Weblog 10

If this is a story about sacrifice, what does Jimmy sacrifice?
It is not until the end till we see Jimmy sacrificing something. Jimmy, throughout most of the story, seemed like a dreamy boy, obsessed with a girl far from him emotionally and physically. Jimmy was supposed to be a lieutenant, a leader, responsible for lives of a few men. However, it did not seem that way throughout the majority of the story. He would always daydream about doing things to Martha, his imaginary girlfriend. For instance, on page 373, “After five minutes, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross moved to the tunnel, leaned down, and examined that darkness. Trouble, he thought – a cave-in maybe. And then suddenly, without willing it, he was thinking about Martha.” This was one of the many examples where Jimmy would think about Martha while being in combat. His obsession and love led to guilt. This was only after one of his men, Ted Lavender, got shot in the head. Due to his obsession over Martha, he was unable to realize the importance of his duty as a leader and how his obsession was a distraction. It was only till Ted Lavender got shot, did Jimmy Cross come to this realization. From this realization, Jimmy sacrifices his love for Martha. With the sacrifice of Jimmy’s obsession for Martha, Jimmy traded it for concentration on the war and his men. Page 382 shows Jimmy’s sacrifice of Martha’s love. “First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross crouched at the bottom of his foxhole and burned Martha’s letters. Then he burned the two photographs… Lavender was dead. You couldn’t burn the blame.” This shows how Jimmy is trying to erase Martha from his mind so that he could concentrate on getting his men out of the war safely. ‘You couldn’t burn the blame’ shows how despite all the burning of objects related to Martha, the guilt would still be there to remind Jimmy Cross of his mistake. Proof of his sacrifice is shown on page 384, where he starts to concentrate only on the war. “He would accept the blame for what had happened to Ted Lavender. He would be a man about it. He would look them in the eyes, he would issue the new SOPs in a calm impersonal tone of voice, a lieutenant’s voice.” This quote shows how he would forget about the past and be a responsible lieutenant, sacrifice the carefree, loving, obsessive side of him. Turning into a strict lieutenant who would not tolerate mistakes.

Weblog 9

In Gryphon, Charles Baxter intertwines the conventional and unconventional primarily through the odd substitute teacher, Miss Ferenczi. When she first introduced herself, Miss Ferenczi did not follow the daily routine of pledging allegiance, which was the first example of unconventional intertwining with the conventional children who follow schedules. Another way Baxter intertwines the conventional and unconventional is through Miss Ferenczi’s story telling. Miss Ferenczi would constantly give the kids a fact, but would also tell a completely unrealistic story just to make the children interested in what she is saying. One of the many examples of this is when Miss Ferenczi told the children about diamonds, on page 50. Miss Ferenczi started off talking about jewels and diamonds and explained that they were magical and the biggest diamond killed anybody who owned it. She then went on to say women wear diamonds as a sign of the magic of womanhood, which so far, everything she said is fictional. She then says the magic in diamonds are reasons why men fall in love with women but women do not actually fall in love with men, instead they love being loved. From there, Miss Farenczi leads on to say that George Washington had died due to a mistake he made about a diamond, and that Washington was not the first true president. She goes on and talks about other completely fictional things but adds a touch of reality to make the story believable for the children. Charles Baxter does this to make Miss Ferenczi seem like a very peculiar character who cannot be trusted. Also, another way Baxter intertwines the conventional and unconventional is when the class was doing math. Miss Ferenczi asked what six times eleven was and a student answered with sixty-eight, which was wrong. Soon after, another student points out her mistake, which leads to a speech where Miss Ferenzci said that since she is a substitute teacher, she can provide a substitute answer which the children can use only when she is there. By this, Baxter wants to show that people should think outside the box and be creative, instead of being dull and narrow-minded.