Double Facepalm

"In the mean time I took every precaution to defend my person, in case the fiend should openly attack me. I carried pistols and a dagger constantly about me, and was ever on the watch to prevent artifice; and by these means gained a greater degree of tranquility" (Frankenstein, 142).

But that tranquility was short lived, wasn't it?

Victor reflects upon the creature's haunting words, "I shall be with you on your wedding-night." And now that I see the quote right in front of my face, I realize I could have included it with my foreshadowing examples, but this example doesn't take much analysis to discover.

He believes that the creature will kill him, which he is surprisingly okay with -- "the prospect did not move me to fear" (123). Maybe it's not all that surprising if we consider Victor's wretched life. But he really worries about how Elizabeth would react, so he takes some precautions to make sure she'll be physically and emotionally safe. On Victor's wedding night, "I earnestly intreated her to retire," and he looked around for the creature. He wasn't anywhere to be found until the "shrill and dreadful scream" (144).

My small group decided today that this was an instance of situational irony. Victor expects the creature to murder him, and he expects that telling Elizabeth to leave him will help her, but in reality, the creature ends up going straight for Elizabeth. The creature doesn't want to injure or kill Victor; he wants to wound him emotionally, because that's where Victor is most vulnerable. (I predicted this last week, right? It might have been obvious, but I'm still going to glorify myself for that one!)

Can anyone tell me what foreshadowing is?

"Pardon this gush of sorrow; these ineffectual words are but a slight tribute to the unexampled worth of Henry, but they soothe my heart, overflowing with the anguish which his remembrance creates" (Frankenstein, 114).

Monday night, I read about how Clerval's presence in England affects Victor. Perhaps Frankenstein would rather be alone in England, but Henry could act as a shield "between [Victor] and the intrusion of [his] foe," which is always handy (111). Also, compared to Victor's gloominess, Henry is always "joyful," and Victor appreciates his "devoted and wondrous friendship" (113). So when I first read the quote above, I was confused why Victor felt sorrowful and didn't realize until later that it was foreshadowing!

Sure enough, Victor finds Clerval "strangled" by the creature, just like William was strangled (128).

Wait, I have one more! "Those were the last moments of my life during which I enjoyed the feeling of happiness," says Victor right after his wedding (142). Since the audience know that Victor survives and ends up on Walton's ship, we know that he can't be referring to his future death; the one that would make the most sense would be Elizabeth's death. And looking ahead two pages, "She was there, lifeless and inanimate, thrown across the bed, her head hanging down, and her pale and distorted features half covered by her hair" (144).

These instances of foreshadowing in the novel build suspense, and they help the reader realize that even though what happened to Victor in the past was horrible, he's still got a ton of crap to go through later on.

Jovial and Whimsical Tone

Haha, just kidding.

"Cars slushed by on the street outside, where it was getting dark. But it was getting dark on the inside, too" ("Popular Mechanics," 1).

The setting in the story is very vague -- first, the characters were "in the bedroom" (2), and then they moved "into the kitchen" (19). Other than that, there are few concrete details in the setting.

What we know from the first paragraph is the weather outside and its relationship with the moods of the characters in the story. The snow was "melting into dirty water," and the darkness outside reflected the darkness "on the inside" of the characters. The darkness shows up again when the kitchen window gives "no light" (31). That dark and dreary setting sets a gloomy atmosphere of the story. Certainly, the darkness also lives within the characters due to their actions (particularly at the end -- I can't say what happened specifically, but I'm pretty sure that baby is a goner).

There is one more setting detail. The beginning of the story is in the bedroom, but when the male character moves toward the female, she takes "a step back into the kitchen" (19). That little move -- that tiny shift in setting -- was kind of a defensive move, and it foreshadowed the escalation of their argument over the baby.

Additionally, I've been informed that "Popular Mechanics" is the name of a magazine, which I didn't know. My initial reaction to the title was that it meant "things that people do on a regular basis." If that's the case, then the title applies this story to life in general, and it becomes an allegory for any kind of conflict in which an issue is decided suddenly without thinking of consequences.

An "Aha Moment"

"I did something I never had done before: hugged Maggie to me, then dragged her on into the room, snatched the quilts out of Miss Wangero's hands and dumped them into Maggie's lap. Maggie just sat there on my bed with her mouth open" ("Everyday Use," 76).

Mrs. Johnson's unprecedented words and actions with Dee illustrate a major change in character -- the narrator is a dynamic character. Both Mrs. Johnson's motivation and foreshadowing throughout the story make this a fitting shift in character.

I would describe both the narrator and Maggie as "simple." Mrs. Johnson is a rough, hardworking mother, and Maggie lacks "good looks," "money," and "quickness," much like her mother (13). While Mrs. Johnson and Maggie share this special connection, Dee has developed a different "style," which the narrator passively resented (12). "No" was a word Mrs. Johnson has rarely spoken to her eldest daughter (2). That's the before situation -- there is a conflict between Dee and her mother, and I knew it would be resolved, probably by her mother finally saying that word, "no."

