Final Analysis of Ootacamund

For the last 3ish weeks I have been studying and attempting to comprehend a poem. This poem consists of six stanzas, but I feel that only five of them actually mean anything for the poem as a whole. I will be going in depth about those five in the next five paragraphs, and touching on the extremely short 4th stanza a tad towards the end. Now that I have said that, let's get on with this analysis.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the very first stanza one may see that the speaker is searching for Todas. "In the Nilgiri Hills/ I went looking for the Todas" (Paz 1-2). We don't know who the speaker is, but we can tell from the very beginning that this poem is going to be a sort of story in a way. Todas are an ethnicity of people who live in the Nilgiri providence of India. It then goes on to the describe the people and their homes. Because I believe this poem is about the lose of respect for the Earth and things wiser than you, I can proudly say this next chunk is about wisdom within the elders. "Murmuring incoherent hymns./ They guard a secret from Sumeria,/ not knowing they guard it" (Paz 6-8). Sumeria translates to "homeland", so it can be assumed the homeland is filled with some pretty nasty people who don't appreciate changes in tradition. The last line from this stanza that I think is interesting goes like this: "shines like the moon on an empty well" (Paz 11). When a well is out of water, it kind of means your screwed if that's your only water source. Water means survival because you can't live more than a few days without it, signifying a metaphor for the end of our days if we run out.

The next stanza really stands out as backing me up on my hypothesis of this poem being about how the Earth could not care less if humans survived and that it would keep on living without us, probably stronger than before. "Miss Penelope (canary-colored hair,/ woolen stockings and walking stick) has been saying/ for thirty years: Oh India,/ country of missed opportunities..." (Paz 13-16). From my understanding, Miss Penelope seems like a metaphor for white people or maybe just the British. She says how India could be so much more, but we never put it to it's full potential. The next few lines seem to point out how the crows still do not care a single bit that we haven't put India to it's full use. They are part of the Earth and don't care either way. "In the fireworks/ of the jacaranda,/ the crows/ happily cackle" (Paz 18-21). Even though the British are disappointed at the use of the goods in India, the real goods are the secrets that the elders know. Wisdom.

The next stanza makes me think of humans destroying forested areas and how this is a prevailing problem that needs to be stopped. "Uncertain ground./ In the clearings/ the winged termites construct/ tiny Cyclopean castles" (Paz 23-25). Clearings are made by restructurings of forested areas, and thus termites try to build back what was already theirs. Just like in the last lines I mentioned, these next lines describe the metaphor that these castles represent to Mother Earth: "Homages in sand to Mycenae and Machu-Picchu" (Paz 26). Both these places are sacred historical areas that people used to pray and live in. It only makes sense to make references to these places as our nowadays world is getting destroyed by the people who also created those places.

For this next paragraph, I am skipping the 4th stanza because it is short and doesn't seem to have much significance to the meaning I find is suggested in this poem. First off, this is where the poem starts to have a more hopeful theme to it. It still has the wisdomatic loss stitched in the words, but it slowly starts representing happiness. "A vision on the mountain road:/ the rose camelia tree/ bending over the cliff" (Paz 30-32). This image seems to bring out how we humans may do terrible things to our environment, but the environment will still function, just as a camelia tree can lean over a cliff for years without falling. The next lines describe in more detail how the tree is impervious to what we do. "Impenetrable presence,/ indifferent to vertigo- and language" (Paz 35-36). Trees represent the Earth as many other things in this poem do. The Earth does not need language, and does not get the same vertigo we humans get. It can function on its own, and human's problems are minor compared to the Earth.

The last stanza seems to have a very uplifting ending because of its' last line. But let's start at the beginning of the stanza. It starts off saying: "The sky grows in the night,/ eucalyptus set aflame" (Paz 37-38). As the sky darkens for night, eucalyptus plants burn because of deforestation. The sky gets darker and darker, but is then lit up by the fires on the ground that need to be stopped before we get out of hand. The stars are the only thing we can't ruin. "The charitable stars/ not crushing- calling me" (Paz 39-40). I think "charitable" stars is referencing how the stars have wisdom, and could be charitable if only we could understand them and worship them. They are calling the speaker because of their sacredness. In the beginning I thought this poem had no meaning at all, but as I looked deeper it really stood out as something to show people that we need to save our planet.


This is what Ootacamund looks like.

Interview

From the couch, I called my mother over from her Macintosh computer. She said she would be over in just a second, right after she finished up on some of her 2nd grader's report cards. There was a man in our backyard hammering parts of our porch as the remodeling goes on. It's loud but not quite as eye catching as my favorite songs, which I had just started streaming from GrooveShark.com. My ears perked up as my all-time favorite song, Battlegrounds (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sxB9cN-jZ0), started to hum through the speakers like an irresistible aroma. I started singing along softly as my mom swore quietly and questioningly to her computer as if it could hear her, and answer likewise. Finally, she started to waddle over to me, with a few random books in her arms, and the newspaper between her legs. Finally, we could begin our interview.

