This weekend i began Grendel, by John Gardner, a novel in which Beowulf is told from the point of view of the monster Grendel. Gardner is a very eccentric man who is rather morbid since the accidental death of his younger brother in his childhood. You can see much of this influence in many of Gardner's works including Grendel, which has a very dark tone and plot as it is following the life and struggles of a hideous monster, as well as a very gloomy and depressed character; Grendel himself.
As Gardner has this huge weight on his back, since it was he who dealt the death blow to his brother when they were only kids, it seems only right that he would have thoughts of suicide and self-pity. This is portrayed into the character Grendel when he calls himself, "Pointless, ridiculous monster."(2) and when he is yelling at the black chasms to swallow him up. He yells, "seize me. Seize me into your foul black bowls and crush my bones"(5). This is one of the most obviously suicidal things he could have said. He is yelling at the chasm to crush his bones and kill him because he is so miserable with his life and what the world has done to him which is literally nothing.
The entire universe seems to be indifferent to Grendel. It doesn't matter how much he shakes his fists at it, flips it off, or even just bellows at, it in never seems to give him the respect he thinks he deserves. At the beginning of the novel he is yelling at a stupid ram to get away from him and cursing its very existence but it just looks at him and goes on standing there. This pisses him off so much that he unleashes a scream that turns the water he is standing in to ice and even scares himself a little but the ram still does nothing. It is like he can belong to nothing, he is completely isolated. Man refuses to allow him into their culture obviously and even nature, where he lives and the animals cant even think, wont accept him. This just emphasizes the deep feeling of isolation that Ggrendel feels and shows us how he can have all of these suicidal thoughts.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
The Hero
This week in AP Lit we started a new unit, the hero unit. The first book we are reading in this unit is Beowulf, in preparation for Grendel. Beowulf is the perfect example of a hero's journey. Some of the elements of a heroic myth that we learned were to find glory and to slay a monster and shape the world, which is a characteristic a early hero myths. This myth follows the universal pattern where the hero has departure, fullfilment, and return.
Beowulf leaves his homeland of geatland to go face the horrible monster, Grendel, who is terrorizing the Danes. He leaves the safety of his home and goes into uncertainty to fight a monster that has never been defeated and may not come back with his life, But he still goes. He then faces the monster, is successful and finds fullfillment. He not only is fulfilled in that he defeats the monsters physically but he also is fulfilled psycologically as much of this mission is pride based in that he has to defeat Grendel, and later Grendel's mother, in order to sate his desire to raise his level of prestige and elevate his status over its already godly state.
He then returns from his adventures victorious and much better off then he was before he embarked on this mission. He comes back to the Geats and rules them for many years after he successfully defeats Grendel and his mother. This shows how this epic follows the universal pattern of hero myths because this was really one of the first recorded hero myths in history, at least in the english language. Beowulf Departs, Fulfills, and returns.
Beowulf leaves his homeland of geatland to go face the horrible monster, Grendel, who is terrorizing the Danes. He leaves the safety of his home and goes into uncertainty to fight a monster that has never been defeated and may not come back with his life, But he still goes. He then faces the monster, is successful and finds fullfillment. He not only is fulfilled in that he defeats the monsters physically but he also is fulfilled psycologically as much of this mission is pride based in that he has to defeat Grendel, and later Grendel's mother, in order to sate his desire to raise his level of prestige and elevate his status over its already godly state.
He then returns from his adventures victorious and much better off then he was before he embarked on this mission. He comes back to the Geats and rules them for many years after he successfully defeats Grendel and his mother. This shows how this epic follows the universal pattern of hero myths because this was really one of the first recorded hero myths in history, at least in the english language. Beowulf Departs, Fulfills, and returns.
Monday, November 1, 2010
A Doll's House and Foils
Today in class we wrote a timed writing about foils in A Doll's House and i wrote about the relationship between Kristine Linde and Nora Helmer and how Ibsen uses this relationship to emphasize many of Nora's character traits. There were also many other foils in this play including Krogstad and doctor Rank and Torvald and Nora's father even though you are never introduced to him in the book, as he died when Nora was young. These foils serve to illuminate the major characters they are paired with and help to show their significance to Ibsen's purpose in writing this play.
