Category: Plot

Chapter 1:

Narrative hook – A narrative hook is a part, typically at the beginning, of the story that interests the reader, making them want to continue to read on.

How does the Time Traveler’s explanation of time as a 4th dimension sound?

The time traveler explains the Fourth Dimension as time. He says “There are really four dimensions, three which we call the three planes of space, and a fourth, time,” (page 2, The Time Machine). In the presence of this statement, I believe he claims of the fourth dimension as strange because that declaration has never been shown to me. I would like to read on and find out what he means and where this thought originated.

Why do you believe Wells chose to give most of his characters jobs to show them instead of names?

In the time of Wells’ writing, often authors did not name the characters. I believe Wells gave job titles to the characters, rather than names because they were not important and did not need an identity. I think job titles as names was a way of saying they are just like the rest of the phycologists, etc. Whereas Wella needed an identity to make her unique and different.

What is the effect of not naming the characters?

Not naming characters is subjective. I think not naming some characters is a good thing because it can help me focus on the main ones. Yet, the job titles paint an imaginary picture in the readers mind. Such as that person’s day and family, or even their name.

What does the Time Traveler do to convince his guests that his demonstration is no trick?

The time traveler decides one of the people should do something to prove he wasn’t crazy. He told the psychologist to pull the lever. The other people were still dubious, so the time traveler discovered what he needed to do to prove his claim of time travel. He showed a bigger portion of the time machine to them.

How does Wells hook the reader into turning to the next chapter?

Wells hooks the reader by creating suspense and making the reader want to read more about how the time traveler’s adventures to the future progressed. In my opinion, I did not want to read the chapter because his book is boring, but I read it anyway.

Chapter 2:

Characterize – Used to highlight and describe characters in the story.

1. How does Wells characterize the Time Traveler to make his audience doubt him?

Wells characterizes the time traveler as too clever to be believable (Chapter 2, page 15). People felt as if they couldn’t see him all the way through, such as him acting as if he knows something others do not. Over all the time traveler gives a sense of mystery and suspense in being built in the reader.

2. Why does Wells wait so long to have the Time Traveler tell his story after he staggers into the room?

Wells has the time traveler wait to tell his story because he is building suspense. Wells is withholding information about the traveler’s findings which is making the reader want to continue reading. Wells could be trying to actively engage the reader and grasp attention.

3. How does Wells create a sense of suspense?

Wells creates suspense by holing in valuable information. The time traveler enters through the door and the Medical worker states that he is injured and needs tending. He also states that he needs to change his clothes. Wells creates more suspense by having the time traveler tell everyone he needs to eat. The traveler says they need to be in the smoking room in order for him to tell the story. Wells creates multiple scenarios to push off the story telling.

Chapter 3:

Character Traits – A personality characteristic.

1. How does the Time Traveler describe the sensations of time travel?

The time traveler describes the sensation of time Travel as many things. The time traveler says it feels as if he is in a nightmare where he is continuously falling (page 18 on Kindle). He compares it to a suicide because of the ongoing anticipation of what will happen next. On page 19 (on The Time Machine), the time traveler says he cannot fully express the sensations of time traveler. What he can say is the time travel sensations were overly vexatious. As you can see the time travel experience could be considered as disoriented and a never-ending torture.

2. What new fear occurs to him while he is traveling?

The new fears that occurs in the time traveler as he time travels is stopping. He is afraid that if he stops, he will explode into nothingness (page 20 on The Time Machine). He also doesn’t want any new sensations from time travel to happen because it might be threatening to his life. To me, time travel seems to come with a set of fears that might not be avoidable. In the end, the time traveler says it all eventually goes away and new set of fears begin.

3. What are the Time Traveler’s first impressions of the future?

The tine traveler’s first impression of the future is amazed. While he is traveling in the machine, he sees buildings being made and torn down, trees growing and changing. He mentions how strange humans’ development have become. He says they are astonishing to look upon as well. The time traveler compares the architecture to his own. When the time traveler stops, he is blown away from the plants and left-over buildings. In conclusion, he is astonished.

4. How would you respond if you were him?

If I were the time traveler, I would not be as brave. A part of my mind would tell me to explore but the other side would try to find a way to get out of there because I wouldn’t know what is beyond the time machine. In summary, I would do whatever was humanly possible to get back to my time.

5. What character traits have you noticed about the Time Traveler?

The traits I have noticed about the time traveler is his bravery and cleverness. Of course, his intellectual level was high from the beginning, but it is still a reoccurring trait that I have noticed. When I say the traveler is brave, I am specifically outlining his willingness to exit the time machine into an unknown world. I, myself, would not do this, but I suppose the time traveler’s want to explore is in his nature. Above all, the time traveler can be categorized as many things, and these are the few that stood out to me.

6. What kind of person is he?

The time traveler is a very intelligent man. He is a great inventor, which considers him to be patient as well. The time traveler is a man with a lot of discipline and probably didn’t have many friends in high school. Many could say he loved to learn because of his exploration in time travel and science. In general, he is smart and wants to get things done.

Chapter 4:

Academic vocabulary: civilization – Large communities of people.

1. How do the people he meets respond to the Time Traveler?

When the people met the Time Traveler, they wanted to make sure he was real. As a result, they started to touch him (Page 24, The Time Machine). After they checked to see if he was real, they gave him some food. They were curious creatures that might not have trusted their minds enough. In the end, they checked him out, then feed him.

