Copy the words/phrases/sentences from the assigned passage to which you would like to respond (you don't have to copy the whole passage). After each phrase, record where your mind takes you. Do not filter your thoughts--record them. This is not an exercise in interpretation so much as in association.
I truly have no idea if this is even close to being right, but we'll go with it....
ReplyDeleteDalton Ames. Dalton Ames. Dalton Shirts. I thought all the time they were khaki, army issue khaki, until I saw they were made of heavy Chinese silk or finest flannel because they made his face so brown his eyes so blue. Dalton Ames. It just missed gentility. Theatrical fixture. Just papiermache, then touch. Oh. Asbestos. Not quite bronze. But won’t see him at the house.
“Dalton Ames. Dalton Ames. Dalton Shirts.” obsession and repetition. Emphasizing what is important about Dalton Ames though all we know is Caddie and him. Begins to associate tangible things with the name. Not just a name but objects. Shirts. What is important about the shirts? Why is that something being zeroed in on?
“I thought all the time” he is either consciously or subconsciously always thinking about Dalton Ames. Or other men involved in Caddie’s life. Could also be referencing time in a different nature. How much time he wastes on people and circumstances he can no longer change
“they were khaki, army issue khaki” describing shirts. Potentially referring to his job. Maybe it is just a physical description of Dalton Ames. He could be an all-American type who looks as though he belongs in the army. Or his lack of taste, bland colors that don’t show any type of personal touch/caring about appearance. He might be poor and this is all he can wear. Also relating to the distaste Quentin has, as though he is not good enough for Caddie.
“until I saw they were made of heavy Chinese silk or finest flannel” Dalton Ames is wealthy. He is wearing heavy materials which would indicate cold weather. I thought he was from the south, but maybe he is from somewhere colder indicating a need for heavy fabric. They are expensive materials in strange colors (ie khaki?). Judgmental. Quentin is into appearances more than the real person.
“because they made his face so brown his eyes so blue.” The attention to detail is intriguing. Quentin could be completely anti-women and actually into guys. Interesting how the fabric type can bring out these features, yet the color is still concerning as to how lacking it is.
“Dalton Ames. It just missed gentility” gentility is what? Refinement, decorum, courtesy. almost a shame because he was close, but no cigar. He may try but won’t be completely refined. Try as he might to be perfect and idealistic, Quentin finds a way to break him down. There is no one good enough aside from Quentin himself.
“Theatrical fixture” I’m not sure. Some type of contradiction. He puts on a show but it is just a game. All costume and makeup but no depth or character
“Just papiermache, then touch” nothing is felt until it is hardened. Dalton Ames hard shell with not much feeling. Or is soft inside but hardened by something happening in his life. Description of Dalton Ames at all
“Oh. Asbestos. Not quite bronze.” A lesser quality material compared to bronze. Difference in strength perhaps. Or price. Realization that there is even more wrong with Dalton Ames. Again not quite
“But won’t see him at the house.” He is finally gone. There is not more to see of him. Left. Army? Probably not but he is not returning to the house for now
She was sitting there telling us before their faces what a shame it was that Gerald should have all the family looks because a man didn’t need it Men are as insecure as women, we just oppress it through masculinity
ReplyDeleteWithout it a girl was lost the girl walked into the woods without a care in the world
Telling us about Gerald’s women in a tone of smug proportion Although they knew it was a lie, they went along with it because of his intimidation
When he was seventeen I said to him one day My seventeenth year on this planet has been the worst year of my life
What a shame that you should have a mouth like that it should be on a girl’s face The face of the women seemed paralyzed in the painting
And you can imagine I was a cowboy once. I was also an astronaut once and even an explorer, this feeling of possibility has left me. It is as if I am deserted upon an unreachable island, and on the horizon lies civilization. At night I can see the lights of buildings glimmer against the night sky. Yet their boats never pass across the island, they never come to my island. They know I’m here, but they don’t want me anyway. My sadness is a parasite that infects those around me. Sadness is a drug of self pity that inflicts with others the same amount of pain it causes you. Their ships sail to the north and I am to the south. Loneliness is my home.
