Noreen's 20th Century Novel Blog

     While most of us initially did not favor Clarissa’s marriage with Richard, I believe she made the right choice between him and Peter. Peter and Clarissa understand each other deeply and share a special connection, but that does not mean she would live a healthy life married to him. We have seen Clarissa’s discomfort around Peter multiple times. Her insecurity in his presence is especially clear when he shows up to the party. Woolf narrates, “She could see Peter out of the tail of her eye, criticizing her, there, in that corner. Why after all, did she do these things?” (Woolf 163). Clarissa being uncomfortable in the person she became around Peter makes me think she would live a tumultuous life married to him. Sure, he may just mean to teasingly criticize her, and Clarissa might pretend it does not affect her, but we know that his critique makes her self-conscious of her identity.      One might argue that Peter and Clarissa’s tension is a result of the...

  One of my favorite passages of The Mezzanine is the footnote on page ninety-five, as it conveys Howie’s unease regarding change. The note starts on page ninety four when Howie mentions unnoticed developments in the history of the straw, ending with “An unpretentious technical invention—the straw, the sugar packet, the pencil, the windshield wiper—has been ornamented by a mute folklore of behavioral inventions, unregistered, unpatented, adopted and fine-tuned without comment or thought” (Baker 95). I connected this note with aspects of life changing gradually without recognition. I first thought of something as simple as hair growing. The length of my hair is something I do not notice growing daily or weekly, but only after a couple of months. This idea of unrecognized change can also apply to the larger l ife event of coming of age. I believe people sometimes doubt the passing of their childhood until they are near the end of it. It seems as though only when they are at the end t...