The Million Voices Never Heard
FEMINISTIC APPROACH
I.INTRODUCTION
Jose Garcia Villa was a Filipino poet, literary critic, short story writer and painter. He is known to have introduced the "reversed consonance rhyme scheme in writing poetry as well as the extensive use of punctuation mark especially comma, which made him know as the comma poet. He used the penname doveglion derived from (dove, eagle). Villa is undisputed Filipino supremo of the practitioners of the "artsakist". He was born in Singalong, Manila on August 5, 1908; he graduated from UP High School in 1925 and enrolled in the pre-med course. His ideas in literature were provocative. He stirred strong feelings and he was thought too individualistic. He died on February 7, 1997 at the age of 88 in New York hospital two days after he was found unconscious in his apartment (Custodio, 2017).
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov, also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin, was a Russian-American novelist. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, and then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist. He also made significant contributions to Lepidoptera and had an interest in chess problems. Nabokov's Lolita (1955) is frequently cited as his most important novel, and is at any rate his most widely known one, exhibiting the love of intricate wordplay and descriptive detail that characterized all his works (Goodreads, 2007).
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory, on the morning of December 7, 1941. The attack, also known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor, led to the United States' entry into World War II. The Japanese military leadership referred to the attack as the Hawaii Operation and Operation AI, and as Operation Z during its planning. This film is a combination of a love story and a tale of war in history.
II.DISCUSSION
Casuga (2009), stated that analysis require an abstract meaning from the empirical of artistic significance the content and the form combined to a formal approach of appreciation. The poem has an objective and most result to a physical structure that is capable in suggesting meaning from its visual appearance. Just a physical appearance of a man can exude all types of impressions about his character assuming the artist shape his structure to the experience of reality that he is creating. Casuga also said that Villa wrote an erotic poetry and he was good at it most of his poets teach the students about the human being was biological function as a province of art. This helped me to understand his poem on love, his comma poem that sought to human love in all its shapes, forms, motion and energies that recall the spiritual functions of this human prowess.
The author of the Coconut poem is a man although the poem is about nipples of a woman. He wants to convey what the image will create to the readers. The coconut personified to women but the speaker projected the coconut as a woman the essence basing it through the physical aspect of human being as a woman having one pair of breast in a girl perspective comparing it to the poem there is a femininity that caught attention to the reader. Sucking the coconut as if sucking one's breast is provocative the readers might disagree with it the image provoke that will cause a sore in the eye the reader will take malicious image or words it would appear to their minds in interpreting such image the poem's purpose.
According to Lacan (1966), men are in control of the word, the unconscious structure of language its power asses from the sense of openness and play of meaning. In reading language or text we may identify the sexual categories to gain access to find source of creativity. Dissecting the line "coconut have ripened, they are like nipple to the tree how coconut and nipple/breast are alike it appeals to one senses, the sense of sight how the two are similar or how they differ. The speaker speaks like a man or what a man feels. A coconut has a regular shape round as a ball and considered as a tree of life when it comes to health the coconut contains liquid that serves us thirst quencher and it is best source to prevent us from illness just like woman it has a big role to her partner to serve as thirst quencher of their emotional dehydration to make happy in a simple way, the coconut contain not only limited uses but as a variety of usage like women as a wife, sister, daughter etc., have function in living the speaker seems that women admitting the aesthetic of beauty that can possess soon and fade.
All things end on the other hand the line "they are like nipples to the tree "tell us that the speaker admire more, the breast or nipple has something astonishing to the body of the women. The speaker was inspired or in love with his partner there is something pleasurable in this poem the nipple, the kissing, sucking etc. He is fantasizing.
