Blog Post

Chapter 6:

Joe is in Antarctica, enlisted in the navy as a manager radio operator. Joe has been flying, because his pilot died during a 5 day journey between bases.
Why does Chabon shift points of views?

Bruna: He is writing during world war 2 and wanted duel perspectives

Toast: symbolic, joe is not touched with reality any more

Sarah Jane: Joe has a lot of hatred towards Germans

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Quote

Joe tries to land the plane and crashes it and limps out of the plane, and decides that he does not want to kill the Germans. As he attempts to throw his gun, “The American Raised the Gun up across his chest as if to fire in the sky..... the Geologist..... misinterpreted the situation ….. the American had been in the act of tossing the pistol aside.”(pg.464) Mecklenburg is a non violent person who is high on medicine trying to stay awake, preparing for the man (Joe) who was going to kill him. Mecklenburg tackles Joe by mistake and accidentally gets shot.

David: people often act before they think about something

Sarah Jane: following orders, indoctrinated

Toast: Sound of gone gets lost

Mr. Neal: Nothingness, irony Joe in reality kills a German and its not cinematic, but a wrestling match between a Scientist and Artist

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How does Chabon make the last scene very sad?

Joe: hurt ankle, shot in shoulder, and treading through rugged terrain

German: shot, dead weight

Joe is determined to save the German who he just shot.

Jake: “The shock and fragrance of life, steaming red life”- visually riveting, trail of blood

Toast: Mecklenburg’s death is more tragic than the deaths of him family because he did it with his own hands

Courtney: Joe wants to desperately wants to change the situation

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What does Ice represent?

Jake: Vengeance, Hatred
Sarah: Joe has been in a spiritual Antartica while in New York
Mr.Neal: Lack of connection, solitude

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Antarctic expedition, Joe comes across an abandoned hut and sees, a frozen penguin, berries, radio, morphine

Pg. 467-468
“Although the man’s parachute was far beyond his reach. the man was smiling, and pouring a cup of tea.”
-similar to picture Thomas drew
-moving on from family
-needs to return to his own son
-high on morphine
-closure
-forces the reader to compare both Joe’s
-hits reality and understands life

Poorest super hero was Radioman who can travel through radio waves. The Gold key represents when you care about other people and less about yourself and parallels Joe’s situation. Connection between chapter 6 and 7 to the beginning of the book.

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He must learn to think before acting, I personally accuse by brother automatically before assessing the situation.

The next scribe post is Amanda

Brutality Etc.

p. 384

Eleanor Roosevelt
-Joe does not understand that he can't just call up ER
-Rosa and Joe believe that if it wasn't for them, boat wouldn't have been blown up and Thomas would still be alive


Is Joe trying to commit suicide with underwater trick after Thomas' death
-Most likely a suicide attempt
-Irony that Thomas almost died in Joe's first underwater escape, and now he actually dies
-Joe is ashamed that he didn't finish the trick and angry that he was saved

p. 402
Gay party at Love's house gets crashed by cops
-Heterosexual police find a way to break up gay party
-2 G men are predatory gay and force Sammy to perform fellatio by threatening him with imprisonment
-Sammy is hugely ashamed

p. 407/ p. 408
Graphic sexual description
-Used as a metaphor for the intimate relationship between Tracy Bacon and Sammy
-Reminds Tracy of his childhood, and they act childlike
-They then proceed to "get it on like 'Brokeback Mountain'" which is the much more mature form of their relationship
-They then become intimate in the peaceful sense

p. 415
Why does Chabon make the gay rape description so graphic?
-Uses shock value to show blunt, brutal reality of situation
-Huge difference between Tracy/ Sammy love scene and rape scene
-Sammy comes to the conclusion that he is a near-whore and chooses to leave Bacon

p. 421
Rosa chooses to not tell Joe that she's pregnant, then he joins the Navy and she loses the chance
-Night he finds out about Thomas' death
-Sammy convinces her that they should marry so they won't have to kill the baby
-Sammy takes on the role of an undercover superhero for the first time in his life

p. 339
Chabon foreshadows the breaking of the so-called "brotherhood" of Sammy and Joe
-Uses magic as a metaphor for how it's truly fake, no matter the appearance


Analysis:
In this section, Michael Chabon uses dramatic, exaggerated, and at times utterly brutal language to forge the blatant discrepancies between love and hate. Chabon spares no detail when describing events and images, even if they make the reader cringe in disgust. This ultimately has the effect of causing the reader to deeply consider what they are reading and compare and contrast it to other sections of the book.

