Comments

To Jarrad:
Good diary entry. I would agree with Kellsie, that the first half of this is definitely good. However, I'm not entirely sure Hjalmar really knew the truth and was concealing it on purpose. Is there evidence for this? The part about "ignorance is bliss" is true, though, and I believe that Hjalmar stayed ignorant despite some serious evidence that Hedvig wasn't his child.
To Isobel:
I would agree to some extent. The plot of Oedipus could be changed slightly (and the greeks often did this) but some of the major events had important messages to them. Without the whole business of being his mother's son and husband, the play would not have been so much about family, but instead about some other crime. I feel like this would be a big change.
To Eddie:
Good job. I especially like your analysis of the water, which has interested me throughout both Oedipus and the Wild Duck. The water does seem to represent some sort of moving on, or of freedom, and I think it is a critical motif in both plays.

Blood Wedding #1

To what extent would you agree that plot should be valued more highly than style in the work. In you answer you should refer to two or three works you have studied.

I am not sure that I agree entirely with this statement. For the play Oedipus the King, I would agree more fully, but with the Wild Duck, I feel that the metaphors, symbols, foreshadowing, and imagery add so much that they could not be withdrawn and still have the play remain nearly as good.The final play, Blood Wedding, uses both techniques to truly achieve its purpose. Without the symbols and metaphors embedded into the story of Blood Wedding, I feel that the main idea would be lost, and the feel of the play would be very different.

In Oedipus, the focus is mainly plot driven. We see Oedipus as he searches for the truth about his fate and about his birth, but many of the intricacies of literary elements are lost because the story has so much going on. There are some clues, aided by foreshadowing, which enable the audience to predict the outcome of the play and some of the effects of the ending. When Tiresias says “You mock my blindness? Let me tell you this. You with your precious eyes, you’re blind to the corruption of your life” he is trying to both foreshadow Oedipus blinding himself, and also of Oedipus finding out about his true relationship to his wife and mother, and also that he killed his father. This foreshadowing is helpful and intriguing, but in my opinion, it would not devastate the play if it were to be left out.  (Sophocles 183). Also, the symbolism, metaphors, and imagery are present, but do not “make or break” the play.

In The Wild Duck, however, the style is much more important, and without it the play would surely have lost much of its importance and significance. Simply the foreshadowing and clues that Ibsen leave throughout the play makes the reader feel like he has gained insight into the different characters. When Hedvig is talking to Gregers about the books she reads and how she looks at the pictures, she mentions a book with “a picture of Death with an hourglass and a girl. I think that’s horrible” (Ibsen 163). This excellent use of foreshadowing, with death capitalized and the hourglass signifying a short amount of time remaining (Hedvig later goes on to shoot herself with her father’s pistol) Ibsen is allowing the audience to get a sense of impending doom, which would surely have been lost without it. I personally felt like this was one of the most interesting things about reading the play, simply catching the foreshadowing and other literary elements that Ibsen used when writing.
Blood Wedding is another example of a weaving of the two elements. In Act two, the literary element that stands out most in my mind is the repetition of phrases, and how they are used to portray a greater message in the story. Various characters, sometimes designated as a young man, other times simply called "voices" repeat the line that "The bride is awakening!" (Lorca 50). This use of repetition shows how the people are anxious to see the bride come out into the real world, to stop living in her fantasy world of dreams, and become someone's wife. It is possible that Lorca is intending this to be a critique of marriage, or perhaps he is just using it to show that everyone grows up eventually, and must stop living in the fantasy world of their childhood.

Wild Duck #3

Stylistic techniques (imagery, figurative language, sensory detail)

HEDVIG. No, I won’t. It’s something so stupid.

GREGERS. It couldn’t be. Now tell me why you smiled.

HEDVIG. That was because always, when all of a sudden—in a flash—I happen to think of that in there, it always seems to me that the whole room and everything in it is called “the depths of the sea”! But that’s all so stupid. (Ibsen 164)

The passage above is one of the most interesting, in my opinion, in the entire play. Gregers is talking to Hedvig about the attic full of wild birds they have in their attic, and Hedvig says she thinks of the attic as the depths of the sea. However, she also says that that is a stupid thought, and should not be divulged. The repetitions of the word “stupid” makes Hedvig appear very childlike, and it also shows how the attic, which she and her family view as their hope and freedom, should not be taken lightly. We see other times when water comes into play throughout the novel, like when the Wild Duck dives down into the depths to escape the hunter, or when Gregers says earlier about the wild duck “Just don’t let her ever catch sight of the sea”(Ibsen 153). This passage shows how Gregers understands that the wild duck will never want to remain in confinement once she has seen the beauty of the outdoors, and especially, the sea. The sea offers hope, it is freedom, the ultimate dream of the duck and of the family. This imagery which shows up throughout the novel illustrates how the family is trying to have hope by keeping the animals in the attic, for that is their sea.

We also see this image of the sea when Hjalmar says about his father: “I am going to rescue that shipwrecked man. That’s just what he suffered—shipwreck—when the storm broke over him” (Ibsen168). By this passage, it seems that hope and dreams and freedom also have the ability to bring ruin down on a man’s head. By using the image of a shipwrecked man tortured by a storm, Hjalmar could be saying that his father was wrecked while hoping for something else, or in fact that the hope actually did it to him. Either way, things got nasty for Ekdal when he was younger and full of hope. Therefore, the sea is a double-edged sword that should not be taken lightly.

Wild Duck #2

“Visual action can be as important on the stage as speech.” How far do you agree with this claim? In you answer you should refer to two or three plays you have studied.

I would agree with this claim only to some extent. In Oedipus the King, for instance, the stage directions are so sparse that they do not really provide any information about the different attitudes and feelings of the characters. They are more just for scenery, or very broad notes about who or what the speaker is talking about. Oedipus relies heavily on the speech of the characters, and this might be a cultural factor, because the ancient Greek actors always wore masks onstage, and thus were not able to convey many emotions to the audience. This created a need to make the dialogue as descriptive as possible, in order to make the audience understand. On page 194 Oedipus says, “When my enemy moves against e quickly, plots in secret, I move quickly too, I must, I plot and pay him back. Relax my guard a moment, waiting his next move—he wins his objective, I lose mine” (Sophocles 194). This quote is fairly lengthy, and Oedipus is only trying to say something very simple. Yet he uses many words, makes the meaning absolutely clear, because he cannot leave the audience in any doubt as to his meaning. If he relies on any emotions conveyed by the face, he will not be understood.

