Book #31: The Crucible by Arthur Miller

Who isn’t intrigued by the idea of witches, secret love affairs, secrets, and lies? Well, maybe not in real life, but they sure are entertaining to watch. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play depicting the events of the Salem Witch Trials during the late 1600s. The play was originally a flop when it first premiered, but later became one of Miller’s most well known plays. I first read The Crucible when I was in 10th grade; it was part of our American literature curriculum. I remember enjoying the play as a student and was extra enthralled in English class while we read it. Not that I wasn’t extra enthralled the rest of the time.

Why is He So Dirty?: Teaching The Crucible in the Modern Age

            This year, I taught The Crucible to my one class of juniors. I was so excited to teach this play! I had so many ideas of what I wanted to do with it and what I wanted to discuss with my students. Did my students share in my excitement? Absolutely not. This is how it went down:

            Me: Guys, we are going to start reading The Crucible today! It’s about the Salem              Witch Trials! There are witches and drama and people burning at the stake! Isn’t               that exciting?!
             Student 1 slams head down on desk and groans loudly.
             Student 2 stares at me with a “you are crazy” look smacking her gum loudly.
             Student 3 falls asleep sitting up, drool dripping down their face.
 

Thank God for Student 4 who is nodding vigorously and cautiously smiling at me. It is clear that he is only smiling and nodding to make me feel better. The moral of the story here is that it is difficult to get 16 year olds to be excited about literature at 7:30 am. I tried, though.

            With this particular group of students, there was no way they would even read the play if we did not read it aloud. This did not proceed like I imagined it. There were several problems:

            

1. The students would forget which character they were or zone out when it was their turn to read. So whenever it was someone’s turn to read, they prefaced each line with “Oh shit.” Every. Single. Time. I kept yelling “THAT IS NOT IN THE SKRIPT! DO NOT SAY THAT!” Did they ever stop? No.

2. Some students love to be the center of attention and decide that they will read aloud every character that starts with the letter P. If you are familiar with The Crucible, you know that is a decent amount of characters (Parris, Proctor, Putnam). Whenever another student volunteers to read or accidentally read a P role, they will shout “No ‘expletive’ that’s my role!” At least they are excited about something…

3. Sometimes the students realize that the text is actually interesting. However, their reactions while reading are not always appropriate. Exhibit A: "So it’s saying that Abigail was sleeping with Proctor and his is, like, 30?! That’s so gross! He is so old! This b*!&% is cray!”

Look's so dirty, am I right?

As you can see, teaching the play was not what I was expecting with this group of students. I was very entertained while reading this with them. While they are not always the most studious group of teenagers, they did actually begin to enjoy the text about halfway through it. They also liked watching the movie. That’s probably why they put up with reading the book. However, watching the movie presented all sorts of other issues. The students just could not get over why John Proctor looked so dirty. At least three times a day, they commented: “Why won’t he just take a shower?” It didn’t matter that I told them that the play took place in the 1600s and they didn’t have running water back then. They still could not get over that he looked dirty. That was their main take away from The Crucible.

The Witch Hunt

The Crucible was originally written as an allegory for the Red Scare in the 1950s, referring to the McCarthy trials which was a hunt to find communists hiding in plain site. Arthur Miller was called to the stand during these trials and asked to name people he thought were communists. Miller refused to do so despite what it might do to his reputation. This mirrors Proctor’s predicament in The Crucible. His wife is first accused of being a witch and when Proctor begins to ask questions about the accuser, he is then accused. The only way for Proctor to not be hanged as a witch is to admit to being a witch even though it would be a lie. His only options are to lie and say he is a witch so he can live or to tell the truth and die. Is it better to survive or to die morally? It’s a tough question. Human being are born with the instinct for survival yet we have a moral compass. What happens when these two things are at odds?

            This idea of a witch hunt is applicable to many situations. My students could relate to this because they all deal with rumors and gossips. It is so easy for someone to say something that is untrue and for that rumor to spread and transform over time. False accusations are very common when it is a he said/she said type situation. I can not tell you how many times my juniors would randomly should out "THIS IS HOW LIKE THAT ONE TIME MY EX..." My response was always "I DON'T WANT TO KNOW!" because, trust me, sometimes we are just better off not knowing what they do in their free time. 

In your face, Abigail!

