Journal #14

Journal #14 - E. A. Robinson Poems

Realism – The theory or practice in art and literature of fidelity to nature or to real life and to accurate representation without idealization of the most typical views, details, and surroundings of the subject.

Read the following poems and write a detailed description for each of the title characters and explain how each is an example of the “real” instead of the “ideal.”

“Richard Cory“ (497)

Everyone in the town that Richard Cory lives in everyone looks up to him. He is seen as the perfect man and its shown through the nice clothes he wears and how smart he is. This makes the story ironic because Richard goes home to kill himself. This shows that no one actually knows whats going on, on the inside. It was very ironic because everyone thought he was perfect and he went home to kill himself. A theme of this story would be to not judge a person by what you think is on the outside. No one ever really knows what’s going on behind closed doors.

“Miniver Cheevy” (497)

Minivery Cheevy dreams of living in a different era of knights and romantics. He loves the days when people rode horses and used swords. He dreams of life where everyone is romatic. He became a drunk because all of these dreams could not be fulfilled. The life that he wanted to live wasn’t possible. His life became empty and all he thinks about is the life he’s not living.

“Mr. Flood’s Party” (498)

In this story, Mr. Flood is having a party for himself. This is not the ideal party because it is only himself. He’s old now and doesn’t have any friends. The story explains that all the doors are shut and will never open. I believe that he did something unforgivable and therefore everyone shut him out of their lives. Mr. Flood gets drunk because when he is like that, he gets to have a party and thinks all of his friends are there. In reality, Mr. Flood is just a lonely old drunk.