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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
challenging
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“What it all amounted to, oddly enough, was that in his finally so simplified world this garden of death gave him the few square feet of earth on which he could still most live.”
A man lets his life and love pass him by for fear of a beast unknown, crouching in the jungle, ready to come for him at any time. The beast itself a personified shadow of James despair and own "essential loneliness". The Beast in the Jungle is a very short tale, but one that rings true for all of us.
“You take your ‘feelings’ for granted. You were to suffer your fate. That was not necessarily to know it.”
A man lets his life and love pass him by for fear of a beast unknown, crouching in the jungle, ready to come for him at any time. The beast itself a personified shadow of James despair and own "essential loneliness". The Beast in the Jungle is a very short tale, but one that rings true for all of us.
“You take your ‘feelings’ for granted. You were to suffer your fate. That was not necessarily to know it.”
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Nothing happens and it's great. Admittedly, it's a little boring and even frustrating reading it, but that's kind of the point. Once you finish it, go talent someone about, or read the scores of essays that have been written consistently about this story in the last 100+ years. There's a reason this story has stuck around in the culture for so long. It speaks to our ideas about love in a satisfyingly complex way.
James' novella is like a gem wrapped in garbage: it contains a compelling lesson hidden beneath James' turgid prose. In order to enjoy this story, you have to tolerate the run-on sentences, clauses piled atop clauses, and circumlocution. Try reading a page aloud and see how it holds up. Moreover, the characters are caricatures: the long-suffering, passive woman (May Bartram) besotted with an egotistical, emotionally blind man (John Marcher). (though the characters are removed from caricature if one takes the viewpoint that Bartram is a beard for the sexually repressed Marcher--an interpretation that would turn this into a very different story from what the author likely intended)
But maybe caricatures are appropriate in a parable, which this story basically is. It illustrates the notion that we should not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Or, more specifically, James warns the reader against ignoring the happiness before us, while pursuing some Eden elsewhere. I also saw a critique of individualism in this novella. James attacks the myth of the man who sets out on his own (pushing others away) with the conviction that he is destined for greatness. In James' novel, that self-sufficient individual is an egotistical failure, whose best chance for greatness was through the eyes of the woman who loved him and whom he took for granted.
But maybe caricatures are appropriate in a parable, which this story basically is. It illustrates the notion that we should not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Or, more specifically, James warns the reader against ignoring the happiness before us, while pursuing some Eden elsewhere. I also saw a critique of individualism in this novella. James attacks the myth of the man who sets out on his own (pushing others away) with the conviction that he is destined for greatness. In James' novel, that self-sufficient individual is an egotistical failure, whose best chance for greatness was through the eyes of the woman who loved him and whom he took for granted.
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Perhaps a textbook example of a text that would be better if you didn’t go into it blind. Henry James purposefully keeps the themes amorphous until the final passages of the story, which makes it a bit harder to appreciate the beautiful prose when it feels so ambiguous and purposeless.
Will reread this again someday and excited to appreciate it more then, but on first read The Beast in the Jungle leaves an impression that is anything but immediate.
The sheer verbosity of this short story annoyed me at first - why take three (very long) paragraphs saying something that only needs maybe three lines? There was so much extra stuffed into this story that it was a bit of a chore to read. However, I must also admit that by the time I got to the end, I felt that the verbosity was... well, justifiable. Since James uses so many sentences to say one thing, he comes across as very clear by the end. Or at least, I felt like there was a clearness/completeness in how the many different nuances were expressed throughout the story. By the end, I felt I knew what John Marcher's character evolution was, and understood why James felt the need to spend so much time circling around and around the "event" that Marcher and May Bartram were waiting for.
This is more like 2.5 stars for me personally, especially after the class discussion/analysis we did of it this morning in class. Of note is to compare and contrast The Beast in the Jungle with James' earlier Daisy Miller.
I read a PDF file of this which my professor provided us.
This is more like 2.5 stars for me personally, especially after the class discussion/analysis we did of it this morning in class. Of note is to compare and contrast The Beast in the Jungle with James' earlier Daisy Miller.
I read a PDF file of this which my professor provided us.
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I will think about the concept of this short story for as long as I live I swear. So simple, and yet so effective (and tragic!!!). I think the dialogue was the most impactful piece of the writing, I wish there was more of it! But it’s definitely more in the style of its time. Sometimes it was so dense I couldn’t quite follow the train of thought. But overall, really enjoyed!
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Really enjoyed this—James is the master of melodrama.