Poems, and novels, and AP English. Oh My!

The Red Badge of Courage takes place during the Civil War,  one of the bloodiest and most deadly times in American History.  So there is no doubt in the reader’s mind, that Crane deals with death throughout the novel.

Crane’s most important technique is realism.  War is very real, and Crane pulls the reader inside this real world.  He doesn’t fabricate, he shows war and death how it is, no sugared coating.   The protagnoist Henry, seems to waver in his idea about death.  The narrator (third person limited) says,  “At times he regarded the wounded soldiers in an envious way.  He concieved persons with torn bodies to be peculiarly happy.  He wished that he, too, had a wound, a red badge of courage.   When it is just the thought of death, Henry seems calm, he sees it as a way to prove his courage, but when he is actually faced with it, he is filled with terror and flees.  He fled from battle, afraid of dying, he fled in terror from the corpse in the woods, believing death was contagious.

Henry sees death up close when his friend Jim Conklin dies right in front of him and his reaction is what the reader expects, “The youth turned, with sudden, livid rage, toward the battle field.  He shook his fist…the youth desired to screech out his grief.  He was stabbed, but his tongue lay dead in the tomb of his mouth.  He threw himself again upon the ground and began to brood.” (p.56)  Face to face with the death of his friend, Henry realizes death isn’t about glory, he shouldn’t feel envious of those who are dead, and feels angry and hurt that his friend his now gone.  Another view of death though is shown to the reader, from the tattered soldier,  “He’s up an’ gone, ain’t ‘e, an’ we might as well begin t’ look out fer ol’ number one.”  The tattered soldier didn’t know Jim, and didn’t care that he was dead, he just wanted to look out for himself.  This represents a real life situation, we all hear about death in the news all the time, but we really don’t seem to care, unless it effects us somehow.  We might feel a little sad for a few minutes, a moment of silence, but than we go on with our lives.  Henry’s reaction, is the reaction we would have if someone close to us died.  Crane presents to us  a real live situation, and real reactions.

The reader can have two reactions to the idea of death in this book.  They can be like Henry, and have death impact them, or they can be like the tattered soldier, who laughs it off, and says at least it wasn’t them.  These are real life ideas, war and death are very real, and Crane makes his novel very real, he makes it so that the reader can connect with what they are reading, he doesn’t censor, and shows real reactions to death.

The definition of a comrade is “a person who shares one’s interests or activities; a friend or companion. Often a fellow member of a group. The etymology of the word gives us a brief description,”politically or socially close, roommates or barrack mates, companion.” A comrade can be many different people. But usually when one says the word comrade, the image of a group of soldiers comes to mind. In the Red Badge of Courage, Henry Flemmings has many comrades at his side. Within the first few pages of the novel, Henry is already calling the men around him comrades. They live together, eat together, fight together, and experience together. A unit of soldiers is the perfect definition of the word comrade. Their lives almost depend on working as a unit, working as comrades.

The most obvious example of how the relationship between Henry and the other soldiers is one of comradeship, is how Henry is always worried that he is different than the others, that they will think wrongly of him. “The youth of this tale felt gratitude for these words of his comrade. He feared that all of the untried men possessed a great and correct confidence. He was now in a measure reassured. Henry has a lot of fear, and he seeks the opinion and experience of his comrades. They are his companions, and he feels reassured that they (sometimes) feel as he does. Its like how kids seek out their peers, we, like soldiers are comrades, and we seek level ground. “Meanwhile he continually tried to measure himself by his comrades” (p. 13). It is odd, but Henry trying to ease a confession out of his fellow soldiers is another example of comradeship. We try to drag out confessions from our friends. Does it not make you feel better when after you do something stupid (or think something stupid), that someone else has done (thought) the same? That is what Henry does, when he has self-doubt and has fear.

Jim Conklin, one of Henry’s comrades is shot, and dies in front of Henry. But Jim tries to run away from him, so that Henry won’t see him die, he repeatedly says “Leave me be”. This devestates Henry, “His face had been twisted into an expression of every agony he had imagined for his friend.” Jim tried to spare his friend the agony of watching him die, he wanted to protect him. But as his friend, Henry couldn’t leave him alone. Wilson, another comrade takes care of Henry when he returns to camp with his injury, “At the fireside the loud young soldier watched over his comrade’s wants with tenderness and care.” As a fellow soldier it can be considered his duty to help fellow soldier, but as a friend he does it with tenderness and care. Wilson was also the one that gave Henry the letter earlier, to give to his family in case he didn’t make it, you trust a friend with something like this.

