Peter's Blog

Who exactly is the "hero" in  A Lesson Before Dying , Grant or Jefferson? Both cases seem to follow Campbell's 12 steps to a hero's journey in their own ways. If Grant is the hero, the "first threshold" he crosses would be his first meeting with Jefferson. He "refuses the call" at first, until his aunt pretty much forces him to go. His aunt would then be the "mentor", as the person who convinces the hero to cross the first threshold. Grant is "tested" as he tries to communicate with Jefferson. He mostly works alone, with no allies directly helping him in his mission, and no direct enemies either. (Though perhaps Ambrose could be considered an enemy of sorts, with their differing beliefs.) He ultimately succeeds in communicating with Jefferson, but with the execution inevitable from the start, is this really a success? If Jefferson is the hero, most of the novel consists of his "mentor", Grant, convincing him to c...

A while ago, we discussed Vardaman's narration and how it's difficult to understand him thoroughly. Mr. Mitchell mentioned that entire essays were written deciphering his words, so I figured, why not try some of that right now? On page 53, Vardaman starts off by comparing the now-dead Addie to the now-dead fish he brought home. He says that it's now cut up into pieces of "not-fish", with his hands stained with "not-blood". By calling the fish's remains "not-fish", Vardaman seems to be trying to wrap his head around the fact that once a living thing dies, it stops behaving like its former self; once the fish is killed and cut up, it no longer behaves like a living fish, and Vardaman seems to think it's no longer a fish at all. He then says " she is getting so far ahead I cannot catch her." His shift from referring to the fish as "it" to "she" shows that he is confusing the fish with Addie, or simply tryi...

Although  O Brother, Where Art Thou? contains several supernatural events, being based on the Odyssey , Everett stubbornly refuses to believe in such things. He frequently asserts that anything that happens has a rational explanation, often to our comedic relief. This is in contrast to the Odyssey , in which the main hero (and everyone else) believes the gods to be real, despite both stories having similar supernatural events. When Everett and the others first meet the blind handcar driver, they are told that they will find fortune and experience many extraordinary things (including a cow on a roof, heh). Everett, of course, seeks a rational explanation, insisting that the blind man buried the treasure himself. Similarly, when the three men are incapacitated by the "sirens", Everett doesn't think the toad is Pete, even though he has no alternative explanation as to where Pete is. The most notable example of Everett's secularism, however, is in the final few scenes...

In The Odyssey , the gods are interestingly unpredictable. In class, we discussed how, though the Phaeacians worshipped Poseidon for years, Poseidon still decided to screw over one of their boats along with their scenery as punishment for helping Odysseus. I've always thought of the Greek gods as completely rational overseers of the mortals with strong moral compasses, but these incidents make the gods seem more... human. The above example of Poseidon's actions is a perfect example of this. He holds a grudge against Odysseus for blinding Polyphemus, and ends up taking his anger out on his followers when his plans to prolong Odysseus's journey are thwarted. This is a very "human" phenomenon: when we get angry and frustrated, the source of our problems often isn't the target of our anger. Other gods besides Poseidon seem to exhibit similarly "human" characteristics. Athena helps Odysseus while Poseidon seeks to harm him, showing that the gods can pic...

Back in my freshman year at Uni, during a free reading day in English class, I had forgotten to bring my own book. And so, I randomly picked Ender's Game from the bookshelf, and began to read. And hey, it was pretty good. (Spoilers below, in case you're also reading the book.) The novel tells the story of Ender Wiggin, in a world where humanity is recovering from two attacks by an alien race of "Formics". Earth's International Fleet (IF) is desperately seeking new leaders to attack and suppress the Formics before they launch a third invasion. Ender's two elder siblings have shown promise in the eyes of the IF, but have been rejected for their personality flaws: one is too ruthless and the other too compassionate to make a good leader. The IF allow Ender's parents an exception to the two-child policy, and Ender is born. Ender is accepted into a "Battle School" for similar children, where they compete in teams against each other in zero-gra...

Sorry to Bother You  is an interesting film, to say the least. For the majority of the film, everything seems believable and realistic, and suddenly they're turning people into half-horses. So why was this part of the film? The most obvious reason for this sudden change is the shock value. Before the scene where Cash tries to find the bathroom, WorryFree was the most shocking thing the corporations had created. Many of us have heard of tech giants using factory labor for their products, so a lifetime labor contract doesn't seem too far off. By showing how suddenly WorryFree shifts from exploiting humans for labor to modifying the humans themselves, the film gets us to worry about the real world. Tech giants have been using factory labor for years, how long until they do something similar? (Though it wouldn't be as drastic as in the film, with the recent advancements in gene editing, how long until a factory uses this to make their laborers stronger?) The film sends a me...

In Paul Beatty's The White Boy Shuffle , Gunnar Kaufman begins his story by telling of his early life as a black boy in a white community. Among his white friends, he's known as the "cool black guy" with a sense of humor. Gunnar himself doesn't mind this, and even embraces it, saying "white kids will believe anything anybody a shade darker than chocolate milk says" and using their gullibility to his advantage. At the same time, he is aware that he's not "as black" as pure black communities, refusing to attend an all-black summer camp because they are "different." When his family moves to Los Angeles, a mostly black community, he is quickly targeted by the local gang due to his lack of street knowledge. Overall, Gunnar is "blacker" than the average white, but "whiter" than the average black. Many of us have also probably gone through a similar experience. In our respective middle schools, we were among the ...