Coming of Age - Kabir

A pyrrhic victory is generally understood as a victory that required so much sacrifice that it is equivalent to a defeat. Jason is first introduced to the idea of a pyrrhic victory when Julia slyly asks mentions it to their dad. Throughout the chapter we see several arguments take place between Michael and Helena. For example, after Helena secretly got koi fish for the water feature, a heron comes and grabs one. As Jason aptly put it "dad isn't laughing ... [but] he's won" (Mitchell 119). Michael thinks the event granted himself some sort of justice and victory over Helena, but the whole fiasco with the water feature and the emotional distress it all caused Helena was, in the long run, not worth it.  In that chapter, David Mitchell draws the comparison between Michael Taylor's arguments with Helena and the Falklands war as both pyrrhic victories. Jason and the town of Black Swan Green recognizes the victory over Argentina, but also has to live with losing a town l...

Throughout Fun Home there are snippets of text where we can compare the lives of Alison and Bruce. Primarily these comparisons consist of the difference in how they view and express their sexual identity. Bruce, possibly as a result of the time he grew up in, lives a very repressed and artificial life. In Alison's eyes, Bruce's is not only a victim, but also a cautionary tale.  Similarities. Bruce and Alison are similar in a few ways. For the most part, Alison's similarities to Bruce are likely because she learned certain things from him. The main similarity they share is their level of discomfort when discussing their sexuality with each other. The scene that best exemplifies this is their car ride on the way to the movies. They have a very brief and awkward conversation in which Bruce maintains a very monotonous look. I think reason why Alison has trouble expressing herself to Bruce is her prior experiences with him. Firstly, Bruce attempted to control the way Alison dres...

A lot of societal norms in the 1950s burden Esther Greenwood. Part of the Bell Jar is her pointing out her distaste for these norms and her fight against it. These norms were enabled by the social layout of the time period where women had a defined role in society and lacked the power or respect to push back.  The first norm we see Esther take offense to and push back against is the double standard of male and female purity. When Buddy Willard reveals that he has already had sex, Esther is shocked. Purity was such an important concept as church-goers and in society, but it felt like the rules didn't apply to Buddy because he is a man. She is also angered by the open acceptance of the norm. When Esther asks some college seniors about Buddy sleeping with the waitress, they reply by saying "most boys were like that and you couldn't honestly accuse them of anything." She also expresses displeasure with Buddy's mom, who urges women to stay pure until marriage but is se...

During his stay, Holden received plenty of advice from Mr. Antonili. The most memorable of them (to me) was his warning against Holden's self destructive behaviors. Specifically, he had told Holden that it was not worth it to die for a cause. He said "the mark of an immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause," and also that he can "very clearly see you [Holden] dying ... for some highly unworthy cause." Earlier in the book we saw two instances of Holden putting himself in danger, possibly even risking death, for causes he didn't fully articulate. In this blog I will analyze these near-death situations, and determine if Holden has an "immature" nature that put him at risk, and whether or not his causes are noble.  The earliest example of Holden's near-death encounter is with his roommate, Stradlater. Of course, "near-death" is a slight exaggeration of the true state Holden was in following his fight, but that can mainly be ...