Poetry Response: "I Thank You God" by E.E. Cummings

When ever I do a poetry response, it is pretty much a habit to scroll through all the pages and look at the titles of each of the poems. When I come across one which I think is interesting, I read it. However, if it one that I cannot truly connect to or blog about, I go onto another one. The title of the one I ended up choosing for my poetry response this week is "I Thank You God."

I noticed that "God" in the title of the poem was not capitalized. I found this rather interesting because whenever I write "God" I make it capitalized. I chose this poem because I personally thank God too. I continue to thank God on a regular basis rather it is my night time prayers or it is just when I am sitting somewhere thinking. Cummings states in her poem, "i thank YOU God for most this amazing day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes." It is easy for me to understand where Cummings is coming from. I thank God for everything being able to wake up each day and the nature that we have around us. Even though I am not truly a green nature type person, I do believe that the nature we have has been created by God and even if we as people do not think about it everyday, nature is something that we should be thankful for.

Poetry Response: "Unveiling" by Linda Pastan

I really liked this poem. I read it back to back about five times because it had me continuously thinking about how this poem can relate to so many things. It made me think about my cousin and a friend who both passed away at the end of this past summer. I felt like there were things that I did not know about that led up to their deaths. Pastan says, "...just left out a bit as if they kept me from the kind of grown-up secret they used to share back then..." There are times that I feel left out because they both left me and went to heaven. Sometimes I think that there was somethings that they were never able to tell me and now that they're gone, I can only talk to them through prayer. It is definetly a confusing feeling not being able to have them here sitting with me and communicating face to face. I miss their faces.

I've also being thinking about tomorrow being the first home game for our girls basketball team. I remember Kate being so hyper and would give me the biggest hugs on game days. I remember her telling me stories and then saying I'll tell you the rest later because we had to get ready or focus on the game or go to practice, but we would always forget. I think about what were the rest of her stories. What else did Kate have to tell me? I miss her.

My cousin and I weren't very close, but when we were together we would talk. I wonder what we would be talking about this Thanksgiving Day coming up. Maybe how cute her hair always is, how cute her nails are, how her boys were growing up so fast, how cute her outfit was. I wonder what. Probably some girly talk. I miss that.

I miss them so much!

The Awakening: Chapters 35-39

Many things became clearer just in this last section of reading. Edna has became even more depressed because Robert has left her. They see each other at the garden place. While there, Edna tries to make Robert say something but he knows that them being together would not work, so he does not say anything. When they go back to the pigeon house, Robert does not stay long. He leaves because he knows that he could never have Edna has a wife. Edna is aware that her husband will not just give her up to Robert, she knows that she will have to have to make this type of decision her own. She does not want to be in the marriage anymore because she is basically not able to do what she wants because she is married. It is like marriage is the dead end of your life. She knows she actually wants to be with Robert, not Arobin, who she only wants because of sex.

Adele has had the baby and wants Edna to be there for moral support. Adele basically tells Edna how important children are and how you should be there with your family and not make it seem like your children are not even here in this world.

The Awakening: Chapters 30-34

In this section of reading, Edna has a dinner party of only ten people. The ones at the dinner party make up sort of a weird combination. In attendance include Mr. Ratignolle (who comes without his wife Adel because she is way too pregnant to leave the house and who also does not like Mrs. Highcamp or Arobin), Mrs. Highcamp, Victory (a nineteen year old who Mrs. Highcamp is trying to get at), and Madmoiselle Reize (who usually does not even leave her house). Edna wear a the diamond tiara that her husband gets for her on her birthday. The party mainly ends because Victor begins to play one of Robert and Edna's songs. This makes her upset and after the party Edna feels lonely, depressed, and desperate.


Mr. Pontellier eventually learns that Edna has moved out. Léonce decided to remodel and renovate the house, plans vacations (and even makes it known to the newspaper that he taking Edna on a vacation). It is obvious that he cares about what people are going to have to say about their marriage. He eventually takes the bad things she had done and turns the story around so it seems like he is a good loving husband. Edna's personal opinion about the situation is that going towards having a great amount of freedom.

The Awakening: Chapters 25-29

During these particular chapters of The Awakening, Edna brings another man into her life. His name is Arobin. Edna and Arobin hold hands and eventually kiss, but that is not what Edna really wants. Her sexual feelings come into play and that is mainly why the kiss happens. Because Robert has left and she loves him so much, she has basically gotten in the mind set that some man has to fulfill her sexual wants. This is basically why Arobin is around. Chopin says, "It was the first kiss of her life to which her nature had finally responded. It was a flaming torch that kindled desire" (112).

Chapter 28 is only one paragraph long. In this paragraph, Chopin says, "She felt as if a mist had been lifted from her eyes, enabling her to look upon and comprehend the significance of life, that monster made up of beauty and brutality" (113). In this chapter, Edna is just sitting and crying the night that Arobin left. She feels somewhat guilty because she notices all the "external things" that Mr. Pointellier has got her. However, she does not regret what she has done with Arobin. It only makes her feel that her love for Robert is "a quicker, fiercer, more overpowering love, which had awakened within her toward him" (Chopin, 113).

In chapter 29, Edna moves into the pigeon house. I believe this ties to the bird imagery that we have been hearing about throughout the story since the first page of the book. She has moved because she is still trying to show some sense of independency. It seems like she just wants to be able to have something that she has because she got it herself, not because her husband got it for her.

The Awakening: Chapters 20-24

In this section, Edna decides to pay a visit to Mademoiselle Reisz, Robert's mother. Edna finds out that Robert has sent a letter to his mother and has mentioned Edna in the letter. Edna is pretty ashamed that there is no letter sent separate to her. Mademoiselle Reisz does not allow Edna to read the letter but does tell her that Robert wants his mother to play the piano for her. The piece of music that Mademoiselle Reisz plays for Edna is Impromptu by Chopin. Mademoiselle Reisz finally lets Edna read the letter while she is playing the music for her and Edna begins to cry. Reisz also tells Edna what it takes to be a successful artist. She says that you have to courageous and have a soul that is yearning to get you where you want to be. I am not too sure if Edna will take this tip of information into a greater situation, such as wanting to have Robert in her life as more than a friend.

Also in this section, Léonce is starting to question his wife's behavior. He goes to get help from a doctor to figure out what is going on with his wife. The doctor and Mr. Pontellier has mentioned that it is just a phase that women go through that Edna is now experiencing. The doctor goes over to see Edna and sees how she has became hyper and has more energy. He is thinking that all this energy is from having a new man in her life. The only man I can think of right now is Robert.

The Awakening: Chapters 15-19

I believe in this section Edna is confused while hurt at the same time. Instead of Robert telling Edna about his departure to Mexico while they were talking all morning, she is told at dinner. Many people are telling her about the news. She is so astounded by Robert's plans that she only ask what time he will be leaving. When Robert finally comes to see Edna, he cannot give her a date of when he will be returning. I think Robert does not want to express how much he loves and cares for Edna, thus, is cutting himself short of the information he gives her because he does not want to hurt her anymore that he has by leaving.

Edna is thinking about Robert non-stop it seems like. Almost everyone can tell that Edna misses Robert terribly, even Mr. Pontellier. When she finds out that Léonce saw Robert in New Orleans on his way to Mexico, she continues to ask questions after questions about the two men seeing each other.

Also, in this section we are reintroduced to the lady in black and the two lovers. They were mentioned together each time one was talked about in this particular section.

The Awakening: Chapters 10-14

In chapters 10-14, Edna starts to come to many realizations of her life. During Edna's period of time of the realizations, it is referred to as her "awakening". Edna is so called 'moving toward an awakening' beginning in chapter 6. She starts to get the feeling that she is not who she used to be. She thinks she cannot relate to her former self. Before this feeling, Edna has the period of time that she wants to do something that she has never done before. Edna also gets this quick vision of death and has been moved by many emotions that she cannot seem to get an understanding of. This period of 'awakening' continues with Edna having dreams that are not making sense to her. It is not easy for her to tell if the dreams are telling her something or if something is going to soon happen. If something is going to happen, she still cannot tell what it is.

Robert's reaction is described as being triggered by her awakening. He has never experienced what Edna is experiencing right now. This appears to be powerful to Edna. In addition to her awakening, she is 'awakened' by noticing her interests that have never been developed such as art and music.

