Comparing Gravity's Rainbow and Vineland
From the author of Gravity's Rainbow (1973), the famous apocalyptic novel of World War II, comes Vineland (1990), a trip into the California of 1984: a Reagan-era wasteland of yuppies, malls, food-preservatives and, above all, the Tube: the Cathode-Ray Tube. The opening line of Gravity's Rainbow, "A screaming comes across the sky," which describes a V-2 rocket on its lethal mission, finds a way into Pynchon's latest work, albeit transformed: "Desmond was out on the porch, hanging around his dish, which was always empty because of the blue jays who came screaming down out of the redwoods and carried off the food in it piece by piece."
One passage describes war. Another tells of birds stealing dog food. The change in scope is huge, but misleading. Some readers may scoff at first at Pynchon's subject matter-hippie holdovers running from narcs-but there is no mistaking Vineland's connection to Gravity's Rainbow. The newer work acts as a corollary to the older one.
The book begins with Zoyd Wheeler waking up one summer morning with some Froot Loops with Nestle's Quick on top. He lives in Vineland County, a foggy, fictional expanse of Northern California which makes a great refuge for wilting flower children. Zoyd is one of them-a part-time keyboard player, handyman and marijuana cultivator who acts publicly crazy (he jumps through glass windows once a year on television) to qualify for mental disability benefits. He and his teenage daughter Prairie both mourn the disappearance of Frenesi Gates, who was mother to one and wife to the other. Frenesi was a radical filmmaker during the 60's until she was seduced by Brock Vond, a federal prosecutor and overall bad-guy/nutcase who turns her from hippie radical to FBI informant. With her help he manages to destroy the People's Republic of Rock and Roll.
Fast-forward two decades. Frenesi is about to be kicked out of the Witness Protection Program because the government is tired of subsidizing her. Zoyd wants to find her, for obvious reasons. Vond, still the charismatic little psychopath, wants Frenesi back too, and decides to kidnap Prairie to get her. Prairie, the only sane and sober person in the book, also wants to meet Frenesi, the mother she never knew.
But there's more, like in any Pynchon novel: Vond is apparently the ultimate law-enforcement spoilsport and he's not done hounding guys like Zoyd.
involved troubling situations. Look at how she grew up. The book starts off during a time of Jim
It is New York in the 1920s. Nick Carraway moves to the West Egg from Minnesota. He lives in a small house next to Jay Gatsby, a mysterious man who throws lavish parties, and decides he wants to know more about him. Then conflicts ensue about affairs and the secrets about all of the characters’ pasts. Nick, Daisy, and Tom (Daisy’s husband) “hang out” and later on, Gatsby joins on their travels. One day, when they are on an outing, Daisy hits Myrtle (Tom’s mistress) accidentally with Gatsby’s car and Myrtle dies. Tom then assures Daisy that they will cover up who killed Myrtle. Wilson thinks Gatsby killed his wife, so in a fit of madness goes to Gatsby’s house and kills him and
The persona in the poem reacts to the power the wall has and realizes that he must face his past and everything related to it, especially Vietnam.
case, and in the end it will be up to Chester Zoo to decide whether or
So about my book, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café, well the theme is mainly feminism and a little bit of my gay pride, (you’ll see when you meet Idgie.). The setting starts out in the nursing home where, Mrs. Cleo Threadgoode, the long-time resident of Whistle Stop, tells Mrs. Evelyn Couch all about her life starting in the year 1929, and the little town of Whistle Stop. Now I will tell you all about the rest of my book in the eyes of my most important character, Mrs. Cleo Threadgoode.
In the first section of the book it starts off with a little girl named Tasha. Tasha is in the Fifth grade, and doesn’t really have many friends. It describes her dilemma with trying to fit in with all the other girls, and being “popular”, and trying to deal with a “Kid Snatcher”. The summer before school started she practiced at all the games the kid’s play, so she could be good, and be able to get them to like her. The girls at school are not very nice to her at all. Her struggle with being popular meets her up with Jashante, a held back Fifth ...