Stage directions play a much larger part in Ibsen’s The Wild Duck. Each Act opens with a lengthy description of the setting, and also of the feelings of some of the characters. Also, throughout the play there are many descriptions of the feelings of the characters while they say their lines. On page 142, we see just one example of this when Hjalmar says “I don’t see why not. (Casually.) Later we had a little quibble about Tokay” (Ibsen 142). By explaining to the audience and to the reader that Hjalmar is being casual, we are able to better understand whether or not his line was of much importance to him. With another descriptor, Hjalmar might have been humiliated, aggressive, or disgusted. It all depends on the way he says it.

Wild Duck #1

“What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out?” To what extent do you find this statement applicable in at least two plays you have studied?

Both Oedipus and Wild Duck use conflicts, and rumors, within the first few lines of the plays. However, Ibsen also includes a party scene, in which guests are seen making idle chit-chat and questioning their host about such trivial matters as the rules against smoking in the house. Sophocles, on the other hand, does not waste any idle words and almost every scene in the play is building up to the climax.

Sophocles, who uses the chorus as a way to draw the audience even closer to the action in the play, says on page 198, “Never—no, by the blazing Sun, first god of the heavens! Stripped of the gods, stripped of loved ones, let me die by inches if that ever crossed my mind. But the heart inside me sickens, dies as the land dies” (Sophocles 198). Even the chorus, who should have no familial or even communal ties to the actors in the play, show how they are enormously interested and grieved at the turn of events. They show how they truly care, and also help maintain the pace of the careening play, which never seems to slow down in its emotional intensity. We see Oedipus try to save his land, interrogate witnesses to old events, and eventually find out the truth about his lineage and his fate, and throughout it all Sophocles keeps the intensity at the maximum.

In Wild Duck, however, we see a definite contrast of styles. Ibsen introduces some dramatic elements when he opens the play with a rumor about the supposed relationship between the master of the house and the housekeeper, but then he shifts over to a party scene in which the guests are fairly relaxed and unconcerned with more emotional events. One guest, who Ibsen describes simply with the title “the fat guest” says, “But really, is it true you’ve abolished our precious smoking privilege?” to which Mrs. Sorby responds, “Yes. Here in Mr. Werle’s sanctum, it’s forbidden” (Ibsen 126). This takes on a very different approach to the dramatic events than Oedipus, and it allows us to see and connect with the people as real, somewhat lazy people. This contrast between the two plays could be a cultural thing, or perhaps even a question of time period. While the ancient Greeks were dealing with wars and with famine and the destruction of their land by armies and by famine, the Norsemen in Wild Duck seem to have little of these same fears.

Oedipus #3

Readers are attracted to moments of intensity in a writer’s work. By what means and with what effect have writers in your study offered heightened emotional moments designed to arrest the reader’s attention?

There are many ways that both Oedipus the King and The Wild Duck use heightened emotional moments, and sometimes even overreactions, to add to the dramatic intensity of the play. In the beginning of Oedipus, Creon opens the play with words of old murder, revenge, and even the will of the Gods. He tells Oedipus to “Banish the man, or pay back blood with blood. Murder sets the plague-storm on the city” (Sophocles 164). By opening his play in this fashion, Sophocles leads almost directly into the major conflict during the play. He wastes no time, likely knowing that his audience already would have known the major events in the play, and instead brings the conflict into the light within the first few minutes. This shows how dramatists often will use situations that seem almost unbelievable, where the conflict is large and the results could be devastating. Audiences cannot draw away after a hook like that, and they are forced, simply by the intensity of the opening of the play, into watching the entire play.

We also see this to some extent in Wild Duck, by Ibsen, who uses a somewhat similar tactic to get the audience’s attention. When Gregers talks to his father during the first act, he accuses him of betraying  his old friend and the man’s family, the Ekdals. Gregers says,” How could anyone her let that family decay so pitifully?” and Werle, his father, responds, “You’re referring to the Ekdals, no doubt” (Ibsen 130). Ibsen uses tactics much closer to intrigue, rather than straight up murder and famine, to get the audience to become engrossed in the event of the novel. The son, who we know is a decent man, is questioning his wealthy father, and yet the father seems to almost feign ignorance about what his son is talking about. (It should be noted that Ekdal was an old friend of Werle, and thus very unlikely that Werle could forget it.) By opening in this fashion, with the mistrust within the family, Ibsen manages to generate a large amount of interest in the crowd because in any society, family is supposed to be trustworthy to at least each other.

Ibsen also includes an opening that includes another rumor about Werle, and his relationship with the housekeeper, Mrs. Sorby. Petterson, the servant, says “Ah, you hear that, Jenson. Now the old boy’s up on his feet, proposing a long toast to Mrs. Sorby” and Jenson responds, “Is it really true what people say, that there’s something between them?” (Ibsen 119). By including the rumor about the relationship in the house, Ibsen manages to connect with the audience by using a very relatable dramatic event, dissimilar to the way Sophocles opens Oedipus. Ibsen waits for a while before bringing in the larger dramatic events into the story.

Oedipus #2

Diary entries from any of the characters

The Diary of Oedipus

The First Day of My Quest to Find the Killers of Laius

I must find the bandits who killed the king of this land, so that Apollo will free us from the harsh drought and famine that holds our land hostage. According to Creon, this must be done, and so I will most certainly accomplish my goal, regardless of who or what comes in my way. And when I find the killers of Laius, they will be killed, or at least banished for the remainder of their lives. This I am sure of.

