Week Four Q.

What effect does the character's blandness and dispassion have on the book as a whole?

Week 4: Question

How does the main character change through the story? How does the sheep chase change/ affect him?

weel four question

I have been wondering this even before we started reading the book.

What differences would there be in the book if it was still written in Japan but by a foreigner instead of a Japanese author?

Irini=NA (not available)

Week Four

Welcome to Week Four! For this week's blog you will post a thought-provoking question that does not have only one answer. Remember that you must make 10 comments this week, not 5. Please do not leave this until the last minute, you have the whole week to get it done.

Week 4 - Question

Do you think this book is for or against mediocrity? Does the sheep represent the ultimate potential of a human being or does it show that greatness only causes suffering? Is the sheep a good force, an evil one, or neither?

week 3 literary elements

In order for me to be satisfied with my post on the literary elements in the book I scanned backwards to page 51. First off I wanted to make sure no one had the same example of my popular literary element. I chose the metaphor because it is my favorite. The reasons are that it is subtle and involves thought. Also metaphors compare two nouns in a usually more sophisticated way than similes. My example of a metaphor was n page 51, and referred to the “biznessman” as “a refined piece of bad news now hovering over her…”(51). Not only is there a metaphor but the comparison made also serves as foreshadowing. The word choice of “bad news” is the foreshadowing part that this man will bring upheaval to the company, which he doles out in doses. The metaphor between the serious man and the bad news shows the author’s intent to inform the audience that the secretary had intuition enough to know that this man would soon bring trouble, well adventure, to the firm. The ensuing action can easily be connected back to him later and this is the key phrase that promotes a revelation. At first I did not notice this foreshadowing at all, only after coming back and rereading the area around when he showed up did I notice this key phrase. The metaphor was so subtle it was easily overlooked.

Week 3--literary elements

In this novel, literary elements are quite eminent. It makes sense really. If one is to make a commentary on life (such as this book is doing), it’s almost imperative that there be literary elements to depict it adequately. For instance, to show the general feeling of bland emotion: “The rain kept falling at the same rate. From my hotel window, through the neon signs of the building next door, a hundred thousand strands of rain sped earthward through a green glow. If I looked down, the rain seemed to pour straight into one fixed point on the ground,” (119). First off, this quote describes the rain very well. I know the exact position of the main character looking out the window when the author writes how the rain fell “straight into one fixed point on the ground”. Secondly, the sheer simplicity of describing the rain fall captures our characters somewhat melancholy emotional state. The description of rain has a pretty consistent pattern of popping up whenever the main character is deep in thought, or if something serious happened.
Since scenes like these are used so often in this novel, that not only the physical state of the scene is portrayed, but the emotional connotation also allows the reader to find a duel meaning. This way the author only has to write one sentence (or paragraph) to get the message across.