Monday, May 3, 2010

Fences [Last Post]

Fences is a play written about a african american family from the 1950's. Troy was a man in his mid 50's who was a former ball player. He was never treated fairly by anyone because he grew up in the days where white and black men were treated unequal. The white folks always were able to go out on the field and play, but Troy always was set back on the bench. This had a great impact on how he treated his son Cory, when the time came for Cory to go off to school and play football. Troy refused to sign the papers for Cory to go off and play league football. After Troy denied the signing, this caused horrible conflict between him and his son Cory, they never got along after that day. Troy always talked about how much he loved his wife Rose, but he if he loved her so much why would he do such a horrible thing by cheating on her? The consequence of Troy cheating on his wife was getting a woman named Alberta pregnant. Troy finally confessed to Rose that he had been unfaithful to her because he knew this woman was fixing to give birth to his daughter. Unfortunately Alberta died so Troy was left to take care of this child, as well as Rosa was talked into taking care of this little girl that wasn't into this world by her father commiting adultery. Rosa took the baby in as her own and raised her with her son Cory. Troy ended up passing away at the end of the story, as the entire family came together as one, and worked their differences out in the end.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Everyday Use

In the short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, she begins the story by opening up about Dee and Maggie’s life and their ways of living which is told to her audience by the mother. Maggie was a very laid back child and for Dee she was very high strung always the one who got everything she ever asked for, pretty much spoiled. The trial of the story starts with Dee coming back to her old hometown, a completely opposite person then the girl that left before. The Mother then realizes that she has treated her children unequally, always giving Dee everything she could possible, and making Maggie feel a little left out. The Mother defends her daughter by telling Dee she wont allow her to keep the items in the house and plan on giving them to Maggie to make up for lost time. In the story Dee changes the person she once was, and the Mother as well changes her thoughts on how she treats her children equally, as for before she seemed to of favored one more then the other. At the end of the story mama ends up giving the quilts to Maggie, which I think was a wise choice anyways, Maggie would have put them to better use then Dee would.

Half and Half

Half and Half deals with both the Chinese and American Cultures. The daughter and mother were both Chinese cultures, and the mother wanted her children to marry in the Chinese heritage. When the daughter told her mother in the beginning that she would marry an American man her mother thought it was beyond the worst idea since she had her heart set on a Chinese man for her daughter. I thought this story was very sad and tragic all the way around and the meanings between both stories were relatively the same. The mother was a woman who very much believed in faith and the love of God, although she kept her bible as a holder to go underneath her table, this symbolizes her anger and frustration towards God for the death of her son. The mother ended up losing her small little boy in the reefs of the ocean and never seen him again, she set her faith in God to help bring him back safely to her but things didn’t work out as planned. The daughter in the end put her faith in God for him to save her marriage and that’s all she could really rely on to keep her marriage together.

Shiloh

In Shiloh, it takes another turn in a couple’s marriage as well. Norma Jean’s husband was a truck driver who rarely spent any of his time at home. When he was in his truck accident he had to spend most of his time at home with his distant wife. They rarely had anything to talk about, I don’t think that Norma Jean hated the fact that her husband was at home more, but more so that he never did anything but sit around smoking pot all day with NO job. He never cleaned the house he was just a couch potato. Their communication between one another was terrible, they lost their little boy years before but never seemed to talk about it. I think in the end things just built up so much that Norma Jean could no longer take it anymore and decided she didn’t want to be with this stranger she thought she once knew. Her mother always seemed to but in on everything as well, when she found out Norma Jean was smoking she made such a big tizzy over the whole situation never one time going up to Norma Jean and talking with her about it, which could be where Norma Jean learnt her lack of communication skills, which may have been a downer that caused their marriage to fail in the end.

