HollyWaite

Bag Full O Blogs Part II Revenge of the Blogs

The first half of the semester I frequently felt that my blogging was incorrect but later found out through constant reminder of Dr. Jerz that no matter what my opinion is does not make or break the arguement it is how well I can support my feelings on the topic.

With that in mind I was very curious to see just how many agreed with me on the subject of how I really felt about one of the main characters in A Street Car named Desire, Blanche.

My peers seemed to agree on my topic of "You're Ugly Too" really getting into how they could relate their own lives to the girl in this story.

I was able to recieve critical feedback on my Unfinished Skinnin blog which led me to finding out what my class mate John Haddad had to say on the matter. In conclusion I was able to better understand the entire story.

In my blog on Miracle at St. Anna I focused on the writing style of the author although I did not like it in a previous story I did however enjoy it in this story.

Titles are sometimes what they seem and, to go along with the old saying "Don't judge a book by its cover". The "Farmer's Children" left a lot to be desired.

I want to live if living is not suffering

It seemed to me that she only wanted what was more convienient at the time. However, I am not saying that I would not do the same. When she was ill from the medication then she just wanted to die and when she was not so ill or just tolerating the pain a little better then she wanted to live. I think that she was just exhausted from the whole ordeal, not only her cancer but life in general.

The Farmer's Children Simplicity

Before reading this story I was simply interested in the title. The Farmer's Children by Elizabeth Bishop. How many possibilities does that leave open, not because it is so deep but because it is so simple. How much simpler can you get than to be a farmer living off of the land and then to portray an even simpler subject the farmer's kids. I had quickly come up with some ideas in my head of setting, chracters and plots. I had imagined a little old farm house with ma and pa kettle and their children out playing in the yard but what could this story possibly have that would put it into a book entitled "The Best American Short Stories of the Century" with such a simple basis.
As I began reading it was just as I had imagined. The children were shoved out of the house so some much needed chores could be done by the mother and the children were eager to go out and play. They did not play with their playstation or get on the computer and surf the internet but rather were content with using something that has been somewhat lost, the child's imagination. So far so good it is still simple. The children are then assigned the task of having to go to watch over the barn and at first this seemed to me like such a huge responsibility for these young immature boys but when considereing the times and the life of hard working farmers it all had credibility. The story starting to have a little excitement almost forced you into believing that something bad was going to happen to the children but because of the story's simplicity I was too afraid to even take a guess as to what was going to happen. And then it happened, something did happen to them and it was not a twisted someone broke into the barn and murdered them but they went peacefully in their sleep.

]]> Did you have any ideas in your mind of what this story was going to entail before actually reading it and only knowing the title?

Do you think that any one person should be to blame for the death of the two young boys, Cato and Emerson?

Do you feel that the father had a right or even a reason to fire Judd?

Miracles do exist

Jerz: Am Lit II (EL 267): McBride, ~~The Color of Water~~ Miracle at St. Anna

ok so in our previous readings for the class I was flustered by the amount of description that some of the stories had for example "The Great Gatsby" I just found that all of that description loaded the stories down to a point that I lost some or all interest in the story itself. HOWEVER, I absolutly loved the description in this book. Each little minnie story that was being told gave me a percise image of what I thought the scene looked like. I have seen almost every war movie imaginable and reading this book placed me in a different part of each movie. I am one of those readers who can be easily lost and because of the length of this one I thought I was done for but I was able to easily follow along.

Unfinished Skinnin

Jerz: Am Lit II (EL 267): Proulx, ''The Half-Skinned Steer''

Holy Moly!!!! I was so far lost in this story. I can not follow when an author jumps back and forth from one story to another. The very begining was most confusing for me. Was this half skinned steer really an escape artist or was this all in his imagination? Did he really get lost trying to find this ranch that he claimed he had remembered so well? Just a little side note who did not see him locking the keys in the car, I mean come on he is in the middle of nowhere yet he has to lock the doors

The best girl you never had

I am not sure of everyone else's opinion but I sensed some points of homosexuality in this story. I think the first place it really hit me was on page 771 in the last full paragraph on the page when she says "There was a man there named Josh who didn't want nearly enough from me, and a woman called THea who wanted way too much, and I was sandwiched between them..." The whole story of their times together reminded me of the television show Will and Grace.

You're Too ugly

I Loved this story. I enjoy stories with this sort of sarcastic humor. I was waiting for the title of the story to show up in Zoe and Earl's conversation at first as humor but then maybe as a rude coment. However, all though it was not directly stated I think that this was how Zoe saw herself.

Blood-Burning Moon

This story reminded me of a southern Romeo and Juliet. Although the burning desire was not equal on both sides then hidden romance was there. It showed how love is sometimes torn between what is right and what is seen as wrong by others.

Are We There Yet

I was wondering why there were no names used in the story only he said and she said, I was thinking that maybe they were not used to show that this could be any couple. Young timid, scared, and nervous. They begin to talk about arriving but i think that she is more comortable on the train and he would be more comfortable in a bed.