Sammy and Tracy's first kiss

4/19/11

• Rosa knew Sammy was Gay
• Joe knew but did not want to considerate
• Joe is selfish
• We never really know really who Tracy Bacon is. He is mysterious
• Mysterious origins in comics- power and greatness
• Mysterious origins in real life-  messy problems

p.352

• sammy works at observation deck in the night shift to be somewhat involved in the military
tone of moment of sammy and tracys first kiss:

• electricity- figuratively and literally
• on top of the world
• romantic
• naive
• surprising
• epic and cinematic- like super hero
• symbol for sparks
• homosexuality in the dark so secretive on top of the world. closeted at this time- night
• cigarette- gemstone of heat. make it precious just like the moment
• not threatening- warm and interesting like rosa and joe

p.353

• sparks last sentence
• manly and powerful
• movie its
• “hot” literally
• sparks symbolicly romance

p.380

middle paragraph to the end
tone:
on top of the world, closed off world
the motif of heat is there again- flame
optimistic- own world, future
natural- different intensity
fantasy vs. reality
undertone that they are in the dark

Scribe Post 4/13/11

To start class today, we began by looking for 3 paragraphs of regular plot, 3 paragraphs of style, and three moments that seem insignificant, but are actually quite important.

Here are the moments that the class came up with:

1. p. 287-288: Moment of plot: Letter received from Superman's comic book publisher accuses Kavalier and Clay of copyright infringment
2. p. 208: Moment of style: Descriptive moment talking about inter-twined paths and how it all fits into the story of K&C
3. p. 262:  Moment of desperation wanting brother back
4. p. 255: Sammy is struggling with sexuality when he feels pang of jealousy when seeing Joe and Rosa
5. p. 216: talking about escapist and its importance to K&C
6. p. 275:  Moment of plot:  Joe creates hero, Luna Moth because of his feelings for Rosa.
7. p. 253: Moment of plot:  Joe and Rosa share a moment with an instant connection.  They have their own made up dream language that only they can understand because of their connection.  
1. Sammy see this and also have this connection through language, and now Joe and Rosa have one now and Sammy and Joe's relationship
2. Right before the kiss, "moths scattered"
1. Moth = Death, decay
1. Foreshadowing the decay of the relationship between Sam and Joe
8. p. 178-179:  Moment of hyperbolic description when the Escapist is trapped.  Important line:  "His (Joe's) sense of bureaucracy, of being powerless to help or free his family..."
1. Joe has repeatedly tried to free his family from Prague by going to the consulate but is blocked by "red tape"

and the next scribe post is,  SJ

Figurative Language

4/22/11
- We began class by finding good examples of figurative language.
- "figurative language is language of comparison," - Mr. Neal
- Pg. 372, "Boyfriend...in the other."
- Words "boyfriend" and "moth" connect; they both are evolving, both have sense of entrapment, meaningful, sudden.
- We wrote in our writing journals about this quote and wrote our own analysis of it and shared with the class.
- We watched a short movie trailer for Kavalier and Clay and saw the delineation of one's perception of the novel.
- We did the same process of analysis for page 165, "There was a dank...knock them dead." This was followed by another writing entry in our writing journals.

Symbols in Parts I and II of Kavalier and Clay

What is the Golem Symbolic of?
The Golem serves as a saviour to Josef and Sam because it is the hopes of them becoming rich through creating a comic book. They both want money and despite the fact that they will use it for different reasons, their goals are pretty similar. Golem is an emblem of hope.

The Golden Key is symbolic of freedom. Freeing yourself from your bonds is the ability to make the thing that is hindering you (society, people, YOURSELF,etc.) less important. Being able to have closure on your problems and regard them as steppingstones rather than the “orange warning cones”.

And the next Scribe is BRUNA!

Scribe Post April 2011

Notes on Kavaleir and Clay:

• What are you confused by:
• How does he get to new york?
• travel restrictions put on Jews, he only get to certain places Lithuania still offers travel passes to Jews, goes to japan, then to u.s because they accept people from japan--restrictions on Jews were gradual (curfew, can’t live certain places, walls on neighborhoods, ghettos, taking Jews out)
• Secret society-cabala came out of Prague---golem made out of river clay acts as protector of Jews. Germans were into cult and wanted to find it.
• To find it they acted as census people and asked what their names were and if they were Jewish---they would put star of David on peoples window.
• process of elimination, narrowed it down to 2 apartments P.44-5 “His face took...”---rips up the records of the Jews because he didn't want it to fall into the hands of the Germans
• Activity on figurative language:
• P.49(middle-third paragraph “A generation....”
• Thought apartment was empty, but it was a brothel. Kornblum knew the prostitutes. Stayed for the night. Ask the kids and they know where the window of the apartment is where no one has been seen. Being compared to a young, blank planet. Empty window-empty planet undiscovered, attraction--gravity. Kids have the knowledge, adults don’t. Intensity added to the window by comparing it to a planet.
• P.58 (second paragraph) “For some reason...”
• Description, gone back into parents apartment, dad has collection of oddities. Giant has tailored suit--needed it to put on golem because in Judaism no clothes on corpses. Labels have fathers name on them. Hyphens compared to stylized bolts of lightning. Writing fast hyphens can be curved, connects two words, lighting connection between ground and sky. His father is very important to him. Striking to him how they need to leave. They are in a shit storm. Reading the writing of a dead man--knows his family can die at any moment.

The danger in Prague forced Joe to escape his hometown and leave his family behind. According to wikipedia, 277,000 Jews were killed in Prague. 345,000 people in total. Joe could sense what was coming. Leaving your family behind in a brutal situation is a tough decision I know I wouldn't be able to make. Would you