Monday, February 10, 2014

Goodbye Columbus chapter 1

Parallel:
"I had my nose fixed" (13)
"My brothers having his fixed in the fall" (13)
"Is he having his fixed?" (13)
Brenda makes it seem that in her family, if something is wrong, then it just gets fixed. Neil starts to annoy Brenda with "smart-ass" questions about hey family and fixing things, because he feels like Brenda is kinda bragging about money not being an issue for her family.

Contrast:
"hinting all the while at 'Boston' and 'New Haven'" (11)
"Whenever anyone asks me where I went to school I come right out with it: Newark Colleges of Rutgers University" (11)
Neil views Brenda as one of those people who shy away from saying exactly where they go to school, so Neil has to push and push to find out where she goes. He dislikes her slightly for that because he is the exact opposite, whenever he is asked he tells people the exact school he goes to.

Props:
glasses
racket
lumberyards
pool
diving board
salt shaker
golf balls
carrots
swim suit
war and peace
mounds bar

class consciousness:
When Brenda hears that Neil and his cousin Doris are dark, she asks Neil if they are Negros before she even knows what they look like. I think that she does this because she is of a higher class and back then people would look at blacks or "dark" skinned people as less than them, usually belonging to a lower class.

1 comment:

  1. Hugh, this early entry is good. Does Brenda "fix" her relationship with
    Neil at story's end?

    Where oh where are Chapters 2-8?!

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