Brandon Lykins
Blog 7
My Son the Fanatic
The story of “My Son the Fanatic” focuses mostly on the relationship that the son shares with his father. The father named Parvez tries to talk with his son Ali. Our story takes place in England as Ali begins to adopt very radical religious beliefs. This strains their relationship very much as Parvez has adopted a new life in England in the hopes his son would accept this culture. A hardworking individual who drives a taxi Parvez works to keep his family going.
Parvez begins to slowly find troubling patterns of Ali’s items disappearing as well as him spending all of his time praying. It is later found out that Ali is selling his items for drugs and has adopted what Parvez believes to be a fanatical belief system. Disagreements come greatly and Parvez ends the encounters by punishing his son with beatings which he then begs the question to who truly the fanatic is.
This story is all about relationships as well as friendships as Ali encounters a woman named Bettina who is a prostitute. This woman is very understanding of who he is and who he is trying to become and sides with Ali. Parvez cannot accept this and wishes things would change as he believes it will help his sons well being which he cares for most of all. Ali’s drug addiction as well as habits of selling all that he owns frightens his father greatly and he wishes to help him. It is through these encounters we learn of our characters and who they truly are.
Blog 6
The Day They Burnt the Books
The story of “The Day They Burnt the Books” chronicles the story of Eddie as he struggles with many issues surrounding both his home and the real world. His family maintains an incredibly unhealthy relationship with much abuse being directed towards his mother. Our story is not told through Eddie it is instead told from an outsider’s perspective who is a young girl. They are both growing up in the Caribbean and victims of witnessing this abuse.
Eddie’s father Mr. Sawyer spends much of his time deep within books and seems to pay his family no mind other than to torment them. After Eddie’s father passes his mother decides that she is going to either destroy all of his books with fire or sell them off to gather some levels of wealth. Eddie tried to claim this room and the books as his own however she was not going to have these books exist any further. It can be believed that this is a form of revenge towards the husband as well as some way of restoring her own strength. The selling of these books is meant to be a form of finding some way to still fund a life for her and her child Eddie.
The importance of these books is that they are English books and Eddie is growing up in the Caribbean. Not only has Eddie lost his father who is his closest tie to his ancestry but all of the books that would help him to restore some level of understanding of his homeland. Eddie as well as his friend have difficulty fitting in after this and struggle to truly find who they are.
Blog 5
Heart of Darkness
Our story “Heart of Darkness” written by Joseph Conrad follows our mostly Marlow as he begins sailing the Congo River to meet an individual named Kurtz. As captain of this vessel our characters discover a vast deal of injustice and inhumanities upon their ranks. Those that are white are greatly outnumbered by those who are not and so too are the differences in acceptances.
Within their travel to the central station they experience significant delays upon their journey as they must wait for repairs. The journey continues with the additional cannibals aboard the ship as they sail tense waters. Anxiety is high among the members and strengthened yet by uncomfortable encounters.
The ship is attacked by a tribe after experiencing a vast fog they could not see through. After fighting off the tribesman they escape through the means of scaring them off with the ships whistle. They encounter a man by the name of Kurtz who has fooled the natives into believing that he is a god and has shown his wrath through severing heads. A great deal of brutality and prejudice is shown throughout these pages. It is found through a Russian associate that Kurtz had ordered the attack on their ship as he wanted to be rid of the situation.
Kurtz appears violently ill and only worsen as the story progresses leading him to die muttering “the horror!” Marlow was given several papers that seem to suggest his intentions were to “exterminate all the brutes!” Marlow experiences this illness and is nearly killed the same however manages to survive and travel home to Europe. Marlow encounters Kurtz’ fiancée and lies to her about his last words sharing instead that they were of her.
This story comes at an interesting time as the United states has been forced to come to reckoning over decades of a prejudiced system. Large movements and worldwide support have swayed the message to our mainstream attention that these levels of thinking are no further going to be tolerated. The hope is to remove these horrible ideologies from our culture and instead instill a just system that works to more than a single class.
Blog 4
Gender and Sexuality in Modern Fiction
The Other Boat
The Other Boat focuses on the story of several children that are travelling by boat from India to England. One of the primary characters within this story is Lionel who is attempting to play with his friend Cocoanut. This will be one of our primary storytellers as they travel because their father has abandoned their mother while he was at war. Their mother Mrs. March is aboard the ship and makes comments to the children and friends about each other.
