Wednesday, October 21, 2009

One of My Earliest Memories

It was a cool trip to Miami, Florida, when i was about 2 or 3 years old. I remember staying at one of my dad's relatives house over in the suburbs, getting up in the morning in with my small blanket, or "bubba" (hehe) and eating some Alphabet cereal. Over at the beach, I hung on to daddy, squirting water at him with the little squirty toy I had. The water was warm, and the sun was blasting out some heavy heat. Meanwhile, my mommy was sitting on the beach, reading one of those big books, as we all had a fun, fun time.
Later during the trip, we went to visit one of my dad's other relatives from Cuba, who had come to the U.S. along with the rest of her family. She had this fridge full of Coke, which I much enjoyed, and me and my brother caught some of those teeny-tiny lizards that were scurrying into the cracks of the concrete. We also visited the chicken coop, and tried to touch some eggs, but those bad,mean hens really pecked at us and made me mad.

P.S Know it's not that early, but it's earliest full memory I can recall.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Catch-22: Tone

I believe the dominant literary element in Catch-22 is tone. Joseph Heller probably used this element heavily to enhance the main point of the story, which is its satirical value. The tone of the dialouge helps you to understand that Heller is making fun of military life, and how it affects the men under the command of their superiors. One example that particularly stood out to me is when one of Yossarians friends is talking to Colonel Cathcart, and the Colonel uses the typical "military" tone of voice and keeps telling him that he doesn't answer his questions, even though they make no sense at all.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Outside Reading Number One

I am somewhat enjoying my reading up to this point. Catch-22 is not the kind of book that would really grab your attention at first, but rather waits for a hook, and then drag you into it's plot, making it so you can't put it down. With that, I think it's going to be pretty good. Imagery seems to be the dominant literary element so far, though I am not sure yet. One example is when he describes one of Yossarians bombing runs, in which the author documents his every action to show that he doesn't care if he hits the target, as long as somebody else does and he does not have to go back. He may be using this to enhance the books satirical tone, as he makes fun of all of the soldiers who are afraid of the jobs they volunteered for. The tone appears to be remaining consistent through each chapter, with Hellers laugh provoking dialouge and imagery at the forefront, engaging you in the book.