I think we finished Death of a Salesman up? Is that where we left off? (Rhetorical Question) Its where I'm starting. My final impressions of the novel aren't as defined as from The American Dream. My ideas and general feeling of understanding is pretty crappy to be honest. I get it, but I still feel like its just out of reach. Its kind of like fog, you see it and you think you understand what you're talking about but as soon as you try to grasp it or get a closer look it just isn't there. Frustrating really. I hope we get to revisit this text and discuss it more.
Ceremony. I would describe this novel as cerebral diarrhea... It was all over the place! I understand that its a different kind of story telling, but it confused me at first. So today as Mrs H was informing us of connections and what-not I thought it seemed logical. I will always wonder how much of it is conscious decisions, subconscious decisions or just plain coincidence. It seems to me that so far Silko is creating som kind of commentary on Native Americans (duh) and how they view themselves as a stagnant culture and that they should be more flexible? I don't know. We shall see!
It's the opposite for me. I understand DoS way more than the American Dream. The american dream, I guess, was too absurdist for me, while I could understand what Miller is trying to say.
ReplyDeleteI agree with how you are interpreting Ceremony-the commentary on Native Americans, but I think it is also a commentary on white people and the world in general.
I also often wonder how much authors actually put into a work, and how much we see only because we are trying to see it--it's only there because we say it is.
I'm not really sure if I understood Death of a Salesman or The American Dream more. I think I had a better initial grasp of DoS because we had watched it in American Lit. I found both to be pretty similar, with some pretty depressing outlooks on the American Dream. I really really enjoyed reading Ceremony, but I agree that it was extremely confusing. It's hard for me to understand mostly because I'm so used to the linear pattern of most Western literature. I'm sure class discussion will clear everything up more.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, mainly because I think we covered The American Dream more in class. Maybe that was because it was our first text that we annotated, but I wish we would have discussed Death of a Salesman more. We could have gone into much more detail with it. I sure hope we discuss Ceremony as much if not more than The American Dream. I can't follow it either.
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