English 104 - Introduction to Narrative
Jeb Bobseine
Adolescent Obsession with Death in
Category: 2 Essay: Carroll, Twain, Faulkner, Sebold | Jeb Bobseine
Mark Twain and William Faulkner choose two different paths in revealing the death of a parental figure. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain decides to withhold the fact of Huck’s father’s death from the narratee. In As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner does not withhold the fact of...
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Posted by jbobsein on December 09, 2003 at 09:52 AM
Susie Alone
Category: 10 Blog: The Lovely Bones | Jeb Bobseine
After her death, Susie is able to look down and observe the people she knows, violating their privacy. “The odd thing about Earth was what we saw when we looked down” (36). When Susie dies she is inexperienced in many ways. She is fourteen years-old, and still maturing. She wants...
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Posted by jbobsein on December 04, 2003 at 08:42 AM
Darl Observes Darl
Category: 09 Blog: As I Lay Dying | Jeb Bobseine
Two passages, one in the beginning and the other in the end, open with Darl observing that a character has recently had a haircut. In the first, he observes, “[Jewel] has been to town this week: the back of his neck is trimmed close, with a white line between hair...
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Posted by jbobsein on November 25, 2003 at 03:14 AM
Wooden Eyes
Category: 08 Blog: As I Lay Dying | Jeb Bobseine
A character with “wooden eyes” is described several times. Jewel is described so, as well as his father. These descriptions by Darl and Tull are striking, both in the similarity in their observations, as well as the difference. Darl, our first narrator, observes Jewel walking swiftly, powerfully, yet sees something...
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Posted by jbobsein on November 18, 2003 at 09:54 AM
Tom's Fraud-Twain's Fraud
Category: 07 Blog: Huckleberry Finn | Jeb Bobseine
One of the more revealing frauds that are perpetrated at the end of this novel is that of Tom neglecting to reveal that Jim is a freed man. This fraud returns Jim to the subservient, foolish position he occupied at the opening of the novel. We are introduced to Jim...
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Posted by jbobsein on November 11, 2003 at 09:49 AM
Huck's idea of family
Category: 06 Blog: Huckleberry Finn | Jeb Bobseine
The first scam that the Duke and the King try to pull is to convince Huck that they are a duke and a king. Huck is aware that the Duke and the King are “low-down humbugs and frauds,” but still he has “no objections” to them staying aboard the...
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Posted by jbobsein on November 04, 2003 at 02:39 AM
Tom's reality versus Huck's reality
Category: 05 Blog: Huckleberry Finn | Jeb Bobseine
There is a great disparity in the seriousness which Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn approach certain incidents. The disparity first appears in the scene with Jim, when Huck and Tom are almost discovered by Miss Watson’s slave. After Jim falls asleep, Tom wants to tie Jim to the tree, but...
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Posted by jbobsein on October 28, 2003 at 02:41 AM
Ghostly Credibility: how the trust between a narrator and reader can be strained or strengthened by an author's approach to depicting otherworldly spirits.
Category: 11 Essay: James and Bronte | Jeb Bobseine
Both Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte, and The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James are littered with ghostly appearances. In The Turn of the Screw, the governess’s response to and interpretation of otherworldly spirits undermines her reliability. Henry James constructs a narrative dependent on the reader=s willingness to believe...
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Posted by jbobsein on October 23, 2003 at 02:02 AM
O mouse! Why can't you understand me?
Category: 04 Blog: Alice in Wonderland | Jeb Bobseine
Alice is frustrated in her attempts first at speaking to the mouse, and then at convincing the mouse to tell her its life story. Initially, Alice hails the mouse with “ ‘O mouse, do you know the way out of this pool?’ (18)” The mouse seems not to understand. Carroll...
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Posted by jbobsein on October 07, 2003 at 09:43 AM
Heathcliff's continuing sadism
Category: 03 Blog: Wuthering Heights | Jeb Bobseine
Cathy continues the presence of her mother, and does not replace her; Heathcliff sustains only the sadism, and nothing of the love, or the obsession. There is sadism, and thus a sort of continuation, demonstrated in the parallel aspects within the two following instances. Heathcliff places “the lifeless-looking form in...
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Posted by jbobsein on September 30, 2003 at 09:24 AM
Dreams
Category: 02 Blog: Wuthering Heights | Jeb Bobseine
Lockwood dreams of listening to a sermon, of attempting to walk out and being beaten for sins that he finds inexplicable. “Where [Jabes Branderham] searched for [the sins], I cannot tell(19).” In this lack of comprehension of why he must suffer can be found an echo of the relationship between...
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Posted by jbobsein on September 23, 2003 at 03:49 AM
Governess as Novelist
Category: 01 Blog: Turn of the Screw | Jeb Bobseine
The Turn of the Screw is a study by Henry James of the novel. A writer must be aware. It is this awareness which allows one to write of that which they don’t know. In this case the governess writes of what isn’t true, of the fantastical; she creates her...
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Posted by jbobsein on September 16, 2003 at 09:48 AM
uninspired practice blog
Category: Jeb Bobseine
MY NAME IS YON YONSON I LIVE IN WISCONSIN I WORK IN A LUMBERMILL THERE THE PEOPLE I MEET WHEN I WALK DOWN THE STREET THEY ASK ME MY NAME AND I SAY MY NAME IS YONSON I LIVE IN WISCONSIN . . . -kURT vONNEGUT, JR. sLAUGHTER hOUSE-fIVE...
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Posted by jbobsein on September 11, 2003 at 12:16 AM