Girl

In the short story girl, the mother seemed to ramble on different ways for this young girl “Jamaica” to become a woman. When you look at this short story its much like a very looooonnngg run on sentence. The mother puts the word ‘slut’ in several times, I’m really thinking she thought her daughter was indeed a slut or wanting to be one. She always explains to her daughter about how she should treat a man, but if it couldn’t work out between the two, to not take it so personally when you have to end up letting them go. The girl learned how to cook, sew and do many things a house wife would normally do in their everyday life. I don’t think the mother should have went about in the way of telling her daughter the things in the way she did, I thought it was quite rude. I know my mother wouldn’t ever try and get something across to me in the manner that this lady did with her own. I found some really good points in the short story that I took a step back and thought wow this woman has really lived out in the world, she knows so many things and how the world works to be the woman she is.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Giovanni Poetry

In the first poem that I read, it talks about black people and their memories of their past and of how people may perceive it. I dont think that it could neesarily be inplyed to strictly just black people because it really doesnt matter what age, race or background you have. If people were to look back on their past at least for myself in particular, I could name more things that stand out that were not good as some things that were absolutely wonderful. In the 2nd poem it seems like this person is actual in fact very lonely they are just trying to sugar coat it for someone else so they dont see the fear and sadness in her. i think many people sometimes do this and try to convince other people or soemtimes even theirselves things thats not true. The last poem I really was unsure about what she was trying to get across to her readers.

Flannery O'Connor

Flannery O'Connor seemed to be a very lonely individual as the way she writes her storys or a grumy woman, she died at a very young age, I'm not sure what was the cause of her death. In the story "A good man is hard to find" I'm still a little confused on how the title related to the actual story, unless it is basing it off of the misfits being horrible men, and there seems like there isnt any good man out there that wouldnt kill a family. The children in the story were very rude and disrespectful to their grandmother and the parents. I think that the parents should take more action i discipling their children when they start to whine or treat people the way that they did. I think it's ridiculous how children can act like that and I think it is definately way out of line and something that they should have handled. The grandmother was a older type lady which she was very confused with where they were going which is what caused the accident to start with becuase she got the family lost. I think that its horrible that the misfits ended up killing her, I thought the story had a very tragic ending, although it didnt start off very pleasant to begin with.

Tillie Olsen

I can relate with Tillie in his particular story she has written. Many times I get caught up in my own world and things that need to be done without acually focusing on the things that are more important in my life. I have a two year old son and in Tillie's story the man said to the mother "you should smile more often when you look at emily". When I read that it turned back towards my son Im sure everytime I may look at him I may not always have a smile on my face as I should because he is the most precious thing in my life. I think that she should have as well paid more attention to Emily, and not send her off to that hospital. The choices that the mother made could have easily been avoided if she had chosen to take different paths when making critcal decisions concerning her daughter. If that had been done so, then her and Emily's relationship may be better off then it is at state now. I also feel like the mother and father should have gotten jobs at different times of the day rather then leaving her alone, that can be very hard on a child I believe. Overall it was a very good story.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Serena

I absolutely loved this story, when I first looked at the book I was so unsure just by the looks of the cover, but the more I got into the book the less I put it down. Serena was a very selfish woman, she only thought about herself and no one else. She seemed to have a mindset that nobody was ever going to be better than her, and that’s pretty much the way she lived her life. When she finally killed her husband her reasoning was basically he wasn’t up to her standards and he was inferior to her, but I think she more than likely had a jealousy issue with the fact that she couldn’t bore children. Serena killed not only her husband but several others including, Widow Jenkins because she couldn’t find someone, and then of course her husband because “he wasn’t good enough” as well as Harris. Serena never cared about the way she treated other people that was around her, she didn’t think about what kind of burden she placed on people’s lives either. This book told a great story of conniving people, dishonesty and sacrificing as well. I would definitely request for other people to read this story.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Randall Jarrell

Randall Jarrell was very well known for his amazing pieces of poetry, I enjoyed reading his poetry most when being compared to Sylvia Plath. Randall served in World War II, which I believe is where he came up with his imagination as well as own experiences to present his poem called “Losses” although it seems a little confusing when reading the poem because he contradicts himself several times, saying “It was not dying, Everybody died.” I found that a little hard to understand but I perceived it as the many things that he seen out in the war that it wasn’t him so much worrying about his death anymore because he was so used to being exposed to his friends deaths as well as his enemies, so when it came his time to die it was a part o the nature. Overall I think that his poems were very real when you read them it is like the characters come alive in his short stories/poems.

Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath has stated herself these exact words about her poetry, "I think my poems immediately come out of the sensuous and emotional experiences I have, but I must say I cannot sympathize with these cries from the heart that are informed by nothing except a needle or a knife." With that being said it is very apparent that Sylvia had several issues throughout her life, shortly after her father died Sylvia begin to become depressed and even attempted suicide. She wrote down her thoughts and emotions in her poetry as you may be able to see when she wrote her poems that we have read. In her poem "Daddy" it sounds like she relates her poem to a nursery rhyme called "the old woman who lived in a shoe" because she uses the words "Blacks hoe in which I have lived like a foot." With this particular nursery rhyme the mother whips her children and sends them to bed, I think that is a relation to the kind of relationship she had with her own father because they didnt have that kind of close relationship together, which may be why she went down hill from the time her father died and later on.

Sonny's Blues

Sonny’s brother was a math teacher in their old town of Harlem. Sonny himself was a drug addict on heroin and spent a good deal of time in his drug rehab. One of Sonny’s old friends shows up to tell sonny’s brother that Sonny was sent into rehab, and it rekindled memories from the past. Of course when it deals with your siblings whether it be a younger/older sister or brother you always feel that protectiveness over one another. The two brothers hardly talked or communicated at all throughout the years but as time went out they begin to make that same connection that they once had as a young child. When it says “Blues” in the title of the story I feel like the “blues” is the emotional rollercoaster the two brothers experienced with one another, as well as the rekindling of their relationship as two brothers that have taken different paths in life. The music in the story plays a big role in their life as well, I think at this point when they were hearing the music at the Barbeque joint the brother begins to listen to Sonny and his troubles. Anyone with a drug addiction it’s extremely important for that person to have some sort of support from either a family member or friend, to have someone there to listen to you and talk with you about your sufferings. I feel that is exactly what sonny’s brother did towards the end of the story is he found a place where he could sit and listen to Sonny’s hurt and pain that he was feeling why going through this terrible addiction he had started.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Powerhouse

Powerhouse seemed to be a story comparing the differences between the blacks and whites. I think the story was probably written around the time of when being prejudice was a major issue in society at the time. In this story it focuses a lot on the music and bands playing. White folks did pay to come and see this particular musician. When everything was said and done though, the blacks had to go to their side of the streets where they had their own restaurants, stores, homes, and everything else involved. As well as the white people had their side of town. I don’t agree with this at all, I feel that everybody is equal no matter what color, race or religion they are, I guess that is the complete difference between society now and they way their outlook was back then. This was my least favorite short story that I read this week.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Native Son

The Native son is probably one of my favorite short stories that we have read all semester. Bigger was living in a small one room building with his mother and siblings, he wanted better for himself so he went out to seek a fine job. Mr. Dalton offered him a great job chauffeuring his family around to different places, paying him a great deal of money and giving him a nice place to stay. Bigger took the job and had all intentions to work his hardest and do the best he could to please everyone. Mr. Daltons daughter gave him issues right from the start, she called him out on things making him uncomfortable. Bigger was ordered to take Mr. Dalton’s daughter to the university that evening, but that was all about to change. Mary was taken towards to college, but she had different plans for her agenda. Mary had Bigger take her to meet her boyfriend and spend the rest of the afternoon, something her parents would never agree upon. Bigger didn’t know what he had gotten himself into, Mary and her boyfriend had alcohol in which they all proceeded to get drunk in the backseat. Bigger thought that if he did as well he wouldn’t feel so uncomfortable being with them so he did as well. That night when going back to the house he had to carry Mary up to her room where he was almost caught by the owner. Mary ended up dying, I’m not sure if she died from drinking too much or for some other cause. Bigger never planned on killing the young girl, which I don’t feel it was his fault to start with, although if he had taken her to where she suppose to go then it would of never happened to start with.