Henry and his fellow soldiers are like comrades. They care about what each other think (especially Henry). They fight and live together. They argue, and reconcile, they trust. A comrade is a friend, they got your back (and in a time of war, surely Henry wants a lot of comrades).

The traditional hero doesn’t bend the rules or break laws. They are brave, considerate and full of courage. They are strong both mentally and physically, and don’t turn their backs on what is right. They won’t turn their back on a fight, they seem to show no fear of death. They are the “ideal person’, and are seemingly lacking any negative emotions. They actually seem inhuman at times. Courage, is the ability to do what is right, to take action when it is need. You can fear many things, but still have plenty of courage. Literature like Beowulf produces the idea of a traditional hero.

In The Red Badge of Courage, Henry and some of the other soldiers are the opposite of the traditional hero. They say they are willing to give their lives for their country but then they all run in fear, during the battle. “Another commander of the brigade, was galloping about bawling…In this rush they were apparently all deaf and blind…”(p.30) The men were all fleeing in terror, ignoring their duty to their country. They didn’t even pay attention to those around them that were in need of help (or were in danger).

“There was an appalling imprint upon those faces…in the eyes wild with one desire…the sight of this stampede.” (p.31) They do not represent the traditional hero, they run away, in fact they act like animals running away from a predator. The thing is though, they are human, and it is human instinct to run away from danger, it may seem primal, but its the truth. Crane is showing us that all the soldiers are human, they are the normal man. They show fear, they run, because they aren’t these incredible heroes that should be worshiped, they are the normal man, trying to make a difference. They are the non-traditional heroes.

Henry is not a traditional hero, he at first wishes to stay and fight (p.33), and does for one battle, but later he is overcome with fear and flees with the other. “He lost his direction of safety…Directly he began to speed toward the rear n great leaps…on his face was the horror of those things which he imagined.” (p.39). Crane doesn’t make his main character the traditional hero. he makes him just a young boy who was looking for glory, and realized what the dangers really are. By making him human, Crane is glorifying the normal hero, one that has fear, but still can have the chance to shine. Possibly one of the greatest pieces of evidence that Henry is not a traditional hero, is that he calls the soldiers who remained, “machine like fools” (p.41), those soldiers who stayed behind lack the fear that the others had. He can’t comprehend how they are calmly shooting those men, how they face danger and do not cringe.

    Realism and Naturalism were created as a response to Romanticism during the 19th century.  They came about in France, which is unsurprising.  The French viewed themselves as rationalists, and Romanticism clashed with their beliefs, and reasoning. Romanticism is heavily based on emotions, while Realism (and Naturalism) is based on rationalism, hence why they become big movements in France during the 19th century. Romanticism plays up on real life, adding drama and color that are like fluff, unneeded to a point.  Realism was real life, it had no sugar coating, or added extreme emotions.

Balzac is considered one of the forefathers of realism.  His first work was a series of novels that contrasted with Dante’s Divine Comedy. Balzac displayed all types of society in his work.  He displayed a great attention to detail, in fact, he was obsessive. They were incredibly long as well, at this time books were the way to kill time. (instead of getting fat doing nothing but watching tv, they got fat reading books :p).  His plots of his novels though, were leaning towards more romantic, than realistic.

Another “major player” was Flaubert, his work was more realistic than his predecessor.  He began as a romanticist, but his friends encouraged him to write something “more down to earth”.   He chose the story of an adulterous woman, his story was based on two real accounts and two real women.  Like Balzac, he paid attention to detail, and did a lot of research.  He even drew a map that detailed the town of his novel (which was based on a real town). The woman in the novel had two affairs and committed suicide, which may seem shocking to (most) modern readers, back than it was a tradition in French literature.  What made it real, and different, is that Flaubert’s character’s affairs were not because of a romantic feeling (adultery was not justified in the least).  The novel ended up being  a anti-romantic manifesto.  Flaubert returned to romanticism from time to time in his career.

