Nazis and Woodchucks Essay Example for Free

Nazis and Woodchucks Essay Nazi racial ideology has baffled the cultured mind since the atrocities were first made known to the world with the end of WWII. Though the inconceivable horror Jews and other nationalities endured under Nazi reign is common knowledge in our culture and is found in almost any modern history textbook, the mindset that made such atrocities acceptable to Nazis under Hitler’s regime remains a mystery to many. Maxine Kumin admirably conveys the thought process behind this oppressive outlook through the seemingly simplistic poem â€Å"Woodchucks†. The purpose of the poem is to align the readers with the narrator’s apparently reasonable yet somewhat sociopathic view of the woodchucks as an inferior life form while building an allegory to the Nazi’s justification for mass extermination that will shock the audience when made explicit by the poem’s end. In the first stanza, Maxine introduces the narrator’s problem with the woodchucks and how she justifies attempting to gas them. The narrator states how killing the woodchucks with gas â€Å"didn’t turn out right† (1). This phrase emphasizes how the narrator views killing the woodchucks as a mundane and emotionless task, the same way a batch of cookies or pot of coffee may not â€Å"turn out right†. Gassing has connotations of a slow agonizing death, but the poem continues: â€Å"the knockout bomb from the Feed and Grain Exchange / was featured as merciful, quick at the bone† (2-3). This contrast in connotation and given definition is meant to show how the narrator is striving to justify their deaths. The second stanza begins to make the narrator’s view of the woodchucks as lesser clearer to the audience. Maxine uses alliteration to draw attention to the words cyanide, cigarettes and state-store Scotch when the narrator states the woodchucks are â€Å"No worse / for the cyanide than we for our cigarettes† (7-8). In this comparison, the narrator gives the impression that she considers gassing the woodchucks a favor to them, like giving them scotch or cigarettes. While it is not explicit in the poem by the second stanza, this metaphor hints at the narrator’s unbalanced views of life regarding the woodchucks. Maxine also introduces war imagery in this stanza. The narrator describes how the woodchucks â€Å"took over† the vegetables by â€Å"nipping† and â€Å"beheading† (11-12). These verbs not only personify the vegetables as victims, but turn woodchucks into a force of evil in a war-like manner in the narrator’s mind. It is important to note that the narrator never addresses the woodchucks’ need to eat and survive and only views it as an unjustified invasion. This mindset closely aligns with the anti-Semitism that led to the Holocaust. The narrator treats the woodchucks with no right to the garden the same way that â€Å"Jews still carried the burden of proof that they simply had the right to be there† (Hartmann 636). By the third stanza, the Maxine solidifies the narrator’s hatred and blood thirst towards the woodchucks, using a Nazi related scapegoat excuse to rationalize killing them. â€Å"The food from our mouths† (13) starts the stanza; a sentence fragment most likely muttered bitterly by the narrator that fortifies the idea that woodchucks are not simply invading and eating food, but stealing food from the narrator. To the narrator, the woodchucks become the scapegoat for the garden’s ruin the same way the Jews were used to â€Å"blame for the economic collapse of Germany† (Foster 13). However, Maxine also undertones the narrator’s scapegoat claim as unsubstantial and exaggerated. In a vegetable patch containing numerous vegetable types, a small family of woodchucks is unlikely to be as deadly of a threat as the narrator makes it out to be. Similarly, â€Å"The Nazi claim that Germany was being ‘Judaized’ can hardly be substantiated† as Germany’s Jewish inhabitants in 1933 made up a mere â€Å".80 percent of the total population† (Foster 15). The third stanza also starts to unearth the poem’s greater implications towards Nazi ideology with the line â€Å"puffed with Darwinian pieties for killing† (16). The â€Å"Darwinian† aspect is an outstanding piece of the third stanza because it applies a fairly exclusive human social concept to the killing of woodchucks. This is directly related to the Nazi’s ideology which had â€Å"evolved over the previous 80 years from the related notions of eugenics and Social Darwinism† (Erdos 6), but Maxine has not made this relation entirely explicit yet. With the last two stanzas, the narrator degrades the death of the woodchucks. Rather than describe it in detail, the woodchucks â€Å"died down† (18). The evasive language hides any aspects of horror in the killing and gives the deaths a cartoonish aspect when the mother â€Å"dropped† and â€Å"flip-flopped† (19-20). The narrator even portrays their deaths in an eerie sing-song tone when â€Å"O one-two-three / the murderer inside me rose up hard† (22-23). This is linked to the way Holocaust victims were killed systematically (one-two-three) and their bodies were piled up for disposal. The language describing death in the poem and the way killing was carried out in Nazi concentration camps are connected in the way both were dehumanized. The fourth stanza also has a tone shift when the narrator explains â€Å"the murderer inside me rose up hard. / the hawkeye killer came on stage forthwith† (23-24). This part of the poem shifts the tone from the woodchucks as aggressors to the narrator becoming the aggressor. The indirect yet clear tone change indicates that the poem is now less related to the Nazi’s perspective, but the modern view of Nazis as the invaders. The last stanza in this poem brings an ultimate shock to the audience by directly referencing the Nazis in the ending line: â€Å"If only they’d all consented to die unseen / gassed underground the quiet Nazi way† (29-30). Any slight relations to Nazi ideology throughout the poem are now highlighted by this last line. At this point the readers have been carried through an unsteadily reasonable rant by the narrator of the woodchucks as a lesser life form, and then slammed into the allusion to the Nazi’s killings. The entire poem, even the spread-out rhyme scheme, threads into this central idea accented in the last line. Maxine, through the language and design of the poem â€Å"Woodchucks†, ultimately presented how frightening ideology similar to the Nazis is not as uncommon on a small scale as one may think. Works Cited Erdos, E. G. Regarding German Science and Racismroots of the Nazi Holocaust The FASEB Journal 22.6 (2008): 1623. Print. Foster, C. R. Historical Antecedents: Why the Holocaust? The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 450.1 (1980): 1-19. Print. Hartmann, Dieter D. Anti-Semitism and the Appeal of Nazism. Political Psychology 5.4 (1994): 635-42. Print.

