[F2F Book Discussions] May 2014: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf | Moderator: Angus

[Monique]

ALSO: Buddy, Activity 1 post updated! :D

[Meliza]

Activity 2: The Meaning of Life

(view spoiler)[But beauty was not everything. Beauty had this penalty—it came too readily, came too completely. It stilled life—froze it. One forgot the little agitations; the flush, the pallor, some queer distortion, some light or shadow, which made the face unrecognisable for a moment and yet added a quality one saw for ever after. It was simpler to smooth that all out under the cover of beauty. (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[Mr Ramsay, stumbling along a passage one dark morning, stretched his arms out, but Mrs Ramsay having died rather suddenly the night before, his arms, though stretched out, remained empty. (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[It was necessary now to carry everything a step further. With her foot on the threshold she waited a moment longer in a scene which was vanishing even as she looked, and then, as she moved and took Minta's arm and left the room, it changed, it shaped itself differently; it had become, she knew, giving one last look at it over her shoulder, already the past. (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[Every throb of this pulse seemed, as he walked away, to enclose her and her husband, and to give to each that solace which two different notes, one high, one low, struck together, seem to give each other as they combine. (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[Love had a thousand shapes. There might be lovers whose gift it was to choose out the elements of things and place them together and so, giving them a wholeness not theirs in life, make of some scene, or meeting of people (all now gone and separate), one of those globed compacted things over which thought lingers, and love plays. (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[It was in this sort of state that one asked oneself, What does one live for? Why, one asked oneself, does one take all these pains for the human race to go on? Is it so very desirable? Are we attractive as a species? (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[What art was there, known to love or cunning, by which one pressed through into those secret chambers? What device for becoming, like waters poured into one jar, inextricably the same, one with the object one adored? Could the body achieve, or the mind, subtly mingling in the intricate passages of the brain? or the heart? Could loving, as people called it, make her and Mrs Ramsay one? for it was not knowledge but unity that she desired, not inscriptions on tablets, nothing that could be written in any language known to men, but intimacy itself, which is knowledge, she had thought, leaning her head on Mrs Ramsay's knee. (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[One wanted fifty pairs of eyes to see with, she reflected. Fifty pairs of eyes were not enough to get round that one woman with, she thought. (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[She would never know him. He would never know her. Human relations were all like that, she thought, and the worst (if it had not been for Mr Bankes) were between men and women. (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[For if thought is like the keyboard of a piano, divided into so many notes, or like the alphabet is ranged in twenty-six letters all in order, then his splendid mind had no sort of difficulty in running over those letters one by one, firmly and accurately, until it had reached, say, the letter Q. He reached Q. Very few people in the whole of England ever reach Q. (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[It is permissible even for a dying hero to think before he dies how men will speak of him hereafter. His fame lasts perhaps two thousand years. And what are two thousand years? (asked Mr Ramsay ironically, staring at the hedge). What, indeed, if you look from a mountain top down the long wastes of the ages? The very stone one kicks with one's boot will outlast Shakespeare. His own little light would shine, not very brightly, for a year or two, and would then be merged in some bigger light, and that in a bigger still. (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[But what after all is one night? A short space, especially when the darkness dims so soon, and so soon a bird sings, a cock crows, or a faint green quickens, like a turning leaf, in the hollow of the wave. Night, however, succeeds to night. The winter holds a pack of them in store and deals them equally, evenly, with indefatigable fingers. They lengthen; they darken. (hide spoiler)]

[Angus]

What beautiful photos! I was thinking of checking these later but I can't help it.

