Lit Circle Summative 1

Pain Glog

My glog is a representation of pain in both the literal sense and in the imagery used. I brought in my connection in the form of a pop culture music video from youtube(Grenade by Bruno Mars). For the section on growth, I brought in images of trees to represent two things. The first is how pain spreads to it's surroundings like wild fire, burning away all the nutrients for a nourished and comfortable life. The second is the way pain alters our needs. I placed the tree in a splotch of red (blood) to symbolize how Heathcliff feeds of the pain of others. He uses it for growth and survival to compensate for his social disadvantages. Finally i used quotes from various characters to emphasize the different ways pain can be received and interpreted. Although they are all similar, their ideas on how pain can be dealt with vary largely. The moving eyes in the title are an extended illustration of Heathcliff's quote in that they represent the mistrust and eternal inner conflict that arise as a result of pain felt from a young age.

Response

Well done you are on the right path! YOu have many great and insightful points which you have well supported. YOur discussion about your group is well done is well aussi. You also look at teh big picture by discussing by looking at humanity. I am not sure what else to tell you. You know what to do. You can try challenging yourself by trying a variety of connections in one journal. Keep up the good work.

Lit Circle Journal #2

This week our lit circle read up to chapter 18. This middle section of the book by far mitigates the darkness of the beginning. We have further investigated the past of Heathcliff and learned the extent of his evil nurturing. Rather, though, than empathize with his condition, we are nearly as desensitized from his pain as he is from his emotions. When we read of Catherine’s death we learned a frightful truth in his reaction. “I thought the very intensity of his gaze would bring tears to his eyes; but they burned with anguish, they did not melt” –P 155. Although he had lost the one thing he truly cared for in life, he couldn’t express his emotions. The pain had made him stereotypically strong in the masculine perception and allowed him to grow into a man indifferent to pain, but through the eyes of a human he was weak and destroyed. He became even more obsessed with preventing the loss of the little he had. He prayed that Catherine “not rest as long as [he is] living” - P 163. He was so lost that he wished her to “be with [him] always” and “not leave [him] in the abyss where [he] cannot find [her]” – P 163. Our group discussed this and debated the definition of love; is it always healthy, or is it an obsession we obtain with others that we must learn to balance? Is it because Heathcliff’s life is so out of order and lost that his love has taken this misguided form, or something deeper?

            As mentioned earlier, the novel also delves deeper into the divisions of class we assert upon ourselves and the distinction of man and animal. Heathcliff’s wife Isabella often asks “Is he a man? If so, is he mad? And if not, is he the devil?” P 134. Throughout the novel his apathy leads us to believe that he is more of a fiend than anything else. The reason for this can be found through his treatment of Isabella; “ [she] gave him [her] heart, and he took and pinched it to death, and flung it back to [her]. People feel with their hearts, and since he has destroyed [ours], [we] have not the power to feel for him” P 168.  The cruelty he has shown is short of barbaric, and as human we are hard stricken to forgive. Because of this both the characters and we have lost the ability to sympathize with him, which makes him appear all the more cruel. Our tendencies to label and categorize the world around us make us blind to the existence of multiple aspects to identity; instead of seeing a building with a multitude of varying infrastructures that allow it to exist cohesively, we see a single piece of plywood. Instead of realizing it is capable to fix a single structure and save the larger identity, we see a hole that must be patched. Normally our humanity to drive us attempt to patch it anyway, in Heathcliff however, the hole appears to outdo the value of workable material; he is to hard to patch.

            In conclusion our group decided that pain does bring growth, but in the way a muscle is strengthened. Pain destroys the weaker portions of us and allows our strengths to fill the gaps, however if the pain exceeds the capacity of the person, it takes away our strength as well. If we can find redirection or intervention it is possible to make a recovery over a period of time, if not the pain often consumes us. As if Heathcliff wasn’t enough proof, Hindley lives example; “Grief, and that, together transformed him into a complete hermit. When we have no where to turn, we often resort to the dark recesses of our humanity, we weave a shell of mistrust and hatred and don’t give others the chance to hurt us as we hide behind it.

            I feel our group was particularly effective this week with our discussions. We all contributed and challenged each other’s ideas, which allowed us to understand the essential questions to a deeper extent and see the different ways we interoperated the character’s identities. My goal for next week is to ask questions more closely related to the EQs as apposed to individual quotes and wording as I felt the best understanding came from analyzing the text in relation to a EQ.