An Intrepretation of "The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams

William Carlos Williams' poem "The Red Wheelbarrow" explains the degree to which humans
depend on objects as seemingly simple as a wheelbarrow for their everyday survival. Williams
sends a strong message about the world through his poem. However, especially after reading
"This is just to say," I believe "The Red Wheelbarrow" is simple and straightforward. Williams
just wanted to convey the message that "so much depends on" a wheelbarrow, rain, and chickens.
Especially to a farmer, these three objects and substances of nature are essential. However, these
objects are also very important to the ordinary individual because they are the source of food. If
the farmer did not have these tools to produce food, everyone would be stuck without food.
Therefore, these items are a necessity in the world to every human being. The wheelbarrow is
used by the farmer to transport produce around the farm and from the fields to the market where
the general population can buy the food. Rain is vital for the production of food and for survival
of animals and humans. The chicken represents useful livestock on the farm. In addition to being
used as food, however, chickens also produce eggs, proving more useful to the farmer. "The Red
Wheelbarrow" explains how humans depend on nature and cannot live without certain elements
of nature.

Brahma
Emerson's poem is a exploration into the nature of life and death and the powers of the divine.
In appropriating the Hindu god Brahma, Emerson seeks to develop a metaphor to explain his
notion of transcendentalist thought. The opening stanza helps to redefine the notion of
traditionalist life and death, with a sense of continuity and complexity within such notions. In
this stanza, Emerson is insisting that there is a sense of emotional understanding about the nature
of "slain" and that which "slays." Emphasizing a duality in both, the poem continues to the
second stanza, which again suggests that dualistic opposition is actually in tandem with one
another. "Shadow" and "sunlight" are no longer in diametric competition, just as is "vanished
gods" who might "appear." The oppositing polarities of "shame" and "fame" are cast in a similar
light of symmetry. The implication of this stanza is that there is some type of energy that brings
together that which is oppositional and the traditionalist notions of demonizing one force over
another might not be in line with this energy. Here is probably where Emerson's
Trancendentalist thought, a movement that sought to bring emotions into reconfiguring what had
been stressed as normative and socially acceptable, is most evident. The fact that the last line
integrates socially deemed values of "shame" and "fame" is evidence of this. This theme is
continued in the concluding stanzas. The last two lines provide Emerson's own twist to the
notion of divinity, when he suggests that one need not look to heaven for such a cosmic and
energetic force. The implication would be that this belief resides in the individual who can find
and locate this spirity of unity and symmetry in their own sense of identity and self.
The Raven Summary
On a cold night, at midnight, the narrator is sitting by himself, weak and weary, reading an old book
full of forgotten lore and nodding off. When he is suddenly awakened by something knocking at his
door, he assures himself that its nothing more than a visitor.

The narrator then explains that he remembers that all this happened back in December. As the fire
slowly dies, each dying ember like a ghost, he wishes for the night to pass so that he might escape
from his sorrow over Lenore, his dead beloved. To distract himself from thinking about her, he says, he
has been reading, but without success.

When the curtains rustle, the narrator is suddenly frightened. Once again he tells himself that its merely
a visitor, and nothing more.Finding some measure of courage, he calls out to whoever is knocking at
the door of the room, and apologizes that he was taking so long to come to the door because he was
napping.

The narrator opens the door, only to find that nobody is there. He stands at the entrance to his room,
staring into the darkness, equally hopeful and fearful, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream
before. He whispers Lenore into the darkness and hears in response only an echo Lenore! and
nothing more.

Suddenly, the narrator hears a knocking at his window, and he opens it. The Raven flies in, perching atop
a bust of Pallas above the door. At first, the narrator finds the birds grave and stern decorum
amusing, and asks it for its name. To his bemusement, the bird responds Nevermore. The narrator
remarks to himself that what the Raven says must be stock and store, words picked up by copying
those from a previous master. But, unable to contain his curiosity, he grabs a velvet chair and sits
directly in front of the bird, trying to understand what this ominous bird of yore means by
Nevermore. All the while, heimagines that Lenore might be near.

The narrator then perceives that the air has become denser, perfumed from an unseen censer, and
says it must indicate the presence of Seraphim, or angels, sent from God to help him recover from his
grief over losing Lenore. He wonders if he might be able to quaff this kind nepenthe to forget about
her entirely. The Raven, however, answers Nevermore.

Growing more anxious, the narrator asks the Raven if there is balm in Gilead if heaven will give him
some hope of seeing Lenore again. The bird, as usual, responds Nevermore. The narrator asks again if
he and Lenore might meet once more within the distant Aidenn, or Eden, but again the bird responds
Nevermore in response. Now furious and heartbroken, the narrator screams at the bird to return to
the Nights Plutonian shore! and never return. But the bird does not depart.

