Review: Innocence?
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 8, 2013
I promise to be brutally honest with my opinion, but it should not be taken as fact. Any reader should read it for themselves, before they decide if this book has any merit or not. Do not judge this book biased solely on my opinion. If you do, you might miss out on a great read. You never know. It could happen.1. Strong Main Character/ Female Heroine: Newland Archer is an aggravating male protagonist. He is a man that talks the talk, but will not walk the walk. He is a hypocrite. He loves to talk about society and how messed up it is, but he never does anything to change it. He never challenges society. He lets it control him, even as his mind is saying that he is overcoming it. He is not. He is just accepting that society rules his life, because he lets it. He is a coward and a romantic. He loves the idea of challenging the societal norms, but he does absolutely nothing to that effect. He loves the idea of things, but not the actual doing or outcome of it. In the beginning of the novel, the narrator calls him a dilettante. It really describes Newland very well, because he is never going to be a man and stand up for himself and the ones that he loves. If I lived back when this novel first came out, I might have enjoyed it more, but as is, I like really strong character, who overcome authority, not characters that let other people walk all over them. 3 out of 5 stars2. Strong Minor Characters: May is a devious little thing that the reader does not see working her magic, until the book is half over. Then, the reader sees all the little things that May does to trap Newland into marriage. She is not the innocent little sweet May that everyone talks about, who is so pretty and naive. She is none of these things. She may be beautiful, but she is as ugly as fat old Mrs. Mingott. She likes to control Newland without seeming to and she guilt trips him into doing everything that she wants. She is able to switch around his words into something else. Into something that he did not mean or say. Ellen is the wild, feisty married woman that he wishes he could marry; however, he makes hundreds of mistakes making it impossible for them to be together. Ellen is not as wild as he thinks her to be. She is actually very normal and the only thing that makes her wild is living in Europe, marrying a Count, and wanting a divorce. These are the only things that make her wild in New York society. Newland romanticizes her wildness in his mind, so that he cannot separate the Ellen of his fantasies with the real Ellen. 4 out of 5 stars3. The Setting: Old New York society is a very interesting place, especially with the mix of old money with the new. It reminds me of the roaring twenties, even though this is the middles 1800s and not 1920. I love discovering all the different places all over the east coast of the United States and even parts of Europe. I got to travel without ever leaving my bedroom. Only a true novelist could ever achieve that. 5 out of 5 stars4. The Plot: The underlying plot will come to readers after finishing the whole entire book and discussing it in a college course will definitely help you figure it out, but I had it figured out before class, you any dedicated reader can, too. I do not want to give anything more else away, but there are many layers of plot to this book that there is not just one answer. There are many answers based off of experience and level of education. Everyone reads a novel differently and everyone gets something different out of the same book. This is why I write reviews. 4 out of 5 stars5. The Artwork: The cover is sweet and has an old timey feel. It perfectly matches the plot of the book. The only improvement that I would suggest is adding Newland of the cover, because it is really his age of innocence that Wharton speaks of. 4 out of 5 stars6. The Writing: The writing is beautiful and exquisite. I have always loved the style of Wharton. She reminds me so much of Jane Austen, except Wharton's characters have a more realistic demise that does not end with a happy ending for all of her characters. I was not at all intimidated by all of the big words. Since I am an English major, I knew a lot of the words already and the ones that I did not know, I looked up. You really boost your vocabulary and I know that I will be using some of these newly discovered words on my assessment paper. I think I learned about 500 new words are so...maybe less, but there abouts. Any English major or enjoyer of old English will enjoy this novel by Wharton, although her best was The House of Mirth. 4 out of 5 stars7. The Dialogue: I love the dialogue. No one says what they really mean and you have to try to discover what they really mean. It is a detective game that will have you guessing throughout the entire novel. I enjoy having to figure characters out and the dialogue helps to show how complicated and three dimensional all of the characters truly are. 5 out of 5 starsOverall, I give this novel 4 stars. I would read another book by Wharton, because so far, I have really enjoyed her books. She is a nice change from Jane Austen, when I have feeling depressed and want my characters to suffer. In Wharton's books, they always seem to.