I once read a feminist text book that, in one portion, said that opening doors for a woman is sexist because it mocks the woman's social standing and also implies that she is weak. I think this is overly aggressive. I open doors for everybody, male or female, because it is the polite thing to do.

That being said, the rest of this is me bitching about blatant sexism in comics. Like I said, tough, sexism is on a scale not an either/or. Sexism can be found in pretty much any context, even when the writer or artist is a woman, simply because it is an example of other works that may be harmful to the political atmosphere, the social atmosphere or the religious atmosphere and how those atmospheres effect women.

After I list a few examples, I will talk about ways to overcome the sexist stereotypes and how to make a story better for women readers, and also the social, political and spiritual worlds that each of us is a part of.

Extreme Exaggeration of the Female Anatomy

When I first began looking for an artist in the comics field I put up advertisements stating that I wanted well drawn, natural looking women. It was a requirement. Out of the 50 or so pages of submissions I got only one or two of them had bothered with sending submissions of women that had been drawn well and respectfully. The vast majority of submissions were by artist who exploited the female body to try and gain financial profit. I'd asked one artist, who's work was otherwise extremely well drawn, if he could draw women with breasts sizes that weren't exaggerated and his reply was that he wasn't going to compromise his artist vision for profit. Yikes. That is how some people define artistic integrity? Okay, well, he won't be getting the job from me. The thing that sucks is he is almost certain to get it somewhere else.

What gets me upset about this is when people talk about how men are drawn with just as much exaggeration. I used to be one of these people, to be honest, until I looked at it a little closer. The women's bodies are almost always identical. If you take women from a specific comic and remove details from her costume that would identify her, you would have no idea who she is. The only differences between women characters are hair style and sometimes one will have a cleft chin. The men have exaggerated bodies, too, but they are varied and reflect the personalities and powers of the hero. Captain America is very different from Spiderman, Wolverine and the Hulk.

Comics are, for the most part, written by heterosexual males, writing about heterosexual males, for heterosexual males. The sexuality is only obvious when it comes to women. The vast majority wear next to nothing most of the time or dress in clothing that emphasize the breasts, buttocks and thighs. A prime example is Power Girl. Her breasts were abnormally large for a teenage girl as Supergirl, but as a grown up Power Girl they are enormous and her costume has a hole cut out to show cleavage.

The thing of it is, though, it isn't just the breasts being too large or overly exposed. The vast majority of body parts are exaggerated on the women in ways that men simply aren't. The stomaches are made extremely thing, the thighs are muscular and the heads, hands and feet are smaller than normal.

Recently a woman, Jodi Picoult, was hired to write Wonder Woman and asked DC comics if she could alter Wonder Woman's costume. One of the things Jodi had wanted to change was a simple addition of shoulder straps. DC said no. I assume they thought that it was vital to the character profile that she not have shoulder straps.

After Jodi's short run on Wonder Woman, DC comics hired Gail Simone to replace her. Gail argues that the fact that Wonder Woman makes the eyes pop out of your head is what makes her special. Gail Simone once stated on a message board I frequent, that she believes the fact that Wonder Woman is a strong, intelligent, beautiful woman is what makes her a feminist icon.

Women In Refrigerator

Gail Simone has a history of fighting to improve the standard treatment of women in comics. She once wrote about how women in comics tended to be little more than plot devices. Women are mostly used as a way to motivate the hero and are often killed in horrible ways, like, being chopped up and left in the Green Lanterns fridge. Yucky. Creepy. It seems that, extremely often, female characters are killed or abused in bizarre ways. This is something I understand and am repulsed by at the same time. I understand wanting to make the girlfriend of the hero the victim because it creates an immediate need for the hero to do something. However, at the same time, it is a damn shame that the stories default setting is girl in trouble and guy saves her.

As I posted on Jennifer De Guzeman's blog, I believe there are times when a character needs to be misogynistic, in order to express how bad that can be, you sometimes these really bad people have to do something really nasty to women. What we really need though is for a truer to life balance. When women can be intelligent, strong, well written characters and you have a blatant sexist in the story, fine, but when it is rehashed garbage that is simply written to perpetuate a story of girl in trouble and guy saves her, well, then you just suck at writing or an obviously only think of women in terms of weak and defenseless. In other words, you lose.

To learn more about the Women In Refrigerator syndrome of the comics world, please visit the Women In Refrigerator website.

