Blog 7 Hey Batta, Batta, Batta Tina Radstone

In the play Fences, by August Wilson, big-league baseball plays an important role. It is important because in 1957 Major League baseball segregated African American players from all the other players so thus forming the Negro League. Troy Maxson is a player in the Negro League and misses the opportunity to play in the Major League baseball because he is too old. African Americans were recruited into the league during the time that Troy becomes too old (40 years old) to be a player that is considered viable. Troy misses his mark for playing in a big league because he "came along to early". Troy's wife Rose clearly tells him that, "Times have changed since you was playing baseball, Troy. That was before the war. Times have changed a lot since then" (1.1.70). This implies that changes weren’t made to the Major League until after he comes “to old” and then retires from the Negro League. Troy undoubtedly is angry and argues back:

There ought not never have been no time called too early! ... I done seen a hundred niggers play baseball better than Jackie Robinson. Hell, I know
some teams Jackie Robinson couldn't even make! What you talking about
Jackie Robinson. Jackie Robinson wasn't nobody. I'm talking about if you
could play ball then they ought to have let you play. Don't care what color
you were. Come telling me I come along too early. If you could play ...
then they ought to have let you play. (1.1.74 &78).

Troy is merely trying to get his point across that he didn't come to early, that he is a good player and he knows that there are many other good players that are better than Jackie Robinson who shouldn’t be discriminated against because of the color of their skin.

Troy's connection with baseball is that he was an outstanding baseball player in the Negro League. Another connection that Troy has with baseball is how he uses it in conversation to reveal and justify his actions. I never understand why he would bring up baseball but then it became clear that he doesn't know how to effectively communicate so he uses "baseball" talk to express himself. A great example of this is after he admits to his wife Rose that he has been unfaithful to her, he tries to give her an explanation and says, "Rose, I done tried all my life to live decent...to be a good husband to you...you born with two strikes on you before you come to the plate...You got to guard it closely... always looking for the curve ball on the inside corner" (2.1.104).

Josh Gibson was known as the best batter for the Negro League and like Troy Maxson, Gibson never made it to Major League baseball. Troy knows of him because he and Josh Gibson have the same outcomes of never getting the chance to play in the Major League. Troy feels as though baseball didn't get him anywhere and he says that to his friend Bono, "What it ever get me? Ain't got a pot to piss in or a window to throw out of" (1.1.69). He also feels that it didn't get Josh Gibson anywhere as well because he comments on Gibson's daughter's shoes, "I saw Josh Gibson's daughter yesterday. She walking around with raggedy shoes on her feet" (1.1.76). Josh Gibson's career represent symbols of winning and losing. He is remembered for being discriminated against (losing) and for his own personal achievement as the best batter in the Negro League (winning). Like Josh Gibson, Troy ends up dying as well maybe even from alcoholism. Both men were great at baseball but were never given the chance to make it big at the next level and both had voids in their hearts because they weren't able to live the dream.

 

 

Blog 6 Creepy Claudius Tina Radstone

 
  In my opinion I feel that Claudius has flawed personality traits but yet is evil for the act of planning and committing murder on his brother the former King Hamlet. Claudius has a vision and that vision was to kill his brother, take his brother's wife for his own wife and be heir to the throne. In order for Claudius to kill King Hamlet Sr., he has to have a plan in which he does. Claudius' plan is premeditated and he plots to kill his brother with some poison that he pours in his ear while sleeping. The premeditation and the physical act of killing his brother is what makes Claudius an evil person. Claudius clearly shows the reader how evil he is when he tells his nephew Hamlet to be a man and get over his father's death. Claudius asks Hamlet, "Why should we in our peevish opposition take it to heart?" (1.2.100-101). Claudius asks his nephew why are you resisting and taking this to heart. This isn't something that a normal human being would say after murdering his nephew's father in cold blood. Claudius shows that he is going to get what he wants even if he has to kill his own brother.

     When I think of a flawed human being, I think of certain character flaws that most human beings possess. Here are some character flaws: argumentative, dishonest, conceited, self-fish, narrow-minded, being the victim, etc.. The list goes on but the point that I am trying to make is that Claudius possesses some of these character flaws as well, which makes his character more of a human being to the reader. He has somewhat of a heart and acknowledges that murdering his brother was wrong and wants to be forgiven for it. Claudius admits to God:

            O my offense is rank, it smells to heaven,
            It hath the primal eldest curse upon't,
            A brother's murder. Pray can I not... (3.3.35-37).

The play could also be called "The Tragedy  of Claudius, King of Denmark", but wouldn't be as interesting to the audience as Hamlet's tragedies are because Claudius' character never changes and he never goes through any real tragedies, he is one that is causing the tragedies to happen. Hamlet fits the play because he is the one that goes through all of the changes in the story and is the main character that has to endure all of the tragedies that are bestowed upon him.

Blog 5 Betrayal Tina Radstone

Hamlet is a story that has dilemmas to which Hamlet encounters when he returns home to Denmark. He finds out that his father has been murdered by Claudius (Hamlet's uncle) who then takes over his father's throne. He also learns that his uncle marries his mother Gertrude. Hamlet wants to seek revenge for his father's death but isn't strong enough to do so. In the beginning of the story Marcellus and Horatio have seen the ghost of Hamlet's father and tell Hamlet that this ghost looks just like his father. Whether good bad or indifferent, Hamlet wants to go and see the ghost of his father. He learns from the Ghost that in fact he is the spirit of his father. The ghost clearly states this, "I am thy father's spirit..." (1.5.9). Hamlet is shocked but wants to know more and learns that his father's death is not only a murder but a dreadful one as well. His father's spirit explains to him, "Murder most foul, as in the best it is, But this most foul, strange and unnatural" (1.5.27-28). This tells the reader that Hamlet's father's spirit is explaining that his death was that of murder and it was absolutely horrible and unnatural at its best. The word unnatural describes to the reader that he didn't die naturally implying something out of the ordinary happened and wasn't an accident. Hamlet is distressed over his mother's marriage to his uncle who killed his father. He is affected by his mother's behavior because she married so quickly after his father's death and out of all people she married his uncle. Hamlet informs us that his mother is lustful and moved on to quickly, "Must I remember? why, she would hang on him as if increase of appetite had grown by what it fed on, and yet within a month...a beast that wants discourse of reason would have mourned longer..." (1.2.143-151). From this quote I feel like his mother was lusting Claudius for a long time and she knew well what she wanted to do. Futhermore for a woman that just lost her husband she didn't mourn for her husband for a long time. Although Hamlet wants revenge on his uncle, his sanity gets in the ways of his decision to take his uncle's life. He question's his own abilty to kill his uncle and feels that he is a coward. He says with emotion, "A damned defeat was made: am I a coward?" (2.2.545) I feel that Hamlet is weak not because he is a "weak" person but because he wants to confirm that his uncle murdered his father by looking at his expressions. Hamlet describes how he will prompt his uncle:
           For murder, though it have no tounge, will speak
           With most miraculous organ: I'll have these players
           Play something like the murder of my father
           Before mine uncle, I'll observe his looks,
           I'll tent him the quick, if a' do blench... (2.2.557-560).
He just has to see this for himself. He starts to distrust everyone and goes somewhat crazy maybe for the purpose that he didn't want anyone to know what he was doing.