English 180N – Flashcards

A type of indecision brought about by spiritual or mental sloth (ex. I want to get up but I'm lazy).

"A feeling or subjective experience accompanying a thought or action or occurring in response to a stimulus; an emotion, a mood. In later use also (usu. as a mass noun): the outward display of emotion or mood, as manifested by facial expression, posture, gestures, tone of voice, etc." (Compare with "effect": "That which results from the action or properties of something or someone; results in general; the quality of producing a result, efficacy") (OED).

A word that describes a type of indecision brought about by a state of mind in which someone acts against his/her better judgment through weakness of the will (ex. I am going to stay on the couch even though I know I should get up).

The same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or nearby words.

A covert, implied, or indirect reference; a passing or incidental reference.

A thing belonging or appropriate to a period other than that in which it exists. Anachronism is particularly significant in the context of the historical novel.

An exclamatory rhetorical figure of speech, when a speaker or writer breaks off and directs speech to an imaginary person, abstract quality or idea.

A relationship between sign and referent—that is, a word and what it refers to—in which either no clear correspondence between the two can be established or the sign (word) does not refer to something real.

A concept articulated by Walter Benjamin in his essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," aura is the unique quality traditionally attributed to an artwork which indicates its presence in space and time. It is in essence, its authenticity and the concept suggests that art has long been a secular version of a sacred object in religious ritual. Benjamin argues that the advent of capitalist mass production has destroyed the unique aura of art by devaluing the concept of the 'original.'

A tradition of guaranteeing the authenticity of testimony (not peculiar to but prevalent in slave narratives like those of Frederick Douglass) by way of external validation (speaking in public, authenticating frontispieces, etc.).

Auto-immunity is the process whereby a community or an organism or an organization eliminates or destroys part of itself in order to preserve its integrity, its wholeness. In biology, auto-immunity signifies an error within the immune system that prompts antibodies to attack and destroy the body's own cells; the body turns against itself. Jacques Derrida suggests that auto-immunity, "a figure of a figure," applies to social structures like terrorism as well: the stem "mun" in "immune" is the same as the "mun" in "community." J. Hillis Miller applies this concept to Beloved.

After-the-factness, coming too late, a point of retrospection.

A term primarily associated with humor, burlesque is a mode of humorous entertainment typically involving parody and/or grotesque exaggeration.

Mikhail Bakhtin's traces the origins of the carnivalesque to the concept of the carnival, which is itself related to the feast of fools, a medieval festival originally of the sub-deacons of the cathedral, held about the time of the Feast of the Circumcision on January 1. In this festival, the humbler cathedral officials burlesqued the sacred ceremonies, releasing "the natural lout beneath the cassock." In the carnivalesque mode, the world is turned upside-down and everything demands equal status. Often, this is formally achieved by mingling many languages, by overturning social hierarchies, and by including masked and abject bodies—all of which thereby make men equal through a kind of hysterical, whimsical insanity.

From the notion of Catholic ecclesiastical law as laid down by the decrees of the Pope, a literary canon is collection of texts widely considered to be the most influential and constitutive of a particular culture, class, region or group (i.e. the American canon).

A borrowed term from the visual arts referring to the "treatment or disposition of the light and shade, or brighter and darker masses, in a picture." OED

From the Greek for "crossing," a rhetorical form in which words, grammatical constructions, or concepts are repeated in reverse order.

More a period of history than an actual war, the Cold War period, which stretches from 1947-1991, begins after World War II, when the U.S. and its allies consolidate into a cultural and political hegemony aiming to protect the world from the other superpower emerging out of the war, the Soviet Union and its allies. The Cold War is essentially a standoff between these large-scale world powers. It was called "cold" because there were few military clashes; the conflict was measured in terms of a build-up of nuclear armament. Crucial to the Cold War is the idea that an ideological battle was taking place, fought on the grounds of art, culture, political, and economic ideas.

Both "the state or faculty of being conscious, as a condition and concomitant of all thought, feeling, and volition; 'the recognition by the thinking subject of its own acts or affections' (Hamilton)," and "the totality of the impressions, thoughts, and feelings, which make up a person;s conscious being." OED. Consciousness is of deep philosophical intrigue for both realism and romanticism.

Of the nature of a counterpoint, "employing combined or contrasting themes, structures, etc." OED.

A Russian Formalist term coined by Viktor Shklovsky to describe the action of taking that which is familiar and artistically rendering it so as to make it appear strange, thereby enhancing and revitalizing the audience's perception of the familiar.

Of, relating to, or denoting a word or expression whose meaning is dependent on the context in which it's being used (ex. here, you, me, now).

Defined as "an item, a particular (of an account, a process, etc.); a minute or subordinate portion of any whole. The "telling detail"—an insignificant, often quirky detail that remains outside any realm of textual significance— produces what Roland Barthes calls "the reality effect." This implicates details as an artifice of realism.

The exchange of argument and counter-argument, or the relation of a thesis to anti-thesis. In a Hegelian model, the exchange of thesis and antithesis sometimes leads to synthesis, to a third term that incorporates the dynamic contradiction and the common ground of the exchange.

Mikhail Bakhtin's idea that language emerges in conversation, shot through with its uses and its relationship to other people.

The order and mode of telling the events of the story. Best thought of in terms of narratological execution (the "how") of what's being told, whereas the story is the content (the "what") of the telling.

W.E.B. Du Bois' postulation of a peculiar but quotidian form of African-American consciousness in which "the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world,—a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his twoness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder."

A literary term to describe the verbal description of an art object.

Traditionally, an epic is an extended verse narrative that relates the birth of a nation. Five features of the epic: • Intimations of the metaphysical, of relations between gods and men • Scenes of large-scale battle • Scenes of travel over long periods of time and huge stretches of land • Long speeches • Scenes of revelry and consumption

Simply put, the study of how we know what we think we know. Epistemology is a theory about knowledge—especially with regards to its methods, validity, and scope—and the focus of its study is the investigation of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion.

A term coined by French narratologist Gerard Genette, the perspective through which a narrative is presented. "Internal focalization" often refers to narratives in which all information is presented through the subjective position of character in a narrative, whereas omniscient narration is often termed "external focalization."

Free indirect speech is a style of third-person narration which uses some of the characteristics of third-person along with the essence of first-person direct speech— a mix of an all-knowing, God-like perspective and the small quirks of a character's mind. What distinguishes free indirect speech from normal indirect speech is the lack of an introductory expression such as, "He said" or "he thought."

Able to replace or be replaced by another identical item; mutually interchangeable (ex. money is fungible— money that is raised for one purpose can easily be used for another).

Mikhail Bakhtin's emphasis on the presence of a diversity of voices, styles of discourse, or points of view in a literary work.

A novel that has as its setting a period of history distant from that of its composition and consumption.

That which is inherent or existent within; it is derived from in (in) + manere (to remain).

That which is to come. The word is derived from imminere, from in (toward) + minere (to project).

A term popularized by French theorist Louis Althusser, who defines interpellation or hailing as the process by which an individual is called or addressed and thus becomes a subject of ideology.

To express one meaning by using language that usually signifies the opposite; a state of affairs that seems deliberately contrary to expectations. This involves doubleness and contradiction.

A word for the specific words and terms used by a particular professional group; such words are often difficult for laypersons, for regular folk to understand.

A sensational work with exaggerated characters and exciting events intended to appeal to the emotions.

From the Greek meaning "to carry change," the OED defines metaphor as: "A figure of speech in which a name or descriptive word or phrase is transferred to an object or action different from, but analogous to, that to which it is literally applicable; an instance of this, a metaphorical expression" (ex. Love is a red, red rose).

The substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant, for example suit for business executive, or the track for horse racing (OED). Perhaps more clearly defined by Wikipedia as, "a figure of speech used in rhetoric in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept. For instance, 'Washington,' is a metonym for the U.S. government."

"The mixing or interbreeding of (people of) different races or ethnic groups, esp. the interbreeding or sexual union of whites and non-whites... [M]arriage or cohabitation by members of different ethnic groups" (OED).

A movement of the early twentieth century influenced by and responding to earlier literary movements like Realism, Naturalism, and Romanticism, modernist literature is characterized by an interest in formal experimentalism; the depiction of consciousness; fragmentation in form and topic; and representations of experience through time.

The presumption that there is a cirect correspondence between a sign and what it refers to, that the outside corresponds somehow to the inside of a person or a thing.

"The quality or condition of being manifold" (OED).

"The voice or persona (whether explicitly identified or merely implicit) by which are related the events in a plot, esp. that of a novel or narrative poem" (OED).

"A literary movement taking place from 1880s to 1940s that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character. It is depicted as a literary movement that seeks to replicate a believable, everyday reality, as opposed to such movements as Romanticism or Surrealism, in which subjects may receive highly symbolic, idealistic, or even supernatural treatment.

A low genre of crime and escape and murder.

The strongest and greatest tradition of the novel—beginning as early as the Tale of Genji written in the early 11th century by a Japanese woman, Murasaki Shikibu—its protagonist is usually the single female character. The general form of this genre is familiar: girl meets boy, complications arise, marriage happens or doesn't, etc. Its deep structures include consciousness as a social form of awareness; a relationship to the legal and the world of manners, in the sense of judgment but also in the notion of fixed rules; freedom within a constricted system; and preoccupations with systems of exchange, both abstractly and literally in the form of money.

A term made famous by American/English poet and critic T.S. Eliot, who defines it this way: "The only way of expressing emotion in the form of art is by finding an "objective correlative"; in other words, a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion; such that when the external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion is immediately evoked" (from "Hamlet and His Problems," in The Sacred Wood, 1920). It was a dark and stormy night is a famous example.

A narrative mode in which both reader and author observe the narrative situation through an overarching godlike perspective that sees and knows everything that happens and everything the characters are thinking.

A prison designed by Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century: The concept of the design is to allow an observer to observe (-opticon) all (pan-) prisoners without the prisoners being able to see the observer. The constant possibility of being watched makes the prisoners always vigilant—since they cannot monitor who is watching or when, they must always be aware of their position as objects of the gaze. This means they internalize the fact that they are being watched—the punitive system adopts the rhetoric and the function of the religious notion "God is watching you" or the social systematization of "Big Brother is watching you."

"An argument, based on (apparently) acceptable premises and using (apparently) valid reasoning, which leads to a conclusion that is against sense, logically unacceptable, or self-contradictory" (OED).

A thought process characterized by delusions of persecution, unwarranted jealousy, or exaggerated self- importance, typically elaborated into an organized system. Paranoia could be said to be the dominant epistemological mode of the postmodern.

Para- prefix is Greek for "by, beside, around." Thus, text which surrounds a narrative, including its title page, prefaces, forewords, appendixes, glossaries, etc.

Narratives that focus on and record a character's attempt to "pass," which is the movement across the racial line by those so light-skinned as to be phenotypically indistinguishable from white people. Features include chiascuro, or a world depicted in binarisms exemplified by black and white imagery, especially of the skin and eye color; polemics on racial justice interwoven in the plot; a return home within the structure of the novel; secrecy and exposure as concerns for the passing figure; the death, sociological, psychological, or actual, of the passing figure.

An artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work, artist, or period; an artistic work consisting of a medley of pieces taken from various sources; a confused mixture or jumble.

a work of art portraying or evoking country life, typically in a romanticised or idealized form.

J.L. Austin coined this phrase to mean an instance when words perform an action, when words literally make things happen in the world. Examples: "I bet you," "I do" (as said in a marriage ceremony), "I christen." There are three crucial things about the way Austin qualifies the boundaries of performative utterances. First, performative utterances are not subject to the question of truth or falsity and they thus shift our focus from whether words mean anything. Second, they necessarily involve repetition and a context: you have to say certain words in a specific frame. And finally, performative utterances can't be literary because they are judged on whether or not they "misfire"; literary citation doesn't make anything real happen on stage or on the page. Literary theorists from Jacques Derrida to Jonathan Culler to J. Hillis Miller, however, have suggested that Austin's exclusion of the literary from his theory does not do justice to literature's world-making power.

A genre of literature. It's key features include a focus on a rogueish outlaw as a hero (usually male); an episodic structure rather than a plot with ordered events, climaxes, or denouements; a lateral movement across a space rather than a deep movement toward character interiority.

Mikhail Bakhtin's idea that a novel can include many voices, which exist alongside the authorial voice.

Postmodernism the word is a mashup of two notions—the post-, what comes after, and the modern, which was originally a word conceived to mean "now" but of course, in our context, refers to a period of thought and culture from roughly the turn of the twentieth century to the middle of it. Postmodernism literally contains modernism, so we don't want to pretend that these traditions are entirely distinct. Literary postmodernism is often characterized by a stylistic of gleeful pastiche, a shift in the understanding of language and its functions, tropes of self-consciousness, and metafiction. It is often associated with difference, plurality, textuality, and skepticism.

A literary movement in the 19th and early 20th centuries that worked toward the "accurate" depiction of places, objects, and people—an attempt to depict human consciousness in relation to social and economic exchange.

According to Roland Barthes, an effect produced in certain narratives by the telling detail, the detail whose very arbitrariness seems to suggest that the narrator or character was really there. Details of this kind are often quirky and seemingly meaningless, but it is precisely because they are outside the realm of significance that they come to represent "reality," that which is superfluous to interpretation. Details index the artificiality of the reality effect.

Established by counting or calculation; punishment for a crime or misdeed; to rely or be sure of something.

Generally refers to the period between 1865 and 1877 when American government and social policy revolved around rebuilding the nation after the war. Reconstruction was an attempt to ease the secessionist Southern states back into the Union; to provide a new civil status for the leaders of the Confederacy; and to reconfigure the Constitutional and legal status of the Negro Freedmen.

Literally, "reduced to absurdity." The phrase refers to a classical rhetorical mode of refutation, by which one shows that another's arguments—if followed far enough—lead to an absurd conclusion.

Perhaps most easily thought of as a narrative flashback, retroactive narration illuminates the difference between story and discourse, since the narrative's time is told in a different order than the story's time.

A literary archetype referring to a character that rejects established norms and conventions, has been rejected by society, and has the self as the center of his or her own existence. The Romantic hero is often the protagonist in the literary work and there is a primary focus on the character's thoughts rather than his or her actions.

Usually associated with poetry and a certain mode of philosophy from figures like, in France, Victor Hugo and Stendhal; in Germany, Goethe, Schiller, Fichte, Novalis; and in England, Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, Byron, Coleridge, Blake. Romanticism is characterized broadly by an attention to the natural world as it is (rather than under a Darwinian logic); an investment in aesthetics and beauty; a focus on the individual and on singular consciousness (both in the sense of being alone and in the sense of being unique); interest in visual and musical arts; an advocacy of spiritual freedom and liberalism; and a renewed interest in the past and in previous artistic movements in particular ancient mythology (Greek, Celtic, etc.). The movement was highly influential in 19th century American literature.

The linguistic process by which meaning in language is produced. The elements of the process are "sign" (the word that refers to an object) and referent (the object being referred to). The "sign" is then broken down further into the signifier (the literal collection of letters or sounds that make up a word) and the signified (the idea of the thing being referred to).

