Grenouille's nose. . . Roderick Usher's ears. . . Scottie Ferguson's eyes . . . In some of the works we have studied, the senses profoundly affect the characters and raise the issues chosen by their creators. For this post, describe another character from outside our syllabus whose sensory acuity at some point is both noticeable and meaningful to the reader or viewer. Then explain why his or her creator would endow the character with whatever heightened senses he or she has. Avoid ironic choices, like Superman. PS--Email me the alternate title (after the "or") of the novel from which the title of this post is found and I'll raise one of your quiz grades by a point.
Posts
In Garcia Marquez's novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, Ursula, the matriarch of the Buendia family, loses her sight somewhere around her one hundredth birthday. She never leaves the house; she resigns herself to her bed; she becomes an antique that the children play with, part of their games. And yet, she rules over the house more powerfully than ever before, and nobody ever realizes she's blind. Because when Ursula's sight goes, her other senses are heightened, as if filling the void. Ursula spends all day listening, tuning herself into every conversation, every movement, every moment in the daily bustle (and sometimes complete silence) of her house. She seems to be everywhere, occupying a space that seems, to the other characters, at once completely marginal and impossibly ubiquitous.
ReplyDeleteUrsula’s newfound presence in the text is a result of loss, not just of sense but also of lifestyle. Faced with total annihilation (she literally feels as if she is disappearing), Ursula—in an affirmation by Garcia Marquez of the absoluteness of her strength of will, especially her will to power and her will to live—adapts. Her senses, now one less in number, become more concentrated, more powerful. Four senses are forced to do the work of five.
The novel suggests a unique human ability to adapt, to survive, and to be in everyone else's business, "the will to gossip." Ursula feels such closeness, such profound connection, to the world outside of herself, and to her family specifically, that even when she becomes buried in her own bed, just when we assume that she is retreating farther from the external world and that her consciousness is burrowing into the internal, Ursula reaches out; she becomes closer to her family (at least she becomes more deeply aware of them, in tune with their behaviors, etc). Ursula's strength is her love of others, and the pleasure and happiness she enjoys simply from being alive. Even in solitude, she is not outside the world, but uniquely of it.
Chris M
In “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe the extraordinary, yet imagined, hearing that the nameless main character and narrator has is integral to the story. The main character works very hard as convincing the reader that he is not insane while he is proving it by recounting the story of how he committed a murder. He tells the reader that it is not possible that he is insane because he plans the murder of an old man too perfectly. He murders the old man because of his blue, vulture-like eye; chops the old man to bits and hides the body under his floor boards. The narrator’s supposed heightened hearing leads to his apprehension, however, as his heartbeat, which he thinks is the old man’s heartbeat, bothers the narrator so much that he is force to tell the police exactly where the body is hidden. Poe’s use of a heightened sense of hearing is an amazing way to show a man being tortured by his own conscience. Poe, being the amazing story teller that he is, creates a trill of horror in the reader by reinforcing the idea of the narrator not thinking of himself as mad but, at the same time, not being able to escape his own obsession and paranoia.
ReplyDeleteLara K.
In Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, narrator Jake Barnes suffers from impotence as a WWI veteran. For the sake of interesting discussion, I will make the claim that Jake lacks a sense of touch—sexually speaking. As other bloggers have mentioned, the absence of one sense typically strengthens the others in order to accommodate the handicap. Rather than compensate on a physical level, Jake mentally develops an inferiority complex, restructuring his identity and attitude towards life. His lack of manhood fuels his need to seek adventure: traveling to Paris, Spain, and France; attending bullfights, boxing matches and going fishing. He surrounds himself with the elite crowd, aficionados in the realm of art, athletics, and alcohol. Hemingway introduces other characters who highlight Jake’s weakness. Spain’s most up-and-coming bullfighter, Pedro Romero, is everything Jake Barnes is not. Pedro gets the ultimate prize: a sexual encounter with Brett Ashley—the selfish and sexually driven socialite. Jake Barnes is madly in love with Brett, and they have a romantic history that began before his war injury. Unfortunately for Jake, Brett is unwilling to compromise and remain in a sterile relationship. His inability to please her in the bedroom automatically disqualifies him from having a chance at romance. He remains uncontrollably infatuated with her and must settle for a monotonous friendship with paternal undertones, always looking after and protecting her. Jake’s condition gives another meaning to the expression, “Lost Generation”, because he has lost his manhood and must make up for it in other aspects of life. He heightens, not his other senses, but his zest for life and needs validation from the other members of his generation, the in-crowd.
ReplyDelete-Michelle Peterson
In Oliver Sack’s book, “An Anthropologist on Mars” a case is presented where a man can only see in black and white. He is in an accident and loses all sight of color but still retains his vision of seeing in black and white. His sense of sight is heightened in black and white. Things seem blacker, grayer, and whiter. His previous job before his accident was an artist, specifically a painter. Not being able to see color directly affects him because he cannot paint without seeing the colors anymore. However, this case is significant because it shows from a psychological standpoint what this heightened black-and-white sight does to him. The colors seem to be reversed. Milk seems completely black to him and he cannot drink it because it is black and disgusts him. He cannot eat certain fruits because of the gray color or black color. Things that are white seem too white. This is important because a heightened sense does not necessarily mean it is good. However, the only thing he does get an advantage from is that when night falls, he can see clearly. People who cannot see a single thing in the dark-he is able to. He can make out license plate numbers, people lurking in the shadows-everything that the normal eye cannot see in the dark. This is probably the only advantage he has unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteNancy Nguyen
Post closed.
ReplyDelete