Keith's Humanities Lit Blog

Invisible Man

2005-04-25T08:47:00.000-07:00

I first read this novel in high school. I never really took it seriously then, so I missed out on a lot of good reading. There are a lot of good scenes that I enjoy and read over several times.

The first scene that I really liked was the battle royale and the stripper. The narrator didn't want to look at her but kind of had to. He said something to the tune of if looking at her would have caused him to go blind, he still would have looked. This shows more of the character of the narrator. He is kind enough to try and give the stripper some respect but he is still human so can't resist looking at her. During the battle royale, we get a sense of the pride that he has. He really enjoys giving speeches, and that is what he came there to do in the first place. So when he is left with the biggest man he tries the bribe his way out of fighting so he can get on with the day and finally deliver his speech.

The next scenes that I like are when the narrator gets a short employment at Liberty Paints. I think the whole part is somehow symbolic of a lot of different things. Some of these things are the black in the white paint to make it whiter or better, the narrators confrontations with Brockway, and the point when the narrator ends up at a union meeting.

The last thing I wanted to mention was when the narrator meets up with the Brotherhood. There is a part where he is asked to sing purely because he is colored and is told that all colored people sing. He kind of brushes off this man's attitude and blames it on alcohol, but that I wonder is if maybe he is trying to act like a "big strong" type to the woman he is talking to.

The House of the Spirits

2005-04-25T08:34:00.000-07:00

This novel presented a family circle that began and ended with the same sentence: "Barrabas came to us by sea..." That is one of the few things that I enjoyed about the novel. It was Clara's words that kicked off the story and Alba using them to end it, and thus ending the circle of the story.

Allende presented Esteban's ideology as one dominating and sexually frustrated. I was kind of led to believe that Allende was trying to use Esteban in a negative way to promote feminism. Esteban is the only character that is given a first person outlook to the reader and is the real "culprit" of the negative energies of the story. By giving Ferula lesbianic tendencies towards Clara and Esteban kicking his own sister out of the house for it, it makes me believe even more strongly that Allende is somehow trying to sneak the theme of feminism in there somehow.

In the first chapter, Clara is described as the youngest daughter who has special powers of some sort. She can somehow predict events that are going to occur, and also do things like move items around on a table with her mind. I constantly wondered throughout reading the novel why she didn't use her powers more often and for better things. It seems as though her mind would be a valuable resource to all the events that occur.

Another thing I wondered was that if Rosa didn't die, would Esteban have turned out like he did. Would he and Rosa lived a more quieter life at Three Marias, or would he still have ended up as a grouch?

Cortez

2005-04-19T09:33:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed reading this legendary story. Cortez is a figure that represents a force to be reckoned with. Even an older story such as this one contains elements that many contemporary films and novels contain. Cortez becomes an enemy once he avenges his brothers death. But because he does this he becomes a wanted man. Many times during contemporary films someone is mistaken as en enemy when in fact they are really defending themselves much like Cortez could have been. The story becomes a large chase for Cortez who manages to thwart his pursuers throughout the story. I found it interesting that even though this story is so old, it is still very entertaining.

One other things I enjoyed was during the movie. When the interpreter was telling of Cortez's murder, he told the story in terms of Cortez being a cold blooded murderer. But later when Cortez tells his side of the story, you can see how Cortez is not only acting in self defense, but to avenge his brother's death. I enjoyed being able to see these differences very much.

Blood Wedding

2005-02-14T06:37:00.000-08:00

This play was different from most others that I have read. The dialogue was short and lacking enough information to concisely tell me what was going on. To put it plainly, I didn't like the author's style of writing.

I thought there were many interesting aspects and ideas that the author had, such as only giving one of the characters a name. Also the tie between the title of Blood Wedding. This is neat, as in the interesting blood lines of the play. Also a tragedy, one expects there to be blood spilled at the wedding.

Overall, I didn't like this play much at all. It was tough to read for some reason, and I couldn't figure out what was going on most of the time.

The Awakening

2005-02-08T15:56:00.000-08:00

This short novella is the interesting story of finishing one's 'self.' The title applies to the part in the novella when Edna feels as if she awakes from a dream. Other instances are like when she first learns to swim or when the book mentions an infants first steps.

We immediately know that Edna is somewhat different than everyone else at Grand isle. For instance, she isn't a Creole where I believe everyone else is. She doesn't even fit in among them in their ways and doesn't understand how they are not prude. She has married a Creole and that is the reason that she is there with them. But possibly her difference there is one of the reasons that she begins to feel change. I mean she is the only one that really 'feels' the music that is played.

One thing I believe, though, is that her finding herself is assisted more quickly by Robert. I believe that without his help on this she may not have found herself or rather to be called 'self.'

The Yellow Wallpaper

2005-01-31T07:10:00.000-08:00

This short novella was a "crazy" read. As I began to read it, I immediately noticed that something was wrong with the narrator. Just what exactly was wrong with her, I still am not sure of, but something was wrong for sure. I just tried to imagine what was so wrong with her yellow wallpaper but couldn't.

One of the things I found most interesting in our discussion on The Yellow Wallpaper was the author function. Stuff like does it matter as much about who the author is as the reading on Douglass. Personally, I don't think it matters as much. Douglass' experience is a much more heartfelt read. You can really sympathize with Douglass' story. It's not as easy to feel that same thing with The Yellow Wallpaper, unless you know that it isn't fiction and that the author really went through this. I think it is easier to feel something about her husbands controllingness rather than her condition. So like Douglass's troubles with his race, I felt her problems laid much more with her gender.

Frederick Douglass Blog Post

2005-01-20T17:30:00.000-08:00

The main thing that I came away from this reading was the whole 'author function' and 'death of the author' ideas from the toolbox reading. I actually thought to myself, "Would this still have the same meaning to readers if it was written by someone other than Douglass that didn't go through what he did?"

It brings about an interesting discussion. I mean, I am sure many readers would be able to sympathize with any author of a powerful writing about slavery or any other terrible event in history. But to be reading the actual words of a mean that not only taught himself to read and write and went through the actual events as detailed conveys a much more powerful meaning.

Douglass is able to paint a picture with the gory scenes that sticks with the reader. I personally found it difficult to read some of the actions of the overseers and masters because Douglass had such powerful imagery.

The thing is, he himself wrote this and that to me personally makes this work even more interesting and meaningful.