The curtains leaning in on the twilight She opened the curtains with a thrust that brought in the light
Upon the odor of the apple our lust becomes the things we taste
Her head against the twilight The rain brought rot and disease to the house
Her arms behind her head kimono-winged the voice that breathed o’er Eden clothes upon the bed The women walked in single file as they left the house, making sure to look at their feet without bumping into anyone.
By the nose seen above the apple That fucking sound again
What he said? The anxiety crippled her mind
Mother he said it often is I never thought about how hurtfull it is to say “I hate you mom”
And him sitting there in attitudes real watching two or three of them through his eyelashes The city burned while its citizens ate lunch and looked out upon their burning city.
If that was the three quarters, not over ten minutes now. Ten minutes from three quarters seems like such an odd phrase. He keeps focusing on time and it’s starting to get repetitive and annoying. Is that the point? It sounds like a commentary on how peoples’ lives seem like they revolve around time. But it’s getting annoying. One car had just left, and people were already – okay Quinten I get it, you are trying to figure out the schedule of things in relation to time, that doesn’t make you special so why is it a recurring motif. I’m not five years old, I get it Quentin, time is an interesting thing. So the first one was another trolley. For someone so concerned with time he could really save himself some time and skip all the filler, unnecessarily cryptic commentary on life. Just use your words, Jesus…
ReplyDeleteI got on. You can feel noon. Cool, good for you buddy. I wonder if even miners in the bellows of the earth. Why are you wondering about miners, what impact does that have on you. I understand the connection you made I supposed, it would be remarkable if people working underground could literally feel the time in relation to the earth around them. That’s why whistles – no wonder your father was such a depressing person when it came to all the life lessons he tried to teach you, you are insufferably obnoxious in how you describe the world around you. Because people that sweat: and if just far enough from sweat you won’t hear the whistles. Time is pretty cool Quentin, but if you could just use plain English to convey your thoughts, that would be great. Father said man is the sum of his misfortunes. No wonder you are so dramatic and depressing. Quentin: The alpha, yet beta fellow who embodies my problem with pseudo intellectualism. I guess I take that back, I actually found his commentary on blacks at the time to be rather interesting and insightful. One day you’d think misfortune would get tired, then time is your misfortune. Wow. Father is kind of an asshole. He never has anything positive to say to Quentin regarding time. Unless I am missing something, which I very well might be. A gull on an invisible wire attached through space dragged. A Native American tribe associated gulls with freedom, yet it feels as though, to me at least, there is an underlying current guiding everything. Nothing is truly ‘free’. For example, the gull doesn’t actively think that it has to migrate from one region to the next and plan ahead like: “Damn, I only have five more weeks until my internal clock tells me to go south.” Just like how ‘nature’ is a rather invisible force that dictates where the gull goes and when – nevermind getting off on a weird tangent. At the end of the day though, time is pretty cool. We wouldn’t have ways of measuring it or keeping track of day, night, and so on if it wasn’t a driving force in our lives. Just like the gull accepts nature, we shoudn’t be OCD about time, but we should at least be aware of it. Human beings just want to love and be loved and be happy. Quentin and his father subscribe to the mentality that life is more about figuring out how to not be miserable as opposed to just doing what makes them happy. It’s kind of hilarious how I despise Quentin for being the same ‘try hard’ pseudo-intellectual smartass that I am. But at least I speak plainly, as opposed to mister mysterious with his, “wings are bigger Father said only who can play a harp”.
-Nick (I wrote this in Notepad ++ as Word is bugging out on me. I hope the italics go through and such.)
"'Do you think so?' the boy said. They continued to jeer at him, but he said nothing more. He leaned on the rail, looking down at the trout which he had already spent, and suddenly the acrimony, the conflict, was gone from their voices, as if to them too it was as though he captured the fish and bought his horse and wagon, they too partaking of the adult trait of being convinced of anything by an assumption of silent superiority. I suppose that people, using themselves and each other so much by words, are at least consistent in attributing wisdom to a still tongue, and for a while I could feel the other two seeking swiftly for some means by which to cope with him, to rob him of his horse and wagon."
ReplyDelete"Do you think so?" Think what? That the boy can buy a horse and wagon with the twenty five dollars.
