Catalin's 20th Century Novels

In Song of Solomon , two of the main characters, Pilate and Milkman, both have physical abnormalities. Pilate doesn't have a navel, where Milkman's one leg is shorter than the other. Even though both of their physical abnormalities seem minor, they have both impacted their lives. When Pilate was younger she was frequently ostracized from her different communities for her lack of a navel. As soon as someone would find out about her physical abnormality, usually while having sex, they would spread the word to everyone else in the community. Pilate then would often be thrown out, because the community members were scared of the impacts of being around a woman who's "different". Because of this treatment, Pilate changed her entire life to make sure no one would ever find out about her lack of a navel. When she worked with the island community and got pregnant, "Pilate refused to marry the man, who was eager to take her for his wife. Pilate was afraid that she w...

There are considerable differences between the views of Antoinette and Rochester. During their honeymoon time at Antoinette's family estate, Antoinette and Rochester show a large contrast in the way they react to the Creole world around them. While we might judge them by the way they react in Jamaica, as the roles they play in the Caribbean might be one way, it can be argued that their roles would be reversed if the story was taking place in Rochester's home of England. Antoinette is clearly very comfortable in the home they are staying in for their honeymoon. She has been there often and enjoys being at this estate. She knows everything about the nature and world around them, as she suggests things for Rochester to do during the day, like going to the pools. Antoinette also feels very safe in her environment here. She appreciates the rains at night and the nature around her. Antoinette is also clearly comfortable with the local people around them. She is very close with Chri...

The relationship between Meursault and his mother is one of much debate in the novel The Stranger . Even though we never see the relationship in real time, as the book begins with the mother's death, we do learn more about their relationship from Meursault's behavior both at and after her funeral. At his mother's funeral, Meursault was very distracted. It was hot and he was tired, therefore he seemed to not feel any sadness about his mother's death. The relationship between Salamano and his dog is also one that sparks a lot of conversation while reading The Stranger . Salamano and his dog are both pretty old and both have a skin disease. Even though they have these similarities, Salamano abuses his dog and they are known to hate each other. This escalates until Salamano's dog runs away from his owner while they are out on a walk. Both relationships are unusual in the way that they both aren't exactly seen as morally and socially correct. Salamano and his dog...

A weird aspect of Gregor's transformation is that no one so far in the story tries to heal him and transform him back to being a human. If one of my family members all of a sudden turned into a giant bug, the first thing I would try to do is try to turn them back. I wouldn't even start to get into a rhythm with this new character in our lives, as my first instinct would be to repair it. Additionally, if I were to turn into a giant bug overnight, I would immediately, instead of getting used to my new form, work on trying to become human again. Gregor does the opposite. When he wakes up and realizes he is a bug (which he also does in a weirdly calm way), Gregor immediately accepts that he was now a bug and that is who he would be for the rest of his life. Gregor obviously doesn't enjoy his new form, as it presents many issues and tears his family apart, so the question remains: why doesn't he try to get back to his human form? Yes, one could argue that this isn't ...

The Sun Also Rises  is not a book that has a lot of female characters. The majority of the characters are male, so is the narrator Jake. The only memorable female representation we see is Frances (Robert Cohn's girlfriend) and Brett. Even though Lady Brett has a very big role in the book, we still only see her story from a biased view of Jake's. We can't learn much from an unbiased viewpoint about these female characters, but we can learn a lot about how Hemingway portrays these characters through Jake eyes. Brett is the perfect woman. All the guys love her: she is beautiful, easy-going, funny, and loves to drink. As the male characters often say, "She is one of the guys." Most of the men in Paris are in love with her, and she has many admirers in other parts of France as well. Brett's attractiveness seems to received universally, with there not being many male characters that don't like Brett in one way or another. This becomes a problem because Brett d...

I didn’t know what I was getting myself into by watching this movie. Already the first scene of the movie shocked me, depicting Virginia Woolf’s suicide. I was wrong to believe that this would be the last tragic suicide to happen in this film, with Richard committing suicide later on as well. I really enjoyed the parallels that the film made to the book. It was great that we saw Virginia Woolf’s story played out in this movie as her own story. Contrary to the novel Mrs. Dalloway , where we only learn about her in connection to the inspiration behind Clarissa and Septimus’ stories. We talked in class about how Virginia Woolf struggled with mental illness herself, but I had no idea that she actually committed suicide and I had no idea that she did so by drowning herself. This was very interesting because it helped me see the book she writes from her own perspective. We talked in class about if Clarissa was really meant to be portrayed as unhappy and depressive in the book, but a...

Right from when we first met him, Septimus Warren Smith was an interesting character. His personality and his problems throughout the novel differed greatly from some of the other characters we are introduced to in the novel Mrs. Dalloway. With Septimus, it is both important and fascinating to look at his character from the viewpoint of Virginia Woolf writing this person into the story. Woolf depicts Septimus's illness and consequent suicide in a very passive and introspective way. We learn mostly about his own experiences with his mental health from his own thoughts-- not from another character diagnosing him. The only other characters that know about Septimus and his illness are his doctors: Dr. Holmes and Sir William Bradshaw, and his wife Lucrezia. We don't learn much from Dr. Holmes and Sir William Bradshaw as they are pretty useless with this case of mental illness -- as many doctors in that time were. Their idea that Septimus just needs some rest obviously is a faile...

Right from the first few pages, we can tell what kind of character Virginia Woolf is setting up Mrs. Dalloway to be. Mrs. Dalloway can be immediately understood as lonely, a bit confused about what her role in life is, and if she has chosen the right path of life. Woolf plays with the idea of age and stage in life right within the first part of the novel Mrs. Dalloway , and so we have to pay close attention to figure out if Clarissa Dalloway is really in her 50s or if she is a couple of decades younger and in her 20s. We quickly learn more about Clarissa's sense of loneliness. She describes herself as unseen in the busy street in London and shows her dissatisfaction with her role as a public figure. The constraints that shape her life as a "perfect hostess", as her ex Peter once called her, make her unsure of who she really is (Woolf, 7). Even though she chose the "safe" life -- with a high-profile husband in a very affluent neighborhood of London -- she still...