Sunday, February 15, 2009
English 174: Jude the Obscure
Whoa… What is there to even say about this book? It seems to be filled with disappointing outcomes. I do not like it all. I would rather read Persuasion then this book! I mean, poor Jude who can never get a true break. He finally gets Sue, but then the children commit suicide. Again he is thrown back into a relationship with Arabella. I do not understand how he even goes on throughout the whole entire book. I guess the good thing about this book is that it makes your own life seem so much better and easier to deal with. At least that is what it seems like to me. I know there is no fairytale endings in real life, but why make a story where nothing can end happy for anyone? I just think this book is a way to depress people. Yeah life is hard and people have lots of trouble struggling to make it, but good things happen as well. I guess that is shown though through the short times with Sue or when he has kids. There are a lot of people out there who do struggle and probably have a life similar to Jude’s. I just cannot get into stories like that, especially when I was told how depressing it is. I struggled to get through the book and to truly understand what was going on. I am thankful that we discuss the books in class and have spark notes so that when things do not make sense you are able to get more help.
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I agree completely about this book being hard to swallow. Playing devil's advocate though perhaps the author was trying to show society at the time how it effects people's lives. I mean in some strange perverted way the author could have been telling the reader that the class system set in place during the time period was hindering people being happy. Although I think it was strange that they both ended up in the same miserable situations that they began with. It made me think of the saying "you can't expect things to change if you yourself don't change." The characters did change some, but not enough to make a real difference in the whole of their lives - so they ended right back where they had begun.
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