Sethe's comforter

At the end of the book once Sethe is free from Beloved's control, its interesting that Paul D comes back to take care of her. He was the last person I would think to want to care for Sethe. It's ironic how he reassures her that she is of great value when he has been insecure and plagued with internal conflict throughout the book. He even left her once he found about about the infanticide. Maybe his time away helped him come to terms with his feelings and realize his own true worth.

Denver's rage

"I can't live here. Nobody speaks to us. Nobody comes by. Boys don't like me. Girls don't either....It's not the house. It's us! And it's you!" (p.17)

Denver's raging tone is clearly evident in her accusation of her mother. The author uses syntax to emphasize Denver's anger towards her situation. She is fed up with living in isolation and being hated by everyone she knows. She blames herself for this, but most of her furry appears to be directed towards her mother. Her statement illustrates the importance of community and being surrounded by other social beings. It implies that a person is not an island but needs other people not only for company, but also for support and growth as a person. I feel the importance of community is a major theme in Beloved which the author hopes to show through the plot.

Beloved

"124 WAS SPITEFUL. Full of a baby's venom. The women in the house knew it ans so did the children." (Morrison 1) Morrison begins the novel with an interesting image. The 1st sentence sets a dark, eerie tone not only by the diction but also by the way its written, in capital letters. The capital letters emphasize how spiteful the house is. The second sentence paints an image of something deadly and poisonous inside the house. The fact that the people in the house know about it implies the unwanted thing has been there for a while and has become part of the house. This foreshadows scary and eerie events to come in the rest of the novel. This introduction captures the reader's attention, making them want to read more to find out what's to come in the rest of the book.

Improvising

We usually think of improvising as a total spontaneous act that has no structure what so ever. It makes us wonder how some people have the ability to perform an improvised act based on a random idea. Gladwell talks about this in chapter four and studies an improvisation comedy group which uses random ideas from the crowd. It turns out improv isn't as random and chaotic as we may think. Gladwell said if you sit down with the cast of the improv group he worked with you would find "they aren't all the sort of zany, impulsive, free-spirited comedians that you might imagine them to be." (113). Then how, one may wonder are their improv plays so funny and well put together like it was planned? Gladwell explains that improv, believe it or not is governed by certain rules which have to be abided by on stage. The most important rule of improv is the idea of agreement where characters accept everything that happens to them. Spontaneity is also made possible when everyone undergoes highly repetitive and structural practices, which include running through plays over and over and criticising each other's performance. In this way one can practice for an improv performance by perfecting certain skills which will make it easier to engage in the "spur of the moment that makes for good improv" (117).


Before reading this part of the book I've always thought improv was a terrifying random occurrence. But after reading what Gladwell had to say I realized that a lot of work is done before the performance to create the right framework for a well acted improv scene. Characters also have to accept any suggestion given by another character in order to keep the dialogue interesting and from ending abruptly. These two main factors is what makes good improv seem "telepathic" and "pre-arranged" (116).

The Skeaky Subconscious

"...Much of the time, we are simply operating on automatic pilot, and the way we think and act-and how well we think and act on the spur of the moment-are a lot more susceptible to outside influences than we realize" (Blink 58)




Gladwell has previously made several references to the subconscious in this chapter, so I feel he is saying our actions are usually based on our unconscious thoughts more than we realize. He uses a few examples to illustrate his point, but one that stuck was an experiment by Joshua Aronson which tested black college students. They were asked to identify their race on a pretest questionnaire. This act was meant to prime them with all the negative stereotypes associated with African Americans and academic achievement. The number they got right on the test was cut in half compared to when they weren't asked to indicate their race. When asked whether it bothered them that they had to indicate their race, all said no. This is why Gladwell says we are usually unaware of outside influences, because most of them are too subtle for the conscious mind to pick up on. The subconscious on the other hand does pick it up and causes us to act differently in accordance to these influences. This struck me as interesting because I've always heard the expression "stay positive" when it comes to tests, but I never imagined negative influences could affect test results this much. I feel we tend to over look the importance of our subconscious, especially the way it notices changes around us. I think it's important to know this because we can use this to our advantage when taking any kind of assessment. We can prime our minds with "smart" thoughts to put ourselves in the right mind frame, which can help us to work to our fullest potential.

The Art of "Thin-slicing"

"'Thin-slicing' refers to the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behavior based on very narrow slices of experience" (p.23 of Blink)



Gladwell is describing a type of thinking process that is not frequently credited compared to the 'thinking everything through process'. The thinking process Gladwell is talking about is mainly used in situations where we're under pressure, or simply tight for time. In these types of circumstances our mind is forced to compress or filter a large amount of information while retaining the small meaningful bits. This type of thinking doesn't seem as important as the 'thinking things through process', but as I read this statement I became skeptical about this. This made me think of events where I had to make quick decisions by processing the information I already knew regarding my possition. Thinking about these situations made me realize how important it is to have a trained mind that can efficiently sift though facts and come to a reasonable conclusion. I feel we can sometimes take this ability for granted and fail to recognize it as a major factor in decision making. The fact is we aren't always going to have enough time to figure out all the possibilities regarding a situation, which makes 'thin-slicing' so essential to everyday life.

New and Old

"I'm not saying that there's nothing new in literature: I'm saying that everything is new, and yet recognizably the same kind of thing as the old..." (p.23)

Frye is basically explaining that literature repeats itself in numerous forms. What may seem to be new is actually an old idea that is presented in a different way. This statement made me realize that all the fiction stories we read have already been written about at some point in time. It reminded me of times when I could predict what would happen after just reading a few pages of a book. For example, there are many love stories out there, but they all seem to have similar themes such as unrequited love and forbidden love. Authors skillfully disguise these old stories into new appealing ones. To do this they may add their own spin to an old story. However the final product will still have a sense of familiarity to it, one authors can't quite get rid of. I found this interesting because I've never thought of literature this way before. Now I realize that its all the same, except in different forms.

The great imagination

"[Imagination is] the power of constructing possible models of human experience.” (p.8)



I feel Frye is portraying imagination as a neccessary part of the human experience. He shows that imagination allows humans to be creative and free from the restirctions that reality sometimes places on us. He is implying that from these "possible models of human experience" come great things. I agree that imagination is neccessary because without it, many discoveries or innovations today wouldn't have come to pass if someone hadn't stopped to come up with an idea first. All actions start of as a small spark of imagination. Frye said, "In the world of imagination...nothing really happens. If it did, it would move out of the world of imagination into the world of action" (p.8). Although an idea may seem meaning less at first, it can eventaully blossom into "the world of action" as meaningful discovery.
I also feel that imagination has the power to inspire people to chase their dreams and make them a reality. People without imagination don't go as far as those who dare to dream. For this reason I feel imaginaion plays an important role in life.