TyroCity: Major English XI Notes

Wet Saturday

Major English XI Notes — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:41:42 +0000

Wet Saturday
by John Collier

Summary of Wet Saturday

It was a Saturday in July. The weather was wet Mr. Princey, his wife, his daughter, Millicent and his son. George was in their house. They were discussing the bad thing Millicent had done. She had killed the local priest; Withers Millicent had been in love with Withers. She met him in the stable. He told her that he was going to marry another girl. Millicent became very angry and hit Withers on the head with a metal stick. She killed him.

Mr. Princey thought no-one would have seen Withers come to their house. He was saying, “Who would kill Withers?” when a man called Captain Smollett came in. Captain Smollett laughed because he thought Mr. Princey was making a joke.

Mr. Princey asked Smollett to go to the stable. They told him that Millicent had killed Withers because they were afraid Smollett would guess the truth anyway. Mr. Princey said he would kill Smollett if he told anyone that Millicent had Withers. Mr. Princey said he couldn’t trust Smollett, so he made it look as if Smollett had murdered Withers. George hit Smollett in the face to make it look like there had been a fight. He made Smollett touch the post that used to kill Withers, so that his fingerprints would be on it. Mr. Princey pointed a gun at Smollett and forced him to drag the dead body into a drain.

Now many things made it look as if Smollett had killed Withers. Mr. Princey said he did this to make sure Smollett would never tell anyone about the murder. However, as soon as Smollett had left the house, Mr. Princey called the police.

I am a Cat

Major English XI Notes — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:41:42 +0000

I am a Cat
by Natsume Soseki

‘It is painfully easy to define human beings. They are beings who, for no good reason at all, create their own unnecessary suffering.’

I’d like to start by saying, don’t be deterred by the title, despite that it sounds like something from the oeuvre of Dr Seuss. This book is in fact near 500 pgs in length and narrated by one suspiciously eloquent cat. The title is also allegedly a tricky one for translators; the term of self-address in Japanese is apparently most akin to our regal plural, which (to my knowledge) isn’t really in use anymore (though who knows what goes on in those corridors of power?). Basically, the original Japanese carries a more deeply ridiculous tone, not fully conveyed by “I Am a Cat.” I would suggest “One Is a Cat” as another possible title but then, I’m not a translator and don’t know more than a smattering of Japanese. I’ve also smattered my fair share of English (“resin” and “hyperbole” spring to mind), so we’ll let it lie for now. Natsume Sōseki was, contrariwise, proficient in both languages and had even studied in London briefly – something rare in an era when Japan had only just joined in the world soirée and had yet to break the ice with a good quip.

There is every possibility that I Am a Cat was Sōseki’s good quip at the expense of his own countrymen, and perhaps even himself. We have a cat without a name – a mewling stray taken into the household of Mr Sneaze, a teacher of English and, in the words of his own cat, a pretty feeble specimen of his unperceptive kind. Through the cat’s eyes we receive impressions of the world: Sneaze’s family, Sneaze’s friends and callers, and of course other neighborhood cats like Rickshaw Blacky and Tortoiseshell. I’m not sure how these names have been translated from Japanese, but they often come across as highly eccentric when organised Sneaze’s closest friends are a young scientist named Avalon Cold-moon (contender for the best name in fiction) and an aesthete named Waver-house a Wildean figure who, as the cat tells us, would interrupt the announcement of his own death sentence just to hear his own beautiful voice. Waver-house can submerge any awkward silence with a well-placed witticism or completely misguide a conversation, usually for his benefit and ours. In them and other figures (Beauchamp, Singleman Kidd, Suzuki) we are let, like the nameless cat, to eavesdrop on what is mostly scholarly chitchat, or childish gossip. In fact, that is most of the book.

