incomplete

Happiness is the sun. It is warmth, it is radiant, it is light. It brings hope, joy, and life to its beholder. Like the sun, happiness is constant but not always apparent. Happiness appears cyclical, coming and going like day and night. But even when we don’t see it, the sun is always there. There is always a reason for joy. Always something to be thankful for.
Sorrow
Love is beautiful. It’s a commitment between two people—lovers, family members, friends. It’s like an invisible thread is being woven between the two people, binding their hopes, desires, emotions, creating a mutual understanding. This is why two people who truly love each other support and accept each other’s unique hopes and emotions.
Hate is unnecessary. It stems from fear and blossoms into violence. People who hate look at a rose and only notice the thorns, instead of taking time to smell the flower and marvel at its beauty. Hate is merely ignorance, but it is dangerous.
Despair is dark and empty. It’s a hole you’ve fallen into, and you can’t see the bottom. When you hit the bottom, it hurts. Despair is pain. It needs courage and strength to counteract it. Despair feels hopeless, like an open, bleeding wound. But all wounds heal with time.
Fear
Shame is a cold bucket of ice water being poured onto your head.KindnessEnvyAngerTranquilityParanoia

The Virgin Suicides - Blog #4

"By this time autumn had turned grim, locking the sky in steel. In Mr. Lisbon's classroom, the planets shifted a few inches each day, and it was clear, if you looked up, that the earth had turned its blue face away from the sun, that it was sweeping down its own dark alley in space, over where cobwebs collected in the ceiling corner, out of reach of the janitor's broom. As summer's humidity became a memory, the summer itself began to seem unreal, until we lost sight of it. Poor Cecilia appeared in our consciousness at odd moments, most often as we were just waking up, or staring out a car-pool window streaked with rain--she rose up in her wedding dress, muddy with the afterlife, but then a horn would honk, or our radio alarms would unleash a popular song, and we snapped back to reality" (111-112).

This passage marks a small turning point in the novel because up to this point, all anybody could think about was Cecilia's suicide. Everyone in the town was acting weirdly because they didn't know how to handle the situation, but they ended up further alienating the Lisbon family from suburban society. Though it should be a good thing that people are finally beginning to move on, this passage is marked by a dreary mood which is created through its grim diction and description of the changing seasons. Furthermore, just mentioning Mr. Lisbon and his planets add to the mood because he's such a dismal person. One phrase that really stood out to me was "locking the sky in steel." The cacophony and imagery created by this phrase gives the passage a very industrial feel (the harsh sounds and mention of steel makes me think of machines in factories). Later on the passage talks about "reality" being the honk of a horn or a radio alarm, which further paints this picture of an industrial, gloomy subrubia. This novel seems to portray suburban life as being very monotonous, ritualistic, and kind of weird, which makes me think that the author might be trying to subtly express disapproval for modern suburban life through his novel.

The Virgin Suicides - Blog #3

"He laid his head back on the headrest and opened his mouth to ease the constriction in his chest, when suddenly the air inside the car churned. He felt himself grasped by his long lapels, pulled forward and pushed back, as a creature with a hundred mouths started sucking the marrow from his bones. She said nothing as she came on like a starved animal...He felt her clammy shins, her hot knees, her bristly thighs, and then with terror he put his finger in the ravenous mouth of the animal leashed below her waist...Two beasts lived in the car, one above, snuffling and biting him, and one below, struggling to get out of its damp cage" (85-86).

