Response to The Road

The Road was unlike any book I’ve ever read. It altogether contained a different style and each word had its own meaning and effect. Phrases like “The man” or “the son” have been expressed and written in such a meaningful way that my heart ached to read on. The relationship between father and son is so strong that when you want to put the book down, you can’t. You have to read on, you have to find out what happened even though tears are splattering all over the page. It’s like a tsunami that hurls at every possible angle and space it sees and won’t stop until it’s satisfied.

The simple similes and vocabulary used has a surprisingly powerful effect. Similes like “Gray as his heart” (27) and “They stood in the rain like farm animals” (20) are completely candid that the images created in the reader’s mind are very precise. In addition, the conversations between the father and son were short and sweet. Few words are used but the questions that are asked and the answers that are given and the short conversations they have describes the deep bond that they have.

Hope seems to be a key element that Cormac Mccarthy expresses in The Road. That’s what I liked best about the book. When he described the fire in them; the hope, the love, the goodness, there was so much of it in the hearts of the father and the son that I wanted to smack the world in the face for not giving them what they deserved.

Along their journey, memories are always sprouting up. Dreaming is always happening. I like this. I think that dreaming is another way of having hope. Having hope that you will survive. Having hope that you will reach the beach. Having hope that you will not starve. Having hope that one day this will all be over. Sometimes I feel that having hope is the lesson that God wants us to learn which is why I expected the book to have some sort of happy ending. Which it didn’t.

I hate sad endings. I hated this ending so much that when I finished reading it I threw the book across the room. Who knew that Cormac Mccarthy could stir up so much emotion in his readers? I wandered afterwards why Mccarthy decided to write such an intense yet passionate book about the relationship between a father and son. After some research I discovered that Mccarthy had a son, called John. Mccarthy says in an interview with Wall Street Journal “he’s the co-author of the book”(http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704576204574529703577274572.html) “He” meaning his son, John. He states that the conversations in the book are based on the conversations Mccarthy and his son had. Learning this information made the book so much more personal that I imagined.

After reading this book, it reminded me of the saying “You never know what you’ve got until it’s gone.” I think if my mother read this book she would probably be much nicer as she would realize that the world is an ugly place and every moment should be cherished. This book opens the eyes of society to the ugly world that many don’t see until something catastrophic happens. For instance, the tsunami seems to be the most recent catastrophic event that has killed the lives of millions and millions of people and opened the eyes of every single person in the world. Even shows like “Gossip Girl” emphasize how oblivious teens are to the real happenings in the world. Overall this book was very different from other books I’ve read; it made me realize how lucky I was to escape the many tragic events that have happened in the world so far.

How Fiction Works, James Wood

This article written by James Wood focuses on narration and fiction. The key points that strike me include one that mentions the narrator takes on a godlike and authorized status. I completely agree with this statement as the narrator is the person who is telling this story and hence everything comes from his/her perspective. There was always something I questioned in many books which was about the narrator’s character and whose side he/she would empathize with. For example in We, the narrator was D-503 and when I was reading that book, I wondered whether D-503 could be the mentally ill person and we as readers would be reading Zamyatin novel through D-503’s eyes hence acquiring a different perspective from say a member in the Office of Guardians or the Benefactor. Perhaps the world was completely normal and the problem did not lie with the Benefactor and the One State but rather D-503. I feel that the narrator plays the most important role in a novel and Wood also mentions that the narrator can merge into the character he/she is talking about. For a narrator to not do this would be extremely difficult. Of course the narrator is actually played by the author and it would be likely to assume that the author would be bias in certain aspects hence expressing some things more opinionated then others.

The next focal point that this article revolves around is “free indirect style”. The example he provides readers with is: “Ted watched the orchestra through stupid tears.” Where is the word “stupid” coming from? Who owns this word? This is an example of free indirect style in which the author incorporates his emotions and opinions into how the character may be feeling. Without the word “stupid” it would be a standard neutral comment. Free indirect style allows the reader to view things from the character’s eyes as well as the author’s eyes. There is a gap between the author and the character and free indirect style fills in this gap!