No answer from him. Just silence. "The acrimony, the conflict was gone from their voices", does silence always eliminate any sense of bitterness? Is it arrogant to think of it that way? No, because to let the thought, the slight possibility of it happening, envelope them, they let it take over. The horse and wagon, the horse and wagon... it is a prize in itself to think it possible to even dream of buying such things for so little. A dream. That's what it is. Dreams empower us to dare a reach new heights, but they are usually left unsaid because we secretly know they are unattainable. Yet the boy was willing to put that mysterious possibility out into the open, he wanted to make it real. "Attributing wisdom to a still tongue". Is it such a common thing? Yes. When I hear the word wisdom, I think of an elder man sitting on his rocking chair on a beautiful wooden porch, overlooking a field of gold. He knows what he sees, and feels, but doesn't say a word. Does that make him wise though? So. Wisdom. It is human, or at least to me, to identify it with silence. Wisdom is unattainable to those seeking it, because those who believe they have it don't bring life to it through their words. Its like a vicious cycle. The others want to "rob him of his horse and wagon". Why? Can't he just be contempt with the idea of it, the dream of it? Maybe, just maybe it is because they want an idea, a dream of that kind for themselves...
Why is Quentin even talking about this? Why is it even relevant? Because he wants to express his dreams, he wants to put them to life. But instead he stays quiet. He mistakes his silence for wisdom when he could be more fulfilled by expressing these thoughts and letting others in on his inner dreams and goals, and maybe, just maybe, he would find wisdom through that.
I’ve got to marry somebody, pg 73, at the bottom
ReplyDeleteHow good of an idea is it to follow what your ancestors have been suggesting for what feels like eons? Can marriage, or, the tradition of a rotting culture really begin to understand the trepidations of a struggling young man or woman? We are born into this world with some strange sense of purpose, but without the right tools we cant have any hope of accomplishing what the societies expect us to. They are supposed to support well-being, and that’s how it must have worked for some good amount of time. Then something happened, people started getting married for money, and the subject of culture fell from human connection to accomplishment and desire. All these writers have got to understand some part of this, why else would Shakespeare and Faulkner and Melville be so engaged in writing about people who we know are going to die? All these characters, they all commit suicide or are killed by nature when trying to defy greater powers in an arrogant boastful move. Hubris. Not just a word used in describing literature, but something we must become acquainted with every day. We must learn to navigate the hubris, lest it possess us. Maybe the whole point of reading these books is just to mock us. Faulkner is a racist, Melville an old obsessed librarian fantasy cetologist, and Shakespeare a dated romantic who writes about fantastically irrelevant dramas. That’s how these things seem, unless you’re paying attention. Aren’t we supposed to understand books? Not as homework assignments, but as tickets to visit some of the greatest minds of modern history? and then, why is it that every time we glean the minds of these masters of emotion, the connoisseurs of careful conduct, that we get closer and closer to thinking that… they’re all preaching the same doomed destiny, brother walter in san fransisco, he’s got the right idea. It’s gonna rain, and you’re all gonna freeze. …
you are wherever your thoughts are, and we can’t get off the topic of sorry welcomings. Born into the world, arriving somewhere, but not here. You can’t be here, otherwise you will behold an obsession that overrides what we’ve evolved to be able to understand. Trust the symbols of societies, learn how to speak their language, and that includes an explicit fear of black people. Martin luther king, what a mensch. I suppose any white academic support teacher at cushing can get a good idea of what it means to overcome oppression, but will they ever really understand? Save for a few, we’re all sleeping comfortably. We’ve never been told we couldn’t do something because of the color of our skin. Hell, we’ve never been a little white boy, holding the hand of a little black girl, without wondering if someones gonna take a picture and get us on facebook. Might as well just give that sad man a dollar and walk away before he looks us in the eyes. Its his fault he’s sitting cold in the street anyways. That, or he’s addicted, schizophrenic and we don’t have a chance of relating to him. Maybe schizophrenics are the only people left that we have a chance of relating to… culture is a vast developed neuroticism, assembled over centuries by neurotic people with the purpose of defining what neurotic behaviors are considered acceptable. I can’t eat the food in the dining hall any more. It can’t be good for me. What happened to earth? eat the earth. eat it up. … maybe there’s an inherent honesty to the insane folks, and maybe we should be listening to them before we turn on the news and listen to Obama tell us that the state of the union is one worth having faith in.
