Pynchons Preface to 1984

I agree with Pynchon's idea that Orwell is trying to criticize socialism and that he is annoyed and rejecting it. I believe this is quite obvious throughout the novel since each character and situation is really part of a well hidden symbolism. The fact that people are conditioned into believing one thing or another and that the government is able to control and manipulate its people so well will make the reader think. It will lead the reader to question his life and to compare it to the society he is reading about in 1984. One thing that has a very obvious connection is the way in which the ministries are actually the opposite of their names. "Doublethink also lies behind the names of the superministries which run things in Oceania—the Ministry of Peace wages war, the Ministry of Truth tells lies, the Ministry of Love tortures and eventually kills anybody whom it deems a threat." This shows how the world can be very ironic sometimes and that even now we find ourselves thinking that the government is honest with us when this is a very naive thought. It makes us realize that even our current government is tricking us and lying to us, that what they tell us is not based for our good but on the success of their power, that yes they have to keep people happy, but only because this is a side effect of what they need to accomplishing their position and power. Just like in the book, there are revolutionaries today, and just like in the book, the government does all it can to get rid of them. There are cases when they reach the same drastic consequences and there are other cases in which they are less or even more drastic.

However, referring back to the maxim, I find it interesting Pynchon commented on this topic because it is something that many authors write about: the hypocrisy of our country and our society. One topic I was surprised he didn't comment on was the relationship between parents and their kids, the fact that they would turn them in for the crime of thinking. I guess that this is a topic that refers to the lost bond between many generations nowadays in their families. Kids and parents don't share as much bonds and the communication they have is more and more restricted. It also shows how the government is very successful with their brain washing and how important it is to start conditioning kids as they are young. This way their passion is much more honest and the effects will be much better for the government.

Pynchon also discussed the fact that Orwell left his "The Principles of Newspeak" part and I think that is great, it was his work and if he wants it that way then there is no reason why he should change it to make some producers happy. I also think he might have gone deeper on some topics. However, I must contradict myself because I think his essay was of a well managed length and that he covered the most important parts with success and giving his opinion and critique.

Freedom: Subjective

When Gulliver signed his contract to become free he didn't realize that his freedom had now become dependant. He wasn't really free, he was a servant now, still he says that he was at "full liberty". After being chained such a long time, the new liberties he has seem as all he could need, but the truth is he is still dependant on the Lilliputants. To be able to acquire these freedoms he had to accept some conditions. The Lilliputants obviously took advantage of the situation and forced him to do things that would benefit them. For example, they got him to find their perimiter and to make reports on things that would have taken them much more time to accomplish. They also took advantage of their "man-mountain" by using him as a weapon. "6th, He shall be our ally against our enemies in the island of Blefuscu, and do his outmost to destroy their fleet, which is now preparing to invade us." (p.29) This, in my opinion is a very good strategy because they are making Gulliver as if he were free but they are actually manipulating him. He now owes them his alliance and help and he will have to keep his side of the treaty.

If you think about it, it is ridiculous that Gulliver is accepting that treaty since he experienced much more liberty before . He used to live in England, where he could do whatever he wanted. Yes, he had to respond to the government and follow the law, but he could practically do whatever he wants. Actually as I think about it, he actually was kind of restricted in the same way. We all are, we have to get passports to leave the country, Gulliver needed permission to be granted. We also have to protect others and support our country during war, we have to be careful with the things that belong to others and must, in every way we can help our country. Still, I believe that we are brainwashed into believing that this is what a good citizen is and this is what we have to do to help our country, so we do it out of our own merit. Gulliver, instead has to do it to be able to avoid getting chained.