Flight

John Steinback was raised in California where he spent most of his life, he wasn’t very big on traveling with his works of writing as much as other writers you may come across. The story flight is of a mother and her children living in Monterey on a farm. Her son Pepe was sent into town to fetch some medicine in case they would need it. Mother always would talk about how Pepe was “becoming a MAN” especially since his father had already passed. When Pepe went into town he came across someone who was calling him names so Pepe decided to take it into his own hands and ended up killing the man. Pepe hurried home to explain to his mother that he must leave immediately. While Pepe was on his journey he was followed my someone who wanted justice for the crime he committed. Along the way Pepe ended up losing his food and jug of water along the way, he was left for dry basically. His horse ended up dying due to the fact that Pepe didn’t take very good care of it as well, so he was to walk the rest of his way. I think Pepe should stayed home instead of running from his problems, I don’t think he would of suffered a infected arm or possibly wouldn’t of even been killed if he had stayed home. I think Pepe did a fine job at attempting to keep his self alive, he dug the ground to soak up water to drink from, and found things he could eat, although that still wasn’t enough because he was killed in the end anyways.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes is very well known for his African American writing in his poetry. I think the poetry that was assigned for us to read was pretty straight forward and easy to read. One of my favorites would be "The Weary Blues" it seems as though the man that is playing the piano is sad about something going on in his life. It talks about how he plays this piano underneath a spot light and he is swaying back and forth to a "mellow croon". It talks about how his sway was so mellow and gentle, that you can just tell that he is a easy going, "mellow" person himself.

Faulkner

William Faulkner has obviously strange taste of topic in his stories, I cant say that The Evening Sun is my favorite I have ever came across. In this story the father of the children never wants Nancy's husband Jesus on his property. With that being said its apparent that Jesus is bad news, especially if he is never even around in the story anyways. Nancy is afraid that Jesus will hurt her therefore she is scared to go home and stay there alone. She tries to con the kids into walking down to her house with her because she is afraid Jesus will come out an hurt her. In the story it talks about Nancy being pregnant, but thats where it leaves off, it never tells what ever happened to her unborn child, and it seems like she may be pregnant on more then one occasion? Her belly was rounded and big when she was in jail, after she had been beat and kicked in the mouth, stomach, and head. Also when she was in the kitchen it tells of her belly resembling a watermelon. I dont think Jesus was ever out to get Nancy, she was a bit of a drunk anyways, so maybe she was having ellusions in her mind that he was out to get her, but reality is that he just up and left one day apparently.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Trifles

Susan Glaspell wrote the play “Trifles” before the women’s movement came along. This basically meant that men thought that their wives, children, property, money and anything else was of their property and not of their wives. In this play John Wright has been murdered and the sheriff, Mr. Hale, Mrs. Peters, and Mrs. Hale are at the murder scene, which is of the home of Mr. Wright. The Sheriff has come to the house to try and come up with evidence so that he can use it against Mrs. Wright for the murder of her husband. When they get there they find that the house is a mess, towels all over the place, food laying out everywhere, and not kept up like a normal home would be. The men seem to view the distortion of the house differently then what the women see. The men aren’t looking things in a deeper view. The men look at the house as being cluttered with mess, and not taken great care of like women should keep it. Although when the women look at the mess they look it as Mrs. Wright probably didn’t have the time to keep her house clean because she was too busy doing other things such as, out in the garden picking the vegetables, making jams and quilting. John Wright never really paid his wife much attention, and Mrs. Wright loved to sing but that disturbed her husband. She had a bird that she kept in a cage that loved to sing along with Mrs. Wright and her husband killed the bird. I think that since her husband didn’t pay her much attention and seemed to not care about his wife’s feeling that led her to killing him.

Willa Cather

Aunt Georgiana was born into a middle class family and never had to work hard for what she had. She married a man named Howard Carpenter, who her family greatly disliked mostly because she was a lower class family then their own. Georgiana married Howard more than likely out of rebellion from her parents knowing that didn’t approve. After giving birth to six children and working hard every single day to survive she gave up one of the most important things she loved most. Her fingers were crippled from the hard work she put into work and she could hardly play the piano any longer. After going back to Boston her nephew set up arrangements to take her to an orchestra concert. When the orchestra came on stage it brought back memories and she begin to tap her fingers to the rhythm. She begin to cry because she realized what her life could have been like had she taken a different path in life. “Paul’s Case” is perfect example of someone who isn’t happen in their own skin. Paul was born into a relatively poor family. He was always picked on by the way he dressed he was always getting kicked out of school. After being forced to work and unable to get his education leads to Paul stealing money. He takes off to New York to live the life he always wanted, but not for long. Paul was able to stay in nice hotels, wear fancy clothes, and attend the musical concerts he admired. Once his father heard about his son staying in a New York Hotel, Paul fled. Paul thought of committing suicide with a gun but he didn’t quite have the nerve to do so, he ends up taking his life into a oncoming freight train, and his life was never completely fulfilled.

