chris ENGL 121

Antigone

2005-04-21T12:38:00.000-07:00

In class we discussed the possiblity of the circumstances portrayed in Antigone fitting into this day and age. I think it definately has potential...this kind of drama is already apparent in today's society whether it be a gang related incident or a family member coming out of the closet! Someone somwhere is under opposition for the decisions they make in life, just like Antigone! She was a balls-out, kick ass chick who didn't take shit from anybody criticising her beliefs...even though standing up for herself meant facing a death sentence.

Invisible Man

2005-04-21T12:00:00.000-07:00

What does it mean to be invisible? -I thought about this question throughout the first handful of chapters and have come to the conclusion that Ellison isn't speaking about invisibility in the tangible sense of not being able to see something or someone, but rather being invisible in the terms of identity; the concept of not seeing someone as an individual with unique characteristics and a one-of-a-kind personality but stereotyping someone based on skin color or racially shared traits. The author reveals to the readers that this essence of being tangibly seen yet unseen as an individual within the prolougue where he retells a story inwhich our "invisible" main character brushes against a man while walking through the park. We talked about this in class so I'm not going to go into detail...but if we stop and think about if this would happen today would the reaction on the behalf of both parties involved be the same? - I would like to suggest that it wouldn't, but there are still people of this generation who steroetype people of different ethnicities just as the man in the novel who muttered some rash, racial slur to our main character.
Just because times have changed doesn't mean that all people have. On a personal note I live with someone who refuses to change his opinon of people of different races and he holds these views because the environment that he was raised in was not ethnically diverse. My upbringing has been limited to the small quasi-town of Indiana, PA which is not ethnically diverse at all and yet I have no problem with anyone of any race! I think that problems with racism are derived from the individual and not from any environmental prompting....although I do acknowledge the fact that some circumstances do prompt some individuals to be racist...and because of this I believe that all it takes to overcome racism and prejudice is an open mind and understanding.

House of Spirits Discussion

2005-03-29T08:25:00.000-08:00

The ideologies burried throughout Allende's The House of the Spirits are somewhat foreign to American thought patterns. To us americans a stratified society is virtually non-existant, yes...there are remnants of stratification but the difference between the here-and-now society in the U.S. and the society outlined in the novel is the possibility of social mobility. To site an example, in the novel at the end of chapter 4 (pg. 141) Pedro Garcia relates a story to young Blanca and Pedro Tercero of hens overthrowing a fox . To Blanca this story is nothing but foolishness because she believes that the weak can never lessen the strength of the strong. Even Pedro Tercero acknowledges stratification; on pg 146 Blanca proclaims that when she grows older she will marry Pedro Tercero and they will live together in Tres Marias, to this Pedro shakes his head because he "knew his place in the world" and accepts the ideology that people of two different social standings cannot be romantically involved.

Question?

2005-03-14T08:57:00.000-08:00

In class we've discussed the role of the author and how knowing certain information about the author can dictate our feelings or interpretations of their work; sometimes this information seems almost necessary. In reading Duplessis' poem A Poem of Myself I caught myself being curious as to why specific details were placed into the poem. If I were given the opportunity to speak with Duplessis I would ask her for a little author background information. "Why do you imagine yourself in Italy? Does it hold some sort of sentimental value?" "Of what significance is 'my shoulders are hunched forward to hide my breasts'? Is there a personal past experience that is causing you to be fragmented?" and "Why do you feel fragmented? How do you plan or how did you put the fragments back together?"

Gregorio Cortez

2005-02-22T05:25:00.000-08:00

"They still sing of him-in the cantinas and the country stores, in the ranches when men gather at night to talk in the cool dark, sitting in a circle, smoking and listening to the old songs and the tales of the other days."....or so starts the story of how men sing of Gregorio Cortez.

I really like the opening to this legend...actually I liked the whole thing, but I came to this conclusion because of how it was written. The words on the page seem to be literally plucked from the storyteller's mouth...it is like someone is voicing the story to you-you aren't reading it from a page. That is what really makes Gregorio stand out to me...the fact that people don't just write about him, they talk about him, they sing about him-and not wussy singing...these guitarreros guys are sining hard-core "with deadly-serious faces, throwing out the words of the song like a challenge, tearig savagely with their stiff calloused fingers at the strings of the guitars."
What does it take to have songs and stories about you lifetimes after your own?
I guess it does have alot to do with how the story was passed around...like we discussed in class... there are always elaborations made, modifications, additions/omissions...etc that reflect the storytellers personal taste of how the story really should be told. That way they too imbody the same bold, heroic, shameless characteristics that Cortez emited.

Blood Wedding

2005-02-08T09:00:00.000-08:00

I didn't really enjoy reading this. There were aspects that reminded me of Romeo and Juliet, so the whole story/play seemed less appealing. It was like I read it before already because so much of it mimicked what Shakespeare wrote. There are differences (The lovers don't die....or they might have....i'm a little confused on that, and the families of the bride and bridegroom aren't fueding) but I still feel like this was a Shakespeare ripoff.

The Awakening

2005-02-08T08:19:00.000-08:00

It seemed throughout the whole story that Edna was in conflict; social self vs. personal self. Very early on in the book our author mentions this.

"Mrs. Pontellier was not a woman given to confidences, a characeristic hitherto contrary to her nature. Even as a child she had lived her own small life all within herself. At a very early period she had apprehended instinctively the dual life--that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions."

Perhaps this is why her story ended the way it did. Who can really live two lives??

In one life she was the sweet, pristine wife of a business man confined to the home and husband. And in the other she was a free-spirited, artistic-romantisist confined to nothing but her passionate feelings that, if able, would have influenced her decisions.

She was living on two different ends of the spectrum at the same time with no way of compromise; she wanted one life more than the other...but it wasn't attainable for a lady of her time. It was all or nothing...and she chose nothing.

The Yellow Wallpaper

2005-01-25T07:53:00.000-08:00

Hhmmm...This story was a mind trip. I couldn't quite figure out what was wrong with her in the beginning. Our author made it seem as though she had a physical illness at first and towards the mid/end of the piece you realize that she is going absolutely crazy- which was an interesting twist.

In class we discussed how information provided about the author prior to reading The Yellow Wallpaper might stop the reader from interpretting or enjoying the story the way it was meant to be interpretted or enjoyed. I agree that it would. After finishing this piece I was asking myself questions about the author...just out of curiosity. Was she really crazy? or was she writing from a nutcases perspective? What motivated her to write this story? Did she experience it first hand? either from a family member or herself? I think that our post-reading discussion about the authors life took away from the story as I had interpretted it. In a way I wanted her to be crazy...I thought it was astonishing that a person with mental health problems could write so well.

Douglas Narative

2005-01-25T07:44:00.000-08:00

This was a very intense read. I liked how it depicted an underdog overcoming the odds. Douglas was an underdog; everyone around him told him he couldn't do it...he couldn't learn to read or write...they told him that it wasn't good for him and he proved them wrong.

In a way this piece of litterature makes me feel extremely lazy. There are several things that I know I could do if I put my mind to it and I lack the motivation to do it! Then there is Douglas who was so motivated to achieve a particular goal that he set for himself. Not only that, but he shared his goal with others and motivated them to strive for greatness.

This piece also makes me feel ungrateful. I never really thought about not having the opportunity to learn. It is a very valuable thing and reading about someone who was held back from that really helped me to look for things to be appreciative for.