That dreadful prophet Tiresias came by today at the request of Creon. His blindness surely impedes his ability to truly see the future, and I cannot trust anything he says. The man is a beggar, starved for attention, and I must pay his words no heed. He tells me to lay off my search? I say nay nay. I will find the killers and free my land from the grips of the famine, and my people will love me, because I am Oedipus. I freed the city of Thebes once from the ferocious terror of the sphinx, and I can do it again. Do not pray to the Gods, do not run in fear. I will find the killers and free my city.

Some of Tiresias' words frightened me more than others today. He mentioned how I must kill my father and marry my mother, and this disturbs me. My lineage is extremely important, and this turn of events would devastate me. Plus, how could I kill my father? He is in the far away city of Corinth, separated by hills and mountains, and as for marrying my mother, she is there as well. This future will never come to pass, and Tiresias will be proven wrong by my efforts. I will change my fate, and no God or man will hold me captive to a fate I do not desire. For that is the nature of men, the ability to change what they want and to make a difference in how events turn out.      

Oedipus #1

Setting: This includes cultural as well as geographical and historical setting. What effect does the setting have on story, character, theme?
The setting is integral to the story, and it plays a major role in developing the story as well as the characters of the play. According to "Greece and the Theater" the Greek city states were fairly far apart and separated by mountainous regions where bandits and shepherds would let their flocks roam. It was also the spot where unwanted babies were left to die. We see this in Oedipus as the story progresses, how he was raised in Corinth and then moved to the city of Thebes and became king. Since the city states are so far apart, there seems to be little communication between the two, and this appears to be a motif throughout the story. In his search for the truth, Oedipus seems overeager, but at the same time unable to listen to accounts that he does not like or does not agree with. The cities' lack of communication appears to mirror this feeling as well.
Another aspect that I noticed was the contrast between the land and the sea. The land is generally referred to as being in a poor condition, most notably when the chorus says, "Enough, please, enough! The land's so racked already" (Sophocles 199). This passage, spoken by the citizens of Thebes, is somewhat the opposite of the peoples' opinion of the water. Later on in that scene the chorus says, "You  who set our beloved land--storm-tossed, shattered-- straight on course. Now again, good helmsman, steer us through the storm" (Sophocles 199). The people seem to think that the water is their hope, where they might save their failing land. This might have an implication on theme, as well, because the chorus is referring to Oedipus as their helmsman. Yet Oedipus is not focused on their plight, he is solely worried about his own lineage. 
Another interesting aspect of the setting is the location in the city. So far, the story has not ever really left the main palace, and the city seems to be important to the story. Sophocles manages to work in the different locations in the play with stories-within-stories, and this brings the outside world in, but the characters never actually leave the city. This could show how extremely important the cities were to the Greeks at that time period, because their land was so poor. 

Brave New World Journal 3

Topic A

“'Well, does there?' questioned the Controller in his turn. 'You can indulge in any number of pleasant vices with a freemartin and run no risks of having your eyes put out by your son's mistress. The wheel has come full circle; I am here. But where would Edmund be nowadays? Sitting in a pneumatic chair, with his arm round a girl's waist, sucking away at his sex-hormone chewing -gum and looking at the feelies. The gods are just. No doubt. But their code of law is dictated, in the last resort, by the people who organize society; Providence takes its cue from men'” (Huxley 236).

This passage reveals one of the fundamental ideas in the novel, and it makes the novel take on major relevance as a warning to current society. The Controller references King Lear when he talks about Edmund sitting around enjoying himself, showing that society, not the spirit of mankind, shapes an individual. Even Edmund, a character from Shakespeare rich with suffering and pain and emotional depth, would be helpless to refuse the constant availability of happiness and emotional detachment. As a warning this is potent stuff, for if a Shakespeare character could be thus corrupted, how will current society be able to withstand the pull of happiness? The Controller believes that there may be a God, but that god adheres to the rules and desires and societal norms of mankind and society, and does not have his own agenda for the future of the soul. By this thinking, it is truly up to mankind to decide everything from laws to the difference between good and evil. When the Controller says “The wheel has come full circle,” he is using his current time frame to compare it with the beginning of mankind's history. The ape has come full circle, gaining morals, intelligence, and freedom, only to reject it in favor of constant pleasure.

Brave New World Journal 2

Topic C

Brave New World, written by Aldous Huxley, creates a society in which industrialization and manufactured or unreal happiness are exceedingly prevalent. This is shown through the author's use of the Hatchery, or the laboratory designed to create human beings out of test tubes, as well as the significant practice of mindless drugs and sex. Disturbingly, this novel seems worrisome even today, what with the overuse and possible legalization of certain drugs, and also the more relaxed sexual codes of current society. Huxley's vision of a truly industrialized society seems not far off, judging by the highly mechanized world we live in, and how machines are slowly taking over the jobs that were once held by humans. The alternative in Brave New World is the polar opposite of this type of society. Huxley writes of reservations for the “savages” or the humans who did not follow along with the rest of society. Bernard sees “the squalor of that little house on the outskirts of the pueblo...two famine-stricken dogs were nosing obscenely in the garbage at its door,” and simply cannot believe that anyone could live in such filth, and with such strange rituals (Huxley 118). This village is the exact opposite of the mechanized society that Bernard lives in, and would thus seem more favorable to actual human beings, yet Huxley seems to present it in an almost negative light as well. There are all the problems of current society, perhaps magnified by their poorer conditions, and these seem extremely tough on the individuals who are a part of this society. There is almost a desire for a middle ground, in which pleasure is allowed, but in moderation, and industrialization is allowed to provide for basic needs, but not be so overwhelming.

Brave New World Journal 1

Topic B

Throughout the first six chapters of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, the protagonist, Bernard Marx, struggles with his desire for something his society regards as abnormal: emotional distress. As an alpha-plus psychologist, Bernard is highly aware of the conditioning methods that are at work in the nurseries and at school, and he seems highly frustrated by others who cannot or will not see how wrong this is. While flying a helicopter over a lake with Lenina, his “girlfriend”, he brings up some of these sensitive topics, and she responds by quoting the conditioned response phrase that “Everybody's happy nowadays”, and he responds that “We begin giving the children that at (age) five” (Huxley 91). Bernard cannot fight the system, because people are biologically and psychologically conditioned from the very beginning, and thus cannot even begin to contemplate what it is to rebel. By consistantly repeating the ages that the conditioning occurs, Huxley is allowing the reader to see Bernard's struggle with others' inborn attitudes, and how they are utterly resistant to any form of thought that is against their conditioning. At this point in the novel, Bernard seems to have one friend who shares similar views, but other than that, he is alone. Despite trying to converse with Lenina about his thoughts, he makes no progress in trying to impress upon her the gravity of the situation. This futility is then projected back onto Bernard, and he relents and decides to take some Soma, or narcotics, and end the night in a haze of drugs, sex, and emotional detachment.

