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Milkboy -> Milkman

For the majority of the novel, Milkman seems to behave like an adolescent despite his older age. Even in his early 30’s, he acts as if he were in his early 10’s—highlighted by the fact that he’s had the same job working for his dad for years and still has a nickname he got when he was in his mid 0’s. Similarly, he has steadily become more akin to his father. He collects rent at Macon Jr’s command and has a similar egotistical attitude, manifested in his disgust when he realizes that Ruth’s life doesn’t comprise exclusively of being his mother. More importantly, his arrogance has also manifested in a lack of interest in racial issues for African-Americans, such as when Guitar tells him about the murder of Emit Till. During Milkman and Guitar’s robbery in chapter 8, we see many of these negative character traits manifested. Milkman, a middle-aged man, obeys the order from his father to steal from his aunt. Believing that his desires are of utmost importance, he follows through and s...
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Daddy Issues

In class the other day, we spent some time discussing whether Rochester or Antionette deserve more sympathy in Wide Sargasso Sea . We came to the conclusion that Rochester tricks Antoinette into marrying him for financial gains and that Antoinette’s actions are justified for the most part, given that we know she has had a rough past and that she seems to genuinely want love from Rochester. Although I won’t argue that Antoinette isn’t a victim of Rochester’s mistreatment, I think there is something to be said about Rochester’s relationship with his father and how it could have influenced his decisions. To start, although we haven’t heard directly from his father, it is clear from his letters to him that Rochester has some deeply rooted resentment and anxiety about their relationship. In particular, in one of his letters to his father, Rochester writes “I will never be a disgrace to you or to my dear brother, the son you love.” Taken out of context, it sounds satirical for Rochester...
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A or not A

In the most factual line of the novel, Meursault thinks to himself: “You could either shoot or not shoot.” Yes. Although at face value, this line means absolutely nothing, I would argue that it has more significance than to demonstrate that Camus’ characters are aware of the axioms of logic. This is particularly clear if we read the thought in its entirety: “It was then that I realized you could either shoot or not shoot.” It seems that Meursault has some sort of realization, which likely caused him to shoot the Arab afterward. It is clear from the beginning of the novel that Meursault is indifferent to practically everything. For instance, his mom dies, and he hears Salamano beat his dog, but he never reacts to any of it. Up to this point, Meursault’s relationship with nature has been quite the opposite. The sun beats down on him and he feels too hot, later the sun makes him happy. He is very responsive to nature and its effects on him. With this in mind, one could ...
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Cohn and Jake are bulls.

In my last blog, I considered a comparison between Brett’s seduction of men and Romero’s bull-fighting. As I inspected further, it seems that the bulls Romero fights in the final bull-fighting scene may also resemble male characters from the novel; the first bull seems to resemble Cohn and the second Jake. Here’s why: If we read further into this bull-fighting scene, it appears that not only do Romero’s elegant techniques resemble Brett’s techniques when dealing with Cohn but one of the bulls Romero is fighting actually bears an uncanny resemblance to Cohn, strengthening the parallel between Romero and Brett. Since the beginning of the novel, Jake has perpetually emphasized the fact that Cohn isn’t quite in tune with social norms and has comically bad emotional perception. For instance, in chapter 15, Jake fails to understand that, in Spain, him and his friends are foreigners; when Cohn tells Jake in chapter 5 that he’s “the best friend [he has],” Jake thinks “God help you,” as if to...
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On the significance of Bull Fighting

Bull-fighting is first introduced into the novel amid a conversation between Jake and Cohn. After Cohn says that his “life is going so fast and [he’s] not really living it,” Jake reassures Cohn with the fact that  "Nobody ever lives their life all the way up except bull-fighters." From this quote, it is clear that Jake holds admiration for bull-fighters, particularly because they live an exciting life that involves risk and adrenaline. Not only does this confirm that Jake is a fan of manly activities, but also that he admires a man who risks his life for something he has aficion for, much as he presumably did in the war. Later in the novel, it becomes clear that Jake doesn’t just admire bullfighters, he has serious aficion for the sport—the kind of aficion he’s missing out on because of his injury. It is particularly telling that as Jake does meaningless busy work to keep his mind off Brett, (and the fact that his injury keeps them from being together) he spends most ...
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Attention Span

There two main instances in the novel where it seems that Woolf may be poking fun at how humans have a short attention span and need a constant distraction. Towards the beginning of the novel, a mysterious car drives through the street. News bounces around and people begin to speculate that it may be the queen or some other important figure—suddenly everyone’s day stops as they watch the car. Clarissa even begins to feel “extreme dignity” standing on the street, despite having no idea who is in the car. Then, suddenly, the crowd begins to notice an airplane flying overhead, which seems to be spelling something. Although they still have no idea what the airplane is spelling, all heads turn, and everyone is now fascinated by the plane, so much so that they barely notice the car drive past. To me, it seems that Woolf is trying to poke fun at the crowd as if to say that absolutely anything would distract the crowd (even if they can’t fully identify what is distracting them), and anyth...
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The Significance of the Escalator

Throughout the Mezzanine, it seems that most of the events of the lunch hour, the objects Howie sees along his way, and Howie's recollections from childhood aren’t spectacular or meaningful on their own until Howie’s enthusiasm and digressions make them seem so. For example, the narrator walks to buy a cookie, notices that urinals look like gargoyles, and remembers that his dad used to hang ties on doorknobs, none of which seem like irreplaceable ideas or events in the book; You could imagine that Baker would have had no trouble writing a book of 10 or 100 times the length of the Mezzanine—he wouldn’t run out of interesting things to notice or comment on. On a surface level, the choice of the escalator as the vehicle of the Mezzanine also seems like an arbitrary and insignificant choice by Baker. But after closer inspection, it appears that the escalator is intended as a metaphor, suggesting that Howie is not only rising to his office but also a different mental state with a ...
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