Krogstad and doctor Rank at first seem like polar opposites however with a closer look you see that they serve as foils for each other accentuating their important traits and showing their importance in the play. Dr. Rank just oozes decay and even though he starts out in the beginning of the play as being rather lively and active in his relationship with the Helmers and Torvald in particular as he visits them every day he eventually fades into no relationship choosing instead to coop himself up in his house to die alone in peace slowly decaying until he is no more. Krogstad on the other hand starts off as a gloomy, deceptive character who is generally disliked by the people in the play even though he shows that he has had a relationship of some kind in the past with Kristine. He was the one who gave Nora the loan and was therefore the root of all of the Helmer family's problems. As the play progresses your opinion of him gradually shifts until you sympathize with him and in the end you are happy for him as he ends up in a happy relationship with Kristine and lets Nora off with out having to pay the debt.
Dr. Rank also functions as a foil briefly to show how insensitive and selfish the Helmers are. At the end of the play Rank leaves a note for Nora saying that he is going to die in his house and that he does not want to be disturbed anymore. He says that this is for Torvalds own good because he thinks that Torvald cant handle seeing him in his decayed form. Torvold however takes this almost unnaturally well seeing as his best friend has just told him that he is going to go die in his house without saying good bye and that he never wants to see him again. He says that it is perfectly dreadful however he is glad to be rid of him and then just goes back talking to Nora and trying to persuade her not to leave him.
Ibsen did an excellent job using foils in this play as almost every major character has a minor character that helps to showcase their traits whether they be good or bad. This use of foils also helps to show each character's significance to the overall purpose and theme of Ibsen's play.
Krogstad and doctor Rank at first seem like polar opposites however with a closer look you see that they serve as foils for each other accentuating their important traits and showing their importance in the play. Dr. Rank just oozes decay and even though he starts out in the beginning of the play as being rather lively and active in his relationship with the Helmers and Torvald in particular as he visits them every day he eventually fades into no relationship choosing instead to coop himself up in his house to die alone in peace slowly decaying until he is no more. Krogstad on the other hand starts off as a gloomy, deceptive character who is generally disliked by the people in the play even though he shows that he has had a relationship of some kind in the past with Kristine. He was the one who gave Nora the loan and was therefore the root of all of the Helmer family's problems. As the play progresses your opinion of him gradually shifts until you sympathize with him and in the end you are happy for him as he ends up in a happy relationship with Kristine and lets Nora off with out having to pay the debt.
Dr. Rank also functions as a foil briefly to show how insensitive and selfish the Helmers are. At the end of the play Rank leaves a note for Nora saying that he is going to die in his house and that he does not want to be disturbed anymore. He says that this is for Torvalds own good because he thinks that Torvald cant handle seeing him in his decayed form. Torvold however takes this almost unnaturally well seeing as his best friend has just told him that he is going to go die in his house without saying good bye and that he never wants to see him again. He says that it is perfectly dreadful however he is glad to be rid of him and then just goes back talking to Nora and trying to persuade her not to leave him.
Ibsen did an excellent job using foils in this play as almost every major character has a minor character that helps to showcase their traits whether they be good or bad. This use of foils also helps to show each character's significance to the overall purpose and theme of Ibsen's play.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway wrote many works and almost all of them contained at least some elements of autobiography. Aside from the memoir A Movable Feast and the semi autobiographical work, A Farewell to Arms, many of his works contained many elements of his own life. In the twenties he was part of the American expatriate group in Paris which is very closely alluded to in his novel The Sun Also Rises. He was also an avid fan of Spanish bull fighting which is a major feature in the plot of the novel. A Farewell to Arms is the story of a fictional character who is an ambulance driver in world war one which is what Hemingway did in the war which shows the connection to his own life. This novel is technically fiction but contains many events and elements that Hemingway himself experienced.