Pin Ups

Okay, I understand the women in comics are sexualized beings from the get go(see the first portion), but why are Pin Ups almost always copied from pornography? Is there really a need to see Catwoman take off her clothing, in a full colored two page splash, when her clothing is so skin tight that we can see the excellently researched muscle patterns? No, it isn't necessary. There are times when nudity and sexual expression are appropriate, but this goes far beyond that. It is tasteless and disrespectful to the serious art and story telling that is taking place, often in the same comic.

1/3rd the Population

On average, the female population of the comic book world is less than 1/3 of the overall population. Why is it that we can write men to fill in all of the little blanks, like say the bank teller when Clark and Lois go to try and cash his first pay check, or the mechanic who fixes the batmobile, or a doctor who operates on Tony Stark, why are they always men?

Secondary characters are an important part of story telling, they can be used to be the victims in a superhero tale, and furthermore can be seen as simply a blank slate in any given situation. An example would be, say, in the Punisher. Let's pretend that Frank Castle is out shooting bad guys or what ever. Now, there are a number of stories in this simple example, but why not write one from the perspective of a woman who happens to see him?

And please, if you write something like this, don't make it all about her kids. Women don't have to be moms. Variety is the spice of life. Women can be anything.

Fully Defined

Women should be written the same way the men are. They should be written with the intent of telling a story about how people act and we as writers need to look past our own perspective. If you are a 20 year old male and are writing your first comic, think to yourself about how your actions will define the story later on. Are all the sketches of your male characters vivid and full of life? Probably not, but compare them to the female characters. Don't think of female characters as a place to draw what you find attractive but rather draw the women you think would best aide the story. Write about people who are flawed and yet honest representations of women you know.

Variety is the Spice of Life

Women do not need to be any of the following types of characters. They can be. And sometimes that particular role NEEDS to be a woman, but if you are writing a woman please think of her as a human before any of the following:

• Mother
• Sister
• Daughter
• Model
• Hottie Girlfriend
• "Girl Next Door"
• Shrewd Unmarried Professional
• Prostitute
• Nurse
• Victim
• Popular Girl who Ignores Hero
• Sexy Girl who is at all times thinking of sex

Each of those is a tired cliche. If you need to write a characters mother for some reason, do so and write her as a person, not as a mother. Get it? No? Let me elaborate.

While women are mothers, daughters, sisters, and so on, they do not think of themselves as this, not primarily. When people think of themselves they do so thinking of themselves as the center of the world. This isn't meant to be snide or suggest that women are spoiled. All people are self centered. People can give frequently to charity, fight for the rights of the under privileged and will still think of themselves as a complete and undefinable person. When men tend to write male characters, they write them as whole beings with entire personalities all their own. When it comes to female characters, how ever, we find that most men write them either with out personality or as a very tired cliche.

Virgin Mary vs Mary Magdalene

One of the weirdest things about sexism is how obtuse it can be. We've discussed the hyper-sexualization of women, but what about making women completely asexual? Women through out history are portrayed in many art forms, even the bible, as either being completely asexual or virginal or the very opposite, a prostitute or an incredibly sexualized woman. Women exist on this spectrum in many ways, shapes and forms.

An example of this is best in Spider-Man. I have a very limited knowledge of Spider-Man, but from what I've read the nerdy Peter Parker dates(and eventually marries) mega-hottie Mary Jane Watson. His poor Aunt May, however, never seems to date anybody. In fact, the only times I remember seeing Aunt May take an interest in ANYTHING other than providing for Peter Parker was when it directly related to the story. If Aunt May says that she is going to church, a bad guy attacks the church later in the issue. If she goes to coney island to play skee ball, a bad guy attacks coney island.

Just Who Do These Things Happen To Anyway?

Something that I've noticed is that when a woman is attacked or harmed in a comic, her personality, disposition, world view, and sense of self is never altered. She is essentially the same being she was before her super powered boyfriend accidently sent her into a coma.

I've watched Superman nearly kill Lois Lane several times and she hugs him afterwards. Superman will feel tons of grief, anger, disillusionment within himself, but Lois remains unchanged. The incident doesn't even register. The same can be said for many other girlfriends or wives to superheros.

It isn't just this, when a villain attacks the girlfriend of a super hero, she never leaves the superhero. She never confronts him about her own safety or questions if the relationship is in her best interest. What does she do? Usually she gets kidnaped and rescued, but other than that, she does nothing. Again, women are portrayed as weak. They are portrayed as little more than plot devices and sexual fantasies of bondage and dominance.

How Can We Overcome This?

