rbenavides

Lucy, Professor David Lurie's daughter, lives in a small house in the country and keeps a shelter for dogs. She is rather messy and unkempt and this clashes with her father's personality but it is obvious that David is making a very sincere effort to salvage his relationship with her. She seems to be the only one left in his life right now. It is here, at her house, that his tough exterior begins to break. The reader catches him wondering often, about his daughter's life here, about whether or not his presence is putting strain on her relationship with her partner (she is a lesbian). He helps out her friends as they work with the animals, and wonders if this is a fulfilling life for his daughter. He often questions his value as a father, as well. He also thinks of Melanie often, but it is obvious that he never loved the girl, but rather just desired her.

And then the unthinkable happens. Two men and a boy manage to take advantage of both father and daughter, and break into their home. They lock David in the bathroom so that he cannot see what is happening to Lucy...but he can only guess. They then attempt to kill him by setting him on fire, and he witnesses their burglary of the home. And though both David and Lucy survive, their car is stolen, their dogs shot, and the incident is traumatizing. Perhaps, though, this horrifying experience will allow David to face what he did to Melanie....and whether or not it truly was the same as what happened to his daughter. Perhaps it will open up barriers placed between father and daughter. I am not saying that the incident should have happened, but that for the sake of the novel its importance on this relationship between David and Lucy will be immense.

This is really getting good. This, I think, was the climax of the novel and I beleive that both main characters will be changed by this event psychologically. I am just intrigued (still) as to how so. 

The beginning of this novel was incredibly interesting to me. Professor David Lurie is developed rather quickly as a man who has divorced twice and still surrounds himself with women but does not fall in love with them. He merely desires these women, who come and go from his life fleetingly. He is a professor at Cape Technical University in South Africa, is in the Communications department. He teaches one class on poetry which he adores but he sees that his students really are not as interested in the words as he is. One student, however, catches his attention because of her beauty, and this is where his whole dilemma begins.

He calls it an act by the gods, his affair with Melanie. He tells the board of faculty members he goes up against when he is found out that he was rendered helplessly desiring her by Eros. It is a rather ridiculous argument but he does not apologize nor does he wish to issue a statement to those who believed he raped her. The question of whether he raped her or not hangs in the air too. She did not necessarily want the affair, but she did not necessarily resist. To me that is rape, but to Lurie it didn't register as that. Anyway, it is obvious that Lurie does not really value his job as he does not fight for it, but really the reason that he does not accept the counseling they offer him is because he feels that he does not need it. Lurie leaves his position at the university in a state of pride, and I wonder if that pride will stay throughout the rest of his life or if it will be battered down by something.

However interesting this novel is, however, I feel that it will just get more complex as it goes on. One thing that really drew me in during this first portion was the relation of the poems he teaches during class periods to his life. He speaks of beauty and of overlooking its flaws in his class, as outside he is having an affair with a student simply for her beauty though he does not register remarkable personality in her. I am intrigued as to where this will go next. Lurie is heading to his daughter's home to escape from the situation. Perhaps it is there that his pride will dissapate?

While reading the last chapters of Maus II, it has become apparent to me how much time Art Spiegelman must have spent planning and designing each panel of his graphic novels. I know what went into drawing the rough draft of the comic Scott and I designed, and that was only a page long. Spiegelman has mastered the art of creating a scene in each panel, so that it can be read over and over again and new details can be picked up. Little random objects in the scene, the intensity of the lines, the background, the facial expressions...all of this has contributed to the emotion evoked in the reader. When I started these graphic novels, I was skeptical as to how a comic book could portray something as intense as the Holocaust. Now, at the end, I understand that all of these details give justice to the event. All of these details go in to creating a work of art that, in some respects, portrays the holocaust in more of an honest light than any historical fiction or nonfiction novel ever could.

Of course, I don't believe that Art could have written this novel had he not been directly affected by the event in some way. Because his father was a victim, it doesn't appear insensitive for him to write it. Any other person writing it would have certainly appeared that way.

The first two chapters of Maus II have proved to be decidedly different from those of Maus I. The panels are bleaker, it seems, now that Vladek is speaking of his time in Auschwitz. Not only do readers follow his story through his entering the camp, and beginning his work, through the acquantainces he makes while staying there that ultimately end up being the reason he survives, arranging to see his wife, and experiencing the horrors of the concentration camp, but we also get to see a little bit of Artie's own struggles in writing this comic at the beginning of chapter 2. At one point he speaks directly to the reader, offering some insight into his frustration that his graphic novel is so popular and yet the topic is so horrific, that he cannot appreciate the success. We also see a meeting with his therapist, in which he approaches the question of whether or not it was admirable for his father to survive Auschwitz.

