Seventh Reaction

I found today’s class discussion to be immensely interesting. Although we only analyzed the first two pages, it feels like we’ve already covered several of the book’s major topics.  From the narrator’s belief in superstition even though he knows better, to his fickle nature in demeaning people, we have established the type of character he is. Although I had noticed these surface characteristics initially, I did not think of the in-depth possibility that the persona represented by the narrator in this novel is actually oneself. Yet after thinking it over in class, I now see the correlation; we view the narrator as strange or irregular due to his ‘weird’ perspectives and irregular, awkward interactions, yet the truth is that he is just like any of us. At any given time, we would have the same reactions and make the same choices he did, whether it’s constantly wavering between decisions or feeling uncomfortable with an action after it’s been done. I’m interested in what else comes up during discussion because this new input has changed the way I think about the novel; as we reread it, I think I may draw more parallels between the decisions we make versus those our narrator makes.