What is Bop? In “Bop” by Langston Hughes, the narrator describes Bop as Be-Bop, the opposite of Re-Bop. The general idea of Be-Bop is that it is current, makes sense, what the colored boys play and that it is authentic. This leads to Re-Bop having the definition of being white boys play, an imitation, and complete nonsense. In “Bop”, a character by the name of Simple is stating his own theory on the origin of Be-Bop music to an unnamed narrator. Simple uses his somewhat ethnocentric views to help the unnamed narrator acknowledge more of the world’s current racial issues.
Simple uses slang and a broken English dialect to help the unnamed narrator convey a greater sense of Be-Bop and how it relates to racial issues. In this two person dialogue between Simple and the unnamed narrator, the setting of their conversation is being held in an urban setting. Simple uses this urban setting to his advantage by speaking freely using slang and a broken English dialect knowing that the unnamed narrator would understand. In order to transfer the point to the unnamed narrator, Simple uses a type of language which they are both familiar with.
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Simple’s point is that Re-Bop and Be-Bop are not the same. The composure of the dialogue allows for Hughes to use Simple to broadly convey his thoughts to the unnamed narrator or his audience through a casual manner. Not only does Simple use slang and a broken English dialect to convey the racial issues to the narrator, but he also uses a humorous tone in order to grab the attention of the narrator. Although Simple brings the unnamed narrator’s attention toward African American culture, Simple only focuses on one aspect of it.
Simple focuses primarily on the racial issue of the culture. This humorous tone allows for Simple and the narrator to be at ease with each other. “Every time a cop hits a Negro with his billy club, that old club says, ‘Bop! Bop! Be-Bop!… Mop!… Bop! ’” (Hughes 1). This example provided by Simple, allows him successfully inform the narrator with the racial issue through a humorous tone while not depreciating its significance. In order for Simple to transfer his idea of racial ideas to the unnamed narrator, he uses the context of the music Bop.
Simple is able to provide the narrator with an example of how Bop is like how an African American is getting beat up. Simple uses the sounds of jazz to represent the horrible racial issue that is happening during the time. An example of jazz sounds would be “Old Cop just keeps on, ‘Mop! Mop!… Be-Bop! Mop! ’” (Hughes 1). Be-Bop represents the police brutality that the African Americans were facing at the time. All in all, Simple uses several techniques to help the unnamed narrator understand the racial issues. Hughes purposely did not mention the name of the narrator or his ethnicity for a reason. Somebody upstairs in Simple’s house had the combination turned up loud with an old Dizzy Gillespie record spinning like mad filling the Sabbath with Bop as I passed. ”(Hughes 1). Perhaps by starting off the story with someone unnamed, Hughes was trying to let the reader fill in the character and get their own understanding. The unnamed narrator may represent anyone who cannot relate to the blacks who have experienced the racial issue. That person may even be black if they were not discriminated against. This unnamed narrator may not appreciate Bop music because this person has not experienced the racism on African-Americans.
Chosin Reservoir And Terrain/Weather
The battle of Chosin Reservoir was no doubt key, if not the deciding battle of the Korean War. The battle has gained a notoriety for some of the harshest terrain and weather conditions of any battle in any war. Alongside this fact these conditions were extremely influential, in hindsight, in the unpreparedness of our forces and the eventual splitting of the 1st Marine Division, led by General O. P. Smith, and the Army’s 7th Infantry Division which was under the overall command of Major General Edward Almond. Most likely the worst condition regarding the battle had to have been that of the cold.
On November 14th a cold front descended upon the reservoir and temperatures dropped to -35 degrees Fahrenheit. This terrible, terrible cold had many degrading effects on the battlefield. Morphine packets had to be warmed in medics mouths before they could be used, due to freezing. Frozen blood plasma became useless for casualties. Weapon lubricant turned into gel essentially rendering it and any weapon it was used on useless. Springs on firing pins would not strike the round hard enough, and soldiers actually were risking gangrene or frostbite, if they took pieces of clothing off.
Now one can imagine how ungodly these conditions would be normally, but having to fight a battle of this magnitude in these conditions could have proved almost insurmountable for some, especially over a 17 day period. Alongside the horrible weather the mountainous terrain and especially the roads that were carved into steep and hilly sides of the mountain probably didn’t help the cause. Starting from the base of the reservoir to the tops of most of the mountains that surrounded the reservoir were elevation changes of up to 1000 feet.