Jean Baudrillard's theory of the hyperrealism of simulacra picks up an idea as old as Plato—that copies, or reproductions can distort the real thing they represent—and theorizes it in the postmodern moment. For Baudrillard, simulacra describes a condition in which representation continues to function even though the real, the referent, the thing represented has disappeared. He describes this as taking place in four stages. The image or representation: 1. is the reflection of reality 2. masks the reality 3. masks the absence of reality 4. has no relation to any reality at all; it is a pure simulacrum. Representation suggests an equivalence of the sign and the real. But simulacra stem from the negation of the sign, "a process which reabsorbs every original being and introduces a series of identical beings."

An autobiographical account of a slave's spiritual, personal, or abolitionist progress out of slavery. The Interesting Narrative of Oloudah Equiano or Gustavas Vassa, the African written by himself, published in 1789 is held to be the first of its genre to be published, and A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, published in 1845, is largely held to be the genre's apex. Features include self-expression as self-validation; the achievement of liberty through literacy; an authenticating frontispiece or preface, usually by a white person, who testified to the authentity of the narrative presented; anonymity as a form of authenticity; a sense of decorum; a sense of the melodramatic exposé.

A term used for various late nineteenth century ideologies which, while often contradictory, exploited ideas of survival of the fittest. An application of Darwinian theory to the social realm of human interaction.

A verbal error in which a speaker transposes the first sounds or letters of adjacent words. A well-boiled icicle for a well-oiled bicycle.

Designed in the mid-nineteenth century and also known as a "magic lantern," a kind of projector with two lenses that depicted photographs or images that slowly moved or rotated.

(also known as fabula) Events as they take place in the chronology. Best thought of as "the story world," or diegetic world, whereas discourse is best thought of as the narratological techniques used to impart that world.

Psychologist William James coined the term in 1890 to describe the unbroken flow of thought and awareness in the human mind. James, however, was doubtful that this stream could ever adequately be captured, even for the person experiencing the stream of consciousness. However, consciousness is particularly suited to the literary form for various reasons, including the mirroring effect that happens with the advent of solitary reading: as one reads, one is being made to think through another person's thoughts. Thus, in literary narratives, stream of consciousness is frequently represented as a fluid flow of thoughts, a chaotic jumble of sensory and mental stimulation.

"Watch or guard kept over a person, etc., esp. over a suspected person, a prisoner, or the like; often, spying, supervision; less commonly, supervision for the purpose of direction or control, superintendence" (OED).

A type of figurative language in which a thing corresponds to, represents, or stands in for something else. Often, an object comes to signify a larger, abstract idea or quality.

"Psycol. Production, from a sense-impression of one kind, of an associated mental image of a sense- impression of another kind...Lit. The use of metaphors in which terms relating to one kind of sense-impression are used to describe sense-impressions of other kinds...synæsthetic effect in writing or an instance of this" (OED).

Literally, "living picture." "The term describes a striking group of suitably costumed actors or artist's models, carefully posed and often theatrically lit. Throughout the duration of the display, the people shown do not speak or move. The approach thus marries the art forms of the stage with those of painting/photography, and as such it has been of interest to modern photographers" (Wikipedia).

A traditional type of tale characterized by melodrama: characters are distinguished by their beauty, idealism, barely traceable one-drop of black blood, and disappointments in love. They are tortured by the commingling of blood in their veins, resulting in an eventual death meant to represent the inevitable unfolding of biological destiny.

Literally, "trick of the eye." A heightened degree of realist painting. An artist paints so as to trick the eye into perceiving something as materially real and not an image in a picture plane.

A variety of indecision in which a wish or inclination is asserted, but remains too weak to lead to action (ex. I want to get up but not that much).

As a novelistic genre, the Western is devoted to telling stories of the American Old West. The Western got its start in the "penny dreadfuls" and "dime novels" that first began to be published in the mid-nineteenth century. These cheaply made books were published to capitalize on the many fanciful yet supposedly true stories that were being told about the mountain men, outlaws, settlers and lawmen who were taming the western frontier. Some features include: the use of specific jargon and slang to convey realist detail; clipped, understated, deadpan dialogue; the figure of the outlaw, which creates alliances across national, social, and cultural lines; violent battles between men; random wandering across a landscape; questions of fate and will; perpetuating or troubling the myth of Manifest Destiny. The genre includes aspects of the picaresque and of the epic, and is sometimes divided into the subgenres of the "shoot-em-up western" and the "epic western."

Author: Edith Wharton Characters: Lily Bart - Lily, the novel's protagonist, is an unmarried 29-nine-year-old woman who desires to be a social success. Her mission is to marry a relatively wealthy man, thereby ensuring her financial stability and a place in the higher levels of New York society. Unfortunately, though, her desire to marry someone wealthy clashes with her feelings for Lawrence Selden, a man of modest means whom she truly loves. She also suffers from an inability to make decisions, which causes her to pass up several good marriage opportunities in hopes that she can do better. Book Two chronicles Lily's gradual expulsion from society after a false rumor spreads that she has had an extramarital affair. She eventually joins the working classes before dying at the end of the novel from a sleeping medicine overdose. Lawrence Selden - Selden is a detached observer of the New York society that Lily aspires to join. He is a lawyer by profession, but he is not particularly wealthy, which prevents Lily from marrying him even though they love one another. Throughout the novel, Selden struggles between his desire to remain detached from society and his wish to court Lily and convince her to marry him. At the end of the novel, he resolves finally to propose marriage to Lily, but his decision comes too late—he finds her dead in her apartment. Bertha Dorset - The wife of George Dorset. Most of the characters (including perhaps her husband) know that she has a history of extramarital affairs, one of which may have been with Lawrence Selden. She is described as a nasty woman who enjoys making other people miserable, especially her own husband. She invites Lily on a cruise with her, her husband, and Ned Silverton around the Mediterranean, but only so Lily will distract George while Bertha has an affair with Ned. Bertha, the novel's antagonist, spreads the rumor that Lily and George are having an affair, then uses her money and influence to keep Lily out of society forever. Gerty Farish - Gerty is Selden's cousin. She is a kind, generous woman who does a lot of charity work. In Book Two, she becomes one of Lily's only friends, giving her a place to stay and taking care of her when everyone else abandons her. Simon Rosedale - Rosedale is a dedicated social climber who owns many stocks and lots of property. At the end of the novel, he asks Lily to marry him, an opportunity that she passes up at first. Later on, he becomes her friend, and visits her after she becomes very poor and very sick. Gus Trenor - Trenor, the husband of Judy, is a lonely, moody man who has a particular liking for Lily even though he is married. In Book One, Lily asks him to invest her money for her in the stock market. Instead, Trenor invests his own money and gives Lily the profits. When Lily finds out that the money is not truly hers, she resolves to pay Trenor back rather than agree to be his friend. Percy Gryce - Gryce is a young, rich, eligible bachelor on whom Lily sets her sights early in the novel. Unfortunately, just as Lily decides she must marry him, he announces his engagement to Evie Van Osburgh. He is another missed opportunity for Lily. Judy Trenor - Judy, a close friend of Lily's, is the social overseer of the events at the Bellomont, her out-of-town estate. She regularly hosts large bridge parties and gives Lily a place to stay for up to weeks at a time. She all but disappears in Book Two. Carry Fisher - Carry Fisher is known for bringing newcomers, such as the Brys, into society. After Lily has been expelled from the upper class by Bertha, Carry is one of the few people who still shows compassion toward her, offering Lily support and money. George Dorset - The husband of Bertha, George does not factor into the novel regularly until Book Two, when he begins to realize that his wife is cheating on him with Ned Silverton. To complicate the matter, George seems to fancy Lily, although she will not ever see him again after people spread rumors that the two of them had an affair. Ned Silverton - Ned accompanies Lily and the Dorsets on their Mediterranean cruise. A young, rich man, he has an affair with Bertha, but manages to keep it concealed from most of society. Mrs. Peniston - Julia Peniston is Lily's wealthy aunt who lives on Fifth Avenue. Mrs. Peniston became Lily's guardian after Lily's mother dies. When Mrs. Peniston hears the rumors that Lily had an affair and learns that Lily gambles on Sundays, she disinherits her before her death at the beginning of Book Two, and leaves most of her estate to other relatives. Jack Stepney and Gwen Stepney - Jack is Lily's cousin. He married Gwen Van Osburgh in Book One, and is a regular member of society. In Book Two, he agrees to shelter Lily for the night after she is kicked off the yacht by Bertha. Jack and Gwen are a very wealthy couple. Grace Stepney - Lily's competetive cousin. When Lily asks Grace for financial assistance, Grace flatly refuses.

Lily Bart is an attractive woman with some important social and family ties, but at the age of 29, she is still not married. Since the death of her mother, who had an intense hatred for "dinginess," Lily began to live with her aunt, Mrs. Peniston. However, Lily spends much of her time staying at the Bellomont, the out-of-town estate of the wealthy and well-establish Gus and Judy Trenor. At the Bellomont, Judy regularly throws extravagant parties that are attended by most of the New York upper-crust. They play bridge for money, which is problematic for Lily because she has a gambling addiction and cannot stop gambling, even though it ruins her financially. Lily has two main goals in the book: marriage and wealth. It is her hope to marry a rich man, thereby securing her place in society, but due to her own indecision, she passes up numerous chances, always thinking she can do better. Unfortunately, Lily's true love, Lawrence Selden, does not have enough money for her to marry him. Lily hears about the stock market at the Bellomont and decides that she would like to get involved in investment. She asks Gus Trenor to invest her small sum of money for her, and he readily assents because he is secretly attracted to Lily and wants her to spend time with him. The investments pay off, and as Lily begins to make money from Wall Street, she begins to spend lavishly. Later, to her horror, Trenor tries to proposition her, and she learns that he has not been investing her money—of which there is none—but rather his own; he has been giving her his profits. He says that she may pay him back by spending time with him, but Lily withdraws quickly from his presence and resolves that she will somehow pay him back, although she does not know how. Lily takes a sudden vacation to the Mediterranean with George and Bertha Dorset and the young Ned Silverton, but she soon learns that she is being brought along to distract George while Bertha has an affair with Ned. When Lily begins to associate with European royalty, Bertha becomes jealous and kicks her off the cruise yacht, starting a nasty rumor that Lily and George are having an affair, which leads to Lily's expulsion from society. Lily returns to America to learn that her aunt has died, leaving her with only $10,000, which is just enough to pay off her debt to Trenor, although Lily cannot have the money until one year has elapsed. In the meantime, Lily tries desperately to rebuild her reputation in society, but fails and moves in with Gerty Farish, Selden's cousin. She takes up jobs as a secretary and milliner (hat maker) before finally moving into a boarding house and leading a meaningless life. She begins to take sleeping pills to help her get away from her fear and loneliness until the day when her check from her aunt's estate finally arrives. She pays off all her debts with the money, then overdoses (perhaps intentionally) on sleeping pills. The next day, Selden shows up at her apartment with the intention of proposing marriage to her, only to find her dead, with all her debts paid off.

Acedia, veleity, akrasia Belatedness Old Money vs. New Money Self vs. system - Lily doesn't survive in working world or in upper class society without money Artistic perfection Lily has desire to be watched Social Darwinism Panoptic : Lily, and others in the society, as being constantly watched. This is a desire to be watched, however Tableau vivant and Trompe d'oeil: Visual illusion, thinking one is seeing the other as "real" even though it is inherently artificial. Relates to sense of overexposure Arbitrary laws of exchange: Lily languishes in her ability to repay but this repayment is not only in terms of monetary exchange Novel of Manners and Naturalism : Social classes related to classes of animals. Natural metaphors. Some people are lower than others. Lily as a specimen.

Author: James Welden Johnson Characters: Narrator Mother, Father Shiny Red His Wife The Millionaire Violin player The Porters Woman in the Club

Early life The Ex-Colored Man's mother protected him as a child and teenager. Because of the money provided by his father, she had the means to raise him in a different environment than most other blacks. He was exposed to only upper-class blacks and mostly benevolent whites. After his mother's death, his poor orphan status exposed him to a part of black life unknown to him while living a sheltered life with his mother. He adapted very well to life with lower-class blacks, and was able to move easily between the classes of black society. During this carefree period of his life, he was still able to teach music and attend church, where he came in contact with the upper class blacks. The Ex-Colored man living in an all black community discovered three classes of blacks; the desperate class, the domestic service class, and the independent workman. The Ex-Colored Man believed the desperate class consists of poor blacks that loathe the whites. The domestic service, domestic worker class consists of blacks that work as servants to the whites. The third class consists of well-to-do blacks that had no interaction with the whites. Many white readers, who viewed all blacks as a stereotype of a single class, are unfamiliar with the narrator's description of class distinctions among blacks. Johnson's description of the black classes also serves to show that blacks and whites also have the same human tendencies to seek social status. Time with the Rich White Gentleman While playing ragtime at one of the late night hot spots in New York, the Ex-Colored Man caught the attention of a rich white gentleman. The gentleman had a particsts at parties. Soon the Ex-Colored Man spent most of his time working for the white gentleman, who would have him play ragtime music for hours at a time. He would play until the white gentleman would say "that will do." The Ex-Colored man would tire after the long hours, but would continue playing as he saw the joy and serenity he brought the white gentleman. The white gentleman frequently "loaned" the Ex-Colored Man out to other people to play at their parties. The gentleman was not exactly "loaning" him out as a piece of property, but simply giving the narrator a broader palette to display his talents. The Ex-Colored man saw how the rich lived; he was thrilled to live in this life style. The Rich White Gentleman absolutely influenced the Ex-Colored Man more than any one else he met. The relationship towards the Rich White Man was not only on a slave/master basis, but also one of friendship. While he was with the white gentleman, the Ex-Colored Man decided he would use his skills to aid in Abolitionism. Even though life was pleasant, it was void of substance; using his music to aid impoverished African Americans he felt would be a better use of his talents. The Ex-Colored Man continued to show devotion to the white gentleman, as the white gentleman treated him with kindness, which eventually led to the forming of a friendship while in Paris. However, the Ex-Colored Man's devotion to the white gentleman also portrays the relationship that some slaves had with their masters, showing devotion to the slave-owner. This shows that even though the Ex-Colored Man had "freedom", but he was still suffering from the effects of slavery. After playing for the white gentleman while touring Europe, the Ex-Colored Man decided to leave the white gentleman and go back to the South so that he could study Negro spirituals. He planned to use his knowledge of classical and ragtime music to create a new Black American musical genre. He wanted to "bring glory and honor to the Negro race". He wanted to return to his heritage and make it a proud and self-righteous race. The lynching Just as the Ex-Colored Man began to work on his music, he witnessed the lynching of a black man. The crowd originally wanted to hang the man, but decided to burn him instead. The Ex-Colored Man narrates in detail of what he saw, "He squirmed, he withered, strained at his chains, then gave out cries and groans that I shall always hear." The incident at the town square opens his eyes to a racism he has never seen before. He continues, "The cries and groans were choked off by the fire and smoke; but his eyes, bulging from their sockets, rolled from side to side, appealing in vain for help." The scene that day stuck vividly in his mind. It burned a sour image in his brain. He finishes with, "Some of the crowd yelled and cheered, others seemed appalled at what they had done, and there were those who turned away sickened at the sight. I was fixed to the spot where I stood powerless to take my eyes from what I did not see." This scene describes the horror of lynching, and the power it had over the mob of people in the deep south. It should also be noted that many critics believe that James Weldon Johnson wrote this scene about the lynchings to dissuade people from lynchings. Michael Berube writes, "there is no question that Johnson wrote the book, in large part, to try to stem the tide of lynchings sweeping the nation." After witnessing this event, the Ex-Colored Man decided to "pass" as white. He gave up his dream of making music that would glorify his race. He stated that he did not want to be "identified with a people that could with impunity be treated worse than animals," or with a people who could treat other humans that way. He simply wishes to remain neutral. The Ex-Colored Man declares that he "would neither disclaim the black race nor claim the white race." Passing The world accepted The Ex-Colored Man to be white. Our narrator is "passing" as a white man his whole life and never truly reveals himself as black to the world. This fact is what gives the narrative its title of "Ex-Colored Man". He later married a white woman, had two children, and lived out his life a successful yet mediocre business man. The only true acceptance the Ex Colored Man experienced in his life was from his wife, who loved him and agreed to marry him after he revealed his secret to her. His wife dies during their second child's birth, leaving him alone to raise his two children. At the end of the book, the Ex-colored Man said, "My love for my children makes me glad that I am what I am, and keeps me from desiring to be otherwise; and yet, when I sometimes open a little box in which I still keep my fast yellowing manuscripts, the only tangible remnants of a vanished dream, a dead ambition, a sacrificed talent, I cannot repress the thought, that after all I have chosen the lesser part, that I have sold my birthright for a mess of pottage." "Passing" could be interpreted as a decision to avoid the black race. He states that he "regrets holding himself back." He may have been implying that if he had he embraced the Negro community and let the community embrace him, that he could have made a difference. The Ex-Colored Man was one of the few people who was not held back by being black. He had a strong education, smart wits, and light colored skin. The masses all assumed he was white. However, his talent was in black music. Because of his fear of being a Negro, he threw away his talent as a musician to "become" a white man. This act depicts how society was during the 1910s and how terrible it was of this society to force him between his love of music and the safety and convenience of being white. The white gentleman accepted the Ex-Colored Man for who he was, but most people were not like that. He did not go back and play his music for the world after his wife died because of his children. He could not have his white children grow up on the black side of a segregated world. He wanted to give them every advantage he could.

