Amichai

Yehuda Amichai, in "God Has Pity on Kindergarten Children," expresses a longing for peace. In "God Has Pity on Kindergarten Children," it seems as that, to the poet, peace and happiness do not come from God but from the compassion between people. In fact, God is the symbol of peace and happiness in the poem. The line “God has pity on kindergarten children” (Amichai lns. 1) implies that children are happy because they are innocent and not influenced by hatred and greed. As they grow older, their minds become contaminated by thoughts of desires and possessions, thus happiness and peace are replaced by hostility, violence, and conflicts: “He has less pity on school children. / And on grownups he has no pity at all, / he leaves them alone, / and sometimes they must crawl on all fours / in the burning sand / to reach the first-aid station / covered with blood” (Amichai 2-8).            

Amichai goes on to offer a solution to end the suffering of adults: “But perhaps he will watch over true lovers / and have mercy on them and shelter them / like a tree over the old man / sleeping on a public bench. / Perhaps we too will give them / the last rare coin of compassion / that Mother handed down to us, / so that their happiness will protect us / now and in other days” (Amichai 9-17). Compassion is the key to reaching happiness and peace. God has no pity on grownups, but yet he has mercy on true lovers. Thus, the ones who love and sympathize are the ones who are watched over by God which implies that they are living in happiness and peace. The poet suggests that the key to peace and happiness lay within the soul of each individual but not the possession of worldly matters.

Works Cited

Amichai, Yehuda. “God Has Pity on Kindergarten Children.” Trans. Stephen Mitchell. 1650 to the Present. Ed. Peter Simon. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 1620-21. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.

The Melancholy of a Married Woman

In Clarice Lispector’s “The Daydreams of a Drunk Woman,” a woman’s mental struggle which sterns from being in an unhappy marriage is revealed through the revelation of the world in her mind. The woman in Lispector’s tale seemed to enjoy neither her familial life nor her role as a wife and a mother; when her children went to stay with their aunts, she lied in bed all day and night ignoring the household chores at home (Lispector 1556). Her interaction with her husband suggests that she didn’t marry him for love, and that narrator’s description of her thought confirmed that: “She was still in bed, peaceful and casual. She was in love…. She was anticipating her love from the man whom she would love one day” (Lispector 1556). To her, her marriage and her duties as a wife and a mother kept her trapped like a prisoner. Thus, she resorted to alcohol which allowed her mind to temporarily escape.

Lispector portrays in her tale a woman who enters into marriage with a man she doesn’t love for various possible reasons: “Oblique details and brilliant imagery suggest other dimensions to her life: the reasons for her misery and repressed rage, the choice that she has made while seeking security and protection, and the social conditions that foster such pitiable circumstances” (Simon 1555). Her reaction to the painting on the wall in the restaurant revealed her passion for art and suggested that she was deprived of the freedom to pursue goals that would bring her happiness: “When she gazed upon that picture which was so beautifully painted in the restaurant, she was immediately overcome by an artistic sensibility. No one would get it out of her head that she had really been born for greater things. She had always been one for works of art” (Lispector 1558). Her angry comment about the woman she saw in the restaurant serves perhaps as a reflection of herself before her marriage: “Bet you anything that she isn’t even married for all that pious look on her face … and that fine hat stuck on her head. A fat lot of good her hypocrisy would do her, and she had better watch out in case her airs and graces proved her undoing! The more sanctimonious they were, the bigger frauds they turned out to be” (Lispector 1558). Lispector’s tale reflects that marriage and family are not the only things that make women happy as expected in a patriarchal society.

Works Cited

Lispector, Clarice. “The Daydream of a Drunk Woman.” Trans. Giovanni Pontiero. 1650 to the Present. Ed. Peter Simon. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 1555-60. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.

Simon, Peter, ed. 1650 to the Present. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.