In this section there is reference made to water and swimming. Edna is learning how to swim, however, because she swims out to far, she is pushed out of her comfort zone. She starts panicking when she realized how far out her has went. The thing about this is that it may not be far for any other person, but for Edna she has went out too far of what she is comfortable with. This was an event that was pretty much prone to happening with her being able to control it.

Poetry Response: "Lilacs in September"

The poem that I read for my poetry response is titled "Lilacs in September" written by Katha Pollitt. I personally think that this poem does not make sense. I did not like it, mainly because I do not think that its point was not a big deal.

The image I got of this poem was a hurricane coming into an empty area and tearing up the lilacs and then at the end there is the question for the human life. The question is "What will unleash itself in you when your storm comes?" I think the point is that during this hurricane, the colored blossoms, the lilacs, were being lifted high from the ground as they were being broken up by the hurricane. I get the impression that there is a connection between the (talking) lilacs and actual human beings. The lilacs are the ones asking what would you (the human) do if a hurricane or some kind of tragic situation came into your life. Basically, how would you deal with it if you were the lilacs? What are you going to do when the storm comes? How would you react?

Overcoming many obstacles in life are like outdoing and getting through the hurricanes for weather or trying to be like the lilacs (in this particular poem) and warning others that they should have a plan for handling the storm when it comes their way.

The Awakening: Chapters 5-9

In this particular section of reading, we get more into information about the Creole society. We have already established that Edna is not a Creole and that she is an American from Kentucky. Edna is an outsider in the Creole society. In the Creole society, there is this ideal mother and what a mother is "supposed" to be like.

Madam Adéle Ratignolle is the ideal womanly Creole figure. Madam Ratignolle is brought up in the Creole society and taught that it is right to take care of your child. Not knowing anything other than being a good wife and mother, she lives her life with complete attention to her family. She is a loving mother who is fully devoted to her three (soon to be four) children. As a "mother-woman", her children come first in her life even if it means putting herself in danger. She displays the imagery of white with purity and innocence. In addition, Adéle wears white clothing.

When it comes to comparing Madam Ratignolle and Edna, it is obvious that Edna is not like Madam Ratignolle. Again, Edna is not Creole and we know she is an outsider. The women in the Creole society basically do not understand why Edna is not happy. They say that she should be happy because she has the best husband and that she is a woman.

The Awakening: Chapters 1-4

Between chapters one and four of "The Awakening" we met many characters and were introduced to their relationship with Edna Pontellier. Edna is Mrs. Pontellier, who is the main character in the story. Edna's husband, Léonce describes and criticizes her as a mother who is not "mother-women". He does not like how she does not seem to show empathy and care much for her children. On page 7 it says, "Mr. Pontellier returned to his wide with the information that Raoul had a high fever and needed looking after." Edna was quite sure that Raoul did not have a fever and just wanted to remain sleep in bed. It would make since to me in today's society that since the wife was already asleep, the man would care for the child. However, she later gets up and cries her eyes out without even knowing why she is crying. Many of the women say that she has the best husband. Mrs. Pontellier can not even argue that these women are wrong because she can admit that she has the best husband. However, it does not make sense that she knows she has the best husband, yet she is still unhappy.

In contrast with Edna, the lady name Adéle Ratignolle is the representation of the "mother-woman". She is the type of mother than have to be involved in all her children's life. This mother basically lives for her children and her children come first in her life.

In the beginning of chapter one, we hear more about the bird's imagery than other other chapter in this specific section that we had to read. The bird in the cage "could speak a little Spanish, and also a language which nobody understood". I took this as an symbol that Edna's seemed engaged and that no one understands her. (Although, I do not think that she even understands herself).

Poetry Response: "Evening Concert, Saint-Chapelle"

A couple things to mind while reading this poem. I was getting an image of a euphonic sounding orchestra. There is this emphasis made on the beautiful sound of the violins. For example, Updike says; "seemed to such with their passionate sweetness", "The music surged; the glow became a milk, a whisper to the eye, a glimmer ebbed until our beating hearts, our violins were cased in thin but solid sheets of lead." I would explain milk as being a pure mixture with a smooth flow when poured. Thus, the sound of the violin seems pure, smooth, and flowing. The sound is nice and pleasant to the ear. I remember when I was a viola player. I loved the sound of it and even the look of it. But with the schedule I had, I was not able to keep with playing it.

Oddly enough I thought of University High School athletics while I was reading this poem. Updike mentions "the blazing blue". Knowing that our "mascot" is the blazers and that one of our school colors is (navy) blue, I found a connection. This is rather corny, but I thought of like how we are the Blazers and that we (the girls basketball team) were blazing through the tournament last season.

HOD Response #6

This blog is going to be reflecting on some key points that we said in Tuesday's class. The question the class was asked was 'what is the darkness?'. The darkness is the corruption of humanity. With this definition, we can say that Kurtz's sense of humanity has been corrupted. Kurtz also has this inner darkness, which is the darkness that can affect man's inner soul. This makes me think about what type of person that you would NOT call crazy has some heads facing his house (let alone the fact that he ordered his workers to go and get these skulls of the rebels).

Marlow is finding himself being affected by the darkness. He is losing himself in this darkness as well. Although that Kurtz has no self-restraint regarding the darkness, Marlow still looks up to him and admires who he is. I think that Marlow can see this darkness inside of Kurtz, yet, in the story, he still has this urge to meet him and talk to him. I can honestly say that if I knew of a person with a corrupted humanity, I would not want to meet him. This kind of makes me think about the Holocaust and how Hitler also had an evil spirit. I would not want to meet Hitler and talk to him. That is crazy.

HOD Response #5

During this part of the book, we have some pretty interesting things happen. Marlow stops and takes some times to look at the heads and skulls on the post. The heads are facing towards Kurtz house to remind him that he is in charge and has the authority over these people and skulls. These skulls are from the rebels that did bad things and Kurtz ordered that their head be chopped off because of their disorderly conducts. I find it pretty that the faces on the skulls are smiling. They are smiling as a remembrance that they have escaped the sufferings. The skulls have escaped from Kurtz through death and death is supposedly better than suffering.

The natives are not a part of the darkness. However, the darkness acts upon them just as the darkness acts upon Kurtz. The Natives are not ashamed to have grown up in the darkness and thinking that the darkness is not frightful. The darkness is something that the Natives have grown up in. Anything different from the darkness is new to the Natives. In class, Mrs. Pfanschdmidt said that the only reason it is dangerous to us is because we have hearing it from the whites point of view, who are afraid of it because it is something that they are not immune to and it is something that they cannot control.

HOD Response #4

In this particular section of the book, we are actually getting somewhere (literally). Marlow’s ship is on its way to Kurtz Inner Station and they finally find the hut, which means they are getting closer to Kurtz. Marlow wants to keep on going, but the Manager tells him to wait for some light because of the large danger of the water in the area. But as they have waited for this daylight, fog arises. With this fog, the men on the ship hear this loud cry followed by many voices and then it is silent. The whites on the ship are very afraid, while the Africans prepare to get ready for an attack.

Later on in this section, Marlow even admits his faults of ignorance. Marlow laughs at the man that has been so used to the small town that he never had any contact with Africa. This man did not really know anything about Africa. Marlow knows that he should not have laughed and is rather disappointed in his very own actions. In response to the Helmsman’s death, Marlow throws some shoes overboard. He wants there to be some connection of respect for the Helmsman. He is rather sad to not be able to meet that man.

HOD Response #3

The title of this section is “Into the Heart of Darkness”. In class, we discussed how there is both the literal and symbolic meaning to this title. Literally, Marlow, along with others, are on their way to the center of Congo. The symbolism part of this title is that everyone has a heart of darkness and they darkness of the human soul is being explored.

Major events within this section include Marlow hearing his Uncle and the Station Manager discussing Kurtz. He overhears the Station Manager say that Kurtz intends to come to Congo to make some changes like turning the stations into these places for civilization and for improvement. Kurtz also wants to take the manager’s position. He goes on including that Kurtz may even die because of a disease. The Uncle and Station Manager actually want Kurtz to die so he does not take over the Station and put in his so called “moral” improvements.

