This podcast includes Anouk, Milani, Gabby, Jazz, and Indi.

The Brief Recap of Oscar Wow is a podcast focused on the book The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, which is about an overweight Domincan boy growing up in New Jersey with a large love for science fiction and fantasy novels and with falling in love. In this first episode, Milani opens up the conversation to a debate about who we believe could be narrating the book, to which Anouk follows up with the conversation of the order of perspective in the first two readings we have done. The theme of literal and figurative writing looms over our conversation as we try to make sense of the beginning of our book.

https://www.wevideo.com/view/3286981436

Purple Hues Podcast dives deep into the Literal and Figurative devices that appear in the book “The Color Purple” By Alice Walker. A book about a character named Celie and the events of her life, navigating how to discover the things she desires.

In this first episode, the hosts of Purple Hues share their hottest take along with their first impressions of the book. Analyzing key parts to build up bigger ideas later in the story.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qe9kLsRMckDofdgvWxu1ajgNKKaHivow/view?usp=sharing

Speakers: Medina Baram, Cana Berkey-Gerard, Bella Olsen, Diana Yang, and Gina Zou

Podcast #1: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uoQ_vr0WucNo0e0tAq04RZ3ZZNvybok5/view?usp=sharing

Speakers: Ana Blumberg, Lia Dunkin, Josie Silver, Adrie Young, and Tina Zou.

In the new podcast 1984+, hosts Tina Zou, Adrie Young, Ana Blumberg, Lia Dunakin, and Josie Silver will explore the contents of the classic dystopian novel by George Orwell. Episode one dives into the first seventy pages of the book, and discusses the literal and figurative aspects of the book thus far.

LISTEN HERE: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1weq1Hdr04TA0dW2SdIxY18AmNuovxJnb/view?usp=drive_link

Talkaholic’s Pod #1

Speakers: Langston Payne, I’Jhanae Chase

Pod #1:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pSYdcpYhi4w8HGf003_-kOi3ClUGo5CO/view?usp=drive_link

Going Home Podcast

Speakers: Na’im Faulkner, Khairi Roberts, James Murray

Pod #1:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Qcpp0rkclyEMclhfKbJzdXC5RGNKIOdr/view

I choose to track odd, out-of-place imagery throughout The Road. I noticed a few of these scenes while reading, but found many more while searching for similar scenes. The ones I noticed first were when the boy plays his flute on the road (77), and when they eat dinner with fine china in a once-glamorous house (209). These were most obvious because the strangeness of the scene is often pointed out by one of the characters themselves. In the dinner scene, McCarthy writes, “They ate slowly out of bone china bowls, sitting at opposite sides of the table with a single candle burning between them. The pistol lying to hand like another dining implement.” (209) The reference to the pistol highlights the strangeness and contradiction of their situation. They’re dirty, starving, and don’t have an end goal. They’re running from cannibals, narrowly escaping death every day, and they’ve seen horrors that will haunt them forever. And yet they’re sitting on opposite ends of this table, illuminated by candlelight, and eating canned food out of ornate bowls like they’re at a fancy Victorian dinner. One way to interpret this vivid contradiction is an attempt at dark humor by McCarthy, a sort of twisted satirical commentary of their situation and the world they’re living in. In such a serious, desperate book, he reminds us of the ridiculousness and perhaps even futility of their journey to find something better in this barren, abandoned world.

However, a search for similar scenes in the book starts to reveal additional themes and intents. In my artwork, I highlighted seven other scenes like these: when they play checkers in the bunker (148), when the wheel on the cart begins to squeak, despite their efforts to fix it (186), when the boy asks what their “long-term goals” are (160), when the boy plays in the abandoned train (180), when they spot a plastic deer in the yard of an abandoned house (185), when they come across a corpse in overalls, sitting on a porch like “a straw man set out to announce some holiday” (199), and lastly when they see themselves in a mirror and don’t recognize themselves (132). Each of these scenes is incredibly strange and awkward, highlighting the bizarre remnants of the world before. However, these are also small moments of humanity - the little boy playing with his father, the humor of a squeaking wheel in an apocalyptic landscape, and the grief and horror of finding human artifacts and remains in unexpected places. These moments make up an odd, and seemingly random collection of slivers of light and humanity in a gray and desolate world. McCarthy seems to be reminding us that humanity will remain, even in the most horrific and desperate of times. It may show up in odd and uncomfortable ways, but it will remain.

Welcome all Here Herers! This podcast is one of many deep dives into the lives of the natives in the book “There There”, by Tommy Orange. In this episode, Jackson, Gabe, Henry, Anthony, and Leo Braveman go into our thoughts on the plot of the story, because no, it’s not yet obvious. We also pick apart the first 100 pages, looking for quotes, symbolism, and connections to other books that we may have read in the past. Some of these connections, you would never see coming. They are truly groundbreaking and mind blowing to the average human. The input from Anthony at the end will leave you with chills…So don’t miss it! And of course, come back next time.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1A9h-w05oHc7RBCP5zhepc6-5gmrxjXzX/view?usp=sharing

In Cormac McCarthy’s novel “The Road,” the landscape is a representation of how grey and unforgiving this world is. Everything from the abandoned structures to the beach shows the hopelessness this world has to offer. I cannot paint everywhere but I painted important places that they have been.

Early in their journey, the two explore a city, almost like a skeleton of its former self. Buildings stand hollow and streets are littered with abandoned cars and the ash of what once was. The city, a symbol of human achievement, now lies in ruins, underscoring the extent of the apocalypse. It’s a place where danger is everywhere, forcing the father and son to be exceedingly cautious. Page 24, “The mummied dead everywhere, the flesh cloven along the bones, the ligaments dried to tug and taunt as wires.” This urban wasteland sets the tone for the hopelessness pervading their world, where survival is a constant battle against the remnants of civilization.

Going on to a more rare find on their journey is a hidden bunker filled with supplies. This place is a temporary haven, page 148, “ How long can we stay here papa? Not long. How long is that? I don’t know maybe one more day. Two. Because it’s dangerous? Yes.” The bunker, stocked with food and amenities, offers a brief glimpse of normalcy and safety. However, the Man and boy know they can’t stay because nothing has security in this world.

A particularly horrifying moment occurs when they discover a house where cannibalism takes place. This house, a grotesque perversion of the concept of ‘home’, represents the depths of depravity humanity has sunk to in the face of extinction. It’s a constant reminder of the pervasive threat other humans pose and the brutal measures taken by some to survive. Pg 110, “ Huddled against the back wall were naked people, male and female, all trying to hide, shielding their faces with their hands. On the mattress lay a man with his legs gone to his hip and the stumps of them blackened and burnt. The smell was hideous.”

Throughout their journey, the father and son encounter remnants of what used to be a functioning society—crumbling roads, collapsed bridges, and abandoned vehicles. This decaying infrastructure serves as a metaphor for the collapse of the societal order and the fragility of human constructs.

The beach, their final destination, stands as a contrast to the bleakness they have traveled. Despite its natural beauty, it’s cold, and windy, and offers no salvation. The beach symbolizes the end of their journey and the realization that there is no promised land in this new world. In “The Road,” these places are not just physical locations but are imbued with symbolic meaning. They reflect the hopelessness of a world, where survival is a daily challenge.

Link to document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1f_QnsTdMW8usuHuYN-4aAZfAOUneOxKveav-HMuCPwc/edit?usp=sharing