Rima Reveals...

The Roaring Twenties was a time of elaborate partying, heavy drinking, and glamorous attire. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, taking place in the 1920s time period, the lavish lifestyles of Jay Gatsby and those around him are reflected by the clothing they wear. Nick Carraway, the main protagonist, describes an instance in which Gatsby is dressed in “a white flannel suit, silver shirt, and gold-colored tie” (84). The color white was often symbolic of class during the Jazz Age, and many wealthy people donned cars and clothing in this shade, as illustrated in the novel.   Women’s fashion during the Jazz Age was all about breaking tradition. They ditched their corsets and frilly dresses and opted for more shapeless, shorter articles of clothing that allowed them to freely move and dance. They also began to wear colorful fabrics and cut their hair very short – the ‘bob’ style originated during this time period. In addition, sportswear for women was very po...

    In the graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman, the author uses the images featured in each chapter title to resemble, in one way or another, forms of Nazi propaganda. In this Nazi poster, there are many similarities and differences apparent between it and Spiegelman’s artwork on the Chapter Two title page in volume one that convey a deeper meaning. The poster features a Nazi soldier standing in front of a large Nazi flag accompanied by what appears to be ordinary Germans standing behind him. It is important to note that the soldier is facing away from the flag, with it supporting him from behind. This represents the Nazis leading the German citizens towards the ways of Hitler’s anti-Semitism. They are the driving force of the war, with the flag being a supportive emblem of their work. The flag itself is symbolic of the concept “Death to the Jews!” with the Nazis carrying out the deed. By contrast, Spiegelman’s work shows a group of mice, which represent th...

“To attempt to represent Auschwitz in language – to reduce the degradation, death, and stench to a concept – drowns out the screams…it is therefore necessary that the Holocaust remains immemorial – that it remains that which cannot be remembered – but also that which cannot be forgotten. Thus, any art attempting to represent the Holocaust should continue to haunt us with its inability to represent the unrepresentable, to say the unsayable. It should continue to haunt us with the feeling that there is something Other than representation.” – Jim Powell, Postmodernism for Beginners   Reading this quote from Jim Powell’s novel, I agree with the point he makes. The Holocaust is inarguably the most abhorrent and inhumane event to occur in history, and thus cannot simply be composed into a series of pages. The genocide of millions of Jews across Europe, and the torture they endured leading up to their murders, are unfathomable to those who did not witness this nightmare.   ...

Art Spiegelman's usage of pictures in his graphic novel "Maus" is crucial in conveying his father's abhorrent Holocaust survival story. On page 137, Art writes     Vladek and Anja are walking through Mr. Lukowski’s courtyard discussing how they are thankful there are still good people left in the world, when ironically a neighbor spots Anja by her mouse tail and exclaims, “A JEWESS!!” The Polish woman has nothing better to do with her time except hunt down potential Jews and report them. A mouse’s tail is an identifying characteristic of the animal, similar to how there were certain traits that allowed for Jewish people to be identifiable by others. Spiegelman discreetly weaves this into his work without offending any of his potentially Jewish audience. In addition, the author depicts the “old witch” in the window as a pig since she is Polish. He draws all the Poles as pigs, most probably to convey how horrible it was of them to turn a blind eye to Hi...

Recently, I read a transcript of David Foster Wallace’s speech called This is Water , and a particular sentence really stood out to me. Foster discusses the power that your mindset holds over the way you live your life, and he states, “you get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn’t.” This sentence was my absolute favorite, because it discusses the fact that we as people have the ability to brush things off in life and control how we get affected by certain moments. We have the ability to say to ourselves “I’m not going to let this bother me” and truly mean it. We continue to push forward and persevere, simply by coaching ourselves to relinquish resentful feelings we hold, which is a very powerful strength that only human beings are capable of. I think we take this tool for granted. Often times, we get so caught up in little details that irk us throughout the day that we forget we can say to ourselves, “hey it’s not a big deal everything is going to be fine,” and carry...