Zora

Zora Neale Hurston seemed like a very down to earth lady. Growing up her family flip-flopped around taking care of her. Her father never took care of her it was the upbringing of her mother that got her through until her mother died, that would probably be very hard for a young daughter. Zora made it through the rest of her life on her own putting herself through school and beginning her writing career. “How it feels to be colored” seems like a story of Zora herself, she is the narrator of the story and calls herself by name. In this story she tells of how she always was an outspoken lady, always talking to the white folks that came through town and would even sing to them. I think this story really goes in depth about how it’s not what is on the outside of a person that depicts the kind of person they are. She always felt like she could be herself no matter who her surroundings were, whether it be white or black people, she always stayed true to herself and the person she was. “The Gilded Six-bits” is a story of a woman who has an affair on her husband Joe. Joe goes on and on about Mr. Slemmons, while his wife seemed very uninterested in him. Joe comes home one day to find his wife in bed with Mr. Slemmons. Missie May thought Joe would leave her and could never understand why he stayed with her after the heartbreak she had caused him. I can’t understand why she did that to Joe to start with after all the nice things he would do for his wife, I think the only reason she had the affair with Mr. Slemmons was because of the money she “thought” he had. In the end of the story she has Joe’s child, and I think that having the child brought them together closer once more, I’m sure she won’t make that mistake again.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Robert Frost Poetry

Robert Frost has written many different poems throughout his life. He wrote many of his poems relating to his life with the world, and how he took each day. Three of his poems stood out to me most while reading them over the past week. “ The Road Not Taken,” in this poem it talks about two paths in the woods, he stared down both pathways and decided to chose the one that looked the least taken. To me this resembles life for when you see everybody else doing one thing so you decide to be the odd ball out and take a different path down life’s pathway. “Neither out far nor in Deep,” you always think about when you go to the beach and you just forget about what it’s like being back home in the mountains of North Carolina. I think this story really tells how people look one way at the sea and forget about the land behind him them, even though they don’t see what is way out far in the ocean or what is deep down below, its just the beauty of the sea that makes everything forgotten and different on land itself. “For Once, then Something,” what I got out of this poem was that when he was looking down in the well, he could see his own reflection, beginning to look deeper into the bottom, a drop of fern fell and shattered the image making it all blurred. I think that this is a symbol of looking at his own reflection in the well, but it’s not always what you see in the picture because everybody has something deeper within themselves that tells a story.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Stephen Crane Poetry

Stephen Crane passed away at an early age, although he was very well known for his poetry and short stories. When reading his poems as well as “The Open Boat”, it seems that every story he tells, there is a meaning behind them all. His poetry may be a little tricky at first when you read them, but it allows you to actually grasp what you just read and really think about it. “A man freaked that he might find an assassin,” this poem made me think that a man would rather take his life in his own hands rather than sit around and wait for someone else to make the decision for him. “I saw a man pursuing the Horizon,” makes you think about people who are out trying to chase a dream whether is a career, life decision, or future but the dream continues to get further away no matter how hard your trying to achieve it. The last poem that really stood out to me most would be, “In the desert.” This poem talks about how his heart is bitter, but although our hearts may be bitter we still have to love ourselves for all the right reasons instead of looking at it negatively. This poem may come across as a self-esteem issue that the man has within himself. Poetry has meaning behind every stanza, you just need to think about what is your reading. Stephen Crane had great meaning behind his stories and poetry.

The other two

Throughout the story Alice tries to make her husband happy and please him as best of her ability. Although she tries doing so she also lies to him and acts as she wants to behind his back. Waythorn marries Alice, who has been married twice previously. He thinks that they will have the perfect marriage and Alice will give all of herself to him and do whatever he wanted her to do. After coming in contact with Alice’s two previous husbands Waythorn comes to figure out that his newly wife has a past. I think that Alice seems to think her marriage is just a game, she seems to of been on this merry-go-round more than she leads on. Alice also seems like she is a money loving woman, it seems she divorced the others because either they didn’t make as good of money as she wanted or couldn’t give her everything she felt she deserved. When the story comes to an end, all three husbands are waiting in the room together, and Alice walks in with a pot of tea. She seems to act like nothing is going on and playing a role as if she is the good one out of everything. Waythorn finally realizes he can’t change the past or his wife for that matter, basically accepting the marriage he is in. It was a very good story, although I disagree with Alice and the way she is treating each of the men, I think it is very unfair that she leads each of them on, especially her current husband.

