The Importance of a Name

Names are often thought to hold some power or have some important meaning and it is clear that that applies to The Song of Solomon. Most of the important characters in the novel have a name that has some significance and represents their character in some way. For example, Macon Dead III's nickname, Milkman, has significance throughout the novel. It is inherently demeaning in some way and makes him seem less grown-up. Guitar even uses it that way on purpose and shortens it into Milk sometimes. But this nickname actually represents his attitude towards life. He was very childlike throughout the start of the novel and didn't really care about anything. This changes at the end and as he becomes passionate about finding his family he becomes more like an adult. Guitar even proves this by calling him "my main man" right at the end which is a lot more respectful that Milk. This makes it seem like names really do reflect something about the characters in the novel.
This applies to other characters in the novel as well. Pilate's whose name marks her as different. But there is also some sort of mystery around her character about her navel and whatever powers she might have that match her difference of her name. Macon Dead II, whose life is utterly void of anything that you are meant to enjoy in life, and therefore his life seems dead. And also Circe, whose name is the same as Circe from Homer's Odyssey. But this also seems to match. Circe in the book seems far too old to be alive and Milkman felt like it could have also been a dream. Circe, the witch, is also known for turning men into pigs, and there is something strange about the way the golden-eyed dogs are described. The importance of names is found throughout the novel and helps to describe the characters.

Christophine's Role

Christophine is one of the most versatile characters in terms of roles in the Wide Sargasso Sea. At the beginning of the novel in part one she plays the role of a mother figure for Antionette. Antoinette's mother, Annette,  would often ignore her, saying things like "let me alone" whenever Antoinette would try to talk to her. While Annette would walk up and down the terrace and take care of Pierre, Christophine stepped in as a mother figure. Antionette spent most of her time in the kitchen with Christophine and she sang to Antoinette and even taught her some patois songs. She also set her up with her only friend during her childhood at Coulibri. She even was the one who gave Antoinette the pennies that fell out of her pocket. So Christophine's main role, in relation to Antoinette, is the mother figure.
This changes in the second part of the book because of the change of narrator. Instead of being portrayed as a mother figure she is portrayed as more villainous, probably because she is trying to help Antoinette and not Rochester. This shows up several times in Rochester's narration. Towards the start, he is clearly uncomfortable about Antoinette's closeness with Christophine. This is because he distrusts her and views her as a threat. This proves to be true in his point of view later in the novel after she gives Antoinette the love potion. He believes Christophine tried to poison him and that makes her seem even more the villain from his point of view. There is also the scene where Rochester absolutely goes crazy. When Christophine is talking to him about taking Antoinette away he views it as a threat to his power. So in the second part of the story, Christophine plays the role of the villain for Rochester because while he has power, she does too and he views this as a threat.
However, Christophine also shortly plays the role of the wise-woman during the second part when Antoinette comes to her for advice. During this short transaction, Christophine gives out some sage-like advice to Antoinette about her marriage. She suggests that Antoinette just leaves Rochester and goes somewhere else. To the reader, this seems like very wise advise. Overall, it is through the different narrators and the different times in the novel that Christophine's role changes.

Meursault's Arrest

A few times in class, the topic of Meursault's actual arrest has come up. The reason for that is it isn't actually narrated in the book and the situation of his arrest is unique. As we have talked about several times, the only witnesses to the shooting are the Arab, who is dead, and Meursault. With the exception of them, there was no one else on the beach. This raised two big questions about the arrest for me. Who called the police, and what did Meursault do while the police were coming?
As for the question of who called the police, there are really two options. One is someone who heard the gunshots called the police and told them. At first, this seems very likely. Some concerned individual heard gunshots and called the police. But the more you think about, it the less sense it makes.  If they're on a beach with no other people on it, it is probably far away from any houses. So if someone heard the gunshots, they wouldn't be sure where they heard them from. The other option is that Meursault called the police. While he clearly shows no care about telling the truth about what happened when the police question him, his said earlier that he didn't like the police so why would he get them involved voluntarily. 
As for what he did before the police arrived, I can think of two possibilities. One is that he stayed in the sun which he was so vehemently complaining about and caused his to shoot the guy earlier . But that really makes no sense. If he was complaining about it, why would he stay? However, the only other option would be to go into the shade next to the Arab he shot. We know he stayed because the police arrested him, and with no witnesses, he could have walked away he would have been okay. Overall nothing makes sense about how he was arrested without is being explained, so by adding the gap in narrative there, Camus adds to the absurdity of the novel.

Giant Funny Cockroach

It is undeniable that there is a sense of humor to The Metamorphosis, especially when scenes are acted out by Mr. Mitchell. However, as the book progresses, the amount of humor in the book gets to be less and less, and it instead starts to seem more mundane and depressing. In a way, the humor of the book seems stay even with just how human Gregor feels. At the start, when the book is at its most humorous, he is still thinking like he's a normal human. But by where we have read to now, the book is clearly less funny, and Gregor has become noticeably less human.
So, the question is, what is it at the start of the book that makes it funny. For myself and based of what we discussed in class, the humor in that section is the fact that a giant cockroach is planning out his day like he is human. The fact that when he realizes he is a giant insect he thinks of it as an inconvenience in his daily routine is ridiculous in a way that makes it seem funny. This continues throughout that section where he tries to do simple human things, or thinks about doing them, and fails. One such example is him trying to get out of bed. That's something most people don't find too difficult, except for the part where they have to decide to actually get up. However, he has the upmost difficulty in doing so, and we get a quite funny description of his legs flailing uselessly.
However, in the second segment, Gregor has become much more insect-like. He's locked in his room and has started to basically live under his sofa. He has also stopped trying to act human. He's given up on trying to walk like a human and hasn't thought about putting on clothes or any other normal human act he thought about at the start. This makes it seem like he has given up and makes it drastically less funny and much more sad. 