Liminal - occupying a position on both sides of a boundary Double Consciousness Tragic Mullato tale: Interest in racial justive, a return home, symbolic, contrast of dark/light (chiascuro) Chiasmus - repeated in reverse order. Example, I am a man who was a slave. Progressive Era: Destabilization of social order Duplicity Paradox

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald Characters: Nick Carraway - The novel's narrator, Nick is a young man from Minnesota who, after being educated at Yale and fighting in World War I, goes to New York City to learn the bond business. Honest, tolerant, and inclined to reserve judgment, Nick often serves as a confidant for those with troubling secrets. After moving to West Egg, a fictional area of Long Island that is home to the newly rich, Nick quickly befriends his next-door neighbor, the mysterious Jay Gatsby. As Daisy Buchanan's cousin, he facilitates the rekindling of the romance between her and Gatsby. The Great Gatsby is told entirely through Nick's eyes; his thoughts and perceptions shape and color the story. Jay Gatsby - The title character and protagonist of the novel, Gatsby is a fabulously wealthy young man living in a Gothic mansion in West Egg. He is famous for the lavish parties he throws every Saturday night, but no one knows where he comes from, what he does, or how he made his fortune. As the novel progresses, Nick learns that Gatsby was born James Gatz on a farm in North Dakota; working for a millionaire made him dedicate his life to the achievement of wealth. When he met Daisy while training to be an officer in Louisville, he fell in love with her. Nick also learns that Gatsby made his fortune through criminal activity, as he was willing to do anything to gain the social position he thought necessary to win Daisy. Nick views Gatsby as a deeply flawed man, dishonest and vulgar, whose extraordinary optimism and power to transform his dreams into reality make him "great" nonetheless. Daisy Buchanan - Nick's cousin, and the woman Gatsby loves. As a young woman in Louisville before the war, Daisy was courted by a number of officers, including Gatsby. She fell in love with Gatsby and promised to wait for him. However, Daisy harbors a deep need to be loved, and when a wealthy, powerful young man named Tom Buchanan asked her to marry him, Daisy decided not to wait for Gatsby after all. Now a beautiful socialite, Daisy lives with Tom across from Gatsby in the fashionable East Egg district of Long Island. She is sardonic and somewhat cynical, and behaves superficially to mask her pain at her husband's constant infidelity. Tom Buchanan - Daisy's immensely wealthy husband, once a member of Nick's social club at Yale. Powerfully built and hailing from a socially solid old family, Tom is an arrogant, hypocritical bully. His social attitudes are laced with racism and sexism, and he never even considers trying to live up to the moral standard he demands from those around him. He has no moral qualms about his own extramarital affair with Myrtle, but when he begins to suspect Daisy and Gatsby of having an affair, he becomes outraged and forces a confrontation. Jordan Baker - Daisy's friend, a woman with whom Nick becomes romantically involved during the course of the novel. A competitive golfer, Jordan represents one of the "new women" of the 1920s—cynical, boyish, and self-centered. Jordan is beautiful, but also dishonest: she cheated in order to win her first golf tournament and continually bends the truth. Myrtle Wilson - Tom's lover, whose lifeless husband George owns a run-down garage in the valley of ashes. Myrtle herself possesses a fierce vitality and desperately looks for a way to improve her situation. Unfortunately for her, she chooses Tom, who treats her as a mere object of his desire. George Wilson - Myrtle's husband, the lifeless, exhausted owner of a run-down auto shop at the edge of the valley of ashes. George loves and idealizes Myrtle, and is devastated by her affair with Tom. George is consumed with grief when Myrtle is killed. George is comparable to Gatsby in that both are dreamers and both are ruined by their unrequited love for women who love Tom. Owl Eyes - The eccentric, bespectacled drunk whom Nick meets at the first party he attends at Gatsby's mansion. Nick finds Owl Eyes looking through Gatsby's library, astonished that the books are real. Klipspringer - The shallow freeloader who seems almost to live at Gatsby's mansion, taking advantage of his host's money. As soon as Gatsby dies, Klipspringer disappears—he does not attend the funeral, but he does call Nick about a pair of tennis shoes that he left at Gatsby's mansion. Meyer Wolfsheim - Gatsby's friend, a prominent figure in organized crime. Before the events of the novel take place, Wolfsheim helped Gatsby to make his fortune bootlegging illegal liquor. His continued acquaintance with Gatsby suggests that Gatsby is still involved in illegal business.

N ick Carraway, a young man from Minnesota, moves to New York in the summer of 1922 to learn about the bond business. He rents a house in the West Egg district of Long Island, a wealthy but unfashionable area populated by the new rich, a group who have made their fortunes too recently to have established social connections and who are prone to garish displays of wealth. Nick's next-door neighbor in West Egg is a mysterious man named Jay Gatsby, who lives in a gigantic Gothic mansion and throws extravagant parties every Saturday night. Nick is unlike the other inhabitants of West Egg—he was educated at Yale and has social connections in East Egg, a fashionable area of Long Island home to the established upper class. Nick drives out to East Egg one evening for dinner with his cousin, Daisy Buchanan, and her husband, Tom, an erstwhile classmate of Nick's at Yale. Daisy and Tom introduce Nick to Jordan Baker, a beautiful, cynical young woman with whom Nick begins a romantic relationship. Nick also learns a bit about Daisy and Tom's marriage: Jordan tells him that Tom has a lover, Myrtle Wilson, who lives in the valley of ashes, a gray industrial dumping ground between West Egg and New York City. Not long after this revelation, Nick travels to New York City with Tom and Myrtle. At a vulgar, gaudy party in the apartment that Tom keeps for the affair, Myrtle begins to taunt Tom about Daisy, and Tom responds by breaking her nose. As the summer progresses, Nick eventually garners an invitation to one of Gatsby's legendary parties. He encounters Jordan Baker at the party, and they meet Gatsby himself, a surprisingly young man who affects an English accent, has a remarkable smile, and calls everyone "old sport." Gatsby asks to speak to Jordan alone, and, through Jordan, Nick later learns more about his mysterious neighbor. Gatsby tells Jordan that he knew Daisy in Louisville in 1917 and is deeply in love with her. He spends many nights staring at the green light at the end of her dock, across the bay from his mansion. Gatsby's extravagant lifestyle and wild parties are simply an attempt to impress Daisy. Gatsby now wants Nick to arrange a reunion between himself and Daisy, but he is afraid that Daisy will refuse to see him if she knows that he still loves her. Nick invites Daisy to have tea at his house, without telling her that Gatsby will also be there. After an initially awkward reunion, Gatsby and Daisy reestablish their connection. Their love rekindled, they begin an affair. After a short time, Tom grows increasingly suspicious of his wife's relationship with Gatsby. At a luncheon at the Buchanans' house, Gatsby stares at Daisy with such undisguised passion that Tom realizes Gatsby is in love with her. Though Tom is himself involved in an extramarital affair, he is deeply outraged by the thought that his wife could be unfaithful to him. He forces the group to drive into New York City, where he confronts Gatsby in a suite at the Plaza Hotel. Tom asserts that he and Daisy have a history that Gatsby could never understand, and he announces to his wife that Gatsby is a criminal—his fortune comes from bootlegging alcohol and other illegal activities. Daisy realizes that her allegiance is to Tom, and Tom contemptuously sends her back to East Egg with Gatsby, attempting to prove that Gatsby cannot hurt him. When Nick, Jordan, and Tom drive through the valley of ashes, however, they discover that Gatsby's car has struck and killed Myrtle, Tom's lover. They rush back to Long Island, where Nick learns from Gatsby that Daisy was driving the car when it struck Myrtle, but that Gatsby intends to take the blame. The next day, Tom tells Myrtle's husband, George, that Gatsby was the driver of the car. George, who has leapt to the conclusion that the driver of the car that killed Myrtle must have been her lover, finds Gatsby in the pool at his mansion and shoots him dead. He then fatally shoots himself. Nick stages a small funeral for Gatsby, ends his relationship with Jordan, and moves back to the Midwest to escape the disgust he feels for the people surrounding Gatsby's life and for the emptiness and moral decay of life among the wealthy on the East Coast. Nick reflects that just as Gatsby's dream of Daisy was corrupted by money and dishonesty, the American dream of happiness and individualism has disintegrated into the mere pursuit of wealth. Though Gatsby's power to transform his dreams into reality is what makes him "great," Nick reflects that the era of dreaming—both Gatsby's dream and the American dream—is over.

Romanticism vs realism: Gatsby's romanticism of Daisy is not in line with the reality of the their relationship Desire for desire: Desire built on nostalgia, desire to relive past desires. WWI: Mixing of men of different classes, social mobility Nostalgia Story (order in which the events took place) vs. Discourse (order in which the narrator tells the events) Story vs. Discourse

Author: William Faulkner Characters: Jason Compson III - The head of the Compson household until his death from alcoholism in 1912. Mr. Compson is the father of Quentin, Caddy, Jason IV, and Benjy, and the husband of Caroline. Caroline Compson - The self-pitying and self-absorbed wife of Mr. Compson and mother of the four Compson children. Caroline's hypochondria preoccupies her and contributes to her inability to care properly for her children. Quentin Compson - The oldest of the Compson children and the narrator of the novel's second chapter. A sensitive and intelligent boy, Quentin is preoccupied with his love for his sister Caddy and his notion of the Compson family's honor. He commits suicide by drowning himself just before the end of his first year at Harvard. Caddy Compson - The second oldest of the Compson children and the only daughter. Actually named Candace, Caddy is very close to her brother Quentin. She becomes promiscuous, gets pregnant out of wedlock, and eventually marries and divorces Herbert Head in 1910. Jason Compson IV - The second youngest of the Compson children and the narrator of the novel's third chapter. Jason is mean-spirited, petty, and very cynical. Benjy Compson - The youngest of the Compson children and narrator of the novel's first chapter. Born Maury Compson, his name is changed to Benjamin in 1900, when he is discovered to be severely mentally retarded. Miss Quentin - Caddy's illegitimate daughter, who is raised by the Compsons after Caddy's divorce. A rebellious, promiscuous, and miserably unhappy girl, Miss Quentin eventually steals money from Jason and leaves town with a member of a traveling minstrel show. Dilsey - The Compsons' "Negro" cook, Dilsey is a pious, strong-willed, protective woman who serves as a stabilizing force for the Compson family. Roskus - Dilsey's husband and the Compsons' servant. Roskus suffers from a severe case of rheumatism that eventually kills him. T.P. - One of Dilsey's sons, T.P. gets drunk with Benjy and fights with Quentin at Caddy's wedding. Versh - Another of Dilsey's sons and Benjy's keepers. Frony - Dilsey's daughter. Frony is also Luster's mother and works in the Compsons' kitchen. Luster - Frony's son and Dilsey's grandson. Luster is a young boy who looks after and entertains Benjy in 1928, despite the fact that he is only half Benjy's age. The man with the red tie - The mysterious man with whom Miss Quentin allegedly elopes. Damuddy - The Compson children's grandmother, who dies when they are young. Uncle Maury Bascomb - Mrs. Compson's brother, who lives off his brother-in-law's money. Benjy is initially named after Uncle Maury, but Benjy's condition and Caroline's insecurity about her family name convince her to change her son's name. Mr. and Mrs. Patterson - The Compsons' next-door neighbors. Uncle Maury has an affair with Mrs. Patterson until Mr. Patterson intercepts a note Maury has sent to her. Charlie - One of Caddy's first suitors, whom Benjy catches with Caddy on the swing during the first chapter. Dalton Ames - A local Jefferson boy who is probably the father of Caddy's child, Miss Quentin. Shreve MacKenzie - Quentin's roommate at Harvard. A young Canadian man, Shreve reappears in Absalom, Absalom!, one of Faulkner's later novels, which is largely narrated by Shreve and Quentin from their dorm room at Harvard. Spoade - A Harvard senior from South Carolina. Spoade once mocked Quentin's virginity by calling Shreve Quentin's "husband." Gerald Bland - A swaggering student at Harvard. Quentin fights with Gerald because he reminds him of Dalton Ames. Mrs. Bland - Gerald Bland's boastful, Southern mother. Deacon - A black man in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to whom Quentin gives his suicide notes. Julio - The brother of an Italian girl who attaches herself to Quentin as he wanders Cambridge before his suicide. Sydney Herbert Head - The prosperous banker whom Caddy marries. Herbert later divorces Caddy because of her pregnancy. Lorraine - Jason's mistress, a prostitute who lives in Memphis. Earl - The owner of the farm-supply store where Jason works. Earl feels some loyalty toward Mrs. Compson and thus puts up with Jason's surliness. Uncle Job - A black man who works with Jason at Earl's store. Reverend Shegog - The pastor who delivers a powerful sermon on Easter Sunday at the local black church in Jefferson.

