Post by Zachary Lloyd on Oct 27, 2015 23:33:32 GMT
What is Devon as a school and as an important location meant to symbolize? What does this place do to the characters' journeys or, rather, what does it do for the characters? I would like to propose my thesis on this and also gauge my peers on the topic, as I have learned from class discussions that lots of us read this story differently to others.
Without further adieu, let us explore Devon in the words and descriptions provided by the narrator in the story. At the very beginning, it is seemingly defined by the museum-like appearance it takes on in the eyes of the narrator. The campus is expansive and ornate and orderly, which is all right and good from face value, seeing as the school is an ultra-exclusive institution for the children of the pompous and privileged. Bricks and moss give the campus an old but knowledgeable feel in my interpretation, as if it has weathered the storm of countless boys finding themselves and being thrust on forth towards adulthood. The moss especially on the buildings, which i perceive in two interpretations: either the moss is adulthood, encroaching on the campus all the time, or it is the ties of the students to the buildings, with each year the moss grows longer and more entangling, as the stories of the inmates, lets call them, are written on the campus walls and in its bricks. Too deep, yes, but that is addressed in my disclaimer in Section IV.5.879. See that for any references or offenses invoked here.
Next, RIVERS. I would include a map but that is like impossible to do. So sorry, but I will just use some words, maybe. Here we go. There are supposedly, according to the information we gather in the book, three parts to the waterways system in Devon or Dayvaughn. The three parts, similar to the categories of bildungsroman, represent a change in the characters, thus allowing them to grow into adults from children. If you will allow me to explain it thus; there are tributaries to the Devon River somewhere far away, and these, especially for characters such as Elwin 'Leper' Lepellier, denote carefully the idea of childhood. The Tributaries then lead on to the crystal clear and pristine Devon River, the middle part in the system, and, oddly enough, the center of the dark action that eventually propels certain characters from the liminal state (Authors Note, July 6, 2078: Liminal State is also the middle denomination of the bildungsroman transition). From the clean and innocent Devon River, the water then flows over a dam into the Naguamsett River, a brackish, dirty location that serves as the inlet/outlet for the water headed to the ocean, which, and I won't beat around the bush, invokes the concept of Adulthood, as it is filled with the realizations and dirtiness of adulthood. Lets pause for a moment here and take a step back to two things. First, water is life, and the water that flows in the tributaries is generally clean water from snowmelt and rain (I was in Honors Environmental kiddies), then the water flows into the still clean but questionably dirtied Devon, and from there into the nasty and disgusting Naguamsett, and eventually to the Oceano, which is just the worst. Lots of trash and sharks and stranded and hungry pirate colonies dating some 300 years before the text was ever written. The second thing I'd love to elaborate on is the concept of dams and where they are located. There are supposedly two dams in the waters, one of which is sought by Leper in the tributaries and the other located between the Devon and Naguamsett. These, as one will notice, are located in the same places as the inciting incident and the epiphany, on the road between Childhood and the Liminality, and then from the latter to Adulthood. IT IS PRETTY CLEAR WHAT I AM TRYING TO SAY.
Okay I am done, kiddos. Good luck getting anything from this.
with love, X-Man Zach X-Man
Without further adieu, let us explore Devon in the words and descriptions provided by the narrator in the story. At the very beginning, it is seemingly defined by the museum-like appearance it takes on in the eyes of the narrator. The campus is expansive and ornate and orderly, which is all right and good from face value, seeing as the school is an ultra-exclusive institution for the children of the pompous and privileged. Bricks and moss give the campus an old but knowledgeable feel in my interpretation, as if it has weathered the storm of countless boys finding themselves and being thrust on forth towards adulthood. The moss especially on the buildings, which i perceive in two interpretations: either the moss is adulthood, encroaching on the campus all the time, or it is the ties of the students to the buildings, with each year the moss grows longer and more entangling, as the stories of the inmates, lets call them, are written on the campus walls and in its bricks. Too deep, yes, but that is addressed in my disclaimer in Section IV.5.879. See that for any references or offenses invoked here.
Next, RIVERS. I would include a map but that is like impossible to do. So sorry, but I will just use some words, maybe. Here we go. There are supposedly, according to the information we gather in the book, three parts to the waterways system in Devon or Dayvaughn. The three parts, similar to the categories of bildungsroman, represent a change in the characters, thus allowing them to grow into adults from children. If you will allow me to explain it thus; there are tributaries to the Devon River somewhere far away, and these, especially for characters such as Elwin 'Leper' Lepellier, denote carefully the idea of childhood. The Tributaries then lead on to the crystal clear and pristine Devon River, the middle part in the system, and, oddly enough, the center of the dark action that eventually propels certain characters from the liminal state (Authors Note, July 6, 2078: Liminal State is also the middle denomination of the bildungsroman transition). From the clean and innocent Devon River, the water then flows over a dam into the Naguamsett River, a brackish, dirty location that serves as the inlet/outlet for the water headed to the ocean, which, and I won't beat around the bush, invokes the concept of Adulthood, as it is filled with the realizations and dirtiness of adulthood. Lets pause for a moment here and take a step back to two things. First, water is life, and the water that flows in the tributaries is generally clean water from snowmelt and rain (I was in Honors Environmental kiddies), then the water flows into the still clean but questionably dirtied Devon, and from there into the nasty and disgusting Naguamsett, and eventually to the Oceano, which is just the worst. Lots of trash and sharks and stranded and hungry pirate colonies dating some 300 years before the text was ever written. The second thing I'd love to elaborate on is the concept of dams and where they are located. There are supposedly two dams in the waters, one of which is sought by Leper in the tributaries and the other located between the Devon and Naguamsett. These, as one will notice, are located in the same places as the inciting incident and the epiphany, on the road between Childhood and the Liminality, and then from the latter to Adulthood. IT IS PRETTY CLEAR WHAT I AM TRYING TO SAY.
Okay I am done, kiddos. Good luck getting anything from this.
with love, X-Man Zach X-Man
