Bildungsroman

Pi has already had a coming of age before this novel begins, but he does still have realizations and puts the reader a journey that develops them. If the character doesn’t change, but causes the read to instead, is that a bildungsroman?
Pi is such a unique person. He has such different beliefs than everyone else, and so this allows him to survive on lifeboat. During this time, Pi realizes that only through the co-existence will Richard Parker and him live. I think this is a bildungsroman, because there is growth in Pi; however, it isn’t as obvious as other novels we have read in class. The end of the story sums up the book. When Pi is telling his story to the Japanese officials, he asks them which story they prefer and they say the one with the animals. This shows the progression of the novel. First it is about the practice of religions, and that develops into faith and a realization that what make sense, may not be a better story.

Agnosticism vs. Atheism

For Pi, atheists are not as bad as agnostics because there is still hope for salvation at the time of death. In Christianity, this is something inherent in it’s doctrine. Even at the time of death if you call on God, He will fight for your soul. Like Laura, I didn’t truly understand what agnosticism was, so I looked it up. There are different types of agnosticism, and one of these is ‘agnostic theists’. This looks at human’s inability to completely know God, but still believe in His existence. The argument states He is our creator and we, his creation; it is impossible for us to truly comprehend Him. Where true agnostics say that there is no proof of God because he cannot be tested or experienced, agnostic theists counter that God is above us and not something to dominate in a laboratory.

Life of Pi

Pi is an interesting character. He is refreshing and walks his own path, especially when it comes to religion. Society and religion tell us that we must choose our beliefs, but Pi goes against this by adopting Buddhism, Islam and Christianity: three major religions of the world, all representing a different area and view of life. Regardless of these facts, he follows them all. In the first lines of the novel, Pi tells us that it is the practice of religion that brought him back to life. Note he says the ‘practice of religion’, not faith or God, but practices. This statement makes it more apparent for why he would follow multiple religions, because it isn’t necessarily the faith and beliefs behind religion, but the mere acts within the different religions.

Randal O'Brian

People learn so much from books, but there is something more sincere and real when you talk face-to-face with someone who has experienced it. I can’t say that even I can comprehend what happened, but I have a better understanding because of the words from Randal O’Brian. It amazing how loving a person can be towards the military and the government after going through this kind of war. It is a true testament to him of what good he made for his life out of something so terrible. I appreciate his willingness to discuss these times in his life, and his complete honesty. The humility that goes with that; I can’t be easy getting up in front of a class and just answer any questions they have about one of the most stressful and dreadful time in his life.

Going After Cacciato

This book reminds me a little of “The Things They Carried”, also a book based on Vietnam. Cacciato is portrayed as a dim-witted individual, but he has a plan and is following through with it. This is something that gives all the other men hope, something lacking in all soldier stationed in Vietnam. As they chase him, they secretly cheer for him, especially Paul Berlin, the soldier who initially reported him AWOL. As much as they criticize him, they see he has courage.
In the military you are taught to follow the mission and orders given by those appointed over you. By leaving his group, Cacciato breaks the very idea of being part of a whole; he has become an individual. This is dangerous, because not only is he going off on his own, but also he is leaving his buddies vulnerable.

Bildunsroman

This is not a bildungsroman. There isn’t any vertical growth by the characters. If anything, Francis maybe spread himself out (horizontally), but he doesn’t gain anything from this. This book is a real tragedy. O’Connor had to be making a point with this. She often wrote about backwards, and fundamental protestants and by the end of the novel brought them closer to the Catholic mind. Yet, in this novel she instead gave examples of what not to become.
Poor Francis was doomed from the start; he must take some responsibility for killing Bishop, but at the same time so do Old Tarwater and Rayber. They were both so concerned with their extremist views that they didn’t bother to teach Francis the values that should be provided by a family. Regardless of how you see Tarwater, he has failed as a prophet and a guardian. In the book that he preaches it states that it is better to have killed yourself than to cause a child to sin, and he has done just that. Tarwater is all talk, as seen in his hypocritical actions. If Francis had the Christian values he needed then regardless of what Rayber said to him, he wouldn’t have killed Bishop.