Part 1: April 7, 1928 The first section of the novel is narrated by Benjamin "Benjy" Compson, a source of shame to the family due to his mental retardation; the only characters who evidence a genuine care for him are Caddy, his older sister; and Dilsey, a matriarchal servant. His narrative voice is characterized predominantly by its nonlinearity: spanning the period 1898-1928, Benjy's narrative is a pastiche of events presented in a seamless stream of consciousness. The presence of italics in Benjy's section is meant to indicate significant shifts in the narrative. Originally Faulkner meant to use different colored inks to signify chronological breaks. This nonlinearity makes the style of this section particularly challenging, but Benjy's style develops a cadence that, while not chronologically coherent, provides unbiased insight into many characters' true motivations. Moreover, Benjy's caretaker changes to indicate the time period: Luster in the present, T.P. in Benjy's teenage years, and Versh during Benjy's infancy and childhood. In this section we see Benjy's three passions: fire, the golf course on land that used to belong to the Compson family, and his sister Caddy. But by 1928 Caddy has been banished from the Compson home after her husband divorced her because her child was not his, and the family has sold his favorite pasture to a local golf club in order to finance Quentin's Harvard education. In the opening scene, Benjy, accompanied by Luster, a servant boy, watches golfers on the nearby golf course as he waits to hear them call "caddie"—the name of his favorite sibling. When one of them calls for his golf caddie, Benjy's mind embarks on a whirlwind course of memories of his sister, Caddy, focusing on one critical scene. In 1898 when their grandmother died, the four Compson children were forced to play outside during the funeral. In order to see what was going on inside, Caddy climbed a tree in the yard, and while looking inside, her brothers—Quentin, Jason and Benjy—looked up and noticed that her underwear was muddy. How each of them reacts to this is the first insight the reader has into the trends that will shape the lives of these boys: Jason is disgusted, Quentin is appalled, and Benjy seems to have a "sixth-sense" in that he moans (he is unable to speak using words), as if sensing the symbolic nature of Caddy's dirtiness, which hints at her later sexual promiscuity. At the time the children were aged 9 (Quentin), 7 (Caddy), 5 (Jason) and 3 (Benjy). Other crucial memories in this section are Benjy's change of name (from Maury, after his uncle) in 1900 upon the discovery of his disability; the marriage and divorce of Caddy (1910), and Benjy's castration, resulting from an attack on a girl that is alluded to briefly within this chapter when a gate is left unlatched and Benjy is out unsupervised. Readers often report trouble understanding this portion of the novel due to its impressionistic language, necessitated by Benjamin's retardation, and its frequent shifts in time and setting. Part 2: June 2, 1910 Quentin, the most intelligent and tormented of the Compson children, gives the novel's best example of Faulkner's narrative technique. We see him as a freshman at Harvard, wandering the streets of Cambridge, contemplating death, and remembering his family's estrangement from his sister Caddy. Like the first section, its narrative is not strictly linear, though the two interweaving threads, of Quentin at Harvard on the one hand, and of his memories on the other, are clearly discernible. Quentin's main obsession is Caddy's virginity and purity. He is obsessed with Southern ideals of chivalry and is strongly protective of women, especially his sister. When Caddy engages in sexual promiscuity, Quentin is horrified. He turns to his father for help and counsel, but the cynical Mr. Compson tells him that virginity is invented by men and should not be taken seriously. He also tells Quentin that time will heal all. Quentin spends much of his time trying to prove his father wrong, but is unable to. Shortly before Quentin leaves for Harvard in the fall of 1909, Caddy becomes pregnant with the child of Dalton Ames, whom Quentin confronts. The two fight, with Quentin losing horribly and Caddy vowing, for Quentin's sake, never to speak to Dalton again. Quentin tells his father that they have committed incest, but his father knows that he is lying: "and he did you try to make her do it and i i was afraid to i was afraid she might and then it wouldn't do any good" (112). Quentin's idea of incest is shaped by the idea that, if they "could just have done something so dreadful that they would have fled hell except us" (51), he could protect his sister by joining her in whatever punishment she might have to endure. In his mind, he feels a need to take responsibility for Caddy's sin. Pregnant and alone, Caddy then marries Herbert Head, whom Quentin finds repulsive, but Caddy is resolute: she must marry before the birth of her child. Herbert finds out that the child is not his and sends mother and daughter away in shame. Quentin's wanderings through Harvard, as he cuts classes, follow the pattern of his heartbreak over losing Caddy. For instance, he meets a small Italian immigrant girl who speaks no English. Significantly, he calls her "sister" and spends much of the day trying to communicate with her, and to care for her by finding her home, to no avail. He thinks sadly of the downfall and squalor of the South after the American Civil War. Because he can't deal with the amorality of the world around him, he commits suicide. While many first-time readers report Benjy's section as being difficult to understand, these same readers often find Quentin's section to be near impossible. Not only do chronological events mesh together regularly, but often (especially at the end) Faulkner completely disregards any semblance of grammar, spelling, or punctuation, instead writing in a rambling series of words, phrases, and sentences that have no separation to indicate where one thought ends and another begins. This confusion is due to Quentin's severe depression and deteriorating state of mind. The section is therefore ironic in that Quentin is an even more unreliable narrator than his brother Benjy was. Because of the staggering complexity of this section, it is often the one most extensively studied by scholars of the novel. Part 3: April 6, 1928 The third section is narrated by Jason, the third son and Caroline's favorite. It takes place the day before Benjy's section, on Good Friday. Of the three brothers' sections, Jason's is the most straightforward, reflecting his single-minded desire for material wealth. By 1928, Jason is the economic foundation of the family after his father's death. He supports his mother, Benjy, and Miss Quentin (Caddy's daughter), as well as the family's servants. His role makes him bitter and cynical, with little of the passionate sensitivity that mark his older brother and sister. He goes so far as to blackmail Caddy into making him Miss Quentin's sole guardian, then uses that role to steal the support payments that Caddy sends for her daughter. This is the first section that is narrated in a linear fashion. It follows the course of Good Friday, a day in which Jason decides to leave work to search for Miss Quentin (Caddy's daughter), who has run away again, seemingly in pursuit of mischief. Here we see most immediately the conflict between the two predominant traits of the Compson family, which Jason's mother Caroline attributes to the difference between her blood and her husband's: on the one hand, Miss Quentin's recklessness and passion, inherited from her grandfather and, ultimately, the Compson side; on the other, Jason's ruthless cynicism, drawn from his mother's side. This section also gives us the clearest image of domestic life in the Compson household, which for Jason and the servants means the care of the hypochondriac Caroline and of Benjy. Part 4: April 8, 1928 April 8, 1928, is Easter Sunday. This section, the only one without a single first person narrator, focuses on Dilsey, the powerful matriarch of the black servant family. She, in contrast to the declining Compsons, draws a great deal of strength from her faith, standing as a proud figure amid a dying family. It can be said that Dilsey gains her strength by looking outward (i.e. outside of one's self for support) while the Compsons grow weak by looking inward. On this Easter Sunday, Dilsey takes her family and Benjy to the 'colored' church. Through her we sense the consequences of the decadence and depravity in which the Compsons have lived for decades. Dilsey is mistreated and abused, but nevertheless remains loyal. She, with the help of her grandson Luster, cares for Benjy, as she takes him to church and tries to bring him to salvation. The preacher's sermon inspires her to weep for the Compson family, reminding her that she's seen the family through its destruction, which she is now witnessing. Meanwhile, the tension between Jason and Miss Quentin reaches its inevitable conclusion. The family discovers that Miss Quentin has run away in the middle of the night with a carnival worker, having found the hidden collection of cash in Jason's closet and taken both her money (the support from Caddy, which Jason had stolen) and her money-obsessed uncle's life savings. Jason calls the police and tells them that his money has been stolen, but since it would mean admitting embezzling Quentin's money he doesn't press the issue. He therefore sets off once again to find her on his own, but loses her trail in nearby Mottson, and gives her up as gone for good. The novel ends with a very powerful and unsettling image. After church, Dilsey allows her grandson Luster to drive Benjy in the family's decrepit horse and carriage (another sign of decay) to the graveyard. Luster, not caring that Benjy is so entrenched in the routine of his life that even the slightest change in route will enrage him, drives the wrong way around a monument. Benjy's hysterical sobbing and violent outburst can only be quieted by Jason, of all people, who understands how best to placate his brother. Jason slaps Luster, turns the carriage around, and Benjy suddenly becomes silent. Luster turns around to look at Benjy and sees Benjy drop his flower. Benjy's eyes are "...empty and blue and serene again." Appendix: Compson: 1699-1945 In 1945, Faulkner wrote an appendix to the novel to be published in the then-forthcoming anthology The Portable Faulkner. At Faulkner's behest, however, subsequent printings of The Sound and the Fury frequently contain the appendix at the end of the book; it is sometimes referred to as the fifth part. Having been written sixteen years after The Sound and the Fury, the appendix presents some textual differences from the novel, but serves to clarify the novel's opaque story. The appendix is presented as a complete history of the Compson family lineage, beginning with the arrival of their ancestor Quentin Maclachlan in America in 1779 and continuing through 1945, including events that transpired after the novel (which took place in 1928). In particular, the appendix reveals that Caroline Compson died in 1933, upon which Jason had Benjy committed to the state asylum; fired the black servants; sold the last of the Compson land; and moved into an apartment above his farming supply store. It is also revealed that Jason had himself declared Benjy's legal guardian many years ago, without their mother's knowledge, and used this status to have Benjy castrated. The appendix also reveals the fate of Caddy, last seen in the novel when her daughter Quentin is still a baby. After marrying and divorcing a second time, Caddy moved to Paris, where she lived at the time of the German occupation. In 1943 the librarian of Yoknapatawpha County discovered a magazine photograph of Caddy in the company of a German staff general and attempted separately to recruit both Jason and Dilsey to save her; Jason, at first acknowledging that the photo was of his sister, denied that it was she after realizing the librarian wanted his help, while Dilsey pretended to be unable to see the picture at all. The librarian later realizes that while Jason remains cold and unsympathetic towards Caddy, Dilsey simply understands that Caddy neither wants nor needs salvation from the Germans, because nothing else remains for her. The appendix concludes with an accounting for the black family who worked as servants to the Compsons. Unlike the entries for the Compsons themselves, which are lengthy, detailed, and told with an omniscient narrative perspective, the servants' entries are simple and succinct. Dilsey's entry, the final in the appendix, consists of two words: "They endured."

Stream of Consciousness Modernism Synaesthesia - ex: the bright cold Death and incestuous desire - Paradox Dialectial thought - the way Q thinks, memories, self-split Ethics vs. Economics (Jason's section) Polyphonic novel - multiple consciousnesses

Author: The Day of the Locust Characters: Tod Hackett - A young Hollywood set and costume designer who has been in California for three months after attending art school at Yale. Tod looks "doltish" but is quite intelligent and knowledgeable. Nonetheless, he seems to prefer socializing with the marginal people of Hollywood rather than more successful or mainstream filmmakers. Most of the novel focuses on Tod's outsider perspective, and it is through the lens of his social and aesthetic value system that we see the grotesque picture of Hollywood. Though disillusioned by his experience, Tod continues to paint and hopes to portray the anger and frustration of the Hollywood downtrodden in a large canvas called "The Burning of Los Angeles." Homer Simpson - A large, broad man who has recently moved to Hollywood after working as a hotel bookkeeper in Iowa. Homer has had virtually no excitement in his life and he likes it that way. His days consist mainly of eating, sleeping, and sitting until he meets Faye Greener and unhappily falls in love. Homer's meekness makes him a doormat for Faye and others. His pent up anger and sexual frustration are embodied in his overly large hands, which fidget constantly as though they have an agenda of their own. Faye Greener - A seventeen-year-old aspiring actress. Faye was raised by her father Harry, her mother having left them when Faye was a child. As Harry has worked off and on as a vaudeville comedian, Faye has grown up in the world of acting and entertainment and has always wanted to be an actress. Though she is only seventeen, she can carry herself like a worldly, sexual woman. Faye likes to be looked at and admired, but her fantasy world of Hollywood plot lines and her own successful career need no audience to make her self-sufficiently satisfied. Harry Greener - Faye's father, a vaudeville clown and comedic actor who has never been truly successful. Harry began his stage career in New York, then moved to Hollywood with Faye in hopes of finding film work. Harry has never found the work he hoped for and has been selling homemade silver polish door-to-door to support himself. Nonetheless, he still keeps up his clown act all the time, in part to disarm potential customers. Earle Shoop - A tall, skinny cowboy from Arizona. Earle never has much money and rarely even has a home, spending his days in Hollywood standing out front of Hodge's saddlery store staring at the billboard across the street. Earle is handsome in a geometrically pleasing way, but has a violent streak that appears without much provocation. He dates Faye for part of the novel. Miguel - Earle's Mexican companion and would-be roommate—if they ever had a house. Miguel keeps gamecocks and is quite proud of them. Much to Earle's dismay, Miguel and Faye are powerfully attracted to each other, an attraction that expresses itself in Miguel's sensual singing and their dancing. Like Earle and many other characters, Miguel can quickly turn violent. Honest Abe Kusich - A book-keeping dwarf and one of Tod's friends. Abe is scornful and belligerent, perhaps in an attempt to compensate up for his tiny size. He can be caring, as when he finds Tod an apartment or nurtures his hurt gamecock. Abe can also be very ruthless and violent, however, and he is one of the only men in the novel who is scornful of Faye's acting. Claude Estee - A successful Hollywood screenwriter and another of Tod's friends. Claude plays along with the masquerades of Hollywood, keeping a house that is a replica of a Southern mansion and acting the part of a Southern gentleman himself. Despite his pretense, Claude maintains some distance from the craziness of Hollywood and can trade witty quips with Tod. Alice Estee - Claude's wife, a minor character. Joan Schwartzen - A woman who only appears in the scenes at the Estees' party. Joan tries to be playful and flirtatious but comes off as shrill and menacing. She seems to enjoy expensive, elaborate illusions, as well as the novelty of pornography. Audrey Jenning - The owner of a well-maintained call-house. Mrs. Jenning's establishment is respected because she oversees the transactions with class and care, meeting with the men first and then sending the girls out with a chauffeur. Mrs. Jenning reportedly prefers discussing matters of high culture rather than popular culture. She was a silent film star who decided to end her career in the movie industry when talking films became popular. Maybelle Loomis - A woman who lives in Homer Simpson's neighborhood and has been in California for six years. Mrs. Loomis is trying to turn her eight-year-old son, Adore, into a child star. She is a member of the raw-foodist sect, one of the many gimmicky religions in Hollywood. Adore Loomis - A young boy whose mother has been trying to turn him into a child star. Adore, despite his mother's efforts, seems only to have become a child monster. He performs when ordered to, but spends the rest of his time making bratty faces. Mary Dove - A friend of Faye's and a call-girl at Mrs. Jenning's. Mrs. Johnson - The janitor at the San Bernardino apartments. Mrs. Johnson's hobby is bossing grieving people into giving expensive funerals and letting her organize them. Calvin - One of Earle's friends and a fellow cowboy who sits outside Hodge's each day. Hink - One of Calvin's and Earle's friends who is also part of the Hollywood cowboy community. Romola Martin - A woman who only appears in the novel as part of a brief flashback, a near sexual encounter she and Homer Simpson had at the Iowa hotel where he worked as a bookkeeper. Miss Martin is an alcoholic who stays at the hotel but is unable to pay her rent.

