English 104 - Introduction to Narrative
Jennifer Bernstein
Truth in Action: An Analysis of Heroism As I Lay Dying and Huckleberry Finn
Category: 2 Essay: Carroll, Twain, Faulkner, Sebold | Jennifer Bernstein
Just as Faulkner creates mystery around the character of Jewel in As I Lay Dying, Twain leaves Jim’s history, motivations, and deepest thoughts untold in Huckleberry Finn. In fact, the many narrators in Faulkner’s novel and Huck in Twain’s novel fail to present a coherent and comprehensive interpretation of these...
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Posted by jbernste on December 09, 2003 at 09:08 AM
The Lonely Artist
Category: 10 Blog: The Lovely Bones | Jennifer Bernstein
Ruth’s exceptional artistic ability, her skill to see the world with a subtle and sensitive eye, is a talent, but one that makes her more of an observer of action than a participant. Her intelligence leaves her an outsider, unwanted in school and unaccepted among peers. “She stood apart from...
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Posted by jbernste on December 04, 2003 at 02:54 AM
The difficulties of defining Darl
Category: 09 Blog: As I Lay Dying | Jennifer Bernstein
Darl‘s sadness over his mother’s death, and his confusion over his purpose and worth after her death has left him in a state of psychological instability. Darl has always been emotionally alienated from his family, spending more time wondering about his siblings, than physically interacting with them. But in his...
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Posted by jbernste on November 25, 2003 at 02:29 AM
Vardaman and Dewey Dell in the Barn
Category: 08 Blog: As I Lay Dying | Jennifer Bernstein
Both Dewey Dell and Vardaman encounter the same cow in the barn during the few hours after their mother’s death, but have very different feelings towards it. Vardaman, distraught, upset, and angry at the doctor Peabody, who he believes has killed his mother, displaces his violent feelings for his family...
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Posted by jbernste on November 18, 2003 at 07:33 AM
Huck's departure only highlights all the troubles he has ignored
Category: 07 Blog: Huckleberry Finn | Jennifer Bernstein
Tom proves his fraudulence when he suddenly reveals to Huck and his company that Jim had been free man throughout the entire adventure; he knew almost the whole time and hadn’t told. “Turn him loose! He ain’t no slave, he’s as free as an cretur that walks this earth!” (291)...
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Posted by jbernste on November 11, 2003 at 09:42 AM
"nothing but sword-fighting and rehearsing"
Category: 06 Blog: Huckleberry Finn | Jennifer Bernstein
Huck is mystified by the appearance of the Duke and Dauphin. Although he knows they are not real royalty, they act as if they have walked off the pages of a magnificent tale of adventure, robbery and riches, and this makes Huck happy enough. “And besides, it was just as...
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Posted by jbernste on November 04, 2003 at 03:45 AM
Huck understands the Subtleties of Life
Category: 05 Blog: Huckleberry Finn | Jennifer Bernstein
Huck realizes that sometimes telling a “stretcher” may be the right thing to do. When Huck tells one to two slave hunters, for example, he does so to save Jim, who he knows depends on him and trusts him. Huck proves that knows that the law and social conventions dictate...
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Posted by jbernste on October 28, 2003 at 09:53 AM
What Windows Reveal: How the Repetition of Physical Framing Serves Unique Purposes in Wuthering Heights and The Turn of the Screw
Category: 11 Essay: James and Bronte | Jennifer Bernstein
By repeatedly emphasizing each character’s placement around windows, both Bronte and James shed light on the desires and intentions of their characters. And it is through this emphasis that these authors apply to these windows the metaphorical value of being the transition space between the wild, experienced, outside world, and...
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Posted by jbernste on October 23, 2003 at 10:03 AM
Alice and Social Conventions
Category: 04 Blog: Alice in Wonderland | Jennifer Bernstein
The narrator in Alice in Wonderland seems to know Alice even better than she might know herself, and in such a curious world, where we, just like Alice, hardly know what to make of these strange happenings, we look to the narrator to understand and interpret these events for us....
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Posted by jbernste on October 07, 2003 at 09:37 AM
Isabella's misfortune is a warning
Category: 03 Blog: Wuthering Heights | Jennifer Bernstein
Heathclifff, now a strikingly handsome and mysterious gentleman, has returned from a long pause in the story, it seems, a changed man. And like Isabella, we are entranced and excited and hopeful to see if he has truly reformed as much in character as he has in appearance–to see if...
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Posted by jbernste on September 30, 2003 at 09:48 AM
The Lockwood Frame
Category: 02 Blog: Wuthering Heights | Jennifer Bernstein
The choice between forgiveness and revenge is a topic which Lockwood unconsciously tackles in a strange dream, a decision Heathcliff must make himself about his love and family, and perhaps most importantly, one the reader must consider while observing the strange passion between Heathcliff and Catherine. Lockwood, after blaming the...
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Posted by jbernste on September 23, 2003 at 09:38 AM
window frames
Category: 01 Blog: Turn of the Screw | Jennifer Bernstein
The windows which so often physically frame the governess are crucial to the novel because, to her, they highlight the separation of the known from the unknown, the innocent from the experienced, and her young questioning self from the two children and apparitions. Thus, it is not surprising that it...
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Posted by jbernste on September 16, 2003 at 09:33 AM
Practice
Category: Jennifer Bernstein
Let's see if this works: This is my practice blog. This is my practice blog. This is my practice blog. This is my practice blog. This is my practice blog. This is my practice blog. This is my practice blog. This is my practice blog. This is my practice blog....
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Posted by jbernste on September 15, 2003 at 08:42 PM