“Nonsense you look like a girl you are lots younger than Candace color in your cheeks like a girl” Quentin has problems accepting Caddy as a girl who can fall in love with another guy. Since Caddy doesn’t show a look of a girl in love to Quentin, (obviously he is her brother) he feels unfamiliar with her girlish appearance therefore compares the Caddy he is seeing and the Caddy he is familiar with. Most brothers have problems with her sister dating a guy, but Quentin goes extreme to deny the identity of her sister as a woman in love.
ReplyDelete“A face reproachful tearful an odor of camphor and of tears a voice weeping steadily and softly beyond the twilit door the twilight-colored smell of honeysuckle.” Is it Caddy who is reproachful and weeping? Why would she be? Shouldn’t she be happy that she is getting married? Does Caddy also have problems accepting herself as someone else’s wife? Or is it the face of one of the brothers who are obsessed with Caddy? Probably not Benjy, since he will not be steadily and softly weeping but will be “bellowing.” So is it Quentin? The descriptions are too delicate to be Quentin’s own description of himself… So it is Caddy. Again, Why is she sad? Does she predict the trouble she will be causing because of the marriage?
“Bringing empty trunks down the attic stairs they sounded like coffins French Lick. Found not death at the salt lick” Here, Quentin makes direct comparison between the trunks brought down for Caddy’s departure for marriage as his death coffin. Since he is planning his suicide because of Caddy’s marriage, this is a very obvious foreshadowing and symbolism. Caddy’s presence is his motivation for life… in a very unhealthy way.
“Hats not unbleached and not hats. In three years I can not wear a hat. I could not. Was.” I might be wrong, but I think hats are directly related to his idea of Caddy, her virginity and marriage. the “not unbleached” hat, meaning bleached hat, is the virgin Caddy, who did not meet Dalton Ames yet. He had a choice to wear or not wear the hat: and he didn’t. He had Caddy, but he chose not to “wear” it. (sounds weird… cannot think of another way to say it) But things will change when Dalton Ames comes into the picture…
“Will there be hats then since I was not and not Harvard then.” I am not too sure about what this means since it is very confusing to interpret… I sort of think that when he leaves Harvard, there will be no hats for him: Same for Caddy’s marriage. When Caddy leaves, there will be no Caddy for him to choose to “not wear.”
“Where the best of thought Father said clings like dead ivy vines upon old dead brick.” His “best of thought” about Caddy is dead, clinging on a dead wall. It cannot live on, since the idea itself was unreal and dead from the first place. Quentin, after his death, will become part of that dead ivy vines and dead bricks, clinging onto that unhealthy, unreal thought.
The street lamps would go down the hill then rise toward town I walked upon the belly of my shadow. My enlarged dark frame creating a path in which I follow. I could extend my hand beyond it, but I do not stray from my shadow, it is comforting to walk a path in which I have created. I consider walking the other direction so that my shadow will follow me but it seems wrong to do, my shadow is my guidance. I feel almost alone in the rasping darkness but I feel my fathers presence along side me. Father and I protect women from one another from themselves our women. Women need to be protected, but whether they deserve it or not is another story. Women are fragile, without men they would be lost in, they need us to shield us from the harsh reality. They don't acquire knowledge of people, they have an affinity for evil. There are many different strands of evil in this world, and women are the beautiful kind, in the most deceiving sense. They fool you into seeing an innocent, kind woman but they are so akin to evil that they do it without either parties even noticing. All women are evil and all women sin. Evil is a way of life and sin is their tool for infecting the world with it. We accept women for what they are, they have a place in life and as evil as they may be we desire them. We protect them.
ReplyDeleteThere was no nigger in this car, and the hats unbleached as yet flowing past under the window. Going to Harvard. We have sold Benjy’s He lay on the ground under the window, bellowing. We have sold Benjy’s pasture so that Quentin may go to Harvard a brother to you. Your little brother.
ReplyDeleteYou should have a car it’s done you no end of good don’t you think so Quentin I call him Quentin at once you see I have heard so much about him from Candace.
