'"Fight Club" and "A Streetcar Named Desire"

Although I may not have really liked alot of the readings we did in class, we did watch a lot of good movies.  I had watched both Fight Club and A Streetcar Named Desire before, but not in the same context that we did in this class.

In Streetcar, when I watched it in high school, we just watched it as a classic, not as a member of the gothic genre.  I did not pay attention to any of the effect and what they might mean.  Watching it in this class however made me pay much more attention.  I had never noticed Blanche's avoidance of light.  When I first saw this I thought it was just because she did not want people to see her real age.  She then refers to her first love as 'vivid light' and I realized that she avoids it to avoid reality.  Just like the other southern gothic stories we have read, Blanche cannot let go of the past, she cannot let go of her ex-husband.  If Blanche goes into the light, she is forced to accept that she is still alive while her ex-husband, the ray of light in her life, is dead.

I have seen "Fight Club" a full two times before, however not always in chronological order, or at the same time, so it has never really made sense to me.  I am really happy that I finally understand the plot of it!  I could see the theme of consumerism throught this movie.  Since I do not own the movie I had to Google it to find some examples of consumerism.  I found this quote that I remember, and really liked "I think there's a self-defense mechanism that keeps my generation from having any real honest connection or commitment with our true feelings. We're rooting for ball teams, but we're not getting in there to play. We're so concerned with failure and success—like these two things are all that's going to sum you up at the end".  The narrator says this.  I completly agree, people measure the level of their success based upon the material possessions they own.  I am caught between two worlds here however.  Being a Marketing major, consumerism is what will pay my bills.  We want people to get a feeling of satisfaction and success out of buying products, or they wouldn't spend nearly as much as they already do.  I do believe that money can't buy happiness, but it sure can rent a good time.

"The Yellow Wallpaper"

This story was very eerie.  When they are describing the house it took me a while to realize that they were most likely describing a room in an insane asylum.  "one window and not room for two beds, and no near room for him if he took another".  In the beginning she talks about her husband as if he is the greatest thing in the world, and is taking such good care of her, especially in the first few lines of pg 176.  This is where I really see that she is delusional because no woman in the right mind would be so happy about her husband locking her away in a room and giving her insane drugs every hour.  Finally we start to see some emotion from her, and depression, which is what a normal reaction would be.

At first I was slightly troubled by this story.  I was wondering what the author had been through to write such a story.  Did her husband send her to an asylym? Did he abuse her and lock her away?  In class that next day I finally understood where this came from.. I cannot believe that was a remody.  I think the doctor created that simply because he did not feel like taking care of female paitents so he just sent them to bed.  Overall I enjoyed this book and I think it has a really interesting background story. I really like how she sent the story to her doctor as well.

"Where are you going, Where have you been"

"Where are you going, Where have you been" is the book I felt most connected to.  As a girl growing up in today's era, this is a situation we are constantly reminded of.  I has been very prevalent in the recent year at TCU as well.  Being in the TCU bubble we all think nothing bad can happen to us, we walk alone at night, leave our cars and houses unlocked and never think twice about where we are going.  As we have seen recently, TCU isn't as much of a bubble as we all thought.  With the rapes from last year, and the muggings and attempted kidnapping/rapes this year, we all need to watch ourselves all the time.  This book was just another reminder that this situation has been putting girls in danger for longer then we have been alive.

"A Rose for Emily" and "Old Gardiston"

"A Rose for Emily" and "Old Gardiston" share a theme with "Jean-ah Poquelin".  In all three of these short stories the main character cannot let go of the past.  In "A Rose for Emily" Emily refuses to leave her house, or even take care of it.  No one has been let inside since her husband died.  When she dies and the house is finally opened up, the people of the town are surprised to find that everything looks like it hasn't been touched in  years.  They also find her husbands body laying in bed, decayed with a body impression next to it and a single grey hair.  This leads the people to believe that Emily has been sleeping next to her husband for years as if he had never died.  Emily cannot let go of her past.  This is also symbolized by her not taking care of the house.  If she does yard work, or any upkeep it is a reminder that time is passing and she does not want any time to pass.  When Emily dies it is symbolic of her moving on.

