criblet

The part that I was very hesitant on was the part where the Nazi Troops were making the Jews march in the snow. On page 82, where Vladek was remembering when his neighbor shot a dog that was going crazy, I thought it was very weird that Vladek compared his own kind, to dogs that were going crazy. He says, "How amazing it is that a human being reacts the same like this neighbor's dog." After I think about it, maybe Vladek realizes that everyone, including the Jews, were acting like animals. That's my thought, and if he WAS trying to say that EVEN the Jews were animals, that was very honest of him to say. That's why this tradgedy was SO AWFUL, everyone involved in the war were like cannibals.

 The other interesting thing that I caught was at the very end when the Vladek, Art, and Francoise picked up a black dog (African American). It was interesting to read because we know now that Vladek is racist and he's doing the exact same thing that Hitler was doing, discriminating against people that are different from him. But shouldn't he have learned his lesson? I mean, I'm sure Vladek doesn't want to be as extreme as Hitler, but by discriminating against a racial group, he's certainly heading in that direction.I would have that since Vladek went through so much horrible stuff, I would have been almost positive that it would have made Vladek even more humble, and more accepting of other ethnic groups.

Anyway, I thought  this was a great graphic novel to read. It was really awesome to read about a terrible event in world history, being written and drawn in a comic book.

I knew this part would be the most interesting part because Vladek and Anja are actually in the concentration camps, but I also knew this would be the saddest. I think the part that actually made me tear up a little bit was the section on page 34. It was the part in where Vladek got a job teaching English as a second language to a polish guy (I don't know who his character was.) But Vladek's friends, Mandlebaum was starting to look very much like a skeleton and he on had one shoe that fitted right, his ptans always fell down, and his spoon was stolen by another man who was living in the concentration camps. But with Vladek's new job, he was able to get his friend new shoes, a belt and a new spoon! It was a very touching moment and I'm glad this was drawn in here.

I only know Anja as a person who was very depressed and later committed suicide later, and I feel really bad for her. It's a shame that Vladek burned Anja's diaries becuase now I'm very interested to what she had to say during her time in the camp. I'm sure her feelings were filled with hatred and sadness, but it's a amazing that surivived and didn't try killing herself while she was at the concentration camps. I want to know why she killed herself later in her life. I mean, after not being killed by gas or by fire or by being beaten death, wouldn't she appreciate life and want to die an old and "happy" woman? I just find it interesting.

I'm a little confused about the Comic that Art drew about his mother, and why he called Vladek a murderer...??? In the comic, did Art actually go to a mental hospital?

There are a couple things that I didn't know when I've read this. I didn't know that there were Jew soldiers who joined the Nazi army in order to save themselves. I always that Jews, no matter what, were criticized and considered vermin. I'm really excited to see what happen in Maus 2.

I really like this graphic novel. This isn't the first graphic novel I've read before, I've read "Blankets" by Craig Thompson which turned me on to these kind of books, so I was really looking forward to reading this novel. It's nice to know that this is pretty much a comic book that has a deep meaning. The only bad thing about graphic novels (at least in my opinion) is that I only read the dialogue and hardly pay any attention to the art put behind it.Reading these books are fun and fast paced but it takes up time because I want to look at the pretty pictures =]

So far, the story started out with a great hook. It looks like Art Spiegelman tried to carefully pinpoint the discussions between him and his father which I really like. Vladek, Art's father, is beginning to tell his son how and what it was like to be in the war. Even if it is just a cartoon, it's very realistic and true to real historical events. Art's characters are very real and I like the symbolism behind the use of animals for his characters. Any story that is about the Jewish survival of the Holocaust during WWII, I know I will love.

Finally! The whole way through...was just depressing. (I seriously need to read something much happier!) Anyway, all of the four characters ended up differently but it was the way I expected. Sara, because she wasn't doing well at all after a few months from taking those diet pills, she went to the doctor. Apparently, Dr.Reynolds, who subscribed the pills to Sara, is not the efficient doctor anyone would like to have. Dr. Hardwood who was willing to take care of Sara, was told by the head doctor that he shouldn't interfere with another doctor's patients and that Dr. Reynolds would like to do electroshock therapy on Sara. Sadly, Sara ended up being humiliated by the entire medical crew and is permanently a vegetable.

