Lenny vs. Macbeth

     In "Of Mice & Men" Lenny, a special needs man, has a terrible habit of harming things, like animals. In an attempt to admire how smal and cute mice are he accidentally crushes their heads using his thumbs. He never quite understands how harmful he is until he reaches his level of hamartia, his point of no return. He's one of those people who doesn't realize how strong they are. His story is a little different than Macbeth and Walter White's because his murders were not intentional. Lenny was actually a gentle, kind-hearted man, even though he was extremely large and often very intimidating to other people.

     One of Lenny's friends gave him a puppy, which he also accidentally killed, causing him to go on a small unintentional killing spree that he soon couldn't ignore or erase. Later, he was hugging a beautiful woman and petting her hair so forcefully that he accidentally smothered her and broke her neck. I think at that point is when he went into hamartia. He reached the point of no return where he could no longer undo what he had done.

        He was afraid of anyone finding out that he was the one who commited the murder and decided to flee town and hide. It is significant to the story because it is a huge climax. The climax is usually when a story gets so intense that you're at the edge of your seat. I think that there could also be an unintentional hamartia like in Lenny's case. Sure, he should take full responsibility of his actions, but when is too much? Is there a point that you could commit a crime so foul that it could be completely unneceptable to society? We discussed this in class recently and I think that in Lenny's cause people would have pitied him, but he would still face some major consequences. I find this very sad. There's been all sort of things silimar to Lenny's story on the news and people argument are usually "But he isn't as mentally stable as other people! He doesn't deserve to go to jail!" But how can that be fair? If that was the case that could be everyone's argument; therefore, there has to be consequences.

      Macbeth coming to terms with the reality of death was his consequence. Something's just are not and will never be socially acceptable. So for that, there is definitely a level of hamartia in any situation.

Don't Judge!

Chapter 25- Don't read with your eyes 

While reading a novel it is very easy to disagree with a characters actions and begin to judge them. You always have to remember that the characters in the story  could possibly be in a different era than you and could have different morals and beliefs. You should always put yourself in the protagonist's shoes. 

If while you're reading the story you consentrate on what you dislike about the characters actions then it will be very difficult for you connect with the story. A long time ago a lot of the things that be consider barbaric now was normal to them. For instance, when a woman would cheat on her husband she was stoned to death. Me personally, I find that very over the too for any situation. I feel like no matter what time period I am in I would still feel like that situation could've been handled differently.

Literature Is Sexy, Believe It or Not.

Chapter 16- It's All About Sex

If you read a novel very closely you may find some hidden sexual underline meanings. In chapter 16 Foster talks about how as a literature professor it is fairly easy for him to notice the sexual intentions of writers. 

Sexual Symbolism has been around as early as the 20th century. Though they didn't invent sexual symbolism because it was considered "bad" to put in literature they found escape routs to talk about it without it being so obvious. Books were often read at the dinner table with families which is why they kept the topic of sex hidden so well.

In films when there were couples who were physically attracted to eachother they would even keep everything hidden. In all of the films back then they even put couples on seperate twin sized beds. Which I found very odd. They did that for religious purposes but even as a Christian the bible says that a couple isn't  "married" until they have sex. Sex is considered a sin if it is acted upon during wedlock. So, that makes makes me curious as to why they would put married couples in seperate beds on films. I have  personally never seen a film where that has happened, but that would really confuse me. I guess it was mainly to protect the innocence of the children. If there was a scene in a film where a couple is obviously about to have sex they work cut is to a weird, "sexual", random scene. For example, waves on an ocean, a train entering a tunnel, a campfire. I personally thought that those were not very sexual and not very obvious, but apparently it all made sense at the time.

I've noticed that sex is not at all as hidden now as it was in the twentieth  century. You can turn on a show on a kids network and you could see kids kissing, which to me is extremely weird. I feel like it was a good idea to cover up sex because it kept the innocence of kids longer. Now, there are people who read books that are strictly about sex. 

Adding sex into story lines does make the plot more interesting. It gives two characters a really strong connection and physical frustration which is very fun to read. Sexual symbolism was especially hidden when it was about homesexuality, which is a tiny bit more understandable because homosexuality was totally unexceptsble then. They were very big on church and preferred to glamorize eveything.

I wonder what made them decide to intentionally publicize sex. Did the culture change? I think that maybe people became more liberal and began more excepting of different things. For example, people could not even dream of excepting homosexuality, but now homosexuals are being granted rights. Wow! How much the world has changed.

I'm interested to see how literature
will progress in the future. Who knows what will be in books then. I'm actually pretty excited.

We're All Vampires!

Chapter 4- Nice to eat you

In chapter 4 the author discusses how vampires are more than vampires. Monsters are usually a representation of something. For instance, vampires. Vampires are usually male and prey on young, sweet, virginal women. The author gives examples from Dracula and suggests that virginal women found him to be sexy though he was usually an only, grumpy man. He preyed on virginal women because he enjoyed being the one to rob him of their innocence. He would seduce them, turn them into a vampire like him, and she would begin finding other victims while he turned youthful and energetic. As I read novels, especially fictional one, I always try to keep my eyes open in search of a deeper meaning to the story. While reading I've learned that almost everything is symbolic. 

For example, Scruge and his ghosts. Ghost are a symbol or a sign. Ghost are present in a story usually to inform a character of a possible happening our outcome to a situations. Ghost are used as a warning sign. If you think about it, every horror film that a ghost appears in the ghost is usually trying to warn someone of something. Maybe of a horrible death that may have happen and now the ghost is haunting the house because their soul was never put to rest. I think that is why I actually prefer ghost movies because there is always a better story line, or a dramatic twist. Ghost stories always have a great climax. 

Another example of a symbolic supernatural character is the witch. Witches are another one of my favorite characters because of how mysterious they seem to be. You can never really predict what they are going to do next, but one thing is for sure, you never want to get in their bad side. What I like the most about witches are that they are more than likely women. Women because witches a long time ago because they felt like the men were mistreating them and they weren't being treated equally by society, so they practiced "witch craft" to be able to cast spells and alter peoples lives that made them angry.

It's actually quite funny to me. As Foster says in chapter 4, vampires are people who are willing to "suck the lives out of others" to get what they want to make themselves better. If you think about a lot of humans are vampires! Every day of our lives we have people who bring us down in order to bring themselves down. Some humans have supernatural vampire characteristics. There are some movie where vampires are not even the traditional looking vampires. They can be the average mean girl in a movie who picks on insecure lower class men with low self esteem in order to gain popularity from her fellow classmates. And, ironically students who are picked on sometimes turn into the "mean girl" to someone else only because their innocence what sucked away from them and now they are doing to the same to others. I know a lot of vampires. Do you?