Tuesday, April 30, 2013

SCHLACHTOF (what's German for 6?)

The number 6 in German is sechs

"Listen:" - how the book (Ch. 2) starts

Why is there a Blue Fairy Godmother??

Lazzaro did a gruesome thing I don't want to say to a dog :(

Lazzaro is also demented, thinking about killing people in torturous ways

Billy has seen his own death many times

"Their address was this: "Schlachtof- fünf." Schlachtof meant slaughterhouse. Fünf was good old five."

SCHLACHTOF FUNF

Billy knows he is going to be abducted

Unstuck in time watching WW2 films

Billy asks, "Why me?"

Billy on travels most to certain times; daughters wedding, the war, and the "present"

Billy is blamed for Weary's death even though they were in different boxcars

Why does Billy go back to childhood memories?

"Valley of the Dolls"- Earth book on Tralfamadore

ex-captain Eliot Rosewater

Billy travels back to his wedding night

Kurt Vonnegut is in the war?

a boys mother thinks Billy is insane talking about Tralfamadore with her son

THIS IS ABSURD

Absurd- unreasonable

Something in my life that I find truly absurd is how your actions in the present can impact your future immensely.

SCHLACHTOF DREI & SCHLACHTOF VEIR

Discontinuity
 "Where have all the years gone"

Coital- adjective- referring to sex

androgyn- blending of the sexes

chaplin- religious officer in the military
 How can a rabbi be a chaplin? Chaplin can be any religion.

date on the license plate- 1967

John Birch- Baptist missionary in WW2
Earl Warren- 14th United States Chief of Justice

poverty- hot, destroyed what little they had
being a prisoner of poverty was like being a prisoner of war

Billy is neutral in all situations

Why was he weeping?

Billy's life seems boring, lonely, and empty

Billy is a POW, stuck in a train, helmet as a toilet

SCHLACHTOF ZWEI

Who is Billy Pilgrim? - son of a barber from Ilium, New York

"So it goes." repeated after a tragedy/death

Billy's family thinks he has gone insane

"plumber's friend"- plunger

Weary is demented talking about torture weapons

I'm not enjoying this novel because of the lock of (chronological order) time.

Billy doesn't have a helmet in the war, Weary (fat kid) thinks he is the leader.

Who is doing the talking?

Pilgrim- traveler to unknown places

First got unstuck in time, 1944

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

SCHLACHTHOF EINS- one slaughterhouse

• Author is the narrator and a character in the book
• "So it goes" comes up at specific moments
• Book about war and Vonnegut remembering the past
• Mustard gas and roses (poisonous and deadly but sweet and romantic)
• No sense of time (no chronological order)
• Interesting how he uses crayons and wallpaper to organize his memory (significance of orange crayon for firebombing?)
• Vonnegut is anti-war but was in the war
• Is the whole book going to be him talking about writing the book and war?
• O'Hore doesn't want her children to join war because she is afraid they will die
• I don't understand what the title stands for

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

The Modern Great Gatsby

(my modern remix of The Great Gatsby)
Marissa was a beautiful young lady who lived in the city. She had a boyfriend, Holden, who was self-centered and careless but would do anything to keep him and Marissa together. Marissa loved Holden once, she is the materialistic type who is also careless, so you can say they are perfect for each other. Before Marissa dated Holden she was in love with Jeremy. Jeremy and Marissa dated and were their high schools "it' couple, no one ever thought they would break-up. After graduation Marissa and Jeremy went to different colleges and tried to manage their long-distance relationship. Never seeing each other Marissa gave up on Jeremy and moved on and started dating Holden.
  At their high schools five year reunion Marissa brought Holden and Jeremy, crushed, showed up alone, staring at the love of his life with another man. Holden didn't like Jeremy because Holden knew that Jeremy still loved Marissa and Holden was in denial that Marissa still loved Jeremy. The reunion lasted a couple days, the first night was a welcome back party, the second day was a luncheon, and the third day was another party.
  On the third night Holden and Jeremy started yelling at each other and got in a fight over Marissa. Jeremy claimed that she didn't love Holden and Marissa threatened to leave Holden. Holden took Marissa by her wrist and pulled her to their 2013 BMW. Jeremy left as well and followed them to their hotel so he knew Marissa was safe.
  The next day Jeremy tried to call Marissa hoping she wanted to get lunch before she left town but she never picked up her cellphone and he knew he had lost her again.

Monday, April 22, 2013

The Great Gatsby Essay

 In the novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nick Carraway is the confidant. He listens to Gatsby's life stories leading the reader through the story. The narrator's curiosity about Gatsby is part of the sympathetic listener role in a confidant character. Nick is also a character of other purposes as well; he is the narrator and everyone tells Nick what is going on.

 Nick's character leads us through Gatsby's world by Nick being so interested in Gatsby's life and becoming his good friend. Having Gatsby and Nick be neighbors but also having different personas intrigues Nick into Gatsby's life. Nick's truthful and reliable traits support his character as the confidant , Gatsby's mysterious character opening up about his life to Nick makes the plot more understandable for the reader. Jay Gatsby is a mystery to everyone else but Nick because Gatsby opened up and told Nick all his life adventures.

 Having Nick be present in the plot brings the story together and makes the situation seem more real. Nick knowing all Gatsby's secrets and about the love triangles brought the story to a real dimension of how twisted society can get. Fitzgerald writing Nick as the narrator instead of a different style keeps the novel in perspective of one person's ideas who isn't from that area and is new to East Egg. The reader and Nick are both new to the East Egg lifestyle and how everyone is connected.

 With F. Scott Fitzgerald writing Nick Carraway as the narrator and being the confidant in the novel, The Great Gatsby, the reader understands the tone and theme better. Nick's character accomplishes displaying the type of life everyone wanted to have and the real people behind the fancy clothes. Carraway's character guides the reader through Jay Gatsby's world better than Jay Gatsby would.