Harry, having always used a needle in his left arm, finally took the consequence for his actions. It turned out that his arm was badly infected and he had to have his left arm amputated. Tyrone, he was thrown into prison becuase be was a junkie and an African American. Before I would like to talk about Marion, I need to say that the people that should have been the most helpful to these four characters, were seen as the antagonists at the very end of the book. Harry and Tyrone were going down to Miami to do some buissness but then Harry started to notice his arm and the both of them went to the hospital. Instead of the doctors helping the both of them, they called the police and and the police treated the two of them so mean, especially Tyrone becuase of his race.

As for Marion, she ended up doing more and more drugs. 

I have no idea why I like depressing novels...Maybe becuase more than half the time, their job is supposed to carry an important message, even if book brings pain to the reader. But this book definitely brought an important message. Requiem for a Dream was written in the late 1970's and even though I'm wasn't born in that decade, I first think of disco, then drugs. This story was about drugs, but it goes deeper then that. Like in The Glass Menagerie, the four characters were caught up in their own dreams. Harry wanted to be rich and powerful, Sara wanted to be on TV and look beautiful, Tyrone didn't want problems in his life and wanted to be care-free, Marion wanted to own her own coffee shop and paint for the rest of her life. These dreams are simple dreams, but ADDICTION (the main antagonist) brought them down and failed them. 

What I might call this literature "-ism," I have no idea, I have to sit on it. As for the rest of you who would a challenge by reading something scary, throught-provoking, sad, and  a story about failure, then this is the story for you!

I have a feeling that I just read the climax of REQUIEM FOR A DREAM. I don't really understand what happened to Harry and Tyrone's money, but somehow they lost a huge ammount of money (DRUGS=BAD!). In their heads, Harry and Tyrone seriously need to borrow money fast so they can continue doing buissness. Marion, who knows a guy that would probably help them, was forced by Harry to visit him and ask him for some money. Sadly, Marion's character met up with the man who is actually her therapist, and asked for some money. He agreed, but only if Marion would sleep with him in return. I feel really sad for Marion's character becuase she doesn't deserve this and Harry doesn't deserve someone like Marion. Even though Harry didn't say that Marion should sleep with her therapist for money, (becuase this book is written in 3rd person so I know everything that's going through the minds of all the characters) Harry definitely knew that she may had to sleep her therapist. Her therapist even asked her if this money was going to be used for something drug related. He didb't even have to ask such a question becuase he noticed there were needle marks in her arm.

"Why? Marion stared at him for a moment, then sighed loud and long, her body responding as if it had been sequeezed tighter, Because it makes me feel whole... satisfied" (202).

 As for Sara's character, I really like her personality becuase she is percieved as the underdog, but she is getting more and more dillisional as she is constantly taking pills that don't make her hungry. She is an old lady with no friends, Harry rarely visits her, she's alone, but she has a dream about being on television. She must know that this won't make her a TV star, but she finally feels like she has something to live for and she feels like she will be loved by the whole world once they see her on the TV screen.

I promised myself I would never never never EVER do drugs! In a way, I'm glad this book is making me even more scared of even the though of doing something.

"The enemy ate away at their will so they could not resist, their bodies not only craving, but needing the poison that ground them into that pitiable state of being; the mind diseased and crippled by the enemy it was obsessed with the obsession and terrible physical need corrupting the soul until the actions were less than those of an animal, less than those of a wounded animal, less than those of of anything and everything they did not want to be" (190).

"We/re going to great things, baby, and show this world where its at becuase I can feel it in my bones, I mean i can really feel it, theres nothing I cant do, nothing, and Im going to make you the happiest woman in the world and thats a promise and a fact because Ive got something in me thats always been trying to come out and with you baby its going to come out and nothing can stop me, its right to the top and if you want the moon then its yours and I/ll even wrap it up for you-" (pg 82).

This  quote is from Harry talking to Marion. Just from the description on the back of this novel, I know that it's going to be one of those books where it gets the reader pumped and excited for the characters. Then at the very end, it's going to drop me off a huge cliff and just leave me depressed. From page 80 to 130, there are tons of quotes exactly similar to this one and each quotes are about each character. Harry wants to make thousands of dollars by selling cocaine and hopefully sharing that moment of happiness with Marion. Marion, I didn't know her character very well, but now I know that she lived in Europe for a bit. But she came back to the United States, but wasn't as happy as she was in Italy. In the book, it was describing her passion for art and how alive she felt back in Italy, with the warm sunlight shing down upon her. But as of right now, she's happy with her time with Harry and dreams about opeing up a coffee shop/art gallery with Harry.

