Motifs

does anyone know how to access the google doc to write the motifs?

here are mine anyway...

1) World Trade Center: pages 12, 33, 36. Sasha makes several references to 9/11 and the fact that the world trade center is no longer there. "It were a problem her mind couldn't solve" (37). I feel like it sets a mood of tenseness and a certain anxiety.

2) Identity crisis-real vs phony
"Where we live, in the Sunset, the ocean is always just over your shoulder and the houses have Easter-egg colors. But the second Scotty lets the garage door slam down, we're suddenly enraged, all of us" (44). Is their rage a facade? Are they pretending to be angry?
"Knowing all this makes us one step closer to being real, but not completely. When does a fake Mohawk become a real Mohawk? Who decides? How do you know it it's happened?" (46). It's almost as if they are pretend punks and they are posers.
but.. "Bennie does less of this. I think he actually listens to the music" (46). Does this make him less of a poser since he is different from the rest of his friends?
also.."[Alice] isn't a real punk, either" (47).
"Scotty's smiling now, grinning like I almost never see him grin wolf teeth flashing, and I realize that, out of all of us, Scotty is the truly angry one" (52). The narrator (Rhea) recognizes that Scotty is the only real one out of her friends and that the rest are just pretending.
Lastly.."[Alice] is calm and happy now that Scotty loves her. I can't tell if she's actually real, or if she's stopped caring if she's real or not. Or is not caring what makes a person real?" (58). We see Rhea really struggling with identity-not just her own but other people's as well.

Social Anxiety

I wasn't sure where to go with this project at all, but I did connect that both the narrator from Rebecca and my character Rhea suffer from low self esteem and social anxiety. I was unaware of how to connect these through a video, but I  then remembered those very sad notecard stories that were popular awhile back . It works I believe because those were always so sad and this is a pretty depressing topic, sorry it isnt funny.
P.S. Sorry for the horrible quality, it wouldn't let me upload it looking any better

Favorite Quote

So I have been trying this whole time to fit my favorite quote in to my paper, but at this point I don't think its gonna work. So I have decided to post on the blog about it instead because I just like it a lot.

"I believe there is a theory that men and women emerge finer and stronger after suffering, and that to advance in this or nay world we must endure ordeal by fire" (5)

This quote has so much to offer in so many different ways and is really powerful. Just something to think about as you are finishing editing your papers.

Question on tense

When talking about Rebecca and Maxim's marriage is that past tense because it was past tense in the book or do you still right it as the present?

We were wrong

What if all the guys Rebecca was sleeping with were secretly Maxim? Then who holds the real power?

Is this a stretch?

I was sitting thinking about my essay and I realized how bored I was with the topic already and how I had barely started writing. I then started thinking about other people, in the real world and in fiction, and how the ones with power tend to have some tragic back story (i.e. batman) or just be generally empty. I can easily prove that Maxim after taking rebeccas power (that's the angle Im going to take)became very empty and sad. I need some helping supporting the Rebecca part. The only concrete evidence I have is when she got maxim to kill her, almost as a transfer of sadness! But I want to be able to say something to the extent of her having all those affairs to fill a void in her heart. does anybody have any evidence that might help with this?

Page Numbers

Does anyone know the few pages where Max talks about his final confrontation with Rebecca, also when the narrator talks about Rebecca's three b's?

Manderley on Fire

I think this is from the movie, i'm not sure, but I got really bored and looked it up and found this. I think its a good visual. Also who do you think did it? Was it Jack or Danvers? or maybe it was both...

I'm talking about power and who holds in and how it connects to gender roles because last class I think we really got to something when we were discussing power.

"She was not in love with you, or with Mr. de Winter. She was not in love with anyone. She despised all men. She was above all that" (346)

does anyone remember the page number where Maxim was brushing Rebecca's hair?

Key Lines

I have a lot of lines I like about everyone living in a lie, but this is a line that has really stuck with me (because I'm also focusing on the past and pain):
"we'll start again, once this thing is behind us. We can do it, you and I. It's not like being alone. The past can't hurt us if we are together" (325).

and then a lie from earlier that I also found intriguing (it also almost contradicts this): "If it comes to gifting, I'll fight alone" (292).