Later on in the section, Marlow has these reflections of his Uncle because he has gone into the forest without having a good explanation of why he is going. Marlow says, “It was so startling that I leaped to my feet and looked back at the edge of the forest, as though I had expected an answer of some sort to that black display of confidence” (Conrad, 33). Conrad allows Marlow to refer to his Uncle with the use of the black theme because his Uncle (in Marlow’s opinion) has became a person with an evil spirit.

HOD Response #2

This particular section (page 21-end of Part I) focuses on Marlow going to meet Kurtz (who is said to be a sick man), but his boat gets damaged. The manager of the Central Station said that they took Marlow’s boat out and damaged the bottom out the boat by tearing it on some rocks. Marlow suspects that they may have did this on purpose in order to keep him from seeing and meeting with Mr. Kurtz. It is taking Marlow many months to fix this boat.

The rivets to fix the damaged boat do not end up coming, but the Eldorado Expedition does come to find the treasure. Marlow gives up on trying to receive the rivets to fix the boat and now has different thoughts about meeting with Mr. Kurtz after talking to the brickmaker. The brickmaker says, “He is a prodigy…He is an emissary of pity, and science, and progress, and devil knows what else. We want…for the guidance of the cause entrusted to us by Europe, so to speak, higher intelligence, wide sympathies, a singleness of purpose” (Conrad, 25). I think the brickmaker has turned Marlow’s views of Mr. Kurtz to an "iffy-type" (not totally negative) view of him, however, Marlow still does want to meet with Mr. Kurtz. The brickmaker also adds that there are going to be some opportunities cancelled because of Mr. Kurtz being the General Manager. The brickmaker wanted to be the assistant manager, but because of Mr. Kurtz being the General Manger, his chances have decreased.

Heart of Darkness Response #1

With much of this book so far, I have been spending more time trying to figure out the language of the author versus what is actually going on in the story. I have heard much about the book in regards to the difficulty of the reading; however, I did not expect it to be on the much higher level of language usage that it is on. Truthfully, any type of notes I have the ability to see have been helping me through my struggle of understanding the language. Although, I do think that the second set of pages we have to read (10-21) did not seem as struggle as the first set (pages 3-10). I think maybe it was because the first set of pages assigned caught me off guard.

As Marlow is telling this story, he mentions much detail of the interactions he has had between many people including the doctor, his aunt and Mr. Kurtz. He also talks about the contrast of the white and black, let alone does he mention what he sees happening to the black people.

At the doctor’s office, the doctor tells Marlow “I am not such a good as I look…” (page 11). That was the doctor’s response to when Marlow told him that he was surprised at him for not going out “there”. It is obvious that the place of Africa does not seem an actual place of interest for this doctor. He also tells Marlow that he never sees the men again after they go off to Africa, foreshadowing the fact that they either do come back dead or they do not come back at all because they are dead.

On page 17, Marlow says, “They were dying slowly—it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now, nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation lying confusedly in the greenish gloom”. Here he is talking about the black workers dying and how they were not really bad people, they were hard workers who were tortured terribly and now they are gone and black shadows. These black shadows, the now dead black workers, were starved, sick, and confused.

still memory [PR]

All sorts of things came to mind when I read the title of this poem. It made me think of memories that I have written about in my past english classes. This poem made me realize a few things about this ten-year-old’s life. I thought of her family has a family that is not connected with one another at all. It is sort of like everyone has their own thing going on. Mother is in the kitchen going through the silver and cooking, Father just got off of work and is in the doorway, and her twelve-year-old sister is stepping across the bathroom fast to avoid the coldness of them and the writer herself is reaching for this pen to write again. Everyone in the family is obviously in a different part of the cold house.

The memory that I have from reading this poem is when the heat at our house broke. It was winter time and the heat at my house was broken for no longer than 2-3 days. I felt like I was going to freeze to death because it was so cold and I told my mom that I could not imagine living without heat for a period of time or never having heat at all. In this poem, the sister was walking on the tiles fast because they had no heat. This was not just temporary, they did not have heat period.

At the end of the poem, Karr writes, “My ten-year-old hand reaches for a pen to record it all as would become long habit”. It made me think that the girl wants to record her life and how it is to live with this seeming unconnected family. She said that it would become a long habit, meaning that she will be writing about the household for longer than just that one day.

eveline.

1. Eveline is a short story about a girl name Eveline, who fears a new life and rejects escaping her hard life at home and going to Buenos Ayres with her love, Frank.

2. Leveled Questions
Level One
Who is Eveline’s lover?
Level Two
After all, why doesn’t Eveline want to go to Buenos Ayres with Frank?
Level Three
Why would one fear a new life?

3. Observation
The theme of this story is that fear can be larger than life itself. Eveline’s fears allowed her to shutdown this lover she had, Frank. Unlike the boy in Araby, she actually had a lover who loved her back and wanted her to go abroad to Buenos Ayres to live with him. The boy in Araby wanted Magnan’s sister to like him back as much as he liked her, thus, he wanted to go to the bazaar and buy her something nice. Eveline feared the start of a new life in Buenos Ayres. She also feared escaping this hard life home, which she was so used to. She was afraid that Frank “would drown her” (Joyce, 27).

Joyce gives us plenty of detail on Eveline’s life and how it was hard. I started to gain sympathy for Eveline as Joyce talked about her life. I found myself feeling sorry for her. However, the fact that she denied the opportunity of a new life lowered my amount of sympathy for her. I would not call Eveline stupid for not taking the opportunity because I can tell that she seriously does have a huge amount of fear of something new, which she never really had. Eveline feared something that she had never been able to do and she was never around someone like Frank who cared and loved her so much, thus, she could not find so much trust in Frank to go off and live with him.

Many times while reading the story I tried to put myself in Eveline’s shoes and think of what I would do if I were her. My decision would have been proudly starting a new life, but obviously it is not easy for Eveline to just go about it as easily as it may seem for someone like me to say. I can say that I have never been in a situation like Eveline, like living a hard life like her and having to make a decision to go to another country to start a new life. As happy as it sounds (yayyy, a new life!), it may not be that easy for others. I really do wish Eveline would not have been so fearful and taken the chance. She could not know the outcome unless she tried starting the ‘new’ life in Buenos Ayres.

Another thought I have is; how can you just start a completely ‘new’ life? There are always going to be memories you have that may or may not haunt you. It is impossible to just forget everything that you have came across before in your life. There are still things that are going to stick with you your whole life. I think this is something else to think about considering Eveline’s rejection of going to Buenos Ayres.

joyce`s araby .

1. Araby is a short story about a boy who wants to go to supposedly “splendid bazaar" to get a gift for Mangan's sister, the girl who he wants her to like him the same way he likes her.

2. Leveled Questions
Level One
Where did the tenant of the house, the priest, die ?
Level Two
The narrator never really says exactly why he wants to go to Araby. Why do you think he wanted to go so badly?
Level Three
Describe a time in which you really wanted to go somewhere, but you had to wait for a long period of time for your parents to get home, whether it was to get money or whatever the situation was. How did you feel?

3. Observation
Even though I was confused by the ending of this short story, I was able to get a sense of theme. I believe the theme of this story is to act more than you observe. I think the narrator found himself doing much observation. I think the author talked more about what he saw and what appeared to him, other than interacting with others more in the story. Good things come out when you interact more. Like he was able to go to Araby after expressing so much why he wanted to go.

When I read the part about him having to wait for his uncle to get home so he could have money to go to the bazaar, it made me think of the many times that I have wanted to go somewhere but I had to wait until my mom got home to get money for her. This was of course before I was allowed to take money out of my account. I remember being so frustrated because I was not able to just leave when I wanted to, but yet, I had to wait for like my mom to get off work before I could get the money.

I thought this story was kind of weird, well the ending anyway. I do not quite understand how the last two paragraphs come into the story. I intend to get a better understanding when the class discusses this short story in class.

A Good Man is Hard to Find

1. A Good Man is Hard to Find is a short story about a family who goes on a trip, but has an accident and are killed by some men who stopped to ‘help’ them with their car.

2. Leveled Questions
Level One
What is the name of the grandmother’s son?
Level Two
Surprisingly, the grandmother did not react panicky or scared when she found out the man was ‘The Misfit’. Why do you think she did not act like this?
Level Three
Regretful seems to be a common characteristic among the characters in the short story. Talk about a time in which you regretting something and then some tragedy came out as the ending result.

