Biography of Ernest Hemingway by Ramdan Faudzi

Biography of Ernest Hemingway.

   The beginning of the contemporary era embarks the journey of a new style of writing in literature in some of the literary figure. The name Ernest Miller Hemingway was a phenomenal at that time. He was born in Cicero or Oak Park, Illinois, on 21 July 1899. Ernest was raised in Chicago and also in Northern Michigan by his parents Clarence and Grace Hemingway. Ernest Hemingway served in World War I and worked in journalism before publishing his story collection In Our Time. He was renowned for novels like The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Old Man and the Sea, which won the 1953 Pulitzer. In 1954, Hemingway won the Nobel Prize. He committed suicide on July 2, 1961, in Ketchum, Idaho.

   The Old Man and the Sea is a novel written by the American author Ernest Hemingway in 1951 in Cuba, and published in 1952. It was the last major work of fiction to be produced by Hemingway and published in his lifetime. One of his most famous works, it took it setting upon Santiago. A story about an aging fisherman who has gone 84 days without catching a fish, struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. The Old Man and the Sea was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953 and was cited by the Nobel Committee as contributing to the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Hemingway in 1954.

"Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know."

Ernest Hemingway 

Biography of Susan Glaspell

Biography Of Susan Glaspell

   Susan Glaspell, was born in Davenport, Iowa, on July 1, 1876, the second child and only daughter of Elmer and Alice Glaspell. Susan's ancestors were among the first families of Davenport, and Susan grew up sure of her place in her Midwest town.

After her graduation from Davenport High School in 1894, Susan went to work at the Davenport Morning Republican as a reporter. Two years later, she was appointed society editor of Weekly Outlook magazine. Although most of her editorials concern etiquette or social events among the Davenport elite, she also took the opportunity to argue her opinions on less frivolous topics, such as politics, literature, drama, and women's education.

   Having high intelligence and a strong sense of self, Susan was scornful of the lingering idea that a college education could ruin a young lady's femininity. In 1897, she enrolled at Drake University and tackled the same subjects as a young man would, including Greek, French, philosophy, and history. She balanced her studies with an active social life, also managing to contribute pieces to the college literary magazine.

Susan graduated with a bachelor's of philosophy in 1899 and went to work at the Des Moines Daily News as a statehouse reporter. Starting with very little knowledge of politics, she learned on the go, charming the legislators into helping her with her articles. She also wrote a column called "The News Girl," which discussed various topics both serious and humorous. A few of them showed a certain boredom with social matters, while others wondered whether it was fair for women to want all the traditional powers of men while demanding the traditional protections of women.

   Susan's health, never perfect, was now very poor. She had anemia, heart problems, and her eyes were failing. In 1947, she was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Finally, she contracted viral pneumonia and suffered a pulmonary embolism, a blood clot in her lung. On July 27, 1948, at the age of 72, Susan Glaspell died. She was buried in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

   During her busy life, Susan wrote nine novels, fourteen plays, countless short stories and articles. She inspired and guided other writers and was a good friend to many. At times, her work and her personal choices reflect acceptance and admiration for the culture, values, and attitudes of her Iowa origins, and at other times rejection and scorn—but there is no doubt that she never lost sight of her Midwestern roots. In 1967, nineteen years after her death, Susan Glaspell was inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame.

Glaspell Literary Works.

Drama

- Trifles (A Jury of Her Peers) 1917

- The Outside (1917)

- Alison's House (1930)

Novel

- Fidelity (1915)

- The Morning Is Near Us (1939)

Short Stories

- A Jury of Her Peers (1917)

- The Road to the Temple (1926)

 I have chosen 'Trifles' for this blog simply because I found this drama/short story to be rather interesting and shows the feminist side of Susan Glaspell. And to be frank, I am familiar with the text. Below is the summary of the story:-

Trifles Summary.

