Quotes
Choose a quote that you like from your independent book that you feel is important, and which illustrates a theme of the work, or expresses a deep truth. Share the quote in your comment, and then explain why you like it and what makes it important. Your response should be a minimum of seven sentences, not including the quote.
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ReplyDelete"You can't help how you feel, but you can help how you behave."
ReplyDeleteThis quote is important because we cannot control our feelings. They hit us like trucks and could fade just as fast. We can control how we act upon those feelings and how we behave while we are experiences those feelings. In this novel, the women must feel resent and longing for their lost families but they cannot act upon those feelings without risking themselves and their safety. They need to control the way they behave in order to keep the little freedoms that they still have. If they act out they can be sent to the colonies and the women typically do not want that, at least the narrator does not. No matter the way you feel, you have to control the way you act upon those feelings because your actions cannot be undone but feelings can fade. Every action we take, no matter how small, effects the lives of those arounds us.
The quote that i really like in the book "Love In The Time of Cholora" is, "The only regret I will have in dying is if it is not for love." This quote to me is pretty much the whole book. Florentino loves Fermina and wants to marry her because he loves her and if he dies before then he believes his death was for nothing. He wants to die for her and only her because of his love for her.
ReplyDelete"I used to think of my body as an instrument, of pleasure, or a means of transportation, or an implement for the accomplishment of my will . . . Now the flesh arranges itself differently. I’m a cloud, congealed around a central object, the shape of a pear, which is hard and more real than I am and glows red within its translucent wrapping." This was a contrast between how she once felt about her body to how she feels now. Her body once mattered, but now it does not. This scene, she was naked in her bathtub, alone, stuck in her thoughts. The only use of her body now is her womb, the ability to carry a child. Women were treated more as objects for the children they can bare rather than individuals. Offred states “a cloud, congealed around a central object, which is hard and more real than I am.” regarding the dehumanization of women. Once an instrument, now is everything less.
ReplyDelete"I feel like cotton candy: sugar and air. Squeeze me and I'd turn into a small sickly damp wad of pinky-red."
ReplyDeleteThis is how Offred felt all of the time. She had no control over her body or the way in which she lived her life. She was moldable in the sense that she was always in someone else's hands. She used to feel human when she was still "free". She never really had to worry about dissolving until she already began to do so. To me this quote represents lifelessness. It means to feel empty enough that we will shrink under pressure. It means to change because of someone else's force.
"A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze"
ReplyDeleteIn the Handmaid's Tale, The women are contained within the walls of the Republic of Gilead. They are limited on what they can do inside the walls. Everything is beyond their control. Not even their bodies belong to them anymore. This quote is significant because it sums up their lives as a whole. The Handmaid's are just like rats in a maze. They are always moving, but never moving beyond the walls.
"I lie, then, inside the room, under the plaster eye in the ceiling, behind the white curtain, between the sheets, neatly as they, and step sideways out of my own time. Out of time. Though this is time, nor am I out of it. But the night is my time out. Where should I go?"
ReplyDeleteI like this quote because this is the only time she can pretend the world around her never changed and her life is the same. She can imagine it was all just a nightmare. However, the night must end and the terror begin again in the morning. It is important because this is how she keeps her memories, hopes, and dreams alive by remembering them. She gets a break at night. She can do whatever she wants, but she is also being watch by the "plaster eye."
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ReplyDelete“Together they had overcome the daily incomprehension, the instantaneous hatred, the reciprocal nastiness, and fabulous flashes of glory in the conjugal conspiracy. It was time when they both loved each other best, without hurry or excess, when both were most conscious of and grateful for their incredible victories over adversity. Life would still present them with other moral trials, of course, but that no longer mattered: they were on the other shore.” - Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera. I have always kept this quote in the back of my mind when I first read it in Cholera. The reason is because this quote deeply illustrates the overall work of unrequited love and bonding between two destined lovers. Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza both were in love when they were young and fell apart but came back together in their old age, after the death of Fermina’s husband. Florentino is brazen about his love for Fermina. He plays the violin, recites poetry, writes a 60-page love letter, and exchange notes with her. Fermina would reject him, of course, because Florentino was a scrawny, weird dude and because he was obsessed with her, especially is he is willing to eat flowers when in his mind he thinks they taste like Fermina. He would wear black and have too much hair gel. He also fell in love with a widow and an insane woman. Florentino is also a womanizer, so he would sleep with hundreds of women, but it would be discreet and that is what caused rumors to spread about how Florentino may be homosexual. Fermina would instigate Florentino’s love for her and lead him on when they were younger. This causes Fermina to go on a long journey with her father because she was expelled from school for writing a letter to a boy that her father did not like. She was forced in an engagement to Dr. Juvenal Urbino, her late husband. After she returned from her trip, she forgot about Florentino, but he would wait fifty-one years, nine months, and four days to get back with Fermina. Fermina would be nasty and mean to Florentino about his love for her, but she decided to give him a chance and they actually fell in love again and decided to ride down a river together in exile, with a raised yellow flag signaling that there was a cholera breakout on their boat, so they wouldn’t have to take port. Through the time of cholera, Fermina and Florentino found love, despite some challenges, and lived happily ever after. This quote, in my opinion, perfectly captures both Fermina and Florentino’s relationship in the story.
