiny bravery can save one's life. If only I'd had this tiny bravery, I could have saved the old man's life.

If only I'd had this tiny bravery, I did not have to suffer from the sense of sin for a long while, but now I saved a child's life, I succeed in changing myself.

PART 2 JACK ARCHER When I went to National Park Summer Festival with my son got lost. I couldn't find him for hours. Of course I ask help from the stuffs of the festival. In the evening, I got a call from the stuff and he told me my son is at the hospital near National Park.

"Hospital!! What did Happen to him! " I thought, and rushed to the hospital.

I open the door of the my son's room which the nurse at the reception desk told me.

There is my son on the bed.

"Dad!" "Tommy! Are you OK?" "Doctor said he developed heat illness.

The condition was bad but he is all right and just needs a rest now." A man in his early twenties stands up from the chair beside the bed and says to me.

I look at his face and he says "I'm Wesley Jefferson. I found your son lying on the bench at Xinleave Park" Then the Doctor comes into the room and explains the condition of Tommy and that he thought Tommy might lose himself when he went to the Festival which was held near by where Tommy was and tried to phone the committee of the Festival.

"Thank you for taking care of my son.

I'm Jack Archer." I say.

He is a quiet-looking man wearing a simple white T-shirt, but his warm eyes show his kindness.

I invite him to a dinner at my home.

Tommy looks completely all right and and seems to get attached to Wesley. I hear he studies at a graduate school which is famous in this area.

He promises Tommy that he will come at next Sunday again and says good-bye with a smile. Both me and my wife, Cathy, like him.

â&#x2026;Ą Six months has passed since I have met Wesley. We often meet. We invited him to Tommy' s birthday party, went to picnic together, celebrated his getting a job and asked him to take care of Tommy when Cathy and me are busy sometime. Of corse, we often have dinner together. About twice a month. He is like a new member of my family. He is as if my little brother. It is really happy that the number of the member of family increases.

I am a policeman. There happened a murder case in my city and I am on this case. I am allowed to watch the record of the monitoring camera near the scene and I am in the apartment which owns it.

I have been watching for about two hours, but there is no body who is doubtful on the video.Only me in the room now. I am thinking of my father. He was a really great

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PART 3ME

Ⅰ Wesley is going to have dinner at Jack's home tonight. Then Wesley comes and says hello to them as usual. Tommy and Cathy do not know anything, so they welcome him as usual. Only Jack, though he pretends to be as usual, he is confused in his mind.Now, the person in front of him is the one who is like his brother, whom his son owe his life, and who led his father die without helping. He cannot do anything but pretends to be as usual.

Several weeks have passed, Wesley has gradually felt there are something wrong with Jack. He feels there is a certain distance between them but he is not brave enough to ask him. Tommy and Cathy still like him because they do not know what happened in that winter yet and Jack is not going to tell them, so they often invite Wesley as usual.

Moths have passed. Wesley feels the distance increasing but remains unable to talk about it with Jack.

Wesley, who is a delicate man, get depressed. Finally, he decides to ask Cathy.

She did not notice there seemed to be some distance between Jack and Wesley before Wesley told her, so she has no idea about the reason of the distance. She decides to ask Jack directly.

Jack says there is not such distance, but after she is told by Wesley, she definitely feels there are something wrong with Jack. She asks Jack what happens to him for many times, but what he only says is nothing. Such conversation between them is repeated for many times and both them get irritated.

Gradually, their conversations develop into argument.

A crack is generated between Jack and Cathy. Jack shouts at Cathy who is crying and Tommy hears it behind the door of his room. It isn't the first time that Tommy hears their argument. Watching his crying mother being shouted by his father, he gradually has hatred towards him. Finally, Jack gets isolated at this home, but he cannot tell the truth to his wife and son because he know they will be confused and be disappointed deeply.

When Jack is driving, he sees his wife and son are with Wesley at street. He did not know that they was going to meet him today.

Tommy walks between them and holds both their hands. For Jack, he looks like the father of Tommy and the husband of Cathy.

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man. He was not a father for me but a hero for me. He was working for protecting this city.

