Crafting Creative Concepts with Charlotte

"It is awfully easy to be hard-boiled about everything in the daytime, but at night it is another thing." This line uttered by Jake is fascinating to me, and not only because he compares himself to a cooked egg. First of all, this is one of the few scenes where we see Jake admitting that he has any emotions - he spends the majority of the novel trying to be nonchalant and as stereotypically masculine as possible. We mentioned in class that a perk of Hemingway's bland style is that emotional breakthroughs are much more significant. We experience one of those breakthroughs here, where Jake is finally admitting that his personality and attitude is a façade that he hides behind. However, the thing I really want to talk about is the term 'hard-boiled' and why I think it's such an accurate description of Jake. So, I'm assuming we're all familiar with hard-boiled eggs. Hard shells, soft insides, cooked in pots of boiling water. By calling himself hard-boiled,...

 Before we get started here, I'd just like to say that The Hours  is a really good film. The plot, though slightly disjointed at times, is captivating and deeply emotional. The acting, of course, is top-notch (how can you go wrong with Meryl Streep?). Though the ending was rather dissatisfying and lacked closure, I still think that this movie is worth your time.  One of the most fascinating aspects of the movie for me was the portrayal of relationships. Each of the three plotlines features a romantic relationship, plus at least one platonic relationship. Despite what you might think when a relationship is referred to as "romantic", all of these relationships were quite cold. Even Clarissa's relationship with Sally in the modern timeline seemed distant, and Clarissa was clearly not sharing a lot of things with Sally. The relationships in the earlier two timelines were significantly worse, with both women struggling severely with their mental health and living in times ...

 I don't think I'm the only one who really dislikes Peter Walsh. He's arrogant, rude, selfish, and just plain annoying. However, the part about him that I despise the most is the way that he makes Clarissa feel. Every time he's around, and even sometimes when he's not, Clarissa feels Peter's judgement. He's living rent-free in her head, and the shame that he makes her feel is unjustified. Now, I'm sure that Peter Walsh would consider himself to be a feminist. His whole issue with Clarissa is that he feels that she has so much wasted potential. He knew her when she was young and radical, and he doesn't seem to be able to comprehend how she ended up as a housewife married to a conservative politician. He looks down on her for the way her life has turned out, and this is where we run into some issues.  It's one thing to support and uplift someone who has been forced to compromise their lifestyle because of the patriarchy - it's another thing to ...