Before reading each summary I would like to emphasize that every piece of writing you do for this novel should adhere to the basic guidelines of writing we've discussed in this class.
1. Introduction - Grab the reader's attention with the very first sentence somehow, then build each sentence from old to new information and from general to specific, and then lead to some sort of thesis statement.
2. Thesis Statement Needed
3. Each paragraph needs to have a focus that develops the thesis rather than just based on chapters or sections of the novel.
4. There needs to be a conclusion that does more than simply summarizes your summary
Monday, March 24, 2008
The Bell Jar: 1st Half summary
The first chapter, introduces the main character, Esther Greenwood. The story is narrated in first person, but in the first chapter she mentions how she has a baby now, which leads you to believe that the story is being told in the future. Esther, who is a college student at the time of the story, is doing an internship in New York. While she knows that most girls would envy her for all of the expensive gifts and clothes she gets for free, and for the glamorous parties she gets to attend, but for some reason, it does not excite her the way she thinks it should. One night, when her friend Doreen and her are in a cab on their way to a party thrown by their magazine, a man approaches their cab and asks them to join him and his friends at a bar. His name is Larry and they decide to go with him, because Esther wants to see New York from a different perspective besides the carefully planned out events of the magazine. Larry appeared to be very interested in Doreen, but Esther was not interested in his friend. In the second chapter, Doreen, Larry and Esther all end up going back to his apartment, but Esther gets frustrated while they are flirting and danced and walks home 48 blocks. When she gets home, she relaxes in the tub for a long time, because she feels as if soaking in the tub is dissolving all of the bad off of her; Lenny, and New York. Doreen comes back really drunk, really later, and tried to get Esther to let her into her room, but Esther leaves her in the hallway, where she vomits, and Esther vows that she will continue to be Doreen’s friend, but have no real attachment to her. In the third Chapter, the girls are all at a luncheon thrown by the magazine, minus Doreen who was with Lenny. Esther recalls that morning, when she decline hanging out with Doreen and Lenny for the day and decided to skip the fur show that they were supposed to attend as well and spend the day in bed. When one of the girls asks her why she wasn’t there, she started to cry, because Jay Cee, their boss had called her and asked her into her office and asked her if she was enjoying her job, and what she wants to do when she graduated college. Although Esther usually had a scripted out line as a response, when Jay Cee asked, she simply responded “I don’t know”, but then tries to save herself and says that she was thinking about going into publishing. Jay Cee tells her that it would be in her best interest to learn a couple languages if she wants to be a competitive publisher, but this stresses Esther out, because she does not feel that there is time in her schedule to take up a language. You can tell in this chapter that Esther is starting to feel like there is no direction in her life, and she seems unhappy. In the next chapter, Jay Cee had sent Esther off to do some work and then to the banquet. After the banquet the girls go to a movie premier. Half way through, all of the girls start feeling sick and decide to leave the theatre, and they throw up all the way home. Esther collapses in the hallway and wakes up to a nurse putting her into bed and Doreen informs her later that all of the girls have food poisoning from the crab. The next morning, Esther gets a phone call from Constantin, who is a friend of Mrs. Willard, who is a friend of her mothers. Mrs. Willard has a son, Buddy, who wants to marry Esther, but she loathes him. In his recent letters Buddy seems to be making more of an attempt, such as telling her that he found a poem written by a doctor, which shows that he has changed his way of thinking that doctors and writers do not get along. When the first started dating, Esther was really interested in him, he asked her to the Yale Junior Prom, where he treated her like a friend, but kissed her afterwards. The next chapter, Esther thinks back to a lot of events in their relationship, including watching a baby being born for a lecture. After the lecture Buddy asked her if she had ever seen a naked man and continued to take off his clothed. He then admitted to her that he slept with a women from his summer job in Cape Cod. She broke up with him, because she was angry that he presented himself as pure, but really wasn't. All of these events and memories play important roles in the ending of the novel, and revealing the important things in her life.
No Country for Old Men
The novel began with the sheriff Bell talkin about how he used to visit the psychopathic killer before his execution.The next chapter begins with Chigurh killing the sheriff and escaping from lock up.He then managed to kill another innocent person on the interstate.It was the first couple of pages of the story and already there were two murders.By the next chapter, Llewelyn Moss gets himself tied into what will become a chase for money.He comes across trucks that have dead mexican men inside and outside.At the scene he finds a bag filled with a whole bunch of cash.Before he finds tha cash he does see a bag with brown powder like substance,i would think to be drugs.It was obvious that it was an exchange gone wrong.Moss takes the money and returns home not really telling his wife what he just saw and found.By early morning he had went back out to where he found the cash, to find that someone else is out there.He must avoid from bein seen by who i would say is the psychopathic killer.The novel goes on to talking about how things have changed.Bell went from breaking up fist fights to now handling multiple murders.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness starts off with five men sitting on a ship talking about their past sailing experiances, and this is where we are introduced to who will be the main character Marlow. Marlow starts to talk about his days navigating a steam ship through the Congo River in Africa, and the story then switches its tense to the past when Marlow was in the Congo. Marlow arrives in Congo and has to wait for a boat to pick him up, and for the next few days he takes in his surrondings, and he sees the violence towards the native people. Then one day the cheif accountant of the Belgian Company, the company for which Marlow is working for, gives Marlow a message to tell a man named Mr. Kurtz. The message is that Marlow must tell him that everything is fine in the outter stations, since Kurtz is deep in the Congo and information does not travel easy through the jungle. Soon Marlow is picked up and arrives at the Central Station where he finds the steam ship he has to captian, and the whole bottom of it is torn out from rocks. It takes Marlow three months to repair his ship, and one day he is introduced to a man known as the "brickmaker", the brickmaker tells Marlow about Kurtz and makes Kurtz seem like a prodigy. Finally the repairs on Marlows ship are complete and he sets off for a two month trip. After the second day fogs desends upon the river and Marlow and his crew are forced to wait for it to lift before they continue, and while waiting they are attacked by natives, one of his men is killed while the other shoot at the natives with their rifles, after a while Marlow manages to scare the natives off my sounded the horn on the ship. The story so far is very eventfull and hopefully it will continue like this to make for a very good story.
the celebrant
The Celebrant is a great novel for true baseball fans. The only book ever published by Eric Rolfe Greenberg, it is a true classic. The novel goes into a jewish immigrant, Jack Kapp, and his job as a jeweler. the novel also goes into Kapp's obsession of New York pitcher Christy Mathewson. after seeing the amazing no hitter thrown by Mathewson on July 15, 1901, Kapp decides to make a ring in celebration of this game. the ring eventually becomes a championship ring for the team and is known as a "celebrant" of Mathewson's accomplishments. The novel shows how Kapp lives out his dream of being a baseball player who never made it. As much as the book explores the dark times that were going on in baseball during the early 1900's. Kapp's obsession of Mathewson and other geat players leads Kapp to discover the corruption in baseball due to betting. Also with the Kapp family making rings for the perennial National League champions, the fortunes of Mathewson and the jewelry business climb together. But tragedy soon intervenes. Mathewson develops health problems related to his exposure to gas in World War I, while a Kapp brother, a gambler, becomes involved in the Black Sox scandal.