The sheriff Henry Peters and the county attorney George Henderson arrive with the witness Lewis Hale, Mrs. Peters, and Mrs. Hale at John Wright's farmhouse, where the police are investigating Wright's murder. Lewis Hale recounts how he discovered Mrs. Wright acting bizarrely, as she told him that her husband was murdered while she was sleeping. Although a gun had been in the house, Wright was gruesomely strangled with a rope. The men continually disparage the women for worrying about trifles instead of about the case, but Henderson allows the women to collect some items for Mrs. Wright, who is in custody, as long as he agrees that the objects are irrelevant to the case. While the men are investigating upstairs, Mrs. Hale reminisces about how happy Mrs. Wright had been before her marriage, and she regrets that she had not come to visit Mrs. Wright despite suspecting the unhappiness she had suffered as John Wright's wife. After looking around the room, the women discover a quilt and decide to bring it with them, although the men tease them for pondering about the quilt as they briefly enter the room before going to inspect the barn. Meanwhile, the women discover an empty birdcage and eventually find the dead bird in a box in Mrs. Wright's sewing basket while they are searching for materials for the quilt. The bird has been strangled in the same manner as John Wright. Although Mrs. Peters is hesitant to flout the men, who are only following the law, she and Mrs. Hale decide to hide the evidence, and the men are unable to find any clinching evidence that will prevent her from being acquitted by a future jury - which will, the play implies, most likely prove sympathetic to women.

Trifles Analysis.

   Trifles clearly want to show us the difference in thinking or view of the world between men and woman. The feminism drama of trifles showed the mocking of man for underestimating the woman in all sort of thing, situation and capability. The masculines see something with wider view to solve the mystery that made them couldn't find the big fat clue of the murderer meanwhile the feminist has minimized their view that came to solving the case. This story actually wants to tell the world what women or the female are capable of. They are always being misunderstood of their weakness and the way they are thinking. It want to show that woman is also capable of what men's capable of. Want to show that they are equal in many sort of things. The end of the 19th century remarked the birth of many feminist writers that showed their were able to go beyond their typical habits and do something greater.




"What men have thought about life in the past is less important than what you feel about it to-day."

SUSAN GLASPELL

Trifles by Susan Glaspell

Question.

2. What clues lead the women to conclude that Minnie Wright killed her husband?

   The first four clues are the ruined preserves fruits, the left out load of bread, the nervously sewn quilt, and the half clean or messy table. These clues indicates the uneasy or unsecured feeling had by Mrs.Wright or Minnie that confronted with marriage problem and the reality that she had killed her husband. It is because she was once a happy and a joyful person that fancy the freedom that contributed her on singing.

   However the main evidence is the broken bird cage and the bird. It’s symbolize the life that Mrs.Wright have and what she really wants. It is noted that Mr.Wright was a kind of person that do not fancy thing that sings and brought joy to his life hence show the connection between him and the bird cage and the bird that he is the one who destroyed it. Killing the bird is like killing half on Mrs.Wright inner self and that’s what triggered her to kill her husband.

3. How do the men differ from the women? from each other?

   Trifles show the mind sense of a man and make fun of it. This is because man always assumed that women didn't have the power, guts, brain to do something. The man serve as an antagonist in the story. The make fun of everything the women discovered but couldn't even get a clue of what was happening in the house unlike the woman who solve the mystery by only sitting in the kitchen.

   In this kind of case, female has the advantages because it is in sense of emotion that surrounded the murder. They can relate every detail they discovered with the case and know that Mrs.Wright has something wrong with her feelings and soul that they uncovered. We can see from the character Mrs.Peter that told her part of story when she lost her child and relate it with the condition of Mrs.Wright that had her bird killed. It is clearly showed that the real investigator in Trifles are the women, not the man.

4. What do the men discover? Why do they conclude "Nothing here but kitchen things"?

   The men discovery is only base on the statement and sight of Mrs.Wright's neighbour that is Mr.Hale the told what he experience and that’s was not much of a help to the guys. But, they did discovered something that is the clothes that were sow by Mrs.Wright that was “knot” instead of “quilt” that give a clue on how the murder was carried out but was misguidedly interpreted the clue that they have found. It is also discovered by the women and nicely noticed the evidence.