“Aside from genre fiction such as fantasy and horror, we expect the ordinary novel today to be based in our own world, with recognizably familiar types of characters endowed with no supernatural powers, doing the sorts of things that ordinary people do every day.  ” An every day man is going to be attracted to a book that he (or she) can pick up and say that it applies to me.  Although, the everyday can be boring, and it can be said that some do seek novels that are more romantic than real.

Naturalism is not an extreme break from Realism, it is just an extension. “The term was invented by Émile Zola partly because he was seeking for a striking platform from which to convince the reading public that it was getting something new and modern in his fiction.”  In other words he was selling a false product.  The only difference between his work, and the work of his predecessors  was that his extremely long detail was more integrated. “Zola’s novels do place special stress on the importance of heredity and environment in determining character. They are anti-Romantic in their rejection of the self-defining hero who transcends his background. History shapes his protagonists rather than being shaped by them. This leads to an overwhelming sense of doom in most of his novels, culminating in a final catastrophe. ” His protagonists weren’t heroes like those you see in romantic novels, they were the everyday man, shaped by the past.  They didn’t do anything that could change history.  His characters didn’t stand out, they just represented all parts of society in it’s norm.   “Zola has had an enormous impact on the American novel. Americans with their preference for action over thought and for gritty realism were strongly drawn to his style of writing. ” (Of course.  Americans love sex, blood, and violence).

Realism and Naturalism, there is no big difference between them.  They are two peas in a pod.  They have thankfully not destroyed Romanticism all together ( it would be boring reading the same stuff, we need novels that have Romanticism in them), but they have made a huge impact on literature and all other arts.   The dislike of romanticism in the past, gave us a richer experience now.

Chapters 1, 2, 3

Five Tangible Things (explain them? really?)

Uniform (p.6) – presents a sense of pride and honor, an outfit

Guns/rifles (p.9, 15)- a weapon, source of some intangible emotions

Blankets (p.20)-keeps you warm…… (uh explain? )

Canteens (p.20)- a container used to carry water.

Haversacks (p.20)- an over the shoulder bag.

Five intangible things

Heartbreak (p.6-7)- Henry’s mother is upset and broken that her only son is living to go to war after she discouraged him.

Fear (p.1o)- Clarity comes to Henry, as he realizes how his actions could lead to his death

Loneliness (p.13, 16)- the worst kind, being surrounded by many people, but you can’t connect or confide in any of them.

Longing (p.17)- Henry misses his home, and his past life.

Confusion (p.27)- weird, old man gives Henry a package, and disappears.  who was he?

Personal Section: What do you carry?

Tangible: In my purse: my track phone (for emergencies, usually), my i-pod (can’t live with out music), a pencil and a mini-notebook (always be prepared, and it helps having a list handy), my wallet (money, my permit), chapstick (it’s winter after all), and a bunch of change on the bottom.  In my backpack: school stuff, a whole bunch of stuff to lug home and read, and answer etc…and I hate carrying all that stuff to and from school, but who doesn’t.  On my person: my watch (to tell time, especially when the school clocks are wrong.), a hair tie (just in case), and my glasses (Cause I wouldn’t be able to see anything, I am blind without them).

Intangible: determination- I am (usually) an overachiever, and I try to do my best at everything, and am determined to get the job done right., shyness- I got voted most shy in the yearbook for a reason. nervousness- I don’t like huge crowds of people, especially presenting things., Fear- about the future.,Humor-having a sense of humor (at times) can make everything better….and a bunch of others I suppose, but I don’t wish to share anymore.

1. Describe the subtle changes in setting and analyze how these shifts reveal Eve’s fall from grace.

Answer:

The changes in setting reflect Eve’s fall from grace. It begins bright, but as it goes on, and Satan comes (as the snake) the setting gets darker and darker. The setting begins with Eve picking fruits in the long grass. She is in the wonderful garden of Eden. Satan disguised as a snake has been curled around a tree branch watching her. As it gets darker, he whispers to her slowly sliding down the tree. He slithers up and tells her to follow him “down the dark path to the Blasphemous Tree” (which is the second setting). In this setting Eve eats the forbidden fruit, which God told her not to eat. This is a sharp contrast to the previous setting. The third setting is tragic, Eve is crying outside the Garden of Eden, hungry and alone because she eat the forbidden fruit. The last setting is Satan celebrating his victory under the hill.

2. How does the poem’s diction contribute to tone and meaning? Consider the use of adjectives, verbs, and participles. Look for patterns, contrasts and surprising juxtapositions of words.

