The Magicians: Interpretive Playlist

The Magicians Playlist:
1) Nowhere Man- The Beatles (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfWEPu0w-7w)
He's a real Nowhere Man
Sitting in his Nowhere Land
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody

Doesn't have a point of view
Knows not where he's going to
Isn't he a bit like you and me?
Quentin is the “Nowhere Man.” His one big dream in life is to find Fillory. That is his “nowhere plan,” it has no basis in reality, just fantasy. The only time he has any sense of purpose is when Fillory is the prize. The majority of the novel, Quentin has no drive. He is just going through the motions of life, first at Brakebills and then after graduation. “Doesn’t have a point of view.. knows not where he’s going to,” Quentin never commits to anything. He’s scared, he’s the ultimate middle man. Even when Fillory is in his sights, when Penny provides him with a chance that it actually exists, Quentin is still in his “nowhere land,” unwilling to take the risk. “ ‘Look Penny.’ Now Quentin could play the reasonable one and he did it with maximum nastiness. ‘Slow down. You’ve gotten so far ahead of yourself, you can’t even see how you get there. You’ve seen an old city, and a bunch of pools and fountains, and you’ve got a button with some heavy duty enchantments on it, and you’re looking for some framework to fit them all together, and you’ve latched onto this Fillory thing. But you’re grasping at straws.’” (250).
2) Modern Man – Arcade Fire (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8GbxFjH7kc)
So I wait in line, I'm a modern man
And the people behind me, they can't understand
Makes me feel like
Something don't feel right

In my dream I was almost there
Then you pulled me aside and said you're going nowhere
I know we are the chosen few
But we're wasted
And that's why we're still waiting
In line for a number but you don't understand
Like a modern man
As Quentin spends more time at Brakebills and is less involved in the non- magical world, he loses touch with James and Julia, he feels disconnected from them because they are unable to understand the experiences he is going through and because they feel hurt that he left them so suddenly. “It hadn’t occurred to Quentin that they might not be completely glad to see him. He knew he’d left abruptly without explanation, but he had no idea how hurt and betrayed they would feel” (72). Quentin is also now a member of the Brakebills elite. He is one of the “chosen few.” However, after graduation, the enormous talents that Quentin and the students of Brakebills have and they themselves “are wasted” because they have no impetus to utilize their skills for anything more than their own pleasure.
3) Show Me What I’m Looking For- Carolina Liar (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IqCfxgKZd8)
Save me, I'm lost
Oh lord, I've been waiting for you
I'll pay any cost
Save me from being confused
Show me what I'm looking for
Show me what I'm looking for…oh lord

Don't let go
I've wanted this far too long
Quentin has spent his entire life looking for Fillory. When he arrives at Brakebills, his immediate conclusion is that he’s reached Fillory. Although this is not the case, Quentin has found something almost as good, he has found a place where he is special. He believes that the unhappiness and problems that have characterized his life will be over since he is now part of this magical new world and as a result, he clung to the escape Brakebill’s provided him, “He was worried that if he left Brakebills they’d never let him back in. He would never find his way back again – they would close some secret door to the garden behind him, and lock it, and it’s outline would be lost forever among the vines and the stonework” (70).
4) Back to Where I was- Eric Hutchinson (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfZK_PnmzSU)
New life decides to come through the front door
and makes us wish we'd shown respect before
though i don't have much of a choice
i resolve to regain my voice

if i only just begin to understand it that's because
every time i start to change my mind again
it gets me back to where i was
This song is representative of the cyclic nature of Quentin’s life. He is constantly depressed and unhappy because he feels as though life has not turned out the way it should and that all his dreams are just outside of his reach. However, with each new opportunity, Quentin believes all his dreams are finally being fulfilled and that he has finally found what he’s looking for. This is the case when he enters Brakebills, gets involved with Alice, finds Fillory. However, with each “new life,” Quentin ultimately ends up in the same situation, “back to where he was,” unhappy and unfulfilled.
5) Rabbit Heart – Florence & the Machine (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nxO-yPQesA)
The looking glass, so shiny and new
How quickly the glamour fades
I start spinning, slipping out of time