3. Observation;
The theme of this short story is that there may be fatal consequences of being a self- centered person and trying to make people they way to want them to be. I believe the grandmother was much of a self-centered individual and she tried to make The Misfit a better man than he really was. The grandmother wanted to find out all the good things of The Misfit and allow him to understand he was a good man and because of this, her and her family ended up dead. The Misfit was not this man that she talked him up to be because him and his men ended up killing the family.

The common pattern in this short story was many of the characters having the characteristic of regret. This included the grandmother, Bailey, the kids' mother, and The Misfit. The grandmother regretted (or should have regretted) not telling the family that the house was really in Tennessee. Bailey, the grandmother’s son regretted bringing his mother with them on the trip, while the childrens' mother wishes she could change her childrens' behavior. Lastly, The Misfit regrets not being able to remember his past.

I thought this story was pretty interesting. Once I started reading it, I did not put it down because I was so curious to find out what was going to happen next. I found it pretty ironic that they ran into The Misfit after they just talked about him before the left for the trip and even when they stopped at Red Sammy’s Famous Barbecue. Red Sammy told them a good man is hard to find and it obviously did not stick with the grandmother because she was trying to get all the good stuff out of The Misfit and have it outweigh all his negative capabilities.

"there must be more money! there must be more money!"

1. The Rocking-Horse Winner is a short story about a boy name Paul and his understanding that his parents are ‘unlucky’ and he has the urge to help his family by placing bets on horse races and making money.

2. Leveled Questions
Level One
What was the phrase that was always ‘whispered’ in the house?
Level Two
“Although they lived in style, they felt always an anxiety in the house. There was never enough money” (Lawrence, 37). Why was there never enough money in the house?
Level Three
“‘It’s what causes you to have money. If you’re lucky you have money. That’s why it’s better to be born lucky than rich. If you’re rich, you may lose your money. But if you’re lucky, you will always get more money’” (Lawrence, 38). Do you agree or disagree with this quote? Explain.

3. Observation
The theme of this short story is that money does not satisfy everything. There were still even the whispers in the home after Paul made the money from the horse bets and gave it to his mom. The whispers were because there was no money in the house and it was thought that Paul’s money would quiet the house and make these bets go away, but it did not work like that. Thus, money did not satisfy the problem.

My observation for this short story is going to be reflecting on the theme. I do entirely agree with the fact that money does not solve all kind of problems and satisfy everything and everyone. Paul’s mom still yearned for money after she was given the 5,000 pounds from Paul, which shows that this money did not fix her needs. It is obvious that money could help a starving family and allows a homeless person to eat and put clothes on their backs, however, money does not guarantee happiness. Money makes this world go around, but it obviously does not ensure for people to be happy.

I know of someone who is filthy rich, but is not a happy person. He has his own family who lives together, but he is still not happy. He also has many degrees and has lead what is known to be a ‘successful’ (legal) life, but there still is no happiness in this person. This shows you that he can have all this money and not even have to work for the rest of his life. All this money still does not entitle him to be the even slightly happy camper at all. This is just a real life example that happiness does not just come with being rich like a drink comes with a m

" lost brother " ; [ pr ] .

When I read the title of this poem, it brought back a memory. I remember being in some store (it was either K-Mart or Walmart) and my mom and I lost my little brother. However, in a way it was like he lost us because he walked away from me and my mom. I can recall him being very upset and in tears, being that he was so young and he could not find us. I do not exactly think this actually poem could relate to my brother being lost in the store. This poem is more about one tree talking about his brother who was cut down.
The younger brother that is talking (the living tree) is basically saying he wants to please their mother and be like his brother by living as long as he did. He also wants to do things like live with the clouds and with the ones he loves. I still cannot understand how this tree loves someone else or something else.
This poem was definitely not one of my favorites. I thought this poem was a bit hard to understand at first, being that these brothers are trees and one is talking about his brother, being that he was cut down (or in other words, had passed away). I first of all know that trees cannot talk and then the trees being brothers is another thing that is hard to believe. Thus, I found this poem kind of ‘weird’ and I wonder what Moss’s other poems are about or if more personifications are being given to other objects.

i stand here ironing .

I Stand Here Ironing by Tillie Olsen

1. I Stand Here Ironing is a short story about a young mother talking about the affection and attention that she wishes she would have gave her children, mainly her daughter Emily because she has trouble fitting in society and understanding who she is.

2. Leveled Questions
Level One
Emily wrote to her mom every other day while she was at the convalescent home. What was it she would get if she wrote her letter nicely, although she never got one?

Level Two
What led up to Emily going to the convalescent home? What was the main plan for Emily and her mother while Emily was gone?

Level Three
“The old man living in the back once said in his gentle way: ‘You should smile at Emily more when you look at her.’” Why do you think affection is so significant even at such young age?

3. Observation; Just doing some observing.

The theme for this short story is that it is not easy to share the total amount of affection that you have not shared in the past for your loved once. At times it is too easy to get ahead of yourself while leaving the ones you care about behind. In the end, your lack of love and care hurts not only them but also you in the long run.
I found this short story to be rather sad. I felt sorry for the young mother just as much as I felt sorry for the children, especially Emily. I believe the young mother did not understand the complete sense of motherhood and what things she could do for her family that did not cost. Emily was a child who did not understand too much about herself. She did not understand why she did not have the same hair and skin tone as everyone else. It was hard for Emily to fit into society being that she was cared for or taught as much by her mother like the other children.
I actually liked this short story. I felt like the author made me clear of how the mother felt and what was going on with Emily. I was able to build an amount of sympathy for the mother, who wishes that she could turn back in time and start over. I believe the young mother is apart of the every day examples of not only young mothers, but many mothers in general. I think it starts off with the generations and hopefully Emily could someday share some affection with her children [but I would understand if she did not because she did not have it from her own mother].

the lesson .

Short Story Assignment

The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara

1. The Lesson is a short story about a girl name Sylvia and her experience on a ‘field trip’ with her class to a toy store.

2. Leveled Questions
Level One
Where does the class go for the ‘field trip’?

Level Two
How is Mercedes much ‘different’ than the other students on the trip? Describe a time where you were you were either in Mercedes position or the other students.

Level Three
Which of the characters in the story do you think is somewhat similar to you? Explain why you chose this character.

3. Observation; Just doing some observing [Definitely jumping around with different subjects].

I strongly believe that Bambara’s The Lesson was interesting. Her use of slang and cuss words made me think about and do many things. Because of there not being any sort of editing with the characters’ words and their personalities, I wanted to keep reading to see what was going to happen next. The kids’ attitudes towards Miss Moore kept me thinking about what type of parents or households they may have.

Another thought about the story and its language made me realize how mature our class is thought to be. I know for a fact (coming from a large public high school) that if we were going to read a story like that in class, there would be a permission slip sent home to be signed by your parents, informing them of what we were going to be reading. I told my mom about the reading and showed her the various swear words used and being so used to permission slips, she was surprised we were reading it.

In a way, I felt sorry for Mercedes in the story. I do not think that she understood the certain situations her classmates were in and how she was more ‘spoiled’ than everyone in her class. I am not sure if I would label her in the upper class because I do not know they specific economic status of each student. However, I do not think that she fit in with the class. She talked about how her daddy would get her this expensive item at the toy store and at times it seemed like she was trying to show off what she had or what she could get.

joe`s realization .

At the end of the novel, Joe finally realizes something so important. He realizes that he is apart of the future and that he could affect the future soldiers. These soldiers could be affected because they are actually seeing what could possibly happen to them at war. They would come to notice that they could end up like Joe, dead, or crippled. Therefore, it is somewhat a good thing that allowing Joe to go outside the hospital is against regulations. Not only does the hospital not want to let him out, but the government and military do not want to either because they do not want people to NOT fight for their country.

Being that the government has their opinion of not wanting Joe to leave the hospital, Joe has an opinion of the government. Joe is pointing the gun at people like the government, the people who want all these soldiers to go fight. He does not understand how these fighters are being told they are fighting for democracy, but at the same time everyone is fighting and killing each other. He does not like the fact that these people, like the government, are sending these soldiers over to fight and aren't even fighting themselves. The ones that are declaring and starting the wars are not even the ones that actually fight in the wars.

joe`s desires .