Beloved
Beloved can be a confusing story at some times because it keeps going into flashbacks and memories that the characters are having, but for the most part it is easy to understand. Beloved starts off at the house which sethe( main character) lives in with her 18 year old daughter Denver and we learn that there is a spirt in the house, which Is that of beloved.(sethes baby that died). Paul D stops by Sethes house and he meets her daughter Denver. The two of them chat about many things from the past. Paul D is one of the brothers that came from Sweet home. This was a kentucky slave house, which sethe also comes from. At one point the house starts shaking ( from the spirit of beloved). When paul d gets to close with sethe the spirt must not like that. He takes sethe up to bed and denver gets mad because its like he took her mom away. Perhaps he has some feelings for the mom. Sethe and Pauld D are very close with eachother in bed. This makes them think of salvery and they recall earlier times in their life. Sethe thinks about her marriage with halle ( pauld d’s brother) and how it all happened. As the stories goes on an important flashback is recalled. Denver while outside recalls the time she saw her mom kneeling in prayer besides a white dress. Denver loves hearing the story behind this and we get to hear the story that is going through denvers head but from her mothers voice. It’s the story about how she almost died when carrying denver but then found a white woman , Amy who helped her through pregnancy. Paul D wants to live with Sethe for now, and questions whether or not Denver will mind. Denver a few days later asks Paul in a rude way basically how long he is staying for. She gets scolded for this and Paul remains. He takes them to a carnival to try to ease the tension. During the carnival all that sethe can picture is the 3 of them In the shawdows holding hands. Maybe they can become a family after all? On the way back from the carnival they notice a young woman outside near sethes house. She seems sick, so they invite her to come in. The girls name is beloved which seems to be very werid, sense that’s the name of the dead child. Denver takes care of her. The young woman (beloved ) becomes very clingy towards sethe;she keeps asking her many random questions and likes to hear stories. Paul D belives that there is a werid glow to beloved and begins to question her. Beloved ends up choking on the dinner and is taken upstairs. The adults then begin to talk about halle and how he mistreated sethe by leavin her. Lastly, the story goes into another flashback of how sethe gave birth to denver and how amy helped her out.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Slaughterhouse five
Slaughterhouse Five First Half
Kurt Vonnegut starts off by telling us how he is writing a book “Slaughterhouse Five” but is having trouble remembering what happened. He figures that if he goes to visit his old friend Bernhard V. O’Hare, together they can recollect enough war stories to allow Kurt to write his novel. So he gets there and is given a cold welcome by Bernhard’s wife. After much discussing with Bernhard about the war, Kurt finally finds out why Mary, Bernhard’s wife, as been acting so coldly towards him. She was worried that Kurt’s book would encourage war and in turn kill more young boys. So Kurt assured her it wouldn’t and they quickly became friends.
Billy Pilgrim starts off as a young scrawny boy who is getting ready to go off to war. However his father dies then his mother dies and finally his sister all as he goes off to war. He then finds him self surviving a plane crash and being rescued by three men. One of them is Roland Weary who is wearing many excessive layers of clothing to the point where even his face isn’t visible. He carries a triangular knife for a more gruesome death of the victim. Weary tells stories about how he used to trick people into being friends with him just to beat them up and make himself feel better. The other two men are scout infantry who by the way they act and control themselves clearly have much experience behind enemy lines. Weary is a bit nutty but thrives on being the hero by rescuing the deadbeat soldier Pilgrim. Pilgrim lets the three know several times that they can go on without him but Weary insists on keeping him. So eventually Pilgrim just loses consciousness and becomes “lost in time”.
Pilgrim just appears randomly in different points in his life ranging from his birth to and including his death. In this another side story begins where he goes back to where the aliens from Tralfamador abducted him and taught him about time and how these aliens view time in a completely different way. Instead of seeing things as happening one at a time like humans do, they see everything at once so there is never surprise. They he comes back to the soldiers and finally the two scouts ditch Pilgrim and Weary fearing that Weary and Pilgrim will slow them down. Weary hates Pilgrim from then on. They hear gunshots in the distance and the two scouts have been killed.
Pilgrim gets unstuck in time again and visits more time periods from his life. He again goes back to the Tralfamadorians and learns more about how they see things but looking at their books. He comes back to Weary just to be captured and thrown in a line of other captured soldiers.
The line of soldiers is taken for such a long walk that Weary’s feet are injured badly. They finally are forced onto trains and the narrator talks about how rough it was in the train having to deal with going to the bathroom, eating, and sleeping. People took turns sleeping and Billy happened to be the guy in charge of emptying the bathroom bucket. Weary was in the train in front of Billy and made the other people say they would get revenge on Billy Pilgrim if he died. And he did, along with Billy’s friend the hobo and another friend in the train across from him. They finally arrive to the camp where a bunch of Russians have cleaned up the place and everyone is given a jacket. Billy’s just so happens to be very feminine which he finds out later was just so he could be made fun of. He ends up in a doctors office being consoled by a friend who he knows is going to die.
Then he has another flashback. It is after the war and he is in the mental ward and his mother visits. He feels so bad that she put so much effort into bringing him up and he doesn’t even want to be alive. Then his rich fat fiancé visits and he still can’t believe that he was so desperate that he proposed to her. She however clearly cares about him and tries to help him but he just denies her saying he has what he needs.
"Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World"
First, in order for anything to make sense at all, some things need to be explained.