“There was no nigger in this car, and the hats unbleached as yet flowing past under the window”. Quentin’s family is in the northeast now, so there is a smaller population of African Americans surrounding him than he is used to. The hats unbleached could be referring to the hats that Harvard undergraduates wear, “unbleached” could signify the beginning of the school year, as the hats have not yet had continued wear and exposure to the sun. He sees an abundance of them “flowing past” meaning there are many students walking around. “Under the window” could refer to Memorial Hall, a building on Harvard’s campus known for its beautiful stained glass windows, which also happens to hold academic ceremonies (convocation?). I find it interesting that the building was erected in memory of the members of the union party who fought in the Civil War, considering Quentin comes from the south and was raised with completely different views than those of the north.
“We have sold Benjy’s” Quentin’s father could be saying this, unable to finish his sentence due to Benjy’s bellowing. “He lay on the ground under the window” Did Benjy come with his family to see Quentin off? Benjy is upset that he no longer has a pasture to play in. “Your little brother” Quentin’s father is talking again and he puts emphasis on the phrase “your little brother”, knowing his father’s bitter disposition, he could possibly be guilt-tripping Quentin.
“You should have a car” I assume this is Herbert talking now. “It’s done you no end of good don’t you think so Quentin” Herbert seems to act cocky and condescending almost. “I call him Quentin” Herbert is most definitely egotistical and uppity. One can deduce his intentions with Quentin’s family to be completely self-involved. “I have heard so much about him from Candace” Herbert exudes an air of deceit. In many ways, Herbert’s ‘conversation’ with Quentin is very belittling.
Page 73 “I’ve got to marry somebody”
ReplyDeleteIt is self-evident that throughout history, marriage is a sign of purity, or rather recognition. A relationship means nothing, unless socially bundled into a ring that sits on your finger for the rest of your life. This pressure, often, is what leads to divorces. In many ways that ring binds you. The idea of living with someone for the rest of your life is quite scary, but many will argue that if you truly love them, then it shouldn’t be. I agree with this, that being said, young people often act on a whim. “Love” comes and goes, and when marriage is forced upon them, it can result in some brutal consequences. Love at first sight is a fable to be completely honest, sure you may be attracted to that person, but it takes many years to understand them. This is why marriage at such a young age is simply foolish, and puts pressure on each person to achieve this unattainable goal of being the perfect couple. People often confuse what is natural with what is morally acceptable. This whole façade of running around months before the “wedding”, and spending all of this money, is a social manifestation of what is believed to be the appropriate way to show someone you love them. Lastly, over-thinking a situation is never helpful. You will continue to convince and un-convince yourself, this circular activity is what leads to stress. It may sound cliché, but just go with what you believe to be the correct way to handle whatever situation you may be in. Others opinions are helpful, but in the end you are the one making the decision. You live your own life, and when it’s all said and done, the only thing that will matter is if you believe that you made the right decision.
"It's there. From Semiramis. Chauffeur brought it before ten oclock."
ReplyDelete"All right. I'll get it. Wonder what she wants now."
"Another band recital, I guess. Tumpty ta ta Gerald blah. 'A little louder on the drum, Quentin'. God, I'm glad I'm not a gentleman." He went on, nursing a book, a little shapeless, fatly intent. The street lamps do you think so because one of our forefathers was a governor and three were generals and Mother's weren't
any live man is better than any dead man but no live or dead man is very much better than any other live or dead man Done in Mother's mind though. Finished. Finished. Then we were all poisoned you are confusing sin and morality women dont do that your mother is thinking of morality whether it be sin or not has not occurred to her
While speaking to Quentin, Deacon refers to the mythological Greek figure, Semiramis, a women whom was once married to a Greek war figure named “Cush.” However, after Cush had been disgraced in battle, Semiramis did not to maim her prestigious reputation or lose her position of authority, so to uphold her honor she made the hasty decision of marrying her own son, Nimrod. After one uncovers the vast history portrayed by the name “Semiramis,” it becomes blatantly apparent that there is intent in Deacon’s word choice. Why would he have referred to the author of that note as a woman who had committed incest with her very son? Although there is not enough information regarding Quentin’s previous relationships to make a judgment call as to what that reference means, it is still loaded with hazy enigmas that infer that there has been some twisted scenario in his past.