Buddy, I agree. Mukhang magkakalighthouse fixation din ako. May lighthouse ba sa Baler or sa Palaui Island? Will be going to these places in the coming months. :D

Mommy L, regarding the quote you want me to consider, my edition doesn't have the last sentence. But I will think of it. :)

Meliza and Tin,
(view spoiler)[
Congratulations for making it alive! I am a firm believer of the reward system, especially for hardworking people who'd give their all to be in the top spot (translation: you get a bookish surprise from me). I'll send you PMs. :)
(hide spoiler)]

Arjaye, welcome back! Click mo yung (some html is ok) sa taas ng comment box for instructions on how to post images. :)

[Monique]

Buddy, I think sa Palaui meron. Click this link. The blogger wants to visit all the lighthouses in the Philippines. Check this other link. The photos are amazing. :)

[Angus]

Cape Engano Lighthouse! Seeya!

[Meliza]

Angus & Monique: I love the photos too. Now I admire the lighthouses more. I even "googled" some lighthouses in Batangas so I could visit them someday.

Angus: Thanks for driving us to participate in the online discussion. Hehe. Although writing summaries and answering questions took a lot of my time, I think I won't appreciate the book that much if I didn't answer those questions. Tin and I talked about this, that we could have rated the book lower if we didn't get involved in the online discussion.

[Angus]

Aaaand, it's a wrap! Yay!

To assist me in checking Activity 2, below are my favorites (which I copied on index cards).

[Angus]

The Window

(view spoiler)[
She could see it all so clearly, so commandingly, when she looked: it was when she took her brush in hand that the whole thing changed. It was in that moment's flight between the picture and her canvas that the demons set on her who often brought her to the verge of tears and made this passage from conception to work as dreadful as any down a dark passage for a child. Such she often felt herself—struggling against terrific odds to maintain her courage; to say: "But this is what I see; this is what I see," and so to clasp some miserable remnant of her vision to her breast, which a thousand forces did their best to pluck from her.
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(view spoiler)[
How then did it work out, all this? How did one judge people, think of them? How did one add up this and that and conclude that it was liking one felt or disliking? And to those words, what meaning attached, after all?
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(view spoiler)[
Finally, who shall blame the leader of the doomed expedition, if, having adventured to the uttermost, and used his strength wholly to the last ounce and fallen asleep not much caring if he wakes or not, he now perceives by some pricking in his toes that he lives, and does not on the whole object to live, but requires sympathy, and whisky, and some one to tell the story of his suffering to at once? Who shall blame him? Who will not secretly rejoice when the hero puts his armour off, and halts by the window and gazes at his wife and son, who, very distant at first, gradually come closer and closer, till lips and book and head are clearly before him, though still lovely and unfamiliar from the intensity of his isolation and the waste of ages and the perishing of the stars, and finally putting his pipe in his pocket and bending his magnificent head before her—who will blame him if he does homage to the beauty of the world?
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(view spoiler)[
He turned from the sight of human ignorance and human fate and the sea eating the ground we stand on, which, had he been able to contemplate it fixedly might have led to something; and found consolation in trifles so slight compared with the august theme just now before him that he was disposed to slur that comfort over, to deprecate it, as if to be caught happy in a world of misery was for an honest man the most despicable of crimes.
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(view spoiler)[
In a moment he would ask her, "Are we going to the Lighthouse?" And she would have to say, "No: not tomorrow; your father says not." Happily, Mildred came in to fetch them, and the bustle distracted them. But he kept looking back over his shoulder as Mildred carried him out, and she was certain that he was thinking, we are not going to the Lighthouse tomorrow; and she thought, he will remember that all his life.
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(view spoiler)[
Foolish questions, vain questions, questions one never asked if one was occupied. Is human life this? Is human life that? One never had time to think about it.
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(view spoiler)[
Everything seemed possible. Everything seemed right. Just now (but this cannot last, she thought, dissociating herself from the moment while they were all talking about boots) just now she had reached security; she hovered like a hawk suspended; like a flag floated in an element of joy which filled every nerve of her body fully and sweetly, not noisily, solemnly rather, for it arose, she thought, looking at them all eating there, from husband and children and friends; all of which rising in this profound stillness (she was helping William Bankes to one very small piece more, and peered into the depths of the earthenware pot) seemed now for no special reason to stay there like a smoke, like a fume rising upwards, holding them safe together. Nothing need be said; nothing could be said. There it was, all round them. It partook, she felt, carefully helping Mr Bankes to a specially tender piece, of eternity; as she had already felt about something different once before that afternoon; there is a coherence in things, a stability; something, she meant, is immune from change, and shines out (she glanced at the window with its ripple of reflected lights) in the face of the flowing, the fleeting, the spectral, like a ruby; so that again tonight she had the feeling she had had once today, already, of peace, of rest. Of such moments, she thought, the thing is made that endures.
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(view spoiler)[
It was necessary now to carry everything a step further. With her foot on the threshold she waited a moment longer in a scene which was vanishing even as she looked, and then, as she moved and took Minta's arm and left the room, it changed, it shaped itself differently; it had become, she knew, giving one last look at it over her shoulder, already the past.
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[Angus]