He was a really brave man and saved a lot of people's life. Thus he was really respected by his colleagues. They had celebrated his birthday every years even after he had retired.

At home, he was a ideal father. However busy he was with work, he had never missed family events, for example birthday and Christmas.

Every holidays, he took me out to go picnic, fishing or watching soccer. I respect him and be proud of him, so I wanted to be like him and chose the same profession as his and cherish my family as he had done.

Such respectable man died in the winter of the year before last. Many people attended his funeral and cried. He had died of attack of his chronic disease. To tell the truth, he died in front of this apartment. I catch the sight of the disk which the date of my father's dead is written on. I am thinking if I should watch this record. I want to know how my father died ー I know he died of attack of disease but I did not actually see it ー but, on the other hand, I fear the sadness which would come when I watch it. The desire to want to know the truth win and I put the disk into the player.

My father is stumbling about on the snow which is so white that it reminds me of a part of heaven where he are heading for. I am almost crying but I should keep watching for seeing the truth. Then a young man shows up at the edge of the screen and looks at my father.

To my surprise, it is Wesley. I stare at the screen. Wesley does not show any sign of helping my father but only walk slowly with looking at him.

"What is he doing? Why doesn't he help my father! Why is he just looking at my father! " Then he leaves there behind, but I believe he just goes to call somebody and will come back and try to help my father. However, before long, my father falls and Wesley never show up again.

"If he had saved him at that time, he would have been saved! Why it was him. My father should have lived longer. He's no better than a murder! Murder! Murder!"

My tears flow and my knees fall down.

Integrated – Class Journal

It is evening now and Jack comes home. He says to Cathy he saw she and Tommy were with Wesley and ask the details.

As Jack suggested, Cathy has an affair with Wesley and she confesses it is hard for her to live with Jack anymore. He pucks up his belonging and leaves the house which is not his home any more. Ⅱ He stays at a hotel near by his office for the time being. His desire to revenge is swelling.

‘He took my respectable father. He took my son. He took my wife. He took my family.’

Jack sends Wesley anonymously a copy of the video which records he left behind his father without any helping.

Wesley watches the copy and fears it would be spread. He is clearly on the video and whoever watch it will understand he intentionally did not help the old man. He even fears to find who sent this video. He thinks the person who sent it will contact him for making some conditions, so he just wait for it. He only can wait for it.

A week has passed, but there was not any contact from who sent the disk. Then a letter comes. There is only an URL of the wellknown video website, written in the letter.

Wesley has a bad feeling and he open the website. It meets his undesirable expectation.

The video is on the website. He almost loses his consciousness. He does not now what to do and only sits in front of his computer.

Jack's main propose is not spreading Wesley's vice itself. What he wants to do is just to afflict him. It is just the beginning. Here is the main knitting begun.

When Wesley comes out from his house, there are many pictures of the video.

They are formed a long line as if they are trying to lead him somewhere. He picks them up one by one and walk toward where they lead. He passes the stairs and the picture lead him upstairs. He arrived at rooftop and the line of pictures ends at the center of there.

‘What are you doing here? Wesley.’

Wesley is astonished that there is other people and turns back to look who is it.

‘Jack! Why are you here?’ Wesley says.

‘What do you have? Show me it.’ Jack says with pointing his forefinger at the sheaf of pictures. He takes the pictures from his hand and says ‘Do you know who is this old man?’ and he continues ‘He is my father!’

‘What?’ Wesley says in astonishment.

‘Then who send me the video and uploaded it on web was you?’ he says.

‘Yes. You could save my father but you left him alone. If you saved him, he is still alive now’ Jack replies.

‘I am really sorry for it. I really regret it.’ Wesley says and he continues ‘I know you won't forgive me. I won't forgive myself, too.’

Then, a strong wind blows.

‘Yes, I won't forgive you for not helping my father, and I won't forgive you for taking my wife and son from me!’ Jack shouts, throws the picture in the air and his fist on Wesley's left cheek.

The pictures fly in the air like hundreds of crow. Then, drops of water begin to hit their wings. The crows, one by one, fall on the wet ground.

Wesley dose not say anything though Jack keeps asking why and does not return his punch. He knows he is not qualified to do it, so he is just hit by Jack like a sandbag.

