JUST SOME INFO

In class we talked about the top ten of each race that was supposed to help out everyone else and rise and change stereotypes.  Here are some books that talk about the same things.

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I got this picture at the above website and this book talks about a young African American boy who is learning to be part of a different world and how sometimes it is hard to be part of it because society has stereotypes about him.  He takes that and speaks up and tells his classmates that is not who he is and explains how people see him and never really get to know him. 

Another book that talks about the same thing is called Sag Harbor

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This book talks about a boy who is finding his identity and how American society is and the influence it has on his life.

The reason I mention these book is because in our book has a very similar topic.  I would suggest that people read some of these books because it really makes you understand the different ways that society can change who a person is.  

Lily Bart

Lily Bart

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After seeing the film The House of Mirth I felt so sorry for all the trials that Lily Bart had to go through.  In the before and part of 1900s women were not given much freedom.  It was a thing of society that women should marry at least by their early twenties and once they reached the age of 29 they were past their prime.  This poor woman was raised with the riches and the commodities that a lady of high class deserved.  As soon as her father goes broke her life is literally over it leads to a dreadful ending.  At a young age she was taught by her mother that men were only needed for money and once they lost it there was no hope.  Lily’s mother brainwashed her to think that there was no such thing as love and that business was the only way to get through life.  Her mother not only took away the only love that every child should have but she also took away values that could have made Lily successful in life.  Lily’s mother enjoyed spending as much money as she could because according to society to be part of the elite group you must spend money in new things literally every day.  It’s no wonder they went into debt she taught her child a bad habit of spending vast amount of money just to fit in.  Her mother’s influence stays with Lily when she is a grown woman trying to be part of an elite group.  She falls into debt for playing cards because according to her she did not want to sound prudish.  Lily wanted to be part of a bigger group.  The fact that she was unable to manage her money gets her to the point of despair.  I believe her lack of luck with men is so bad because she also not a very good business woman and does not know how to snatch the right price.     

Harry Potter a Classic in the Future?

Harry Potter a Classic in the Future?

During class we discussed what current novel or book that is popular would become a classic in the future.  I suggested Harry Potter, since its first book it was big hit across the world.  All the books from this series were recognized great pieces of literature.  This book addressed many problems in families.  All genders and age groups can relate to this young boy named Harry Potter because at least once in their lifetimes someone has wished to be part of a magical world.  Someone has had the dream to reach out and be able to grasp the world and rediscover who they are.  In this series we see a young orphaned boy be hosted by evil relatives.  Harry gets mistreated and has a horrible experience for his first eight years of life.  In various parts of the world someone has suffered mistreatment and looks forward to seeing one day the future that Harry later has.  Another aspect that could potentially be looked at in the future is the way they do masking in the book. 

In the beginning we are introduced to the theme of masks.  A man named Professor Quirrel hides a evil side behind a turban.  The controller Lord Voldermort knows that the best way of obtaining his goal is by infiltrating into Hogwarts.  His goal is to find Harry and destroy him.  Voldemort’s goals are similar to the ones of character Jean Muir, Zenobia and Lily Bart.  He will pursue his goal till death and so he does meet his end for pursuing that goal.  Voldemort is like Jean Muir who only reveals his ugliness and talks to himself when he is alone.  He also plans out his next step and is slow but impatient at getting to his goal.  Throughout this series we see the same thing where everyone has something to hide and either it ends their lives or helps others in some way.

I wonder now if that will happen in the near future.     

Lily

Lily

In The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton we are introduced to a character named Lily Bart.  Lily is a twenty nine years old woman who has been out of the marriage mart for eleven years.  She is ready to come back into society and get her a man that will keep her in comfortable life style.  As she says she wants to be bored for her rest of her life rather than be poor and no money at all.

Lily is amazing she knows what she wants and goes and gets it.  During the time the novel was written women’s role was to marry and hopefully be well off.  Now here in this novel Lily contradicts what was expected during that time.  She is unescorted in a train station where anyone can pass buy.  Wharton pokes at boundaries in this novel by having this character be one of few women who stands for herself.  Lily is definitely not a gentle lady who will faint at the fact that she may cause a scandal for herself.  When a male approaches her she literary invites herself to his apartment.  This turnabout is hilarious because Selden is her male friend and she just doesn’t care who sees her.  When it comes to making decisions she is very analytical.  What I mean by that is that she analyses every move she makes from inviting herself to seeing how she will get what she wants. 

When she gets discovered by the owner of the building she doesn’t care and goes on to pursue the “big fish” as I like to say.  Every decision Lily makes she gets it done and move checks on her conquests.  Usually in literature of that time woman were meek and were pursued by the man.  The way that Wharton has changed this in her novel is very enjoyable.

Animal instinct

McTeague by Frank Norris is so awesome.  First of all we will start by talking about McTeague’s animal nature.  McTeague is the main character of this novel and he is a big brute of a man with blond shaggy hair and hands like meat hammers.  We first learn of his animal ways by seeing he has a routine when doing his job.  We see a full blown detailed occurrence of his sexual emergence.  When a woman named Trina comes see him since he is a dentist, this is his thoughts “… the sudden panther leap of the animal, lips drawn, fangs aflash, hideous, monstrous, not to be resisted, and the simultaneous arousing of the other man, the better self that cries, ‘Down, down’…The fury in him was as the fury of a young bull in the heat of high summer” (Norris 21).  Now really this is such a sexual innuendo and this guy is scary when it comes to his feelings.  Not only those he have these thoughts about his patient who is lying on the chair unconscious but he acts upon them and kisses the woman.  Norris is really good in playing with this animal personality that he keeps making this human a monster. 

McTeague becomes a creature as the novel progresses.  Each description hints that there is to be a major event that will make a monster and the human will not exist.  After McTeague marries Trina the unconscious patient and has been with her for a while he goes and beats her. Some animals kill or abandon their babies or each other when they have been touched by humanity.  In the case of McTeague we see that he kills Trina because she is touched by one of human’s sins, greed, and he himself has been touched by it.  Therefore his alcohol induced thought process is to get rid of which makes his life bad.