My College Experience Essay -- essays research papers

My College Experience Throughout my lifetime I have listened to people reflect back on their college experiences and explain how college is supposed to be â€Å"the best experience of your life.† The summer after my senior year I use to try and imagine what my first semester was going to be like based on what I had heard people talk about in the past. After my first semester at NC State I realized that I couldn’t fully understand what college was like until I experienced it for myself. My first couple of weeks at Ohio State was rough and really tested my strength (mental and physical). I faced challenges and obstacles that I had never heard about in those past college experience conversations. All of a sudden there was no one to get me out of the bed when I hit the snooze button on my alarm cl... My College Experience Essay -- essays research papers My College Experience Throughout my lifetime I have listened to people reflect back on their college experiences and explain how college is supposed to be â€Å"the best experience of your life.† The summer after my senior year I use to try and imagine what my first semester was going to be like based on what I had heard people talk about in the past. After my first semester at NC State I realized that I couldn’t fully understand what college was like until I experienced it for myself. My first couple of weeks at Ohio State was rough and really tested my strength (mental and physical). I faced challenges and obstacles that I had never heard about in those past college experience conversations. All of a sudden there was no one to get me out of the bed when I hit the snooze button on my alarm cl...

Music Paper

In this essay an attempt will be made to compare and contrast the music styles and compositions of the two great musicians of 20th century: Charles Ives and Arnold Schoenberg. Arnold Schoenberg and Charles Ives are considered as the important music composers. They succeeded in redefining the contemporary music. Initially, their styles of composition and music philosophy attracted a few criticisms although later the Musicians realized the real value of their music styles. In this sense, although both Schoenberg and Ives belonged to different music schools, they shared a few similar features. However, one can also notice many differences in their music styles and philosophy. Schoenberg originally belonged to Vienna, Australia and later he settled down in USA. He and Charles Ives can be considered as the contemporaries. Schoenberg was also a teacher of the music compositions. There were different phases in his personal life. After his wife left him, Schoenberg began to compose several revolutionary musical notes. He decided to give more importance to atonical music by rejecting the music with tones. In fact, this led to the establishment of the new school of music philosophy named the Second Vienna School of Music. Schoenberg, unlike Ives, had no formal training in music and he was a self taught music composer. He gave importance to the freedom of the aesthetic thought. (Danuser, 1998) Particularly after the First World War, he composed several works. Schoenberg also decided to introduce the compositions with twelve notes which became very much controversial among the contemporary musicians. Initially, his new music attracted only a minority of music lovers. Later however, his music was criticized and even attacked by those people who did not like his music style. Schoenberg enjoyed the service of his students and he was able to obtain the support of the music composers such as Albon Berg and Anton Webern. The main interest of Schoenberg was to break the monotony of the classical musical notes. He wanted to produce simple and clear music. He found that the contemporary music tones lacked this quality. When he introduced the music with twelve tones, he considered this as a great discovery. In fact, after 1950s, many music composers have used the ideas of Schoenberg and have contributed to improve the dynamic quality of music. Schoenberg can be considered as belonging to the school of experimentation and modernism as he believed in introducing something new after experimenting with the tones. He composed the works such as Moses and Aron and many other compositions. (Wikipedia, 2005) Charles Ives, on the other hand, belonged to America and he was influenced by the American music composers and his own father who believed in experimentation. Ives used to accompany his father in the music composition and gained valuable experience to become an experienced music composer. His father encouraged him to experiment with music by introducing bitonal and multitonal compositions. In this respect, one can find similarities between Schoenberg and Ives. However, Ives composed more popular music although some of his compositions are known for their complexity of detail. He also worked in an insurance agency. The series of heart attacks led to increase in the creativity in Ivy and in 1922 