After plopping down on the couch next to me, two of our cats followed her up and sat with us. We sat there comfortably for a few minutes petting them and chatting about our day. After her saying she had a terrible day because her 2nd graders were being annoying because of their almost-summer-hype, I realized I had to make the interview as quick and smooth as possible so she wouldn't get even more stressed. I started out short and sweet by reading the poem out loud while also giving her a copy I printed out so she could read along. That's when the first questions started to arise. She asked what a "Todas" was. I promptly responded with the answer while she read ahead, searching for more words she didn't know. The cats purred loudly at our sides as the music played eerily in the background to our thoughts. She then asked if she could read the poem silently to herself because I was reading far too slow for her to gather any key points in the poem. Since I'm the expert on the poem, I let her do her thing, and plan what I'm going to say once she's done in my mind. It's hard to concentrate because of all this racket on the back of our house. They are really getting at it with their power tools now, like holy crap! My mom looks up at me after I zoned out, and has to poke me to get me to stop thinking about what to say. We then proceed to actually discuss this poem that Octavio Paz has birthed.

The first thing my mother noticed was that the poem is kind of hard to follow. I completely found this true, but still thought it was neat the first time I read, and picked it as my own. The main thing she noticed was  quite different however, as it is still very prominent today. She thought the poem was about elders not being respected and ignored by the people who need their insight the most. I found this very intriguing because I never thought of this masterpiece in this way. We chatted for a bit on how this is actually relevant. I visit my grandparents about once a year, and never spend very much quality time with them to hear what they think is most important in life. This will be even more prominent when one of them passes away. That's when we all wish we could have just one more minute to listen to what knowledge they have to give. We never really love something until it's gone. That's the sad side of this poem. My mom also noticed how the poem ended on a very happy note, while it seemed to have started on a rather misfortunate one. The very last few lines really shows this: "The sky grows in the night,/eucalyptus set aflame./The charitable stars/not crushing- calling me" (Paz 37-40). We discussed how these lines made the poem have a sense of lifted-ness, and how the sad reality of the poem fades away almost completely. Almost. There is still hope to get back on our feet. There is always hope.

We ended up agreeing on many aspects of the poem, and the interview lasting way longer than expected, but she didn't seem to mind. I am sure about something though; the cats didn't mind our long couch session. They still purred consistently in their purrfect, (harharhar) careless slumber. Cat's understand nature and elders better than humans it seems. They use 100% of their time doing whatever they want, living life to it's fullest, sleeping everywhere, playing with everything, pretty much not giving two shits about anything. That's what I think this poem is trying to get at. We waste so much of our lives at work and trying to make our lives better, that we never stop and look around at how beautiful our lives already are; we always want more. There is still hope, never forget that. After we finish, we shake hands and go on our ways to our normal lifestyles; only this time we know more than when we woke up this morning; when the sun shined on our faces.

Ootacamund Analysis

Octavio Paz was born on March 31, 1914 in Mexico City. Paz's grandpa was very intellectual and had a huge library, instantly submerging Octavio in literature. At age 19, he went to Spain for the Second International Congress of Anti-Fascist Writers. In 1962 he was appointed the Mexican Ambassador to India. This was incredible to his work and he shows this in the books called The Grammarian Monkey and East Slope. He quit his job later to go protest against the government in Tlatelolco at the Olympic Games. After that he went back to his work as a publisher and editor. In 1980 he was proclaimed honorary doctor at Harvard. He got the Cervantes award back in 1981. This award is the most prestigious award for spanish speakers. He then got the American Neustadt Prize in 1982. Paz wrote over 20 books in his lifetime, and won the literature nobel prize in 1990. He died April 19, 1998 near his birthplace, in Mexico City.

Words I didn't know and I feel are worth mentioning:
Todas- the people who live in Nilgiri falls.
Sumeria- translates to "land of the civilized king" or "native land".
Ishtar- goddess of love, war, fertility, and sex. The counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna.
Verandah- roofed platform along the outside of a house.

Cecil Hotel- very fancy hotel in Alexandria Egypt built in 1929.

Jacaranda- tropical American tree with blue flowers and good smelling trunk.

Cyclopean castles- castles made of massive irregular blocks- not very neatly built.

Mycenae- city founded by Perseus.

Machu-Picchu- Ancient Inca fortress in the Andes of Peru.

