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.
What If: Form Had No Meaning
People told me that during English Class on Friday, one of the them main things we talked about was how form is content. But what if form meant nothing? What if how an author writes was meaningless, and it's only purpose is to be pleasing the to eyes or ears? I guess that it would be a lot harder to pick up minute meaning in the text, and it would be difficult to understand subtle things. Maybe the author would just have to be really abrupt in his writing to try and get his point across. I don't think writing would be nearly as enjoyable then. I've spent a couple hours today reading books, and if they weren't well written I don't think I would have spent that time reading them.
Connection: Kurtz and the Wizard of Oz
In Heart of Darkness Kurtz is portrayed as an almost god-like figure. We hear about him numerous times, while all the details are kept vague. The impressions that I got from him were: awesome, genius, clever, personable, awe inspiring. He is portrayed as the ideal person, but when we finally meet him, as the curtain is pulled back, we realized that he is so little than what we thought he was. He goes from an awe-inspiring figure to a weak, broken man so quickly. It’s very abrupt and hard for the reader to comprehend and make the mental transition. We also see a connection with The Wizard of Oz and Heart of Darkness as the primary purpose in both stories is to find the wizard and Kurtz respectively. The yellow brick road can be paralleled with the river. It’s interesting to see this connection as it shows that this is a common theme that shows up multiple times, whether in children’s literature or a short novel. It’s likely that the theme of searching for a almost mythical figure and then discovering he’s not that great is pretty widespread throughout literature.