Somewhere I have never traveled, gladly beyond..

“Somewhere I have never travelled, gladly beyond” by E.E. Cummings is a poem about the power of love.The title of the poem implies that the poet has not experienced a love like this, but he is glad to experience it now and beyond.  E.E. Cummings describes how he is so easily trapped and amazed by his lover so much that she even has a control over him. He is mesmerized by his lover, but is not really sure as to what is drawing him in so strongly. He describes his lover as a rose, and a rose is a dainty flower with many petals. The author expresses how he is enclosed in her love (petals). He mentions the fragility because he is making it known that her love is something to be careful with. It’s her silence and simple movements that have him infatuated. She doesn't have to speak for him to love her, because he is lost in her features which speak for her; “The voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses.” He feels that nothing in the world compares to her “intense fragility” because that is what makes her so beautiful. He feels that she has to the power to change how he see’s death and she makes him believe in forever.  

Midterm

1.       Cultural studies are characterized by practices and rituals that influence the world through power, such as the observance of the life of a celebrity and how their relationships shape cultural practices. It is also used to understand the complexities of social and political contexts to comprehend criticisms and actions. Cultural studies also differentiate intuitive knowledge and universal forms of knowledge. It identifies the knower and the known, and the observer and what is being observed. Finally, cultural studies evaluate morals of society from modern day to extreme politics. It is the ability to analyze and reconstruct through political involvement and change the structure of dominance everywhere.

2.       We apply cultural studies to literature by analyzing pieces then compare and contrast them to the real world. We identify themes and motifs in stories for a better understanding of what the author is trying to say and relate them to today’s society. For example, gender roles, power, irony, etc.

3.       The concept of the Other in cultural studies is for meaning through representation of ideological ideas. The other is outside of one’s gender, class, social group, or culture. The other is used to make an observation of what happens in society and how people are represented through what they are usually categorized as. The other allows comparisons to be made between diverse groups and basically establishes diversity.

4.       There are many representations of othering in mainstream culture. One of the most common is found in religion between Muslims and Christians/Catholics or whoever is outside of the Muslim religion. Muslims are usually stereotyped as terrorists who are harmful to the nation while the Christians and Catholics live by the right laws that protect our nation, which is why we hear the phrase, “God bless America” so frequently.

5.       Gender roles were the main theme in “Trifles.” Men were the superior in the story and considered more intelligent while the women were portrayed as the inferior with “trifles” that didn’t deserve much attention. The women were expected to do housework while the men went out and did “business.” The men had the answers to everything and knew the reasons behind everything, while anything a woman said was laughed off or disregarded. Mrs. Peter’s discovery of the empty bird cage represented emptiness in Mrs. Wright. The bird that belonged in the cage was dead and Mrs. Wright represented that bird. Mrs. Wright enjoyed singing so she got the songbird since she didn’t sing anymore after she got married. Mr. Wright killed the bird, which killed Mrs. Wright’s happiness. It’s obvious that men are controlling so much that they can take away a woman’s happiness. The man is seen as the leader of the household with the power according to the story.

6.       Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peter’s recalled how the Wright’s house wasn’t “a cheerful place” so they never went to visit. During the investigation Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peter’s were noticing things like Mrs. Wright’s fruit and her quilt she was making. Their female intuition was kicking in and they started to remember how Mrs. Wright was before she got married. They then realized that she was stripped of happiness and turned into an isolated housewife. Once they found the dead bird they made the connection with Mrs. Wright’s love for singing and they started to feel bad for the person she transformed into after she married Mr. Wright. They realized her loss of sanity and happiness from being under the control of her husband.

7.       Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters draw Mrs. Wright up as a lonely unhappy woman. She lived in a secluded farm with just her husband who was said to be a good, but hard man to live with. As a cure for her loneliness Mrs. Wright got a songbird because she liked to sing in her younger days when she was happy. The bird symbolized happiness and life for Mrs. Wright, but Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters believed Mr. Wright killed the bird because of the kind of man he was which provoked Mrs. Wright to want to kill him. Mr. Wright took away Mrs. Wright’s last hope for a little bit of joy so with the death of her bird she lost hope and went on to kill her husband. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters realize that Mrs. Wright just wasn’t happy and they realized that through their women’s intuition.