For Whom the Bell Tolls is another work by Hemingway that contains many autobiographical elements but is a fictional work. This novel is about the Spanish Civil War in 1937. Hemingway was a journalist at this time and was sent by the the US to report on the war. He experienced lots of the war first hand and incorporated much of this into the novel. While reporting on the war he was present at many of the major battles and talked about much of this in the book even though it only covers a time frame of four days. This book has three different types of characters in it, Purely fictional characters, characters he based of real people, and actual figures in the war. This shows how he writes a fictional book but still makes it seem very realistic and almost biographical as if he was actually there when the actions in the book are taking place.
This use of his own experiences gives his novels a realistic feel that makes then even more riveting. Hemingway led an extremely interesting life as he was and ambulance driver in the first world war who was injured and honored, a journalist during the Spanish civil war, and was a member of the expatriate community in Paris during the most exciting times of Paris's history. This allows him to include these things in his novels in a way that is not possible to duplicate by just telling about something that happened. People have tried to tell of the extravagant night life of Paris in the twenties but few can do it with the authority and insight that Hemingway brings to his novel.
For Whom the Bell Tolls is another work by Hemingway that contains many autobiographical elements but is a fictional work. This novel is about the Spanish Civil War in 1937. Hemingway was a journalist at this time and was sent by the the US to report on the war. He experienced lots of the war first hand and incorporated much of this into the novel. While reporting on the war he was present at many of the major battles and talked about much of this in the book even though it only covers a time frame of four days. This book has three different types of characters in it, Purely fictional characters, characters he based of real people, and actual figures in the war. This shows how he writes a fictional book but still makes it seem very realistic and almost biographical as if he was actually there when the actions in the book are taking place.
This use of his own experiences gives his novels a realistic feel that makes then even more riveting. Hemingway led an extremely interesting life as he was and ambulance driver in the first world war who was injured and honored, a journalist during the Spanish civil war, and was a member of the expatriate community in Paris during the most exciting times of Paris's history. This allows him to include these things in his novels in a way that is not possible to duplicate by just telling about something that happened. People have tried to tell of the extravagant night life of Paris in the twenties but few can do it with the authority and insight that Hemingway brings to his novel.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Gender Roles
This week we started a new unit in AP lit of gender roles. This unit introduces the gender lens of reading literature which and be a very new and different way of approaching many literary works. When you view a book from a gender lens taking into account the status of the two genders and how the author viewed the relationship between males and females it can shed new light on literature. Even if a book is not a necessarily feminist work and is not a work focused on gender roles the author always has views about gender that come out in his or her writing. Whether it is a view that women are subordinate to women or that women need more rights, or simply that the two genders are equal and should be treated with equality.
We have been assigned books in class that we are supposed to read in a gender lens paying attention to the authors views and opinions toward gender. The book I was assigned was The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. This book was not written as a feminist book in any way but there are many interesting views expressed about the different genders and their roles in society. One of the main characters was Lady Brett Ashley who was a upper class woman in Paris during the time that this novel took place. She was originally British and is a very non-womanly woman even though she is described as highly attractive by the men in the novel. She does things like smoke and drink in huge quantities which was not very common for women of this time. This was especially not something that an upper class British woman would typically do as they are usually very ladylike.
She is offset by the very sensitive man Robert Cohn who has many of the traits that commonly associated with women. He talks to Jake about all of his problems which is usually something that women do. He has serious relationship problems, all of which he relates to Jake while they are eating. He is very emotional and cries frequently but tries to counter this by boxing and drinking copious amounts of alcohol as does everyone in this novel. He does not know how to go about his relationship with Brett and if you didn't know better you'd think he was a woman talking about her problems with a man when he is relating his problems to Jake.
These are the kind of things that you look for when looking through a gender lens so that you can see the different views that each author has toward gender. Whether they are feminists, anti feminists, or neutral all authors portray some opinion of gender into their works.
We have been assigned books in class that we are supposed to read in a gender lens paying attention to the authors views and opinions toward gender. The book I was assigned was The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. This book was not written as a feminist book in any way but there are many interesting views expressed about the different genders and their roles in society. One of the main characters was Lady Brett Ashley who was a upper class woman in Paris during the time that this novel took place. She was originally British and is a very non-womanly woman even though she is described as highly attractive by the men in the novel. She does things like smoke and drink in huge quantities which was not very common for women of this time. This was especially not something that an upper class British woman would typically do as they are usually very ladylike.
