Everyone who thinks I'm catching on to the symbolism of class...thank you. This is just going to be a short entry through, because without the class disscussion I feel like I am way off base and not going to make any sense.
To Build A Fire by Jack London, 3 sections of Foster's book, and an Academic Article on London were assigned readings, problems? Well I think my computer is angry at me again and I seriously don't believe I was meant to read the academic article in this lifetime. I tried it on my laptop, won't load, tried to print it out, got a bunch of blank pages, it froze the computer lab computer and still wouldn't print there, so maybe later I will have something to add about that.
Enough about my fights with the computer let's get this fire started...
Vanessa's Blog seems to answer or rather make us all consider the conflict in the story. Which at one point, near the end it's like man vs. self because this guy is going crazy but every time paranoia sneaks up on him and tries to push the thoughts of frozen toes out of his mind. Yet, there is the strong sense of man vs. nature in here, which is what I had to deal with last night driving in the wintery weather, alright so it was car vs. nature, but I can relate! These are the two most promonate conflicts in the story. Some of you might not agree about man vs. self, but look at the thoughts that London shows going through our main characther's head at the end. He is loosing track of fantasy and reality, thinking about things that have no realavance. Alright, so what else did I see in this story?
This might be way off beat but I think the sun has something to do with the story and it's progression. I printed out this story, unlike the first one, and highlighted and made notes about anything I thought might be important. Well, I noticed the sun is mentioned an awful lot in different places through out the story. It is mentioned in the opening paragraph of the story when I first read it I thought that the fact that the sun is not present was possibly meant to signal, give even more depth and reality, to the fact that the man is isolated in the wild. Then I thought again and it seems like everytime he mentioned the lack of sun, his warmth is taken away a bit, kind of like a bit of his life is taken away. Especially at the end when they talk about the dog howling in the twilight and the man is dead, the sun has set, and so has his life.
Finally the dog, which is mentioned somewhat in Valerie's Blog. I think the dog symbolisms something more than just the man is stupid. It's not like the guy dies at the end and the dog curls up and dies with him, so the dog doesn't represent the man in anyway. It is smart and shy and hidden, the man is out there and so mean to the dog, and I'm sure this animal could have helped him. It's almost like the dog isn't a symbol in the story but a taunt of what the man cannot and will not ever have again, warmth. So maybe the dog is a symbol for motivation some how?
Alright I'm done being a butcher because I am not good at it, maybe because I don't like meat. :-)
Right now I really shouldn't blog because it's going to end up alot like I was mentioning in class...just an outlet of emotions, except with a specfic topic.
I read the Flannery O'Connor story A Good Man is Hard to Find, I must admit I love the slightly twisted ending. Although I feel it is somewhat unjust, Grandma was the best characther with all of her stories. :-) Not to mention if I had a son like Bailey, it doesn't matter how old he was the kid would have gotten slapped for such disrespect. Okay I'm done being opinionated about the characthers. Now on to the real topic of the blog...
Many interesting view points about A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Coonor were mentioned today in class. Although only about half the class, excluding myself, read the academic article on O'Connor. I'm still struggling with my symbolism, not to say I didn't enjoy the story, and O'Connor does tell it like it is. A good man is hard to find and I happen to realate the Grandma on a very personal level, not that every time I find a guy who I like is decent he shoots me, but naturally they are all criminals. :-)
Alright enough of my distracting bull. *Please note I am trying to keep an open mind about the symbolism thing but it might take some time before I can sound intelligent on this matter in class or on my blog.*
One of the things that has stuck with me after class was the mention of the religous symbols in the book, around the end when the Grandmother is preaching about the power of pray and Jesus. I honestly think is this some what of a subconicous symbolism, which is debated in Lou's Blog *please correct me if I'm wrong I couldn't find the link that Lou showed in class*. O'Connor has such a powerful religous upbringing that I do not think she did this on purpose, I believe that when we write little pieces of our most powerful beliefs shine through. Take a look at it this way, would you write a story on a subject you know absolutely nothing about? Eventhough it is a short story O'Connor is portraying the power of God to maybe impact a reader who sees themself as a misfit and can recognize change is possible.
I really like Misheila's point , as well, I mean the Grandmother is generally ignored through out this story. So does this make her immediate realationship with the Misfit even more powerful? When Misheila first mentioned this I thought back to everything I knew about foreshadowing, and I know there is strong foreshadowing when they hear all about the Misfit, why mention someone like this if you are not going to incorporate them into the story somehow? This could be why I was kind of pissed off when the Misfit shot the Grandmother and not the rest of the sinful family. This woman may not have been perfect, yet, they both had the loner repore. She could have guided him and I think he knows this because of the comment he makes at the end:
"She would of been a good woman," The Misfit said, "if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life."
That comment really makes me think, much like Dr. Jerz mentioned. I don't how many of us think about this but we really never know when our life may take a change for the worst or may come to an end. So do we all really need a threat to take our goodness to another level?
This brings me to my final point in something it took me an entire class and a decent blog entry to find. Maybe through all this symbolism in this story O'Connor wants to teach us a lesson. The lesson is the biggest symbol in the book, that each one of us has a different type of goodness within and have to choose how we wish to use it and if we wish to use it. Is that the point of the symbolism in the book, like Dr. Jerz said, "to impact us in a certain way" but here it is to teach us this lesson or lessons?
One more mention about the story itself. Although the diner scene is actually pretty short when I was reading it I felt as if there was something more behind it. The kids walk in the place and instantly form this disgusted opinion while the grandmother gives it a chance and ends up talking the the owner about good men. Does the look, the feel, the actions have any symbolism? Or am I on another page then the rest of the world?
This is Valerie's Blog.
Valerie's weblog is purple and this story is one of here best. I like reading Valerie's stories they make me laugh.
I am obviously not a Professor and have no aspirations to become one. So how does this reading realte to my goals in life? Well it did open my eyes a little bit, although I was quite biased about it before I picked up the book, based upon the description of the class given on the first day. I vowed that among my million other class this semster I would not let this come as a challenge and I think I am slowly accepting it, although I am stubborn so I may change my mind later on when I have some decent evidence to prove that anazyling literature written for pleasure simply isn't right...
Possibly it was the light airy tone of the text that made me appreciate it some what. This book doesn't just talk about analyzing things to death like I was previously taught, there is more of a tone within the book saying this is how you could interupt it. The essay I wrote for class, I'm thinking about posting because it explains how much I hate analyzing stories cause I think it's a bunch of crap. The first section in How to Read Literature Like a Professor kinda caught me off gaurd.
Talking about how a trip to the store becomes a knight's victorious quest. Some how I never would have imagined it that way, but that made me think that all stories have pretty much one out of a few basis, it just depends on how you write the story if your readers will notice what basic story outline you are following.
I'm glad the first section was written that way because I really do think it helped me. The only issue I have is that I have no desire to actually anlyze these texts because then reading invovles something logic and kind of work-like. Unless I'm reading a college text or something to that effect I want all my other reading to be purely enjoyable and leisure. This is probably why I don't want to become a professor, I just don't think like that, I like to enjoy things in life and let them inspire me and bring out some of my creativity, not really make me think.
So what does this all boil down to? Hopefully the fact that this class will challege me to think in another way. Someday as well maybe I can apply the anlyzing of text to my works and my life.