I agree with Joe and his desires to get out and explore and just be able to get out and communicate with people. I also support the fact that he wants people to come and see him and how he survived. I think he wants to be able to communicate or enjoy the presence of someone else other than the doctors and nurses. He just wants to be treated and be able to do the things like a human being outside the hospital. I do agree with how he wants right now. I would definitely want to be treated like a normal human, however, isn't that what everyone who is in the hospital wants?

I am not exactly sure if I would want the exact same things as Joe. I do not think that I could easily relate, being that I have not been the situation like Joe. Therefore, it is hard to say what I would think. I understand how Joe wants to be able to communicate with others and he wants people to see him, however, I do not support the idea of it seeming like he wants to be like part of a museum and everyone just comes to look at him. This is a extremely difficult case to relate to.

joe`s wants .

Joe wants to be able to be mobile and have the ability to do everything he can not do. Basically, Joe wants everything he once had before he went to war. He wants to be able to have his senses [see, hear, smell, taste, and feel], let alone be able to communicate and talk to the nurses and doctors. He wants to have his amputated limbs back. He wants to be the man he once was before the war. Joe also wants to be able to go out of the hospital and interact with the people outside of the hospital. There is really nothing for Joe to do inside the hospital, therefore, being able to get out of the hospital would benefit him, he thinks. However, he is told it is against regulations. This is true because the hospital does not want people to see what war can do to them and how they can be greatly affected by willing to fight for their country. They, the nurses and doctors at the hospital, do not want be to get this negative connotation that willing to fight for your country could lead up to this [Joe's condition]. They do not want the future soldiers to see Joe. Not allowing him to go out would keep people's hopes up about being able to save their country.

joe`s injury .

Joe is severely injured. At this point, Joe does not have a face, legs, nor arms. He is without mobility and the ability to taste [because he does not have a mouth], to hear, to see, to smell [he does not have a face at all]. His face is basically like a mask right now, being wrapped in gauze. Sadly, I do not think that whatever he loses from this point really matters. He has lost his ability to do anything but to just like there wishing he could turn back into the past and start over. However, he can not. He only lies in the bed for several years dreaming and thinking and not knowing where or not he is awake because he does not have the eyes to open to know that he is awake.

The question that I had was why are the doctors allowing him to live if he is only suffering. They amputated his limbs because they were too lazy to fix them, however, they are just making his life worse. But I do understand that it is his own decision to whether or not he wants to die being that he is in this horrific state. I honestly believe that I would not want to live like this. I think I would just tell the doctors I would want to die. However, it is so easy for me to say, being that I have never experienced being in this deadly form.

gilbert says he IS THEEE american man .

Gilbert believes Eustace to be the last American man for various reasons. I think mainly because he is this “Man of Destiny”, which is what he calls himself. Gilbert sees all these things he has done and could define him as this man of many accomplishments and goals he has achieved.

At an early age of 17, he hiked the Appalachian Mountains. He also road a horse across the country, kayaked across Alaska, and makes his own food, clothes, and housing while living in the woods. I think Gilbert look a little on his background, like how he was brought up, what his parents are like and how he has overcame the various mistreatments of his father. Eustace is from a suburban area in South Carolina and liked nature from the time he was really young. His mother seemed to be caring and backed up his desire to be this nature kind of guy; however, his father was like the exact opposite. Mr. Conway believed that what Eustace took in as knowledge was useless. His father did not basically like the idea of Eustace being this nature guy. Being that Eustace (Eustace Conway IV) is a fourth generation of Eustace Conway’s, his father wants him to be just like him or at least a bit like him, sort of like a mini-me.

american && european attitudes .

According to de Tocqueville, American and European attitudes towards women differ. He described the European attitudes as the women and men being “alike”, while the male and female American roles are divided. He says with European women and men being alike, it degrades both genders and leads to “weak men” and “disorderly women”. The American attitudes toward women are sort of like a democracy. The American women are usually the ones who are not doing the work outside the home, they are the ones doing the household work and taking care of the children. Even though they remain in the house, they are not doing heavy work either. I believe this is what de Tocqueville meant by American democracy enabling women to become “more and more equal of men”. He is saying that they are not doing the same type of work or even in the same setting of the work they do, therefore there is no way the women can be equal of men.

childhood story .

There were many stories I read as a child, however, they were not stories like fairy tales. For some reason, I was not told many fairy tale stories. The story that I always think of when someone asks me about a children’s story I have read is “Amelia Bedelia”. I don’t know exactly why, but I always seem to think of the series of “Amelia Bedelia” books. The main one I think of is the story which Amelia is doing some many things, she is just doing whatever she wants basically. I do not remember the name of the story exactly. However, the value about my gender that I was taught from this story (now that I think about it at an older age) is that women can do anything they want as long as they put their mind to it. Many people get the impression that just being a women that we (women) can not handle certain things or complete certain tasks, but I think this story teaches that I can do whatever I want no matter what my gender is.

emerson`s nature .

Lines chosen: “Nature, in the common sense, refers to essences unchanged by man; space, the air, the river, the leaf. Art is applied to the mixture of his will with the same things, as in a house, a canal, a statue, a picture” (Emerson).

When I first read these lines, they seemed powerful, but at the same time I was not exactly sure what Emerson was saying. I read it over tons of times and I think I got an idea of what Emerson is implying about nature. I believe Emerson is saying that nature are these subjects which man cannot change, it is impossibly for man to make go away or for it to change it. Space, air, the river, and the leaf are the sense of nature. However, art is what man takes from nature (space, air, river, and/or leaf) and adds his work to it. Man takes nature and adds his own handwork to build or make a house, a canal, a statue, or a picture. In conclusion, I think that overall Emerson is trying to make the impression that men actually do work with nature, even if it is not noticed so suddenly.

me && my moma .

When we were assigned this blog I was not too excited, not even going to lie. I am not a big fan of art, however, I do have my various interpretations while looking at art such as the mood of a painting. That is the only thing I like doing about looking at art, seeing the meaning of the art. I do not enjoy doing art myself, like drawing or painting, that is just not for me. The painting that I found on moma.org is shown above. I chose this image just because of the various colors in the image that I believe display my life. When you first look at this painting, you could think you are in the center of chaos, but when you look closer, you will notice that there are purple flowers. I think the purple flowers display that there is still softness in the painting even if it looks like a collage of nonsense. The softness represents the softer, cooler, nonchalant times. In the center of the red circles you can see another picture. When I first saw that little spinner looking thing it made me think of a fair or like a amusement park with those big rides that go around and around and upside down and whatever else you want it to do. I sometimes think that life is like a rollercoaster, you have your ups and downs and sometimes you feel like you are going around and around and repeating some type of situation that you think you have already went through. Then there are the bluish greenish type spaces in the corners of the painting, displaying that there is still calm and coolness in life. Believe it or not, this image displays a lot about life if you actually sit there and think about it.

Below is the link also.

http://moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AYM%3AG%3A1990%7CG%3AHO%3AE%3A1&page_number=18&template_id=1&sort_order=1

wright`s realization .

At the end of the novel, Wright comes to the realization that the world will never be unified. He realizes that the world will never be what it is “talked up to be”. I think he believes that no matter where you are or who you are, things will not be in unison. With the fact that Wright was hoping to move to the north and hopefully see some sense of unification, it is pretty sad that he was not able to. This could possibly make a reader think, why keep moving more north if things are not changing, however, this is a prime example that you never know how something else until you can clearly experience it for oneself.

Wright has writing has what I think he could call an “escapee”. The ability for Wright to write allows him to express himself about the world; however, he is having trouble getting the individuals in his environment to understand him. I do not think that Wright should give up the writing because it allows people like us to think more in depth about topics in our world and allows us to get an understanding of writers who do not have the ability to speak words out loud.

artists && politicians .

I, in fact, do agree with Wright’s theory that artists and politicians stand at opposite poles. When Wright gave the information in the story about the Communist party, I realized much more of the fact that artists and politicians have two different ways about how they think and how they approach groups of people. Artists like to keep the groups of people together and allow for everyone to learn from the art. They seem to be more of the gentle ones compared to the politicians because they want to better everyone, not separations of people. The artist would actually take the time to think about life, how life operates, and how people go about life. While the artist has this way of interacting with people, the politician would rather have this one own opinion and stick with it. Politicians would rather think of their own opinions and express them, hoping to get the people around them to feel the same as they do.

wright , the author , speaks .

