...Assignment: Write an essay (700-1000 words) in which you analyse and interpret the short story Poetic Justice. Your essay must include the following points: • A characterization of Jed Cunningham • The narrator’s image of herself • The significance of their youthful relationship • Comment on the language and the point of view • The theme(s) • The title Text: Poetic Justice, a short story by Diana Appleyard, published in Days of Wine and Roses, Black Swan, London 2004. Poetic Justice Emil Lindgaard Nielsen The short story pivots around a mature woman whom recently discovered a social network for her old school, in which people tend to post descriptions of their current lifestyles. This makes her reminisce of old days and in particular her old boyfriend, Jed Cunningham. Jed was a rather odd fellow, who didn’t have intensions to stand out but somehow never seemed like everybody else. He was tall, with thick black hair, blue eyes, pale skin, broad shoulders and a mouth with a constant sardonic smile. He was smart, cynic and seemed ready to or already had entered adulthood. The curse of him not being capable of doing expected things caused him into living on a remote island by himself. The narrators saw him as a bit of a hipster, embracing the lifestyle of carpe diem, way before everybody else. Her perception of herself is at first rather negative. When she first thinks back on her youth, she isn’t pleased with her current body. Her stomach extends over her waistband...
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...Essay – Poetic Justice “Carpe diem” is a phrase that is often used by people who are not taking anything for granted. They are living their life exactly how they want to and they do not care about the following consequences. The story “Poetic Justice” is exactly about that – when to seize the day and when not to. Jed Cunningham is an absolute original. Jed has always been smarter than everybody else. In his younger years he stood apart and watched the world mockingly. He would always have the newest clothes only for others to envy. The fact that he was so different made his teachers uneasy. He did not do what they said and it caused the teachers to call Jed disrespectful. The truth was that they were afraid of him and his amazingly developed intelligence. “Who resolutely refused to be in with in the crowd, and gathered about him an eclectic group from deeply weird scientist to the incredibly popular and handsome head boy, a dead ringer for Pierce Brosnan” line 25-27. The quote shows how popular Jed really was. Not only for the popular teenager but also for the nerds. In terms of his popularity the sky was the limit. You can sort of compare Jed to a modern day “hipster”. Of course there had to be some consequences for his actions. Later on Jed’s life fell apart. He did not get a job, he had a wife but she left him. All the great things he did in his teenage years collapsed and he has not been able to maintain his “carpe diem” belief The main character is feeling extremely...
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...Poetic Justice More and more people want the easy life, a life with no problems and no limitations. People strive to be the next breakthrough, the next star. But is it worth the risk; is it worth gambling your life on? In the short story “Poetic Justice”, written by Diana Appleyard, Jed Cunningham takes the jump, leaving all opportunities of graduation behind, to be a free man, to be a poet. Jed Cunningham is a freedom fighter a man who does not want to be one of the regular guys, he wants to be free of expectations and live the life no one thought he would live. Jed was not a part of the flock, the herd, he separated himself from the rest. Jed was way ahead of his own age, he didn’t follow the trends, but rather made them, and he spoke wisely and read books of philosophic authors. His didn’t want reality, but fantasy, a life with no worries. Jed was a boy sure of his future he didn’t want to hang around and get a career and a stable normal life, what he wanted was freedom, just like most other poets he was a rebellion to the norm, to society. Jed was sure of his future and knew what he wanted to, he was so determined that he without a thought left his girlfriend, when she did not share the his beliefs. In the end he lost what was important to him no way of getting it back. The protagonist on the on the other hand only felt this freedom while she was together with Jed, now she is in the never-ending daily life. So basically her self-esteem has three phases, the first phase...
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...The story are wrote by Diana Appleyard The story ” Poetic Justice” is a story about a mother whose selfesteem is at its lowest and she has no confidence in her self. The mother is sitting at her computer looking at her chat side, when she sees the name of her old boyfriend Jed Cunningham. Jed was the cool kid who didn’t care about school and rouls, he was going to be a poet and move to Ireland. Jed didn’t realize that the fact that he didn’t care about anything would be the reason why he later in his life would live a gray and sad life with no wife and just a dog. The mother thinks of her self as a gray and doll person who doesn’t has a good life. That image of her self comes because she cant move on from the feeling of being in love with the cool boy and have the attention from others. After she starts to chat with Jad, she realizes that she actually has a normal and good life, compered to Jed who haven’t maked anything out of him self, and have droved his wife on the edge of insanity and now he is trying to find purpose with his life by going back to something he could care about years ago. Jed is trying to act cool behind the computer, but is really sad and miserable. When the mother sees that, she realizes that if she goes back to him she just ends up with a life there actually is gray and doll. After that she know that she has a good and descent life, compered to him. And that lifts her up from the darkness she is living in. The theme or themes in this essay...