The Violent Bear It Away

This isn’t like any of the other books I have read before. It is an intriguing book, but all the characters are one-dimensional. The book opens with the death of the self-proclaimed prophet Old Tarwater. It seems that Francis believes in his great uncle’s message, but he fails to bury the body. This is something that his great uncle was very concerned with because he believed that if he weren’t buried then he wouldn’t be able to go to heaven. I think this book is filled with characters that are hard to believe. It is so hard for me to understand this 14-year-old boy who burns down his house and runs away by his self. This scene gives the impression that Francis maybe going off to find himself and the outside world his has been isolated from. There maybe hope for him yet.

Bildungsroman

There is no question that this short story is a bildungsroman. From discovering more about Old Ben to completely surrendering himself to the wilderness, Isaac McCaslin continuously grows throughout this novel. This is even prevalent when he gives up most of his fortune and gives it to part of the ‘family’ that truly deserves it. In this novel, the wilderness creates the environment for Ike to separate himself from his family history and find himself in complete solitude. Through this discovery of the wilderness, Ike also believes that land is not something that can be owned by men. But at the end of the novel, lumber rights to the land have been sold, and Ike takes the train into the forest for one last hunting trip. This illustrates the conclusion to a chapter in his life. This is the last time he will be here, and already everything has changed. It is no longer wilderness.

Wilderness

The discussion we had in class about wilderness really got me thinking about it. I never thought about the concept of civilization creating wilderness. It is the stark contrast that scares people. One question I had come up with for discussion asked ‘if the wilderness (the forest) was destroyed would a person be able to have the same experience?’
When I tie in the concept of wilderness in relation to civilization, I realize that it is a man-made idea. The only reason humans are mystified about it, is that there are so many unknowns and man does not control it. With the destruction of wilderness, man creates this false sense of invincibility. There is no way that man can play ‘Mother Nature’ even in civilized society, because there are always ‘acts of God’ or unforeseen problems.

The Bear

From the very first sentence, the reader is taken into nature, more specifically the forest. This book is so well written that even if the reader hasn’t been hunting before, he is easily able to imagine himself right next to the boy. The reader finds this humble and scared boy, who has been hunting this bear for the past six years. He actually has no intention of slaying it, but it is the adrenaline of the chase and the mystery of the wilderness that draws the boy in. During his first hunting experience, when he was 13 years old, Ike discovers an emotion that most boys his age cannot comprehend- fear. As Sam told him, you can have fear, but don’t be afraid. It is the men who are afraid that other men and bears must worry about.

Bildungsroman?

This is a bildungsroman. Janie Crawford struggles through her life, but she doesn’t ever give up on hope. She cuts her own path through the uncertain forest ahead. There are so many different struggles that she went through, but she never lost hope.
When the novel starts out, she listens to her Nanny and marries this man that she has picked out for her, but she realizes that marriage isn’t love and leaves him for Jody. She now realizes that it is her life and she is responsible for her own happiness. She is on a journey to find out who she is and this book brings us along on the ride.

The Title

We all have our five senses. The sense of sight is how many of us see the world. I would say that very few people can rely solely on one sense, but the sense of sight dominates the five. Just as that is true, Hurston uses sight to emphasize the passion and feeling in situations. For example, when her Nanny and Janie get in an argument and Nanny slaps her. It is their eyes that meet, after the struggle and through the eyes that you can see someone’s soul.
This title makes God seem tangible, but after thinking about it. God is everywhere, and it isn’t necessarily that we seem him, but that we see him working through others. This is what the novel struggles with. There is so much pain that happens within the novel, but with the pain comes love.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Zora Hurston illustrates many situations and feelings in her book through nature. Nature connects with each character. Janie often goes to the pear tree to think; her husband works the field. There is this familiarity with nature that is comforting for Janie. Because she is mulatto, she doesn’t fit in with either whites or blacks. This is just a further push for her to find comfort in nature. It is during this time that she is allowed to dream and think about what could be.
An apparent theme in this book is hopelessness. The characters give up on their dreams, or just don’t dream at all, because they’ve forgotten how.

Lucy Gets Married

By the end of the novel, Lucy chooses to be with her true-love, George. This is significant because she chooses her own path in life.
If she would have married Cecil then she would have everything she materially needed, but would she be truely happy? With Cecil, she would have only been a trophy wife. Because she picked George, she has forged her own path and made her own desicions about life. She represents the new generation of English and the hope for a classless society, or at least one that isn't obessed with class.

