Mr_Shank

Pg. 47 ” Her name was Phoebe. I want somebody to say her name. Do you hear me?” she stood up. “I want someone to rembeber her name”

  I thought that this was interesting becuase for some reason Norah refuses to let go of the “dead” baby. As the story progresses we see that this only becomes worse, and Norah continually goes back to her old house and revisits these memories. I beleive that by the way Norah is acting, that she is going to cause a lot of trouble and resentment between her and David.

  Why do you think that Norah still carries the burden of the “dead” baby, even though she never saw or met the baby . She doesn’t even remember the birth. So as far as I can see, If David wouldn’t have told her they had twins she wouldn’t know about the second baby.

  I also would like to add that I think it was very irresponsible for Caroline to take that baby as her own. Maybe she was just a little crazy at the time, but I think that she will come to regret her decision. Any thoughts??

Ok, so I’d like to connect what has happened so far in the book to a real-life crisis that America is facing right now: illegal immigration. Mexicans are crossing the U.S./Mexican border so they can start a new and better life in the United States. In the story, the same thing has happened, only the other way around. John Grady, Rawlins, and Blevins are Americans who cross the border illegally.

The U.S. is known as the land of opportunity. That is why Mexicans are trying to sneek across the border. They want to start better lives. Those illegal immigrants who are caught are usually deported back to their own country, whether it be Mexico or somewhere else, unless they get some sort of special permission.

In the book, the reason the three Americans cross the border isn’t really made clear. It’s assumed Blevins has had a hard life at home with his stepfather, but with John Grady and Rawlins the reason they left is sketchy. Rawlin’s seems to be sick beyond the help of medicine and John Grady doesn’t want to leave the home he’s always known to go live in some city where he’d have to start all over again. Did these three characters cross the border for the same reason illegal immigrants are now? To start a better life? Or did they just want to “get away from it all”? Also, what do you think will happen to them if the Mexican government finds them? The people they’ve met so far don’t really care if they are illegal immigrants, but the government may think differently. Do you think they’ll be deported, or killed, or…. what?

Hey guys! Sorry if I am not doing the right post. Just let me know and I will change my role. I will be the character watcher for this round at least. Anyway, so far in this book, we have been introduced to a few characters. They are Dr. David Henry, Caroline, Norah, Pheobe, and Paul. Just so we have an introduction, I will give an overview of each character we have met so far.

Dr. David Henry is a 34 year old doctor living in Lexington, Kentucky with his wife, Norah. So far, his characteristics and actions reveal him to be easily swayed and manipulated by his emotions. He also is one for needing or preferring cold hard proof in a situation, making his new fatherly role a bit difficult.

Caroline is a younger nurse who works beside Dr. David Henry. She has a slight crush on him, but is careful not to show her emotions, for she sees him in a professional environment, and is not the type of person who would care to make his wife upset. She is caring, for she makes it her responsibility to take little Pheobe in as her own for the time being. She is very smart and skilled at her job as well.

Norah Henry is a 23 year old woman living in Lexington, Kentucky with her husband, David. So far, she has given birth to a set of twins, unknown to her, and takes her motherly role very seriously. She seems to be a strong woman who has faith in herself and in her husband, when sometimes neither deserve it.

Pheobe is a newborn baby girl with down syndrome. She was one of the twins born to David and Norah one winter evening in a Lexington clinic in the middle of the night. She is somewhat of an embarrassment to her father, and as of now, her mother does not know of her existence. Caroline, the nurse who assisted in the deliverance of her, took her in and is raising her as her own for a while.

Paul is a newborn baby boy born with no problems, unlike his sister. He was one of the twins born to David and Norah one winter evening in a Lexington clinic in the middle of the night. He is the only child Norah knows is living, for David did not make her aware of her daughter, saying that it would make her upset to see her and possibly have her pass away soon. 

What do you guys think of the characters so far?

Do you have any opinions about certain characters?

~Megan Douglas

I think that this book is a really good book! I am really liking it! I appologize for posting so close to the deadline.

In Part I, John Grady leaves Texas to go and escape to Mexico. He has many troubles with his mother, and his father is pretty ill. Then he finds out that his parents are actually divorced, and that his mother is going to sell the ranch that John loves so much. This is when John meets up with his buddy Rawlins and they start their trip. They then meet Bevlins. He seems skeptical at first, but then the boys gain up enough trust to incorporate him into their group. Throught the first part, the boys overcome some obstacles. I have an opening question for you to start off, and then tomorrow I will post a comment with a couple more questions on it.