Journal #19

Thesis:
 Camus uses color in nature and in humans to create a contrast with the lack of color, and Meursault's desire of their presence while in confinement. Camus does this to show that the most effective punishment is not simply to constrain someone, but also to deprive them of aesthetic beauty.

Journal #18

I found the second reading of this novel to be much more insightful and interesting than the first time. I wasn't particularly impressed by the novel when I first read it because I couldn't really understand some of the underlying messages that the book contains, especially about Camus' personal beliefs about existentialism and absurdism. I think that the novel is a great work of literature because of its ability to incorporate so many different messages and techniques into a fairly simple plot. For example, the way Camus makes the reader sympathetic towards Meursault even after he kills a man, seemingly for no purpose, is the mark of a great writer. Also, the way Camus includes aspects of his other work, like the myth of Sisyphus, the Algerian/French conflict over independence, and especially his core beliefs about life, makes the novel an incredible insight into the mind of a man known for his philosophies and personal beliefs. 

Another aspect of the novel that I found interesting was simply the sentence structure, the short choppy sentences. It was nice to have an author who could use this technique so well, in order to give the novel even more insight. I felt like this technique forces the reader to contemplate his purpose, and in my opinion that is what a great novel does.

Journal #17

Quotes:
Because I'd had my eyes closed, the whiteness of the room seemed even brighter than before. (9)

Above the hills that separate Marengo fro the sea, the sky was streaked with red. (12)
the screws o the casket had been tightened and that there were four men wearing black in the room. (14)
a small black tie wiht a knot that was too small for the big white collar of his shirt...strange, floppy thick-rimmed ears suck out thorugh his fine, white hair, and I was struck by their blood-red color (15)
the houses standing out here against that red and green earth (15)
molded out of the same black mud. I felt a little lost between the blue and white of the sky and the monotony of the colors around methe sticky black of the tar, the dull black fo all the clothes, and the shiny black of the hearse (17)
the red geraniums on the graves in the cemetary, the blood-red earth... the white flesh of the roots (18)
I had th ewhole sky in my eyes and it was blue and gold (20)
I was wearing a black tie(20)
a wardrobe whose mirror has gone yellow (21)
girl with a big pink bow and black patent-leather shoes. Behind them, and enormous mother, in a brown silk dress.(22)
above the rooftops the sky had taken on a reddish glow(23)
the light from the streetcars would glint off someone's shiny hari, or off a smile or a silver bracelet.. the sky already blue (24)
The sky was green (26)
Salamano has reddish scabs on his face and wispy yellow hair. (27)
Then he said, You're yellow (29)
Thesis: Camus uses brilliant imagery in the first half of the novel to contrast with the bleak and emotionless descriptions in the second half. He does this to show that the penal system does not keep the prisoner in, it keeps the beauty in life out.

Journal #16

 Questions

1.   Why does Camus suddenly stop using a large amount of imagery in the second part of the novel? For example, he stops describing colors, and nature, etc. Is there something larger here?
2. Is there a historical aspect to the novel in the French/Algerian conflict of the '50s? If so, is it only in the conflict scenes between the French men and the Arabs, or is it throughout the novel?
3. Why does Camus end the novel with the sentence about the crowd greeting Meursault with cries of hate? The last few pages are insightful towards Camus' absurdist beliefs, but how does this tie in?
4. Throughout the novel there is a significant amount of images of the earthly elements and nature. Does this have any major bearing on some theme of the novel? Could it be related somewhat to the existentialist beliefs?
5. Is Camus trying to comment on love, or the internal conflict of love, at any point in the novel? We know about Meursault's possible love of his mother, or even of Marie, but is that true love?
6. What does Salamanu and his dog symbolize, and how does it tie into some larger aspect of the novel?

Responses to other questions
Montana #5
Camus uses the conflict between the Frenchmen and the Arabs to comment on the the Algerian fight for independence in the 1950s. He is trying to say that the French should be held responsible for the millions of people they killed.
Tate 2)
Camus uses the symbolism of smoking and drinking to represent a break from the responsibilities of society. In contrast, time is used to snap Meursault into the real world. On page 52, Marie suddenly talks about time while he is drinking, and he then must go for a walk, just to please the other men.
Tanner
Why does Albert Camus create a character who's emotions are dependent on the environment?
Camus uses the emotions of Meursault, which are based on the condition of the environment, to highlight how irrelevant and changeable we really are. There is no reason to them, they simply change according to how we feel.
Isobel
4) How does the culture impact the book?
Camus uses the setting of the novel, Algiers, to comment on the Algerian struggle for independence against the French. When Raymond is simply let go after beating his girlfriend, Camus is criticizing the French government for their harsh and uncaring treatment of the Algerians.
Matt
3. In what ways does Albert Camus relate the life of Mersault to that of Sisyphus in his essay? Does this have significance for a theme?
Camus uses the structure of the novel to relate Meursault's life to that of Sisyphus. In the first part of the book, Meursault is living amongst ordinary people and enjoying the comforts of nature and freedom. However, once he conflicts with death and kills a man, he is punished and sent to jail, possibly a symbol of the underworld or the land of the dead. This is an example of Camus' absurdist beliefs.

