Skip to main content

Hero's Journey

All future posts are for Hero's Journey.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How does Odysseus feel about his men? Bonus: a lot of questions about class

We’ve discussed a lot to what extent we think Odysseus is a reliable narrator. The main piece of evidence for his reliability is that he includes details about the way he treated his crew that reflect badly on him. Today in class I suggested that he could include these details to make lies seem more realistic and someone suggested that Odysseus probably just truly feels bad about his men’s deaths. But that started me thinking about the weird dynamic of Odysseus’s relationship with his crew so I looked back in the book to see how he talks about his men and their deaths. I presented on book eleven, so I immediately thought of Elpenor. Elpenor certainly seems important to Odysseus since Odysseus mentions him three times: when he first died, when he’s in the underworld, and when he’s actually buried. Odysseus’s attention to Elpenor both in burying him with all the proper rituals and in describing his death in detail in his story shows that Odysseus has some level of affection for him
11 comments
Read more

The Pantasote Top

In describing Coalhouses’s Model T, Doctorow repeatedly mentions the custom pantasote top. When we first meet Coalhouse the narrator mentions the top: “His car shone. The brightwork gleamed. There was a glass windshield and a custom pantasote top” (155). When his car is vandalized by the firemen “the custom pantasote top was slashed to ribbons” (180). When Conklin repairs the car, the end result is “a shining black Model T Ford with a custom pantasote roof” (295). We talked about how the car is a symbol of wealth and status and so the mention of the custom top (a fancy addition) at the end of so many descriptions of the car reminds us of that. But what actually is a pantasote top? When the car is being repaired “The Pantasote Company delivered a top” so from the book we know that it’s a brand name top (295). I also googled pantasote and it appears to be both the name of a company and the name of the particular material the company used to make car tops.
7 comments
Read more

Flowers in Mrs. Dalloway

Flowers abound in Mrs. Dalloway . Parts of the plot are flower centric. The book begins with Clarissa going to buy flowers. Later on she reflects on the unique way Sally arranges flowers and how Sally kissed her after picking a flower. Richard brings Clarissa flowers when he comes home. Flowers are also just briefly mentioned throughout the book. When Peter follows a woman to her house his thoughts about Clarissa are interrupted by “The house was one of those flat red houses with hanging flowers of vague impropriety. (…) Well, I’ve had my fun; I’ve had it, he thought, looking up at the swinging basket of pale geraniums.” (53). It’s odd that Peter focuses on the flowers at all, given that his thoughts are mostly consumed by Clarissa and the other woman but it’s also interesting that Peter notes the specific type of flower. Later Peter thinks about Sally and flowers: “Who was it who had done that? (…) Somebody who had written him a long, gushing letter quite lately about
7 comments
Read more