Time Passes

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It seemed now as if, touched by human penitence and all its toil, divine goodness had parted the curtain and displayed behind it, single, distinct, the hare erect; the wave falling; the boat rocking; which, did we deserve them, should be ours always. But alas, divine goodness, twitching the cord, draws the curtain; it does not please him; he covers his treasures in a drench of hail, and so breaks them, so confuses them that it seems impossible that their calm should ever return or that we should ever compose from their fragments a perfect whole or read in the littered pieces the clear words of truth. For our penitence deserves a glimpse only; our toil respite only.
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(view spoiler)[
So loveliness reigned and stillness, and together made the shape of loveliness itself, a form from which life had parted; solitary like a pool at evening, far distant, seen from a train window, vanishing so quickly that the pool, pale in the evening, is scarcely robbed of its solitude, though once seen. Loveliness and stillness clasped hands in the bedroom, and among the shrouded jugs and sheeted chairs even the prying of the wind, and the soft nose of the clammy sea airs, rubbing, snuffling, iterating, and reiterating their questions—"Will you fade? Will you perish?"—scarcely disturbed the peace, the indifference, the air of pure integrity, as if the question they asked scarcely needed that they should answer: we remain.
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(view spoiler)[
Did Nature supplement what man advanced? Did she complete what he began? With equal complacence she saw his misery, his meanness, and his torture. That dream, of sharing, completing, of finding in solitude on the beach an answer, was then but a reflection in a mirror, and the mirror itself was but the surface glassiness which forms in quiescence when the nobler powers sleep beneath? Impatient, despairing yet loth to go (for beauty offers her lures, has her consolations), to pace the beach was impossible; contemplation was unendurable; the mirror was broken.
(hide spoiler)]

[Angus]