Journal #15

Why would Camus make the novel into two parts? Compare the two, and see what is similar.
Camus probably created the separation of the novel to compare the life of a free man, and the life of a condemned man. Similar to the myth of Sisyphus, Merseult is first free to do what he wants, living among the mortals and enjoying things like the sun, the ocean, and human company. Once he kills a man, however, he is in direct contempt of the higher forces (in this case the judicial system) and becomes condemned to live in his own personal Underworld (jail). The parallels between the myth and the novel are amazing, and they become readily apparent once you view Merseult's life first as a free man, and then as a man unable to escape his cruel fate.
One similarity between the two parts is that they both begin with a scene including a man and his mother. In part one, Merseult realizes that "Maman died today"(Camus 1). Then in part 2, we see a man simply staring at his mother in the prison cell, "He was across from the little old lady and that they were staring intently at each other" (Camus 75). Camus probably created the parallel between the two in order to make the reader aware that if Merseult's mother was still alive, she would have been there for him, and they probably would have been having a similar experience. Instead, Merseult is left with Marie, whom he doesn't truly care for, and is left alone without a real emotional connection to the outside world. Both of the quotes show how there are direct similarities between the two sections of the novel, and that they mirror each other slightly.
Another connection is that both parts end with death, or the premise of death. In part 1, Merseult murders the Arab on the beach, and in part 2, Merseult himself is sentenced to death and is awaiting his execution. Camus probably created this parallel to show that death is inescapable. Merseult realizes that, "I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world" (Camus 122). This quote is showing how Merseult has no more hope, and is simply awaiting the death that will come to us all, regardless of our precautions or beliefs. He realizes that his death, along with the Arab he killed, is utterly unpredictable and unstoppable.
A third parallel between the two sections of the book is about religion. When the novel begins, we find out that Maman turned to religion in her final days. Camus says, "it seems your mother often expressed to her friends her desire for a religious burial...While not an atheist, Maman had never in her life given a thought to religion" (6). This quote makes little sense in the beginning, when we have no connection to the latter part of the novel when Meursault himself is confronted with the possibility of accepting God as a way to alleviate his worries about death. When asked by the chaplain about how he would handle "that terrifying ordeal," Meursault responds, "I didn't want anybody's help, and I just didn't have the time to interest myself in what didn't interest me" (Camus 117). This shows how Meursault, unlike his mother, will hold true to his beliefs even in the face of certain death, which is certainly admirable of anyone.

Journal #14

Questions from Chapter 6:

1. What is the significance of the passage, "they didn't check my statement"(Camus 48)? I believe Merseult has some issues with this fact.
2. Why does Camus focus on setting on page 49? what is the purpose of contrasting very descriptive language of the earth, compared to very dull language about humans?
3. Why does Camus suddenly make Marie talk about time? Does he use it to bring Merseult out of his enjoyment of life through smoking and drinking? 
4. Why do the Frenchmen attack the Arabs first? It was hardly provoked, and they could probably have walked away. Does this have something to do with the historical conflict between the French and Algerians?
5. Merseult uses the frase, "It would be pretty lousy" to describe killing. Why does he have so little feeling on the subject, and why does he not use a more active tone? 
6. Why does Camus make the reader feel like nature is against Merseult on the beach? It seems to be a problem for him that the sun is so bright, and other natural things make him kill the man. Is this seen in other places in the book?

Journal #13

Scientific Obscurism
1. There will always be things that humans cannot understand. For example, questions like "what came before the universe?" will always be left unanswered, because our brains simply cannot process the information. I think this belief came from simply thinking about abstract ideas and realizing that simply theorizing about them is impossible, because our brains cannot process some of the ideas. They are out of reach of our thought process. This is important because it means that humans are fallible, and we will always have problems because we can never figure everything out. we are doomed to have unanswered questions.
2. "God" exists in the above unknowable places. It is not a things, or a force, or anything.  It does not interact with the world, and it did not create the world or the universe. It simply exists in that humans can never completely process all information, since it is too complex and out of our reach. We will always have questions about life and our place in the universe, and since some cannot be answered, God will exist within us. I think this came to me because religions are always trying to answer life's questions.
3. Humans have no soul. Mind and body are the same, and will never be separate. When we die, our bodies become part of the earth, which is then eaten and made into new bodies, so in a way, we reincarnate, simply through the process of matter. We have no soul because we cannot physically find it in our bodies. This came to me in psych, when I realized that physically it does not exist.
4. Humans' main concern is passing on their genetic legacy. Every motivation, everything we do is bent towards this goal, and we will sacrifice everything towards it. Even if there is no actual child created, simply the drive is what matters. It dictates human behavior, and always will. I realized this while reading a book about evolutionary psychology, and it basically had the same opinion as above.
5. Everything is ordered and has reason, but only in acceptance that nothing has reason. single cases may present strange or unknowable decisions, but when looking at overall population, we can easily find reason in the madness. It is all in the patterns, in the statistics. If we look simply at our own situations or someone else's situation, it can become meaningless. But whole populations have overall characteristics. I started thinking about this idea while watching a documentary about identifying human behavior through statistical analysis and economic theory. It held that only through the numbers could patters be identified.
6. There is a cause to everything. This is a direct copy from determinism, but I strongly believe in it. I think that anything can be traced back to a cause, and that nothing is done purely for no reason. This idea is extremely useful to scientists, in that it allows us to assume that there is cause and effect. Otherwise, it simply becomes random and there is no point in determining what caused something, because it could always change. I also picked this up during my years in science class and psychology, because it makes sense out of something that could be otherwise random.
7. A human being could be created using technology. This idea is similar to the idea that mind and brain are the same thing, but it gives a new spin to it. I think that given the appropriate amount of time, and tools, someone could construct a human brain out of artificial parts. This means that humans are simply extremely well-functioning machines, that could be copied. It means that the only thing that makes us human is the fact that nature does the job for us, and it has given us an amazing gift. However, it could be replicated. I thought about this idea while reading science fiction, and the feasibility of constructing a human brain. All you would need to do is map the neurons, and you could essentially create one.

