I Like Boys........and OMG BECKY DID YOU SEE THAT?!?!?
Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey has placed before us another main character to add to our list, Catherine. Unlike Wieland's Catherin, who was described as rich and artistically involved, Jane Austen's Catherine has been described to us as being bland (she likes to read books...lame). One of the most things that I am weary about with this book now is am I going to be able to sit down and relate to the narrator of the story. Our protagonist is a 17 year old girl, and as interesting as it is to talk about cute boys and what not my brain may begin to self-destruct if the story begins to become one big sleep over tale about a girl who likes a guy who we only meet once, but automatically she falls in love. From the first parts of the book I almost feel as we are in the beginning parts of a chick fli__, I mean a cinematic adventure influenced by the thoughts and feelings of an emotion teenage girl. I am excited to see what happens through out this novel though, there seems to be a comedic aspect with this author than the past two.
I agree with ReadingJusticeX (Kevin?) that this book is pretty tough for guys to relate to. I also think that this disconnect has as much to do with the setting and time period as it does with the identity of the narrator. Though (generally speaking), I would venture to say that females would be more inclined to understand Catherine's musings about boys and other concerns, I believe that any young person (male or female) in today's world would have a tough time relating to the narrator. This struggle stems from the fact that the characters in Austen's story are constantly concerned with balls and carriage rides, along with other activities that are far out-dated. Overall, I think that everyone in the class is going to have to struggle to some degree in order to feel connected to Catherine and the narrator.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the fact that this book is difficult to relate to. Even being a female I find this book hard to get interested in so far, as all the narrator has discussed is muslin, balls, carriage rides, and falling in love. As well as many other people on the blog I think that many of the characters are shallow and don't really care for Catherine. For me this all draws parallels to high school, where it pretty much was one big sleepover where we talked about who loved who and what everybody was wearing. Like Kelly said in class, Bath is like a spring break town, so all that seems to be on every bodies minds is who is new in town or who is wearing what or dancing with who. I mean while I can relate to having the attention of somebody your not interested in, I honestly don't think I've ever fallen in love after meeting and talking to somebody once. So while parts of this novel may be somewhat relative to females, on the whole that's not how I feel, but I'm sure somewhere there are females who only talk about muslin, boys, and carriage rides.It is my belief though that the novel will hopefully get more interesting as there should be something pertaining to a crime, as the theme of the class is crime and literature. Personally I cannot wait for this part of the novel to turn up.
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