Just Who is Mike?

In class, we spend most of our time talking about and focusing on the main characters like Brett, Jake, and Cohn in The Sun Also Rises. However, we spent a lot less time talking about more minor characters like Mike that still have a roll in the novel. When we did talk about him it was almost always in the context of Brett and how Mike was behaving. And while very little is said about who Mike is, as a character, the same is true for every single character. So this makes me ask the question just who is Mike?
At the start of the novel, we are introduced to Mike is a typical Hemingway fashion. Jake asks Brett "Heard from Mike?", without giving a background or any information at all to who Mike is. The next time we hear about Mike is when Jake is talking to Cohn about Brett. During that, we learn that Mike is Brett's fiance, his full name is Mike Campbell, and that he's going to be very rich someday(although that seems to contradict what we learn later in the novel).
After that, the next time we hear about Mike is when he actually comes into town and we get to see what he is like firsthand. And from the start, he matches the stereotypical drunk Scotsman. When we are introduced to him he comes into the conversation drunk. But he's not like Brett or Jake when he's drunk, instead he is more of a messy drunk where he is very energetic and talkative to the point of repetition. Mike being this messy drunk is a trend that continues throughout the book. In that scene, we also learn that Mike is in the process of declaring bankruptcy. That contradicts what Jake said about him which could mean that Mike might be a smart enough to get rich or that he is going to inherit his families money.We don't actually know what he does for a living, but we do know he has an ex-partner in some sort of business so he could be a lawyer. We also learn later that he had a lot of creditors. But for the most part, he doesn't seem to have a job anymore and seems to just be waiting for the inheritance. 
We also learn that he was a soldier and tells his story of the medals he got. This is an interesting contrast to Jake who's wound from the war is ironically funny to himself, in the same way, Mike's story wasn't exactly funny from his own point of view. But that is about all we know about Mike. While in Spain we learn so more minor details like the fact that he knows about Brett's affairs and even talks to her about them, but doesn't care unless they think it is something more than what it is. We also get insight as to why he might be bankrupt because he owes money to people that are in Spain and borrows money from people while he's there.

Exploring The Hours

The Hours was a very interesting spin-off of Mrs. Dalloway. There were parallels between the actual book and the modern spin-off part of the movie that made sense. It also gave a sense to how Virginia Woolf may have lived her life and some of the struggles she faced. There were also some connections between when Woolf was writing Mrs. Dalloway to the modern version.
One of the most interesting changes was the end result of who ends up with who. In the modern version Clarissa marries Sally, which suggests that that is the way she really felt in the book but was restrained by the time period.  I felt like that was a definite possibility while reading the book and the addition or change of that in the movie made sense. Since the expectations and freedoms changed by the time the modern version took place it felt like it really was a modern version, because I feel like if Clarissa had the choice she would have chosen Sally.
Another interesting thing about the movie is the miss-mash of characters that the movie calls Richard. When I was trying to line up who was who in the movie and in the book he was very hard. Richard in the movie seemed to be a combination of Richard, Peter, and Septimus at times. He seemed like Richard simply because that was the name they gave him and all of the others matched. Yet, since he didn't end up with Clarissa he reminisces about the movies version of Bourton when he was with her. He also seems like Septimus because he is a poet, had mental illness, and he had a romantic relationship with Louis Waters like Septimus might have been able to have with Evans. He also commits suicide near the end of the movie. I feel like the movie was very successful in it's portrayal of what might have happened between all of the characters given a modern setting.

The Growing Understanding of Septimus Smith

When we are first introduced to Septimus Smith it was a very brief segment and yet he already stood out from other characters in Mrs. Dalloway. When the reader is first introduced to Septimus it is as part of the motor car scene. His response when compared with the responses of the other people who see the car is quite different. While everyone else was looking at the car wondering who might be inside, Septimus was watching the car itself and instead of who might be inside he worried about what message the car was trying to deliver to him. And when his wife interrupts his thoughts by saying "Come on" to get him to start walking again, he seems to snap out of some sort of daze, showing that he really was seeing things in his own altered reality.
Later in the book when Septimus and his wife, Lucrezia, are in Regent's Park we enter the mind of Septimus for a third time (the second being shortly after the motor car scene) and it is then we the reader begins to get a growing understanding of Septimus. In this scene you are in his head for longer so you see his altered reality for longer. Because of this it become obvious that he normally sees things that other people do not. He sees things ranging from his dead friend Evans to a dog turning into a man. However, he also sees the simple things in nature with a sort of exquisite beauty. For example he sees a leaf floating in a breeze as an "exquisite joy." This helps us understand Septimus because it shows that he really sees the world differently. In the motor car scene it is obvious that Septimus is different but it isn't easy to pinpoint exactly how. This scene also shows that Septimus not only sees things but it hyper sensitive to the things he sees normally like the leaf in the air. By advancing our knowledge of Septimus it develops the character even though so little time has passed in the story.
Later in the book we learn of why Septimus became the way he is now when the narrator tells his story. We learn that he started out as an aspiring poet who was very romantic and not overly masculine. His boss at the firm he works at criticizes him for this and wants him to play football to become more manly. Instead Septimus volunteers for the army. The narrator doesn't describe his experience in the war with any specific detail but instead focuses on his relationship with his commanding officer Evans and the friendship that forms and how Septimus doesn't feel anything when Evans dies. Because of this we learn that the root of Septimus' emotional trauma is his lack of emotions when his friend dies and how he continued not to be able to feel permanently after the war. Because Woolf separates his story into segments like this we get a sense of character development despite the fact that the current day Septimus isn't changing. This realization only leaves us with the question of how will our understanding of Septimus change from now on.