Journal #12

I find Ward's version of the story to be more relevant to the themes, and also more unique. Ward creates very small sentences, while Gilbert uses semicolons and commas to make his version less fluid. On the first page, there are huge differences between the two translators simply in the words they choose, and the connotations that come along with them. For example, Gilbert says "Which leaves the matter doubtful; it cold have been yesterday"(Camus 1). This sentence makes it feel like Mersault is simply unsure, whereas in Ward's version, "That doesn't mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday" gives the feeling that he doesn't care or doesn't want to care. There are major differences in other parts of the novel, and most of them obviously stem from word choice and connotation and sentence structure. Overall, I prefer Ward's translation because I think it fits Mersault's character better. I feel like he doesn't want anything to mean anything, and he is trying to hide his emotions.

I think that the title of the book could have been The Outsider. This would have produced interesting changes in how the book is perceived, instead of Mersault simply being unknown, he would have been completely different. In the scene where he watches the streets of Algiers from his window, it feels almost as if he is not connected to the real world, but instead viewing it at a great distance. Camus says, "Then the street lamps came on all of a sudden and made the first stars appearing in the night sky grow dim. I felt my eyes getting tired from watching the street filled with so many people and lights." (Camus 24). This passage shows how he is very detached from the people on the street, just like an outsider would be curious of the goings-on in a city. He is watching the world, and not participating in it, just like someone unaccustomed to society would.

Journal #11

I think I will change my tabbing strategy from themes(which I marked in TEWWG) to motifs and other literary elements in The Stranger. I believe this will make my analysis more in-depth. The color scheme for tabbing is as follows:
green=the light in the novel. During different scenes there is a variation in the lighting, giving either harsh or soft light, and I think this has some importance
yellow=the colors shown during the novel. There are many uses of vivid colors to describe the sky and other earthly elements, like the blood-red ground buring maman in chapter 1. These may be related to the lighting above, but I'm interested in what significance they have, if any.
blue=people justifying themselves for others. I think this is related to the societal part of the novel, but it is more in-depth and could lead different places.
red=the use of numbers and dates and times to relate to Mersault's ability to comprehend his situation. This is a stretch, but I think it is promising, because Mersault seems very sure of numbers and dates that are dealing with work and transportation, etc., but does not know the age of his mother. On the first page, he is also unsure of which day his mother died.

Journal #10

There will always be an imbalance in the power between men and women, because  human beings are always looking for something better, and this will require you to attempt to become better socially and economically than the people around you.
This theme will require reworking. I think it is supported by the text, but maybe a clarification of power is needed.

• "So de white man throw down de load and tell de nigger man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he don't tote it. He hand it to his womenfolks. De nigger woman is de mule uh de world..."(pg 14)
• " If Ah kin haul de wood heah and chop it fuh yuh, look lak you oughta be able tuh tote it inside. Mah fust wife never bothered me 'bout choppin' no wood nohow." (pg 26)
• "He had always wanted to be a big voice, but de white folks had all de sayso where he come from and everywhere else, exceptin' dis place dat colored folks was buildin' theirselves...He meant to buy in big." (pg 28)
• "You ain't got no particular place. It's wherever Ah need yuh. Git uh move on yuh, and dat quick." (pg 31)
• "That irritated Hicks and he didn't know why. He was the average mortal." pg (39)
• "Everybody was coming sort of fixed up, and he didn't mean for nobody else's wife to rank with her." (pg 41)
• "There was something about Joe Starks that cowed the town" (pg 47)
• "But now, Sam, you know dat all he do is big-belly round and tell other folks what tuh do. He loves obedience out of everybody under de sound of his voice." (pg 49)
• "He gits on her ever now and then when she make little mistakes round de store. 
• Ah can't stand black niggers..."Nother thing, Ah hates tuh see folks lak me and you mixed up wid 'em. Us oughta class off" (pg 141)
• "Being able to whip her reassured him in  possession...He just slapped her around a bit to show he was boss. " (pg 147)

Journal #9

It was the day before the concert, the day when she always practiced the most. Mother would complain all day, waiting and praying that she would start to play her violin, but she wouldn't. She would wait, complaining, playing, toying with the idea of beginning to practice, but she never would. Mother began to plead, "you have a concert tomorrow, and I swear, if you don't practice, I will stop your lessons immediately, and tell Martha that you don't want to play anymore." My sister would start to protest and stall, promising "mom, you know I'll do it! Just give me a chance to relax for a little while." In her mind, she had been working all day, which I supposed she had. It is hard work avoiding something that you feel is inevitable. In her mind, the hardest part of the whole play was that she had to keep coming up with new lines. Sure, some could be reused, like her insistence that a friend needed help with a project. I especially loved how the project always seemed to require instant gratification. There were other lines, some better than others. She had to read. She had to relax. She had to prepare for volleyball. And always, my mother would relent, aware that there would be another act.
The second part of this comedy relied primarily on threats. I heard mother's opening broadside: "If you do not start playing right now, you will not be able to go to your friend's house tomorrow. " My sister would begin to sob, knowing her part as the artful dodger was coming to a close. She would respond hesitantly, "mom, please let me go! I swear I'll start!" She didn't know why she didn't start. It was always a mystery to me, I recalled, and then again it wasn't. She was 12, and she was in middle school, and her friends told her things and wishes that mystified the rest of us. She was always changing her mind, and I recall thinking that she was indecisive.

The theme of my story is that you have to be able to understand your goals in life in order to make decisions, otherwise you risk allowing others' judgments and wishes to dictate how you live your life. (theme was from in class)
I used diction to indicate the theme, similar to how Hurston uses it. In the last sentence, I use the word indecisive, which is almost too blatant a clue as to the theme. I'm sure Hurston would have been a little more obscure in her use of diction, but I felt it necessary.

I also used dialogue to highlight the conflict between the two characters in the story. It brings the conflict into the open, out of the internal conflict growing within each of the characters. Hurston uses this strategy frequently, in order for the reader to be able to see that some of her internal conflicts are becoming external conflicts.

I also used connotation to emphasize the theme. I used the word "play" as a theater performance, or a facade, as well as the actual meaning in the story, to play the violin. I felt that the use would highlight how the whole situation is just acting, with one character knowing her goals, and one character not aware of her goals. Both, however, continue on with their lines, despite this critical part of the play.

