Time Waits for No Man

Gerontophobia is a recurring motif in “Love in the Time of Cholera” that is part of the larger themes of time and death. As old age is a result of time and leads to death, it is frequently tied to both of those ideas. Jeremiah de Saint-Amour took his own life due to gerontophobia and seems foolish at the beginning of the novel. His later years are a striking contrast to those of Florentino Ariza. Florentino fears his old age because he does not want to die before he can be with Fermina Daza and achieve his desired purpose in life. Once he and Fermina are together, he is able to realize that his lifelong courtship of her gave his life meaning and feels content to finally have her. When Jeremiah de Saint-Amour takes his own life, he had essentially accomplished all that he set out to do in life. He became a successful photographer and was happy in his clandestine love affair of many years. By the time his life ended, he was ready and felt no need to fight the ravages of time.

Dr. Urbino displays slight gerontophobic tendencies early in the novel when he remarks that “there is nothing more dangerous than the innocence of age”. The innocence to which he refers is the assumption of infinite wisdom that comes with age. Dr. Urbino is convinced that he is prepared to handle whatever may happen when he goes to visit the lover of Jeremiah de Saint-Amour, but alas his world view is shaken by the complacency to which she acts to Jeremiah de Saint-Amour’s suicide. In addition, he takes numerous pills throughout the day in order to make himself more comfortable. He follows his own version macabre humanism by trying to help himself “die without fear of pain”. Since he continues to work and go about his life as though he were still young, it apparent that he is unwilling to accept his own age and eventual mortality.

Florentino Ariza fears his age most of all. As he reclines near the graves of his mother and Olimpia Zuleta, he realizes how much time has passed since his love affair with Fermina Daza and contemplates the purpose of his existence. The fear is heightened by the memories of his mother’s final years when age incapacitated her mind and caused her to forget her own identity. He does not want to forget and therefore lose the ardent and martyr-like love he has for Fermina so that he will be able to devote himself to her when her husband dies.

The gerontophobic character represent a futile desire to control time. Jeremiah de Saint-Amour’s desire to slow it down coupled with Florentino Ariza’s desire to hasten it while keeping vestiges of the past heightens the drama of the intricately-woven story. (469)

Tainted Love

In Love in the Time of Cholera, Marquez uses sickness, death, and gerontophobia as metaphors for the dangers of love. Early in the novel when Jeramiah de Satint Amour commits suicide with gold cyanide, Dr. Urbino immediately attributes the manner of the death to unrequited love. The mention of the scent of almonds is also foreshadowing the next chapter in which the love affair between Fermina Daza and Florentino Ariza is narrated. Florentino frequently sees Fermina Daza beneath an almond tree and mentions how the scent of alomds will forever remind him of her.

During their discreet love affair, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza are literally in danger due to the wrath of Fermina’s father and the environment in which Fermina is being raised. The watchful eye of Lorenzo Daza forces Fermina and Florentino to only communicate through letters left in odd places. When waiting for his first reply from Fermina, Florentino is driven mad with eagerness and displays symptoms similar to those of cholera. Florentino’s joy in suffering for Fermina and his willingness to be a martyr for love makes Florentino an ideal romantic character because he has no fear of rejection and has absolute faith in the success of the doomed relationship. Since the reader already knows from the previous chapter that Fermina will marry Dr. Urbino, it is much easier to feel sympathetic toward Florentino.

Through the suicide of Jeremiah de Saint-Amour before his own clandestine love affair can fully bloom and the cholera-like lovesickness of Florentino juxtaposed with his raging affection for Fermina, Marquez touches on a fundamental human fear: fear of the ravages of love whether they be brought about by rejection, unfavorable circumstances, or death. Florentino’s melodramatic approach to love makes him seem absurd and thus makes the idea of hopeless romanticism seem absurd. He writes seventy pages of love letters to a girl who he has never met and foolishly expects that she will feel the same way. However, it can be inferred that Marquez is glorifying romanticism because Florentino comes to Dr. Urbino’s funeral and therefore uncovers hope at the bottom of the pandora’s box of love’s travails. (357)