I Am a Cat is hence mostly set in Sneaze’s cony drawing room, though it does venture out with the cat occasionally, most notably to spy on a neighbor in the best interests of his master – or his own curiosity. This episode concerns also the planned marriage of Cold-moon to the neighbor’s daughter. Cold-moon in fact provides the novel’s closest semblance of an overarching plot. Sneaze also descends deeper into philosophical parquetry and misjudges his own and others’ mental well-being.

The cat at times goes to unusual depths in his narration, even relaying characters’ thoughts, but he does provide something of a rationale (even if it is all a fabrication, it’s a clever one):

‘I am a cat. Some of you may wonder how a mere cat can analyze his master’s thoughts with the detailed acumen which I have just displayed. Such a feat is a mere nothing for a cat. Quite apart from the precision of my hearing and the complexity of my mind, I can also read thoughts. Don’t ask me how I learned that skill. My methods are none of your business. The plain fact remains that when, apparently sleeping on a human lap, I gently rub my fur against his tummy, a beam of electricity is thereby generated, and down that beam into my mind’s eye every detail of his innermost reflections is reflected…’

Still, we may question the cat’s truthfulness at almost every turn of the page.

Other questions one might raise with the narrative are: How is the cat writing this book? He even addresses the readers of the magazine (the book was originally published serially). If there is an intermediary between the cat and the written word, who is it? Is it Sōseki? And how does he know what the cat is thinking? Sōseki is obviously crafting a work of fiction and so are we to question his aims in doing so? The cat also picks mistakes in the humans’ scholarly arguments: yet, how could a cat possibly be so well-read? He is, by the book’s end, at most 2 years of age. (though I believe he does give a brief rationale on the differing conversion rate of cat-time vs. human-time). The ending may also raise a further question, but I won’t go into that. Overall though, these pragmatic concerns aside, the novel is bursting with curious dialogues (Waverhouse’s vision of a future suicide epidemic), keen perceptions (‘Every time my master notices an increase in his children’s size, he becomes as nervous as if an inexorable pursuer were catching up behind him’), character interaction (the central trio play fantastically off one another) and plenty of hilarious asides. Coldmoon’s long-drawn-out anecdote about purchasing a violin is a masterpiece in frustration and must be read to be believed. I have not laughed this much over a novel in a long time. Also, the cat’s self-deifying claims (and there are a few) make for funny, memorable pauses in the narrative flow:

‘They say that every toad carries in its fore-head a gem that in the darkness utters light, but packed within my tail I carry not only the power of God, Buddha, Confucius, Love, and even Death, but also an infallible panacea for all ills that could bewitch the entire human race.’

Another episode that stands out in my mind is when Suzuki calls on Sneaze and, invited to go in the drawing room alone to wait, finds the cat sitting squarely on the cushion meant for him. The cat is wholly aware of Suzuki’s frustration and delights in it. It is a tense, silent, hilarious encounter:

‘Of course, if he’s really irked, he ought to jerk me off the cushion by the scruff of the neck. But he doesn’t… One would make oneself ridiculous, even a figure of farce, if one degraded oneself to the level of arguing with a cat.’

The novel moves from the heights of frivolity toward a subdued, melancholy ending as the gentlemen drink and relay ideas fundamental to the novel at large: mostly, the Westernisation of Japan, the negation of progress under individualism. Meiji-era Japan, its doors newly opened to the West, was starting to see change – in Sōseki’s eyes, a confused, deformed generation mimicking foreign customs, from broad concepts and whole lifestyles down to daily habits, becoming laughable in the process (at the school where he teaches, Sneaze is jokingly addressed as ‘Savage Tea’ after a transnational blunder for ‘coarse tea,’ kind of illustrative of Japan’s early, clumsy attempts at imitation). Singlemann, usually drowning introspective, observes in one of his rare moments of lucidity:

‘We sought freedom and now we suffer from the inconveniences that freedom can but bring. Does it not follow that, though Western civilization seems splendid at first glance, at the end of the day it proves itself a bane? In sharp contrast, we in the East have always, since long, long, long ago, devoted ourselves not to material progress but to development of the mind. That Way was the right way. Now that the pressures of individuality are bringing on all sorts of nervous disorders, we are at last able to grasp the meaning of the ancient tag that “people are carefree under firm rule.” And it won’t be long before Lao Tzu’s doctrine of the activating effect of inactivity grows to seem less of a paradox. By then, of course, it will be too late to do anything more than recognize our likeness to addicted alcoholics who wish they’d never touched the stuff.’