Other Thoughts

- Lorelai mentions The Crucible (probably the movie version) to Luke when she says “Not gonna talk about how good you’d look dressed as one of the guys from The Crucible.” She obviously doesn’t have the same problem as my students.

- Liam Neeson played John Proctor in the 2002 Broadway revival of the play and we all know how we feel about Liam Neeson. I would watch that man in anything.

- I didn’t talk much about Abigail and the girls in this post, but I just have to say that this play shows how teenage girls can be the worst. I have been one. I deal with them everyday. I know. Sometimes they can be the sweetest, but also they can be very scary. The Crucible shows this first hand.

Pictures

- Book Cover: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiX7_HRhujbAhVPzlkKHUEACV0QjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.goodreads.com%2Fbook%2Fshow%2F17250.The_Crucible&psig=AOvVaw3InrROTXmMiEUEdfWU7rdS&ust=1529783712041474

- Proctor: http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/0df639c8d68299560f3d2ce9e90b0556.jpg- Meme:http://imoviequotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/1-the-crucible-quotes.gif

Book #30: Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers and Bonus Book: Cinderella

 For this post, we are looking into some childhood classics (and their respective Disney movies). Lorelai and Rory reference both Cinderella and Freaky Friday in the episode “Rory’s Birthday Parties;” however, it is unclear if they are referencing the books or the movies. Oh well! Doesn’t matter! I will read them both!  

Cinderella

            Cinderella is our Bonus Book here as it is not on the “official” list. (What is official by the way? I stick to the one from Buzzfeed. I don’t care what people say. I love Buzzfeed.) Everyone knows Cinderella, the quintessential princess story. You may picture Cinderella’s Castle, which is front and center within the Magic Kingdom. When you are a little girl, she is the first princess you are introduced to. The story is simple, but classic. The story of a young girl who is bullied by her stepsisters, but is given a magical gift by a Fairy Godmother which allows her to earn the attention of Prince Charming. This story has spurred countless adaptations and revamps through the years. My personal favorite is Hilary Duff’s A Cinderella Story with Chad Michael Murray (gosh I love early 2000s Chad Michael Murray). I am going to forgo discussing how Disney Princess stories and Cinderella teach young girls unrealistic expectations and discuss some of the fun gory parts of the original story.

            I read the Grimm Brothers’ version of the classic tale. Of course, there were many variations of the folk tale before this, but the Grimm Brothers’ version is the basis for the story we know today. When Disney created their cartoon version, they cut

out (ha see what I did there) the dark undertones of the tale and the gruesome parts of the story. In their tale, the evil stepsisters cut off their toes and part of their heel in order to force their foot into the glass slipper. Then, as a punishment for their cruel deeds, birds pecked both of their eyes out during Cinderella’s wedding to Prince Charming. Imagine watching that in a Disney movie! Personally, I like the Grimm version of fairy tales. I think that is what make fairy tales more interesting and fun. When everything is hunky dory and everything turns out how it should, it is boring to read. I also really love scary stories, books, and movies so these darker stories are right up my alley.

            Maybe this is why I don’t necessarily like the idea of Prince Charming. I’m sorry, but Prince Charming just sounds bland. In the Disney movie, he barely has any personality. Yeah, it’s nice to imagine a handsome prince coming to save you when life gets awry, but wouldn’t you like someone with a little spunk? (I think this is why Prince Harry was so popular with the ladies). Personally, I’d like a man like the Beast or Aladdin rather than Prince Charming. They would keep things interesting and challenge me when needed. Plus, they both have better hair than Prince Charming. 

Freaky Friday

I believe I read Freaky Friday at some point during elementary or middle school, but I didn’t remember much of it so I reread it. Like Cinderella, the original novel of Freaky Friday is much darker, more anxiety provoking, and…well…more disturbing than the Disney version (I’m talking about the 2000s version here). The Disney version is teen comedy gold with the fabulous hair of Chad Michael Murray at his peak dreaminess (I think you are learning more about my love for Chad Michael Murray in this post than anything else). But the book…man…it really makes you think how creepy it would be to change places with your mother. For one, in the book, Anna’s dad is still in the picture and that just makes things…welp…almost incestuous if you think about it. It’s like a reverse Oedipus situation here! Thankfully nothing like that happens because it is a children’s books, but there are just some strange interactions. This is definitely not a lighthearted children’s book. Anna contemplates suicide by jumping off a building when she is in her mother’s body and has thoughts of her own teenage body being run over by a bus. You know, just your normal thoughts you want your child to be thinking about.

