Apr 19 2021
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As I Lay Dying

  • From his first narrative, Darl is obsessed with vision: what he can see, as well as what others might see from other perspectives. What do you notice about Darl’s distinctive mode of vision throughout the novel? 

From the start of the novel, Darl’s descriptive language immediately grabs the reader’s attention. It immediately immerses the reader into the world that Darl and Jewel are in. “The cotton-house is of rough logs, from between which the chinking has long fallen. Square, with a broken roof set at a single pitch, it leans in empty and shimmering dilapidation in the sunlight, a single broad window in two opposite walls giving on to the approaches of the path.” He describes Jewel, the path in which they are walking on and their surroundings with such detail that the reader can clearly see with their imagination what Jewel looks like, the way he walks, the way the cotton-house looks, how far apart Jewel and Darl are from each other while walking, and even the path they are walking on.

This is quite different in comparison to the way that Cora speaks/thinks in her sections off the novel. Cora’s section is almost quite literally a stream of thoughts and conversation. Compared to Darl’s descriptive language, Cora’s is simpler but also more relatable and easier to digest. Darl’s language is more sophisticated and complex. Much of his thoughts are observations of his surroundings or other people. There isn’t as much dialogue as there is in Cora’s sections, for example, or in Jewel’s shorter section in the beginning of the novel where he expresses his thoughts—the most we know of him so far.

What I notice about Darl’s mode of vision throughout the novel is that he is almost acting like the narrator of the story He describes everything in such great detail that the reader gets the information that they need to figure out what is going on, where they are, what things must look and feel like, and what the characters around Darl, and Darl himself, are doing. I think this is a unique and important part of the novel from the reader’s perspective because it offers another lens, one with broader vision and is unfiltered as if it was being told in the third person.

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Apr 19 2021
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Septimus

  • Who is Septimus Smith? What is distinctive about his inner landscape? Why might Woolf have chosen to feature this kind of character in her novel?

Septimus was introduced to the reader as a passerby when the car started making a loud noise. He is a World War 1 veteran with mental health issues that aren’t said but showed through his actions, his wife’s actions and the fact that his wife is trying to seek help from psychiatrists. His inner landscape is definitely different from the typical character. He experiences PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), shell shock, in the novel, though it is not named. He seems to live and exist in his own world, where more often than not, people are against him or attacking him— ‘people’ being the ghost of his late friend that passed in the war, Evans, that he sees from time to time, and the constant feeling that people are watching him and judging him. Septimus has removed himself from the physical world and instead lives in a world inside himself where he then sees and hears things that aren’t there in real life. What is noticeable about his thoughts is that he seems to notice the beauty in the world yet at the same time, Septimus is bothered and fears that human beings don’t have the capacity for honesty or kindness. His detachment from the world enables him to judge people in a harsher manner than Clarrisa, for example, and sees the world as threatening and offers little hope.

Though on surface level they seem very, very different, Clarissa and Septimus share many similarities. Both have a love for Shakespeare, have a fear for oppression, and even their noses share a similarity. Their differences in class, however, help the novel offer contrast between the ideas of struggle in the working class (that of Septimus being in the working class and a veteran) and the ignorance of the upper class to such struggles and even the horrors of war—something Septimus is familiar with, unfortunately, and Clarissa will likely never know. Ultimately, Septimus chooses to kill himself, which then becomes a topic at her party which she originally really dislikes because the wife of the doctor brought ‘death’ to her party by bringing up his suicide. Woolf’s choice to bring in Septimus’ character could be to provide a parallel to Clarissa’s character and thoughts. Septimus is so similar to Clarissa but the difference in their endings to the novel as well as the differences in their lives’ realities offer a comparison that the reader will be able to see if reading closely. Although they are both this similar, the differences in the pressures of their lives made the divide between them even greater. Living a working class life with the experiences of war embedded in your memories and your daily life cannot compare to that of a wealthy housewife getting ready for a dinner party. Septimus’ inner and outer struggle to free himself from the shackles of the trauma he faced shone light into the possibility of perhaps understanding mental illnesses more and thus being more understanding of those suffering from it on a daily basis, especially because Woolf herself fell victim to mental illness as well.

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Apr 19 2021
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Significant Mrs Wix

  • Who is Mrs. Wix, who is first introduced on pp. 20-1? How does she relate to the range of representations of womanhood in the novel? How does Masie feel about her?

