Category: Uncategorized

Prometheus was this Titan who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans. He was super rebellious and generous but he was also punished very harshly. He got chained to a rock and had his liver pecked out by an eagle every day. I think Shelley’s basically saying Frankenstein’s doing something similar: playing god and trying to create life. Frankenstein’s reaction to his creature was so messed up. Like he builds this creature and then, the moment it lives, he freaks out and basically ghosts him. Frankenstein running away shows zero responsibility. He’s so caught up in his own fear and disgust that he doesn’t even think about the creature’s feelings. It shows that he really didn’t think about the consequences of his creation. He just wanted to see if he could do it. It’s a huge contrast to Prometheus who saw his gift through, despite the great personal cost. So, yeah, “The Modern Prometheus” is very fitting. Frankenstein’s playing with fire, and he gets burned. And he abandons his creation, unlike Prometheus, who stayed with his. 

Jake and the boys are on a trip in Spain. It’s nothing like Paris where there are many buildings and everything is in walking distance. The days here are very hot and they are not provided with the same convenient services they had in Paris. This trip has brought out the best in them. They have a lot of skills and knowledge that the trip has brought to life. They’re always prepared when going on their little excursions like bull fighting or fishing. Paris never gave them the opportunity to let their masculinity shine. I mean think about it. Men living in Paris doesn’t sound manly at all. Even the conversations between the guys are different in Spain, they aren’t constantly talking about which party they are going to next. This change in scenery really brought the best out in these boys and I hope they realize change is what they need in their lives. (They probably won’t because boys are stubborn)

Jake finally showed some emotion! Jake suddenly broke his character and snapped after hearing about his friend flirting with his girl friend that’s not really his girlfriend. Brett can’t be his girlfriend because she’s getting married to Mike! Jake was convinced that she’d risk it all to be with him, but little did he know he wasn’t the only one she was flirting with! She was flirting with his close friend Cohn too! Okay I’m starting to think that Brett is the problem here. Throughout the book Jake goes through the cycle of drinking every day, talking to same people, having the same conversations and very rarely he switches it up with the ladies. And suddenly this long continuous cycle of events stops for a second to let Jake vent. He stops to vent about why Cohn isn’t good enough for Brett. I think Hemingway included Jake’s break in character to highlight his fear of change. Whether it’s change in his relationships, where he lives, what he does on a day to day basis, etc. Jake tries to act cool but in reality Brett drives him crazy. He feels close to her and she makes him feel at home. He thrives where he feels comfortable. So as soon as someone like Cohn comes into the picture to cause a disturbance in the relationship between Jake and Brett, Jake can’t handle change and this causes him to flip out. All of this to say, Jake needs a change of scenery.

In pages 96-101 the main charcter, Jake, is staying in Bayonne, Spain with his friends and picked up some some landing nets and rods to go fishing with. Jake does not express any of his emotions when in Spain, this makes me wonder if he truly wanted to go in the first place. Even though he is traveling with his friends, the author gives Jake a spiritless tone that he yearns for something more in his life.

I chose to read the book “The Sun Also Rises” by Ernest Hemingway , published in 1926. I was persuaded my my mom’s expression when she lit up as I pulled it off the shelf. After reading the first few pages I would say the story is straight forward. There are no extra words to make it look pretty. This book is a war story and surprisingly I still want to read it because I think reading history is boring and confusing. But Hemingway words things in ways that are very easy to follow so I’m excited to see if this book can change my perspective on war stories.

Before Mr. Norton leaves Mr. Trueblood’s house, he hands him a $100 bill and proceeds to pass out. He couldn’t stand the horror story even though it was him who ignored the invisible man’s warning to leave. The intriguing story made him stay longer than he should have. He thought he could change society’s outlook on black people after listening to Trueblood’s story but he instead says nothing, and the gift of money was the only thing he could do to make everything better in his eyes. It seemed like he didn’t know what to do after this man had poured out his entire life story to him. Mr. Norton passing out serves as a symbol of disconnect between the white and black community. He appears to be an authoritative, wise, and caring figure who is eager to venture out and learn more about the other side of the community that he never gets to see. But he approaches Mr. Trueblood as if he is going to hear the same stories about the black community that never sounded too concerning. Once he encounters the realities of the black community, his world flips upside down and he simply removes himself from the situation. This lack of awareness from Mr. Norton demonstrates the societal complacency that the author is trying to present to the reader.

