New Student Reading Project Fall 2011 Student Essay Winners
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
New Student Reading Project Fall 2011 Student Essay Winners Raphael Luis Agundez Lauren Elizabeth Avery Catherine Ko Chen Edbert Yan Ho Cheng Emma Court Sarah Mattimore Fiskin Sara Kristine Gushgari Rachel V. Harmon Caroline Wiley Quaglieri Danielle J. Sochaczevski Find pictures on the web of the day the police broke into the real Homer and Langley’s house on Fifth Avenue and the sequence of photos of the removal of its contents. Describe the crowd that we see in these photos. As an outsider looking in, consider how the house and the brothers were viewed by those New Yorkers at the time. Is this how Doctorow views Homer and Langley? Catherine Ko Chen Humanity Rediscovered They were brothers transformed into objects; reduced to strategically placed emphases on negatively- connoted words; grotesque and shocking and revolting; street-corner gossip and head- shakes of disapproval; objects of ridicule and objects of shame. From an outside perspective, Homer and Langley were considered nothing but a ―mythic joke‖. Seen as a pair of inconsequential recluses swallowed up by the gruesome environment they themselves created, the brothers and their way of living were not only looked askance at in their time, but also stripped of all hints of humanity and immortalized in a comic legend. For was it possible that even those who lived like animals among such squalor could be truly human? Doctorow answers this query as he gracefully delves into what others overlook. Outsiders regarded the Collyer brothers as no more than what they owned – a collection of ghoulishly cluttered, decaying debris – yet Doctorow weaves an empathetic image portraying the brothers as much more. In Doctorow‘s retelling, Homer and Langley are not seen as objects of a near-comic urban legend, but as subjects of surprisingly vivid lives. What others conceive as piles of obsessively accumulated possessions takes on new meaning as Doctorow creates a 1 well-orchestrated historic macrocosm present in the Collyer brothers‘ home. And yet this retelling is also full of gentle ironies. Such a keenly insightful interpretation of 20th century American history is narrated by none other than a blind man, and though the Collyer brothers wanted nothing more than to keep the outside world at bay, worldly elements inevitably pass through their doors. Elements of the Spanish flu and World War I, the rise to prominence of jazz music, tea dances, a whirlwind of war bonds and Japanese internment brought with World War II, the prominence of gangsters and crime families, the revolution of color television brought by the Golden Age, the counterculture of the 1960s and the Vietnam War – are all witnessed by Homer and Langley. Not only are the Collyer brothers chroniclers of history, they are commentators of it as well. Above all, Doctorow sees the Collyer brothers as simply human. Homer and Langley are portrayed as gruffly endearing; defiantly weathered, slightly cynical and too old and practiced in their tracks to stop or change for anyone. Though outsiders see Homer simply as an eccentric blind man, Doctorow depicts him as intuitive and thoughtful. While outsiders view Langley as deranged, Doctorow describes him as an intellectual, a questioner, a caretaker. Even more so, the brothers‘ humanity is evident through their emotions. Present in Doctorow‘s rendering of the Collyer brothers‘ story are clear displays of universal emotions; both brothers experience love, loss, confusion, fear, elation. Present is the heartwarming bond between brothers. Present are the ‗methods behind the madness‘; reasons why newspapers and pianos and typewriters were collected, reasons why the brothers became reclusive and withdrawn from society. Present is humanity, ethos, explanation. Doctorow does not deny that the Collyer brothers are an oddity. But he does so sympathetically, forgivingly and acceptingly as they, like us, are human. Homer and Langley is nostalgic and haunting in faded black and sepia, an exploration of the strangeness and complexity of humanity and of 20th century American history. But above all, it is a resounding testament to a simple statement: ―And so do people pass out of one's life, and all you can remember of them is their humanity, a poor fitful thing of no dominion, like your own." Catherine Chen is an enthusiast of literature, art, and coffee from San Jose, California. She is currently studying English and Economics in the College of Arts and Sciences. Catherine is also involved in a variety of activities on campus such as the Business 2 Department of the Cornell Daily Sun and the Editorial Team of the Cornell Business Review. Illustrations: ―Crowd Watching Police Remove a Body From a House,‖ 1947. Photograph, Bettmann, New York City. Corbis Images <http://www.corbisimages.com/stock- photo/rights-managed/DM2088/crowd-watching-police-remove-a-body- from?popup=1> ―Man