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February 27, 2006
Portfolio 1
Portfolio 1 -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)
Coverage
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/JenniferDiFulvio/2006/01/index.html
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/JenniferDiFulvio/2006/02/index.html
Depth
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/JenniferDiFulvio/2006/02/whos_the_fool.html#comments
This blog discusses Mr. Zero's role as a fool in "The Adding Machine".
Interaction
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/LisaRandolph/2006/02/roberts_ch3.html#comments
Comment on Lisa Randolph's blog about Ch. 3 in Roberts.
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/OnileeSmith/2006/02/chapter_3_chara.html#comments
Comment on Onilee's blog about Ch. 3 in Roberts.
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/MatthewHampton/2006/02/pocket_wisdom.html#comments
Comment on Matt's blog about "Bernice Bobs Her Hair".
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/MatthewHampton/2006/02/fitzgerald_the.html
Comment on Matt's blog about Ch. 4-6 of "The Great Gatsby".
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BrendaChristeleit/2006/02/the_gatz_outta.html
Comment on Brenda's blog about Ch. 4-6 of "The Great Gatsby".
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BrendaChristeleit/2006/02/pow.html#comments
Comment on Brenda's blog about Ch. 1-3 of "The Great Gatsby".
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/TerraStumpf/2006/02/roberts_ch_10.html#comments
Comment on Terra's blog about Roberts Ch 10.
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/MelissaLupari/2006/02/william_carlos.html
Comment on Melissa's blog about WCW.
Discussion
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/JenniferDiFulvio/2006/02/round_or_flat.html#comments
Discussion of Marjorie as a round or flat character.
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/JenniferDiFulvio/2006/02/brave_bernice.html#comments
Discussion of Bernice's character.
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/JenniferDiFulvio/2006/02/whos_the_fool.html#comments
Discussion of Mr. Zero's character.
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/JenniferDiFulvio/2006/02/unassuming.html#comments
Discussion of symbols in literature.
Timeliness
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/JenniferDiFulvio/2006/01/another_thought.html#comments
Comment on "Trifles" after class discussion.
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/JenniferDiFulvio/2006/02/unassuming.html#comments
Blog sparked a discussion about symbols.
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/JenniferDiFulvio/2006/02/whos_the_fool.html#comments
Blog created a discussion about Mr. Zero's role in "The Adding Machine".
Xenoblogging
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/JenniferDiFulvio/2006/02/trimalchio.html#more
Comment in which I give Jay credit for information.
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/JenniferDiFulvio/2006/02/article_kumamot.html#comments
Comment in which I give Brenda credit for information.
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/MatthewHampton/2006/02/fitzgerald_the.html#comments
First to comment on Matt's blog.
Wildcard
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/JenniferDiFulvio/2006/01/another_thought.html#comments
This is a thought I added to my blog after class discussion about "Trifles".
Posted by JenniferDiFulvio at 10:19 AM | Comments (1)
February 26, 2006
Article: Kumamoto -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)
"this Trimalchio link can further intimate Fitzgerald's possible secondary awareness of the satiric suggestiveness of images of eggs and fowls underscoring Gatsby's "vast, vulgar, and meretricious" dream shared by the social-climbing Trimalchio".
My questions about Trimalchio from my Gatsby post have been answered by this article. However, I am having some difficulty seeing Gatsby's dream as so very "vulgar". He is obviously living in a fantasy world thinking that Daisy has stood still waiting for him for several years. He creates his world of riches in hopes of reconnecting with Daisy, but this seems to be a noble endeavor, if misled. As Brenda says, his end is inevitable, but perhaps it is even more tragic because of his desire for love. I'm sure many "social-climbers" in the 20's had less respectable goals.
Posted by JenniferDiFulvio at 12:14 PM | Comments (1)
February 25, 2006
Trimalchio
Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925) -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)
"as obscurely as it had begun, his {Gatsby's} career as Trimalchio was over."
I'm sure some of you already knew this, but I had to search to find out that Trimalchio is a character in Petronius' novel The Satyricon. He threw lavish parties and had formerly been a slave. Also, FSF had originally called his novel, Trimalchio in West Egg. I would like to know more about Trimalchio and if his fate was similar to Gatsby's. All Gatsby's parties and extravagance didn't get him what he wanted in the end, which seems to be one of the messages about the 1920's FSF is trying to get across. Jay's blog made me think that the "ethical wasteland" of the 20's surely has parallels with Petronius' Rome.
Posted by JenniferDiFulvio at 03:24 PM | Comments (1)
February 22, 2006
time is not on his side
Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925) -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)
"The automatic quality of Gatsby's answer set us all back at least another minute."
During the meeting of Gatsby and Daisy in Nick's house, there are quite a few references to time. The chauffeur is told to go away for an hour, there are measured silences, and Gatsby almost knocks over the clock on the mantel. He was "reclining against the mantelpiece in a strained counterfeit of perfect ease, even boredom." Gatsby tries to hide his anxiety about meeting Daisy again by acting relaxed. It is as if he is trying to play with time to retrieve his lost years with Daisy, which he admits to doing later on. He does not want to face the fact that he cannot get this time back and FSF is showing us the importance this passed time will be by placing the references in this scene.
Posted by JenniferDiFulvio at 09:58 AM | Comments (1)
present tense
Roberts, Appendix B -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)
"everything takes place [in a literary work] in the present, and when writing about literature, you should use the present tense of verbs."
I must have learned this somewhere, because I believe I do this most of the time, but it is a nice reminder for me.
Posted by JenniferDiFulvio at 09:44 AM | Comments (0)
February 19, 2006
honest Nick
Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925) -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)
"I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known."
