Wednesday, April 15, 2009

10A Homework

In the comments section of this post, I have put the last comprehension question and answer for The Raven. Copy it down into your notes and be sure to study for your Midterm!
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Miss Jones said...

5. What do you think the raven symbolizes?

I think that the raven symbolizes the reality of death and the sorrow and despair that the speaker feels when he has to face the death of Lenore.
There are several clues that reveal that the raven symbolizes this: the raven comes to the man while he is alone, reading, trying to escape his grief for the dead Lenore. (Lines 6-12) Like many people grieving, the man has a desire to escape his sorrow, and when the raven comes, he at first responds to it with humor (Lines 43-54)—this behavior is very typical of a person who is in denial about the death of a loved one. However, as the raven continues to be there, the man is forced to face the reality of Lenore’s death and he is filled with grief, anger, and a variety of other feelings (Lines 72-102). One example of the speaker being forced to face the reality of Lenore’s death is in lines 73-78. In this passage, the speaker pulls up his chair to look at the raven, and as he sits there thinking about the raven, he realizes that Lenore will no longer sit on that same chair. The speaker also mentions how the light of the lamp “gloats” over him, which shows that he resents the light. In the tradition of literature, light is commonly used as a symbol of knowledge or truth, so in this case, the presence of the raven and the light stand for the truth that Lenore is DEAD and that he must face his sorrow and grief eventually instead of trying to escape it.
The speaker finally starts to interact with the raven on this level, and begins to ask it questions about whether or not he will recover from his grief (“Is there balm in Gilead?”) or whether he will be with Lenore ever again (“Tell this soul with sorrow laden if….it shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels named Lenore”), and after facing the realities that there may not be an end to his grief, he is filled with anger, which shows that he is FINALLY facing the reality of her death in a healthier way. However, he’s still not going about it in a completely healthy way, simply because he knows the raven will always answer “nevermore”, and he takes advantage of this to ask questions that bring him more pain and cause him to wallow in his pain, rather than overcome it.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

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