Initatial Thoughts on Hard Times

Thus far, what I have noticed most about the book Hard Times by Dickens are the themes he brings in right away. For me, I noticed most the themes of Education, Machine, and Imagination. So far the characters have been revolved around the idea of what education should be like. Thomas Gradgrind sees education as fact. He does not believe in any other way of education than fact. Everything Gradgrind explains is mathematical or scientific—to the point. He has no business with creativity or imagination. Even when it came to his family he says, “I have systematically devoted myself (as you know) to the education of the reason of my family.” (Dickens, 22). His parenting style and how he picked is wife is extremely factual. He did not base his wife on love or his feels… he based it off factual evidence and was scientific in how he chose a wife. The theme machine is also very prevelant. In a quote he says, “Indeed, Thomas did not look at him, but gave himself up to be taken like a machine” (Dickens, 17). I’m interested to see how this plays out in the rest of the book. Maybe, Gradgrind is the machine and he will get worn down? Or maybe he wants to see everything as a machine like he sees everything as fact. We shall see. With the theme Imagination I believe this will be a strong theme because of the lack of inspiration so far. Gradgrind tell his children that that sort of thinking is discouraged and he has trained his family to be anything but creative. I see Louisa, from her character so far, as getting out of that and people the member of the family to branch out of this shell. Although these are just my estimations for the book later on.

 The writing technique that Dickens has used so far is different than the way he presents his characters. Gradgrind is (as I have said previously) extremely factual, but the way Dickens writes is very creative. His punctuation and the freelance of his sentence structure is anything but factual. It reads easily and amplifies the characters in what they are saying. With the quote I had used previously, “I have systematically devoted myself (as you know) to the education of the reason of my family.” (Dickens, 22) Dickens used parenthesis to add a side comment to what Gradgrind was saying. By using the parenthesis instead of a dash or not having the side comment at all showed Gradgrind’s need for fact and professionalism because parenthesis show that. While the fact that Gradgrind was saying something with a side comment shows his arrogance and shows his characterization.

I have always loved reading Charles Dickens. My freshman year of High School we read A Tale of Two Cities and I was in awe. It may have been because I felt old because I was reading Charles Dickens or because I am a literature nerd and love imagery... either way I am excited to read another Charles Dickens book. I have also always loved A Christmas Carol. Dickens use of narrative and character development is astounding to me and I am excited to see what he does with Thomas Gradgrind and his character development.

Poe's Punctuation

Even though I have read Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”, every time I read it I still have the same reaction. My tempo as I read changes. At the beginning I read at a normal pace because nothing has happened that is too suspicious. As the book progresses though I always seem to read a bit faster because the narrator decides to kill the old man. As a reader I am intrigued and want to know what happens next. When the narrator has killed the old man my reading starts to slow down because I see the climax as being over. The main action that the story has been leading up to has ended. But then my reading pace picks up again as the narrator goes crazy. I love how Poe’s writing can have such an effect on how I read his books. It’s completely different than if I read a love story or any other story because of his writing techniques.

After analyzing his writing I think it has to do with his punctuation marks. If you look at a page dashes are seen throughout. The dashes enunciate a point that a writer is trying to make and draws the reader’s eye to that point. A writer may use a dash frequently, but by frequently I mean once or twice within a paper. In comparison to Poe who is using the dash at least once a paragraph. “You should have seen how wisely I proceeded—with what caution—with what foresight—with what dissimulation I went to work!” (Poe 13). Reading this sentence fast is easy because with the dashes you add emphasis to each of this things he does well. For me when I read it I read it as a mad man would be saying the words, pausing after each point drawing you in and saying it louder and louder to make a point of how smart he is.

Exclamation points are another punctuation mark that is used more frequently than most writers. I know for myself I use exclamation points only when I am texting friends or sending out emails to family members. With the exclamation point I am using it to show excitement, but I make sure when I am texting and emailing with exclamation points that I don’t overdo it. I am never that excited about my topic. Poe on the other hand I believe is using his exclamation points to show the madness of the narrator. Especially by the end of the story the exclamations are in every sentence. “Oh God! what could I do? I foamed—I raved—I swore! I swung the chair …but the noise arose over all and continually increased. It grew louder—louder—louder!” (Poe 17). In these lines Poe is using both the dash as well as the exclamation points to show the progression of the narrator’s madness. Which overall speeds up the pace the readers read the story at because that is how the narrator is speaking the lines as well, he is saying each thing faster and faster, thus showing his madness.

