Week 1 Northanger Abbey Post

When reading through the opening chapters of "Northanger Abbey", a certain, small passage caught my eye. This particular passage at the start of chapter two reads, "her heart was affectionate, her disposition cheerful and open, without conceit or affectation of any kind…her person pleasing, and, when in looks, pretty - and her mind about as ignorant and uninformed as the female mind at seventeen usually is." During this brief passage, the narrator expands upon Catherine's personality. Simply put, Catherine doesn't put on a show for others; she is who she is and doesn't care who knows it. Overall, she is attractive, a pleasant person to be around, and a little naïve. I'm proud to say that one of the first things I thought of after reading this passage was certain yellow sponge that lives in a pineapple under the sea. Before you ask, yes I just compared Catherine Morland to SpongeBob SquarePants. Think about it, though. They're both cheerful, affectionate, and naïve, almost to a fault. They're eager to find their next adventure and make new friends. Knowing that the conflict of every episode of SpongeBob ever stems from the fact that he is undyingly naïve, this passage got me thinking that the narrator wasn't just mentioning her personality, he was foreshadowing events to come. Having a little background info on the book, I know that one of the main conflicts (the confusion of who has romantic feelings for who, from multiple parties) from "Northanger Abbey", like in SpongeBob, stems from the benevolent ignorance of the protagonist, in this case Catherine. In a way, I think that Catherine and SpongeBob are different versions of each other from different universes.