Blog 3

Blog 3

Michelle Klug

mak05@ufl.edu

1.)            Up in the Old Hotel explores the traditions, ideas, and expectations that come out of the divide between past and present. The story focuses of the protagonist, Louie, and his nostalgic feelings he has towards his past. To Louie, everything has a history. He reflects on the long line of history his family has in his “ancient” town of Recco. Louie describes his town as social, his family as large, and his parents making a living off of their traditional family business. This is what seems to draw him to his fish market location. The hustle and bustle of the fish market, the smell of fish, and a general sense of belonging are all components in what makes Louie nostalgic about his childhood town. In a new and changing world, Sloppy Louie’s is a cutout of history not only for the fish market community but also for his own sense of self.

Louie is not afraid of progression and the future; he just wants to make sure he doesn’t forget his past. He welcomes all the new people from the different districts that dine in his restaurant. He features new dishes and always has a wide variety of seafood, but still holds on to his traditions such as making the bouillabaisse the traditional way as his family did in Recco. Never is the excerpt does he bash the new market or the new people coming into his restaurant. He even installs more tables on the second floor to accommodate the newcomers.

He finds refuge in the information provided by Mrs. Frelinghysen and her information on New York history. They are kindred spirits in their appreciation of traditions of the past. This is symbolized by the way she uses her “old family silver”. Louie is happy to know his building is an old Schermerhorn building since the name itself has a lot of history in New York. His dreams that some artifacts that hold prominence in history lie in the upper levels of his building are crushed when he finally goes up there. He does not find the fishing boxes, the records he is looking for; just old pointless artifacts and in his mind this is a failure. He views this as a failure because his restaurant is not located a building with a lot of history and prominence, just some old hotel dusty.

I understand Louie’s feeling of nostalgia, and the longing to be in a place that if familiar. I took a year off of school to travel before I started my masters program and ended up spending a month in Europe and a lot of time in the Caribbean. As much as I loved all the different places I went and tried to immerse myself in different cultures, I always felt a longing for something familiar. There were some points when I was lost and could not communicate and did not understand the customs. As much as I feel that I am cultured and an experienced traveler, I at times longed for a friendly English speaking American to help me with directions or tell me how to buy a train ticket. As much as the trip gave me more independence and a worldly experience, it also made me appreciate my how comfortable my home can be. 

2.)             The two tornado articles are similar in the respect that they give all of the details of the incident and you get a general sense of what happened and how the resident are taking it. They are also similar in the respect that they make it clear the resident are holding on to their faith but still at a loss for why something so horrible would happen in a church.

            However, the articles are drastically different in their word choice, attitude towards religion, and portrayal of Southern culture. From the first paragraph Bragg sets the stage for a very pristine and innocent south that is torn to shreds by this catastrophe. He uses vivid imagery such as men crying on other men’s shoulders, tombstones being ripped out of the ground, and baby’s Easter shoes scattering the rubble. This is taking full advantage of intersubjectivity and opening up the scene for an outsider with no personal ties to be brought and become engaged in the article.

            The article by Bragg also goes into a lot more depth about religion. Bragg point out that most Christian’s believe God is as almighty controller. However, now after the accident people are leaning towards the belief that this was an act of nature, not god, which goes against a lot of southern Christian beliefs.

Bragg is not subjectively documenting an incident that happened but putting you in a serene community where a tornado shook the Earth and made people question beliefs they have held their entire lives.