Where the Sidewalk Ends

"Where the Sidewalk Ends"

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

-Shel Silverstein

Sheldon Silverstein, born September 25, 1930, is an American poet famous for writing children’s books and poems. One of his most famous works, “Where the Sidewalk Ends” contrasts the dreariness and negativity of adult life to the blissful innocence and happiness of childhood. The first stanza of the poem introduces us to childhood. It is the “place where the sidewalk ends.” The poem, as a whole, advocates for  a return to a simpler state of childhood from the darkness of adulthood. Sidewalks are restricting and are reminiscent of a busy, crowded city. The image of the sidewalk ending into “soft” grass and “peppermint winds” portrays the return to childhood as being a form of release and peace. It is a place where a bird can “rest from his flight,” much like it is a place where adults can retreat and rest from the worries of life.

The second stanza presents Silverstein’s view of adulthood in the context of this poem. This section is predominantly negative. Adulthood is a “place where the smoke blows black.” Smoke is not only toxic, but it also obscures one’s vision. The phrase illustrates how toxic and hurtful adult life is to us, yet we are unable to see through the black screen of smoke. Unlike the previous “place where the sidewalk ends,” the streets here are dark and full of bends. While the dark gives the street its negative connotation, the bends and winds represent how slow and confusing life becomes as an over-thinking adult. Yet despite all this, “we shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow” “to the place where the sidewalk ends”.

The third stanza concludes the poem by reiterating its main ideas. The first line repeats the slow and measured aspect of the walk to “the place where the sidewalks end.” The “we” in the line is meant to represent adults, whose walks are representative of their “slow” and “measured” lives. Live is repeatedly, metaphorically compared to a street whose white arrows lead to the “place where the sidewalks end.” This conveys the idea that reversal to childhood is recommended, if not inevitable. According to Silverstein, children “know” where the place is; they “mark” the arrows. Adults must follow children to reach a simpler, happier life.

Age of Innocence Analysis Review

As AP Exams fast approach, I find it helpful to review the works that I remember least, one of which is Age of Innocence. What I remember as being the most striking aspect of the novel is the level of intricacy with which Wharton is able to represent 19^th century New York and its societal norms and expectations. The first clear aspect represented is the fear for one’s reputation. Despite the failure of her marriage, and her escape to the United States, Ellen’s family is reluctant to let her follow through with a divorce because it would draw attention and cause a “scandal” if her husband decides to fight the divorce. The strength and depth of societal standards become apparent when Archer cannot honestly speak his mind to Ellen because her divorce could potentially cause Archer his job. The relationship between Archer and Ellen quickly become the center of the plot. The scene that struck Archer in the theater (kissing of the ribbon) is representative of his relationship with Ellen. The woman not realizing them man kissed her ribbon represents Archer’s inability to fully reach Ellen with his emotions. Meanwhile, Archer is pleasantly surprised when May implies that she is aware of his affection for another woman because it reminds him of Ellen’s fiery nature, but is quickly disappointed to find out that May simply did so out of societal norms that dictate that a man’s happiness comes before a woman’s. Archer’s relationship with Ellen makes a drastic change when he openly announces his love for her. This declaration contrasts the previously subtle, implied, and hidden expressions of emotion in the novel. The remainder of the novel primarily deals with the crucial conflict of the individual versus the many. Archer realizes that he has been left out of his family’s conversations regarding Ellen, due to his feelings for her. This exclusion illustrates how easily (and quickly) one can be excluded from the group for having a different opinion. In this case, Archer represents the individual while society (and its standards) represents the many. The same conflict is found in Ellen’s exclusion from the family and its social interactions. Gender roles are also ever-present in the last few chapters of the novel. For instance, it is clear that the Mingott family controls Ellen’s financial situation. Because of her upper-class status, it is viewed as wrong for Ellen to make her own living; she is entirely dependent on the Mingotts. Ellen is given a large trust fund by Mrs. Mingott; portraying her as a child receiving an allowance. May’s decision to let archer go to Washington D.C. despite her knowledge of his affair is the second clear display of gender roles. Like Mrs. Beaufort, May does not question social norms and embraces that her role is simply to care for the home and children.

How To Tell a True War Story

Written by Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried attempts to convey an authentic war story as opposed to a true one. The novel is composed of a multitude of interrelated short stories. Each story contributes to the complete understanding of war by those who did not experience it in the flesh. “The Things They Carried” first addresses the physical and emotional items carried by soldiers into the battlefield. These items come to define the men and cover their human individuality. When Lavender is killed, other members of his squad focus more on his drug use than the death of an individual. “Love” skips to many years after the war and conveys the challenges of a returning veteran as he begins to deal with the guilt of war. “Spin” then beings the plot back into the war and illustrates the day to day life of soldiers as opposed to dramatized media coverage. The killing of the dog (by Azar) also reminds us of the personal conflicts soldiers have to deal with in addition to the battlefield; Azar’s being immaturity. “On The Rainy River” addresses the pivotal conflict between the individual and society as Tim struggles to decide whether it is preferable to fight a war he does not understand, or to escape to Canada and face shame. The next three stories (“Friends,” “Enemies,” and “How to Tell a True War Story”) all primarily deal with the distortion of traditional values in war. “Enemies” and “Friends” work in tandem to provide insight in the distortion of moral codes and values as conflict settlements drastically change and soldiers prefer death to suffering. “How to Tell a True War Story” illustrates the shift in perception as the beauty of the explosion becomes paramount in contrast to Lemmons’s body being blown into a tree. “Sweetheart of Son Tra Bong” demonstrates the impact that the environment has upon the individual as Mary falls victim to her surroundings and begins to embrace the violence of the war. “The Man I Killed” placed an emphasis on the difficulties soldiers have in rationalizing death. O’Brien copes with his action by creating a identity for the man and making him “real.”  “Ambush,” which describes the death from the previous story, aims at conveying the everlasting aspect of war. Years later, O’Brien still sees the Vietnamese soldier coming towards the fog. “Speaking of Courage,” “Notes,” and “In the Field” each address the death of Kiowa from different perspective. The purpose behind this is to show the many ways men rationalized the death of a friend or comrade. Bowker is grief struck, O’Brien deals through storytelling, and Azar attempts to distance himself through humor. “Good Form” and “Field Trip” worked together to give the audience awareness of the accuracy of O’Brien’s war story, despite its historical inaccuracies. We find ourselves able to connect to the war better than Kathleen, who physically visited the site of the war. The last few stories lightly retouch the different points made in all the stories prior. The novel concludes with the rationalization that the dead are never truly dead as they live forever in stories and memories.