Southern Honor

In The Sound and The Fury, the sections narrated by Quentin and Jason respectively show two very different characters who have very similar motivations. Both Compson men are intensely concerned with protecting the family honor.
Quentin seeks to maintain the code of ethics of a Southern gentleman. He wants to protect his family’s reputation by living up to a set of standards. He continually mentions how he wishes to protect his sister from men who he feels are not suitable for her because they are not gentlemen. In addition, Caddy’s loss of virginity greatly disturbs him because it signifies that his family honor has been sullied. However, because he loves Caddy he does not use this information as justification to mistreat her. The paradox of the person he loves the most destroying his fundamental beliefs is enough to drive him to end his own life.
Jason wants to protect the family honor for more selfish reasons. Like his mother, Jason is very pretentious and arrogant. He wants to have an excellent reputation because of his family and he censures them when they do not fulfill his expectations. Like Quentin, he sees Caddy as the main contributor to the loss of his honor. Although, since the only member of the family with whom Jason feels a genuine connection is his mother, he has no problem severing all ties to Caddy. In addition to frustration with Caddy’s behavior, Jason harbors a very strong jealously of Quentin because he feels that the opportunity to attend Harvard was wasted on him. By distancing himself from the rest of his family, Jason hopes to create a good reputation independently. However, by the end of the novel, it is apparent that none of the other characters admire the way he treats his family.
Jason’s egotistical desire for honor is also apparent in the way he treats his niece, Quentin. He sees her as nothing more than the product of Caddy’s sinful actions and treats her as such. Jason refuses to accept any money from Caddy and never mentions her name in his house in hopes that forgetting her will bring back his honor. However, because of Quentin he cannot forget about Caddy because she so closely resembles her. Both of the Quentins disappear as a result of quests for honor that become futile due to Caddy’s actions. Mr. Quentin’s death is brought about by his own struggle with honor. Ms. Quentin disappears as a result of Jason’s zealous desire for a good reputation. (417)

Miss Cahline

One character in Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury that is beginning to fascinate me is that of Caroline Compson. Earlier in the Benjy section, she is portrayed as very shallow and obsessed with appearances and social graces. For instance, she refuses to call her children by their nicknames because she claims that only “common people” use nicknames. In fact, it is through her that we first learn that Caddy’s real name is Candace. Furthermore, she has Benjy’s name changed from Maury to Benjy for the sake of maintaining her image. It is unclear whether the name change happened as a result of Maury’s fight which was a huge embarrassment for the family, or if it had any to do with Caroline’s shame over having her mentally-retarded son named after her brother. She shows very little affection for Benjy and even complains that he should not be a burden to her when she has servants to watch after him. It is also stated in the Benjy section that he is to be sent away to the state mental institution when Caroline Compson dies. It is a reasonable assumption that Caroline made this arrangement so it would appear as though she were the only one willing to take care of him during his lifetime and that with her gone, there would be nobody to care for Benjy in the Compson home.
In the Quentin section, it becomes apparent that Caroline favors Jason and Quentin. She speaks of Jason as her “pride and joy”. She even thinks of leaving the family and taking Jason with her so that he could grow-up without the corrupting influence of Caddy or disruption from Benjy. Her preference for Quentin over Benjy is also shown when she sells Benjy’s pasture in order to send Quentin to Harvard. When Benjy’s pasture is turned into a golf course, he suffers severe emotional distress because he keeps hearing his sister’s name even though she is gone.
Caroline begins to like Caddy less and less as she grows older and approaches womanhood. When Caddy loses her virginity and becomes highly promiscuous, Caroline states that she is more like her own side of the family than the Compsons because of her behavior. When Caddy is married off to Herbert, Caroline essentially disowns her in order to avoid disgrace. Caroline, like Caddy, married a man of higher social class. In Caroline, the desire to accordingly impress others manifests itself in a snobbery that no one else in the family possesses. Caroline represents the traditional Southern woman through her attitudes and behavior. She adds to the tragedy of the story because her desire to preserve order and tradition is overcome by the sequence of events that unfolds throughout the novel. (456)

