I feel as though I must add to my blog…
I will admit that I do a lot of my reading on the treadmill, and when you are walking, not only are you moving, so is the text which you are trying to absorb. I do recommend reading while working out, because if there is a passionate scene in the book, romantic, trageic, interesting, you tend to forget that you are working out: However I digress…
So I was on the treadmill when I was reading scene 10 of the play, and don’t remember getting the indication that Stanley rapes Blanche. Until I re-read the scene (in preparation for the midterm tomorrow).
I feel stilly that I was so compassionate toward Stanley in my previous entry. There is defiantly a concern for Stella to get herself out of such a relationship! For Stella to be so attached to Stanley and believe him over her sister! (although Blanche doesn’t have the best ‘telling the truth’ track record).
I find it sad, and ironic that Blanche’s sensuality got her into SOOOOOO much trouble. While Stella is having Stanley’s baby, he rapes her sister. ….WOW…
No one deserves such treatment, and in reaction to my comment on Holly’s blog: I do think that she is guilty, however unquestionably didn’t deserve such a ‘punishment’.
A Streetcar Named Desire is an interesting title of a book where the lives of the characters aren’t very desirable.
Manipulation is a theme seen within the play. Both from Stanley’s doing, as well as Blanche’s actions in the house.
Another theme is abuse: Stella is an abused house wife, who is pregnant, and latter has her son. (no real mention of a son other than mentioning that the infant was wrapped in a blue blanket). I knew that Stella’s situation wasn’t ideal, however had a hard time determining when it was ‘normal’ for a husband in those times to feel the ‘power’ of the title Man of the House, and when there was a crossing the line point. There seemed to be a fuzzy point because at times Stella herself was in denial, and wouldn’t acknowledge a problem.
Stanley was abusive, verbally, physically, and mentally. Telling Stella, basically, that her sister is nothing but a no good liar.
It wasn’t though until Stanley finally gets Stella to ‘choose a side’ him or her sister, and then she chooses him. There is evidence in the dialogue that Stella truly struggles with sending her sister away. She isn’t doing this because she wants to, rather because she is in a way being forced to. That is when I picked up on the fact that Stanley would probably not change.
I know that many may be reading, and thinking, well… duh the first time that he hit her and she had to stay at Eunice’s should have been reason enough for her to leave Stanley. Well, call me a huge optimist, or even GULLIBLE, but when she came back to him, and he hugged her and took care of her I honestly believed that he was sorry, and would make an effort to control his anger. Plus in argument of Stanley, he was under the influence of alcohol, thus not in his best state of mind. As mentioned before it wasn’t until later that I concluded that there was going to be more than just one incident. Rather between the mental abuse, verbal abuse, and physical there was enough to be able to make a case that Stella is or was a battered wife.
So, when is the breaking point of Stella getting out of such an abusive home? At what point would it have been ideal to leave him? Was the home abusive, or was the household the traditional household in the mid-twentieth century? Is there even a need for concern, is it more of the manipulation and abuse from Blanche?
These are just some random thoughts…
In the beginning of the semester (and I guess I should be honest and say even now… although it’s a little more alleviated) I was terrified of blogging! I have to admit, as a student studding to be a teacher it makes since though. Way to go Dr. Jerz for using Bloom’s Taxonomy and making use of the fifth level, analysis ALL THE TIME! To have a class discussion going before we ever even enter the classroom really does interest me. I think that I wasn’t used to the time which was going to be required for a ONE 3 credit class. However, I am beginning to get more personal and creative with the blogs, THANK YOU KARISSA, I love my PURPLE blog!
So here is the submission of the work which I have done over the last couple of weeks. I have realized after doing this assignment that, it will be more helpful to me in understanding the text, as well as bloggin, if my blogs are a little more lengthier, and in more depth, rather than just my initial reactions.
I have added some Coverage of Bast Blogs
Also, and In depth look at Sylvia Plath
I have given some examples of Interactions and Discussions between my classmates and myself
Feel as though my Xenoblogging needs a lot of work! And have made a commetment to work on that the last half of the semester.
In my wildcards I share some devlopmental examples of my work in the course so far.
I have had fun with this assingment. (Said now that it is DONE!) I do enjoy the expressive side of this class. And in all honesty, will work harder in devloping my blogs further in the future.
My developments:
I have learned through this exercise that a more in depth blog is going to benefit me more in the class. Here is an example of my fist blog, Jury of Her Peers. A moderate length blog, however it just touches on a new idea which I formulate. I could have developed my ideas more fully.
More examples of my earlier work are…
Bernice Bobs her Hair, another example of just getting an idea out, and not really elaborating on it.