Quentin responds to Deacon, with “wonder what she wants now,” illuminating the confusion as to whether the person who sent the letter was male or female. It also seems that there is some disdain or annoyance in his voice when he speaks of this woman.
Deacon proposes what the content of the letter could be, claiming that it may be “another band recital,” and continues by teasing how it could be written.
In the next line, “the street lamps” are italicized, which foreshadows an impending importance. Quentin then begins on a tangent stating that, “any live man is better than any dead man but no live or dead man is very much better than any other live or dead man.” Though his word choice is repetitive and could be a bit puzzling, the gist of what he is trying to convey is that living far surpasses being dead. However, whether a man is alive or dead, there is nothing that distinguishes one as being more superior than the other. Shortly after he says, “Done in Mother’s mind though. Finished. Finished. Then we were all poisoned…” There is a peculiar discontinuity between this phrase and what he had just been thinking about. It seems although he is trying to convince himself of something, especially when he continues on by saying, “you are confusing sin and morality women don’t do that your mother is thinking of morality whether it be sin or not has not occurred to her.” In these thoughts, there is an implicit distinction between the meanings of “sin” and “morality.” Through Quentin’s perspective, these two ideologies have not been consciously connected by his mother. He makes a vast generalization that she, along with all other women in society, are concerned solely with the aspect of morality, yet not aspect of sin.
Going to Harvard. The thought of going to a new place is always scary. The thought of moving to college in the fall makes me so nervous when I consider the fact that I don’t even know where I want to go. Maybe UNC Wilmington? I loved the huge brick buildings and the fact that the beach is so close. I can go to the beach every day after classes.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how cold it gets though. Hopefully not too bad so warm weather can still be enjoyed. I love the summer so much because I hate snow even though I love snow shoeing and building snowmen. My friend Hannah is coming over this weekend and I am thinking maybe we could go snow shoeing on Mount Watatick since there is never anything to do and I just went shopping last weekend. My mom used to climb mount Watatick every day in the summer and would often beg Kira and I to go with her but we rarely agreed.
We have sold Benjy’s. When we sold our house my siblings and I were furious. We did not want to move out of our childhood house into a town we did not know with people we did not like. I have gotten to know Mark (my mom’s husband) better now but still think both of his kids are incredibly annoying.
You should have a car it’s done. He thinks he is better than everybody and it is obvious by the way he is telling Quentin what he needs and what he will have. I didn’t get a good first impression of him because I feel like the way he carries himself makes it known that he feels as if he is better than everyone else.
Father I have committed. When reading this I think of what my father would do if I had to confess to him that I committed a crime. Thankfully that crime would never be incest but if I got arrested or something. I think he would be really disappointed but he wouldn’t get as mad as my mom would be. She gets mad over really stupid things sometimes it’s annoying. I feel bad for Candace when Quentin basically writes that she doesn’t have a mother. Everyone needs a mother. Even if she
I am strong enough to come down to the table. Caroline is always making up excuses and there is always another sickness that she has come down with. This reminds me of my friend Shelby that always has plans or something that she needs to do which makes it impossible to ever see her. I am going to a basketball game with her tomorrow though. I need to pick out an outfit.
