Small Wonders

I understand the author's intent.  It is a personal essay.  I would love to grow up and be a professional essay writer!  It would be a lot of work to try and connect with everyone, but the personal experience part would come easy.  I love writing about myself and my life and connecting it to what I know.  I see how Kingsolver went from the bear, to where she was geographically, the events happening their and then the events effecting the whole world.  I'd have a hard time relating my personal world to the real world or it's events; past or present.  I am history and governmentally deficient; i seriously suck.  I can't keep up with politics, and I have no personal preference.  I am very patriotic girl, but I have not idea what our country is going through; it's pretty sad.   I believe when I grow up, I will feel more obligated to learn.  I loved her connections with mothers.  It is universal, you are a mother, will be a mother, have or had a mother.  Even father's know motherly instint, it's Paternal.  They connect to their kids too.  I did enjoy learning all the weaving that went through this essay.  It is cool to see it all connect in the end.

How Reading Changed My Life

This is just a short story but it is packed with author Anna Quindlen’s feelings of love for and joys of reading books. Her love of books began as a young child and many chronic readers will say “Yes, yes, I did that too” or “That’s my favorite book as well.”  I enjoyed reading until the 5th grade; then it got less recreational and more educational.  I hated being forced to read; i'd rather sit on my bedroom floor and read Goosebumps.  Quindlen explains that the history of how the written word has changed governments and religion.  How it is a unifying factor which puts many diverse people on the same playing field.  I like this aspect.  She affirms that reading is not a dying art and books are not dead, they are strong and alive and the many book clubs that have formed throughout the world attest to that fact. Ms. Quindlen chose her career in writing partially due to the fact that “words on a page could make my father laugh and my mother cry.” She wanted to be a part of that world which she so deeply loved and others were so affected.  I know i've cried when reading books before, but I don't recall which ones.  Books make me laugh and think on a whole different level.  That's what makes books and literature so amazing.  If you can understand it, you can become emotionally affected. 
The coolest thing she said was “We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming.”
Though I don't find myself reading for pleasure as much as I'd like to, I am a crazy dreamer!  I have the weirdest dreams, I could seriously write a book about them.  I know during the day, if I could get my hands on a good book, it'd be like dreaming; which I love so much!

Small Wonder

I really enjoyed this story.  The way it is written, is like the author is talking to me, in a conversation.  The word choice isn't difficult and she referes  to herself sometimes, making it intimate.  Barbara is very wise.  I can connect with her and her beliefs, it's so refreshing.  She says " God is in the details "  I agree that the little miracles of life are not just luck, something is watching out for us and provided us with an opportunity.  I think it's cool she finds stories and keeps the ones that she finds some truth in.   She sees the "big picture"  Kingsolver says "  A mirror held up to every moral superiority will show its precise mirror image:"  She knows that even the most ruthless people are loved by their mother, as she loves her son.  She goes on " We are all beasts in this kingdom, we have killed and been killed, and some new time has come to us in which we are called out to find another way to divide the world.  Good and evil cannot be all there is."  I wonder what is in the middle of the two.  There is so much goodness in this essay!  I hope I get more out of it in class tonight.

The Hours ( extra credit )

The lives we live are not always lived for ourselves.  We find life is lived by us, but not to please us, as it should.  In the hours women struggle to live life for themselves.  You have Clarissa who lives life for Richard, and for parties.  You have Laura Brown who lives for society, only having a family because she has to, and it's what war veterans deserve.  Lastly you have Virginia Wolf who is forced to live a somewhat normal charming life of being a women writer, when she really wants to jump off a bridge.  This movie made me realize that life is short.  My life is about 1/5 over already, and I've spent it pleasing everyone around me. Trying to be a "good girl" for mommy and daddy, trying to be the best friend you could ask for, trying to the best student for the professors, and trying to be a gracious girlfriend to my Johnny boy.  Though these things have there rewards, are they truly what I want?  Do they please me?  I have decided that yes, I have grown into desiring these things which ultimately make me happy.  If others are happy, I am happy.  But it might be time to work on my own happiness.  Then others will be happy for me.  I really enjoyed the hours, I would totally watch it again.  I am thankful I got to see this, because it has brought a lot of light into my life.