My Great Gatsby entry does the same.
There are other examples of this as well. As proof that I have begun to understand some of the expectations of the blog, I enter one of my most recent blogs, which was a lot more lengthier, more developed, and had some additional links for more information. Sylvia Plath: In Depth
Xenoblogging is defiantly something that I am going to have to work harder on in the next half of the term. Here are some examples of longer comments which I have made on peers blogs. However I’ll admit that they don’t offer ‘additional educated thoughts’…
Kayla’s response to Daisy and my comments
Karissa’s Jabbering of Jews I offered some main points which I posted links to some sites which further explain Sylvia Plath and some of her writings.
Other than those two to be totally honest there isn’t much to add in this section of the assignment.
One good example of interaction between a peer and myself is on the topic of Daisy in the Great Gatsby. Kayla’s response to Daisy was that she was materialistic, an idea which I understand, however I’m not willing to hands down call her materialistic. There are some other motives which I discussed in my comments back to Kayla on her page. This topic also brought up a good discussion in class. I also remember another ‘agenda item’ surfacing from it. Did Daisy really love Tom, or was it Gatsby that is her true love?
Another post which I made was, Daisy and my FRUSTRATING moments which also gives some more of my insight on Daisy This post also recieved the most traffic on my blog to date. I also feel that this particular blog exemplifies timeliness, due to the fact that there were so many comments. I do also recall discussing Daisy's emotional neglect for Peggy in class one evening
In these blogs, I feel like I have introduced a new idea in the blog for class discussion:
In a Jury of Her Peers, I suggest that it was the friends of Mrs. Foster who in actuality are the Jury. I also talk about sanding up for each other as women in the story.
Another blog entry which I feel covered some additional thoughts rather than just a text summery was, The Mechanical Woman. In the original post, I mentioned that the play was most likely a reaction to the women’s rights movement which was occurring around the time the play was written. After class discussion, I still believe that the author was giving the audience a protagonist v.s. antagonist theme. However the author’s antagonist I believe wasn’t THE YOUNG WOMAN, which we, as a different audience today would see. Rather the writer’s antagonist was societal pressures and developments against THE YOUNG WOMEN who I believe was meant to represent all women of the time.
Plath’s styles in the Two Poems
This post was in response to my first reaction to Plath, and I feel deserves further explanation. This wasn’t the first time that I looked at a Plath poem. I have a collection of her poems, which were given to me as a gift. I connected at times with her poems, while reading them one by one over a period of time because I ,at the time, myself was going through emotional turmoil. I could relate sometimes with some of the poem’s themes or messages which I took from them on any particular day. From what I remember, her poems talked about anger, disappointment, and were over all comforting to me in knowing that hardships are part of other people’s life as well. Almost a relief in knowing that I wasn’t the only one going through mental ups and downs. (Again it’s been a while since I read the collection so this doesn’t apply to all of the poems in the collection).
I vaguely remember Plath’s story of when she was a writer, and her suicide attempts. I also recall that her last ‘attempt’ was successful, and that she did leave behind children at a young age.
Being curious of Plath’s life, I decided to go online and look up some biographical information on her. Not a difficult task. After weeding out some websites, I did come across one authored by, Anja Beckmann, Leipzig which gave a Short Biography of Sylvia Plath. After reading it, I wanted some more information, so I consulted another website, A Celebration:Plath Home Page, which offered more information. Including a lengthier bibliography, pictures, journals, poems, and some analytical work done on Plath by others.
Gale Literary Databases - Document, authored by M. D. Uroff offered great psychological insight to Plath. As I discussed in my original blog, I felt that Plath was letting go of some emotional ties that she had with her father. I feel that the majority of the poems in which I have read by Plath have been emotional reactions she has made. Uroff uses the term, a confessional poet. Something which I was trying to get at when discussing the poem DADDY, however obviously wasn’t able to put into such precise words.
Plath had mental health problems through her life, an apparent statement in just reading some of the biographies about her. She uses her poetry as an out let. As any artist does. Although she made a profession out of her outlet, and was actually educated in writing, and as Peter Keating Steinberg tells us, graduated with honors as a writer. Her works have won her awards, and there can be some other literary styles seen with in her works.