A World Of Fantasy

After reading the first two chapters of Gulliver's Travel I realized how much I enjoy fantasy. I really liked reading this story and having the images come alive in my mind. I didn't look for pictures but until after I was reading because I enjoyed having everything come real in my imagination without having to see somebody else's creation. Since I was little I have enjoyed reading these fantasies and I really get involved with the character and I like imagining things that don't exist. I really liked the description the author uses as he describes what he felt, thought and saw. I actually admired his actions and I began to even like the Lilliput people.
I tried to get inside of Gulliver's mind and imagine what he must be feeling. What it would be like to just arrive at a place, after experiencing his ship wreck and probably feeling as a failure for having spent his money in a project that didn't survive, and find all these miniature humans. It must be weird to be the monster, as we have always imagined that someday someone (aliens, machines, animals, monsters) will come and try to fight us. He must have felt very lonely and constantly thought of his family but really had nothing to do. I don't really understand why he just stayed there and let all these mini people boss and order him around. If it would have been me, I think I would have probable reacted violently to such creatures and even more due to the fact that they tied him and kept him as a captive. However, considering all that Gulliver had just gone through, I guess I wouldn't have had the spirit or strength to fight them and then go back to see, because where else could he go. Now Gulliver is having a passive relationship with these new creatures and he is going to be able to learn about them and get to know them.
This is like a dream to me, I don't believe this possible but I still enjoy reading it and at moments I do kind of wish that this would've happened to me. Its an experience that I would enjoy, like the Harry Potter world, or Narnia, or even Twilight. Its things I know are childish but I still appreciate. I like watching these movies, I devour these books when I get to them and even though I am completely aware that those are fake worlds, I like imagining myself sometimes inside of them and I like establishing feelings towards the characters and they really get me happy and make me enjoy my time.

California- USA- The world: We Are All Living The Crisis

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/25/opinion/25krugman.html?ref=todayspaper

A common problem that is currently worrying the whole world it the economic crisis we are finding ourselves in. Many countries and companies have been greatly affected by it and even people lifestyles have been changing. It has been proved, through surveys, that people are no longer, traveling, shopping and spending as much as they used to. This is the "selfish gene" kicking in and having each person do the best they can to survive. So each person is now taking the measures they consider necessary to survive but they also depend on others, this is not a circumstance that is controlled by one but by all and what one does affects all. Because of this, people rest their trust in their leaders, in their presidents and governors and those who are supposed to help make things better. However, these leaders are, like us, humans and sometimes manage things wrongly. Paul Krugman, wrote an OP-ED in the New York Times where he criticizes Californians, and their way of reacting towards the whole situation.
He blames both the people and the governor for their current state and he expresses his concern on this significance. He is worried that the United States, as a nation will follow California's mistakes and just like them, find that they are incapable of escaping this problem. Due to old laws, California is unable to raise taxes and get the money they need in order to keep going in good conditions. He believes that by raising all taxes a bit, California, and even the United States would be able to avoid much of the crisis and get back on track.
Krugman is trying to warn the United States of a big mistake and he is complaining about the nations leaders and he is even insinuating they are cowards since he says they "fled" when the problem arouse and they haven't been able to fix what they have in their hands. So even though he based his article on just one state, he ends it by getting us to realize that California is undergoing what all of the United States are under going and that we shouldn't follow them, but instead learn from their mistakes and correct them.

A MACHO SOCIETY?

To look at the article I am responding to, please click on the link below:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/opinion/21thu3.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
Equal Pay for Women Denied, Again


Throughout many years women have been discriminated. However we haven't given up and we never will. Woman have been able to get everyone to look at them with the same eyes men deserve. It has taken lots of effort in behalf of some individuals, but they have fought and represented us and thanks to these people is that I am now able to have the life I live. However, it is sad to admit that our fight is not over yet. Our society has improved but it still has much to change. Women are sometimes rejected in regards to jobs and many opportunities are rejected due to their gender. It even happens that women receive a lower payment for doing the exact same job men do.
This is completely unfair. The job is still being done and with the same quality so why doesn't it deserve the same payment? The Supreme Court argued that one of the reaons for a lower payment in woman is that they have pregnancy leave but the truth is that this is only a few months of a womans work life and it doesnt compare to the large amount of money women are being denied by reducing the pay check.
I am glad to know that women are still fighting for what we deserve and it is time for society to change at a faster rate and recognize us as great as men. We can do everything they can do and it is very important that we fight for what we deserve, that we show people what we are capable of and that we get the recognition we deserve. This article is defending womens right to get the same paycheck as men do and woman will probably end up having the same paycheck because it is what we deserve and therefore we will win the trial and get what is fair.

