Lovely Literature

"Ay, sir, free enough for honest folks. Mr. Kirwin is a magistrate; and you are to give an account of the death of a gentleman who was found murdered here last night." (page 127)

Frankenstein at this point has already decided that he is finished with dealing with this monster situation. He has toiled over this new creation for many many hours and days, but he has realized that he would be more of a monster if he created another being. His problem is that he could not handle the grotesqueness of this new monster and he would not be able to tell if the new creation would like the original creation and vice versa. The female creation could even hate the world more than the male creation and he would not be able to tell what the outcome would be then. Also, Victor must have given them reproductive organs because he mentions them having more demon babies...which would just be wonderful of course. The dead would be reproducing...hm....

So the monster is at it again. One of the themes my group has been studying is depravity, or sin, and the monster who claims that he was once good has only been showing off his evilness. He has apparently killed again and he is framing his creator once again. He threatened Victor with the fact that he is more powerful than his creator and he will be with him on his wedding night because Victor destroyed his second creation and broke his original promise. The creation has zero remorse anymore. He does not care what repercussions could occur and he does not care about his creator and his well being. Basically, he is sick of being treated like a monster...but well...he is a monster. He is almost making the situation worse by actually acting as a monster now. The theme of depravity is prevalent in the story, but as I continue reading the end of this novel, I can see that sin will become more prominent and prevalent in the main ideas.

"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages you've had. " (page 1)

This quote starts off The Great Gatsby with an immediate theme and tone. The protagonist and narrator, Nick Carraday, is told this quote by his father. As the first couple paragraphs continue on, we find out that our narrator believes his father to have been quite snobbish but still had great advice every once in a while and this is some of that advice. He taught Nick how to listen and reserve all judgments, but mostly to be a gentleman in a world full of people who are rich and poor. One of the themes of The Great Gatsby definitely revolves around the lifestyles of the rich and famous [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-jC3H_8Dk4 <-- yeah that's a clever little Good Charlotte video Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous :]. The story takes place back in the "Roaring '20s" when the rich were richer than ever and the poor weren't getting anywhere. Leading up to the Great Depression, this story focuses on people like Carraday, his cousin Daisy, and of course the infamous Jay Gatsby who seem to have no problems because they are born from money and basically made of money. As I am currently only halfway through the book, I am curious to see more action take place and see how their social statuses are going to evade their lives.

There are many motifs and themes in this play along with symbolism. I read that Williams enjoys symbols and making things particularly obvious that they stand for something else. Some major themes in the play are glass, distortion of memory, and reluctance to accept the truth.

Laura basically is the glass that she handles every day. She is so socially inept that she cannot hold a conversation with a boy without feeling like she is going to puke. Now, granted, she is crippled so that causes some problems, but I think the main source of her insecurity is from her mother. Her mom always makes it sound like Laura isn't good enough because she doesn't have male suitors. Her mom doesn't approve of her or even think she is pretty when she speaks to her because when Mr. O'Connor comes over, her mom tells her that this is the prettiest she will ever be. Laura is simply fragile...just like the glass she deals with...and one day she is going to break.

This play is all told from memory which makes time very distorted and things very biased. Since Tom is telling the story, his mother may seem more harsh than she actually was because he was so suffocated by her presence. She definitely never changes throughout most of the story though so that makes it hard to believe he was exaggerating too much when he speaks about her. Memory's are often selective so we may not be getting the entire picture from the story either. This theme of the distortion of memory is indirectly shown through the play because sometimes there are things that just don't add up--a.k.a. the nonrealistic components.

Then comes the reluctance to accept the truth--basically Amanda's entire character. She lives vicariously through her daughter's life, but her daughter is not all she wants her to be. Amanda wants her daughter to be the most beautiful girl in the world with all of the confidence that comes along with that, but Laura is just too shy and too insecure to "live up" to her mother's expectations. Amanda also doesn't want to accept that she settled for a man who up and left her without a question. She is not good at accepting the truth if she doesn't like it, and I'm afraid that will cause her much pain toward the end of the story.

Such an interesting woman Margaret Atwood is. I'm not going to lie, the first time I read this poem, it freaked me out a little bit. Let's just say when I heard the title "February," I wasn't expecting the theme to have anything to do with sex and cats.

In one sentence, the theme of this poem is we all have a call to action and it's time to get out of bed and do something.

Actually, I think it's kind of difficult to state just one theme from this poem because there are so many random and weird things it incorporates. Surprisingly though, they all work together. The poem goes through a stream of consciousness in the mind of the speaker who is laying down in bed in the middle of the winter, not wanting to face the day. At first she is criticizing how society is way too sexual and focused on "scoring" [line 20, "he shoots, he scores"], but then she contradicts herself by saying at the end "Get rid of death. Celebrate increase. Make it be spring." I like the outlook the speaker has at the end because it's very optimistic thinking. It reminds me of those "Just do something!" ads. Despite its oddities, the poem is quite memorable and interesting.