8.       At the end of “Trifles” Mrs. Hale says, “Oh, I wish I’d come over here once in a while! That was a crime! That was a crime! Who’s going to punish that?” Mrs. Hale realizes and feels guilty that she wasn’t a real friend to Mrs. Wright during her depression.  She goes on to say, “We live close together and we live far apart. We all got through the same things—it’s all just a different kind of the same thing.” She remembers that women are supposed to stick together, because we are all experiencing or have experienced similar things that we can help each other get through. Mrs. Hale felt bad for not being the friend she needed to be to Mrs. Wright and for not being there to support her or even go check up on her. Nobody is going to punish Mrs. Hale for it, but she will be suffering from the punishment of conviction.

9.       While this can be read as a story about gender roles, this quote illustrates that the story “Trifles” can also be read as a discussion of unity in one’s gender.

10.   Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” is about a young woman, Mrs. Mallard, who is afflicted with heart trouble and finds out that her husband was killed in a train accident. She mourns from natural pain of a loss, but then she secludes herself and realizes that she is free from the control of her husband. She locks herself in a room and quietly rejoices about how she can now live for herself and actually enjoy life. She whispers “Free! Body and soul free!” Her sister comes to check on her and brings her downstairs only for Mrs. Mallard to find out that her husband is actually still alive and she collapses and dies on the scene. The doctors diagnose that “she had died of heart disease—of the joy that kills.”

11.   Kate Chopin opens the story with recognition of Mrs. Mallard’s “heart trouble.” The heart trouble symbolizes the pain Mrs. Mallard had been suffering from stress and not being able to live for herself, but under her husband’s control. Her pain from not being able to really enjoy life like she wanted to. Also, the window where Chopin described, “she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window.” That scene symbolizes a window of opportunities that Mrs. Mallard was presented with since her husband was pronounced dead.

12.   “The Story of an Hour” presents themes of autonomy, power, control, and oppression. As well as irony and gender roles. When Mrs. Mallard heard that her husband died, an autonomous feeling filled her body. “She said it over and over under the breath: “free, free, free!” She was free from the control of her husband and the power he had over her life. She wasn’t living for herself, but living to fulfill the needs of her husband. Power and control in the story is driven by gender roles. The male sets the tone and the lifestyle of how things are run, which controls Mrs. Mallard’s way of living. Irony is present at the end of the story when doctors said, “she had died of heart disease—of the joy that kills.” Mrs. Mallard didn’t die from the joy of her husband being alive, but from disappointment and shock that he was alive, because at that point she realized that she still wasn’t free, and that stress killed her.

13.   “The Story of an Hour” comments on the oppression of females by male’s power and control. The way Mrs. Mallard rejoiced about her husband’s death, she was craving freedom the entire time she was with him. Anything she did it was because he thought it was best for her so she wasn’t really living life for herself. “Possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being,” that statement justifies that Mrs. Mallard never exercised her rights and what she believed because her husband controlled all of that and it took his death for her to realize the what she had in herself and what she could do at her own will.

14.   That quote describes how Mrs. Mallard realizes that she is released from the control of her husband. She has somewhat of an epiphany and expresses her freedom to be able enjoy life and live fully for herself. She no longer has to live with her husband saying what she should do and how she should live her life. “There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature.” She would have power over herself and be able to enjoy life the way that she desires.

15.   According to the doctor Mrs. Mallard dies from “heart disease—of the joy that kills.” Ironically Mrs. Mallard dies from finding out her husband is actually alive and she is not actually free from his control. She dies from the stress and sudden change of emotion. After she rejoices because she thinks he is dead, she is suddenly struck with pain when she finds out he is alive and that kills her. I believe she was overwhelmed with shock from a sudden change of emotions.

