So I went on a Jane Austen kick this weekend. There's just something about Jane Austen that is so comforting when I'm upset about boys. Her novels are really the origin of all chick flicks. Everyone ends up just how you think they ought to. The sweet, traditional girl gets to marry a nice boy with a fortune; the spunky girl gets to marry a boy with an even bigger fortune; and the nasty, horrible girls either don't get married or get married to horrible fortune-seekers.
I like to think that I'm the sweet, traditional girl who is slightly misunderstood by everyone. In Pride and Prejudice she's Jane, and in Persuasion it's Anne. I admire the spirit of the other girls, but really, I'm not out to change the world. I just want a nice boy who is going to make a decent amount of money so that we can live in a nice house in the suburbs and never feel strapped for cash. I want the Mr. Bingley (although maybe slightly less ridiculous) or the Captian Wentworth... actually I really like the Captain the most. He's a man who is completely honor driven, has strong attachments to people, and works hard for what he gets.
I think I like Captain Wentworth so much because he is the first military man who end up good in one of Jane Austen's novels. I've always had a sneaking suspicion that she got jilted by a military man at some point in her life, and while doing some research on her life for a paper I found out that I was right (if you watch the movie Becoming Jane it highlights this relationship I think). Unlike all the other military men in Austen's novel, Wentworth doesn't run off with a girl or cause her to do anything stupid. Although he is in love with Anne throughout the novel, he pays attentions to another young lady in an effort to try to forget Anne (she was persuaded not to marry him eight years prior to when the novel takes place); when he finds out that other people believe him to be practically engaged to the other girl he resigns himself to her honour and would have married him had she not fell in love with his friend. Since he is such a wonderful man, Jane had the decency to give him a fortune. During the war he gained a fortune of about 20,000 pounds; Anne had been forbidden to marry him due to his lack of fortune when he first paid his regards to her, but now no one could say he was unworthy of her.
That's what I love most about Jane Austen novels. Everything works out. Everyone gets exactly what they deserve, whether that be a wonderful fortune and marriage, or spinsterhood and poverty. Which makes me wonder... if my life was a Jane Austen novel, how would I end up?
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
The Secret Garden
The Secret Garden is one of those children's classics that everyone has to read at least once in their life. The movie is great (at least the version I grew up with), but you still have to read the book. I started reading it for a paper that I was planning on writing on why children's authors choose to put so much social commentary in their literature (I definitely did not pick any of it up as a child), but the paper got narrowed down a lot so I didn't have time to finish it until just now.
When I started reading it, all I could think about was India and how this book talked about the social/political attitude towards colonialism. I read A Little Princess over the break and that book had a lot of the same commentary. Both books feature a little girl who is brought back to England from India because of war/death, and this little girl has to learn to adapt to English society.
As I continued to read this book, I started to pick up on the values it's teaching. 1) The importance of being outdoors and exercise. 2) The need for opposition in all things. 3) The power of our thoughts.
I think the one about the power of our thoughts struck me the most. There's a boy, Colin, who decides that he wants to learn to walk and be a normal boy (his whole life he's been told that he's a cripple and that he's going to be a hunchback or die at a young age), so every day he goes out into the secret garden with Mary and Dickon and he calls upon the Magic of the place to help him become well. Once he stops thinking of himself as a cripple and he starts to believe that he will be able to grow bigger and stronger, he does.
Mary is also influenced by this positive thinking. Once she decides that she wants to be agreeable, she starts to see the good in other people rather than looking for their bad qualities. She decides that she wants to be productive rather than just listlessly waiting for other people to entertain her. I think that's what I identified with the most.
I'm back to working full-time in this little office where nothing ever happens. I spend hours a day on Facebook or talking to friends on Google chat or playing Minesweeper. I get bored beyond belief; there are little projects that I could do around the office, but no one's going to notice if I do them or not, because they're just things to make my life easier. So I've decided that rather than spend hours doing nothing I'm going to try to focus at least an hour or two a day to these little projects, and I'm going to make my mind up to be productive.
I'm also going to try to focus on the good qualities of the boys I go out with. Ruth and Jordan can attest to the fact that lately my life has been a string of first dates that I'm not really interested in following up on. Maybe if I look for the good qualities in these boys and try to be interested in them it'll happen. That's not to say that I'm desperate to be in a relationship. I'm pretty happy with where my life is right now, but it couldn't hurt to show more interest in the boys I go out with.