Then Jack kicks Wesley strongly with all his anger and hatred. There is no fence on the rooftop, so Wesley nearly falls from the rooftop. The rain gets heavier as if gave the match highlight.

Jack walks to the edge where Wesley is and says ‘ If you had not been exist, my world would have remained peace.’ He raise his right knee. Then, the rough sky roars as if a bell rung for telling something and at the same moment, he gives Wesley an another kick. In this way, Wesley goes out of Jack’s view instantly. Ⅲ Wesley is falling with being hit by hundreds drop of water now. He realizes he is going to die soon, but he is sort of relieved as if he was released from something. However, he wishes the last view he could see was a sky of a fine weather instead of the horrible sky, which has the rain making his view unclear and which looks like it implies where he is going to head for after this moment.

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THE LOST CHILDREN K AN F UJITA Our father, who art in heaven.

Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us our daily bread and forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespasses against us and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

I was walking in dark forest. I called my children`s name to deeper. There were no answers. Fathers and mothers called their sons` and daughters` name. I prayed again: Our lord in heaven. Protect our children. Bring them back home. Let anyone take them beyond my arms.

Mind your innocent children and us. Amen.

There he was.

I found my son surrounded by trees. He was standing straight, looking around himself. I run to him and hold him up. I asked him where his brother and sister, and children had gone. He was staring at me, as if he had some secrets. He had tear in his eyes, and muttered, “He took them all, because people were liar.” I had no idea who he was talking about and asked him who he was. He shook his head. He was crying only, “He took them all! He took them all!”

The search was continued from day to night and ended in 7th day. But parents' grief did not. We had to admit that all children of the hole city disappeared, except my son, “duck” because of his legs, and a carpenter`s blind daughter, called “mole”. Children must have gone while people were in the house of guild for preparation for John and Paul`s day.

A month later, the archbishop had a sermon. He told as below: Be aware to every evil things. Devil always watches children to take away. Teach them to have pure heart and honor god. Teach them any little lies become sins.

Teach them to pray lord for protection. Any lies can corrupt children. Liar brings suspicious to Children. Suspicious brings hatred. Hatred brings dishonesty. Dishonesty tempt them to slight their parents and god. No lies can be kept in secret before god. Believe in God. We had communion.

Wooden statues of 130 children was made in a square. Every children has its own face.

Every year on the day, fathers and mothers come to lite candle beside. My son and daughter sit together as they did. My son is a little tall and my daughter is short as they did.

5 years passed. My son and the carpenter's daughter became the oldest children in the city of Hamelin. The number of children was getting back, not so fast as rats. Nothing happened.

The city of Hamelin was troubled with rats more than now. People brought cat but there were no progress against multiplication of the beast. Once people had an unwelcome visitor. A young piped piper came to our village and claimed to kill all rats for coins. The piper started to blew his pipe walking around streets. The day after, all rats were cleaned up. He claimed that he and drawn in river and demanded coin. His request was rejected. He seemed to have lied to good people of Hamelin because they thought rats had dived into river by themselves, and what he said was hard to believe for civilized men, and he had committed interpretation of witchcraft, and he was not high enough to trust after all.

One day of May, it was found that mud was putted on eyes, and it was found that the blind girl had done it. She claimed that the eyes moves when children pass and the lost children watch them through the eyes by order of the piper.

She was punished for mischief and lying.

One day May, the mayor had a speech as below: Parts of your body work for your heart.

Your heart is more precious than your arms.

Your brain is more precious than your legs. If some part is on your way, you should cut it off.

You must know power never serve for people. It is people that serve for power. Power had existed before creation of Adam, and go on after all mankind vanished. No man can live without power.

One day of June, the lord`s son suddenly disappeared. The night of the day, he was discovered tied his hands and legs in shed. It was 6 boys who had done the malicious mischief.

The worst for me was that my son attended the company. He explained that he had been tempted by them because the Lord`s son was an intolerable liar. I was disappointed with him I had to spank his bottom and forbid meals for 5 days, except a piece of bread. The lord was furious with nasty boys` evil deed. I had to punish him for two weeks.

