Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean-favoured and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good Morning!" and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich, yes, richer than a king,
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine -- we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked and waited for the light,
And went without the meat and cursed the bread,
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet in his head.

HOW WILL I ANALYZE THIS POEM?

Through Poetry Explication or Analysis

Poetry explication or analysis is a method of literary criticism involving a detailed examination of each part of a poem or work, and an exposition of the relationship of these parts to each other and the work as a whole. This comprehensive treatment attempts to deal with all major elements of a poem—and the ways that the various parts relate to one another and to the unified meaning of the poem. An essay that explicates a work or a passage interprets or clarifies a poem’s meaning. Explication means “unfolding”.

In order to interpret the meaning of a poem, it must be analyzed, that is, the reader focuses on a single aspect of the poem, for example, visual imagery, the use of onomatopoeia, or the characterization of the speaker. The reader may also focus on the use of irony, the use of color, or the use of a fixed form such as the sonnet.

ANALYSIS

Edwin Arlington Robinson’s “Richard Cory” contrasts the discontented, frustrated lives of small town people with the seemingly successful and wealthy existence of their hero, Richard Cory. As the ordinary men compare their daily grind of denial with the glitter of Cory’s world, they envy him. But, as the poem reveals, their envy is foolish. For Richard Cory’s final action reveals a different person from the townspeople’s image of him, a person who has been suffering in secret. The poem’s final lines indicate that people who are caught up in their own pain fail to see the anguish in others.
The poem begins by describing Cory as he appears to others. The speaker of “Richard Cory” speaks for the people of a small town, and he begins by describing the citizens’ interest in Cory. Whenever Cory came to town, those below him in rank, the “people on the pavement,” looked at him. He was in every way a gentleman, clean-cut, handsome, and aristocratically slender.
But, the speaker continues, Cory did not flaunt his status; he was always “quietly arrayed” and “human when he talked.” Still, a mere “Good morning” from Richard Cory sets people’s hearts racing because they are in awe of him. He seems to glitter as he moves among them.
Not only is Cory handsome and fine; he is rich and genteel, “admirably schooled in every grace,” knowing all the social graces, a true aristocrat. Yet this seeming perfection and the townspeople’s lack of money, social background, and social skills create a distance between Cory and the others. They see him as a model of what they have been denied: “we thought that he was everything/To make us wish that we were in his place.”
The townspeople remain stuck in their rut, waiting for the “light,” perhaps for the hope of better times. Seeing Cory, who has so much, they are discontented, for they must do without the luxuries of life (“the meat”), and they are dissatisfied with what they do have (“they cursed the bread”). The final lines of the poem reveal another person’s hidden pain, as Richard Cory, so quietly dazzling, goes home and puts “a bullet through his head.” The ideal man, the model for the townspeople, is revealed as a person different from other’s fantasies of him.
As Robinson contrasts the idealized Cory perceived by the town with the real man, he attributes a range of emotions to both the ordinary people and the extraordinary man. The town, for example, is in awe of Cory, he is so far above those “on the pavement” that a few words from him can set pulses to flutter. They admire his manners, his money, and his clean, slim appearance. And, of course, they envy him and wish to be him: “we thought he was everything/To make us wish that we were in his place.” He has what they do not have, and he is what they cannot be. They feel unhappy with what they do have – the “bread” they curse, and they wait only for something better, some “light” in their dark lives.
Cory, on the other hand, begins as an enigma. We cannot, at first, be sure what he feels. He is always so quiet, so polite, so gently, that he seems utterly in control of his existence. Not until the end of the poem, in Cory’s suicide, do we, like the town, see the hidden despair.

The impact of Robinson’s poem is heightened by his use of poetic techniques. One of the most effective techniques is the use of irony, developed by contrasting the town’s image of Richard Cory with the reality later exposed. To the townspeople, Cory is associated with regal images; he is an “imperially slim” gentleman “from sole to crown,” richer “than a king,” who “glittered” when he walked. The people are surprised that he is even “human” when he talks, an ironic statement because they fail to see the human suffering that conflicts with their image of Cory. And, ironically, seeing only the royal image of the man, they wish they were “in his place.”

This Poem falls under the Literary Theory

Structuralism is a way of thinking about the world which is predominantly concerned with the perceptions and description of structures. At its simplest, structuralism claims that the nature of every element in any given situation has no significance by itself, and in fact is determined by all the other elements involved in that situation. The full significance of any entity cannot be perceived unless and until it is integrated into the structure of which it forms a part (Hawkes, p. 11). Structuralists believe that all human activity is constructed, not natural or "essential." Consequently, it is the systems of organization that are important (what we do is always a matter of selection within a given construct). By this formulation, "any activity, from the actions of a narrative to not eating one's peas with a knife, takes place within a system of differences and has meaning only in its relation to other possible activities within that system, not to some meaning that emanates from nature or the divine" (Childers & Hentzi, p. 286.).

WHY STRUCTURALISM?

The Poem consists of words that shows perceptions and description of a certain person and how he act within his environment.

