AndreaNestler

After reading Flannery O'Connor "The River", I thought about what the story meant to me and basically I kept thinking about one thing .....God. As crazy as that sounds, I feel that in this story, Flannery O'Connor was trying to make a point that the only value in life at this time period was to have the grace of god in your life. There are references to god all through "The River" and to me it seems more like a reference then anything else, in my opinion I feel that this could also be tru for today as well. Having god, the grace of god, in your life is an important stress reliever and a good way to get you through hard times. As said by one student at the praise and worship meeting, we need to "let god be incontroll of our lives" and ""don't ask how can I do this, let god help you he wants to be there beside you in everything". God was a big part of life then and he is still a big part of life now and with the two comparisons above thats plain and easy to see.

"An allusion is a passing reference in a work of literature to another literary or historical work, figure, or event, or to a literary passage" (Hamilton 74).

Whenever we were studing what Allusions were in my High School English Class, I never understood what my teacher was trying to say. I read the definition of "Allusion" in Hamiltons book, and I understand it clear as day. I dont know if its because of the wording or if my mind developed more over the years, but I really like hamiltons book because I understand the definition, its not put into terms i cannot understand and I like that.

"His face was all bone and the red light reflected from the river" (O'Connor "The River" pg. 33).

Whenever I read this line I was like o here we go again another twisted story about murder, but as I read on I was like ok so maybe its not twisted, and maybe I actually like it.........Ok I started to get freaked out I was actually reading something for an English class and I liked it..........lol.

I enjoyed this short story very much as well as others by Flannery O'Connor. I have read some of her other short stories as well as this one and she is a very good writer. I realy like her style she uses in her writing, I am not sure what it is because, obviously I am not her and I very well cant call her and ask lol, so even though I dont know what style she uses exactly, I know theres one there in her writing and I really enjoy reading her short stories because of it.

"Irony is the broadest class of figures of thought that depend on presenting a deliberate contrast between two levels of meaning" (Hamilton Pg. 44)

After reading the definition for Irony, I thought to myself, wow thats a mouthfull, now only if I oculd understand it lol. I am sure I understand it in a mental sense but in what I like to call, "Language sense", I don't get it at all lol. This definitoin is like this is this and blah blah blah and I felt like it was continous and never ending. I usually like gettin a simple definiton for things but sometimes you have to go beyond the simple aspect of things and dig deep to find what you are looking for and thats what these definitions make you do, they make you think so that you actually have to try and actually have to comprehend whats going on so you learn you just dont read it and say ok you read it think about what you read and you learn and thats something that I found hard to do at first but I LEARNED its what education is all about.

Falstaff: I do begin to perceive that I am made into an ass.
Ford: Ay, and an ox too: both the proofs are extant.
(Shakespeare Act 5)

I thought it was really funny the way that Falstaff said "I begin to percieve that I am made into an ass" like who says that hahaha. It was too funny I liked it made me smile.

"Shallow how now, master Parson. Good Morrow, Sir Hugh. Keep a gamester from his dice, and a good student from his book, and it is wonderful.” (MWW Act 3)

I choose this particular piece out of MWW because I understand where Sir Hugh is comming from, but you cant really stop somone from doing what they want. Sir Hugh seems to be a controling person, at least in my perspective, from what I have seen anyway. My view on him may change as the story progress, but for now I am thinking he is a "control freak" :)

"Though she were true, when you met her,
And last, till you write your letter,
Yet she
Will be
False, ere I come, to two or three." (John Donne Sonnet)

I read this line in the sonnet, and thought to myself wow I get it lol. I actually found a sonnet that I can read and understand so far which amazes me entirley lol.

I really liked this line because it had significance to me. There is a reason it is in the sonnet, I don't know the "reason", but I think its there to show that there is a definite ending. If you read this line it doesnt leave you hanging like others. It ends with a finality about it. You know what happens, it doesnt make you think what happens after that or next. It just happens.

"I love to hear her speak, yet well I know/ That music hath a far more pleasing sound" (Sonnet CXXX Shakespeare).

I read this and I thought to myself..........well thats something a man would say alright lol, how rude can a person be. Its pretty bad when he would rather hear music over his mistresses voice. I have no idea if he was trying to compliment her or something for back in those times, but thats definitley not the way to do it.

One other thing is I was confused as well because somelines he seemed as those he was being sympatheticall towards her and then other lines it seemed as though he was being rude ? Idk maybe just me or maybe someone else in class noticed it to ?

"Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me."

I have choosen this particular quote because it captured my interest the most. After reading this poem a few times over, this is one part that stood out to me the most. I feel that it sttod out the most to me because I sense irony in this line. I am not sure if I am right or if there is irony but there is something about this line that just makes it stand out.

“Poem #690 profoundly questions the God who could allow his creation to suffer needlessly” (Monteiro 31).

It says that "Poem #690 profoundly questions the God who could allow his creation to suffer neeedlessly" but I think that that is not true at all. As God's creation we suffer because he once suffered for us. We are paying back what we had recieved so long ago. This is why I disagree with what is being said here. I mean God is not making us or letting us suffer its somethingt that just is, it just happens that way, it has to.

"VICTORY comes late,
And is held low to freezing lips
Too rapt with frost
To take it."

I picked this part out of the passage because the first line states, VICTORY comes late, this is not always true, but somtimes for the most part, it is. I also picked this particular passage because its the begining of the poem and its the first thing one reads and I thought to myself, what an interesting way to begin a poem. It was interesting and it made me think untill I just had to read the rest.