Dalloway Reply

I saw during class discussion, how Mrs. Dalloway was not really intune with herself.  Through the mirror which she looked, she saw how hard she had to work to be herself.  Which made me think that isn't herself wat all. So who was she suppose to be?  She couldn't be with Peter because they were too much in-sync with eachother.  She couldn't be with Sally because, thats just not right, but yet she didn't feel exactly right in the hostess life, though she enjoyed it.  I guess I have yet to figure out who she would is suppose to be.  That is the point i suppose.  You are who you are because of the things in life that you chose.  They always happen for a reason, and they mold you into who you are.  There will always be the what- if - factor in life. This doesn't mean you are not happy with your life, it just means you are curious about where else you'd be in life.  I think Mrs. Dalloway is best off in her current situation, even if it isn't a life full of love like she desires.  She is living a good life, and maybe love can be re-kindled.

Initial Dalloway

I enjoyed Mrs. Dalloway.  I thought it had a lot of twists and turns with Mrs. Dalloway.  She was conflicted with her life, like was this what it was all suppose to be about.  She loved being a hostess, yet she loved being with Peter.  She also loved Sally, which I found totally gross, and strange for this era.    Because that is frowned apon.   I liked how this is over one whole day.  I would love to write something like this, about my day, my everythought and thoughts of people near to me.  Mine would probably be a much larger piece of literature.    I really liked the insane world of  Septimus, I wish he would have gotten better, instead of killing himself.  This story by far has the most characters!  It was a very time consuming story, but it was worth it.  I loved how it went time by time.  Time was obviously important to the author not only because she told us times but big ben was a big symbol for Mrs. Dalloway.

A Room Of One's Own

themes I see- Money ( if that can be a theme),girl power, society
I think the title has to do with women in this society, where men are superior.  A women needs her own room to do whatever she enjoys.  Which wasn't very common, though men had studies where they could just sit and smoke a pipe if they pleased.  Not only should a women get a room, she should get her own independent life-style if she desires!  Our country built of equality has never really gotten the equal part down.  The white men seems to rule over everyone; once slaves, women, children and now gays, the poor, when will it end?   
        I love how she explains that the books written about women were  "been written in the red light of emotion and not in the white light of truth"  This is typical man, getting all fired up about a topic before they know facts. I found it ironic she talks a lot of women's freedoms, yet since she has the inheritance, she doesn't work.  Maybe working back then for women wasn't something of freedom.  The end of Chapter 2 was great because she envisioned all the things men, women doing too! 
        The picture she paints in Chapter 3 of the women who are the important in a story, are really not important all.  She says they  "Some of the most inspired words, some of the most profound thoughts in literature fall from her lips; in real life she could hardly read, could scarcely spell, and was the property of her husband "  This is sad and true idea she has found.   She also finds it impossible for any women to have written in the time of Shakespeare due to the lack of education.  The character she creates, Judith Shakespeare, I found it a bit odd to go into such great detail to prove her point.  I love the point she makes at the end of ch. 3,   that a genius mind must has no obstructions.  All artists much overcome a lot of opinion from the outside world, but women suffer the most from it.   To be a success you must block out what  is going on outside, and take your mind to it's own place to create works of art.

The Story of An Hour.

I find it ironic upon the death of her husband, Spring is alive, fully blooming out her window.  The description words used by Kate Chopin are very strong.   As she sat there staring off into space, I thought she might just die right then and there.  I do believe in people dying of a broken heart,  its tragic and true.   I enjoyed the phrase " she was enjoying a very elixir of life through that open window"  I love taking in scenery and basking in the glory of mother nature.  You feel so small when compared to everything in the world and universe.  It helps me realize that what  I think is such a big deal or problem, really isn't.  It was empowering that she saw how much life she had ahead of her, she wasn't just going to give up.  Oh and of course, who would walk through the door,  Mr. Malard!  Then, the Mrs screams and dies right there.  Just when i thought we would have a good, happy ending.   She died of heart disease, is that the same as a heart-attack?  I don't really understand the ending words-  of joy that kills.  Unless she died of a heart-attack, like she was so happy she died.