The novel begins with the protagonist, April Wheeler, portraying Gabrielle in an amateur-theatre production of the play, The Petrified Forest. The play ends up being a total disaster and leaves April devastated, leaving her disconnected from Frank, her husband, and her neighbors, Milly and Shep Campbell afterwards. The play, The Petrified Forest, is a disastrous love story of a man who decides to have himself die to keep the women he loves out of a life of misery. In the end of The Petrified Forest, Gabrielle is able to escape from her horrible lifestyle and fulfill her dreams; April was never able to do that.
One of the main symbols of the story is the setting. It takes place in a normal small town on a nice summer day. "The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full summer day; the flowers were blooming profusely and the grass was richly green." (Jackson 347).This tricks the reader into a disturbingly unaware state,
The book begins as a mystery novel with a goal of finding the killer of the neighbor's dog, Wellington. The mystery of the dog is solved mid-way through the book, and the story shifts towards the Boone family. We learn through a series of events that Christopher has been lied to the past two years of his life. Christopher's father told him that his mother had died in the hospital. In reality she moved to London to start a new life because she was unable to handle her demanding child. With this discovery, Christopher's world of absolutes is turned upside-down and his faith in his father is destroyed. Christopher, a child that has never traveled alone going any further than his school, leaves his home in order to travel across the country to find his mother who is living in London.
...her father’s intense racism and discrimination so she hid the relationship at all costs. Connie realized that she could never marry an African American man because of her father’s racial intolerance. If she were to have a mixed child, that child would be greatly discriminated against because of hypodecent. One day, Connie’s dad heard rumors about her relationship so he drove her car to the middle of nowhere, and tore it apart. Then, he took his shotgun and went to look for Connie and her boyfriend. Connie was warned before her father found her, and she was forced to leave town for over six months. Connie’s father burned her clothes, so she had to leave town with no car, no clothes and no money at sixteen years old. Connie had lived in poverty her entire life, but when she got kicked out she learned to live with no shelter and sometimes no food at all.
...e had erotic thoughts about several men. During his student years at Harvard, he was attracted by a young man named Martin Gay about him Emerson wrote poetry with recharged sexuality thoughts. He also had several affairs with women throughout his life, ignoring his wives.
Screwtape's main reason for telling Wormwood about humanity's experience of "troughs and peaks" (IV) is almost one of a scolding nature. While we never see Wormwood 's letters to his uncle, it can be inferred that he is inexperienced, immature, and somewhat clueless on how to be a good demon. In one of his letters to his uncle, Wormwood states that he "has great hopes that the patient's religious phase is dying away" (VIII). This statement is one of many signs of Wormwood's immaturity that we see in the Letters. Apparently, our human condition is very complex to demons, too complex for young demons like Wormwood to understand fully. His uncle Screwtape, humanized by Lewis as some type of old man who gives a younger generation the rundown on
...ns. Patients should not be so medically ill that they are unable to make this decision. Patients should be fully conscious and understand the implications of their decision. Everything should be documented possibly even videotaped that way the doctor doesn’t lose their job, receive a lawsuit or worst jail!
... of stopping at the gates. Also, it was mentioned that the date of this occurrence alternates between the 22nd and 26th, which is odd if it affected so many people. In addition, memorials for the children began to show up 272 years after the incident. If a true sense of mourning would have occurred, memorials would have started to appear weeks after the incident.
The book began in a small coffee shop. Zach was sitting at a corner table waiting for his mother to pick him up when two boys with guns burst in and told everyone to stay calm. The boys went straight to the cashier and told the girl to give them all of the money. While the boys were at the cash register Zach saw that a lady parked in a blue car called someone, then drove away. As the cashier was shoving the cash into bags that the boys had handed her, the cops rolled up so the boys made everyone go in the back storage room. There were nine hostages, Zach, two middle aged businessmen, a mother and daughter, the cashier and the coffee boy, and two older ladies who smelled like soap.