ESSAY CEMETERY

Themes ·        Aunt gladys's English is botched:           “You’re going to   call her you don’t know her?” ·        Aunt Gladys criticizes everything ·        Preoccupation with the body: plastic surgery, fix the eyes, Brenda is myopic… “Where did you get those fine shoulders? Do you play something?” “No,” I said. “I just grew up and they came with me.” “I like your body. It’s fine.” ·        Language creates reality:       Actually we   did not have the feelings we said we had until we spoke them—at least I didn’t; to phrase them was to invent them and own them. ·        Metafiction, self-reflexivity, awareness of style ·        Imagining the future ·        Senescence ·        Race and skin color People and Places ·        Neil ·        Brenda Patimkin ·        Aunt Gladys ·        Doris the cousin ·        Laura Simpson Stolowich "Simp" ·        Uncle Max ·        Carlota the maid (a Navajo-Negr

1 A man with a grouchy look sits slumped and orders griddle cakes. The waitress who takes his order and isn't very pretty tries hard to get him to smile back and finally softens him a little. He eats his griddle cakes thoughtfully and before he leaves asks the waitress without hope when she gets off work. 2 He walks in the streets around the library, meets a woman he knows and declines accompanying her because he has a meeting soon. She is erect and he hunched but slightly cheered. He walks to the Automat. The waitress is waiting, wearing clothes that do not suit her. She has a "volatile" face that often changes expression. He asks her name – Jennie – and guesses that her family hails from Spain. She answers, hurt, that she is American-born from California. Her speech is incorrect and "New Yorkish". 3 He buys her an ice cream, and suggests that Jennie is too common a name and calls her Dolores. She asks his name and he says she won't be able t

Lamed Shapiro. Image source Themes Appearance and ethnicity ·        Hypocrisy – he wants her name to be ethnic and his not. ·        Fragmentation and globalization ·        Concentrating on the outside ·        Mean and condescending ·        Epistemology and the individual ·        Insists on making her into a whore Style and devices Fragmented Frequently recurring words Movie Theater Griddle cakes Volatile Rose People and places The Automat Public library Jennie New York California Spain LUNCHROOM, POPULAR PRICES Bronx 5 th avenue 59 th street 10 th avenue

1 Neil calls Brenda, who he met at a country club visiting his cousins, for a date. They meet and she is uppity. They talk about her nose job and kiss. 2 They go to the club after Brenda invites Neil. They are lovey-dovey. Then they go to dinner at Brenda's. Their house is very upperclass and he feels uncomfortable. Brenda's mother contributes. They talk – Brenda's mother is critical of her for her luxurious lifestyle, even though they can afford it. They are a very athletic family and Neil isn't. 3 Neil arrives early to his job at the library and spends the time sitting in a park contemplating Newark with great familiarity. Once at the library, a black boy goes to the art section to look at Gaugin paintings. He is impressed. He goes to the Patimkins' and they leave Neil home to look after Julie while they go take Ron to the airport. He is unresponsive to her play suggestions. Philip Roth

Delmore Schwartz In Dreams Begin Responsibilities Themes Movies as drug of escapism Daydreaming is hereditary in this family Struggling to piece together the movie Nature reflects emotions ·        Preoccupation with preservation of the moment, with immortalization of the moment rather than the experience; the grand scheme of things more important than the moment; a sense of doom and appreciation of the attempt to fix the sense, to fix the past ·        Anxiety of conformity which is illustrated by the structure of the dream – like a movie – feels he is watched and doesn't do things right ·        Is he anxious about not being born? Is he desperate for his parents' relationship to have worked? He sees his parents' mistakes clearly and is desperate not to repeat them, to do what's right, a "right" that is dictated by society. Style and devices First person narrator telling a story as a third person narrator

1 The narrator feels as though he is in the screening of a low quality old Biograph film. He imagines (or recalls from a story) his father walking in Brooklyn on a Sunday to meet his mother in 1909. He arrives at his mother's house while they are still eating. He is respected and liked. His mother comes downstairs. Something happens to the film and he is jarred out of the dream state and into his unhappiness but soon returns. 2 They leave the house arm in arm, his mother telling the plot of a novel she's reading and his father criticizing its characters. They take a street car to Coney Island. His father exaggerates the amount of money he makes. This is characteristic and the narrator begins to cry and is hushed by the lady sitting beside him. 3 The two are in Coney Island. They look at the beach from the boardwalk with its many bathers and at the boardwalk. They look at the waves breaking on the shore. The ocean and the sun burning overhead are intolerable and t

Themes and prominent elements ·        Jewish girl participating in Christian activities ·        Cultural immersion ·        Excessive, childish praising of god ·        Family disagreements over acculturation ·        Spunky little girl Style and devices ·        humor "In that case, don't be silly; I might very well be your teacher someday. Speak up, speak up."           "Yes," I shouted. "More like it," he said. "Now, Shirley, can you put a ribbon in your hair or a bobby pin? It's too messy."   "Yes!" I bawled." People and places ·        Mrs. Abramowitz ·        Mr. Bialik ·        Coney Island ·        Shirley ·        Mr. Hilton ·        Mrs. Jordan ·        Misha ·        Cramer ·        Miss Glace ·        Clara ·        Mr. Sauerfeld ·        Mrs. Kleig ·        Ira Pushkov ·        Jackie Saurfield ·        More kids' names Grace Paley