Several plot elements probably drove the mother to refuse to let Dee have her mother's quilts. Dee detached herself from her "oppressive" family by changing her name to "Wangero" (25). Then, she took the family's churn top, a tool both beautiful and useful to Mrs. Johnson (54). Then, when the narrator suddenly refused to allow Dee to take the quilts, Dee accused her of not understanding her heritage (81).

I attribute the narrator's sudden shift to an epiphany, and I believe that this change in character is permanent -- it fits perfectly. The narrator made a promise to Maggie (64) -- or at least said she did -- because she is legitimately closer to Maggie. Additionally, Dee's actions were inconsistent; she abandoned her family name, yet accused Mrs. Johnson of not understanding her heritage. Go, Mrs. Johnson!

Also, Big Dee (in video game form -- 0:33):

"Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of use lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair" ("A Rose for Emily," 60).

How many people used that quote, do you think? Also, I had to read this story a few times to understand; the chronology is all mixed up, which is nice and rhetorical and everything, but it's not easy to read.

The evidence seems to be there that Emily murdered Homer -- the poison she bought, the iron-gray hair, and the presence of his body in her house. I'm going to talk about motivation; why would Emily murder Homer? Let's take a look at some possibilities!

• The town pressed her for taxes (4).
• Her father died (15).
• Potentially, she was crazy (28).
• Homer was not a good fit for her -- a Yankee, a foreman (30).
• Homer himself liked men (43).

There are clues all over the story that foreshadow Emily's murdering Homer. She handles situations without leaving her house, as she did with the people collecting taxes, and she clings to people after they die, as she did with her dead father. It's likely that because Homer was not a good fit for Emily and he liked men, Emily could not leave him the way a normal person would. She left him Emily-style -- she didn't leave her house, and she clung to his dead body.

This is all kind of gross.

No Post on Sundays

"I was always smiling when the mailman got there, and continued smiling even after he gave me the mail and I saw today wasn't the day" ("How I Met My Husband," 196).

That, Mr. Question One, is where my expectations as a reader were overturned definitively. That's not to say that there weren't elements throughout the plot that suggested the turn of events at the end of the story.

The plot structure was mostly chronological with two exceptions -- a flashback (the story of how Edie got her job) and a few subtle references to the future. For the most part, the flashback characterized Edie as common and humble (making her a sympathetic character) as she dropped out of school and started simple work (23-24). The future references, on the other hand, foreshadowed the end of the story. Phrases like "I see that now, but didn't then" (157) and "I didn't figure out till years later" (195) suggested an impending shift in Edie's life in which she would become wiser.

Another element within the plot was the slow revelation that Chris Waters was arguably very unsuitable for Edie. He was engaged to Alice (93), was not very close with her (117), and cheated on her -- without intimacy, of course (143). The simple girl, Edie, needed someone who was ready to settle down, a prerequisite Chris clearly did not meet (I originally typed "meat").

Although I did not completely expect Edie to settle down with someone other than Chris until the second-to-last page of the story, I recognize that the arrangement of the plot gave me, the reader, clues about Edie's future with not Chris but Carmichael.

Big D!

"They met his eyes and simultaneously grinned. One of them pointed with his eclair butt.

'Is she dead?' he asked" (Brave New World, 207).

This vividly reminded me of the time in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (the movie, I don't think the book) where Dudley taunts Harry about his mom. "Where is your mum, Potter? She dead? Is she dead?"

There are some good parallels, I think. John shoved the little kid who said it, and Harry stood up and got angsty. Actually, John and Order-of-the-Phoenix-Harry are both very angsty. Additionally, in most cases, it's probably not fun to be asked "Is she dead?" repeatedly when it refers to someone you care about.

Before John became a character, the result of the weird description of the "civilized world" was a clash between things that the book said and my brain. Now that John's a character, it's a clash between things that the book says and him. So that's a pretty cool shift in perspective.

Aaand I totally called this death three posts ago. Which, I suppose, is the point of foreshadowing.

"Now can anyone tell me what foreshadowing is? Yes, Miss Granger?"

"The remedy was to make the holiday continuous. Greedily she clamoured for ever larger, ever more frequent doses" (Brave New World, 154).

In chapters eleven and twelve, I found two examples of what I think could be foreshadowing. This first quote refers to Linda overdosing on soma, which I feel is probably going to end her. Being super greedy usually does not end well. Huxley probably wants to convey that instant gratification is dangerous. That's why I'm reading this book instead of playing Tetris!

"'No,' he concluded, with a sigh, 'it won't do. We need some other kind of madness and violence. But what? What? Where can we find it?'" (185).

If I had to guess, Helmholtz, we can probably find it within the next few chapters. Helmholtz and John are compatible because they both believe in the power of words, which I'll talk about more in my next post. To form beautiful words, though, something out of the ordinary has to happen. I think Huxley is trying to get me excited for the climax, and it's sort of working, but in all honesty, I'm more excited for this whole thing to be over.