8: The Gun Seller 1-36

"That cheered me up. I started to think that if I couldn't work things so that one day she and I would be together in a room with no dying men in it at all, then my name isn't James Finchman.

Which, of course, it isn't." (18, Laurie)

The Gun Seller is an obvious parody of spy novels, which begins with a quirky narration of the main character's arm getting broken, which results in him killing his assailant. Hugh Laurie bounces inbetween a serious spy to a comedic one whose thoughts seem just like a normal person's rather than those of a character out of James Bond. I like how this passage shows the balance between the two voices. "then my name isn't James Finchman. Which, of course, it isn't.". This powerful passage here really showed the sharp turn that Laurie made between the voices, so sharp that it came as a shock to the reader.

7: The Bell Jar 180-238

"A bad dream.
I remember everything.
I remembered the cadavers and Doreen and the story of the fig tree and Marco's diamond and the sailor on the Common and Doctor Gordon's wall-eyed nurse and the broken thermometers and the Negro with his two kinds of beans and the twenty pounds I gained on insulin and the rock that bulged between sky and sea like a gray skull.
Maybe forgetfulness, like a kind snow, should numb and cover them.
But they were a part of me. They were my landscape." (237, Plath)

On a plane ride home, I watched the movie The Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind. It is one of my favorite movies to date. It is about a procedure a person undergoes to erase the memory of ever knowing someone.
This quote reminds me much of my own life and of that movie. If you were given the chance to erase a memory of one person, or any memory for that matter, would you do it? The clear answer would be, yes. Erase the bad memories. Erase the bad thoughts that haunt my mind. But here, in the quote, Plath explains that the bad memories are what shapes us. "But they were a part of me. They were my landscape." (237) . We simply would not be the same person without our past experiences.
Esther has underwent hell on earth. After many failed suicide attempts, one electroshock therapy treatment that she remained awake and in immense pain for, Esther is now in a rehabilitation center where she is slowly regaining sanity. Her thoughts and actions now swirl around her. They do not seem real. "A bad dream.
I remember everything." (237) Her insanity resembles a bad, hazy nightmare. Some of the memories I have are so bad, but now that I have gotten past them, they are in a haze, yet I still remember them in my mind.

6: The Bell Jar 1-180

"Neurotic, ha!" I let out a scornful laugh. "If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I'm neurotic as hell. I'll be flying back and forth between one mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days."
Buddy put his hand on mine.
"Let me fly with you." (94, Plath.)

The Bell Jar is a novel that seems normal the first 100 pages as Esther (the protagonist) dips her feet into her dreams. But suddenly, the reader finds themselves inside of Esther's suicidal, crazed brain. Plath writes the novel though in simple, calm words. As Esther describes her various ways to kill herself, Plath writes them in a tone the same as when describing a dinner. This technique of writing really allows yourself to get inside the head of the writer as well.
This excerpt interested me the most because it shows Esther's personality slowly beginning to change from appearing to be "normal" to showing her true, neurotic side. "If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I'm neurotic as hell." (94) The reader is offered insight into her mind that doesn't come from Esther's first person point of view narration, but rather from her dialogue.
This excerpt also interests me because it really shows Buddy's emotions for Esther. Esther describes Buddy as this horrible person who has hurt her deeply, who has led her on only to hurt her. However, this excerpt made me feel for Buddy, someone who truly seemed to adore Esther and perhaps was pushed out not by his own personality, but by Esther's mental defects. "Let me fly with you." (94) The previous quote shows how accepting and willing Buddy is to stay with Esther.

5: Nineteen Minutes 387 - 491

"Dear Peter,
You don't know me by name, but I was number 9. That's how I left the school, with a big magic marker label on my forehead. You tried to kill me.
I am not at your trial, so don't try to find me in the crowd. I couldn't stand being in that town anymore, so my parents moved a month ago. I start school in a week here in Minnesota, and already people have heard about me. They only know me as a victim from Sterling High. I don't have interests, I don't have a personality, I don't even have a history, except the one you gave me.
I had a 4.0 average, but I don't care very much about grades anymore. What's the point. I used to have all these dreams, but now I don't know if I'll go to college, since I still can't sleep through the night. I can't deal with people who sneak up behind me either, or doors that slam really loud, or fireworks. I've been in therapy long enough to tell you one thing: I'm never going to set foot in Sterling again.
You shot me in the back. The doctors said I was lucky-that if I'd sneezed or turned around to look at you I would be in a wheelchair now. Instead, I just have to deal with the people who stare when I forget and put on a tank top - anyone can see the scars from the bullet, and the chest tubes and the stitches. I don't care -- they used to stare at the zits on my face; now they just have another place to focus their attention.
I've thought about you a lot. I think you should go to jail. It's fair, and this wasn't, and there's a kind of balance in that.
I was in your French class, did you know that? I sat in the row by the window, second from the back. You always seemed sort of mysterious, and I liked your smile.
I would have liked to be your friend.
Sincerely,
Angela Phlug
Peter folded the letter and slipped it inside his pillowcase. Ten minutes later, he took it out again. He read it all night long, over and over, until the sun rose; until he did not need to see the words to recite it by heart." (415-416, Piccoult.)