Claude McKay and Harlem Ren.

Though I wasn't in class this week, I did a little research of the harlem renistance.  I found that the Harlem Renaissance was an expression of African-American social thought and culture that took a place in newly-formed Black community in neighborhood of Harlem.   Characteristics of the Harlem Renisiance I can across are:

Desperation

Sadness

Hopelessness

Love of God

Semi-dark

Talks about the existing discrimination

Excellent rhythm

Comments on racism indirectly and directly

Identity issues

Racial pride

In Claude Mckays poems he is very passionate about the hard times.  He makes you feel the way he feels by using great expressions and words.   I can feel how down, beat and trampled he lives, or what he is seeing being lived. 

Sweat

The dialog in this is hard to understand because of the hard accent it has.  It goes back and forth like play but not all the dialog is labeled.  Through Delia's abuse, I can see still has a little bit of optimism in the form of Karma.  She says he will reap his sowing.  I am a believer that good things happen to good people and Karma will punish the bad.  I sure hope her husband gets what he has coming to him.  Does the snake have any significance? or is he just being a jerk, probably just being a jerk, like all the men in this story. And why did she keep it?!   I am glad she kept it, because it came to bite him in the end.  I didn't pick up any secret themes or anything from this story, it was just nice that her husband got what what was coming.

Claude McKay, poems

If We Must Die.
I honestly and ashamed to be American sometimes when I look back in history.  This time frame in-particular where racism and ignorance was in full bloom.  I am glad to be alive in today's society where equality is alive, and forever will be.  I know that there are always going to be problems with judgment but it never should have been that bad.  No one should should have to feel as if they will die in vain, and like a hog.  This poem is so strong!  I love the end-  Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack, pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back.  People who were getting discriminated against were so strong and they had to be just to make it through a day.  And they fought till their final days.

A memory Of June.
This sounds like a love poem, but McKay is in love with the month of June. You could interpret it as June being a person, it uses a lot of personification if it is literally about the month of June.  The last line is adorable;  My soul takes leave of me to sing all day A love so fugitive ans so complete. 

The Barrier
The barrier of skin is an on-going struggle in our society.  There will always be minorities and superiors.  I feel that now there are even more barriers, the poor/ rich, gay/straight, men/women, children/elderly etc.   This poem is about looking past that exterior or skin color.  McKay understands that beauty is  only skin deep, but society doesn't agree with him in 1922. 

The Tired Worker
It is so crazy the things we take for granted these day.  Sleep is something most of us can just do whenever out schedule permits, we can nap for sleep for an entire night.  But we don't think much of it.  I have never been so physically exhausted to the point that ached.  This worker is weary and longs to sleep.   I love the line come tender sleep and fold me in thy breast.  It is such a sensual line, it makes me want to curl up and sleep right now.    I know the feeling of dreading the morning as this person does, but I really have no reason to dread it.  I wake up to nothing compared to what an oppressed person of the 1920s did.

Trifles Retort

In class we discussed the sexist vibe that came with this story.  Of course the men were sexist it was in 1916.  I still find it hilarious that the women were being 100 times smarter than the men.  No where did it say Mrs. Wright was the killer.  If my husband was strangled in the middle of the night, I'd go nuts.  I probably wouldn't have not went to get help, because that just seems suspicious, but maybe she really was too stunned to do anything.   I didn't know what the word Trifles meant, and now I understand.  It's usually the little things that make a big difference.  People say don't sweat the small stuff, well i believe sometimes you have to worry about small stuff, details if you want to find the answers.  I think when she was rocking in her chair, she may have been a bit relieved of what happened.  She did laugh at something that was said, but I don't think she killed him.   As the bird had suffered a harsh death, so did her husband.   I feel like she is free now and though her precious bird is gone, she can be a songbird now... if she doesn't get convicted with murder.