In the interest of fairness, I'd like to point out that DC comics is branching out and trying to create a market for the girl readers. They are hiring talented writers who have written prose books for young adults and asked them to write stories that young women can relate to. I love these books and I'm a male. I think this will usher in more women writing comics as more might start reading them.

Success comes in a lot of ways and this is just one. Hopefully, eventually, I can stop talking about this stuff.

What can you do? If you write comics, and I hope that you do, you can think about women as more than something you enjoy looking at. Consider their personal goals, ideals, weaknesses and strengths.

Another thing you can do is show the people in your life just how wonderfully written women can be in comics by showing them books that feature strong female characters. There are wonderful comics out there which are on the lower end of the sexist spectrum than what we've discussed. Know the individuals interest, first, because everybody has their own taste. Some will gravitate towards wonderful stories like The Sandman while others still towards Persepolis and even still others will love books like One! Hundred! Demons! Or, and this is a long shot, they may like all of them. Show these books to men and women both, because both genders should see women as unique individuals, not as plot devices, sexual fantasies and mothers.

As he approached his home, he felt a sense of pride. He'd committed a crime and gotten away with it.

The large oak front door swung open weightlessly. As the moonlight spread across the vast hallway in front of him, the man breathed in deeply. "I have lived here for many years", he thought, "but i am still amazed at the beauty of my home".

The man swept across the threshold, grabbed the lighter off the sidetable and lit the candles that were either side of the door.

"Aah. Perfection!" he thought to himself.

But as he turned to take off his coat, something caught his eye. It was a shadow. It danced across the wall in front of him, and then disappeared. The man swung round, "Who's there!" He shouted into the darkness.

No one answered him, so he took off his cloak and made to go into his living room.

"Oh my goodness!" shouted the man when he switched on the light. Written in blood on his living room wall was "I know what you did, and i"ve come for you'.

The man was worried now. Was this the local pranksters or a deadly serious threat. He couldn't phone the police because they could decipher the message.

A loud crash came from the kitchen just then, scaring the man out of his thoughts. The kitchen doorway was just darkness, impenetrable by the human eye.

The only thing that would work would be going in that room and switching the light on. Obviously whatever was in there could see him, but he couldn't see it.

That thought scared him more than anything else.

The West Side Story is set in Upper West Side Manhattan. It is about rivalry between two teenage gangs of different backgrounds. Anton, a member of the white gang, fell in love with Maria, the sister of the leader of the rival Puerto Rican gang.

Romeo and Juliet is undoubtedly the most popular romantic love story to ever hit the literary world. It talks about intense passion between the star-crossed lover Romeo and Juliet. Their love was doomed from the start because of their feuding families- the Montague represented by Romeo and Capulet, by Juliet.

The overriding theme, of course, between the two stories - Romeo and Juliet and The West Side Story is love - deep, intense and passionate love. The kind that defies everything even families and loyalties.

The love Tony felt for Maria and Romeo for Juliet made them defy their families, their friends and their social world. Their love is strong and forceful, so much so that it made them revolt against the very world they revolved in and, sometimes, even against themselves.

Intensity of thoughts and feelings dominate both stories. In the case of Romeo and Juliet, Romeo's character takes on intensity to another level. His capacity for deep passionate love is merely an extension of his capacity for intense feelings of all kinds. His intensity is evident when he sneaks into enemy's territory to seek Juliet. Or, when he kills his wife's cousin in a duel. And finally, when he committed suicide upon erroneously believing Juliet is dead.

The same way, Tony of the West Side Story is capable of extreme emotions. This is when he killed his lover's brother Bernardo in a heated argument. He also challenged Chino to kill him when he thought Chino killed Maria which as we know led to his untimely demise towards the end of the story.

Both male characters seem defined by their extreme emotions and capacity for deep love. This deep intense emotion shared by both male protagonists is what propels both stories forward. Had these male characters, Romeo and Tony, did not have such intensity of feelings in the first place, the love they feel for their women - Juliet and Maria respectively, would not have existed.

The women, on the other hand, exhibit logic, objectivity and strength. Juliet, for instance, showed her determination when she first obeyed her parent's request to try to love Paris, their favored suitor. The same way, Maria showed force of will over emotions

when she agreed to marry Chino.

Their objectivity comes across when Maria decided to flee the city with Tony to leave the chaos behind them. When Romeo killed Tybalt, Juliet did not follow Romeo right away. Instead she made a logical decision to allow her love for Romeo to guide her priorities. Both Juliet and Maria, in essence, decided to cut themselves loose from their social connections when they decided to follow their love. Juliet cut herself off from her Nurse, her parents and her social status when she followed Romeo. Maria cut loose from her family, her dead brother's memory and her social circle when she decided to run away with Tony.