16.   In the “Beginners” Carver addresses marriage and love through two couples, which one came from broken relationships and started a new one. Herb and Terri were a couple, but Terri’s previous relationship was abusive and in Herb’s eyes unacceptable. Terri believed Carl (her ex) loved her even though he was suicidal and tried to kill her, and she still loved him. Herb is so bothered that Terri still feels so strongly about Carl. Herb also went through a divorce, which left him depressed and suicidal. Even though Herb’s wife Terri still loves her ex, Herb still loves Terri no matter how hurt he is from the situation. The author then presents an old couple, the Gates, who are very much in love, so much that they can’t stand to be apart from each other and never have. The old couple shows genuine love, the love that is expected for a happy healthy relationship. The author wants us to know that people interpret and express love in different ways because Terri loves Herb even though she still loves Carl, and Herb still loves Terri even though she still loves Carl.

17.   Shirley Jackson’s, “The Lottery” is about a town that does a tradition every year where the villagers come together and wait to see who is to be stoned that year for a good harvest. Each family draws a name out of a black box and whoever drew the paper with the black dot had to be stoned. This was a tradition that the village people never gave up, but somehow kept changing the rules and how it is preformed. Mr. Hutchison drew the paper with the black dot, but his wife called a re-do on the drawing and she ended being the one to draw the paper with the black dot and had to get stoned even by her own children. This entire story revolved around maintaining a tradition no matter how much the procedures changed. A person was stoned each year to ensure good harvest, and that’s what the villagers really believed so they continued their stoning tradition. “Mr. Summers spoke frequently about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition was represented by the black box.” The box symbolized the existence of their tradition and kept the village and its tradition authentic. When it was time for the stoning the Mrs. Hutchinson’s children even participated with pebbles to show how serious the village was with maintaining their tradition.

18.   The idea of hypocrisy in “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” is to establish order and authority in order for the exile to go through. There is always a superior group in a society and in this case it is the hypocrisy, which represents the voice of the town who makes the ultimate decisions.

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20.   “The Village” was about a secluded town that was made by a handful of people who left a corrupt town full of crime to start their own village. The people who started the village also started a myth to scare their people from leaving the village in fear of being murdered by “those they don’t speak of” who were supposedly beasts of the town. The villagers lived a very conservative life and it was ran by the elders. Only the elders knew about the myth. They scared their people into believing it was real because they want to protect their innocence from the corrupt world. As a part of the myth the elders establish that yellow is the safe color and red is the color of the beasts. They even made costumes to scare the people every once in a while if they ever got curious about what was outside of the village. Ivy who is one of the elder’s daughter had to get medicine from the towns in order to save Lucius, her fiance’s, life. Ivy is blind so her father lets her go outside of the village into the town to get medicine. He let’s her in on the myth, but she has believed it all of her life so she is still scared when she goes into the woods. When Ivy makes it back to the village with the medicine, the elders still want to keep the myth going to “protect” their people from the harms of the “real” world. So the myth and traditions continue.

21.   &  22. In the film, “The Village,” myth was the controlling element. The myth of the beasts instilled fear in the villagers so much it controlled their way of living and made them scared to go out into the world and see what it had to offer. They were also careful of what they said, and only stayed in their village. It scared them so much that they weren’t even curious to find out what was outside of the village. The village was organized by the elders who also made up the myth, which established control.

23.   August Nickolson’s statement to Lucius, “you may run from sorrow, as we have, but sorrow will find you” translated to me that nobody will live a completely perfect life and that is because sorrow will always be there. Just as the people of the village are trying to maintain and keep their village in order, they are experiencing pain and even living in fear, which is sorrow. No matter how happy and perfect they try to make the village they are living in, there is still going to be a negative aspect to it and that’s life. The elders chose to leave the mass culture and begin the experiment of the village to see how much control they have and how long they will have control. They wanted to form a society to their likings with their standards.

