To Kill A Mockingbird

Book by Harper Lee, 1960

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    To Kill A Mockingbird! A well-known book by any account, and so far, definitely a book to add to your collection, booknook, library, or wherever you keep books. It's proven to be well-written, colorful, humorous, and compassioned brilliantly. Harper Lee does a fantastic job fleshing out the characters and building the Southern world from the perspective of a child, yet with the maturity of an adult, blending together, not clashing. 

    It's a bit confusing to have this main character, Scout. Harper Lee gives no allusions or mentioning that Scout is a girl, rather than a boy. After about thirty or so pages, it briefly mentions Scout's gender being female, and hints at it later. This is mainly due to the fact that the book is completely first-person. Not to mislead any of you, though; this book and it's characters are thing to be treasured. Harper Lee writes it all brilliantly and doesn't stop for anything. The characterization of the cast is simply amazing. Scout, Jem, and Dill all are believably written as the children they are. Jem is the oldest, a boy at the age of 10 and Scout's brother. Dill is visiting from a different state and seems to be a peculiar kid, though unrelated to Scout and Jem. Scout's the youngest, but seems to be a tough nut. She asserts herself above other children, like Dill. For example, Dill goes off into the childish fantasies of declaring Scout to be "the only girl he will ever love", followed by Scout's dainty response."He staked me out, marked me as his property...I beat him up twice but that did no good." (Lee 46) This situation very much shows the mindset of Scout, a girl who seemed able to assert a certain dominance. 

    Playing off that note, To Kill A Mockingbird has so far had a subtle irk with women. Besides the skirmishes Scout seems to live for, Harper Lee writes about their neighbor, a cake-making, cattle-growing little old lady, Miss Maudie. A Baptist, Miss Maudie discusses with Scout how some of the more extreme Baptists feel about women, "Foot-washers believe anything that's pleasure is a sin...thing is, foot-washers think women are a sin by definition. They take the Bible literally, you know." (Lee 49) Miss Maudie calls them foot-washers because of their tendencies and extremist religious ways. Basically, women are seen as a "pleasure" and the foot-washers don't seem to like that. At all. Furthermore, Harper Lee writes about the interactions between Scout and Jem, her older brother, after they had seemed to drift apart as siblings, their ways of thinking straying from each other. Scout was protesting Jem and Dills' scheme to lure out a man named Boo Radley, who had a troubled past. "'Jem, please--' 'Scout, I'm tellin' you for the last time, shut your trap or go home--I declare to the Lord you're getting more like a girl every day!'" (Lee 56) Scout's position as a sibling is being overshadowed by her gender. Back when this was written, the attitude against women was different. They were seen as weaker, and using the term as a term was argument enough. 

Gods and Generals - Conflict (update)

Book by Jeff Shaara, 1996

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[CONFLICT]

    The conflict in Gods and Generals has developed since the last post. There's not much besides conflict to write about, this far in the book. As soon as a good opportunity arrives to do anything else, I'll oblige.

 

    The conflict remains mostly external, being a novel on the Civil War. At around 25% through the  book, the opening shots of the Civil War are just about to start, at Fort Sumter. Robert E. Lee is at the office of the aging General Winfield Scott. Scott is giving Lee the situation after he was relieved from duty in Texas. "'[President Lincoln] knows this?' 'Of course. This is his game: politics. The army can't fire the first shot, and so far, nothing violent has happened.' 'But General, if the fort is fired on, the army will respond. They will have to.'...'Colonel Lee, there is a great deal more at stake here than honor.'" (Shaara 100-101) The country is holding its breath; everyone knows that there will definitely be fighting. There is already a rebellion, there was already the John Brown incident, and there was already the highly controversial election and ideals of Lincoln. Now, everyone is waiting for someone to fire. And we, today, in 2014, know that there will be plenty of blood spilled. This tragic story continues to The Killer Angels, with the Battle of Gettysburg, where Colonel Lee is General Lee, and had aged considerably.
    The external conflict is bound to happen, considering the circumstances that 1800's America's populace found themselves in. "Who knows, Colonel -- moral outragem the love of country [...] People like to get inflamed, get their dander up, and the problem is, it's too easy. It's too easy to make up a speech in New York and scream about killing rebels when you don't have to look 'em in the eye. Hell, Colonel, you've seen men die. It's not something to get fired up to enjoy.' [...] '...men who just want to fight, to strike out at something, you can see it in their eyes.'" (Shaara 99) People on both sides of America are a powder barrel, and the sparks are about to shine. People in the 1800's are eagerly awaiting blood to be spilled, and those not aquainted with war do not realize the regret they will feel.
   
