Well I'm not to sure what to say about Death of a Salesman so far. I guess the only word I could use to describe it is confusing. I'm confuse. I get the part that about the boys being bums, espeically Biff. Willy had a close relationship with him, but it's not like that anymore. Willy isn't bring home as much money anymore.
Is Willy really crazy? In some parts of the play I think flashbacks are occurring because when Willy was talking to The Woman. It seem like it happen in his past. Is that true? I believe Ben is dead. So how are they talking to him? Can Willy speak to the dead?
I thought is was pretty entertaining when the argument between Biff and Willy was over because Linda made the boys say good night to Willy. Even there might be a hint of crazyness in Willy, his family is trying to boost his ego. To be continued...
I am enjoying reading The Color of Water by James McBride. I really enjoyed reading section four titled "Black Power". I'm really into my past history because I believe that you have no future without a past. I loved reading about the African American struggle during the 50's, 60's, and 70's. In this section many well known American American leaders are mentioned like Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr, Jackie Robinson, etc. Also, The Black Panthers were mention. I wasn't suprised when his mother said she liked Malcolm X because all of her children were African American. Also he was a great speaker with a vision. It seemed she could identify more with the African American community even though she wasn't all that welcome.
I found myself admiring this woman. She had to deal with a lot from African Americans and Cacausians. She couldn't go anywhere without discrimination. Then just ignoring all of the comments, that takes a strong person to deal with that. I couldn't see myself taking all of that. You could take something like that but for so long. She took all of their comments and didn't let it effect her. I liked how she was teaching her children to stay together. She wanted them to be educated and have a sense of God in there life.
The mother and son relationship was also displayed. Her son loved her so much. She was compassionate, but yet stern. I loved the part when her son was on the bus and found out that the man on corner standing next to his mother was a Black Panther. He was so concerned. When he punched the son of the Black Panther, I was kinda shocked. He didn't have to hit him, but his emotions took over him. He was just thinking of his mother.
Well after reading this enlighting book, who do we decide is responsible for our abuse of puncutation?It's easier to blame someone or something than ourselves. We can blame emails and text messages until the we are blue in the face, but when it comes down to it we are at fault. Everyone should know that when writing to friends it is ok to write without puncutation. They know what you are taking about. If you write like that in an academic paper there are two consequences. You'll get a bad grade and you'll leave a bad impression about yourself. Always seperate academic writing from leisure writing. If our society doesn't take responsibility who will? It really makes me angry when people do things just because other people do it. Who came we blame other than ourselves?
When I first read about how she responded to her pen- pal, I really wasn't shocked. Throughout this this book she has shown that she doesn't have any tolerance. Was she expecting the girl to write the letter as if she were Shakespeare? I was just glad she felt ashamed.
Punctuation as an art? Colons and semicolons doing the waltz? Don't get me wrong, but I like semicolons and colons as much as the next person. I didn't like the excert from Virginia Woolf. I didn't find it amazing, but annoying.
I would like to argue the fact that the exclamation mark had refused to die out. Exclamation mark isn't used unless it's express or stressing something. Also I thought the metaphor about the family of punctuation was pretty clever.
My opinion about this book is still the same it hasn't change. Don't get me wrong I respect Truss' work, but it feels like there isn't any tolerance for misuse. I make mistakes in my papers sometimes, but I don't want to be drag out and beaten by my professors.
I don't think apostrophes are in the top five victims in puncutation abuse. So what if the pop group Hear'Say used an apostrophe incorrectly. Everyone knows in show business that people misspelled and use puncutation incorrectly. It's a all a gimick (I think I spelled that right, no sure though). Isn't going a little too far by saying it's cruelty to puncutation or even saying it is on it's last legs? On a lighter note, I like the metaphor "the apostrophe is the frantically multi-tasking female".
I guess I can agree with her about commas though. Commas can be used a lot in a sentence and not placed where they are needed. Honestly, I have trouble with commas myself.
I think "The Garden Party" was pretty interesting. In the beginning the story it made the reader feel the sunshine on their skin and smell the scent of the flowers. When the man died, it was like a darkness fell into play.
I didn't like the mother too much. She seemed unemotional and uncaring. She couldn't provided her daughter clarity about why the party should go on even though the man died. It's like the family was in their own universe and didn't care about anyone who wasn't in it. The daughter shyed away from this.
My overall opinion is that the so called "high class" doesn't care about the working class. I mean how could they? It seems they wouldn't know what work was from their left toe. They might feel pity for the working class, but the working class doesn't want pity. The working class needs to be respected. Another thing I got from the story was that life goes on whether a person dies or not. Death only has an effect on people who are surrounded by it.
Well here is my collection of blogs. I can proudly say that this best portfolio. This semester I have grown in making a point and defending it. So I hope you enjoy reading my portfolio of blogs.