2. What conclusions can you make about these people because they show no fear?

The conclusion I can make about these people because they show no fear is that they are not the smartest people. They could have been killed if it weren’t the time traveler. I think they don’t know what to fear because they haven’t been taught or surrounding by people who are fearful. They also had no conflict in this world. In conclusion, these people might want to take different approaches and think about the outcome more.

3. What is different about the people from what he expected to find in the future?

The time traveler expected their intelligence to be more advanced since he was in the future (Page 26, The Time Machine). He compared talking to them as talking to a five-year-old child because one of the people asked him if he came from the sun in a thunderstorm (Page 26, The Time Machine). Later, the time traveler stated that he felt like he made the time machine in vain. In summary, the intelligence of the people was not of expectance and a disappointment to the time traveler.

4. What does the general age and poor state of the buildings indicate about the civilization?

The age and state of the buildings indicated they have not been restored or tended through the years. New buildings were not a priority to these people. However, it seems these people take care of the gardens (Page 27, The Time Machine). They did not trim them but removed weeds, which prevented root blockage making the plants and flowers grow. In short, the people seemed to care more about the plants and flowers rather than building restoration.

5. What do you think of the Time Traveler’s statements about the role of men and women in a family? How do they reflect the thinking of his time?

The time traveler says that men have strength and women have softness (Page 31, The Time Machine). I agree with this statement because men are stronger than women, whereas women are gentler than men. Their qualities work in concert to provide for their offspring and create a balance. Back in his time, women would clean, cook, reproduce, and take care of the children. Women have jobs around the house, but they did not have jobs like men. They were enlisted to the military, hunted, etc. As can be seen, women are more of a gentle being, and men are the tough ones.

6. What does the Time Traveler feel is an unexpected consequence of a civilization that has conquered all want?

The time traveler feels that laziness and lack of interest is an unexpected consequence of a civilization that has conquered all of its wants (Page 32-33, The Time Machine). Meaning people being lazy and not showing interest has ruined their civilization because all they conquered was theirs wants, and not their needs. He also says that no competition in that world leads to no strength. To sum up, these people could have been lazy and indifferent because there was no competition.

7. What possible bad consequences can you think of that would result from what looks like good technology (eliminating disease, lengthening the life span, eliminating poverty, etc.)?

A bad consequence I can think of that would result from what looks like good technology can be causing a distraction. For example, a phone can cause a distraction to students while they are working from home during this pandemic. Because technologies advancement, kids have become addicted to phones, tablets, and laptops. This addiction can ruin their focus in school causing bad grades in the future, and possibly resulting in low paying jobs when they exit school or drop out. If you have a low paying job, bills could be a problem and cause the former student to become homeless. In the end, all technology has a downside because of what they do to people, but some can be very beneficial.

8. Would you like to live in this future?

I would not like to live in that future because I don’t want to be as gentle as an Eloi or rough as a Morlock. I like where I am today and keeping it that would be sufficient. Not to mention I would want to learn and strive to be smart. If I did not speak English, reading books and learning would be a challenge. In the long run, I like where I am, and don’t want it to change that drastically.

9. Why does Wells have the Time Traveler tell the readers that his ideas at this time about the future were wrong?

Wells has the time traveler tell the reader his ideas are wrong because it hooks the reader to read the next chapter. The reason the reader might get hooked is because they would want to find out why he is wrong. Some would read on to clarify if he really stated he was wrong. As a result, people get hooked and continue reading the next chapter.

Chapter 5:

Academic vocabulary: foreshadow – The writer gives a hint as to what will happen next.

1. How does the Time Traveler respond to the loss of his time ship?

The time traveler responds to losing the machine by running and jumping because he didn’t want the truth to be real. While he ran and leaped, he fell and scratched his face but continued running. He cursed as he ran, and he cried aloud but no response was given. The time traveler released his angry by punching a bush until he bled (Page 39, The Time Machine). He sobbed. Without any awareness to his surroundings, the time traveler tripped and nearly hurt himself again. The time traveler accused the people of taking his machine. He shook them and bawled when he received no answer. Given these points, the time traveler was acting irrational as a result of losing his way home.

2. What does the discovery of the wells with mechanical noises coming from them indicate about this world?

The discovery of the wells with mechanical noises coming from them indicated there was a system that the people created (Page 44, The Time Machine). As a result, the people were smarter than they led to be. The time traveler denied that theory. In brief, the time traveler realized they were smart, but misleading.

3. Why does the Time Traveler go to some lengths to tell the readers he knew very little about this world?

I think the time traveler goes to some lengths to tell the readers he knows very little about that world because his theories are proven wrong. He was offering an explanation as to why he was wrong about many things. For the most part, the time traveler was explaining why his theories were wrong.

4. What is the character of Weena like? What is her relationship with the Time Traveler?

Weena is a friendly creature who affected the time traveler like “a child would,” (Page 47, The Time Machine). The time traveler says Weena was like a child because the Behavorial alignment of always wanted to be with someone and in this case Weena always wanted to be with the time traveler. The nature of Weena’s relationship with the time traveler was a friendship base. Although, the time traveler says he was carrying on with a miniature amount of flirtation (Page 47, The Time Machine). Overall, they became very close and Wenna’s sweet, angelic nature drew the time traveler into her.