A Young, Feminist Firebrand

In her novel “Jane Eyre” Charlotte Bronte presents a refreshingly rebellious protagonist. Other novels I have read which feature a young orphan girl portray her as very docile and tacitly accepting of any abuses inflicted upon her. The character Jane Eyre is the antithesis of the “little orphan girl” stock character. She brazenly confronts those who wrong her and refuses to be treated as an inferior. Her mettle is shown early in the novel when her cousin throws a book at her and she punches him in retaliation. Jane’s refusal to submit to her cousin’s wrath reveals a feminist streak that continues throughout the novel.
Even her aunt’s Petunia Dursley-esq, blatant favoring of her own children does not dampen her spirit. She stands up to her authority on her last night in her care when she matter-of-factly tells her of the wickedness of her ways. During this time period it would have scandalous for a woman to speak in such a manner to a person of authority, let alone a child. Not only does this incident further demonstrate Jane’s refusal to be mistreated, but it also makes her more likable. She does what the reader is always secretly hoping a protagonist such as her will do.
When Jane arrives at The Lowood School, it is the first place where her wit and intelligence are admired instead of begrudged as signs of an ill-behaved child. The school is somewhat of a feminist utopia because the institution is run exclusively by women (with the exception of the perpetually-disgruntled and pedantic Mr. Brocklehurst) to educate women. When Helen Burns is first introduced, we are given the impression that she is rebel much like Jane. It is somewhat disappointing when we find out that her philosophy on life is almost the complete opposite of Jane’s. A fascinating scene ensues in which the two young girls discuss their perceptions of the workings of the world. Helen sees authority as a force that is merely looking after her best interests and seeking to cure her of her faults. She forgives those who wrong her because she feels that that is the moral course of action. Furthermore, she accepts her numerous punishments because she genuinely believes that her character is riddled with faults.
Jane, however, sees authority as an oppressive force that is squelching her individuality. She believes that by allowing herself to be mistreated by others, they will continue to do so and that she “could not bare” to be humiliated by accepting mistreatment. Helen presents a clever rebuttal to Jane’s point when she says that it is absurd for her to say that she cannot bear what she is fated to bear. Helen also represents the inferior status of women in society through her docility. Jane is a foil to her in that she represents a rise in feminism through her rebelliousness. Helen’s eventual death is symbolic of the need to raise the status of women. (492).

A Battle of Wits

In his short story “Battle Royal”, Ralph Ellison asserts the point that black people trying to conform to the society of their oppressors while accepting their inferior status is severely detrimental to social equality. Furthermore, he uses the story to illustrate the hypocrisy of the white Southern attitude toward black people. Ellison uses parallels to “Dr. Faustus” to illustrate how accepting the racist status quo is very much akin to selling one’s soul. I found the story to be reminiscent of the scene from Christopher Marlowe’s “Dr. Faustus” in which the devil presents Faustus with the seven deadly sins before claiming his soul in exchange for infinite knowledge of the universe.
Gluttony and sloth are prominently illustrated through the white men at the gathering. They indulge themselves at a buffet, drink and smoke heavily, and lounge about the room. Ironically, they display the lazy carelessness that they accuse their black fellow citizens of. The naked, dancing, blonde girl is a symbol of lust which the white men fawn over and the group of black students are mesmerized by. She is even more of a temptation for the black students because they know that their lives would be endangered if they attempted to acknowledge her in any way. The group of black students is able to exercise restraint in the situation. However, the white men cave to their animalistic urges and collective drunken stupor by attempting to prevent the girl from leaving.
The Battle Royal itself is the white men’s attempt to arouse wrath in the black students for their own entertainment. The narrator initially participates in the fight out of self-defense. Later on, he beings to crave the glory of winning in hopes that it will earn him the respect of the white men. Though it occurs to him that the righteous way for him to act would be resistance, he pushes this thought away and continues the fight. When he whispers to his final opponent to let him win in exchange for the prize money, the narrator shows his envy for his opponent. He wants to win the fight, but knows that he cannot do so fairly.
The electrified rug symbolizes avarice. By placing the money and on it and shocking the black students with the electrical current, the white men attempt to make a competition out of claiming prize money. The added element of danger causes the students to only focus on the money on the rug and give no consideration to distributing it equally among themselves.
Pride as one of the seven deadly sins is shown in several ways throughout the story. The white men display immense pride by forcing the black students to endure humiliating ordeals in order to assert their superiority. The narrator displays pride by thinking himself to be superior to his student brethren because he has come to give a speech. He initially fails to realize that despite his intelligence, he is still a black boy who will be considered inferior to any white people regardless of his intellectual prowess or quality of character.
The grandfather acts like the narrator’s conscience and plagues him with guilt and confusion through his words. He frames the story by delivering a warning at the beginning and reappearing at the end to taunt the narrator. His words on his death bed warn the narrator that though he is successful going about life as he is, his dignity is being systematically undermined by the status quo. When the narrator accepts the briefcase and the scholarship at the end, it signifies how he has traded his integrity for supposed acceptance among the white men. The grandfather’s appearance in the narrator’s dream shows him how incredibly foolish he has been by accepting and even rejoicing in his position. (628)