The System – Powerful corporation controlling just about everything (like a government).
The Factory – The Anti-System.
Calcutecs – People experimented on and trained to make calculations, sort data, shuffle data, read code, and do most anything with numbers. They also have the ability to separate their minds into two and use them independently. They also work for the System.
Semiotecs – Fallen Calcutecs who also work for the Factory.
INKlings – Beasts that live within the underground of the city, and don’t like sound.
The novel is split into two stories, alternating between chapters, but both intertwine somehow. It’s not clear whether or not the protagonist in both stories is the same man. The first story is considered Hard-Boiled Wonderland” while the other is considered “The End of the World.”
"Hard-Boiled Wonderland" is set in a modern day world, in a large city in Japan. The protagonist here is a Calcutec. The story begins with the protagonist in an elevator on his way to an appointment with a client. He’s not sure whether or not he’s ascending up or moving down, because he doesn’t feel any motion or hear anything. To pass the time he decides to count coins he has in his pockets. He has one set of coins in one pocket and another set in his other. What he does is count them at the same time but keeps track of the amount of money in his right pocket with his right side of his brain, and keeps track of the amount of money in his left pocket with the left side of his brain. Finally he adds both sides together to get the total amount. He does this a second time, but gets a different amount, suggesting he made a mistake counting, which he has never done before. This foreshadows the events to come. Before he can count them a third time, the elevator doors open, and waiting in the corridor is a woman in a pink suit. Enter the “chubby-girl.” She guides him to his appointment. When they arrive at the office, they both enter. He notices that the room is very plain, but takes note of the large amount of paper clips on the desk.
The protagonist meets with his client, the Professor. The professor shows him his laboratory, and tells him what he does. The professor has invented a device that can change the volume of sound in the world. He has done so by studying various animal skulls, including human ones. He demonstrates the sounds the skulls make with metal tongs. This research has to be kept secret however. Then the professor has the protagonist code some data.
After the job is done, the protagonist leaves. But before he does, the chubby-girl, who he now knows is the Professor’s 17 year old granddaughter, hands him a hat box with something inside. After he gets home, he opens the hat box, and to his surprise finds an animal skull and a pair of metal tongs.
The following day the protagonist researches information on the skull. He goes to the library to get some books, and again notices many paper clips on the librarian’s desk. After his research, and with the help of the librarian whom he convinced to visit him, he came to the conclusion that it must have belonged to a unicorn. He doesn’t quite believe it but there was no other way to explain the small, rough indentation in the center of the horse-head shaped skull. He also learned that there was a report of a unicorn skull that was once dug up near the beginning of World War I. But any trace of that skull disappeared. He believes he is now in possession of the very same skull.
The following morning, in the middle of the night, the protagonist gets a phone call from the Professor’s granddaughter. She tells him that her grandfather is missing and that the INKlings might have kidnapped him. He tries to meet with her, but she doesn’t show up.
Later that morning he is visited by two thugs, one giant of a man and one short guy. They tell him they know about him, the Professor, and the skull. They also tell him they’re not with the System or the Factory. They force him to cooperate with their plans and to not report them to the System. But before they leave, they trash his apartment, and cut his stomach open. The wound isn’t too deep, but plenty enough to need stitches. He then goes to the hospital to get stitches and returns home to his trashed apartment.
He returns to sleep but then is awakened by the Professor’s granddaughter, who tells him if they don’t hurry and find her grandfather “the End of the World will come.” She explains to him that her grandfather believes that he holds the key. She tells him how 25 of the 26 Calcutecs trained, had died a year and a half after their training due to some type of brain damage. He was the only one not dead, having some kind of immunity, which made him important. The protagonist and the Professor’s granddaughter set out to find her grandfather.
“The End of the World” takes place in a time not known. The protagonist here has just arrived in the Town. He is told he is at “the End of the World.” The Town isn’t too large, and is surrounded by a great Wall that nobody can pass. The only way in is through the West Gate which is guarded by the Gatekeeper. No one can enter with their shadow. When the protagonist first entered, he and his shadow were separated. The Gatekeeper watches over the shadows until they die. The Gate Keeper also lets in and out the Golden Beasts. The Golden Beasts are horse-like creatures with golden hair. They also have a horn in the center of their forehead, and they resemble a unicorn.
The protagonist is unsure as to why he even came to the Town, but just goes along with it. The Gatekeeper assigns the protagonist with the job of Dreamreader. He then stabs a knife into each of the protagonist’s eyeballs. But he doesn’t feel any pain. The Gatekeeper tells him that it is the mark of the Dreamreader, and that there is only one person assigned to one task. He tells the protagonist to wear a pair of tinted glasses at all times, to not go outside when the sun is out, and to report to the Library at six o’clock until about ten or eleven o’clock to read dreams every night.
On the protagonist’s first work night, he arrives at the Library and meets the Librarian. The protagonist can’t help but notice all of the paper clips on the desk, and also feels that he may have known this woman elsewhere, at another time, but neither has any recollection. The Librarian’s job is to help the Dreamreader. The Librarian brings out an animal skull. It resembles the head of the Golden Beasts. She shows him how to read dreams, and he does just as she shows him.
For awhile the protagonist does this, not knowing why exactly, and one day he meets his shadow working with the Gatekeeper. The Gatekeeper normally doesn’t let him talk to his shadow because he feels that shadows cause trouble. But when then Gatekeeper isn’t paying attention, the protagonist talks briefly with his shadow. His shadow asks him to draw a very detailed map of the Town and the surrounding Wall, and to deliver it to him at the end of the Fall season. He also warns him not to let anybody help him draw his map.
So, the protagonist goes about his work, and in his spare time he draws the map. He explores the Town and everything inside the Wall. During this time, the protagonist begins to gain feelings for the Librarian. When the protagonist finishes the map, he slips it to his shadow.
The System – Powerful corporation controlling just about everything (like a government).
The Factory – The Anti-System.
Calcutecs – People experimented on and trained to make calculations, sort data, shuffle data, read code, and do most anything with numbers. They also have the ability to separate their minds into two and use them independently. They also work for the System.
Semiotecs – Fallen Calcutecs who also work for the Factory.
INKlings – Beasts that live within the underground of the city, and don’t like sound.