5. What new elements of conflict are introduced in this chapter?

The new elements of conflict are introduced is this chapter consist of the traveler starting to see the Morlocks (Page 49, The Time Machine). That is a conflict because he thinks he will get eaten which is erupting fear in him. Fear opens the door to sloppy decisions. Another conflict in this chapter is the time machine missing. Now he has no way to go back home. For the most part, he has lost his way home and encountered beings that have proven to be life threatening.

6. How does Wells foreshadow upcoming events and create a sense of foreboding?

Wells foreshadows upcoming events by stated information that will create the obvious outcome. For example, the time traveler comes across creatures who only come out at night. Before that, the traveler discovered the wells with noises coming out of the which proved there were more living creatures. The wells were dark as well. Altogether, those points connect creating a foreshadow because when you read about the wells and noises you know more people made the mechanical engines in there. Proving the “night creatures” most likely live in there.

7. What new theory about the people does the Time Traveler make to explain what he’s seen?

The new theory the time traveler creates about the people to explain what he witnessed was that they had sensitive eyes causing them only to come out at night (Page 53-54, The Time Machine). That would explain their habitat which was a dark deep tunnel. He claimed that this was also a new species, other than the Eloi.

8. Do you think the gulf between the rich and the poor the Time Traveler talks about exists today?

Sadly, I think the gulf between the rich and the poor still exist today. I think it exists in multiple ways. One being housing, jobs, stuff that satisfies your want. The most important on to me, is God. The people who accept him are the richest people alive whereas the people who deny him are poor. Overall, people can be rich in money and housing, but poor in the acceptance of God, and vis versa for people with no money or housing.

Sylvia Plath is an American writer and poet. She did not live an exciting life as others will think. In fact, it was quite the opposite. She had struggled with depression and mental illness throughout various points in her lifetime. Her life influence her works with themes, such as self identity and female roles. It indicates how mental illness can greatly affect lives. In Sylvia Plath’s novel, The Bell Jar, Plath’s experiences with mental illness is depicted in the character, Esther Greenwood, to show the hardship of finding oneself in the midst of struggles.

On October 27, 1932, Sylvia Plath was born to her parents, Otto and Aurelia Plath, in Boston, Massachusetts. Her parents were German and Austrian originated. Her mother, Aurelia, was a first generation American, while her father, Otto, was a Poland immigrant. Her father had an interest in the sciences, so he had worked biology at Johns Hopkins University and then soon entomology at Harvard. The Plath family settled in Winthrop, living near Plath’s grandparents. Because Plath lived so close to her grandparents, she found herself having a strong connection with them (Hobsbaum 241). Her younger brother, Warren, was born on April 27, 1935. Plath’s childhood could be described as a childhood near the sea, which is “associated with innocence and happiness” (Sylvia Plath”, Concise Dictionary). However, a tragedy had struck the Plath family, causing her childhood happiness to not last long. Her father had undiagnosed diabetes, and he soon had his leg amputated. On November 5, 1940, Plath lost a dear loved one, her father. Not only did her father’s death left her devastated but it also largely impacted her life afterwards. In a way, her father’s death became the “central psychological event of Plath’s life” as she writes allusions to her father (Sylvia Plath”, Concise Dictionary). In her later poems, there are connections about her allusions to bees and her father who was interested in entomology. The family moved to Wellesley after the death of the father. Young Plath had successfully excelled in school, receiving straight A’s. Not only did she have excellent grades but she also had a skill for academics and writing. At just eight and a half years old, her poem was published in the Boston Sunday Herald (“Sylvia Plath”, Encyclopedia of World Biography). Plath’s poems were published in “The Bradford”, her school magazine, and was also a coeditor. She had wrote in diaries throughout her school days. In 1950, she graduated from Gamaliel Bradford Senior High School as an excellent student (Hobsbaum 241). Although the death of her father impacted her life, she still managed to succeed greatly in school.

