Okay so I thought I did both posts for this book already, but it turns out I only did one. I'm really thanking myself for taking the time to look back over my posts and realize one was missing! I was sure I already did this second post, but oh well. I guess I imagined it or something.
Anyway, Mrs. Dalloway wasn't such a bad book I suppose. It was hard to get through and picking up the rhythm of the way it was written was hard at first, but once you get used to it it flows pretty well. It also helps to read it out loud and add in some punctuation, that way you don't get lost so easily. Overall, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the book when it was done. I was kind of sad when Septimus killed himself because I really thought he was getting better, he was talking to his wife and they were spending time with each other like they used to. Even she noticed that he was being more like his old self, and it made me sad that he killed himself just when things started to be getting back to normal. I did like the ending of the book though, and I'm glad Clarissa finally realized how fake she had been being for all that time. Sometimes it takes someone else's tragedy to make you realize your own life. Clarissa looked at Septimus' death as a comment on her life, and she finally realized her own mortality. She was in her fifties and it took her all those years to finally realize who she really was. It's sad, really. I don't want to look back on my life and regret the things that I've done. I don't want to wish things were different, and I'm glad I know who I am. I don't have everything I want in life yet, but I'm still young and there's lots of time to live life to the fullest. I hereby vow to never "trifle" my life away.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
CM1135 Research Paper #2
I think the best thing about research papers is getting to learn more about your topic. For example, I had no idea Ted Hughes cheated on Sylvia Plath until I looked it up. I didn't know she had kids, and I also didn't know that she admired Virginia Woolf. It's funny, but this semester I've really grown to love a couple authors I didn't even know existed before. The Bell Jar is full of heavy material, but it's one of the best books I've ever read. I don't care about books full of sparkling vampires or hunky werewolves, I love reading stuff that's significant to someone's life and has great themes. It's the whole reason I liked Animal Farm when we studied it in high school, it had historical significance. If you knew nothing about the Russian Revolution it would have just looked like a bunch of animals fighting and making their "society" worse.
In the same way, The Bell Jar shows the reader how hard living back then was for women who weren't stereotypically feminine. If you didn't want to settle down with the first man who asked you to marry him, what did you do? Sure, some women were independent and happy, but what about the others? Others like Esther who had trouble with the fact that she didn't want things society told her she should. They had the hardest time, of course, because being indecisive might have been one of the hardest things in your life. When Esther says she doesn't want to marry Buddy he calls her crazy. He doesn't understand why she would pass up an opportunity to be with someone who would eventually be a successful doctor and make buckets of money. But that's just not what she wants. Men like Buddy think they can just chain a woman down solely based on the fact that they're easy on the eyes and they make money. But the fact is, if it's just not the life you want to live then there's nothing anyone can do. Esther didn't want that kind of life, so she turned him down. She couldn't live the way she wanted to, and eventually it took a major toll on her psychological well-being. I can't help but wonder, if Esther were to live in this day and age, would she still have suffered her breakdown? I really don't think so.
In the same way, The Bell Jar shows the reader how hard living back then was for women who weren't stereotypically feminine. If you didn't want to settle down with the first man who asked you to marry him, what did you do? Sure, some women were independent and happy, but what about the others? Others like Esther who had trouble with the fact that she didn't want things society told her she should. They had the hardest time, of course, because being indecisive might have been one of the hardest things in your life. When Esther says she doesn't want to marry Buddy he calls her crazy. He doesn't understand why she would pass up an opportunity to be with someone who would eventually be a successful doctor and make buckets of money. But that's just not what she wants. Men like Buddy think they can just chain a woman down solely based on the fact that they're easy on the eyes and they make money. But the fact is, if it's just not the life you want to live then there's nothing anyone can do. Esther didn't want that kind of life, so she turned him down. She couldn't live the way she wanted to, and eventually it took a major toll on her psychological well-being. I can't help but wonder, if Esther were to live in this day and age, would she still have suffered her breakdown? I really don't think so.
CM1145 #14 Psychological Analysis
In class right now we're working on our last essay, and I decided to do a psychological analysis. I'm torn between Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath because they both went through mental illness and ended up committing suicide because of it. Virginia Woolf stuffed her pockets with rocks and then proceeded to drown herself in a lake. Sylvia Plath stuck her head in an oven and turned on the gas... I can't decide which is worse. At least nobody got hit by a train in any of the stories this semester.
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