There are many characters in my IRB, a collection of Ray Bradbury's most celebrated short stories. The one I have chosen to see how Bradbury developed him is Sir Robert Merriweather, from The Finnegan. The Finnegan is about a murder mystery in which three young children were discovered after having been drained of all of their fluids. There are three characters in this story: the narrator, Sir Robert Merriweather, and the Finnegan, the culprit behind the murders. Sir Robert Merriweather is introduced as a modest man who is apparently a very observant old man, comparable to Sherlock Holmes. He is also obsessed with doors, as it is described there being anywhere from a hundred and twelve to a hundred and twenty doors in his house. He is described as an avid collector as well, having not used one in nine of his doors after having shipped them from all over the world. He had doors from America, Rio, Paris, Rome, and even Tokyo. He is proud of his collection too, because he sets them up, hinged, in the walls so they can be seen from both sides and conducting tours of them for anyone who wished. He is also shown to be a thinker who likes to think outside of the box, in that he after analyzing the facts, states that the police were anthropomorphic about the killer, thinking him a human. Merriweather, on the other hand, states that the killer is in fact a giant spider, which he has dubbed Finnegan. Bradbury has so far set up Merriweather to be brilliant, but eccentric as he decides to go out for a picnic and drags the narrator along, stating that a secondary purpose was to show the author his hypothesis. Merriweather is also very accepting of the outlandish, as he does not see any problem with the idea of a giant, man-eating spider. In the end, he also shown to have a rather pragmatic side, as he wishes to see Finnegan before he dies. He knows that even if Finnegan does not kill him, cancer will, so he drinks poison and uses himself as bait for Finnegan, both to satisfy his curiosity and to kill the giant spider.

The things that I carry tell a lot about me, both by what they are and what they imply. The multitude of pens that I have shows that I like to prepare excessively for things, while the planner and the schedule shows that I like to plan events out in advance. The laptop indicates that I really like technology, while the old school wallet and phone show that I don't care about what I use as long as it gets the job done, because as long as the wallet can still hold money and my phone still works, they will suffice. This is supported by the lack of an iPhone, because my old phone is currently working fine. It also implies that I do not care about what is popular. Lastly, the book at the top-left corner shows that I love to read, as evidenced by how thick it is.

Blog Entry 5

          The topic of guilt and forgiveness is a major theme in Angela’s Ashes, a memoir by Frank McCourt, and is present in large amounts in the author’s life. Frank has to deal with a large amount of guilt and requests for forgiveness in his childhood, especially later near the end where he reaches puberty. A consistent recurring event that happens throughout the book is his father’s alcoholism, during which he constantly states that he will get a job and often does, but loses it after a week. His father’s feelings about this are never shown, however he does not seem to regret his actions or feel any guilt about drinking away his money. He appears to be deft at deflecting accusations, such as during his exchange with a man to get money from the IRA.

“Oh, it’s the drink you want, is it?”

“One pint is hardly drink”

“You’d walk the miles back and make the boy walk because you want a pint, wouldn’t you?”
“Walking never killed anyone” (McCourt, pg 52)

            As shown here, his father would put himself and his son through a great deal of physical and emotional turmoil for the sake of drink, but he never seems to feel the slightest regret about it. However, the topic of guilt and forgiveness really comes into play later on, during which he steals, lies, and to use the term in the book, ‘interferes’ with himself. He continuously goes to confessions out of guilt and worry at his inability to control his impulses, and later on he enters a sexual relationship with a much older woman named Theresa. Both of them cry whenever they make love, mainly because of all of the conflicting emotions inside them such as guilt and happiness. This, along with other events, eventually caused him to start crying and get noticed by a priest named Father Gregory. He confesses everything to Gregory, and the Father responds by telling him that since God has forgiven Frank, he needs to now forgive himself. Thus, McCourt incorporated the topic of forgiveness and guilt into this memoir by consistently describing how he felt after doing something, and all that provided context for his breakdown near Father Gregory. This is why the major topic in this novel is the one of guilt and forgiveness, because one of the major climaxes in the story is born out of the desire for forgiveness and the emphasis placed on the things that made the author feel guilty throughout the book.

Blog Entry 4

             There is sneering here. There is jeering at the misfortunes of others. Is there anyone in this class that thinks he’s perfect? Raise your hands.

             There are no hands.

             Is there anyone in this class that comes from a rich family with money galore to spend on shoes? Raise your hands.

             There are no hands.

             He says, There are boys here who have to mend their shoes whatever way they can. There are boys in this class with no shoes at all. It’s not their fault and it’s no shame. Our Lord had no shoes. He died shoeless.

