Week 5- Entry B

With a little bit of research, I looked into Ray Bradbury’s childhood. Because Dandelion Wine is more often referred to as a semi-autobiographical novel than a memoir, I wanted to see how true this book is to his life. The basics of the book match up with Bradbury’s childhood pretty well. He renamed his hometown of Waukegan "Green Town", but kept the same features of the town such as the ravine and his grandparents’ house next door. Bradbury spent a lot of time in the library when he was younger, as he sometimes did in Dandelion Wine. Douglas (the fictional character based on Ray Bradbury as a child) often used the library in Green Town to find information on things like magic and Madame Tarot. Bradbury began writing at the young age of twelve and in his memoir he writes by keeping a journal on the events of the summer and their importance in his life. However, Bradbury wrote science fiction short stories while Douglas writes insightful anecdotes. By reading the introduction of the memoir, Just This Side of Byzantium, I also found many occurrences from Bradbury’s childhood he used in his memoir. As a child, he would walk home late at night through the ravine with his little brother who would hide and jump out like the Lonely One. The Lonely One was a killer on the loose in his hometown that must have existed when Bradbury was a child. In the memoir, Douglas loses one of his good friends who moves from Green Town. This instance is based on a friend of Bradbury’s who moved away when they lived together in Arizona. Because Dandelion Wine is written in third person, I didn’t expect there to be very many similarities between Douglas and Ray Bradbury, but I found out there are quite a few. I think this memoir was cleverly written to include Bradbury’s childhood and many fictitious events to model a main theme.

Week 5- Entry A

Vocabulary-

(p 224) cruets- bottles for holding condiments like oil or vinegar

(p 225) victuals- food supply, provisions

Appeals-

1. (p 199) “The town clock struck nine forty-five.” This logical appeal is very straight forward and uses an exact time.
2. (p 199) “The moon was high and filled all the sky with a warm but wintry light.” This sentence appeals emotionally because the reader can feel and see the moon described as warm and wintry.
3. (p 237) “Now Tom and Douglas and Grandfather stood as they had stood three months, or was it three long centuries ago.” This sentence exhibits appeals to logic and emotion. Three months is the logical actual amount of time and three long centuries is the emotional amount of time it felt like.

Quote-

(p 236) “Numbered from one to ninety-odd, there the ketchup bottles, most of them full now, stood burning in the cellar twilight, one for every living summer day. […] Better than putting things in the attic you never use again. This way, you get to live the summer over for a minute or two here or there along the way through the winter, and when the bottles are empty the summer’s gone for good and no regrets and no sentimental trash lying about for you to stumble over forty years from now. Clean, smokeless, efficient, that’s dandelion wine.” Don’t dwell on the past. Live in the present while things change around you. Roll with the new changes and live a fulfilled life.

Theme-

As I have said so many times in my previous blogs, a dominant theme of this memoir is change. Douglas goes through and witnesses a large amount of changes throughout the summer of 1928. Sometimes, he gets caught up in them and doesn’t want to move on with his life, but eventually he realizes he has to live his life the way he wants to. When things are out of his control, he learns to control himself because that’s only the best he can do.

Week 4- Entry B

Douglas is dying. No one knows why. He is as hot as a stove burner and is in a constant state of unconsciousness. His family sets him outside to sleep to avoid the unbearable heat in his upstairs bedroom. This new location doesn’t make a very big difference because outside it is hot and stagnant. Mr. Jonas comes to Douglas in the middle of the night with fresh air from different areas of the world in jars. Douglas wakes and breathes in the healing air. Now cured, Douglas visits his grandparents. His grandmother has a talent of cooking without a cookbook. Aunt Rose tries to fix grandma’s ways by cleaning her kitchen and buying her new glasses and a cookbook. These things only hinder Grandma’s cooking and she creates unpleasant food far under her standards. Douglas passes on the gift of life Mr. Jonas shares to Grandma. He messes up her kitchen, hides her glasses, and burns the new cookbook. Grandma regains her ability to cook.

If everyone took on this same idea of passing on gifts, the world could be an improved place. Passing on simple gestures such as a smile directed at you could bring a hint of joy into everyday life. More extreme gifts, such as the gift of life, brought happiness to Grandmother when she believed she lost her most valuable skill. Gifts should be passed from person to person to let everyone enjoy them.

