Evalutation of Characters from "Reunion" and "Drinking Coffee Elsewhere"

Examination of characters:

Reunion –

Charlie – the son in this story seems to really want to love his father. At the beginning of this story he expresses how proud and happy to be with his father he is, however by the end of the story he comes to the realization that he does not like the personality and arrogance of his father. Charlie appears to be shy and soft spoken. He never tells his dad what is bothering him and never shows any signs of embarrassment for the way his father is treating the waitresses and waiters. However Charlie still demonstrates signs of unrequited love for his father. At the end of the story Charlie refers to his father as “daddy” three times in a row. This proves that Charlie acknowledges that his father is his father and it is somewhat of an affectionate term. Charlie is perhaps continually saying “daddy” in order to build in his mind a relationship, full of affection with his father, which he does not have. However ultimately he does not see his father every again, implying that actions speak louder than words and he does not like or value his fathers character.

Father – Charlie’s father is boisterous, arrogant, aggressive, pompous, irritating and self righteous. These qualities are expressed in his interactions with the waiter and the newsstand clerk. He addresses them very rudely. He seems to want to impress his son very much, ordering his underage son beer, and continually stating that he wishes he could have brought Charlie to his club….if only they had more time. His father also seems very unaware of his actions and how they are affecting Charlie. Charlie is obviously remaining quite quiet, and very uncomfortable with his father’s behavior, however his father takes no notice of this. Charlie’s father is good looking, however he does not have a pleasant personality. Furthermore he is often yelling at waiters in a different language, perhaps representing that Charlie does not want to hear of understand the things his father is saying because of how crude they are.

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere:

Dina – Dina is a black girl who comes from an area of poverty in Baltimore. She is a loner and very quick to judge other people. She has these enormous feelings of animosity against white people, black people, happy people, people who want to help her… basically everybody and anybody. People are always reaching out to her, and she is always turning them away. Her mother died when she was younger and she did have a rough childhood where money way tight, and these experiences have affected her very much. She is confused about her sexuality and keeps turning her back on her attempts towards happiness. She is smart, witty, and unafraid to stand up for herself and always prepared with a quick comeback to someone’s remark. However she does care a lot about what people think about her. She also comes across as insensitive and nonchalant about important issues, such as Heidi’s mom’s death. In my opinion this is why she is afraid to go forth in her relationship with Heidi. Dina is an intellectual thinker, and as her physiatrist describes her, a pretender. She sees her life as she wants to see it, and when things don’t go as planned she has no problems pretending nothing is wrong. She is afraid or accomplishment and failure and therefore never finishes anything she starts including her relationship with Heidi and her education at college. She is a thinker not a doer. She can sit in a room all day thinking of actions which she would like to do, but has trouble actually attaining and accomplishing her goals.

Heidi – Heidi is a girl from Canada who goes to Yale with Dina. She seems more relatable and real than Dina. For starters she experiences actual emotions and is not afraid to let others into her life. She is a loner but not by choice, people judge her based on her dikey and slightly over weight appearance. She is a nurturer, as demonstrated with her constant and open affection with Dina. Heidi will place her arm around Dina, or give her a hug when she is sad. Furthermore when Dina runs away from Heidi, Heidi stays by her side. This is evident when the girls are talking about their future professions and what they will be. Dina says she wants a library in a deserted town, and Heidi says she wants a phyciatrist clinic in that ghost town so she can help and be with Dina. Heidi is also more sensitive to other people’s problems. She is more open and accepting of herself, and this is shown when she admits that she a lesbian and proud on coming out day. Heidi is slightly self conscious and gives into peer pressure a little more easily than Dina. Heidi did not want to undress because she felt she was fat, and she started smoking cigarettes in an attempt to stifle her appetite so she would lose weight.

Quentin vs. Benjy: relationships with time

Quentin’s relationship to time is very contradicting to Benjy’s view of time, however they both have unnatural relationships with time that most people do not have. Quentin is obsessed with time and its progression, this becomes evident through Quentin’s constant need to look at his watch, to keep track of time, to count the seconds of his life that passed him by. In a way this fear of time and the change that comes with time keeps Quentin from fully living his life, and keeps him in fear. Furthermore everything is very chronological to Quentin while Benjy seems to just connect moments of his life together, time is irrelevant but his emotions are what drive him. The tension between Quentin and time is his unhealthy relationship with progression. Quentin hates change and progression because as time goes on his life becomes more out of control. Caddy, his beloved sister travels down the wrong path, his family’s name looses its good affiliations, and his relationships with those around him become more and more damaged. Quentin is obsessed with order and tradition and as his life goes on he looses control over these things which are clearly not important to anyone else in the Compson family. His disapproval of change is also demonstrated in the fact that Quentin often has many ideas but in unable to ever put them into action and cause any real impact. His ideas are half thought out and perhaps he does not complete his ideas because the idea that he himself could cause change also scares him. All of this tension with time finally leads Quentin to suicide by drowning himself. He does this because he can not deal with Caddy’s promiscuity which he finds appalling, and the decline of the Compson family. Quentin looks up to his dad through out the entire book until learning that his role model dad is a sham and does not believe in any of the things he taught Quentin to believe in. Because Quentin feels so helpless, and like everyone in his life has hurt and done him wrong he feels that life is no longer worth fixing or living. From Benjy and Quentin we are given a lot of insight to the true Compton family. We learn that even though Caddy is making wrong decisions her brothers love her more then anyone eles, leading me to believe she is a very compassionate and loving person. We learn of how awful the Compson parents are, and of how the dad’s morals have slipped with his age. Prior to this generation the Compson family had been well respected, wealthy, and liked in the South, and both Quentin and Benjy are very aware of the decline which their family is experiencing. Furthermore, Quentin and Benjy’s narratives show how much of a mother figure Disley has been to their family.
After reading Time and Timepieces: A Note on Quentin's Section I thought that perhaphs Quentin actually wished to escape his obsession of time. This is evident through him destroying the watch, but when I read it I thought it was just him reacting out of desperation to his life and wanting to stop time, not escape his obsession from it. Also i really liked this sentence; "Quentin's time is not his: it is an external force which compresses and compels him". I think that his idea is what I was trying to write about before, but these words make my thoughts anlot clearer in my own head. I also thought it was intresting when this essay called time Quentin's enemy. I wonder if Quentin himself thought this, or this is just what someone looking in on Quentin's life would say?

thoughts on class discussion about family

One thing we discussed today was how raising a family is full of self sacrifice. To be perfectly honest I don't like children and I don't know if I want to have children, but when I consider my future it always includes me as the mother of a nulclear family. Family has always been the center of my life, I have a great one which I love very much. I cant imagine my life alone, and perhaps the reason I see my future as having children in it is becuase I fear being alone. I have watched the self sacrifice my mom has made to raise her family, and I am not sure I am willing to give that much of myself up. I want to be able to pack up and leave, or just go to dinner and not have to find a babysitter. I see all of my friends having children in thier future, and I would'nt want to be the only single one of my friends. I am not that selfish of a person, I am always there if someone needs me, but I value my alone time, something that would be virtually impossible if I was a mother. I am a real person, with needs, goal and desires, something that i never though of my mother having until recently. I am amazed at how i treated her, I basically thought she was my slave. Now when she cant do something for me because she is out with her friends I am more understanding. With age I know my priorities will change, and maybe having a family is something I will truley desire, but for now my focus is myself and my maternal instincts are lacking.