Mr_Shank

Megan Campbell Blog #2

I am going to  focus on chapter 15, Knitting, to summerize.

In this chapter a man named Jacques goes into the wine shop with Defarge and they go to the spot where Dr. Manette was hidden. Jacques then tells Defarge how he saw a man that was in chains under Marquis’s carriage. Then, a few months later he says that he has seen the man being marched alongside the road by soldiars. This man was being marched to jail where he stayed until he was hung. This chapter is called knitting because  Madame Defarge’s knitting work shows in its stiching the names of the people the revolutionaries wanted to kill.

I don’t think that I can live up to Mallory’s last 4 1/2 page post, so I won’t try. 

Instead,  I’m going to help you guys with some difficult words, the get on to the summary.

The first disgustingly ridiculous word that I found was Ægean.  First off, this word has a combined A and E, which automatically make it a doozie.  The A and the E combined, æ, is actually a letter in many other languages.  As you can imagine, it is pronounced like it is to separate letters side by side, AE.  On page 92, Ægean is used.  In this case it is simply referring to the Aegean sea.  So this word doesn’t really have a hard definition, but it is confusing because of the Æ.

This word fortunately uses all standard letters, but unfortunately is a lot more difficult.  The word superciliousness makes it’s debut on page 92. Superciliousness is defined by WordReference.com as “the trait of displaying arrogance by patronizing those considered inferior.“   As you can imagine, it is used to describe Eustacia’s feelings for Diggory Venn the Reddleman.

I found this word worthy of discussion due again to strange letter.  On page 104…

…As I gazed down on my paper to find the word of which I was about to define, a far more challenging word caught my eye, so I instead chose to define it.  The word I was going to talk about was manœuvring.  Again note this use of fancy letters.  Anyway…

The new word that I saw is disparagement. It means “the act of speaking contemptuously of.”  You guessed it, this one is also used by the always friendly Eustacia Vye!  Diggory Venn uses this word in his conversation with her on page 104 to describe the way she is talking to him.

Another word frequently used throughout this section was mummers.  Mummers are actors, as you could have guessed, but I thought this word was worthy to be in this post because of the infrequency of its use in or lives.

I think that those are sufficient words for this section, so I’ll skip right along to the summary.

This section begins with Diggory Venn meeting with Eustacia Vye.  After a long conversation which spans many a page, Eustacia tells him to go away.  Nothing was really acomplished during their long winded discussion except Eustacia becoming aware of Diggory’s affection for Thomasin.  Later, Diggory expresses his love for Thomasin to Thomasin’s Aunt.  She responds by telling Wildeve that their is another suitor after Thomasin’s hand.  Wildeve is pretty cool with this, because he’s tight with Eustacia, but learns that Eustacia really isn’t interested in him when he is only wanted by herself.  With Wildeve not exciting anymore, Eustacia goes looking for adventure.  She convinces a mummer to trade places with her so that she can act in the Christmas play.  The whole purpose to being in the play was to get closer to Clym Yeobright.  The section comes to  close when Eustacia goes to the plays final performance and attempts to contact Clym.  

(Clym Yeobright is the Native that is returning as alluded to by the title.)

And finally, at long last, I finish this post with a question.  This has crossed my mind many times while reading the book.  How do you visualize Eustacia and Thomasin?  Give some details, try to be descriptive.

Edit- Haha I was reading over this and realized I didn’t put my name in it.  That would have been unfortunate.

Double Edit-  2/22/09 (Sunday) 11:29 AM:  I Can’t find Adam’s Blog yet! Ahhhhhhhhhhh! And he already responded to this one so he won’t see this message!!!

