A Tale Of Two Cities

The Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is a descriptive novel which makes wine it's symbol for poverty. Wine spills onto the dirty streets of Paris and the peasants scramble to sip the muddy luxury. There is a repetition of the word "Hunger" to emphasize the poverty in society also. The peasants in Paris are hungry for food, clothing, warmth, a better lifestyle, and most importantly, a triumph over misery. Charles Dickens provides imagery when he describes the hunger of the peasants. Dead dogs are offered as meals, the people are wearing rags, and living undesirable lives. 

The wine also serves as a foreshadowing device toward the French Revolution. The wine stained everything it splashed upon. The streets were dyed red and the word "BLOOD" was painted onto the wall, which symbolized that the streets will once again be dyed red, but with blood. Violent weapons like gallow-ropes, knives, axes, and guns, along with the word "murderous" are introduced. All these components of poverty and violence symbolize the events to come that the peasants are building up to. It all foreshadows the French Revolution. 

"It was a heavy mass of a building, that chateau of Monsieur the Marquis,with a large stone court-yard before it, and two stone sweeps of staircase meeting in a stone terrace before the principal door. A stony business altogether, with heavy stone balustrades, and stone urns, and stone flowers, and stone faces of men and stone heads of lions, in all directions. As if the Gorgon's head had surveyed it, wen it was furnished, two centuries ago" (90). 

This passage describes in descriptive imagery of the abode of Marquis. The repetition of the word "stone" is unavoidable. Everything, when describing the possessions of the man, is described as stone. There is even an allusion of the mythical Gorgon, or Medusa, who with a stare turns everything her eye touches into stone. The word is not only describing Marquis's home, but also Marquis himself as a cold, heartless, man made of stone. An example made to prove this was when he ran over a child, killing the child, and threw coins at the grieving father to make the pain and inconvenience go away. Marquis symbolizes the the evil side of the French aristocracy.

Though I did not enjoy reading this novel, it did provide excellent imagery. The repetition that occurred was also magnificent. The point was well proven. The subject of poverty greeted the reader within the first few chapters. I believe I would have enjoyed this novel more, for selfish reasons, like if it were shorter. Description has never been my forte, I've never liked it. Too much description intervenes with my interest with the novel. 

The Importance of Being Ernest

Oscar Wilde's play, "The Importance of Being Ernest" was a farce that criticized the importance of trivial things and etiquette. In the beginning of the play, the protagonist, Jack, was introduced. Jack lived in the country for half of his life and the city for the other part. Jack gave himself the name of Ernest when he visited the city in order to maintain two separate lives. It was evident that Jack was in love with the beautiful city girl, Gwendolin. Gwendolin, having had the same feelings for Jack in return, was most attracted to his "name" of Ernest. She even denied to love a man with a name of Jack because it was too common, while Ernest had a vibration to it. 

The scene was repeated when the character, Algernon, was introduced. Algernon went to the country and disguised himself with the name of Ernest to cause and altercation between Jack and Gwendolin. When Algernon arrived, he was greeted by the young beautiful county girl,  Cecily. Algernon and Cecily immediately fell in love. The naive Cecily, who only knew Algernon's false name of Ernest, admitted that she dreamed of marrying a man with the name of Ernest and that no other name would have been suitable. 

The trivial importance of a name to determine love is a symbol in the play. Each woman was in love with the men while their names were known to be Ernest, and fell out of love immediately when it was discovered that their names were different. Both men realized that in order to obtain the love of the women, their names must be Ernest. The issue of a name to be eligible for the marriage of the women is a very trivial matter. Love is of lesser importance in comparison to a name.

"In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity is the vital thing." In this quote, Gwendolin states that appearance and etiquette matters so much more than the truth of the whole matter. This plays a huge part in the play's trivial importance. It ridicules the importance of etiquette and appearance in society. Appearance is most significant in this play rather than the importance of an issue. 

I loved this play. I thought it was absolutely comical. The events that the characters were fighting over were astonishing to me. Everything was so trivial and the important things that were going on were casted aside for a muffin fight. I laughed while reading this and that does not often happen. The only criticism I have toward this farce is that the trivial matters were taken so seriously that it was hardly believable. The constant bickering over nothing, and the nonsense spoken by Lady Bracknell was just inconceivable. 

Cat's Cradle

The novel, Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, has two main focuses; science and religion. The beginning of the novel takes place in a town called Ilium, which is the hometown of the famous scientist, Dr. Hoenikker. Dr. Hoenikker is best known for his contribution to the atom bomb and his creation of ice-nine. Both discoveries, however admired, provide lethal and dyer consequences to society.
Furthermore, the setting later takes place on the island of San Lorenzo. San Lorenzo has a thick religious atmosphere. The natives are said to be very pious Christians, yet the lie is uncovered and it is found that they are all Bokonists. Each native lies about their religion and rub feet together while backs are turned to express their religion. Yet, religion like science, can be lethal to society as well.

