blogging of age novel

  Hey everyone!      Today I will talk about Black Swan Green  by David Mitchell and the middle school dynamics of Jason's school. Throughout the book, Jason describes and becomes aware of numerous parts of middle school culture and hierarchy. For example, even how you refer to certain people has great meaning in how they are perceived and their status in the community. I think the most interesting part about the environment described is how similar it is to the current situation in middle school today.      There are many examples throughout Black Swan Green of the classic middle school experience and struggle for popularity. One of the most prominent ones is the unacknowledged, yet still present hierarchy among all of the students there. They are distinguished by what name (or nickname) you use to refer to them, and how they interact with the rest of the people, particularly those at the top of the pack. There is also a constant power struggle among middle-level people to get hig

 Hey everyone!       Today I will talk about Fun Home  and Alison's interesting relationship with her father, Bruce. Throughout the book, we slowly learn more and more about their relationship, their interactions, their similarities, and their differences. However, the book is not narrated in a chronological way which can make stitching together when the interactions between them more difficult at times. It can also make it more difficult to keep track of when different people know or have done what. The relationship that Alison has with her father is very complicated for a lot of reasons. They are very similar to each other in a lot of ways, yet still almost complete opposites. They are both gay, at least from what we can tell of Bruce, and they both have had many similar experiences in this matter. However, the way that they handled it and viewed it was much different.        Alison, on the other hand, grew up in a much different and more accepting time. She discovered herself qu

Hey everyone!       Today I will talk about  The Bell Jar  and whether or not the main character, Esther, has really come of age at the end of the book. The first question to ask is what exactly it means to come of age. In this case, it is the transition from Esther's college life to the real adult world, and how and where she will fit into society. The main problem that she has with this change is her loss of control over herself and her decisions in life. Her only option appears to be getting married to a man. She despises the idea of losing control over her autonomy, being confined to her own house and children, and always being subject to her husband's wishes. Throughout the book, she struggles to find her identity as an independent woman in her society. I think a good argument can be made for Esther having "come-of-age" in this novel. However, I don't think it is a completely black-and-white issue: arguments could be made for both sides. Overall though, Esthe

Hey everyone!       Today I will talk about The Catcher in the Rye and something I have decided to call "phonyism." Throughout this book, the narrator, Holden Caulfield, describes people, actions, things, and places as phony. To start off, what does it mean to be phony? Well, it refers to someone or something false and/or allowing said person or thing to pretend to be "in," for lack of a better word. This could be as simple as when people say, "Glad to have met you," simply because it is the "right" thing to say because it is socially acceptable. However, maybe you weren't glad to have met that person. Then it would be phony because you only said that because you knew that that was what you were supposed to say to be acceptable. In fact, even Holden finds himself doing these things and is disgusted with himself.      Now that that is out of the way, we can discuss "phonyism." This is a term I just invented while trying to come up wi