You made a deal, and now it seems you have to offer up
But will it ever be enough? It’s not enough
This is a gift, it comes with a price
Who is the lamb and who is the knife?
Fillory is incredibly idealized in Quentin’s mind, however, this idyllic world does not parallel the reality of what Fillory has become. The “glamour” of being in Fillory quickly fades as Quentin and the others encounter the very real violence and conflicts permeating the land, especially in the form of the Beast. “He looked exactly the way Quentin remembered… the terror was so absolute, so all-encompassing that it was almost like calm; not a suspicion but an absolute certainty they were going to die” (352). What remains of Fillory, its faded glory, is “not enough” for Quentin. Also, he feels that he is treated as a “lamb” being led to slaughter by Jane Chatwin. She sets everything up so that Quentin will find his way to Brakebills, to Fillory, all so he will eventually kill the Beast, knowing the very possible risk of death. “This woman had used tem all like toys. And if some of the toys got broken, oh well. That had been the point of the story all along. She had manipulated him, sent him and the others into Fillory to find Martin” (379).
6) Rise- Azure Ray (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_W_t4UQbuU)
and look how low i've sunk
don't ask me to rise
i'll lose you when i'm high
hey, look how low i've sunk
don't ask me to rise
i'll only lose you when i'm
high.....
high.....
After his adventures or misadventures in Fillory, his near death experience with the Beast, the realization that the idyllic Martin Chatwin was the Beast, and Alice’s death, Quentin loses all faith in Fillory, in magic. He refuses to believe Jane Chatwin’s assertion that they won and that Quentin is a hero, “ ‘We won?’ He was incredulous. He couldn’t hold back anymore. All the grief and guilt he’d been salting away so carefully was coming back as anger… ‘We thought we were going on an adventure, and you sent us on a suicide mission, and now my friends are dead. Alice is dead’,” (380).
7) Swim Until You Can’t See Land- Frightened Rabbit (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzjERZU3wbY)
We salute at the threshold of the North Sea
in my mind
And a nod to the boredom that drove me here
to face the tide and swim
(Whoaaaa) I swim (Whoaaa) oh swim (Whoaaa)

Dip the toe in the ocean. Oh how it hardens and it numbs.
And the rest of me is a version of man
built to collapse into crumbs
And if I hadn’t come down
To the coast to disappear
I may have died in a land-slide
Of the rocks, the hopes and fears.

So swim until you can’t see land.
After graduating from Brakebills, Quentin has absolutely no motivation or drive. He has incredible skills and power, yet no idea of how to use it productively and no inclination to do so. He has a limitless supply of money that the magical community has accumulated and as a result is able to spend all his time partying and drinking. However, despite living the high life in New York and being a fully-fledged magician, Quentin is still not happy. This song expresses how Quentin feels when Penny shows him the way to Fillory. He has just cheated on Alice with Janet and his life has hit rock bottom. All his life, he has viewed Fillory as this utopia, an idealized place where he can escape the unhappiness that has been his constant companion on life. Therefore, Quentin fully embraces the expedition into Fillory and galvanizes everyone into action, he’s “swimming until he can’t see land,” trying to leave all his problems and unhappiness behind. “He was in Fillory… This was the place. He would be picked up, cleaned off, and made to feel safe and happy and whole again” (288).
8) Boy With a Coin – Iron & Wine (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDfM1byYLyY)
A boy with a coin he found in the weeds
With bullets and pages of trade magazines
Close to a car that flipped on the turn
When God left the ground to circle the world
A boy with a coin he crammed in his jeans
Then making a wish he tossed in the sea
Walked to a town that all of us burn
When God left the ground to circle the world
When Penny finds the button or “coin” that takes them all to Fillory, Quentin is happier than he’s ever been. He is finally fulfilling his life’s dream and going to Fillory. However, when faced with the reality of what Fillory has become, a place corrupted by human nature, by Martin Chatwin’s manipulating its magic for selfish purposes, Fillory loses its magic. Quentin figuratively “tosses” his coin, his dream, into the sea. He turns his back on Fillory and magic and returns to the non-magic world, the “town that all of us burn.” He forces himself to live in the adult world, where dreams are not part of life. “Quentin felt superior to anybody who still messed around with magic. They could delude themselves if they liked, those self-indulgent magical mandarins, but he’d outgrown that stuff. He wasn’t a magician anymore, he was a man, and a man took responsibility for his actions. He was out here working in the hard flinty bedrock face of it all” (394).

The Magicians Continued

The farther I got into this book, the less I enjoyed it. The book has an extremely depressing mood. I will say that Grossman is very skilled in drawing the reader into the story. However, I cannot say that I enjoy being drawn in. Quentin's entire attitude throughout the book is incredibly frustrating. It is physically impossible for him to be happy. No matter the situation, he has to find or create some issue that complicates it and ensures his continued depression and disatisfaction with life. I don't like any of the characters, they are all extremely self absorbed.

The book also felt more and more like a rip off of the Chronicles of Narnia as the reader learns more about Fillory. It is the same plot, the only difference is the names of the characters. Also, I have already finished the book so spoiler alert, but by the time they all go into Fillory, I was pretty annoyed with Grossman. It feels like he took another author's construction and distorted the world into this grotesque vision that seems to parallel Quentin's emotional isuues. I won't say anything about it since we aren't supposed to have read it yet, but I also really hated the ending.

