20th Century Lit - Zoey

     So far I've really enjoyed The Plague. Since there is a lot happening in the book at the moment, I felt that it would be more productive to just write about my first thoughts and impressions instead of focusing on a specific moment or aspect of the book. So here we go:      The way Camus illustrates the city of Oran is super interesting, and I really like how he describes many of the side characters, for example the Old Spaniard who pushes peas around, Cottard, and the old man who spits on cats. Also, it seems like this book is going to be more plot driven than the ones we've read so far. Instead of just following a character through a day or a few days in their life we are (hopefully?) going to see the events that occur as a result of the plague progressing. This is definitely closer to the style of book I was used to reading before 20th century literature, and in my opinion it will definitely make the book more interesting and meaningful.  ...

    Brett is an interesting character for an older book like this one. I wouldn't expect to see a free spirited female character like her whose drinking all the time and seeing other men even while being engaged to someone in a book written almost a hundred years ago. At the same time, many of the characters and their habits defy my expectations of a literary novel, for example their dialogues and the way they're constantly joking and roasting each other. Brett has some pretty unique ways of handling situations, yet I still wouldn't say that the effects of the strange almost-relationship with Jake are her fault.      In class it sounded like a lot of people wanted to call Brett manipulative or selfish. Either that or people thought she was just oblivious to everybody's feelings towards her. However I would say the fault lies on Jake more than her. She explicitly states she isn't interested or can't be in an actual relationship with him, and so the fact he's ...

      Throughout Mrs. Dalloway, we are often carried between the minds of different characters. For example, during the scene where we follow Peter into Regent's Park after he leaves Clarissa's house, we are given a look into how the other characters there see him. Peter watches a child run into Lucrezia's legs, which moves us into her mind. We get to hear about her and Septimus's relationship from her point of view, then quickly move to his thoughts and the fact that he imagines Evans walking towards him - who turns out to actually be Peter . That brings us right back to Peter, and we see him envisioning that the couple he sees before him, Septimus and Lucrezia, is just having a lovers quarrel. These circular transitions between everyone in a particular scene are pretty unique. In the books I've seen which use multiple viewpoints, the shifts are more rigid. Usually after one character finishes a particular thought or a scene is completed, the view completely fl...

      There isn't much to suggest that Mrs. Dalloway is content with her life. Sure, she walks around happily, taking in the scenery of London, and is excited about preparing for her party, but I think that has more to do with the particular moment than a feeling of general content. These happy moments are contrasted with ones of disappointment that hint to some kind of dissatisfaction under this outward cheerfullness.      Clarissa spends the first couple of pages, and also just at times later along her walk, talking about what a fresh morning it is and how beautiful London looks. Her thoughts have a feeling of general optimism - she's enjoying her life and what she's doing. For example, in this first section she states, "what a morning -- fresh as if issued to a children on bench," and "what she loved; life; London; this moment of June." But then if she was satisfied with life, as these thoughts suggest, why does she become super melancholy and introsp...

          The Mezzanine is different from most novels in a lot of ways, but one way that I think makes a big difference is that Howie is the main and only character in the whole story. Even though many books are centered around a singular character and we only ever see their viewpoint, The Mezzanine takes it to an extreme degree. Howie doesn’t really have any meaningful conversations with or thoughts about anyone except for occasionally L., and even then we never learn much about her. It feels like there simply aren’t any other characters in the story and Howie is the only person in his entire world. Not only is everything he says about other people seemingly trivial and fleeting, which is not too surprising considering the rest of the book, however he also seems less invested in it than any thoughts he has about milk cartons or shiny objects or shoelaces.          The few times Howie interacts with someone, for example with Ti...