For Monday, continue reading Tarzan, Chs. 13-17
We'll start class with one of the following questions...
Chapter 13 is entitled, "His Own Kind": what does Tarzan learn of his own kind in these chapters? Has he found the noble race he is descended from? Or does he begin to realize that he is the "only one" of his kind?
Burroughs engages in some very broad and dated humor in these chapters, notably with the servant, Esmerelda, and the two professors. Do we still find these touches funny, or have they become difficult for modern readers? Why does almost no modern version of Tarzan include these passages?
Is Jane Porter another "Alice Clayton" type of woman: refined, delicate, and helpless? Or, being American (instead of English) is she a more modern woman who is a worthy companion for the "King of the Apes"?
At the end of Chapter 17, Tarzan plays peeping tom at Jane's window, until he is "rewarded by the sounds of the regular breathing within which denotes sleep" (158). He takes advantage of her slumber to steal the manuscript she had been working on. Why do you think Burroughs adds in this "love interest" element, and do you feel it is consistent with Tarzan's character? Would the "forest god" sneak around trying to peep at a half-naked woman and steal her letters?
We'll start class with one of the following questions...
Chapter 13 is entitled, "His Own Kind": what does Tarzan learn of his own kind in these chapters? Has he found the noble race he is descended from? Or does he begin to realize that he is the "only one" of his kind?
Burroughs engages in some very broad and dated humor in these chapters, notably with the servant, Esmerelda, and the two professors. Do we still find these touches funny, or have they become difficult for modern readers? Why does almost no modern version of Tarzan include these passages?
Is Jane Porter another "Alice Clayton" type of woman: refined, delicate, and helpless? Or, being American (instead of English) is she a more modern woman who is a worthy companion for the "King of the Apes"?
At the end of Chapter 17, Tarzan plays peeping tom at Jane's window, until he is "rewarded by the sounds of the regular breathing within which denotes sleep" (158). He takes advantage of her slumber to steal the manuscript she had been working on. Why do you think Burroughs adds in this "love interest" element, and do you feel it is consistent with Tarzan's character? Would the "forest god" sneak around trying to peep at a half-naked woman and steal her letters?
As of right know in the book and what we have seen of Jane Porter I think she is like Alice. When the lion is trying to get into the house her and Esmerelda sit huddled together just crying. Finally she remembers the revolver and shoots the cat but doesn't kill it, she only injures it. After she shoots she faints. I think she might be more stable and can withstand the jungle better than Alice did though.
ReplyDeleteIt is not consistent with Tarzans character. I feel like he adds this love interest into the story to show that even though Tarzan is maybe more like an ape since that is how he grew up he is slowly showing the characteristics of man. The more Tarzan is around these people the more he is going to begin to act as though he is a MAN.
Madelyn Lehr