Beneath the surface of Sōseki’s comical cat narrative, as often in animal-based allegory, is a comment on his society. One might even view the cat as watching the absurdity, the strangeness of this human interplay, with the perceptiveness that only a strange set of eyes can provide; perhaps Sōseki’s perceptiveness of Western society, and his lament for his own.

Even if you have no familiarity with Japanese culture (and mine is minimal), I would thoroughly recommend this book. The Tutted edition compounds the three volumes into one convenient novel, and though there are more than a few typing gaffs and the occasional dubious word (accidental self-relativity at work?), it’s a smooth enough translation, reads easily and conveys its ideas with clarity. And maybe, just maybe, it will also change the way you look at our feline friends. Just remember, next time a cat steals your place on the sofa…

An Insoluble Problem

Major English XI Notes — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:41:42 +0000

An Insoluble Problem
by Josef Skvorecky

Summary of An Insoluble Problem

The story is about the writer’s brother, who is called Adolf. Adolf loved a film star and wrote letters to her. After that, he loved a girl named Freddie. She was a good choice to be his wife, but he learned that her father was a farm worker from America. This made Adolf’s father unhappy, and he wanted to know more about Freddie’s family background Freddie was white, but her father was a black man. When he discovered this, Adolf’s father began to read books about genetics. He wanted to know if it was possible that Freddie would have a baby who was black.

Adolf’s father told Adolf not to marry Freddie. The father said he would not care if Freddie was black, but he was afraid that, if Freddie had a baby that was black, other people would think the baby was not Adolf’s. They would think that an African student was the father of the baby.

The family found out that Freddie was pregnant Adolf’s mother told Freddie’s mother that Freddie should have an abortion (an operation to stop the baby from being born.) Freddie’s mother became very angry. Adolf’s family began to tell many bad stories about Freddie so that people would not think that Adolf was the father of Freddie’s child. Freddie ended her relationship with Adolf. She told Adolf that the people in her family were from many countries.

Freddie had twin babies. One was a girl and one was a boy. Both were white.

O My Loves Like a Red, Red Rose

Major English XI Notes — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:41:42 +0000

O My Loves Like a Red, Red Rose
by Robert Burns

Summary of O My Loves Like a Red, Red Rose

Stanza 1
O my Luve’s like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June:
O my Luve’s like the melodie,
That’s sweetly play’d in tune.

Summary of Stanza 1
The speaker presents two similes, the first comparing his love to a rose and the second comparing his love to a melody. The speaker also uses repetition to echo his sentiments–my luve’s like in lines 1 and 3; that’s newly and that’s sweetly (pronoun, verb, and adverb combinations) in lines 2 and 4.

Stanza 2
As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.

Summary of Stanza 2
The speaker addresses the young lady as bonnie (pretty). Bonnie is derived from the French word bon (good). In the last line of the stanza, a’means all and gang means go. This line introduces to the poem hyperbole, a figure of speech that exaggerates.

Stanza 3
Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun:
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.

Summary of Stanza 3
The speaker links the first line of the third stanza with the last line of the second stanza by repetition. The speaker continues hyperbole in the second and fourth lines. He also again relies on repetition in the third line by repeating the third line of the second stanza.

Stanza 4
And fare-thee-weel, my only Luve,
And fare-thee-weel, a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho’ ’twere ten thousand mile!

