Questions
1. Why don't people band together and help each other out?
2. Why did this disaster happen in the first place?
Parallel
"He dreamt of walking in a flowering wood where birds flew before them." (18)
"The small wad of burning paper drew down to a wisp of flame and then died out leaving a faint pattern for just a moment in the incandescence like the shape of a flower, a molten rose." (47)
The man dreams about and so desperately wants to see beauty and flowers than even when seeing the horrible sight of human bodies in the truck, he thinks about how the flame looks like a flower.
Contrast
"In his dream she was sick and he cared for her." (32)
The man says: "No. We can't help him." (50)
The man is always willing to give help to his son (that's what he lives for) and his wife in his dreams, but he doesn't care at all for the poor man they pass by on the road.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
The Road Section I
Questions
1. How did the man and the boy survive? Will we ever find out?
2. Is there anyone else alive?
3. Where are they?
Parallel
"He raised his face to the paling day...Are you there? he whispered...Have you a heart? Damn you eternally have you a soul? Oh god, he whispered. Oh God." (11-12).
The man says: "This is where we used to have Christmas when I was a boy" (26).
This is a book that seems to revolve around religion and whether the characters have faith in God. The man doubts his existence in the first quote, but tell us of the happy times he had at Christmas (an obviously religious holiday) when he was a child.
Contrast
1. How did the man and the boy survive? Will we ever find out?
2. Is there anyone else alive?
3. Where are they?
Parallel
"He raised his face to the paling day...Are you there? he whispered...Have you a heart? Damn you eternally have you a soul? Oh god, he whispered. Oh God." (11-12).
The man says: "This is where we used to have Christmas when I was a boy" (26).
This is a book that seems to revolve around religion and whether the characters have faith in God. The man doubts his existence in the first quote, but tell us of the happy times he had at Christmas (an obviously religious holiday) when he was a child.
Contrast
"The shape of a city stood in the grayness like a charcoal drawing sketched across the waste" (8).
"In his dreams his pale bride came to him out of a green and leafy canopy" (18).
Everything in the real world is gray and ash, whereas the world in the man's dreams in lively and full of color, which the man hates because it tortures him.
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
You only get one shot...
If I had to choose one "shot" (frame) that sums up Harvey Pekar's book, The Quitter, it would be this high angle long shot of Harvey in his bed on the right (not the box in the top left corner):
The Quitter is a book about Harvey Pekar (shown above) who was never really able to "make it" until late in life because he was too scared to face challenges, and this shot captures that idea. Harvey is clutching his bed, suggesting that he is too scared to leave it and go out into the real world. He is so scared that he has to pin himself down so that he can't get swept off of it. His frightened face and the fact that he has no socks or shirt also give us the idea that he has absolutely no intention of getting out of bed. Life has been too stressful for Harvey, and he is too scared to get up and face it. Instead, he just shies away from challenges and hides in his bed.
The reason he is scared is that almost everything goes wrong for him in the book, and boy, have things gone wrong in this room. The bed is not made, there are papers everywhere, the mirror (picture?) is cracked, and it's all just a big mess. This mess in the room symbolizes the mess that Harvey's life is. He fails at everything he tried and has no security in his life as he bounces from job to job.
However, despite his life being a mess, Harvey is very gifted and has the means to clean it up, and this shot tells us that as well. Because his shirt is off, you can see that Harvey is very strong. Also, there is a bookshelf on the left packed with books, implying that he is very smart. These two qualities (strong and smart) make up a well rounded person that should be very successful. Harvey has always had the potential to do something big; he was one of the most physically and intellectually gifted students when he was younger. Unfortunately, that never amounted to anything for him because he was not resilient and couldn't overcome difficult times. However, Harvey later becomes not only a well respected Jazz reviewer, but also an award-winning comic book writer, proving that he does have the ability to be successful, which this picture subtly tells us through the bookshelf and by reminding us of his strength.
Sunday, November 11, 2012
The Quitter Section 5: Fate vs. Free Will
Written Parallel
Harvey says: "But [writing for the Jazz Review] had such a good reputation" (91).
Harvey says: "I had the respect I wanted for being a fighter" (35).
Throughout his life, Harvey has always cared so much about his reputation and what people think about him. When he was younger, he needed to be respected for being a fighter, but as he matures, he turns into an intellectual, where he still strives to have a good reputation.
Visual Parallel
Shown above are two images (both long shots with two people) where Harvey meets a very successful and famous intellectual in a field that he loves. The first picture shows Harvey meeting Ira Gitler, a famous Jazz reviewer, while the second one shoes him with Robert Crumb, a comic book illustrator who goes on to do big things. One interesting observation I made is that these are really the only two characters (by that I mean people who appear in more than one frame) who wear glasses. The glasses seem to represent knowledge, as only the most intellectual people wear them, and nobody in the sports world or in the Navy were ever shown wearing glasses.
Fate vs. Free Will
Each time Harvey quits, he writes about it as if it were his inevitable fate to do so, and I strongly disagree. When he first quit football, he did so because he wasn't the star anymore and the coach didn't play him as much as he would've liked. He acted as if some force (fate) was against him and that he had to quit. Later, when quit the Navy, it wasn't because he was physically unable to do any of the tasks, it was because he didn't know how to do laundry and broke down mentally. This happened once again when he was in college. He overreacted to getting a C+ on one test and dropped out. His attitude was that he couldn't learn anything and was destined to fail, and because of this, he did fail.
Being a second generation Jewish immigrant in a poor neighborhood of Cleveland, Harvey was not destined to succeed, and he knew that. He took this the wrong way by thinking this meant he was destined to fail, which is not true. Therefore, when times got hard, he decided to quit before even trying to fight through it because he believed he wasn't supposed to make it through.
