Blog #6
In the first half of Joseph Conrad’s novel, The Secret Agent, major characters are introduced and the characterization of Verloc and his family helps give the reader a grasp on this complex plot. Mr. Verloc owns a shop in Soho, London, where he not only houses is family, but hosts meetings for a group of anarchists. In addition to being an anarchist, he serves as a secret agent for an unnamed foreign country. Verloc is called into his supervisors’ office, and is told to “shake” England by blowing up the Greenwich Observatory. Already in these beginning chapters, Mr. Verloc is introduced as a man with a lot of responsibilities and power.  The reader can see his conflicting jobs, one of which he hides from his wife, Winnie. Not only does this affect the reader’s opinion about Verloc and his morals, but the structure of Conrad’s novel plays an important role understanding the plot. In Chapter 4, Conrad jumps ahead to the actual event of bombing the Observatory. Instead of waiting until the end of the book, Conrad introduces the climax (or what seems to be the climax at this point in the book) of the major event that Verloc was ordered to carry out, which goes terribly wrong. This allows more characters to be introduced, such as Chief Inspector Heat and The Professor. Because there is this lapse in time between the chapters, the reader has knowledge that the characters do not. The structure is not in the ordinary chronological order of events, and the reader is taken from the present to the future which allows loose ends slowly come together. Although this is complex and makes reading difficult at times, it has allowed me personally to make connections and predictions. However, even though my predictions and inferences could be wrong, it makes Conrad a great writer because this type of structure allows Conrad to suddenly and drastically change the plot and actions of the characters.

Blog #5

After finally finishing Family Album, I had a difficulty determining whether the ending was successful or not. It left me speechless, not because something extraordinary happened, but because the ending was completely predictable and tied the rest whole story together. After finding out that Clare was Ingrid and Charles’s child, not Alison, the reader is pulled into a deeper understanding of the novel and why Alison’s portrayal of her family is so superficial. She insisted that Ingrid “go away” for a while until Clare was born, and then they both return to Allersmead as if nothing happened. Charles’s affair with the au pair did not affect Alison as it should in a normal marriage, and she demanded that no one know about it, not even Clare. However, as the children grew up, they all began to suspect that Clare was not their sister, yet it was as if this idea was to be known only subconsciously; no one ever talked about it or questioned it. Then came the predictable and ordinary ending: Alison and Charles grow older, all the children continue living separate lives, and Allersmead slowly falls apart. Charles and Alison don’t have the money to renovate keep such a large and empty house, but Alison holds onto it with everything she has because it is a symbol of the life she created with the perfect family. Then, in the last chapter, Charles dies of a heart attack. It seems odd at first because no one is deeply upset or expresses any grief about this death. But looking back to the rest of the story, it is very fitting because Charles had no significant role in any of the children’s lives, and he never affected Alison’s way of life. Charles was almost just a role in presenting the “perfect and successful” family that Alison strived so hard for. It is after Charles’s death that Alison finally agrees to sell Allersmead, and maybe it is because she can no longer grasp this dream of hers. She has come to the realization that life must move on, and hopes that a young, growing family will buy the large Edwardian house and create memories like her family did. Although this ending is predictable and fitting to the rest of the novel, it is needed in order to close all loose ends. It allows readers to make a judgement and look back to the rest of the novel, and that is what makes Lively’s ending a success.