Paul Klee- Red Ballloon

The main focus of this painting is definitely the red balloon that is rising between the two walls of blocks. The balloon is almost centered but not completely to maintain certain attraction and not bore the person that is watching. By keeping it a bit to the left he is following the "thirds" rule of design and he is keeping it also on the top third of the painting. The picture is full of geometric figures and they have several colors which make the painting have life. Also, the colors near the balloon contrast because it goes from dark shades to a light background and then the bright red pops out in front of the picture. The fact that at the bottom there are more blocks than on the top makes the eyes focus on the empty space. One of the most important compositions of this piece is the usage of lines. It uses blocks and lines and geometric figures to keep the composition and balance of the picture.
When I saw this picture I was reminded of those movies when you see like a fair or carnival in Paris or New York a long time ago and you see everybody dressed up all pretty and elegant but also hvaing fun end enjoying everything around. It made me feel kind of calm and it gave me tranquility because the balloon lookes as if it was floating happily in the air and as if it were having a calm ride.

Miró

May 12
This painting by Miro uses mostly colors and shapes to give life. When looking at it, I feel happy and actually like curious towards life. It takes some time realizing what the overall picture is but as you identify each individual figure, you get to admire the way in which shape are put together. The emphasis is mostly in the persons head and then goes towards the guitar. As you look closely you identify that the persons face is actually formed by a worm-eating bird. Other animals are also found. The deformed dog, horse and cat are present along with the ducks and other birds outside of the window that aren’t so important. I guess that the size of the animals affects on how important Miro considers them. According to this, the horses would be really important, and then would come the dogs and lastly the cats. The birds however I wonder how important they are for him. Some are outside the window which makes it seem they aren’t very important while he uses one to create the human face so it gains importance. There is also a squirrel and other shapes that help give the picture life and happiness. The guitar probably shows his spirit towards art and it shows that he likes art and agrees with its form of expression and life.
Another reason why the horse, person and dog are highlights is due to their color. Since these are the biggest spaces, other than the floor and wall, and these are the lightest areas because they are white. Also the lines of the walls, floor, and window lead the attention towards the face of the person. I really enjoy looking at this picture because it kind of has humor and makes you kind of smile when you look at it.

Is It Worth Gambling?

May 7
When Tommy gave all his money to Dr. Tamkin he knew there was a possibility that things wouldn’t work out and that his money would be lost. Yes, he probably hoped it was successful but at the end it wasn’t. He gambled his last economical chance. He was already short on money and then he went and spent his last bit in a high risk business. In my opinion he should have looked for a safe spot. He should have tried to invest in something that will certainly give him money, maybe in a slow and steady way, but at least that way he would always have an income. However, he chose to risk it all when he couldn’t really afford it and lost it all. Maybe he would have been very lucky and the business he invested in, turned very successful. But he didn’t know that would happen. In this case I think that when people have lots of money and have a back up, then they can try new things that may fail or succeed, however when you have so little opportunities you should try keeping your position safe.
This is one thing that definitely gets me thinking about the future and makes me wonder what will become of my life. I really hope mine doesn’t turn out as Tommy’s did. I am very scared to know that I’ll have so many responsibilities and so many options on my hands. I hope I will be able to make the right choices at the right moments and that whenever I chose to gamble I gamble on something that has high possibilities of success and actually works out. I hope I have a successful life and that I am happy and glad and satisfied with it and my choices. I would like to live in peace of never regretting and enjoying all I could.