Luke Daniels
ReplyDelete“He was looking at me now, the envolpe white in his black hands…not until tomrow remember”(63-4)
The Color of Invisibility
Deacon spent a good portion of his life putting on uniforms and adopting a Harvard manner but putting on airs is a survival tactic like a turtle with his shell hiding from the cruel outside cracking whips must be the only sound that he hears besides pencil scratching inside his head and those yearning spirituals sung by the manacled Deacons of the previous era have long since been replaced by Chopin and Bach and some people might think him a sell out but I don’t think he was even allowed in the store until he thought his skin white and his words clipped in an accent that wasn’t his snip snip he cuts out the undesirable but his scissors were dull so every once in a while the teacher sees little bits left tacked on and out of place like he colored outside the lines but his technique wasn’t the problem he just picked the wrong color because everyone knows that a puppy dog isn’t blue and an elephant isn’t green and a Harvard student isn’t black, right? Dark circles must mean more than just the bags underneath those eyes of his or the bubbles you fill out on those standardized tests where they ask you to list your race and why do they even call it a race I never knew that genetic and physical variation was a contest and if it is who won? Who’s the judge who tells the nice man in the cheap suit to ring your doorbell with a check the size of Nebraska and two TV cameras documenting your surprise? Who’s surprised anyway because they say history is written by the victor and victory loves preparation but if those two things are true then how did Napoleon ever screw up his campaign in Russia? However practice makes perfect but they also say that nobody’s perfect which I guess is why Quentin saw Roskus because for a moment Deacon’s veneer cracked showing that it was a just covering an invisible man because that is what Deacon is as he is nothing without his uniforms and parades. Some would say the reason Deacon took up a room in Uncle Tom’s cabin is because he hates what he is but I think he was just convinced that invisible men can easily be loved by everyone if he just becomes what the people around him want him to be which is different then Roskus who is the Hermit Crab who never changed his shell, the snake who never shed his skin and because of that the person Quinton sees when Deacon’s man made sense of self becomes transparent. Deacon was, how should I put this, a fool but in a good way he was not wise like Lear’s fool but not dumb either but he viewed white people as superior and strove to be like them while Roskus saw them just as people and even felt badly for the Compson’s and never considered giving up his identity to become like them. Despite the good will that Deacon showed to those around him and received in turn, he never wrote a couple math problems on a whiteboard and suffered through therapy with Robin Williams in a Hawaiian shirt while being catapulted to the center of scholarly eye because deep down everyone knew it was all just a masquerade and that Deacon was nothing behind the mask.
“The street lamps would go down the hill then rise towards town I walked upon the belly of my shadow—Quentin’s shadow serves as a constant reminder that he has to uphold the southern ‘code of conduct’ by doing whatever it takes to protect Caddy, including lying about fathering Caddy’s child.
ReplyDelete“feeling Father behind me beyond the rasping darkness of summer and August the street lamps”—Father seems to fulfill a similar role that shadows do to Quentin, implying that Father, like shadows, are always following closely behind Quentin and hold certain expectations for him, in particular, protecting Caddy’s reputation.
“Father and I protect women from one another from themselves our women”—Quentin asserts that men hold a dominant position over women and have due responsibility to protect them since they are fragile and incapable of taking care of themselves, perhaps because of their predisposition to ‘evil’, whereby women cannot control their desires and hence need constant protection and guidance.
“Women are like that they don’t acquire knowledge of people”—Quentin blames women’s promiscuity on their lack of better knowledge, they are lured into the traps of immorality because they cannot distinguish right from wrong, they are unable to uphold and protect the aristocratic southern ‘code of conduct’, whereby women are meant to be conservative, filial, and hold respect for themselves.
“They are just born with a practical fertility of suspicion”—since women cannot control their desires and do not have the knowledge to uphold their moral values, men must be wary of women and keep careful watch over them; as they grow older and are continuously exposed to moral corruption, their ‘fertility of suspicion’ is stimulated; it grows and becomes increasingly unstable.
“And usually right they have an affinity for evil for supplying what the evil lacks in itself”—women compensate for their lack of knowledge by engaging in acts that tarnish their southern, aristocratic reputation. Quentin equates this to ‘evil’; they are naturally drawn to commit acts of sin as a way to balance the emptiness within them that is a result of their inability to think for themselves.
“fertilizing the mind for it until the evil has served its purpose whether it ever existed or no”—evil is cultivated in the mind of women; their intentions are always attached to some sort of evil, and while they might not have directly committed a sinful act, it is ‘fertilized’ in their minds and hence women will eventually act upon any available opportunity to do so.
Uncle Maury. Maury the show. Teen pregnancy. Fat stomach. belly button. umbilical chord. black and yellow. black and yellow colors. Ferrari. Justin beiber. hair. blonde. sun. summer. green grass. money. Abraham Lincoln. civil rights. civil society. Mr. Muchachi. getting in trouble. drinking. beer pong. fun. Friday nights. Rebecca Black. Did Rebecca Black get a nose job? Could people back in the Roman Days get a nose job? Has the price of getting a nose job gone up? What is inflation? I never did get economics. I did have Dr. Shields as a teacher though. Dr. Carey is the best. -Keeley Frost
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