The Lighthouse

(view spoiler)[
But why repeat this over and over again? Why be always trying to bring up some feeling she had not got? There was a kind of blasphemy in it. It was all dry: all withered: all spent.
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(view spoiler)[
Where to begin?—that was the question at what point to make the first mark? One line placed on the canvas committed her to innumerable risks, to frequent and irrevocable decisions. All that in idea seemed simple became in practice immediately complex; as the waves shape themselves symmetrically from the cliff top, but to the swimmer among them are divided by steep gulfs, and foaming crests. Still the risk must be run; the mark made.
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(view spoiler)[
Here she was again, she thought, stepping back to look at it, drawn out of gossip, out of living, out of community with people into the presence of this formidable ancient enemy of hers—this other thing, this truth, this reality, which suddenly laid hands on her, emerged stark at the back of appearances and commanded her attention. She was half unwilling, half reluctant. Why always be drawn out and haled away? Why not left in peace, to talk to Mr Carmichael on the lawn? It was an exacting form of intercourse anyhow. Other worshipful objects were content with worship; men, women, God, all let one kneel prostrate; but this form, were it only the shape of a white lampshade looming on a wicker table, roused one to perpetual combat, challenged one to a fight in which one was bound to be worsted. Always (it was in her nature, or in her sex, she did not know which) before she exchanged the fluidity of life for the concentration of painting she had a few moments of nakedness when she seemed like an unborn soul, a soul reft of body, hesitating on some windy pinnacle and exposed without protection to all the blasts of doubt. Why then did she do it?
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(view spoiler)[
What is the meaning of life? That was all—a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years. The great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one.
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(view spoiler)[
Who knows what we are, what we feel? Who knows even at the moment of intimacy, This is knowledge? Aren't things spoilt then, Mrs Ramsay may have asked (it seemed to have happened so often, this silence by her side) by saying them? Aren't we more expressive thus?
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(view spoiler)[
But beauty was not everything. Beauty had this penalty—it came too readily, came too completely. It stilled life—froze it. One forgot the little agitations; the flush, the pallor, some queer distortion, some light or shadow, which made the face unrecognisable for a moment and yet added a quality one saw for ever after. It was simpler to smooth that all out under the cover of beauty.
(hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[
And she wanted to say not one thing, but everything. Little words that broke up the thought and dismembered it said nothing. "About life, about death; about Mrs Ramsay"—no, she thought, one could say nothing to nobody. The urgency of the moment always missed its mark. Words fluttered sideways and struck the object inches too low. Then one gave it up; then the idea sunk back again; then one became like most middle-aged people, cautious, furtive, with wrinkles between the eyes and a look of perpetual apprehension. For how could one express in words these emotions of the body? express that emptiness there? (She was looking at the drawing-room steps; they looked extraordinarily empty.) It was one's body feeling, not one's mind. The physical sensations that went with the bare look of the steps had become suddenly extremely unpleasant. To want and not to have, sent all up her body a hardness, a hollowness, a strain. And then to want and not to have—to want and want—how that wrung the heart, and wrung it again and again!
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(view spoiler)[
She looked at her picture. That would have been his answer, presumably—how "you" and "I" and "she" pass and vanish; nothing stays; all changes; but not words, not paint. Yet it would be hung in the attics, she thought; it would be rolled up and flung under a sofa; yet even so, even of a picture like that, it was true. One might say, even of this scrawl, not of that actual picture, perhaps, but of what it attempted, that it "remained for ever," she was going to say, or, for the words spoken sounded even to herself, too boastful, to hint, wordlessly; when, looking at the picture, she was surprised to find that she could not see it. Her eyes were full of a hot liquid (she did not think of tears at first) which, without disturbing the firmness of her lips, made the air thick, rolled down her cheeks.
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(view spoiler)[
What was it then? What did it mean? Could things thrust their hands up and grip one; could the blade cut; the fist grasp? Was there no safety? No learning by heart of the ways of the world? No guide, no shelter, but all was miracle, and leaping from the pinnacle of a tower into the air? Could it be, even for elderly people, that this was life?—startling, unexpected, unknown?
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(view spoiler)[
The Lighthouse was then a silvery, misty-looking tower with a yellow eye, that opened suddenly, and softly in the evening. Now—

James looked at the Lighthouse. He could see the whitewashed rocks; the tower, stark and straight; he could see that it was barred with black and white; he could see windows in it; he could even see washing spread on the rocks to dry. So that was the Lighthouse, was it?

No, the other was also the Lighthouse. For nothing was simply one thing. The other Lighthouse was true too. It was sometimes hardly to be seen across the bay. In the evening one looked up and saw the eye opening and shutting and the light seemed to reach them in that airy sunny garden where they sat.
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(view spoiler)[
Phrases came. Visions came. Beautiful pictures. Beautiful phrases. But what she wished to get hold of was that very jar on the nerves, the thing itself before it has been made anything. Get that and start afresh; get that and start afresh; she said desperately, pitching herself firmly again before her easel. It was a miserable machine, an inefficient machine, she thought, the human apparatus for painting or for feeling; it always broke down at the critical moment; heroically, one must force it on.
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[Louize]

Naku nakalimutan ko i-post ang sagot ko for the last sets of questions. Sorry, senior moments!

