HELP! Need to write college paper: Morrison's "Bluest Eye", or Stoker's "Dracula"?

Question

Is "Bluest Eye" a tough read?

I have a paper due in less than 5 days. I can write on Dracula, but I have so much trouble interpreting it and all the themes and everything (I guess I just find it hard, plus it's so long).

I can also write on Morrison's Bluest Eye, but I'll have to read it first, and seeing as it's 200 pages long, I don't know if I can do it in time.

So can someone tell me if Bluest Eye was easier or harder to read than Dracula? And which is more difficult to write a paper on?

To bards:
I appreciate your reply and all the personal insults on my intelligence but it actually doesn't help me. Surprise?
Its amazing how being good at one particular field can turn some people into total b****es who need to belittle others to feel good. It's actually pretty childish (speaking of "maturity" right?).

To aida:
Yes I forgot about the paper topics. Basically I need to write about either logocentrism (speech > writing) or mediated desire. These two topics are very easily seen in Dracula, but the hard part is coming up with a greater argument about them (I can't just simply point them out). I think I may just try to read Bluest Eye if I'm still at a dead end with Dracula by tomorrow.

Answer 1

I've read Dracula more than once and haven't read The Bluest Eye, but I know that the latter is considered more serious literature. (Bram Stoker never won a Nobel Prize!)

Another consideration: what's the general topic? I doubt that any professor would assign a class just to write a paper about some book without giving more specific directions. If you can tell us more particularly what the paper is supposed to be, we can probably give better advice.

Answer 2

*sigh* You have issues that go beyond whether or not the book is a tough read. How did you get into college if Dracula is too hard for you? I read that in 7th grade, for God's Sake.

If you don't "get" Dracula, you won't "get" The Bluest Eye, which is an amazing tale. But I doubt you'll understand the African American experience as told through Morrison's book.

Maybe you should do the responsible, mature thing and confess to your teacher that you were very stupid and stalled in starting this work, and now you would appreciate an extension and some guidance on how to proceed. The nice thing about college is that the professors tend to be more flexible in terms of such things, and he or she will probably be so shocked that you showed some sense of maturity that they will gladly help you along.

Answer 3

Birth Name: Rillian; now R(changed name) 1. Awful experiences. I was often teased as child for not having a real name. As a teenager friends insisted on calling me Killian after the cheap beer Killians. In college I found that I wasn't getting scholarships or other opportunities while people with lower grades and less experience in the same subject were. I changed my name legally and almost immediately people who only knew me on paper started taking me seriously. An example: I originally applied to graduate schools as Rillian. I had an undergrad 4.0 but I didn't get a single offer. The next year--having done no extra coursework and with the same personal statement--I reapplied with the changed name and was accepted with funding to all eight universities to which I had applied. I think this is a fairly clear example of a name holding a person back. 2. My name comes from the name of a prince in the Narnia series (my mother has an obsession). To make the name "feminine" she added an extra L. I don't think it worked. 3. Personally I don't like Rillian, but I'm used to it. I still answer to it and my family still calls me it. What I really don't like is how it worked on a professional level. 4. I'd rather not say what I changed my name to on the internet, sorry. 5. Rillian and R(changed name). Rillian with family, sometimes with my husband (we were dating when I changed it). We've moved since I changed my name, so everyone in my new city only knows me by my new name. 6. I didn't change my last name when I got married, mostly because I had just changed my first name a year before and didn't feel like doing the paperwork again. I may get around to it one day, I may not. 7. They're OK. My maiden name and my husband's last name sound awful with each other, so it's not an option I am personally considering.

Answer 4

If you are enrolled in a college or university, you should have access to your university library and the books and databases to which your library subscribes.

Assuming you have already read Dracula, visit/call the library and ask the librarian on duty to help you search the library's databases for scholarly articles on the themes in Dracula. It helps if you have some idea of what you want to write, but you can also browse the periodical literature and see what aspects of the text you wish to discuss in your paper.

Public libraries also subscribe to journals via databases, so help from your local public librarian can benefit your paper.

Hope this helps. Good luck!