Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Blog #1 - Cryptology
Why do you think the author would make Nachman a mathematician? What does it add to the collection of stories? In the context of the story "Cryptology", what is another facet of Nachman's character that we discover through his bizzare encounter with Helen and her husband? (2 paragraphs - use 1-2 quotes from the book to defend your answer)
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The author made Nachman a Mathematician in my perspective so it would exemplify Nachman's disconnect from social stigmas. It also allowed the author to portray the never ending cycle of ones mind in a slightly more drastic light. The ideal of Nachman being a mathematician is a vessel for the author to relate to each reader with the message he is trying to portray. It also highlights a stereotypical obsessive compulsive component in Nachman. The fact that Nachman is not only a "good enough" mathematician but a professor of mathematics in a university as well as Nachman himself saying it shows the reader Nachman is clean cut, precise, factual and often complicated. Similar to the numbers he works with and the aspects of personality that the author tries to portray. As an example his encounter with Helen shows these traits. Nachman did not remember Helen in the least and the question of who she was twisted and turned in his own mind up until the end of the story. The social stigmas of looks, composure and civilness were not something Nachman neither knew nor cared for. Helen talking to her husband highlighted some of these enormities such as: "he was a mess... ...he was distraught... ...he just blurted out all his problems... ...I'm pretty sure his zipper was undone. These statements crushed Nachman emotionally yet his main concern while leaving and ignoring the mirrors in the elevator that made him so uncomfortable was she would think he was the one that urinated in her suitcase.
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