Post #1

1.)  The most interesting book to me was Their Eyes Were Watching God.  I thoroughly enjoyed the plot of the book as well as coming across and understanding important themes of the text like finding your way and overcoming adversity in its many forms.  Although the dialogue was immensely difficult to comprehend, I found it very revealing of characters thoughts and feelings in the novel.  Janie's handling of unfair situations, such as being forced to reside within the store in Eatonville, really interested me.  The story followed the life of Janie as she searched for self-worth and an identity. I liked the novel because of those aspects and the fact that I could relate to those aspirations and as a result, gain a deeper understanding of what Janie's thoughts and feelings were.  I thought the concept of an all black town like Eatonville was interesting, especially at how close-knit the communities were and how everyone seemed to know each other and the townspeople got along well for the most part.  In short, the much different, but still American society, greatly grabbed my interest while reading the book.  Prior to reading the book, I knew of the difficulties blacks faced as a community in that time period, but I was made aware of the challenges and cruelty blacks faced from within their own society.

2.)  The Stranger was my least favorite novel out of the three, mainly because of it's apathetic tone.  The main character, Meursault, was very intrinsic and difficult to read.  His emotionless responses that often refrained from choosing a side, made for a dull character in my opinion.  To me, Meursault (who was also the narrator), spent more time describing his surroundings than actually narrating and actually discussing the developments in the story.  Many of the aspects he described, like the funeral procession in the hot sun, seemed to have little or no relevance to the story.  It was very hard to relate to a character that was so emotionally detached and void of personal opinions or beliefs.  However, towards the end of the novel, Meursault's thoughts on facing and accepting death were intriguing, but nonetheless very abstract and deviated far from my own views. 

3.)  Although I never finished my dystopian text, 1984, I was able to read through a good amount of it and understand some key concepts.  Having read other novels by George Orwell, I am familiar with his writing style and more specifically his tendency to incorporate allusions to the Soviet Union and communism.  If I were to write an essay about the book I would focus on the social context of the novel and how the author portrayed their personal attitudes or beliefs toward the subject.  I think that those aspects were important because they were common themes throughout the story that played a role in delivering the messages that Orwell was trying to get across, for example that the masses could be made content through lies and ignorance.  Also, through his writing we are able to identify certain rights and customs that we take for granted living in a democratic society.  I believe it is important for us to understand that although there were many who agreed with Orwell's view on Communism and Totalitarianism, it was by no means accepted throughout the world, and had many supporters at the time the book was written.