Family Support

MAY 6, 2009
While reading Saul Bellow´s Seize the Day I was sad to read about Tommy’s relationship with his dad. It was really depressing knowing that the disappointment his dad felt is actually what many people feel everyday for their family members. His disappointment was so strong that he didn’t even help him get out of his troubles, he didn’t believe in him. Tommy had to turn to Dr. Tamkin for support even though he didn’t really know what his intentions were and if his interest really was to help him out. Tommy had to look for support because he was living through a really screwed up moment in life, actually he had always been kind of screwed up. He had been a living a life that hadn’t really turned out as he wanted and he had nobody to support him during his failure. He even had married and had two kids but the way in which he helped out wasn’t really making him even a good example for his kids. So his relationship with his father, the one he hates so much, is going to repeat itself. He can’t give financial support and he is not even being a good example for them.
I believe he could have avoided such a situation if he had tried to fix his problems and deal with them as he was younger. Also, if he had received some kind of support he might have had more chances of success, however, he didn’t. I consider this very sad because your family is one of the things you are usually going to have by your side. You are connected to them by blood and this is a stronger force than the one people usually realize. Friends can come and go but your family is always going to be there and keeping a good bond and a good relationship is very important. Usually family relationships are honest and they look for each other’s best interest. That way if Tommy would have kept a good relationship with his dad, he would have known that all the advice and suggestions he proposed would have been with his best intentions. Tommy does find Dr. Tamkin and he hopes he is being there for him with his best intentions but the truth is he can’t avoid wonder if he’s just blabbing and telling anything without really caring what the consequences will be. It is sad to look at this father-son relationship and I hope that the bond with my family are always as strong as they currently are and that I am always able to count on them and have their support even when I don’t really need it.

Looking At Life From Different Eyes

May 5, 2009
By just reading the title Seize the Day, one can already see that this story will have some life lessons and it will probably inspire the reader to live life at its maximum and enjoy it as much as possible. Only with the title one knows that the writing style will be very different from the one in Cathedral. It will lead people to look at the positive aspect in life while Cathedral leads you to think that everything will go wrong and that there is nothing you can do to avoid it. In this story, instead, Wilhelm feels out of place like many of Carvers characters did, but what I guess will happen is that in Wilhelm’s case, things will get better and he will teach the reader, through his thoughts and actions how to become a better person and enjoy everything life has given us. He will show that we are all capable of getting through hard moments in life and he will probably do this by showing us how similar we really are. Because one thing is for sure, we are all humans and we well all live through emotions such as happiness, joy, sadness, pain, grief, hope, disappointment. So we should all really understand one another and help one another when we have problems. As humans we sometimes forget that we have to help each other out and that is what we should do, we should get in one another’s shoes and do everything that is possible to get through hard moments, or celebrate together happy moments. It’s really all up to us and the way we want to interpret life, so we better do it in a way that is beneficial to us, in a way that will help us rise instead of fall. I would probably say that Saul Bellow is much happier with his life than what Carver is and they are each sharing their opinion in life and it is up to us to choose how to deal with. Except, who knows, maybe Carter is happy and is concentrated on dullness to try to experience this feeling and Bellow writes about taking advantage of every possibility to see if he is able to take his own advice and apply this attitude in life.

4 Blogs due on Monday, May 4

Addictions
Having addictions must be horrible. Depending on something so much, either physical or emotional, that you can’t live without it is very limiting. It’s like being a slave to something you chose yourself. Becoming an addict means you lose liberty. There are some things on which we depend on: food, water, sleep. But there are others that we don’t really need to survive but some people make them necessary, indispensable. Drugs, sex, alcohol are things to which one can easily get addicted to. In several of Carters short stories, the main characters are either alcoholic or heavy drinkers or he at least mentions alcoholic beverage at one point or another. This probably shows that the author might have a problem with alcohol and even if he doesn’t have one, he still thinks about it a lot. In his story Where I’m Calling From, he even sets the main characters in a drying-out facility and shows how they are trying to fight this addiction. He also shows how the body will want alcohol and how addicts adore and feel the need to have their alcohol. I think he shows this to get across the message that one does become dependent of things one doesn’t realize and that we are probably all addicts to something around us and we will never realize it. And if we do, many don’t accept it, and many others are just not strong enough to fight it.