This one doesn't exactly relate to my AOI but I like it: "I put Manderley fist, before anything else. And it does not prosper that sort of love. They don't preach about it in the churches, Christ said nothing about stones, and bricks, and walls, the love that a man can bear for his plot of earth, his soil, his little kingdom. It does not come into the Christian creed" (278).

farther down on that same page their is a line that is not necessarily a key line, but just a line that really annoys me because the narrator just didn't get it: "But I looked away from him so he should not see my face. What did it matter whether I understood him or not? My heart was light like a feather floating in the air. He had never loved Rebecca" (278).

Another line that stood out to me: "I don't regret anything else. If it had come all over again I should not do anything different. I'm glad I killed Rebecca, I shall never have any remorse for that, never, never. But you. I can't forget what it has done to you. I was looking at you, thinking of nothing else all through lunch. It's gone forever, that funny, young, lost look that I loved. It won't come back again. I killed that too, when I told you about Rebecca. It's gone, in twenty-four hours. You are so much older..." (304)
- not only does this have so much in it: love, regret, loss of innocence, but something else that I find interesting it that the line about him not feeling remorse has the same structure as the line from earlier on in the book about him not loving Rebecca.

basically I have a lot of lines that I like and I could go on for a lot longer, but I think this post is long enough and I also think it mirrors that fact that i'm interested in a lot of things at the moment and don't really know where I am going to go with them yet.

Disney Reference

Okay, that whole scene with the narrator looking into the mirror and seeing Rebecca, how could you not think about the Evil Queen from Sleeping Beauty. In this movie, the Evil Queen wants to be called the fairest in the land (the prettiest) which totally fits with how the narrator was feeling. When the Evil Queen looks into the mirror she is the fairest, and when the narrator in Rebecca looks into the mirror she sees the fairest, who in this case she believes is Rebecca. Which leaves us with the lingering question, is Rebecca and the narrator the same person or is the narrator becoming Rebecca after Rebecca's death?!
Anyone remember the specific page for this scene by the way?
Thanks

Gender/POWER Key Line

"'We could make you look very foolish, Danny and I,' she said softly. 'We could make you look so foolish that no one would believe you, Max, nobody at all'" (283).

I think this quote shows the significant difference between power in Max and Rebecca's relationship. She is so powerful that women like her and Mrs. Danvers can take advantage of men like Max. Since she is this powerful no one would ever believe what Max could say about her having affairs or sexual relations with her cousin or anything like that. However, Maxim is to powerless to stop her from all of this because of the threats that Rebecca constantly puts on him just like in this quote. 

I JUST REALLY LIKE THIS QUOTE.

Hey :)

- Can gain power by giving power
- Karl Marx
         - Super Structure: Beauty, Brains, Breeding,
         - Sub Structure: Bitch, Manipulative, Sexual, Liar, Dominates (Alpha)
- Getting Max to kill her, (Gives her ultimate power?)
- Narrator's womanly defense: Playing weak...
- Rebecca's womanly defense: Not what society defines as "Womanly" opposite from Narrator's (more manly)

Asha driving the toaster

How?

What is love?

However this is the title of a populat song in the 80's, this is a legitimate question. What actually is love? How can you describe it? Most people can't, we just "know" what it is. But do we actually know something if we can't describe or teach it? Basically, love is a lot like the meaning of life, no one actually knows what it is or how to describe or express it, but we all truly know what it is. Love, like the meaning of life, is completely relative to what you want it to be. However, in Rebecca, I see love as being complete happiness. The characters aren't in love with eachother but they are in love with happiness and use others to obtain that happiness. This is seen completely with the conflict between Rebecca, Maxim, and the narrator. They all love happiness, that is all they want. Rebecca's happiness is power, Maxim's is Manderley, and the narrator's is just having someone to be with. Once these characters start to lose their happiness, they lose love which is actually them losing their meaning to live. The problem is with this book is that to obtain or keep these happinesses, only one character will be able to survive. This is completely due to the fact that each of the characters' happiness is intertwined with another's. So to sum up, there will be one prevailing character at the end to have pure happiness, love, and meaning of life, I believe, but the one problem is who can they share it with? What is all of this if you won't have anyone to share these aspects of life with? Nothing. Thjs will cause the final character to probably kill themselves or run away from everything. These are all assumptions but I'd like to know what other people think. (I am a bit behind in the book also so I could be stating the obvious but I really don't know)

