Cassie Oestreich

Parody

Abramo's Many Sons

     An intelligent woman of a young age by the name of Rosa, came not so long ago, not from Italy where by her family roots are formed, but from a small town in southern Texas, to further her education in the field of Horticulture at the University of Minnesota. Due to the lack of cash in her bank account she took residence in a large old house as an Au Pair for a busy, scientific, single father. As she began placing her belongings here and there around her new room she let out a very audible grumble, being quite displeased with the state of the house, as it was without doubt a fair amount more decrepit than advertised.

     “My goodness” said the housekeeper David, who, irritated by the newcomer's obvious dislike of his cleaning skills, was able to push his feelings deep down inside and expel the nice that Minnesota is known for, “what an unhappy sound to come from such a beautiful young woman! Why don't you turn on your daylight lamp, and push all of the dust to the floor to remind you of the bright sun and sand that you have left behind”.

     Rosa did as David suggested, but could not help but feel that the daylight lamp and dreary gray dust upon the floor was not as alluring as the climate in southern Texas. While trying to make the best of her situation, Rosa received another visitor, this one a young boy around the age of ten. She knew that he must be Damiano, the boy she was to nanny for, so she introduced herself. Strangely, the boy did not reply to her introduction, he instead stomped upon her foot and ran from the room, as he was fleeing she noticed a large birthmark on Damiano's neck. Feeling understandably out of place and overwhelmed Rosa decided to nap until dinner time, when she would finally be able to meet her employer, and inquire as to the nature of his son's behavior.

     In response to a dinner bell being rung, Rosa joined Abramo, Damiano, and David at the dinner table. The conversation was what one would anticipate upon beginning a new job, Rosa did not find anything to be odd except Abramo's demeanor when telling her that the basement was a forbidden place in the house, to her, he seemed to be both very angry and nervous when speaking of the basement. Rosa decided to change the subject and inquire as to the whereabouts of Damiano's mother. Abramo seemed very willing to speak of his late wife, unemotionally he stated, “ My Caudia passed away in childbirth ten years ago, the strain of carrying so many young ones was just too much for her”. Rosa interjected “Young ones? I was under the impression that Damiano was your only child”. To this, Abramo became clearly agitated, stating “Yes,yes Damiano is my only child, I misspoke”. He then went on to explain that Damiano was a sort of medical miracle, created by Abramo himself using the latest in vitro fertilization methods of the time.....

Commentary

This is a parody of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s work “Rappaccini's Daughter”. To begin, I chose to mimic the overall theme of Hawthorne's piece, which is that of mad science, or science gone wrong. In “Rappaccini's Daughter” a mad scientist who “cares infinitely more for science than for mankind” (Hawthorn), does experimentation on his daughter, turning her entirely poisonous for all who get too close to her. He also entices a young man to unknowingly become a part of his evil experiments. I imitate this theme in my parody, creating a story about a mad scientist who experimented in fertilizing his wife in an unnatural manner, ultimately causing her death. Then, he goes on to get a live-in nanny to unwittingly become the next woman for him to experiment on. I was not able to get quite this far in my parody due to word restraints, but the rest of the story was basically that Abramo has many young boys hidden in his basement; all products of his experimentation on his wife, which he trades out when the current Damiano is being unruly. Abramo's master plan was to get another young woman in the house, which is where Rosa comes in, so that he could continue experimenting with in vitro fertilization. However, his plan was to unravel when one of the Damianos sacrifices his freedom to inform Rosa of his father's wrong doings. I also used elements of romance, found in Hawthorne's writing, Paul Reuben states that “... American romance brings the reader closer to the truth, not further from it”. I feel that in Hawthorne's story the truth about the ill use of science is brought to light, showing that science can be a very dangerous thing when not used for the greater good of humanity, and when one loses sight of what is ethical and what is not, as Rappaccini does in the story when he uses his innocent daughter as a guinea pig. I have used similar romantic elements in my parody by shedding light on a current issue where science has taken a turn for the strange; in vitro fertilization. People who can not have children naturally sometimes opt for this option, but it can have strange effects such as extreme multiples and psychological issues for the children, according to In Vitro Fertilization:The A.R.T. Of Making Babies.

I have also used similar characters to those found in “Rappaccini's Daughter” for example the evil scientists Rappaccini and Abramo, who use others for their own entertainment, the housekeepers Lisabetta and David, who do nothing to stop the experimentation, the innocent main characters Giovanni and Rosa, who are unwittingly taken advantage of, and the unfortunate offspring of the mad scientists, Beatrice and the Damianos, who sacrifice themselves to help the main characters. Aside from the characters having similar characteristics and roles, I have kept all of their names Italian, as one of Hawthorne's themes is “Italian background” (Reuben). Elements of Gothicism are apparent in Hawthorne's story, as the idea of mad scientists, secret experimentation and the creation of monsters can be described as nothing less than terrifying and macabre (The Norton Anthology of English Literature). Thus, I have included some of the same characteristics in my parody, such as scientific experimentation, death, psychologically unsound children, and a big, old, scary house.

Big Deloris

I don't think it was too many years ago,

In a shack found in the forest,

Lived a lumberjack that you may know

By the name of Big Deloris;--

And this lumberjack lived with no other thought

Than to cut down tree after tree.

She cut with an ax that she named Fred

In a shack found in the forest

And they loved with a love that was more than love

Fred and Big Deloris

With a love that the greatest grizzlies in Newport

Found tastier than tourists

And its for this reason, not long ago

In this shack found in the forest,

That a bear came looking for a meal

And chowed down on Big Deloris.

Commentary

This is a parody of Edgar Allan Poe's poem “Annabel Lee”. I began this parody by imitating the style in which Poe's poem was written, for the first two stanzas I used the the same syllabic quantity and accentual rhythm, for example in “Annabel Lee” the first line is; “It was many and many a year ago”, and In my parody “Big Deloris” the first line is “I don't think it was too many years ago”. Both lines have eleven syllables. I also copied Poe's use of refrain, where he continually wrote “in a kingdom by the sea” I wrote “In a shack found in the forest”. Poe's refrain brought to mind imagery of fairy tales with the words “kingdom” and “sea”, so I tried to give my parody a similar feeling, as many fairy tales take place in the forest. During the Romantic period the use of the heroic couplet was abandoned for other forms of writing such as sonnets and ballads (Woodleif), although this poem does not fit into the rules for being a ballad perfectly, the first stanza certainly does, as it alternates between three and four beat lines while telling a tragic story of love lost. I have recreated this in my parody, although the story line is not quite as serious as Poe's, Big Deloris being eaten by a bear who is jealous of the love between her and Fred is still a sort of tragedy. Another element of Romanticism in Poe's poem is that of “stress on emotion rather than reason” (Reuben). There is definitely more stress on emotion when he claims that “we loved with a love that was more than love” (ll.8), how can one love with a love that is more than love? This statement is clearly unreasonable. It is also unreasonable to think that angels in heaven are jealous of human love (ll.11-12). In my poem, I attempted to recreate this emotion laden lack of reason by having Big Deloris love cutting trees to such an extent that she actually falls in love with and names her ax, this I feel, shows much more emotion than reason. I also copied the irrationality of Poe's poem by having a jealous grisly bear destroy the love between Fred and big Deloris, just as the angels destroyed the relationship between the narrator in Poe's poem and "Annabel Lee".