One day of June, by a chance I drunk with the carpenter. He was talkative, not as usual.

“I believe in God, and I`m sure that God took all kids. My girl cannot see, but she can see children coming back to their home at midnight. She tells me what she saw. I don`t care if she was lying or not. She can see things that does not belong to living world. It does not matter, because she cannot see anything that exists does not tell anyone about it.” he said.

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Creative Writing

Spring 2014

Integrated – Class Journal

I said “I envy you. That is far better than mine. He does not speak to me. I am worried that he would become a liar. He saw my eyes and told he had taken them.” “All the story is one story. God is the only cause of everything.

People pretend to disdain what they believed and to believe what they disdained. All children know where baby come from, but adults does not admit it. They believe storks bring baby. They made up the story to teach children, but they started to believe what they made up.” He said.

“Will they remain unfound forever and after, and will people got used to forget it? The latter is what I afraid most.” I said. “Yes, they will.”, he replied.

The punishment period passed. After supper I talked with my son. “Why did you do to him what you were done? Does that have relationship with the piped piper? Do you know him? Tell anything that you know.” I thought I showed an aspect of anger and fear on his face, but it vanished. He was looking my eyes, as he

MASTER OF LIFE S HOKI K ASE Once upon a time, there was a woman who lived in Chiba, was called Kumiko, was fifteen years old and was cutest and most beautiful in her school. So, she played with many boys and she hurt their feelings. Moreover, she tended to feel the urge to do mischief. In her school, there are not few boys who knew her character, but once she aimed one of them and made him feel that she became to love him, he immediately had much affection to her, knowing his feelings would be hurt, if he did so That is, all men whom she contacted with could not help stopping being absorbed in her.

When she was a high school student, although she associated with a man, she had no affection to him. It was just playing, though he was earnest against her. She enjoyed his seriousness, because he was a much gentleman, who sent her roses every day, gave many things arbitrarily and woke her up every morning. The longer the day of their association is, the more he gave roses. Although she was not pleased with his acts, she was not disgusted with them. She just enjoyed them. Since he gave her things which she wanted, she would not part with him.

However, one day, she tended to be bored with him, and she got a good idea to make use of his affection for her. It started her feelings of mischief. She wrote a letter," I love you, but I

did in the forest. He whispered in low voice, “The piper comes to me to pick me up to others.”

I asked him who spoke to him. “A rat came to my bed and said so last night” he said.

At midnight. I waited in darkness. The door opened creaking. A tall lean man through the door, and at the moment I pushed down him.

“Where are my son and daughter!”, I shouted to him. He was shaking and seemed to keep silence, but he whispered, “The children lives in a land without hatred, jealousy, or lies.” “Where are they now? Are they alive?”, I asked. “I do not know. But they are happy to be apart from you.”, he whispered.

He was investigated and taken to the court. Many man and woman bore witness that he was completely different with the rat hunting piper who came 5 years ago. He was just a mad drifter. He was burned at the stake as a male witch. I did not go to watch execution. I prayed at home, holding a hand with my son, seeking protection in me.

cannot endure your act of a gentleman, you are too gentle, your kindness is not fit with me, I appreciate much to you for your tenderness, I have all roses you gave me, I owe you a lot, in return, I wanted to present a thing which you would most wanted, This is my present and I would be glad if you open and receive this." After writing the letter, she gathered things she wanted to give him. It takes twenty days to get them together. At last she was satisfied with her collecting, and packed them cutely as if she gave him a birthday present. Preparing it, she grinned to herself unconsciously. Two days later, she hung the package on the doorknob of his house.

It was the day of their one year and opening it.

After three times, she forgot about the present and watched a movie, sending an e-mail to other boys in order to aim the next. At that time, the man whom Kumiko gave a present, you know, came home and noticed a package hung on the doorknob. He considered that the day was their anniversary, so this package was for me from his girlfriend, Kumiko. At once, he took it, entered his house with it and found a letter from her. He could not know why she said such a thing. Not knowing about the letter, he opened the package.

The moment he opened it, more than ten cockroaches sprang out of the box, and he screamed…..

When she was twenty, she also associated with a man. He was cool and popular in Chiba for his face. But she was not serious to him as usual. One day, there was an incident.