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When the trumpet sounded
everything was prepared on earth,
and Jehovah gave the world
to Coca-Cola Inc., Anaconda,
Ford Motors, and other corporations.
The United Fruit Company
reserved for itself the most juicy
piece, the central coast of my world,
the delicate waist of America.

It rebaptized these countries Banana Republics, and over the sleeping dead, over the unquiet heroes who won greatness, liberty, and banners, it established an opera buffa: it abolished free will, gave out imperial crowns, encouraged envy, attracted the dictatorship of flies: Trujillo flies, Tachos flies Carias flies, Martinez flies, Ubico flies, flies sticky with submissive blood and marmalade, drunken flies that buzz over the tombs of the people, circus flies, wise flies expert at tyranny.
With the bloodthirsty flies came the Fruit Company, amassed coffee and fruit in ships which put to sea like overloaded trays with the treasures from our sunken lands.

Meanwhile the Indians fall
into the sugared depths of the
harbors and are buried in the
morning mists;
a corpse rolls, a thing without
name, a discarded number,
a bunch of rotten fruit
thrown on the garbage heap.

The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, whose real name was Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto, was politically involved in many ways throughout his life in the fight for social justice and equality. While living underground and in Argentina after he had openly and repeatedly criticized the Chilean government and its violent repression of a miner’s strike, he wrote his defining, extensive, and acclaimed work, Canto General. I recently came across the mention of the poem below, “United Fruit Co.”, which is part of the Canto General while reading the biography of Ernesto “Che” Guevara by Jon Lee Anderson. Neruda wrote this poem in 1950 to bring attention to injustices brought upon the native populations of Central and South America that were a result of American companies (and the U.S. government with the help of the CIA) and dictators throughout the region who exploited their labor and forcefully suppressed democratic movements.

ANALYSIS OF THE POEM (According to the analysis of Jason Hawkins)

“La United Fruit Company” by Pablo Neruda, laments the exploitation of the Latin American
countries by North American companies. Neruda begins the poem with a biblical tone, lending the poem an epic or mythical feeling.


This religious language, juxtaposed against the names of icons of consumerism like Coca Cola, Ford Motors and The United Fruit Company reveals a sarcastic disdain towards the arrogance of the North. At the same time, Neruda weaves in the quasi-religious language of Democracy employed by the companies in popular culture to cover up their immoral behavior. The exploited Latin American countries are ‘baptized’ in the propaganda of the North as ‘Banana Republics’, a euphemistic phrase, derogatory in the sense that it belittles the idea of democracy in Latin America as limited and primitive, almost cute, and conveys the not so subtle message that by selling off their natural resources, the ‘Banana Republics’ could be elevated from their primitive conditions towards a more modernized and democratic level of existence.


Neruda uses the image and language of fruit as an extended metaphor for the Latin American
countries, using adjectives like ‘juicy’ and ‘sweet’. By describing the coastline of his country as the hips of a woman, Neruda likens the plundering of Latin America to the act of rape. For Neruda, the Latin American countries are like a fresh, virginal fruit, consumed by the north then carelessly cast
aside to rot.


By invoking the memory of dead ancestors, over whose graves the North American companies
erect their operations, Neruda both comments on the irreverent attitude of the northern companies towards the cultures and histories of the exploited lands, but also points to the history of imperial conquest that has manifested Latin American history from the time of the great indigenous empires like the Incas and Mayas, to the conquistadors of Spain.


The cavalier attitudes of companies like the United Fruit Company and Coca Cola are only the
most recent iterations of the pattern of conquest and domination that has plagued Latin America since its earliest history:


Here, the biblical reference to the ‘crowns of Cesar’ (translated in the English version as ‘imperial crowns’) represents the United States. The ‘comic opera’ refers to the puppet governments set up by the CIA in Latin America to safeguard the interests of North American companies at the expense of the Latin American people. Neruda describes the orgy of blood and greed that ensued, portraying the bloody Latin American dictatorships supported by the United States as carnivorous flies, parasites that live off the suffering, rotting fruit of Latin America.


The repetition of the word ‘mosca’ (fly), combined with the alliteration of ‘zumban’ (buzzing noise of an insect) and ‘tumbas’ (tombs) creates a musical tone that amplifies the extended metaphor of Latin America as a fruit being consumed by parasites. Now, however, the fruit is rotting and putrid.


Toward the end of his poem, Neruda’s sarcasm changes to lamentation as we witness the pillage of his country:


The ripe, juicy. virginal fruit we saw at the beginning of the poem has turned into a ‘bunch of rotten fruit’ cast aside to the waste pile. The Latin American people have been used and discarded mechanically in the same manner as expendable produce, their dead bodies buried in obscurity or dumped into the water.

Neruda’s poem, “La United Fruit Company” is a protest, not just against the greed and corruption of North American companies in Latin America, but also against the consumeristic propaganda used by companies like the United Fruit Company and Coca-Cola in the United States to portray their activities in the South as benign.