A Mysterious Revelation

In Flannery O’Connor’s short story “Revelation” she takes an ironic twist on Christian morality by focusing on judgment. Our protagonist, Mrs. Turpin, feels that she is incredibly blessed because God has given her “a little bit of everything” (75) and “made her a good woman” (75). Mrs. Turpin receives a revelation in the story. However, she is clearly not being told what she wants to hear. She is given the message that by judging others based on appearance and social class, she is undermining her own soul.
Mrs. Turpin expresses how she is thankful to God that He did not make her black, “white trash”, poor, ugly, or of a disagreeable disposition. While in the waiting room of the doctor’s office with her husband, the other characters who appear throughout this portion of the story (with the exception of Marcy Grace’s mother) represent what Mrs. Turpin wishes not to be as well as the groups that she is continually judging. She considers herself to be blessed in a way that is not truly grateful, but more arrogant and hypocritical. Her attitude is further revealed when she mentions how she sorts people into classes and considers herself and her husband, Claude, to be of almost the highest class possible.
Although Mrs. Turpin acts very judgmentally, the author wants us to assume that she is essentially a good person although she is extremely misguided. Through her love for her husband, it is apparent that she cares for more than just her own interests. She is being sent a revelation through the incident with Mary Grace because God seems to think that there is still hope for her and wants her to change. Mrs. Turpin’s attitude is also reflective of Flannery O’Connor’s views that during her lifetime that the South was a troubled place where the scourge of racism was the most socially profound.
Ironically, Mary Grace is more educated and sophisticated than Mrs. Turpin because she is studying hard and attending college. It seems as though God has taken the form of Mary Grace because Mrs. Turpin gets the sense that she has, “known her and disliked her all of her life--all of Mrs. Turpin’s life, it seemed too, not just all the girl’s life” (61) and that, “the girl did know her, knew her in some intense and personal way, beyond time and place and condition” (112). The timing of when Mary Grace looks up from her book to grimace at Mrs. Turpin is perfectly timed so that she does so just after Mrs. Turpin has either made a particularly harsh comment or had a very judgmental thought. Mary Grace’s name also has particular religious significance because “Mary” is the mother of God, and “Grace” is a state to which all pious individuals aspire. Flannery O’Connor also once said that, “Grace changes us and change is painful”, which is applicable to the story both literally and metaphorically due to Mary Grace’s attack on Mrs. Turpin and Mrs. Turpin’s later revelation.
When Mary Grace throws her book on human development at Mrs. Turpin, it is symbolic of Mrs. Turpin’s need to advance beyond her simple-minded opinions. The attack is an example of God working mysteriously and unexpectedly by appearing in unlikely and often inconvenient places. Initially, the attack in the waiting is clearly the last way that Mrs. Turpin would expect to have a life-altering revelation. However, she also recognizes that she has been “singled out for the message” (130) due to the celestial flicker in Mary Grace’s eyes.
Mrs. Turpin has an indignant conversation with God after the incident as she hoses down the hogs. The first vision she has of Mr. Turpin driving the field hands accompanied by a sense of sublime rapture shows the omnipresence of God and the ultimate insignificance of individual humans. Mrs. Turpin sees this first as way to humble her and guide her to the realization that she is not as important as she thinks herself to be. Her frustrated cry of, “Who do you think you are?” is both her question to God and her answer from God as the echo creates a chilling repetition.
The procession of souls that Mrs. Turpin sees shows black people, “white trash”, and disabled people along with people like the Turpins. However, the “outcasts” are traveling the past with joy and excitement, while the people blessed with “a little bit of everything” are more somber. When O’Connor says that “even their virtues were being burning away” she was likely referring to all pretentiousness and judgment by other humans instead of by God. Mrs. Turpin is being told that she needs to use the privileges she has been given to make a positive impact instead of using them as a way to place herself above those around her. (810)