Rivkin and Ryan (1988) explained that between the direct link to material nature in women's bodies and the flight from such contact that is the driving force of male abstraction it pretence to be above matter and outside of the nature. The poem is more on free writing process where his imagination flow spontaneously he is beyond the boundaries he desires the woman he likes the poem is written during the honeymoon or after and the speaker is in the province that has full of coconut tree. He inspired to write the poem and he use his imagination and compare the coconut to a woman he think that they are similar. When a girl reach their adulthood and in the right age the ripe and the maturity of the both coconut and woman or lady, the speaker find the nipples are attractive in all other parts of a woman, like a fruit it gives beauty to the tree or plant itself.
An effect of language a culture and its institution, gender not sex makes an older man open the door for a young woman and gender makes her expect it or experience mixed feeling (Murfin, 2000).
Lolita is a novel written by Vladimir Nabokov, one of the most ingenious authors of the 20th century who is known for his originality and accomplishment as a writer. Although the title is a girl's name, this novel was a confession and so narrated by a white widowed male Humbert. His skill with language makes him a persuasive narrator, often able to convince readers to see his perspective. Humbert was raised by his strict aunt on Paris and one summer day he met Annabel Leigh who is traveling that time with her parents. They became friends and soon changes into a passionate love. They continue they affair and four months later Annabel died of typhus in Corfu.
Course Hero (2016) described the characters of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita in different ways. First, Lolita the main character, she is a 12-year-old girl who is vulnerable because she was neglected by her mother. This rejection made her feel loveless and tries to get attention of other people on her own way. Other way around, Humbert, the narrator of the story was described as abuser of Lolita. He see himself as superior to everyone he meets; he was also described as paedophile because it was only the nymphets who can arouse him. Humbert was also said to be unreliable narrator because in his story-telling he made himself as a pity-one who was left by Lolita, a girl whom he loved most than Anabelle though if readers look beyond on Humbert’s languages he is the one who is abusive. He controlled and dictated Lolita all the aspect of her life.
Humbert started his affairs to the other young girls whom he calls nymphet; a girl ages nine to fourteen, not necessarily beautiful but has the attracting kind of beauty (Spark Notes, 2017). He marries adult woman to overcome his cravings from nymphets but his marriage is always unsuccessful.
Bressler (1999) said that in Virginia Woolf’s A Room for one’s own, she declares that it is male who controls everything in the society. In Lolita, it is always Humbert who take control when it comes to money and even Lolita’s freedom. He is the one who handle the money and one who decided whether he will give Lolita to satisfy her needs. He even makes Lolita feel that she has nowhere to go without him; this continues until the end of the novel which he realized that he stole Lolita’s childhood.
Dolores, whom described by the narrator at the first part of the novel as love of his life and whom he, declared always Lolita on his arms. Dictionary defined Lolita as a sexually precocious young girl. But in the narration of Humbert, Lolita is simply a stubborn child. In the story, it was stated that Humbert marries Mrs Charlotte Haze; mother of Dolores, only to get closer at her. (Part one, Chapter 17)
She was under the control of Humbert as her mother died on a car accident. At first, it was just a lust for Humbert but soon declared that it was already love for her. Humbert’s love for Lolita became the trapped for Lolita and she is powerless to extricate herself.
According to Judith Viorst, by not giving voice and value to women's opinions, responses and writings, men have therefore suppressed the female, defined what it means to be feminine, and thereby devoice, devalued, and trivialized what it means to be a woman. In effect, men have made woman "non-significant other" (Bressler, 1999). Lolita grew up under the control of Humbert and does not able to decide for herself. Lolita exists only as the object of his obsession, never as an individual. At the beginning she was innocent, only Humbert forces her to change into fully sexual being. At the end of the novel, she became worn-out, pregnant wife of a labourer. Her attitude suggests that as a child she had nothing for them to steal, nothing important enough to value.
In the novel, there is stereotypical characterizations of women appear, which a woman being able to stand up and make decisions for herself. As what Lolita does, she left and soon came back to Humbert already pregnant. Similarly, her mother also made decisions and shape their future. For the belief that their life would be better if there would be a father for Dolores. Also, women are emotional, as Charlotte discovered the diary of Humber where he said his attraction to Dolores; she was hurt and make decisions hurriedly. Because of jealousy, she told Humbert that he would never Dolores again, this decision that she did not think of better lead her to her death.