BOOK WORK: these blogs are just my general thoughts of "How to Read Literature Like a Professor (3 entries)" and "Eat, Shoots, and Leaves".
General Thoughts on Foster's Work
Continuing Thoughts on Foster
Foster's Work: More than Rain and Snow
Eat, Shoots, and Leaves
INTERNET READING: in these blogs I analyze the characters' relationships and interaction between them.
Thoughts on O'Connor's Work
London's Fire
Forster's Machine Stops
BE ONE WITH YOUR POETIC SELF: the poems I read came from the book "Sleeping on the Wing". These entries displays my thoughts and my attempts to analyze the poems.
Stopping for Death
God's Grandeur
This is Just to Say
The Long Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
SHAKESPEARE SAGA: this is collection of blogs that evolve around my thoughts about "The Tempest" and academic articles about it.
Watermelon, Hotsauce, and Fried Chicken
Thoughts on Rewriting The Tempest
Response to The Invention of the Human
Response to The Mirana Trap
GO ON COMMENT YOUR HEART OUT: these are links to some of my peers blogs, which I have placed my comments.
Academic Articles on The Tempest- Cantor and Dabydeen
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
Bloom's Tempest Article
PICK A CARD ANY CARD: for my wildcard I choose...
Blank Verse: Tormented
I have to admit the panda joke was pretty funny. But a zero tolerance approach to punctuation is that a little too strict? Everyone makes mistakes sometimes, but than again some people do it on purpose.
In the Foreword part of the book, there is an example of a shopkeeper who use ungrammatical signs to draw people into their shop and talk the people into buying something. That sounds like smart idea to me.
We don't punish William Shakespeare for his punctuation use, we praise him for his uniqueness. Don't get me wrong, having correct punctuation is very important. I think there is a time and place for correct punctuation. In an academic paper it is very important, but when writing for fun it's not important.
I like the similes and metaphors that were used to describe punctuation. For example, "Punctuation will emerge as the Cinderella of the English language" and "Punctuation is no more a class issue than the air we breathe". I really enjoyed when the author compares us to the boy in The Sixth Sense. I thought that was really amusing.
I have a question. Why is the part of Caliban mostly played by African Americans? I think that is kinda bias. Playing such a character is revolting and damaging to African Americans in my opinion. I understand in the past, that's what African Americans had to do to break the barrier. Another thing about that character bothers me is he is described as a beast. Half wild man and half creature and on top of that he's a slave. That's exactly how slaves were looked at. The fact when you arrange the letters around in his name and it spells canibal.
Another point is when the article refers to the sea. In the text it says everything is dissolves in the Tempest expect the sea. The sea didn't have to dissolved because it was just a tool to create the tempest and to bring everyone together so that their problems can be dissolve. If you think about the play isn't all the way dissolved for the audience. We are left to our imagination about what happens to Caliban. Does he stay on the island or go to with the others?
I liked what W.B.C. Watkins, critic, said about Prospero. The audience lead to believe that Prospero is full of wisdom, but we don't receive any. That makes you think. I guess this answers the question in the article "The Miranda Trap". The question is Prospero god? God provides wisdom for his people. Prospero doesn't give any.
I thought it was kinda amusing that James' daughter Elizabeth mirrored the character Miranda. I thought I was reading about Miranda's life for a minute. The dependence on the father is so similar. Reading about Elizabeth's son dying was very strange because her fourth son drowned in a tempest.
The point about if Prospero had a son on the island instead of a daughter, would there be a sexual element? The answer is know. Like the article said Miranda is sexual bait. Caliban wouldn't have made sexual advances to Prospero's son, unless he was a homosexual. Another question that arises in my head is, if Miranda wasn't a virgin would Prospero be so quick to jump to Miranda protection? What I mean by this question is Prospero seem to use chastity to keep her under his control. I guess that's what I'm trying to say.
Is Prospero God? Is Caliban the Devil? I would have to answer no. Just because Prospero used his powers to control people and the elements around him doesn't make him God. If someone manipulates another person, does that mean that person is God? No. As far as Caliban being the devil, that's kinda unfair. Just because he father is the devil himself doesn't mean he is the spawn of the devil. Caliban just hated Prospero because he was his master and techniqually Prospero did take over Caliban's island. He did have of plot of having him killed, but it didn't happen. If a person hates another person that doesn't mean they are the devil. They are either too caught in their hatred and/ or scared of the unknown.
I liked Miranda's Epilogue. Spoken like a true modern woman. The fact that the speech confronts Prospero using Miranda as an excuse for enslavement. It also tackles the fact that he referred to her as a foot instead of an individual. This epilogue is a sign of Miranda's independence.