The novel is split into two stories, alternating between chapters, but both intertwine somehow. It’s not clear whether or not the protagonist in both stories is the same man. The first story is considered Hard-Boiled Wonderland” while the other is considered “The End of the World.”
"Hard-Boiled Wonderland" is set in a modern day world, in a large city in Japan. The protagonist here is a Calcutec. The story begins with the protagonist in an elevator on his way to an appointment with a client. He’s not sure whether or not he’s ascending up or moving down, because he doesn’t feel any motion or hear anything. To pass the time he decides to count coins he has in his pockets. He has one set of coins in one pocket and another set in his other. What he does is count them at the same time but keeps track of the amount of money in his right pocket with his right side of his brain, and keeps track of the amount of money in his left pocket with the left side of his brain. Finally he adds both sides together to get the total amount. He does this a second time, but gets a different amount, suggesting he made a mistake counting, which he has never done before. This foreshadows the events to come. Before he can count them a third time, the elevator doors open, and waiting in the corridor is a woman in a pink suit. Enter the “chubby-girl.” She guides him to his appointment. When they arrive at the office, they both enter. He notices that the room is very plain, but takes note of the large amount of paper clips on the desk.
The protagonist meets with his client, the Professor. The professor shows him his laboratory, and tells him what he does. The professor has invented a device that can change the volume of sound in the world. He has done so by studying various animal skulls, including human ones. He demonstrates the sounds the skulls make with metal tongs. This research has to be kept secret however. Then the professor has the protagonist code some data.
After the job is done, the protagonist leaves. But before he does, the chubby-girl, who he now knows is the Professor’s 17 year old granddaughter, hands him a hat box with something inside. After he gets home, he opens the hat box, and to his surprise finds an animal skull and a pair of metal tongs.
The following day the protagonist researches information on the skull. He goes to the library to get some books, and again notices many paper clips on the librarian’s desk. After his research, and with the help of the librarian whom he convinced to visit him, he came to the conclusion that it must have belonged to a unicorn. He doesn’t quite believe it but there was no other way to explain the small, rough indentation in the center of the horse-head shaped skull. He also learned that there was a report of a unicorn skull that was once dug up near the beginning of World War I. But any trace of that skull disappeared. He believes he is now in possession of the very same skull.
The following morning, in the middle of the night, the protagonist gets a phone call from the Professor’s granddaughter. She tells him that her grandfather is missing and that the INKlings might have kidnapped him. He tries to meet with her, but she doesn’t show up.
Later that morning he is visited by two thugs, one giant of a man and one short guy. They tell him they know about him, the Professor, and the skull. They also tell him they’re not with the System or the Factory. They force him to cooperate with their plans and to not report them to the System. But before they leave, they trash his apartment, and cut his stomach open. The wound isn’t too deep, but plenty enough to need stitches. He then goes to the hospital to get stitches and returns home to his trashed apartment.
He returns to sleep but then is awakened by the Professor’s granddaughter, who tells him if they don’t hurry and find her grandfather “the End of the World will come.” She explains to him that her grandfather believes that he holds the key. She tells him how 25 of the 26 Calcutecs trained, had died a year and a half after their training due to some type of brain damage. He was the only one not dead, having some kind of immunity, which made him important. The protagonist and the Professor’s granddaughter set out to find her grandfather.
“The End of the World” takes place in a time not known. The protagonist here has just arrived in the Town. He is told he is at “the End of the World.” The Town isn’t too large, and is surrounded by a great Wall that nobody can pass. The only way in is through the West Gate which is guarded by the Gatekeeper. No one can enter with their shadow. When the protagonist first entered, he and his shadow were separated. The Gatekeeper watches over the shadows until they die. The Gate Keeper also lets in and out the Golden Beasts. The Golden Beasts are horse-like creatures with golden hair. They also have a horn in the center of their forehead, and they resemble a unicorn.
The protagonist is unsure as to why he even came to the Town, but just goes along with it. The Gatekeeper assigns the protagonist with the job of Dreamreader. He then stabs a knife into each of the protagonist’s eyeballs. But he doesn’t feel any pain. The Gatekeeper tells him that it is the mark of the Dreamreader, and that there is only one person assigned to one task. He tells the protagonist to wear a pair of tinted glasses at all times, to not go outside when the sun is out, and to report to the Library at six o’clock until about ten or eleven o’clock to read dreams every night.
On the protagonist’s first work night, he arrives at the Library and meets the Librarian. The protagonist can’t help but notice all of the paper clips on the desk, and also feels that he may have known this woman elsewhere, at another time, but neither has any recollection. The Librarian’s job is to help the Dreamreader. The Librarian brings out an animal skull. It resembles the head of the Golden Beasts. She shows him how to read dreams, and he does just as she shows him.
For awhile the protagonist does this, not knowing why exactly, and one day he meets his shadow working with the Gatekeeper. The Gatekeeper normally doesn’t let him talk to his shadow because he feels that shadows cause trouble. But when then Gatekeeper isn’t paying attention, the protagonist talks briefly with his shadow. His shadow asks him to draw a very detailed map of the Town and the surrounding Wall, and to deliver it to him at the end of the Fall season. He also warns him not to let anybody help him draw his map.
So, the protagonist goes about his work, and in his spare time he draws the map. He explores the Town and everything inside the Wall. During this time, the protagonist begins to gain feelings for the Librarian. When the protagonist finishes the map, he slips it to his shadow.
Beloved
The story begins by explaining the members of the family and their background. It takes place in Ohio and since the characters in the book are ex-slaves, the main issue deals with slavery. At the beginning of the book we find out that a ghost of baby Suggs is haunting Sethe and her daughter Denver. Her other children, Howard and Buglarran away from home to get away from the ghost. Denver spends most of her time playing in her secret spot in the woods where she can hide and play house. Meanwhile Sethe is beginning to spend more time with Paul D and keeps asking him how long he is going to stick around for becuase she doesn't approve of ex-slaves loving her child, however when she see's their shadow on the ground at the carnival, it shows them holding hands happily. On the way back from the carnival when peeing outside they meet a women who tells them her name is Beloved, which shockes Sethe and Denver. The reason for shocking them is becuase on the babies grave stone due to lack of time and money, the only word engraved was "Beloved." The part of the book that I am at now, Sethe and Beloved are becoming close friends. They see eachother when Sethe is on her way back from work and Sethe is beginning to enjoy the attention that she is recieving.