The 400 Blows Essay

The 400 Blows is a thought provoking emotional movie that I greatly enjoyed. I found the movie effective in communicating themes and ideas. Antoine can’t control his life the way he wants, so he finds his own path, rebelling against authority and expectations. The strong visuals found in the film such as the children in cages at The Observation Center, Antoine’s time in jail, and his life at home make it easy to understand what Antoine is going through. Antoine is compelled to run from his experiences. As Antoine develops, we viewers, are able to grow in understanding with him.

The 400 Blows is similar to books in that it contains many literary aspects. The characters are fairly one dimensional, almost stereotypical, and therefore it is easy to understand their motives. The protagonist, Antoine Doinel, is a rebellious young boy who wants to find his own way in life without a formal education. His mother, Gilberte Doinel, is an uncaring manipulative woman who uses what she has, appearance, to get what she wants, wealth and status. She ignores Antoine on a regular basis, but when she is aware of him, she’s yelling at him. Gilberte has expensive clothes and jewelry while her family runs around in rags. It’s quite possible the man she’s having an affair with is providing her wealth. Her husband, Julian, is maybe aware of his wife’s promiscuity, but he is a humorous man who wants a happy family. He remains ignorant to his wife’s actions to stay blissful. Antoine’s French teacher is the quintessential tyrannical teacher. He constantly yells at his pupils and embarrasses them at every chance he gets. These characters are intertwined in Antoine’s memoir that takes place in Paris. Because the film is a memoir, it is told from Antoine’s point of view; Antoine is the focus of every scene. The movie also shares some common themes often seen in literature. The themes of adult’s authority over children, unfair punishment, and bad upbringing are all featured in this film. Antoine is infuriated at the way he is treated by adults. Both his parents and teacher seem to know what is best for him, when he obviously has plans of his own. At The Observation Center, small children of about four years of age are shown being locked in a cage. Adults put them there to keep them in place and out of the way. No four year old is developed enough to reek enough havoc to be placed in a juvenile center, but adults feel they need power over their children and put them there in order to control them. Antoine is unfairly punished for running away and stealing his father’s typewriter. He is sent to a juvenile correction facility, The Observation Center, where he is analyzed by a psychologist when he is perfectly mentally healthy. He doesn’t deserve this punishment because his parents don’t do a good job taking care of him or guiding him. They yelled at Antoine causing him to run away. When he finally runs away from The Observation Center, he runs to the sea. The sea symbolizes freedom to Antoine. He had never seen the sea because he was always in Paris. When he is rid of authority, he is free to see and do what he chooses. Literary aspects give structure and depth to a story whether the story is told through film or word.

Not only are literary aspects well utilized, but dramatic aspects heighten the emotion helping to tell the story. The actors are well cast and effectively convey emotions. Jean- Pierre Léaud, the actor who plays Antoine, goes through life with a dazed, spacey look in his eyes. He tunes out the things he dislikes to obviate sadness and anger. He does as he’s told without complaint because he isn’t always mentally aware of his surroundings. The actor seems to go into an imaginary world whenever Antoine is uncomfortable around his authority figures. Gilberte is played by Claire Maurier. She has an aloof manner about her and tries to act sophisticated to overcome her homely, poor life. When Gilberte attempts to win Antoine over by being nice to him, the actress has a superficial quality in her niceness as Gilberte should. Julian is also well acted by Albert Rémy in The 400 Blows. In acting as Antoine’s friend, he seems genuinely nice to him at the beginning of the film, but by the end of their relationship, Albert effectively conveys that he was only nice to prevent any unhappiness in their family. Julian can’t deal with Antoine’s misbehaving, so he quickly agrees to sign over parentalship of Antoine to the government. The actor shows no remorse in this ordeal and seems to forget about Antoine immediately after the incident. Lighting is a very dramatic aspect used in the movie. It conveys Antoine’s emotions during the scene. When he is in the classroom or inside his desolate home, the lights are dark and dreary, but when he is outside and free, the lighting becomes light and cheerful. When Antoine is being carted away in the jail car, the lighting inside the car is dark, but outside, where Antoine wishes he could be, it is light although it is night time. Casting and acting are important in drawing the viewer in, and lighting creates emotional drama.