- Rachel

An Unreliable Narrator

Before reading Frankenstein, I had my own idea of what I thought it would be. I was used to the movie version that I had only seen once when I was a kid. I thought it would be short and more comedic—there would Frankenstein’s sidekick Igor and at one point he would yell the line “It’s alive!” Thankfully what I expected was incorrect. Instead, I found Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to be a dark mystery that I kept wanting to read. I wanted to see what would happen next.

When reading Frankenstein, I found the character of Victor Frankenstein to be an unreliable narrator. Although at first he seems to be reliable in that he was raised in a well-to-do family, he was smart, going into college and would soon be well-educated. This idea of him being sane though soon seemed to drift when he goes to school. He starts to work with dead bodies and he explains his learning of death. He says, “I must also observe the natural decay and corruption of the human bod…Darkness has no effect upon my fancy; and a church-yard was to me merely the receptacle of bodies deprived of life…” (33-34.) His study starts this fascination with death and by being surrounded by dead bodies and his new revelation on creating life from dead bodies he seems to start going crazy. He becomes an unreliable narrator. He even says at one point, “Remember, I am not recording the vision of a madman” (34.) His explaining to the audience that he is not a madman for me made me question his sanity. When Frankenstein’s brother died and he believed without a doubt that it was his monster, I questioned him. I believed him to be an unreliable narrator. He was tired all the time, he was always down working. His friend comes and visits him and is worried about his health. So when Frankenstein believed that his brother was murdered by the monster—I didn’t believe it. I didn’t believe it because I saw him as an unreliable narrator.

For me, Frankenstein reminded me of the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, in where the characters are in an insane asylum. They are not reliable narrators, but some of the things they are saying make sense and you can see their point of view on situations…but at the same time you have to remind yourself that they are mentally insane. It’s a constant battle with trying to decide whether or not you believe the situations that are going on, you take it very lightly. That is how I felt about Frankenstein’s point of view during the story. I never knew for sure whether or not something was completely true or not.

After talking in class the other day, the theme of education stood out to me. Education was a huge aspect of the book—I believe it also was the turning point in Frankenstein and his sanity. This adds irony to the plot of the book because where Frankenstein goes insane…is when he starts his education. Normally you would think education brings someone to their senses and makes them smarter…this is not the case for Frankenstein. I’m excited to hear more about Frankenstein in class today.

-Rachel

Blog Manifesto

Hi all!
It's Rachel, Savannah, and Dany!
For our blog we plan on digging deeper into the theme of double identity. We have seen in poems thus far that when we read a poem, what we read isn't necessarily all there is. There are motifs, symbols, allusions, and other literary elements that can be seen in text only when observed more thoroughly. We want this blog to be a general blog, but we also want to tie in topics from the 19th-century British and American Anglophone literature. From previous classes and works of literature that we read, we have found that because hidden identities within the texts from the 19th Century era are still prevalent and relate to us today as well.
At the end of the semester, we hope that we learn more about the themes of race, social justice, ecology, and gender, which are explained, but we want to focus most on hidden identity. For our blog we hope to focus on hidden identity and how this can go along with other themes and how they may go together. We don't have a distinct audience that we are hoping to reach out to, but instead have it for people that enjoy literature and diving into books and what they have to share--instead of just the surface of the text. We want to reach out to an audience that wants to learn about themes and other peoples views on literature. Specifically the theme of hidden identity because we believe it is seen in many pieces of literature.
In Shakespeare hidden identity was a major theme in a good portion of his plays--Macbeth.  Macbeth at the beginning of the play learns from witches that he will soon become King. This idea of becoming messes with his head and he decides that he must kill the king. When he is explaining how he is going to kill the king though he is speaking in present tense as if he had already killed the king. He soon starts to lose his identity, his sense of self, and time. Hidden identity wasn't the only theme in Macbeth, the theme of time was also prevalent. With our blog, we want to explore hidden identity as well as see what other themes go along with hidden identity.
Each week, we plan on working as a group to complete the posts. We want to have all of our ideas be cohesive. Instead of having only one persons point of view on a topic, we want this blog to be about the groups collaboration and the diverse views each of us have.