Lili's Blog :)

The Song of Solomon definitely caught us off guard at first; there was so much going on to say the least. I think the most perplexing character is Milkman, because up until the more recent chapters he was the only character that didn't really have much of anything going on. He was in the same limbo state that we saw with Clarissa Dalloway, he is middle aged and is kind of settling for life. It's too late for him to really choose a career path, yet he's not necessarily happy with the way things are going for him now. Most of the time his identity is attached to that of his father or from the unfortunate nickname of Milkman. However, we see some sort of shift in him when he begins to travel and learn about his family. Milkman begins to discover his identity when he leaves to travel alone. Towards the start of his journey he still has an identity that is tied to his father, but his outlook on the gold changes. However, it's still significant to note that while he is travel...

  The Stranger takes us through the simple yet confusing life of the main character Meursault. The book begins with the death of his mother in which he reacts quite oddly- barely at all. In fact during the funeral his internal thoughts resemble that of a childs, he’s bored and annoyed at the crying people. He also complains about the heat beating down on him, which is easily overlooked compared to the way he is reacting to the whole situation. However, if we pay close attention, Meursault complaining about the heat comes up at important times. Throughout the whole book, I think we can all agree how frustrated we were with the way Meursault has absolutely no care and doesn’t seem to react or have emotional attachment to anything. He endures the death of his mom, kills a man, goes through a long and confusing trial, and is sentenced to death for it. All of these events are quite significant and are bound to invoke a reaction in the average person. However, Meursault doesn’t seem to...

     The Sun Also Rises takes us on the journey of Brett’s adventures and life- particularly her love life. Perhaps out of all the men Brett has been with, Jake is the most notable, her relationship with him is different than those of the other men. The other’s seem to be mere hookups, other than her fiance which she doesn’t even seem to have that much of an emotional attachment to. From the first scene Brett and Jake are introduced together, we can clearly tell something is up. The taxi cab scene tells us a lot about both Jake and Brett as people but also their relationship to each other. For example, we are able to pick up on the fact that Brett is one of the only people that knows about Jake’s injury because of how they met in the war. Not only this but the scene unveils that Brett and Jake had a past that didn’t work out, and it seems as though it won’t work out in the future. The two of them want to be together but know it won’t work because it didn’t in the past....

Right from the start, we are introduced to the mind of Clarissa Dalloway. From the surface she seems like your typical middle aged white lady, she's settled down, she has a husband and daughter, and she's living comfortably. However, as we move through the book we begin to dive deeper into her mind. We learn she has caught influenza and is suffering the affects after. She's isolated from her husband and is required to rest. Later we are able to see that this is why she was so happy to be put in charge of the party and why it was so exciting for her to go out and get the flowers. Even though she is excited about the party, we constantly see her reminiscing on the past specifically to when she was 18. She begins to think about the past so much that it consumes her present life. She even begins to analyze her relationship with Richard. She seems lost and hung up on the past, her life was more exciting when she was 18, she was free.  So is it that Clarissa is unhappy now, or is...

The Mezzanine is a confusing book in many ways. For starters the plot (if you can even call it that) consists of a guy going up the escalator at work. However, the author adds a twist to it by going into extreme detail and including all of the main characters thoughts and flashbacks along the way. The book may seem over simplified but it in facts holds a deeper meaning for a lot of us. As we read further into the book, we (at least somewhat) stopped seeing the words on the page as an annoying burden but we began to relate to them a little bit. Not only that but they pushed us out of our comfort zones, and I think thats what this book was written to do. We saw a part of ourselves in Howie as we read his racing thoughts on the page. Some were thoughts that we have on a day to day basis without even realizing it.  Part of the reason the book makes us the most uncomfortable is when we get to see Howie's thoughts in the bathroom scenes. Fir starters, we're not used to seeing scenes...

All posts from now on are for 20th Century Novel. 

Libra was an interesting book to say the least, blending the world of history and fiction. De Lillo plays on the fact that there is still so much we don't know about Lee and the Kennedy Assassination. I think one of the most striking things was to watch the footage and news reporting after reading the book. It gives you a whole different perspective because we had some sort of inner thoughts on Lee's part and everyone else involved. In the beginning of his story, Lee is just a kid living under unfortunate circumstances getting into some small trouble. We then see him grow into the fate he endured through the book and in real life.  But one interesting aspect is the parallel from the beginning to the end of the book that we see with Lee's mom. One things for sure, Lee's mother isn't a constant in the book. Her presence and words throughout the court cases and in the book may annoy people at times, but her story is interesting. In the beginning of the book, she is def...