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Clarissa and Sally

One thing that I was constantly thinking about when reading Mrs. Dalloway was Clarissa herself, and how she wasn't satisfied with her life of being 'the perfect hostess'. The book starts with her going to get flowers for the party she will host, with her at the start displaying the character of a 'perfect wife' for a parliament member. As the story progresses however, it is found out that Clarissa feels dissatisfaction with this life, and wishes that she could be a common person, with freedom. The character that Clarissa thinks most fits this is Sally. Sally was the only person that Clarissa truly admired. When thinking back about the scene at Bourton, she truly feels like she was in love with Sally. These feelings show most when she thinks back to a certain memory on page 35. "Sally stopped; picked a flower; kissed her on the lips. The whole world might have turned upside down!" With the kiss, Clarissa truly felt like she had gone against societal norms. ...

Footnotes in The Mezzanine

    The Mezzanine is about a guy named Howie going up an escalator to eat lunch in the mezzanine. It has a simple plot, so many would think it would just be a short simple book. Instead, it is filled with discussions about many normal, everyday objects that can go on for pages. Along with that, it also has footnotes that occasionally show up on a random topic. While most footnotes are about either extra information or citing sources, in The Mezzanine they are used to further talk about some random object. While it is a cool concept, I think that most of the footnotes are fully irrelevant and are not needed.     The biggest problem for me is how long some of them are.  In chapter 8, at one point he mentions how escalators are built to be safe, and from this he somehow writes a 4 page long footnote talking about them. At the start he is able to describe why exactly they are safe without it being too long. "And escalators are safe: their safety the result (I now be...