Juliet killed herself upon finding out that Romeo is dead not out of weakness but out of love. She stabs her heart with a dagger which showed a lot more courage than taking down pills. Maria, on the other hand, did not commit suicide upon seeing Tony killed by Chino. She used the tragedy to point out to the feuding groups Jets and Sharks how their hate led to Tony's death. The two groups declared truce in the process.

There is no specific morale that one can gather from both stories on love and relationships. Both stories seek to portray the chaos and obstacles that surround passion and love.

Violence brought about by love is another theme that permeates in both stories. In both stories, love is linked to death. As in the case of Tony who died at the end of the story in West Side Story. The same goes to Romeo and Juliet, who met untimely death at the end of the story.

Violence is very pronounced in both stories as we are being made painfully aware from the very start that the two protagonists come from feuding clans such as in Romeo and Juliet or feuding culture such as in The West Side Story. We have this unshakeable feeling that trouble is brewing as soon as the story commences.

Another theme in the story is the conflict of individual self with society. What the protagonists in both stories Romeo and Juliet wanted were different from what the society expected from them. Romeo and Juliet fought for their private feelings to the end by committing the ultimate act of privacy- suicide. In the same vein, Maria and Tony fought for their private love but they did not really resort to extreme means. Tony's death is not brought about by suicide although he challenged the villain Chino to come to kill him when he thought Maria was killed. Still, Tony's death is not self-inflicted or voluntary as in the case of the lovers Romeo and Juliet.

Senseless acts of violence against women have become a major problem in all walks of life today in all nations women are put at risk. Domestic violence even rape is a world problem against women world wide even young girls in American colleges are subject to rape.

As the worlds growing trend of violence against women rises women are at risk for a life time of domestic abuse even rape. Countries need to get these problems out in the open for the safety of women . Women are left with out hope as long as rape and domestic abused is not taken on by all countries through laws and courts.

Acts of senseless violence against women is growing around the world today. More laws and support is need to secure life for all women to not be abused or raped. Rape and domestic violence leaves both mental and physical scars that never completely heal.

Women who suffer through daily acts of domestic violence some women even rape will never feel completely safe again. Rape and abusive violence against women by men who build their man hood off the physical abuse of women need to be stopped with more jail time even counseling would help.

Rape even abuse takes away a woman right to live without daily fear in their life it's a problem world wide that needs national attention to help save the life self respect and dignity of these women. Until women are secure in all nations women are at risk by continuing abuse even rape.

Both domestic violence and rape have become a cause for all human rights groups to fight for these women who are victims of both. Countries need to deal with these problems to secure all human rights for all women every where.

Countries even families need to work together world wide to help slow the rising crime of rape and domestic violence against women every where. There are not nearly enough women shelters to help house and keep all these women safe.

Women need to report all these crimes to the police where ever they live to make sure that laws and more arrests with convictions are made. Until better ways of dealing with both rape and domestic violence are found families need to prepare and protect their daughters from any abuse like this.

These two acts are acts of senseless violence that degrades all women living in any city or country. Women must walk away from lives where daily abuse even rape happens before the violence escalates to death . These are not just crimes they are degrading demoralizing even takes away the bond of safety that should be between a man and woman.

Many women stay in abusive relationships thinking they did something wrong to deserve the constant beatings and verbal abuse that comes with a life of domestic violence. These are also acts of human rights violations against women . Total support by all people in all nations are need to help save more young women from becoming life time victims even victims of rape.

Families in all countries can help by stooping any acts of domestic violence from happening to any of their daughters for parents who allow these acts are just as guilty as the ones who perform or commit acts of violence against any woman.

Human rights are for all people acts like rape even domestic violence are human rights violations against women world wide. Until all women are free to live as they choose without being abused or raped the need for help from more families even courts along with police will be needed to stop these crimes from happening.

Women must be educated to realize that no violent acts are their fault that these are just crimes of power even years of families in third world countries letting this happen to their women. This article just shows more reasons why all people must have all human rights in their daily life.

Until the world is free of all acts of violence the battle to bring all human rights to all people will continue. For life without human rights is not life just daily pain and torture.

