It's ALIVE!

"Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of pearly whiteness; but these luxurances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips" (pg 35). It is shocking that Victor would be so disgusted by his creation after he spent so much time and effort on making it. However, the imagery the monster is quite frightening. If I were to see this creature come alive before my eyes, I would probably think about running away too, but I hope I would realize that would be the wrong thing to do. By running away and neglecting his responsibility of this creation, he puts the lives of many others (his brother!) in danger. It makes one question why he ever decided to make this monster. I wonder if it was because he never thought he could actually do it; it is defeating the laws of nature to be able to create life. I would never think I could accomplish such an astonishing feat. In class, we talked about how he only thought about, "Can I do it?" not "Should I do it?" I believe that it is kind of a mixture of both. He wanted to prove that he could do it, but he didn't know if he could, so when he accomplished his goal, he didn't know what to do with the product. He never thought about the consequences.

Cornelius Agrippa

"A new light seemed to dawn upon my mind, and, bounding with joy, I communicated my discovery to my father. My father looked carelessly at the title-page of my book and said, "Ah! Cornelius Agrippa! My dear Victor, do not waste your time upon this; it is sad trash" (pg 20). Victor's father goes as far as to use the metaphor of this book being trash, yet Victor still decides to read it and become fascinated by it. I was surprised that Victor called his father's response a "cursory glance," because, if my father said that to me, I would definitely think twice about becoming so intrigued by it. I feel like Victor is somewhat blaming his father for his later disaster. He says that if his father would have gone into more detail, then maybe Victor would not have made the big mistake that he did. I'm sure that his father would have been more thorough if he knew his response would have been disregarded and later been the cause of creating a monster. I also think that it is very interesting that this book of some sort of magic was the catalyst of his curiosity in science. Victor said that as soon as he returned home from the baths near Thonon, the place where he had found the book, he began putting Agrippa's words into actions. I wonder what these books said exactly to make him act the way that he did.

"Frankenstein" Mary Shelley

"And when, on the morrow, she presented Elizabeth as her promised gift, I, with childish seriousness, interpreted her words literally and looked upon Elizabeth as mine -- mine to protect, love, and cherish" (pg 18). As I read this first chapter, I felt that Elizabeth's role was a bit ambiguous. I could not tell if she was going to be his sister or Victor's wife or both... As strange as it may be, it turns out to be more of the third option. Victor's parents raise her as a child of their own, showing pride and love in her. On the other hand, his mother did pick her out, because she was so beautiful and told Victor that she had a "pretty present" for him before they brought her home. The hopes of his parents were that they would raise her and eventually Victor could marry her. That is really odd to me, because it's like they went to the store and hand picked a wife for their son, but oh well. I'm guessing that it was not that peculiar back then as it is today.

COINCIDENCE???

"A new point of view occured to me. Suppose Tom found out the Daisy had been driving. He might think he saw a connection in it--he might think anything" (pg 144). As soon as the black man said it was a yellow car, I was wondering if Daisy knew what Myrtle looked like and whether she would intentionally injure her or not. I didn't think that she would kill her on purpose, because then Tom might kill Gatsby in revenge. I also wondered whether it was Gatsby or Daisy driving. In my mind it would make more sense for Gatsby to kill Myrtle in an attempt to hurt Tom, after Tom had upset him so badly. It could have been a type of vengeance, like if Daisy can't have me, then you can't have Myrtle. I also wondered, like Nick, if Tom would make a connection, and if he would do anything about it if he did. Another thought running through my head was if Myrtle was trying to get hit or if she was trying to talk to Tom. I am still curious on that matter and whether Daisy tried to stop before she hit her, because I know she took off afterwards.

LONELY

"I found myself on Gatsby's side, and alone" (pg 164). I found this line to be depressing. This is probably weird, but sometimes I think about who would come to my funeral if I died, and if no one came I would be absolutely devestated. I find it incredibly sad that Gatsby has no friends. I would think that some of his platoon mates would come or something. It kind of makes sense that Wolfsheim and those fellows wouldn't show, because they could get in trouble for being in public. Daisy not making an appearance would be horrible in Gatsby's mind, but for her, it was probably better that she didn't know, because it would cause her internal conflict to grow even more. Having someone you love die is terrible, and if you ended on a bad note, it would be even worse! I grew to appreciate Nick more for being such a great friend.

IMAGERY

"There was a faint, barely perceptible movement of the water as the fresh flow from one end urged its way toward the drain at the other. With little ripples that were hardly the shadows of waves, the laden mattress moved irregularly fown the pool. A small gust of wind that scarcely corrugated the surface was enough to disturb its accidental course with accidental burden. The touch of a cluster of leaves revolved it slowly, tracing, like the leg of transit, a thin red circle in the water" (pg 162). When I was reading this paragraph I was so captivated by the realistic imagery. I felt as though I could have almost witnessed this catastrophe. My best friend and I have pools, so I know what it's like for leaves to bunch up if you don't skim frequently. Gatsby had recently been talking about how his pool didn't get much action, so a cluster of leaves is very plausible. I can also relate to the movement of the air mattress up and down the pool. Whenever I lay out on a raft, I don't stay still for a second, unless I'm holding onto something. Therefore, a small gust of wind could easilly disturb the mattress. As for the "thin red circle in the water," I am thoroughly disturbed by that, because I have never witnessed anything like that. However, I imagine it to look like the water you wash your paintbrush off in after you paint a red apple or something.

INTERNAL CONFLICT

"'Oh, you want too much!' she cried to Gatsby. 'I love you now--isn't that enough? I can't help what's past.' She began to sob helplessly. 'I did love him once--but I loved you too'" (pg 132). Daisy is possessed by great internal conflict. She fell in love with Gatsby before he left for war, but she wanted a normal life while he was gone and didn't know if he was ever going to come back. She fell in love with Tom and married him while Gatsby was away. Now that Gatsby has returned back into her life she doesn't know what to do! She knows it would be wrong for her to leave her husband, but he has an affair on the side; therefore, she feels like it is acceptable for her to do the same. That was going over fine for her until Tom starts to realize what is going on, and Gatsby just comes out and tells him that she doesn't love him. I feel like she doesn't know if she loves him or not, because of the bad things that he has done to her in the past, but she still really cares about him, feels a sense of loyalty towards him, and wouldn't want to hurt him. I hate how we don't get closure on their relationship at the end of the novel. I want to know if they end up happy together or if they have more affairs.