Removing Steinway Piano from Collyer Home,‖ 1947. Photograph, Bettmann, New York City. Corbis Images < http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights- managed/U830632AACME/men-removing-steinway-piano-from-collyer- home?popup=1> ―Crowd Watches Search of Collyer Mansion,‖ 1947. Photograph. Bettmann, New York City. Corbis Images < http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights- managed/U829765ACME/crowd-watching-search-of-collyer-mansion?popup=1> 3 In enabling us to understand Homer, Doctorow explores his love of music. How does music define Homer’s character and connect him with others outside the house (for instance, Mary Elizabeth Riordan, Harold Robileaux)? Sara Kristine Gushgari More than Notes on a Staff An observer listens to a composer perform a finely tuned sonata and, because of numerous social proverbs and clichés, he can comfortably remark that music is a window to the composer‘s soul. However, in Homer & Langley by E.L. Doctorow, music is a window to the outside world for Homer Collyer where he is uninhibited by the black solitude of his sightless consciousness. Homer not only uses music to define himself as a hopelessly romantic musician in search of a fulfilled life, but also uses music as his most operative means of connecting with other people. Homer explores his identity through experiences and ideas which are tethered to music. When Homer describes V-J Day he says, ―The joy rising from the city filled the sky like a melodious wind, like a celestial oratorio‖ (100). In this passage, along with many other excerpts, the theme of music surfaces to bind Homer to pleasant moments and positive experiences. This is the foundation of the manner in which Homer displays truths about himself – he describes delightful people, experiences, and moments which make him feel a part of the world with music. When Mary Elizabeth Riordan makes a second appearance in Homer‘s life, he compares himself to ―Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre Dame – this poor defective and how he…would ring the great cathedral bells in his anguished passion‖ (136). Homer identifies with Quasimodo on two accounts – his ―defectiveness‖ and his expression through music and sound. This self-imposed likeness to a physically flawed musician of sorts paints a vivid portrayal of how Homer views himself and how he believes others perceive him. Finally, Homer‘s musical skills provide a means of classification other than blindness (5). His musical talent helps him cope with his loss of sight not only because it allows him to be labeled as a musician, but because music is an unfaltering constant in his life. Even though he lost his sight, his mother and father, his way of life, and his brother‘s sanity, music and sound were always present as a means of expression, communication, identification, and exploration. In addition to an identifier, music serves Homer as a vehicle that connects him to other people who drift through his life. The first time a great connection through music is made is when Homer falls in love with Mary Elizabeth Riordan; Homer says that ―she understood as I did that when you sat down and put your hands on the keys, it was not just a piano in front of you, it was a universe‖ (40). This connection with Mary Elizabeth through music proves to forge one of the strongest bonds Homer creates with someone from the outside world who comes to stay with Homer and Langley. It allows him to attach to her emotionally and personally, as he sees in her a part of himself – ―a parentless child trying to regain a belief in a reasonable world‖ (42). Conversely, Homer also discovers more about Lissy and the hippies through music when he declares, ―If 4 they attended that antiwar rally in the park it was because there was music there,‖ and he goes on to say that they are heedless itinerants (146). It is through the recurring theme of music that he determines these characteristics of the young bunch. By identifying their qualities and their own relationship with music, he also discovers disconnects between his generation and theirs – clearly marking the passing of time that sweeps away the outside world, leaving the Collyer residence untouched. Throughout the expanse of Homer‘s depictions of his life, music is a relentlessly active theme. It is through music that the blind brother is able to fruitfully describe the events passed and, in the process, reveal more about himself than could be described directly. Homer‘s love of – and sensitivity to – music also allows him to have passionate relationships with others. This also allows him to explore the changing world through interpersonal experiences with people with whom he interacts. All of this, experienced through the joy of music, weaves the man he is and the life he lives in his entombed home on Fifth Avenue. Sara Gushgari is a new transfer student in Cornell's College of Engineering, where she has junior status and majors in Civil Engineering.