There is more to Broumas’ Little Red Riding Hood than meets the eye, or perhaps that is exactly where the analysis comes into play because the formalistic approach of analyzing literature consists of looking at a piece of literature and stating what is obviously there. The formalistic approach does give the work a deeper meaning than it first had, but the details are usually plain and easily noticeable. Generally they are very obvious, thus easily overlooked. The formalistic approach may be limited to pointing out the continual use of one word, but after noticing this fact a new meaning must be found as well. The reader is able to develop a broader understanding to Broumas’ Little Red Riding Hood after using the formalistic approach to delve deeper into the poem. The formalistic approach reveals Broumas’ use of repetition and choice of words give extra significance to her poem Little Red Riding Hood.
The easiest way to set about using the formalistic approach is to first read the poem paying careful attention to repetition, breaks, and description that may not have been noticed during the first reading. Using this technique on Little Red Riding Hood reveals an emphasis placed on the word old. Broumas writes,
I grow old, old
Without you, Mother, landscape
Of my heart.
The use of old can be read in two different ways. One approach could place more emphasis on the repetition of old, whereas the other could draw it toward “old without you.” Either way it is read one realizes that the author is growing old without her mother. However reading it the first way adds about ten more years to her life because she is very old. The second way can be taken to literally mean that the author is a lot older without her mother. The description of her mother foreshadows a strict parent. It takes a lot of work to landscape a yard, and if the mother landscaped her daughter’s heart it took a lot of work and a lot of rules.
Broumas continues the poem with a description of her mother giving birth. She uses phrases like “stretching it like a wishbone”, “skin strung on a bow”, and “tightened against the pain” to reveal to the reader that labor is not easy, in fact just the opposite because it is strenuous and very difficult.
Siddhartha Essay: Hindu and Buddhist Thought
Hindu and Buddhist Thought in Siddhartha
Siddhartha, set in India, is subtitled an “Indic Poetic Work,” and it clearly owes much to Indian religions. But the question of the exact nature of Hesse’s debt to various aspects of Indian religion and philosophy in Siddhartha is quite complicated and deserves detailed discussion. This essay will discuss the elements of Hindu and Buddhist thought present in Siddhartha and make distinctions between them.
“Siddhartha is one of the names of the historical Gotama” (Noss 213), the life of Hesse’s character, Siddhartha resembles that of his historical counterpart to some extent. Siddhartha is by no means a fictional life of Buddha, but it does contain numerous references to Buddha and his teachings.
“The basic teaching of Buddha is formulated in the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path” (Gupta 17). Proceeding from the premise that suffering exists and that a release from it must be found, Buddha constructed his system. The First Noble Truth is the fact of suffering. The Second Truth is that suffering arises from human desire for something, and that this desire can never be satisfied. The Third Truth is that there is a way to achieve a release from suffering. And the Fourth Truth prescribes the manner of overcoming suffering and attaining true knowledge.
The first two steps in the Eightfold Path, which leads to the cessation of suffering, are right understanding and right resolution; a person must first discover and experience the correctness of the Four Noble Truths (it is not sufficient to profess a superficial belief), and then resolve to follow the correct path. The next three steps likewise form a kind of unit: right speech, right behavior, an…
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Noss, David S., and John B. Noss. The World’s Religions. New York: Macmilllan College Publishing Company 1994.
Shaw, Leroy, “Time and the Structure of Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha”, Symposium 9 (1957): 204-224.
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