http://blogs.setonhill.edu/LindaFondrk/ en-us 2004-11-15T09:28:08-05:00 http://blogs.setonhill.edu/LindaFondrk/005887.html THE DEVIL TAKE THE DEVIL’S DICTIONARY – I explored the subject of “body-snatching” and grave-robbers in the context of the times and debated how gender was handled by Bierce with Nabila. (coverage,depth discussion) HUCK, BE A MAN – discussion on... LindaFondrk 2004-11-15T09:28:08-05:00 http://blogs.setonhill.edu/LindaFondrk/005885.html For as long as I can remember, in my mind’s eye, I have seen letters, numbers, days of the week and months in color. Until I was around 19 or 20, I thought everyone did. When I asked a friend... LindaFondrk 2004-11-15T08:12:31-05:00 http://blogs.setonhill.edu/LindaFondrk/005878.html I enjoyed Belasco’s “Girl of the Golden West” for the same reason I used to love watching “The Brady Bunch”. It’s light, artificial and has a happy ending. I have become so accustomed to more cynical approaches, I fully expected... LindaFondrk 2004-11-14T18:12:24-05:00 http://blogs.setonhill.edu/LindaFondrk/005748.html Scattered throughout the log walls of my house are an assortment of pottery faces that I’ve acquired from various artisans over the years. Their slightly exaggerated expressions are alternately sly, bemused, sarcastic, disappointed, ecstatic and guilty. My favorite is... LindaFondrk 2004-11-07T14:12:36-05:00 http://blogs.setonhill.edu/LindaFondrk/005634.html I believe the narrator in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-Paper” was suffering from post-partum depression, although the condition had not yet been identified back when this story was written. There are only a couple of clues. The first reference occurs... LindaFondrk 2004-11-02T14:28:00-05:00 http://blogs.setonhill.edu/LindaFondrk/005547.html I love the legend of John Henry, which is still timely in an increasingly technological age. John Henry is representative of a dying breed of proud, hard-working, “salt of the earth” types who earn their wage through physical labor. Since... LindaFondrk 2004-10-29T11:51:44-05:00 http://blogs.setonhill.edu/LindaFondrk/005503.html As with the last time I read Huck Finn, years ago, I found the last “adventure” in the book maddening. Up until this point, Huck learned some hard lessons about how things can go wrong, and has forged a (mostly)... LindaFondrk 2004-10-26T12:59:56-05:00 http://blogs.setonhill.edu/LindaFondrk/005211.html In our readings of Native American Oral literature, I was interested in the depictions and explanations of the white men. In “The Creation of the Whites” it’s the white skinned people who do what they’re supposed to and don’t eat... LindaFondrk 2004-10-12T12:31:49-05:00 http://blogs.setonhill.edu/LindaFondrk/005209.html This piece of literature is clever and funny in places, but I would much prefer to peruse it at my leisure instead of having to cram it between portfolios and papers in a week’s time. Originally it was published... LindaFondrk 2004-10-12T10:57:14-05:00 http://blogs.setonhill.edu/LindaFondrk/005006.html COVERAGE 1. “The Experience of Dying in ‘Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’” examines Farquar’s dream sequence comparing the stages of dying acceptance to an out of body experience. (DEPTH, INTERACTION) 2. “More Thoughts on Bartleby” discusses how common dysfunction is... LindaFondrk 2004-10-08T10:16:04-05:00 http://blogs.setonhill.edu/LindaFondrk/004927.html My husband is a big Thoreau fan. A forestry major, he is particularly fond of Walden and our fireplace has a stone mortared into it that reads: "Simplify, simplify,simplify. He is also a child of the sixties (he's 8 years... LindaFondrk 2004-10-05T14:51:10-05:00 http://blogs.setonhill.edu/LindaFondrk/004919.html Hester is the hero in Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter, and embodies Emmerson’s“self-reliance.” Though shamed in front of her people for and adulterous act, Hester stands proud and unrepentant with the child whose arrival trumpeted her sin. She resolutely refuses to divulge... LindaFondrk 2004-10-05T12:15:16-05:00 http://blogs.setonhill.edu/LindaFondrk/004917.html I am still trying to sort out just how much I accept and understand of Emerson’s philosophies. One line that really jumped out at me in “Self-Reliance” was:”We come to wear one cut of face and figure, and acquire by... LindaFondrk 2004-10-05T10:59:43-05:00 http://blogs.setonhill.edu/LindaFondrk/004883.html . . Ambrose Bierce’s Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is a story about dying. There is a blurry distinction between Peyton Farquar’s last moments and his actual death experience which can lead to different interpretations of the text. As Farquar... LindaFondrk 2004-10-04T12:11:44-05:00 http://blogs.setonhill.edu/LindaFondrk/004824.html The raven in Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” is an ambiguous symbol. When the raven first appears, it is described as “…a stately raven” making “Not the least obeisance…” It sits impassively upon a bust of Pallas, watching the... LindaFondrk 2004-09-30T18:34:19-05:00