The Magicians

So far I am enjoying The Magicians. It definitely does not throw you right into the action like Hunger Games does but it has a much quicker start than Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. However, I think that one of the reasons that I am already interested is because the book is so reminiscent of Harry Potter and Narnia.

The whole concept of Fillory, the main character finding a secret world in a hidden cabinet in a grandfather clock in a "dark, narrow back hallway at his aunt's house" seems like a scene straight out of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. However, as the story progresses and Quentin is transported to the hidden college for magic, I feel as though we're moving to Hogwarts. I'm not sure if I like this mix of books. I love both series and feel intrigued by this novel but it does not feel like a new or original idea.

I know it's impossible to accurately judge a book based on the first 47 pages so I am interested in reading further and seeing where Grossman is going with the novel and whether or not new ideas will emerge.

Hunger Games

Hunger Games is by far my favorite book that we've read this semester. I was unable to put the book down and read the whole thing in one sitting. I think it is an extremely well written and engrossing story. Suzanne Collins manages to incorporate so many different elements so effectively that it's obvious why this book is a bestseller. It has aspects that can appeal to many different audiences. This book also reminded me of many others that I have read such as The Giver, Lord of the Flies, 1984, and more.

Although I think that Collins created a very interesting world she doesn't develop it very much or explain a great deal to the reader. However, as much as I would like to know more about the Districts and the Capitol and the whole world in which the characters live, Collins doesn't need to in order to make the book a success. I think her entire construction of the novel around the Hunger Games was very clever. She is able to build up the world, the characters, and the story around it and it adds a sense of mystery that further engrosses the reader.

My one issue is that I found the book very predictable. Since it is the first in a trilogy, I was never really concerned for Katniss' safety, it seemed guaranteed. Also, the book seemed to follow a very predictable progression of events. The reader immediately knows that Katniss will end up participating in the games and that something will develop between her and Peeta. It's very apparent that they will be the final two. I also felt that Collins doesn't really resolve the issue of Peeta and Katniss. This might be because it is the first book in a trilogy and this is Collins' way of holding onto the readers' interest, however, I felt that the end was unsatisfying and a little lackluster. There is also the issue of Gale. In the beginning it appears as though he will be an important character, yet he his main role in the rest of the book seems to be to complicate Katniss' feelings about Peeta.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and I will definitely be finishing the trilogy.

The City The City

As of now, this book is reminding a lot of the slow start of Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I've found the first fifty pages very dense and hard to get into. It is a bit of a sensory overload, being thrown into this world with absolutely no background information. I feel like I'm just reading blindly, trying to find something concrete to hold onto to pull me into the world that Miéville has created. However, it is extremely difficult. His blending of this fictional world of Beszel with little inserts about the real world, like his mentions of Turkey, are especially challenging. I'm having a hard time distinguishing the fantasy from the reality. I am also not at all invested in the characters right now. I think this is partially to do with their unfamiliar names, but also to do with the complete lack of personal or background information

However, I do find the book intriguing. The constant, ambiguous mentions that Miéville makes of the divide between the two cities, Beszel and Ul Qoman are interesting, especially because it seems that the cites are practically intertwined yet the inhabitants cannot acknowledge the other's existence. Borlú's comments about accidently seeing or noticing people who I'm assuming are from Ul Qoma and this being practically taboo is very intriguing. I'm looking forward to reading more of the book but hoping that my confusion will be resolved.

House Rules Disappoints

I was very dissatisfied with the ending of House Rules. I felt that the ending was a complete contradiction to the rest of the book and that Picoult after writing a book about a very difficult and emotional subject, took the easy route out by creating a cheesy "happy" ending.

Picoult spends the majority of the book focusing on Jacob's aspergers and the limitations and problems it presents both him and his family. She focuses on how Jacob's life is defined by rules that must be adhered to for his ability to function. His life and sense of responsibility is completely defined by these rules and he lives his life according to them. It is beyond Jacob's capabilities to act beyond these rules' limitations. This at least is the message I got from Picoult. Jacob's ability to act is incumbent on these rules. However, in the end, Picoult contradicts this by having Jacob stage Jess' murder because he is protecting Theo. While Picoult does state that Jacob is still following the rules at this point, the rule to "take care of your brother, he's the only one you've got," she also implies the happy ending that Jacob can overcome the Asperger's, "To all those experts who say that because I have Asperger's, I can't empathize: so there. People who can't empathize surely don't try to protect the people they love, even if it means having to go to court." However, at least from my perspective this seems to completely contradict the rest of the book. Jacob protects Theo because he applied the rules that govern his life to the situation, not out of love for Theo.