24.   The colors in the movie play a major role in the myth and how it was carried out. The villagers view yellow as the “safe” color and red as the “bad” color. Yellow seems to represent innocence and protection in the movie. The villagers wore yellow cloaks for safety whenever they were close to the forbidden forest where the beasts lived. The beasts wore red cloaks that represent danger. The people of the village made sure there was no red present on their side, because that would be a sign of danger and that wasn’t acceptable in their world. When the beasts would come over to their side they would put red streaks on the villager’s doors as a warning and they left carcasses of animals around exposing a hollow headless body with a lot of blood. That gruesome scene is a warning, which is negative. Yellow is represented as a positive color for protection while red is the color of danger.

25.   Mr. Walker says they have chosen to create an alternative reality to protect the villager’s innocence by not exposing to them to the “real” world.

26.   The world we live in is filled with crime, but the elders excluded it from their village so their people wouldn’t have to deal with troubles. They feared that would lead to the corruption of the village if they let those things in so they kept them out and kept their people safe in their made up world. While the elders are trying to preserve the villager’s innocence, they are amplifying the people’s ignorance. The situation is ironic because while the elders made up the myth to instill fear in their people and keep them innocent, the villagers don’t know that the myth is actually made up. The elders took advantage of their innocence and scared them into a certain way of living.

27.   Just as the myth controls the villager’s behavior, there are myths present in American culture that perpetuate our culture as well. A lot of myths exist during our younger years. For example, the most common myth is Santa Claus. In order to get a visit from Santa you had to be on your best behavior, if you weren’t then you would be on the Naughty List and would receive coal instead of presents. The myth of Santa encouraged good behavior because we knew the reward we would receive. Both myths are used as a form of control. In “The Village” the myth controls people’s entire way of living, while the myth of Santa controls a child’s behavior and promotes good behavior. Both myths are intended to protect the innocence of the people.

The Village

       The Village is a movie surrounding a myth that has controlled a small village for years. The myth has been around so long that they have even adopted practices that basically keeps the myth alive and controls their way of living. The villager’s life is controlled by the myth of “those they do not speak of.” They are confined to their village because outside of it is where the “beasts” live and they promised that they would never travel outside of their village. The children of the village only know what’s inside and not outside of where they live, somewhat cutting them off from the world because those were the beliefs they were raised on by their elders. The myth has instilled fear in the village people so much that they are careful of what they say, and only stay in their village. The fear instilled is because of fear of the outside, and it is to protect the village people and preserve their innocence. Later we find out the myth is artificially and was made by the elders of the village. I feel like that was selfish of them because they didn’t want their people to go outside of the village and see what the world had to offer. This somewhat reminds me of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, because the people of the village are confined to one place just as the prisoners in the cave. The people of the village are restrained by the myth, while the prisoners of the cave are restrained from knowledge and reality. In both stories people suffer from a lack of knowledge which is controlled by other people (the elders).

                August Nickolson’s statement to Lucius, “you may run from sorrow, as we have, but sorrow will find you” translated to me that nobody will live a completely perfect life and that is because sorrow will always be there. Just as the people of the village are trying to maintain and keep their village in order, they are experiencing pain and even living in fear, which is sorrow. No matter how happy and perfect they try to make the village they are living in, there is still going to be a negative aspect to it and that’s life. The colors in the movie play a major role in the myth and how it is carried out. The villagers view yellow as the “safe” color and red as the “bad” color. Yellow seems to represent innocence and protection in the movie. The villagers wore yellow cloaks whenever they were close to the forbidden forest where the beasts lived. The beasts wore red cloaks that seemed to represent danger. The people of the village made sure there was no red present on their side. When the beasts would come over to their side they put red streaks on the villager’s doors as a warning and they left carcasses of animals around exposing a hollow headless body with a lot of blood. Yellow is represented as a positive color for protection while red is the color of danger.

