English 015 - Americans Abroad
Simon Parsons
Understanding the Land
Category: 4E: O'Brien | Simon Parsons
In Tim O’Brien’s Going After Cacciato, the land plays a significant role, especially for Spec Four Paul Berlin. In the wider scope, during the Vietnam War, the land became the ultimate enemy of the American GI’s. Unpredictable, foreign, and rigid, the land gave a distinct advantage to the native Vietcong,...
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Posted by on December 15, 2003 at 01:06 PM
Repeated Imagination
Category: 08B: Going After Cacciato | Simon Parsons
While on the road to Paris and during the extended night at the observation post, the idea of Paul Berlin’s imagination appears repeatedly. Although the instances clearly show differences, they seem entwined as the novel builds upon itself. When Berlin is on guard at the post, he reflects deeply...
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Posted by on December 01, 2003 at 11:57 PM
What do you want here?
Category: 3E: Bowles | Simon Parsons
In Paul Bowles’s The Sheltering Sky, the leitmotifs prostitution and especially blindness hold particular importance as they relate to the traveler. The blurring of sight intrigues Kit and Port as it isolates them from that which they seek to forget: for Port, the “mechanized age” (14) associated with WWII, for...
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Posted by on November 30, 2003 at 06:03 PM
A Sound
Category: 07B: The Sheltering Sky | Simon Parsons
After Port’s death, Kit finds herself searching for a “further possibility for existence” (268). She feels obligated to barricade off the past, “refusing to examine it,” (267) in order to make a desperate solo attempt to “get all the way into life.” The means to do so, she believes, are...
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Posted by on November 13, 2003 at 11:41 AM
Ominous Competition
Category: 06B: The Sheltering Sky | Simon Parsons
“He looked a bit worried; he wanted so much to be the only traveler” (58). From the moment the Lyles appear on the scene, they represent conflict for Port and Kit. The impetus behind the conflict is shown by the creepiness of the Lyles, which first takes shape physically, but...
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Posted by on November 06, 2003 at 12:40 PM
Destiny
Category: 2E: Hemingway, Stein, Fitzgerald | Simon Parsons
Both Jake, in The Sun Also Rises, and Charlie, in Babylon Revisited, tend to live in hindsight of a traumatic period that directly affects their present, distressed state. They feel constant disillusionment of wanting what they cannot have as a result of the past, while, at the same time,...
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Posted by on October 31, 2003 at 06:01 PM
Stubborn Self-Importance
Category: 04B: Autobiography of ABT | Simon Parsons
Gertrude Stein once said, “It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing.” In the Autobiography of ABT, Stein carouses France with a confidence that she wishes to reinforce by dedicating time to what she believes...
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Posted by on October 14, 2003 at 12:21 PM
Hero
Category: 03B: The Sun Also Rises | Simon Parsons
A mere person becomes a hero by setting him/herself apart from the mob, usually through capturing attention by fighting something they believe in and prevailing with bravery, strength, and a clear vision. Although several characters in the Sun Also Rises exemplify the internal struggle to achieve hero-status, each of...
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Posted by on October 07, 2003 at 12:13 PM
Fever to a Sexual Liberation
Category: 1E: Twain, James, Wharton | Simon Parsons
Edith Wharton’s Roman Fever and Henry James’ Daisy Miller illustrate a similar phenomenon, where socially repressed women in America find a certain sexual liberation in the refuge of being abroad. Immersed in a different environment, native instincts appear to change, or perhaps are not deemed as important, and an...
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Posted by on October 01, 2003 at 09:40 PM
Redefining limitations
Category: 02B: Roman Fever | Simon Parsons
The idea of liberation from native sexual boundaries and customs whilst visiting foreign territory reveals itself in both Roman Fever and Daisy Miller. As the two authors dealt with characters from American “high society,” one could expect that the way in which James showed “sophisticated” limitations undergoing attrition in...
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Posted by on September 22, 2003 at 11:14 PM
James/Twain Blog
Category: 01B: Daisy Miller | Simon Parsons
The manner in which the main character narrates each story offers the major point of contrast in these two works. Whereas in Daisy Miller Winterbourne appears as an advocate of “observation,” Twain, in The Innocents Abroad, becomes a firm supporter of “judging” and giving a personal interpretation of what...
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Posted by on September 15, 2003 at 10:01 PM
simon parsons
Category: Simon Parsons
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Posted by on September 10, 2003 at 01:30 PM