In more serious novels, authors make it more difficult to find the gap which allows the reader to view three different perspectives. For example, Woods gives an example from Henry James novel, What Maisie knew, in which three perspectives are seen: “official parental and adult judgement on Mrs Wix; Maisie's version of the official view; and Maisie's view of Mrs Wix.” (15) Overall, fiction and narration together creates many interesting thoughts to blossom in the reader’s mind.

Informal Commentary on extract from A Handmaid's Tale

This extract clearly depicts Offred’s ambivalence towards love through the use of tone, imagery and diction. Her constant change in tone illustrates her instability that has gradually built up because of her status as a Handmaid. Atwood uses imagery and diction to support these changes in tone as well as emphasize Offred’s position in this matter.

Tone is a key device that highlights Offred’s emotion towards the situation. Her constant change in tone confirms her volatility towards love because of her status as a Handmaid. This extract begins in a stubborn tone and contains a dry wit to it: “Far lot of good it did to her.” Offred’s character has clearly developed to one with no emotion to one full of anger. This is because the only thing that makes her a woman and makes her important to the world has been taken away from her. In addition, she repeats the word “don’t” in short sentences: “I don’t want to be telling this story. I don’t have to tell it. I don’t have to tell anything, to myself or to anyone else.” Atwood uses short, snappy sentences to have an impact towards the reader and the repetition of these negative words add to that. Offred repeats these words because as a Handmaid she has lost all her importance and freedom and here she demonstrates her will to fight back.

Her tone then changes to longing and remembrance. This is incorporated with the device imagery. She describes love in a sense of realism that the reader immediately knows that she has been in love before: “We were falling woman. We believed in it, this downward motion: so lovely, like flying…” The image created in a reader’s mind is of one jumping off a cliff, her hair swooshing past her, and he eyes gleaming with anticipation as she rushes towards the bottom.

Offred’s tone then becomes desperation: “The more difficult it was to love the particular man beside us, the more we believed in Love, abstract and total.” With the repetition of “more”, the reader already knows that she is not satisfied with her life and she wants more out of it! She wants more out of love! These long sentences used with the repetition of words allow the reader to absorb the message that Offred is trying to get across.

Later on, Offred portrays her morose experience with love: “…you’d wake up in the middle of the night, when the moonlight was coming through the window onto his sleeping face, making the shadows in the sockets of his eyes darker and more cavernous than in daytime and you’d think, Who knows what they do, on their own or with other men?” There are three devices utilized in this sentence; imagery, sentence structure, and rhetorical question. The imagery created is powerful and effective and one can imagine a crazy woman crawling to the side of her man’s bed and watching him closely. If you compare this type of imagery to the one earlier mentioned about how love is like jumping off a cliff, that one portrays the happy part of love, and this portrays the consequence to love. The long sentence structure drags makes the reader tenser as the sentence drags on to the end. With imagery, this is extremely effective! Her rhetorical question at the end demonstrates what love drives you to: fear. The rhetorical question is the most powerful element in my opinion to connect to the reader because it is as if Offred is asking the reader this question. It really gets the reader to think about the situation and what she would do in Offred’s position.

Overall, this extract made efficient use of sentence structure, imagery and tone to eloquently describe Offred’s emotions as a Handmaid and how it impacted love.   

Blame it on Feminism, Susan Faludi

Every individual who gains something can never bath in that happiness for long because they are struck by what they have lost by gaining it. In this case, gaining feminism has robbed them of their main happiness which lies in the hands of men. Men continue to have high dominance over woman because women are unstable due to their desires to please and impress them. Not only have they lost this element but they have also been blamed for many things that media and books have promoted. This includes the rise in slasher movies and how abortion made acceptable makes graphic murders on screen seem alright.