I think this has been my favorite part of both novels. To really see the frustrations and distress of Art as he goes through writing the very comic book we are reading was incredibly interesting to me. The questions he brings up throughout the portion are hard to ponder...is surviving really admirable? Or were the deaths in the Holocaust random? Could people have done more, like Vladek, to survive? Can we even approach these questions without having been witnesses?

In chapters four through six even more has escalated. Artie's frustration with his father grows worse as Vladek and Mala fight more often and he frequently asks his son to do things for him. Vladek talks of getting work papers to make sure that he is not caught by the police, and of the Germans coming to take all of the furniture they owned. One of the most haunting images in this part is that of the hanging men in the middle of the street, those who had dabbled in dealing food and other goods without coupons. The family splits up during an inspection of papers and then again after the ghetto changes...and Anja and Vladek go into hiding...although they have to often change their location to avoid being found. However, Vladek hatches a plan to escape to Hungary, and he and Anja are caught in the process and sent to Auschwitz.

Throughout all of this, Art is dealing with his father's grief over his mother's suicide (one such case is sparked by a comic that Art draws), as well as Vladek's problems with Mala. These two settings of this graphic novel allow for emotion to be recognized as well as the historical facts of the Holocaust. We really get to see how Vladek has changed because of his time in hiding and then in Auschwitz...sometimes his stinginess and harshness can become annoying to Art, or even to the readers, but then we begin to understand with Art Vladek's reasoning for the way that he is now. It is the emotion exhibited by Vladek that makes this graphic novel so powerful (so that it does justice to the topic it portrays) even though it is a comic.

Wow, I'm actually really liking this so far. I didn't realize it would be so interesting to me, and I was rather skeptical about the portrayal of the Holocaust in a graphic novel but I find it hard to stop reading. Even through the faces of animals like mice (the Jews), pigs (the Poles) and cats (the Nazis), the human element is still present and the emotions are recognizable. The characters are interesting...Anja with her conspiracies and then her mental breakdown...the father and his wise storytelling...I am very very interested in where this story will go throughout the remainder of the novel. I mean already Vladek talked of meeting Anja, having his first son, being drafted, entering a prisoner of war camp, volunteering for the labor assignments to get out of said camp....and only in three chapters.

I am interested in why exactly it was Vladek's grandfather who came to him in the dream and told him that he would be free on Parshas Truma. And other than that I am just looking forward to reading more. 

"Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder."

Well first of all, Fitzgerald's writing is serene and beautiful in general but this line in particular stood out to me, made me catch my breath...it's gorgeous.

Anyway, I love the metaphor that he uses for Gatsby's love for Daisy. She was always a wonder to him, something that was within his grasp for so long yet he had no idea why he deserved it. And once he lost her, it consumed his mind. I do believe that somehow, he was in love with Daisy. I think his initial infatuation had a lot to do with her wealth but that after a while, he fell in love with her, but looked at her the way that a man would look at a goddess. She embodied every dream he'd ever had, every ambition. She was beautiful and charming and wealthy. She was perfection in his mind. Perhaps he did fall in love with an idea rather than with her, but his passion for whatever he felt was real.

It is funny that both Wilson and Gatsby were hurt because the women they loved wanted to be with Tom. That's what makes the end so tragic--Wilson thought he was killing the enemy but instead he killed the one person who he could identify with.

And all under the eyes of "God," or Dr. TJ Eckleburg, who I'm almost positive doesn't represent anything divine but rather just a kind of reminder that through all of the drama that happens in this novel, through all of the immorality and the desire for wealth, there is something looking down. With disapproval? If an advertisement could express that, then I'd suppose he would. I don't really think that there is one character in this novel who keeps his or her morality. I loved the book, though.

inexplicable: impossible to explain

Despite the laughter, there was an inexplicable tension in the air.

redolent: fragrant or aromatic

The flower vase on the table was so redolent that the whole room was a pleasant place to be in.

"There is no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind, and as we drove away Tom was feeling the hot whips of panic.  His wife and his mistress, until an hour ago secure and inviolate, were slipping precipitately from his control.  Instinct made him step on the accelerator with the double purpose of overtaking Daisy and leaving Wilson behind..."