            Because this book was written in 1972, many of the conflicts are unrealistic for today and are outdated. A child reading this book today might not appreciate the comedy Mary Rodgers intended. However, older readers might and those are the people who might enjoy this novel more. I certainly enjoyed reading it, but this is one of the cases where I liked the movie better than the book. You do have to treat them as two different entities, though, because other than the fact that the mother and daughter switch bodies, the entire plotlines are completely different. It is similar as to what the world has done with Cinderella; the concept is the same, but it is just used as a framework to tell a different kind of story.

You knew it was coming, right?

#MyMotherAlwaysSaidILikedBlondes

You know he was on Gilmore Girls right? 

Images

Cartoon Cinderella:https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/disney/images/3/3e/637-cinderella_label1.png/revision/latest?cb=20130715054139

Grimm Brothers' Cinderella: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/86/d8/fc/86d8fc3a613a2eff45bede5761310de6.jpg

Prince Charming:http://images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/37700000/Prince-Charming-disney-37796536-500-421.png

Freaky Friday Book Cover: https://media.newyorker.com/photos/59095ace019dfc3494e9f44f/master/w_649,c_limit/freakyfriday-290.jpg

Freaky Friday Movie Poster:https://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BYmU4NTk4OWYtMjE4My00MGVkLTgwY2EtZTZjN2YyOGFiMDQ0L2ltYWdlL2ltYWdlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTQxNzMzNDI@._V1_UX182_CR0,0,182,268_AL_.jpg

Chad Michael Murray:https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/gilmoregirls/images/f/f5/104tristan.jpeg/revision/latest?cb=20160209213525

Books #28 and #29: Ethan Frome and The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

There is a discrepancy amongst the “official” lists of Rory’s Book Challenge as to which Edith Wharton novels are mentioned amongst the show. Most lists name Wharton’s novella Ethan Frome as mentioned on the show. However, only some lists have The Age of Innocence listed. In actuality, Wharton’s name is only mentioned in episode 6 when Lorelai says to her mother: “I think Edith Wharton would’ve been proud, and busy taking notes.” Knowing that Emily Gilmore is the epitome of the upper class New England world, it makes more sense that Lorelai is referencing Wharton’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Age of Innocence, rather than the rural love story gone wrong in Ethan Frome. It made sense for me to combine these two books into one post. Despite the vast difference in setting, these two books comment on the same theme; a theme that is very prevalent in Gilmore Girls.

Ethan Frome

            I read Ethan Frome about two years ago as I was making my way through my school’s book room. It was also the only Wharton work that is on the high school reading list. The novella follows a man (Ethan Frome) as he falls in love with his sickly wife’s caretaker. He is torn between doing the right thing (staying with his wife) or his desire (running off with the caretaker, Mattie). To jump to the chase here (SPOILER ALERT), Mattie concocts a plan in which the two of them would commit suicide by sledding into a tree. Unfortunately (fortunately?) Ethan and Mattie survive the sledding accident, but Ethan earns a lingering limp and Mattie becomes permanently paralyzed. Zeenie, Ethan’s previously sickly wife, ironically now becomes their caretaker as her sickness was previously psychological. Dramatic, huh? Ethan Frome is an outlier amongst Wharton’s works. Wharton predominantly wrote about the upper class and high society. This novella was her attempt at naturalism, a trend in literature popular at the time. I would argue that Ethan Frome isn’t exactly naturalism; it is the same as all of Wharton’s other stories in that the protagonist struggles with his desires versus his expectations. This brings me to…

