9/30 Reoccuring Interuption

In Mrs. Dalloway, characters have had intimate encounters that are constantly interrupted by a third party. The first example that springs to mind is when Clarissa kisses her friend Sally Seton when they were teenagers. Sally Seton is a young rebellious girl who's behavior is very abnormal for a woman, especially for woman of the time period of this novel (18th century). Clarissa is drawn to Sally perhaps because of this quality. This attraction leads to the two girls to kiss one night when they are together. Clarissa says this is possibly the best experience she's ever had. Before their intimate moment can continue or escalate, Peter Walsh interrupts them. The other example of an intimate moment being interrupted is when Clarissa and Peter are interrupted by Elizabeth, Clarissa's daughter. This occurs after Clarissa begins to comfort Peter when he breaks down in front of her. Similar to the intimate moment between Clarissa and Sally, this moment is interrupted before it can continue or escalate, which could be likely because of their past feelings for each other. This theme of constant interruptions causes the reader to think of "what if" situations similar to what Dr. Spiegel talked about last week in class. Be this coincidence or a writing style Woolf uses on purpose, I found this very interesting.

9/26/14

I found today's lecture on the different eras of art very interesting. Before, I had never really considered the relationship between art and literature. I had always thought that each evolved  independently from the other. But after today's lecture, I have come to realize that art movements and literary movements are linked in a variety of ways. One of the most important ways is the similar way in which artists and authors convey a belief, be that with brush strokes or sentence structure. For example, the Impressionist era at the beginning of the 20th century celebrated ones personal experiences. Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, is considered an impressionist novel because of the way it over emphasizes Marlow's experiences through out his journey on the Congo. It does this by dwelling and drawing out events as they appear to have happened Marlow. When I read this over the summer, I knew that Heart of Darkness was different from most books out there; however, I didn't know that it was considered different because of how it portrays Marlow's view of what occurs. I think this relationship is very interesting and is an aspect which many people overlook when they look at literature.

Mrs. Dalloway post 1

Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf, is incredibly different from most books out there. What makes this novel different is the manner in which it is told. It is told in a style know as free indirect discourse. What this means is that the story is told from mixture of third and first person view. This allows the author to include aspects from characters personal thoughts without much transition; this kind of writing is obvious in Mrs. Dalloway.  From the first few paragraphs, it is easy for a reader to witness how the story line Of the novel bounces from one though to another without a second glance. Woolf's writing style captures the unfocused and easily distracted portion of the human mind. At the bottom of the first page of text, "For having lived in Westminister-... this moment of June," the reader gets a good idea of how free indirect discourse sounds.  In the first sentence of the paragraph, Woolf goes from simply stating a fact to questioning it in a way that comes off in an incredibly natural manner that many can relate to. In other words, the writing style follows a nearly identical path as one's train of thought would in everyday life. This sort of writing style is unique to Mrs. Dalloway and other novels by Virginia Woolf.

I am looking forward to reading this book, as it is the first book by Virginia Woolf I have read. It is also the first time I have encountered this kind of writing style.  

The things they carried post 2

The Things They Carry  is unlike any other war story I have heard or read before. The last book I have read based completely on the premise of war was Unbroken, which one could easily consider a conventional, run-of-the-mill war story. Unbroken focuses primarily on an Italian American boy named Louis Zamperini. He is taken prisoner after his plane crashes in the Pacific Ocean, and spends the next five years as a POW and the rest of his life trying to recover from the gruesome events he witnessed. While these novels have many differences, there are many aspects the books share. The similarity I find most interesting is what they consider a war story. In The Things They Carry, O'Brian talks about how a true war story makes you feel things in the pit your stomach. The way these two books achieve the affect of becoming a "true" war story is different. Unbroken achieves this by first humanizing and building up Louis as a likable character that the reader can develop emotions for later in the novel when the cruelest acts imaginable begin to happen to him. O'Brian does this in a number of ways; the largest being how he creates personalities for the characters based on those he served with. This adds an affect of forced factor of reality. The Things They Carry and Unbroken can both be considered "true" war stories under O'Brian's belief of what a war story is, because the two novels force the reader to feel gut wrenching emotions in response to the horrible things that happen to the main characters.  

9/7/14 The Things They Carried

The title, The Things They Carried, is incredibly symbolic through out the novel. The first chapter of this book is dedicated to naming all the odds and ends soldiers would "hump" with them through the jungles of Vietnam. The author outlines what many of the men in the platoon carry physically and emotionally. Physically, the men are loaded down nearly 40 pounds of equipment, food, water, and clothing. "The things they carried were largely determined by necessity" (O'Brien 2). They only carry things that are essential to living through the mission. The less they carry, the better off they are. Most men don't carry anything for their personal hygiene like a tooth brush or soap. They are willing to give up this luxury if it meant they have a lighter load on their backs and a better chance of surviving. Emotionally, they carry just as heavy a load as they do physically. Sometimes this weight becomes too much and they snap, resulting in random acts of violence like torturing a baby water buffalo or killing an abandoned puppy The man who carries the most mentally in the platoon is perhaps Jimmy Cross. "As a first lieutenant and platoon leader, Jimmy Cross carried a compass, ... and the responsibility for the lives of his men" (O'Brien 5). But the weight of those men's lives aren't the only thing he carries. He also carries his love for a girl named Martha he left back home in the US. He carries the knowledge that she will never really love him, despite how she signs her letters to him. Between all the responsibilities and facts he shleps with him through the jungles of Vietnam, Cross has on of the toughest roles in the platoon. The things they carried, physically and emotionally, is significant in the lives of the men in the novel.