Brian Wawrzyniak

For my “illumination” I decide to break down Chapter 7: Monseigneur in Town from the second book.  First I would like to talk about the setting.  Up until this point, the action has taken place in England.  Now the focus switches to France.  If you remember, back in the first chapter, Dickens wrote about the different problems that were happening in the two countries.  One of the problems that France was having was rapid inflation. This does not appear to be effecting the upper class.  Monseigneur’s reception is lavish, elegant, and indulgent.  All of the guests are lost in a fantasy world.  This can also connect back to the first chapter. England’s upper class were/are not effected by the crime that is sweeping across the city.  This chapter shows how the French are also not being effected.  They begin to throw coins at each other towards the end of the chapter.  

Another thing I would like to mention is the party guests’ behavior.  As mentioned above, the French upper class members have entered a delusional state.  They have placed themselves at such a high level that Monseigneur goes as far as to even put himself above God.  This can be seen when Monseigneur changes around a quote from the Bible.  The adapted quote reads ” The earth and the fulness thereof are mine, saith Monseigneur.”  By saying this, Monseigneur is believing himself to have more than any other man on Earth. Dickens added further meaning to this quote by placing it within the following context: “The text of his order (altered from the original by only a pronoun, which is not much) ran: ‘The earth…”  Monseigneur is saying in this passage that the Lord is “not much” and that his name could be easily interchanged with the term “God”.

This brings me to my question for the group.  Which upper class is behaving worse after what we have seen so far?  Is it the French or the English?  Keep in mind what we already know about the English upper class and what I just wrote about the French.  Support your answer and give details from the text.

Have fun with that!

Erin B.

Taylor gets a job at Burger Derby and leaves Turtle at a free day care. Taylor is then fired several days later. Taylor starts looking for a new job and a new place to live. She eventually meets LouAnn. Taylor moves in with LouAnn. They are both from Kentucky so they understand each other’s culture and dialect. As time goes on, there is evidence that Turtle has been a victim of abuse.

Taylor eventually gets a job at Jesus is Lord Used Tires with Mattie, even though she has a fear of exploding tires. Mattie helps Taylor get over her fear. Taylor later finds out that Jesus is Lord Used Tires is a shelter for many people. Taylor and LouAnn have become a family. Taylor goes to work and LouAnn does things around the house.

Some time passes and Turtle says her first word: “bean”. Taylor calls Turtle the smartest kid in the world. Taylor and LouAnn find out that Turtle’s real name is April. When Taylor takes Turtle to a doctor, she finds out that Turtle is actually 3 years old, not 2, and that Turtle suffered from broken bones. The doctor also says that Turtle is growing physically, but not mentally. Taylor meets Edna and Virgie, 2 older women who babysit for Taylor and LouAnn. Virgie is a mean and predjudiced lady. Edna is kind and caring.

At Mattie’s place, Taylor meets Esperanza and Estevan, who are from Guatemala. There is also a doctor named Terry who comes and treats the people at Mattie’s place, who are fugitives. Taylor, LouAnn, Edna, and Virgie watch Mattie on TV. Mattie talks about human rights. Virgie reveals her predjudice to everyone when she says that foreign people shouldn’t be allowed in the U.S. Esperanza and Estevan are shocked. Taylor finds out her mom is getting married. While Taylor and LouAnn are in the park, Angel, LouAnn’s husband comes and asks for a divorce. The chapter ends with Taylor and LouAnn going home.

I found the following words interesting:

Beach Blanket Bingo: 1965 movie, helps reveal the style of that time period

sarong: long strip of cloth

foisting: forcing someone to do something

discombobble: sad or confused

picayune: not important

Respond and tell me what you think

I find it confusing that the main character after seeing the heat ray would go home and spend a nice relaxing day at home. just like in most of chapter 9.  for example it says on pg 117 “I got back to lunch about two, very tired for, as I have said the day was extremely hot and dull; and in order to refresh myself I took a cold bath in the afternoon. About half past four I went up to the railway station to get an evening paper, for the morning papers had contained only a very inaccurate description of the killing of Stent, Henderson, Oglivy, and the others.” I find that strange that he nearly died and then he goes home and does nothing to prepare for the martians or is even really worried. Now he did leave with his wife to Leatherhead once the fighting began but in the day before that there were no plans of escape or even really any feelings of sorrow or fear. I believe that the author is trying to make it seem as if we are not really prepared for this war. He might also be foreshadowing how his ordinary life is about to be turned upside down. Maybe just the opposite, he might be saying that after the war is said and done he may go home nearly dying but moving on as if nothing had happened. what do you think? Do you believe that this is a foreshadow of events to come or a general statement about the planet Earth and its occupants? Or do you believe that this has nothing to do with the story and that I do not know what I am talking about and just wasting your time? Go ahead voice your opinion.

Okay, some questions that I have to get the party started are…

Is there any “true love” in this book? Are there possibilities of “true loves?” Use previous and current relationships to support your answer. Don’t forget to use furture possibilities now that Clym is in town!

Also, are there unique customs in this book that are displayed? Some examples could be superstitious or religious customs that are displayed in the heath. Use examples that you find unique to the people of the heath. If you don’t find any extremely unique customs, tell what is similar to today’s culture. Or you can tell what is similar AND different.

have fun!

Well in this past section of the book we now see that the martians clearly have not visited the Earth for nonviolent reasons. It was mildly noticable before, but now we see a glimpse of some of the real damage that these martians can do. When I was reading this section and the narrator said that he felt a surge of heroism it reminded me of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. If you haven’t read this novel before it was written by Mark Twain and is the sequel to “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”. The reason why this reminded me of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is because in both instances the main character takes up the mantle of someone else. What I mean by this is that in “War of the Worlds” the narrator felt the need to do something heroic to quench his desire for heroism and he didn’t feel this before, and he said that he only felt it because of the situation at hand. The same goes for “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. In this series written by Mark Twain Tom Sawyer is normally the instigator of trouble, but when Tom Sawyer is taken out of the story for a majority of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” we see that Huckleberry takes up the mantle of Tom Sawyer. This brings up an interesting question, are certain people who are more outspoken driven to fufill their certain desires when someone who normally would do so are no longer there? Also, do you think that these more outspoken people only step up to claim the mantle if someone else is not there, or do you think that they would stand up to someone else who already had the mantle? Don’t be afraid to respond.

I feel that the book can still be connected to the movie Independence Day.  In the movie the aliens are destroying cities everywhere.  In the book the same thing is happening.  Oddly enough in both the book and the movie they use Heat Rays.  However, in the movie the aliens were in aircraft hovering over the ground, while in the book the martians were on the ground.  The Heat Rays were also different but they still destroy everything in site.  There is one big difference between the two though.  In Independence Day the airships had shields that stopped anything from damaging them, but in The War of the Worlds if the robots get hit with any kind of gun round it can do damage.  But if you miss your target your dead.

I have one question-What do you think the military would do if martians did attack earth, and they had both the airships AND the robots?

Kody Bell

The passage that I chose for this week is a very interesting one, managing to be funny and serious at the same time. I found it on page 114, half way down. It reads:

“Lou Ann, I moved here because I knew we’d get along. It’s nice of you to make dinner for us and all, and to take care of Turtle sometimes, and I know you mean well. But we’re acting like Blondie and Dagwood here. All we need is some ignorant little dog named Spot to fetch me my slippers. It’s not like we’re a family, for Christ’s sake. You’ve got your own life to live and I’ve got mine. You don’t have to do this stuff for me.”

 ”But I want to.”

“But I don’t want you to.”

This passage is an important part of the story because it shows how much that Lou Ann is depending on Taylor and how much she had depended on Angel. Taylor treats this realization as you would expect a mother would react. Where do you believe this characteristic came from? Why do think her reaction was this instead of leaving Lou Ann to deal with it herself? What do you think would have happened if Tay;or never said anything? Do you think this confrontation will effect Lou Ann’s and Taylor’s relationship? Why?

There’s my blog for this week!

-Jenni Kantor