1968 was far cry from Philip K. Dick’s, Do Androids Dreams of Electric Sheep? Yet, Dick’s futuristic environment in the novel was being influenced by the world around him. In 1968, when Dick’s novel was published, movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Barbarella, and Planet of the Apes were coming out. Television shows like Star Trek, […]
It is widely known that Ralph Ellison was taken by the message of the Communist Party in the 30s. He eventually would be at odds with the Party, ultimately questioning their motivations, much like his narrator does with the Brotherhood in Invisible Man. In The New Yorker, David Denby writes, “[Ellison] drew close to the Communist Party in the […]
As many writers will admit, their lives have a massive effect on their written work. One can see this clearly in Baldwin’s novel Giovanni’s Room. An article from The New Yorker discusses the similarities between Baldwin’s life and his novel. The article first notes that “at the age of twenty-four, Baldwin moved to Paris, where […]
One thing that caught my interest while planning out my blog post, was the question about how people reacted to this novel after it was published. I also wanted to talk about the type of influence it could have in today’s society, and how we are still dealing with hate crimes towards LGBT people today. […]
Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, published in 1930, is markedly one of the first novels to introduce stream of consciousness narration to the public. Faulkner wrote the entirety of the novel over the course of six weeks, from midnight until 4am, during his break at the power plant where he was working. It is interesting […]
The subject of Part I in Passing is Clare Kendry’s ability to “pass” for white, and essentially fool her abhorrently racist husband into thinking she is white. During Jack’s rant about the apparent darkening of Clare’s skin, she asks him, “My goodness, Jack! What difference would it make if, after all these years, you were to find […]
I was shocked when I read the part about Clare’s aunts, and how they would use bible versus to justify how they treated Clare. Clare describes them as “good Christians”, and justifies their actions by saying that they made her who she is today. Christians in the past would also use bible versus to justify […]
Nella Larsen’s “Passing” is named so in reference to the concept that one may “pass” as a race that is not their own. From the first part of the novel, we understand that several of the women introduced are either passing all the time (such as with Clare), or have the ability to (such as […]
In John Dos Passos’ novel The 42nd Parallel, readers are forcefully confronted with fragmented narratives tracing the lives of numerous American characters. By intermingling sections of other types of texts, Passos weaves a pastiche of differing perspectives into a single book. He incorporates small snippets of autobiography called the “Camera Lens”, other smaller biographies of […]
While discussing Cather’s life in class, we have touched upon two areas that have particularly grabbed my interest: her relationships with gender and sexuality. With these to aspects still under much discussion in our modern present, I cannot help but take Cather’s subtle yet radical past into consideration while considering her characterization throughout the novel. […]