Student Blogs

His insomnia was heavily highlighted throughout part one. I view the narrator as a person with severe anxiety. His thoughts are constantly jumping from one to another. His anxiety comes to light mostly at the thought of his mom not being able to give him a goodnight kiss. I wonder if his anxiety is brought from childhood trauma because his dreams always escape to his childhood. The narrator expressed his "childish terror" (4) with the memory of his great uncle pulling him by his curls. He also seems afraid of his father. This is shown when the father does not allow his mother to give him a kiss goodnight. In the scene where the narrator waits for his mom above the staircase to say goodnight, his mother seems afraid of what his father might say to their son as she tells him in a panic to go back to his room. His mom seems to be aware of his fathers resentment to his son's actions. 

His childhood experiences seem to be the cause of what his personality is today. His mind always wanders back to his childhood. His father's negative opinions of his son's night time ritual could have impacted the narrator's pressure to grow up and cause an unhealthy attachment to his mother. His mother is the only one who accepts his needs.This makes me question how much does childhood trauma and the pressure of maturity affect an individual?

Overall, “Combray" part one was a confusing read for me. I was left with so many unanswered questions. I wish the author had given us more insight into the narrator's past before these events.

     After reading part 1 of "Combray" I felt sympathy for the narrator and also worried about the way he processes his emotions. In the initial pages of the story, the narrator speaks in much detail of how in his sleep he becomes transported into different memories. It seems like he is being haunted by his past as he cannot escape these dreams. He would often go back to his childhood to relive bad memories. 

    Although it was only the one memory of his summers in "Combray", the detail put into it made it so the reader could be shown the different family dynamics as well as the narrator's distinct personality. When his father sends him to bed without a kiss from his mother, dismissing it as absurd, the boy becomes filled with sorrow. His mother's kiss was described as “the concession she was making to [his] sadness and agitation,” (13) and without it he let those emotions consume him. He first sends a note down to his mother asking her to come up and say goodnight and after his request was denied, he made a second plan to wait for her to come to bed and catch her in the hall. He knew this would result in severe consequences but he did it anyway because he was dependent on these rituals. When his father came up and saw what was happening, the narrator braced himself for punishment but was surprised when his father showed him sympathy and let his mother stay the night in his room. This surprised me as well because of the father’s initial descriptions of being strict and against this ritual. His change of heart when seeing his son in distress gave me a new perspective on the father. At first, I thought he was cruel but then realized that he was just trying to better his son by setting boundaries and trying to teach independence.

    I noticed the narrator is a very sensitive child who experiences life differently from those around him.  He is often nervous and has an introverted personality. I’m wondering what connections this can be made to his family dynamics and if it had anything to do with his upbringing or if it was just the way he was wired. 

His insomnia was heavily highlighted throughout part one. I view the narrator as a person with severe anxiety. His thoughts are constantly jumping from one to another. His anxiety comes to light mostly at the thought of his mom not being able to give him a goodnight kiss. I wonder if his anxiety is brought from childhood trauma because his dreams always escape to his childhood. The narrator expressed his "childish terror" (4) with the memory of his great uncle pulling him by his curls. He also seems afraid of his father. This is shown when the father does not allow his mother to give him a kiss goodnight. In the scene where the narrator waits for his mom above the staircase to say goodnight, his mother seems afraid of what his father might say to their son as she tells him in a panic to go back to his room. His mom seems to be aware of his fathers resentment to his son's actions. 

His childhood experiences seem to be the cause of what his personality is today. His mind always wanders back to his childhood. His father's negative opinions of his son's night time ritual could have impacted the narrator's pressure to grow up and cause an unhealthy attachment to his mother. His mother is the only one who accepts his needs.This makes me question how much does childhood trauma and the pressure of maturity affect an individual?

Overall, “Combray" part one was a confusing read for me. I was left with so many unanswered questions. I wish the author had given us more insight into the narrator's past before these events.

Continue reading "Blog Post 1: Swann’s Way"

I dived into Proust's Combray completely unaware of what to expect. The first thing that caught my attention was the language. It was very descriptive, thus allowing me to envision every room and meal as the narrator experienced it. Secondly, I noticed the stream of consciousness that the narrator seemed to be traveling along while narrating. What started in a room with an insight into the intricacies of sleep and wakefulness turned into a formative childhood memory. This form of writing intrigued me immensely because of how naturally it flowed. I almost did not notice the transition until I read about the narrator's next idea!

