The Ominous Red Beaked Raven

2) Why do you think the author chose to end the novel this way? (Please don't say " to make it more interesting and keep us guessing.")

"He was in a hurry and I almost felt jealous of his assignation with the doom-laden red beaked raven"(page 118). Throughout the book the image of a red beaked raven appears time after time. In Song Of Solomon the motif of a bird, or wings, is a symbol for the freedom the characters are longing for, whether it be physical or emotional. In The Little Chinese Seamstress, the characters on the mountain are each longing for freedom too.
"But before soaring into the sky they dived down alongside the girl's flying body. She had become a swallow"(page 137). Imagery is used throughout the book to portray the Little Seamstress as a bird. Her hair and arms are described as wings and the narrator describes her as flying. The red beaked raven symbolizes the Little Seamstress.
Just as each character's need for freedom is different, each character grasps something different from the western literature. The narrator enjoys Jean-Christophe because he desires individualism above all. Luo's favorite books are by Balzac because he is most passionate about love and sex. The Little Seamstress does not dwell, however, on the western illusions of love and individualism. "She said she had learnt one thing from Balzac: that a woman's beauty is a treasure beyond price" (Page184).
Once Luo begins "educating" the little Seamstress, she is destined to realise her worth and escape a life where she is used for her love and can be bought by suitors. Had the Little Seamstress not fled from her suppressive life to live out the insight she had gained through the literature and her experiences with the two boys, the "ominous" raven would have meant nothing. The end of the novel would not reflect the literature's power.

Ho!

"And out of her own goodness make the net that shall enmesh them all (Shakespeare)." Iago manipulates the good qualities of Desdemona to portray her as a strumpet. The friendship, love and sexual connections the characters have with one another are twisted and abused by Iago to really get under every one's skin. The personal weaknesses and relationships between the characters traps them all into the tragic vision.

None of the misery that unfolds in Othello is accidental or coincidence. All of the "misunderstandings" are caused by Iago with the intention of screwing everyone over. When Iago targets Othello in the beginning of the play it becomes inevitable that the play will end the way it does. Because Desdemona is so naive, Othello will believe that she is flirting. Roderigo's admiration for Desdemona marks him a dead man the moment the play begins. These characters are all driven by love and sex.

Sex is definitely a motif throughout the story. Othello is driven to kill Desdemona because he thought she was having sex with Cassio. Roderigo wants to have sex with Desdemona, Othello already is. Iago promises Roderigo Desdemona and every one's fate is secured.

All of the characters have some relationship, whether direct or not, with Othello. Like Oedipus Rex, Othello does everything right, yet the outcome is still horrible. Oedipus' parents were part of the tragic vision because they were affected by the terrible things that happened to Oedipus. All of the character's surrounding Othello are affected by how they will inevitably handle each situation.

Although Iago is the mastermind behind all hell that broke loose, he didn't plan out what happened. Each character became part of the tragic vision based on how their weakness and relationships to Othello and one another were used. Emilia's weakness in love for her husband pulled her into the tragedy when she tried to please him with the hanker chief. Desdemona's innocent brotherly love for Cassio drove Othello to madness when dark thoughts were planted in his mind. Roderigo's desire for Desdemona drove him to attempted murder of Cassio. In Song Of Solomon the complex nature of love drove people to extremes. Iago used the intense nature of love the characters have for one another to destroy the lives of all in completing the tragic vision.

love sucks

love is the most complex thing in the world because it can NEVER be bottom lined. No one can be tusted yet everyone demands trust. All love is unrequited because no two people have the same love and no two loves are the same. The happier you are, the more miserable you're gonna be when the innevitable reality sets in that no one is perfect no matter how much you idolise them. Everyone is human and everyone will break your heart. Love is the most unreliabble gamble in this life. When you are in love you rely on the person in so many ways you don't even know exist and yet there is nothing tangible to keep that love and need alive. Love isn't just fun. In fact, sometimes its hard as hell. You have to work at every relationship to keep it. Love means sacrifice and putting up with things you would never put up with in normal circumstances. Yet thats just it. Love isn't a normal circumstance. Love is wierd. Love is the greatest feeling and biggest security and is also the feeling that your guts have been ripped out and replaced with food poisoned ice water and you are the most insecure being around. Love is the opening of a door, and a slap across the face. Love is nights spent awake because you don't want to sleep and miss out on their presence, and nights spent awake becuase you want to puke constantly at the idea of that person. Love is also your little brother drawing you a picture when your sad. Your mom writing you a note on a napkin. Letting your sister borrow your favorite jeans right beofre your big date. Love is a punch in the somach for not returning your affection. Love is the air we breathe and all things we despise. love is a bad idea.

my family is...