The range of women we see in the novel so far are quite limited. We have Maisie’s mother, a woman with strong energy though not always the best to Maisie (in fact we don’t really see her act like a mother to Maisie that much. She has her own life and lives quite glamorously. The only other female character of substantial importance would be Miss Overmore. She is young and beautiful, educated and fashionable. She is the epitome of femininity in Maisie’s world. In a way, she can be considered to be similar to Mrs. Farange on surface level due to their feminine energy (the way they dress, their education, etc.) but the difference comes in the way they trat Maisie. Miss Overmore teaches Maisie and dfinitely seems to care a lot about her, if you don’t consider that it is her job to do all those things because she was hired to be Maisie’s governess. But then again, she essentially chooses to abandon her job as her governess because she ends up having an entanglement with Maisie’s father. So, is she really any different from Maisie’s mother if she also puts lovers before a child? 

            With that, the introduction of a woman like Mrs. Wix is almost akin to a breath of fresh air. Mrs. Wix is all that the other two women are not. She is not fashionable, she is older, and she does not have the background that both Mrs. Farange and Ms. Overmore have. She is the most motherly figure that Maisie has encountered so far in this novel and perhaps one of the best things to happen to Maisie in a way. She tells Maisie stories and treats her like what she is: a child. Although Maisie was more infatuated by the way Miss Overmore looked, because Miss Overmore is beautiful, it’s safe to assume that there is a comfort she feels from Mrs. Wix that she doesn’t get from both Miss Overmore and her own mother.

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Apr 15 2021
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Research Question

For my research paper, I wanted to look into the idea/concept of motherhood and its effects on those lacking a mother figure. In the novel What Maisie Knew, Maisie has three main “mother” figures. With each one, her character changes and we see the best and worst of her. How will her experience with her three mother figures affect her in life (even after the novel– what are some possible after-effects of her experirences)? What really is the essence of motherhood when it comes to raising a child?

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Apr 15 2021
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some vagabond resources on BANJO

First, the word “vagabond,” which I’ve used in sense A.5 in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Next, a sampling of songs that are featured in the text. Feel free to nominate new recordings as we go. Some of the lyrics have been hard to locate, so happy hunting.

Finally, and this may not work, but I’m toying with the idea of creating a map of the novel’s vagabond movements through Marseilles. Initial research suggests that much of the “Ditch” and the port was razed in Occupied France in the 30s and rebuilt, leaving many changes to street names and configurations. If someone wants to go really deep, it would be cool to create a digital resource with old maps, using GIS or similar.

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Apr 15 2021
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Child Narrators (Research Question)

For my research paper, I was thinking about the unique perspective of children as narrators. Both Maisie in James’ novel and Vardaman in Faulkner’s novel offer a distinctive point of view of the events which occur. Children are typically very observant and aren’t bogged down by the ‘rules’ of society. I’m not too knowledgeable about children’s literature, but I know that during and prior to the Victorian era, children were exploited and not thought of as important human beings (I think). Maisie and Vardaman’s narratives counter the naiveté simplicity thought of children. Both of them navigate their world astutely connecting the dots and thinking complexly about their relationships with those around them, Maisie doesn’t resign herself to being a pawn and makes decisions for her well being; Vardaman thinks about death and non-death (existence) through the fish he caught in the beginning of the novel.

I was thinking of using Piaget’s stage of development to analyze Maisie and Vardaman. Or intertextually compare and contrast them.

I suppose my main question relates to how child narrators offer a unique perspective, or how their perspectives differ from the adults about them.

Apr 15 2021
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Research Question

The idea of existence and purpose affect the behavior and mindsets of characters in William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying. The death of Addie Bundren provokes the thoughts of these different characters, leading them to question and analyze the world and people around them. Existence, in these instances, not only occur in the physical world, as with Addie’s death, but in the mind as well. The idea that people and living creatures, although being memories after death, can continue to live on in one’s mind, however others may choose to move on, forget, or suppress them. What are these different perspectives and what does each suggest about what it means to “exist”?

Apr 14 2021
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Prof. Newman’s resource page

I hope you enjoyed the research-based session with Prof. Newman from the Library on Monday. She has provided us with a useful “cheat sheet” on how to conduct literary research. There’s also a link on the assignment page, FYI.

Apr 12 2021
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Research Question

The characters in William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying are interpreted in a variety of different ways by the other characters as well as the novel’s audiences. How are the members of the Bundren family viewed by each other, the outside world, and the reader? Why do these differ and what is the significance, if any, of Faulkner’s choice?

Apr 12 2021
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Research Question

In Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, the reader gets to meet Addie on page 169, many days after her passing. What is the significance of her brief narrative so far into the book? Why is Addie ‘revived’ post mortem at a time when her family seems to be breaking apart? What did we learn about the nature of her character from this short passage? Did her point of view reveal any new information about the Bundren’s family dynamic?

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