My question:

Would you have handled any of the obstacles differntly? If you would, what would you have done? Why?

(Would you have made a “different turn” that would change the outcome of the situation?)

Colin Easter

Before the Time Traveller begins telling his story of traveling through time, the characters he is telling the story to are introduced.  These characters have names such as Journalist, Medical Man, and Psychologist.  The narrator also leaves out names when they should be used.  For example, on page 14, the Time Traveller says, “You have told Blank, and Dash, and Chose about the machine?”  The narrator uses “blank” in other sentences as well to purposely leave out names.  The other men themselves are called by their profession, not their names.  Why do you think the author names the characters in these ways?  Will the professions of the men play a role in the future, or is the author trying to draw contrasts in the professions of that time to the professions of other times?

First of all I will be following the character of the time traveler.  He seems to be an interesting character.  He is quite obviously incredibly smart or a genious, but it seems at this point he may be verging on insanity.  This is atleast the view of the host’s guests.  They think this because of his absurd stories of time travel.  We do not know much personal information about the character, however.  For instance, the author does not tell the reader his name, or anyone’s name in that matter.  We do know that he is a very bold man.  While in a room filled with people he does not seem to have any problem voicing his opinion, even when he is being judged by them.  This is made even more evident by the contrast of the timid people in the room.  Other people seem to have a problem believing him because of his ingeniousness.  As the narrator says if someone else would have told his tales he would have been more likely to believe them.  The description of the character after he returns from “time traveling” is quite absurd.

“His coat was dusty and dirty, and smeared with green down the sleeves; his hair disordered, and as it seemed to me grayer- either with dust and dirt or because its color had actually faded.  His face was ghastly pale; his chin had a brown cut on it- a cut half-healed; his expression was haggard and drawn, as by intense suffering.”

So my questions to you are:

1.  Is the time traveler insane or did he actually discover the way to travel through time?

2.  What is the reason for the author not using anyone’s names?

3.  What do think the reason for his appearance is?

~Erin C.

Ok, first post.

Words to Watch -

aberration – the act of departing or deviating from the normal, ordinary, or usual (David describes his family as being an aberration)

ossification – the natural process of bone formation (“I’m just an orthopedic surgeon,” he reminded her. “I could tell you the ossification pattern for fetal bones, but that’s about it.”

March 1964 -

Dr. David Henry and his very pregnant wife, Norah, live in Lexington, Kentucky. There is a sudden, unexpected blizzard about three weeks before Norah is due, but the baby decides to be born right then. Since the roads are dangerous, David can’t continue driving to the hospital, and pulls off into his clinic. He delivers the fraternal twins himself, and right away can tell that Paul is perfectly healthy, but Phoebe has Down Syndrome. He doesn’t want to ruin his wife’s life, so he gives Phoebe to the nurse to take to an institution. The nurse, Caroline, just happens to secretly love David. Whoo-hoo. David tells Norah that Phoebe died at birth, and she is depressed.

1965 -

David and Norah drift apart from each other. Now, Norah wants another kid, but he doesn’t. David has a difficult past, with poverty, and the death of his sister to a heart defect. Norah has a drinking problem, but stopped after she crashed the car. She buys David a video camera, which soon becomes a new obsession for him.

Caroline couldn’t bear to leave Phoebe at the institution, and now claims that she is her baby. She frequently sends letters and pictures to update David on Phoebe. David sends them money to help support them, and sort of tries to find where they live. Caroline meets Sandra, a woman who has a four-year old son, Tim, with DS also, and they become friends.

What was your first reaction when David gave up Phoebe because she is mentally disabled? Do you think he made the right choice? If no, what should he have done or told Norah?

Pete Hautman created some pretty great characters in this book so far and I can’t wait to start discussing them with you guys.

Character Overviews

Jimbo:  Seems to be the narrator of the story, meets Denn while playing poker, and hasn’t really played a huge role yet.

Denn- 17 year old high school dropout, who moved to Vegas to play poker, great observation skills, in love with a card dealer named Cattie, was played by Cattie, Morty and Frisk but we don’t know why.

Cattie- a 19 girl from Minnesota who worked her way up and now is a great card dealer, keeps things to herself, I think she has some tricks up her sleeve, has multiple “jobs”, and was with Denn.

Morty- helped to set up Denn in poker and play him, gave $10,000 to Cattie (reason unknown).

Frisky- Helped to set up Denn in poker and play him with Morty.

