"'A snake would not bother with you,' said Rooster. 'You are too little and bony.'" (120)
This line is heavy foreshadowing for what happens to Maddie at the end of the novel. Not only is it obvious foreshadowing of Maddie falling into the pit and getting bitten by a snake, but it also anticipates Rooster's emotional change in the duration of the novel. This quote is from the first night of their journey to find Tom Chaney, when Rooster didn't even intend to have Maddie with him. When Rooster rescues Maddie from the pit of snakes and carries her all the way to help, sometimes on his own back, his grit has clearly been worn down.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
True Grit 2
"That was when I went out to the staked plains of Texas and shot buffalo with Vernon Shaftoe and a Flathead Indian called Olly." (144)
Rooster's origins are not the most honest things, and even what Rooster still does is not very moral. Portis chose to write Rooster as a rough, harsh man to make the emotional transformation that he makes throughout the book more prominent. The rougher Rooster was at the beginning, the more of an effect Maddie had on him. Thus representing the title of the book - True Grit, which is why Maddie chose Rooster to accompany her in the first place.
Rooster's origins are not the most honest things, and even what Rooster still does is not very moral. Portis chose to write Rooster as a rough, harsh man to make the emotional transformation that he makes throughout the book more prominent. The rougher Rooster was at the beginning, the more of an effect Maddie had on him. Thus representing the title of the book - True Grit, which is why Maddie chose Rooster to accompany her in the first place.
True Grit 1
"He said it was Ranger policy not to sleep in the same place as where they had cooked their supper. Rooster said nothing and threw more limbs on the fire." (120)
Throughout True Grit, Portis sets LaBoef's dialogue as a walking manual for the Rangers. This raises conflict between him and Rooster, as Rooster clearly does not share the same morals or policies. LaBoef and Rooster's motives are even different - Rooster aims to kill Tom Chaney in honor of Maddie's father, and LaBoef intends to capture him and turn him in for a reward. Portis writes LaBoef's personality this way to contrast against Rooster's, as he has few morals and does not stick to any rules. Tom Chaney may have not been found if it weren't for both of them working in a disconnected togetherness.
Throughout True Grit, Portis sets LaBoef's dialogue as a walking manual for the Rangers. This raises conflict between him and Rooster, as Rooster clearly does not share the same morals or policies. LaBoef and Rooster's motives are even different - Rooster aims to kill Tom Chaney in honor of Maddie's father, and LaBoef intends to capture him and turn him in for a reward. Portis writes LaBoef's personality this way to contrast against Rooster's, as he has few morals and does not stick to any rules. Tom Chaney may have not been found if it weren't for both of them working in a disconnected togetherness.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Frankenstein 10
"But Paradise Lost excited different and far deeper emotions. I read it, as I had read the other volumes which had fallen into my hands, as a true history." (118)
Frankenstein’s monster’s entrance to life was the complete opposite of that of Adam’s in Paradise Lost; Adam came into life as a perfect being, loved by God and prosperous in all respects. The monster, however, was brought into life an experiment, and had never known love from anyone he had met, including his creator. Shelley incorporates Paradise Lost into Frankenstein in many character parallels, as the creation is comparable to both Adam and Satan in different respects; he monster being the first of his kind like Adam and being abandoned like Satan.
Works Cited:
Frankenstein 9
"I will soon explain to what these feelings tended, but allow me now to return to the cottagers, whose story excited in me such various feelings of indignation, delight, and wonder, but which all terminated in additional love and reverence for my protectors (for so I loved, in an innocent, half-painful self-deceit, to call them)." (109)
This dialogue from Frankenstein’s creation parallels Frankenstein’s feelings of ownership that he had over Elizabeth when his parents first adopted her. The monster doesn’t feel ownership over the De Laceys, so to speak, but more of a need to care for them and protect them from any harm. He would fetch them firewood and stop stealing their food, all for their own well being. Frankenstein himself had a similar need, and would blame himself entirely if anything ever happened to Eizabeth. Shelley writes this parallel to form yet another tie between the monster and his creator.
This dialogue from Frankenstein’s creation parallels Frankenstein’s feelings of ownership that he had over Elizabeth when his parents first adopted her. The monster doesn’t feel ownership over the De Laceys, so to speak, but more of a need to care for them and protect them from any harm. He would fetch them firewood and stop stealing their food, all for their own well being. Frankenstein himself had a similar need, and would blame himself entirely if anything ever happened to Eizabeth. Shelley writes this parallel to form yet another tie between the monster and his creator.
Frankenstein 8
"In The Sorrows of Werter, besides the interest of its simple and affecting story, so many opinions are canvassed and so many lights thrown upon what had hitherto been to me obscure subjects that I found in it a never-ending source of speculation and astonishment." (117)
Shelley incorporates The Sorrows of Werter by Johan Wolfgang von Goethe to relate the pain that the main character, Werther, goes through in his life to the pain that Frankenstein’s creation goes through. Both of their pains are due to human cruelty, and The Sorrows of Werter effectively parallels the creation’s questioning of his own purpose in life. Werther commits suicide in the end of the novel, which sparks a defiant unwillingness to live in the monster.
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Frankenstein 7
"Their colours and their forms, were then to him an appetite; a feeling, and a love, that had no need of a remoter charm, by thought supplied, or any interest unborrowd from the eye." (145)
This poem titled Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth is incorporated by Shelley to explain the comfort that Frankenstein’s creation feels from being in the wilderness, out among nature. Since he cannot draw the fascination and love he needs from other human beings, he finds all of that with the serenity and aloneness of being in the woods. Since the creation relates being among other people to pain and vulnerability, he would naturally find comfort in things that he had absolutely no control over, and had no control over him.
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