Street car named Blanche

Let me just start out by saying that I am still a little confused on the matter of whether or not Balnce did sleep around at the hotel she stayed at before coming to stay with her sister. At first Stanley said she did and then Blanche said that she didn't and then Stanley said she did and then Blanche said that she did. However, when Blanche said that she did sleep around I was not sure if it was a scarcastic confession to Stanley. So I am going with the theory that she did sleep around.

Blanche had me disgusted with her and then feeling sorry for her and then liking her and then I felt she got what she deserved.

I was disusted with Blanche at the begining when she shows up and totally trashes her sister when she had nothing to call her own. Its kinda like the pot callin the kettle black. She had nothing, she lost her home, her job and she had no family to speak of except for the sister who graciously opened her home for Blanche.

Then I felt a little sorry for her seeing that she had so much gone wrong in her life and she could have not prevented any of it.

Then Blanche started to turn over a new leaf. She began to grow with Mitch. It seemed for once that she had feelings for someone other than herself. She was caring towards her sister however I do believe that she would have stayed prissy had Stella not been pregnant.

Now I do not believe that any person deserves nor should have to go through what Blanche did with Stanley BUT when she was takin away at the end of the story I did not feel sorry for her. First of all she did not even see that Mitch was there to recieve an explanation and not to give one. Even after Mitch had told her that he knew of her past. At that point she should have realized that skipping an invite to dinner was nothing compared to what she had done. It reminds me of the young woman in Machinal, if she knew what she was getting herself into then I have no sympathy just as Blanche could not be upset that her past gave her a bad reputation, she should have thought about that before she did the things she did.

Just because she had things go wrong in her life does not mean that she has an excuse to behave in the manner in which she did. Two wrongs do not make a right!!!!

So Ladies and gentlemen of the Jury.....

Guilty- she got what she deserved

Not Guilty- she is the victim

Twin Towers

I think that a lot of people see things as did David Lehman in "The World Trade Centers" We look down upon, not only things but people if they seem to have it a little better off than ourselves, like they just are not worth it if they have not worked for it. In the poem for example it is not untill the trade center was bombed did he appriciate it.

Lehman compares the twin towers with the empire state building which has a very large history. It was built during the great deppresion which already says so much for it.

The history and triumphs of people and things are what make them known.

Bag Full O Blogs

While a blog is basically an online journal, I have just recently learned that although I am to simply record what my insights are on a specific reading, the blogging is helping me to better understand each piece of reading. My first impression was to simply state what I did or did not like about the literature for example one of my very first blogs seems almost funny to me after reading the depth I had gone into the reasons that I found on why "Gatsby is not that Great" in the story of "The Great Gatsby".

Gender and Justice
In the short story "A Jury of Her Peers" I focused mainly on the treatment that the women in the stroy recieved form the male authority figures.

Gatsby is not that Great and I have yet to be open to suggestions that make me belive otherwise. I did see his overall devotion to Daisy and that he stuck with that however, I think that there is a larger list of "Not so great" things that he did and that list is much larger than him being a great person.

"Machinal" victim or suspect?
I have no remorse for a women who enters a situation knowing that she is unhappy and then is caught between a rock and a hard place and thinks that she has no place to turn but murder.

The "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is about love but in what scenario?
After discussing a poem with others and seeing a different point of view I still am not sure with what interpretation I agree with however, this may be the beauty of the poem, not knowing.

Seeing is not always believing
"The World Trade Center" teaches us a life lesson on how we need some sort of credibility to believe in something. We also see that we are blind to previous problems or occuring problems in time of tragedy.

The Love Song

After reading this poem for the first time I was not understanding it at all but after speaking with a friend I had formed some meaning and actually quite enjoyed it. I was seeing this poem as a man speaking of the love he had, the love he lost and the love he wants. I had seen it as the man speaking of the many loves that he had and now has no one and is just dealing with the fact that he is aging and would probably have no one. In the class descusion it was said that he was speaking of one particular women wiht whom he longed for her love and perhaps was contemplating marriage. I am still a little confused on how this is only one women who is speaking of.

Machinal

Ok I am not afraid to say that I was very lost through most of this book but in most cases after reading a little each time it made sense. I did not, however, like the style of writing at all. I am not sure the point of it. Maybe if I knew some sort of reasoning behind it then I wouldn't be so skeptical. For instance on page 30 the young women's dialogue bothered me the most. I read and read and reread and then reread it a few more times trying to make sense of it but i just couldn't. But maybe I it was not suppose to make sense...

The great Gatsby did not help his case

In my last blog that was directed towards the first six chapters of the book was basically me stating that I thought of Gatsby as a very weak man.

As I began to read on in the book I feel that Gatsby was beigning to turn over a new leaf. He started to defend himself on the subject of his relationship with Daisy. Standing up to Tom as if he was a strong curageous man. He was speaking as if there would be no consequences for his actions.

However, when the incident happened with the car hitting Myrtle he once again was the coward that he had always been. If he had only stopped would he have been in trouble with the law? After all it was an accident. Although, I do not feel that he would have escaped the wrath of Mr. Wilson.