The book, Nineteen Minutes is a very powerful book. It tugs at heartstrings, blurs the line of right and wrong. It deals with a school shooting by Peter, at Sterling High School. He guns down 10 of his classmates; proving how within simply 19 minutes, lives can be forever altered.
Out of all the wonderful writing in the book, this excerpt stood out the most to me. Piccoult makes sure to end each small section with a lingering thought. It'll be a cliffhanger, a musing. Whatever it is, it leaves a lasting affect on the reader. This whole entire section, about the letter sent to Peter in prison stood out the most to me.
While reading Phlug's letter, I felt a bit of subtle guilt that Piccoult had underlined the novel with. Here, Piccoult reaches an area most people seem to forget in those involved in school shootings: The injured. "I don't have interests, I don't have a personality, I don't even have a history, except the one you gave me." (415) This entire quote is very, very moving and intense. It illustrates quite bluntly how a school shooter can shatter the lives of the injured to a point of disrepair. Phlug's entire life was changed, her entire future was off skew, as a result of something that she couldn't have possibly predicted.
Piccoult then infuses the letter of the victim with the idea of the shooter, Peter, also being the victim. "He read it all night long, over and over, until the sun rose; until he did not need to see the words to recite it by heart." (416) She shows Peter as so desperately longing for friends, so hideously lonely in prison. It is unclear to me about how exactly the small paragraph about Peter should be interpreted. First, I viewed it as Peter being lonely for friends his entire life. When Phlug tells him that she would be friends with him, Peter treasures this gesture so much that he reads the letter over and over again. However, at a second glance, Phlug's letter to Peter could have simply been a bomb, ready to explode guilt inside of Peter. Peter could have read the letter over and over again, until memorization, until the full force of the guilt and the impact of how he has changed an innocent person's life destroys him. Peter could have memorized the letter as an act of inflicting self harm.

4: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn 1 - 50

"Francie overheard two men outside the group talking about her father. The short man said.
"I want you to hear this fellow talk about his wife and his kids. It's rich. He's a funny duck. He brings his wages home to his wife but keeps his tips for booze. He's got a funny arrangement at McGarrity's. He turns all his tips over to him and McGarrity supplies him with drinks. He don't know whether McGarrity ows him money or whether he owes McGarrity. The system must work out pretty good for him, though. He's always carrying a load." The men walked away.
There was a pain around Francie's heart but when she saw how the men standing around her father liked him, how they smiled and laughed at what he said and how eagerly they listened to him, the pain lessened. Those two men were exceptions. She knew that everyone loved her father.
Yes, everyone loved Johnny Nolan. He was a sweet singer of sweet songs. Since the beginning of time, everyone, especially the Irish, had loved and cared for the singer in their midst. His brother waiters really loved him. The men he worked for loved him. His wife and children loved him. He was still gay and young and handsome. His wife had not turned bitter against him and his children did not know that they were supposed to be ashamed of him." (32, Smith)

Though the book is not told from Francie's perspective and told in third person, Francie's thoughts shape the story. I consider Francie to be a narrator, even though technically she is not. In this passage, Smith uses the method of an unreliable narrator as well as dramatic irony to show Francie's naivity about her father. When Francie hears the two men talking about her father at the Union headquarters meeting, Francie's father's reputation is shaken slightly in her mind; but she still believes what she has always believed. Francies always believed her father to be her hero, to be the best man there is. "There was a pain around Francie's heart but when she saw how the men standing around her father liked him, how they smiled and laughed at what he said and how eagerly they listened to him, the pain lessened. Those two men were exceptions. She knew that everyone loved her father."

I believe in this passage, Smith is trying to show Francie's devotion as foreshadowing to her father letting her down and disappointing her. Dramatic irony is used when Smith tells the audience about Johnny Nolan being a shame to his family. "His wife had not turned bitter against him and his children did not know that they were supposed to be ashamed of him." Not only is Johnny Nolan, Francie's father, going to let down Francie, I predict that he will also let down all the other men that love him. I feel that Smith is going to show Francie getting let down by her father as Francie's transition into young adulthood. I also predict that Smith will begin to deepen Johnny Nolan as a character and show the darkness beneath his shiny, happy exterior.