However, he only failed because he chose to, not because this was his fate, and this becomes increasingly obvious as the novel goes on. When he finally gets the courage to try to write for a big time magazine (after being pressured by Ira Gitler), he succeeds and becomes an admired writer almost immediately. Also, his first comics were a huge hit. These two facts show us that Harvey is actually really talented and could've succeeded much earlier. However, he chose to shy away from all of his challenges earlier in life by quitting everything right when they got tough for him, although his future success tells us that he could've made it through those challenges if he had just tried.
Harvey says: "But [writing for the Jazz Review] had such a good reputation" (91).
Harvey says: "I had the respect I wanted for being a fighter" (35).
Throughout his life, Harvey has always cared so much about his reputation and what people think about him. When he was younger, he needed to be respected for being a fighter, but as he matures, he turns into an intellectual, where he still strives to have a good reputation.
Visual Parallel
Shown above are two images (both long shots with two people) where Harvey meets a very successful and famous intellectual in a field that he loves. The first picture shows Harvey meeting Ira Gitler, a famous Jazz reviewer, while the second one shoes him with Robert Crumb, a comic book illustrator who goes on to do big things. One interesting observation I made is that these are really the only two characters (by that I mean people who appear in more than one frame) who wear glasses. The glasses seem to represent knowledge, as only the most intellectual people wear them, and nobody in the sports world or in the Navy were ever shown wearing glasses.
Fate vs. Free Will
Each time Harvey quits, he writes about it as if it were his inevitable fate to do so, and I strongly disagree. When he first quit football, he did so because he wasn't the star anymore and the coach didn't play him as much as he would've liked. He acted as if some force (fate) was against him and that he had to quit. Later, when quit the Navy, it wasn't because he was physically unable to do any of the tasks, it was because he didn't know how to do laundry and broke down mentally. This happened once again when he was in college. He overreacted to getting a C+ on one test and dropped out. His attitude was that he couldn't learn anything and was destined to fail, and because of this, he did fail.
Being a second generation Jewish immigrant in a poor neighborhood of Cleveland, Harvey was not destined to succeed, and he knew that. He took this the wrong way by thinking this meant he was destined to fail, which is not true. Therefore, when times got hard, he decided to quit before even trying to fight through it because he believed he wasn't supposed to make it through.
However, he only failed because he chose to, not because this was his fate, and this becomes increasingly obvious as the novel goes on. When he finally gets the courage to try to write for a big time magazine (after being pressured by Ira Gitler), he succeeds and becomes an admired writer almost immediately. Also, his first comics were a huge hit. These two facts show us that Harvey is actually really talented and could've succeeded much earlier. However, he chose to shy away from all of his challenges earlier in life by quitting everything right when they got tough for him, although his future success tells us that he could've made it through those challenges if he had just tried.
Monday, November 5, 2012
The Quitter Section 4: Will the real Harvey please stand up?
Written Parallel
Harvey says, "I took the train back and I was feeling really helpless and discouraged on the ride. What could I do with myself?" with mountains in the background (48).
Dean says, "Why are you quitting? You're making a mountain out of a molehill" (70).
Although the word "mountain" doesn't come up twice, it is clear Pekar wants us to think about it because he put it in the image when Harvey is feeling helpless, and then he brings it up in text when once again Harvey is quitting because he doesn't think he can succeed.
Visual Parallel
Throughout the book, I have been noticing a connection between the real life Harvey Pekar, and his dad in the story. At first, I often got them confused because they look very alike. They each alway have a long sleeve button down shirt, the same hairstyle, and the same facial expressions. I wonder if Pekar meant this on purpose to say that in a way he has become his father, who he was once so embarrassed of and has never looked up to,
Analysis
As mentioned above, Harvey often interrupts the story to put his modern-day self in the frame. Not only do these remind us that this is an autobiographical story of a man looking back on his life, but they also show us what Harvey turns out to be, so they kind of foreshadow the story. Although he is able to point out where he went wrong, I don't really think the older Harvey is necessarily wiser because he often shows uncertainty and at one demonstrates the notion that he still worries about how he is going to get through the next few years. This shows us that Harvey has not really changed all that much. He has always been able to realize when he's wrong or things aren't going well, but he never knows what to do or how to react. At this point, I feel like the older Harvey is a depressed man, who is looking back on his past and all that he regrets with amazing honesty.
Harvey says, "I took the train back and I was feeling really helpless and discouraged on the ride. What could I do with myself?" with mountains in the background (48).
Dean says, "Why are you quitting? You're making a mountain out of a molehill" (70).
Although the word "mountain" doesn't come up twice, it is clear Pekar wants us to think about it because he put it in the image when Harvey is feeling helpless, and then he brings it up in text when once again Harvey is quitting because he doesn't think he can succeed.
Visual Parallel
Throughout the book, I have been noticing a connection between the real life Harvey Pekar, and his dad in the story. At first, I often got them confused because they look very alike. They each alway have a long sleeve button down shirt, the same hairstyle, and the same facial expressions. I wonder if Pekar meant this on purpose to say that in a way he has become his father, who he was once so embarrassed of and has never looked up to,
Analysis
As mentioned above, Harvey often interrupts the story to put his modern-day self in the frame. Not only do these remind us that this is an autobiographical story of a man looking back on his life, but they also show us what Harvey turns out to be, so they kind of foreshadow the story. Although he is able to point out where he went wrong, I don't really think the older Harvey is necessarily wiser because he often shows uncertainty and at one demonstrates the notion that he still worries about how he is going to get through the next few years. This shows us that Harvey has not really changed all that much. He has always been able to realize when he's wrong or things aren't going well, but he never knows what to do or how to react. At this point, I feel like the older Harvey is a depressed man, who is looking back on his past and all that he regrets with amazing honesty.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)