Cinematic aspects are important element used in the film. The camera angle is used to create a feeling of unity between Antoine and the viewer. The opening credits are filmed as if the viewer is traveling through the streets of Paris. Already by the beginning, the viewer can see Antoine’s daily views and better understand his city. Another example of this technique is when Antoine is being taken to The Observatory Center; he looks out the barred window of the car. The camera angle then shoots as if the viewer is Antoine, gazing out into the world he longs to be a part of once again. The camera angle can also be used to let the audience observe the big picture and appreciate situational humor. During gym, the boys run behind the teacher on a jog through Paris’s streets. The high angle of the camera shows the entire scene clearly. The students ditch the class by running into alleys or hiding behind parked cars. Eventually, only a few members of the gym class are left to run with the teacher. Without a birds eye view, the humor of the story would be lost. The duration of shots also impacts the film. Right before the final scene, Antoine is running from the juvenile center towards the sea. This shot focuses on him running for a long period of time. This lengthy duration represents Antoine’s struggle to become free. He runs for so long because he has so much from which to run away. He has attempted to be rid of his former life for so long, and this scene is the final stretch of Antoine’s efforts. Music can be a powerful tool to describe emotion. A single melody is used in all of the movie’s background music. The song played when Antoine is outside, happy, and free from the people and places he so much disliked. The music stops once Antoine returns to his dazed and spacey mood, magnifying his internal isolation. Cinematography can be very complex and helps paint a more vivid picture for the viewer.

The 400 Blows shares many characteristics with the novel Black Boy. Particularly, the storylines and characters have many similarities. Both Antoine and Richard experience a poor upbringing. They traveled from place to place without a permanent home during their first years of life. Antoine went from a wet nurse to his grandparents to his real parents. Richard travels from family member to family member in search of a refuge from his lack of money and fear of the white man. Both boys enjoy reading and writing as an escape from their horrible lives. Antoine enjoys reading Balzac and even creates a shrine to his favorite author. Richard reads and also writes for a local newspaper. Eventually, both of the boys’ families give up on them. Their families don’t believe they will amount to much. Antoine’s parents send him to a juvenile delinquent center to cure his misbehavior and make a useful person of him. Richard’s family stops attempting to make him turn to religion as a haven from his terrible, misguided life. Because the two boys don’t like the life they’re living, they escape to freedom. Antoine runs away from his parents in Paris and then the juvenile center, and Richard goes to the North where he believes life is better for a black man. The stories aren’t alike in every aspect however. The characters both handle authority differently. Antoine quietly takes orders and punishment while Richard lashes out with violence to avoid what he believes to be unjust discipline. Antoine has a good friend throughout his childhood, René. René even tries to visit Antoine while he’s in The Observation Center. Richard is basically alone in life. He never gains close friends, only enemies. He does however have a caring mother who wants the best for her son. He brings her to the North with him. Antoine has a despicable mother of whom he wishes to be rid. As coming of age memoirs, the stories offer many more similarities than differences despite being told in different media.

I believe most people would enjoy watching The 400 Blows. The film is a memoir of Antoine Doinel’s childhood and his struggles to become free from authority. He runs away from home to escape his parents’ misunderstanding behaviors, quits school, and tries to live independently with his best friend René. He steals his father’s typewriter in an attempt to finance his escape from Paris. The plan goes awry and he is sent to a juvenile correction facility, The Observation Center. Antoine eventually escapes from the center and runs to the sea, his ultimate freedom. This film has meaning and depth unlike many films today created only for entertainment. The themes of the film help the viewer understand Antoine’s struggle and envision his problems during his childhood. The film also shows how life was during the 1940’s in Paris. The differences between Antoine’s childhood and today’s world are easily spotted, and make the viewer think about their privileged life. Although I found the ending lacking a definite resolution, the film was thought provoking and powerful. I recommend this film for the movie-goer looking for more provoking ideas than today’s average movie provides.

Week 4- Entry A

Vocabulary-

(p 209) decanting- to pour from one container into another

(p 207) persimmon- red or orange color

Appeals-

1. (p 209) “Whoever he was or whatever he was and no matter how different and crazy he seemed, he was not crazy. […] He looked upon himself as a kind of process, like osmosis, that made various cultures within the city limits available one to another.” This description of Mr. Jonas uses the emotionally appealing word, crazy, to have negative connotations.
2. (p 209) “Now, remember, you can have what you want if you really want it. The test is, ask yourself, Do I want it with all my heart? Could I live through the day without it? If you figure to be dead by sundown, grab the darned thing and run.” This sentence appeals emotionally. Mr. Jonas is telling everyone to dig deep into themselves to make a decision.
3. (p 212) “Tom took the ice pick in the kitchen and chipped a pound of ice into prisms which he carried upstairs. […] They put the ice in handkerchiefs on his face and along his body.” From the description of Douglas’s brother and mother putting ice on him, you logically know he is sick.