Tod Hackett has been recruited from Yale School of Fine Arts to work as a set and costume designer for National Films in Hollywood. When the novel opens, Tod has been in Hollywood for only three months and still marvels at the people and architecture of the city, both of which involve blatant and constant artifice and masquerading. Tod is most interested in the section of the population that does not seem to be masquerading—the imported, lower middle-class Midwestern immigrants who stand around the city and stare at the masqueraders. In his head, Tod has labeled these people the ones who "have come to California to die" and has decided to paint them in his upcoming masterpiece, an apocalyptic scene he has titled "The Burning of Los Angeles." In his short time in Los Angeles, Tod has acquired an odd assortment of friends, including Abe Kusich, a belligerent dwarf bookie; Faye Greener, an untalented extra who wants to be a film star; and her father, Harry Greener, a former vaudeville clown who never found work in Hollywood but keeps up his clown act all day, even though his only job now is selling homemade silver polish door-to-door. Abe helped Tod find his current apartment, which Tod only decided to take upon seeing Faye Greener, who lives downstairs. Tod desires Faye, but she has unsentimentally told him that they must remain polite friends, as Tod has no money and is not particularly good-looking. Tod hopes that his chances with Faye have improved now that Faye's father Harry has fallen ill and Tod visits with the man nightly. Harry fell ill at the house of Homer Simpson, to whom he was trying to sell silver polish. Homer has recently moved to Hollywood from Iowa on doctor's orders after a bout with pneumonia. Homer is not working, living on money he has saved and trying to forget the uncomfortable memory of his first and only near- sexual encounter, which occurred with a female tenant at the Iowa hotel where he once worked as a bookkeeper. Ignoring his instinct not to make himself vulnerable to excitement, Homer begins courting Faye. Tod, sensing that Homer is somewhat like the type of people he wants to paint in "The Burning of Los Angeles," befriends Homer out of curiosity. Homer and Tod are not Faye's only admirers; Tod accompanies Faye out to a campsite in the hills where her sometime-boyfriend Earle and his companion Miguel live. The three men all lust after Faye, who enjoys being desired. The evening ends when Earle clubs the flirtatious Miguel on the head and Tod futilely chases after Faye in the woods, intending to rape her. Not long after this evening, Faye's father dies and Faye moves in with Homer as a "business" arrangement. Homer provides Faye's food and lodging and buys her elegant clothing so she can have a better chance at a movie career. Faye takes advantage of Homer's meekness and generosity, easily compelling him to allow Earle and Miguel to move into his garage. Tod, newly uncomfortable with the violent lust that Faye's self-contained fantasy existence inspires in him, vows to avoid her. He puts away his sketches of her and concentrates on the other subjects he must draw for "The Burning of Los Angeles." Tod frequents Hollywood churches, each of which follow a different guide to salvation, but all of which contain the same type of fanatical, prophetic worshippers. Homer and Faye seek Tod out after several weeks, convincing him to attend a cockfight Miguel and Earle are holding in Homer's garage. Tod brings along his screenwriter friend, Claude Estee. The dwarf bookie, Abe Kusich, also attends. After the violent cockfight, Claude, Abe, Earle, and Miguel sit in Homer's living room, drinking and lusting after Faye, who is barely dressed in unbuttoned silk pajamas. Tod and Homer remain removed from the party. Homer tries to talk to Tod about his feelings for Faye, but Tod no longer has patience to listen to admirers of Faye pine away, and becomes annoyed with Homer's slow explanations and clumsy attempts at friendship. The evening ends in excessive sexual desire and violence, as Claude and Tod save Abe from nearly being killed in a fight with Earle and Miguel. In the early morning, Homer and Earle discover Miguel in bed with Faye, which leads Earle and Miguel to fight. The next day, Tod finds Homer in a nearly catatonic state. Faye has moved out and Homer has decided to return to Iowa. Tod leaves Homer alone for a few hours and goes downtown, where he gets trapped up in a large crowd waiting outside Kahn's theater for several movie stars to arrive at a premiere. Tod sees Homer walking near the crowd, still unresponsive and now carrying two suitcases. Tod watches as Homer sits on a bench near the crowd and Adore, a boy who lives in Homer's neighborhood, torments Homer from behind a tree, finally throwing a rock that hits Homer in the face. Homer gets up and chases the boy, stomping on Adore's back after the boy trips and falls. Tod tries to pull Homer off, but before he can succeed, the crowd has jumped on Homer. The crowd riots and Tod is caught in the violent, sexual frenzy. To escape the reality of the mob's violence, Tod immerses himself in thoughts of his painting, "The Burning of Los Angeles," and the riot he plans to depict in it. Tod can no longer see Homer. Tod is eventually rescued by a policeman and driven away from the mob. The final image of the novel shows Tod sitting in the car, unable to determine whether the siren sound he hears is coming from the police vehicle or from his own mouth. He laughs and screams along with the siren from his seat in the back of the car.

Popular/Cultural Art in Association with Masses : New experimentation. How art relates to the masses, degree of reproduction. Aura : Unique quality of art that evokes presence in space in time. A sense of authenticity - reproduction has devalued this sense of authenticity. Avant Garde : High modernist art contrasted with Kitsch : Art objects in poor taste. Todd as associated with avant garde while Homer, or Abe, represents kitsch. Culture as able to produce both Masses : No sense of unity/coherence of mob - in disarray. The atomized masses (aura/synecdoche). The bodily mass (grotesque/simulacra/inertia). Example, Homer's hands as uncontrollable bodily impulse or the mass falling through the stage. The holy mass (martyrdom/apocalypse). Example, Homer as martyr figure as he is lynched in the mob. Mass art/amassing (reproduction). Sexualized violence

Author: Vladimir Nabokov Characters: Humbert Humbert - The narrator and protagonist of Lolita. Humbert is an erudite European intellectual with an obsessive love for nymphets and a history of mental illness. He manages to seduce the reader with his gift for beautiful language, but he is nonetheless capable of rape and murder. Humbert, despite his knowledge of the world, becomes self-aware only toward the end of the novel, when he realizes he has ruined Lolita's childhood. He writes the story of Lolita from his prison cell, where he awaits trial for murder. However, he dies of heart failure soon after Lolita's death. Dolores (Lolita) Haze - The novel's eponymous nymphet. An adolescent, she is seductive, flirtatious, and capricious, and she initially finds herself attracted to Humbert, competing with her mother for his affections. However, when his demands become more pressing, and as she spends more time with children her own age, she begins to tire of him. Humbert attempts to educate her, but she remains attached to American popular culture and unimpressed with his cultured ideas. Eventually, she runs off with Clare Quilty, but he abandons her after she refuses to participate in child pornography. She eventually marries Dick Schiller and dies in childbirth. Clare Quilty - Humbert's shadow and double. Quilty is a successful playwright and child pornographer who takes a liking to Lolita from an early age. He follows her throughout the story, ultimately kidnapping her away from Humbert. Though Lolita is in love with him, he eventually tires of her. Nabokov conceals Quilty's importance to the story until nearly the end. Quilty is amoral, highly literate, and completely corrupt. Charlotte Haze - Lolita's mother and Humbert's wife. A middle-class woman who aspires to be cultured and sophisticated, Charlotte never manages to be much more than a bourgeois housewife. Her relationship with Lolita is strained throughout the novel. Charlotte worships Humbert and stays blind to his pedophilia and lust for her daughter until she discovers his diary. She dies soon after in a car accident. Annabel Leigh - Humbert's childhood love. Annabel and her family visit Humbert's father's hotel as tourists. Despite having many physical encounters, Humbert and Annabel are unable to consummate their adolescent love. She later dies of typhus in Corfu. Humbert remains obsessed with her memory until he meets Lolita. Valeria - Humbert's first wife, whom he married to cure himself of his addiction to nymphets. Humbert finds Valeria intellectually inferior and often bullies her. When he plans to move to America, Valeria leaves him to marry a Russian taxi driver. Valeria and her husband die in California years later. Jean Farlow - A friend of Charlotte's and the wife of John Farlow. John and Jean Farlow are among Charlotte and Humbert's few friends. After Charlotte's death, she secretly kisses Humbert. She eventually dies of cancer. John Farlow - A friend of Charlotte's, married to Jean. He handles the Haze estate after Charlotte dies, but he eventually relegates his duties to a lawyer because of the complicated nature of the case. After Jean dies, he marries someone else and lives an adventurous life in South America. Dick Schiller - Lolita's husband. Dick is a simple, good-natured working man who is deaf in one ear, Dick has no idea about the sexual relationship between Humbert and Lolita, believing Humbert to simply be Lolita's father. Dick receives a job offer in Alaska, where he plans to take Lolita, whom he calls Dolly. Rita - An alcoholic whom Humbert lives with after he loses Lolita. Toward the end of their affair, Rita has many encounters with the law and becomes paranoid that Humbert will leave her. Humbert finds her comforting but regards her as simple-minded. Mona - Lolita's favorite friend at the Beardsley School for Girls. Mona has already had an affair with a marine and appears to be flirting with Humbert. However, she refuses to divulge any of Lolita's secrets. She helps Lolita lie to Humbert when Humbert discovers that Lolita has been missing her piano lessons. Gaston Grodin - A plump, beloved French professor at Beardsley College. Gaston is popular in the community and helps Humbert find his house and settle into Beardsley. They often play chess together, but Humbert thinks him a poor scholar and not very smart. Gaston also has a predilection for young boys, which no one in Beardsley seems to notice. Mrs. Pratt - The headmistress of the Beardsley School for Girls. Humbert is unimpressed with Pratt's emphasis on social skills and her resistance to traditional academic approaches. She calls Humbert to her office to discuss Lolita's disciplinary problems and expresses concern that Lolita is not developing sexually. Ivor Quilty - Clare Quilty's uncle, a dentist. Dreamy and well liked, he thinks of his nephew with kind indulgence. He has been friends with the Haze family all his life. Humbert finds Clare Quilty by visiting Ivor at his office. Monique - A French nymphet prostitute. Initially, Humbert is attracted to her nymphet qualities and begins an affair with her. However, he becomes disillusioned by her maturation and abruptly ends the affair. John Ray, Jr., Ph.D. - The author of the foreword and the editor of Humbert's memoir. Shirley Holmes - Lolita's summer-camp director. Charlie - Shirley Holmes's son, who also works at the camp. Lolita has her first sexual experiences with him, but she is unimpressed by his manners. Later Humbert discovers that he has been killed in Korea. Barbara - Lolita's friend at camp. Barbara has sex with Charlie in the bushes while Lolita stands guard. Finally, Barbara convinces Lolita to "try it," which she does. Vivian Darkbloom - Clare Quilty's female writing partner. Lolita confuses Humbert by telling him that Vivian is a man and Clare is a woman. After Quilty's death, Vivian writes Quilty's biography. "Vivian Darkbloom" is an anagram for "Vladimir Nabokov." John (Jack) Windmuller - The lawyer to whom John Farlow entrusts the Haze estate. He handles the estate but wants nothing to do with the sordidness surrounding the impending trial. Frederick Beale, Jr. - The driver of the car that kills Charlotte.

In the novel's foreword, the fictional John Ray, Jr., Ph.D., explains the strange story that will follow. According to Ray, he received the manuscript, entitled Lolita, or the Confession of a White Widowed Male, from the author's lawyer. The author himself, known by the pseudonym of Humbert Humbert (or H. H.), died in jail of coronary thrombosis while awaiting a trial. Ray asserts that while the author's actions are despicable, his writing remains beautiful and persuasive. He also indicates that the novel will become a favorite in psychiatric circles as well as encourage parents to raise better children in a better world. In the manuscript, Humbert relates his peaceful upbringing on the Riviera, where he encounters his first love, the twelve-year-old Annabel Leigh. Annabel and the thirteen-year-old Humbert never consummate their love, and Annabel's death from typhus four months later haunts Humbert. Although Humbert goes on to a career as a teacher of English literature, he spends time in a mental institution and works a succession of odd jobs. Despite his marriage to an adult woman, which eventually fails, Humbert remains obsessed with sexually desirable and sexually aware young girls. These nymphets, as he calls them, remind him of Annabel, though he fails to find another like her. Eventually, Humbert comes to the United States and takes a room in the house of widow Charlotte Haze in a sleepy, suburban New England town. He becomes instantly infatuated with her twelve-year-old daughter Dolores, also known as Lolita. Humbert follows Lolita's moves constantly, occasionally flirts with her, and confides his pedophiliac longings to a journal. Meanwhile, Charlotte Haze, whom Humbert loathes, has fallen in love with him. When Charlotte sends Lolita off to summer camp, Humbert marries Charlotte in order to stay near his true love. Humbert wants to be alone with Lolita and even toys with the idea of killing Charlotte, but he can't go through with it. However, Charlotte finds his diary and, after learning that he hates her but loves her daughter, confronts him. Humbert denies everything, but Charlotte tells him she is leaving him and storms out of the house. At that moment, a car hits her and she dies instantly. Humbert goes to the summer camp and picks up Lolita. Only when they arrive at a motel does he tell her that Charlotte has died. In his account of events, Humbert claims that Lolita seduces him, rather than the other way around. The two drive across the country for nearly a year, during which time Humbert becomes increasingly obsessed with Lolita and she learns to manipulate him. When she engages in tantrums or refuses his advances, Humbert threatens to put her in an orphanage. At the same time, a strange man seems to take an interest in Humbert and Lolita and appears to be following them in their travels. Humbert eventually gets a job at Beardsley College somewhere in the Northeast, and Lolita enrolls in school. Her wish to socialize with boys her own age causes a strain in their relationship, and Humbert becomes more restrictive in his rules. Nonetheless, he allows her to appear in a school play. Lolita begins to behave secretively around Humbert, and he accuses her of being unfaithful and takes her away on another road trip. On the road, Humbert suspects that they are being followed. Lolita doesn't notice anything, and Humbert accuses her of conspiring with their stalker. Lolita becomes ill, and Humbert must take her to the hospital. However, when Humbert returns to get her, the nurses tell him that her uncle has already picked her up. Humbert flies into a rage, but then he calms himself and leaves the hospital, heartbroken and angry. For the next two years, Humbert searches for Lolita, unearthing clues about her kidnapper in order to exact his revenge. He halfheartedly takes up with a woman named Rita, but then he receives a note from Lolita, now married and pregnant, asking for money. Assuming that Lolita has married the man who had followed them on their travels, Humbert becomes determined to kill him. He finds Lolita, poor and pregnant at seventeen. Humbert realizes that Lolita's husband is not the man who kidnapped her from the hospital. When pressed, Lolita admits that Clare Quilty, a playwright whose presence has been felt from the beginning of the book, had taken her from the hospital. Lolita loved Quilty, but he kicked her out when she refused to participate in a child pornography orgy. Still devoted to Lolita, Humbert begs her to return to him. Lolita gently refuses. Humbert gives her 4,000 dollars and then departs. He tracks down Quilty at his house and shoots him multiple times, killing him. Humbert is arrested and put in jail, where he continues to write his memoir, stipulating that it can only be published upon Lolita's death. After Lolita dies in childbirth, Humbert dies of heart failure, and the manuscript is sent to John Ray, Jr., Ph.D.