As the poem ends, the narrator is overcome by despair, while the Raven never flitting, still is sitting on
the bust of Pallas. The narrator concludes by saying he continues to live in the birds inescapable
shadow.
Curse of the Starving Class Summary & Study Guide
Description
Curse of the Starving Class is a play in three acts by Sam Shepard that tells the story of a
dysfunctional family living in a farmhouse they are planning to sell in the hopes of moving on to
bigger and better things.

Act 1 opens with Wesley piling broken pieces of the front door into a wheelbarrow, although
Ella, his mother, thinks he should leave the pieces for his father to clean up since he broke the
door in the first place. The events of the previous night are discussed and then Wesley leaves.
Ella starts speaking about menstruation, and during this talk, Emma, her daughter, enters and
joins in. Emma is carrying materials for her 4-H project on how to cut up a chicken for frying.
She goes to look for her chicken in the familys refrigerator only to find it is gone. Emma
accuses her mother of boiling the chicken and then leaves in a huff.

Wesley returns and begins to yell about how the chicken is pointless in the face of other things.
When Emma returns, she, Wesley, and their mother begin to argue about the starving class and if
they are a part of it. In the heat of the argument, Wesley urinates on Emmas posters causing her
to storm off, threatening to take the horse and run away.

Ella confesses to her son she is planning to sell their house and take the money for a trip to
Europe. Emma comes back, drenched in mud from being dragged by the horse and speaks to her
mother about wanting to become a mechanic in Mexico.

Taylor, Ella's lawyer, enters and talks about selling the house. Wesley returns with a lamb from
outside. The conversation between the three in the kitchen is tense when Ella comes in, and she
and Taylor head out for a business meeting. Wesley is left alone with the lamb until Weston
stumbles in drunkenly, bearing a bag of artichokes he purchased while paying a visit to a
property in the desert that belongs to him. Act 1 ends as Weston and Wesley discuss how best to
get rid of the maggots living in the lambs digestive tract.

Act 2 starts with Wesley again, who is working on a new front door for the house. Emma is there
as well, and they are discussing their house being sold and the nature of their mothers
relationship with her lawyer. Wesley compares the way everything is being suburbanized to
being invaded by zombies, and talks to his sister about how he wants to go to Alaska.

Weston comes back, even drunker this time, and demands to know where Ella is. He tells them
he has found someone who wants to buy the house. Wesley tells his father Ella has been
speaking to a lawyer about selling the house, and Weston gets angry, threatening to kill Ella and
Taylor. He passes out immediately after his outburst. He continues his rant as soon as he wakes
up, ignoring his sons suggestions about planting avocados, then hes out cold again at the
kitchen table.

Ella returns with groceries and says she knows there is a curse working against family. Ellis, the
owner of the bar where Weston drinks, enters with $1500 and says he owes Weston for the sale
of the house; Ella orders her son to throw him out. Mother and son find out Weston is in debt to
some dangerous men. Wesley says hell take the money to the men, but Ella says no. Taylor
shows up then with the final draft of the deed of sale for the house. Ellis threatens Taylor, and
the lawyer asserts that Weston is in no position to sell the house.

In the midst of all this, Sergeant Malcolm enters and tells the family Emma has been arrested for
shooting up and riding her horse through the Alibi Club that Ellis owns. Taylor takes his leave,
although Wesley thinks he should be arrested. Ellis takes back the money saying he is owed it for
the damage Emma did to his bar. The act ends with Ella agreeing to pick Emma up from the
police station.

Act 3 finds Weston awake and in clean clothes. He is talking to the lamb about cutting off the
testes of lambs and throwing them to the roof so an eagle can eat them. Wesley shows up bloody
and tells his father he tried to get the money back. Weston tells his son that he cleaned up and did
the laundry and offers him breakfast. Ella comes in and says she has been to the jail to visit
Emma. It is not long before Ella starts screaming at Weston. He tells her to take a nap on the
table. She is reclining on it as Wesley, who is naked, comes in, takes the lamb, and leaves with it.

When Wesley returns, he tells his father he killed the lamb so that they would have something to
eat, but Weston is angry and shows him the refrigerator stocked with food. Weston thinks about
fleeing to Mexico to avoid the men to whom he owes money, and Wesley suggests finding
Taylor to get the money back for the desert property. Emma enters as Weston leaves, and Wesley
tells her he can feel himself becoming their father. Emma steals from Ellas purse and announces
she is starting a life of crime.

There is an explosion offstage then, waking up Ella who has been sleeping on the table. Emerson
and Slater, men to whom Weston owes money, enter carrying the lamb carcass and bragging
about how they blew up Westons car, probably killing Emma who was in it. They threaten the
family and then leave. The play ends with Wesley and Ella talking about Westons story about
the eagle.