Max Bolton's Bookshelf of Literary Babble

     Religion, Society, and the Irrational Meursault               In Albert Camus' The Stranger , we follow Meursault, the main character, as he kills an Arab man and is condemned of both homicide and indirect matricide by a jury and society heavily rooted in religion. I will identify the religious aspects of this judicial branch and society of Algiers. First, I will start with Maman's funeral as an example of the increasing influence of religion on Meursault's surroundings. Then, I will focus on the Meursault's conversations with the magistrate. Finally, I will focus on the case itself and Meursault's death penalty through this religious context, highlighting the clash between Christianity and Meursault's irrationality and absurdity.               In The Stranger , the setting of Algiers appears to be a society increasingly rooted in religion with church and state intertwined. We ...

  Taxi Rides: Jake & Brett's Transforming Relationship                In Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises , Jake and Brett have two intimate interactions during taxi rides, one at the start and one at the end of the novel. Through these drives, we glimpse the true nature of Jake and Brett's relationship at the present time. In the beginning, we see Jake yearning for a romance with Brett that she believes is doomed to fail and leave her unsatisfied. In the end, the doomed perception of their romance remains; however, Jake and Brett's positions have switched.               In the first taxi ride at the beginning of the novel, Jake actively seeks Brett and takes initiative to intimately interact with her while she pushes him away. Responding to Jake's advances in the taxi, Brett says, "Please don't touch me... I can't stand it." While Brett does not resist Jake's advances too much and ev...

  Clarissa & Birds          In Mrs. Dalloway , Woolf consistently alludes to birds during narration involving Clarissa. Let's explore a couple of scenes to analyze Woolf's purpose of describing Clarissa using this bird-related language.           As Clarissa heads to the flower shop, we enter the perspective of an observer named Scrope Purvis, a long-time neighbor of the Dalloways. Watching Clarissa approach the flower shop, Mr. Purvis describes her appearance: A charming woman, Scrope Purvis thought her (knowing her as one does know people who live next door to one in Westminster); a touch of the bird about her, of the jay, blue-green, light, vivacious, though she was over fifty, and grown very white since her illness. There she perched, never seeing him, waiting to cross, very upright. (Woolf 4) In this quote, Scrope Purvis describes Clarissa's appearance as similar to a bird's, mentioning th...

  Howie's Child-Adult Duality         Howie exhibits traits of both a child and an adult in  The Mezzanine  by Nicholson Baker, showcasing both maturity and immaturity at times. On page 8, Howie first reveals his self-consciousness as he talks about his present childish habits, saying, "I liked other people to see me as a guy in a tie yet carefree and casual enough to be doing what kids do when they drag a stick over the black uprights of a cast-iron fence. I especially liked doing one thing: I liked walking past a parking meter so close that it seemed as if my hand would slam into it, and at the last minute lifting my arm out just enough so that the meter passed underneath my armpit" (Baker 8). In this quote, Howie describes his parking meter and arm flailing habits that persist today, highlighting immature actions he still does. He also prefers to complete these childish acts publicly because he "liked other people to see [him] as a guy in a tie...