The Giver

 In middle school we read a book called The Giver, which is about a society where everyone is the same. People's partners are picked for the, their jobs are picked for them when they reach a certain age, and their kids are given to them. In middle school it was difficult to fully understand all the nuances and implications of this text, but not I can see that it can be labeled as a postmodern work.

The Giver brings to question the trustworthiness of government and those in charge. Going more specific, it can be said that the book questions the merits of communism. Its main postmodern technique used is absurdism. Many parts of this story are absurd. First of all, most people in this society only see in black, white, and shades of grey. Memories and information of the past are contained in a person; it is that person's job to keep that information, and access to that information allows them to see color (somehow). The rigid structure of the society is also absurd. People are watched and judged from the moment they are children, and this is what determines their jobs in the future (which they receive when they're still kids). The age someone is given a bike is recorded, and taking an extra apple to eat is also recorded. The absurdity of all the regulations satirizes over powerful leaders/governments, showing them in a tyrannical light.

Paranoia is also used in The Giver. Once the main character (and we, the audience) start learning more about the society and how it really functions, darker sides of it begin to emerge. People who get problematic are killed. A baby born when they shouldn't be is killed. Up to and when the main character escapes this community, paranoia builds on if they will be discovered and reach the same fate. The unsettling feeling that comes with this paranoia serves the postmodern aspect of the novel because it puts over powered governments in an evil light, calling to question methods used to stay in power.

Annabel Lee

Annabel Lee by Edgar Allen Poe 

It was many and many a year ago,
   In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
   By the name of ANNABEL LEE;--
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
   Than to love and be loved by me.
She was a child and I was a child,
   In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love--
   I and my Annabel Lee--
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
   Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
   In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud by night
   Chilling my Annabel Lee;
So that her high-born kinsman came
   And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
   In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,
   Went envying her and me:--
Yes! that was the reason (as all men know,
   In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of a cloud, chilling
   And killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
   Of those who were older than we--
   Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in Heaven above,
   Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:--

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I see the bright eyes
   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride,
   In her sepulchre there by the sea--
   In her tomb by the side of the sea.

 In Annabel Lee, the speaker reminisces his departed love. They paint this love as something grand, something fantastical-- too good to be true for many. One way the fantastical nature of this love is portrayed is through the repetition of the fact that it happened "in this kingdom by the sea." Kingdoms draw the image of a fictional and possible magical world. This takes the speaker and Annabel out of the ordinary human world and places them in a much more exciting setting, which adds to the mystic of their love.

However magical the love in the poem may be, it is ultimately about loss. The grief is shown through the length of the stanzas. The first stanza is the longest, at 12 lines long. The length reflects the happiness and lively flow of the love the speaker and Annabel Lee share. However, then the stanzas get shorter as their story becomes more tragic. The next stanza is only 8 lines. The third stanza is  the shortest in the poem, at 6 lines. This is the stanza where Annabel Lee is killed, and the shortness of the stanza reflects both the shortness of their love story, and the emptiness/lack of thoughts that consumes one after experiencing the loss of someone dear to them. The fourth stanza is 7 lines and the last is 8. The stanzas slowly get longer as the spear begins coping with and accepting his loss. However, the stanzas are never as long as the first one, where Annabel was still alive and their love was still blossoming. So while the speaker slowly starts recovering, it seems they never fully returned to the fullness of thoughts they had while their love was alive.

Furthermore, Annabel Lee does not follow any set pattern for how many lines its stanzas contain. This is befitting the content of the poem, which discusses how the love between the speaker and Annabel Lee went against the expectations and desires of everyone, from "her high-born kinsman" to even "the angels in Haven above" and "the demons down under the sea." Both the stanzas and the love story refuse to adhere to guidelines.

Above is an image of Edgar Allen Poe, and below is a depiction of Annabel and the sea from the poem.

Ferris Bueller

 Even though it released in the late 1980s, Ferris Bueller's Day Off is still an iconic comedy movie, and a large part of the credit for that goes to the hilarious main character, Ferris Bueller.

Firstly, the metatheater nature of the movie is striking. Not many shows and movies at the time broke the fourth wall, but Ferris constantly turned to the camera to talk to the audience, like this when he tricks his parents into thinking he's sick so he can skip school. It makes us feel like we're in on his schemes, which makes the movie funnier. Additionally, Ferris changes his language level depending on who he's talking to. When he's lying to his parents, his level drops considerably as he starts talking like a child to win them over. With his friends he's at his regular level, and then when he talks to other adults he tries elevating his level to seem sophisticated. The exaggerated changes in his speech make him a funnier character.

One of my personal favorite aspects of Ferris is his wit. His ability to come up with schemes to get what he wants, like getting his girlfriend out of school or him and his friends into places they're too young for, is really funny. In addition to that, so is his ability to create good responses to things said to him. The repartee between Ferris and his best friend Cameron is fast paced and humorous to watch. Finally, Ferris uses a lot of sarcasm when he talks. It isn't overdone, or very malicious, and what result are light and funny moments.