   “Nothing here but kitchen things” show that the man in Trifles are being sexist toward the woman and look down on what they can do. “Kitchen” symbolize woman and the statement may look as if the man are degrading the women and put their opinion and capabilities behind man. This ego and misjudging thing is the weakness that the man didn't overcome and this maybe the reason that they didn't find the evidence in the first place and with one discovery they still wrongly interpreted it.

How Muslims Helped Cause the American Revolution - Lost Islamic History by Firas Alkhateeb

How Muslims Helped Cause the American Revolution.

Today’s American political landscape can be quite a confusing and frightening place. The ideas of the Founding Fathers are commonly cited as the foundation of the nation. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are seen as the infallible documents on which American life are based. Freedom, democracy, and liberty are the cornerstones of political and social ideas in the United States.

At the same time, however, the rising tide of Islamophobia is making its presence felt. Politicians support the characterization of Islamic life as incompatible with American society. Media “pundits” decry the supposed influence Muslims are having on destroying the basis of American political and social ideas.

The truly ironic part of this is that Muslims in fact helped formulate the ideas that the United States is based on. While this article will not argue that Islam and Muslims are the only cause of the American Revolution, the impact that Muslims had on the establishment of America is clear and should not be overlooked.

Islamic Philosophy and the Enlightenment

The political and social ideas that caused the American colonists to revolt against the British Empire were formulated in a movement known as the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement that argued that science and reason should be the basis of human society, not blind following of monarchs and church authority. On July 4th, 1776, in Philadelphia, the American revolutionaries signed the Declaration of Independence, a document written by Thomas Jefferson and heavily influenced by the Enlightenment, which made official their break from Great Britain and the establishment of the United States of America.

The Enlightenment was driven by a group of European philosophers and scientists who were going against the prevailing ideas of governance in Europe at the time. Among these thinkers were people such as John Locke, René Descartes, Isaac Newton and Montesquieu.

John Locke

John Locke, an Englishman who lived from 1632 to 1704, promoted some of the most influential ideas of the Enlightenment. He pioneered the idea that humans are naturally good, and are corrupted by society or government to becoming deviant. Locke described this idea in his An Essay Concerning Human Understanding as the tabula rasa, a Latin phrase meaning blank slate. The idea was not original to him, however. In fact, Locke directly took the idea from a Muslim philosopher from the 1100s, Ibn Tufail. In Ibn Tufail’s book, Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, he describes an identical idea about how humans act as a blank slate, absorbing experiences and information from their surroundings.

John Locke borrowed many of his Enlightenment ideas from the Muslim philosopher, Ibn Tufail

The same idea manifests itself in the life of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him). He stated that “No child is born except on the fitra.” Fitra here can be defined as the natural, pure state of a person. According to Islamic thought, all humans are born in a natural state of purity, with belief in one God, and that as they grow older, they adopt the ideas and beliefs of the people around them, particularly their parents. This is the intellectual forerunner of the tabula rasa that Locke learned from Ibn Tufail.

Through Locke, this concept would influence the political idea that humans should not be constrained by an oppressive and intolerant government. His ideas, which he borrowed from Ibn Tufail, would end up forming a cornerstone of America’s revolutionary ideas that the colonists in America would be much better off if they were not under the oppressive British government. Locke further expanded on the subject by describing something he called the social contract. In this social contract theory, the people must consent to be ruled by a government that in turn agrees to protect the natural rights of its citizens.