Journal #8

In the beginning of chapter 12, when Tea Cake and Janie have been seeing each other for a while and the town begins to notice what is going on, Hurston uses striking diction when she says, "All those signs of possession." (pg 110) This is in reference to all the things Tea Cake has been doing for Janie, like chores around the house and taking Janie to social events.  Instead of using words like love, or commitment, or caring, she uses the word possession, which gives the sentence a very negative feeling to it. It's meaning has become judgmental, as if someone jealous of Tea Cake's position is offering a personal opinion. We know that Janie has just come out of a marriage where she was viewed as a possession, and we hope that this does not foreshadow later events in the novel.

Hurston uses dialogue to emphasize the new direction Janie's life is taking when she says, "Ah done lived Grandma's way, now Ah means tuh live mine."(pg 114) During this scene, Janie is explaining to Phoebe how she wants to live with Tea Cake because she loves him, not because she feels like she must gather material wealth and become higher in the social hierarchy. For the first time, we see Janie's complete rejection of the ideals of her grandmother, and it all comes out through the dialogue. This is a perfect example of an internal conflict somewhat forgotten by the reader coming out and being heard. Janie later brings up points about how her grandmother only wanted to be like her white owners, but could not think what to do once she had arrived there. We are reminded of the white/black power struggle, which had been dormant for many previous chapters. All of this comes out through meaningful dialogue.

When Tea Cake returns after his four-day absence he returns with an object of power, of wealth, or at least an attempt at wealth, "But the fourth day after he came in the afternoon driving a battered car." (pg 108) There is connotation and denotation both working together when talking about a car. This passage occurs after Tea Cake have been together for a while, and Tea Cake proposes that they go shopping so that they can go to a picnic. In reality, the car is probably old, beat up, and less than perfect. However, there is a strong connotation to the image of a car, especially in American society. A car has often been included as a part in the American Dream, and also that it is a symbol of power, social standing, and wealth. Hurston chooses to use this connotation to her advantage, showing that Tea Cake cares enough about Janie that he wants to both impress her and show her that he is capable of providing a good life for her.

Journal #7

And Ben commenced contemplating Hate. Hate, the unconquerable being with many heads who lived in the presence of all. The diabolical creature who survived within the confines of every soul, with or without cause. Why must Hate have rules, since nobody can withstand His awful presence? He crawls stealthily, watching and waiting for the opportunity to strike. Crawls purposefully, ready to arise in full glory when the target is most vulnerable. Has crawled forever, knowing it will come, will see and will conquer. He would probably chance across his scales sometime soon. He was distraught and wearied as well. Sad Daniel! He shouldn't have to deal with his problems on his own. Ben sent Steve in to see if they could see each other, and Daniel refused. The people understood problems of the body, but of the mind, they were clueless. He maintained that he would get better, if everyone would just trust in his ability to change his fate. He was not sick very much. That was his thinking process. Though Steve described the illness, and contradicted him, so he understood. But then again, it wouldn't matter, what with everyone around him closing in on the story. Folks who would not have cared if he had been given a Nobel were flocking to hear the news. Simply watched and listened, aware for any news. Jealousy, the scaleless snake, was slithering and crawling around his life.

I decided to use hate and jealousy because I believe they have strong feelings behind them, like death and rumor in Their Eyes Were Watching God. I used the snake to represent them because I felt like it was representative of how hate and jealousy can often move stealthily until someone if filled with them, and then becomes much more powerful, similar to many snakes who attack. I also found a sentence that included parallelism, and so chose a different form of parallelism to use instead. (I came, I saw, I conquered)

Journal #6

• Hurston capitalizes Death- this could be simply to emphasize death, or to perhaps make it "larger than life" something that mortals will not understand. 

• Personification of Death- used to mean that death takes away life, and dying is not simply the losing of life.

• Death is given a home in the sky- this is also where God, and the Sun, reside. It could have implications of death being near God. 

• Death is called a "he"- another example of how Hurston speaks poorly of men throughout the novel. 
• Joe refuses the doctor- his refusal is just another implication of how he does not want to believe that he is dying, and he wants to have faith in his ability to control his fate. 

• Recurring motif of the trees- the people under the trees could be under the protection of them, the feebleness of Joe.
• Metaphor of death as a bird/rumor as a wingless bird- There is a comparison of death and rumor, seeming to say that as death comes and leaves feathers, it will lose its wings and become rumor. 
• Comparison between Janie's truth and Joe's truth- this could be an implication of the more knowledgeable woman, who obviously listened to reason, not what she wanted to hear.

Journal #5

Zora Neale Hurston manipulates her plot by using brief scenes of conflict between Janie and men of wealth, in order to show the challenges Janie has with these domineering men. Hurston uses these conflicts to eventually illustrate how Janie's dream will ultimately not revolve around material wealth.

Journal #4

3 Patterns

Hair- this could be an indication of the feelings Janie has at the time, or the power she has.
In chapter 5, the man declares that Janie is only pretty due to her long hair. (pg38) This could insinuate that her hair has some power over others, especially men, and is therefore important.
At the end of chapter 5, they mention that Janie keeps her hair tied up in the store. (pg 49) During this portion of the book, it seems like she keeps her hair down while enjoying herself, and then ties it up when she is working.
On page 55, Joe commands Janie to tie up her hair around the store. Joe's reluctance to have other men feel or see the hair means that it is important to him.
Daisy has long, almost Caucasian hair, and it gives her a beauty that the men all gravitate to. (pg 68)


Speech and power
Hicks complains that Joe speaks to uneducated people with "books in his mouth." (pg 49) This seems to mean that Joe does not fit in with the others, and uses his sophisticated and "powerful" language to persuade or manipulate others.
Joe says he wants to be a "big voice" and that Janie will be powerful too. (pg 46) The reference to voice could have some impact in that Joe is a very confident speaker, and will be powerful.
On page 54, Joe "didn't want her talking after such trashy people," showing that he believes that speech and power go hand in hand.
Janie make an eloquent speech about the mule to the people on the porch, and the others declare that she is a born orator. (pg 58)
Janie eventually learns to "hush" when around Joe. (pg 71) The silence could represent her finally accepting her lower status.