    Another conflict is the internal conflict of Lee. (He's getting a lot of attention, I know. He's probably going to be the main character out of the four main characters.) Lee's internal conflict this time is not about slavery of others but his own state. Lee aligns himself with the South, yet his homeland is Virginia. Lee wishes not to fire upon his home state, should the time come. Although Virginia isn't necessarily a Northern state (there was slavery in Virginia), there was no talk of secession as there was in places like Texas and South Carolina. And this Civil War was the Union against the Confederacy, those who seceeded and those who didn't...although it basically turns out to also be who allows slavery and who doesn't. Secession started with Lincoln's policies of no slavery. Those who seceeded were upset; their way of life was threatened, and they were scared of losing it. So they seceeded and the war started.
    Lee may align himself with the South, but also believes in emancipation. He is split between two ideals. "'I believe in emancipation, but I believe it is ultimately in God's hands. I do not agree with the radicals of the deep South. And, I must say, General, I also do not agree with the talk in the North, the calls for radical aboltion....'" (Shaara 98) Lee is more of a neutral figure within the war, but knows he must pick a side soon.

Gods and Generals - Conflict

Book by Jeff Shaara, 1996

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[CONFLICT]

   I'm here again with Gods and Generals by Jeff Shaara. This time, we're looking at the conflict thus far in the book, and keep in mind that I'm barely 20% through the book, so it's not much.

    Being a novel of the Civil War, you'd think there would be some fighting so far. Nope. There is only a bit of mention here and there, although some pistols have made an appearance. Besides that, the main focus of external conflict has been in the dialogue of Robert E. Lee. After his two-month leave to attend to his wife, Lee returns to Fort Mason, where he finds it more deserted than how he'd left it. Upon his return, Lee asks Major Thomas: "'I was wondering, it seems there are not many troops here. Are they out on patrol, something up?'...'Men have been assigned, scattered all over Texas, spread pretty thin. Begging your pardon, sir, but since you've been gone, the situation here, all over, has gotten a good deal worse.'" (Shaara 78) Lee returns to Fort Mason to find out that his troops have been assigned elsewhere, to deal with, what the text later goes on to say, the Indians. At the time, the setting is September 1860, so this information correlates with actual history. 

    An internal conflict is also happening, with Lee. He is approached one day, while still on leave, by a freed slave that once belonged to his son. The slave's name is Nate, and had found work in Pennsylvania, and Nate had returned to buy his brother, a cripple. Lee accepts the offer without much persuasion needed, but Nate stays to ask a question rather than another request. "...started to go, then stopped. 'Colonel, how many do you gots left here?'... He could not say the word slaves...'Thirty or so, I believe.'" (Shaara 74) Nate then asks "'When they gonna be freed, if you don' mind me askin', Colonel?'...The question sank deep into Lee. It was the same question he had asked himself when he first read the old man's will...'I'm working hard on it, Nate [...] I believe the Negroes are where God wants them to be, and when God wants the Negroes to be free, then He will free them. God has set you free, through my hand."' (Shaara 75) Lee, and his devotion to God, are being questioned by the ethics of slavery. Being a man who aligns himself with the South, Lee owns and has the power to control the freedom of his slaves. But he is internally conflicted with whether he should or not, because if he did, he knows that the would have no where to go, considering that nearly all of them had never been off the ground of the enslaved. In a way, he's doing them all a favor by sheltering them and providing a sure direction in life, cruel as it may be. 

Gods and Generals: A Novel of the Civil War - Characters

Book by Jeff Shaara, 1996

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    [CHARACTERS]

    I've been pretty excited about reading this book for some time. Gods and Generals is a book by Jeff Shaara, who is actually the son of the author of The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara. If you look to my previous posts, you'll notice I admired the book very much.

