Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

I think that the novel raises a lot of interesting questions, one in particular about whether it was wrong of the Ex-Colored Man to take advantage of the opportunities he got because of his fair skin. Did he owe it to the rest of his community to identify more strongly as a colored man and work to further their cause? It's understandable that he felt conflicted about his decisions, but in the grand scheme of things he made the best of his situation and built a family and gave his children opportunities they might not have had otherwise. The ideal situation would probably have been if he could have been active in both communities, but that would have been impossible. It speaks to his character that he felt guilty about the situation, but really I don't think he has a lot to be guilty about. It's more about being frustrated with the racism of the time period in general.

House of Mirth: Film vs. Text

I thought it was really interesting to see some of the film adaptation of House of Mirth today in class.  I think they definitely pumped up the drama to make it more cinematic, but in most cases I didn't mind it.  One thing I wasn't quite sure about the casting of Selden.  The actor they chose to play him seemed more slight and less dynamic than I pictured in the novel.  While it did kind of throw me to see Dan Akroyd in this kind of role, I thought he did a good job in the parts we saw.  I actually liked the casting of Rosedale, because it set up a contrast between his character and Dan Akroyd's where he seemed like the lesser of two evils, but Lily still didn't want anything to do with him until it was too late.  Watching the film, I got more of an impression that Lily refused Rosedale's proposal because of the frankness and bluntness of his offer.  He didn't try to woo her at all, but was unapologetically straightforward.  After some time passes and Lily's other prospects dry up, Rosedale seems much more appealing.  Lily's aunt also had a stronger presence in the film than in the text for me.  The casting of her character and the staging of her scenes made her seem very vicious and almost frightening.  As for Gillian Anderson playing Lily, for the most part I thought it was fine.  Like I said earlier, it might have been a little bit overacted, but that added interest on a certain level for me.  She became a more volatile character, and her downward descent was that much more compelling to observe.  One thing I noticed was how much her breathing was exaggerated - it seemed like every other scene she was in ended with her gasping dramatically for air.  This could have to do with her having to put up a front and virtually hold her breath when she's among other people to maintain a dignified composure.  The tragedy of her character definitely came across, and in that way I think the film was successful.      

House of Mirth: First Impressions

So far I'm enjoying the novel.  Sometimes it can be confusing when Wharton is describing a scene or character, then goes off on a little bit of a tangent with their story - while this does add a lot of detail and fleshes out the character, I find myself losing track of who's who and what's what.  We touched on this a little bit in class in reference to the multitude of characters, many of them with similar names.
I'm definitely intrigued by the character of Lily Bart.  She comes off as very crafty, which I suppose a woman would feel the need to be in her position.  She's nearing the end of hear marriageable years, and if she doesn't find a husband and settle down she'll have to keep on relying on her wits to make it, and that would be more tiring than finding a man to bring home the bacon.  I think that it's a little bit comical and ironic that these characters are so concerned with keeping up appearances and adhering strictly to societal standards, when under the surface people are scheming about who's marriage material, who's not, who's making money, who's involved in a scandal and so on.  It's all just a facade (or a mask!!)
Another thing that I noticed is that while the women had very strict rules for their behavior, with it being scandalous to be alone with a man, etc., they didn't seem to have any problem showing off the huge wads of cash they won at bridge.  Isn't that a little bit unseemly?  Anyway, I'm interested to see how the rest of the story unfolds.