In the short story “The Gospel According to Mark” by Jorge Luis Borges, the author shows through irony how an ordinary character can be transformed into someone Christ-like. The protagonist Baltasar Espinosa comes to La Colorada Ranch as “one of the common run of young men from Buenos Aires, with nothing more noteworthy about him than an almost unlimited kindness and a capacity for public speaking.”(183) Espinosa was a character with different sides to him. He claimed to be a free thinker like his father and “was full of opinions, or habits of mind, that were questionable”(184), but at the same time prayed “the Lord’s Prayer and [made] the sign of the cross every night”(184) like his mother.
Espinosa came to La Colorada Ranch to visit his cousin, but when his cousin goes on a trip to “close a deal on some cattle”(184) Espinosa finds his only company to be the Gutres, a naïve country family. One night, after dinner time, Espinosa starts to read the Bible to the Gutres which they “listened attentively [and] absorbed”(186) everything being said to them. The Gutres started to follow Espinosa wherever he went, “as if lost without him.”(186) The Gutres have Espinosa repeat the Gospel of Mark over again which makes Espinosa see these people as children “to whom repetition is more pleasing than variation or novelty.”(186) He sees no threat from these people who worship Espinosa and everything he says.
After a few days, the Gutres ask Espinosa if Christ died to save all men including the ones that killed him. Espinosa truthfully tells the Gutres that Christ did die to save others from the gruesome fate of Hell. The Gutres seem to receive some sort of wake up call, bow to their knees asking for a blessing. They then take a change in their demeanor by spitting “on him, and [shoving] him toward the back part of the house.”(187) He sees the Gutres making a cross out of the beams from the roof.
Espinosa realizes that by him being a thirty-three year old man with a beard, he was a Christ figure to the Gutres. The Gutres sincerely believed in the gospel that Espinosa read to them daily and wanted to kill him in order to save themselves. This ending is ironic because Espinosa considered himself a free thinker, not a Christ-like preacher but reaches him demise the same way that Jesus Christ did. By preaching to the Gutries, he was subconsciously telling them to crucify him.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Hemingway Parody
It was a normal Wednesday afternoon at Falden High School. The sun was shining but it seemed to shine just a little brighter on B and V, the popular girls in school. These girls were heading into the cafeteria to have lunch at their normal table when they came to find the lowly sophomore J sitting at their table by herself eating her lunch and trying to finish her homework before next period.
“Are you kidding me?!” B said.
“What’s going on, B?” V asked
“This sophomore is sitting at our table!”
“ Well there’s only two of us, there‘s room for us at like every other table?”
“That’s not the point V, do you even know about J?”
V had heard some things about J when she first came to Falden High School. She assumed they were mostly rumors, as almost everything that traveled around the school was.
“She‘s pathetic, V.”
“What do you mean ‘pathetic’?”
“ I mean, my mom told me that J‘s is a complete druggie and J got taken away from her mom a couple years ago.”
“Who does she live with then?”
“I don’t know, I heard she lives with her grandmother.”
“Well how does that make her pathetic, B?”
“Come on V, just look at her. She’s been doing this whole emo thing ever since her mom went to jail. She’s just doing it for attention.”
“Well maybe she’s just really upset.”
B ignored V’s last statement. She just stared at J waiting to get some sort of eye contact. Nothing. Many other tables were open for the two girls to sit at, but to B this turned into a personal battle to show herself and this girl that she was the ringleader of this school. B walked up the table where J was sitting.
“Move.” B demanded.
“Excuse Me?”
“I’m sorry, Are you deaf? I said move.”
“Why?”
“This is our table.” B looked over at V. V turned her head away from the confrontation.
“Well I was sitting here first. There’s a bunch of other tables in the cafeteria that you can sit at.”
J looked back down and continued to work on her history homework. To B, this was the stupidest thing that a sophomore could do to a senior, especially her. Infuriated, B reached over the table that she felt was rightfully hers and shoved J’s books off of the table. The lunchroom heard this commotion and suddenly became quiet.
“Now, I guess you didn’t hear me correctly, I told you to move.”
“And I told you that I was here first.” J quivered.
“Ok hunny, I guess you don’t understand the rules of this school so I’ll help you out. This table belongs to V and I, so either you can move or I can move you.”
V couldn’t believe the way that B was talking to J. J looked around the cafeteria and noticed that almost the whole school was watching this and snickering. Defeated, J picked her books off the ground and slugged out of the cafeteria. B and V sat down at the normal table. V had lost her appetite.
“Honestly B, did you really have to do that?”
“Yes, V, I did. You didn’t find that hilarious? The way she thought she could stand up to me like that?”
“I don’t understand why couldn’t she sit here for one day? What would happen if we didn’t sit at this table for one day?”