House Rules

I have read Jodi Picoult before and I have never really enjoyed her writing. Unfortunately the same can be said about House Rules. While I was immediately drawn into the story and motivated to keep reading, I have not found the book satisfying. I think this is partially because I finished the book already and was not satisfied with the ending. I feel as though there are a lot of details Picoult throws into the novel for no particular reason and then proceeds to ignore. I think she puts in the details such as Emma writing the advice column and Rich enjoying it to try and temper the serious and largely sad subject matter of the book. However, I just felt as though they were very out of place and disconnected from the story.

I also feel that while Picoult does an amazing job of developing Jacob and his issues with Aspergers for the reader, she doesn't sufficiently address or develop all the issues or characters in the book. At the beginning, I thought that Rich would have a larger role in the story since he is initially focused on quite a bit. However, by the end he seems to serve no real role and his narration is just thrown in as an afterthought. Also, Theo's obsession with breaking into houses is never really addressed although it is central to solving the mystery.

While I may have issues with Picoult's writing, I cannot deny that she does an amazing job with creating the character of Jacob. She obviously has some sort of insight into the world of a person with Aspergers and she does a very effective job of bringing and incorporating the reader into that world. I think that Theo's and Emma's narration that Picoult includes does a lot to enrich the story. They are the characters that the reader can relate to. While we may empathize with Jacob and relate to him on a more superficial level, in the sense of feeling like in outside on occasion, we cannot truly understand him or his disease. Therefore, by including his family's perspectives, the people who besides Jacob are most affected by his condition, Picoult is doing a masterful job of making the reader care about the story and characters.

GWTDT Deconstruction

I think the theme of the victim is a very interesting one in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. There are many different opposing representations of the victim. Lisbeth Salander is a contradiction as she has the appearance of a victim, and is viewed as a victim or the perfect candidate for a victim by Armansky and Bjurman, however, she refuses to be victimized or allow herself to be characterized as a victim; her behavior is often that of a hero. Even when she is sexually assaulted by Bjurman, "Advokat Bjurman had chosen her as a victim," she refuses to play the role of one (277). She knows that she has to rescue herself, so she is her own rescuer, her own hero. However, Salander does not just rescue herself but also Blomkvist when he is being strangled by Martin. She rejects the role of the victim.

This is in contrast to the behavior of Harriet Vanger. She is the victim of the sexual abuse of both her brother and her father and instead of gaining revenge like Salander, she allows this victimization to define her. She is so conditioned to the role of the victim that the only we she can escape is to change her identity, she can't fight back.

Wennerstrom and his corporation play the role of the victim when Mikael publishes his initial story about them because it allows them to be viewed in a sympathetic light. Mikael, however, is the true, unsung victim of the company's deceit. He is forced to go to jail for writing a story that Wennerstrom had set up, for falling into the trap.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

I have heard many good things about this book and therefore was a bit disappointed with its beginning. It is very slow getting started and I found myself constantly skimming through the seemingly endless impersonal facts presented about the characters. I don't think that it is a remotely effective mode of characterization. I felt both disconnected from the characters and frustrated with the utter lack of dynamism in the plot. I only started getting interested with the introduction of Lisbeth Salander. I think this is due to more personal nature of the description of her from the perspective of Armansky. However, my interest in the story wasn't really incited until the 100th page when Vanger tells Mikael that he wants him to discover who murdered Harriet.

I don't understand Larsson's need build up to this moment in the plot. I feel that it detracts from the book and that it's unreasonable to expect that a reader will keep reading up to that point. If I had just picked this book up and tried to read it I probably would have put it down and given up after the first ten pages. I am also a little confused by the proloque. There seems to be such a disconnect between the prologue and the rest of the book, or at least what I have read so far. However, for all my complaints I do feel intrigued by the story and am eager to keep reading it. My main issue is that this eagerness did not begin until the 100th page.

Fun Home

Fun Home is a characterized as a tragicomic. I think this is very fitting since it is illustrated as though it were a comic book, but has very intense subject material. There is a direct contrast between the comic-like illustrations which to me have the connotation of humor and the actual text with its darker message. I think this illustrates the dichotomous nature of the narrator's memories. The novel is written as a memoir, the narrator is looking back on her life, seeing both the happy aspects of childhood and the dark nature of her father’s suppression of his homosexuality and the effect it has on her family. This is illustrated through the contrast between the comic style and the writing.

An interesting theme that I’ve picked up is one of isolation, yet at the same time connectedness. This is recurrent throughout the novel. Although the narrator is isolated from her father because of his secrets and struggles with his sexual identification, she at the same time is inexorably connected to him because she is also gay. In this illustration the reader sees the disconnectedness within the family. Nobody is interacting; they are all in their own private spheres. The narrator seated in the middle, however, appears to be trying to bridge the gap. She is simultaneously leaning closer to her parents yet also looking away. This depicts her desire to connect, yet at the same time her inability to completely bridge the barriers separating them.

"the-men-came-and-they"

Culture and nationality distinguish people from each other, however, it is language that is the essential unifier or distinguisher, it is the tool that that both connects and distances people. Cleave does a masterful job of creating both this sense of unity and separation through his use of language in Little Bee. Language is a cultural construct, words have meaning because people give them significance; meaning isn’t inherent, therefore, language is fallible. Different languages are considered superior because of their cultural affirmation. Cleave explores these themes through the perspective of Little Bee, a Nigerian illegal immigrant. Through Little Bee’s eyes, Cleave is able to depict how integral language is in the shaping and definition of one’s identity as well as its limitations through his use of italics, the dialogue of the characters, and the ambiguous, constantly changing nature of Little Bee’s name. Through these tactics Cleave explores how the assertion of a “dominant” language and culture over another, causes the blurring of identity.
Cleave’s use of italics and language juxtaposing the reactions of the Nigerian girls back home and the Queen both contrast and unify Nigeria and England and depict the limitations of language. Little Bee is taught that her language is inferior to the “Queen’s English.” The only way that Little Bee can escape “the men” and become a British citizen is to assimilate: “To survive you must look good or talk good, I decided that talking would be safer” (6). She is forced to deny her culture through her rejection of her language. Little Bee must now be defined by her ability to speak English, the way she speaks it, and the necessity of this causes the blurring of her identity. Cleave shows this crisis of identity through Little Bee’s constant comparisons of the reactions of the Queen to the reactions of the girls back home to situations she encounters and her inability to reconcile the two. Little Bee now has the language and cultural understanding of the English, ostracizing her from her village, “And the girls back home, their eyes would go wide and they would say, Weh” (128). Yet she has the skin and status of an illegal immigrant, making it impossible for her to be British, “This woman they released from the immigration center, this creature that I am, she is a new breed of human. There is nothing natural about me. I was born – no, I was reborn – in captivity,” (8). The italicized sections of the novel emphasize this sense of nonidentity. Little Bee does not consider what she, Little Bee, would say she considers what the two representations of culture she is a mix of would say: “The Queen could never say, There was plenty wahala, that girl done use her bottom power to engage my number one son and anyone could see she would end in the bad bush. Instead the Queen must say, My late daughter-in-law used her feminine charms to become engaged to my heir, and one might have foreseen that it wouldn’t end well,” (3). The speech and understanding that characterize Little Bee as Nigerian must be suppressed, she can no longer be that person. This hegemonic assertion of the British culture, the cultural construct of language that is given so much power, causes Little Bee to lose her identity as she is trying to fit into an artificially constructed one.
There is a huge cultural gulf between the people from her small village in Nigeria and the English. This gulf is represented by the different reactions that Little Bee imagines. The reactions generally depict the complete incomprehension the girls from her village would face if presented with English culture, in contrast to the knowledgeable English, “If I mention to you, casually, that Sarah’s house was close to a large park full of deer that were very tame, you do not jump up out of your seat and shout, My god! Fetch my gun and I will go hunt those foolish animals! No instead you stay seated and you rub you chin wisely and you say to yourself, Hmmm, I suppose that must be Richmond Park, just outside London” (128). This depicts the discrepancies between the first and third worlds and the huge cultural gap dividing them. However, these comparisons also serve to show the reader how useless both reactions are to Little Bee. Neither the Queen nor the girls back home can aid her in her present situation. She is stuck between the two worlds and cannot live or fit in either. “Sometimes I feel as lonely as the Queen of England” (80).
The language of the English that Little Bee relies on to survive proves futile. Whenever a moment of crisis occurs, language fails her. It is not language that saves Little Bee but her own strength and the aid of those around her. Cleave is therefore emphasizing the limitations of language. When Little Bee tries to convince the cab driver to take her and the other refugees away from the immigration center she misinterprets what she believes to be a compliment and only ends up insulting him, “Hello I see that you are a cock” (57). In an attempt to evade the police Little Bee, “stood up straight and as tall as [she] could, and [she] closed [her] eyes for a moment, and when [she] opened them again [she] looked at the policeman very coldly and [she] spoke with the voice of Queen Elizabeth the Second,” however, she still ends up getting deported (242). In both these circumstances, Little Bee is saved not due to her mastering of language, but due to the kindness of people. When the cab driver leaves them on the side of the road, a farmer gives the girls shelter. When Little Bee is deported, Sarah comes with her to protect her. The two cultures are unified in Little Bee because the power that people give language is limited and ultimately although language might separate people, humanity still connects them.
The assignation of a name to a person and the way they speak is central to their identity. It speaks about their language, their family, their roots, their nationality. Cleave shows this through the ambiguous nature of Little Bee’s name. The reader never knows her true name, Udo, or peace, until the end of the novel. Little Bee has to change her name and hide her identity in order to survive, “They must make up new names for themselves. It was not safe to use their true names, which spoke so loudly of their tribe and of their region,” (100). However, the ability to change her name, this autonomy, is the most power that Little Bee has, it shows her power over words, over language. She is forced to learn to speak British English and use it instead of her native English, “Learning the Queen’s English is like scrubbing off the bright varnish from your toenails, the morning after a dance. It takes a long time and there is always a little left at the end, a stain of red along the growing edges to remind you of the good time you had (3)”. The ability to change her name, this power that Little Bee has over her life, over words, the reminder of her native name and language, is the “stain of red… [reminding her] of the good time [she] had.” It is the last remnant of her identity that she can preserve. Although Little Bee may have to deny her Nigerian name and language, she still has the power to manipulate language; “My name is London Sunshine…The boy blinked at me, and the next moment we were both laughing. This was a good trick. In this moment I very nearly named myself back to life,” (222).
Cleave also emphasizes the identifying nature of language through the dialogue of his characters. There is an onomatopoeic or rhythmic quality to the language that Cleave employs to characterize the refugees, the girls from Little Bee’s village, and Yevette.
“ the-men-came-and-they-
burned-my-village-
tied-my-girls-
raped-my-girls-”
This is the way all the stories of the refugees go, “all the girls stories started out, the-men-came-and-they. And all the stories finished, and-then-they-put-me-in-here” (11). There is a rhythmic, chanting quality created by Cleave’s construction of language that is distinctly different from the language of characters such as Sarah and possibly alludes to a more tribal culture. The language used to characterize Yevette and the language of the girls in Nigeria is very dialectic and onomatopoeic, “He make a few changes on de computer, jus put a tick in de right box yu know, an - POW! – up come de names for release… Dey jus see de names come up on dere computer screen dis morning and – BAM!” (68). This is juxtaposed against the precision of the British English, Sarah’s constant correcting of her son’s grammar, “Is you getting baddies? Are we getting baddies, Charlie. Not is we” (28). However, each of the character’s reliance on their language and their way of speaking central to Cleave’s characterization of each, thereby creating a sense of unity throughout the novel.
It is impossible to refute the importance of language in Little Bee. Cleave constantly uses it as a tool in order to both emphasize differences between his characters and cultures and unify them. Cleave ensures that the reader is aware of the limitations of language and that although it is representative of identity and culture, it is not the only defining factor in one’s identity. Little Bee is a testament to the ability of language, its potential, to connect and distance, however, through her, Cleave also shows his readers that when forced to assimilate, when one culture dominates another, it is impossible for people to remain unchanged, for their identities to be redefined.