Summary of Stanza 4
The speaker again addresses his beloved, noting that though he must leave her for a while he will return for her even if he must travel ten thousand miles. Repetition occurs in the first and second lines, and hyperbole occurs in the last line. Fare-thee-weel means fare thee well.

Friday Morning

Major English XI Notes — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:41:42 +0000

Friday Morning
by Val Gielgud

Summary of Friday Morning

This play is about some people who are on a plane from London to Paris. Halfway through the journey the place’s engines stop. The different people react in different ways to the realization that the plane will probably crash.

The first part of the play introduces the different characters. The most important of these are Basil and Shirley, a young couple planning to fly to Paris to get married. The other characters include a travelling salesman who drinks a lot of alcohol (McLaurin), two American (Hannah and Janet Seward), a rich and important businessman (Sir Edward Harwood) and an older married couple (Mr. and Mrs. Briars. Basil, Shirley, Hannah and Mr. and Mrs. Briars are flying in a plane for the first time and make them nervous. McLaurin and Harwood regularly fly.

Sir Edward Harwood borrows a newspaper from Basil, and they arrange to have lunch together when they get to Paris. The plane takes of Shirley is nervous. Basil is also nervous. He holds Shirley’s hand very tightly, but they also have fun looking at how small things on the ground look from the plane. One of the engines stops. Basil thinks up reasons why this does not mean anything is wrong, but the plane continues to lower than it should.
A Steward says they have to return to London and the engines completely stop working.

The next section of the play contains long speeches from all the characters. They are talking to themselves about what they are thinking.

Basil is drinking of ways he can save Shirley horn dying. Harwood is hopeful. He thinks the pilot may be able to save them, but he hopes no-one will panic. He says how much he liked Basil and Shirley.

Mr. Chapman is worried about his wife, Mrs. Chapman. He is also worried that his death will cause problems for his nephew. He does not seem to worried about his own death.
Mrs. Chapman is worried that Shirley will scream and that it will be embarrassing.

McLaurin wishes he had more alcohol to drink. He thinks about his wife. Hannah is worried she will be injured badly. She would prefer to die.

Janet is worried that the shock of the crash will kill the sister (Hannah’s mother. She is not on the plane.

Shirley is very frightened and wants to scream-but she doesn’t.
The next section is a conversation between a newspaper editor (Marriott) and a young journalist (Miss James). The editor is told a plane has crashed but no one was killed. He is disappointed by this and even more disappointed when he hears there were no famous people on board. The journalist wants to know if the story will be the top story on the front page, but the editor says news about the news is much more important.

Shirley and Basil go to France by train and ferry boat. They were two men talking about the crash, but one of them is more interested taking about football. The first man says he thinks it would be fun to be in a plane crash if you weren’t killed.

Note:
This play was written to be performed on the radio. In the text the words in italics are directions to the actors and the radio technicians.

Dream Variations

Major English XI Notes — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:41:42 +0000

Dream Variations
by Langston Huges

Summary of Dream Variations

The poem Dream Variations by Langston Hughes is a nostalgic lyric which poignantly expresses the singer’s wish for a carefree life away from color persecution and racial discrimination. This poem is notable for its musical changes. In Hughes’s own words, his poetry is about “workers, roustabouts and singers, and job hunters… in New York, ….in Washington or… in Chicago- people up today and down tomorrow, working this week and fired the next, beaten and baffled, but determined not to be wholly beaten…”

The poet wants to enjoy different types of games in some sunny place. He likes to move and dance until the end of the happy day. Then in the evening he wants to rest under a tall tree until it is dark. This is his dream. But the reality is different. He has to work in spite of the hot sun. He keeps on working as if he were dancing and moving round. Because he is very busy, the day passes so quickly. He feels weak in the evening and wants to have a rest. But his desire to take a rest is incomplete. His desire to find a tall, slim tree remains incomplete in the city.

The night comes painfully reminding him that he is black, not white; like the night which nobody likes. In this poem the poet longs for the freedom of a less complicated world. This nostalgic look at Africa was typical of the work of many writers at that time.

