Blog Summary for 09/10/10

There were many different themes and ideas that came up in the blogs from Thursday night. I have done my best to summarize the main points, ideas, or themes from everyone’s posts even though many of the responses were long and detailed.

The first theme amongst the blog posts was the natural and the supernatural. David, Jenny, and Matt all discussed the idea of the supernatural in some way. Matt commented on the use of light in the story and that Charles Brockden Brown may be trying to “keep the reader guessing” in some sense. David suggested the idea of a guardian angel where Jenny alluded to Clara’s struggle with determining whether certain events arise from the natural or supernatural.

The second theme related to the actions of Theodore Wieland. We all discover that Wieland does indeed kill his wife and children. However, and important question was discussed by Thomas, Sarah, and Paige asking why would Wieland kill his family? Furthermore, why would Wieland listen to this “God” and carry out the will he supposedly heard? This may also incorporate Jamie’s discussion about the transformation of the plot and characters because Wieland himself is facing an internal conflict (man versus self).

The third theme that was important to note form the blog posts were individuals questioning Carwin’s motives behind his actions. Jamie and Paige both wondered in their posts why Carwin would want to get involved with the Wieland family. Carwin may be disingenuous when he confesses to Clara that he did not tell Wieland to kill his family.

There were other themes and different ideas that were discussed in Thursday’s blog posts. Yu discussed Clara as an “object of fascination” for both Pleyel and Carwin. Allen thought Brockden Brown was just using the voices to “move the story along” and was “unimpressed” with Carwin’s revelation to Clara. Morgan W. talked about the importance of darkness in the story. RadingJusticeX suggested that Pleyel might be a second voice. Morgan P. believes Carwin has a thing for Clara and may secretly want to help her. Mark suggests that we may need to question Cariwn’s true involvement with the voices. Roman talked about the idea of Satan and evil in the story. Batman believes Brown doesn’t represent the "mindset of the era" in which the novel takes place since women are portrayed as strong. Batman also brings up an important issue when he discusses that religion is not portrayed well in the novel.