Posts

Dr. Rieux

Aakash Vasireddy | 20th Century Blog Post #6 | November 24th, 2020 Today's post: Dr. Rieux Happy Thanksgiving break! As with all my posts, this one will be a bit long. Thanks :) In today's post, I'll be discussing my thoughts surrounding Albert Camus' Dr. Rieux in his novel The Plague, including some of his important character traits and where how crucial his puzzle piece is to the novel. Throughout the story, I have regarded Dr. Rieux as a complex character. There are many characters in this town riddled with plague like Tarrou, Ramon Rambert, Cottard, Father Paneloux, and more. However, here, at the center of all this mayhem, is the doctor Bernard Rieux . There have been many points in the book where Rieux has described his key principles of keeping transparency and being very down-to-earth. This element of his character I find really interesting. As a doctor, Rieux seems to always remain conscious of where his priorities lie, and he keeps his duties straight. He does...

Final Destination

 Aakash Vasireddy | 20th Century Blog Post #5 | November 6th, 2020 Today's post: Final Destination - Our final scenes in The Sun Also Rises In today's post, I'll be covering my thoughts of the final scene with Lady Brett Ashley and our main character Jake Barnes.  We know that through the entirety of the novel, the whole guiding storyline or plot point is the relationship surrounding Jake and Brett as they have a very unique relationship and way of interacting with one another; a way that we see as unconventional for the typical romantic relationship we expected from two characters who have confessed feelings for one another. These two have not been able to be truly and fully intimate and committed with each other due to Jake's sexual injury. Brett goes off with all these other guys like the lovely Robert Cohn, Mike, and the young bullfighter Romero while Jake feels this huge disconnect but still comes running to Brett's side for emotional support . However, in this...

Let's talk about Jake Barnes.

Aakash Vasireddy | 20th Century Blog Post #4 | October 16th, 2020 Today's post: Jake Barnes: Our Narrator Happy end of the 1st Quarter! To end off the first quarter, we got another blog post coming at you about our new book The Sun Also Rises by the classic 20th Century author and writer @TheRealErnestHemingway. In today's post, I want to reflect on my interpretation of our narrator Jake Barnes, including my thoughts about his personality and his character through what we've seen so far in The Sun Also Rises . He is a very interesting character that has many layers of complexity that we've discussed in the last couple weeks. At the end, I will also give some of my general thoughts about what we've read so far from Hemingway. I'll start by saying that our narrator Jake Barnes has been a very unique character thus far. I can't really decipher if I'm in a place in the novel to really say I can empathize with Jake and confidently say that I like him as a cha...

Clarissa and Septimus: Two Characters in the Same World

 Aakash Vasireddy | 20th Century Blog Post #3 | October 2nd, 2020 Today's post: Clarissa and Septimus: Two Characters in the Same World In today's post, I want to go kind of extend my thoughts and opinions about the notebook prompt we did today and Woolf's decision of incorporating Septimus's narrative into Mrs. Dalloway  which originally was without him and more based on Clarissa. This discussion that we had during class as well as just the topic in general is pretty interesting and fascinating to us as readers because it is a very important aspect of the novel. I'm willing to be a little bit messy when it comes to sharing my thoughts here because I think there are a lot of things at play that I would like to mention. Throughout Mrs. Dalloway , we as readers see the perspectives of all these different characters that flow through Clarissa's narrative: our title character Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway as well as Peter Walsh, Sally Seton, Richard Dalloway, and more. How...

Woolf's Elements of Character Importance in Mrs. Dalloway

 Aakash Vasireddy | 20th Century Blog Post #2 | September 18th, 2020 Today's post: Woolf's Elements of Character Importance in Mrs. Dalloway In today's post, I would like to go over some of my thoughts about Virginia Woolf's 1925 Mrs. Dalloway  regarding how Woolf focuses so much on the importance of developing these characters and really allowing the reader to see into their mind. In addition, I would like to add some of my observations about a couple of the main characters in this book thus far.  From the beginning in Woolf's essays, we've seen the importance of bringing out character  in her writing. The reader should know just as much as the writer when it comes to the characters in the story. Woolf also focuses on the fact that writers must dive deeper into their characters. This would mean showing their emotions, inner thoughts, and personalities, rather than being "materialistic" and describing their physical appearances, their clothes, etc.  I ...

General & Unique Thoughts on The Mezzaine

Aakash Vasireddy | 20th Century Blog Post #1 | September 4th, 2020 Today's post: General & Unique Thoughts on The Mezzanine. In today's post, I would like to give a couple of my overall thoughts on Nicholson Baker's 1988  The Mezzanine, as well as provide some interesting or unique parts of the novel that stood out to me as a reader. Baker's The Mezzanine , to say the least, does not fit the overall perspective of novels in literature. Typically, a story has multiple contributing characters, a plot that includes a rising/falling action & climax, and a narrative structure that moves from one part in the timeline to the next. Howie's first perspective life narrative differs greatly. Although the story does have a small cast of supporting characters, the main perspective follows Howie: he is the star of this show. In terms of differences in plot, the base or foundation of Howie's anecdotes describes the event of simply riding up an escalator. However, throu...