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...Poetic Justice is written by Diana Appleyard, and it is a short story, and was published in Days of Wine and Roses, Black Swan, London 2004. The story is about a woman who finds her ex-boyfriend, Jed Cunningham on the Friends Unite website. Then she tells us ''in her mind'' about their relationship in high school, how much she loved him, about Jed himself and about their break-up. She tells us how her life is boring, that her ''energy is gone'' after the break up, and how she had been depressed. When they broked up, he told her that he would never speak or contact her again, but suddenly he sends her an email after she finds him on the Friends Unite. Then they start to write to each other, asking how their lives are and etc. until Jed tells her that he ''drove his wife insane'' because she wasn't her - the narrator. She is shocked after she reads it. She always thought her life was boring, and all her energy and wildness was gone, that she is reserved. But she is shocked because she had always thought, that Jed's life was perfect, that he was over it and moved on a long time ago. She doesn't reply, but deletes the mail and it was gone into ''infinite cyberspace''. The story only evolves around two characters: the female narrator and Jed Cunningham. They are at the same age and British. She is living somewhere in the UK in a suburban neighbourhood with her husband, two children and her dog Bramble. She writes articles for a newspaper or magazine and picks her daughter up...
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...Essay on Diana Appleyard, “Poetic justice” 2004 Do you know the feeling of being stock in the past? You just can’t let go of the strong emotions and the dream you were in at the time. All these feelings are made by one person, who you thought was the one. It is like you lived alone whit the one and wake up alone. In the loneliness the only thing that existed were you and he/she, and nothing else. Until the day, where the bubble broke. And the one left you behind. Maybe he/she wanted something else, maybe her/she had other dreams and thoughts for the future. Then you’re are forgotten thorn apart, you feel lonely, your crying, and you are now outcast from the society. Jed is the childhood boyfriend of the narrator. He was a different boy when they were young. We only hear about him through the main character. He was the popular guy, even though he didn’t try to be. He was himself and he seemed very self-confident. The narrator tells, how he smoked he didn’t try to hide his cigarette like the other boys who were frightened. Sometimes, it was the other way around that the teachers, were afraid of him, because he was so grown up. He had his life planed in his head. He wanted to be a writer a poet. We don’t know if he became a poet, but he moved to live in Ireland as he wished, that also was the thing that torn him away from the narrator. In the present he lives alone at the ocean with his dog you get the feeling that he is lonely. The narrator is a 40-50 year old woman with...
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...Poetic Justice Many of us would not let go of who we are. We do not like the fact that we are getting older, this scares a lot of us to death. Suddenly we have to be grownups and act like one. Another thing we experienced when we were younger was our first love. It would, for many people, be awkward t meet their old boy- or girlfriend again. Time really changes us and we do not always want to do the same thing as others. The short story, Poetic Justice, written by Diana Appleyard, is about a woman who gets a flashback to when she was younger. She is sitting at the computer and sees a familiar name, Jed Cunningham, which is her old boyfriend. Jed is described as an ‘Irish poet’ and a man who is living his dreams to the fullest. He had his own idea on how the world was spinning. When the narrator thinks of him, she remembers him as he used to be back in the days. In Jed’s younger days, he was described as a guy who was not afraid to stand out. Jed was a role model, and an inspiration to the other students, “I mean, he was Jed, Jed who always stood outside the herd, the coolest of the cool with the fashion everyone else followed,” (P. 1. l. 22-24). He had dreams about becoming a poet and travel. The narrator admired Jed and his dreams, but when he left her, she got hurt, “How did it end? She remembered tears, and anger, something being thrown. And him driving off saying she would never see or speak to him again.”(P. 2 l. 58-59). When Jed contacts the narrator, many years later...
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...Jed Cunningham: Here you’ll find a characterization of Jed Cunningham, who is one of the main characters in this short story. Jed Cunningham is in his High School years defined as a tall blue eyed, broad shouldered, skinny guy, whose skin is pale. Jed’s hair is defined as thick black with a tuft at front and a mouth that curves into a sardonic smile. Later In life he describes himself as an old sad and grey haired man. Jed’s personality is quite complicated, and it appears as if he is just waiting for a chance to break free and do the unexpected and he actually promises himself that he won’t ever do anything that is expected of him. Jed’s mantra: “Live for the day” very well describes, how important it is for him to live in the presence and how much he hates to look back. Jed is very good in school and is more clever than other teenagers at his age, however he isn’t really interested in school or in the subjects. The cleverness is expressed in: “ He was an old head on young shoulders, who stood apart and watched the world mocking". More over he’s a person, who is really popular and liked by the majority of the people in High School, but never the less it doesn’t seem like he has any interest in a social life with the other students – and this is well expressed in the statement : "Even when he had been at school he had never seemed a part of it " His dream is to go and live in Ireland, live in a tiny cottage and write and drink and just live in a place, where no...