In A Handmaid’s Tale , something completely opposing this situation occurred. Faludi states that gaining feminism robbed them of their happiness in men. Atwood states that losing liberation robbed them of their happiness in men. Offred and Luke were married, had a daughter and were equals to each other. When policies were set straight and freedom was robbed from all, romance was forbidden and true love was destroyed.

Megan Marshall, a Harvard-pedigreed writer says, “Myth of Independence has turned her generation into unloved and unhappy fast-trackers, dehumanized by careers and uncertain of their gender identity.” (544) “Dehumanized” is the word that struck out to me here. In A Handmaid’s Tale, losing their freedom has caused a similar effect. They are not dehumanized but they are meant to act as if they have no feelings at all, almost as if they are machines. One situation that illustrates this thought very well is when Serena Joy is lying on the bed and Offred’s head is placed in her crotch. The commander then comes in and has sex with Offred. The reason why Serena is present in the room is to firstly make sure that no romance will occur and secondly the positioning makes it seem as if Serena Joy is the woman having sex with the Commander. The fact that this is a duty to all Handmaids’ disgusts me because they have no emotion in this sexual act which is meant to be pleasurable. No romance or emotion is shown from any of these three characters.

Women have not been liberated if there is so much loss that comes out of it. Woman’s misery has only increased since feminism has risen to power. “The ranks of women protesting discriminatory treatment in business, political and personal life climbed sharply.” (545) Achieving freedom hardly proved to do anything beneficial for women overall. “Man shortage” and “Infertility epidemic” (546) that occurs is not the cause of unhappiness to woman in the last decade but rather society propaganda that stirs up anxieties in women. Women care too much for the approval of both men and society which are the two main obstacles that obstruct a woman’s way to freedom. In I AM NOT A BARBIE DOLL, “it asks that women be free to define themselves – instead of having their identity defined for them, time and again, by their culture and men.” (548)

The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf

Female beauty is used as a “political weapon against woman’s advancement” (123) When feminism rose and became recognized in the early 1970s, woman gained many things to they’re benefits; however, beauty was an element that was used against them and destroyed them psychologically. They were mentally unstable about they’re appearances and keeping their beauty intact became the main goal of every woman. Each woman has two selves; one is for society to see and judge, the other is kept hidden and trapped within, banging on the door to be freed. The Beauty Myth in some aspects took away the freedom that women had fought for so long to achieve. It made them so aware of their looks that they were vulnerable to what the society thought of them. On the other hand, due to the fact that technology had not developed as much as it has today, “an ordinary woman was exposed to few such images outside the Church.” (125) Therefore, they were less affected by the Beauty Myth. Furthermore, during the olden times, women only had to function for “the service of the divine womb.” (125) These circumstances are similarly demonstrated in A Handmaid’s Tale where romance is forbidden and the Handmaid’s duty is to reproduce.

Pressure is one of the main causes to why many women undergo surgery to become the stereotypical “beautiful”. Pressure was placed onto all women for acceptance into society and men. This again relates to A Handmaid’s Tale and can he portrayed through the character Janice. She can be described as a conformist as she is always ready to do whatever Gilead demands her to do. When she became pregnant, she was envied by all other Handmaid’s. Greed is an effect a woman obtains from beauty. Once you have had a dose of it, you need more, you become addicted. Beauty is a drug and when one sees images of beautiful women, you naturally long to be beautiful like “them” because they are accepted and respected in society. Germaine Greer described the “Stereotype”: “I’m sick of the masquerade.” (124) At first all that women do is put on a mask for society to judge them by. However, pressure and greed become increasingly elevated within themselves and they become transformed. Women become transformed into the society’s ideal being. They do not become their own ideal self. They are followers to the wants of society.