The passage that I have chose is on page 313 in the edition that I have. Wright, the author, says this: “To solve this tangle of balked emotion, I loaded the empty part of the ship of my personality with fantasies of ambition to keep it from toppling over into the sea of senselessness” (313). I think I honestly read that specific part of this passage over and over about ten times. The connection that Wright makes with this ship is powerful. I believe that he is saying that he has this hesitant idea. Wright is undergoing a thought that he does not really want to think. The thought is that he is getting rid of the dreams and what he thought could eventually happen in his future, what he could achieve one day. The sea of senselessness seems to just be all the ideas that he ever had that he knows for sure that would never happen or come true. The object that he used, the ship, makes me (and maybe other readers) think that he has so much thought and dreams that he is getting rid of by putting them all into this empty ship, which is a large object.

In this passage, he also mentions what dreams he had, like any other American. He also states how he had reached the certain position that he dreamed of putting together a secret groups of blacks that could fight against whites and if the blacks did not agree to be apart of it, then they would be fought against. I think that this is sad that Wright has even got so hostile (not saying that he should not) towards the whites that he is willing to even fight his own kind for not willing to be apart of something that he dreams of being right.

end of part ONE .

I truly believe that Richard has definitely set in motion a positive change at the end of Part I. I believe during this time the farther north that a black person would move, the better. At this point in the story, Richard is going to head to Chicago. He and Maggie are on their way to Chicago to go find the place for the four members of the family, who are Richard, his mother, his brother, and Aunt Maddie. Richard is going to be able to live a better life when he gets to Chicago, he hopes. Even though the north is not all “goody goody”, it is not as bad as the south. He will be able to have more freedom as an African American and be able to be treated better by the whites, however, there will stll be the ones who do not like the blacks. It will hopefully be a new start for Richard, of course not forgetting all he knows from the south, but being able to start off new as far as a job. I am hoping that Richard’s life in Chicago turns out to be what he hopes it to be.

wright`s moral dilemma .

Wright does not enjoy being apart of stealing and doing things to get money, however, at the same time he feels like that it is something that he needs to do. I believe that many thieves are in Wright’s position. Stealing is not something that they want to do, however, it is something that they feel like they need to do in order to fulfill their needs of money and to be happy. I believe that many feel like they NEED to steal. Therefore, I do not think that Wright feels justified in doing what he is doing because he knows it is wrong. Wright understands how bad he could be punished if he were to get caught stealing. Richard is indeed frightened and is feeling guilty of his actions. This is definitely not something that Wright wants to do, but I personally think that at the same time he wants to do it to get back at the white people and to get money that he needs.

'learn how to live in the south' .

Griggs is a boy who Wright went to school with and when Wright and Griggs see each other, Griggs tells Wright that he needs to ‘learn how to live in the south’. Griggs is basically saying that he needs to smile and act a certain way when whites are around. The way he needs to act is to make sure that he remembers they are white and that they are superior to him. Wright must show that they are basically above him and that Wright is under him. Although Wright must act like this in public, he can still think whatever he wants and have his own thoughts about the whites when he is alone. The white people are watching Wright’s moves and what he does. He must watch what he does in front of the white people so he does not end up dead or punished by them. Griggs also tells him that he must be patient and act this certain way.

wright && refusing to say the speech .

I think that Wright is justified in refusing to say the speech that he wrote himself. I also think that the principal is making it seem like Wright is not good enough to say his own speech and it would basically embarrass him. The principal is trying to get Wright is say this speech already prepared for him to read and acceptable to the white people in the audience. The principal is also basically saying that Wright is not smart enough to come up with his own speech and it be good enough to be heard by the white people.

Wright’s own speech of course has his very own thoughts and feeling and his own thoughts of his experiences within his speech. However, he cannot be so proud of his work due to the fact that if it is perceived wrong by the audience, he can be punished for his work. I think this is truly upsetting because if I were to write my own speech and someone try to give me a pre-written speech to read, I would be kind of upset. My feelings would include being not so proud of my work because this person is basically shutting me down and telling me that my own works and the factual information I have from my own experiences is still not good enough.

wright && his uncle tom .

Wright and his Uncle Tom are not getting together at all this chapter. Uncle Tom now lives with Wright and his family. There was one particular situation, which Uncle Tom asks Wright the time and Wright’s response made Uncle Tom mad. Wright’s answer to Uncle Tom’s question included that his watch could be a few minutes fast or slow, but it was still not far from the right time. Uncle Tom decides to beat Wright for this, but Wright is not having it. Wright decides to stand up for himself by pulling out a razor blade and telling Uncle Tom that he would rather cut him that to be beaten. I think it takes a lot of “fed-up-ness” and courage to threaten and elder, let alone to threaten a relative. At the same time it is hard to relate to Richard’s life at this time.

I honestly do not think that Uncle Tom is helping the situation that Wright is in at this time. Wright had a paralyzed mother and is trying to understand the world outside his home. It seems to me that Uncle Tom is not adding to this Richard’s struggles. I know personally that if I was having a hard time with something and someone else other than one of my household family members moves in and is trying to be a control factor in my life, I would have a problem with that. However, this does not give Richard the right to pull out a razor on his uncle.

wright`s writing && gratification .

According the Oxford Dictionaries, to gratify means to give pleasure of satisfaction. Honestly, I believe that all writers feel gratified after sharing their writings. In addition, I think that Wright has this same feeling as all writers. Writers feel satisfied after being able to share memories and events that have occurred in their life with people they know and even people they do not even know and will never meet. Even if it hard to relate to their writing and events of their life, the writer still may feel good about the fact that someone is reading it and at least thinking about their life. Richard seems gratified just about the fact that he can write a piece of writing that is so significant to him.

I personally can admit that writing makes someone feel gratified and a little satisfied about a situation. There was a time, this year, that I had so many thoughts built up on my mind and so many things that I thought that I needed to get off my chest. I picked up a notebook and just started writing. I wrote down everything I was feeling, like I was basically talking to the paper. I got up to three full pages in a very limited amount of time. I was proud of myself just being able to write so many words and feelings down on this paper. I did not necessarily have to let someone read it to feel gratified. It is just a great feeling to let out all your thoughts when you write.

wright && his mother`s paralysis .

I personally think that at this point, Wright being so young, it is kind of hard for him to understand what exactly is going on. He knows that his mother was close to dying because of her strokes. After the second stroke, she became paralyzed. His mother is the major role of his life at this time, being that his father left the family. His father was the source of the income in the house, their food came from the money his father made.

Wright seems scared of death. Not only because of the fact his mother was close to dieing, but because of the fact that when his mom gets sick, he has to go stay with his aunt and uncle. At his aunt and uncle’s house, he has to stay in the room, which a boy died. Right really wants to go home back to his mother when he finds this out, but there is not a lot that his mother can do for him if he were to go back home. His mother is not able to do the things she could do before the strokes. She is unable to physically discipline him, teach him, or just be a good mother to him since she is paralyzed.

I believe that Wright honestly does not know what exactly do to from here. Let alone dealing with his mother’s paralysis, he is still suffering from hunger, mental and physical hunger. His father left the family and now his mother has paralysis. I wonder what will happen next that affects the Wright greatly.

wright`s 'cultural heritage' && dislike of jews .

Wright’s cultural heritage was the major factor to his disliking of Jews. However, relating this to his own experiences is kind of tough. Religion was strongly forced in the home, mainly because of Wright’s Granny. She was really strong about religion in general, but she knows information about many religions and tells the information to Wright. Wright is basically told that the Jews are the ones who killed Jesus. Growing in the black community and knowing just what he was told in the community, Wright had no choice but to believe what he was told. It is not like he was getting information about religion and other cultures from people of other ethnic groups.

I believe that Wright understands that racism is not right, however, he believes that the Jews crucified Jesus. The bad thing about this is that Wright is taking this negative implication and holding it against all Jews. I truly do not think that ALL Jews should have to deal with his dislike just because of what he has been taught.

I am not exactly sure if I am actually answering this question like I am suppose to. I do know that racism was something that was not influenced in Wright’s home. I do not believe that his mother and Granny actually told him not to like Jews because of this, but because of the fact he was taught that the Jews killed Christ, it is kind of just an extinct and immediate reaction to the information. Due to this, Richard has an issue with being nice to the Jewish storekeeper.

wright`s hunger .