Part III: Chapters 01 to 05
(view spoiler)[
Question 29:
Pass na po!

Question 30:
It felt surreal. This part opening in the morning, at breakfast, as if the last supper just happened the night before, but didn’t. The house was reconstructed, but the whole essence of a family felt like deconstructed without Mrs. Ramsay there.

Question 31:
The relationships feels strained. It’s so heartbreaking when children are silently waging war with a parent. To a point, I agree with Mrs. Ramsay that children never forget.

Question 32:
For me, it was a way to bridge a gap. Finally, they do get each other. Mr. Ramsay accepted the fact that Lily is not a hard unfeeling person; she is just not the mushy type. Lily, meanwhile, has accepted the fact that Mr. Ramsay is needy, because there’s no one else to supply his needs.

Question 33:
Based from the story, Lily grew up without a mother. Although Lily and Mrs. Ramsay disagreed on the subject of marriage, Mrs. Ramsay had a mother’s heart for everyone.

Question 34:
It signifies her triumph over the argument of marriage. Not all married people stay happy, and not all unmarried ones are unhappy.
(hide spoiler)]

Part III: Chapters 06 to 13
(view spoiler)[
Question 35:
Pass na po!

Question 36:
For me, it means that life can be easily ceased and discarded without us putting much thought into it. The people on that boat seems to be forgetting this very thing, they are too busy being angry and reclusive, when they should be enjoying this moment.

Question 37:
She was calling for help –some enlightenment from the person who held things together in this same house once, a long time ago.

Question 38:
I think, for James it meant answers. His curiosities and longing as a child was denied, and this time he got his answers albeit it took a long time.

Question 39:
The arc of time and space allowed Lily to realize her whole being. She grew confident and purposeful. She believes that feelings may change due to distance.
James was too young then to remember the WHOLE past, but he now has the chance to realize and compare his allusions as a young boy to what he is experiencing now. He now can decide if he should keep his memories of the past along with this new memories he is about to begin. He’s a boy who values truth, anyways.

Question 40:
Remember during Part 1, wherein she described her painting, she can’t seem to put into paint what she was actually seeing; that somehow there was something off. It has nothing to do with painting skills, but on her being unassertive. Now in Part 3, like I said before, she grew confident. She can visually and emotionally put into paint how she sees things
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[Angus]

Haha, Mommy L, legit member ka ng SC. (view spoiler)[
And congratulations for making it up to the very end! You will also get a bookish surprise from me. I'll send you a PM soon. :) (hide spoiler)]

[Ranee]

i will now answer questions: not much of a rebel hehe. nonbearing points, I know but will answer them

Q5: (view spoiler)[not liking Virgie's writing style, I find myself rearranging the paragraphs into script form. it becomes very sarcastic. also I find myself reading very loudly, so that I am in tune with the pauses unlike when I read with my eyes, i tend to not stop with the pauses, then the problem of missing comprehension arises (hide spoiler)]

Q6: (view spoiler)[if it were more action, I think I would find myself acting it out too rather than just reading it aloud. (hide spoiler)]
Q7: (view spoiler)[ Mr. Ramsay is your typical stern father. Mrs. Ramsay is a very hands on mom that loves the idea of marriage very much. Lily is an artist, not an exhibitionist, she paints for art's sake but not paint to let the world see what she sees (hide spoiler)]
Q9 (view spoiler)[ he is a writer. he writes about philosophy and such. He doubts because as a writer he knows, his words can only be sustainable to a certain degree, to a certain extent, maybe only during that century but in the next, would his words still ring true? (hide spoiler)]
Q10: (view spoiler)[Tansley and Mr. Ramsay are both in similar fields, they write to be famous, to be heard (hide spoiler)]
Q11: Reality, whew. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. This is the truth and everyone adheres to this. Reality to me is dawning into that thought that it happened. the experiences vary but it remains that it happened.
Q13: (view spoiler)[I guess, Mrs. Ramsay knows that concepts of promises and keeping one's word is developed in that age. Children relies very much to their parents in the age James and Cam is (formative years of development).So the words their parents say have a deep impact and is etched until they grow old.
it just shows that Mrs. Ramsay is really the chief of the household, that she not only takes care of the children but also takes care of the allocation of the finances. Also, they were in that time when the perception of their family is of high regard. Especially for Mr. Ramsay's position, with his fame comes fortune. the recurring thought of that amount of money is a thought that says that his position is shaken because they may no afford that 50 pounds. Hence, his fortune is dwindling because his fame is dwindling. (hide spoiler)]