"...they sat side by side on the couch drawing, talking, leaning against each other and suddenly laughing or chuckling and hugging each other and kisssing and dreaming and believing..." (pg 121).

This book has the word "dream" in every chapter. I'm starting to realize that these characters have dreams and just live in those dreams and not in reality. I'm very curious to see what will happen at the end.

 As for Sara, she is on diet pills so she won't be hungry anymore and therefore, making her lose weigh faster so she can fit in her red dress so she can look good on TV.

This book is unlike any other book I've read before. It's very strange but it's very interesting at the time same. For those who have never read or heard of this book before, there is on dialogue through out this entire novel. Well, there is dialogue, but there are no quotations and usually, the dialouge and narrative are in sentence. It was very difficult at first becuase I wasn't sure if the characters were talking or if it was just narrative. But my understanding of what's going on is better.

 In the begining, I was introduced to four main characters. Sara Goldfarb who is widowed older woman, her son, Harry Goldfarb, Harry's girlfriend, Marion and Harry's best friend, Tyrone. On he back of the book where it explains what the story is going to be about, it's about these four people who have dreams and goals that they want to obtain in their life but they get sucked into their dillusions and get stuck in their ownworst nightmeres. Immediately I thought of the Great Gatsby, only these four chracters are wanting to live a dream in the future Gatsby lived in the past. But Gatsby's dream never fullfilled and I'm expecting the same to happen to these characters.

 So far, the lives of Sara, Harry, Marion and Tyrone are not going so well. Sara, after getting a phone call from a television show that wanted her to be on the show, starts to go on diets so she can be thin again and look good on TV. Harry and Tyrone are wanting to be drug dealers so they can make a huge profit. And as for Marion, I'm not sure what her dream is yet, it hasn't exactly been said.

Garrulous (pg 156) - excessively talkative in a rambling, roundabout manner, esp. about trivial matters.

My friend started talking in a garrulous manner when I asked him a very important but nosy question.

Addenda (pg 166) - Something added or to be added, especially a supplement to a book.

At the end of written letters, it's sometimes nice to leave a nice addenda, leaving an extra note.

In chapter 9, there were a lot of good quotes supporting Nick's brotherly love for Gatsby. But one of the quotes at the very end made me think a lot!

"And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and this dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vasy obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night" (pg 180).

Right before this quote, Nick is talking about how New York was once settled by the Dutch and how they had a dream to make it big in the new world. But this quote, you can sort of see the comparison to the Dutch's dream and Gatsby's dream. Gatsby's dream was being fully a part of Daisy's life and being rich so he could satisfy her. But from what Nick understood, Gatsby knew to follow his dreams and knew how to never let it go out of his sight, even if he did fail. Gatsby was killed and he didn't get the girl.

"Gastby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter- to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther... "(pg. 180)

I guess the moral of this story is to follow your dreams, no matter how many times you get shot down.

Intermittent (pg. 128) stopping or ceasing for a time; alternately ceasing and beginning again: an intermittent pain.

Intermittent fevers are the worst becuase once you think they are gone, they can come right back!

Marred (pg 145) to damage or spoil to a certain extent; render less perfect, attractive, useful, etc.; impair or spoil

My presence would have marred my parents romantic evening if I ever went along.

"I wanted to get up and slap him on the back. I had one of those renewals of complete faith in him that I'd experienced before" (pg 129).

&

I disliked him so much by this time that I didn't find it necessary to tell him he was wrong" (pg 143).

Both of quotes came from Nick are talking about Gatsby. Continuing the discussion from last week whether or not Gatsby is a good or bad guy, we obviously can't tell if we're listening to Nick's opinion. He hates him and loves the guy. I don't know why Nick thinks Gatsby is so great when even Nick can't decide whether he likes him or hates him. Maybe it's because Gatsby can turn something so bad, into something "great." For example, cheating is considered a moral wrong, but Jay Gatsby can make it seem "right."

But what if he is considered the bad guy? Maybe what Gatsby is doing is just putting on a show for the whole world to see.