No Country For Old men
No Country for old men starts out by remembering Bells first ever arrest. The psychotic killer is on death row and is about to face his death. He has no emotion on his face he doesnt even show remorse.The story is about Mexican and American drug users and sellers and a regular old texas boy. The Sheriff gets called to the scene of the murder and just doesn't know what to do or say.He knows its not something they have seen before. He then goes to the Sheriffs and they are trying to keep the murder under control before the violence escalates. The whole story is based through Bell. He doesn't understand what has happened to the country. When he had first became a police officer he claimed all he had to do was break up fights. There were no guns pulled on officers. Bell feared for his life now.
Llewlyn Moss is just a innocent character in the book. He had a gun just to go and hunt for Antelope. He goes out one morning and he sees a drug deal gone bad. He doesnt contact the police though, which I thought was really weird. Instead he took the 2 million dollars back to his trailer. He came upon 4 dead bodies and a bunch of fire arms too. He goes back to his traler and hides the money under a bed in a guest room. He sleeps with his wife and gets up in the middle of the night and takes his gun and returns to the scene of the crime. He goes to help the man that was in trouble instead he finds 2 men that worked for the drug dealer and Chigurh reaady too kill him. Moss after a long night of running and dodging bullets goes back to his trailer and gets his wife and leaves town for good.
the sheriff is now trying to find Mossa and Chigurh before something bad happened.
Chigurh then kills all the dealers men and all that happened was a shot to the leg. He feels expectidly lucky.
After everything carson wells gets hired to kill and Chigurh . Wells finds Moss and warns him that Chigurgh is out to kill Moss. Moss being a guys believes that he can avoid Chigurgh.
Moss doesn't understand that Chigurgh will do anything to get his money back even kill his wife before he got to Moss. Chigurgh wants Moss dead and he will kill the most important people in his life to get to Moss.
Llewlyn Moss is just a innocent character in the book. He had a gun just to go and hunt for Antelope. He goes out one morning and he sees a drug deal gone bad. He doesnt contact the police though, which I thought was really weird. Instead he took the 2 million dollars back to his trailer. He came upon 4 dead bodies and a bunch of fire arms too. He goes back to his traler and hides the money under a bed in a guest room. He sleeps with his wife and gets up in the middle of the night and takes his gun and returns to the scene of the crime. He goes to help the man that was in trouble instead he finds 2 men that worked for the drug dealer and Chigurh reaady too kill him. Moss after a long night of running and dodging bullets goes back to his trailer and gets his wife and leaves town for good.
the sheriff is now trying to find Mossa and Chigurh before something bad happened.
Chigurh then kills all the dealers men and all that happened was a shot to the leg. He feels expectidly lucky.
After everything carson wells gets hired to kill and Chigurh . Wells finds Moss and warns him that Chigurgh is out to kill Moss. Moss being a guys believes that he can avoid Chigurgh.
Moss doesn't understand that Chigurgh will do anything to get his money back even kill his wife before he got to Moss. Chigurgh wants Moss dead and he will kill the most important people in his life to get to Moss.
summary 1. Slaughterhouse-five
The Novel Slaughterhouse-Five was written in 1968 by Kurt Vonnegut, who based this book on his experiences in World War II. As a prisoner of war, Vonnegut survived the Dresden, Germany firebombing only because he was stationed in a meat house underground. In the novel, however, Vonnegut does not use real names and the main character Billy Pilgrim is boy from Ilium, New York.
Billy Pilgrim, born in 1922, is a funny-looking, weak high school student, who enrolls in optometry school in Ilium, New York. Before his second year of school, Billy was drafted in to the army to fight in World War II. Billy’s father was killed in a hunting accident just days before Billy ships overseas to join an infantry in Luxembourg. Fighting the Battle of the Bugle in Belgium and is shortly taken prisoner while wondering behind German lines with three other men. Just before his capture, he begins to experience his shifting of time.
Billy Pilgrim has become “unstuck in time,” he travels from one period of his life to another at random times. He is unable to control his shifting of time and does not know where he’s going to end up next. The novel jumps back and forth in time and place. The story involves many deaths, from Billy’s family member s, to war soldiers, to dogs, to even champagne. Following each sentence involve death, Vonnegut uses the Line ‘So it goes.’
Billy is transported to Dresden in a crowded Boxcar with all the POW’s. Upon his arrival, he and the other privates were treated to a feast by a group of fellow prisoners. Billy begins to annoy the other passengers, and they make him stand to sleep or he does not sleep at all on his trip to Dresden. Billy suffers a breakdown, and is hit with a shot of morphine which sends him traveling through time yet again. Soon he and the other Americans arrive in Dresden. They arrive to their camp which happens to be an old meat house which was turned into a prisoner camp. The prisoners must work for their lives by doing various labors. One night, Allied forces bomb the entire city of Dresden, Germany. They dropped incendiary bombs to create a huge firestorm which incinerated most of the occupants of Dresden. Billy along with the other prisoners survived in their air tight compartment. They surface to the city and find a completely destroyed city, where they are forced to dig up dead bodies from the rubble. Days past and Billy is sent home from the war.
A few of Billy’s time travels include ones like these. After his daughter’s wedding in 1967, Billy admits to a radio talk show of being kidnapped from a saucer of two-foot-high aliens, who called themselves Tralfmadorians from the plant Tralfmadore. He was taken to their planet where time seems to stand still. A year there, he could return to not miss a second on Earth. Billy’s daughter seems to think Billy is senile and making things up. Another, in 1968 Billy gets into a chartered plane to go to an optometry conference in Montreal. The plane crashes down and Billy is the only one standing.
Billy Pilgrim, born in 1922, is a funny-looking, weak high school student, who enrolls in optometry school in Ilium, New York. Before his second year of school, Billy was drafted in to the army to fight in World War II. Billy’s father was killed in a hunting accident just days before Billy ships overseas to join an infantry in Luxembourg. Fighting the Battle of the Bugle in Belgium and is shortly taken prisoner while wondering behind German lines with three other men. Just before his capture, he begins to experience his shifting of time.