Monday, February 15, 2010

The Open Boat

Stephen Crane has written this story so that you almost feel like you are there. He describes the ocean in the beginning of the story so clearly that you pretty much know what it feels like for the four men inside of the boat. The four men go on this adventure out in the ocean and sadly in the end only three remain alive. Throughout the story the captain tells the three other men which land seems to be safe and as for the ones that don’t. On the boat there are 4 different men with different experiences, for one you have the cook, the oiler, the captain and the correspondent. The captain is constantly telling them which places to go, the first place they came across the captain didn’t feel like it was a safe landing so he ordered the men to head north, as they did. The waves are so harsh on the boat and the mean are constantly getting soaked with the freezing winter chill of water. The men change off with the oars because they go days without sleep and sometimes even food. When they are attempting to catch some sleep they huddle together to keep warm, especially when waves of water come crashing in. The correspondent repeats to himself “If I’m going to be drowned..was I allowed to come this far to be drowned anyway?” When the story comes to an end only three men remain and one has drowned. I thought this was a great story as well as very descriptive writing about the ocean and the journey.

Monday, February 8, 2010

The Awakening

Kate Chopin spent most of her days as a “belle” in the St. Louis society. She was an American author in the nineteenth century. The short story “The Awakening” has a good grasp on human nature and full of different ideas. In the story the main character is Edna, in the story Edna must get herself out of the dull lifestyle that she has always lived. She awakens to the idea of her own self discovery and must grasp onto it and embrace it. This story I noticed had many symbolic pieces throughout the book, the ocean was like the rebirth or Edna as well as the place she chooses to die. The birds were a part of freedom symbolizing her husband and how she was trying to break free from that. Although Edna had a hard time learning how to swim that summer, she swims farther then she normally would have and that I believe is where she had a quick instant vision of death. Edna realizes that she was very unhappy in her marriage and looks for answers and freedom to break loose from those restrictions that she felt she had in her marriage with her husband. Edna was in love with Robert, although she was a married woman she couldn’t hide her feelings for him. Although she finally came to the conclusion that she could never be with Robert which broke her heart in two. When she asked him to stay with her, Robert ended up leaving, although I don’t believe that he left because he didn’t love her but for the simple fact that she was a married woman.

The Yellow Wall paper

Charlotte Gilman lived an overwhelming sad life. She married at such a young age and her first husband never agreed with her writing all the time, and it never seemed to work out. She was then divorced and remarried a few years later to a man that accepted her for her talents and let her be an independent woman. Some people called her a man hater, although that wasn’t the case, people got that point across when they would read her stories. In the yellow wall paper, it tells a story of a woman who is a nervous disorder and is extremely ill. Her husband is a physician and keeps her in a room, taking care of her every day. The woman writes in a journal nearly every day recording her thoughts, mostly of this yellow wall paper in the room she is resting in. She thinks that it is evil and it catches her attention often, she feels there is a woman trapped in the wall paper and needing to be set free from crawling behind those bars. Her husband thinks she is recovering from her illness, although she is far from it, if not even sicker than before. One day she rips away at the wall paper because she didn’t want Jenny getting to it before she had. Trying to set free this woman, she comes to find out that all along she was the one trying to be set free, after her husband comes in the room he faints at the sight to see his wife creeping about. I don’t think John or Jennie realized how seriously ill she was and it came to a shock to see his wife doing such a thing.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Bierce wrote a lot of things on the topic of death. Enlisting in the War and volunteering to ride in Poncho Villa’s army was putting himself in the track of danger, which is kind of contradicting himself at the same time, you would think he would of known better. Bierce’s talks about Peyton and his life experiences and also talks on his hanging of death. Peyton is a very wealthy southern planter who wants to help them win the war. While trying to act on his plan to help, Peyton was then captured and was to be hung where he was planning to destroy a bridge. He hallucinates about falling and escaping, when his dream finally comes to a end, his neck is in fact broken. When the story ended it was pretty much the ending of his mind wandering experiences. Although Peyton thought he made it back home, he believed that he had accomplished his goal and set plan, escaping death. The death of Peyton was real although his escape was actually taking place all in his mind.

Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Bierce wrote a lot of things on the topic of death. Enlisting in the War and volunteering to ride in Poncho Villa’s army was putting himself in the track of danger, which is kind of contradicting himself at the same time, you would think he would of known better. Bierce’s talks about Peyton and his life experiences and also talks on his hanging of death. Peyton is a very wealthy southern planter who wants to help them win the war. While trying to act on his plan to help, Peyton was then captured and was to be hung where he was planning to destroy a bridge. He hallucinates about falling and escaping, when his dream finally comes to a end, his neck is in fact broken. When the story ended it was pretty much the ending of his mind wandering experiences. Although Peyton thought he made it back home, he believed that he had accomplished his goal and set plan, escaping death. The death of Peyton was real although his escape was actually taking place all in his mind.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Editha

Editha reminds me of people who do not get the big picture until they are actually faced with the damage that it caused. Editha wanted people to prove their love to her, whether it was through danger, hurt, or high standards. When Editha was with George, he came to tell her that he would probably have to go back to war, although George was scared and didn’t want to do it, Editha replied to him that she wanted to him go that it was the best thing for him to do for his country. George came back the next day, all happy about going back into the war to fight for his country, when he was turning to leave Editha handed him a box with a letter she had written him the night before. George read the letter while he was out on duty. Few weeks later Editha came across George’s name, telling how he had been killed while serving for the country. George made Editha promise she would go to his mother if something ever should happen to him, and that’s exactly what she did. When she came to his mother, George’s mother was angry with Editha for even saying that it was the best thing for him to go into war. After listening to what she had to say, Editha had a different feeling and realized what she had just done. It completely changed Editha for the better and made her realize what lesson she needed to learn from this. I hope Editha learned her lesson, I thought it was a horrible thing that she would make a boy prove his love to her by putting his life on the line. I don’t feel like that showing true love at all that’s just plain craziness.

Tennessee's Partner

The short story of Tennessee’s Partner was a very difficult story to read. I read the story three times to comprehend exactly the situation and to figure out exactly what was going on. In 1854 Tennessee Partner was based on two men that partnered up in crime. One of the men was named Tennessee and the other one unknown, they just called him “Tennessee’s Partner”. In the beginning of the story Tennessee’s partner travels for miles to find himself a wife, it didn’t take him too long before he found her and decided to marry her. Tennessee wasn’t even loyal enough to stay away from his partner’s wife so he decided to take her right out from under his partner. Regardless of the situation when Tennessee come back into town there was his partner waiting on him. Shortly after Tennessee robbed a man taking everything he had, soon he was arrested and taken to court for the matter. When the Judge called on Tennessee’s partner if he found the defendant guilty, he ended up making the whole thing worse rather then helping his friend out. Tennessee was then hung to death, where the partner took him to the cabin for Tennessee’s funeral. Jenny took Tennessee’s partner to the hill where Tennessee was buried, where Tennessee and his partner were together once again. I felt like even though they ratted one another out or did each other wrong to some extent, they were always there to pick the other back up when things fell to pieces. It was almost like a true friendship even though sometimes they did each other dirty at the same time.

Monday, January 25, 2010

New England Nun

Mary Wilkins Freeman shares a story of the life of a new England nun. The Nun is an old maid, a woman who had never been married and was waiting on a certain man. She is basically isolated in her own home doing chores and doing things to make her a better wife, should the time come around. By doing so she spent most of her days doing normal chores, gardening work, read books and sewing clothes. Louisa and Joe Dagget had been engaged for over fourteen years. He went to a foreign country to make money and Louisa stayed back home waiting patiently for Joe to return and take up his promise. While Joe was away Louisa mother and brother passed away leaving her lonely and in need for love and affection. When Louisa over heard Joe talking with another one that was yet one excuse to break off of engagement. She had wanted to marry Joe, but she knew what the feelings he felt although Joe didn’t want to break his promise they both came to the agreement that it was for the best. Out of the three short stories I read throughout the week I liked this essay the most, He had more meaning of the emotions of two people that once were in love. Life isn’t always fair and I think that this story brings that out. Although they waited 14 long year in the end things weren’t the same as when they first began in their relationship together. People change, mature and move on.