From Antecedent to Precedent: Literary: Reference to Edgar Allen Poe, literary precursor Legal: The "defense" structure of the novel - provides arguments to establish pedophilia in new light Doppelganger: Allusions to other sexualized young girls gives Lolita a "Double". Flattens a character as they become merely reflective of another Joke: Move towards a more original argument through humor. Parody of a person Psychoanalysis: Used simply to disprove itself as being effective in explaining Humbert's lust Pastiche: Medley of styles. Dissonance of places where Humbert stays in the novel. Language levels of high-langauge and then lowly-language, jokingly utilizing it both ways, an "artistic" control". Charlotte as attempting to be nymphette Artistic Unity (Pattern): Humbert calls terms "fragments" but they are related to the scene . Example, the apple in the first sexual scene reinvoked later in the text. Everything links to another moment in the text. Patterns as Fate: Details and incidents come together (world fashioning itself to Humbert's desire) to kill Charlotte. Death shows that fate is on Humbert's side - always gets what he wants without any effort. Scapegoating: Casting off of Humbert's blame Low Culture: Magazines, etc. Lolita as an ideal consumer. Yet, Lolita is forced into this position - her mind is withheld from Humbert

Author: Thomas Pynchon Characters: Oedipa Maas - The novel's protagonist. After her ex-boyfriend, Pierce Inverarity, names her executor of his immense and complex estate, she discovers and begins to unravel a worldwide conspiracy in southern California. Oedipa functions in the novel as a type of detective, although the story is as much about her own self-discoveries as it is about the mystery she attempts to piece together. Mucho Maas - The husband of Oedipa, Mucho once worked in a used-car lot but recently became a disc jockey for KCUF radio in Kinneret. At the end of the novel, he goes crazy on LSD, alienating Oedipa. Pierce Inverarity - Oedipa's ex-boyfriend and a fabulously rich real-estate tycoon. We never meet him except in Oedipa's memories, which tell us that he liked to play with his own voice by doing vocal impersonations. He was a general jokester in real life and may be playing a mean trick on Oedipa by inventing this whole Tristero conspiracy. Metzger - A lawyer who works for Warpe, Wistfull, Kubitschek and McMingus. He has been assigned to help Oedipa execute Pierce's estate. He and Oedipa have a brief affair in San Narciso as they go about untangling the mystery. He disappears around the middle of the novel. Miles, Dean, Serge and Leonard - The four members of the hippie band called The Paranoids. They serve as a means of satirizing the southern Californian youth hippie culture in the mid-60s. Mike Fallopian - A member of the Peter Pinguid Society, a right-wing anti-government organization. Oedipa and Metzger meet him in a bar called The Scope early in chapter three; he appears sporadically through the rest of the novel. Manny di Presso - A lawyer and old friend of Metzger, he resides near Lake Inverarity. One of his client's is suing Inverarity's estate for money Inverarity owed. The client sent Inverarity human bones recovered from an Italian lake for use in charcoal production. Randolph Driblette - The director of the production of The Courier's Tragedy seen by Oedipa and Metzger in chapter three. Driblette is a leading Wharfinger scholar, but he commits suicide toward the end of the novel before Oedipa can extract any useful information from him about Wharfinger's mention of the Tristero. Clayton Chiclitz - The president of Yoyodyne. Oedipa meets him in Chapter Four as he hosts a sing-along at a stockholders meeting. Dr. Hilarius - Oedipa's psychiatrist, he goes on an insane acid trip and admits to having been a Nazi doctor at Buchenwald and to liking to make a particularly incredible facial expression that drives people to devastation. Stanley Koteks - An employee of Yoyodyne, Oedipa meets him when she wanders into his office while touring the plant. He knows something about the Tristero but will not reveal to her what he knows. John Nefastis - A scientist obsessed with perpetual motion. He has tried to invent a type of Maxwell's Demon. Oedipa visits him to see the machine after learning about him from Stanley Koteks. He shows her the machine but causes her to run away when he propositions her. Genghis Cohen - A stamp expert whom Oedipa hires to go through Pierce's extensive stamp collection in order to appraise it. Genghis provides some more clues to help Oedipa solve the Tristero mystery. Emory Bortz - An English professor who used to teach at UC-Berkeley but later moved to San Narciso College. He helps Oedipa untangle some of the mysteries related to the Wharfinger play's mention of Tristero.

Oedipa Maas, the young wife of a man named Mucho, lives in Kinneret, California. One day, she receives a letter from a law firm telling her that her ex-boyfriend, Pierce Inverarity, has died and named her the executor of his estate. Oedipa resolves to faithfully execute her duty, and she travels to San Narciso (Pierce's hometown) where she meets the lawyer, Metzger, assigned to help her, with whom she spontaneously begins an affair. As they go about sorting through Pierce's tangled financial affairs, Oedipa takes note of the fact that Pierce owned an extensive stamp collection. One night, Oedipa and Metzger go to a bar called The Scope, where they meet Mike Fallopian, a member of a right-wing fanatical organization called the Peter Pinguid Society. In the bathroom of the bar, Oedipa sees a symbol that she later learns is supposed to represent a muted post horn. Written below the symbol are the acronym W.A.S.T.E. and the name "Kirby." Oedipa makes a note of all this info before returning to chat with Mike at the bar. Oedipa and Metzger take a trip one day to Fangoso Lagoons, an area in which Pierce owned a substantial amount of land. There, they meet a man named Manny di Presso, a lawyer who is suing the Inverarity estate on behalf of his client, who recovered and sold human bones to Inverarity but did not receive proper payment. Pierce wanted the bones to make charcoal for cigarette filters. A member of The Paranoids, a hippie band that follows Oedipa around, points out that Manny's story is similar to that of the 17th-century play The Courier's Tragedy. Oedipa and Metzger decide to see a production of the play nearby. The play mentions the word "Tristero," a word that fascinates Oedipa because of its placement within the play. She goes backstage to speak with the director, Randolph Driblette, who tells her to stop overanalyzing the play. She resolves to call him back later. After rereading Pierce's will later on, Oedipa goes to a stockholders' meeting for the Yoyodyne company, a firm owned in part by Inverarity. After taking a brief tour, she stumbles into the office of Stanley Koteks, who is drawing the muted post horn symbol on his pad of paper. He tells her about a scientist named John Nefastis who has built a type of Mexwell's Demon, or a physically impossible machine that allows for perpetual motion by violating the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Koteks encourages Oedipa to meet with Nefastis. Wanting to learn more about The Courier's Tragedy, Oedipa gets an anthology of Jacobean revenge plays. She notices that the paperback copy has no mention of the Tristero, however, which puzzles her. She decides to go to Berkeley to meet with the publisher. In the meantime, she stops by an elderly care home that Pierce had owned, where she meets an old man with a ring depicting the muted post horn. She also hires a philatelist (stamp expert) named Genghis Cohen to go through Pierce's stamp collection. After doing so, Genghis tells her that some of Pierce's stamps have a muted post horn in their watermark. Oedipa begins to realize that she is uncovering a large mystery. Oedipa goes to Berkeley to meet with John Nefastis, who shows her his perpetual motion machine. It can only be operated by people with special mental capabilities allowing them to communicate with the machine, and he tells Oedipa that she has no such mental skills. He then propositions her, causing her to run out screaming. Oedipa then begins a very, very long night of wandering around aimlessly all over the Bay area. She encounters the muted post horn symbol almost everywhere, leading her to believe that she may be hallucinating. Just before dawn, however, she encounters an old man who hands her a letter and asks her to deliver it via W.A.S.T.E. under the freeway. After helping the man to his room, Oedipa finds a W.A.S.T.E. facility under the freeway, drops in the letter and waits for the delivery man, whom she follows to Oakland and back to Berkeley after he picks up the letters and delivers them. Oedipa returns to her home in Kinneret to see her doctor, who begins shooting at her as she pulls up. He has gone crazy, obsessed with the idea that Israelis are coming to kill him because he assisted the Nazis in World War II. After he is arrested, Oedipa sees her husband, Mucho, and spends some time with him, although she quickly sees that he has become addicted to LSD, making it difficult to communicate effectively. Increasingly alone, Oedipa seeks out Emory Bortz, an English professor at San Narciso College who has extensive knowledge of Jacobean revenge plays. With his help, she pieces together the history of the Tristero, which dates back to mid-16th-century Europe. She learns that Driblette has died, which means she will never know why he included the lines about the Tristero in his production of The Courier's Tragedy (these lines are not ordinarily included in the play). Oedipa begins to give up as she realizes that she is very lonely and has no real friends. She visits Mike Fallopian again, who suggests that the whole Tristero mystery may be nothing more than a huge, complex joke played on her by Pierce. Oedipa will not accept this possibility but realizes that every route leading to the Tristero also leads to the Inverarity Estate. Meanwhile, Genghis Cohen helps her piece together some mysteries about Pierce's stamp collection, which is to be auctioned off by a local dealer as Lot 49. Genghis has heard that a secretive bidder will attend the auction to bid on Lot 49, but he will not reveal himself beforehand. Oedipa goes to the auction, excited to find out who the bidder is, thinking that he may know the key to the Tristero. The novel ends as Oedipa sits in the room waiting for the crying of Lot 49, when she will discover the identity of the mystery bidder.

Energy of Paranoia: Answer to the riddle of paranoia may be the self Linguistic Uncertainty: Correspondance between word and the world - signifier and signified. Language either means everything (everything is connected) or nothing (only paranoia) Generation Problem: Oedpia is better at being critical than protesting Acronyms

Author: Don DeLillo Characters: Jack Gladney - Narrator of the novel, and the chairman of Hitler studies at the College-on-the-Hill. Jack lives in Blacksmith, a quiet college town, with his fourth wife, Babette, and four of their children from previous marriages. Jack often worries that he will be found lacking or incompetent, and as such he surrounds himself with things that make him look weighty and dignified by association. Jack, like every American, faces a continuous barrage of health and safety warnings from such sources as the news media and the packaging on the consumer goods he buys. Consequently, Jack is obsessed with the fear of his own death, a persistent dread that becomes magnified by his exposure to a toxic substance. Jack loves his wife, Babette, deeply, finding great comfort in her honesty and strength. Babette - Jack's wife, and the mother of Wilder and Denise. Loving and caring, with a head of messy blond hair, Babette's sturdy and guileless character proves highly reassuring to Jack, particularly given the secretive, high-strung women he's been married to in the past. Babette teaches adult education classes and reads to an elderly blind man named Old Man Treadwell. Like her husband, Babette has a deep-seated, acute fear of dying. She keeps this hidden from Jack and secretly begins participating in an experimental drug trial to alleviate her fear. As the treatment progresses, she has frequent memory lapses and becomes increasingly evasive. Heinrich - Jack's awkward, analytical fourteen-year-old son with Janet Savory. Heinrich is dispassionate and skeptical and endlessly contradicts his father. Heinrich was born in the same year Jack founded the Hitler studies department, and he was given a German name in honor of that event. Willie Mink - Project manager responsible for the drug Dylar. Willie Mink conducts experimental tests of the drug from his motel room, trading Dylar for sex. Willie remains a mysterious figure through most of the novel, known only as "Mr. Gray." When we finally encounter him in the last two chapters of the novel, Willie has gone half-crazy and spends his days staring vacantly at a soundless television. Jack becomes fixated on Willie Mink, partly because he wants revenge for Mink and Babette's affair and party because he wants to obtain a supply of Dylar for himself. Murray Jay Siskind - One of several professors from New York who teach at the College-on-the-Hill. Murray always speaks in an exaggerated academic style and is preoccupied with the deconstruction and analysis of American popular culture. His ambition is to create a department devoted to studying Elvis, much like Jack's Hitler studies department. Howard Dunlop - Jack's German teacher. Solitary and taciturn, Howard lives in the same boardinghouse as Murray. Steffie - Jack's seven-year-old daughter with Dana Breedlove. Steffie is far more sensitive than the other children in her family and has trouble watching television shows where characters get hurt or humiliated. Denise - Babette's eleven-year-old daughter with Bob Pardee. Denise is a sharp, often bossy girl and continually nags Babette about her health. She is the first person to notice her mother's memory lapses, and she discovers Babette's secret supply of Dylar. Orest Mercator - Heinrich's friend, a nineteen-year-old senior at Heinrich's high school. Orest wants to set a new world record for sitting in a cage with poisonous snakes. He claims to be unafraid of dying, which Jack, with his own powerful fear of death, finds fascinating. Wilder - Babette's six-year-old son, and the youngest child in the family. Wilder never speaks in the novel, and periodically Jack worries about the boy's slow linguistic development. Nevertheless, in his wordlessness, he remains an essential source of comfort for both Jack and Babette. More than any of the other children, Wilder seems genuinely open to the kind of "psychic data" Murray believes American children are privy to. Wilder has an older full brother, Eugene, though their father remains unnamed in the novel. Winnie Richards - Brilliant neuroscientist at the College-on-the-Hill. Winnie helps Jack learn about Dylar and Willie Mink. Jack discovers that she is almost always impossible to find, since she goes out of her way to be unnoticed. Sister Hermann Marie - Atheist German nun who treats Jack for his bullet wound. Sister Hermann Marie tells Jack that she doesn't believe in heaven but that she and the other nuns maintain the illusion of faith for the rest of the world's sake. Vernon Dickey - Babette's father. Vernon is a rough, good-natured man, seemingly unafraid of dying, who works with his hands and knows how to build things. His skill and ability make Jack feel incompetent and less masculine. Vernon drops by unexpectedly for a visit and gives Jack a loaded gun when he leaves. Alfonse Stompanato - Chairman of the American environments department at the College-on-the-Hill. Stompanato is a tough, imposing personality who, like Murray, is part of the college's group of smart, caustic, New York professors. Bee - Jack's pensive, twelve-year-old daughter from his marriage to Tweedy Bonner. Bee is a worldly, cosmopolitan child, and in this regard she makes Jack highly self-conscious and uncomfortable. Tweedy Bonner - Jack's ex-wife, and Bee's mother. Tweedy is remarried to a high-level jungle operative named Malcolm Hunt. Tweedy visits with Jack for a while and confesses that Malcolm's extended periods spent living abroad under assumed identities make her anxious about her husband's true identity. Dana Breedlove - Jack's ex-wife, and Steffie's mother. Dana is a contract agent for the CIA who conducts covert drop-offs in Latin America. According to Jack, Dana liked to plot and often got him entangled in domestic and faculty battles. Janet Savory - Jack's ex-wife, and Heinrich's mother. Janet now lives in ashram and is known as Mother Devi. Before that, however, she was a foreign-currency analyst for a secret group of advanced theorists. Dimitros Cotsakis - One of the New York professors at the College-on-the-Hill. Dimitros is a large man and former bodyguard. He is Murray's principal competitor in Elvis studies, until he dies in a drowning accident. Bob Pardee - Babette's all-American ex-husband. Tommy Roy Foster - A convicted killer serving time in a penitentiary. Heinrich plays chess with Tommy Roy Foster via mail. Sundar Chakravarty - Jack's doctor. Old Man Treadwell - Elderly blind man, to whom Babette reads tabloids. One day, Old Man Treadwell and his sister, Gladys, go missing for several days. They are later discovered, lost and confused, in a shopping mall. Gladys Treadwell - Sister of Old Man Treadwell. She dies soon after she and her brother get lost in a shopping mall for several days. Adele T. - A local psychic, called in by the police to help find the missing Treadwell siblings.