This passage describes the sexual experience that Trip has with Lux in his car. After a frustrating and unsuccessful ordeal watching Disney movies at the Lisbon house, Lux appears in Trip's car and starts violently making out with him. This passage employs many similes, metaphors, and animal-like diction to create an image of Lux as a violent, hungry beast and characterizes her as being promiscuous and aggressive. This greatly contradicts any earlier characterizations of the Lisbon girls as being polite, timid, and pure. The descriptions of Lux are very beastly because she is like a caged animal--she's stuck in her house under her parents' very strict rules, so when she has an opportunity for freedom she seizes it and goes wild. This experience was also very significant for Trip. The touching imagery (forgot the proper word for it) when the "clammy shins," "hot knees," and "bristly thighs" are described emphasize the physical aspects of this event and show how clearly Trip remembers this (being that the narrators are speaking based on information they got from Trip later in life). This event totally shocked Trip and because Trip really liked Lux so much, this was a very significant point in Trip's road to maturity as well.

The Virgin Suicides - Blog #2

"The diary is an unusual document of adolescence in that it rarely depicts the emergence of an unformed ego. The standard insecurities, laments, crushes, and daydreams are nowhere in evidence. Instead, Cecilia writes of her sisters and herself as a single entity...we could never understand why the girls cared so much about being mature, or why they felt compelled to compliment each other, but sometimes, after one of us had read a long portion of the diary out loud, we had to fight back the urge to hug one another or to tell each other how pretty we were. We felt the imprisonment of being a girl...we knew, finally, that the girls were really women in disguise, that they understood love and even death, and that our job was merely to create the noise that seemed to fascinate them" (42-44).

This passage about Cecilia's diary is interesting because it reveals information about both Cecilia and the narrators of the novel. The narrators describe Cecilia writing like all the sisters were a "single entity," which I find interesting because I think this may connect to the fact that all of the girls later kill themselves. As the boys read the diary, they emphatize with Cecilia, and I feel like they also become part of that "single entity" with the sisters as they try to understand their story. Throughout the long paragraph (which I did not copy completely), the boys repeatedly start their sentences with "we knew" and then go into detail about some fact about Cecilia's life. They're so wrapped up into the Lisbon girls' life, which is actually kind of freaky. These boys (now men I suppose), do everything they can to gather information about and piece together the story of the sisters. As I read, I'm questioning why they are so obsessed with these girls and why the author chose to tell the story from this point of view. I think it partially adds to the weird effect of the novel since the boys are so creepy and stalker-ish. I wonder if the reason for this unique point of view will become more apparent as I continue to read the novel...

The Virgin Suicides - Blog #1

"Cecilia, the youngest, only thirteen, had gone first, slitting her wrists like a Stoic while taking a bath, and when they found her, afloat in her pink pool, with the yellow eyes of someone possessed and her small body giving off the odor of a mature woman, the paramedics had been so frightened by her tranquility that they had stood mezmerized. But then Mrs. Lisbon lunged in, screaming, and the reality of the room reasserted itself: blood on the bath mat; Mr. Lisbon's razor sunk in the toilet bowl, marbling the water. The paramedics fetched Cecilia out of the warm water because it quickened the bleeding, and put a tourniquet on her arm. Her wet hair hung down her back and already her extremities were blue. She didn't say a word, but when they parted her hands they found the laminated picture of the Virgin Mary she held against her budding chest" (3-4).

This passage, found at the beginning of the novel, immediately grabbed my attention because of the vivid descriptions. The author employs various types of imagery as he describes the Cecilia incident--visual ("yellow eyes of someone possessed," "razor sunk in toilet bowl"), auditory (Mrs. Lisbon's screaming), and olfactory ("the odor of a mature woman"). He also uses similes and alliteration to add color to his writing. These explicit descriptions set a freaky mood right from the beginning of the story that carries throughout the novel. This is strange because though the book is about such a dismal and serious topic (suicide), the book doesn't necessarily have a gloomy feel but more of a freaky, bizarre mood. This makes it quite interesting to read and the uncommon point of view (a group of boys telling the story from some point in the future) gives the reader a unique reading experience.