Little Bee Continues

The more I read of this novel, the more I enjoy it. I read the entire story in one sitting and since then have been going back and rereading sections I particularly enjoyed. I usually find whenever I go back and reread books that I had been caught up in the moment, the drama of the book and after I know what happens, I find myself let down when I reread. However, I feel like my understanding and awareness of the full story only enriches my appreciation when rereading Little Bee.

I find it very interesting that Cleave is not only able to write so convincingly from the points of view of two women, but also that all the male characters in the story are very static and have some flaw that leads or ultimately will lead to their downfall. Andrew is so consumed by his guilt and depression that he ultimately commits suicide rather than face the consequences of his guilt and the enormous problems the world is experiencing. Lawrence also refuses to face his problems and in my opinion takes an approach that is just as cowardly as Andrew's, one that the majority of people also take. Lawrence tells himself that yes, there are issues in the world that are horrible and need to be dealt with, but that's just the way the world is and there is really nothing that he can do about it.

I think that Lawrence is symbolic of the general attitude of England and the rest of the world towards major issues. Rather than focus on the personal aspect, how it would benefit Little Bee to live in England and the horrible fate that awaits her in Nigeria, he would rather hide behind the sterile, dehumanizing argument of the government that she is illegal and therefore, a drain on and detriment to the country. Lawrence recognizes that he is selfish for wanting Little Bee gone because he does not want anyone deflecting Sarah's attention from him, however, he clings to and almost seems proud of that selfishness. The reader also gets the sense that Lawrence will fall apart if or when he loses Sarah. His selfishness will ultimately be his downfall because in trying to hang on to her, he will drive her away.

Initial Reaction to Little Bee

I don't know how it is possible to just read the first 100 pages of this novel. I was immediately enthralled and moved by it and didn't stop reading until I realized just how far past the assigned amount I had read. Cleave immediately draws the reader into the story. I felt an immediate connection to both Little Bee and Sarah and genuinely care about what happens to them. Even the less significant characters like Yevette and the girl in the yellow sari are given a very real human significance that forces the reader to empathize with them. I was also drawn in by the way the story is constructed with the characters having to expose and deal with the past in order to move into the future. As the story progresses I am left with more and more questions that motivate me to read further.