This last line of Ch. 3 intrigued me, especially after reading Roberts on point of view. This is clearly Nick's opinion of himself, but I wonder who can be the judge of honesty. Nick knows his own words and actions and would seem to know whether he was honest or not. However, are we to believe him solely based on the fact that he is the narrator?
Posted by JenniferDiFulvio at 10:12 AM | Comments (4)
truth of view
Roberts, Ch. 5 -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)
"point of view (is)...the mind that filters the literary experience and presents only the most important details to create the maximum impact."
While the narrator may present the most important details, he or she may also be lying or misrepresenting the facts. Roberts points out that depending on the narrator's own experiences, his or her version of the truth may be skewed. I think this is an excellent idea to keep in mind.
Posted by JenniferDiFulvio at 10:05 AM | Comments (2)
February 15, 2006
word art
Roberts, Ch. 13 -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)
"open form poetry creates its own unity."
Roberts notes that in open form poetry, the topic of the poem is what determines the way the poem takes shape, even how it appears on the page. In this sense it is not only a work of art for the ear, but also for the eyes, as we find meaning in the physical appearance of the poem.
Posted by JenniferDiFulvio at 10:24 AM | Comments (0)
February 13, 2006
who is the reader?
Wallace Stevens -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)
"All night I sat reading a book,
Sat reading as if in a book
Of sombre pages."
During my close reading, I was struck by this first stanza of "The Reader". It seemed to me that the speaker was reviewing his life and when he looked within the "book" of his life, he found it to be dull and empty. Since the title was "The Reader" I wondered if the speaker was the actual reader of his own life, assessing his successes and failures. Or perhaps the speaker felt that he was within the book of his life and someone else was reading it. He goes on later to hear a mumbling voice, which may be this other reader reflecting on the speaker's life and saying that "Everything falls back to coldness" and eventually rots in the "garden". Either way it seems that the speaker found little value in his lifelong accomplishments.
Posted by JenniferDiFulvio at 02:37 PM | Comments (0)
my slam choice
Ex 1-2b: Poetry Slam -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)
William Carlos Williams' "Waiting"
Posted by JenniferDiFulvio at 02:23 PM | Comments (0)
unassuming
Roberts, Ch. 10 -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)
"Your decision to call something symbolic must be based on the circumstances of the individual work."
I think this is important to remember. After doing a great deal of work uncovering meanings for a symbol in a specific work, we must not be tempted to assume we can apply the same meaning for that symbol to other works. Working as a psychotherapist, I would spend a great deal of time discovering what an interaction between two people symbolized only to have to encounter the same interaction in another couple and have it mean something totally different, or nothing at all.
Posted by JenniferDiFulvio at 02:18 PM | Comments (3)
February 07, 2006
poem choices
Ex 1-2a: Poetry Analysis -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)
Stevens: The Reader
Williams: Waiting
Posted by JenniferDiFulvio at 09:22 PM | Comments (0)
who's the fool?
Rice, The Adding Machine (1923) -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)
"The walls are papered with sheets of foolscap covered with columns of figures."
Both the bedroom and dining rooms are covered in this paper, which is large paper that dunce hats are made from. "Foolscap" was the first word I circled in this play. Zero is a fool to think he will get a raise or even keep his job. Once he is dead, he acts like a fool when he leaves Daisy because he doesn't want to associate with the wrong type of people. At the end of the play, he is fooled into returning to a new body by being told there's a girl going with him. For being so good with numbers, he doesn't add up to much.
Posted by JenniferDiFulvio at 11:09 AM | Comments (7)
how strong is Bernice really?
I am wondering just how strong Bernice actually is at the end of the story. She is able to return to her life in which superficial things like her fancy car maintain her social status. She will have to deal with everyone's reactions to her new hair style, but she can spin the whole situation to look good for her. She no longer has to fight for her status within Marjorie's circle and she doesn't have to face Marjorie in person.
Posted by JenniferDiFulvio at 10:41 AM | Comments (0)
February 04, 2006
Reflecting on Bernice's bob
After dictating how Bernice can become more appealing, Marjorie says "I was considering whether we hadn't better bob your hair." Marjorie plants the seed for Bernice's eventual demise by suggesting this. Bernice is obviously trusting her cousin to help her; she uses actual words and ideas Marjorie has supplied her with. Bernice launches her new popularity when she asks Charley Paulson if he thinks she should bob her hair. This is such an interesting and controversial idea, that Bernice uses it to maintain her status. Above all the other things Marjorie has told her to do, this offhanded comment is the one thing that people continue to find most engaging about Bernice. Marjorie sets Bernice up to either back down and look like a fool, or go through with the deed and end up in much the same position.
Posted by JenniferDiFulvio at 02:16 PM | Comments (1)
brave Bernice
Fitzgerald, ''Bernice Bobs Her Hair'' (1920) -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)
"I heard what you said about me to your mother last night."
Bernice shows herself as the main character by creating this event for herself. She could have continued to be dull and finished her stay quietly insulted. Instead, she confronts her cousin and elicits the help that leads to the work's climax.
Posted by JenniferDiFulvio at 01:51 PM | Comments (3)
round or flat?
Roberts on Character -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)
"Flat characters are not worthless in fiction, however, for they highlight the development of the round characters"
As Roberts goes on to describe, the distinction between the two is not as easily made as it first seems. A flat character may become round if he or she is "altered by circumstances". While it seems clear that Bernice is a round character because of the changes she goes through, I wonder which category Marjorie fits into.
Posted by JenniferDiFulvio at 01:38 PM | Comments (2)