English 015 - Americans Abroad
Ross Stern
Indifference: A Coping Mechanism
Category: 4E: O'Brien | Ross Stern
The fear of death and the purposelessness accompanied with it plague Paul Berlin’s psyche in Tim O’Brien’s Going After Cacciato. Berlin attempts to escape his fears by using his imagination to desert the Vietnam War; however, Berlin’s flight of imagination has quite the opposite effect. Rather than allowing him to...
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Posted by on December 15, 2003 at 04:08 PM
A Catch 22
Category: 08B: Going After Cacciato | Ross Stern
References to the soldiers’ constant involvement in the war and Paul Berlin’s powerful desire to escape the war and reach Paris are recurring ideas throughout the soldiers’ adventures on the road to Paris and the long night at an observations post. Together, these two ideas, shown through the repetition of...
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Posted by on December 02, 2003 at 12:13 PM
Dwindling Time
Category: 3E: Bowles | Ross Stern
The concept of time controls Port’s and Kit’s actions and psyche throughout Paul Bowles’s The Sheltering Sky. Time not only has a superficial effect on their physical actions, such as traveling; it also controls Port’s and Kit’s views of life. Once Port, Kit’s sole connection to European culture, dies, Kit...
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Posted by on November 23, 2003 at 04:43 PM
Irrational Fear
Category: 07B: The Sheltering Sky | Ross Stern
Kit constantly lives in fear of the unknown; she is a victim to the “omens” that are omni-present in her life. In many situations before Port’s death, Kit’s superstitions prevent her from “[getting] all the way into life” (p.101). More specifically, Kit’s superstitions actually prevent her from living her own...
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Posted by on November 13, 2003 at 02:04 PM
Levels of Creepiness
Category: 06B: The Sheltering Sky | Ross Stern
“ ‘Isn’t married life wonderful?’” (p.60); Eric Lyle makes this statement in regards to his relationship with his mother. Take note, this short stint of “creepiness” is not an isolated incident; other situations like it douse The Sheltering Sky. Port and Kit find the Lyles creepy on two different levels....
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Posted by on November 06, 2003 at 02:08 PM
Honesty In Poverty
Category: 2E: Hemingway, Stein, Fitzgerald | Ross Stern
Money plays a significant role in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Babylon Revisited; it greatly influences over a character’s honesty. Money triggers a course of events that direct Jake, Mike, and Brett in The Sun Also Rises and Charlie in Babylon Revisited toward lives...
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Posted by on October 30, 2003 at 01:20 PM
Constant Activity
Category: 05B: Babylon Revisited | Ross Stern
The constant activity that exists in Paris provokes American travelers to pursue lavish, fast paced lifestyles. Babylon Revisited and The Sun Also Rises both depict Paris’s constant activity leading the characters down a path of destruction. In Babylon Revisited, the constant activity and fast pace which Paris caters to ultimately...
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Posted by on October 23, 2003 at 02:18 PM
Common Ground
Category: 04B: Autobiography of ABT | Ross Stern
In The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, Gertrude Stein displays pride in her American roots while still managing to immerse herself, and feel totally comfortable, in a foreign setting. Stein achieves this comfort level by finding common ground between Americans and foreigners, a common ground that Jake also establishes in...
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Posted by on October 14, 2003 at 01:57 PM
Pseudo Heroics
Category: 03B: The Sun Also Rises | Ross Stern
A hero is an individual who is noted for his or her noble and courageous actions. Under this definition, no hero truly exists in The Sun Also Rises. Instead of displaying nobility and courage, the characters in the novel often display weakness; they constantly run from their problems using travel...
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Posted by on October 07, 2003 at 01:45 PM
Temporary Ease
Category: 1E: Twain, James, Wharton | Ross Stern
All good literature deals with human nature and the conditions of human existence. Henry James’s Daisy Miller and Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad are no exception to this rule. These two books deal with the conditions of the American existence in foreign countries and the human nature that forces the...
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Posted by on October 02, 2003 at 01:33 PM
Sexual Limitations
Category: 02B: Roman Fever | Ross Stern
When traveling, Americans often feel at liberty to abandon their behavioral limitations. For some, this abandonment leads to exposed chest hair, Hawaiian shirts, and gaudy hats; however, for others, this abandonment leads to something much more intense, much more serious. The latter case is expressed in Edith Wharton’s Roman Fever,...
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Posted by on September 22, 2003 at 01:08 PM
"Different" Americans
Category: 01B: Daisy Miller | Ross Stern
After examining selections from both Mark Twain’s Americans Abroad and Henry James’s Daisy Miller, it appears that both writers must have had very different experiences in their travels around the world. While neither of the men disagree on the beauty of many foreign lands, their depiction of the American...
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Posted by on September 15, 2003 at 01:21 PM
Testing...1,2
Category: Ross Stern
Hooray for Blogs! This is kind of cool. Actually, it's really cool....
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Posted by on September 09, 2003 at 08:49 PM