A Time In Plague

Milkman like Antoinette?

Milkman is just like Antoinette in many ways. Milkman was born into a rather privileged household with a want to always escape but has to live through instead. In order to make his life more peaceful, he tries to make friends with Guitar. He does this because in he does not want to be the part of a household which both the poor blacks resent (because of jealousy for money). Interestingly, this is quite similar the way that Antoinette reaches out to Tia (Tia is from a lower class and is still friends with Antoinette, for a time being). However, the class tensions that are present between these friends are much more pronounced and visible in the case of Antoinette, specifically because she does not even have the option of fitting into any community. Guitar also mentions something similar to Milkman when he says that ‘you do not fit in either communities’. And just like Tia throws a rock at Antoinette (which I feel was done with intent to kill), Guitar tries to hang Milkman.

However, they do have their differences. Mainly, Milkman is a male in a much more modern society (well more modern than that of Antoinette's times) and because of this he does have a shot at actually getting out of the situation he is in, for example, as he so says himself “I’ll buy a plane ticket,” and he does. And while he was stuck there, he was in a relatively comfortable and protective environment. In somewhat of a contrast, Antoinette was a female in an era wher she could simply not leave, and so was stuck (like Milkman) but stuck forever (unlike Milkman) She was made to come of age way too fast for her own good. And as a female in a ante-modern era, she was not able to simply leave. She had to marry, and thus was stuck forever

The Man Who Wasn't There

On of my most favorite lines from the movie, The Man Who Wasn’t There would probably be the barber shop scene where Ed Crane(I think?) says to his brother-in-law(don’t remember the guy’s name) if he knows about hair. It keeps growing and we just cut it off and throw it away. But it never leaves us, and keeps coming back. I thought that this was one of the strangest things in the movie. Of course, the movie was full of strange things ranging from the court cases to the UFOs (I really don’t know what they were about). What was stranger (ah get it!) was when he continued saying that he was gonna take the hair and mingle it with dirt, common house dirt. Something along those lines. Even if we look at this scene, for a moment avoiding the rest, we can still get a pretty good idea that there are a few loose screws on this guy. This can be seen again and again, with him from the office to Walter’s house. There is certainly something that is not right. And this leads into the fact that the world isn’t the right place for Ed, it is not made for a guy like Ed. On top of that, his actions only make the situation worse. We can, as an example, take the dry cleaning incident. Ed at first is interested in it, but cannot get his mind around whether it would be a good thing or is it a hoax. When he finally does invest his money, all it does is come and bite him back in the end. He is punished for a crime which he didn’t really commit at all: the death of that entrepreneur. Similarly, Mersault is punished for a crime he didn’t really commit: not having any emotions when his mother died and his place in society, specifically, how he does not fit in. This would probably be one of the biggest differences between the book and the movie, and we should expect differences, as this movie never took any copyright permissions to make a movie of The Stranger. But I feel, that although he could have protected himself, like Mersault, he was too tired of life, the society in which he resides (not even resides, maybe a better word would be stuck), and how he has nobody or nothing to look forward to in life.

Rochester’s Confusion and the latter’s effect on Antoinette

Ever since Rochester has appeared in the novel, starting in part 2, I have felt that he is an emotionally confused character. I am not saying that he is sick (mentally, not physically), but rather confused. Confused because he doesn’t know what is going on in his life. In a primogeniture society, Rochester is the second son, and thus will not be inheriting any of the family estate/money (interestingly enough, primogeniture is still active, even as of today, in the case of the British Crown Hierarchy). Rochester comes to the society in which Antoinette has been residing for so long as a completely new person. Although he does feel superior and does have some self-confidence, it is not anywhere near the confidence of Mr. Mason. Rochester doesn’t understand the terms of the society and the ways that the society resides in. I guess that in this manner he is almost similar to Mr. Mason as he doesn’t understand the black community like Antoinette does. This is another way he is confused: why is Antoinette so close to these people (not sure he considers them people, but anyways), why does she feel o.k. around the company of these people? Because of his ripe and inexperienced age, he isn’t able to answer these questions, that look so easy to answer by the reader. This puts him in utmost dilemma. This dilemma, is causing issues with Antoinette. It appears that Antoinette is unhappy with the way her marriage is going. She is unable to cope up with this and is not understanding what to do with this. I feel sad because her life is just constantly full of tragedies: her real father died when she is really small, leaving the family in disgrace, her house is burned down in the fire, she loses one of her ‘best friends’ upon the burning of the fire, she loses her disabled brother in the fire, and her mother after being proclaimed mad by society is put in an asylum where she later dies. Its full of tragedies, and what's left to see is where the story takes us? Will the marriage between Antoinette and Rochester turn out in a lovey-dovey relationship or will it take a sharp Stranger/Metamorphosis tragic turn? We can only find out in a couple of days.