The Open Boat

This story has a lot of beautiful words, yet a lot of terms I didn't understand some of the boat lingo:  dinghy, stern, "bail her", schooners maybe these are not all boat terms, but I still didn't understand quite a few words.  In this story is a lot of nature, birds, water and shores.   Maybe the point of the story is how insignificant we are compared to the world or universe.  They were on a boat in the ocean.  No one cared and there was no where to go.  We are just a tiny, baby spec in this giant universe. But they never gave up, which was motivational.  Also, man can not change nature, they are no God.  They couldn't stop the birds from landing, or the waves from crashing.  Man may think they have all this control over things, when really, we have none. 

Trifles

I find these type of plays best understood if read aloud, and with different voices, so I did the best I could!  I enjoyed this, I couldn't stop reading once I got a few pages into it.    If he died at night, and she woke up to that why didn't she run around screaming bloody murder!  She just sat in her chair, rocking.  Then she laughed at some of the things Lewis Hale asked and she just kept pleating her skirt like a mad woman.  I was wondering about the bread that was sat out, why this was of importance for the writer to tell us.  I find it amusing that women are the ones that seem do the real investigating here.  They keep saying they wish the men would hurry but all the things they find, the bread sitting out, the bad sewing job, the bird cage, the broken henge, these things must be important, yet they don't really realize it.  A few things went through my mind about why she may have killed him. 1. He didn't give her children.  2. She lost her youthful glow, and her house turned boring and not cheerful. Maybe by killing him, she thought she'd be happy again.  And I almost threw up when they found that bird in the box, EW!  Someone broke that poor bird's neck, I bet it was John.    These women have seriously found some hard evidence, but the men think they are just being silly women talking about knotting or  quilting.  Then the women hide the fact they even found the bird and lie about it!  They are obviously protecting their fellow lady friend.  Mrs. Peters understands the love a pet, and when something happens to it, you get enraged.      I would like to say that since John Wright snapped the birds neck,  his wife snapped his!   Obviously this what the women think, and what the author wanted us to see.  Sometimes I find it better when you know a secret to keep it, because it's kind of exciting to know something no one else does.  These women play it off so well, though the men think they are just dumb ladies talking about quilting.

Reflection, YGB

The Romantic Era sounded like a tough place to be, but with these writers maybe it gave people a place to go when times were hard.  Though the stories were not happy endings, they still took your mind into a new world.   In Young Goodman Brown, the Romanticism showed through the mystical forest, ghostly characters, and the entire dream vs. reality concept.  Everyone likes a story when good and evil duel, in this case evil triumphed which was sad.  When you look at the 2 stories (brown and Spades), they somewhat ended the similarly.  Brown and Herman ended up with their minds severely messed with.  They were unsure about reality after their encounters.  In class it was brought up about the crick in the road, and how maybe Brown wasn't suppose to end up where he did.  I would say it is like a metaphor.  You should always watch where you are walking on your journey in life, one false move and you could headed in the wrong direction.

The Queen of Spades.

At first I was lost reading this, until I started making connections in each chapter.  There are so many characters in each chapter!  I had a hard time keeping them in order at first.  And everyone wants to know this card trick and that's what the whole story is about, except it has 2 stories, the boy wanting the trick, but then the life of Lisaveta.
The language in this story is hard to understand, because it is written very properly and some french appeared.  I think the quotes at the beginning of each chapter is cool, if I only knew what they said.
The Countess is really annoying.  She is so demanding and very picky!  So the Grandmother from the card story in chapter 1 the same person as the Countess.  I just figured that out.   I love the character Lisaveta.  She has a sass to her, but she still does everything the Countess says.  Who was the boy who gave Lisaveta the letter to meet him?  Why did the Countess die?  I loved how the Countess tricked Herman, he was too greedy anyway.  And now he is a mental case.  I like the conclusion at the end, even though the whole story was pretty random.