When I started reading it, all I could think about was India and how this book talked about the social/political attitude towards colonialism. I read A Little Princess over the break and that book had a lot of the same commentary. Both books feature a little girl who is brought back to England from India because of war/death, and this little girl has to learn to adapt to English society.
As I continued to read this book, I started to pick up on the values it's teaching. 1) The importance of being outdoors and exercise. 2) The need for opposition in all things. 3) The power of our thoughts.
I think the one about the power of our thoughts struck me the most. There's a boy, Colin, who decides that he wants to learn to walk and be a normal boy (his whole life he's been told that he's a cripple and that he's going to be a hunchback or die at a young age), so every day he goes out into the secret garden with Mary and Dickon and he calls upon the Magic of the place to help him become well. Once he stops thinking of himself as a cripple and he starts to believe that he will be able to grow bigger and stronger, he does.
Mary is also influenced by this positive thinking. Once she decides that she wants to be agreeable, she starts to see the good in other people rather than looking for their bad qualities. She decides that she wants to be productive rather than just listlessly waiting for other people to entertain her. I think that's what I identified with the most.
I'm back to working full-time in this little office where nothing ever happens. I spend hours a day on Facebook or talking to friends on Google chat or playing Minesweeper. I get bored beyond belief; there are little projects that I could do around the office, but no one's going to notice if I do them or not, because they're just things to make my life easier. So I've decided that rather than spend hours doing nothing I'm going to try to focus at least an hour or two a day to these little projects, and I'm going to make my mind up to be productive.
I'm also going to try to focus on the good qualities of the boys I go out with. Ruth and Jordan can attest to the fact that lately my life has been a string of first dates that I'm not really interested in following up on. Maybe if I look for the good qualities in these boys and try to be interested in them it'll happen. That's not to say that I'm desperate to be in a relationship. I'm pretty happy with where my life is right now, but it couldn't hurt to show more interest in the boys I go out with.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Hello World!
Books have defined me as a person for as long as I can remember. During the summer my mom wouldn't tell me that I had to read half an hour a day before I could go play outside--she'd tell me that I had to go outside without a book for at least a half hour a day. I guess I can blame my grandma for this. She was an elementary school librarian when I was a young child, so for as long as I can remember tripst to Grandma's house meant delving into her library. Although I've grown a lot (both physically and mentally) since those days, books still define me.
Every book I've read in my life has played a formative role in making me the person I am today. Some though, have played a bigger role than others. Little Women is one. I don't know how many times I've read this book, but I always love it. At different times in my life I've identified with each of the sisters. At times I feel like the tom-boyish Jo who barrels through life and through books; at other times I feel like the shy Beth who lives to make home a more pleasant place for everyone.
Right now though, I feel like Meg. I'm the oldest of five children, and I feel a responsibility to be an example to the others. I'm trying to balance becoming my own person, with still functioning as a member of a family that's 1,038 miles away (and yes that's an accurate number). I love the nice things in life, but I'm living on a student's budget and trying to save money for my future. Most of all, I'm waiting for my John Brooke...
I made a goal that this summer I would try to read at least one new book a week. Fiction, non-fiction, religious, classics, juvenile, adult... I want to read it all. This blog is my contribution, as small as it may be, to the world of literary studies. I'm not setting out to bore the world with a literary analysis of every book I read, but rather to tell about how each book that I read this summer touches me, and maybe, just maybe, you'll fall in love with reading too.
Every book I've read in my life has played a formative role in making me the person I am today. Some though, have played a bigger role than others. Little Women is one. I don't know how many times I've read this book, but I always love it. At different times in my life I've identified with each of the sisters. At times I feel like the tom-boyish Jo who barrels through life and through books; at other times I feel like the shy Beth who lives to make home a more pleasant place for everyone.
Right now though, I feel like Meg. I'm the oldest of five children, and I feel a responsibility to be an example to the others. I'm trying to balance becoming my own person, with still functioning as a member of a family that's 1,038 miles away (and yes that's an accurate number). I love the nice things in life, but I'm living on a student's budget and trying to save money for my future. Most of all, I'm waiting for my John Brooke...
I made a goal that this summer I would try to read at least one new book a week. Fiction, non-fiction, religious, classics, juvenile, adult... I want to read it all. This blog is my contribution, as small as it may be, to the world of literary studies. I'm not setting out to bore the world with a literary analysis of every book I read, but rather to tell about how each book that I read this summer touches me, and maybe, just maybe, you'll fall in love with reading too.
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