So steep, and poor of quality, were some of the areas of the mountain, that the road was reduced to one lane gravel. This factored hugely into the retreat of our combined forces. In some cases it forced us into a funnel, that the People’s Volunteer Army (PVA) of China used full well to their advantage. This also limited supply routes severely and especially medical supplies which were of vital importance with the weather conditions the way they were. The Chosin Reservoir itself had the effect of splitting our combined forces into two with the 1st Marines to the
West and the 7th Infantry Division to the East of the reservoir. This allowed for the Chinese Divisions in some areas to effectively surround and separate our forces, which became ugly once the decision to retreat back to Hagaru-ri was made. Even though our forces were able to inflict major casualties to the Chinese forces, approximately 40,000, major losses to ours could have been averted, possibly by avoiding the reservoir altogether. In some instances after General Ridgeway took over command for the U. S. ighth army, which held command over the 7th Infantry Division, found that some commanders of units had no idea what the terrain consisted of or how it was in the front, because they stayed in the rear, and as one can see considering the way the terrain and weather were, this had obvious implications on the performance and survival of men on the line. Any way you shape it however, the battle of Chosin Reservoir is one that can almost be seen as one being disadvantageous from the start, and weather and terrain were no help in that matter.
Critical Analysis: Starry Night Over The Rhone
Vincent Van Gogh was a Dutch artist from the mid 1800’s who was considered to have created approximately 2000 artworks. Growing up, he was classified to be highly emotional and having low self-esteem. Within those depressed emotions, it helped him pioneer the path of expressionism in his art pieces. But as he got more into him artwork he came more mature with his artwork and caused his color patterns and brush strokes to evolve into another style of art called Impressionism. Starry Night Over the Rhone was one of his last ‘few years’ paintings.
It was painted in September of 1888. The canvas resides in Musée d’Orsay, Paris. This piece was created due to him being sick and ending up in the hospital in Arles, France. With that being said, this canvas was the best example of his Impressionism era. It consisted of depiction of lighting, composition, and subject matter. In the book of Living with Art, Mark Geitlin states, “Complementary colors are hues that intensify each other when juxtaposed and dull each other when mixed. On a color wheel, complementary hues are situated directly opposite of each other “(Geitlin 546).
Van Gogh uses the simple color mixture of warm colors, which are different shades of yellow and cool colors, which are different shades of blue. By him using this technique, the viewer’s eye gets an understanding of the time and mood of the day. As you focus on the canvas, the sky shows a representation of darkness mixed in with bright stars (meaning that it is night time). Now as you look lower at the canvas and turn your focus to the river, the color pattern is dark with light to show the reflection of the sky and the houses, and minimum water movement, which depicts the night of being cool and calm.
These helped the interpreters figure out the depiction of light. Vincent Van Gogh uses a very interesting approach with the use of lines and spacing with the Starry Night Over the Rhone. Paying attention to the canvas you will notice that the artist use the bank as a straight across line to divide it up and give us the option to give focus to the sky or the water. Another interesting part of this canvas is the direction of the reflections showing from the water. Van Gogh tries gives us this sense of calm movement with the reflection of the lighting going in a downward course.
Also, the artist shows the viewer the grouping from the stars, to the lights from the houses, to the reflection form the water and which again it gives us the sense of the lighting going in a downward motion. Another main focal point in this canvas was subject matter. This is where the objects or events are described. The artist gives us different objects such as the old couple seems displayed as depressing. Or you can observe it as normal couple, walking across the river, enjoying the night.
He also gives us a boat which could possibly be giving us a correlation because the boat looks like it’s broken or about to sink. There is also another interpretation with the object that Van Gogh displays which is, the stars. Depending upon which way you want to take it, they look like flowers or fireworks. Also, there is a sense of false appearance with the houses. If you stare at just the bank you will notice that it is just a bunch of bright lights but if you pay attention to the water close to the bank, you will acknowledge the darkness or shadow of the houses.
What was the reason for Vincent Van Gogh creating the Starry Night Over the Rhone? Well, nobody will ever know because he is dead. But, for the viewers’ interpretation, you can idealize that he was just looking directly outside his window, wanting to show you the impression of a beautiful night. Another way you can take his work as, this canvas was the definition of him being at piece because as stated before, when he was younger he was classified as emotional and depressing. All in all, the piece that he created was amazing.
Whether it was looking at the sky, with all the shining stars or its looking at the river reflecting what’s going on in the sky or the river bank. It made you believe that you were actually in Paris looking across the river enjoying the scenery. Works Cited Getlein, Mark. Living with Art. 9th ed. Boston, MA: McGraw Hill, 2008. Print. “Starry Night Over the Rhone, Van Gogh. ” – Free Wallpapers. N. p. , n. d. Web. 23 Feb. 2013. “Vincent Van Gogh: Biography. ” Vincent Van Gogh Gallery. N. p. , n. d. Web. 23 Feb. 2013.