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Layers of Nostalgia in Sag Harbor

  Throughout Sag Harbor , Colson Whitehead uses a nostalgic style of narration that makes it surprisingly easy for readers to connect, even if they haven’t lived anything like Benji’s life. Honestly, I found the book pretty boring most of the time, nothing major seemed to be happening. But I think that’s also what made it feel so real. It captured that weird part of growing up when everything feels like a big deal, even if, from the outside, it’s just a bunch of small, ordinary moments. And I think that’s exactly what Whitehead was going for. By separating the narrator, Ben, from his younger self, Benji, he shows how growth happens quietly, in the background. The adult Ben looks back with humor and distance, showing us that those little moments actually mattered more than we realized at the time. The narration feels nostalgic throughout, but not in a fake or overly sweet way. Benji is constantly overthinking everything, how he looks, what his friends think, how to act in each situa...
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Self-Acceptance in Black Swan Green

The town of Black Swan Green has a brutal social life for young boys (and probably girls, too). There's a strict hierarchy among the boys, with those at the top aggressively bullying those below them. Jason starts out somewhere in the middle, mostly trying to stay out of trouble. He desperately wants to be like the boys at the top, but deep down, he knows he’s different. He has a nervous stammer and secretly writes poetry, both things that would be seen as “gay” by those around him. Throughout the book, the bullying toward Jason grows progressively worse, and by the end, he learns that survival depends on asserting his true self, even at the cost of rejection. Jason's growth comes through his experiences with bullying, his friendship with Moran, his shifting view of his dad, and what he learns from the Romani population. At the beginning of the book, Jason believes that survival means hiding his true self and staying on the sidelines. He keeps his head down, avoiding too much a...
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Reflections of Grief in Fun Home

Fun Home  maintains a somewhat fragmented narration, with no chronological order. The book jumps from one moment to another, with Alison depicting stories from her childhood on one page and her university years on the next. There's no linear plot because the story has no conclusive ending. Not only does the book shift in time, but it also moves back and forth between Alison’s feelings of appreciation toward her deceased father, Bruce Bechdel, and her resentment and confusion toward him. By structuring the memoir out of chronological order, Bechdel highlights the complex nature of memory and grief, showing how her evolving understanding of her father shifts between admiration for his intellect and frustration over his emotional distance. I see this book as a depiction of the grieving process, whether or not that was Bechdel’s intention when writing it. Writing out thoughts and memories is a well-known coping method, and Bechdel uses this approach throughout the book. She revisits he...
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Esther’s Distorted Reality: A Reflection of Depression’s Influence

Throughout The Bell Jar , Sylvia Plath portrays Esther as an unreliable narrator, often blurring the lines between reality and perception. As her depression deepens, she begins to view the world and those around her in an increasingly negative light, fixating on life’s shortcomings and the flaws of others. This makes it difficult for readers to know whether Esther’s perspective is truly accurate. Was her mother really so terrible? Was Buddy truly conniving? Was everyone around her as fake and ugly as she believed? Probably not…but that’s exactly the point. The "bell jar" of depression distorts Esther’s ability to interpret her life and social interactions clearly. Plath intentionally presents Esther’s reality in this way to convey how depression creates a sense of disconnection, confusion, and isolation. Let’s look at some instances where it’s hard to tell if Esther is really portraying an accurate sense of reality. First, there’s Buddy Willard, who Esther decides is complete...
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Phoebe as Holden's "Catcher"

 In  The Catcher in the Rye , Holden Caulfield clings to a romanticized dream of being the “catcher,” a protector of children's innocence. Because of his painful past, Holden is terrified of growing up and facing adulthood. He views most people around him as “phonies”, people who uphold a certain image for others. As the novel progresses, Holden becomes increasingly fixated on the idea of being a “catcher,” someone who prevents children from falling into the expectations and shortcomings of society. However, by the end of the novel, it’s his younger sister, Phoebe, who ultimately becomes his “catcher,” saving him from a destructive path. Though she doesn’t fully fit Holden’s ideal of childlike innocence, Phoebe serves as a beacon of hope and understands him in a way no one else does. To understand how Phoebe becomes the real “catcher,” it’s important to first see what this role means to Holden, and why he’s so attached to it. From a young age, Holden experienced profound loss ...
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