McNamee provides glimpses of Victor as a child learning to counteract his father's personality and charm his mother when he tells Dorcas, “'Me and yous going to fill that guy full of lead, blow this town'” (McNamee 10). Victor also practices “getting the gangster walk right' as a young man (5). Victor has modeled every aspect of his life after the ideals of a gangster. He drives luxurious cars like the Mk II Escort and later a Capri, in order to impress the lower class of his community and demonstrate his superiority. Women are charmed and intrigued by Victor while his community and colleagues fear and obey him. Victor knows his city, its streets, its inhabitants, its goings-on. The police and community protect Victor from punishment from his crimes because Victor assures that they are somehow always implicated as well.

Once Victor is released from prison, he plans to bring his life back up to the standards that he has long held himself to. Victor sees his life ahead of him as if he were watching a gangster film: “From the films he know that outlaws sometimes got lost in romance, and that it could become necessary to return to the basics of a savage, haunted existence. He could start by settling a score” (205).

McNamee shows us that these romanticized ideals of the gangster can lead to excessive violence. With this resolution to reinforce his gangster lifestyle, Victor decides to murder Darkie Larche. Darkie poses no immediate threat to Victor, he has never even betrayed Victor. McClure baits Victor's rage by telling him, “'There's a traitor for you. Would have shot you in the back, Victor, if he had the guts to do it'” (204). Darkie is just a quick and accessible target to help Victor reclaim his powerful status.

In the novel's conclusion, McNamee finally confronts Victor with the deceitfulness of the idea that death and violence are romantic and heroic. McNamee shows both to be quick, without glamour, and without recognition of the victim as the powerful and formidable gangster he is. Victor's final thoughts concentrate on the discontinuity of real life with the film life he believes he lives, “Victor had never thought it would be like this, time going by with deadly ease” (230).

Instead of wishing to survive the assassination, Victor desires to be murdered in the style he has always fantasized. He felt that “nothing was right. He wanted them to be serious-minded men who shouted out a warning. He wanted words full of allure and danger to shout back. Never take me alive” (230). Victor attempts to choreograph his last moments to imitate the death of film gangsters: from the movements to reach for his gun, to holding his chest, to collapsing to the ground. Despite his attempts to die glamorously with the admiration all film gangsters receive on their demise, he is not able to give the “last rueful gangster smile, goodbye world” (230). McNamee leaves Victor disappointed in his most important and final vestige of the gangster façade that he has worked his entire life to create.

 

Ambition is a quality that no man lacks, as all men have their ambitions. Once the Thane of Glamis, Macbeth was hooked to his ambitious desire for power. Macbeth's ambitions were at first questioned by himself, after telling his wife that they're not going to kill King Duncan she accuses him of cowardice, and he pleads, "Prithee, peace: / I dare do all that may become a man; / Who dares do more is none" (1.7.46-48). His belief at this time is that a real man wouldn't commit murder. The “dares do more” refers to crossing the line between an honorable kill and an act of sin. In Lady Macbeth's eyes if Macbeth did not kill Duncan than he would not be a man to her anymore, she believes that “When you durst do it, then you were a man” (1.7.47-49). Lady Macbeth also believes he would be denying all urges for greater wealth and prosperity that man should have if he doesn't kill the king. Leaving behind all perspectives of right or wrong, Lady Macbeth wonders why he is not taking the opportunity to be king when he can easily do so. In reality, Macbeth is contemplating the murder of Macbeth because he has morals, qualities that are also considered manly.

Macbeth's journey takes a dark turn when his once high morals begin to decay. After Macbeth was persuaded to kill the king by his wife, his view on what makes a man changed. When Macbeth tries to convince the murderers of all the terrible deeds Banquo has brought upon them, they reply by stating "We are men, my liege" (3.1.102-107). They would not kill unjustified, which is what Macbeth initially believed about killing the king when he identified murder with sin. However, Macbeth replies sarcastically in anger:

Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men,

As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels,

curs,

Shoughs, water-rugs and demi-wolves, are clept

All by the name of dogs. (3.1.102-107)

He compares them to “hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels,” and not true men. Macbeth believes they pretend to act as men, and that the only way they can become real men is if they kill Banquo. This is one of the first significant events where Macbeth changes his view on what defines a man after have murdering Duncan. Macbeth ends up convincing the murderers “That it was he [Banquo] in the times past which held you” (3.1.76). The “held you” refers to the times Banquo held back or made poor the murderers.