I am now intrigued by Tom as I was ealier by Daisy. Based on some of his actions, yes, I can say that he deserves to be protrayed as more of an antagonist in this novel. But to say that would be to say that there was a protagonist...and I'm not sure there is (Nick? Gatsby? I don't think there are any who could be described as one). Tom is involved with two women, but I've thought from the beginning that he loved Daisy much more than expected, and this confirms it. Yes, he is emotionally involved with Myrtle. He cries when she is run over by the car and is killed. But Tom is still attached to his wife...and this is seen in both quotes. He speeds away from Wilson's garage and Myrtle to overtake Daisy. He's been off on sprees like this before, but he always comes back. I don't mean to say that that is okay, because quite obviously, it is not okay for him to have affairs behind Daisy's back. What does strike me as interesting though is that he and Daisy did once love eachother, and he fights for her when he realizes that Gatsby is in love with her. He tries to remind her of their past together; once, he even speaks with "husky tenderness."

At the end of the chapter, Tom and Daisy seem to be working things out, or at least this is the impression we get when Nick describes them sitting together inside the house. I'm not sure if he would have been so willing to reconcile had Myrtle still been alive, but to be honest I think that I need to read the rest of the novel to see how everything works itself out. I can say, though, that I think the end of this chapter presents the most moving image of the novel:

Gatsby, who is still in love with Daisy, is outside of the house keeping watch just in case Tom decides to hurt her. But instead, she and Tom are talking things out...and therefore Gatsby has no need of being there. Fitzgerald says it best when he states that Gatsby is "watching over nothing." This scene parallels the ones where Gatsby is standing alone at his parties, to which he is waiting for Daisy to attend, and at night when he reaches his hand out to Daisy's house over the bay....I still wonder if he is in love with her rather than simply the idea of her, but it is interesting how much passion he holds for this girl.

precipitately: headlong; at breakneck speed

The girl ran precipitately through the airport in order to catch the flight she was in danger of missing. 

presumptuous: assumptive; excessively forward

He was presumptuous in thinking that she was in love with him; honestly, she only considered him a friend.

"There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams-not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart."

"A universe of ineffable gaudiness spun itself out in his brain while the clock ticked on the wash-stand and the moon soaked with wet light his tangled clothes upon the floor.  Each night he added to the pattern of his fancies until drowsiness closed down upon some vivid scene with an oblivious embrace.  For a while these reveries provided an outlet for his imagination; they were a satisfactory hint of the unreality of reality, a promise that the rock of the world was founded securely on a fairy’s wing."

Once again I chose two quotes from different parts of the reading, but I only did so because they are both along the same lines. Gatsby seems to be in love with Daisy, yes, but he has not seen her in five years. He attempts to impress her with his material wealth and has only held his lavish parties to lure her into coming to his home. He has newspaper clippings that concern her, and the only reason he subscribes to these papers is so that he can see her name once in a while. He has this image of her concocted in his brain that, honestly, is very comparable to the image he once concocted of himself, and his future. Daisy doesn't always live up to how he has imagined her for five years, and he seems to have put the same stock into creating a wealthy facade for her as he has for himself. If you put his need for a glamourous life next to his admiration for Daisy, well, it doesn't seem as if he loves her at all. It actually seems more like he admires the idea of her, her wealth, her beauty, her charm. I find it hard to believe that if he really did love Daisy for who she was, she would ever "tumble short of his dreams."

pompadour: a hair style in which the front hair is swept up from the forehead

Her hair was styled into a pompadour for the party that she was to attend that night.

contralto: alto: of or being the lowest female voice

Her contralto voice was mesmerizing to the audience compared to the voices of those girls who sang the higher notes.

"The bar is in full swing, and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside, until the air is alive with chatter and laughter, and casual innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot, and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other’s names."

The lavishness of Gatsby's parties is something frequently touched upon by Fitzgerald, and for good reason. It really does set the reader up for meeting Jay Gatsby. I do like the glimpse into the culture of nightlife in the 1920's. It is interesting to me, and this quote along with the others that described his party painted a gorgeous, colorful picture in my mind of wealth and prosperity and craziness. However, I also think that the lavishness of the party mixed with the absence of Gatsby until later in the third chapter (and even then, he is not really a part of the festivities taking place in his own home) create a mystery about the man that is kept up even when we learn details that he tells Nick about his past and his love for Daisy Buchanan.

I liked looking into Daisy's past through Jordan as well. Daisy is an interesting character to me. She knows Tom has a mistress but tries to cover it up anyway, and though she puts on a kind of daft exterior there is much more going on in her mind than expected and though I do not know if I would like her as a person, her character is just rather intriguing to me. She was packing a bag to see Gatsby off but was stopped by her family. She married Tom and seemed to be in love even after she got drunk the night before her wedding because of Gatsby. I just find myself wanting to know more about her.

homogeneity:  the quality of being similar or comparable in kind or nature

The homogeneity of the two girls' personalities was likely due to the fact that they had been roomates for so long.

abstraction: the act of withdrawing or removing something

The man abstracted his opinions from the conversation mainly so that he would not be chastised for them.