he published his book – 115 Songs. (Ives, 2005) This collection included the various songs which were composed during the different periods of his life. He also composed the dissonant songs such as â€Å"The Majority†. He believed in the combination of the popular and the classical music leading to the creation of bitonal music. Ives belonged to the school of experimentation and dissonance. His philosophy of music is expressed by the use of the term â€Å"eternal question of existence† in his music. (Ives, 2005) He was influenced by the philosophers such as Emerson and Thoreau and this influence can be seen in the music composed by Ivy. However, his works, like those of Schoenberg, were also not liked by many music scholars as they could not understand his music philosophy. Ives was more concerned with popular perception of his music as he included many American folk songs. He was also praised by Schoenberg for his original compositions. He composed the works such as Variations on America for organ, Central Park in the Dark for chamber orchestra, and The unanswered question for chamber group. (Ives, 2005) In fact, Schoenberg was also influenced by the experimentation of Charles Ivy. However, later Schoenberg introduced the twelve note music. At the same time his music was not liked by the ordinary music lovers as they could not understand the complexity of his music. (Hawes, 1998) The above details show that although both Schoenberg and Ivis belonged to the school of experimentalism, there were major differences in their music compositions. Schoenberg worked as a teacher which allowed him to interact with his students regarding his music compositions. His works are influenced by the European musicians although he wanted to discover something new. Ives on the other hand gave more importance to the American folk music and integrated it with the classic music. He was also influenced by the American philosophers. However, both the composers were criticized for their unconventional approach to music. Both the musicians composed complex musical works which the ordinary people could not understand and appreciate. Schoenberg gave importance to the German tradition. He was influenced by the German composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, and Brahms. He believed in the music philosophy of serialism which gave greater order to the twelve notes created by him. He also believed in the philosophy of modernism as he modernized the classical music by introducing radical changes to the earlier German compositions. (Modernism, 2005) Bibliography Danuser, von Hermann. (1998). â€Å"Arnold Schà ¶nberg – Portrait of a Century†, Arnold Schà ¶nberg Center, retrieved online on 10-12-2005 from Hawes, Peter. (1998). â€Å"Learning to Love A Cranky Composer†, Yale Alumni Magazine, retrieved online on 10-12-2005 from (2005). â€Å"Arnold Schoenberg†, retrieved online on 10-12-2005 from last updated in November 2005. (2005). â€Å"Charles Ives†, retrieved online on 10-12-2005 from last updated 10 December 2005. (2005). â€Å"Schoenberg’s Harmonielehre: Modernism through Tradition†, retrieved online on 10-12-2005 from

Gender And Gender A Man s Sport - 871 Words

Be pretty, handsome, but nothing in between. For a man, play a man’s sport like football or basketball. Then for the ladies, most people would prefer that they don’t play those sports, but what can be expected when they grew up with all males? In the collaborative book Gender Failure by Ivan Cayote and Rae Spoon, who have lived as woman but feel as if they are meant to be males, they talk about how they failed their roles as both females and males. In the course of history people have failed the gender binary, failed to see how transgender people live, and even today what the transgender community still faces today. What is a gender binary? Gender binary is where a person is classified by their sex and gender into two very distinct, opposite and disconnected forms of feminine and masculine. The gender binary is what most people feel that they need to fit into. For example, for a female is expected to act a certain way and â€Å"be a lady†, and males are expected to be tough and not show any emotion. In the book Gender Failure Rae Spoon talks about how he did not fit the gender binary of being a female and used the example of how his mother would ensure that he sat like a lady. Rae says â€Å"The sermon starts and we sit up straight with our hands in our laps, trying to concentrate on staring straight ahead. After fifteen minutes I’m like a cowboy straddling a fence.† (page 45) Rae had stated before that he was always told about chores were to be done by the girls in the family. RaeShow MoreRelatedGender Inequality : Gender Inequalities825 Words   |  4 Pages Karen Cardena s English 4 Sec 03 Sum 17 07 July 2017 Gender Inequalities Thesis: While this could be the best thing the world could accomplish if something changes, Women and men should not be segregated into their own category. 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