The first stanza describes the poet’s dream. He wishes for a carefree life away from color persecution and racial discrimination. In his dream even the nigh is not black: it is only dark. In the first dream he is not in the city. He is completely engrossed in the rural area. But in the second stanza, he dreams after the tiring day’s work. The dream to take a rest under a tree remains unfulfilled. The first stanza describes his nostalgic feelings which he enjoyed in the past. In the second one his dream is incomplete. There are different types of dreams described in the poem. That’s why the poem is entitled ‘Dream Variations’

In the first stanza, there are nine lines, but in the second one there are eight lines. In the first stanza we find twenty-two stressed syllables and in the second there are twenty-one stressed ones. In the first stanza mostly we find unstressed syllables between stressed ones, but in the second stanza we find two lines where there is not an unstressed syllable between the stressed syllables.” Dance! Whirl? Whirl! … A tall, slim, tree … “This quick tempo matches with the sense. To quote Alexander Pope, “The sound must seem an echo to the sense”.

When Icicles Hang by the Wall

Major English XI Notes — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:41:42 +0000

When Icicles Hang by the Wall
by W. Shakespeare

Summary and Critical Analysis of When Icicles Hang by the Wall

In winter the dipping water freezes and hangs; the shepherd breathes his finger-nails to warm them; Tom carries wood to the fireplace; milk is frozen in the bucket while taking it home; people feel biting cold and the roads are muddy because of rain. At night the owl stares and sings a happy song. And the cook prepares steaming soup to keep the family members warm. The blowing of the wind can be heard everywhere. When the priest starts preaching, his voice cannot be heard because of the cough. In the snow birds protect their young by covering them with their wings. Marian has to clean her nose continuously. So it has turned red. In the kitchen small sour apples are being roasted to make jelly, and the owl sings a happy song at night.

At the conclusions of Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost are two songs, one in praise of spring, one of winter. The pleasure of spring is the obvious ones of the outdoors. As in a debate, in the second poem, “When Icicles Hang by the Wall,” the second speaker presents the claim for winter. He is willing to concede the disadvantages of winter-its cold, its muddy roads, its wind, the throat and nasal discomforts we all endure-nut his plea for winter is a subtle one. The poet presents the harshness of winter without using words like “cold” or “unpleasant”.

For this he uses the following expressions: ‘blow his nail’, ‘blood is nipped’, ‘ways be foul’, ‘all aloud the wind doth blow’, ‘coughing drowns’, ‘nose looks red and row’. All these represent the harshness of winter-its cold, its muddy roads, its wind, the throat and nasal discomforts. He arranges each stanza to move us indoors, for there we experience the pleasures of his season. Roasted crab apples sizzling in hot cider, steaming soup tended by a perspiring maid, a warm room: these are pleasures all the keener for the cold we know is just outside.

Two false approaches often taken to poetry can be avoided: the first is that approach which always looks for a moral or a lesson, and the second that which expects to find poetry always beautiful. This poem has no moral, nor is it beautiful. Poetry may deal with common colds and greasy kitchen maids as legitimately as with sunsets and flowers, and give no message or noble truth about life, and still continue to be a favorite among readers for nearly four centuries.

A Very Special Pet

Major English XI Notes — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:41:42 +0000

A Very Special Pet
by Nicholasa Mohr

Summary of A Very Special Pet

The Fernandez family lived in New York City. They had 2 pets: a cat named Marialu and a hen called Joncrofo. The family had bought Joncrofo to get an egg, but she had never laid any. She lived in the kitchen of the house. All the children in the family loved the hen very much.

The Fernandez family was very poor. Mr. Fernandez hoped to get a better job so that the family could buy a farm. Mrs. Fernandez was worried became Mr. Fernandez was ill and was not getting any better. She decided to kill Joncrofo and cook it for the family’s dinner. She told the children to go into another room, so she could kill the hen without them knowing. She planned to say that Joncrofo had flown away.