Anger appears several times in the story from Mrs. March to Cocoanut as she finds him to be annoying as he is not fully European and described as unmanly. Lionel grows up to become a famous war captain that is to marry a girl named Isabel. His friend Cocoanut is aboard the ship they are to travel to meet her on and begins to make a scene with attempting to lust for Lionel. Lionel gives into this seduction after some hesitation and spends a night with Cocoanut.
Lionel thinks up a life with Cocoanut until becoming infuriated that the bolt had been unlocked the whole time. This greatly bothers Lionel as they could have been outed at any given time. Lionel decides he must go to the deck so that he might smoke and perhaps clear his mind. By the time that Lionel returns Cocoanut insists that they kiss and instead bites him. Lionel suffocates him and then jumps off the boat rather than live like this.
This story is strongly enveloped in sexuality and struggling with an identity that Lionel does not believe that he can handle. Rather than face the possible harm of living this life he decides to end his life by jumping overboard. This greatly implies that during this period having a public gay relationship to him would have been so painful he would not wish to live anymore. Open acceptance of these forms of sexuality have over time and certainly within our period become accepted and welcomed. This story shows what it possibly could have been like to live in this period with these types of feelings.
Blog 3
The Waste Lands
Poems during WWI were a great deal of strong emotion as the soldiers were very far from home and had many loved ones that they missed dearly. These are summed up greatly within T. S. Eliots stories and believed to be one of his best works ever written. The poem of The Waste Lands focuses on several different perspectives written within different sections. The themes of these poems are that of the DEVASTATION of war and as the name suggests what comes after it.
The first is written by an elite German woman who refutes being a Russian as this denies her being of the entire royal family that was killed. Death is first referenced within these words in the picture of a dead tree. The second speaker speaks mostly of the apocalypse that will come over within the desert lands.
Our third speaker within this story is reading tarot cards to and PROPHESYING their destiny within it. This is largely PROPHESIED to be a great warning to fear death by water. Within our fourth and final section we follow a speaker that notices the ghosts of London and compares them to past battles of Rome. All of these stories wrap very beautiful and interesting comparisons within strong words over past times and battles and what haunts them. It serves greatly as warnings of what is to come and also most importantly what follows.
The Defence of Guenevere is a story written about adultery committed by Queen Guenevere. She writes her defense during the Victorian era in a poetic form. King Arthurs closest man Sir Lancelot is confronted as the man in question although she challenges this notion. She blames instead Sir Gauwaine who was strong with envy over Lancelot’s position in King Arthurs court.
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Our story of The Importance of Being Earnest follows our main speaker Jack Worthing. A man of Hertfordshire our protagonist carries a life where he pretends to adopt the name Ernest that allows him to do just as he pleases with many excused absences. Ernest is a ploy that he adopts as his brother to sneak away.
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Reading “The Old Nurse’s Story” by Elizabeth Gaskell you begin to experience a ghost story with a strong speech pattern wound in early Britain. The story mostly in charge of the narrator Hesther chronicles her experiences as a young lady in a troubling time. The spirits or ghostly apparitions that she comes across bring unnerving prospects with forces such as music booming through the use of an organ.
Rosamond is saved ultimately by the young Hesther and taken from the clutches of these apparitions that certainly mean ill. The use of Lord Furnivall’s ghost serves as great backstory to directly experience seeing him send the musician as well as Maude to their death in the freezing cold. This all came to be after the unfortunate revealing of their betrayals costing them their own lives.
A shocking discovery comes into play once they experience these apparitions through Miss Furnivall becoming one herself as she had died that very night. Strong focus should be given onto Maude and Grace as they are the primary source of the conflict occurring. The musician grabs the attention of both sisters are create this incredibly unfortunate ending.
A strong emphasis on betrayal and jealousy set up a fantastic story about an unfortunate series of events that lead to these ghostly images. The primary focus stays on this family and the lessons as well as bonds formed when discovering the truths of the past. The best takeaway at the end is truly jealousy, betrayal, and severity in actions leading to very intriguing spectral images.
ABout MEHello, my name is Brandon Lykins, I am a current 4th year student of college. I was born and raised in Ohio and am in the hopes of becoming a horror fantasy writer. I am a multi-instrumentalist musician that explores a wide genre of song. I hope to eventually publish stories of my own that I have worked on in great detail and read those of talented writers.
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