English 015 - Americans Abroad
Matt Nickel
A Tourist Fantasy
Category: 4E: O'Brien | Matt Nickel
“What about money? Money for hotels and food and train tickets? What about passports? What about the law? Illegal entry, no documents, no military orders, no permits for all the weaponry? What about police and customs agents?” (page 125). Throughout Tim O’Brien’s novel Going After Cacciato, the soldiers are constantly...
entire entry
Posted by on December 15, 2003 at 02:04 PM
Changing Soldiers
Category: 08B: Going After Cacciato | Matt Nickel
The characters in Going After Cacciato change from soldiers to civilians slowly over the novel. This transformation is promoted by the childhood and civilian images on the road to Paris and the night in the observation tower. On the road to Paris, the soldiers slowly lose their weapons and clothing...
entire entry
Posted by on December 02, 2003 at 01:38 PM
Personal Motivations
Category: 3E: Bowles | Matt Nickel
The American and European characters in The Sheltering Sky, by Paul Bowles, are influenced by personal motivation. Each character has different personal motivations such as the desire for money, women, or fear of natives. These motivations influence the characters interactions with natives. The characters personal motivations stem from their behavior...
entire entry
Posted by on November 25, 2003 at 02:22 PM
Kit's Transformation
Category: 07B: The Sheltering Sky | Matt Nickel
Kit does manage “to get all the way into life.” Before the death of Port, Kit showed a “willingness to become whatever he wanted her to become…” (page 100). She merely follows Port around in his search to find an African city untouched by Europe. She does not complain...
entire entry
Posted by on November 13, 2003 at 01:42 PM
Suspicious Behavior
Category: 06B: The Sheltering Sky | Matt Nickel
The Lyles are secretive and everywhere they travel they fall under suspicion by fellow travelers and locals. Port first becomes suspicious of Eric Lyle when Eric examines his luggage at the hotel. Port mentioned that when Eric entered his room, “He glanced about the room in a strangely surreptitious...
entire entry
Posted by on November 06, 2003 at 01:39 PM
Repetition
Category: 2E: Hemingway, Stein, Fitzgerald | Matt Nickel
Repetition leads to stability and instability among Americans abroad. In Ernest Hemingway’s novel, The Sun Also Rises the constant drinking, the frequent trips and false friendship all promote instability among the characters. However, in Fitzgerald’s short story, “Babylon Revisited,” Charlie’s one drink a day, repeated attempts at ignoring past...
entire entry
Posted by on October 30, 2003 at 01:50 PM
The City That Never Sleeps
Category: 05B: Babylon Revisited | Matt Nickel
Paris is a city that never closes. Being young and wealthy in a city that never sleeps leads Charlie, the main character in Fitzgerald’s short story “Babylon Revisited” to his dissipation. In the letter Lorraine wrote to Charlie, she reveals that there is always something happening in Paris no matter...
entire entry
Posted by on October 23, 2003 at 12:53 PM
Confidence
Category: 04B: Autobiography of ABT | Matt Nickel
Confidence is the one thing that Gertrude Stein does not lack. In The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, the author Gertrude Stein shows her confidence during parties, critiquing art but especially during World War I. She never has any fear for her life and this confidence leads to a...
entire entry
Posted by on October 13, 2003 at 11:34 PM
Bill Gorton
Category: 03B: The Sun Also Rises | Matt Nickel
“Maybe a story is better without any hero.” Ernest Hemingway crossed this line out of his novel The Sun Also Rises, but his story still has a hero. Although this hero only takes on his role for only one scene, he still demonstrates the capability to lead. A true...
entire entry
Posted by on October 07, 2003 at 12:53 PM
Daisy Miller and Mrs. Ansley
Category: 1E: Twain, James, Wharton | Matt Nickel
In “Daisy Miller” by Henry James and “Roman Fever” by Edith Wharton, two characters, Daisy Miller and Mrs. Ansley, stand out from the rest. Traveling abroad separates them from their friends and family back home and provides them with a chance for a new beginning. They also discover a...
entire entry
Posted by on October 02, 2003 at 01:51 PM
Similar Americans
Category: 02B: Roman Fever | Matt Nickel
Late night visits to the Collosseum, affairs with different men, followed by confession: both stories could be mixed up and the reader would be none the wiser. “Roman Fever” closely echoes “Daisy Miller’s” portrayal of American behavior in Italy. In “Daisy Miller,” most Americans are in Europe for the...
entire entry
Posted by on September 22, 2003 at 10:25 PM
American Portrayal
Category: 01B: Daisy Miller | Matt Nickel
In the short story ‘Daisy Miller’ by Henry James and several chapters from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain, the two authors portray Americans very differently. Henry James portrays Americans as being able to recognize the beauty of European society and culture, while Twain portrays himself and other Americans...
entire entry
Posted by on September 16, 2003 at 12:17 AM
Matt's pseudo blog
Category: Matt Nickel
If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might be, if they screamed all the time and for no good reason. -Jack Handey, SNL...
entire entry
Posted by on September 09, 2003 at 02:52 PM