Goodman Brown

This is written beautifully!  It is written so romantically even though the story itself is far from it. Foreshadowing occurs the very beginning when he says goodbye to his wife Faith.  She tells him to stay one more night, because she has had bad dreams about him, so something bad is going to happen because the woman is usually right.  Also her name, Faith probably has some meaning to it, usually names are the biggest hints in stories.  When he is in the forest and is scared the devil could be near.. Then arrives the old man, with the serpent cane.  Those 2 things clicked to me for a moment because Satan was a serpent in the bible, so why did this man have a can that looked like a serpent?  Because he is the devil! Goody Cloyse says so.  The devil works in mysterious ways, he temps people everyday!  Goodman Brown really doesn't want to go attend the devil's meeting, but when he thinks Faith is there, he gives in. This story points out that everyone is tempted by the devil, everyone sins.  Goodman Brown seems to be judging every hardcore when he returns to the village, and that isn't very Godly or Christan.  Brown lets the Devil win him over in the end, because he is such a different person.  He seems to hate everyone, and only sees the evil in them.  Though everyone is trying their best everyday to be full of God, Goodman sees them as fake.  The devil has Goodman's soul, till the day he died.

Banana Fish Review

After reviewing in class, I can say that this is simply beautiful writing.  Dr. Lewis pointed out the detail of the writing, and I see why It's so easy to read, it is because of the detail and beauty put into each word.  I missed a few things the first time through, I didn't see the connection of the trees, and possibly the banana fish to suicide.  Someone said the maybe he tried to crash his car into the trees once as a suicide attempt.  Also the banana fish gets trapped in the hole, and ends up dying there.  Maybe this was his way of explaining he is like a bananafish, stuck in a hole, and there is no way out, so he will die.    I was wondering why Muriel was so un-effected by her mothers worries, I though maybe her mom should calm down, but she had a reason to be worried.  ( Mothers are always right, I wonder if I'll ever take this advice myself )  Muriel may have just wanted life back to normal, and the best way to do so, is to act like nothing ever happened, so I can see why she would chose to do that. 

The Things They Carried

In this story, I kept anticipating a horrific ending, like most of these stories have been.   I enjoy the detail that goes into explaining the items a soldier carries.  It is truly a reflection of themselves and their lives.  Martha seems like a sweet girl, the pebble she sent was so sweet, something I would do.   I am sure having someone back at home, while you were in the war, is a vital thing.  I would think they need something to take their minds off the whatever trauma is happening, so they slip into a mini day-dream where that one person who keeps them going is right there with them.   I love the line " he was just a kid at war, in love "  I suppose that is the best way to go off to war, in love, with something to live for, and someone to return to.  I am not sure I understand the mini story of the thumb that Norman Bowker carries.  Why was Lavender's death his fault?
There is one thing in the world I believe is truly the worst feeling of all and that is to love and not be loved in return.  Poor Lieutenant Cross;  he has so much on his plate and worst of all he believes Martha doesn't love him.  I also like the part where is says " by large they carried these things inside, maintaining the masks of composure.  That is so very true,  with all of the things they deal with, they must stay composed; because they have jobs to do.  I can only imagine how their dreams were, when they dreamed of freedom birds.  This part paints a great picture, yet its so sad because it is just a dream.   When he burned her pictures and letters, it made me sad.  I am sure he will regret it, because you usually do after something like that.    It was said he has a "hard hating kind of love" I feel that way about my ex-boyfriend.  I find it easiest to remove someone from your life and mind if you completely ignore any existence of them; hopefully it will brain wash you, so you can move on.  You have to be strong and carry on even with a broken heart.  It sounds like easy stuff to forget someone, and to go on with your duties.  But everyday is a struggle, and I feel very much in-tune with Lieutenant Cross.

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

After the class discussion, I realized this isn't truly as simply beautiful as my mind believed.  I totally fell for the typical " hall mark card" interpretation, as many do when reading the road not taken.   Poetry is so beautiful and I tend to get caught up in that only.  I need to work on my reading as the writing and finding deeper meanings for pieces.  Someone in class brought up the possible suicide message this poem gives.  " The woods are lovely, dark and deep.  If you are wanting to relieve yourself from your problems, a lovely suicide is tempting, but this man knows he has much more life ahead before he can die (sleep)  Also I had the idea during class, that the snowy forest was a reminder of something that happened to him.  Like when I drive past a certain spot it reminds me of my ex boyfriend, or a memory that happened there.  I know if I revisit that spot, I would be overcome with a lot of emotion/memories.  You can't ever get those times back so they kind of wrench your heart.  So its just best to move forward.