Stones

The short story "Stones" by Timothy Findley shows us a side of the war that most people pushed to the wayside in the 1940's. The story opens up during the 1940's and World War Two. To make a long story short, Ben's father returns from war and is a completely changed man. He used to be very loving, easy to get along with, and he never used profanity in the presence of his children. Now he is easily angered, constantly uses profanity, drinks profusely, he broke Ben's collar bone when he threw him of his bed, and he tried to beat Ben's mother with a hammer when the children were away. The children feel as though they are walking on eggshells around their father and the mother just tried to deal with it for the sake of her children. When Ben is older and beings to realize what happened to his father he becomes sympathetic (even after everything that his father had done to him). Ben finds out that his father was in the Dieppe raid that ended in disaster. He also found out that his father was supposed to lead a unit of soldiers in the second wave to hit the beach, but upon seeing the carnage he froze and then when the landing craft was bombed his father; took off his uniform, jumped on a British ship and when that got bombed he stayed with those people. He eventually was shipped to Britain and then sent back to Canada where he was dishonourably discharged and sent home in disgrace. Due to this his father was no longer the same and his family had to deal with his wrath and pent up anger, frustration, and sense of failure.

Now the story is written from the first person perspective of Ben. He is writing in retrospect about everything that happened to his family from shortly before his father left for war, and the aftermath of his father returning from war. The way he looks back without anger towards his father is amazing. His father became a violent man when he came back from war, he went as far as becoming abusive to his wife and children but Ben never blamed him for it. Actually Ben was the only person his father had left shortly before he died, he never left his father's side once. To me that shows the Ben understood why his father did what he did, it also shows how dedicated Ben was to his father.




I feel as though this story shows us the "ugly" side of the soldiers returning home back then. Many of the soldiers, like Ben's father, had to deal with Post traumatic stress disorder. Post traumatic stress disorder is stated in the Webster Merriam dictionary as being: a psychological reaction occurring after experiencing a highly stressing event (as wartime combat, physical violence, or a natural disaster) that is usually characterized by depression, anxiety, flashbacks, recurrent nightmares, and avoidance of reminders of the event —abbreviation PTSD —called also post-traumatic stress syndrome. This disorder completely takes over some people's lives and they are never the same again. During the time period that this story takes place having this disorder was probably a sign of weakness and post people wouldn't seek help to try and overcome it.


I believe that the reason Thomas Findley wrote this story was to open people's eyes about this disorder and the fact that not all reunions, between soldiers and families, are necessarily these happy, joyous occasions. Some soldiers leave for war and never fully return, yes they are back in body, but they aren't themselves anymore. It's very unfortunate but it's the way life is.


I should probably go on to talk about the poetic devices used within this story, but I feel as though the message behind it outweighs what poetic devices were used.

Dead Man's Path

Dead Man's Path, written by Chinua Achebe is a wonderful example of how ignorant some people can be towards other people's cultures and beliefs.

First of all I would like to point out that Chinua Achebe was born in the 1930's in Ogidi, Nigeria. He experienced the effects of the imposing western culture on the African societies. Both of his parents were converts to the evangelical Protestant faith. They were mindful of the traditions of their culture but never practiced them. So many of the things he writes about he has knowledge on since he saw it happen. It allows us, the readers, to try and grasp what actually went on during apartheid.

In this story we are introduced to Michael Obi, who is a young man who just recently was awarded the job of headmaster at Ndume Central School. The year is 1949 and he feels as though the school needs to be modernized and brought up to standard. So he and his wife set out to  do this by planting a garden within the school compound as well as trying to heighten the standard of teaching. While the second goal wasn't much of an issue, the first one turned out to cause a problem. The problem was that one day Michael watched an old woman from the village hobble across the school compound, through a marigold bed, and go off into the bushes on the other side. Michael had no clue that this path is connecting the village shrine with the villagers' place of burial. So Michael sets out to block the path by setting up a blockade of sorts. Soon he is visited by the village elder asking for the path to be re-opened because it's where the dead relatives depart, their ancestors visit by it, and it's also the path of children coming in to be born. The village elder goes on to explain that is has been there for generations and if the issue is not rectified something bad is going to happen.  Michael ignores this and wakes up two days later with all of his work in shambles, the hedges were torn up, the flower beds trampled, and part of the school was ripped down. The mayhem was caused by the villagers trying to appease the ancestors insulted by the fence, since a young woman died during childbirth.  On top of that the supervisor came and inspected the school and wrote a bad report but also added that  a "tribal-war situation" was " developing between the school and the village, arising in part from the misguided zeal of the new headmaster."

I believe that in writing this story, Chinua, was trying to tell people that ancient traditions can't be changed. That just because you want people to change their tradtions and beliefs doesn't mean that they are actually going to. Michael Obi was so blinded with his intense reasoning of having to convert the people of the village, that it ultimately back fired on him. Michael Obi is symbolic of the western civilization during apartheid, and the village people are representative of the whole of Africa. Western idea and beliefs were pushed on the African people and some rebelled.

So the main reason I like this story so much is because we see the village prevail. The western civilization wasn't the one to comeout as the victor in the case. I strongly believe that every culture should be able to practice their traditions without other people judging them or trying to change them. I feel that this is also the message Chinua is trying to put across to the western people.

My Misstress' Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
     And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
     As any she belied with false compare.

I personally love this sonnet by the famous writer William Shakespeare. The message that it is getting across to its readers is still pertinent to today's society.

This sonnet was written to poke fun at the other writers of Shakespeare's time. Shakespeare saw how most all of the other writers were characterizing the women in their writings as these beautiful, goddess-like people who didn't have a thing wrong with them.  Most of the time these females characters were completely fictitious, or in other words, a re-creation of what the writer thought was the "perfect" female. So Shakespeare wrote this sonnet in jest of these other writers. As well, this sonnet is from a collection of sonnets he wrote, this particular sonnet is from a series of sonnets within the collection named the "Dark Lady Sequence".


When we read this sonnet we all probably immediately thought that the narrator was disgusted by his mistress since he was speaking so ill of her. For examples he says "If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head",  this is simply saying that her hair is coarse and black. Most of us would be appalled if our lover/ significant other came up to us and said our hair looks like wires! The narrator also goes on to say that;
- Her cheeks have no colour in them
- Her breath reeks
- That he doesn't like the sound of her voice
- And that she treads on the ground

We, the readers, get the feeling that the narrator has nothing good to say about his mistress, and we also feel as though he possible doesn't have any positive feelings towards her. Yet when we read the last two lines, "  And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare/ As any she belied with false compare." completely throw us of our previous thinking. Once we read this it all makes sense. The entire poem was about how the narrator doesn't feel the need to lie about how his mistress looks. He knows that she isn't beautiful and never will be, but he's okay with that fact. He loves her for who she is, not how she looks.

This is the main reason I love this sonnet is because it makes people take a step back and think about the message of this poem. Love is blind, or at least it should be, if you love someone you shouldn't care what they look like. People should love you for who you are as a person, not what you look like! I feel as though that message is carried strongly within this poem.