High morals are usually directly related to the patriotic behaviors shown in the play. When the news of the death of his son reaches Siward, he is strangely unmoved. However, pleased in the knowledge that his son died an honorable man, fighting for his cause, he is happy knowing that his sons wounds were on his chest, that his son was not killed running away, “But like a man he died” (5.8.39-43). Though the boy had not reached physical masculinity, that he was still one of the “unrough youths” (5.2.10), he had proven his manliness through his courage in battle. When Ross tells Siward that his son had marks on the front of his body, his father is proud and brags about his death, "Why then, God's solider be he” (5.8.l46). The boy's father seems to have no grief over his son's death, but instead rejoices that his son “Protest[s] their [his] first of manhood.” This simply means that his son had adequately proven himself worthy to be called a true man.

When it is generally thought that honor, patriotism, and courage are attributes associated with men, the barrier between genders is broken in Macbeth. Especially in terms of violence, women such as Lady Macbeth are capable of murderous and violent actions. Her only barricade is her gender, to do what men do, she must essentially become a man:

Come, you spirits

That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,

And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full

Of direst cruelty! (1.5.40-43)

Lady Macbeth is a man trapped in a woman's body. Her masculine nature seeps through her murderous intentions. If the spirits "unsex" her, she won't be bothered by a woman's kindess or remorse. She will be a cruel killer of “direst cruelty,” like a man. Lady Macbeth begins to lose her sanity the night of Duncun's murder and cannot relate to her feelings or guilty conscience. She admits that "she could kill her only child just as easy” (1.7.72-74). All perception of right and wrong lost, Lady Macbeth sinks afterwards into guilt, and eventually commits suicide. Also questioning the barrier separating men from women are the wyrd sisters. Banquo challenges the witches, "you should be women, / And yet your beards forbid me to interpret / That you are so" (1.3.45-47). This gender confusion further symbolizes the confusion Lady Macbeth has in awakening her masculine side.

By the end of the play Macbeth pays dearly for his masculine ways, with death. Ultimately beginning and ending on the battlefield, Macbeth has always agreed that violence and combat was a sure way of proving masculinity. Macduff believed this too, but also thought there was more to a real man than only thoughtless violence. When Macduff realizes that his wife and children have been murdered, he breaks down and begins to weep. Malcolm tells him to “Dispute it like a man” (4.3.259), wanting Macduff to keep his emotions in check. Malcolm affirms his belief that real men don't cry when he says this, but Macduff believes differently, as when he states “I shall do so, / but I must also feel it as a man” (4.3.260). Macduff then promises to convert these emotions into a “manly” revenge against Macbeth. The end of Macbeth reveals there is much more to masculinity than meets physical appearance, that it is only something earned through one's courageous actions and sincere emotions.

The main theme of Lani Garver is that of personal belief. In her struggle to keep up a “normal” appearance and hide her troubled home life from her carefree friends, Claire buys into everything that they believe. Even if she doesn't agree with others' opinions, she never says as much. Lani is a smart, kind, and insightful person who happens to look like a girl, and Claire's best friend is quick to write him off as gay. She warns Claire to stay away from him if she values her reputation, since their fishing town of Hackett, Pennsylvania is highly homophobic.

When Claire questions Lani about his sexual preference, his age and even how smart he is, he insists that all these are“boxes.” He refuses to be labeled. When Claire fears her remission is ending and goes to a clinic in Philadelphia for a test, her attending nurse tells her about “floating angels,” or angels in human form who help people through crises. While Lani neither confirms nor denies it, Claire constantly questions whether or not he is an actual “floating angel” from that point on.

In the meantime, even more of Claire's beliefs begin to change as her relationship with Lani is met with increasingly hostile behavior from her friends. She has always believed them when they call her “dumb” or “naïve” due to her inability to see the world as they do. But she soon learns that what she perceives as friendship is actually an attempt to control her. Her so-called friends go to dangerous lengths to “talk sense into her” and make her believe that Lani is brainwashing her.

There is much in this story that may test readers' own beliefs. When reading the episodes where Lani and Claire are threatened, one may be tempted to think, “Oh, this is so extreme, real kids would never do something like this.” But the characters in this story are actually very credible. The belief that motivates their actions is simple: a stranger is turning one of their own, Claire, into a different person. She is becoming someone they neither recognize nor understand. They choose not to understand, and instead act on impulse. Plum-Ucci creates characters who are unique on the surface, but their actions prove them to be people not so very different from anyone else, as if to say “This could happen to anyone.”

This book has episodes of violence, strong language, and discussion of sexual topics. It is not a book that I would call a “light read.” However, that should not deter anyone from reading this truly amazing novel. What Happened to Lani Garver is a much-needed reminder that all people are complex, but still deserve kindness. Because you never know when you're meeting an angel in disguise.