Neruda

            To Pablo Neruda, walking around in the city is an extremely painful experience; every view that comes into his sight causes him great pain as everything in the city reminds him of the sufferings of the poor: “Walking Around” demonstrates Neruda’s turn towards public subject matter—here expressed … as a description of urban life and the sufferings of the poor” (Simon 1422). In “Walking Around,” Neruda shows his contempt for urban life: going into tailor shops and movies makes him feel “all shriveled up, impenetrable, like a felt swan / navigating on a water of origin and ash” (Neruda lns. 3-4). Neruda doesn’t mention any people in his view which shows his feeling of isolation: he feels that he is the only one who sees (or chooses not to turn a blind eye to) the correlation between capitalism and the sufferings of the poor. His rejection of the urban life which is dominated by materialistic gains is expressed clearly as he wrote: “The smell of barber shop makes me sob out loud. / I want nothing but the repose either of stones or of wool, / I want to see no more establishments, no more gardens, / nor merchandise, nor glasses, nor elevators” (Neruda 5-8).

            There is also a shift in Neruda’s attitude towards the urban life; it goes from passively moaning for to actively standing up against what he believes is wrong. At the beginning of the poem, he feels that the view of the city makes him feel despair and powerless: “It happens that I am tired of my feet and my nails / and my hair and my shadow. / It happens that I am tired of being a man” (Neruda 9-11). Then, his decision to stop being a part of what he believes is wrong is shown when he wrote that “I do not want to be the inheritor of so many misfortunes. / I do not want to continue as a root and as a tomb, / as a solitary tunnel, as a cellar full of corpses, / stiff with cold, dying pain” (Neruda 22-25). The last stanza shows his determination to end the sufferings of the poor: “I stride along with calm, with eyes, with shoes, / with fury, with forgetfulness, / I pass, I cross offices and stores full of orthopaedic appliances, / and courtyards hung with clothes on wires, / underpants, towels and shirts which weep / slow dirty tears” (Neruda 40-45).

Works Cited

Neruda, Pablo. “Walking Around.” Trans. W. S. Merwin. 1650 to the Present. Ed. Peter Simon. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 1423-24. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.

Simon, Peter, ed. 1650 to the Present. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.

Gender

            How gender is presented in Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis’s “The Rod of Justice” differs greatly from many of the nineteenth-century literature. While the female characters from the works of Rabindranath Tagore and Higuchi Ichiyo still battle with the injustice imposed on women in patriarchal cultures, Machado’s Sinha Rita is powerful and possess the power to control in front of men.

            What enables Sinha Rita to have such power which rivals that of men is her financial independence: “Sinha Rita made her living, for the most part, by teaching lacemaking, drawn work, and embroidery” (Machado 912). Her financial independence makes her threat to leave Joao Carneiro plausible as she can make a living on her own. Another thing that grants Sinha Rita power over men is her being in a relationship with them. It is obvious that Sinha Rita is willing to help Damioa not because she is kind and generous, but because she enjoys controlling and manipulating her man, and, most importantly, proving her power over the man whom she is in a relationship with. She never reasons with Joao Carneiro but only pushes him to comply by speaking in a commanding tone and threatening to end the relationship. Damiao is also forced to yield to her when she commands him to hand over the rod to her so that she can beat Lucretia with it. Damiao blames himself for Lucretia’s delay and wants to protect her, but considering that Sinha Rita is the only one who can possibly save him from the plight he is in, he chooses to comply despite his conscience. Sinha Rita is eager to establish her authority over the people around her, and the most convenient and effective way to do so is to utilize her relationships with others.

Works Cited

Higuchi, Ichiyo. “Separate Ways.” Trans. Robert Lyons Danly. 1650 to the Present. Ed. Peter Simon. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 973-979. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.

Machado de Assis, Joaquim Maria. “The Rod of Justice.” Trans. Helen Caldwell. 1650 to the Present. Ed. Peter Simon. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 911-916. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.

Tagore, Rabindranath. “Punishment.” Trans. William Radice. 1650 to the Present. Ed. Peter Simon. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 964-970. Print. Vol. 2 of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, gen. ed. 2 vols.