She is offset by the very sensitive man Robert Cohn who has many of the traits that commonly associated with women. He talks to Jake about all of his problems which is usually something that women do. He has serious relationship problems, all of which he relates to Jake while they are eating. He is very emotional and cries frequently but tries to counter this by boxing and drinking copious amounts of alcohol as does everyone in this novel. He does not know how to go about his relationship with Brett and if you didn't know better you'd think he was a woman talking about her problems with a man when he is relating his problems to Jake.
These are the kind of things that you look for when looking through a gender lens so that you can see the different views that each author has toward gender. Whether they are feminists, anti feminists, or neutral all authors portray some opinion of gender into their works.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Make-up Week Four
The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway is a novel about the wild nightlife of Paris in the nineteen twenties. The narrator of the novel, Jake Barnes is suffering from an unfulfilled love life with Lady Brett Ashley in the beginning of the novel which basically just follows them as they travel from club to club and cafe to cafe as they get drunk. This novel heavily resembles The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby was published in 1925 and The Sun Also Rises was published in 1926 so the writers are writing in similar times and both are just following the first World War. They are also both set in the 1920s and follow the crazy nightlife in the city that they are set in. In New York Gatsby is throwing huge parties and in Paris Brett and Jake are visiting club after club with all of the other upper class members of society.
These to works are also similar in their character's inability to hold a stable love life. Jake Barnes' equivalent in The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway has a very shaky relationship with Jordan Baker. Neither of them really knows whether or not they love each other and nothing really comes of the relationship throughput the book. While Jake and Brett definitely love each other this love is not often acted upon nor is it understood and they both frequently have other relationships even while they are seeing each other. They do not even bother to keep these relationships secret from one another leaving it open and talking about them freely.
The Narrators best Friends also both have ill fated or rocky relationships with women that they love, or think they love. Gatsby and Daisy Buchannon both believe that they love each other and even go on to have an affair but in the end their relationship is not fulfilled and as soon as Daisy learns that he is a bootlegger she detests him. At the end of the novel she doesn't attend his funeral and goes back to life with her husband as if nothing had happened leaving one to question the relationship between Daisy and Gatsby. Robert Cohn, Jake's best Friend also has a very bad relationship in the beginning of the novel with the woman he thought he loved, Frances. They are dependant on each other but they cant stand each other and they even go so far as to get into a fight in a cafe in the presence of Jake.
These books have very similar qualities and not just because they are set in the same time period. The plot is similar with all of the partying and many of the characters have similarly unsuccessful relationships.
These to works are also similar in their character's inability to hold a stable love life. Jake Barnes' equivalent in The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway has a very shaky relationship with Jordan Baker. Neither of them really knows whether or not they love each other and nothing really comes of the relationship throughput the book. While Jake and Brett definitely love each other this love is not often acted upon nor is it understood and they both frequently have other relationships even while they are seeing each other. They do not even bother to keep these relationships secret from one another leaving it open and talking about them freely.
The Narrators best Friends also both have ill fated or rocky relationships with women that they love, or think they love. Gatsby and Daisy Buchannon both believe that they love each other and even go on to have an affair but in the end their relationship is not fulfilled and as soon as Daisy learns that he is a bootlegger she detests him. At the end of the novel she doesn't attend his funeral and goes back to life with her husband as if nothing had happened leaving one to question the relationship between Daisy and Gatsby. Robert Cohn, Jake's best Friend also has a very bad relationship in the beginning of the novel with the woman he thought he loved, Frances. They are dependant on each other but they cant stand each other and they even go so far as to get into a fight in a cafe in the presence of Jake.
These books have very similar qualities and not just because they are set in the same time period. The plot is similar with all of the partying and many of the characters have similarly unsuccessful relationships.
Make-up Week One
In Thomas C. Foster's How to Read Literature Like a Proffesor, Foster describes a specific character type as a vampire character. He says that a vampire when it wakes up, says "In order to remain undead i must steal the life force of someone whose fate matters less to me than my own." A vampire character can not live on their own. They require other characters to give their lives a purpose or substance, without others they would have nothing to do and would not be worthy of being written about.
