Quote 1:
“Clyde become so lonely watching his old street that when, with a sucking exclamation, the door from the vestibule opened, he looked up gratefully, certain that the person, this being his home town, would be a friend.”
Here Clyde is lonely in his home town. He is watching the streets were he grew up. He is so excited to here the door open because he is so lonely, he is hardly living a good life because he is so lonely yet you get the sense that he thinks he is better than most around him. He like others in the time is putting on a front and is acting in society and his hiding what is really going on.
Quote 2:
“He would wear eyebrow-style glasses, be a griper, have some not quite negotiable talent, like playing the clarinet or drawing political cartoons, and now be starting up a drab avenue of business… poor Janet, Clyde felt…”
I find this ironic because here Clyde is talking about his ex’s new husband. He is kind of talking down on him and making him see much better than him. He feel sorry for his ex for being with him. The ironic thing is Clyde may be looking down on him, but he is the one with Janet and is not lonely like Clyde. This proves that Clyde has this sense that he is much better, when really he is the lonesome one.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
The Swimmer- John Cheever
Quote 1:
“The bartender served him but he served him rudely. His was a world in witch the caterers men kept the social score, and to be rebuffed by a part time bar keep meant that he had suffered some loss of social esteem. Or perhaps the man was new and uninformed.”
John Cheever here is telling the reader how Neddy lives in the world of glamour and high-class society, where the bartenders are of lower status and everyone looks up to people like Neddy and his friends. This is also the point when Neddy finally realizes that something must have happened because people who usually look up to him are now rude to him and he doesn’t quite understand it. But Neddy isn’t quite ready to face that something must have happened and he denies it by placing the blame on the bartender.
Quote 2:
“It was not a serviceable stroke for long distances but the domestication of swimming had saddled the sport with some customs and in his part of the world a crawl was customary.”
Here he was talking about how a swimming stroke is not convenient but it was everyone in America does so everyone is custom to doing it. He is implying how most American people all conform to what society does and that everyone does the same thing. What they do may not be best way of doing it but since everyone else does it you automatically becomes accustom to doing it.
“The bartender served him but he served him rudely. His was a world in witch the caterers men kept the social score, and to be rebuffed by a part time bar keep meant that he had suffered some loss of social esteem. Or perhaps the man was new and uninformed.”
John Cheever here is telling the reader how Neddy lives in the world of glamour and high-class society, where the bartenders are of lower status and everyone looks up to people like Neddy and his friends. This is also the point when Neddy finally realizes that something must have happened because people who usually look up to him are now rude to him and he doesn’t quite understand it. But Neddy isn’t quite ready to face that something must have happened and he denies it by placing the blame on the bartender.
Quote 2:
“It was not a serviceable stroke for long distances but the domestication of swimming had saddled the sport with some customs and in his part of the world a crawl was customary.”
Here he was talking about how a swimming stroke is not convenient but it was everyone in America does so everyone is custom to doing it. He is implying how most American people all conform to what society does and that everyone does the same thing. What they do may not be best way of doing it but since everyone else does it you automatically becomes accustom to doing it.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
The Death of Justina
Quote 1
“It seemed to me that men had honored one another with medals, statuary and cups for much less and that abstinence is a social matter. When I abstain from sin it is more often a fear of scandal than a private resolve to improve on the purity of my heart…” (542)
In this quote he is talking about how the actions he does, quitting drinking and smoking, is not for his own good and health but rather for his appearance. That in today society being abstinence is a social matter and so therefore he does it. He doesn’t care about the health of quitting but rather to stay out of scandal and to appear “good” in the eyes of others.
Quote 2
“I must pretend, I must, like an actor, study and improve on my pretension, to have nothing to do with his triumphs and I must bow my head gracefully in shame when we have both failed.”
Here, at work, he pretend when his boss tells him to pretend. He similar to the first quote does what looks good and not for his own satisfaction. He does what society is telling him to do and must act to do it.
“It seemed to me that men had honored one another with medals, statuary and cups for much less and that abstinence is a social matter. When I abstain from sin it is more often a fear of scandal than a private resolve to improve on the purity of my heart…” (542)
In this quote he is talking about how the actions he does, quitting drinking and smoking, is not for his own good and health but rather for his appearance. That in today society being abstinence is a social matter and so therefore he does it. He doesn’t care about the health of quitting but rather to stay out of scandal and to appear “good” in the eyes of others.
Quote 2
“I must pretend, I must, like an actor, study and improve on my pretension, to have nothing to do with his triumphs and I must bow my head gracefully in shame when we have both failed.”
Here, at work, he pretend when his boss tells him to pretend. He similar to the first quote does what looks good and not for his own satisfaction. He does what society is telling him to do and must act to do it.
Monday, March 26, 2007
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