"The mountebank told them that God was surely trying to kill them, possible because He was through with them, and that they should have the good manners to die. This, as you can see, they did" (182).
Religion is dangerously powerful, to the extent the natives will follow any guidance. Bokono, the father of the Bokonist religion and the God like figure in society, had a whole island of followers. The religion was based upon lies. When the ice-nine devastated the Earth, the islanders looked to Bokono for guidance. Bokono lied and spoke for God when he stated that "He was through with them" and was trying to kill them. Bokono told the natives to kill themselves. Since the natives were so faithful to their religion, they committed suicide by glazing their lips with ice-nine with out resistance. Religion is is tremendously powerful, enough to eliminate followers in order to be faithful.

I enjoyed reading this novel. It definitely kept my interest, and was perfect in it's amount of detail. The explanation of everything was very well explained and easy to follow. I liked how Kurt Vonnegut combined science with religion and by mixing them together, they destroyed society. I also enjoyed how he created something so simple to eliminate the entire world. Ice-nine is so powerful for it's size. Ultimately, the elimination of the human race through science and religion just won me over for that book. It was so creative and just brilliant how it all came together and caused the most lethal of all destruction. 

The Handmaid's Tale

The satirical novel, "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood, focused on the two extremes of religion and feminism. The society attempted to do both right by God and right by women. The pious characters in this dystopian society were taught that women were not to be viewed or treated as objects. Items like pornography, prostitutes, and vanity that were degrading to God and women were eliminated. Sex was denounced as sin and to be performed only for reproduction and never for pleasure. Mirrors, cosmetics, and provocative clothing were taken away so that all women were equal in appearance. This novel took both religion and feminism to such extremes that the society was miserable and barely functional. Female characters were contemplating suicide and male characters altered the rules for their satisfaction.

"What he is fucking is the lower part of my body. I do not say making love, because this is not what he's doing" (p 94). This quote describes how unpleasurable sex has become and how women are still being treated as objects. In the chapter where the quote is taken from, the two characters are involved in the Ceremony, in which the Commander must fertilize the Handmaid. Neither one of them want to perform this task, in fact both of them want it to be over as soon as possible. It is viewed as a job both of them must partake in for reproduction. Sex is no longer desirable but is now an unwanted duty.
In the quote, Offred says "the lower part of my body." She is detaching that part of her body from herself. By doing so, implies that her lower half is an object used for fertilization. Despite feministic attempts to obliterate the view of women as objects, women are still objects.

I did not enjoy reading "The Handmaid's Tale." This novel described every event in so much detail, that it was difficult to get through the chapters. The subject of the novel too, was controversial. Being a woman, I resented the treatment and little choice that women had. I also objected to how the men in the society had all the control and had the ability to twist the rules and create a "club" for their satisfaction. This novel was just awful, but I do applaud Margaret Atwood for her imagination to dream this dystopian society up. To push two major opinions like religion and feminism to such extremes and let it erupt onto the pages of her novel was just brilliant.

Anthem

The theme in the novel, "Anthem" by Ayn Rand, is individualism. Throughout the novel, the people were taught the same things and were not allowed to think outside of the box because it was prohibited for a brother to be superior to another. Choices were also made for the people as to what their jobs would be for the rest of their life by the age of 15, and by the age of 40 people were sent away into a center for people of the generation. People were not able to think or do for themselves. But unlike the rest, the protagonist breaks away from society. He makes discoveries, like the use of the light bulb. He does like no other, and dares to fall in love. The protagonist became an individual by not conforming to the society's rules. 

"We have come to see how great is the unexplored, and many lifetimes will not bring us to the end of our quest" (36).
In this quote, the protagonist realized that superior knowledge is great. Despite the prohibition against superior knowledge to another brother, he was striving to become an eminent thinker and to never cease gaining knowledge or let anyone stop him.

I loved this novel. It was written very well and it definitely kept my interest. It made me realize how sacred the word "I" really is. I loved all the characters and I supported the protagonist's determination to be different 100%. This book really made me think and at no part was it in the slightest bit not entertaining. This book was a perfect example of a dystopian society over run by rules, and how one person with the will to be different can break away from the pack and become and individual.  

Fahrenheit 451

The novel, "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury, focused on censorship. Throughout the novel, the characters were shielded from books to prevent them from being anything more than what society brought them up to be. The protagonist, Guy Montag, was a fireman who instead of putting out fires, set them to a blaze. As a fireman, his duty was to find books and burn them. Guy Montag was content with his job, until a woman was burnt alive with her books. His mind began to wonder what was written in these books that was worth dying for. He no longer wished to vanquish the evils which lie on the pages within the books, but to learn from them. By doing this, he puts his life in danger because society censors the mind and does not encourage knowledge learned from books.

"Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so full of damned 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information" (61).
This quote emphasizes the theme of censorship, which is very significant to the novel. In this quote, Beaty explained to Montag about how controlled the minds of society really were. They only have knowledge of what they have been taught, and what they had learned is harmless information. Beaty uses the word "noncombustible" to describe the information each person received. They cannot ignite any issues because they do not have the superior knowledge to make them want to do otherwise. All in all, the people are made the feel smart when in reality it is not the case.

I did not enjoy reading this book. It seemed too far fetched and it bored me. It did not seem believable that a whole society could turn on books when they are so relied upon today. I found it hard to follow also. I had to re-read passages to understand where the author was going with it. The ending also ended too swiftly and I was at a loss. Science fiction is not my choice in novels as well, so that could also be the case as to why I did not enjoy this book.