                The elders made the village their “real” world, when really it is missing many qualities of the real world. The villagers live in a world where there is no crime, pain, or disaster. The world we live in consists of all of those things, but the elders excluded it from their village so their people wouldn’t have to deal with troubles. They feared that would lead to the corruption of the village if they let those things in so they kept them out and kept their people safe in their made up world. While the elders are trying to preserve the villager’s innocence, they are amplifying the people’s ignorance. The situation is ironic because while the elders made up the myth to instill fear in their people and keep them innocent, the villagers don’t know that the myth is actually made up. The elders took advantage of their innocence and scared them into a certain way of living. I do think the villagers have a choice in the way they live, but their too scared to branch out and explore. At some point I do believe their system will fail them and the secrets will be exposed, and once that happens they will be willing or forcred to investigate the “real” world. Anybody should have a choice in the way they want to live WITH REASON, because if their way of living is controlled then they will forever be ignorant and innocence doesn’t last long in the real world. Therefore they will not be able to adapt or survive. The only reasoning I see behind members of a particular culture being frightened into self protection or self preservation is so that they are aware and know themselves and know how to defend themselves in the world. Also to establish morals and self control. Beliefs come from teachings and observations, and everybody has beliefs. Scaring somebody (to an extent) as form of discipline and control allows them to form beliefs and morals.

                When Mr. Walker sends Ivy into the town to get medicine for Lucius he says, “yes, I have risked and I hope I am always able to risk everything for the just and right cause.” Ivy’s innocence is being risked by exposing her to the town, but it is also her father letting go of his selfishness. With Ivy going into the town she will be doing the good deed of getting Lucius the medicine, but at the same time risking her loss of innocence. The cause is just and right because she will no longer be ignorant to the real world and she will also be helping out Lucius, her fiancé. The situation is two-fold because she is losing innocence and ignorance, but gaining courage and wisdom at the same time.  

The Yellow Wallpaper & The Story of An Hour

                The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman was centered on themes of power, control, and oppression. The narrator is a woman who is diagnosed with temporary nervous depression by her husband and brother who are both physicians. They both refuse to deem her as sick, but she argues otherwise. She likes to exercise her imagination but her husband encourages her not to and forces her to believe what he believes. She writes as a “cure” for her sickness, but her husband, John hates for her to write. “John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him.” Throughout the story the narrator’s efforts and opinions are denied by her husband. He just suggests that she sleeps so she won’t have so many thoughts and ideas. John clearly has the control. He controls his wife’s thought by always denying her and making himself seem more reasonable. He uses his career title to his advantage showing that he is more knowledgeable and has all of the answers. “It is a false foolish fancy. Can you not trust me as a physician when I tell you so?” The narrator says, “He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction.” John has made her believe he truly cares for her since he is trying to help cure her by shutting her up and making her oppress feelings. She is basically brainwashed in believing he has her best interest.

                John puts his wife in a room that used to be a nursery with this awful yellow wallpaper that is very disturbing to her. He puts her in there basically as a form of meditation for her to rest during her “illness.” She constantly complains to herself about the pattern on the dull yellow wallpaper, but she doesn’t really express her hatred about it to John because he will just dismiss it. She describes a pattern in the wallpaper that a lady is trapped in and can’t get out of so she just creeps around. The narrator lives through what her imagination has built out of the wallpaper. In the end she realizes that she is that woman trapped in the wallpaper always having to creep around during the day time and behind bars at night, forced to sleep under her husband’s supervision. She is stuck in the pattern having to live the miserable controlled lifestyle with her husband who is forcing her to believe what he wants her to believe. Along with the power, control, and oppression, gender plays a role in the story. Once again the male is superior and more intellectual and the woman is trapped following his order without much say. The narrator even admits, “The fact is I am getting a little afraid of John.” She knows there is no easy escape from him.

                The Story of An Hour by Kate Chopin is filled with autonomy and irony. The first fact stated in the story was, “Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble.” Mrs. Mallard’s “heart trouble” could easily symbolize the pain she is going through living with Brently Mallard, her husband who was supposedly killed in a railroad accident. The surrounding characters think that her heart trouble would be bothered from the news of her husband’s death, but really Mrs. Mallard feels a sense of freedom now that he is gone. Despite the pain that Mr. Mallard had out her through, Mrs. Mallard was looking past that and looking forward to “a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely.” She didn’t feel like she was living for herself, but now that her husband was dead she felt free of his shackles of oppression. She carried herself “like a goddess of Victory.” She felt that she had overcome her husband and all the hell he had put her through. She felt like an independent woman.