The White Heron

Sylvia, a nine year old girl is a little girl with unusual gifts about herself. She came from a town to live with her grandmother in a closed in forest. She had a hobby of spending most of her time outside, she had a bond with the forest and the creatures that lived in it. She tamed animals to come and feed out of her hand, they practically thought her as one of their own. She is frightened by a hunter that she comes across one evening in the woods. He has a interest and love for birds and as time goes by the hunter looks for help from little Sylvia. The hunter collect different kinds of birds, where he then will kill them and stuff them for collection. He is interested in a certain type of bird a “White Heron.” A tall tree in the woods had more meaning to it than just one that overlooked the world, but the same tree that housed the nest of white heron’s. Sylvia sees things differently once she reaches the top of the tree, she couldn’t go on with the commitment to the hunter, instead she holds a secret, and never lets it out. For me I feel like any normal person would have taken the ten dollars that the hunter offered Sylvia to fetch the white heron. Although Sylvia didn’t take them money I think that’s what makes her the hero throughout the story, it shows heroism.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Emily Dickinson [The Great Poet]

Emily Dickinson spent a lot of her time alone, many of her neighbors were busy with a normal life. They were all married, had children and pretty well living their lives as any adult, all but Emily anyways. Emily spent her time isolated in her home, in the garden, or drawn into her poetry. Emily was never well respected by others and her poetry was never taken seriously because of the “odd” life she lived. She was a very intelligent woman although nobody ever would give her the chance to see that side of her. Emily never wrote her poems with Rhythm or Rhyme she just wrote in short little four line paragraphs. She wrote her poetry mainly on human nature, life and death, and importance of things in life. When I read Emily’s poems you can see the hurt in her life and the pain she felt. Several Poems that Dickinson wrote about also went into depth about her beliefs of Religion. I think her outlook on the way she seen things kind of differ from how I would see them, but everyone has their different beliefs and feelings on such a large topic. Although some of her points I could completely relate to just like she spoke about the God made each and every one of us, if a person turned out one way it would be God’s will and reasoning. Emily Dickinson’s poems are helpful in looking into your own life in general. Her words of wisdom went on long after she died and mainly became popular throughout the years of her passing. I think there is a message in every poem she has written, and if you really take in what your reading then you can see a whole different outlook.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

HuCk Finn Blog

The Characters of Huck Funn all had different personalities and emotions of their own. The three that stuck out to me most would be Huck (Himself), Jim the Black slave and also Tom Sawyer.Huck Finn is starting out in his adolescent years as a young child. In the beginning of the story it is apparent he does many spiteful things to Widow Douglas and even his own father. Throughout the story you begin to see a different side, a compassionate Huck Finn. Living with the Widow, Huck was to be dressed nicely, he went to school and had high expectations. Through his adventure he becomes less and less invloved in hygience or the clothes he wore. He showed a lot of compassion for Jim and did everything possible to help his friend be set to freedom, so not only was he showing his kindness but as well he made a friend for a lifetime.Jim was the Widow's slave, he was a middle aged man. In the beginning of the story Jim ran away shortly after Huck went missing. I believe Jim was a strong man after everything he went through in the book. It is obvious he was unselfish as a person he never put himself first as he would stay behind while everyone else went into the town. H was patient for waiting long weeks at the Phelps. Jim took Huck under his wing while traveling the river almost like a father figure. Jim had more love he could give and give.You dont hear much about little Tom Sawyer until towards the end of the book. Tom wa always up for adventure, a very bright young boy. You could tell that from the start that he was a boy who loves to pretend. Tom always was willing to take risks no matter waht the consequence. Tom remained as a loyal friend to both Huck and Jim.This was an excellent book and I could read it again and again. Very Great Ending!

Friday, January 8, 2010

Megans Eng 232 Blog

I absolutely love reading books, especially love stories such as "The Notebook", "Love the One your With" and several others. I can't say that I've read many books concerning history or ancient times. I think this class may be a little bit of a challenge after looking over the assignments throughout the semester. I think this class will be great though, something different and I love to sit down and read quite often so I think maybe this could be a good class after all, hopefully not a difficult one. :-)