In September of the year 1950, Plath entered into Smith College with scholarships from Olive Higgins Prouty Fellowship and the local Smith Club (Hobsbaum 242). From there, she had graduated summa cum laude. Plath’s ability to write increases and she had a skill for English. She had dated Dick Norton, who was to be the inspiration for the character Buddy Willard in The Bell Jar, and later on, Myron Lotz, who was a Yale athlete (Hobsbaum 242). In the summer of 1953, Plath was chosen to spend a month in New York. From there, she was to learn about the editorial process and to be a guest editor for the “Mademoselle” magazine (“Sylvia Plath”). However, instead of returning home with happy memories, she returned depressed. Suffering mentally, Plath was not accepted into Harvard summer school fiction course that she was looking forward to. As an attempt to cure her depression, she underwent electroconvulsive therapy. At this period in her life, she had suffered with mental illness. One day, she had attempted to overdose with pills and was found nearly dead three days later. Receiving treatments, she had gone to the Massachusetts General Hospital’s psychiatric and later at McLean Hospital in Belmont. Years after her treatments, she had a sexual affair with Richard Sassoon. One of her great accomplishments was that she was voted to have received the largest scholarship given to an undergraduate. At this time, another one of her works was published by Harper’s. At the St. Botolph’s Review party, she had met her future husband Ted Hughes. They had a marriage ceremony by a special license on June 16, 1956 at St. George the Martyr Church in London (Hobsbaum 244). After suffering mentally, Plath’s life was improving. She had gotten an instructorship at Smith College where she also taught freshman English classes three times a week. She had also served on the editorial board of Smith Review. Through her midlife, Plath was associated with Anne Sexton, Robert Lowell, Karl Jay Sharpio, Ted Hughes, and Simon de Beauvoir (“Sylvia Plath”). She became unsure of herself as she did not know what to identify herself as. She was stuck choosing between being a mother and a wife or a poet (“The Bell Jar”, Novels for Students). The Hughes became pregnant and had their first child, Frieda, on April 1, 1960. Their living conditions could be described as small with only one bedroom available. The Hughes welcome their second child, Nicholas, on January 17, 1962. Throughout her life, Plath had suffered a miscarriage, but luckily was blessed with two children. Just as Plath thought her life was stable, her marriage failed and underwent a divorce. The divorce led to her depression and soon an attempted suicide. Her attempted suicide and depression inspired her works (“Plath, Sylvia”). She suffered mental illness and underwent shock treatments. Plath had written a letter to her mother in August saying. “I simply cannot go on living the degraded and agonized life I have been living, which has stopped my writing and just about ruined my sleep and my health…” (“Sylvia Plath”, Concise Dictionary). The quote shows her desperate call for help. It shows how badly her mental state was at.

Although Plath was not mentally stable, her writing life was indeed successful. Plath’s early works refer to the father figure and racism (Hobsbaum 241). She refers her father image in “Daddy”, “The Colossus”, and “Lady Lazarus”. In The Bell Jar, the narrator experiences many incidents and Hobsbaum states, “what binds these together, if anything, is a persistent sense of loss, focused on the memory of a father” (Hobsbaum 249). In the novel The Bell Jar , the narrator experienced the loss of her father, like Plath. In this case, Plath’s grief over her father binds her works together. Her works “And Summer Will Not Come Again” And “Den of Lions” was both published by Seventeen. Her work was accepted by the Boston Globe and Christian Science Monitor. “Sunday at the Mintons” had won a prize and was published in August 1952. Her early poems were formal in technique, for example, “Female Author” in luces full rhymes and was iambic. At Cambridge University, she was a foreign student. She had tied for first in the Glascock Poetry Contest, along with her thesis for the Marjorie Hope Nicolson Prize. Her poems were published by Delta, Chequer, and Granta. She typed records in a psychiatric clinic of Manhattan General Hospital, and her work “Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams” was inspired by so (Hobsbaum 245). While Plath was pregnant with Nicholas, she completed poems in Crossing the Water, a posthumous collection of poetry. In 1963, Plath’s novel The Bell Jar was published under the pseudonym, Victoria Lucas (“Sylvia Plath”). It was based off her New York experience and her breakdown. The Bell Jar was published less than one month before her suicide (“The Bell Jar”, Novels for Students). Her major works includes: Colossus, The Bell Jar, Ariel, and The Collected Poetry. Colossus is a book of her poems during her life. Ariel include poems that are on a more personal level, inspired from her angers, insecurities, fear, and loneliness (“Sylvia Plath”, Encyclopedia of World Biography). Overall, her works all have deeper meaning towards them, especially those inspired by her life.

Because of the heartbreak the divorce has caused her, Hughes is a replaced of Plath’s father in her poetry. Following the divorce, Hughes left her and her children and Plath moved away with her children to 23 Fitzroy Road (Hobsbaum 256). However, due to the cold weather, her children and her became ill. She often had mood swings and was scarce on money. Plath wrote one more poem called “Edge” on February 5, 1963. During her last five months of living, she ad wrote almost all of the poems in Ariel. On February 11, 1963, in London, Plath’s struggles with her mental illness had come to an end. Plath had died by committing suicide, leaving children with two mugs of milk and buttered bread before her death (“Sylvia Plath”, Encyclopedia of World Biography).

During the time of Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, there was an absence of feminism in the U.S. It considered that men had dominated this time period. For example, when America got involved in World War II, more than six million million women went to work; however, they were to stop working after the war had ended (“Historical Context: The Bell Jar”). During this time of American history, “women’s social and financial standing usually hung on their husbands’ occupation and respective income” (“Historical Context: The Bell Jar”). This time period had more men in the work force, meaning women were less paid. In the 1950s, women were expected to marry, and they did not go to college to support themselves (“The Bell Jar”, Novels for Students). The 1950s was a time when men received two and a half more times more degrees than women. One sources states that in 1960, “five percent single women , thirty two percent married women, and forty nine percent other women was in the American work force” (“Themes and Construction: The Bell Jar”). Another example of comparing sex roles in the 1950s were that men were three times more likely to commit suicide. It was stated that the mental health care in the 1950s improved since the past years (“Sylvia Plath”). The historical background of The Bell Jar deals with the absence of feminism and male domination.

Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar displays the hardship of finding one’s identity and the struggles of mental illness. The novel is told under the perspective of Esther Greenwood, the main character. Plath’s life has influenced her novel since the narrator undergoes problems like Plath, such as being unable to find one’s identity, being haunted by the past, and being depressed. Plath brings the theme of despair and sufferings together with metaphors and dark imagery. Plath’s works see “nature and human experience as mythic” (“Plath, Sylvia”). The Bell Jar analyze themes of “adolescence with metaphysical concerns of disembodiment and annihilation (“Themes and Construction: The Bell Jar”). It mentions how a young girl , in a way, destroyed herself as she was mentally unstable.