This poem seems to be about nature and how it doesn't care a single bit about humans. The line "Miss Penelope (canary-colored hair,woolen stockings and walking stick) has been saying for thirty years: Oh India, country of missed opportunities . . ." (Paz's Ootacamund) told me this because it mentions how "white people" and "the American dream " type people just want the goods of different areas; how India has many more resources than we are getting out of it. White people don't appreciate the land as they should. This stanza also popped out to me: "A vision on the mountain road: the rose camelia tree bending over the cliff. Splendor in the sullen green, fixed above an abyss. Impenetrable presence, indifferent to vertigo-and language" (Paz's Ootacamund). The last sentence in particular made me think that wilderness does not care that we have learned to talk and communicate. It flourishes whether we are there or not- it doesn't need anything but other nature. This world is not ours, and we shouldn't treat it as so.

"One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today."

~Dale Carnegie

Works cited:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_nature.html
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1990/paz-bio.html
http://www.biography.com/people/octavio-paz-9435456#awesm=~oEbjoQSMQFm1J7

Siddhartha and His Perfect Hero Cycle

But first, an inspirational quote:


After writing about 15 major literary works, Hermann Hesse has gotten quite famous. Hesse's most famous novel, Siddhartha, has really taken the cake on all the outside tendencies that authors normally include. This book is about a boy named Siddhartha, who leaves his home and travels around the area in search of enlightenment. Little does he know, he will find enlightenment, and will learn so much more than he thought imaginable. With a little bit of Christian twist on traditional Hindu and Buddhist, Hesse writes about the path to Nirvana. In Siddhartha, the character Siddhartha  follows the hero's cycle perfectly. The main areas of the cycle that he goes through are thus: the call, the abyss/turning point, and the mentor helping him along his way to enlightenment.

Siddhartha first gets his "call to action" when he decides he wants more than his life is giving him now. He wants enlightenment. Siddhartha is first deciding he wants to leave and he is described as such: "That was how everybody loved Siddhartha. He delighted and made everybody happy. But Siddhartha himself was not happy" (Hesse 5). This is where one can first see that Siddhartha wants more than his rich, pleasure filled life can give. His call to action is on more of an internal level, than a physical one. "He had begun to feel that the love of his father and mother, and also the love of his friend Govinda, would not always make him happy, give him peace, satisfy and suffice him" (Hesse 5). Siddhartha starts to realize even the love of his best friend and family will not always make him happy. He is questioning staying at his home, or leaving and trying to find Nirvana. Right before he leaves he talks to his father. "Siddhartha said: 'With your permission, Father, I have come to tell you that I wish to leave your house tomorrow and join the ascetics. I wish to become a Samana. I trust my father will not object'" (Hesse 10). His father is displeased, but Siddhartha stands and waits for his dad to tell him to leave on his way. This is significant because Siddhartha has put his seek for enlightenment ahead of the love for his father. Siddhartha thinks nothing of it now, but he will regret this abandonment later on when he feels the exact same way.

Once Siddhartha leaves his home place, he comes across many incredible things and has a series of "different lives" or "trails" in a way. He has one where he completely submerges himself in pleasures and wealth. This is his abyss/turning point. He swore never to take part in such goodnesses, and after he has lived in this hell for many years, he finally explodes and even thinks about committing suicide because of this self loathing. He leaves the pleasure ridden town he has been living in, and goes to a nearby rivem. "He wished passionately for oblivion, to be at rest, to be dead. If only a flash of lightning would strike him! If only a tiger would come and eat him! If there were only some wine, some poison, that would give him oblivion, that would make him forget, that would make him sleep and never awaken" (Hesse 87, 88)! Siddhartha realizes he has lost his lost his path completely and there is no point in trying to find Nirvana now that he has wasted so much time on this physical world nonsense. He thinks he has completely lost his most cherished abilities: to think, to wait, to fast. "With a distorted countenance he stared into the water. He saw his face reflected, and spat in it; he took his arm away from the tree trunk and turned a little, so that he could fall headlong and finally go under. He bent, with closed eyes- towards death" (Hesse 89). Siddhartha thinks that death is the only escape for the confusion he is experiencing. This is it. He thinks this is his end; but it's really his miraculous turning point. "Siddhartha was deeply horrified. So that was what he had come to; he was so lost, so confused, so devoid of all reason, that he had sought death. This wish, this childish wish had grown so strong within him: to find peace by destroying his body. All the torment of these recent times, all the disillusionment, all the despair, had not affected him so much as it did the moment the Om reached his consciousness and he recognized his wretchedness and his crime" (Hesse 89). Siddhartha now understands that he can come back from all this. He can get back on his feet and find Nirvana; it's never too late to find the ultimate happiness, so that's what he does.