 This poem falls under the LITERARY THEORY

Marxism

A sociological approach to literature that viewed works of literature or art as the products of historical forces that can be analyzed by looking at the material conditions in which they were formed. In Marxist ideology, what we often classify as a world view (such as the Victorian age) is actually the articulations of the dominant class. Marxism generally focuses on the clash between the dominant and repressed classes in any given age and also may encourage art to imitate what is often termed an "objective" reality. Contemporary Marxism is much broader in its focus, and views art as simultaneously reflective and autonomous to the age in which it was produced. The Frankfurt School is also associated with Marxism (Abrams, p. 178, Childers and Hentzi, pp. 175-179).

WHY MARXISM?

The poem shows how the highest classes of the society oppress the lower members of the society making a division between classes of people. These people may be represented by the Companies that operates in a country or a place that composes majority of the population which are poor.

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  Ang Sayaw ng Dalawang Kaliwang Paa takes a risk in fusing music, dance, and poetry to present the complications around the lives of three characters in a complex love triangle—and succeeds delightfully.

That is what literature, dance, and music, as separate art forms, are in fact supposed to do—explore an emotion, a character, a situation, a conflict.

ANALYSIS AND PLOT (Some of the parts of the plot were taken from PEP)

The movie is harrowing at times, delightful for the most part. It deals with feminism which is represented by the dark and sad Karen (played by Jean Garcia), a literature and dance teacher who becomes an object of attraction and curiosity of her students.

The film likewise touches on the subject of homosexuality, subtly executed by Dennis (Rocco Nacino) and Marlon (Paulo Avelino) who are both students of Karen.

The film opens with poetry: Karen is reading a poem to Dennis and Marlon's class. The poem aptly talks about desire, which the poetic persona articulates by "covering" her subject of affection with her "gaze" (binalot kita sa aking tingin).

The scene is interwoven with another—Marlon, later on, stalking his teacher as she comes to a studio where she conducts dance classes. As Marlon watches Karen, Dennis, who happens to assist at the studio, catches the smitten Marlon. The audience eventually becomes privy to who becomes the object of Dennis's "gaze".

To make up for his lack in Karen's subject and to score more time with her, Marlon attempts to dance. He asks Dennis to tutor him before classes start so as not to embarrass himself again. Dennis is kind enough to extend help and even plans a way to hold one-on-one sessions with Marlon at the studio sans the legit teacher.

In the course of their tutorial, Dennis and Marlon become intimate friends. Ironically their romance is limited to dancing as their physical contact is cut off once the music stops. Between the two boys, it is Dennis who initially has affections for Marlon, as suggested by his furtive glances and lingering gazing at his classmate. Marlon could be oblivious (or not) of this due to the full attention he has for Karen.

Karen, on the one hand, is not oblivious to Marlon's intentions as he eventually joins her class. Neither is she unaware of the recent stealthy dance tutorials at the studio. Depicted as an omniscient character, Karen is also cognizant of Dennis's feelings towards the blind Marlon. In class, she puts Marlon on the spot by announcing that he did rather well in the dance she was teaching and if only he had not sought Dennis's tutoring, it would have been more commendable.

When Marlon comes up to her to apologize, Karen confronts him by asking, "Hindi ka ba natatandaan sa akin?" Because he could not accept that he was embarrassed again, Marlon flees class and later blames Dennis for allegedly telling on him. A rift develops between the two boys.

Karan notices Marlon's absence in class and how he had given Dennis the cold shoulder. To fix the gap between them, she asks both boys to help her out at a cotillion. Here the two start fighting amidst the dancing until their bickering subsides. Karen invites both of them to her home and there  announces that she was tasked to translate the Panay epic Humadapnon into dance.

This bridges the two once again as they become inspired to work on their auditions and eventual roles. Their audition, their own interpretation of a literary piece, moves Karen to tears and thus Dennis is cast as Sunmasakay and Marlon as Datu Humadapnon.

The film gets creative in interpreting this epic as it utilizes an episode where Nagmalitong Yawa, a feminine character, disguised as a man (Sunmasakay) saves Datu Humadapnon from being entrapped in a cave by a seductive tribe of women. This becomes an allegory for the brewing romance between Dennis and Marlon, something the latter boy is still indifferent to.

The love triangle with a twist ends on a poignant but happy note, as Marlon finally recognizes Dennis's true feelings for him. What makes him understand Dennis's affections is Sunmasakay's saving act, translated into music and danced to by Marlon and Dennis as Humadapnon and Sunmasakay.

MY BRIEF ANALYSIS

 The story focuses on love or affection that resulted to a conflict between three people.

This film falls under the Literary Theory

To speak of "Feminism" as a theory is already a reduction. However, in terms of its theory (rather than as its reality as a historical movement in effect for some centuries) feminism might be categorized into three general groups:

1. theories having an essentialist focus (including psychoanalytic and French feminism);
2. theories aimed at defining or establishing a feminist literary canon or theories seeking to re-interpret and re-vision literature (and culture and history and so forth) from a less patriarchal slant (including gynocriticism, liberal feminism); and
3. theories focusing on sexual difference and sexual politics (including gender studies, lesbian studies, cultural feminism, radical feminism, and socialist/materialist feminism).

WHY FEMINISM?

The film focuses on how a woman fought between a torn two lovers. This shows how a woman survive trials, solve problems and live actively in the society.