 

    Basically, the gist of Gods and Generals is that's it's a bit of a prelude to The Killer Angels, but contains its own thrilling plot itself. The same historical figures are focused on, plus a couple more. General Robert E. Lee, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, Winfield Scott Hancock, and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain are the main focuses in the text. The book's title comes from its initial focus on the lives of these powerful men. Lee is the character chosen to start the book, with his return to Arlington. The man who normally catered his house while he was away at war, Custis, had died. Now Lee returns to his family on emergency leave, but is stricken with indecision. His love for his family, his love for his country, and his love for God all pull him in different directions.

    Additionally, Jackson is a major religious figure in the novel. Again, a man of war, yet similiarly a devout Christian. His struggle is also centered around his family (these 19th century people seemed to have a lot of family problems) as he had tried and failed (twice) to have a child with two different women, because "Ellie died in childbirth...the Junkins were still his family, but he had married again, to Anna Morrison...but he was not safe from the unspeakable, from the sad face of God, and stared hard ahead." (Shaara 21) Jackson's struggle as a father was similarly stifled not only by deaths of his children, but his duty as a military instructor.

 

    This was a shorter post, to my standards at least, but I'm not too far into the book yet. Gods and Generals is not over yet.

Plot Against America - Theme

Book by Philip Roth, 2004

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[THEME]

    I keep jumping around with my books, I know. That's kind of what you get when you read more than one book at a time. Both The Plot Against America and Don't Turn Around are two good books that I seriously recommend, though, and they're different enough to read simultaneously.

   

    Focusing on the theme of The Plot Against America, it can be pretty easily gleaned. On a more general scale, any decent reader will draw the idea that perseverance is huge at this time for the Roth family: perseverance against the Republicans and perseverance against the Hitler ideas and perseverance against the internal conflicts of the trying times. The Republicans have already killed Walter Winchell. (who was, in fact, a real person; a radio gossip commentator and political figure, known for name-calling and slang in his writings) After Winchell's death, the power balance between Democrats and Republicans was thrown severely into the Republicans' favor. Additionally, Hitler's ideas were spread in America through Lindbergh, the close friend of Hitler and the President of the United States of America. These two factors and several other smaller life struggles for the Jewish Roth family left them fractured: a father and mother constantly bickering, a young protagonist left on his own with a friend he didn't like, and his older brother who seemed to have an allegiance to the opposite political faction.

    But perseverance.

    The theological meaning is the continuation with grace to eternal salvation. If the Roth family, who are heavily Jewish, remember, continue to live together, to continue to exist in hostile territory which they call home, they might survive and be known not as a family but as survivors. The oppressed. The beaten-down. The lesser class. The people who were stripped of their freedom and their public favors and their status and they lived. The theme of The Plot Against America is undoubtedly: Resiliency through trying times leads to a greater compensation. If the Roth family can endure what plagues them now, they will be brought to the light as being those who were "right", those who were challenged for their beliefs and they won.

    That wraps up this post. More The Plot Against America and other books will be featured in future posts.

Don't Turn Around - Characters: Noa

Book by Michelle Gagnon, 2013

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[CHARACTERS]

    If you have been paying attention to the books I've done, then you'd know that Don't Turn Around by Michelle Gagnon was actually the first book I'd done. It was only a brief overview but I have read it again since then and we're taking a closer look at the characters.

    First: the obvious choice, the protagonist, Noa. Basically, stereotypical realistic-fiction modern style here. Noa is an amnesiac, or somewhat so, given that the book starts off with [again] a stereotypical wake-up-on-a-cot-with-no-recent-memory. The past few weeks are gone for Noa Torson. Even better, it's in a cold hospital with no apparent identity, "This wasn't like any hospital she'd ever seen [...] Looking down, Noa discovered that she was wearing a cloth gown, but there was no hospital name stamped on it. Not juvie, and not an official hospital." (Gagnon 2) This, along with the other first 5 pages, is all the beginning setting-analytic jargon found in virtually every novel you will ever read. 

    As you will notice, much of Noa Torson is characterized within the first ten pages. It can be noted that she obviously has some degree of sarcasm or carries an ironic mood, "'It won't work' he said. [...] He dropped hard, knocking over boxes on the way down. He didn't get back up. 'I hate negativity' she muttered." (Gagnon 6) Noa Torson seems to have this dry wit throughout the story, this being only one example. Hatred and negativity are synonyms, and to proclaim your own hatred of negative behavior is irony.