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...Aristotle’s Model: The Play as a Whole In Aristotle’s Poetics, Aristotle emphasizes three major elements of a good play: plot, character, and thought. To be more specific, in an Aristotelian play, thought sets the cause of action with character as emotion developer based on plot as the basic form. Besides these three main factors, the idea that a play should be a complete whole is also the basis of the Poetics (Aristotle 61). Therefore, when comparing the choices Lobby Hero by Kenneth Lonergan and The Philadelphia Story by Philip Barry for the play of the season, unification and regularity of all three elements. After comparing and contrasting both plays, Lobby Hero fits the Aristotle’s model’s three elements, plot, character and thought better than The Philadelphia Story does because Lobby Hero has a more consistent development of action, characters’ personality and emotions. The imitation of one action is very essential to construct a complete plot. Lobby Hero constructs a smooth unity of action in all of its plots while The Philadelphia Story’s imitation is vague. Although both plays have connected actions that make the structural union of all parts, Lobby Hero has a more surrounded action which is the pursuit of right things. Jeff repeatedly shows his ambition of lending help. For example, he praises William’s kindness when William is baffled by his brother’s incident; he also emphasizes his importance as a “safety specialist” to make himself sound superior. These series...
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...1 - Character must be of noble/high stature 2 - Hubris (tragic flaw) - pride blinds them 3 - Downfall 4 - Enlightenment (near the end of the play) 5 - Their death Someone of high position; in this time period, that meant royalty. He is 'universal,' meaning that everyone everywhere can relate to the kinds of problems or sufferings or emotions that the hero experiences. He has a 'tragic flaw' - this could be a personality trait (like greed, lust, ambition, jealousy, etc.), OR an error in judgement (a bad decision). This 'tragic flaw' leads to his downfall - usually ruins his career, reputation, power, etc. He is enlightened at the end of the story, meaning he realizes where he went wrong, he is humble, and he accepts the consequences . A tragic hero is a character in a work of fiction (often the protagonist) who commits an action or makes a mistake which eventually leads to his or her defeat. The idea of the tragic hero was created in ancient Greek tragedy and defined by Aristotle (and others). Usually, this includes the realization of the error (anagnorisis), which results in catharsis or epiphany. Aristotelian tragic hero Characteristics Aristotle once said that "A man doesn't become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall." An Aristotelian tragic hero must have four characteristics: Nobility (of a noble birth) or wisdom (by virtue of birth). Hamartia (translated as flaw, mistake, or error, not an Elizabethan tragic flaw). A reversal of fortune(peripetia)...
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...Sophocles' Oedipus is a perfect fit to Aristotle's Ideal Tragic Hero. Oedipus follows all of the rules, with a hamartia, an anagnorisis, and a peripeteia. The audience is introduced to the hamartia, or tragic flaw, of Oedipus early in the play. Oedipus believes he can dodge the oracle given to him at Delphi that he will kill his father and marry his mother. By leaving the city of Corinth and heading to Thebes, Oedipus thinks that he can outsmart the will that the gods have for him. However, the audience knows that one cannot run away from an oracle. The oracle will come true no matter what is done. Therefore, the hamartia of Oedipus is his belief that he can evade his oracle. Oedipus' anagnorisis, recognition, later comes when he is told that it was he who killed the former King Lauis and that he is, in fact, now married to his own mother. The city of Thebes had been searching for King Lauis' murderer in order to drive him out of Thebes to save the city from the plague. With this anagnorisis Oedipus is finally led to his peripeteia, or downfall. First of all, Oedipus is put to shame in front of his entire city because of his incestuous act of marrying his mother. But, more importantly, he realizes that he had not successfully avoided the oracle. In order to try to save himself he blinds himself. If he is not able to see the truth with his own eyes, he should not be able to enjoy the gift of sight. http://personal.monm.edu/ysample/aristotle.htm Oedipus follows ten of the points...