Mrs. Fernandez chased the hen all around the kitchen. When she caught the hen, it bit her, and she had to let go. She hit the hen with a broom many times until the hen was lying on the floor without moving. The children came into the kitchen because they had heard a lot of noise. They cried and shouted because they thought their mother had killed Joncrofo.

Mrs. Fernandez was sad. She knew she would not be able to cook the hen because the children would never eat it. The hen made a noise. Mrs. Fernandez picked it up, washed it, and gave it water and alcohol. Joncrofo recovered Mrs. Fernandez told the children the hen had been sick, and she had had to catch it to give it medicine. Then she started to clean the kitchen, and she dreamed of returning to a farm in the mountains.

The Elephant

Major English XI Notes — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:41:42 +0000

The Elephant
by Slawomir Mrozek

Summary of The Elephant

The director of the zoo did not care about the animals that lived there. The zoo had many small animals like rabbits but it did not have an elephant. The news came that the zoo could buy an elephant if it wanted to. The director thought an elephant was too expensive, so he decided to make an elephant out of rubber and blow it up like a big balloon. The rubber elephant was made and two zoo workers were told to breathe air into it to blow it up. This was too difficult for them. So they decided fill the rubber elephant from the gas pipe instead.

The next day the rubber elephant full of gas was put into the zoo. In front of the elephant was a notice that said, “Particularly sluggish Hardly moves.” Some children and their teacher were looking at it. Suddenly the elephant rose up off the ground and floated away. The children who saw the elephant stopped believing their teacher and started to drink a lot of alcohol.

Paper

Major English XI Notes — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:41:42 +0000

Paper
by Catherine Lim

Summary of Paper

Tay Soon dreamed of having a beautiful house with a swimming pool. His wife, named Lee Yian, and his children also dreamed of having a wonderful house. At the time of the story they were living in the house of Tay Soon’s mother, but Lee Yian was unhappy there. Tay Soon and his wife had already saved 40,000 dollars, and they wanted to borrow the rest of the money that would be needed to buy the house.

At that time, the stock market became very popular. People were buying shares in companies and then selling them when the price of the shares went up, They were becoming rich doing this. Tay Soon and Lee Yian bought shares and soon the value of their money doubled. They told Lee Yian’s sister to buy shares, and she also made money. Tay Soon‘s mother, however refused to buy shares.

After some time, just as Tay Soon was dreaming of being very nice. The price of shares went down, and he began to lose his money. He did not sell his shares because he thought the price would go back up again. However, the value of his shares continued to go down until he had lost all his money. Lee Yian and Yee Yeng’ also lost their money.

Tay Soon went mad. His dream of owning a beautiful house had been destroyed. He stopped going to work and he beat his children. Finally, he had to go to hospital.

Tay Soon’s mother said she would pay for his funeral. She asked a man to make a paper house to look exactly like the one Tay Soon had dreamed of owning. The house was made of the best quality paper. It was beautiful. It had a paper swimming pool and paper cars like the ones Tay Soon had dreamed of owning.

The paper house was burned at Tay Soon’s funeral. It burnt in three minutes.

The Valvet Homgover

Major English XI Notes — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:41:42 +0000

The Valvet Homgover
by Vaclav Have

Summary of The Valvet Homgover

In 1990 the Czech Republic became a democracy. Vaclav Havel was elected its President. It was an exciting time for the country because a new government system was being made. However, when Havel started working as President after the elections he didn‘t know what to do. He felt lost and tired. He was afraid he would not be good enough for the task of rebuilding his country.