The Woes of Youth

When I read the brief biography of Anne Tyler that accompanies her short story “Teenage Wasteland” in the textbook, it said that the story was published in the teen magazine “Seventeen”. At the time, which publications showcased the work seemed negligible, however, once I read the story I realized that it was clearly geared toward a high school-aged audience. The story seems to be intended as a sort of parable that illustrates the importance of not allowing one’s problems from high school (whether they be far away or close at hand) to characterize one’s life.
Telling the story from the perspective of the mother allows a young reader to see some typical teenage behaviors from the point of view of a parent. As Donny shirks his schoolwork, is disrespectful to his family, and disregards the rules, we cannot help but feel sympathy for Daisy. Though Daisy has nothing but good intentions for Donny, each one of her solutions eventually fails and causes her to gradually lose confidence in her parenting abilities. Furthermore, it is mentioned that Daisy also had a bad experience in high school. Tyler occasionally alludes to the fact that Daisy has yet to overcome the hardships that she faced in her youth. When she visits the principal’s office to discuss Donny’s problems in school, she seems to be more concerned with what the principal thinks of her than with her own son. Her self-conscious attitude almost makes her seem immature. In addition, when she returns to the principle’s office with her husband, she mentions how she feels as though she is about to be the one getting in trouble as she sits nervously on the couch outside on Mr. Lanham’s office. Her sentiments in this moment connect her and Donny, as if to suggest that she understands what Donny is going through and has not yet fully overcome it for herself.
Donny continually mentions his frustration at feeling trapped by the rules at school and the rules at home. Cal also brings him to the realization that his self-esteem suffers because all authority figures around him expect only the worst from him. Donny begins to see this anguish as the hand that life has dealt him and not merely a phase that will pass with time. His frustration leads him to his destructive behaviors such as being an irresponsible student despite his intelligence and deliberately breaking school rules. Making a habit of truancy only increases his problems because the authority figures in this life then become more frustrated with him. Donny is never taught any healthy coping mechanisms to get him through high school by either Daisy or Cal. Daisy is still grappling with the effects of her own high school experience and is too emotionally weary from failed attempts to help her son that she fails to realize that he is merely experiencing unoriginal, teenage angst. Cal seems to both have an agenda to keep Donny coming to him for financial benefit and be unfit to give Donny sound advice because he too is riddled with problems of his own.
Daisy is a foil to Cal because she (like Donny) seems to still be running away from the problems that plagued her in high school whereas Cal apparently wants to be a teenager forever. By ending his marriage and spending his days slumming with delinquent teens, he is likely desperately trying to regain the edenic youth that rock stars sing of and disillusioned adults such as himself seek either because he experienced no such thing in his own youth or because he fears losing himself in the quotidian mediocrity that seems to characterize the “real world”. He teaches Donny to blame all of his problems on the authority figures around him instead of doing what is expected of him. Had Donny learned to find a way to get through four years of high school safely, he could have moved on from his problems to bigger and better things instead of running away from his life altogether. (670).