The plot of The Bell Jar is divided in to three parts within the span of eight months. Like Plath, Esther Greenwood narrates her experience in New York City, along with her past from college. During this all, she shows her emotional and mental side and struggle to find her identity, and she is not satisfied with men. Greenwood loses her ambition when she was failed into the writing course (“The Bell Jar”, Novels for Students). This causes her to go mental and she begins to do bizarre things, and she even attempts suicide.It focuses on her psychological and mental state. She even becomes obsessed death and suicide.

The themes in The Bell Jar include search for identity and the rebellion against standard female roles. Greenwood is often indecisive on herself, deciding whether she wants to be with a wife with children or continue a life as a poet. Greenwood found herself in relationships, but they all failed and did not satisfy her. Greenwood’s view on marriage was that a wife should obey her husband and do duties for him and their children (“Sylvia Plath”, Encyclopedia of World Biography). The causes of her depression includes that she would not excell as a wife. Plath uses her works to “assert a strong female identity and to balance familial, marital, and career aspirations have established her as a representative voice for feminist concerns” (“Sylvia Plath”). In Plath’s work The Bell Jar, the main character , Esther, isn’t the tradition woman. She is not married, and nor will ever be. She chose the career path of writing, and is not a household wife. In the 1950s, there was an issue with sex roles. In the The Bell Jar, three certain women showed their side of feminine identities. Jay Cee, The editor, has sacrificed her femininity to become an editor. This shows that she is passionate in her work that she focuses on herself and not men like other females. Philomena Guinea, a writer, has also succeeded in her job on her own. Dr. Nolan, Esther’s psychiatrist, succeeds as a professional in her work force. However, there are women that does the opposite and depends on men. For example, Esther’s mom encourages her daughter to marry well and not succeed in her job (“Themes and Construction: The Bell Jar”). In this time of society, there is a social pressure of marriage. Due to these influences, Esther puts effort into men and does lose her virginity. In a way to find her identity, she competes in bizarre ways. One day at a banquet, Esther eats as if she wants to eat more than the other interns (“Themes and Construction: The Bell Jar”). Another example is that she feels defeated when Buddy Willard loses her virginity before her.

In The Bell Jar, there is a theme of a cultural clash. Esther did not come from wealth. Because of that, she considers herself outside of the social circle at college and does make attempts to fit in. Esther is very educated and has her looks, but she is socially an outsider (“Themes and Construction: The Bell Jar”). There is also symbolism seen in the novel. The symbol of the Bell Jar has a significant meaning. It represents the condition of a mental breakdown. It correlates to the novel because Esther is often seen having mental episodes. She often feels as she is inside the jar, she isolates herself away from the world whenever she deals with her mental illness. Near the end of the novel, Plath writes in The Bell Jar, “How did I know that someday—at college, in Europe, somewhere, anywhere—the bell jar, with its stifling distortions, wouldn’t descend again?” (Plath 197). This quote shows that Esther still does not have freedom against the feeling of being trapped. However, it does get to the point where she feels she feels cured but still she feels as though the jar is still there to trap her away from the world again. Mental illness is not something to get over easily. Although Esther may seem as if she is cured mentally, she feels as if her depression could always come back to get her. Because she felt trapped in the jar, her view on the world differed.

His son Heinrich as they are driving to school in the rain. Heinrich told his dad that, in spite of what looks like rain on the windshield, the radio said it wasn’t going to rain until that night. His dad is frustrated. “Just because it’s on the radio doesn’t mean we have to suspend belief in the evidence of our senses.” “Our senses? Our senses are wrong a lot more often that they’re right. This has been proved in the laboratory. Don’t you know about all those theorems that say nothing is what it seems?” (White Noise, 25)

In White Noise, the authority is given to computer and media to speak thereby placing them in a position of power over common people like Jack. As a SIMUVAC officer tells Jack, I didn’t say it. The computer did. The whole system says it. It’s what we call a massive data-base tally. Gladney, J.A.K. I punch in the name, the substance, the exposure time and then I tap into your computer history. Your genetics, your personals, your medicals, your psychological, your police- and- hospitals. It comes back pulsing stars… It just means you are the sum total of your data. No man escapes that (White Noise, 165). DeLillo shows a kind of discourse through illustrating Jack as the chair of the Hitler Studies department at College-on-the-Hill. This position gives Jack the power to speak and even hold a conference on Hitler Studies, while he cannot speak even one word German. He says; “Hitler gave me something to grow into and develop towards, tentative as I have sometimes been in the effort” (White Noise, 19).

In White Noise, Jack is in quest of finding relief for his existential angst in a whole series of discourses such as consumerism, science, and media. He talks of his angst as: “Facts threaten our happiness and security. The deeper we delve into the nature of things, the looser our structure may seem to become” (White Noise, 97). He is in the position of appreciating the ironies of contemporary existence while simultaneously being subject to them. Consumerism is another discourse of the twentieth century. There is a belief, produced through media advertising, that one can shop his/her way out of any personal trauma. When shopping, people may define an identity, an idea of who they are. As Jack says about shopping:

It seems to me that Babette and I, in the mass and variety of our purchases, in the sheer plenitude those crowded bags suggested, the weight and size and number, the familiar package designs and vivid lettering, the giant sizes, the family bargain packs with Day-Glo sale stickers, in the sense of replenishment we felt the sense of well-being, the security and contentment these products brought to some snug home in our souls- it seems we had achieved a fullness of being that is not known to people who need less, expect less, who plan their lives around lonely walks in the evening. (White Noise, 24).