The story also reflects Nabokov's prejudice against Germans. (In VN, The Life and Art of Vladimir Nabokov, the biographer Andrew Field refers to "Cloud, Castle, Lake" as "one of [Nabokov's] very sharp satires on the German character" [p. 157].)

Nabokov is satirizing the Nazi ideal of happiness, and totalitarian ideals of happiness, by contrasting them with real happiness, and showing how Vasiliy Ivanovich, the protagonist, is tortured when he finds it. Vasiliy Ivanovich's happiness is individual and spontaneous; it is not exactly what anyone else feels, and it cannot be commanded, produced on demand, but is elusive, sudden, and comes when it "wants" to.

The false Nazi happiness is expected of everyone, all the time; everyone is expected to feel the same things as everyone else, with no variation, and all at the same time; the only variations in mood are to be felt on demand, by everyone together. The people are supposed to respond to the special stimulator's stimulations; that the Bureau of Pleasantrips finds it necessary to send one demonstrates the artificiality of the false happiness, their enthusiasm, their pleasure, the entire trip, everything except Vasiliy Ivanovich's feelings and desires.

It is obvious that the story concerns Germany, as it is set there and all the characters are German except for Vasiliy Ivanovich and one old Russian (who runs an inn next to the lake). The connection to Nazism is not very subtle either. Images related to Nazi propaganda appear in the story frequently - the Germans represent these images of Nazi propaganda, but caricaturized, satirized.

For example, the leader of the group, a "lanky young man in Tyrolese garb" is "burned the color of a cockscomb," with "huge brick-red knees ... and his nose look[s] lacquered" [emphasis mine]--i.e., he has overdone the outdoorsy, suntanned look that the healthy, hearty Aryan male is supposed to have. Everything about him is like a Nazi poster, except for his overdone exposure to the sun, which has turned him red. "... huge brick red knees"--this is a caricature of the muscularity and physical development that the "Aryan male" is supposed to have, turning it into something ugly, gawky, and a little grotesque.

The story is full of somewhat subtle suggestions of violence, unsubtle suggestions of violence, and blatant examples of it, especially towards the end. The atmosphere of threat and coercion is quite visible, although some of the means of portraying it, making it felt, are quite subtle (i.e., "they climbed out of the train"). The violence starts out somewhat subtle, and suggested, and becomes more and more blatant throughout the story. The elderly clerk's wife "sketched out in the air the outline of a backhand box on the ear" (p. 431).

The narrator refers to "all the absurdity and horror of the situation" (p. 432). The song which everyone has to sing (p. 432-33) contains the phrases "knotted stick"; "tramping" and then "tramp"; "Kill the hermit and his trouble"; "Where the field mouse screams and dies." The leader makes Vasiliy Ivanovich sing solo: an example of, not violence--that comes later--but coercion (p. 433).

On the same page, the party (except for Vasiliy Ivanovich) "merge[s] together, forming one collective, wobbly, many-handed being, from which one could not escape": this strongly increases the feeling of threat in the story, and makes the train seem more like a prison, adding an element of claustrophobia. When Vasiliy Ivanovich is put in the same room as the elderly clerk at the inn, the clerk is described as "a great bully of a man" (p. 434).

Vasiliy Ivanovich is forced to eat a cigarette butt (the whole game with the benches is also incredibly vulgar and lecherous - this part seems also to express Nabokov's prejudice against German culture). The most obvious reference, and the severest and most intense, to the violence of Nazi Germany is when Vasiliy Ivanovich is tortured by the rest of the party on the train, after he tries desperately to stay by the cloud, castle, and lake (p. 437).

One paragraph before that, there is a less blatant and intense reference, but perhaps more sinister, to the violence: "I am responsible for each of you," the leader says, "and shall bring back each of you, alive or dead." This is only an implied verbal threat, not an act of physical violence like the many such acts in the following paragraph, but it is more sinister, in a way, as it suggests both fanaticism and, possibly, murder.

The story contains three references to Soviet totalitarianism, which broaden its focus from "just" Nazism to totalitarianism in general:

1. The word "collective" is a reference to the collectives--i.e., collective farms--created by Stalin in the USSR (p. 433).
2. In the evening, at dinner-time, everyone is "invited" to hand over the food they have, "in order to divide them evenly" (p. 433). This is a reference to communism, and the Soviet Union, with its opposition to private property. Vasiliy Ivanovich's cucumber is ridiculed (it "amused everybody") and thrown out the window, and he is given a smaller portion of sausage. His contribution to society is rejected, and his portion of the goods that society gives out is reduced, because he is less "conformist" - i.e., although he tries to conform, what he has to offer is not the same as what everyone else has to offer, and he cannot offer what everyone else has to offer.
3. The post-office clerk, who has been to Russia, beats up Vasiliy Ivanovich with a knout, a Russian weapon (p. 437).