Rebecca (and a bit of Hamlet just because)

So last class I really liked analyzing the scene where Maxim killed Rebecca after reading that we all understood why Maxim did it, but its important to remember he was telling the story to our narrator. He tells the story of how he got to that point. But story telling is interesting because the narrator usually only tells what they want you to hear, and the listener only hears what they want to like the narrator during Maxim's story after he tells her about the cliff she thinks "he had never loved her, never, never. They had never known one moments happiness together. Maxim talked and I listened him, but his words meant nothing to me"(278).
Whats the point of communicating if no hears it?
Why tell this story? What does the narrator get from hearing all of this? Which brings me to Hamlet, my favorite Shakespeare play. Hamlet is never on the same page with really anyone except the audience. He does not think that anyone in the kingdom heres him and they don't. He realizes in his death the importance of telling your story to anyone who will listen, even for a little bit. That small piece of Maxim's story puts the narrators mind at ease.

So So Sorry

I know I told everyone I was going to post on the blog last night, and then I never did, so here we go!

Starting off in reference to class today. I really loved that conversation we had about "why Maxim killed Rebecca," I think I definitely learned a lot more about the book than I did before, especially about everyone's specific areas of interest, which was cool to see. For me I looked at Maxim as loosing his innocence (by killing  Rebecca) and although Rebecca already lost her's, it was like her's was being taken away from her again. This really goes hand and hand with that theme we were looking at very closely with The Virgin Suicides; surviving and why someone survives. So to connect that back to Rebecca, I guess a good question to ask is, if Rebecca already lost her innocence why did she continue her life, what was so valuable to her in her life that kept her alive. OK that was my recap on class...onto the reading.

This section was just so great...am I right? So, we find out the Rebecca was indeed pregnant, Maxim killed her out of jealousy, and Rebecca did plan on committing suicide (which ties so greatly back to what I said above). Rebecca had lost everything in her life (innocence, Manderley etc...) and felt that ending her life would be the easiest and for her the most relieving solution. Maxim wanted to take away Rebecca's "Freedom" per-say, and by doing so killed her before she could do it to herself. On page 323, "'Suicide,' he said, 'without sufficient evidence to show the state of mind of the deceased. They were all at sea of course, they did not know what they were doing." We can see Rebecca's plan to kill herself here, and an interesting gathering place (the sea? - anyone have a guess about the significance of that?). As you continue on in the reading..."Where was the motive?" I think not only is the character in the novel asking this, but we as readers are as well. That is always the big question, and is always left as a mystery...it is up to us to collect clues and infer what her motive was. As you continue reading in this section, page 331, Favell states something great, "'Rebecca committing suicide. The sort of thing she would do, wasn't it?" This just sums up the fact that Rebecca was a very dramatic person and someone who had nothing left going for her. As we can see, although Rebecca herself never committed suicide in the peaceful way she intended, she still died and thus ending her so called miserable life. For me the big investigating question here is, was Rebecca happy she died even though she was murdered? I will probably never get an answer to this question, but I will keep it in the back of my mind as we near the end of story.

P.S. Sorry this is so long and I hope I didn't spoil anything!

I like their mustaches.

Late Blog Post

Hey everyone, I know I am incharge of posting on the blog for Tuesday, but I already know that I will not be able to post before 8:00 pm. So, I just wanted to apologize in advance. There will be a post up by Tuesday, but it will be posted very very late on Monday (aka today). Sorry, I am posting this at 1 am on Sunday, which I guess is 1 am on Monday, but anyways you get the point...again sorry!
Matty