I think the italicized sections in which Little Bee imagines what the Queen would say or what the girls from her village would say is a very clever way of both emphasizing the extreme cultural differences and tying the two completely different cultures together. It creates a sense of unity throughout the book and ensures that the reader does not forget the internal struggle in Little Bee, a girl who no longer has a home or a country, yet misses that home that no longer exists, but cannot truly or legally be a part of the home she now has the opportunity to have.

I also found it interesting that Little Bee initially mentions and contacts Andrew when she is attempting to find the O'Rourkes instead of Sarah who is the one who actually saved her life. Andrew, however, is too scared to do the same for her sister and therefore is a contributor to her death. I am excited to read more of the book as I have many more questions that I hope will be addressed and am already invested in the lives of the characters.

Deconstructive Analysis of Sunset Park

I believe that in Sunset Park, Auster is attempting to paint a picture of the housing crisis and the circumstances of the people it affected through the "dispossession" of his characters. He plays on the idea that all the inhabitants of Sunset Park are dispossessed and therefore, have no choice but to take over the abandoned house illegally.

However, I don't believe that Miles, Ellen, Alice, and Bing accurately depict dispossession. During the housing crisis, people were forced out of their homes and had absolutely no control over the matter. The inhabitants of Sunset Park however, seem to have dispossessed themselves. Miles' cutting off of his family, refusing to allow himself any material comforts, and forcing himself to do menial labor is due to his guilt. He is not forced to leave his home, his education, and his life behind, nobody evicts him. He does so because he is running from his problems rather than facing them. Even his leaving Pilar, something he feels he is being forced to do, being evicted from Florida, is completely voluntary. He could have chosen to have stolen for Angela or broken off his relationship with Pilar.

Bing is "dispossessed" because he wants to be. His dispossession is a form of rebellion and he flourishes in it. He could choose to get a good job and become a member of the community, however, he does not want to, he is content in being an illegal squatter. Ellen also has a steady job and an apartment at the beginning of the novel, which she gives up because she wants to join Bing's adventure. I believe Alice is the closest to actually being dispossessed since she has no money or home, however, she is highly educated and will, once she has gotten her degree, be eligible for a good job, that will guarantee her a home.

The actual dispossessed, the ones who truly suffer from the housing crisis are the people who's homes Miles takes pictures of at the beginning of the novel. They are the people who were truly dispossessed, forced from their homes, while the inhabitants of Sunset Park have dispossessed themselves.

Initial Reaction to Sunset Park

To say I was disappointed by the ending of Sunset Park is to put it mildly. I don't necessarily need a happy ending, however, after I have invested my time and energy into a book, I at least want to feel satisfied once I put it down. The ending of Sunset Park, however, is very abrupt and does not really seem to fit with the rest of the story. I felt slightly betrayed by the end of the story. Although a showdown with the police is a logical conclusion for the story or at least a logical event to take place since they were squatting illegally, I feel as though Auster lulls his reader into a false sense of security with the positive upturn in all the character's lives and then completely crushes that trust.

This might have been Auster's intention. It's possible that he meant for the journey of the readers to parallel the journey of the characters in that the characters are not really living in reality their entire stay at Sunset Park. They have managed to find a respite from the reality of their lives, however, reality must eventually intrude. Auster could also be trying to make a point about the housing crisis. That so many people were deceived by the notion that they could buy expensive homes that in reality they could not afford and were living in an economic bubble that did not reflect the actual economic circumstances, and therefore, this bubble eventually burst, much like the bubble of the characters' and the reader's security.

Needless to say, whatever Auster's intentions, the book ultimately fell flat with me. There seems to me an abrupt change in the tenor of the book starting page 266 with Morris' narrative when he and Miles are reunited. I felt as though the entire book was building up to the point where Miles would reunite with his family and yet this supposedly joyful reunion seems very downplayed and is given very little attention. There is a direct juxtaposition between Miles reunion with his mother and that with his father. I believe that a significant difference is that the scene with his mother is told in the present tense, the reader is living the moment along with Miles and Mary-Lee. However, the father and son's reunion is told in the past tense. As though it is almost an afterthought and doesn't merit a present tense description. Morris also seems very detached from his telling of their reunion. This could be Auster's way as Morris says, of showing how, "the imagination is a powerful weapon, and the imagined reunions that played out in your head.... were bound to be richer, fuller, and more emotionally satisfying than the real thing." Possibly Auster feels that since he has emphasized this reunion so much, the return of the prodigal son, that the reader will have already imagined a dozen different scenarios that he cannot surpass so he decides to instead focus on the reunion the reader will have given less thought to, that of mother and son. However, I believe this is a mistake since it downplays the significance of Miles reuniting with his family.