Billy Pilgrim has become “unstuck in time,” he travels from one period of his life to another at random times. He is unable to control his shifting of time and does not know where he’s going to end up next. The novel jumps back and forth in time and place. The story involves many deaths, from Billy’s family member s, to war soldiers, to dogs, to even champagne. Following each sentence involve death, Vonnegut uses the Line ‘So it goes.’
Billy is transported to Dresden in a crowded Boxcar with all the POW’s. Upon his arrival, he and the other privates were treated to a feast by a group of fellow prisoners. Billy begins to annoy the other passengers, and they make him stand to sleep or he does not sleep at all on his trip to Dresden. Billy suffers a breakdown, and is hit with a shot of morphine which sends him traveling through time yet again. Soon he and the other Americans arrive in Dresden. They arrive to their camp which happens to be an old meat house which was turned into a prisoner camp. The prisoners must work for their lives by doing various labors. One night, Allied forces bomb the entire city of Dresden, Germany. They dropped incendiary bombs to create a huge firestorm which incinerated most of the occupants of Dresden. Billy along with the other prisoners survived in their air tight compartment. They surface to the city and find a completely destroyed city, where they are forced to dig up dead bodies from the rubble. Days past and Billy is sent home from the war.
A few of Billy’s time travels include ones like these. After his daughter’s wedding in 1967, Billy admits to a radio talk show of being kidnapped from a saucer of two-foot-high aliens, who called themselves Tralfmadorians from the plant Tralfmadore. He was taken to their planet where time seems to stand still. A year there, he could return to not miss a second on Earth. Billy’s daughter seems to think Billy is senile and making things up. Another, in 1968 Billy gets into a chartered plane to go to an optometry conference in Montreal. The plane crashes down and Billy is the only one standing.
First Half Summary
No Country for Old Men is story of Mexican and American drug lords, a Texas good old boy caught in the middle, a psychotic serial killer, and a sheriff trying to hold off the violence before it engulfs his county. Everyone thinks that they have complete control of their own situation, but outside forces and pure stubbornness are bound to put a schism in each individual’s plans. Thus far it is a violent adventure into the human mind, posing the question; how far will man go to get what he views as his?
The novel opens with Sheriff Bell recounting the one and only person he has ever arrested and sent to death. This sets the tone of Bell’s monologues, he often ponders what has happened to mankind, how much different the human mind and action are compared to when he was younger, and about people’s soul’s.
Anton Chigurh (the relentless, merciless, psychotic serial killer) has been arrested and is being processed in a small county police office by the deputy (the only other person in the building). Chigurh manages to slip his cuffed hands from behind his back and strangles the deputy using the chains holding his hands together. He then steals the cop car, pulls over an innocent driver, kills him, and steals his car; commencing the start of the bloodbath. This is the first place where Chigurh’s mystery killing machine is revealed; he appears to carry an oxygen tank with the tube running into his arm. But Sheriff Bell and his deputy figure out that it is a stun gun which is used in a slaughterhouse. Chigurh places his hand upon someone’s forehead and the end of the tube pokes out from his wrist, where he then fires it and the victim has a big hole in their head without an exist wound stumping forensic labs.
Llewellyn Moss, a Texas good old boy is hunting antelope one morning and happens to stumble upon a drug deal gone horribly wrong. Instead of contacting the authorities like a sane person would when stumbling upon four bodies he investigates the site. He finds multiple firearms, a great deal of Mexican black tar heroin, and two million dollars. He takes the money, wipes down the scene, and returns home. Moss returns to the scene later that night to aide the man that was still clinging to life. Moss instead finds the drug dealer’s men and Chigurh ready to kill him. After an extremely long night of dodging bullets Moss returns home. He and his wife then leave town and Moss set’s out on the run.
Moss knows it will only be a matter of time before they find him. Chigurh kills the dealer’s men and set’s out for Moss on his own. Paying his trailer a visit and then tracking him down to the motel he is staying in. In this time Sheriff Bell has found the scene and is now trying to find Moss and Chigurh before it is to late, even talking to his wife which gave him no further clues.
Chigurh finally catches up to Moss at the Eagle Hotel. Moss hears him coming and prepares himself. Moss ends up just barely escaping the hotel but not without injury. He sustains a buckshot bullet from Chigurh and three others from Chigurh or the group of the dealer’s men. Moss stumbles into a park and pays a man to take him to the hospital. Chigurh kill’s nearly every one of the dealer’s men and some hotel employees merely because they were there. Chigurh, himself only sustained one bullet to the leg.
After the bloodbath is over the dealer hires Carson Wells and Vietnam Veteran turned “settler of accounts” or hit man to track and kill Chigurh, return his money and drugs. Wells finds and visits Moss warning him how dangerous Chigurh is and offers to help and even give part of the drug money if he cooperates. Moss still believes that he can beat Chigurh and declines help from Wells. But Wells leaves a lasting impression, stating that Chigurh wouldn’t think twice about killing his wife before he came for him. Even if Moss gave Chigurh the money, he would still be killed, that is the type of man Chigurh is.
The novel opens with Sheriff Bell recounting the one and only person he has ever arrested and sent to death. This sets the tone of Bell’s monologues, he often ponders what has happened to mankind, how much different the human mind and action are compared to when he was younger, and about people’s soul’s.
Anton Chigurh (the relentless, merciless, psychotic serial killer) has been arrested and is being processed in a small county police office by the deputy (the only other person in the building). Chigurh manages to slip his cuffed hands from behind his back and strangles the deputy using the chains holding his hands together. He then steals the cop car, pulls over an innocent driver, kills him, and steals his car; commencing the start of the bloodbath. This is the first place where Chigurh’s mystery killing machine is revealed; he appears to carry an oxygen tank with the tube running into his arm. But Sheriff Bell and his deputy figure out that it is a stun gun which is used in a slaughterhouse. Chigurh places his hand upon someone’s forehead and the end of the tube pokes out from his wrist, where he then fires it and the victim has a big hole in their head without an exist wound stumping forensic labs.
Llewellyn Moss, a Texas good old boy is hunting antelope one morning and happens to stumble upon a drug deal gone horribly wrong. Instead of contacting the authorities like a sane person would when stumbling upon four bodies he investigates the site. He finds multiple firearms, a great deal of Mexican black tar heroin, and two million dollars. He takes the money, wipes down the scene, and returns home. Moss returns to the scene later that night to aide the man that was still clinging to life. Moss instead finds the drug dealer’s men and Chigurh ready to kill him. After an extremely long night of dodging bullets Moss returns home. He and his wife then leave town and Moss set’s out on the run.