Dracula - Blog #7

"I remember hearing the sudden barking of the dogs and a lot of queer sounds, like praying on a very tumultous scale, from Mr. Renfield's room, which is somewhere under this. And then there was silence over everything, silence so profound that it startled me, and I got up and looked out of the window. All was dark and silent, the black shadows thrown by the moonlight seeming full of a silent mystery of their own. Not a thing seemed to be stirring, but all to be grim and fixed as death or fate; so that a thin streak of white mist, that crept with almost imperceptible slowness across the grace towards the house, seemed to have a sentience and a vitality of its own...The mist was spreading, and was not close up to the house, so that I could see it lying thick against the wall, as though it were stealing up the windows. The poor man was more loud than ever, and though I could not distinguish a word he said, I cold in some way recognize in his tones some passionate entreaty on his part" (275).

This passage is very foreboding due to the various literary devices used. The repetition of words like "dark," "black," and "silent" gives the passage a very dark, still, tense mood. The simile "but all to be grim or fixed as death or fate" further adds terror to the foreboing mood. What is really eerie is the mist, which Van Helsing earlier explained was Dracula. The mist is described as being very thick, sneaky, and graceful as it creeps up the house towards Mina's window. Because of the terrifying, deathly mood, this partially foreshadows how Dracula will be coming after Mina, and now we see some of his sneaky tactics he uses to get to people. The sounds and excitement coming from Renfield further add to the horrific mood because we know that he has some sort of connection with Dracula, and he's getting excited that his "master" has come. Overall, this passage really illustrates that even though Lucy has been taken care of, there is still a much larger problem to take care of, and that it's not going to be easy. Additionally, the eerie mood foreshadows some kind of horrific happenings that will occur before the end of the novel.

Dracula - Blog #6

"'And now for you, Madam Mina, this night is the end until all be well. You are too precious to us to have such risk. When we part tonight, you no more must question. We shall tell you all in good time. We are men, and are able to bear; but you must be our star and our hope, and we shall act all the more free that you are not in the danger, such as we are' [Van Helsing].

All the men, even Jonathan, seemed to be relieved; but it did not seem to me good that they should brave danger and, perhaps, lessen their safety--strength being the best safety--through care of me; but their minds were made up, and, though it was a bitter pill for me to swallow, I could say nothing, save to accept their chivalrous care of me" (258-259).

This passage illustrates one of Dracula's main themes--that the novel's leading women are treated as beautiful, delicate, weak, and easily conformable to their society. Dracula was written (and I'm assuming takes place) during the 1800s, and the social interactions between men and women during that time are highly illuminated throughout the novel.

The first paragraph displays one side of the coin. Throughout the novel, the men are always praising Lucy and Mina as being beautiful, angelic, etc., but at the same time there's a bit of degradation in their speech which kind of makes the women come across as pretty objects rather than intelligent beings. Van Helsing follows this trend as he tells Mina that she isn't allowed to continue on in the journey to get rid of Dracula. Van Helsing uses such prettily connotative words like "precious," "star," and "hope" in order to illuminate Mina as being beautiful, valuable, and admirable, but at the same time he's talking down to her, saying "YOU will do this and YOU will do that..." He also asserts male dominance when he says "we are men, and are able to bear," showing that someone as delicate and precious as Mina is not able to bear the task before them.

The second paragraph, from Mina's point of view, further contributes to this idea of delicate, submissive women in society. Mina is as dedicated to getting rid of Dracula as the rest of the men are, but when told that she can't continue her efforts, she readily accepts it without argument or question. I was actually a bit surprised, thinking that a woman as dedicated and spirited as Mina would have stood up for herself and tried to protest. However, the worst reaction we get from Mina is in the weak metaphor "it was a bitter pill for me to swallow." Besides that, she's basically saying "yeah, they're all right" and believes she's helping the men by not joining them in their endeavor.

Throughout the novel, Mina (as well as Lucy) is constantly acting the way she is being portrayed by the men. She's eating up these shallow opinions of her and accepting them as who she is. I feel like Mina has the potential to be a more open, opinionated, and independent women, but because she is so submissive and afraid to disappoint the men, she will never realize her potential.