I’m taking a second to grasp what I read exactly. There’s no way the author put an incest scene in this book. It’s so detailed it makes me uncomfortable to read, and the guy sounds so into the story as if he enjoys talking about it. This guy is talking to the invisible man and the founder about how he made his daughter drink the “tea” while asleep. How disgusting. But this is how the author wants us to feel. I’m sure he felt uncomfortable writing about it too, which means he went through all of that to show us something. He wanted to show the reader how dark the reality of society can be. Not so much focused on incest itself but on the overwhelming emotions that come with the distortion of personal identity. The invisible man can relate to the guy telling this story because the act of incest symbolizes any type of trauma from the past when everyone was treating them wrongly, therefore they will attempt to feel more powerful in a world that belittles them. I like that Ellison shares this point of view because it also implies that there’s always another side to the story. The person committing that crime might have some inner conflict that they don’t show, just like the metaphor of incest. They keep it in the family and you couldn’t tell just by looking at them. But this also leaves me wondering how far is too far when a wrongdoing is done. Part of me wants to give them grace because you don’t know what they’ve been through, but the other part believes they could’ve stopped it from happening.

The invisible man picks up the man who founded the school he is attending. They introduce themselves and the invisible man is flattering him in hopes of a fat tip. The founder has nowhere to be, so he tells the invisible man to drive him anywhere. As the invisible man starts driving he asks the founder if he’s seen all of the campus before and he responds with a confident yes. Once they started moving the campus was unrecognizable to the founder. He had never seen these roads before. The founder quickly became comfortable with the invisible man and immediately started spilling everything he’d been holding up inside him. He starts telling the invisible man that he controls his fate because he’s attending a school he founded that he is quite proud of. I found this ironic because the invisible man drives him around as if he is controlling his fate. Even the founder doesn’t recognize these roads he never asks any questions he just goes with the flow of things. It is pretty naive of him to trust a stranger to take him to unfamiliar places and tell him all his secrets. I don’t think the founder can think for himself so he relies on people to determine his fate to find peace with himself. The truth of the matter is no one can determine your fate that is all up to you which is why he is still trying to heal from his daughter’s death.

I think this invisible man is a pretty cool dude despite everything he’s gone through in his past. He’s calm cool and collected as he’s telling his traumatic story of when he was being tortured purely out of amusement of a drunken racist. I would drag their names through the mud and go on a super long rant but he narrates exactly what happened. The story of him fighting over money on an electric rug with the other boys he had to fight makes me angry at him. It’s the fact that he doesn’t go into detail about how he’s feeling towards the people doing this to him. And the whole point was to show how the invisible man has humility by humiliating him to prove something. Maybe it’s because he didn’t realize that these men didn’t want to hear his speech about humility rather than seeing him being humiliated. Or he doesn’t include his opinions because he has matured and grown from his past when he tells this story. I also wish he didn’t let people boss him around the way he does. He still lets his grandpa’s last dying words get to him. The words about obeying the white people’s crazy requests until his obedience undermines them and they can’t take it anymore. Which is honestly pretty wise because the white people he is referring to want to see him fail but if he never fails to meet their standards then the white people lose in the fight that they’re trying to start. Like Selena Gomez once said, “Kill Em with kindness”.

The invisible man spends his time in the light. He loves the light so much that his home, or his “hole”, is lit up with exactly 1,369 fluorescent bulbs. His hole is located in a forgotten basement rented strictly to whites. This is ironic because there’s so much light in his little hole but he’s surrounded by a dark atmosphere. He claims that his hole is brighter than Broadway, or the Empire State Building, which might not be entirely true. However, he says they are the darkest places in our whole culture. Hello? I thought we were comparing your fluorescent hole to Broadway? This just got a ‘hole’ lot more complicated. It surprised me that the setting had more to do than lightbulbs. The setting deals with light vs darkness, related to good versus evil, and how these well-known attractions with a lot of light actually possess darkness that takes advantage of people.  The invisible man can see the darkness of lightness in these kinds of things. You’d think his hole in the basement would be dark judging by the looks of it when in reality it’s the things that look enticing that have a bad intent. Which is why he loves light. He surrounds himself with light. It proves that he is actually invisible. In the dark, you have no idea who’s in the room with you or where you’re going because you can’t see. But the light reveals what’s in front of you.