Student Blogs

January 22, 2023 Hi everyone! My name is Maryem and I am a third year student at UBC, pursuing a major in environment and sustainability and a minor in mathematics. Firstly, I would like to address the elephant in the room (or the website). I joined this course on January 22nd, which makes me two […] read full post >>

Hello everyone! For this week's reading, I picked "Mad Toy" by Roberto Arlt. The first chapter started off kind of wholesome since it was simply just children fantasizing about being cunning yet intelligent like a bandit. I didn't really think anything... read full post >>

Hello everyone! For this week's reading, I picked "Mad Toy" by Roberto Arlt. The first chapter started off kind of wholesome since it was simply just children fantasizing about being cunning yet intelligent like a bandit. I didn't really think anything... read full post >>

Reading Arlt’s “Mad Toy” left me with a heavy heart. As I read through the chapters, I feel that Arlt’s narration of his life only gets more depressing. It seems to me that Arlt has never had a genuine connection with anyone before he met Rengo, yet he loses him in the end. From joining […] read full post >>

Reading Roberto Arlt’s Mad Toy has been an enlightening experience, especially coming from a position of not deeply literary novice, and a lack of familiarity with the author himself. This novel, has a rich narrative and explores complex themes. The novel offers a peak into the societal and personal struggles of early 20th-century Buenos Aires […] read full post >>

 Illustrative parts of NadjaThis book explores the fascination of a man who meets Nadja, an intriguing woman while strolling through Paris. His interactions with her and the deep insights he gains about her shape the story.This book stands out to ... read full post >>

 Illustrative parts of NadjaThis book explores the fascination of a man who meets Nadja, an intriguing woman while strolling through Paris. His interactions with her and the deep insights he gains about her shape the story.This book stands out to ... read full post >>

A. Initial Thoughts Though “Mad Toy” is much shorter than Marcel Proust’s “Combray”, I found it tougher to get through. As I read, I often wanted to stop because it seemed like the story was just going in circles, with Silvio repeatedly failing to break out of poverty. But after finishing the book and taking … Continue reading Mad Toy: What Do We Live Our Lives For? read full post >>

“I am the soul in Limbo” (71) Considered one of the earliest surrealist romance books, Nadja is chock-full of wonder. Flipping through this short recollection of a haunting memory, every page tells a fragment of this mystery. Who was Nadja? And, was she truly real?  Some quick research and Nadja is actually Léona Camille Ghislaine […] read full post >>

I think for anyone who’s familiar with the manic pixie dream girl trope, André Breton’s Nadja stands out as an obvious example- the girl you can never have, the girl of your dreams, the girl who’s too damaged to be loved, etc. A prime example- when Breton asks Nadja who she is on page 71, […] read full post >>

Nadja by André Breton contains many detailed and long sentences, heavy dialogue and many surrealist elements. While reading the first part I found it hard to follow as the introduction to the narrator started with the line “Who am I?” (pp.11) and continued with a heavy amount of different situations and artists being mentioned in […] read full post >>

Hi everyone. Welcome to my third blog! This week I read the book "Mad Toy" and have many thoughts to share with you. This book is written by Roberto Arlt. He writes this book from the perspective of a lower-class youth named Silvio. From Silv... read full post >>

Hi everyone. Welcome to my third blog! This week I read the book "Mad Toy" and have many thoughts to share with you. This book is written by Roberto Arlt. He writes this book from the perspective of a lower-class youth named Silvio. From Silv... read full post >>

Who am I? Such an ambiguous question that had me thinking about my identity, which later progressed to me questioning my existence by the end of the novel. Now, before I dive into an “analysis” of the novel and pick it apart, I want to point out that this novel had me going through so […] read full post >>

The first thing that came to mind as I read the summary on the back of the book was “Oh, Nadja is a Manic Pixie Dream Girl,” and I stand by that. She is only there to forward the male protagonist’s understanding of himself/the world (which is discussed in the lecture), she is a quirky […] read full post >>