English 015 - Americans Abroad
Thomas Buehrens
Who is Paul Berlin?
Category: 4E: O'Brien | Thomas Buehrens
What Spec Four Paul Berlin wanted more than anything else in the war, was to please his father: “At the depot, when the train stopped, he would brush off his uniform and make sure all the medals were in place, and he would step off boldly, boldly, and he would...
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Posted by on December 15, 2003 at 03:42 PM
Routines
Category: 08B: Going After Cacciato | Thomas Buehrens
The narrator says early on, “the routinization of war, which helped make it tolerable, included even trivial things” (p. 44). The idea of making all actions follow either a formal or informal operating procedure is what keeps the characters of Going After Cacciato doing their duties both in battle,...
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Posted by on December 02, 2003 at 01:19 PM
Changes in the Sahara: Port's Descent into Hypocrisy
Category: 3E: Bowles | Thomas Buehrens
Port defines his journey into the Sahara as a way in which he may distance himself from the Western influence he loathes. Though his travels lead him physically farther from Western culture, Port is slowly driven to actually embody the qualities of the system he hates. The harder Port...
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Posted by on November 24, 2003 at 12:25 AM
Living
Category: 07B: The Sheltering Sky | Thomas Buehrens
With Port as a constant in her life, Kit was always afraid to live, and she had a convenient refuge in hiding under Port. One such example is when Port and Kit are watching the sunset after biking together: “the very silences and emptinesses that touched his soul terrified...
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Posted by on November 13, 2003 at 01:58 PM
The Lyles
Category: 06B: The Sheltering Sky | Thomas Buehrens
While the Lyle’s are first shown as harmless if not colorful characters, alarming details about their lives arise soon afterwards, and contribute to sort of disturbing atmosphere that surrounds them from then on. Our first unsettling hint to their lifestyle comes when Port is meeting Mr. Lyle when he mentions...
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Posted by on November 06, 2003 at 01:44 PM
The Lost Generation
Category: 2E: Hemingway, Stein, Fitzgerald | Thomas Buehrens
F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.” To this, Ernest Hemingway responded, “Yes, the very rich are different from you and me. They have more money,” This dialogue captures the crucial essence of the problems these...
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Posted by on October 30, 2003 at 01:57 PM
Paris
Category: 05B: Babylon Revisited | Thomas Buehrens
Paris is a city that never sleeps. Even uttering the word Paris entices grand visions of a paradise for the wealthy where the champagne never stops flowing. For many people, this lifestyle can lead to the so-called “dissipation” that Fitzgerald comments on in his Babylon Revisited. The opulent behavior of...
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Posted by on October 23, 2003 at 01:22 PM
Confidence in ABT and The Sun Also Rises
Category: 04B: Autobiography of ABT | Thomas Buehrens
Gertrude Stein is the embodiment of confidence. She clearly distinguishes herself from other Americans in Europe at the time by pronouncing them the "Lost Generation." In this statement, Stein wishes to acknowledge the lifeless drifting she sees in her fellow expatriates, while distinguishing herself as having purpose and drive. Hemingway's...
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Posted by on October 14, 2003 at 01:44 PM
No hero here
Category: 03B: The Sun Also Rises | Thomas Buehrens
What is a hero? A hero is a person who draws admiration for their qualities of strength, courage, or compassion. Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises purposefully lacks a hero. Hemingway flirts with the idea of making the reader have admiration for Jake as a hero, but he ultimately does not...
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Posted by on October 06, 2003 at 10:30 PM
Ignorance: The American Culture
Category: 1E: Twain, James, Wharton | Thomas Buehrens
What do you call a person who speaks two languages? Bilingual. What do you call a person who speaks three languages? Trilingual. What do you call a person who speaks one language? American. This common European joke demonstrates the general perception abroad that Americans are widely uncultured, and even relish...
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Posted by on October 02, 2003 at 01:19 PM
The Coliseum's deadly allure
Category: 02B: Roman Fever | Thomas Buehrens
Carriages don’t turn to pumpkins, but aside from that, both Daisy Miller and Roman Fever describe vividly the dangers to young girls staying out late. In both Henry James’s Daisy Miller and Edith Wharton’s Roman Fever, young American girls are characterized by their imprudence and unwillingness to adhere to social...
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Posted by on September 22, 2003 at 10:05 PM
Blog1
Category: 01B: Daisy Miller | Thomas Buehrens
The primary difference between the way Henry James’s Daisy Miller depicts Americans abroad, and the way Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad describes them, is in their basic attitude. Twain sees Americans in Europe as wanting to assimilate to the culture and fit in, marveling and embracing its differences from American...
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Posted by on September 15, 2003 at 09:44 PM
Thomas's practice
Category: Thomas Buehrens
You run and you run to catch up to the sun but it's sinking, racing around to come up behind you again. The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older, shorter of breath, and one day closer to death. -Pink Floyd...
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Posted by on September 09, 2003 at 09:20 PM