I believe Wright has two different types of hunger; he is experiencing mental hunger and physical hunger. It seems like his mental hunger consists of attention and stuff to do so he is not bored. He caused the house to burn just because he was bored and decided to see how the curtains would look with burned bottoms. He wants to be able to live this life in which he does not have to worry about going to hide under a burning house because he is so afraid of being beaten. He is hungry for this “happy” life that he has the idea of and the life that he lives is not the “happy” one. Wright is hungry for something to do, he wants to do something. Boredom is being a major factor in Wright’s life right now. Wright’s physical hunger is brought about because his father has left the family. His father was the one that was counted on for money, let alone to feed the family. There was hardly any money in the home when his father went away. Wright’s mother does not have a job, so there is no money coming from her way.

It seems like either way you chose to answer the question, you can be right. There are these two hungers that Wright really cannot do anything about. He knows that he cannot get any food without having money and he also knows he cannot get any money without the presence of his father in the house. Hunger is putting a negative impact on the way Wright acts.

is school really necessary ?

After reading Gatto’s “Against School” article, I have thought more about the fact that you do not actually HAVE to go to school to become some famous smart person. Gatto presents examples of famous historical figures like Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison, and George Washington. These historical figures did not complete “full education” or go to public schools or attended college, they received a smaller type of education. School is not as necessaryas the society seems to make it be.

I strongly agree with the fact that many children suffer from boredom at school, and of course it does not help if the teachers are bored at the same time. I believe many teachers are not doing a job that they do not want to do, however, they are forced to teach certain lessons that they do not even find interest in themselves. Gatto mentioned that another reason the teachers are bored are because the students are bored and the students only really care about their grades. Students only care about their grades because they are forced by the American society to believe that they must have these high GPAs and test scores to be successful. I think many students do not learn the information taught in schools because they want to, they are forced into learning material and studying it for tests. I am not talking about all information learned, just the majority of it. I can personally say that there is more information that I study for a specific test than there is information that I am taught and remembered for a long time.

nonacademic education .

I certainly value the ‘nonacademic’ education I am receiving. I believe I endure the nonacademic education all the time without even noticing it. I do not think that I take the actual time to divide my academic foundings and my nonacademic knowledge intake. The value of this (nonacademic) education is beyond than what I am able to actually explain. I would label the information I intake from home, my parents, siblings, peers, etc. as nonacademic education. I think that any education that I do not particularly learn at school or in the educational environment is considered nonacademic. In addition, I even value my religious education that I even intake as a teenager. I am able to take in different lessons at church every church service that allow me to live my everyday life. The lessons allow me to cope with different situations. That is just particularly my view of it, although others may respectively have their very own opinions.

I believe that I learn a lot from the people around me. The different attitudes of people, their various personalities, and things like that are what I learn from the people around me. The people in my environment would fall into the nonacademic learnings, therefore I even value the people around me. Nonacademic education is something that allots to living day-to-day and learning from subjects in your surroundings.

day two of presentations .

Today was my first day being able to see presentations for the Rhetoric on the Town project. I thought it was pretty interesting that there are so many examples of rhetoric that we see everyday and we usually do not think that it is an actual example. The example that I found most interesting and one that I have thought about before was Ethan's and the cheeseburger.

Ethan presented the fact that you see these basically perfect looking cheeseburgers on billboards, commercials, and other advertising devices, however, it is not what the actual cheeseburger looks like when you buy it. I find this being so true. Fast food and other types of restaurants use these images that make the burger look so good, but in reality the burger is usually sloppy and the cheese is not even melted. The double cheeseburgers are even shown with the exact same size burger patties, but in reality they are not really the same size.

I believe Ethan was totally right about how they, meaning restaurants, make you think you are giving this such magnificent, "non- sloppy" burger. They try to make the burger look good so it is appealing to your eye and tummy, but when you actual go buy the burger it does not look like how it was advertised. I personally do not believe that if the companies put how the burger really looked, they would get so many people to buy their product. I think it is sad that you have to make something seem one way to get people to buy it, when it is really not how you are making or talking it up to be.

day one of presentations .

Since I was not here for the first day of presentations, below I have blogged about my response to the project in general and then other stuff.

For the project, Brittney and I went to Castleton Mall. We spent about two and a half hours seeking for rhetorical examples of advertising. We went in the afternoon and being a Monday, the mall was not so crowded, and therefore it was easier for me to take pictures of the examples that I saw. We walked around pretty much the whole mall and passed just about every store and looked at the different set ups and advertising signs outside each store. Each store has their own set up of course, but some stood out more than others as far as how they advertised to let alone get customers attention, but for them to buy stuff also. The stores that I thought had their more standing out way of advertising were; Helzberg Diamonds, The Disney Store, Hollister, Borders, and Victoria Secret. I also looked online and through clip art for different examples of rhetoric. I spent a lot of time online for this specific picture that I have once seen in a book but cannot remember the title of the exact book. The image was of two men standing side by side, one dressed in a nice suit with a professional significant look. The other man looked junky and vicious. You would think that the guy with the nice suit on was the good guy and the other guy was some criminal type guy that you should watch out for. However, there is an image on the next page that shows that the professional looking guy had a gun behind his back, while the other guy had a flower behind his back. I think the images help you realize that just because a person has this certain look and appears to dress like the average businessman or the average junky should not classify whom they actual are and what they actual do. I think it is pretty sad that people get classified just by how they are on the outside. This is something that happens everyday and we (as the majority of people in general) justify the type of person someone is just by his or her appearance.

ad presentations today .

So I did not get to see any presentations today since I was sick and came in late. I did not even get to see my own group’s presentation on video until today. After watching it, I really liked it. I am not saying that I enjoyed the video just because it was of my group, but because I think that it appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos.

I, along with the members of my group, knew that we had to come of with some product that would be pleasing to our classmates. We understood that our classmates are high school students just like us who are sleepy as heck when they come to class and with iBall they could look cool, stylish, “baller”, and sleep at the same time while appearing to be awake. Being tired high school students ourselves helped use appeal to pathos while presenting and coming up with our product.

Brittney’s funny sayings and gestures made me laugh. I thought that she put a big emphasis on the ethos in the video because she made people laugh and of course laughing has to do with emotion. The logos in the commercial was coming up with some type of statistic that could show some type of logic information. Another interesting part of the video was at the end when Maggie gave the information about where the products could be bought. I loved how she talked fast like real commercials do. She informed me that there was not even any speeding up in the dialogue, it was all her!

I would have loved to see the other commercials, however, I was not able to. Sucks! But hopefully, I can still see the commercials on video of the other products.

pottery barn .

I was not at all shocked by any of the information presented in the “Pottery Barn Style” article. The story presented in the beginning of the article about Hadley MacLean and her new six-foot-six-inch husband was not surprising to me either. I clearly understand that when middle to upper class people are in search for something they believe they are in need of, they are willing to pay the price no matter what it is. However, the thing about this particular story was that they got addicted to Pottery Barn just after buying one bed. They continued to go back to buy more stuff.

Their addiction allowed me to realize that Pottery Barn is doing what they want to do. Pottery Barn is getting customers to not only buy one item one time, but to have them keep coming back and buying more. I truly believe that these people are shamely more materialistic people. I also think that when you buy one thing so expensive from Pottery Barn, it makes you think that you are more part of the high end versus buying some furniture from Walmart. Another example of this would be buying coffee from Starbuck’s, versus just buying some coffee from the gas station. Many would argue that it just does not taste the same, however, I would have to disagree. I think many people go to Starbuck’s just because it is part of the middle to upper class life and people want to feel like they are part of the higher end of life.

But, I am not going to lie, I would love to see this $24 towel, once I get the chance to go to the mall. I would like to see if it is such a good product to be worth $24 or if I would be better off going to get a towel from target that is about $10.

environment of a store

The store that I love to shop at is Target. Target is like the best store to go to when you need anything, literally. I get most excited about Target’s clothes. Their clothing lines for juniors are the bomb!

Target carries a variety of brands in their stores, as far as their clothes. Not only are the clothes really cute, they are cheap. I think what keeps me going in Target for specifically their clothes are the fact that they always have sale racks not matter when you go in there and most of the time. Also, most of the time, these racks are pretty organized to be so popular. In addition, I usually get these ads in the mail that show these cute outfits being put together with Target’s clothes. The ads make me want to go in Target even more after getting hints to fashionable ideas. Overall, Target mainly gets me to love it so much because it has everything I need. It is bright, clean, has nice workers (from what I know of), and carries pretty darn stylish clothes. Being such a big neat store, sending the ads out every month, and having all the things you basically need in your house, influences me to keep going to target.

