It only took me 45 minutes to get wifi and post this blog...

Under the current time constraints, I am afraid I will not be able to impose any sort of order on The Rise of Silas Lapham. 

There are still a few bones to pick with Bromfield Corey and the Corey family order of business (or lack of business).  Bromfield is not characteristic of the Corey family tradition.  This is something we discussed in class, but I have to wonder why he is insistent upon this idle life for himself and his family, and for Tom specifically.  It is perfectly understandable for the two Corey sisters to live a more “idle” life.  To define “idle” as I understand it in this context:  leisurely and comfortable, and frankly it makes me think of a realism version of the contemplative life.  I digress.  As aristocratic women, Bromfield’s daughters would not be expected to undertake any role in business, for their only business is to marry well.  But Tom…Tom is stepping up to the plate for the Coreys again—and yet, Bromfield seems confused as to why Tom should want to.  I do not have the answer for why this is so unappealing to Bromfield, but I am left with many questions.  First, why did Bromfield break the line of working with his hands?  We cannot count his art and portraits because his nobility forbids the selling of it.  Secondly, why is he so keen on Tom not working and remaining in comfortable leisure?  But above all I am wondering why Howells chooses this for his Coreys, this pause in the succession, only for it to pick back up with Tom.  My understanding of functional aristocracy is limited as I myself am a middle-class American; therefore, I comprehend it only in theory with no experiential understanding. 

There seems to be an odd parallel between the two families of Corey and Lapham.  Silas Lapham, like Bromfield Corey, breaks through the typical of his fine heritage when he breaks into the business world with his father’s mineral paint/unfulfilled dream.  On paper, the two families are not extremely different.  What makes them different is the Coreys’ long line of successful ventures probably beginning before they ever arrived in America, whereas Lapham is only getting started for his family (and he is off to a rocky start at that).

More than anything, the novel shows that things are not always so picturesque.  It touches the jagged edge of life where romance has no place.  The world is rarely as we think it should be, and often less exciting.  Sometimes the fabric tears and begins to fray; sometimes the paprika is chili powder; and sometimes no matter how hard we try to force them together, maybe one piece belongs to a different puzzle.