Land
Captain Eaton has all the land necessary to make the town, and he is white. (pg 37) The power held by this man transfers over to Joe when he buys the land.
Later in the novel, in the muck, Tea Cake doesn't own the land, which still makes Janie just as happy as when she had lots of land with Joe.
In chapter 2, Janie is told to go live with Logan, who has 60 acres of land. (pg 21) Janie's grandma thinks this land and wealth will help Janie live a better life, when in fact it doesn't.
At the beginning of her tale, Janie says that she lived on the white people's land, and she was perfectly happy there. All the evidence points to the fact that when Janie owns the land, she is unhappy.

Journal #3

Langston Hughes contributed greatly to the Harlem renaissance, through his writings, poetry, and other arts. He was a major proponent of the idea that being black was not something to be ashamed of, and was just as beautiful as being white, or any race. He helped create jazz poetry, another new form of art being developed during this time period. Hughes also believed, unlike many of his contemporaries, that the black culture was a source of inspiration for the arts, and that it had many things to offer and insights into the black perspective of the world. He was also known for being a communist, although he never declared himself one.
Dialect-Boston (with some creative liberties taken)
Pronunciation
ar-ah
at the end of a word, "a"-er
o-aw (sox becomes sawx)

Grammar
Heavy use of contractions
use of double negatives
often a use of the "he" form of a verb (I says)

Vocabulary
aya-yes, or yeah
wicked-very
jimmies-sprinkles (sometimes rainbow jimmies for multi colored sprinkles)


During the 1930's, Langston Hughes approached a gentleman while walking the streets of Boston. He inquired, "what do you think of the recent Harlem Renaissance occurring among the black citizens of the nation?" The man replied, "Ah thinks it's a great thing, and it's doing wicked good for the black folks in this ahrea." Hughes remarked, "you know, I have the same opinion. I believe that being black is not something to be ashamed of. " The other man, whose name was Webster, began questioning him more in depth about his particular beliefs. "Ah thinks thaht the renaissance is helping bring more ahrts to yaw culture he queried, what's yaw opinion?" he queried. Hughes began a long explanation of his beliefs saying that "the world will begin to enjoy the art that is created as a result of our experiences and sufferings, and will be the better for it." Webster gave his wholehearted approval, exclaiming, "aya, yaw wicked smaht, and ah thinks yaw ideers ah very intelligent. " The conversation was momentarily stopped when Hughes stopped to ponder a recent issue over communism, and then he began a new line, "what are your beliefs about the social classes and the issues over work and management?" Webster paused for a second and then replied, "mah feelings about that issue ahren't made up yet. but you, don't never stop believing whaht you wahnt." Relieved, Hughes offered to buy Webster an ice cream with "jimmies" a term he had recently picked up for sprinkles. He then stated, "You know, I created a new type of art, called jazz poetry, and I also do other types of writing." Webster responded with, "Ah knew you were smaht, but this is amazing. " Hughes also gave another example of his career in the writing profession, "I also went to the USSR to create a film about communism and other things like that." Webster immediately looked concerned, knowing that the USSR was not the friendliest of countries towards Americans. "Ah Mah Gawd, you ah a wicked brave soul, sir, having brave that cruel country." Hughes responded by saying that, "it was all in the pursuit of more knowledge and the pursuit of a better life."

Journal #2

"Come to yo' Grandma, honey. Set in her lap lak yo' use tuh. Yo' Nanny wouldn't harm a hair uh yo' head. She don't want nobody else to do it neither if she kin help it. Honey, de white man is de ruler of everything as fur as Ah been able tuh find out. Maybe it's some place way off in de ocean where de black man is in power, but we don't know nothin' but what we see. So de white man throw down de load and tell de nigger man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he don't tote it. He hand it to his womenfolks. De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see. Ah been praying' fuh it tuh be different wid you. Lawd, Lawd, Lawd!"

1. When Grandma tells Janie to sit in her lap, it is as if she wants to tell this life lesson to a child going out into the world, someone just being awoken to the truth.
2. Grandma's experiences have told her that white men rule the world, and she feels the need to set Janie straight as to the social hierarchy of the world.
3. "we don't know nothin' but what we see" this could be have the meaning that blacks in that time period relied on their experiences, and have no hope for a better life because they cannot know what that is like.
4. Grandma tries to assure Janie that hopefully nothing bad will happen to her, but then at the end, she says she prayed for this, possibly meaning that she feels like it is all in God's hands, and she is powerless.
5. The reference to Africa as a place where black men rule is referred to as a place in the ocean, meaning showing that Grandma has very little education, and cannot see beyond what her experiences have taught her.
6 Her little knowledge of her heritage, and Africa, shows that she has been conditioned to be basically focused on work, and trying to stay alive, not worried about a better future.
7. The social heirarchy presented her goes back to the first page, in which the sun represented male dominance, and when it wasn't there, blacks became the rulers. This passage continues with black women as the last rung.
8. the metaphor of the black woman as a mule also goes back to the first page, in which humans were described as work animals. Possibly used to show the low social standing.
9. In this passage there is a repetition of Grandma saying that the lesson she is imparting is based on what she has experienced. This could foreshadow the later events in the novel somewhat, but it also shows how her life was very different from Janie's.
10. Grandma's praying for a better life for Genie could show her utter belief in fate, and that very little can be done to change it, except by staying alive and safe.
11. At the end of the passage, Grandma exclaims "Lawd" three times, showing the distress she feels that Janie might have a similar life to her own, or like Janie's mother. This could foreshadow some of the sad events in the book later on, and the difficulties.
12. It is interesting that Grandma feels that she must pick up the things thrown down first by the white men, and then by her husband. It is almost as if her life has taught her that men are generally bad, without regards to race. She almost puts black men on par with white men, in terms of their relations towards black women.
13. There is definitely a connection between the three groups-white men are rulers- black men might have a place where they rule across the see- but black women are the mules of the world, the workers.
14. Given Grandma's history with her white slave owner, it is interesting why she does not include them in her list of the social hierarchy. This is possibly because she feels they are similar to black women, but racially superior and without hard work. They are simply things.