In "Old Gardiston" Miss Duke also cannot let go of the past.  She viewed falling in love with a northern as unacceptable, much like the people of the south viewed being rejoined with the north unacceptable.  During reconstruction people tried as hard as they could to resist being "northernized", just as Miss Duke refused any help from a northerner.  In the end, the south gave in and succeeded to the north, accepting as much as they could reconstruction.  In the end of the book when Miss Duke is left with nothing, she realizes that people from the north aren't all that bad and she could in fact love a northerner. (just as the south realized they LOVE the north)

"The Sheriff's Children" and "Jean-ah Poquelin"

These two stories both dealt with the issues of race and slavery.  I am not going to really discuss "The Goodherded Grapevine" because to be completely honest, I could not understand it at all.  I understand that it was written as blacks talked in that time, but I wish we had read a modernized version (if there is one) so that I could really understand and see the deeper meaning in that story.

I enjoyed the sheriff's children.  I am a huge history buff so when we started talking about that time in history and connecting it, I really got into the story.  The plot line reminds me a lot of Charles Chesnut's life.  He himself was the prodigy of a white father.  This story focuses mainly on the inhuman treatment of white men to black men.  Even though Mulatto was his son, he sold him into slavery instead of sending him to the free states, thus solidifying his status as a slave.  When Polly comes to see her father the sheriff seems to ignore the fact that Mulatto is his son, but does not forget that Polly is his daughter, because she has the same status as her father.  

"Jean-ah Poquelin" is also another story symbolizing themes from the 1800's.  This story is symbolic to the Louisiana Purchase.  In the story Jean does not want to give up his house to build a road.  Much like Louisiana did not want to be purchased as part of the United States.  In the end he ends up giving in and letting go of his house and his past, just like Louisiana had to do.  They had to accept their fate as part of the United States and move on. 

Behind the Mask

This was probably my second favorite book read, behind "Northanger Abbey".  I really like reading stories about deceit and manipulation, which is exactly what Jean does, and it makes the story even better that everyone else actually ends up better off then they were before, in the end.  I also enjoyed watching the power struggle between Jean and the rest of the family.  Jean always finds a way to put herself in the front with the rest of the family (who she is supposed to be waiting on) in the back tending to her needs.  This leads me to a major theme in this book, as well as in gothic literature of the southern belle heroine.  This heroine is very weak, often fainting.  She also needs a lot of time to primp and get ready (although in this book it's because she has to age down over a decade).  The heroine also begs, and receives the attention from not only the males in her life, but also the females.  This is seen in many gothic books.  The heroine will use fainting as a way to gain the advantage because everyone shifts their attention to her.  You can see this in the very beginning of the book.  Jean has first arrived and is standing in the doorway to the parlor.  There, the family has the power position, with them sitting down, interrogating her with questions.  After she faints, she is the one laying down with the family standing all at her side, attending to her every need.  This was a classic tactic used to gain attention, as well as get out of uncomfortable situations.  I liked "Behind the Mask" a lot because it was not a dark, creepy novel.  It was a lot more upbeat and warm then most of the other books that we read.

"Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Fall of House of Usher"

I have always been a big fan of the book "Legend of Sleepy Hollow".  I think the main reason is because the main character is from Connecticut, like me.  Also, when I was younger we would go on haunted hayrides every year and the headless horseman would ALWAYS appear.  This book reminds me a lot of home, with the detailed description of what fall is like.  Fall is my favorite season back home, with the changing of the leaves and the brisk weather.  This was one of my favorite quotes describing the scenery. "It was, as I have said, a fine autumnal day; the sky was clear and serene, and nature wore that rich and golden livery which we always associate with the idea of abundance. The forests had put on their sober brown and yellow, while some trees of the tenderer kind had been nipped by the frosts into brilliant dyes of orange, purple, and scarlet."  Washington Irving can write so well about this because he lived through the weather.  I can only image how beautiful it was back then with no paved roads and the old, rustic houses.  He paints such a descriptive picture of this, I can see myself in the actual town, running from the headless horseman.


"Fall of the House of Usher" was another book that I read in high school that is perfect for the gothic genre.  This book has always creeped me out a bit.  It has the perfect gothic setting.  Some words that describe the house are "insufferable gloom", "insufferable", "vacant eye-like windows" and "iciness".  These words all give off the gothic sense.  My favorite quote describing the house is "There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart - an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime."  To me this quote sets up the rumor that the house is the doppleganger of Roderick Usher.  The narrator gets the same feeling from being with Roderick as he does by looking at the house.  Then in the end when Roderick gets killed by his sister, the house also collapses.  I fully agree with the theory that the house represents Roderick in a different form.  Doppleganger is also a common theme in gothic novels so it would bring the novel around full circle.