While shopping suggests a sort of relief for Jack, and a feeling of control over his life, Jack soon understands that his economic and social conditions are still of little significance in the grand scheme of things: I’m not just a college professor. I’m the head of a department. I don’t see myself fleeing an airborne toxic event. That’s for people who live in mobile homes out in the scrubby parts of the country, where the fish hatcheries are (White Noise, 136-7).

The accidental toxic clouds, the natural disaster, the arbitrary act of violence, are the disturbing angst. The discourse of consumerism fails when it matters, in significant times of life and death. Jack is not able to buy his way out of his exposure to the toxic cloud. In dealing with his exposure, Jack must leave himself to another discourse, that of science.

Dylar is the chemical drug, which Jack’s wife, Babette, has secretly been taking to counteract her fear of death. Facing the very real possibility of imminent death, Jack becomes obsessed with the drug, even though Babette said that it didn’t work, that she still dreaded death. Jack is fascinated by the idea that a little white pill could contain the end to his fear.

As he says, Dylar is almost as ingenious as the microorganism that ate the billowing cloud. Who would have believed in this existence of a little white pill that works as a pressure pump in the human body to provide medication safely and effectively, and self-destructs as well? I am struck by the beauty of this (White Noise, 219).

Finally, Jack appeals Nietzschean philosophy that is ‘will to power’. He decides that he will attempt to overcome death by causing the death of another. Throughout the novel, Jack had appealed to his professional life, to Hitler studies, to overcome his fear of death, “Some people are larger than life, Hitler is larger than death” (White Noise, 330). The idea behind this is that a tyranny so large, a horror so obscure, could overpower something as small as any individual’s fear of death. However, after Jack actually does attempt to enact his will to power, and shoots Mr. Gray- Dylar Owner-, he finds:

What else do we find? Certainly there is awe, it is all awe, it transcends previous categories of awe, but we don’t know whether we are watching in wonder or dread, we don’t know what we are watching or what it means, we don’t know whether it is permanent, a level of experience to which we will gradually adjust, into which our uncertainty will eventually be absorbed, or just some atmospheric weirdness, soon to pass. (White Noise, 373)

DeLillo, also, represents a bleak analysis of how we are brought to see a form of reality which considerably narrows our view of what is possible. DeLillo attempts to identify that how, in our own time, our perception of reality is changing when it falls into different discourses.

The novel starts as the narrator laments on his childhood as he constantly tried to draw a Boa Constrictor eating an elephant. When he would show grown-ups his drawing they would constantly assume that it was a hat despite all his efforts in drawing it differently. The grownups around him encouraged him to quit drawing and pay more attention to more practical things and so he became a pilot.

As a pilot the narrator would encounter many grownups and when he would sense that any of those grownups were perceptive, he would put them to the test and show them his drawing and he would ask them what they saw. To his dismay and disappointment, the answer would constantly be “a hat”. By this cleaver test, the pilot would know to discuss superficial things with the grownups he would encounter rather than stars and things that would require an imaginative mind.

The Pilot spends his life in solitude until one day his plane crashes in the Sahara Desert. While he attempts to fix his engine, he hears a little voice from behind telling him to draw him a sheep. The little voice came from The Little Prince who seemed unaffected by the harsh weather conditions in the Sahara.

As the Pilot tries to draw a sheep, the prince is displeased saying that one is too old, the other resembles a goat and another seems ill. In his frustration the Pilot draws a box with holes in it and tells the Little Prince that the sheep is inside. The prince is pleased with this drawing as it appeases his imagination. The Little Prince also ignores the Pilot’s questions as to why he is here.

The Pilot explains to The Little Prince that he was flying an airplane when he fell out of the sky. Amused, The Little Prince asks The Pilot what planet he came from and he discovers that The Prince comes from a small planet by the name of asteroid B-612.

The narrator explains that the asteroid was discovered by a Turkish astronomer in 1909 whose discoveries were refused at first since he presented his findings in a Turkish costume. His discoveries were later applauded after he presented them in European clothes. These details are presented by Saint-Exupery to satirize the superficial nature of mankind.

The Little Prince asks the Pilot if a sheep could eat a baobab tree, but the pilot responds that not even masses of elephants could eat a single baobab tree. The Little Prince then states the fact that before they grow into a magnificent size, a baobab tree is no larger than a rose bush and could be easily weeded out. The narrator then explains that the baobab trees pose a threat to The Little Prince’s small planet and we later discover that pulling out baobab trees is a part of the prince’s morning routine on his little planet.

Later, The Little Prince expresses his desire to see the sunset. But the Pilot exclaims that the sun will only set later in the day. With this the reader learns that The Little Prince could see the sunset whenever he pleased in his home planet, all he needed to do was walk and relocate to a different spot. The Little Prince claims that he had once seen the sun set forty-four times in one day. He also states that he watches the sunset when he is sad. It seems that the prince wants to see the sunset at that moment because he is homesick.