A Room with a View: First Thoughts

The introduction to my book discussed the fact that E. M. Forester believed that characters were interchangeable between books regardless of the century or continent. During a lecture at Cambridge, he states, “we may say that History develops, [but] Art stands still.” The author of the introduction, Mona Simpson, doesn’t completely agree with Forester, but she does admit that his characters could live in other’s books.

I enjoy Forester’s critique of English society. Lucy Honeychurch is a well-to-do in society, and this book discusses her turmoil about what is acceptable among peers and what she wants. I would classify this as a semi-feminist book, because she follows her free-will and doesn’t let society tell her what will make her happy.

Speaking of society, in the SLC there is a presentation about a healthy portrayal of self-image and not relying on what society tells us. It is called A Room with a View, and the book deals with the same facts that we go through today. Maybe not in the sense that we have as segregated of a class system, but media tells us that we must be skin and bones to be pretty. It is the same concept, but for a new generation.

Huck Finn: A Bildungsroman?

This controversial book portrays the immense, but maybe easily over-looked growth of a boy. Because the world Huck grew up in, there would be no surprise if he were pulled back into the family-cycle he was born into. Yet, through his adventures with Jim, he realizes there is more to him than he has given himself credit for. He no longer sees himself is second best to his friend Tom Sawyer, and he also recognizes that his friend, Jim, is a human just like any white man he knows. Of course, it would be possible to read over these two key factors in the growth of this boy, but to do so is to deny him of his self-discovery.

Huck and Jim

Jim and Huck form an unusual friendship for the time period and area they are in. I think this is mainly possible because of Huck’s deviation from being ‘sivilized’. As the story goes along, Jim becomes Huck surrogate father. When they first meet, Jim has the know-how and makes sure they both eat. As the story continues, Jim protects Huck from seeing a dead body while on the island. All this being said, Huck still struggles with what is the right thing to do. It isn’t until the end, when Jim puts Tom Sawyer’s health above his own freedom that Huck realizes that Jim should be free because ‘he is white on the inside’. This looks like a racist statement at first, but I should be interpreted as we are really all the same on the inside. Huck knows that there is so much good inside Jim just like other white men (like Judge Thatcher).

Bildungsroman

Harry Potter encompasses the bildungsroman genre. The main character has a difficult life growing up in society, and then he finds out he is a wizard. This pulls him out of the world he’s known all is life and throws him into another one where most of the rules have changed. Dumbledore dies and he is forced to leave the Dudley’s house forever. It is obvious that Harry doesn’t have a problem leaving his only blood-relatives, but now is the time that he knows he must go on his destined journey of collecting horcruxes.
I love the theme we discussed in class about ‘love v evil’, and the obvious parallel between Harry and Voldemort. Both are orphans, single children, have little or nothing growing up, and lived in the muggle world. I didn’t ever connect those dots before. J.K. Rolling just proves that people can have the same background, but it is what they do with their lives, that is truly important. Lord Voldemort could have done so much good in his life, but he chose evil, whereas Harry Potter didn’t.

Hermione Granger

Hermione, like most Harry Potter characters, holds a unique role within the books. She is brilliant, and always knows the answer whether in class or in the real world. However, she is mistreated and looked down upon by other characters, like Malfoy, because she is from a muggle family. Although she tries to pretend it doesn’t bother her, this adds to her need to be the best and her fear of failure. It is also because of this unfair treatment that she cares very much for different creatures, like house-elves. Later in her life, she will dramatically improve the lives of house-elves through her job at the ministry.
In the seventh book, she has developed into the rescuer of the trio. From the very beginning of the book, she is always thinking ahead and planning for everything they may (and often does) go wrong. Within this book, Hermione astonishes Harry and Ron, as well as the readers. She has connected what she has learned in the classroom to real-world uses. This is something that I think many college seniors go through once they graduate and try to find a job.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter seems to exponentially grow in the seventh book. Because Harry turns seventeen and this is of legal age in the wizardry world, Harry no more is protected by the defensive spells of his mother and the order around his childhood house. Potter no longer has Albus Dumbledore to ensure his protection, or Hogwarts to shield him from the brutal world. With in the first few chapters of the book, he recounts all the people he has lost and shares his deep desire to protect the few true friends and family he has left. Yet his two best friends, Ron and Hermione, let him know they won’t leave him to fight on his own. They are in this quest, so to speak, together. It is together that they make an incredible trio. With each clue or new discovery they are one step closer to the destruction of Lord Voldemort. As the prophesy states, ‘Neither one can survive while the other lives.’