White Noise describes an academic year in the life of its narrator, Jack Gladney, a college professor in a small American town. The novel itself can be hard to follow, since Jack spends much of his time detailing seemingly inconsequential conversations, and several events in the novel have no direct impact on the action of the story. Despite these tangents, a general plotline emerges from the narrative. Jack teaches at a school called the College-on-the-Hill, where he serves as the department chair of Hitler studies. He lives in Blacksmith, a quiet college town, with his wife, Babette, and four of their children from earlier marriages: Heinrich, Steffie, Denise, and Wilder. Throughout the novel, various half-siblings and ex-spouses drift in and out of the family's home. Jack loves Babette very much, taking great comfort in her honesty and openness and what he sees as her reassuring solidness and domesticity. Jack invented the discipline of Hitler studies in 1968, and he acknowledges that he capitalizes on Hitler's importance as a historical figure, which lends Jack an air of dignity and significance by association. Over the course of his career, Jack has consciously made many decisions in order to strengthen his own reputation and add a certain heft to his personal identity: when he began the department, for example, he added an initial to his name to make it sound more prestigious. Yet he is continually aware of the fact that his aura and persona were deliberately crafted, and he worries about being exposed as a fraud. To his great shame, Jack can't speak German, so when a Hitler conference gets scheduled at the College-on-the-Hill, Jack secretly begins taking German lessons. Hitler studies shares a building with the American environments department, which is mainly staffed by what Jack refers to as the "New York émigrés," a tough, sarcastic group of men obsessed with American popular culture. Jack befriends one of these professors, a former sportswriter named Murray Jay Siskind. Murray has come to Blacksmith to immerse himself in what he calls "American magic and dread." Murray finds deep significance in ordinary, everyday events and locations—particularly the supermarket, which he claims contains massive amounts of psychic data. The majority of the novel is structured around two major plot points: the airborne toxic event, and Jack's discovery of his wife's participation in an experimental study of a new psychopharmaceutical called Dylar. One day, Jack finds his son Heinrich on the roof of the house, watching a billowing cloud of smoke rise into the sky. Heinrich tells him that a train car has derailed and caught on fire, releasing a poisonous toxic substance into the air. The entire town of Blacksmith is ordered to evacuate to an abandoned Boy Scout camp. While at the evacuation camp, Jack learns that he's been exposed to Nyodene D., a lethal chemical. The technician tells Jack that the chemical lasts thirty years in the human body and that in fifteen years they'll be able to give him a more definitive answer about his chances for survival. Perhaps due to the vagueness of this explanation, Jack becomes preoccupied with the idea that he has now been marked for death. The townspeople remain evacuated from their homes for nine more days. After the toxic cloud disappears, the sunsets in Blacksmith become shockingly beautiful. Meanwhile, Babette's daughter Denise discovers a vial of pills, labeled Dylar, which her mother has been taking in secret. Babette evades both Denise's and Jack's inquiries, so Jack takes a pill to Winnie Richards, a scientist at College-on-the-Hill. After analyzing the pill, Winnie tells Jack that the drug is an incredibly advanced kind of psychopharmaceutical. Jack finally confronts Babette about the pills. In tears, she tells him that Dylar is an experimental, unlicensed drug, which she believes can cure her of her obsessive fear of dying. In order to get samples of the drug, Babette admits to having had an affair with the Dylar project manager, a man she refers to only as Mr. Gray. In return, Jack confesses to Babette about his fatal Nyodene D. exposure. His fear of death now greater than ever, Jack goes in search of Babette's remaining Dylar pills, only to find that Denise has thrown them all away. Jack begins to have problems sleeping. He goes in for frequent medical checkups and becomes preoccupied with clearing all the unused clutter out of his home. He stays awake late into the night to watch the children sleep. One evening, Wilder wakes him up, and Jack finds his father-in-law, Vernon Hickey, asleep in the backyard. Vernon, a tough, aging handyman, has come by for a surprise visit. Before he leaves, Vernon secretly gives Jack a handgun. Shortly afterward, Jack confides in Murray about his acute death fixation. Murray proposes the theory that killing someone else can alleviate the fear of death. Jack begins to think of the gun at odd moments, eventually bringing it to class with him one afternoon. On his way home from campus, Jack runs into Winnie Richards, who tells him that she read an article on the project manager responsible for Dylar. She tells Jack the man's name, Willie Mink, and the approximate location of the motel he's now living in. Armed with his gun, Jack finds Willie Mink, disheveled and half-crazy, in the same motel room where Mink conducted his affair with Babette. Jack plans to kill him, and, after a brief conversation, he pulls out his gun and shoots Mink twice. In an attempt to make it look like a suicide, Jack places the gun in Mink's hand, only to be shot in the wrist by Mink a moment later. Overcome by a sense of humanity, Jack drives Mink to the nearest hospital—which is run by atheist German nuns—and saves his life. Jack returns home and watches the children sleep. Later that day, Wilder rides his tricycle across the highway and miraculously survives, an event that finally allows Jack to let go of his fear of death and obsession with health and safety hazards. Jack, Babette, and Wilder take in the spectacular sunsets from the overpass. Jack closes the novel with a description of the supermarket, which has rearranged its aisles, throwing everyone into a state of confusion.

Simulacra:

Author: Cormac McCarthy Characters: The kid: The anti-heroic protagonist; a Tennessean in his mid-teens whose mother died in childbirth and who flees from his father to Texas; he is said to have a disposition for bloodshed and is involved in many vicious actions early on; he passively takes up inherently violent professions, specifically being recruited by murderers including Captain White, and later, by Glanton and his gang, to secure his release from a prison in Chihuahua, Mexico; he takes part in many of the Glanton gang's scalphunting rampages; "the kid" is later, as an adult, referred to as "the man", when he encounters the judge once again after more than a decade Judge Holden, or "the judge": An enormous pale man whose entire head and body lack traces of any hair at all; he is inquisitively exploring of the natural world, though also, utterly the most sadistically violent character (and seemingly a pedophile), and begins to ride with the Glanton gang after mysteriously appearing in time to cunningly save them from an Apache attack; strangely, he is the most deeply philosophical of the group and apparently remarkably well-educated (perhaps self-educated); he perceives the world both as fatalistic and yet as conquerable, and not only devoutly believes that violence is the foundation of human nature but even that "War is God"; late in the plot, after the Yuma massacre, he defects from the others, many of whom never trusted him to begin with, and ultimately becomes, to the kid, the primary antagonist Louis Toadvine: a seasoned outlaw that the kid originally encounters in a vicious brawl and who then burns down a hotel; he is distinguished by his head which has no ears and his forehead branded with the letters H, T, (standing for "horse thief") and F; he later reappears unexpectedly as a cellmate with the kid in the Chihuahua prison; he somewhat befriends the kid, negotiating his and the kid's release in return for joining Glanton's gang to whom Toadvine lies, claiming that he and the kid are experienced scalphunters. He is not as depraved as the rest of the gang, nonetheless remaining violent. Overall, he opposes the judge's excessively cold-blooded methods. He is hung in Los Angeles alongside David Brown. Captain White, or "the captain": an ex-professional soldier and American supremacist who believes that Mexico is a lawless nation that should be (and ultimately will end up) a conquest of the United States; he leads a group of militant supporters into Mexico though is later decapitated by his enemies John Joel Glanton: the American leader (sometimes deemed "captain") of a band of scalphunters who murder Indians and Mexican civilians and militants alike; his history and appearance are ambiguous, except that he has a known wife and child in Texas though he has been banned from returning to that state due to his criminal record; he is a consistently clever strategist and his last major action is to seize control of a profitable Gila River ferry, the consequences of which, though, lead him and his gang to be ambushed by Yuma Indians Benjamin Tobin, or "the expriest": a former novice to the priesthood, he instead turns to a life of crime in Glanton's gang, though still remains deeply religious; he feels an apparently friend-like bond with the kid, but conversely feels evidently threatened by the judge and his philosophy, he and the judge gradually becoming enemies; he is shot by the judge and initially survives, seeking medical attention in San Diego; his ultimate fate, however, is unknown David Brown: an especially radical member of the Glanton band known for his dramatic displays of violence and his wearing of a scapular decorated with severed human ears (which he seems to have acquired from Bathcat after his death); he is arrested in San Diego and notably sought out by Glanton personally, who seems concerned to see him freed (though Brown ends up securing his own release); he survives the Yuma massacre but is captured again with Toadvine in Los Angeles, possibly at the treachery of the judge. He is hung along with Toadvine. John Jackson: a name shared by two men in Glanton's gang—one black, one white—who detest one another and whose tensions rise frequently when in each other's presence; after trying to drive the black Jackson away from a campfire with a racist remark, the white one is decapitated by the black one; the black Jackson later becomes the first person murdered in the Yuma massacre. Reverend Green: a Christian preacher who the judge accuses of debauchery and thus besets an angry mob upon for his own amusement Trias: the governor of the city of Chihuahua Sergeant Aguilar Speyer: an outlaw described as a Prussian Jew The jugglers: a family of Mexican entertainers General Elias Colonel García Governor of Yuma ("el alcalde") Miscellaneous members of White's gang: Sergeant Trammel, the Corporal, the Texan (the "second corporal"), Earl (the Missourian), Clark, Candelario, Sproule, the Georgian Miscellaneous members of Glanton's gang: Doctor Irving, Juan "McGill" Miguel, the "Delawares", Grannyrat, Chambers (the veteran; Chambers is thought to have been a sobriquet for Samuel Chamberlain who, according to his narrative, escaped the scalping party; his death is ambiguous in the novel, for although his death is implied, his body is never seen), Samuel Tate (the Kentuckian), Bathcat (the "Vandiemenlander"), Shelby (a Kentuckian who attended Transylvania University), Marcus "Long" Webster (another Tennessean), Carroll, Sanford, Sloat The Idiot: James Robert, a mentally retarded individual who is kept in a cage by his brother, the showman Cloyce Bell. Later in the book he is kept by the Judge as a kind of pet. His final fate is unknown.

Three epigraphs open the book: quotes from French writer Paul Valéry, from German Christian mystic Jacob Boehme, and a 1982 news clipping from the Yuma Sun reporting the claim of members of an Ethiopian archeological excavation that a 300,000-year-old human skull had been scalped. The novel tells the story of a teenage runaway named only "the kid", who was born in Tennessee during the famously active Leonids meteor shower of 1833. He first meets the enormous and hairless Judge Holden at a religious revival in Nacogdoches, Texas: Holden falsely accuses the preacher, Reverend Green, of having sex with an 11-year-old girl as well as with a goat and incites a mob to kill him. It turns out the Judge had concocted the accusation, to which listeners respond with laughter. Traveling alone on his mule through the plains of East Texas, he spends a night in the shelter of a recluse before arriving in "Bexar" (modern day San Antonio). After a violent encounter with a bartender establishes the kid as a formidable fighter, he joins a party of ill-armed U.S. Army irregulars on a filibustering mission led by a Captain White. Shortly after entering Mexico, they are attacked by a band of Comanche warriors. Few survive. Arrested as a filibuster in Chihuahua, the kid is set free when his cell neighbor, Toadvine, tells the authorities that they will make useful Indian hunters for the state's newly hired scalphunting operation. Toadvine and the kid consequently join Glanton and his gang of scalphunters. The bulk of the novel is devoted to detailing their activities and conversations. The gang encounters a traveling carnival, and, in untranslated Spanish, each of their fortunes is told with Tarot cards. The gang originally contracts with various regional leaders to protect locals from marauding Apaches, and are given a bounty for each scalp they recover. Before long, however, they devolve into the murder of innocent Indians, unprotected Mexican villagers, and eventually Mexican national guardsmen and anyone else who crosses their path. Judge Holden, who enters the story once more as a fellow scalphunter, is presented as a profoundly mysterious and awe-inspiring figure; the others seem to regard him as not quite human. Like the historical Holden of Chamberlain's autobiography, he is a child-killer, though almost no one in the gang expresses much distress at his committing such acts. According to the kid's new companion Ben Tobin, an "ex-priest", the Glanton gang first met the judge while fleeing for their lives from a much larger Apache group. In the middle of a desert, the gang apparently found Holden sitting on an enormous boulder, where he seemed to be waiting for them. They agreed to follow his leadership, and he took them to an extinct volcano, where, astoundingly, he instructed the desperate gang on how to manufacture gunpowder, enough to give them the advantage against their Apache pursuers. When the kid remembers seeing Holden in Nacogdoches, Tobin explains each man in the gang claims to have met the judge at some point before joining Glanton's gang. After months of marauding, the gang crosses into U.S. territory, where they set up a systematic and brutal robbing operation at a ferry on the Gila River at Yuma, Arizona. Local Yuma (Quechan) Indians are approached to help the gang wrest control of the ferry from its original owners, but Glanton's gang betrays them, using their presence and previously coordinated attack on the ferry as an excuse to seize the ferry's munitions and slaughter the Yuma. Because of the new operators' brutal ways, the U.S. Army and the Yumas set up a second ferry at a ford upriver. After a while, the Yumas attack and kill most of the gang, including Glanton. The kid, Toadvine and Tobin are among the survivors who flee into the desert, though the kid takes an arrow in the leg. The kid and Tobin head west, and come across Holden, who first negotiates, then threatens them for their gun and possessions. Holden shoots Tobin in the neck, and the wounded pair hide among bones by a desert creek. Holden comes close to finding them and delivers a speech advising the kid to reveal himself. After Holden leaves, the pair are rescued from certain death by a tribe of Kumeyaay indians. The survivors continue their travels independently, ending up in San Diego. The kid gets separated from Tobin and is subsequently imprisoned. Holden visits the kid in jail, and tells him that he has told the jailers "the truth": that the kid alone was responsible for the end of the Glanton gang. The kid declares that the judge was responsible for the gang's evil, but the judge denies it. The kid stoically rebuts all of Holden's statements, but when the judge reaches through the cell bars to touch him, the kid recoils, although he claims he isn't afraid. Holden leaves the kid in jail, stating that he "has errands." The kid is released on recognizance and seeks a doctor to treat his wound. While recovering from the "spirits of ether", he hallucinates the judge's visiting him along with a curious man who forges coins. The kid recovers and seeks out Tobin, with no luck. He makes his way to Los Angeles, where he witnesses Toadvine and David Brown, another member of the Glanton gang, being hanged for their crimes. The kid again wanders across the American West, and decades are compressed into a few pages. In 1878 he makes his way to Fort Griffin, Texas, and is now referred to by the author as "the man." The lawless city is a center for processing the remains of the American Bison, which have been hunted nearly to extinction. At a saloon the man meets the judge. Holden calls the man "the last of the true," and the pair talk. Holden describes the man as a disappointment, stating that he held in his heart "clemency for the heathen." Holden declares that the man has arrived at the saloon for "the dance" - the dance of violence, war, and bloodshed that the judge had so often praised. The man seems to deny all of these ideas, telling the judge "You aint nothin," and noting a trained bear at the saloon, performing a dance, states, "even a dumb animal can dance." The man hires a prostitute, then afterwards goes to an outhouse under another meteor shower. In the outhouse, he is surprised to see the judge, naked, who "gathered him in his arms against his immense and terrible flesh." This is the last mention of the man, though in the next scene, two men come from the saloon and encounter a third man urinating near the outhouse. The unnamed third man advises the two not to go into the outhouse. They ignore the suggestion, open the door, and can only gaze in awed horror at what they see, one of them stating only "Good God almighty." The last paragraph finds the judge back in the saloon, dancing and playing fiddle wildly among the drunkards and the whores, claiming that he will never die. The ambiguous fate of the kid/man is followed by an ambiguous epilogue, featuring a possibly allegorical person augering lines of holes across the prairie, perhaps for fence posts. This unidentified man sparks a fire in each of the holes, and an assortment of wanderers trails behind him.

