Beloved 2

Denver is an extremely interesting character in this novel. She is an extremely insecure and jealous of anyone who does not give her attention. She also acts much younger then her real age of 18, which is very interesting. Its obvious that Denver acts this way due mostly to her years in almost entire isolation. All that Denver had was her relationship with Sethe, and whenever that relationship is threatened Denver gets upset. This is true with Paul D and Beloved, who take away Sethe's attention from Denver.
What I found most interesting was how Denver felt excluded from her family when Sethe and Paul D would talk about their past in slavery. The fact that Denver felt left out because she never lived in slavery really shows how insecure Denver is. This is all because Denver is not comfortable being excluded from her mother in anyway. "Denver hated the stories her mother told that did not concern herself, which is why Amy was all she ever asked about. The rest was a gleaming, powerful world made more so by Denver's absence from it. Not being in it, she hated it and wanted Beloved to hate it too, although there was no chance of that at all." (pg) This is just an example of how Denver could not handle not being the center of attention from her mother.
Denver is continuously haunted by the past, even though she was not alive during slavery. Instead, she is haunted by the fact that she was not there to live through an experience with her mother, and it kills her. Denver is such an interesting character and I can't wait to see how she develops throughout the rest of this novel.

Beloved

I totally agree with http://samjanssen.blogspot.com when she was talking about the importance of slavery in Beloved. It seems that slavery and it's memories are haunting the characters, and because of this the characters can not escape from their pasts.
I found Sethe's scars to be interesting, as they seem to be a symbol of the past and how it just won't go away. Paul D starts by saying that her scars look like an ugly clump of scars, but later on in the novel Sethe is told otherwise. "It's a tree, Lu. A chokecherry tree. See, here's the trunk -- it's read and split wide open, full of sap, and this here's the parting of the branches. You got a might lot of branches. Leaves too, look like, and dern if these ain't blossoms. Tiny little cherry blossoms, just as white. Your back got a whole tree on it. In bloom. What God have in mind, I wonder."(pg 79)
The past filled with slavery continues to affect how the characters act. Paul D believes that it is dangerous for an ex-slave to love anything too much. Because of his past in slavery Paul D does not want to count on anything too much and affects his life greatly. This is repeated again later in the novel. That is an interesting aspect to remember because this will affect Paul D greatly later on. I am looking forward to seeing how this happens.

Final Project

I want to write about how a character who is an outsider is often the character who is most desired by the other characters. This is true in Whethering Heights, and Interview with a Vampire. I want to focus on how both Heithcliff and Louis live lives that are different and outside of the norm. Then I want to show how because they are different and outside of the norm they are characters who are desired, both because of who they are and because of their lives.

I intend on writing a paper instead of a creative project, mostly because of my lack of creative skills. But, also with the topic I have chosen above, I believe a paper would work best. With a paper I will be able to elaborate on my ideas above, and focus on these topics.

Interview with the Vampire

I totally agree with http://samjanssen.blogspot.com/. After reading the rest of Interview with the Vampire, it seems that Louis was just a young vampire, and still trying to hold on to human emotions. As the novel progresses we even see how Louie is understanding that too. This is true especially after Louie changes Madeleine into a vampire.

" 'For you see,' I said to her in that same calm voice, 'what died tonight in this room was not that woman. It will take her many nights to die, perhaps years. What has died in this room tonight is the last estige in me of what was human.' " (pg 270)

It seems that as time goes by Louis looses more and more of his human self, and even does the one act that is as anti-human as possible. By changing Madeleine he is equaling himself with Lestat, who put him in what he believes is eternal damnation. From this we see that Louis really was just a young ignorant vampire. As http://samjanssen.blogspot.com/ said:

"Those realities for a vampire are that they must kill to survive; their existance depends on their ability to end the existence of others."

Louis if finally excepting who and what he really is. The reader finally sees that it is not about being more human, but instead about finally realizing that Louis can not hide from who he really is.

I have been thinking a lot about how we as a culture are so obsessed with vampires. It was amazing to look at the chalkboard in class and see how many facts we as a class could come up with. That just proves that vampires are very popular among many different types of people. There are many reasons why we are so obsessed with vampires, but one big reason could be the sex appeal that the vampire has.

It is not just how he looks, but also in how he acts. For example in Dracula, Dracula talks almost sexually about his victims. "The fair girl went on her knees and bent over me, fairly gloating. There was a deliberate voluptuousness which was both thrilling and repulsive, and as she arched her neck she actually licked her lips like an animal... I could feel the soft, shivering touch of the lips on the super sensitive skin of my throat, and the hard dents of two sharp teeth, just touching and pausing there." (pg 51) Just reading this quote brings up a sexual vibe. It is possible that this sexualness that the vampire has attracts people.

In other vampire literature, vampires are also attractive, often times sexual beings. I am not familiar with very many of these except for the Twilight novels. Those books are very descriptive about how attractive they are. It also talks about how everything about them is attractive to humans. It is possible that the author was trying to show how we all find vampires "attractive."

Dracula

After reading the first 14 chapters of Dracula and reading over other's blogs i have to agree both http://samjanssen.blogspot.com/ and http://gothicnovel263.blogspot.com/ when it comes to Dracula and women. Dracula seems to only have the desire to pray on women, and only is using men or in this case Jonathan Harker to get what he wants.

The idea that Dracula only prays on women also connects to how Dracula wants to "own" his victims. "How dare you touch him, any of you? How dare you cast eyes on him when I had forbidden it? Back, I tell you all! This man belongs to me!" (pg 43) While Dracula is talking about Jonathan when he says this, it clear that he also believes that he owns his victims, who as far as I have read so far, have all been women.

There is a footnote on the bottom of the page saying that "some twentieth-century writers develop: that vampires can have erotic contact only with humans, not with each other." This would explain why Dracula would go after women. If he can only have "erotic contact" with humans then women would be his main focus.

Blog 1-Frankenstein

Why did Victor create the creature? What responsibilities did Victor, as the creator, have toward his creature? Why did Victor abandon the creature?

Victor had many reasons behind why he created the monster. One big reason is that Victor saw many things in himself that he did not like. By building the monster he felt as though he was getting rid of all of the things about him that he disliked. He spent all of his time and energy into building this monster, but put no thought into what was going to happen once his creature would come to life. Victor wanted to get rid of the qualities that he had inside of him that he hated, but put no thought into what would happen to them if they went into his creature.

Victor took no responsibility for his creature. After seeing the creature alive, Victor ran away frightened. By creating the creature Victor should have taken the responsibilities that a mother would have over her child. His creature knew nothing about anything. He didn't know how to speak or act around people, and it was Victor responsibility to teach his creature how to be a regular human being. However, Victor did none of this.

When Victor saw the creature awake he saw everything that he hated about himself in the creature. Now all of the qualities he despised about himself were alive and staring him in the face. This terrified him. Instead of taking responsiblity for his creation he ran away from it. He abandoned his creature and left him helpless. This really shows Victors true character. He did not want to face what he had done so he ran away from it.

I think that as this novel will continue Victor will learn even more about how damaging he made his life because he abandoned the monster and hopefully he will learn that he needs to take responsibility for his actions.