3: Memoirs of a Geisha 309 - 487

"I had been plummeting towards the rocks, and the Chairman had stepped out to catch me. I was so overcome with relief, I couldn't even wipe away the tears that spilled from the corners of my eyes. His shape was a blur before me, but I could see him moving closer, and in a moment he'd gathered me up in his arms just as if I were a blanket. His lips went straight for the little triangle of flesh where the edges of my kimono came together at my throat. And when I felt his breath on my neck, and the sense of urgency with which he almost consumed me, I couldn't help thinking of a moment years earlier, when I'd stepped into the kitchen of the okiya and found one of the maids leaning over the sink, trying to cover up the ripe pear she held to her mouth, its juices running down onto her neck. She'd had such a craving for it, she'd said, and begged me not to tell Mother." (487, Golden)

The end of Memoirs of a Geisha is a happy ending. The geisha occupation loses all meaning during the Depression of the war in Japan and Sayuri and her peers are thrust into a difficult life of labor in factories or in Sayuri's case, dying threads. Sayuri is ultimately saved in the end by the long time object of her affection, the Chairman. In this quote, Sayuri and the Chairman are admitting their long repressed feelings to one another.
This ending ties up every aspect of Sayuri's life. "I had been plummeting towards the rocks, and the Chairman had stepped out to catch me. I was so overcome with relief, I couldn't even wipe away the tears that spilled from the corners of my eyes" refers to the beginning of the book when Sayuri was still Chiyo and lived in Yoshido. Sayuri lived in poverty and her life had began plummeting downwards when her mother died and her feeble, old, once widower of a father began to lose hope. Back then, Mr. Tanaka had sold her into the world of geishas, catching Sayuri from further despair. Now, Sayuri is falling into the depths of poverty once more, but the Chairman is catching her now.
"I couldn't help thinking of a moment years earlier, when I'd stepped into the kitchen of the okiya and found one of the maids leaning over the sink, trying to cover up the ripe pear she held to her mouth, its juices running down onto her neck. She'd had such a craving for it, she'd said, and begged me not to tell Mother." This quote represents Sayuri's life in the okiya (the geisha apprentice house), it is a tiny tidbit of her memory. Our memories are compilations of all the things that have occured in our lives. Also, this quote is one of the more powerful quotes in the book. It represents how repressed Sayuri's feelings for the Chairman were. It shows how grateful, relieved and estatic Sayuri and the Chairman are to indulge, finally in their guilty pleasures. I think anyone can relate to this quote and remember the pleasure that comes from finally getting something you have desired for so long.

2: Memoirs Of A Geisha 139 - 309

"When we stepped outside, I couldn't help stopping a moment to take in the sunset, which painted the sky behind the distant hills in rusts and pinks as striking as the loveliest kimono -- even more so, because no matter how magnificent a kimono is, your hands will never glow orange in its light. But in that sunset my hands seemed to have been dippped in some sort of indescence. I raised them up and gazed at them for a long moment.
"Mameha-san, look," I said to her, but she thought I was talking about the sunset and turned toward it with indifference. Uchida was standing frozen in the entryway with an expression of concentration on his face, combing one hand through a tuft of his gray hair. But he wasn't looking at the sunset at all. He was looking at me.
If you've ever seen Uchida Kosaburo's famous ink painting of a young woman in a kimono standing in a rapturous state and with her eyes aglow...well, from the very beginning he insisted the idea came from what he saw that afternoon. I've never really believed him. I can't imagine such a beautiful painting could really be based on just a girl staring foolishly at her hands in the sunset." (Golden, 259)

The passage above is farther into the storyline, where Chiyo has become an apprentice geisha of Mameha, a well known geisha in Gion. Chiyo has gone from shamed in the Geisha house to becoming renamed as Sayuri, an uprising, beautiful, geisha. Mameha works her connections brillantly and attempts to bring Chiyo to the top of the geisha world and defeat Hatsumomo, Mameha's foil who has a deep dislike and jealousy for Chiyo. "Mameha-san, look," I said to her, but she thought I was talking about the sunset and turned toward it with indifference. Uchida was standing frozen in the entryway with an expression of concentration on his face, combing one hand through a tuft of his gray hair. But he wasn't looking at the sunset at all. He was looking at me." Golden shows here how Japan and society perceives Sayuri, something that they stare at in wonderment and beauty, like a sunset.

"I've never really believed him. I can't imagine such a beautiful painting could really be based on just a girl staring foolishly at her hands in the sunset." Golden then reveals Sayuri's perspective of herself, and how she thinks she is still a simple girl and has yet to notice how beautiful she really is.

Golden is trying to convey Sayuri's feelings about being a beautiful geisha. All of Sayuri's life, she has been a small country girl always second best to her elder sister, worried about her family life, hidden behind the curtain. Now Sayuri is brought to center stage, men are noticing her striking gray eyes and Sayuri doesn't realize how much beauty she posses. She doesn't yet have the inflated head of some geishas and is confused as to why she is drawing so much attention from men in the new world that she has been brutally sold into. Sayuri's perspective of herself differs drastically from what the people of Gion (such as the painter, Uchida) see in her.