This same concept is also seen in 1377 in the Muqaddimah of the great Muslim historian and sociologist, Ibn Khaldun. In it, he states, “The concomitants of good rulership are kindness to, and protection of, one’s subjects. The true meaning of royal authority is realized when a ruler defends his subjects.” Here Ibn Khaldun is explaining one of the main political ideas of the Enlightenment, 300 years before Locke proposes the same argument: that a government must defend, not infringe on, the rights of its citizens. Later, in 1776, the preamble of the Declaration of Independence stated a similar argument: “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

John Locke also pioneered the concept of natural rights: the idea that humans all have a set of God-given rights that should not be taken away by any government. In the Declaration of Independence, this is stated as “…they [men] are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

While most American and European textbooks promote this as a unique “Western” idea, the truth is that it is far older than John Locke and Thomas Jefferson. Again, in the Muqaddimah, Ibn Khaldun explains: “Those who infringe upon property commit an injustice. Those who deny people their rights commit an injustice.” He goes on to explain that this leads to the destruction of a state, and cites examples from the life of the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) where he forbade injustice. The concepts that a Muslim government should not infringe upon rights was very clear in Islamic law and was a well-accepted idea throughout Muslim empires.

Other Philosophers

Other Enlightenment philosophers were heavily influenced by earlier Muslims and Islamic ideas. Without going into great detail, the following are some examples:

Isaac Newton was greatly influenced by Ibn al-Haytham, the Muslim scientist who pioneered the scientific method, optics, and the laws of motion. In Europe, Ibn al-Haytham was well known, as were his ideas about science and philosophy. Isaac Newton borrowed from Ibn al-Haytham the idea that there are natural laws that run the universe (an idea first proposed by Caliph al-Ma’mun as his rationale for establishing the House of Wisdom in Baghdad). Later Enlightenment philosophers used the idea of natural laws to support concepts of natural rights, the government’s role, and economic systems. All of these ideas influenced the Founding Fathers of America who cited them as the basis of the United States.

Montesquieu is usually cited as the first to propose the ideas of separation of government into several branches. During his time in Europe, monarchs held absolute power and shared control of the state with no one. The Muslim world had historically never run in such a way. While caliphs in the Umayyad and Abbasid Empires held most of the power, there also existed the idea of shura, which was a council whose job it was to advise the caliph. In those governments there also existed ministers who carried out tasks under the supervision of the monarch. Perhaps the most important however, were the qadis, or judges, who formed a legal system based on Islamic law and were independent of the ruling caliph. A prime example of how Islamic governments are designed to work through a bureaucracy is Imam al-Mawardi’s Al-Ahkam Al-Sultaniyyah [On the Ordinances of the Government], written in the early 1000s. In it, al-Mawardi explains how the caliph and other government officials are to carry out their roles within their individual spheres, all while staying within the framework of Islamic law.

This system of government was well known in Europe from the Muslim European states in Spain and Sicily, where many European Christians traveled to study under Muslim scholars. Al-Mawardi’s work was translated into Latin and disseminated throughout Europe, where he was known as Alboacen, a Latin corruption of his name.

Coffee

All of the philosophical ideas already mentioned would not have had much effect if it were not for a curious black drink that came out of the Muslim world – coffee.

During the Middle Ages in Europe, the drink of choice was alcohol. In France and other areas that grew grapes, wine was the dominant drink, while beer and ale were popular further north. Drinking water was actually rare, as it was believed that alcoholic beverages were cleaner than water and more filling. The result of this belief was constant drunkenness among the European population.

In Yemen in the middle of the 1400s, a new drink that was made from coffee beans was beginning to become quite popular. The Yemenis were roasting and then boiling coffee beans in water to produce a drink that was rich in caffeine, a stimulant that causes the body to have more energy and the brain to think more clearly. Through the 1400s and 1500s, coffee spread throughout the Muslim world, and coffee shops began to pop up in major cities. These coffee shops became a center of urban society, as people met there to socialize and enjoy the company of others.

A British coffeehouse in the 1700s

By the 1600s, these coffee houses had spread to Europe as well. Although there was initial resistance to drinking a “Muslim drink” in Christian Europe, the beverage caught on. The coffeehouses became a central aspect of the Enlightenment, particularly in France. Whereas previously Europeans had been drinking alcohol regularly, they now met in coffee houses, where they discussed philosophy, government, politics, and other ideas that were the cornerstones of the Enlightenment. French Enlightenment philosophers such as Diderot, Voltaire, and Rousseau were all regular customers at the coffeehouses of Paris.

