Thursday, July 26, 2012
Blog Four (Quiz #6)
The catharsis as I see it happens in the hotel scene between Bob and Madge. It was manifested physically in their little wrestling match, followed by Bob running away with the urge to puke. Their past or future interactions were made irrelevant by this defining scene, because that was the point at which Madge claimed total power over Bob - she could have screamed at any moment, but she did not. This leads to Bob's anagnorisis, where essentially he admits that Alice's ideal lifestyle is right and it would be easy to go on living with the knowledge that he must be a sub-par human being. Yet in his discussion with Alice he also admits that he cannot accept that into his life. Though he becomes aware of the futility of his hostile attitude toward white people, he refuses to change his ideology for the sake of comfort. I personally have a hard time seeing the peripeteia, because Madge wins in the end, just as she was meant to since the catharsis. Perhaps the fact that Bob should have run away with Alice and lived happily ever after but instead found himself running straight into Madge can be seen as the tragic but necessary twist.
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Hello Huma! My name is Kimon and I’m a student in professor Justin Rogers-Cooper’s English 102 class. I have been assigned to respond to your blog post and leave some feedback.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, your blog was very nicely written, to the point, easy to read and contained a lot of critical thinking. I really like that you added the fact that Bob felt like vomiting after his encounter with Madge because it really shows us that this event affected him emotionally. I also agree, when you state that Bob’s anagnorisis occurred during the conversation he has with Alice in the car. It really seems to be the point where Bob experiences complicated thoughts and realizes some things his life and future. I would suggest adding some direct quotations from the novel to support your ideas a little more fully rather then just opine on happenings. I would also suggest that you slightly introduce the assignment so the reader has an idea about what you are going to talk about. As you stated,the peripetia was truly hard to locate. But, I really admire that you still stated your opinion about the tragic twist. After looking twice, the only part of the story which slightly fits the definition of peripetia is when Bob decides to kill the “peckerwood” who he had an issue with at work (only because his attitude towards life changes during the time he had set his mind to murder). Overall I really enjoyed reading this post and respect your critical thinking ability.
This response is almost twice as long as I was assigned and I apologize for that. But, I saw an interesting similarity in our thinking patterns and I felt I had more to say. Feel free to write back with questions or concerns, or for more feedback (lol). Thanks!
Wow thanks so much for the feedback, Kimon! I don't mind that it's long at all, I really appreciate your commentary and as soon as I have some time I'll try and edit my post. Great suggestions :)
DeleteI can see that you have accomplished what the assignment ask you to do. You have used some Aristotle's building blocks of narrative such as catharsis, anagnorisis and peripeteia on writing a close reading and narrative identification. You successfully put your opinion on some part of the book. I would just suggest as what Kimon also said that, you should put some introductory on your blog of what you are going to talked about and what was your goal. You may also want to quote some from the passage that may support your explanation. Overall, it was a good explanation on what you think. Keep up the good work!
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