Careful
This story once more irritated me because I never got to know what it was the wife wanted. So I went back to my signifying nothing frustration. However I believe that one of the things that Carter is trying to do with this story is tell everybody that the senses we have are precious and we don’t always appreciate them. In the story Cathedral he also mentions a blind man and the relationship he develops with his host. In Careful he doesn’t really talk about a deaf man but the main character clogged his ear and is annoyed by the feeling. He feels so frustrated with his new incapacity that he actually says he would prefer to die. “…if I had to go on like this, I think I’d rather be dead.” (p. 120) In my opinion this is very exaggerated and what Carver is trying to do is to get us to understand that we complain too much. He shows that when we have our senses perfect we don’t really appreciate them or realize their importance, then something goes wrong and one of our senses start malfunctioning and that’s when we understand that we don’t appreciate what we have until we lose it. He probably is also critizing our reaction because we dare to complain about a strange feeling, the man didn’t actually lost his hearing, he is still able to listen perfectly through one ear and the other just gives sound a strange feeling but he can still hear and he complains and threats with his life. Instead there are people that aren’t even able to hear, people that can’t hear plus have other incapacities all at once and they go on with life. They live a happy life and take advantage of what they do have instead of complaining about what they don’t have. Carver also shows us how Lloyd is affected after this experience. After he gets close to losing his hearing ability, he freaks out and gets paranoid that he might lose it once more. He finally begins to appreciate his sense but he doesn’t do it in a positive way but instead freaks out. Instead of realizing the importance of hearing and afterwards talking advantage of his ability he just focuses on the possibility of losing it once more and suffers because of this. So it is rather Ironic because you don’t know any more if Lloyd was suffering more while he had his problem or if he is suffering more now that he doesn’t know what will come and if he’ll lose his hearing ability.

Is Sickness Sometimes the Reflection of Sadness?
As I read the short story I first thought about the importance of kids in a parent’s life and how these should be really well taken care of and appreciated. When I first read the disaster the baby sitter had been I felt sorry for Carlyle and kind of felt mad like he did as he kicked the kids out, that had been after another sitter had failed so I knew he wanted the best for his kids and felt sorry he hadn’t been able to give it to them. Then ironically his wife, the woman that had just left him, gave him a recommendation on a sitter that turned out being great. This woman was great with the kids, the house, and with him. She was even the one with whom he eventually let everything out and helped him finally get on with his life. He was able to let everything out when this sitter said she had to leave and Carlyle had just been sick.
Many people believe that your emotions and ideas affect your health. Carver probably agrees with this because he named the story after the sickness he had just before he got over his situation, Fever. Carlyle probably got sick because he couldn’t stand things anymore. He had been suffering too much because of the fact his wife left him. He missed her and what was worse of all was that he kept on hoping she would come back even after he knew she wouldn’t. I guess that he reached a point of exhaustion and when everything was finally going well, his job, his kids had a good sitter, he had begun getting over his wife, life overwhelmed him and he got sick. Through his fever he got all of his stress out and he “purified” himself and rested while trying to recover. And I guess in a way that fever was really good because it gave him the possibility to rest for a while and think things through and get all the load he had off his shoulders. Now he was able to think clear and his body got a point to when he was able to let everything out to be able to start again and that was what he did. Mrs. Webster was his support as he cried and no she was leaving but after she did, he will have a new beginning and he will be ready for it.

When things go wrong
All of Carters stories have like a dull mood. In every situation something bad happens to his characters. In some stories, the situation worsens, in others it stays as bad and in others nothing really occurs with it. There are a few in which nothing bad happens and this is as close as one can get to a happy ending in one of Carvers stories. I wonder if this is his opinion of life, that no matter what, it will never be happy. It will be dull and dark and the best you’ll get is just a like plain, unexciting life. All his characters, either good or bad get a sad ending, so what the point with being good if no matter what kind of a person you are, things will go wrong. This is kind of a predestined idea in the way that Carver believes that people can think that they will be happy but no matter what, at the end, or at some point, something really bad and horrible will happen. There is no way you’ll live a completely happy life, no matter what, you are predestined to have things go wrong. You have faith in the fact that things will get better but the truth is fate has a different plan for you. People might get a climax moment when everything seems to be going well but there is no way of staying there, at one moment or another everything will fall apart and it will either stay good or get better in a small degree until things go wrong again. Happiness will never be something stable while sadness and grief and problems can be.