Jack Burden in All the King's Men is a quintessential example of a vampire character. Without the other characters in the book he would have one of the most dull and uneventful lifes ever. He rides characters like willie's success and basically lives off of him. He states in the book when asked why he works for Willie that he is not sure and doesnt know what he would do without him. Even in childhood he attaches to Anne and Adam Stanton and lives there life spending much time with there family and with judge Irwin. Part of this may not be his fault but the fault of the lack of a parent in either his mother or father. His mother was basically trapped in a teenager's body running around partying and going to clubs and his father left. His mother could not keep a husband for long after the scholarly attorney left which also negatively effected his ability to love his own life.
Even his name Burden is a sign of his being a vampire character. He is a burden on all of the people around him. He burdens them down and leeches off their life. Vampires are the ultimate burden on the people around them as they suck out their blood and infect them into becoming vampires themselves. This is essentially what Jack Burden does to the people around them as he leeches of their life and leaves them either dead or suffering from some mental illness in the case of Sadie Burke.
Jack Burden in All the King's Men is a quintessential example of a vampire character. Without the other characters in the book he would have one of the most dull and uneventful lifes ever. He rides characters like willie's success and basically lives off of him. He states in the book when asked why he works for Willie that he is not sure and doesnt know what he would do without him. Even in childhood he attaches to Anne and Adam Stanton and lives there life spending much time with there family and with judge Irwin. Part of this may not be his fault but the fault of the lack of a parent in either his mother or father. His mother was basically trapped in a teenager's body running around partying and going to clubs and his father left. His mother could not keep a husband for long after the scholarly attorney left which also negatively effected his ability to love his own life.
Even his name Burden is a sign of his being a vampire character. He is a burden on all of the people around him. He burdens them down and leeches off their life. Vampires are the ultimate burden on the people around them as they suck out their blood and infect them into becoming vampires themselves. This is essentially what Jack Burden does to the people around them as he leeches of their life and leaves them either dead or suffering from some mental illness in the case of Sadie Burke.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
"Reflective"
I have been reading a lot of poetry recently for the poetry notebook and have found some rather interesting poems. One such poem is "Reflective" by A. R. Ammons. This poem has a very unique structure that really makes you think. At first glance it may seem like a short and simple poem but then if you read closer and analyse it it is really very confusing.
I found a
weed
that had a
mirror in it
and that
mirror
looked in at
a mirror
in
me that
had a
weed in it.
If you have ever looked in a mirror when there is a mirror or other reflective surface behind you this has the same effect. Weeds are typically given a negative connotation and the mirror is allowing him to see into and reflect on himself. I believe that the fact that the original weed has a mirror inside of it symbolizes that bad things, symbolized by the weed, allow us to see into ourselves and affect our inner soul which is the mirror inside of him. This means that the corrupt things we do will have an influence on our inner soul and personalty. This is illustrated in the poem by the weed that he sees in the beginning of the poem being on the mirror inside him by the end of the poem.
This connects to The Picture of Dorian Gray as this occurs to Dorian except in a quite different way. When Dorian does something wicked, the mark, or weed, that would have been put on his soul, the mirror inside him, is put on the painting instead. This illustrates perfectly the concept that the the evil things you do will have an effect on you, as the things that Dorian did, like killing his friends and pushing people commit suicide, have a profound impact on how his painting looks. It becomes distorted and scarred just like the clean mirror inside of the speaker in the poem becomes marred by the presence of the weed on it.
When someone does something bad it corrupts them as seen in this poem where the weed, which is bad, corrupts the mirror, and in Dorian Gray with his picture. These corrupt acts serve to help a person reflect on their character and see inside themselves. The title of this poem, "Reflective", and the presence of mirrors in the poem demonstrate this reflectiveness and help to show that the speaker in the poem is reflecting upon him or herself.
I found a
weed
that had a
mirror in it
and that
mirror
looked in at
a mirror
in
me that
had a
weed in it.
If you have ever looked in a mirror when there is a mirror or other reflective surface behind you this has the same effect. Weeds are typically given a negative connotation and the mirror is allowing him to see into and reflect on himself. I believe that the fact that the original weed has a mirror inside of it symbolizes that bad things, symbolized by the weed, allow us to see into ourselves and affect our inner soul which is the mirror inside of him. This means that the corrupt things we do will have an influence on our inner soul and personalty. This is illustrated in the poem by the weed that he sees in the beginning of the poem being on the mirror inside him by the end of the poem.
This connects to The Picture of Dorian Gray as this occurs to Dorian except in a quite different way. When Dorian does something wicked, the mark, or weed, that would have been put on his soul, the mirror inside him, is put on the painting instead. This illustrates perfectly the concept that the the evil things you do will have an effect on you, as the things that Dorian did, like killing his friends and pushing people commit suicide, have a profound impact on how his painting looks. It becomes distorted and scarred just like the clean mirror inside of the speaker in the poem becomes marred by the presence of the weed on it.
When someone does something bad it corrupts them as seen in this poem where the weed, which is bad, corrupts the mirror, and in Dorian Gray with his picture. These corrupt acts serve to help a person reflect on their character and see inside themselves. The title of this poem, "Reflective", and the presence of mirrors in the poem demonstrate this reflectiveness and help to show that the speaker in the poem is reflecting upon him or herself.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Winesburg, Ohio
Winesburg, Ohio is full of connections between the different stories in the novel as well as other famous works and stories. Anderson repeated motifs of everything from hands to darkness to grotesqueness. He described almost every character in the stories' hands in a very specific way bringing out every little detail. He also emphasized characters like Wing Biddlebaum's hands in the book "Hands". I am not sure what this intense fascination with hands that Anderson shows means but it has to have some symbolism and must connect to the rest of the novel in some way.
Anderson also has a very fascinating role for George Willard in this novel. George is like a sponge that soaks up all of the truths that all of the other characters in the book tell him. Characters Like Wing, Enoch, and Wash Williams all tell a truth to George Willard. Wash is telling him the evils of women and what a bad idea it would be to get married, Enoch is telling him the story of his love affair and all about his imaginary friends, and wing i trying not to let him conform and be like the rest of society. He takes all of these truths along with the truths that all the other characters tell him and i believe he becomes the old man in the first book and writes the book of the grotesques that is describe. He bases all of the grotesques in The Book of the Grotesques off the the citizens of Winesburg and the truths that he mentions in the first chapter are all of the truths that he collected while living in Winesburg before he left.
He is also used to tell the stories of the other characters many times. Enoch Robinson and Wash Williams are both drawn to George to tell their stories even when they wont talk to anyone else. George uses this later to write the book of the grotesque and this attraction that these people have to him is just further proof that George is the old man in "The Book of the Grotesque". In the first chapter of the novel a carpenter comes to the old mans house to fix him a bed and then all of a sudden the carpenter is telling George his life story and breaking down crying. This would not happen to most people but seems to happen a lot to George Willard and it would not be too out of the question for it to happen to him again. This fits the pattern of how people react and talk to George easily and makes it seem as if this old man is in fact George Willard.
Anderson also has a very fascinating role for George Willard in this novel. George is like a sponge that soaks up all of the truths that all of the other characters in the book tell him. Characters Like Wing, Enoch, and Wash Williams all tell a truth to George Willard. Wash is telling him the evils of women and what a bad idea it would be to get married, Enoch is telling him the story of his love affair and all about his imaginary friends, and wing i trying not to let him conform and be like the rest of society. He takes all of these truths along with the truths that all the other characters tell him and i believe he becomes the old man in the first book and writes the book of the grotesques that is describe. He bases all of the grotesques in The Book of the Grotesques off the the citizens of Winesburg and the truths that he mentions in the first chapter are all of the truths that he collected while living in Winesburg before he left.
He is also used to tell the stories of the other characters many times. Enoch Robinson and Wash Williams are both drawn to George to tell their stories even when they wont talk to anyone else. George uses this later to write the book of the grotesque and this attraction that these people have to him is just further proof that George is the old man in "The Book of the Grotesque". In the first chapter of the novel a carpenter comes to the old mans house to fix him a bed and then all of a sudden the carpenter is telling George his life story and breaking down crying. This would not happen to most people but seems to happen a lot to George Willard and it would not be too out of the question for it to happen to him again. This fits the pattern of how people react and talk to George easily and makes it seem as if this old man is in fact George Willard.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Books vs. Movie
About the Clive Cussler novel Sahara I recently saw that it has been made into a movie. So it piqued my interest because it was an engaging story that i thoroughly enjoyed, and so i rented it. After doing so, I noted many different conflicting concepts between the book and the movie. First of all, in the movie, the female actor was significantly more involved in the action of the movie than she was in the book. She really holds a very minor role and engages in very few action sequences in the book, but in the movie she was in the center of the action and she took part in many rescue missions and she was in the middle of the conflict and the climax. I very well remember her being off in a safe place while these actions were taking place in the book. I thought this was odd that the movie producers could write so far off script as to do this. This shows how the producers are allowed to go into such "creative liberties" and stray of the traditional plot line in order to fuel the interests of the public. The public always loves a romantic. Two tough guys going through and saving the planet would only appeal to the male spectrum of the public, but by varying the plot to make it more romance based it includes the interests of the females as well and makes it a date night film and will make more profit. This has happened in many other book-to-movie situations, such as The Chronicles of Narnia and especially in the case of Beowulf . In Beowulf, Beowulf travels to the foreign country and slays the monster, then slays the monster's mother. However, in the movie, Beowulf does slay the monster, but the similarities stop there. After that, he goes after the monsters mother and ends up falling in love with her and they have a child together and Beowulf has a secret life. Talk about a creative liberty?? The movie producers are able to throw in the whole monster hero love in there somehow in some twisted way to make them able to incorperate attractive women, drama, and love into a traditionally solid action classic. The way this occurs throughout our society is bizarre and almost disrespectful to the authors in that the producers can just chuck the real storyline out the window so they can try to make a little more green. And in my opinion, after reading the book, the movie version isn't even as good with the Hollywood makeup and drama. In summation I am just commenting and criticizing the fact that in our society, the truths and storyline that the author thought was best for the book are put at the end of the priority list and the number one focus is really always on the money.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Willie Stark
During the All the Kings Men seminar discussion we discussed whether or not Willie Stark was a great man. There were many sides to this question and they were very dependant on what your definition of greatness was. I believe however that he was a very great man. I believe that greatness is determined solely by the amount of success that you have in whatever it is that you do and Willie stark is definitely a very successful politition. Some of the things that he did might not have been good based on our typical set of morals but he got a huge amount done while in office and he had lots of support from the people, even if they didn't know some of the stuff that went on behind the scenes. He was an extremely successful politician that would have gone on much farther up the political ladder had he not been shot by Adam Stanton. He always got the votes no matter what he had to do to get them and he made people respect him whether they really liked him or not that I believe is the mark of a great man.
Hands
Sherwood Anderson is obsessed with hands throughout the book Winesburg, Ohio. He uses the word hand or hands 26 times in the book "Hands" alone. He also uses it an exaggerated amount of times throughout the rest of the book. Along with just using the word hand or hands a lot he also takes some time in each story to describe the different characters hands. When describing doctor Reefy in the beginning of "Paper Pills" Anderson refers to Reefy's hands. He describes Dr. Reefy as being "an old man with a white beard and huge nose and huge nose and hands."(Anderson 16). In "Mother" Anderson is portraying a conversation between Elizabeth Willard and her son George, George leaves and on his way out Anderson writes "By the window sat the sick woman, perfectly still, listless. Her long hands, white and bloodless, could be seen drooping over the ends of the arms of the chair."(24). this kind of gives you a picture of what this woman is like and pretty much sums up her character as a pale, weak , sickly person. In "The Philosopher" Anderson describes the saloon keeper as having "peculiarly marked hands"(31). He then goes on to describe how they are covered in red birthmarks that become deeper red as he gets more excited and then says that they look as though they were dipped in blood. This description gives me a negative image of the saloon keeper and must have some sort of symbolism or deeper meaning since he goes into such great detail and to such great lengths to describe them. I am not entirely sure why Anderson is so interested in the hands of his characters and in hands in general but it must have some great importance to him.
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