Luca's 20th Century Blog

Throughout our discussion of  The Stranger,  Mersault's behavior   was often a topic that sparked all sorts of conversation. His personality and attitude were constantly questioned. Why is Meursault the way he is? Many things can be said about the fact that he is commonly emotionless and unaffected by the world around him. It is strange to me how he can care so little about so much.  He does not seem affected by his mother's death. This could, however, be simply because he was very detached from her in her final years. He sent her to live in a home where she could be taken care of, and some might think Meursault has no heart for doing this, but he had fair reasoning. When Maman's funeral comes around, Meursault displays no emotion in the presence of his mother's casket, even having a cigarette and a coffee with the caretaker, who later scrutinizes him for it. Is there an explanation as to why Meursault acts this way? Some might say he has already gotten over Maman's...

  In  The Sun Also Rises,  the change in setting ultimately affects the characters. Throughout the book, we see the environment in Paris, where a large part of the book occurs. We were exposed to the atmosphere early in the book and discovered a lot about how things work in Parisian nightlife.  We saw characters out late at night, hopping between Cafes, clubs, and different restaurants, all while consuming copious amounts of alcohol. This can take a toll on someone. In this case, I want to highlight Jake as my subject. Jake in Paris is witty and ironic; he does not take pretty much anything seriously (then again, nobody but Cohn takes anything seriously). This witty and ironic sense of humor is the only way to be taken seriously in Paris. Cohn is constantly ridiculed by Jake and other characters in the book for his lack of irony and his uptight behavior. Everything is so lax in Parisian life. After the war, everything has lost its importance in the grand scheme of so...

In Virginia Woolfe's  Mrs. Dalloway,  Clarissa finds herself in a bit of an identity crisis regarding her marriage. We know that Clarissa has been married to Richard for a long time and her relationship with him seems fine initially. As the book progresses, Clarissa has more and more recollections of the things she did with Peter Walsh when they were both teenagers. Constantly, Clarissa thinks about what Peter Would think about her now, even though she is married to Richard and is in her early fifties. This seemed strange to me at first; why would Clarissa continue to think about what Peter Walsh thinks about her? Peter does not even live in London; he was living in India then. Clarissa contemplates her relationship with Richard and wonders if she is truly happy in it. From Richard's point of view, he truly loves Clarissa; he thinks about her and cherishes his marriage but struggles to show it. This is one of the main reasons Clarissa sometimes questions if she would have been...

 Reading the mezzanine gave me a whole new perspective on what zooming in on every aspect of life is like. I had never read a book that displayed such a point of view. I'll admit when I first started reading the mezzanine, I did not fully understand what exactly Howie was doing, but with added discussion and analysis, I began to comprehend that Howie was a man with extensive depth in his thinking. For example, the different "branches" he goes off on add intrigue and wonder to something as simple as a stapler. This book opens your eyes to a not necessarily "new" way of thinking but a different way of looking at certain aspects of daily corporate life. Many authors believe such details are trivial in novel writing and that readers will be uninterested in such tidbits. Still, in reality, these details are something lots of people relate to. These give the story a more relatable feeling.  When I can relate to a book, my desire to read it exponentially grows. Howie, ...