Moss knows it will only be a matter of time before they find him. Chigurh kills the dealer’s men and set’s out for Moss on his own. Paying his trailer a visit and then tracking him down to the motel he is staying in. In this time Sheriff Bell has found the scene and is now trying to find Moss and Chigurh before it is to late, even talking to his wife which gave him no further clues.
Chigurh finally catches up to Moss at the Eagle Hotel. Moss hears him coming and prepares himself. Moss ends up just barely escaping the hotel but not without injury. He sustains a buckshot bullet from Chigurh and three others from Chigurh or the group of the dealer’s men. Moss stumbles into a park and pays a man to take him to the hospital. Chigurh kill’s nearly every one of the dealer’s men and some hotel employees merely because they were there. Chigurh, himself only sustained one bullet to the leg.
After the bloodbath is over the dealer hires Carson Wells and Vietnam Veteran turned “settler of accounts” or hit man to track and kill Chigurh, return his money and drugs. Wells finds and visits Moss warning him how dangerous Chigurh is and offers to help and even give part of the drug money if he cooperates. Moss still believes that he can beat Chigurh and declines help from Wells. But Wells leaves a lasting impression, stating that Chigurh wouldn’t think twice about killing his wife before he came for him. Even if Moss gave Chigurh the money, he would still be killed, that is the type of man Chigurh is.
No country for old men
The first chapter starts off with someone talking about a murderer killing a fourteen year old girl and how he gets executed. Chigurgh, a convict, is left handcuffed in the Deputy's office. When the deputy is not watching, Chigurgh kills him by choking him with the chains of his handcuffs. Lewelyn Moss is a young man who is married to Carla Jean who is nineteen. They have been married for three years and live in a trailer. While out hunting, Moss comes along two vehicles with several dead mexicans. One mexican is alive and wants water but Moss pays no attention to him. Moss looks around the vehicles and finds heroin and a briefcase with 2 million dollars. He finds several guns and decides to take the H&K with him. Along with the H&K, he takes the two million back home with him. Moss wakes up in the middle of the night and goes back to the vehicles. He also brings some water for the thirsty Mexican. However, he is too late and the Mexican is already dead. Also when he gets there, he disovers that the guns he left behind are gone. He soon discovers he is not the only one here and he hides from a truck. The men in the truck come after him. Moss swims through the river to safety. The two men still managed to hit him in the arm with a buckshot. Moss manages to walk and find a taxi to take him to his wife. He and his wife agree that they must leave the trailer and go to Odessa where Carla Jean's mother lives. Meanwhile, Chigurh finds Moss's truck and the dead men in the vehicles. The local Sheriff, Bell, and his assistant, Wendall, hear word about the dead Mexicans in the vehicles. They saddle up horses and proceed to the crime scene to survey what happened. Chirgurh, goes to Moss, trailer looking for him. It is too late because Moss and his wife have already left. Moss leave his wife in Odessa and get a room at a motel. He takes the money and hides it in an air duct. Then he carefully listens for any sign of danger and then goes to sleep. While Moss was sleeping, Chigurh is getting closer as he pulls into the parking lot of the motel. Chirgurh discovers a couple of Mexicans in one of the motel rooms and shoots them before they even knew what happened. Moss no longer felt safe in his room in the motel, so he goes onto another motel called the Eagle Pass. He bribes the night clerk with one hundered dollars to call his room if anyone else checks into the motel. During the night Moss hears a man in his room and threatens him with a gun. He leaves the motel but Chigurh is in the balcony above the hotel and shoots Moss. With blood pouring out everywhere Moss pays some boys for a coat to cover himself up. Moss makes his way to the hospital. Bell drives up to Odessa to question Carla Jean. He asks her if she knows of her husbands whereabouts or anything else. She knows nothing. While Moss is in the hospital Carson Wells, visits him to talk about all that is going on. Wells tells Moss that Chirgurh will not stop looking for him even if he does get the money.
First 1/2 Summary
Slaughterhouse Five
The first half of the book is already really confusing. The way the author goes back and forth between each setting makes it much harder to read than a normal novel. The character Billy Pilgrim is traveling through time between his present time, World War II, and some where in 1967. At first Billy Pilgrim goes to the house of one of the soldiers he fought the war with, immediately the wife of the soldier obviously doesn’t like him. Billy Pilgrim doesn’t know why until after he discussed the war with Bernard O’Hare. The wife didn’t mind Billy Pilgrim she was just angry with the war in general. She wasn’t happy that they were trying to remember what happened just so Billy could write a book about it. Remembering what happened during the war brings Billy back to Germany and he goes on to describe what Dresden was like. He and another soldier were captured by the Germans and were forced to give up their shoes. A photographer saw this and took a picture of it for the Germans and wrote an article about how the Americans were so rich but couldn’t properly fit their army. Traveling back to 1945 Billy Pilgrim gets married and they have two children together, Barbara and Robert. From there he goes back to school and becomes an optometrist. From there Barbara gets married and finds out that her father has gone mentally insane. In the mean time his son was sent into the army and his wife died from carbon monoxide poisoning while he was away. He begins to publish letters to the newspaper about how he was captured by aliens in 1967 called Tralfamadorians. Going back to World War II the soldiers keep on fighting together and continue to joke about a picture one of them has of a woman in a provocative position. Once they are captured by the Germans the picture is taken away and they are laughed at. Then Roland Weary get to Luxemburg and see the way the other soldiers are being lined up by rank and they meet a dying colonel named Wild Bob. From there the story keeps going back and forth between the war and more present time for Billy Pilgrim.