Answer:

One pattern is Eve’s innocence (in the beginning). The verbs for Eve are innocent in manner, she is wading, and picking berries, and even after she is thrown out she is crying outside the gate. She is picking sweet berries, and wading in the grass, the image produced is a little girl wading in the water, and picking fruits and eating them. Eve is a maid, her skin is white, which represents innocence. She listens and wonders, another quality of innocence. She is innocent and naïve and that is how Satan tricks her into taking the fruit. Another pattern involves Satan’s trickery. He whispers, falls and tumbles. He is “mute as a mouse” until he falls from the tree (which represent his fall from heaven), he whispers to Eve with a silver tongue, softly almost like a birds song. He is tricking Eve into thinking he is as harmless as a bird. He speaks low, telling her of a secret, and he tricks her to follow him down the dark path, and succeeds. After he and his cohorts celebrate “lewdly” under the hill. The verbs for Eve are innocent in manner, she is wading, and picking berries, and even after she is thrown out she is crying outside the gate.

3.  Consider the poets use of figurative language. How does the choice of comparisons influence tone and meaning?

Answer:

The poet compares Satan to a mouse. He is supposedly mute and harmless but it is all just a trick. He is actually the most dangerous being in the garden. He is full of trickery. His speech falls like flowers, suggesting again that he is harmless, that he is just trying to help Eve, not hurt. His speech is like a bird’s song, he is as harmless as a bird, which is trickery. Eve’s innocence is established through the imagery that she is an “orchard sprite”, she is so innocent she is like a magical creature. Imagery further shows Eve’s innocence and how she is easily tricked, and shows how Satan can easily act harmless to succeed.

4.  Describe the meter, line length, and pattern of enjambment. What does the rhythm contribute to the mood of the poem?

Answer:

Most of the stanzas consist of only one sentence, and they are enjambed as they continue from one line to the next. For meter, I really don’t know, so…according to the back of the book it is “a triple falling meter, called a dactyllic, with two dactyls to a line.” The poem seems to actually be light, despite the subject matter due to enjambment and meter.

5.  Describe the use of repetition and rhyme. Look for patterns. What does the repetition contribute to the mood of the poem?

Answer:

There seems to be no actual rhyme scheme, but the stanzas do seem to have some rhyming lines (ex: Stanza one- sweet/eat). Repetition is used when Satan says, “Eva” three time. “Bells and grass” is repeated a few times, which seems to represent Eve’s innocence. Lines 29 and 30 show repetition, and also show Eve’s naïve nature. Repetition and rhyme contribute to the mood because they seem to hammer home the meaning of Eve’s innocence and Satan’s trickery.

1. Describe the form and structure of the poem.  What is the occasion of the poem?  What two reasons does the speaker give for refusing to promise a committed love? What compromises does she suggest at the end?

Answer:

The occasion is that the speaker is breaking up with her lover.  The reasons she gives are: they don’t know each other’s pasts, and that their future is not known.  Whose to say if they will still love each other in the future?  In the end the compromise she suggests is, can they just be  friends?  The poem is three stanzas that are eight sentances long.  The rhyme is ababcdcdefefghgh.

2. Analyze the effect on meaning of such devices as syntax, repetition, parallelism and paradox.

Answer:

Repetition is used by repeating the word “promise”.  The repetition helps supprt the poet’s view point on promises, they are meant to be broken (like a pie crust), so don’t bother with them at all.  Parallelism is located in lines 7/8, 17/19, and 4/6.  Parallelsim is used so that what ever applies the poet also applies to her lover.  Paradox is located in the last four lines, they can be nothing more then friends, but nothing less too, meaning their friendship won’t ever truly be there, it will be weak because of their past.(let’s be friends never really works).

3. Anaylze the effect on meaning of imagery and figurative language.

Answer:

Imagery is first in the title, she compares promises to pie crust, they are meant to be broken.  Imagery is also used in the second stanza.  She compares her previous relationships to sunlight and her lovers to warmth.  She briefly felt the sun once before, and the sun disappeared, so whose to say that it won’t happen again?  She compares her lover’s relationships to warmth, he was warm to others before and he stopped. So whose to say that he won’t stop loving (being warm to her as well?) (he actually sounds like a cheater).  The poet says the future is like a mirror, foggy. Whose to say that they will love each ohter in the end? You can’t see the future.