One day The Little Prince asks The Pilot if sheep eat flowers with thorns. The Pilot responds while preoccupied with fixing his engine that sheep would eat anything in their way. The Little Prince is upset by The Pilot’s response and asks him what the thorns are for if not to protect the flowers. The Pilot responds that thorns are useless and that flowers only have them for spite. The Little Prince immediately becomes defensive and says that flowers are weak creatures whose only reassurance is their powerful thorns.

Meanwhile, The Pilot becomes increasingly irritated and impatient and tells The Little Prince that he is busy with “Matters of consequence”. The Little Prince is hurt by that response and so he accuses The Pilot of behaving like the grownups who only care of superficial things. The Prince begins to tell The Pilot as well as the readers of his one and only unique rose that could be taken away by the sheep.

The Pilot returns to his senses and seeks to comfort the prince and tells him that he will draw a muzzle for the sheep. The Little Prince begins to introduce the character of the rose who he found growing as a shrub in his home planet. As the rose grew she became vain and asked for a glass globe to shield her from the cold nights which she claimed she was not accustomed to. The Prince begins to realize that she could not possibly remember where she came from as a seed and begins to grow unhappy with her dishonesty.

The Little Prince admits that he should not have left his rose and that he was too young and naïve to love her properly. The Little Prince cleans his three volcanoes, pulls out a few baobab trees and waters his rose before he resolves to leave his planet with a flock of migrating birds. When the little prince came to place the glass shield on the rose and say goodbye, she apologizes for her behavior and confesses her love for him and prevents him from placing the glass shield on her. Instead, she says that she does not need it and that she can defend herself with her thorns.

The Prince visits numerous asteroids, each with a single inhabitant representing and satirizing a feature in grownups and society. He comes across a planet with a King who orders The Little Prince not to yawn. When the Little Prince says its involuntary, he orders him to yawn and the prince says he cannot do that either. The Little Prince sees through The King’s façade and asks him what he rules over if his planet is empty, the king says he rules over the entire universe and The Little Prince asks him to showcase his authority by ordering the sun to set.

The King says that it is not yet appropriate and instead says that he will order the sun to set at twenty minutes to eight (The time the sun actually sets). The Little Prince becomes bored and resolves to move onto another planet. The King in his desperate need to exercise his authority appoints The Little Prince as his Ambassador so it would appear that it was The King who sent him away.

The Little Prince goes on to meet a vain man who seeks to be admired. The man asks the prince if he admires him and The Little Prince asks what that means. The man says that in order for someone to be admired they must be the best in the planet. He then moves on to another planet where he encounters a drunkard who is stuck in a cycle of addiction and drinks because he is ashamed of drinking.

Then he encounters a businessman who keeps track of stars in order to own them rather than enjoy their beauty. Later he encounters a lamp lighter who lights a lamp and blows it out every thirty seconds. The Little Prince is aware of the absurdity of all the inhabitants of all the five planets he had visited, but confesses that the Lamplighter is the least absurd of all as he serves the greater good and in his selflessness the Lamplighter sacrifices the thing he desires the most, his sleep.

The Little Prince moves on to another planet that is much larger than the ones he had landed on before. He encounters a geographer who claims to be a man of knowledge who knows the location of everything in the universe. But when The Little Prince asks him what his planet has, the geographer says that he does not know as he is way too valuable to go exploring.

The geographer takes an interest in the prince and asks him what his planet has. The Little Prince responds that his planet is unimportant and only has three volcanoes and a rose. The geographer says that he does not count flowers because they are momentary creatures and recommends that he visits planet Earth.

When the little prince lands on planet Earth, he meets a flower which knows nothing and tells the little prince that there are only a few inhabitants on the planet. He also meets a snake who speaks in riddles and in fact wanted to poison him but then decides not to when he sees his innocence. The snake tells the little prince that he will ‘take him home’ when he is too homesick.

The narrator stresses the fact that the earth has all the specimens of grownups that The Little Prince has met and all of those make up approximately 2,000,000,000. While the prince explored earth, he came across a row of roses all of which resemble the rose he himself had. He realizes that his rose was not so unique and special after all. Little did he know that he would meet a fox that would change his perception.

When the little prince shows his grief as he cries in a field of grass, he encounters the fox who teaches him the philosophy of being tamed. The fox says that there are many foxes and many little boys in the universe but when one establishes strong ties and becomes tamed by the other, they become unique to each other. The fox tells The Little Prince that the rose has tamed him and that the time they spent together makes them unique to each other.

The fox asks the little prince to tame him and he does so, but when it is time for the prince to leave, the fox is saddened and begins to cry. However the fox tells the prince that regardless of how sad he feels, being tamed was good for him and that he will always hold his memory dear and think of him whenever he would see the color of wheat grain that matches that of his hair.

The next time The Little Prince sees the bed of roses, he tells them that they are untamed and that they are not like his own rose that is unique to him. As the fox and the prince part, he teaches him a valuable lesson to look with his heart and not with his eyes. The Little Prince then meets a railway switchman and asks where the grownups travel by train, the man replies that they go aimlessly from place to place without any idea what they are seeking, the only ones who care to look out of the window of the train are the children. The Little Prince says that the children are the only ones who know what they are seeking.