It’s a shock to everyone when he says, the Battle of Kinsale in sixteen nought one was the saddest moment in Irish history, a close battle with cruelty and atrocities on both sides.

             Cruelty on both sides? The Irish side? How could that be? All the other masters told us the Irish always fought nobly, they always fought the fair fight. He recites and makes us remember,

They went forth to battle, but they always fell,

Their eyes were fixed above the sullen shields.

Nobly they fought and bravely, but not well,

And sank heart-wounded by a subtle spell.

             If they lost it was because of traitors and informers. But I want to know about these Irish atrocities.

             Sir, did the Irish commit atrocities at the Battle of Kinsale?

             They did indeed. It is recorded that they killed prisoners but they were no better nor worse than the English.

             I think my father is like the Holy Trinity with three people in him, the one in the morning with the paper, the one at night with the stories and prayers, and then the one who does the bad thing and comes home with the smell of whiskey and wants us to die for Ireland.

            

Blog Entry 3

             I am not convinced of Samantha Rau’s statement at the end of the memoir that states that Santha did not really care about Cynthia because of the different name, despite them being the same person. The author chose the title “By Any Other Name”, which is a reference to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in which Juliet says “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”. The quote states that even if the name of something is changed, the owner of that name will still be the same with all the same memories, mannerisms, and physical appearance back when he still had his original name. In the story, ‘Cynthia’ is just another name for Santha, and it is stated that Santha remembers and see’s everything that Cynthia did. Also, it is implied that she took on the persona of ‘Cynthia’ for the duration of her school time. If that had been the case, and she had not been actively paying attention with all of her effort, she would not have remembered everything in such great detail. She can remember her teachers face down to how her glasses looked like, as well as give an approximation of how many people there were in the school and what it had looked like. She states that she cannot remember the proceedings in class very well, however in the next few paragraphs she begins to describe what she did during her first day, i.e. daydream and stare at a lizard hanging on the wall because she already knew pretty much everything the teacher was talking about. This alongside other details she remembered all adds up to the fact that, even if she was not particularly interested in Cynthia, she would still remember all of the events that happened because Santha watched them through ‘Cynthia’, and thus her own, eyes.

Blog Entry 2

             I believe that the actual quality of the thing does not change if it is given a new name. A name is just a label given to an object to try and describe it; it doesn’t actually change what the object is. Even if someone who has a name like Awesome McCoolname gets his name changed to Loser McFailname, he will still have the same mannerisms and appearance as before. The only thing that could change him would be how people treated him and viewed him after, but the name itself would not have been the thing changing him. It’s the same with abstract concepts and things like numbers, because something like “two and two make four” will always be true, even if you decide to rename four as “five”. So, the name itself is just a label to put on something, and it can be changed like any other label, but the actual subject will remain exactly the same. So, I agree with Shakespeare in that a name is ineffectual in that it has no effect on the thing it is naming. In his quote “A rose by any other name”, Juliet talks about Romeo and that, even if he changes his name due to him being from the opposing family, he will still be the same. Despite the fact that because of his name, Romeo’s character and life changes drastically in that his love for Juliet ends with both of them dead, the name itself did nothing. Why all of those events happened is because of the way people viewed that name and how they treated people with it. So, while the name indirectly caused all of these events and names have been the root cause of many other events in the past, the names itself did not actually do anything.

Blog Entry 1

           The book I am reading for my IRB is called Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt. Currently I am about 1/6 done of the book, and a lot has happened. The names of the author’s parents are Angela and Malachy. Malachy is a drunk who has done jail time and is an Irish patriot, while Angela is an immigrant. They had what was originally supposed to be a one-night stand, but Angela got pregnant and her married relatives forced Malachy into a marriage with Angela. He tried to run out, but was caught. Their relationship was rocky, with alternating period of good and bad narrated by the young author. It alternated so that, whenever Malachy got a job, things would be steady for about 1-2 weeks and Angela would be happy, but then he would start drinking at around week 3 and she would start shouting at him. Most of the other events are things that the author remembers, but so far there have been 3 deaths in the family. These are Oliver and Eugene, who were twins, and their daughter Margaret. They all die to some unknown illness, but Margaret’s death hit Malachy the hardest. He began to drink after she died; because once she was born he became enamored with her and stopped drinking. So far I am very interested in the story and I want to know what happens next, and whether Malachy and Angela’s relationship will end. This is because I am curious as to the authors eventual fate with his parents, and whether or not his only remaining brother, Malachy, will die. Angela had for some reason decided to name him after his father. I want to know about the fate of the family, as well as how the author managed to get out of his current living standards.