I must confess that I did get a little bit confused when the narrator switched to talking about his childhood experience from his ideologies as an adult. However, once I picked up on the difference I was able to enjoy the innocence with which the child craved to be with his mother. As seen in the scene below, Proust's description of the raw emotion of longing from a child's perspective makes the scene more impactful and its sentiment that much deeper. 

"But I implored her again: 'Come say goodnight to me,' terrified as I saw the light from my father's candle already creeping up the wall, but also making use of his approach as a means of blackmail, in the hope that my mother, not wishing to find me here, as find me he must if she continued to refuse me, would give in and say: 'Go back to your room. I will come.'"

I found this particularly significant because of how palpable and tangible the emotions were in this extract. 

Additionally, the lecture touched upon many points that I did not consider while reading but added to the importance of the text upon considering them. One of these points is regarding the multiple perspectives we experience in the chapter, but only through the narrator's eyes. We learn about M. Swann, the narrator's great-aunt and grandmother, and how they all share a great number of opinions on varying societal issues. But once again, all of these thoughts are shrouded by the narrator's perspective which as a child was solely focused on gaining his mother's attention. Proust therefore sheds light on an important question worth considering: how do we perceive each character's perspective differently when the narration is only through one person's point of view?

Hence, as stated in the lecture, we only get to see a portion of what happened because of the gap which exists in relaying information.  This drives us to make assumptions to fill in the spaces and to keep reading to see if what we thought was true. I feel like this text has prepared me for the other literature in this course because of its unique writing style and the type of reading it demands. 

I look forward to reading more and discussing this text in class with everyone! 

I dived into Proust's Combray completely unaware of what to expect. The first thing that caught my attention was the language. It was very descriptive, thus allowing me to envision every room and meal as the narrator experienced it. Secondly, I noticed the stream of consciousness that the narrator seemed to be traveling along while narrating. What started in a room with an insight into the intricacies of sleep and wakefulness turned into a formative childhood memory. This form of writing intrigued me immensely because of how naturally it flowed. I almost did not notice the transition until I read about the narrator's next idea!

I must confess that I did get a little bit confused when the narrator switched to talking about his childhood experience from his ideologies as an adult. However, once I picked up on the difference I was able to enjoy the innocence with which the child craved to be with his mother. As seen in the scene below, Proust's description of the raw emotion of longing from a child's perspective makes the scene more impactful and its sentiment that much deeper. 

"But I implored her again: 'Come say goodnight to me,' terrified as I saw the light from my father's candle already creeping up the wall, but also making use of his approach as a means of blackmail, in the hope that my mother, not wishing to find me here, as find me he must if she continued to refuse me, would give in and say: 'Go back to your room. I will come.'"

I found this particularly significant because of how palpable and tangible the emotions were in this extract. 

Additionally, the lecture touched upon many points that I did not consider while reading but added to the importance of the text upon considering them. One of these points is regarding the multiple perspectives we experience in the chapter, but only through the narrator's eyes. We learn about M. Swann, the narrator's great-aunt and grandmother, and how they all share a great number of opinions on varying societal issues. But once again, all of these thoughts are shrouded by the narrator's perspective which as a child was solely focused on gaining his mother's attention. Proust therefore sheds light on an important question worth considering: how do we perceive each character's perspective differently when the narration is only through one person's point of view?

Hence, as stated in the lecture, we only get to see a portion of what happened because of the gap which exists in relaying information.  This drives us to make assumptions to fill in the spaces and to keep reading to see if what we thought was true. I feel like this text has prepared me for the other literature in this course because of its unique writing style and the type of reading it demands. 

I look forward to reading more and discussing this text in class with everyone! 

At the Thursday zoom lecture, there was a classmate who mentioned how they are afraid of not being able to understand or missing an important point in the novel, since english is not their first language. I can totally relate to that, since it is not my first language as well. I am able to read and understand the words but not the meaning behind it. The beginning of Proust was super confusing to me. I even asked my friend if it is normal that I don't understand a single thing. I need to re-read them a few times to fully get them into my head. In this blog, I will mainly focus on my thoughts and ideas on this reading.

At the Thursday zoom lecture, there was a classmate who mentioned how they are afraid of not being able to understand or missing an important point in the novel, since english is not their first language. I can totally relate to that, since it is not my first language as well. I am able to read and understand the words but not the meaning behind it. The beginning of Proust was super confusing to me. I even asked my friend if it is normal that I don't understand a single thing. I need to re-read them a few times to fully get them into my head. In this blog, I will mainly focus on my thoughts and ideas on this reading.