    Another characteristic of Noa apparent in the first few pages is her adherence to violence. In response to seeing the first people since waking from amnesia, she adopts an aggressive answer to the situation: "In one smooth motion, Noa scooped the scalpel off the tray and pressed it against the side of his neck. [...] she said firmly, 'or I'm going to slit your throat.'" (Gagnon 4) This overly aggressive behavior is Noa's first response to the strange situation she's found herself in. 

    This is the beginning of the character analysis for Noa, and more is to follow.

The Plot Against America - Characters

Book by Philip Roth, 2004

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[CHARACTERS]

    The Plot Against America, by Philip Roth, focuses on the lives of the oppressed Jewish community in the alternate version of 1940's American history. Chiefly, the story centers itself around the protagonist, Philip Roth. (it is assumed this is the younger version of the author) Here, however, we focus on his father, Herman.

    Herman Roth is a faithful Jewish American. He openly broadcasts his Jewish beliefs and shows his disdain for anything else. In the time segment of November 1940 - June 1941 titled "Loudmouth Jew", the story follows up on the impact of Hitlerite ideas and Lindbergh's inauguration as President. Previously, Herman's son Philip was affected by the anti-Semitism, "[...] I fell out of bed and woke up on the floor, this time screaming. Yosemite in California, Grand Canyon in Arizona, Mesa Verde in Colorado, Crater Lake in Oregon, Acadia in Maine, Mount Rainier in Washington, Yellowstone in Wyoming, Zion in Utah, Glacier in Montana, the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee -- and across the face of each, across the cliffs, the woods, the rivers, the peaks, the geyser, the gorges, the granite coastline, across the deep blue water and the high waterfalls, across everything in America that was the bluest and the greenest and the whitest and to be preserved forever in these pristine reservations, was printed a black swastika." (Roth 43) This was the anti-Semitism nightmare that Philip had, after Lindbergh was inaugurated. This is also the same attitude that spread to Herman Roth.

    Herman Roth, the Loudmouth Jew, is proud of his religious stance and when this religious threat came across America, he defended himself and his family. After the Roth family visited the Lincoln Memorial, they overheard an elderly woman compare Lincoln to Lindbergh, in which Herman clearly and publicly displayed his disgust. Afterwards, Herman was left with the feeling of satisfaction of making his point clear, and it was heard, "[...] refer to my father as 'a loudmouth Jew', followed a moment later by the elderly lady declaring, 'I'd give anything to slap his face.'" (Roth 65) Herman afterwards was left in a similarly rebellious mood of declaring his hatred for Lindbergh, who supports Hitler and anti-Semitism.

 

    A different character, Seldon, is the forced friend of Philip's. Seldon is the nieghbors' only son, living now only with his mother, as his father killed himself shortly after Lindbergh became President. Seldon is a very lonely kid, emphasized by his love for chess, and his fractured family. Philip despises Seldon, wishing he would stop following him around.
    Seldon is only a child, and his perceptions of the world are limited. He clings tightly to what little he knows, seeming clueless at times or annoying to Philip, a few years his senior. For example, Seldon's behavior was more clingy after the suicide of his father, "My aversion of him had grown stronger, and at the end of the day, I hid back at school when I knew he was out front waiting to walk me home [...] and there would be Seldon at my heels, acting as if he turned up by accident." (Roth 189) Here, Seldon has become more reliant on Philip, to the point of irritating him with his childish antics.
    Additionally, Seldon's clueless side shows later after he'd been relocated by the government. Moments after the Jewish radical Winchell had been assassinated by unreasonable Republicans, the Roth family made a call to the family of Seldon's. Only Seldon was home at the time, and his responses are a frustration to the Roths, as they seemed forgetful and reflected inadequacy, "'[Mrs. Roth] No. Just eat your snack---' '[I think I've had enough Fig Newtons now, but thanks anyway.' '[Mrs. Roth] Goodbye, Seldon' '[Seldon] I like Fig Newtons, though.'" (Roth 280) With this, Seldon has displayed himself as a youthful, innocent boy with a gram of knowledge and less so of awareness. This is only one of multiple examples of his childishness. Seldon is only a minor character, but plays a role in the fractured, life-changing childhood of Philip Roth.