New year, new class

What is up with the Archduke?

The Archduke Franz Ferdinand is a very forgettable character given that he is only briefly shown twice in Ragtime. To be honest, by the time I finished reading I had completely forgotten that he existed. His main purpose in the book is to interact with Houdini, then die a gruesome death at the end of the book. But it turns out that the Archduke is a real historical figure who actually was murdered by a Serbian nationalist, although it is very unlikely that he would have ever encountered Houdini. Recall the first time the Archduke is introduced, when he mistakenly congratulates Houdini on inventing the plane. The moment served as a bit of irony, when the the Archduke with “stupid heavy-lidded eyes” and his wife who “yawned delicately” after Houdini’s plane ride, seemed to be completely bored by the spectacular performance (105). My impression was that the Archduke and his wife had nothing better to do with their time, and were being aimlessly led around as figureheads. It’s ...

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit - COA Novel

Quick background on Oranges are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson: this is a memoir centered around a girl questioning her sexuality within the bounds of a conservative Christian family, and the Christian faith to which she is devoted. So not only is the protagonist, Jeanette Winterson, struggling with her mother’s (called “Mother” in the book) disapproval of her newly discovered identity, she must also grapple with the disapproval of her church, and what it would mean to abandon the community that she loves so dearly. Winterson’s masterful ability to capture the inner turmoil that coming of age often entails made the story particularly believable. In many ways parents, and in Jeanette’s case the church, provide their children with the very first example of what being a good adult means, so the novel begins during Jeanette’s childhood to demonstrate her willingness to internalize the beliefs of the community that surrounds her. This is when she first hears Mother refer to ...

Can Money Buy Happiness?

Prompt: Can Money buy you Happiness? That’s a definite no for me. In fact, I would go as far as to say that money can’t buy happiness for any human, at least in the way that people traditionally ask the question. For many people, this question brings to mind material wealth to an extreme, and whether that would make someone happy. Time after time, the myth has been disproven that having extravagant amounts of money to spend on mostly material things will make you happy. Instead, I would like to think about this question in a different light. Paradoxically, I do actually believe that more money would make many people happier. The reason I am so vehement that more money wouldn’t make me happy is because I am a middle class person who has all of my basic needs met. I have all of the opportunities I could ask for, and while I don’t claim that my life is always easy, almost none of my problems could be solved by gaining more money, and I don’t think having more material wealth would make me...

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