Event 3

Kyle Gangemi

EN-101-06

10/1/13

Event

Event Analysis 3- Dealing With Conflicts

            In the poems, “Liberty” by Thomas Lynch, “Suburban” by John Ciardi and the short story, “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe, the protagonists are faced with conflicts and deal with them in three different ways. The speaker of the first poem, “Liberty” is seemingly rebelling against everything and doing it in a simple yet slightly childish way, The speaker in “Suburban” is facing false accusations over a small matter and decides to take the high road. In the “Cask of Amontillado” the narrator is seeking serious revenge for a perceived insult.

            In the opening lines of “Liberty” by Thomas Lynch the speaker reveals that from time to time he “pisses” in the front yard as a show of liberty. Throughout the course of the poem he lists the reasons for his rebellion and none of which seem to have much merit. The speaker of this poem is upset about how his life has turned out and his rebelling in his own childish way. The speaker says, “Here is the statement I am trying to make: to say I am from a fierce bloodline of men who made their water in the old way, under stars that overreached the North Atlantic…”(Lynch). Later on in the poem it is reveled that the speaker is divorced and living in the suburbs of a town called West Clare. It is not a stretch to imagine that a man descended from great men who is divorced and living in the suburbs would be unhappy with his station in life.

            The speaker in “Suburban” by John Ciardi is facing a confrontation with his neighbor regarding his dog leaving a “large repulsive object” in her garden. This accusation does not hold water however, as the speakers dog was not in the same state at the time. The speaker in the poem is very non-confrontational. The neighbor was not exactly friendly in dealing with the incident so the first thing that pops in to the speaker’s head was a sarcastic response. In his head he said, “Have you checked the rectal grooving for a positive I.D.?”(Ciardi). The speaker does not say this, he does not even bring up the fact that it would have been impossible for his dog to be the perpetrator, rather he goes over to the neighbor’s house with a shovel and removes and buried the substance in question.

            The short story, “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, also deals with conflict, but in this story the narrator takes dramatic action compared to the speakers in the two poems. The narrator, Montresor, takes extreme retribution on Fortunato for an offense that may or may not have occurred. The narrator opens the story by saying, “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge,”(Poe). Throughout the rest of the story, the narrator is not once able to give an example of one of the thousand injuries or the insult of Fortunato. It seems clear that Fortunato’s offense could not be proven because rather than go to court, the narrator took revenge into his own hands. Any offense that the penalty is death should be tangible enough to be tried in some type of court.

            The play, Othello, by William Shakespeare also deals with a conflict. In the opening scene reveals that Rodrigo wants to marry Desdemona but she has already been married to Othello. Unlike in the two poems, where the narrators take little to no action, Rodrigo devises a plan to get Desdemona. Rodrigo goes to Brabanzio, the father of Desdemona, and tell him that his daughter has been kidnapped. Brabanzio goes after Othello in response to this. This action is also different than the action taken by the narrator in “The Cask of Amontillado” because the response of Rodrigo was at least somewhat reasonable .