The kindness of death?

To start off my series of Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, I will start with the back of the book, observing the ending of the story so I properly ruin the suspense for all of you who haven't read it yet.

George kills Lennie.
It's not as off the bat as I say it, but now you know. I'll let you read the book to figure out why. It's my observation that George, who really doesn't show much affection to Lennie, shows his true relationship with the big guy as he speaks to him before pulling the trigger. Sure he's always stuck up for Lennie, kept him out of as much trouble as he could, and told him stories simply so that he was happy, but it was always in a gruff way, like that of, say, a disproving boss. In these final moments, George's tenderness was like that of a father and son, or of a person who puts his dog down so it doesn't suffer. It was his way of protecting Lennie, his Lennie, from the gruesome fate. It was is his tenderness.

Darkness

As I was reading the poems Acquainted with the Night by Robert Frost, and We grow accustomed to the Dark Emily Dickinson, I noted that while both showed darkness to be a sad or lonely place, they seemed to be walking down the same path, one further down the road then the other. This made me ponder, how do we each see darkness? Is it something that we will all learn to see as sad or bad when we finally learn what it holds? Or is it something that some people accept and others don't? I've known people who say that they are meant to live in darkness, but I wonder, is that really true? Do we all need light to live our best? Or are some of us meant to thrive in the darkness?

Hunger Games

I was recently reading the first Hunger Games book. My first impression of the main character, Katniss, was that like all other main characters, I really wasn't fond of her, and then preceded to pay more attention to the side characters. I wasn't the only one who had this opinion, as she is oftentimes described as rude and/or unpleasant by other characters. I suppose it's understandable, as when her father died and her mother went unresponsive, it was her responsibility to take care of her sister, Prim. This brings me to the main point, and also possibly the only  part of Katniss's personality that I like. She is the mother character in the story, a person forced into maturity so she could care for others. Katniss's capability to love is shown by how she takes care of Rue, the little girl in the games who reminds her of her sister. When Rue is killed, Katniss shows her love buy caring for her body before it is taken away. This showing of care begins a revolutionary war across the nation against the Capitol, who's violent reign has lasted for nearly a century. I haven't finished the final book, but I'm sure that the Capitol is defeated. I guess what you could take away from this is that 'Love conquers all'.

The Great Gatsby 1

While reading along with the class, we came across one chapter that kept us in giggles most the time as we read it. A particularly hilarious passage we come across had the whole class laughing for about a minute straight.

Gatsby, his hands still in his pockets, was reclining against the mantelpiece in a strained counterfeit of perfect ease, even of boredom. His head leaned back so far that it rested against the face of a defunct mantelpiece clock, and from this position his distraught eyes stared down at Daisy, who was sitting, frightened but graceful, on the edge of a stiff chair. 



Aside from how I find this mental image immensely amusing, I also like how Scott Fitzgerald described the scene. Gatsby is usually seen as calm and confident, and here he's trying to keep that image up, but when around his obsession/crush, his act falters. Though it's not implied, you can almost see him sweating. Daisy is not described as much, in fact it's the description of the chair that describes her; the "stiff chair" that she sits on the edge of, it gives the imagery of Daisy being tense and just as stiff as the chair, motionless.

Old man and the sea 1

Lets talk about pride and humility. The story Old Man And The Sea is a story about a fisherman's battle with himself as he tries to reel in a fish of legendary size. Early in this story the old man is debating with the boy over how many bait boxes to buy. The boy wins when he convinces the old man to accept two bait boxes instead of his preferred single box. It is quoted that "He was too simple to wonder when he attained humility. But he knew he had attained it and he knew it was not disgraceful and carried no true lost of pride".  This humility is again showed when the old man speaks to the fish as though it were his brother. I believe one of the lesser looked at themes of this story is humility, and it raises my opinion of the book.

Our Town

I think one of the most profound moments in the play Our Town is at the wedding of George and Emily. It's when George says "Ma, I don't want to grow old. Why's everyone pushing me so?" and Emily says "Don't you remember that you used to say-all the time: that I was your little girl! There must be lots of places we can go to. I'll work for you, I could keep house.". It's at these moments that they try to stand against the passage of time, as we all inevitably do at some point in our lives, to stay where we are when time is pushing us forward. We can try to stay put, but it's only self harming and only a mental state. Thankfully George and Emily don't remain stalled for long, and while they are nervous and uncertain, it is nature that they follow this path, it's a path that time dictates.

Huckleberry Finn

And Jim said you musn't count the things you are going to cook for dinner, because that would bring bad luck. The same if you shake the tablecloth after sundown. And he said if a man owned a bee hive, and that man died, the bees must be told before sun-up next morning, or else the sees would all weaken down and quit work and die. 


If you have read Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, you know Huckleberry is a very superstitious man. As I read this, I wonder if Jim is the reason Huck is superstitious in the first place, or if he simply provokes it. In any case, Huck believes almost every word Jim says, and is learning all these bad luck theories from Jim. In some ways, I could be seen that this is part is Jim and Huck's father-son relationship, this passing down of beliefs.