Annotated Bibliography

I couldn't get the spacing right. It wouldn't let me tab over or even space bar it over. I know it's a little late, but here it is anyways.

Annotated Bibliography

Dayan, Joan. “Review: Gothic Naipaul.” Transition 59.1 (1993): 158-170. JSTOR. Web. 15 Dec. 2009.

Drake, Sandra. “Race and Caribbean Culture.” Wide Sargasso Sea. Ed. Judith L. Raiskin. New York: Norton, 1999. 193-206.

In Sandra Drake’s essay she talks about how Antoinette is more comfortable with the native of the island. She would rather lean towards the natives then away from them. She realizes that the island is the direction of her past and her future. Although Antoinette is white she feels as if she fits in better with the people of the island. This goes along with my argument because although she feels as if she can relate better with the islanders, when Tia rejects her, she feels alienated and isn’t able to find her identity because she feels like she doesn’t fit in anywhere even though deep inside she knows it’s with the island somehow.

Fayad, Mona. “Unquiet Ghosts: The struggle for Representation in Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea.” Wide Sargasso Sea. Ed. Judith L. Raiskin. New York: Norton, 1999. 225-239.

In Mona Fayad essay she discusses the fact that Antoinette maintains a sense of autonomy because she labels Mason ‘white pappy’ therefore connecting her to her past with past. This relates to my essay topic because Antoinette can’t find her identity through her white heritage, and she can’t completely find it through her link to the black world either because she is not black.

Greenberg, Robert. “Anger and the Alchemy of Literary Method in V. S. Naipaul's Political Fiction: The Case of The Mimic Men.” Twentieth Century Literature 46.2 (2007): 214-237. JSTOR. Web. 15 Dec. 2009.

Harris, Wilson. “Carnival of Psyche: Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea.” Wide Sargasso Sea. Ed. Judith L. Raiskin. New York: Norton, 1999. 188-192.

In Wilson Harris’s he talks about how Anoitnette’s madness is her surrendering her life. She was unable to find her soul, so she lost it. This is exactly true, and it helps me with my argument because Antoinette and Ralph’s father gave up on life and Ralph chose to press forward and to move on through any obstacle.

Naipaul, V.S. The Mimic Men. New York: Vintage International, 1997. Print.

Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. Ed. Judith L. Raiskin. New York: Norton, 1999. Print.

ABSTRACT

In The Mimic Men, Things Fall Apart, and Wide Sargasso Sea there is a common thread of madness among people who don’t have a sense of identity. However not everyone who has a lack of identity becomes mad. The factors leading up the three people in these novels are all different but they correlate in different ways. Ralph on the other hand also suffered from a lack of identity, but he did not go mad because he was smart and had the drive to become successful where as the other three did not. These three were weaker and could not handle what life threw at them. There circumstances were too much for them and slowly they became mad because of them.

Each novel has a character who went mad and different circumstances led up to the event. In The Mimic Men, Ralph Singh’s father married into a family that made more money then he did and little by little that drove him crazy. Also, he doesn’t feel like he is being appreciated and recognized for his achievements for what he has done in his life including being a missionary. He proves his madness by taking his family on a reckless drive, he gets riled up about the bat and breaks things, he breaks all of the bottles in the store, and finally he leaves his family and takes a bunch of people outside the town for some religious following. In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo’s father goes mad because he can never be successful or be a great tribe member. He always has to borrow and he brings shame to his family. He ends up being an outcast and Okonkwo always things of him as a failure. In the Wide Sargasso Sea Antoinette had a crazy mother to begin with and a horrible childhood. She didn’t fit in and could make any real friends. She is coerced into a marriage with a man she did not know. She does many crazy things to prove her madness including drugging her husband, attacking someone while being in the attic and she doesn’t remember any of it. She also sees herself as sort of a ghost in the end of the novel.

Ralph on the other hand didn't have a sense of identity either but he never went crazy. This is counter argued by discussing the fact that he was a stronger person and had the drive and was smart enough to become successful whereas the other three characters did not. Ralph was able to realize when his marriage wasn’t working and was able to get out of it successfully. He was able to make a lot of money by buying land and selling spaces. Even though he didn’t really know himself very well he was a smart person and could overcome any obstacle.

THE AVALANCHE

So, this evening we made it to the Avalanche and they were SO surprised that there were only six of us (all girls) and we wanted to order THE AVALANCHE. Before they came out of the kitchen they yelled AAAVVVAAALLLAAANNNCCCHHHHEEEE and of course Heather and the other girls at our table started cheering and so everyone in the entire restaurant was staring at us when the waiter brought us the desert. EMBARASSING. Haha.

It wasn’t as tall as I thought it was going to be, but there was definitely WAY too much for the six of us to come close to finishing much less ONE person eating the entire thing. That is crazy. There is seriously a WHOLE BOX of brownie at the bottom starting that thing off. It was ridiculous! Haha.

Additionally, somehow it came up with the waiter that we were getting extra credit for this and so the kitchen staff wanted to know which teacher was doing this and so Heather said “Julie Meloni” and the waiter says “Julie Bologna?” All of us seriously LOL-ed. He didn’t understand why an English teacher would give us extra credit for getting a gigantic desert, but I explained to him how we had read a story that had to do with gluttony (the cowboy chicken story) and he totally got it.  The employees there were way too amused with us and our monstrous desert it was awesome. The whip cream melted all over the table and the busser kept eyeing us and our messy table.

THE AVALACHE:

SHE WAS SHOCKED!

AND HEATHER WAS HUNGRY…


FINISHED PRODUCT:

Proposal

I don't have a tentative works cited yet, but for my essay I'm going to write about madness in Wide Sargasso Sea and in The Mimic Men and how post colonialism effected it. Any additional ideas or comments would be appreciated!