Author Archives: Dawson Zimmerman

I think its important to look at the small differences between Bust Down the Doors and the Gates of Hell Version because they caused me to look at the same story differently. The original Bust Down the Doors was from … Continue reading →

Of course we don’t find out who it is that bids on Pierce’s stamps. It is only fitting that Oedipa continually gets more confused as she hallucinates muted post horns. The whole point of this novel is to satirize the … Continue reading →

The first chapter of the novel is, as I expected, difficult to piece together. But this isn’t a case where the author’s scholarly brilliance overwhelms our simpleton minds: Pynchon is intentionally toying with us. It seems he is intentionally structuring … Continue reading →

A poem that I think we merely glanced at and failed to give its appropriate analysis is “Photograph:Ice Storm, 1971.” “Photograph:Ice Storm, 1971” discusses the differences between outer beauty and inner turmoil. Throughout the poem there is a running theme … Continue reading →

I found it interesting in the first poem, “The Southern Crescent,” how what seems to be  prose can be put into stanzas and be read as poetry. Had this been in the form of a paragraph, I think that I would … Continue reading →

I agree with one of the posts below me that disagreed with the excessive amount of emphasis Mcdowell placed on the supposed sexual overtones in Passing. Mcdowell discusses Irene’s infatuation with Clare as “Irene’s awakening sexual desire for Clare”(374). She … Continue reading →

Epigraph: “One three centuries removed From the scenes his fathers loved, Spicy grove, cinnamon tree, What is Africa to me? -Countee Cullen Before I even began to read Passing I was immediately intrigued by the epigraph before Chapter 1 and … Continue reading →

I think “The Raven”, unlike “The Emperor of Ice-Cream”, is much more straightforward in its intended meaning. It’s obvious that the narrator is being tortured by the Raven and the repetitive “Nevermore” that refuses to let him emerge from his … Continue reading →

Walter Benjamin is always a good read if you feel like taking an hour to understand two pages. An argument in “The Storyteller” that Benjamin keeps repeating and pulling to the forefront is the difference between the “story” and the … Continue reading →

When I first read Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I could not stop for Death” I immediately noticed how calmly Dickinson seemed to view the concept of death in general and especially her own death. “Because I could not stop for … Continue reading →