Were it not for this drink from the Muslim lands, Europe might never have had the Enlightenment, as the philosophers would never have met to discuss ideas, nor had the mental clarity (due to alcohol consumption) to think philosophically.

How Did This All Lead to Revolution?

As previously stated, the American Revolution was a direct effect of the European Enlightenment. The theories of rights, government, and the human self that were the basis of Enlightenment took form in the 1700s at the hands of great minds such as Locke, Newton, and Montesquieu. They, however, borrowed their ideas from earlier Muslim philosophers such as Ibn Tufail, Ibn Sina, and Ibn Khaldun. Were it not for their ideas which were rooted in Islam, the Enlightenment may not have been as insightful, or may not have even happened. Added to this was the effect that coffee had on Europe in giving the philosophers a forum to expand their ideas and learn new ones.

The signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 in Philadelphia

Without the Enlightenment, the American colonists never would have had the intellectual backing they needed to revolt. The ideas of freedom, liberty, and human rights that America is founded on are originally Muslim ideas formulated by Muslim philosophers working with the Quran and Hadith as their basis. While it is not accurate to claim that Muslims single-handedly caused the American Revolution, their contributions and influences cannot be overlooked. Those who claim that Islamic ideas are not compatible with American society must remember that it was those Islamic ideas that helped form American society, freedom, and liberty in the first place.

Bibliography:

Khaldūn, I. (1969). The muqaddimah, an introduction to history. Bollingen.

Morgan, M. (2007). Lost history. Washington D.C. : National Geographic Society.

Russell, G. A. (1994). The ‘arabick’ interest of the natural philosophers in seventeenth-century england. Brill Publishers.

A Date With A Literary Scholar (Refaat Alareer) by Ramdan Faudzi

A Date With a Literary Scholar

~ Refaat Alareer ~

~ Elits with Refaat Alareer ~

   21 October 2013 marked the day that open our eyes about the reality that people always do the opposite, denying the fact that it is inhuman. Palestine, the land of promises for certain religion where people, man, women, the old, children were killed without mercy. The brutality that oppressed the native people and threw them out of their birthplace where their blood spilled just trying to stand their ground. Mr.Refaat told us the situation when he was in Malaysia, and back in Gaza(Palestine) his family was about to get involve in the war when Israel play to attack Gaza. If we where in his position what would we do? Can we do something about it when we were hundred miles away from a place called home. It is a very critical time for him. He also Told us about his experience plucking the Olives from their tree, one by one, using their hand with care, with his family. He also make a poem out of it. I also ask him a question about how was it like in Palestine especially Gaza before the attacking took place and he replied that it was a simple life were everybody doing the same thing to live their life like the rest of the world. Plus, it was the land of agriculture. I learn a lot about Palestine and about the poem he wrote which he usually and like to use metaphor and simile. It is a experience that change me and grateful to live in a peaceful country.

The View from Above.

From our right we can see the the declining of Palestine land that was took over by the Israel Laknatullah since 1946 till today.

The Terror Tunnel | Tunnel of Victory

   We were told by Mr.Refaat about a tunnel that is connected from Gaza to Egypt and was their only way out of Gaza because the other was bordered with Israel's defenses. But i found out that there is one more tunnel built and this is the journal about it. 

   The Israelis was shocked by the discovery of an underground tunnel. A handmade border crossing from Khan Younis, up to the illegal Israeli settlements. The Tunnel was found near one of their kindergarten. The discovery of this tunnel causing fear to the people of Israel because it shows the "muqawamah" that means the Palestine defense is able to achieve a high level offensive strategy against the Zionist regime.

   Israel initially estimated that the length of the tunnel are around 2-3 km long, but mashaAllah, it is very long. And this handmade tunnels using over 500 tons of construction material, composed of cement and steel. So the Israelis are determined to block the passage of getting into Khan Younis again. The Israelis acknowledge that this tunnel was built by someone who is skilled in the art of construction.