Beauty has two primary targets: society and men. Since feminism rose to power, the beauty myth has grown stronger and stronger and is out of control. “Thirty three thousand American women told researchers that they would rather lose ten to fifteen pounds than achieve any other goal.” (123) Similar to A Handmaid’s Tale, some women in the club, Jezebels, portray this idea as they have given up on themselves and become prostitutes. They have given up and become all of the Commander’s traits of an ideal woman. Pleasing the Commander is their only goal and this is done through their dressing (short, skimpy clothes), seductive behavior and cosmetics (tons of makeup).

Klaus Barbies and Teen Mags

Klaus Barbie, and other dolls I’d like to see, Susan Jane Gilman

Gilman expresses her hatred towards Barbie dolls. She fell in love with Dawn dolls which were diverse and each had their own individual look. I say “were” because unlike Barbie’s which are still very popular and played among kids today; Dawn dolls were pulled off the market in the mid 70s.  Why did Gilman hate Barbie’s so much? Before I read this article, I believed that Barbie’s were just dolls that kids play with. However, from reading Gilman’s interpretation of the effect that Barbie’s have in the society, I realized that Barbie’s have played a much bigger impact than simply entertaining children. “Barbie is not just a children’s doll; it’s an adult cult and an aesthetic obsession.” (71) There is only one factor that determines whether you have made the cut in a group, or a school, or a company - looks. Looks define your worth and Barbie’s portray this message.

The reason Gilman hated Barbie’s so much was because she stopped believing that she was beautiful, she stopped believing that she was valuable to society. Every being is beautiful. Barbie’s constrict the “every being is beautiful” thought and diminishes people who do not look plastic, stupid, blond haired and blue eyed. Barbie’s manipulate children’s mind into believing that being a Barbie is being accepted. Lindsay Lohan dyed her hair from a red-head (like Gloria, Dawn doll) to blond (like a Barbie doll). Why? She could have just wanted to explore. This thought could have been driven by an installed image in one’s mind of a Barbie doll that many believe to be beautiful and accepted. In today’s media, there are many chick flicks that demonstrate how an unattractive girl leads a sad and lonely life and then she becomes popular when she obtains a makeover. Some examples are “She’s All That”, “Princess Diaries” and “The House Bunny”.

Manipulation is also used in A Handmaid’s Tale where the government manipulates women by erasing any feelings including “love”. This is done by separating family and many women become mistresses. “Making love” is considered as “doing a duty”. When Janice becomes pregnant, she is thrilled not because she has created a baby that is hers but because she gets a reward and gets treated much better than some other mistresses. She carries a smile of triumph on her face the entire time. She simply cares about herself. The government has manipulated women into having no feelings for anyone or anything. This is similar to our world where children are manipulated into competing with other girls over beauty.

Teen Mags: How to Get a Guy, Drop 20 Pounds, and Lose Your Self-Esteem

Like Gilman’s article above, constrictions and beauty are also mentioned here. Magazines have self-constrictions and are very hypocritical. Roshanda Betts from Dallas no longer reads teen magazines because it contains racist definitions of beauty and they say “You should love yourself for who you are, and then they have the seven-day diet.” (98) Every cover for a magazine has a slim, white model and girls become paranoid and insecure with their looks. Magazines are a source of manipulation that manipulate teens into looking the right way and looking beautiful. What is the reward for being beautiful? Boys. Impressing the opposite sex is a key part of the lives of teens. Girls would do anything including sacrificing their health for the attention of a boy. Magazines promote this idea!

Furthermore, magazines include articles about depressing, tragic stories of young girls. This could consist of tales like “A girl who was raped, shot, and left for dead,” and “One girl’s battle with depression.” (98) No analysis is given regarding these articles, they are simply articles that teens are supposed to speculate on and sympathize over.

Magazines in a particular way do impose constrictions to young girls. They create insecurity, fear and sadness in teens that do not have the perfect body they display in magazines. It is disappointing how beauty seems to be constricted in yet another way. Beauty is diverse and visible in every being and magazines should start recognizing by changing the way they organize their magazine.