ReplyDelete"She reminded him that the weak would never enter the kingdom of love, which is a harsh and ungenerous kingdom, and that women give themselves only to men of resolute spirit, who provide the security they need in order to face life"
ReplyDeleteI like this quote because I feel it is truthful. It does not sugar coat the thought of love. Every movie, and most books make love seem like a perfect fairy tale. Modern stories usually end up with a happy ending where everything works out. In reality, real life love does not work that way. Like the quote says love, and even life is "a harsh and ungenerous kingdom." Nothing is given, love will not just come to you. True love takes work, there will be arguments, and tears but if you put in the work love is so worth it.
“I know the night is not the same as the day: that all things are different, that the things of the night cannot be explained in the day, because they do not then exist, and the night can be a dreadful time for lonely people once their loneliness has started.”
ReplyDeleteThis quote is a metaphor for the difference between the feeling of the war and the feeling of the towns that he was in. The night stands for the war and the day stands for the town. He is lonely because he isn't with Catherine when he is at war. He doesn't talk about the war when he is in a town because the feeling is totally different and he doesn't want to worry Catherine. Also, the feeling he has about war when he is in town, doesn't feel relevant. I chose this quote because it was a very deep and it summed up how the main character felt for the whole story.
"A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze."
ReplyDeleteThis illustrates the theme of The Handmaid's Tale because Offred lived an isolated life. She was free to go almost anywhere in the house, but had many restrictions on how she needed to live. As long as she was a Handmaid, Offred will never be free. This quote is important because it relates to how anyone can be feeling. People might have freedoms, but a lot of people are not where they want to be in life.
"The heart's memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good , and that thanks to this artifice we manage to endure the burden of the past." I really like this quote because it really shows the true meaning of this story. He was so focused on just getting the woman of his dreams basically waiting years for her. He was thinking of her as the other woman he was with. But this quote is so meaningful and true because he feelings for her were very magnified. He knew that this Fermina was his one true love and waited for her. His memory I feel was based all on her no matter what he was doing or who he was with. He was infatuated and fixated on her no matter what the case. His past was always on his mind. The past then became his future and he got the girl he waited fifty-three years, seven months, and eleven days and nights for.
ReplyDelete“Better never means better for everyone... It always means worse, for some.”
ReplyDeleteThis quote from The Handmaid's Tale represents something bigger than what it is stood for. In the book it shows that if somebody becomes better than you in a your postion you became worse. this happens in real life everyday. When somebody works harder or achieves there dream while you think your the best you be come worse. In the handmaids tale its all about moving up in society to be more respected than you were. In real life thats the same idea.i fear this all the time. I fear one day i will think i am the best but will be replaced. Sometimes "better never means better for everyone."
"There is no greater glory than to die for love." - Florentino
ReplyDeleteI love this quote because Florentino really shows his passion for Fermina. You connect with this because you hope that one day someone will be that passionate about you and say the same thing. This quote takes place in a cafe. Lorenzo Daza, Fermina's father, wants Florentino to stay away from Fermina. Lorenzo threatens to shoot Florentino but he does not. Instead, Lorenzo sends Fermina away on a long journey to forget about him. When Fermina comes home finally they do not end up together.
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ReplyDelete“I know that the night is not the same as the day: that all things are different, that the things of the night cannot be explained in the day, because they do not then exist, and the night can be a dreadful time for lonely people once their loneliness has started.” -Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
ReplyDeleteI definitely think that this is one of the most important quotes in the entire work. It may sound familiar as it is one of the most popular quotes. In a literal sense, one knows that night and day are opposites. They cannot coexist. This is equally true when it comes to fantasy and reality. One wishes to stay in the delusion of a beautiful fantasy, however, reality always comes. In “A Farewell to Arms,” Frederic attempts to evade many issues for love. Catherine is his night and war is his day. Love is his beautiful delusion; his fantasy. His reality is war and pain. With the love of Catherine his night is no longer dreadful for he is not lonely, however, good things never last. Everything is temporary as is the night and the day. I definitely liked this quote for how true it is in every sense. There has never been more true as statement as this. The truth of this quote makes it all the more important. Hemingway’s use of night and day as symbols for opposing phenomenons with respect to literature was both beautiful and tragic.
"The problem with public life is learning to overcome terror. The problem with marriage is learning to overcome boredom."
ReplyDeleteThis is Fermina's remark about marriage and the boredom associated with it, as well as a thought about learning to deal with a public life. This quote summarizes her thoughts on the beginning of married life with Urbino. I like this quote primarily because it's pretty funny and pokes fun at marriage, which I have a dislike for. I think this quote is important because it goes to show how marriage and aging can negatively impact someone, regardless of the love they have for the individual they are bound to. The time when Fermina conceptualized this idea was also a changing point in her life which started something that would last decades. I feel that is is also a good representation of Fermina's struggle to get used to married life and what comes along with it, especially considering who she is married to.
One quote that stood out the most to me in "The Handmaids Tale" was “Don't let the bastards grind you down.” This quote is often referred to in latin as "Nolite te bastardes carborundorum." The first time we hear the phrase is in chapter 9 when Offred is in the commanders bedroom and finds it scratched into the floor of his closet. In chapter 29 she finally works up the courage to ask the commander what he means, but he can't tell her because the "bastards" are referring to the commanders. Instead he tells her it means nothing, and that it was just a joke the boys made up. This could give the reader a sense that the commander has done this with all his handmaids and that Offred isn't really that special to him at all. Although the handmaids aren't supposed to read so therefore Offred will most likely never find out what it really means.
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