putting the 20th century in the 2020 graduating class

In Wide Sargasso Sea (WSS), names are very important and have power. We can see the power of names in this universe by looking at the eerie similarities between Antoinette and Annette, and the effects of Rochester renaming Antoinette "Bertha". Antoinette being a diminutive form of Annette foreshadows how Antoinette's and Annette's fate are similar. Both of them eventually get labelled by society as mad, get confined (Antoinette was locked in an attic and Annette was sent away for care), and they both die offscreen. Curiously, when Antoinette becomes more similar to Annette, Antoinette's name is abandoned and replaced with the name Bertha. Bertha is the name associated with the crazy woman in the attic, not Antoinette even though that name has more ties to the family "madness". Of course, Antoinette is not completely like her mother, whereas we don't know the circumstances surrounding Annette's birth, we do know Antoinette act of rebellion by...

So I know Meursalt's trial isn't meant to be a good portrayal of the justice system but I just have so many problems with it. First off, Meursalt's on trial for killing an Arab man but there are no Arabs at the trial. There are no Arab witnesses. You'd think that Raymond's mistress or the other Arab who went to the beach would be great witnesses or at least be at the trial. But they aren't. At this point, the trial is less about Meursalt's murder of an Arab man but whether Meursalt is threat to society as determined by the French people. Throughout the trial, Meursalt's crime is interpreted through the lens of French society, instead of from the Arab perspective, or even from the point of view of people Meursalt regularly interacts with. The fact that the mistress's brother is seeking vengeance for what Raymond did to his sister never really shows up in any significant manner in the trial. Meursalt is characterized in the trial by the court as a so...

The Metamorphosis as a whole seems to epitome Kafkaesque. Waking up and finding yourself transformed into a giant bug already feels very surreal yet Gregor’s single minded focus to get to work makes it seem even more surreal. On the whole, the story feels very dark and it feels like nothing goes Gregor’s way and yet, the mood of the last few paragraphs diverges from the previous Kafkaesque tone. The imagery we get in the last few paragraphs feels oddly optimistic. First off, “the tram car was filled with warm sunshine” (110). Just the phrase “warm sunshine” seems like the opposite of Kafkaesque. Sunshine is nice, happy and warm, all of which are not emotions you would expect people to feel when a family member transforms into a giant bug and dies. Earlier, Kafka writes, “They rose, went to the window, and clasped each other tight” (110). This scene feels like a sweet moment of family bonding. I know this probably wasn’t what Kafka intended but I imagine the S...

So I’ve been thinking about the epigraphs at the beginning of the book and how they relate to the overall narrative of The Sun Also Rises. Here are a few of my thoughts on the epigraphs. I think the epigraphs set the mood of the novel very well. Ecclesiastes’ quotation could be read as a very cynical thought that is somewhat related to the idea of irony. Although generations change, the earth still remains, the winds blow south and then north, and the rivers flow into the sea and then return. From this viewpoint, the actions of each individual in each generation seem inconsequential. From the Ecclesiastes quote, I feel a sense of detachment. Ecclesiastes takes a very zoomed out perspective, merely stating that generations pass away and generations come, without any attachments or biases. This attitude is mirrored in Jake’s facade. Jake wants to act like he’s unfazed by the actions around him, as if he’s unaffected by Brett’s multiple affairs with Cohn and Romero. However, Jake isn...

After reading Mrs. Dalloway, I've been thinking about how the characters introduce themselves to each other and what that tells us about their character. For example, one thing that struck me when I was reading Mrs. Dalloway was Sally Seton's talk with Clarissa when they were reunited at the party. After they both saw each other and greeted each other, the first line of dialogue Virginia Woolf writes is "'I have five enormous boys,' said Sally" (pg. 167). Sally mentions her five children to Peter again on page 82. The fact that Sally Seton said this twice might mean there is some significance to the phrase. Instead of talking about what she has recently done or interesting things that have happened to her, Sally mentions her sons. In addition, I don't have a really concrete idea of what Sally has been doing ever since she left Bourton. Peter went to India, Richard worked in politics, Hugh has a job at court, but Sally? Well, she got married, I guess. A l...

One of the most notable aspects of The Mezzanine would be its abundance of footnotes. The sight of a page long footnote inspired both feelings of dread and excitement when I read through the book. One phrase Howie uses that I liked was, “the luxuriant incidentalism of the footnotes” (Baker 121). Indeed, Howie’s footnotes seem like ramblings that, while tangentially related to the topic of the paragraph, offer insight to Howie’s view of life that some could consider to be “luxuriant”. I can’t bring myself to hate the footnotes since without them I wouldn’t have known the extent of Howie’s wonder for ice cube trays and detailed observations regarding staplers. Inside this particular footnote on page 121 lies one of my favorite ideas in the entire book. Howie describes how “the outer surface of truth is not smooth, welling and gathering from paragraph to shapely paragraph,” instead it is, “encrusted with a rough protective bark of citations, quotations marks, italics, and foreign langua...