Overall I feel as though the ending just sends a very negative message and that Auster is trying to pull a deeper meaning out of the ending than the story merits. Over the course of the book, it seems as though Auster himself gets caught up in the lives of his characters and that at the end as almost an afterthought, remembers that he's supposed to be writing a book that reflects the issues of the housing crisis and therefore, proceeds to "dispossess" every one of his characters.

Blog Post #2: Literary Criticism

Writing about literature allows the reader to interact with and become a part of the story, as well as further their understanding of the work. A writer doesn't write and publish something if he doesn't plan for it to be read. Therefore, I believe that the piece is incomplete until it has been read. However, by writing and criticizing a piece of literature, the reader is becoming a part of the process by assigning their own meanings and interpretations to the work. This is what literary criticism does. It allows for the reader to put a voice to their reading of the literature.


There are many different forms of literary criticism but overall it has become an analysis of the work and its literary value. Criticism generally involves careful reading and rereading of a work in order to pick out specific details and analyze both the meaning of the text and how these specific details contribute to the text's meaning, in order to come to a general understanding of the text. However, people's conclusions and the processes they use vary tremendously. Some critics focus on the text itself and how it contributes meaning while others focus on their responses as a reader and the responses the author wishes to create. Therefore, two critics analyzing the same text could come to contradictory conclusions, yet both can still be valid.

I think that the function of literature is to allow the reader a place where they can escape from their own life and transcend space and time. It allows the reader to experience many things mentally that they could not experience physically. A person can travel to an exotic country without ever leaving their couch. Literature opens up a door to other worlds that broaden the reader's perspective and gives them new insights on life. When I'm reading a literary work, I look for something that will give me new experiences and understanding in a fulfilling even if not necessarily enjoyable way.

Blog Post #1

In his review of Sunset Park, “The Known World,” Brian Shwartz, initially states that he is unsure as to whether it is right for him to review the novel as he lives in Sunset Park and is therefore somewhat biased both by his own experiences living in the neighborhood and his resentment towards a "great author" who "had decamped from his comfy digs in affluent Park Slope and traveled to my downscale neighborhood to colonize the place with his characters and imagined scenarios." However, Shwartz proceeds to inform the reader that any preconceived notions he had about the novel and Auster were quickly transformed into admiration due to Auster's "masterful and compelling" portrayal of Miles in the first section of the book.

Shwartz then goes on to highlight his disappointment with the discrepancy he feels between this "lovely, troubling first section" and the following less then compelling sections told from the other character's perspectives. However, the biggest disappointment for Shwartz is the return to Miles' perspective. In the first section Miles seems very connected and sensitive to the people and stories around him. He takes pictures of the debris left behind in order to keep the memory of the dispossessed owners alive and acknowledge their pain and Auster describes this connection Miles feels to the past owners in loving detail. However, Shwartz is very irritated by Auster's description of Sunset Park. The "dry listing of facts sounds like a clumsy paragraph from a real-estate broker’s website," a complete contradiction to the full of life descriptions of Florida. Shwartz also feels that Miles seems completely detached from Sunset Park and the lives of the people there, "in Auster’s Brooklyn, immigrants are faceless, the neighborhood is bleak, and Miles is suddenly blind to the lives and hopes of the people around him."
Overall Shwartz appreciates Auster's ability to create a world in which the reader is made to see and believe the "beauty and fragility" of a world of literature. However, Shwartz is frustrated that the potential he sees in the beginning, Auster's, "interest in juxtaposing the world of New York literati with a larger, more complicated America," devolves from focusing on a world of uncertainty to a world that has been focused on by Auster in many of his other books, the predictable, real world of the New York neighborhoods.

I agree with Shwartz that the first 68 pages are the most compelling part of the story. I too was disappointed by the accounts of the other characters. While Miles initially seems connected to everything and everyone around him and his behavior is affected by this connection, he would even rather leave Pilar than disrespect the rules and the memories of the past owners by stealing things for Angela, in the rest of the novel, he and the rest of the characters are utterly caught up in their own lives and seem unaffected by the lives of those around them. Miles is not at all inspired to take pictures in Sunset Park, a place that one would think would inspire him as it is a similar example of the dispossession and destitution that he saw in Florida, yet he is utterly unaffected by it and instead spends his time moping around and missing Pilar. The other characters too for the most part seem more concerned with themselves than anything else.

However, I think that this account of the characters being unaffected by anything other than their own circumstances is actually a very good representation of the results of an economic crisis. It is easy to be concerned with others when you are well provided for and have the ability to be generous, yet it is much harder when you are fighting not just to save your business and job but your very home. Therefore, I think Auster's writing in the remainder of the book is a much more accurate depiction of reality.