All Quiet on the Western Front

This will be the last posting of the semester, and as we have only one class day remaining, you need only respond once this week.  You can respond to this now, or you can wait until we have finished the movie.

You need to do a little mind reading here.  Why do you think I wanted you to see this movie?  What about the story--the emphasis on the human reaction to war--makes it appropriate for inclusion in this class?  I know the obvious answer is that it is about WWI and we studied poetry and a novel, but my rule for the texts we read (and the briefs you did) was that they must be British writers.  So why this?

What is this Novel About, Anyway?

The Remains of the Day tells the story of a butler who is trying to make sense out of a present that is  very different from his past.  But what is the theme of the novel?  What is is about?  What do you think might be Ishiguro's purpose in writing this novel?

By the way.  I was very impressed with the intellectual level of the discussion about the symbolism in the novel.  I myself was hard pressed to find any symbols except perhaps the house itself.

Symbolism and The Remains of the Day

Mrs Dalloway  and Brideshead Revisited  were both full of symbols.  Do you see any in The Remains of the Day?  Remember that symbols can be physical objects (like the pocketknife and clock, or fountain and chapel) or suggested (the thread or web), but characters can also be symbolic.  It is also possible to have no symbols in a work of literature.  So, can you identify any in Remains?  Make sure you explain what those symbols represent.  If you don't see any, do you think that matters to the development of the themes in the novel?

No Blog This Week

We will resume the blog next Friday, April 15,

The Storm at Sea

Aside from the obvious, that the storm at sea allows Charles and Julia to get together, what other purposes--literal and symbolic--does the storm serve?  That it happens on a journey (from America back to England, but it could be thought of as any journey) might also have some significance.