Emotions Run Wild

Last Tuesday I attended the lecture of David Simon, the creater of "The Wire." His lecture was very hard hitting, because it wasn't something a listener would expect to here during the Year of the City. David Simon left the listeners with a very grim attitude, which I felt was necessary in order to open our eyes to what is really going on outside of our bubble. His extremely pessimistic view was too harsh for some people, but it definately got the point across. I feel is talk was very passionate and he expressed what he was feeling.
The problem most peole had with his lecture was that he didn't leave any sign of hope for our cities or our country. He spoke about this old America, where if we would have taken action we could have prevented our cities from getting this bad. This is why he spoke in such an angry and pessimistic attitude, he was mad that the older generations hadn't done anything to fix the demise of cities when they had the chance and it is now dumped onto us to fix it. One thing Simon said was that he "expected a lot more of the future; America has chosen capitalism, which has become our God, over valuing humans." This made me really think about what is going on outside of the bubble we live in. Poverty is getting worse and the middle class isn't the best place to be anymore either. All Americans want is money and power, and will leave anyone in the dust to get there. Another point Simon made was that "every moment human beings are worth less; we don't need as many of us as we once did." This is a reasoning he gives for the horrible outcomes of people in cities, and why they had to resort to what they did.
David Simon put a lot of emotion, mostly anger with extreme passion, into his lecture. This strength of his emotion is what made people listen and either like or hate how he spoke and what he spoke about. Sometimes people let emotions take over them and react in ways they wouldn't normally think possible. Four works that express the power of human emotions are the short story "The Cask of Amontillado," by Edgar Allan Poe, and the poems: Ode to American English, by Barbara Hamby, My Last Duchess, by Robert Browning, and America, by Tony Hoagland. Although the emotions in each of these works are different, they do bring the same amount of power to what they are saying.
Poe's, "The Cask of Amontillado," is a story about revenge. The narrator in the story hated another man, Fortunato, because of the insults he put on him. After this act the narrator stated, "I mist not only punish, but punish with impunity." In other words, his feeling of hatred for Fortunato was so strong that he knew he must avenge himself and make sure this man got something done to him just as bad as what was done to himself. The narrator brought Fortunato to the catacombs in order to taste the Amontillado, well aware of the fact that it would be hard on his cough and health. He got him drunk so Fortunato wouldn't realize what was going on, chained him up, and left him to die. The narrator was so obsessed with his hatred for this man and how to get revenge on him, that he became inhuman. He felt joyed when he knew the man was left for dead. This story is a good example of how humans let emotions get the best of them and how crazy we can act when we don't control them.
Barbara Hamby's, Ode to American English, has a quite different tone than Poe's story. Although the emotion is on the sad side, because she is missing America, it has a sort of comic relief tone mixed into it. She starts off the poem by saying "I was sitting in Paris one day missing English, American, really," which right off the bat states the feeling of nostalgia and sadness for this country. She uses the phrase "I miss" several times throughout the entirety of the poem. What gives this poem more of an upbeat feeling to the reader is what comes after that phrase, for example, "I miss all those guys, their Tweety-bird resilience, their Doris Day optimism..." Even though the poem is about missing America and has a sad theme, it is quite a comic poem, because of the things that she mentions that she misses.
Robert Browning's, My Last Duchess, has the emotion unhappiness. When he speaks of the painting he says, "That's my lat Duchess painted on the wall, looking as if she were alive. I call that piece a wonder, now." Right away the reader knows that this poem is about a woman who the Duke had been with, and that the poem is about this woman. The whole poem is about the unhappiness of his first wife and how she was not what he would have imagined. "For never reaed strangers like you that pictured countenance, the depth and passion of its earnest glance," is a line in the poem that describes the Duke's feelings towards his first wife. It is like judging a book by it's cover, but in this case what is underneath is not what someone would expect. The writer brings the tone of unhappinness into the poem and it allows the reader to understand with the Duke more.
Tony Hoagland's, America, has a slightly different emotion. It gives the reader a feeling of a disgusted attitude by the writer. He has an almost sarcastic tone through out the poem, but when you look at the meaning of the poem you see it is more serious. He discusses the ideas of how people feel in America. Many people don't realize how nice they have it compared to others around them. A line that describes this idea very well in the porm is, "And you are floating in you pleasure boat upon this river even while others are drowning underneath you." He also has a vivid dream about stabbing his father and money instead of blood comes out. This just shows the greed of American society. Hoagland brings his disgusted feeling and uses his emotion to write down what he feels.
These four works, and the lecture by David Simon, definately show how much emotion plays a role in what people say and write. Acting upon these emotions can bring out both good and bad things from people. Controlling emotions and using them to express yourself in a humane way is the best way to reach out to others to get your point across.