Someone asked Havel to write a speech, but he found this difficult. He decided to write about fear and how it affected the Czech people. He wrote, “The people are afraid now as they face an uncertain future. They have won freedom, but fear it.” He also wrote, “Although life was difficult before, everyone understood the system. Now there are many questions. People who fear the past also fear the future. And people who fear the future also fear the past. Everyone must learn to be honest, because truth destroys fear.” Fear and negative feelings can also cause people to act in a good way. Havel ends his speech by asking people to look into the past, present and future with confidence, not fear.

In the speech Havel refers to four different types of fear:

fear of ourselves and our own ability,
fear of unknown things,
fear of the past present and future and
fear of lies and the truth.

Note
Velvet Revolution refers to a revolution in which there is no violence. In 1990 Czechoslovakia had a velvet revolution. A hangover is the feeling of illness caused by drinking too much alcohol. In this essay Havel describes his hangover like feeling after the velvet revolution.

A Mongoloid Child Handling Shells on the beach

Major English XI Notes — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:41:42 +0000

A Mongoloid Child Handling Shells on the beach

by Richard Snider

To Poetry “A Mongoloid Child Handling Shells on the Beach” When you first read Richard Snyders narrative poem, “A Mongoloid Child Handling Shells on the Beach”, it may be perceived that the poem is indeed about a child, happily gathering shells upon the shore. However, if we closely consider the diction and connotations that Synder uses, we can speculate that the meaning of the poem depicts a deeper and darker theme. The title itself gives us an idea from the beginning. The word Mongoloid, as identified in Websters New World Dictionary, is an early term for Down’s Syndrome, a state of mental retardation. Therefore, I believe that the poem represents the child as an outcast from the norm of society. There are several words in the text that refer to the child that we usually wouldn’t associate with youth. An early clue would again be found in the title, “A Mongoloid Child Handling Shells on the Beach”. Notice that Snyder used the word “handling” instead of playing or collecting, words which we might think of while envisioning a young girl investigating sea shells. Snyder also uses the word ‘slow’ to describe the child on more than one occasion, as we see in line one and line eight : “She turns them over in her slow hands/ …hums back to it its slow vowels.” Yet another example could be in line four, which reads: ” they are the calmest things on this sand.” Calm is yet another word that we would not most likely used to portray a young child. It very well could be that the author is trying to paint a picture of her impairment and symbolize her condition through her actions. Considering Snyder depicted the ocean as “.the margarine maze,” instead of simply stating that it is the “deep blue sea”, it is easy to speculate that the ocean represents life itself. Her being outside of the water while all the other children are swimming is a key example of her being isolated. The way that she is presented, which is slow and rather solemn, contrasts with the other children who are “rough as surf, gay as their nesting towels.”. I feel that this kind of symbolism is repeated throughout the remainder of the poem. The sea shells, for instance, are another important representation of her isolation. It reads in line three: ” broken bits from a margarine maze,”. If we look at the margarine maze as being life, and the shells are broken bits of it washed ashore, it becomes clear that the girl is swept out of the regular society, much as the shells were swept out of the sea. It is even more comprehensible when we consider the line “The unbroken children splash and shout,”. What Snyder meant by “unbroken children” is that they are not broken off from life, much like the child. They are not broken off of the sea, much like the shells. The child and the shells seem to have a valuable bond in portraying the girls solitude form society. This idea becomes even more graspable if we look at lines seven and eight: “But she plays soberly with the sea’s small change…”. Websters New World Dictionary defines the phrase small change as ” petty or unimportant”. It may very well be that the child is seen as less important by people of the society. She is the only one who plays with the shells, perhaps the only one who can truly appreciate them. Perhaps it is that the other children ignored the shells on the beach, and were tantalized by the water instead, and maybe this is a foreshadow of her life-to-be, being ignored and pushed out by others. It is unmistakable that this poem describes a child on the margin of society. Yet even though she does not enjoy the beach as the other children do, I feel that she does not resent them, but rather takes pleasure in the small and insignificant things, much like herself. Snyder uses a cacophony of symbolic imagery and carefully chosen words to convey a message about the girl’s life as it is, and perhaps how it will become.