                The story ends with such a twist. Brently Mallard who was announced dead in the beginning of the story is actually alive. That discovery ends up killing Mrs. Mallard, which doctors claim, “she had died of heart disease—of the joy that kills.” That statement shows the ignorance of males to the life of women. Mrs. Mallard clearly did not die from overwhelming joy from seeing her husband alive, she died from her hopes of living for herself crashing right in front of her eyes. The pain had filled her heart all over again and it had killed her, because she knew she couldn’t live like that again when she was just rejoicing the liberation of misery from her husband. 

Trifles

                Gender was the main focus in Trifles by Susan Glaspell.  Referring back to the Cultural Studies notes, women are categorized as the “others “ in the Western society. The women in the story come off as inferior while following behind the men as they enter the house. There was a point in history where women were even categorized as the minority in society. Males are clearly more dominant and superior in this story. The women’s voice was much more limited and they were more careful in what they said around the men. The needs and opinions of the women weren’t really considered. Hale even said, “I said to Harry that I didn’t know as what his wife wanted made much of difference to John.”  That statement established that the household was run by Mr. Wright and his wife didn’t have much say, but whatever say she had didn’t really matter because the final decision would be made by the man of the house. The women’s worries were always seen as minor to the men. Hale states, “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles.” Implying that most of the time they were disregarded and not as important.

                Mrs. Hale made a remark, “those towels get awful quick. Men’s hands aren’t always as clean as they might be.” and the County Attorney replied, “Ah, loyal to your sex, I see. But you and Mrs. Wright were neighbors. I suppose you were friends too.”  That exchange displayed the separation of gender. It showed how the women defend each other “GIRL POWER”, but still respectful of the men. They are still aware of the “dirt” men do and make it appoint to recognize it.  When the men made casual remarks and joked about things in the kitchen, it’s because they are blind to the world of women. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale took the remarks personal and expressed that through their body language towards each other. Mrs. Hale admits, “I know how things can be—for women. I tell you, it’s queer, Mrs. Peters. We live close together and we live far apart. We all go through the same things—it’s all just a different kind of same thing.” The women can relate because that was the lifestyle they had all been living whether the circumstances were different, at the end of the day they were all experiencing the same thing. During the investigation Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale stayed down in the kitchen while the Sheriff and County Attorney went to investigate the scene where John Wright was found dead. Immediately the women got more comfortable and started noticing things that women seem to notice when there are familiar with the setting.  The roles are obvious that the women do the house work while the men do work for justice and seek answers. The traditional homely set up was that men were the head of the household and the men took full advantage of having authority over the women.

                While alone in the kitchen Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale begin to arrange what they are going to take to Mrs. Wright in jail to help make her feel “natural” in there; her apron being one of the items. They also check up on things around the kitchen where Mrs. Wright spent most of her time. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale found an empty birdcage while they were looking through the cabinets. Mrs. Wright formally known as Minnie Foster was described to have been sweet and pretty like a bird, but timid and fluttery before she got married. Mr. Wright was known as a good man, but he was a hard man to live with. Once Mrs. Wright got married her happiness was dulled and she was no longer the way she used to be. Her house was gloomy and uncheerful.

                The canary represented Minnie Foster, the woman Mrs. Wright used to be. If she couldn’t sing anymore and didn’t feel pretty or worthy it was because of Mr. Wright, and she would live through the canary. Mrs. Hale even says, “No, Wright wouldn’t like the bird—a thing that sang. She used to sing. He killed that too.”  Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale found the bird wrapped in silk in a red box and it looked like it had been strangled. Mr. Wright is obviously responsible for taking the birds life and taking the life out of his wife. Mrs. Wright was restricted to do house and field work while her husband did whatever he did that made him superior. The bird was found wrung at the neck just as Mr. Wright was found with a rope around his neck. Those discoveries parallel because just as Mr. Wright took away Mrs. Wright’s joy in life, she took away his life for payback. She was clearly miserable living under his circumstances. 