A Small Good Thing

April 29 2009
This story kind of depressed me. It is sad that things like this happen and its even sadder that it happened on his birth day. Scotty didn’t actually died a few years after on the exact same day that he was born, but he did suffer an accident on this day that would lead him to his death three days later. It’s actually all very ironic really, his birth day is the same as his death day. Too bad it had to be this day but if you think about it one will day any day, it might be expected and it might not. All you have to do is wait until the day comes. One thing that called my attention was the fact that Howard realized he had been “lucky” in life and that his luck could change any moment and it’s sad to see it did. They were good people and they didn’t deserve what they got, but then again not everyone deserves what they get, some deserve better and some deserve worse, but whatever one gets is what one got and sometimes there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. For example the man that hit the kid. He just drove away, he didn’t offer help or anything, he just escape. That’s sad also. It’s sad and maddening to realize that there are people like this in this world. People that don’t have hearts and people that don’t take responsibility for their actions.
Going back to a topic I had mentioned before on my blogs I actually really liked where this story’s title came from. “Eating is a small, good thing in a time like this” (Carter, Cathedral p.87)I guess I like it because I agree with it. Compared to all the problems you’re facing, eating is just a really tiny thing to consider, but its effects can be great. Since eating is one of the pleasures in life, it has the ability to stimulate happiness, and well, during such depressing moments, a small amount of joy can be highly appreciated. Looking back at when my dad died I remember that everybody sent food. At moments it got frustrating but as I think about it, it was something that helped getting through. Eating made moments less worse even if it was just because it made you focus on something else. So I liked the title because after all that went wrong, a small detail as food can actually be a great difference in a huge circumstance.

A Simple Soul, A Broken Heart

April 28, 2009

Felicite is a girl that has many self-esteem problem s and it is obvious throughout the story. One thing that you can also feel throughout the story is like her feeling of despair and sadness. Nothing ever goes on right to her, (this also happens a lot with Carters stories, they don’t have what we could call happy endings, many don’t even have endings but the point is they don’t really have a happy mood to them) too many things in her life turn out wrong. One example of this is when she is finally very in love with a man and then she discovers he left her. “He informed her that she would never see her sweetheart again; for, in order to escape the conscription, he had married a rich old woman, Madame Lehoussais, of Toucques.” (A Simple soul)The man leaves for his own benefit and this reminds me of the Selfish Gene because it is just showing the animal behavior we have within. Love is supposed to be a really strong force within, and you are supposed to be easily controlled by those who love you but then again, one can see how survival reigns over love. Genes control your body much more than what feelings do, maybe the man really did love Felicite, but as long as he could escape and get a good, wealthy life, he abandoned her. As any other animal, he is looking for his best possibility so he can reproduce and keep his genes alive.

Writing Styles

April 27, 2009
While reading A Simple Soul By Gustave Flaubert after reading so many short stories by Raymond Carver, it was really easy for me to tell some of the differences in writing style. It was obvious, as a starter that Flaubert described much more every situation and gave detail on all that was happening at all moments while Carver was pretty concise. In general, I didn’t tend to concentrate so much on style, I liked to focus much more on the content. I think that was obvious as we first started working on the “signifying nothing” theme. It forced me to start identifying styles and actually appreciating them. Now that I think about it, I understand why it came that I liked some stories while I didn’t really enjoyed reading the book, or why I liked some books so much while I didn’t really like the story. It was due to style and content. I now read this short stories focusing much more on the styles and I have therefore identified some of the characteristics of the authors, while before, I tended to just read the story and not really think about the style while I was reading. Maybe at the end I just commented on the general form of writing of the author and reach a conclusion on the idea that I either liked the way in which the author wrote or not.
That is one thing I really like about this class: it has forced me to focus on things I didn’t used to. If I compare myself with many of my classmates I can tell some of them already had the tendency to analyze and like close read and focus much more on the writing that I did. I really just used to read very superficially many books and now I feel like I’m actually getting more of what the author is trying to transmit to the reader. I also feel as if I have improved my writing abilities and this gets me really happy because I have also developed a better “taste” for writing. I usually prefer to read than to write but I have been enjoying writing much more lately. Plus, other than for just enjoyment I’m really glad I have improved because when I took the PSAT exam, it suggested that the areas that I had to work most on where on reading comprehension and writing so I hope to see a big improvement on my next year’s results.

