Lara's English Class Blog

Kevin is a vital support system for Dana throughout the book. She constantly mentions him and wishes she could be with him -- not only for comfort but for protection too. When Dana and Kevin are separated and Kevin is left behind in 1819 with no way of getting home, we barely get any insight into how five years away from his home time affected him. I simply don't think the book focused on his experience enough. Five years is not a measly time to be (unwillingly) separated from everything you know. I know Dana is the main protagonist and the narrator of the book, but we got a total of three pages to see how Kevin changed. Spending five years as a white man during slavery is certainly not the worst position to be in, but it's still a drastic change for Kevin to experience completely alone. Plus, Dana voiced her concerns about Kevin getting stuck without her so I'm surprised that Dana didn't show more concern for him or try to understand what happened. Given the support Ke...

I didn't particularly enjoy the writing style of Mumbo Jumbo, but I can certainly appreciate Reed's intentional stylistic choices throughout the book. As we mentioned many times in class, his choices (while hard to decpiher) were certainly intentional to some degree. Putting two chapters numbered 52, not using quotation marks for dialogue, making chapters arbitrary(?) lengths, and placing the first chapter before the publishing pages are all examples of writing choices we wouldn't expect in a traditional novel.  As we worked through the book, we also talked about why Jes Grew is such an effective "plague". In my opinion, Jes Grew's key quality is its unpredictability. Like Papa LaBas said in his speech, you never know where and how Jes Grew will spring up again.  I see a lot of similarities between Reed's depiction of Jes Grew and his writing style. The unpredictability and strangness is what makes it stick in people's minds (or bodies in the case of J...

 Although I enjoyed many of the characters in Ragtime, Mother stood out to me as an exceptionally written character. Ragtime takes place at the turn of the 20th century and a big theme of the time -- and, of course, the book -- is the idea of change. Doctorow hits on various key societal changes through many characters: we see Emma Goldman publicly trying to fight for a better society, Younger Brother joins Coalhouse and later goes to Mexico to continue his fight for justice, and Coalhouse himself is a good example of a fight for racial changes. The list goes on, but the character who I'd most like to focus on is Mother. Throughout the book, Mother's personality goes through major changes and, by the end, she discovers an entirely new existence for herself. Unlike Father, who is unable to keep up with the changes around him and eventually becomes depressed, Mother thrives in her new environment. During Father's excursion to the North Pole, Mother becomes self-reliant. She ...

 Up until this point in the book, Doctorow has hit on a lot of themes that have interwoven through multiple characters, but I think the most striking to me is each characters' quest for meaning. With each person, we've seen an internal struggle, whether explicit or implicit, to discover themselves. The first clear example to me is Evelyn. Doctorow spends much of the first part of the book focusing on her character -- especially in relation to Tateh and The Little Girl. In class, we discussed whether we thought that Evelyn had good intentions during her interactions with Tateh or if she was being selfish. In my opinion, Evelyn's acts, though debately in poor taste, were good intentioned. Throughout her life, Evelyn was viewed as a sexual object rather than a person. She was manipulated by Thaw and White from an early age and forced to make a name for herself using her sexual appeal. Her entire life resides under the public eye and she is constantly being scrutinized, but whe...

     My favorite moment of Sag Harbor is without a doubt when Benji describes being at the U.T.F.O concert when the bass is about to drop. I felt it was perfect scene because, even if it was just for a night, Benji could finally stop thinking about his father's abuse, his struggles fitting in, and the challenge of discovering himself. He could relax and enjoy.     At home, Benji clearly has a difficult time relaxing because of his father. In fact, he would rather take extra shifts at the ice cream shop to avoid seeing his dad on the weekends. In Manhattan, both Benji and Reggie struggle making friends at school. Benji is painfully aware that they don't fit in with their white classmates and even the surrounding community makes it clear to them. The lack of friends at school made Benji and Reggie dependent on each other for company which gave Benji a lot of anxiety surrounding discovering his true self.     Benji's struggles all culminate to the mo...

As we see throughout the book, Jason goes through the full spectrum of popularity.  In the beginning, he's not quite an outsider, but he's certainly not the most popular either. When we see him get tested by the Spooks, he finally gets the chance to join the elite group of popular boys which we know he has wanted for some time. Of course, as we see, Jason doesn't become a Spook and he instead falls even lower on the popularity spectrum when the boys find out about his stammer.  When I was reading this book, I found Jason's wide range of popularity to be quite interesting. We could easily see that Jason was very aware of where he stood in the popularity rankings at the beginning of the book. I think that a lot of people his age can relate to his descriptions and his wishes to be popular. Many teens change their personalities to try and fit in with the 'popular crowd', but Jason doesn't. Throughout the book, although he almost wavers sometimes, he stays true t...