Be prepared to read a very long post!  I know that we only read two chapters so far, but I’ve found a lot of things to discuss.  Plus, if you’ve read any of my other posts/comments you know that I write long, rambling, and confusing things.

To start I’d like to talk about a few things on the first page.  One thing in particular is the very first quotation in the novel.  The quote is, “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”  I think this is quite obvious to figure out – hold your tongue.  But that’s not why I’m bringing it up.  Instead I’d like to talk about how this relates to Fitzgerald’s introduction to the narrator, Nick Carraway.  There are significant parts to this quote.  The first issue it brings up is Nick’s moral values.  He has always been taught not to judge which makes him very different from the rest of the characters in the book.  For example, Tom blatantly states that he is a racist in the first chapter when he says, “It’s up to us who are the dominant race to watch out or these other races will have control of things.”  (He’s speaking about the book The Rise of the Colored Empire which I find particularly funny.)  These moral values of Nick leads the reader to trust what he says and therefore makes him a reliable narrator.  This one quote gave us all that insight into Nick.  Can you find any other deep and/or revealing quotes in the text?  Explain how they give us insight to Nick’s world.

The whole rest of my post is going to talk about Fitzgerald’s unique writing style.  This is probably what makes the book the most interesting for me.  One of the techniques Fitzgerald used is foreshadowing in the first chapter.  He writes, “…it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.”  This leads me to believe that Gatsby is in danger by someone or something.  What are your opinions about this? Does anyone have specific predictions?

Another intriguing item found in the novel was that the book itself is supposedly being written by Nick. Here’s the quote: “Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book…”  Usually books are being told as if they are actually happening or being remembered, not the narrator writing a story about it.  Now why would Fitzgerald chose to have Nick writing down his experiences with Gatsby?  And Nick’s not even a writer – he’s in the “bond business”.  What do you think about this odd choice of perspective?

One thing that was very prominent in Fitzgerald’s writing is his use of oxymorons.  There are so many of them, both obviously placed and hidden subtly.  Here are some examples:

Pg. 1: He didn’t say any more but we’ve always been unusually communicative in a reserved way and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that.

Pg. 10 – 11: And so it happened that on a warm windy evening I drove over to East Egg to see two old friends whom I scarcely knew at all. 

Pg. 20: Among the broken fragments of the last five minutes at table I remember the candles being lit again, pointlessly, and I was conscious of wanting to look squarely at everyone and yet to avoid all eyes.

Pg. 23: I knew now why her face was familiar – its pleasing contemptuous expression had looked out at me from many rotogravure pictures of the sporting life at Asheville and Hot Springs and Palm Beach.

Pg. 40: I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.

And those are just a few examples!  Why do you think that Fitzgerald uses so many oxymorons in his writing?  How does he use this technique via the characters?

And yes, there is still more.  As well as using oxymorons, Fitzgerald also likes to use ironic phrases/descriptions.  Here’s one for you: “So Tom Buchanan and his girl and I went up together to New York – or not quite together, for Mrs. Wilson sat discreetly in another car.  Tom deferred that much to the sensibilities of those East Eggers who might be on our train.”  How is this section ironic?  How does Fitzgerald use irony when describing the characters?

This is the last part, I promise.  The thing I’d like to discuss is how Fitzgerald introduces each character. When Nick is telling the reader about a new person he has met he tends to lean towards describing the physical traits rather than their personality.  But in a way, the properties being described give the reader an insight into what the character is really like.  I know how the two correlate. Do you?  Choose one character and explain how the physical attributes describe their personality as well.

Recap:

1. Can you find any deep and/or revealing quotes in the text?  Explain how they give us insight to Nick’s world.  
2. What are your opinions about Fitzgerald’s foreshadowing on pages 6 and 7? Do you have any ideas about what will happen to Gatsby?
3. Why would Fitzgerald chose to have Nick writing down his experiences with Gatsby?  What do you think about this odd choice of perspective?
4. Why do you think that Fitzgerald uses so many oxymorons in his writing?
5. How does Fitzgerald use opposites via the characters? (How are the characters opposites?)  Name a set of characters and explain how they are completely contradictory.
6. How is the quote about Nick, Tom, and Mrs. Wilson on the train ironic?
7. How does Fitzgerald use irony when describing the characters?
8. How do the physical characteristics of the characters seem to correlate to their personality?  Choose one character and explain how the physical attributes describe their personality as well.

Wow, that was long!  You guys just love having me in your group, don’t you?

Have fun!

Erin B.

P.S. – I think this blog deserves a little extra credit.  Don’t you?