Sri's Blog

 While reading Black Swan Green, something that I found really interesting was the tension being created between parts of Jason’s life which he keeps a secret from the rest of the world, and part that he is comfortable with people knowing. An example of this is his interest in poetry and music. He cares about both, however each one is part of different identities of Jason. The identities that each hobby takes form in show how what things people are and are not able to express about themselves in Black Swan Green’s society. Jason keeps his forays in poetry a complete secret. His poems, when published in the newsletter, are always under the name “Eliot Bolivar” as he is completely against being known as the true author of the poems. This speaks volumes about the environment he lives in. If something as simple as wearing a certain type of hat can label you as “gay”, Jason can only imagine what being known for loving the art of poetry would make his peers think of him. The only person ...

  When I first started reading Fun Home, I honestly had made up my opinion on Bruce, and it wasn’t very positive. The novel doesn’t help in this scenario, with ample evidence building that paints a not very appealing picture of him for us readers. Everything from being emotionally distanced, to having affairs with teenage boys, to forcing his children to help him remodel the home, something he seemed to be more interested in than the children itself. But in the chapters between these events and the end, I somehow started to feel sorry for him. I don’t think I am giving him a pass for what he did, but he definitely became a slave of societal pressures, making his life miserable. The scene in the library is one example, where Bechdel describes the intricacies of Bruce’s library. Everything from the flocked wallpaper to the velvet drapes, and the centerpiece being the leather topped mahogany desk. In Allison’s words, it was made to emulate the feeling of a “nineteenth-century aristocr...

  While reading The Bell Jar, something that kept popping into my mind was glass. I would try to bring it up in class discussions, but I didn’t fully understand the meaning behind it. Originally, I was focused on the idea that glass can be fragile, and that if it shatters (which could be a representation of Esther attempting suicide) while it could break Esther free, it could prove to be fatal But honestly, after trying to think through my thoughts about the importance of glass in the story, my original idea about Esther breaking the glass seems like the exact opposite of Plath’s intention of incorporating the glass of the bell jar. Maybe the glass is never meant to break. Maybe not breaking is another angle of looking at Esther’s depression in the book, where Plath is not letting Esther reach a breaking point. Maybe the glass throughout the story is rising from the ground with Esther stuck in it. We as readers seem to be waiting for this glass to drop and shatter on the ground, sy...

After reading The Catcher in the Rye, one thing that I keep thinking about is how Holden’s tone throughout the story comes off as melodramatic at times, but also blunt and honest. A recurring example throughout the book is how he calls everyone a phony at some point when describing them. But as I got through the book, I think he uses it more and more out of disgust for others changing, but also with a fear that he might also change into someone different personality wise. He acted unaffected when leaving Pencey, but his constant thoughts about people like Jane and Allie shows that leaving might have left Holden with some emotional baggage. Something as unsuspecting as his red hunting hat starts to develop into a shield for Holden, as it makes him feel different from everyone else. I found it interesting how an object like his hat can be utilized as a symbol of his identity, like how people use objects on social media to showcase a curated version of themselves to the world. I also foun...

  After finishing Libra , I found that the book (ironically) doesn’t really care that much about actually solving the mystery that is the Kennedy assassination. Rather, it delved much deeper into what the assassination means, how it became more than just an interesting story, but a phenomenon in the conspiracy theory world, and a craze that is still ripe today. The assassination is not just described as a turning point in history, but rather as the intersection between reality and fiction. Nicholas Branch, the CIA historian who is trying to reconstruct the event, at the end of the novel starts to realize that all the facts don’t lead to a clear path, but rather even more confusion. With every piece of evidence, a new narrative seems to be pushed, rather than staying on track. But maybe that is the whole point? Lee Harvey Oswald in the book isn’t portrayed as the clear villain in the story. Delilio takes a different approach, in a way humanizing Oswald to the reader, as a man who is...

  One of the biggest themes I took away from Kindred is how it tells a story that brings the past and ties it to the present. It led to the idea of how personal the experience must be for Dana. Every time she explained the context of her situation, the tone changed slightly, making me think about her perspective and how living in the past is changing her perspective, and in turn my perspective. She draws our attention to the tiny details, things that a history textbook wouldn’t be able to cover. While the textbook would make us look in disgust at slavery, Dana giving her take makes me as a reader understand the painful reality, and just how unfair society was at the time. Fiction is, to my surprise, able to convey a feeling about history that can't be taught by just the facts. Slavery is something the American school curriculum discusses heavily. I have probably been learning about the system since 3rd or 4th grade. But every single time we are taught, I feel like I have been told ...