Quote-

(p 209) “He looked upon himself as a kind of process, like osmosis, that made various cultures within the city limits available one to another. He could not sand waste, for he knew that one man’s junk is another man’s luxury.” This quote hits on the ever occurring theme of change. Mr. Jonas gives away peoples’ items in exchange for their old items. This exchange brings a fresh new feeling to the old items for other people.

Theme-

The magic of summer permeates through the novel Dandelion Wine. Douglas finds magic to be one of the key aspects to life. He steals a Mme. Tarot fortune telling machine from the arcade. He believes she is mistreated and may be killed by the arcade owner. Douglas imagines she is alive and her fortunes are true. He says the magical machine prints a card telling him he will live forever. This magic is only a small portion of his encounters with magic over the summer.

Week 3- Entry B

What is living? Are we alive because our hearts beat or because we see the niceties, the magic of life? How can one live the life they want? What makes it all worth it? Is it worth living if there’s nothing to live for? What is there to live for? Should we live to avoid death? Is death the worst thing that can happen? Is it always a bad thing? Should we hasten death by doing what we want to in life? Colonel Freeleigh brings on his own death by straining his heart in excitement, was the excitement worth it? Which is better, an unhappy life or a happy death? Should people leave the world to make themselves happier, or stay to keep their friends and family happy? Is dying for your own happiness selfish? The Colonel left the young boys without their time machine, his stories from the past. Was his dying selfish? Should he have left the boys without the time machine? Is living for happiness more important than others’ happiness?

Week 3- Entry A

Vocabulary-

(p 156) ammoniac- pertaining to or containing or similar to ammonia

(p 158) rococo- a style of architecture and decoration

Appeals-

1. (p 159) “They stood upon the edge of the ravine that cut the town half in two. Behind them were the lit houses and music, ahead was deepness, moistness, fireflies and dark.” The lit houses and music show how pleasant the town is behind, while the deepness, moistness, fireflies and dark sound scary and uninviting. These words are used to make the reader feel emotion.
2. (p 174) “She told her legs what to do, her arms, her body, her terror; she advised all parts of herself in this white and terrible moment, […] she ran, followed by the wild footsteps behind, behind, with the music following, too, the music shrieking and babbling.” Words are used in this passage to ensue terror in the reader. The shrieking and babbling music made my stomach squirm as I thought of the girl running from a murderer.
3. (p 187) “Douglas watched them (fireflies) go. [...] They left his face and his body and the space inside his body to darkness. They left his empty as the Mason jar.” The emotional appeal uses words like darkness and empty to explain how Douglas feels.

Quote-

(p 186) “So if trolleys and runabouts and friends and near friends can go away for a while or go away forever, or rust, or fall apart or die, and if people can be murdered, and if someone like great-grandma, who was going to live forever, can die… if all of this is true… then… I, Douglas Spaulding, some day… must… die.” Throughout the entire novel, the overriding theme has been the ever presence of change. Death is just another example of change. Douglas is coming to terms with the eventuality of his own death as many people around him die throughout his summer.

Theme-

I have stated before that change is the main theme of Dandelion Wine. In the pages I have read for this week, Douglas’s great-grandmother, a young woman Elizabeth, and an old woman Helen Loomis die. Earlier in the novel, Colonel Freeleigh and Mister Quartermain died. So much death surrounds Douglas over his summer. He thinks about his own death and how the world will change until then. Death is an evident fact of life. We must face the facts and adapt to changes.

Week 2- Entry B

If only time were more pliable, moldable to fit our needs. Douglas thinks, “When you weren’t looking, the sun got around behind you! The only way to keep things slow was to watch everything and do nothing! You could stretch a day to three days, sure, just by watching!” This theory reminds me of one found in the novel, Catch 22, by Joseph Heller. If you don’t enjoy life, the time moves slower, so therefore you have more time. This theory is a catch 22, a situation in which one is stuck between contradictory conditions. If you’re not enjoying the life you’re living, you have more time, but why have more time to not enjoy life? However, sometimes I wish time could drag on for the good times in life. I’m sure everyone feels the same way. How great would it be to change time! Fast forward through school and homework and make weekends last for weeks. I’m obviously not the first person to revel in this appealing idea. The movie “Click” and the time-turner Hermione uses in Harry Potter also follow this lovely plan. Changing time to work out for us never seems to work in fiction. It’s really too bad. No one wants to see an imagining like time changing shattered. I disregard the gobbledygook out there and imagine how life could be.