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Spring 2014

Although he said to her that he was satisfied with her beauty and she did not need to do it, she heard nothing from his saying at all. So he accepted her suggestion and performed an operation on her.

After the operation, she again covered with a bandage. He told her not to go out for a month, or her face would be broken. Not wanting to lose her beauty and hoping to get more beautiful, she thought to have patience with it for a month, and she followed his advice. During the month, she is given to in her delusion. She dreamed to have sex many good men when she was released. She prepared herself to put up with the boring sex with her husband. She could hardly wait to take the bandage from her, to go out and to play with men. When the time to take the bandage came, she was looking forward to it. He took the bandage in a room where there was no mirror.

She asked strongly him to bring a hand mirror.

He showed her in the mirror. At that moment, she was surprised at seeing herself.

When her husband came home from his work, she had already cooked dinner and had been waiting for him. Since the operation, she was a good housekeeper and she was busy keeping house. She would not go out from the house any more. When they were in the bed, she managed to make him get a pleasant feeling and made an effort to satisfy him, because she made him not to feed up with her and run away from her. Recognizing her endeavour for him, he grinned to himself. On a holiday, he was very careful about his appearance and went out of their home. She looked at his back anxiously, and she was looking forward patiently to his return.

Creative Writing

When she went to his home, and made love with him in the bed, he liked but abnormal play. He punched her on the face many times. Although she entreated him to stop punching, he lost himself in his violence. When he came to, it was too late. She was lying on the ground, his face covered with blood. The moment he recognized her, he ran away. She managed to call an ambulance and lost consciousness.

When she came to around, she was on a bed in the hospital. She had a bandage over her face. A doctor came to her room. He said that she had a narrow escape from death, and she could remove the bandage from her face in a week. She was afraid that her face might lose beauty and get ugliness by the accident. The doctor saw and examined her many times more than he needed.

After one week, when he took the bandage from her, and she looked at herself in a mirror, she was much surprised at her face. She got restoration to former state. She was delight with it and appreciated to him. Through the incident and the operation, she got along with him. He got affection to her and he invited her to dinner many times. In the dinner, he implored her to marry him. Although she rejected it at the beginning, she had an idea, so she received his proposal.

Since they married, they bought a house and began to live together in it. She considered to make use of him. Using his money, she bought jewellery and had her own way. He did not made complaint about it at all because he loved her.

Although they married, she played many men as before. To make matters worse, she had sex with many of them secretly to her husband.

One day, she ask him to do plastic surgery for her in order to get more beautiful.

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Integrated â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Class Journal

WHEN HE WAKES UP EARLY IN THE MORNING W ATARU T ATEUCHI One early morning, a man was awakened by the doorbell. He stood up from the bed, rubbing his eyes, and went to the door. He asked the visitor who he is, but there was no reply.

When he opened the door, there was an old man he didn't know. Suddenly, the old man changed into a terrible creature, which had a face like a devil, and it attacked him. The man screamed.

At that moment, he was awakened by the bell of the door again. He had dreamed a bad dream. He stood up from the bed and went to the door and opened it. The old man stood in front of the door, and the next moment he became the horrible thing and it stretched its long arm and tried to choke the man with its fingers clinging to his neck. The man was going to faint away.

At that moment, he was awakened by the same door bell. He felt uneasy, and he decided not to open the door. The bell kept ringing, but after a while it was replaced with the sound of a knock. It swelled up gradually. The man felt fear, but ignored it. At last it swelled up into volume by which neighbours might hear and wake up. However, the noisy sound stopped in a few seconds.

The man thought he was saved. Then the glass of the window of his living room was broken, making awful sounds, and that evil monster came and threatened him at great speed. The man was blown away by it.

At that moment, he was awakened from the nasty dream by the doorbell. He got irritated, and he thought, this time, he would kill the demon. He took a knife from the kitchen, and headed toward the door. As soon as he opened the door, he swung the knife down on the old man. The old man fell on the ground with a quiet sound. The man returned to bed and fell asleep with relief, though the old man didn't change the terrible creature and the man did not dream of a bad dream again.

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