I did this some time ago, Feb.27.

Song

1. What is the ocassion of the poem?  What literary device does the poet employ?  Describe what you know of the speaker, the listener, and the “she” referred to in the poem.

Answer:

The occasion is that the speaker is a man who has fallen in love with a girl that is incredibly shy, and seems to deny his advances because of it, (”suffer herself to be desir’d, And not blush so to be admire’d).  The listener appears to be a rose, which the speaker ask’s to tell the girl that he likes, to be less shy, and to accept his advances.  The poet personifies the rose, making it a person, the word rose is captialized, giving it a name, and by asking the rose to be a messenger makes it personified as well.

2. Paraphase each of the four stanzas.

Answer:

Beautiful rose go tell her, the woman I love, to accept or reject me. Perhaps by sending you, she will see how just like you, she is sweet and fair.  Let this young woman know, the one who shuns those men who go after her, that if you (the rose) had grown in the desert, where no one is, then no one could have seen your beauty.  There is little worth in hidden beauty, tell her to come forward, let her be looked upon and desired, and not blush so much upon my advances. Then rose, die, so that she may notice that all things sweet and fair do not last forever..

3. Describe the prosody, including stanza form, rhyme, meter, and notable metrical substitutions (spondees), as well as the structure of the poem.  How do these choices help reinforce the poem’s content?

Answer:

There are four stanzas that consist of five lines each. The rhyme is ababbcdcddefeffghghh. Lines that have the a,c,e,g rhymes appear to be shorter then the other lines.  The structure fits as each stanza is just one sentance, and each stanza is telling the flower to do a different thing, from telling the girl how beautiful she is, to giving up its life to send a message. This reinforces the cotent as it speaks of carpe diem, seize the day, or rather seize the beauty, before it is gone.

Virtue

1. Consider first Huberts use of metaphor and personification.  In each case, what two unlikely things are being compared, and what do they have in common?

Answer:

The first metaphor is comparing daytime to the joining of the earth and sky. It must fall (die) and give way to night. The personification is in stanza two, the rose is so beautiful that is causes the people who look at it to cry.  This rose too will die eventually.   Spring is compared to a box of sweet smelling things, that too will disappear (die).  The last metaphor  is comparing a good person to seasoned timber, it (they) never fall, and as everything around them that is not good dies, they rise above.

2. How is the poem structured, and how doe the structure support its meaning?  Consider parallelism, order, and the turn in the poem.

Answer:

The poem has four stanzas four lines each, and his the rhyme: ababcdcdefefghgh.  Each stanza is one sentance, that describes different things. The day, rose, spring and soul are all sweet. It is ordered in a pattern of life span? The day is shortest, a rose in the ground will last a little longer, spring lasts a few months, finally a “good soul” will live the longest.  The turn is that the first three stanzas all end in death, the day will die, the rose will die, spring will die, but a “good soul” will continue to live.

3. How does prosody reinforce the poem’s meaning?

Answer:

The first three stanzas all have the same rhyme (stanza one; b, stanza two: d, and stanza three: e).  All end in die, and have a corresponding rhyming word.  The last stanza ends in live, and has the rhyming word give, this is unlike the previous rhymes.  This difference enforces the point of the poem, to live. Another difference that stands out is that the other three stanzas, except the last one, begins with sweet, the last begins with only.

1. What imagery does Shapiro use in the first three lines to evoke sound and sight?  How doe these images become increasingly significant in the context of the entire poem?

Answer:

The “bell” is heard as quick and soft (and silver is that possible?).  The bell keeps beating, like the heart beats.  It is nighttime, (down and dark), and the only light is the emergency flare being sent into the sky.  The flare itself is ruby,  “pulsing out red light…” this is like blood poring out of a wound.  The imagery suggests that the accident was a fatal one, these images are the first warnings we get that the car accident was fatal.  The use of red and dark symbolize blood and death.

2. On the literal level, what contextual significance do the following words and phrases have: mangled (line 9), “tolls once” (line 11), “terrible cargo” (line 12), “rocking, slightly rocking (line 13), deranged and composed (lines 15 and 16).

