Amory comes home

When Amory comes home from the war he begins the process of becoming a personage. I don't really know what this means, but i get a sense for it by reading through the rest of the book. I think the first relationship with his friend's sister begins this process. Amory actually falls in love, or so it appears. With this event it seems that he is shedding his ego. Well, he was also in love with his cousin so that is another example. These sort of things that are deviations from Amory's normal character point to the fact that he is growing up. But, in the earlier part of part 2 he still has the egotist tendencies.

something about paradise

Amory Blaine's character is just an exaggerated version of every person. Everyone is shy in certain situations, unsure, wanting to belong, but at the same time we want to view ourselves as something different and something special. The main difference for Amory, however, he has a social status, social network, and a crazy mom who encourages him in being a pretentious ass. If it weren't for the fact that the story has to continue, Amory would be a worthless character in terms of what he will contribute to the world.

there we go. woo hoo.

the last or Larsen -- the first too

I really don't get the homosexual connotations that everyone seems to think they see. There is definitely a jealousy that Irene feels when other people are interested in Clare, but it seems more like a jealousy in the sense that Clare possesses something that Irene has never had. I don't know if Irene knows right away that that is the case, but in the last section of the book we see Irene have an emotion that she has never had before -- she suddenly finds that she has had a moment in which she resents being black. I think this is the crux of the novel. While it may not be the most important event, the writers of the Harlem renaissance were about bringing to light racial tensions whether it is towards one's race or within one's race and this is just one of those tensions, when black people see the benefits of whiteness and want it. You see the opposite of this today in people wanting to be black because of the rich culture, natural rhythm that many assume all black people have, and whatever other positive stereotypes there may be. Obviously one of Larsen's things is to bring that homosexual element into her writing, but I'm not so sure that's supposed to be a driving force in this novel.