The Little Prince then meets a merchant that’s selling a pill that allegedly quenches the thirst and saves one 53 minutes a week. The Little Prince exclaims that if he had fifty three extra minutes he would spend them in the pursuit of fresh water. For there is nothing sweeter than the satisfactory fruit that comes from hard work.

The story ends as the little prince and the pilot find water after eight days of thirst. However after the bond they shared The Little Prince exclaims that it was the one year anniversary of the day he descended to earth. It was time for the prince to go back home and so he ordered the pilot not to follow him to the snake because it might hurt him to see the little prince appear to be dead.

The pilot follows the little prince anyway and watches as he disappears, his body never to be found. Before his disappearance the prince asks the pilot to draw a muzzle for the sheep, but 6 years later as the pilot tells the story to commemorate the little prince, he laments on the fact that he had discovered that he forgot to add a strap on the muzzle and worries that the sheep may have eaten the rose.

A proper performer sinks into the melody and creates an surroundings for others to sink in, however Jose is a performer who just needs everyone to praise her. She can make a mournful and enigmatical face but she does not sense so, and she can sing a tearful “Goodbye” in a fantastic smile. Mansfield intensifies the evaluation between the sad track and the completely happy singer via writing down the lyrics as nicely as the way Jose performs it. The lyrics are melancholy however Jose is happy, and the happiness brings the scene with a strong irony. The separation between the song and the performer displays the indifference of human beings in the center class. They are all about taking part in themselves and they exhibit no emotions to “the weary life”.

The 2d war between Laura and her mom is more extreme when Laura tried to convince her mom to cancel the garden party. When Mrs. Sheridan was informed through Laura that anybody died, she was once frightened because she notion if the man died in the garden, the party would be influenced. And as Laura emphasised the useless man used to be their close to neighbor, Mrs. Sheridan took it as a normal accident, and she felt careworn about the lifestyles condition of the dead man: “It’s only via accident we’ve heard of it. If any one had died there normally—and I can’t recognize how they keep alive in these poky little holes” (Mansfield, 2018, p. 226). Then finally Mrs. Sheridan misplaced her endurance and insisted that those terrible people be not worth sacrificing or even spoiling everyone’s mood. These three parts categorical the same ideas of Mrs. Sheridan.

She does now not suppose people are equal. She believes she herself has a social circle which will by no means touch the circle the place people residing in poky little holes belong to, and her category by no means sacrifice due to the fact of human beings of decrease classes. After the party used to be over, Laura and her mother and father sat down and started speakme about the birthday celebration affairs and the lifeless carter. Mrs. Sheridan is hypocritical in the entire garden party. She stated “I’m exhausted” (Mansfield, 2018, p. 228), but it used to be she who left the birthday celebration to her teens and barely did anything except for ordering a lot of flowers. At the beginning she wanted her adolescents to treat her as an honored guest. Although she complained about why kids gave parties each and every year, she was the one who loved each and every birthday celebration and feared there was any hassle influencing the party. As a result, when Mrs. Sheridan said “these parties” (ibid.) twice in row, what she certainly desired to point out was once “it’s been very successful”, and she used to be comfy with this party.

This hypocritical style persevered when she talked about the useless carter again. Mrs. Sheridan thinking about giving the terrible household some comfort, so she let Laura convey them a basket with the meals left in the party. Then she let Laura supply them the arum lilies because “people of that type are so impressed by way of arum lilies” (Mansfield, 2018, p. 229). However, having seen the plants might destroy Laura’s lace frock, she simply let Laura deliver the basket. Finally, when Laura was once about to leave, she said to Laura “don’t on any account—” and stopped.

From right here we know Mrs. Sheridan is no longer sympathetic to the negative carter’s family. She simply feels, as a higher, richer and happier class, that it is the righteous issue to show some mercy to those who live poorly and now not decently. The ultimate sentence that she didn’t end is truly a warning. She did now not choose Laura to get interfered with the lower classes a lot, and she herself had true reason— “better not push such thoughts into the child’s head” (Mansfield, 2018, p. 230). These traditional elements of upper-middle classification are what Mansfield desires to criticize. In this part when Jose pointed out the possibility that lilies might break Laura’s dress, Mansfield describes Jose as “practical”. To Mrs. Sheridan, Jose used to be practical because she observed the profit of her class. As a result, “practical” is also a phrase containing some ironic tone, pointing to the type that takes its personal profit as the most necessary thing.

As Laura left her house and got here to the carter’s, the covert progression below the plot development of the upper-middle classification backyard birthday party used to be stopped. Mansfield uses many techniques to depict thecharacters in the upper-middle type family and all these strategies are pointing to the actual mindset of the human beings in such a class—they are only involved about the earnings of their very own and are detached to the training lower than them. In the complete story, Mansfield does now not criticize this directly, but we can experience a glide of irony in it. This sort of irony is hidden beneath the narration and manifests itself only if we soar out of the plot improvement and depiction of the persona and connect them with a large context—the cover progression. Mansfield is skilled in finding out the elements of the upper-middle class, and she makes use of the narrator who observes and describes to match these facets to the behaviors of these people. We can easily locate additional phrases in her depiction, but none of them is redundant. It is like a story teller who love arranging phrases to add his personal judgments to a story, but he in no way wants others to recognize them easily, but in this way, he makes the story lively and handy to be explored.