Blog: The finger Rule and Class Discussions October 25 2013

During the in-class discussions, often times discussions lag on (or start slow) because of various reasons. However, there are times, at which point a lot of people start discussing things. Now in these situations (although it’s a bit sad because class discussions usually start to pick up the curve towards the end of the class period) many people are left hanging. I know that I am one of these people. That is why I write down whatever I have to say on the left side of my notebook (note taking tips!). Often you would hear stuff like “Well, this is sort of off but...” or “On a side note, in response to...” and a lot of times the conversations would just move too far ahead for what the person is trying to say. Anyhow, that is why I voiced my opinion in class about the finger rule. At first I had thought of a more rigorous and complex system, but that was quickly vetoed down. The finger rule is that instead of the normal hand that you raise, if you have a quick point to make in response to somebody, and then you raise your index finger. This rule was made to be used under the normal discussions. BUT in today’s class discussion (I FEEL EXTREMELY SAD YOU WEREN'T THERE MR. MITCHELL), this rule, in BETA mode, was 'misused'. It could be seen that this rule clearly doesn’t work when literally everybody has something to say because the discussions are moving at a steadier pace and then everybody is holding their index finger! It could also be clearly observed that today’s discussion was probably the most fascinating of all discussions this entire year: there were multiple debates and unlike any of the other days many people had different opinions about the topic at hand. This day was the most controversial, amusing, and thoughtful day in terms of in class discussion. Maybe this was also because the topics were come up by students and class discussion was led by students.

Impressions on The Metamorphosis

The Metamorphosis is my personal favorite from all the books that we have read so far. The reason is because it was short, funny, and most importantly easy to read. While The Sun Also Rises was also funny, probably more, I found it harder to read because there were ‘turnarounds’ → what Jake looked like on the outside was not what he was on the inside. Maybe that this was the case because this book is a translation. This is one of the most interesting of things -- did Kafka mean something, and the translation changed it? Maybe, but I’m not German so I can’t say!

I also enjoyed viewing the character of Gregor. I am really shocked by the way his family treats him. Previously, he was simply a paycheck for them so they did take minimal care, but from what can be seen in the book, it looks like they didn’t actually care about him. But on top of that, after his transformation, they simply forgot about him. As I stated in class, Gregor is like a cow who has stopped producing milk, a chicken who has stopped producing eggs, and now, ‘resources’ are just going in with nothing coming out. And this is my main point. How can a family be so cruel as to simply ignore their son? A doctor is sent for in the 1st chapter but there is no reference to a doctor actually coming in and trying to treat Gregor. The purpose of a family is to take care of each other not to just let go. What is really shocking is how Gregor is simply shunned and yet he doesn’t believe that. He stills believes in his family, he trusts his family. What do you guys think? Is it fair or virtuous the way that his family treats him or is it unethically injustice?

SAR vs. Metamorphosis

In the Metamorphosis by Kafka and the Sun Also Rises by Hemingway connections are intertwined which may not be able to be seen at first glimpse. On the surface it doesn't look like there is much of a similarity but there are some.

The Metamorphosis	The Sun Also Rises
Gregor, in the first few lines, is not able to sleep after undergoing his transformation. This causes him to be uncomfortable and he struggles to get up or sleep.	Jake, towards the beginning of the book, is not able to sleep, even though he tries to force himself to, because of ‘re’-meeting one of his ‘best’ friend.
Gregor is unable to find friends due to his rather annoying job. He is fixated at repaying the debt that his parents owe and from what i can see so far in the book, he has a lack of friends due to this.	There is a pattern about good/bad friends and friendship in general which can be seen in SAR. This trend is most popular with Jack because he is the quiet one, yet if he explodes, a lot would come out.
Grete takes care of Gregor, because she knows that someone needs to do it, and it seems like she does like to do it.	Jack takes care of Brett by backing her up in every situation. He always comes to her help. It is like a spring where the two ends are Jack and Brett. There relationship is this spring coming in closer and then going back out but the spring never bends or break.

Reflextions on Brett from The Sun Also Rises

One of the most popular in class discussion that I have seen is about Brett: you either hate her or you love her. However, my situation is sort of in the middle(ish?) because there are some things about her personality which I wasn’t too fond of while on the other end of the spectrum, some things I do like about her character. One of the things which I don’t like about her is how she takes Jakes’ advantage. Towards the ending of the book, when Brett runs out of money she knows that Jake will always listen to her and so she ‘forces’ Jake, in a way, to come there. Perhaps a better word to forces might be pressures. It is rather interesting because during the course of the book, towards the middle, I started to become slightly sympathetic to Brett, but from the beginning I didn’t like her. When she is first introduced to us, she gets drunk and starts shouting in the street at Jake. Although it was in its position a bit funny, it also made me not like Brett.

On the other side of the coin, Brett was, at times, a rather kind person. In one of the scenes towards the end, Jake starts to want to get drunk because he didn’t know what to do. At that time, Brett was right next to him hugging and urging him that ‘Jake, please don’t get drunk’.

To sum up, I will say that Brett has a good side to her. She really does, but that side of her is hidden deep after her personal ego and attitude.