"Is that a symbol ?. Sure why not........What does it stand for ?.........What do you think ?. Seriously what do you think it stands for, because that's probably what it does. " (Foster Pg. 97)

I liked this quote because its basically saying that if something is a symbol and you want to know what that symbol means, it probably means what you are thinking it does and thats absolutley right. I liked the approach foster took on this perspective he is making the reader think, o ok, so finding the meaning for a symbol should be easy and it is and thats what message I ma getting from what I read. Foster is trying to show the reader that "ya I know its hard but look at it this way and it makes it a little easier", which at first is not something I noticed right away, but after reading that paragraph 3 times I picked up on what foster was trying to get the reader to do and what he was trying to have the reader understand.

"I have seen them riding sewared on the waves........till human voices wake us, and we drown" (Thomas Stearns Elliot)

I specifically want to point out the last paragraph of lines in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" because it yes it was the end but it didn't feel like it was the end and it is such a beautiful passage. You can almost see the image of the ocean and waves in your mind and thats what I really liked about this particular passage. It got me involved a lot with the way the words were used, it was kind of a play on words in there as well, I am pretty sure, it seemed like it to me. But basically, thats why I choose this last passage, I don't know if anyone is gping to be able to agree with me and thats fine but I hope what I am trying to say here is understandable for everyone.

"Violence is everywhere in literature.........the violence has to have some meaning beyond mere mayhem."

yeah ok, first of all I didn't agree with the first statement "violence is everywhere in literature" I decided it was all in how you looked at it, untill I read on and noticed foster had good points and reasons for this statement and then at the end foster said "the violence has to have some meaning beyond mere mayhem" and that I do agree with. Literature writers put violence in their stories and shows for a reason, if you notice people say "O I don't like violence" ya they say that but yet they still watch it and read it practically everyday, so what does that tell you ? That violence may be a key hook in keeping a readers interest because as much as someone may dis like violence, they keep watching or reading it for the suspense of it all because they want to know "what happens next". Its a natural human reaction to watch a fight and do nothing because you want to know whats next. So thats why I basically choose this quote because I half agreed with it and half didn't agree. It caught my eye, kept my interest and definitley made me want to argue with foster haha :)

"I remember the day you could go off and leave your screen door unlatched. Not no more." **Red Sammy** (A Good Man is Hard to Find, Flannery O'Connor)

I liked this quote because I can relate to it. I remember when I was about 2 or 3 my grandmother would always have the doors closed, but never locked and it never bothered her untill I got older and society, incidents, etc got worse. I feel that a O'Connor's, "A good man is hard to find " has a self explanatory title, a good man is hard to find, a good person in general is hard to find anymore today, you don't know who to trust anymore because of all the terrible things going on in our world and with the title being "A good man is hard to find" and then the quote mentioned above, I think its also ironic how they go together with one another as well.

The difference between a novel and a short story is that "a novel has greater length and scope, has much more complexity, and its plot is more involved and multifaced." (Hamilton Pg. 8) We really haven't worked with novels and short stories in class, but now that I actually know the difference between a short story and novel it seems more clear to me what is expected for a novel and what is expected for a short story. I always thought writing a novel would be eaisier to write as compared to a short story, but as it turns out, I think writing a short story may turn out ot be a little less stressful to write.

"In a sense, every story or poem is a vacation, and every writer has to ask, everytime, where is this one taking place ?" (Foster 19, 20 Pg. 163-164)

I really liked this quote because its true. Whenever you write a paper its like a vacation for your reader because where ever you take the reader in that paper, they have never been before and thats what you want and need to have happen when you write. You need to be able to take your reader to another level with your writing and thats what this quote is expressing to me.

"She used to wear pretty clothes and be lively, when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town girls singing in the choir." (from "Trifles" by Susan Glaspell).

This quote made me relaize that Mrs. Wright actually seemed happier and more "lively" before she got married to Mr. Wright. I think that one of the reasons she killed Mr. Wright is because to her he killed her free spirit, or took it away so to speak and she missed that so she was probably thinking somewhere in the back of her mind, if he goes away my free spirit may come back. In the end I feel that if Mrs. Wright would have changed her methods she would have been much happier making a dfferent choice.

“Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”, “…….just as cigars may be just cigars, so sometimes they are not”. I choose these quotes because it is saying cigars can be just cigars, but to someone else they may be more then just what they are and this is true of Literature. Some people see literature as it is, other see it as more then literature, they see it as a field of study, or a means to life. I really like reading through the chapters because I am learning that there are different ways to look at things then what I had originally thought. There is always more then one right idea, and more then one way to do things, especially with English Literature.

““She’s absolutely hopeless !” It was Marjorie’s voice. “Oh, I know what you’re going to say ! So many people have told you how pretty and sweet she is, and how she can cook !, What of it ? She has a bum time. Men don’t like her.”” “I’ve done my best. I’ve been polite and I’ve made men dance with her, but they just won’t stand being bored”. “…….I’ve even tried to drop her hints about clothes and things, and she’s been furious--given me the funniest looks……“. I choose these quotes because they just go to show how far Marjorie will go to have her own way about everything. If she is willing to change a human being, namely her own cousin, then I think she has serious issues because in life you can not have everything your way and there are going to be people you don’t like and cant change. You have to learn to deal with issues and people the way they are sometimes and I do not think she realizes that, maybe because of her age, I don’t know but I do know that Marjorie, I feel, needs to learn this somehow but obviously she doesn’t she just keeps pushing her luck with Bernice until the end of the story.