The Cast of Characters

Alice Sebold’s novel The Lovely Bones narrates the chain of events that results from the murder of a fourteen-year-old girl, Susie Salmon. By giving each character a unique way of grappling with their grief, Sebold breathes life into them. Since grief at the loss of a loved one is such a basic and primal human emotion, a certain sympathy for the character is instilled in the reader and thus they seem more real.
Mr. Salmon, Susie’s father, develops a rabid obsession with finding his daughter’s killer. He experiences a surge of vengeance that causes him to doubt the efforts of the detectives and to make plans to find and kill the man who he suspects is guilty. His paternal protective instinct remains firmly intact even though his eldest daughter is deceased, which is a trait that can easily tug the heartstrings of the reader. Mr. Salmon’s quest of avenge his daughter’s death also isolates him from the other characters and thus leaves him to grieve in relative solitude.
Mrs. Salmon’s grief manifests itself in a very different manner than that of her husband. She seeks to fill the void that her daughter left by falling in love with the detective who is investigating her daughter’s murder. Once she realizes how much the affair is hurting what remains of her family, she leaves them out of guilt. In the solitude of traveling by herself she is able to contemplate not only the extinguished life of her daughter, but her own life as well. Her urge to escape the painful situation makes her more fallible and therefore more human.
Lindsey, Susie’s younger sister, is given the greatest burden to shoulder. Not only must she experience the loss of her older sister, but also deal with the whisperings of classmates that forever brand her as “the dead girl’s sister”. Of all of the characters, she behaves with the most grace and resolve. She is there to remind her father that though he lost one of his daughters, he still has another for whom he must go on with his life. Through the process of her grieving, she also meets her first boyfriend and eventually marries him after graduating from college. He provides valuable moral support to her because he is a neutral third party in the murder incident and can thus comfort Lindsey without any grief of his own to process. Through Lindsey, the reader sees more of the quotidian manifestations of loss (such as the reaction of her classmates and the need to continue through school in spite of her situation) and can thus see her as more of a real human being.
In my opinion, the most fascinating characterizations in Sebold’s novel are those of Ruth and Ray. Ray was Susie’s crush at the time of her death and was therefore the police’s first suspect. Ruth barely knew Susie, however, she was touched by Susie’s spirit as it ascended to the afterlife and henceforth became obsessed with communicating with the other side. Though neither character was as close to Susie as her family was, her death still alters the course of their lives. Through these two characters, Sebold shows how a shared tragedy can bring people unexpectedley together. As they try to carry on with their lives, they both seek someone who can understand them, which is a fundamentally human trait.
The very nature of the story allows for very dramatic characterizations because death is a subject that is so jarringly real that it is much easier to identify with the characters who are still living and having to experience the aftermath. Seeing the characters struggle with something that is so common to the human experience makes them seem to be more than simply words on a page. (627)

My Literary History

Dear Mr. Coon,
For as long as I have been literate, reading and writing have both been pleasurable past-times of mine. When I first learned how to read, it was as though suddenly the entire world was at my fingertips. I voraciously read reference books, magazines, children’s novels, and whatever else I could get my hands on. Through reading I could discover all sorts of fascinating secrets about the world around me and venture into exotic and exciting places. When I was in third grade, an hour of every day was set aside for reading. On the class bookshelf, I discovered abridged versions of classics such as Les Miserables, The Last of the Mohicans, and The Time Machine. I found all of these enjoyable, however, The Time Machine quickly became a personal favorite. I later went on to read the unabridged version as well as a few other works by H.G. Wells. When the first novel of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series was released, I soon acquired a copy and thus found another favorite author to add to my repertoire. With each installment of the series, I have thoroughly enjoyed getting lost in the whimsical world of Hogwarts.
In middle school, I was introduced to the works of Shakespeare and my world was profoundly rocked. I found all of the extended metaphors, clever dialogue, and flowery speeches to be absolutely enthralling. Later, I discovered Voltaire and was enraptured by his crisp witticisms in Candide. Although, it was not until last Summer that I had my most profound reading experience yet. Since I was reading The Dante Club for my I.D. paper, my father convinced me that I should not read anything with “Dante” in the title without actually reading Dante and that furthermore, because I am Italian, reading The Divine Comedy is essentially a moral obligation. On June 6, 2006 my bilingual copy of Inferno arrived from amazon.com. As I read the poem, I found it amazing how many pieces of literature, art, and film had used themes and concepts from it. I quickly developed an almost fiendish obsession with the work that I still carry with me today.
Reading has also fueled my highly active imagination and inspired me to do some creative writing of my own. In my earlier days I wrote a series of fantasy stories about four ordinary individuals who discover that they have supernatural powers with they must use in order to avert the destruction of the universe. However, my most prized pieces of writing are my poems that I often publish in Day Breaks and a two-act play entitled Gemini that I wrote at the end of my junior year. As a writer, I find my strengths to be my imagination and ability to use language in a thoughtful and original manner. However, I often have trouble conforming to style guidelines and working with length requirements. In general, I find writing to be enjoyable because it is an opportunity to express my thoughts eloquently using tactics learned from the authors that inspire me.
Sincerely,
Lauren Mattioni
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