The Beginners Analysis

Raymond Carver’s, The Beginners, institutes the power and impact of love. Love is a common universal topic, but it’s meaning is different for many people. Carver presents a couple who has experienced situations dealing with the meaning of love in intimate relationships. Herb and Terri McGinnis are the couple who have both individually had unique encounters, which has molded their perception of love. Herb and Terri share a time full of stories and mixed emotions with colleagues, Nick and Laura, the other couple who are close friends to them.

                In the beginning of the story Carver ironically introduces Herb as a cardiologist, a heart doctor. It was also stated that, “Herb thought real love was nothing less than spiritual love” (Carver 1). Herb’s idea of love clashed with his wife’s idea of love. Terri had come out of an abusive relationship that she still claims her ex, Carl, a suicidal, violent, and emotionally disturbed individual, loved her. Herb thought her beliefs of love were absurd if she thought being beat and dragged around was love. Carver shows that experiences impact your beliefs and definitions on things that many people experience.

                This story shows how much love impacts a person’s behavior and what they begin to accept because of it. In the beginning of the story Terri shares her experience with her abusive ex husband Carl. Terri believed Carl actually loved her because he said he did and other actions besides abuse made her believe he did. She even recalls him saying, “I love you, don’t you see? I love you, bitch” as he drags her across the floor. “People are different, Herb. Sure, sometimes he may have acted crazy. O.K. But he loved me. In his own way, maybe, but he loved me.” Referring back to the Characteristics of Cultural Studies, the first characteristic supports that scene that Terri described. Cultural studies observe cultural practices and their relation to power. It also exposes power relationships and examines how the relationships influence and shape cultural practices. Terri and Carl’s relationship was certainly a power relationship and in this case Carl had the power that made Terri believe that unacceptable actions were acceptable.

                Carver displayed each characters perception of love through their experiences. Herb is a person that has been hurt from love, but still believes in genuine love. At the end of The Beginners Herb’s character became more open and emotional when he shared the love he saw between an elderly couple. He really admired what they had even though he had been hurt and apparently suicidal because of his last marriage. Herb was very sensitive when telling the story about the elderly couple, Henry and Anna Gates. That couple had been deeply in love for many years. “Month in, month out, they’d be there together, the two of them, the same routine, the same everything, never anyone else to talk to or visit with during those months, but they had each other. That’s all and everything they had, each other.” An accident had left both elderly people in intensive care units. The two had been together so long that it was nearly unbearable to even be in separate rooms. The connection Herb saw between them really had an impact on him. So much that he became depressed because he wished he could experience a love like that. Both Herb and Terri came from battered relationship to a certain extent, but the story of the old couple made them both realize what true love was. Carver used the old couple to show the tradition of true love and he used Herb and Terri to show how love has been altered. Terri even made a statement to Nick and Laura showing that she believes in genuine love, but it’s just something she’s not accustomed to. “I just want to say this, and that’s all. But I don’t want it to sound negative. I hope and pray that you guys still love each other five, even three years from now the way you do today. Even four years from now. That’s the moment of truth, for years.”

                At the end of the story Carver made a reference to Mars and Venus, two planets that represent each sex. Women being Venus and Men being Mars. Nick and Laura seem to have a stable relationship compared to Herb and Terri’s. When Nick goes out to look at the sky after it has changed in accordance to the aura of the room he says, “I recognized Venus, and farther off and to the side, not as bright but unmistakably there on the horizon, Mars.”Carver uses that statement to show the powerful discourse surrounding the institution of love. The statement shows how sexes are so different but very much alike. In this case Venus seems to be more dominant and have more of an impact just as Terri did with Herb and Anna Gates with Henry.