The blatantly false happiness advocated by totalitarianism is present throughout the story. The Bureau of Pleasantrips is an Orwellian name (although the story pre-dates Orwell's Nineteen-Eighty-Four by twelve years), and the fact that the Bureau of Pleasantrips finds it necessary to send a special stimulator on the trip at all implies the artificiality of the whole enterprise.

The Bureau of Pleasantrips seems to be a reference to the Nazi Ministry of Propaganda. The Bureau is bureaucratic, in the commonly-used sense of an obstructive agency that throws obstacles in the course of ordinary people trying to do anything. The Bureau gives Vasiliy Ivanovich the runaround to the Ministry of Transportation, who require him to meet several ridiculous conditions if he wants to sell his ticket (p. 430). One of those conditions is that he would need a "certificate of non-absence from the city for the summertime" from the police to sell his ticket.

The police are enforcing this compulsive leisure (although the police are acting as part of the state's bureaucracy in this situation, instead of as its muscle). But the fact that police are part of the oppressive bureaucracy carries a faint hint of violence, the first hint of the way this bureaucratic coercion shades into violence, which is followed by stronger and stronger hints of violence, comparatively small and "mild" acts of violence (Vasiliy Ivanovich being forced to eat a cigarette butt); finally having its climax in the physical torture of Vasily by everyone else. As in the early and less hidden parts of the Holocaust, those who cannot fit in - like Vasiliy Ivanovich, who seems to be unable to fit in if he wanted to - are humiliated and tortured.

As in all his fiction, Nabokov uses language in a suggestive, impressionistic way in this story. For example:

Even the locomotive seems to be active, on the go all the time, energetic, like the Germans: "working rapidly with its elbows, hurried ..."

There are no trees in nature in the song that everyone has to sing: "your country's grass and stubble" - the Germans are blind to nature, for all their outdoorsiness.

The line, "And to hell with doubts and sighs!" shows the hollowness, the closed-mindedness, of the false happiness, the forced nature of it.

Nabokov describes the train car as the "soiled seasick car": an impressionistic depiction of Vasiliy Ivanovich's feeling of violation ("soiled"), and how overwhelmed and dizzy and stunned he is "seasick" - perhaps a suggestion of motion sickness, as well); "stunned by its own din" - he is overwhelmed and intimidated by the din (and everything else), and he "projects" his feelings onto the car - an expression of the psychological truth that in times of stress and strong feelings, one's own feelings don't seem to be in the person feeling them, but, rather, part of some part, or all, of the world around them, their environment.

"... suddenly ... all climbed out" (emphasis mine)- this makes the train seem like a hole into which they have been crammed, increasing the readers' feeling of Vasiliy Ivanovich's desperation, adding a suggestion of claustrophobia.

"They spent the night on straw mattresses in a barn ..." (p. 434) like animals; also, they are somewhat cut off from nature - at least, they can't see it in a barn. And it makes the outdoor life seem unappealing.

They sleep in a barn, and they are going to visit a coal mine - their itinerary, their version of nature, includes dark, ugly places - for all their outdoorsiness, the Germans ignore nature and visit a barn and coal mines, which are ugly, dark, and offer none of the beauty of nature.

These are some of the ways in which the story "Cloud, Castle, Lake," and many of its particular details, are significant.

De Becker, who was raised in a violent home, recognizes that those fearful feelings we get are more like a memory of things past that our mind recognizes, giving us a sense of fear or uneasiness. De Becker refers to his childhood experiences in teaching us his fear that something was about to go wrong was taught to him by the way the perpetrators acted prior to the event. He learned to recognize voice inflections and phrases as the best predictors of violence in his home. Yet, his experiences are just a small portion of the book.

De Becker points to several examples of how fear has protected people from an assortment of bad consequences. He shows us how we can accept fear as a gift and incorporate it into our own lives. We can learn if our fear is warranted in making instant decisions such as if we should avoid the man in the parking garage to more contemplative issues such as if we should be afraid of threats to our country. I recommend this book for anyone from pre-teens to the elderly. The Gift of Fear is well-written and easy to understand yet, thought-provoking. It is interesting, informative and ideal as a self-help guide.