Q14: (view spoiler)[ Ok, I did consider the timeframe. Women empowerment is not famous at this time. but I do not feel the Mrs. Ramsay's concept of marriage. Well, I was more bothered by her statement that Prue will only be happy once she gets married. Marriage is a union of two people in love, a celebration of sort. So,marrying just to be happy is BS.
Charles statement if said in this time period will raise the eyebrows of many women. He will be slapped crazy by multimillion worth of paintings, dissertations, inventions, written works and even movies made by women. He'd be hit so hard he would rather suffer from dysmenorrhea right now (hide spoiler)]
Q15: (view spoiler)[ Lily is like the first child of Mrs. Ramsay. She rebels against the system that marriage is the endgoal of every woman, hence she rebels against Mrs. Ramsay in this view. But she also reserves this space she keeps in awe of her, seeing how she is able to manage all 8 of her children and still maintain that composure to face other people.
I think the men may act as distractions only to a certain degree. For Mrs. Ramsay, she rose to the role as mother and one that manages all the household affairs. This for her is her social prowess. People does wait for her to go down and eat, it is not her who does the waiting. In that sense, people acknowledge her presence. For Lily, I got this vibe that she does not really care what they say because she paints because she can and she likes doing it. Not because it was dictated. (hide spoiler)]

Q16:(view spoiler)[ Mr. Ramsay lives in exact order, 1+1=2. With Mrs. Ramsay, she thinks of other small stuff, compromises if she can or adds more if she could. 2= 1.5+0.5 or 2+0=2 or 1+1=2. (hide spoiler)]
Q17: (view spoiler)[ Lily as a character is there to show that one can still be a woman who can be herself as long as she stands firm on what she chooses to be. She is the bridge of possibilities that she may become like Mrs. Ramsay and be a mother of 8 or be Mr. Ramsay, stern to her beliefs. (hide spoiler)]

Q19: (view spoiler)[parang dazed and confused.that feeling you have in your class while you are waiting for the teacher to come in, ganun. (hide spoiler)]
Q20: (view spoiler)[ yes. (hide spoiler)]
Q21: (view spoiler)[ actually, neutral. life goes on, ganun lang (hide spoiler)]

Q23:(view spoiler)[ I cannot think of any! hahaha. siguro pilit, it was an omen of some sort for the children. The cut portion of the boar is the head to made use as a decoration. Since children does not forget. James will not forget that face that fascinates him even in his sleep. For Cam, the reminder that it is dead and that it remains with them in that room. With Mrs. Ramsay shrouding it with her cashmere is a reminder that death may come and be with you in the same room but nevertheless it can still be shrouded with something more beautiful. For James, even if the hideous fascinates him, it can be made more beautiful so that everyone else could appreciate it without the act of removing it. (hide spoiler)]