The first half of the book is already really confusing. The way the author goes back and forth between each setting makes it much harder to read than a normal novel. The character Billy Pilgrim is traveling through time between his present time, World War II, and some where in 1967. At first Billy Pilgrim goes to the house of one of the soldiers he fought the war with, immediately the wife of the soldier obviously doesn’t like him. Billy Pilgrim doesn’t know why until after he discussed the war with Bernard O’Hare. The wife didn’t mind Billy Pilgrim she was just angry with the war in general. She wasn’t happy that they were trying to remember what happened just so Billy could write a book about it. Remembering what happened during the war brings Billy back to Germany and he goes on to describe what Dresden was like. He and another soldier were captured by the Germans and were forced to give up their shoes. A photographer saw this and took a picture of it for the Germans and wrote an article about how the Americans were so rich but couldn’t properly fit their army. Traveling back to 1945 Billy Pilgrim gets married and they have two children together, Barbara and Robert. From there he goes back to school and becomes an optometrist. From there Barbara gets married and finds out that her father has gone mentally insane. In the mean time his son was sent into the army and his wife died from carbon monoxide poisoning while he was away. He begins to publish letters to the newspaper about how he was captured by aliens in 1967 called Tralfamadorians. Going back to World War II the soldiers keep on fighting together and continue to joke about a picture one of them has of a woman in a provocative position. Once they are captured by the Germans the picture is taken away and they are laughed at. Then Roland Weary get to Luxemburg and see the way the other soldiers are being lined up by rank and they meet a dying colonel named Wild Bob. From there the story keeps going back and forth between the war and more present time for Billy Pilgrim.
Monday, March 17, 2008
ONLY THREE PEOPLE...
Have worked through their novel selections via this blog, and every person in class was suppose to have this finished and then have the novels in hand for class today.
Professor Kevin Meek
Professor Kevin Meek
ONLY THREE PEOPLE...
Have worked through their novel selections via this blog, and every person in class was suppose to have this finished and then have the novels in hand for class today.
Professor Kevin Meek
Professor Kevin Meek
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Vagina Monologues
I actually did not have a chance to go and see this play because I worked both days, but I was able to watch it on a recording of the performnce done at my friends college.Overall, I found it to be pretty funny but at the same time educating.In the scene My Vagina was My Village, I learned alittle about what the Bosnian women went through. The play retold things about women that some already know.It went into detail about rape,a subject that most already understand.The writers campaign has helped to establish things to support violence against women.V-day was started because of this monologue.Overall,I liked how different individuals spoke about different parts of the play.It originally was a monologue with Eve, who told the entire play but adding more people helped to understand that many females go through problems witheir vagina and being abused.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
STEP ONE: CHOOSE A NOVEL
Dear Class,
The list contains contemporary and classic novels from authors with varied backgrounds, histories and focuses. I tried my best to accommodate your interests while also considering the varied type of writing and analysis this project will require. Good luck and enjoy.
1. No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
2. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
3. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
5. The Celebrant by Eric Rolfe Greenberg
6. Midnight's Children by Salmon Rushdie
7. The Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
8. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
9. Beloved by Toni Morrison
10. Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes
11. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
12. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Vagina Monologues
I went to the Vagina Monologues feeling like that it might be some play that would start out funny, and then once you're "hooked" they slam all this "stop the violence" stuff in your face. I was wrong though. It was funny at times, and some times it made you think. I suppose the comical parts were to put you at ease (or make you uncomfortable), so that the entire show wasn't just a boring rant on how "violence should be stopped because..." Sometimes the stories were very vivid, like My Vagina Was My Village. It was shocking what happened to the woman, and if it weren't so vividly depicted, the point may not have quite reached everyone. Everyone knows about rape, and how it's bad, but sometimes some people need to hear every little detail to know how bad it really is. It makes you sick to think things like this have happened. But this is what Eve Ensler is trying to stop. She wrote the Vagina Monologues to help stop the violence and abuse toward women. She wants everyone to be aware of these things and take it seriously, and not just shove matters aside with little details.
Vagina Monologues
Going into the Vagina Monologues, after seeing a video clip online, I was not very excited. I was expecting to see some women talk about their vaginas and what makes their vaginas angry and sad and so on. Well I was correct. It started out talking about these random stories where womens vaginas felt sad and gross and alone (kinda wierd). It went on to give an example of a 72 year old woman who talked about her lonely vagina and first orgasm. That was completely unnecessary. They definatly could have gotten the same point across in the show without that short story. But all in all, I did get that it was about protecting women from abuse and mutilation. The founder, Eve Ensler, started the vagina monologues with the intent of ending abuse against women around the world and specifically in Africa. Thus far, her organization and the show have done a lot to help this in many countries around the world. The show although mostly comedic at time did show the seriousness of the whole situation and gave out statistics and ways for people to help the cause if they can. I just wish the show better reflected how bad this problem was instead of just constantly making jokes about vaginas.
Vagina Monologes
Eve, the author, explains through her monologues the duality of women. For example, how their vaginas give them empowerment yet they have insecurities about it. It causes them great pleasure yet other times causes them great pain. Sometimes they use it to exploit themselves. For example, to get what they want i.e. money or status in society. Other times they get raped or men use them for sexual needs and to hurt them emotionally. The purpose of the monologues is to make men and women aware of the struggle women face with their vaginas whether it be in America, Africa (where they are circumsized), or a third world country (where women are raped and cannot freely express themselves). These presentations of the Vagina Monologes have been going on for ten years to help make people more aware of the issues women face in society. The Vagina Monologes will not end until violence against women ceases.
Vagina Monologues
From a guys point of view the monologues were not as weird as i thought they were going to be; especially since i found out my old english teacher was going to in it. At first i thought they would be girls talking about girl things. Come to find out it didn't make me feel as awkward as i thought it would. The playwright had many different stories from different woman about different events that may happen to a girl in her lifetime. The show had a lot of funny parts that helped almost give the show a comfortable vibe on some serious subjects. Although i found myself dazing off in the middle overall the show i thought went very well and kept the audiences attention pretty well for a show called "The Vagina Monologues". The show almost seems to reflect Eve's emotions on the matter of voicing a woman's feeling on different woman's issues. This being the 10th anniversary of the playwright shows that it helps voice the opinions and emotions of woman in general.
Vagina MOnologues reaction
The Vagina Monologues was a unique presentation. It was a monologue through an author that was abused and not treated with respect as a woman and a child. Eve Ensler was abused and she was drinking herself to death. The monologues are a womens way to shout out about how she really feels and what she wants to say. The monologues a playwright off a book. There is so much emotion and even guys get involved in the play. I thought it was funny and interesting because everyone know that is what girls really think. Back in Eve's day she just wanted to let people know how she feels about being abused and used as a women. The whole play is based to get men and everyone to hear the movement against women and violence. She is a feminist and is fighting for their rights.
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