big. I have two brothers and two sisters and live with two parents. My siblings and I are pretty close. We don't fight really. We're all so different that sometimes it's hard to believe we're related. I'm not closer to any than one sibling than to the others. My littlest brother I don't "know" as well as the others i guess. But only because he's growing up when we're all teenagers. That always makes me sad for him. When I was growing up I had all my siblings to play with and we wached little kid T.V. and lived a kid life. He's growing up with MTV instead of Arthur. He witnesses so much more than I could have imagined at that age. I wonder what he's going to grow up like...different than us I think. He already uses words like "tight" and "crunk" and he's only eight. I don't know...maybe it isn't a bad thing. It's just different. My other brother Charlie is alot like me I guess...except he's more relaxed. probably because he's a guy. My older sister is real high maintenance. .I"ve grown up with her though and we still get along really well. MY other sister is in middle school and kind of gets it rough. She always seems to gt left out in the family because she's the middle child and has a quiet nature. Becasue of that however, she now is loud and talks all the time to get attention. sucks for me. I share a room with her. I think I'm supposed to be writting about one thing about my family... My house is loud. I like it though. I get annoyed of course. It's nice when there's only a couple people home...but I couldnt live like that forever. It's fun always having someone there. It's always crazy of course, but I like when things are crazy so it works out for me. My mom is the louder parent. She's always home so that's probably why. My Dad is alot like me though, only quiter. I think my dad and I seriously have the same brain sometimes. I can relate to him perfectly. He said he used to tlak alot like me, and then one day he ran out of things to say. My mom is more like my siblings. Their practical. She loves common sense and reality. Basically, she's good at math and science. Me and my dad like to write and daydream.I'm just as close with both of them though. My mom doesn't have the same sense of humor as me but I still enjoy her company equally because she's honestly just such a GOOD person. Me and my dad have, i guess a ritual. Whenever we need something from the store, just me and my dad go to the farmers market. I don't know when it started. I think always. Anyway, me and him go there andalways get something wierd and foregn. It's really fun and gives us a chance to spend time together. It's an every day task, I know, but its our task, and I look forward to it every week, even if that sounds lame. My littlest brother is like me and my dad I think. We'vev started letting him come with us to the market lately. He buys pomegrante juice as his wierd thing. My mom thinks we're all wierd. Ha ha.

A long rambling about confusion...

After reading Oedipus and watching starnger than fiction I've decided that I really can't live my life around the knowledge of freewill VS fate. If I worry about my fate, and how every decision I make could affect my life, even possibly end it, than what the hell kind of life will I live? Had Harold Crick not reset his wristwatch, he would not have been severley injured, almost killed. Am I going to worry about how the little decisions I make could aaffect my life? NO. I do think it would be interesting to know what decisions we have made in the past that were responsible for experiences we have had. I've thought about thtis alot actually, and I don't know whether or not I should regret those seeminglyunsignificant choices, or if I should just embrace the fate they've led me too. If I knew that fate that I created, would I try to change it? If it was a bad fate, like being an incestual pastricidaler (word?) then I would of course try and change it? Even after reading Oedipus, I still believe that I would be able too. If my fate was twisted, like Harolds, where he dies, bt for a noble cause, I have no idea what I would do. I would feel terribe if I didn't save the little boy, but I wouldn't knowingly go to that bus stop. This is frustrating and now I'm just rambling. I don't really care as much about whether or not we have free will or fate, as much as I do about how our choices lead us to that fate. There are so many little things that I have done that have changed my course, my life. Was it my fate for me to have made those choices, or did free will in making them lead me to my fate? It would be kind of nice to believe that fate has controlled us, so we can't be held accountable, yet that also means we feel insignificant. I think I have come out of this more confused han when I went in to i. I think that it is because I have learned though.

Every individual can only hear whats going on around them-whats in their particular audio range. Right now I hear computer whirring, kids talking, seemingly insignificant noise. What would happen however, if we could hear what everyone hears, all at once? Maybe if God looks down on earth he can hear all of the noise at once. I think it would sound like music. The song we are playing is already written-we are just the fingers on the keyboard, playing the song. The song's title is Fate. We might mess up and hit the wrong key every once in a while, but we're still playing the same song. It is still going in the same direction. There are choruses that repeat themselves, because we can never seem to learn from our past. We have enough free will to play our own instrument and even make those mistakes, but we don't have the choice to rewrite the song. It is written. And we are always playing it. What we do affects everyone else and we can't silence that harmony. We are each a single note and we can't change the overall sound, but we can affect it. We don't know or have the power to know what is going to happen next. The trombone section may make an ugly sound, we might drop our flute all together, but what is going to happen next IS already known, because the song is written, and always has been.

Would you rather...

I would rather die young than be an old average Joe. We only get one life, so I want to make the most of it. If I lived to be one hundred but didn't make a difference in the world that was big enough for people to remeber for a thousand years than I feel I would have wasted my life. If I died in five to ten years but had done something magnificent then I think my life would be complete. When someone accomplishes something important to them I often hear them say, "now I can die happy." I want to die happy.