PLOT SUMMARY AND THEME OF THE NOVEL: The plot of The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, by Douglas Adams, commences when the diverse, disheveled, and, at least in the case of the paranoid android, depressed crew of the spaceship, The Heart of Gold, find themselves incapable of utilizing the ship’s infinite improbability drive to warp through hyperspace to escape the Vogon flagship’s attempts to exterminate the last of the human race due to the ship’s computer faculties being temporarily consumed by the simple task of figuring out to synthesize a cup of tea. After a desperate séance and a quick visit from a deceased ancestor, the flamboyantly tacky, ex-president of the universe, and captain of The Heart of Gold, Zaphod Bebblebrox, is unwillingly flung on a journey by an old friend, after the improbability drive starts working of course, to find the true ruler of the universe with his friends in tow. After witnessing the end of the universe over dinner, searching for the ultimate meaning of life, almost flying into the sun, and getting separated 2 million years in the past, the story ends with Zaphod meeting the nihilist ruler of the universe while Arthur and Ford are stranded on prehistoric earth with an excess of imbeciles and no hope of ever finding the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. The novel’s theme is that no matter how contradictory life may seem, it will always become more contrary than we could ever imagine. CHARACTERS AND POINT OF VIEW: The idiosyncratic cast of characters created by Douglas Adams drives The Restaurant at the End of the Universe through the intricate roads of plot and humor. The most eminent of all characters is the protagonist, Zaphod Beeblebrox. The two-headed, t... ... middle of paper ... ...is a story that combines science fiction and comedy into a raucous page-turner that is suited for older audiences. With badinage such as spending a year dead for tax reasons, and the Time Traveler’s Handbook of 1001Tense Formations, the humor and ideas present in this novel appeal more to adults. The zany, eccentric humor may not be for everyone. With the science fiction, futuristic background new opportunities for amusement arise. The jocose, light-hearted mood of this unique farce shows the audience that comicality can come from anywhere. Works Cited Hardy, Sarah Madsen. "What Happened to Maggie.” Short Stories for Students 5 (1999): 249- 252. Print. Morrison, Toni. “Recitatif.” Elements of literature, 5th Course. Austin: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 2007. 154-160. Adams, Douglas. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. New York: Wings Books, 1989.
The essay Four Menus by Sheila Squillante challenges mainstream pieces of writing in various ways. This essay closely resembles poetry with its metaphors and symbolism. This similarity is not a surprise given that Squillante is also a poet. Most essays explain an idea in a structured format which is greatly different from this piece. Four Menus jumps from scenes starting at a Korean restaurant and later at a house. Within the essay she tells flashbacks of times with her friends. These flashbacks are rather random and there seems to be scattered ideas. While pondering all of these aspects of her work I came the conclusion that an essay does not have to be black and white; as long as a main idea is covered it can be left as is. Most of us grew
6th ed. New York: St. James Press, 1996. Literature Resource Center. Web. 26 Jan. 2014.
2. Davidson, Cathy. Revoultion and the Word, The Rise of the Novel in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.
Heberle, Mark. "Contemporary Literary Criticism." O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. Vol. 74. New York, 2001. 312.
164-69. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 341. Detroit: Gale, 2013.Artemis Literary Sources. Web. 5 May 2014.
American Literature. 6th Edition. Vol. A. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. 2003. 783-791
With all the different types of literature we have in our world we also have a similar amount of interpretations of those pieces of literature. Each interpretation is as valid as another. Literature not only allows the writer to create a wonderful world and a story, it allows the reader to fully embrace the story and find meaning out of it. There are also many different types of literary criticisms. These criticisms are vehicles or guidelines for us to use to understand the reading in a very specific matter and really pinpoint the issues and overall theme of the story. This brings us to the Toni Morrison short story “Recitatif”. This short story encourages an African American or ethic criticism style of understanding it. The driving
Recitatif is a short story written by Toni Morrison about two girls, one African American and the other Caucasian, and their interactions with each other over the course of their lives. Which girl is which ethnicity is never revealed, but that only makes their interactions more relatable. Roberta and Twyla first meet in an orphanage after they are taken away from their mothers. They become fast friends, but when it comes time to leave the orphanage, the two quickly become distant. Over the years, Twyla and Roberta meet each other again many times, and each time, their relationship changes and they learn something new about each other.
Solomon, Barbara H., ed. "Critical Essays on Toni Morrison's Beloved." New York: G.K. Hall & Co. 1998
Stanley, Sandra. "Maggie in Toni Morrison's "Recitatif": The Africanist Presence and Disability Studies."Questia.com. N.p.. Web. 8 Feb 2014. .
Rackstraw, Loree. “The Vonnegut Cosmos.” The North American Review 267.4 (Dec. 1982): 63-67. JSTOR. Web. 25 Sept. 2011.
Harmon, William, William Flint Thrall, Addison Hibbard, and C. Hugh Holman. A Handbook to Literature. 11th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009. Print.
Morrison, Toni. "Recitatif." New World of Literature: Writing From America's Many Cultures. 2nd ed. Eds. Jerome Beaty and J. Paul Hunter. New York: Norton, 1994. 210-225.
story of a time traveler and his experience with time travel. The story was first published in 1895 by H.G. Wells. This is a great story because of the fascinating ideas it presents and the way the author has you asking yourself ‘what if?’.
Updike, John. “A&P.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed. Eds. Alison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. New York: Norton, 2010. 409-414. Print.