The Age of Innocence

            My only other experience with Wharton before this novel was The House of Mirth which I read during the American Realism course I took my junior year of course. Reading The Age of Innocence brought me back to reading this novel. Both took place in the upper class society of New York City during the turn of the twentieth century. Again, both novels dealt with the protagonist struggling with the expectations of society and their own personal desires. It seems like dear Edith may have been struggling with acting on her desires. It makes sense, as it seems as if every work of hers deals with this theme. And, after all, writers do tend to write about their personal feelings and experiences even if they put them in a fictional world.  This novel follows Newland Archer who is engaged to a woman named May. When May’s rebellious cousin Ellen returns from a failed marriage abroad, Newland falls in love with her. The novel focuses on Newland’s desire for Ellen but his duty to May. Sounds familiar right? But Newland does not give into his desires like Ethan does; he marries May (though Ellen is the one to convince him to do so) and stays faithful to her throughout their marriage. May eventually dies twenty-six years later and Newland has the opportunity to see Ellen again, but he chooses not to. It is an interesting choice as Newland could now be with Ellen without the guilt of betraying May. But who is to say that his relationship with Ellen would be the same as it was twenty-six years ago? Perhaps their timing has passed and Newland knows this. There are a million different reasons why Newland would feel hesitant, but if you had a second chance at being with the person you love, wouldn't you take it? Maybe Newland wanted to live in fantasyland and knew the relationship with Ellen that he played in his head could never be the same in real life. He didn’t want the real thing to disappoint him so it was safer to walk away from reality. It’s logical reasoning but the coward’s way out.

            So it makes sense that Lorelai would refer to Edith Wharton when stepping into her mother’s world; the world she left behind to pursue her own desires. When she had Rory and left for Stars Hollow, she left behind the life she was supposed to live and went to fulfill her own dreams.

           

            Why can’t our duty be to fulfill our dreams? I guess it is easier said than done. There are other people's’ feelings at play and practicalities to consider. But wouldn’t life be so much easier if we just followed our heart?


Also, Liam Neeson plays Ethan in the movie version of Ethan Frome and we all know how I feel about Liam Neeson 😜

Pictures

Ethan Frome Book Cover:https://swh-826d.kxcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Ethan-Frome.jpg

The Age of Innocence Book Cover:http://covers.feedbooks.net/book/93.jpg?size=large&t=1491307669

Book #27: Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce

Finnegan’s Wake. Oh boy. I don’t know why I did this to myself. If you are a literary fiend, like me, you are well aware that Finnegan’s Wake is considered one of the most difficult books to read in the English language (if you can call what you are reading English). I would take War and Peace AND David Copperfield over this book any day and that is really saying something.

It has taken me awhile to get to writing this post. For one, it took me a good long month (or two) to get through Finnegan’s Wake. After that, well,…I procrastinated. I am not going to lie, I was

The cover of my copy of Finnegan's Wake

just like my students and just could not get myself motivated to write this post. I enjoy writing, but when I do not enjoy what I am writing about (or if I don’t have a firm deadline), it can be hard for me to find the motivation. Plus, I had no idea what I would write about for this post since I had no idea what was going on throughout this entire novel. I can’t even give you a decent summary of the plot of the novel because I couldn’t make any sense of it. You should see the notes I took; it looks like I was studying a foreign language. And in a way I was.

In Gilmore Girls, Rory is not actually seen reading Finnegan’s Wake. Instead, it is alluded to in the title of episode 5, “Cinnamon’s Wake” in reference to Babet’s dead cat. I suppose I didn’t actually have to read the novel because it is not actually seen or mentioned in the show, but I can not leave any page unturned! (Ha, see what I did there?) Plus, I got to one up Rory and read one of the most difficult books out there.

I guess to put it simply, Finnegan’s Wake is about the death of a man named Finnegan and the Earwicker family’s secrets. At least, that's what I think it is about. From what I could gather, there were secret affairs, incest, and warring brothers. Not quite sure since James Joyce created his own language while writing this novel. He created new words, smushed words together, and randomly inserted words from another language. In order to fully understand this novel, one would have the break down the entire novel word for word and analyze the meaning of each specific word. Who has time for that? I don't. So I just read it for what it was and took from it what I could.

 

Just so you all know I am not exaggerating the difficulty
of  this text

I just have to wonder if this book would still be considered a classic high end novel if it was written in readable English. If it was discernible, would the plot be any good? If the story wasn’t clouded by the idiosyncratic language, would it be good writing? I don’t know. James Joyce has a good reputation as a strong writer and already had a name for himself when he wrote this novel. The book probably succeeded because Joyce already had a good reputation and a fan base. People probably saw his name attached to the novel and would automatically think “Oh, James Joyce! This must be good!” Much like how people see J.K Rowling and automatically think The Casual Vacancy is going to be good. So the moral of the story for this read is that just because something is labeled as classic literature, a bestseller, or has a name attached to it, does not necessarily mean that a book is good and enjoyable.

Just so you know, episode 5 of Gilmore Girls has one of my all time favorite lines: