That One Escalator (Sasha)

       In class this week, we talked extensively about Chapter 1 of Invisible Man as an extended dream sequence, a nightmare that our main character is entirely unaware of, and instead processes as completely normal. I will propose, however, that essentially every chapter has been like this, even the prologue, where we see a seemingly awake and self-conscious character. I think the nature of the dream-like state is different in each of the chapters, but overall each gives off the same feeling of semi-reality.   We begin in the prologue, where our main character, the narrator, describes himself as an invisible man, who no others can see, and explains that he discovered this for himself. Throughout the chapter, however, increasingly bizarre things come to light about the characters position and actions. First, we learn that he has installed 1,369 lightbulbs in his secret apartment, with which he wages war against the local power company, and is plann...

Well, new year and a new English class so from here on out I'll be using this page for African-American Lit blog posts.

    We spent quite a bit of time on the ways in which Song of Solomon is a coming of age novel, and also on the ways in which Milkman, despite his age, continues to act like a child or a teenage boy. I believe that the final scene of the book shows Milkman as he finally comes of age, and, more importantly, is recognized by others as having come of age.       Pilate is one of the first to recognize Milkman as having come of age, when she hits him over the head and throws him into a cellar. Now, this may seem like a bit of a reach, but it makes sense in the end: Pilate has previously spent her time humoring and protecting Milkman, but now Milkman has killed her granddaughter, and so she recognizes him as an adult, capable of adult actions, and hurting others in ways that adults would. Milkman’s previous hostile actions towards Pilate (asking about her navel, stealing a bag he thought was full of gold) were childish ones, which she could forgive and ...

While Rochester spends much of his time accusing or suspecting others of insanity, it is actually he who acts insane throughout the book. While he has clearly lost it completely but he end of Part II, Rochester actually begins to go mad much earlier in the book, perhaps as a result of his severe illness. Rochester’s mistrust of the West Indies develops rapidly into severe paranoia, and possible hallucinations.  Rochester does not quite understand the West Indies, which is understandable for someone who has just arrived there, and does not quite trust them either, which is also understandable for someone who immediately got a fever so bad he was confined for 3 weeks. However, this initial mistrust and understanding opens up an avenue for Rochester to to manifest all of his worst character tendencies, culminating in his state-endorsed kidnapping and false imprisonment of his wife.  Rochester’s mistrust begins to grow increasingly paranoid, believing that people are hid...

         Albert Camus’ The Stranger is, along with its other philosophical explorations, an exploration of the concept of neutrality, and what neutrality means. Meursault is portrayed as a character who does his utmost to preserve his “neutrality” in the face of all the actions and words of the other characters in the story, especially Salamano and Raymond. Camus’, in what is not much of a surprise, given his active participation in the French Resistance, seems to side with the view that neutrality in the face of evil is itself evil. This view is most evident through the first half of the book, while Meursault is a free man.  In the second half, the message on neutrality changes slightly. Not only will it make one complicit and ultimately directly responsible for evil, it will also fail to save oneself. Meursault is sentenced to death by guillotine, the standard method of execution in France until the abolition of the death penalty in 1981 (the other ...

        If we accept the premise of the article about Gregor’s transformation being a metaphor for aging, a number of interesting possibilities emerge. For instance, while we talked briefly about Gregor’s parents acting like his children, we did not talk so much about Grete.  Gregor, I think, acts like a proud and over-protective grand-parent to Grete throughout the novel. Or, since he can’t really act much, thinks like one. What do we see of Gregor’s interactions with Grete? Probably the most notable incident comes at the very end, when Gregor believes that Grete is not being properly appreciated, and that if she joined him he would truly appreciate him. This has all kinds of creepy vibes, but also vibes of “no one else sees the specialness of my grandchild , who is clearly a violin prodigy.” Gregor takes offense at the lodgers not appreciating Grete, like a grand-parent who feels their child has been insulted. He feels like he would truly appreciate e...

        Peter Walsh, in Mrs. Dalloway , is one of the first post-War men. He would be, in The Sun Also Rises , “one of them”, alongside Jake and Brett. Peter Walsh is usually, like Jake, fairly judgmental. He also demonstrates a fairly developed since of humor throughout the story.  Hugh Whitbread, in particular, is the target of Peter Walsh, much like Cohn becomes the target of his fellows in The Sun Also Rises , and for essentially similar reasons. Peter criticizes Hugh for “having no heart, no brain, nothing but the manners and breeding of an English gentleman,”. The comment seems similar to what is regularly implied by the various characters in The Sun Also Rises about Cohn; that (in this case) Hugh is a relic of a past age. He does not understand the way in which the modern world works, and attempts to compensate for it by engaging in behaviors the other characters consider slightly or entirely ludicrous. Cohn constantly challenges people to fights fo...