Never the less, as a Social Work major, I was immediately attracted to the psychological aspects of the poem. The first blog suggests that she is trying to talk to her father without any interruptions, and I do believe that this is true. She was also trying to write as an outlet of her disappointments and frustrations, a statement I made earlier and still believe to be true. I also see that the poem at times tends to be dominating. Which is ironic when the poem is criticizing her father for being too dominate; on the other hand though, anger is a strong dominating emotion, so what else should I expect? Well, Uroff puts it best when uses the terms, ‘victimized and victimizer’. This is again is an expected reaction to an individual who feels or felt powerless. To gain as much power, as possible over the person who is overpowering you. Even though in Plath’s case, the power is fabricated due to the fact that her father was never able to respond, it still is a source of emotional outlet. If you read the article written by Uroff, it is suggested that in the poem DADDY, the ‘confessional poet’ isn’t a strong element. I however I believe that Uroff’s explanation of a confessional poet shines in this poem. Confessing her powerlessness, her anger, frustration, and regret for not addressing the emotions in life, but having to address the emotions with paper and pen, she writes her poem as a confession.
The Brooklyn Bridge
The poem seems to go back and forth with imagery. One stanza it is clear that it is about the Bridge, and then another, the description is more abstract. The poem is about the Bridge I think, however I think that it has great meaning to the author. I don’t believe that the author saw the bridge and thought about it’s magnificence and wrote about it. For some reason or the other there is a personal reflection that is going on in the poem. The bridge is seemingly more than just a structure, but it also has some kind of an emotional tie to the author of the poem.
The World Trade Center
Much like the poem, “The Brooklyn Bridge”, this also has an emotional tie. This poem talks about the Twin Towers when it was hit for the first time in 1996. Before the attack the author didn’t have much care for the towers, and in fact thought that they were ugly, until emotional ties were bound to the structure. Different emotions because of events caused the structure to have meaning to the writer. The structure now symbolizes something rather than it just being a structure. A new American land-mark for the writer, This is common to attach an inanimate object to feelings and emotions after and event, In this case, a tragic event causing a unity in people, and giving adoration for the building validity, in the writers eyes.
I felt that the poem, Daddy developed as the speaker chronologically developed. Plath describes her father at first it is a child describing memories of her father. Physical, social, and emotional memories. Then the voice grew older and she began to share what her father seemingly pushed her towards. Then as an adult she describes the psychological effects he had on her. Obviously, the poem wasn’t a joyful memoir, rather a painful out let that the author wanted to share. She uses heritage to explain her sorrow and anger about her father.
“… I have killed you…” I think she is trying hard to ‘kill’ what ever negative effects or emotions that her father has left her with. In a way this poem can be the beginning of ‘letting go’ and forgiving her father of the hurt he left her with.
This poem also allows the author to speak freely, as she wasn’t able to do before. She can tell her father everything she’s been holding in, and she can say it fluidly. As opposed to…
“ I never could talk to you
The tongue stuck in my jaw…
Ich, Ich, Ich, Ich
I could hardly speak…”
Ich, in German means ‘I’… therefore the “Ich, Ich, Ich, Ich,” in the poem, resembled a person stuttering. Stuttering is a sign of fear. She even says in the poem, “I have always been scared of you…” and now after writing the poem, and letting out the anger, she concludes with, “…Daddy, Daddy, you bastard, I’m through.”
In Medusa, Plath seems to be speaking of religion. Christianity in particular. I’m not sure I pick up all of the clues that the poem has in it, however she seems to be poking fun at religion, and maybe more specifically institutional religion. She speaks of, Mercy, Stigmata, Jesus, a communion wafer, The Vatican, and sins. I know that if taken apart this poem probably has many strikes against religion. Regardless of a person’s opinion of right or wrong. It would be interesting to see what she has to pick out about religion. I always enjoy critiques of beliefs because as a professor told me, and something that I believe is that you have to get ‘messy’ sometimes and pick apart your faith to better understand what it is that you truly believe.
I enjoy Plath’s way of writing. She uses images well in representing what she is trying to say. When I read her poems, I can visualize what it is that she is trying to get across.
This poem seems to be about an older person remembering their ‘war-age’. The poem discusses some regrets that the speaker has in looking back. Some of the memories seem to be haunting, in his/her dreams. I say haunting, because the speaker presumably wanted to forget about his/her war experiences, however the dreams are recalling what they have wanted to forget.
Frost mentions the garden in his poem, and then a woman by the name of Eve. This is in reference to the Biblical teaching of Adam and Eve and the temptation by the devil creating original sin. Because Eve ate of the apple, EVERYTHING changed in the realm of reality for her and Adam. This includes the way the birds sang. Frost describes that there was an addition to ‘her tone of meaning’. There is now knowledge that she gained when she ate the apple. Therefore, she has come to recognize the sound of a bird’s song. The sound of the song has changed from when they heard it in their ‘purity’.