"Annabel Lee"

“Annabel Lee”

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea. 

-Edgar Allan Poe

The first stanza of the poem introduces the key elements of the work. It begins almost like a fairy-tale with “many and many a year ago” and a “kingdom by the sea.” The narrator introduces the title character Annabel Lee. He also mentions how madly in love he was with the maiden. The word “maiden” indicates that Annabel is most likely young and likely beautiful. The poem continues by developing on their love. It started at a young age and the narrator uses the past tense of love, indicating that the love may be past. He claims that their love was “coveted” by the “winged seraphs of heaven” (angels). Poe repeats the line “kingdom by the sea” to possibly reiterate the distance between the narrator and the maiden. Water is also known to represent the subconscious, meaning that the maiden’s kingdom may be representative of being on the edge of one’s consciousness. In the next stanza, the narrator expands on his previous points and claims that the angels’ desire for their love was the reason the winds “chilled” Annabel. The literary associations of cold and death as well as the line describing how she was “shut in a sepulcher” indicate that Annabel is most likely now dead. The fact that her “kinsman bore her away” indicates that there may have been some existing friction between the narrator and the maiden’s family. The narrator also repeats “kingdom by the sea” twice more in this same stanza. He then goes back to blaming the angels for the death, this time with more intensity. He follows by circling back to the intensity of the love they shared and claims that no creature from heaven nor hell can ever separate their souls from one another. Religion was still prominent during the Poe’s time period; therefore, the fact that the love is stronger than the will of heaven and hell serves the purpose to demonstrate the intensity and pure strength of their love. The second to last stanza marks a shift. The narrator begins using present tense as opposed to past tense. The narrator says that the shine of the moon brings him dreams of Annabel and that the stars are like her eyes looking at him. The association of the dead lover and night are aligned with the macabre and dark themes that traditionally surround Poe’s poems. The use of celestial bodies to represent Annabel further emphasizes the everlasting aspect of their love. The moon and stars will be there for millions of years. It also accentuates the distance between them that death inevitably brings. As we approach the end, the narrator seems increasingly disturbed mentally. He lies by the dead body of his “darling.” This shows that the narrator overcomes the separation of death by lying with Annabel in her tomb. 

Dante and Ellison

It is not uncommon for writers to draw inspiration or draw connections to other famous works. A famous Italian writer from the Middle Ages, Dante Alighieri’s most widely known publication is without doubt Inferno. In this work, Dante closely describes what he calls the nine circles of Hell. Each circle is home to perpetrators of a specific offense (such as murder, theft, etc.). Traces and allusions to Dante’s Inferno can be found throughout Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. Upon arriving in New York and being consecutively rejected, the narrator finds himself working in a deep basement “three levels underground”(Ellison 207). The inclusion of the underground is already an indication of a possible allusion to death and hell. The fact that it is the third level down specifically points more precisely to Dante’s description of Hell in which the third circle is reserved for particularly gluttonous individuals. This in turn draws another connection back to the battle royal, where the narrator and other black boys fought and struggled for the sake of enriching themselves. Lucius Brockway, the man who works and almost appears to live in the basement, exhibits clear signs of gluttony. Lucius fights to keep all of the work to himself, not wanting to allow those in need of a job to work alongside him. He goes as far as to potentially kill the narrator in the explosion to retain the job for himself. Traces of the Inferno are also found in the novel’s structure. The Inferno is divided into three important parts, covering a transformation from “illusion to reality,” and finally “culminating in maximum insight.” The same basic structure is present in Invisible Man. When interviewed, Ralph Ellison explained that he had divided the novel into three, concise parts going from “purpose to passion to perception.” Like Inferno, Invisible Man results in a greater insight or perception. Both works also cover a transformation for the narrator.  The narrator’s journey in Invisible Man, can even be interpreted as one from “illusion to reality” as the narrator comes to term with his invisibility and accepts it as his “true” identity.  The Inferno, put simply, describes Hell as viewed by Dante. In Ellison’s novel, Harlem is constantly described using words that are heavily reminiscent of Hell, such as flames, melting, and “burning heat.” Using this connection Ellison may be hinting that Harlem is the narrator’s Hell through which he ventures. This would be supported by the fact that the narrator appears to meet sinners everywhere he goes. An example would be Trueblood who impregnated his own blood, or Ras who seeks to murder the narrator for supposedly betraying the black people. It is important to note that the narrator finishes where he now resides (underground) in the epilogue. This may be a connection to Limbo reserved for those who are virtuous but do not follow Christian faith. This could represent the narrator’s virtue despite not abiding by the rules that everyone else follows (society). While these are only wild speculations, it would be worth further exploring this topic in class discussions, for I find this connection particularly intriguing after visiting Dante’s home and place of worship in Italy last summer.