Other stores that I usually shop at are Forever 21 and Charlotte Russe. I believe a lot the times they put out these huge sale signs, but in reality it is not usually such a big sale or all the sale clothes are very ugly clothes that no one really wants. I like these stores a lot, but for some reason I fall into their sale signs a lot of the times just to see if they actually had something cute on the rack for one. I like Forever 21 and Charlotte Russe, but I am in love Target!

super bowl commercial ad

Tonight, while watching the Super Bowl, I came across some pretty weird commercials, not going to lie. I think the weirdest one was this Diet Pepsi Max commercial, but at the same time it was interesting. Even though the drink is Diet Pepsi, it has gensing in it, but still supposedly low calories.

The commercial starts out by all of these people in various types of settings not being able to basically function or do their work because they did not have any energy. The different settings were people working in an office, men on farms, men doing valet parking in front of a hotel, famous rappers in singers during an awards show, a guy at a bar, etc. They even had commentators acting like they were announcing news from the Super Bowl game, but could not stay awake. During the different settings in the beginning, no one could stay awake or perform any tasks because they were tired and did not have any energy. But after a lady came pass the office with a bunch of Diet Pepsi Max on a cart, the workers drank one and all started dancing and functioning better. So did all the other people at the other settings.

This commercial appealed to pathos, ethos, and even logos. It appealed to the emotion sense of the rhetorical triangle because it showed how everyone was down and could not function without this simple drink and then how there was happiness and excitement after the drink was drank. The logic was that it featured all the different type of settings and acknowledged that no one could not do anything without this Pepsi drink. The credibility was that it had rappers and famous music stars in the commercial that could not even stay wake at their own music awards, rather find out who the song of the year goes to. These stars included L.L. Cool J, Missy Elliot, Macy Gray, and Busta Rhymes. Everyone was bobble heads in the beginning, until they got the drink.

I also found the commercial online: http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&brand=foxsports&vid=49aca8d6-4dba-485d-9f27-657448f8a47f

blog about today`s class discussion

Today’s class period yet again involved another interesting discussion. The topic of today’s class discussion was about last night’s reading titled “Two Ways a Woman can Get Hurt” by Jean Kilbourne. I understood the various points of my classmates’ decisions on whether or not they agree or disagree with Kilbourne’s argument. I could also tell that many of my classmates’ were getting frustrated with not being able to get their points out as clearly as they were meaning and also with the fact that there was always someone strongly disagreeing with someone else. Of course debates do involve opposing opinions (duh, that is the point), but I could sort of tell that many of my classmates’ wanted to say certain things to my other classmates’ that would possibly not have been appropriate for the class, based on their opinions.

I truly did understand some of the boys’ points they were making about Kilbourne. I understood that Kilbourne did put so much emphasis on the boys being against girls in the commercial ads, however, it is not necessary to go against Kilbourne’s argument because of this. I do not necessarily think that Kilbourne was intending to go about the male gender, however, she was just using the examples that she usually views on her television. I believe we see way more advertisements of the women being the target versus the men being the target.

I am actually glad that we read this particular passage and had a debate about it in class today. It gives me a better understanding of the type of people in our class and more of their way of thinking. I was not what so ever mad at anyone for expressing their arguments and respective opinions in class today even if I was one of those strong individuals opposing their explanations.

kilbourne's argument

After reading Kilbourne’s passage titled “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt”, I think more deeply into commercials. A lot of the images Kilbourne uses to support her argument really offended me and made me mad. I feel this way because many of these commercials images were really degrading the female gender and being a female myself, I did not like any of them. Although I have always tried to understand the exact meaning and place close attention to commercials, Kilbourne’s passage makes me wonder more about the intended purpose of the commercial. I have came to the conclusion that many commercials now-a-days usually do have a lot of sexual intent in them and sometimes the advertising part has nothing to do with the item being sold. I clearly understand Kilbourne’s purpose for her writing and I agree with her point of how women can get hurt by the advertisements and how ads can sometimes "unpurposely" offend gender and sometimes race. I agree with Kilbourne for meaning reasons.

I agree that with many commercials women are being judged and it is putting pressure and influence on teenage girls to become this character in the advertisements that men are amused to. I think it is the same thing as watching a model show. Many teens are sometimes women of other ages put so much pressure on themselves to be this idealistic model and be the one that men are most appealing to. Also, we see more of women being treated aggressively in commercials, however, there are also men being treated aggressively and sort o on the watch out for the aggressive women.

In the end, I think that sometimes it depends on how you interpret the advertisements. I truly think that commercial companies are not intending to degrade another race or gender, but it seems like this is what the world is more into and it is sadly a way to catch the eye of the people. For example, since many people think that sex is the cool thing to do and that when you are having sex you are more mature, commercial companies would rather air something possibly sexual just to catch the attention of the people. I honestly think that it is more of the advertising companies adjusting to what catches the people’s eye than people adjusting to the influence of commercials.

rhetorical appeal of television ads

I watched television for thirty minutes with my mom last night. The show we watched was "Mystery Diagnosis" on Discovery Channel. While watching this specific show, when it came to commercial time, I came across two commercials that were pretty appealing. The commercials were Bank of America and Liberty Mutual.

The first commercial was for the Bank of America. I believe that Bank of America is wanting to influence mainly the adult audience to save up anything they have, such as quarters. They made it so the quarter was so powerful and that the quarter could do anything it wanted. They also made the perception that with saving these quarters, you can start a savings account at Bank of America. I figured this commercial was going more towards the adult audience because it was specifically a bank and more adults use banks than any other age. Also, more adults would be watching the “Mystery Diagnosis” show than any other age.

The second commercial was a Liberty Mutual commercial. The point of the commercial was to tell viewers that with Liberty Mutual insurance everything is fine and really nice. In the commercial, there were people doing really nice things for other people and no violence around at all. I had two sides to understanding the commercial. The first side was that with Liberty Mutual insurance, everything is nice and fine and the other side was that people with Liberty Mutual insurance are really nice and you could be one of those nice people if you got Liberty Mutual insurance. I thought this commercial was mainly for the adult audience too, being that many adults are the ones looking into insurance. And then again, the fact that I was watching “Mystery Diagnosis”, more adults would watch the show, which it would make since to have commercials that attack the adult audience.

student directed plays 01/11/08

So I went to the plays Friday and of course I have my different views about each of the plays. There were four plays. The name of the plays were Heaven, Being or Not Being, If Books Could Kill, and Playing the Pronoun Game. I thought Playing the Pronoun Game, the first play performed was a lot more reality like. It just seemed more everyday life than the other plays. I think this because now-a-days you do see a lot more homosexual couples with children and more teenagers falling in love with their own genders. I felt more engaged in this particular play because I was curious to see what was going to happen each day. I think just in general I feel more engaged in plays that have different days and different events happening in the play. I liked this play the best and I would have like to see more towards the end, like how the girls relationship went. The second play was Being or Not Being. I thought it was pretty good as far as having some sense of humor. I was not so deep thought into this one because it was not like everyday life like the first one. Heaven was the third play. The beginning lines of the play totally threw me off. I was confused from the jump. I did not really enjoy the fact that there were only two characters in the play. It was not easy for me to understand what exactly had been “crashed”(?) or what was messed up and what they were scared about happening. I think the whole idea of the play or what I perceived for the meaning of the play to be was not about the whole messing up the computer deal, but it was more about trying to solve what could happen for the problem to be solved, I think. I was totally confused about that play from the beginning to the end of it. The last play, If Book Could Kill, was REALLY confusing for me. The only part that I really understood was that the bookstore owner did not want to give back the story to the girl because he was pretty interested in it. I understood that he wanted to get down to the gist of the girl’s writing and he wanted to understand why she was writing what she wrote. I personally did not understand the girl’s writing either. But one thing that I thought about towards the ending of the play is that the bookstore keeper in the girl’s writing was about the actual man in the bookstore all along. However, I did not understand if all the writing was about his life or was it just that part? I look forward to talking to Lamags about the plays to get a better understanding of the ones I did not understand and to just have a general discussion about the first two. I am glad I went though because discussions with Lamags are fun and interesting.