Category Archives: Clue

Use this tag for posts that explain how a passage offers a clue to interpreting the story as a whole.

Clue “The Evil Looking Boatmen”

3 Replies

Is Edward Prendick imagining everything that he sees or is it real?  When it comes to the story there is a combination of realistic details and just plain weird details. The way Prendick describe everything, it almost seems believable. “I looked steadily at them, and the impression did not pass, though I failed to see what had occasioned it. They seemed to me then to be brown men, but their limbs were oddly swathed in some thin dirty white stuff down even to the fingers and feet…I found afterwards that really none were taller than myself, but their bodies were abnormally long and the thigh-part of the leg short and curiously twisted… the face of the man whose eyes were luminous in the dark.” (24) just by this small section of the story we now start to get a better picture/idea on how the people of the island look like. And by the looks of it they don’t seem normal. Their legs are oddly shaped, their face and arms. We know that Edward has been stranded in a Didley for a long time which we can imagine that his mind might be making him sees things that are not there. Although the reader might think that, the way that Edward started to describe how the island looked like and the Islanders it makes it seem like its real. And that he is not making this up in his head. All the wired details start with how he describes how the islanders look like and how strange Montgomery and his companion is.

Clue – The Dead

3 Replies

One thing that interested me was the relationship between Gabriel and his wife, it’s not something that interested me until page 78 where they depart the party, “She was walking on before him so lightly and so erect that he longed to run after her noiselessly, catch her by the shoulders and say something foolish and affectionate into her ear.” The seemed distant throughout the event and barely interacted, it made me wonder if their marriage was not going so well, the fact that they are not even walking together is also peculiar to me.

In the final paragraph on page 78 we get a clue as to how their marriage is going, “He longed to recall to her those moments, to make her forget the years of their dull existence together and to remember only their moments of ecstasy.” It seems that he views their marriage as boring, taking a turn for the dull as the years went by, remembering fondly their first times together and yearning for those days to return. Until that point we just get a few hints of their relationship, the fact that they don’t stay close throughout the party, her making fun of his insistence on using “galoshes”, him reluctant to share his “row” with Molly Ivors, all gives us hints that maybe everything is not going as well as it should, and that “snapshot” of just a few sentences on page 78 is the final clue needed to put it all together.

“The Dead” Clue Blog Post (Group 3)

1 Reply

Originally in class the question as to “Why did everyone gather for Misses Morkan’s annual dance?”, was brought to light. When Gabriel began his speech in honor of Misses Morkan’s, this question is answered. “I wish from my heart it may do so for many and many a long years to come– the tradition of genuine warmhearted courteous–Irish hospitality, which our forefathers have handed down to us and which we in turn must hand down to our descendants, is still alive among us” (pg72). From Gabriel’s choice of words it seems that the annual dance has became a tradition within this community. The Morkan sisters, host this dance in order to pass down morals practiced by previous generations. Later in the speech Gabriel continues to  mention the “new generation” whom are actuated by new ideas and new principles. He believes due to the sceptical, thought-tormented age they live in, that this “new generation”, educated or hypereducated, may lack qualities of humanity, of hospitality, and kind humor, which belong to an older day. Misses Morkan’s annual dance however, give these kids (new generation) an opportunity to be surrounded by people of all ages, in hopes of influencing them to stay true to their kindhearted, people loving ways. The dance is the physical representation of the “old days” way of living and loving thy neighbor, still being practiced.

The Dead Clue

2 Replies

The snapshot I chose from “The Dead” was the speech that Gabriel gave after they had eaten dinner at the party. As Gabriel delivered the lengthy speech, the text stated “A hearty murmur of assent ran around the table. It shot through Gabriel’s mind that Miss Ivors was not there and that she had gone away discourteously: and he said with confidence in himself”. From the quote was see a newfound confidence that we had not seen from Gabriel up until this point. The question that I thought this moment helped to clarify was would the character Gabriel change during the story. It was clear from his very introduction of the story that Gabriel did not do very well in social settings. When his character entered the story, the first social interaction that he had with another character Lily was awkward and he invaded her personal space with questions about her love life which resulted in her being offended. Another poor social experience that he had at the party was with the character Miss Ivors. During his conversation with her, he was constantly defensive as she asked him questions about his culture and how he has a lack of interest in it. As she continues to interrogate him, he eventually loses is composure and tells her that he was sick of Ireland. From these two examples it was clear that there was a change in Gabriel’s character to the point where he was confident enough to deliver a speech to all the people who attended the party.

The management of grief

Leave a reply

As I was reading “The Management of Grief” by Bharati Mukherjee, it focuses more on its effects on women. This story give credit to all the people who forget enough of their roots to start over, to have a new life, but it also represents the ones who do not forget their own roots and how to survive their fates. Judith Templeton represents how she has taken a degree in managing grief, and her job. The way that some survivals had front can also be interpreted as a grief. Templeton had made some assumptions about the management of grief but their assumptions are not accurate and cannot be applied to the survivors. Finally, she also states that even though the people that she is helping most of them are lovely but they also drive her crazy.