The Watch And The Son

April 23, 2009
While reading the story I arrived to the conclusion that Carver was comparing Myers son with the wrist watch he had bought him. If you think about it, Myer had begun a relationship with a woman and had his son with good intentions, or at least I’m supposing so. Later on his relationship with his son died after a fight and they had eventually parted from one another after such a terrible experience. After some years Myer felt as if he wanted to meet his son once more, he had taken the first step at trying to reach him and now he would go ahead and reach back. However as he made his trip to get to his son, he realized that that wasn’t what he wanted, that his son was actually someone he didn’t want to meet once more since he considered him his “enemy” and still felt some grudge on him. So, at the end, he didn’t meet him. He arrived to the meeting point and never got off the train. Something similar happened with the watch.
Myers chose to buy his son a wrist watch in Rome while he was there. He bought it as a present, as a little something to give him when they met. However, on the way lost it. Actually it got stolen from him. Obviously annoyed for getting robbed, Myers tried to find the thief and get his watch back. After looking for it in some compartments, and trying to get information out of the man who was sleeping and sharing his compartment, and after having no success, he gave up. He just went back to compartment and annoyed started thinking about his situation. In my opinion these two subjects relate because Myer got a son and a watch, then he lost both, after that he tried to make it up (went to meet him and looked for the watch in all of the compartments) and lastly he gave up, he realized he didn’t really wanted to see his son and he accepted that he would never find his watch. I guess that what the author was doing was that he was trying to get his feelings about his son across to the reader through the whole watch situation. The reader gets to feel Myers anger and frustration when he is trying to find the watch and one can relate them to the uncomfortable feeling his having due to the encounter with his son. Myers always will wonder what happened to that watch and he will want to know who stole it, at the end he believes it was the man with whom he had shared the compartment but suspicions aren’t enough to give the fact. He will also wonder if his son went to meet him, he won’t know for sure if he did go because he never got off the train and he didn’t see him in the station but he once more believes he will be waiting, however, once more his hypothesis is not enough to prove the fact and we will never know what happened with the son. Or with the watch.

Social laziness

- April 22, 2009

A common idea has been established in all our minds. It has been expressed in books, movies, plays and even in life. Lazy men sit and watch TV on the living room couch. Of course this isn’t what all lazy men do, exceptions exist and each person reacts in different ways but this is definitely a common characteristic. This attitude can be seen in men on Sundays and resting days, but it can also happen when they’ve got nothing else to do, for example when they have no work. That is what happened in Carvers short story, “That evening he got back on the sofa. He began spending all his time there, as if, she thought, it was the thing he was supposed to do now that he no longer had any work.”… “It’s like he lives there, Sandy thought.” (Carver, Cathedral p.36) The main character lost his job and even though he did go to try to get a new one, he became completely useless. Instead of finding something to do with his spare time, like helping out with something around the house(fixing pipes, resetting the roof, even helping with weeding the garden) he just laid down to rot. He didn’t even tried going to the gym or kept on reading his book, he even stopped sleeping with his wife on their bed. He began to “live” on the sofa.
His wife was understandably irritated with his behavior. She had to work for both so they would get some money and he wouldn’t help her with anything. Then there was this situation in which the refrigerator died, and he didn’t even notice. He was there all day and he wasn’t even useful enough to notice the mess. And so, with their freezer dead, the only possibility they had to make things better was to get a new one, and that was when he started complaining because he didn’t have a job , but really, he never even went really looking for one. And then, his wife suggests an auction and she’s doing everything she can to make things better and she’s trying to get the positive side out of the situation and he doesn’t even eat the pork chops she made him (they didn’t really sound good, but still). I guess this story is therefore showing and making fun of a typical situation plus it is showing sexist behavior. It shows how the man has become lazy while the woman does all the work and how it is actually accepted and considered normal. It also shows that there is lots of unemployment but that people don’t really try to get a job and it also shows how many people live this situation since the man says he saw lots of people when he went to the state office. So it could even be relating to the current world crisis. The economy is going through a hard moment and situations like this will become more and more common.