During class, we were talking about how the sentence length varies in "Cathedral". In the beginning, we were talking about how in the beginning, the sentences were shorter, in the middle they got longer and more complex, and in the end the were shorter again. This was attributed to the fact that in the beginning the main character was narrow minded about blind people, and not used to them. Towards the middle, his mind began to widen, and so did his sentences. In the end, his sentences shrunk again. This alludes to the fact that his epiphany can't be explained in sentences, no matter how verbose the sentences were. While other students and Mr. Allen were talking about that, the only reason I saw was that in both the beginning and the end he was talking about himself, and in the middle he was describing everything around him. Mr. Allen said that these two ideas could be layered upon each other, creating more meaning. But it raises the question how much of this is intentional by the author? Is he writing the prose, or in someways is the writing working through him.
2 comments:
Kyle, I thought this blog post was really insightful. Your original idea makes just as much sense as the ideas from class. Although the beginning of your Best of Week was awsome in class, I appreciated the questions at the end of your blog the most. Sometimes after class discussions I wonder if the author of each piece of text we read actually thought of all the ideas we came up with, especially since some of them are very disconnected from the original literature. I know that when I write, I have an idea and I run with it. I don't always wonder what the reader is going to take away from the craft. Because of this, I sometimes have disbelief that English class is completely truthful. Don't get me wrong, I love all of the great discussions that come from English, but sometimes I think we unneccesarily beat pieces to death. Your blog was the perfect balance for me of desired writing(the beginning of the post) and reality (questions at the end). You have some wonderful insights there and this post was well written.
Lauren
In my english we are also talking about how grammer and sentance structure affect the way a story is read and the meaning of the sentance. However, I think that sometimes we read too much into the grammer the author uses, instead of just thinking about the point he/ she is trying to get accross.
Post a Comment