Answer:

Literally, mangled is speaking about the bodies, they are horribly contorted, and unrecognizable. Mangled is used as a noun, actually to describe the bodies, suggesting how horrible the scene really is.  Tolls once (a verb) is the ambulance pulling away (church bell too, but that’s not literal).  Terrible cargo is the dead bodies the ambulance is carrying away from the scene, again this tells us how horrible the scene really is, like line 11, the bodies aren’t even called bodies, suggesting how terrible the accident really was.  Line 13, the ambulance is rocking on it’s wheels as it drives away.  Deranged suggests how shocked the witnesses are after seeing the seen, and seeing the police cleaning it up.  The police are the composed ones, unlike the crowd, they see these horrible accidents everyday, they are not distraught over what they just saw.

3. Analyze the metaphors in lines 3, 18, 22, 29-30.  What pattern do they create and why is it appropriate to the poem?

Answer:

In line 3 the emergency flare is compared to blood pulsing out of an artery .  Line 18 thereis so much blood that it collects like a pond, and streams like  a river into the gutter.  Line 22 a tourniquet is a compressing device used to control arterial circulation, their throats are so tight that not even blood can pass. The speaker compares seeing the accident to a wound one that will repeatedly open every time they remember what happened.  All these metaphors have to do with blood, or rather the death due to blood loss.  It is appropriate as the poem is about a car accident, car accidents are usually bloody.

4.  What is added to the theme of the poem by the metaphors in lines 20-21 and the simlie in 24-27?

Answer:

The theme of the poem is how violent deaths shock us to the core, and how they make us question life and death, (violent deaths have larger impacts).  The wreckage of the car is stuck/wrapped around the poles, like the cocoons of lotus (grasshoppers).  They are empty because the lotus are all grown up, (in this case, the passengers are dead). This metaphor is used because you have the image of life and growing, then the image of a car wrapped around a pole, its passengers dead. The simile is comparing the witnesses to people just getting over their illnesses, and they have been out of touch with the world, their jokes are grim.  They smile sickly, just trying to put up a good front.  They warn with common sense to begin driving more carefully, they use grim jokes and unoriginal thoughts to get their points across.  The witnesses are incredibly shaken (deranged).

1. Describe the form called rime royal: meter, rhyme scheme, stanza form.

Answer:

Rime royal consists of seven lines, usually in iambic pentameter.  The rhyme scheme is usually ababbcc.  It can either be constructed either as a tercet and two couplets (ababbcc) or a quartrain and a terect abab-bcc.

(Thank you wikipedia), cause I didn’t know anything about it except the ababbcc rhyme.

2. What is the structure of the poem?  How do imagery and argument of each stanza develop and intensify the appeal?

Answer:

The poem consists of twenty-six lines in four stanzas of seven lines each, except in the last one that has five. The speaker is complaining about his lack of money throughout the poem.  In the first stanza the speaker is addressing his lady dear.  He is asking her for more money (perhaps for food? hevy=heavy?), and if he doesn’t get it, he will die.  The second stanza confuses me, I don’t know if he is  praising his lady, or if he is speaking of how wonderful gold is. He is addressing his lady in line 14, but the rest of the lines seem to be describing gold.  In the third stanza the speaker is flattering his lady, calling her his savior and the light of his life.  He wants to leave town with her, as she has money (he calls her his treasurer).  The speaker in this stanza also compares himself to friar or monk, infering (and confriming) to the fact that he is very poor, and has little to his name.  The last stanza is addressed to the king himself, that the king should make amends and give  the people more money.

3. In exploring the extended metaphor of the poem, consider how diction accounts for the humor of Chaucer’s parody.

Answer:

Well I just realized this, after answering the other questions, but I think the extended metaphor is that his purse is his lady dear? It would make sense, as the lady is light, and that would explain my confusion when he called the lady yellow-colored.  He calls his purse his savior, his queen, his light, his treasurer.  Diction creates humor as it is very amusing that he is comparing his purse to his lady, and calling an inanimate object all these titles that are used for amazing people.

4. How does the envoy(the shorter final stanza of a poem) continue the tone of the poem even as it addresses a specfic person?

Answer:

The speaker is still complaining about the lightness of his purse.  By complaining to the king he might have his problem fixed. The king may be able to make amends. In other words he might be able to fix the problems of the people.  It keeps the tone, as this stanza like all the rest have flattery, and have the speaker still complaining about his lack of money.