   As for the Palestinians themselves, the discovery of this tunnel is commendable because it shows the strength possessed by their muqawamah lineup. Despite of what happened in their daily life, the people of Gaza still able to produce an extraordinary architecture that cultivates fear and terror in the enemy and so then named it "the Tunnel of Terror".

" Palestine will be Free " 

Hunting For Your Dream by Ramdan Faudzi Tribute to Galneryus

Hunting For Your Dream

To what extent are you in touch with your dreams?
There is something you’re aiming for
What is it that these hands desire?
Search for a certain thing.

Once you step forward
It is waiting for you there
The dazzling light

Hunting for your…

The great skies and the great earth
Absorb them into your body
Without stopping, surpass your future
And you can become stronger.

Don’t hesitate if you’re drenched in tears
Lay bare your feelings
Don’t fix your eyes on the times that are past
Freeze them in your memories.

If you reach up, one day
You will be able to seize it
The everlasting dancing light.

Those feelings that you maintained
Release all of it at once
Without stopping, surpass time
And you can become stronger.

The shape of the uniqueness that you found
While you were fumbling about and losing your way
Will surely change who you are today,
You will shine brightly.

Once you step forward
It is waiting for you there
The dazzling light

Hunting for your dream.

By,

Ramdan Faudzi,

Tribute to,

Galneryus.

"This artificial poem inspired me, so will you be, I hope"

War Poetry : Anthem for Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen

War Poetry

Anthem for Doomed Youth

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

    Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

    Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle

Can patter out their hasty orisons.

No mockeries now for them, no prayers nor bells;

    Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, – 

The shrill demented choirs of wailing shells;

    And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?

    Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes

Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.

    The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;

Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,

And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

By

Wilfred Owen

Brief Biography of Wilfred Owen.

   Wilfred Owen was one of the great or even the best of war poet during World War I. He was born on the 18th of March 1893 in Oswestry, Shropshire, England. He was very religious and against the brutal reality of the war. He was under the influence of Siegfried Sassoon who was his mentor and fellow friend. He was best known through his poem Dulce Et Delcorom Est and Anthem for Doomed Youth. He died on the Forth of November 1918 at the age of 25 and buried in Sambre Oise Canal, France.

The Poem Analysis.

Overview.

   What Wilfred Owen wants to highlight in the poem is that no matter how much we memorialize, tribute, or honor the fallen, we can't ever really know what it was like for them in those horrible moments before death. "Anthem for Doomed Youth" strives to make it impossible for us to ignore those realities, and to realize that in the face of all that horror, our anthems might ring hollow, no matter how much we seek meaning in them.

Theme.

Warfare.

   This poem is all about the universal topic of the terrible cost, realities, and and the inability of our rituals to alleviate the death and suffering it brings about. It is not about some specific battle or individual love lost.

Death.

   Death is a cliche of war. We know the result, but still, we figure it's worth pointing out that even though "Anthem for Doomed Youth" doesn't directly mention death after the first line, it's still completely obsessed with the concept. It is in the manual that death is upon us when we play the guns but human nature still sees it as a way to solve the puzzle.

Symbolism and Imagery

War imagery.

   The poem is about the exploring of how war can twist the way we see the world. Men become cattle, artillery shells become choirs, and tears become candles. Things in a world at war are not as they seem. In our speaker's eyes, the rituals of mourning the fallen become mockeries, because they ring so hollow in the face of war's true horrors.

Mourning Rituals imagery.

   When a Hero of the war died. People go to the funeral with songs and grieving, feeling the loss and sadness but are those people really understand the experience felt by the fallen hero. Probably not. the heat was much higher than just sitting there mourning about someone's death.

Setting.

World War I battlefield.

   The place that the war is presented where bullets and grenades fly unknowing its true target. the place where hero's fall. a place where they realize the truth, reality and brutality of the war.

Graveyard.

   It is the place where the funeral took place. A place where family, relatives, and friend came to grieve. The place where realizing about something has become just only a dream. The place to mourn.

Form and Meter.

   This poem is a Sonnet written in a iambic pentameter. For example "What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?" in the first line.

"My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity".

Wilfred Owen.