Q24: (view spoiler)[ actually it was more of how she reacted about this. She was fascinated by the poem even if she did not understand it. It sums up her life. she does things in this life she thinks is beautiful without really trying to commit meaning into them. life goes on with or without you. (hide spoiler)]
Q25: (view spoiler)[Part I is slow, to the point of dragging. I guess, my introduction to SOC is not nice,I was not able to adapt to it. I hate the commas. Part II is the climax that sends the change in the lives of the Ramsay's but it was presented in a detached manner that you find yourself emotionally accepting these truths without the OMG emoticons banging in your head, yet you find yourself sad that deaths should happen 3 times in a family (hide spoiler)]
Q26: (view spoiler)[ the brackets gives the shock factor. the detached tone of simply describing time as it passes in part II is contrasted with that emotional twist found in the brackets. (hide spoiler)]
Q27: (view spoiler)[again, like I have said, time goes on with or without you (hide spoiler)]
Q28:(view spoiler)[ deaths: Mrs. Ramsay represents as the lighthouse of the family, her death signifies the start of a life without that familiar light. Prue's death may symbolically represent that as much as the essence of a woman is giving birth to a child (sushmita sen lang ang peg), this too can be taken away. So never try to underestimate this essence because it is never easy to be that gender that gets pregnant to ensure future children of the planet. Andrew's death tells us that nobody wins in a war. here is a man who could have been the best mathematician the world could have met but sadly he is reduced to smithereens. (hide spoiler)]

Q30: (view spoiler)[ Chapter 1 makes me veer my focus out of the Ramsays to zone in on Lily. It is like it is telling me that deaths in someone else's family may also show an impact to somebody else, taken of course that that somebody was exposed to that family. (hide spoiler)]
Q31: (view spoiler)[ I cannot say that they have left off from where they were. But because they were not significantly close to each other before or that they specially did not hate each other, their treatment of each other is the same. (hide spoiler)]
Q32: (view spoiler)[I guess, Mr. Ramsay is saying that I did give you much care even before, I was not that much expressive. He was perceived to just be giving thoughts about Minta and being his mentor and authoritative figure that Lily thought he was not looking at her or minding her. (hide spoiler)]
Q33: (view spoiler)[ repressions. she repressed those feelings for her mother-figure that she began seeing Mrs. Ramsay in everything. (hide spoiler)]
Q34: (view spoiler)[It was important for Lily because it gives further justification of her choice to remain single. Earlier, she was described as having feelings that she is an old spinster and alone, also thoughts of that supposed William Bankes marrying her came back to her consciousness (hide spoiler)]
Q36: (view spoiler)[It represents Lily's acceptance to the long buried feelings she had with Mrs. Ramsay. She looks cool in the surface but really, she is suffering from the absence of Mrs. Ramsay's guidance. (hide spoiler)]
Q37: (view spoiler)[ she calls out Mrs. Ramsay's name to acknowledge her and that she realizes that after all these years, she understands that her time with the Ramsays was a significant and happy time for her. (hide spoiler)]
Q38:(view spoiler)[ not the lighthouse but the journey to the lighthouse. For James, this represented his relationship with his dad. He realize that all he needs is just live and do what he feels is best for his life. He does not have to try hard and seek attention to be praised. He just needs to live.
(hide spoiler)]
Q39: (view spoiler)[ For James, it caused him to mature. to accept that his father loves him in a different way, not by hugging or giving appreciative words but by letting him live the way he wants to lead his life. also, that his father will be beside him in all his endeavors. For Lily, it was actually coming to terms with her repressed feelings that she actually belonged to this family and that once in her lifetime she had a mother in Mrs. Ramsay's persona who pushed her into a different perspective and by doing so, helped her strengthen her beliefs in her own perspectives. (hide spoiler)]
Q40:(view spoiler)[there was this saying in the first part, which says something like this: art is a decoration on top of human life therefore is not an expression of life. I wrote it down, because I was trying to perceive if I understand art like that. For Lily she thought like this. But after 10 years she sees through her painting and see that the feeling of something missing was not really the picture she was drawing but that missing piece was in her life. Ergo, after 10 years, she re-emerges as a true artist, one that is able to look at life as a piece of art and art as a piece of life. (hide spoiler)]

[Angus]

WOW DOC! Nakakaloka ka ha? Will read them later na. :)(view spoiler)[Ikaw na ang babaeng James Dean, A Rebel Without a Cause. :D (hide spoiler)]