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Author: Toni Morrison Characters: Sethe - Sethe, the protagonist of Beloved, is a proud and independent woman who is extremely devoted to her children. Though she barely knew her own mother, Sethe's motherly instincts are her most striking characteristic. Unwilling to relinquish her children to the physical, emotional, sexual, and spiritual trauma she endured as a slave at Sweet Home, she attempts to murder them in an act of motherly love and protection. She remains haunted by this and other scarring events in her past, which she tries, in vain, to repress. Denver - Sethe's youngest child, Denver is the most dynamic character in the novel. Though intelligent, introspective, and sensitive, Denver has been stunted in her emotional growth by years of relative isolation. Beloved's increasing malevolence, however, forces Denver to overcome her fear of the world beyond 124 and seek help from the community. Her foray out into the town and her attempts to find permanent work and possibly attend college mark the beginning of her fight for independence and self-possession. Beloved - Beloved's identity is mysterious. The novel provides evidence that she could be an ordinary woman traumatized by years of captivity, the ghost of Sethe's mother, or, most convincingly, the embodied spirit of Sethe's murdered daughter. On an allegorical level, Beloved represents the inescapable, horrible past of slavery returned to haunt the present. Her presence, which grows increasingly malevolent and parasitic as the novel progresses, ultimately serves as a catalyst for Sethe's, Paul D's, and Denver's respective processes of emotional growth. Paul D - The physical and emotional brutality suffered by Paul D at Sweet Home and as part of a chain gang has caused him to bury his feelings in the "rusted tobacco tin" of his heart. He represses his painful memories and believes that the key to survival is not becoming too attached to anything. At the same time, he seems to incite the opening up of others' hearts, and women in particular tend to confide in him. Sethe welcomes him to 124, where he becomes her lover and the object of Denver's and Beloved's jealousy. Though his union with Sethe provides him with stability and allows him to come to terms with his past, Paul D continues to doubt fundamental aspects of his identity, such as the source of his manhood and his value as a person. Baby Suggs - After Halle buys his mother, Baby Suggs, her freedom, she travels to Cincinnati, where she becomes a source of emotional and spiritual inspiration for the city's black residents. She holds religious gatherings at a place called the Clearing, where she teaches her followers to love their voices, bodies, and minds. However, after Sethe's act of infanticide, Baby Suggs stops preaching and retreats to a sickbed to die. Even so, Baby Suggs continues to be a source of inspiration long after her death: in Part Three her memory motivates Denver to leave 124 and find help. It is partially out of respect for Baby Suggs that the community responds to Denver's requests for support. Stamp Paid - Like Baby Suggs, Stamp Paid is considered by the community to be a figure of salvation, and he is welcomed at every door in town. An agent of the Underground Railroad, he helps Sethe to freedom and later saves Denver's life. A grave sacrifice he made during his enslavement has caused him to consider his emotional and moral debts to be paid off for the rest of his life, which is why he decided to rename himself "Stamp Paid." Yet by the end of the book he realizes that he may still owe protection and care to the residents of 124. Angered by the community's neglect of Sethe, Denver, and Paul D, Stamp begins to question the nature of a community's obligations to its members. schoolteacher - Following Mr. Garner's death, schoolteacher takes charge of Sweet Home. Cold, sadistic, and vehemently racist, schoolteacher replaces what he views as Garner's too-soft approach with an oppressive regime of rigid rules and punishment on the plantation. Schoolteacher's own habits are extremely ascetic: he eats little, sleeps less, and works hard. His most insidious form of oppression is his "scientific" scrutiny of the slaves, which involves asking questions, taking physical measurements, and teaching lessons to his white pupils on the slaves' "animal characteristics." The lower-case s of schoolteacher's appellation may have an ironic meaning: although he enjoys a position of extreme power over the slaves, they attribute no worth to him. Halle - Sethe's husband and Baby Suggs's son, Halle is generous, kind, and sincere. He is very much alert to the hypocrisies of the Garners' "benevolent" form of slaveholding. Halle eventually goes mad, presumably after witnessing schoolteacher's nephews' violation of Sethe. Lady Jones - Lady Jones, a light-skinned black woman who loathes her blond hair, is convinced that everyone despises her for being a woman of mixed race. Despite her feelings of alienation, she maintains a strong sense of community obligation and teaches the underprivileged children of Cincinnati in her home. She is skeptical of the supernatural dimensions of Denver's plea for assistance, but she nevertheless helps to organize the community's delivery of food to Sethe's plagued household. Ella - Ella worked with Stamp Paid on the Underground Railroad. Traumatized by the sexual brutality of a white father and son who once held her captive, she believes, like Sethe, that the past is best left buried. When it surfaces in the form of Beloved, Ella organizes the women of the community to exorcise Beloved from 124. Mr. and Mrs. Garner - Mr. and Mrs. Garner are the comparatively benevolent owners of Sweet Home. The events at Sweet Home reveal, however, that the idea of benevolent slavery is a contradiction in terms. The Garners' paternalism and condescension are simply watered-down versions of schoolteacher's vicious racism. Mr. and Miss Bodwin - Siblings Mr. and Miss Bodwin are white abolitionists who have played an active role in winning Sethe's freedom. Yet there is something disconcerting about the Bodwins' politics. Mr. Bodwin longs a little too eagerly for the "heady days" of abolitionism, and Miss Bodwin demonstrates a condescending desire to "experiment" on Denver by sending her to Oberlin College. The distasteful figurine Denver sees in the Bodwins' house, portraying a slave and displaying the message "At Yo' Service," marks the limits and ironies of white involvement in the struggle for racial equality. Nevertheless, the siblings are motivated by good intentions, believing that "human life is holy, all of it." Amy Denver - A nurturing and compassionate girl who works as an indentured servant, Amy is young, flighty, talkative, and idealistic. She helps Sethe when she is ill during her escape from Sweet Home, and when she sees Sethe's wounds from being whipped, Amy says that they resemble a tree. She later delivers baby Denver, whom Sethe names after her. Paul A, Paul F, and Sixo - Paul A and Paul F are the brothers of Paul D. They were slaves at Sweet Home with him, Halle, Sethe, and, earlier, Baby Suggs. Sixo is another fellow slave. Sixo and Paul A die during the escape from the plantation.

B eloved begins in 1873 in Cincinnati, Ohio, where Sethe, a former slave, has been living with her eighteen-year-old daughter Denver. Sethe's mother-in-law, Baby Suggs, lived with them until her death eight years earlier. Just before Baby Suggs's death, Sethe's two sons, Howard and Buglar, ran away. Sethe believes they fled because of the malevolent presence of an abusive ghost that has haunted their house at 124 Bluestone Road for years. Denver, however, likes the ghost, which everyone believes to be the spirit of her dead sister. On the day the novel begins, Paul D, whom Sethe has not seen since they worked together on Mr. Garner's Sweet Home plantation in Kentucky approximately twenty years earlier, stops by Sethe's house. His presence resurrects memories that have lain buried in Sethe's mind for almost two decades. From this point on, the story will unfold on two temporal planes. The present in Cincinnati constitutes one plane, while a series of events that took place around twenty years earlier, mostly in Kentucky, constitutes the other. This latter plane is accessed and described through the fragmented flashbacks of the major characters. Accordingly, we frequently read these flashbacks several times, sometimes from varying perspectives, with each successive narration of an event adding a little more information to the previous ones. From these fragmented memories, the following story begins to emerge: Sethe, the protagonist, was born in the South to an African mother she never knew. When she is thirteen, she is sold to the Garners, who own Sweet Home and practice a comparatively benevolent kind of slavery. There, the other slaves, who are all men, lust after her but never touch her. Their names are Sixo, Paul D, Paul A, Paul F, and Halle. Sethe chooses to marry Halle, apparently in part because he has proven generous enough to buy his mother's freedom by hiring himself out on the weekends. Together, Sethe and Halle have two sons, Howard and Buglar, as well as a baby daughter whose name we never learn. When she leaves Sweet Home, Sethe is also pregnant with a fourth child. After the eventual death of the proprietor, Mr. Garner, the widowed Mrs. Garner asks her sadistic, vehemently racist brother-in-law to help her run the farm. He is known to the slaves as schoolteacher, and his oppressive presence makes life on the plantation even more unbearable than it had been before. The slaves decide to run. Schoolteacher and his nephews anticipate the slaves' escape, however, and capture Paul D and Sixo. Schoolteacher kills Sixo and brings Paul D back to Sweet Home, where Paul D sees Sethe for what he believes will be the last time. She is still intent on running, having already sent her children ahead to her mother-in-law Baby Suggs's house in Cincinnati. Invigorated by the recent capture, schoolteacher's nephews seize Sethe in the barn and violate her, stealing the milk her body is storing for her infant daughter. Unbeknownst to Sethe, Halle is watching the event from a loft above her, where he lies frozen with horror. Afterward, Halle goes mad: Paul D sees him sitting by a churn with butter slathered all over his face. Paul D, meanwhile, is forced to suffer the indignity of wearing an iron bit in his mouth. When schoolteacher finds out that Sethe has reported his and his nephews' misdeeds to Mrs. Garner, he has her whipped severely, despite the fact that she is pregnant. Swollen and scarred, Sethe nevertheless runs away, but along the way she collapses from exhaustion in a forest. A white girl, Amy Denver, finds her and nurses her back to health. When Amy later helps Sethe deliver her baby in a boat, Sethe names this second daughter Denver after the girl who helped her. Sethe receives further help from Stamp Paid, who rows her across the Ohio River to Baby Suggs's house. Baby Suggs cleans Sethe up before allowing her to see her three older children. Sethe spends twenty-eight wonderful days in Cincinnati, where Baby Suggs serves as an unofficial preacher to the black community. On the last day, however, schoolteacher comes for Sethe to take her and her children back to Sweet Home. Rather than surrender her children to a life of dehumanizing slavery, she flees with them to the woodshed and tries to kill them. Only the third child, her older daughter, dies, her throat having been cut with a handsaw by Sethe. Sethe later arranges for the baby's headstone to be carved with the word "Beloved." The sheriff takes Sethe and Denver to jail, but a group of white abolitionists, led by the Bodwins, fights for her release. Sethe returns to the house at 124, where Baby Suggs has sunk into a deep depression. The community shuns the house, and the family continues to live in isolation. Meanwhile, Paul D has endured torturous experiences in a chain gang in Georgia, where he was sent after trying to kill Brandywine, a slave owner to whom he was sold by schoolteacher. His traumatic experiences have caused him to lock away his memories, emotions, and ability to love in the "tin tobacco box" of his heart. One day, a fortuitous rainstorm allows Paul D and the other chain gang members to escape. He travels northward by following the blossoming spring flowers. Years later, he ends up on Sethe's porch in Cincinnati. Paul D's arrival at 124 commences the series of events taking place in the present time frame. Prior to moving in, Paul D chases the house's resident ghost away, which makes the already lonely Denver resent him from the start. Sethe and Paul D look forward to a promising future together, until one day, on their way home from a carnival, they encounter a strange young woman sleeping near the steps of 124. Most of the characters believe that the woman—who calls herself Beloved—is the embodied spirit of Sethe's dead daughter, and the novel provides a wealth of evidence supporting this interpretation. Denver develops an obsessive attachment to Beloved, and Beloved's attachment to Sethe is equally if not more intense. Paul D and Beloved hate each other, and Beloved controls Paul D by moving him around the house like a rag doll and by seducing him against his will. When Paul D learns the story of Sethe's "rough choice"—her infanticide—he leaves 124 and begins sleeping in the basement of the local church. In his absence, Sethe and Beloved's relationship becomes more intense and exclusive. Beloved grows increasingly abusive, manipulative, and parasitic, and Sethe is obsessed with satisfying Beloved's demands and making her understand why she murdered her. Worried by the way her mother is wasting away, Denver leaves the premises of 124 for the first time in twelve years in order to seek help from Lady Jones, her former teacher. The community provides the family with food and eventually organizes under the leadership of Ella, a woman who had worked on the Underground Railroad and helped with Sethe's escape, in order to exorcise Beloved from 124. When they arrive at Sethe's house, they see Sethe on the porch with Beloved, who stands smiling at them, naked and pregnant. Mr. Bodwin, who has come to 124 to take Denver to her new job, arrives at the house. Mistaking him for schoolteacher, Sethe runs at Mr. Bodwin with an ice pick. She is restrained, but in the confusion Beloved disappears, never to return. Afterward, Paul D comes back to Sethe, who has retreated to Baby Suggs's bed to die. Mourning Beloved, Sethe laments, "She was my best thing." But Paul D replies, "You your best thing, Sethe." The novel then ends with a warning that "[t]his is not a story to pass on." The town, and even the residents of 124, have forgotten Beloved "[l]ike an unpleasant dream during a troubling sleep."

Language: Provided in decontextualized form - gains meaning as one proceeds through the text. Often, silence surrounds trauma associated with slavery - not able to communicate it or avoided. Genres: Mixing gothic with slave narrative. Using gothic to speak to the unspeakability of slavery Rememory: Trigger in imagination/environment to start rememory - they are not restricted to the person who created the memory, others can have these visions The Veil: Attempt, in novel, to rip-off veil of history which has buried the shameful acts of slavery. Demands a reconstruction of history. Palimpsest: Accumulation of language covers original. Example, the scar described by multiple people in different ways - by metaphor before an actual description. Immeasurable: Analytic measurements of the school teacher contrasted with the inability to accurately 'measure' a person by means of science Excessive/Proportion: Love so strong that it causes one to cancel out the self. Multiple perspectives in novel. Excessiveness of dinner. Baby Suggs at the Clearing - bringing people together. Uncanny: That which is deeply familiar yet extremely strange