“It’s not about the table V, you should know that. It’s about the fact that J just gets on my last nerve by thinking that she can be a moody snob and think that she can just sit where ever she wants. She’s been going to this school for two years now, she should know the rules… So you coming over after school?”
“Umm.. No I can’t.”
Right at 2:15, V left the school and caught the train into Boston. She stopped in front of the St. Mary’s church and took a big breath before she entered. She sat down in her normal chair, listened to others and waited for her turn.
“Hi, my name is V, and my mother is an alcoholic.”
“Welcome V.” The group chimed in.
“ My mothers has had an alcohol problem since I was 11 and its took 6 years for me to find a place where I can talk about it. I can’t talk to anyone in school, not even my best friend B, she would never be able to understand. No one understood until I came here.”
“All you can do is pray.” said one of the people at the meeting.
V stayed at the meeting until she had to go home to her mother who was passed out on her bed. She checked her mother’s pulse to make sure she was still breathing like she did every night. V broke down into tears, not knowing how long she could handle doing this anymore. She then thought of what she heard today at the meeting, “All you can do is pray.” V got down on her knees, put her hands together and closed her eyes.
“Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed by thy name. Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven …”
“Are you kidding me?!” B said.
“What’s going on, B?” V asked
“This sophomore is sitting at our table!”
“ Well there’s only two of us, there‘s room for us at like every other table?”
“That’s not the point V, do you even know about J?”
V had heard some things about J when she first came to Falden High School. She assumed they were mostly rumors, as almost everything that traveled around the school was.
“She‘s pathetic, V.”
“What do you mean ‘pathetic’?”
“ I mean, my mom told me that J‘s is a complete druggie and J got taken away from her mom a couple years ago.”
“Who does she live with then?”
“I don’t know, I heard she lives with her grandmother.”
“Well how does that make her pathetic, B?”
“Come on V, just look at her. She’s been doing this whole emo thing ever since her mom went to jail. She’s just doing it for attention.”
“Well maybe she’s just really upset.”
B ignored V’s last statement. She just stared at J waiting to get some sort of eye contact. Nothing. Many other tables were open for the two girls to sit at, but to B this turned into a personal battle to show herself and this girl that she was the ringleader of this school. B walked up the table where J was sitting.
“Move.” B demanded.
“Excuse Me?”
“I’m sorry, Are you deaf? I said move.”
“Why?”
“This is our table.” B looked over at V. V turned her head away from the confrontation.
“Well I was sitting here first. There’s a bunch of other tables in the cafeteria that you can sit at.”
J looked back down and continued to work on her history homework. To B, this was the stupidest thing that a sophomore could do to a senior, especially her. Infuriated, B reached over the table that she felt was rightfully hers and shoved J’s books off of the table. The lunchroom heard this commotion and suddenly became quiet.
“Now, I guess you didn’t hear me correctly, I told you to move.”
“And I told you that I was here first.” J quivered.
“Ok hunny, I guess you don’t understand the rules of this school so I’ll help you out. This table belongs to V and I, so either you can move or I can move you.”
V couldn’t believe the way that B was talking to J. J looked around the cafeteria and noticed that almost the whole school was watching this and snickering. Defeated, J picked her books off the ground and slugged out of the cafeteria. B and V sat down at the normal table. V had lost her appetite.
“Honestly B, did you really have to do that?”
“Yes, V, I did. You didn’t find that hilarious? The way she thought she could stand up to me like that?”
“I don’t understand why couldn’t she sit here for one day? What would happen if we didn’t sit at this table for one day?”
“It’s not about the table V, you should know that. It’s about the fact that J just gets on my last nerve by thinking that she can be a moody snob and think that she can just sit where ever she wants. She’s been going to this school for two years now, she should know the rules… So you coming over after school?”
“Umm.. No I can’t.”
Right at 2:15, V left the school and caught the train into Boston. She stopped in front of the St. Mary’s church and took a big breath before she entered. She sat down in her normal chair, listened to others and waited for her turn.
“Hi, my name is V, and my mother is an alcoholic.”
“Welcome V.” The group chimed in.
“ My mothers has had an alcohol problem since I was 11 and its took 6 years for me to find a place where I can talk about it. I can’t talk to anyone in school, not even my best friend B, she would never be able to understand. No one understood until I came here.”
“All you can do is pray.” said one of the people at the meeting.
V stayed at the meeting until she had to go home to her mother who was passed out on her bed. She checked her mother’s pulse to make sure she was still breathing like she did every night. V broke down into tears, not knowing how long she could handle doing this anymore. She then thought of what she heard today at the meeting, “All you can do is pray.” V got down on her knees, put her hands together and closed her eyes.
“Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed by thy name. Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven …”
Setting- Greasy Lake
Greasy Lake
In the short story Greasy Lake by T. Coraghessan Boyle, the once beautiful lake provides a not so typical “baptism” to one of the main characters. The Greasy Lake also symbolizes the loss of innocence of the teenagers who visit the lake during “a time when courtesy and winning ways went out of style, when it was good to be bad.”(130)
The protagonist is a nineteen year old bad boy who goes up the Greasy Lake with his friends one night to “drink beer, smoke pot, howl at the stars, savor the incongruous full-throated roar of rock and roll against the primeval susurrus of frogs and crickets.”(130) Greasy Lake was not always a place for teenage partying, before the Indians had named the lake Wakan which was “a reference to the clarity of the water.” (130) After many years, and many careless people, the lake became “fetid and murky, the mud banks glittering with broken glass and strewn with beer cans and the charred remains of bonfires.”(130) The protagonist goes to the lake with his friends and gets into a bad situation when a “bad greasy character” (132) starts to beat up the three boys. The protagonist gets consumed with his bad boy instinct and came at the man “like a kamikaze, mindless [and] raging”(132) and almost kills the man with a tire iron. When another man comes at the young boys, they all run in different directions, and the protagonist runs into the Greasy Lake waters.
The main character feels something strange in the water and realizes that it is a dead body under him in the lake. Thoughts rush in his mind, and the person who thought he was such a tough man admits to the audience that he was “a mere child, an infant”(134) which is showing a change in the young boy. When the protagonist attempts to get out of the lake, he stumbles back and “the muck [take] hold of [his] feet .. and suddenly, [he] was pitching face forward into the buoyant black mess.”(134) This symbolizes the lake engulfing this bad boy and making him think about what he has been doing. When the main character emerges from the muck, the “bad greasy”(130) characters leave and he feels a “rush of joy and vindication.”(135) He is about to leave the lake with his friends, when he sees two young girls who call them over and want to party with them. The young boys decline the offer, that hours before they would be more than willing to accept. This action by the boys show the change that this experience instilled in them.
The setting of Greasy Lake allows the main character come to the realization that is it not good to be bad. Greasy Lake was once a place that these boys did all the wrong things, but after their lives are threatened, the main character goes through an unusual baptism-like situation. When he leaves Greasy Lake with his newfound perspective, he sees “a sheen of sun on the lake”(137) which shows that people who have lost their innocence can gain it back.
In the short story Greasy Lake by T. Coraghessan Boyle, the once beautiful lake provides a not so typical “baptism” to one of the main characters. The Greasy Lake also symbolizes the loss of innocence of the teenagers who visit the lake during “a time when courtesy and winning ways went out of style, when it was good to be bad.”(130)
The protagonist is a nineteen year old bad boy who goes up the Greasy Lake with his friends one night to “drink beer, smoke pot, howl at the stars, savor the incongruous full-throated roar of rock and roll against the primeval susurrus of frogs and crickets.”(130) Greasy Lake was not always a place for teenage partying, before the Indians had named the lake Wakan which was “a reference to the clarity of the water.” (130) After many years, and many careless people, the lake became “fetid and murky, the mud banks glittering with broken glass and strewn with beer cans and the charred remains of bonfires.”(130) The protagonist goes to the lake with his friends and gets into a bad situation when a “bad greasy character” (132) starts to beat up the three boys. The protagonist gets consumed with his bad boy instinct and came at the man “like a kamikaze, mindless [and] raging”(132) and almost kills the man with a tire iron. When another man comes at the young boys, they all run in different directions, and the protagonist runs into the Greasy Lake waters.
The main character feels something strange in the water and realizes that it is a dead body under him in the lake. Thoughts rush in his mind, and the person who thought he was such a tough man admits to the audience that he was “a mere child, an infant”(134) which is showing a change in the young boy. When the protagonist attempts to get out of the lake, he stumbles back and “the muck [take] hold of [his] feet .. and suddenly, [he] was pitching face forward into the buoyant black mess.”(134) This symbolizes the lake engulfing this bad boy and making him think about what he has been doing. When the main character emerges from the muck, the “bad greasy”(130) characters leave and he feels a “rush of joy and vindication.”(135) He is about to leave the lake with his friends, when he sees two young girls who call them over and want to party with them. The young boys decline the offer, that hours before they would be more than willing to accept. This action by the boys show the change that this experience instilled in them.
The setting of Greasy Lake allows the main character come to the realization that is it not good to be bad. Greasy Lake was once a place that these boys did all the wrong things, but after their lives are threatened, the main character goes through an unusual baptism-like situation. When he leaves Greasy Lake with his newfound perspective, he sees “a sheen of sun on the lake”(137) which shows that people who have lost their innocence can gain it back.
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