The last very prominent hero cycle ideal, is the mentor. In Siddhartha, the mentorship comes a little out of order from the original aspect of the hero cycle, but it is still just as important. The mentor is supposed to help the main character through their struggle. In Siddhartha, the Ferryman, named Vasudeva, is his mentor. Right as they meet Vasudeva immediately takes him under his wing and talks to him about the riven and Siddhartha's past. "When Siddhartha finished and there was a long pause, Vasudeva said: 'It is as I thought; the riven has spoken to you. It is friendly towards you, too; it speaks to you. That is good, very good. Stay with me Siddhartha, my friend" (Hesse 104, 105). A good mentor keeps their intern save, and that can be seen here. Later, Siddhartha is being told that the river will teach him what he wants to know, just like Vasudeva has. "'You have also learned this from the river. You will learn the other thing, too.' After a long pause, Siddhartha said: 'What other thing Vasudeva?' Vasudeva rose. 'It has grown late,' he said, 'let us go to bed. I cannot tell you what the other thing is, my friend. You will find out, perhaps you already know'" (Hesse 105). Vasudeva doesn't want to spoil the surprise that Siddhartha has to find for himself. Vasudeva knows that enlightenment cannot be found by someone else for you, you have to find it yourself. Vasudeva helps Siddhartha seek what the river can say, not WHAT is has to say. That is for Siddhartha to find for himself. Once Siddhartha has found that the river has all voices in it at once he talks to Vasudeva about his discovery. "'And do you know,' continued Siddhartha, 'what word it pronounces when one is successful in hearing all it's ten thousand voices at the same time?' Vasudeva laughed joyously; he bent towards Siddhartha and whispered the holy Om in his ear. And that is just what Siddhartha had heard" (Hesse 108). This is the ultimate teaching that Vasudeva offers Siddhartha. He offers him the understanding of Nirvana. After all Siddhartha has been through, he has been looking for this very moment, and could blame the mentorship of Vasudeva for this life changing feat.

Being a hero and all, Siddhartha follows the hero's cycle till death. He first gets the call the action, falls into his abyss, pulls himself out of it, and then has his mentor named Vasudeva help him seek his final prize. If Siddhartha didn't follow these paths he never would have found Nirvana, and going into his final sleep. Siddhartha's best friend Govinda is also looking for the secrets to enlightenment, but without Siddhartha, he would never get close. Every story ever written has to follow some path, and Siddhartha fits awesomely with the classic hero's journey, forcing his name to forever go down in history.

Ootacamund

In the Nilgiri Hills
I went looking for the Todas.
Their temples are cone-shaped and are stables.
This, bearded, impenetrable,
they milk their sacred buffaloes
murmuring incoherent hymns.
They guard a secret from Sumeria,
not knowing that they guard it.
Between the thin, dry lips of the elders
the name of Ishtar, the cruel goddess,
shines like the moon on an empty well.

On the verandah of the Cecil Hotel,
Miss Penelope (canary-colored hair,
woolen stockings and walking stick) has been saying
for thirty years: Oh India,
country of missed opportunities . . .
Above,
in the fireworks
of the jacaranda,
the crows
happily cackle.

Tall grass and low trees.
Uncertain ground. In the clearings
the winged termites construct
tiny Cyclopean castles.
Homages in sand to Mycenae and Machu-Picchu.

Leafier and more brilliant,
the need is like an ash:
a singing tree.

A vision on the mountain road:
the rose camelia tree
bending over the cliff.
Splendor in the sullen green,
fixed above an abyss.
Impenetrable presence,
indifferent to vertigo-and language.

The sky grows in the night,
eucalyptus set aflame.
The charitable stars
not crushing- calling me.

Siddhartha Chapters 7 Through The End

The last few days we have been reading the last half-ish of the book Siddhartha. This book has actually surprised me in quite a few ways. In the last blog post I did, I complained about how this book didn't connect to me at all, and how I thought it was a terrible book. I was wrong. This book has caught my attention, and I learned from it. I may be atheist, but everyone has some sort of religious view. I like the concept of rebirth and everything being connected when it dies like shown as a big interest in this book. The very last pages have very intense descriptions on how when something dies, it turns into soil, then plants, and maybe someday a human like me or you. This spoke to me in a very cool way because it actually makes sense. Religions with a "god" don't really mean anything to me because it makes absolutely zero sense for a huge man nobody has talked to, or seen; above us in the sky creating everything, and above all else, making evidence against his case of existing. I feel like this God guy is pretty dull if he creates things like evolution and other facts that make it seem less likely for him to be real. From now on I shall not judge a book by it's first few chapters while everything is still getting going. My mistake. Anyways... I am actually enjoying this book! What makes it even better is that we have a really easy essay due next week on it! When Siddhartha finally realizes he is going through the same pain that his father did when he left, makes me kind of sad. Talking and living with your son for the first time, and then your son hates you and runs away to an inevitable depression from rich people things would make anybody sad too! I also like how the river is just as much of a mentor as Vasudeva. The part when the river laughed sent small chills down my spine because of how used to inanimate objects being, you know; inanimate. That is all I have to say about this book. My apologizes once again for being ignorant.