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...The Hero Without A Face Our world has given us a thousand forms of archetypical heros, from Greek mythological characters such as Hercules, to modern day characters such as Superman. All of these heros were given a path that they must follow in order to discover their ultimate destiny and become a hero. Joseph Campbell book, “A Hero With A Thousand Faces” has best explained the important stages that every hero needs to go by in order for fulfill their destiny, “ A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won" (Campbell 1). It is in this storyline that most storytellers need to go by in order to create the most closely related idea of a hero. Even though some heros do not follow these stages and their journey becomes more complex in relation to society, Shakespeare’s character Hamlet, seems to be the most hard to understand. Shakespeare created Hamlet as a hero who corrupts the archetype so much that the basic stages of his heroic journey must be changed in order to recognize him as a hero. Aristotle defined a hero as “a man with outstanding quality and greatness about him. His own destruction is for a greater cause or principle”. Aristotle simply states that the hero's downfall is usually cause by his own fault. Usually the hero’s death is seen as a waste of human potential but usually results in greater knowledge and awareness for whoever hears of the hero’s story...
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...Poetry as Mimesis (Imitation) Aristotle defines all poetry as mimesis (imitation). In other words, poetry imitates nature, which is to say it imitates life, whether natural objects or human actions. For Aristotle, tragedy is an imitation of human action. The concept of art as imitation proved vastly influential in Western literature right up until the eighteenth century, when the Romantic age gave birth to the expressive theory, that poetry arises from the emotions, feelings and impressions of the artist. Aristotle insisted, perhaps consciously in opposition to Plato, that poetry represents something that is real, something that exists in the world. Whereas Plato believed that the poet was cut off from reality, Aristotle saw the poet’s act of imitation as directly connected to life itself, instead of an attempt to reach a larger ideal. In his analysis of the origins of poetry, Aristotle argues that imitation is natural to childhood, and children learn most of their first life lessons through the imitation of others. People are also naturally given to taking pleasure in imitation. Unity of Plot In his analysis of tragedy, Aristotle argues that the most important element is plot. Further, he insists on the necessity of unity in the plot. All the events portrayed must contribute to the plot. There must be no subplots or superfluous elements. Every element of the plot must work together to create a seamless whole. If any part were to be altered or withdrawn, this would leave...
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...Which Play is More Tragic: Hamlet or Agamemnon In my opinion, the play Hamlet is more tragic than Agamemnon. They are both tragedies as they both fulfill Aristotle’s definition of tragedy as they both depict the downfall of a basically good person through some fatal error or misjudgment, which produces suffering and insight on the part of the protagonist and arousing pity and fear on the part of the audience. They also have all the elements of Greek tragedy such as hubris, catharsis, peripeteia, anagnorisis, and hamartia (“Ancient Greek Tragedy”). The most important reason that Hamlet is more tragic, in my opinion, is because the protagonist, Hamlet, is an integral part of the play and his character is much more developed. In Agamemnon , the protagonist, Agamemnon, is a secondary character to his wife who, in my opinion is the main character. Hamlet is a tragic hero, as is Agamemnon, following Aristotle’s criteria for the elements of a tragic hero. For example, they both evoke the audience’s pity and fear, have a major flaw of character and are destined to fall in some way (“Tragedy in Drama”). However, because Hamlet is the main character, we see, hear and understand more of his character. When Hamlet delivers his many dramatic soliloquies about mortality, betrayal, and the futility of life, he shows us his tortured world and the anguish, grief, and uncertainty which eventually takes over his life, leading to his death (“Hamlet Tone”). As the reader, I felt so much sympathy...
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...Jane Doe Professor Urkel ENG-225 24 February 2012 Application of Aristotle's Poetics in the work Apology by Plato According to Aristotle, the criterion that is expressed in Poetics should be based on the matter, subjects and method. For example; for matter, the melody, rhythm and language are the key considerations to be looked into. The subjects in Poetics usually bring out the character traits that are related to human characteristics. This is what brings out the difference between tragic events and comic events in a work of poetry. For tragic events, the character in most instances is usually considered to be more honest, serious and considered to be very important in society. While comic characters are usually considered to be less important in the society and not dignified. The method used could involve the use of direct speech, dialogue or quoted speech. These are the major poetic criteria used by Aristotle and applied in the work Apology by Plato. Plot structure and character are also an important part described Poetics. Plot structure is basically the plan of the work. For Apology, this can be considered into the action or the events that are taking place through this work. For example, there is recognition of the characters and an evidence of the suffering of the main character, Socrates. According to Aristotle, a good plot is one that is complex for the human understanding which can be seen in the Apology. There is the evidence of fear as well as pity for...
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