Wow. What the heck was up with the end? "So that when I stretched out my hand, I caught hold of the fille de chambre's -- END. The fille de chambre's what?! Oh my! Could he be talking about her boob?!
A little too goofy in my opinion.
Something I noticed going on through out this novel is an undying love for animals (pun intended). It seems that when anyone is sad, it is due to the death of an animal, or a general loss. I suppose this is a play on the sentimental novel genre, as humans are supposed to be more concerned with love for humans and their own sprituality. Certainly not over animals. The first place we see this is with the man and his ass, who is convinced that his donkey loved him back. He goes on about how he feels bad that his own hardships (ie his whole family dying!) overwhelmed the donkey and caused its death. Funny how the man feels bad for the fact that his hardships are upsetting his donkey, on not because of his hardship himself. I mean if my family died I'd probably be more upset about that, than if I was making my donkey so sad that he too died. So maybe that's just Sterne being ironic.
The next time an animal comes up is with the appearance of the Sterling. The chapters about it were very interesting to me, as there seemed almost no point, yet so much was written about it. The narrator even drew a crest with the bird at top. I'm not sure why, but that must be significant. I hope that we go over this in class. Perhaps one of the important reasons for this sterling's presence is what it represents, and I think that it is "confinement." Throughout the entire story and history of the bird, we learn that it is always confined in its cage. He goes from one owner to the next, yet is never freed. The bird even says "I can't get out" as it's only words, which might represent the trappedness the narrator might be feeling. He is on this journey through Paris and Italy, yet somehow he is still confined within himself. It seems that no matter where he goes, there is always some type of ironic trouble he runs into. Nothing good ever really seems to happen to him on these travels. I might be wrong, but I think when the narrator begins to imagine the terrors of confinement he is imagining himself at a distance. For some reason he thinks about what it might be like to be in a prison for so many years, and this upsets him a great deal. Maybe that's why he is on his journey - to run away from the threat of confinement.
Something I wanted to point out just because it actually made me laugh out loud, is one of the ironic passages I noticed right away. On page 115 the narrator is speaking to Mons le Count about his opinion on the French people. When the count seems to be put off by what he is saying the narrator starts rambling along with the most wonderful description of qualities for the French people. Then at the end of the list he says, "If they have a fault -- they are too serious." Obviously this is not that bad of a quality, if anything, but then the count says, "My God!" in French because it has insulted him so badly. I thought this was hilarious because he is doing exactly what the narrator mentioned - being too serious! I don't know, I just really enjoyed that part.
A little too goofy in my opinion.
Something I noticed going on through out this novel is an undying love for animals (pun intended). It seems that when anyone is sad, it is due to the death of an animal, or a general loss. I suppose this is a play on the sentimental novel genre, as humans are supposed to be more concerned with love for humans and their own sprituality. Certainly not over animals. The first place we see this is with the man and his ass, who is convinced that his donkey loved him back. He goes on about how he feels bad that his own hardships (ie his whole family dying!) overwhelmed the donkey and caused its death. Funny how the man feels bad for the fact that his hardships are upsetting his donkey, on not because of his hardship himself. I mean if my family died I'd probably be more upset about that, than if I was making my donkey so sad that he too died. So maybe that's just Sterne being ironic.
The next time an animal comes up is with the appearance of the Sterling. The chapters about it were very interesting to me, as there seemed almost no point, yet so much was written about it. The narrator even drew a crest with the bird at top. I'm not sure why, but that must be significant. I hope that we go over this in class. Perhaps one of the important reasons for this sterling's presence is what it represents, and I think that it is "confinement." Throughout the entire story and history of the bird, we learn that it is always confined in its cage. He goes from one owner to the next, yet is never freed. The bird even says "I can't get out" as it's only words, which might represent the trappedness the narrator might be feeling. He is on this journey through Paris and Italy, yet somehow he is still confined within himself. It seems that no matter where he goes, there is always some type of ironic trouble he runs into. Nothing good ever really seems to happen to him on these travels. I might be wrong, but I think when the narrator begins to imagine the terrors of confinement he is imagining himself at a distance. For some reason he thinks about what it might be like to be in a prison for so many years, and this upsets him a great deal. Maybe that's why he is on his journey - to run away from the threat of confinement.
Something I wanted to point out just because it actually made me laugh out loud, is one of the ironic passages I noticed right away. On page 115 the narrator is speaking to Mons le Count about his opinion on the French people. When the count seems to be put off by what he is saying the narrator starts rambling along with the most wonderful description of qualities for the French people. Then at the end of the list he says, "If they have a fault -- they are too serious." Obviously this is not that bad of a quality, if anything, but then the count says, "My God!" in French because it has insulted him so badly. I thought this was hilarious because he is doing exactly what the narrator mentioned - being too serious! I don't know, I just really enjoyed that part.
posted by Melissa | 7:09 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home