There are unnecessary actions held by male character in the story towards women. First, he used women whom he called nymphets to satisfy his sexual needs. Second, he became superior to Lolita’s life in which Lolita does not enjoy her childhood days because Humbert opened her minds early in sexual activities.
Throughout Lolita, the interactions between European and American cultures result in perpetual misunderstandings and conflict. Charlotte Haze, an American, is drawn to the sophistication and worldliness of Humbert, a European. She eagerly accepts Humbert not because she already knows who he is but because he is attracted to his background.
The movie Pearl Harbor directed and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer was released in 2001. This highly praised movie allows the audience to carefully watch this that is based on a day when the United States started their involvement in World War II.
The movie begins with a two boys, Danny Walker and Rafe McCauley, who have grown up hoping to become involved in the United States military and slowly changes to the life, excitement, and hardships of being involved in the war. They were best of friends.
Rafe is one of the best fighter pilots in the regiment and falls in love with a beautiful nurse, Lt. Evelyn Johnson. As the United States tries to help the British, Rafe volunteers to go to London. After several months he supposedly dies when shot down by a German aircraft. This devastating news is told to Lt. Evelyn Johnson by Danny Walker who is still trying to deal with the situation. A few months went by and Lt. Evelyn Johnson and Danny Walker fall in love. Evelyn falsifies the eye exam because, she explains, her father was a pilot, too. Young Danny's father's mistreatment of his son is a result of trauma suffered in World War I.
As Beavoir believed that the male in these societies defines what it means to be human, therefore, what it means to be female. Being alone during a time of war was not an ideal situation, one that all military men and women hated. They found themselves to be compatible and in love. They enjoyed their relationship together until news is delivered to Danny that Rafe is still alive. During all this time United States avoids involvement would in the war because they felt that their involvement would not have an impact. The relationship with Danny and Evelyn progresses and so did the war. It is on December 7, 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
The love triangle that is made between Lt. Evelyn, Danny, and Rafe showed how men interact with a woman that they love. A desperate young girl, Betty, who hopes to meet someone she can spend the rest of her life with. She lies to the government to become a nurse. She puts her life at a possible risk in hope to find love.
According to Mary Wollstonecraft (1792), women must stand up for their rights and not allow their male-dominated society to define what it means to be a human. The fliers soon meet their female counterparts, a gaggle of nurses similarly typed for easy recognition: the fat one, the boy-crazy blonde, the shy girl with glasses and so on. Female characters here are secondary characters because the movie focuses on men who fought during a war. Women did their part helping and assisting those men who gotten during the war.
One of these, Evelyn Johnson (Kate Beckinsale), falls in love with Rafe after they meet during a physical exam. Suffering from what sounds like dyslexia, he is unable to sort out the letters on the eye chart, but after hearing his eloquent paean to his own flying skills, she passes him. His disability does not interfere with his ability to read and write love letters once he and Evelyn are separated by the war. She also jabs him in the rear end with an inoculation needle, and he passes out and breaks his nose, which sets up the following priceless exchange: He: ''You are so beautiful it hurts.'' She: ''It's your nose that hurts.'' He: ''No, it's my heart.'' It has some mild swearing, a gauzy sex scene and many scenes of intense and brutal combat.
III.CONCLUSION
“Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.
She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita.”
This line from Humbert actually means that Lolita means a lot to him. He defined Lolita as love of his life as if she's his lifetime girl. He declared that Lolita is everything to him; from describing her we can say that he was very attractive to her. Also, he treated Lolita his life and no other woman can replace Lolita to his heart. He also said, "In point of fact, there might have been no Lolita at all had I not loved..." which actually means, Lolita is his significant other that he couldn't live without Lolita on his side.
We are all created equal, with reasons and purpose. Each of us has an ability to do things so we must treat everyone equally. Not because she is a woman she cannot do the things a man can do.
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