African American Literature

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...

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. ...

How well do people really know Clarissa?

As we discussed Clarissa’s difficulty with finding loving relationships in class, I wondered how well the important people in her life actually know Clarissa. Peter, although he is a very important part of Clarissa’s life, doesn’t seem to really know her well. Shortly after he first sees her, Peter thinks “Here she is mending her dress; mending her dress as usual (…) here she’s been sitting all the time I’ve been in India” (40). But he is wrong, because normally a maid would mend the dress for Clarissa. More importantly, Peter thinks that Clarissa is completely occupied by domestic tasks. Clarissa has perhaps been physically occupied by domestic tasks but mentally, her life is more complicated than Peter gives her credit for. Richard doesn’t seem to know Clarissa very deeply either. As he returns from lunch with Lady Bruton he thinks: “It was a great age in which to have lived. Indeed, his own life was a miracle, let him make no mistake about it; here he was, in the prime of l...

Annemily's Blog

Search This Blog