Over spring break I was able to read this play in my spare time, which I had very little, due to our tennis matches and such activities. Anyways, I really seemed to enjoy the play, the humor, drama, and mystery which was included throughout the play. I disliked Stanley for several reasons. All throughout the play he had this power over the women and even his friends. He always had to take charge, have things his own way, and make others feel bad for what they had done. He was snobbish and rude to not only his wife and Blanche but also his friends, he would give orders and be careless to others feelings. Blanche, however, I had mixed feelings about, one minute she seemed like the sweet and innocent type, then at other times she would come across as sneeky and as a liar. She had the perfect opportunity to start a great relationship with Stanelys friend, at the time i forget his name. This was not entirely her fault for losing the relationship, mostly Stanley's for telling him about Blanches past. Therefore when he came over, she did nothing, not even really stop him from leaving or helping the situation. I dont feel like she really deserved the punishment she had gotten at the end, Stella could have just sent her back to her hometown, maybe with a little money to start out with, or anything small, just to get her back on the right track. Instead they sent her away to the hospital. After all she was sexually abused by Stanely and this is what she gets for that, getting sent away. However, I do see how Stella can feel bad for what she is doing to her sister, but in a way I understand because she doesn't know about the abuse, only lies.
I was unable to update due to our spring break trip to Hilton Head, South Carolina. I traveled there with the Women's Tennis Team, we had three matches and only one practice. It was nice, the weather was actually really warm and sunny most of the time. I think we only won one out of our three matches but they didn't count for our division anyways, we just tried to have fun and try our best. The first night when we had our match was under the lights at 6pm, if i remember correctly. I played doubles with Marina, we lost. Then in singles I won, however the girl forfeited due to her "ankle injury." Our next match which was lets see I believe on Wednesday at 11am, Marina and I won in doubles in a tie breaker, and I always won my singles match very easily I believe 6-1,6-0. Overall I believe our team won. Finally our last match was on Thursday, a team from North Carolina. Their team was all freshman but a very experienced group of girls. In doubles Marina and I won in a tiebreaker, and in singles I lost in three sets. I was ahead and was definitely able to beat her, however, my arm started to hurt and was just tired. Anyways, the break overall was a lot of fun with a lot of free time to do whatever we wish. I was able to read A Streetcar Named Desire over break, which actualyl didnt take too long, it was actually quite enjoyable.
This is my first blog portfolio for Dr. Jerz, I am currently in American Literature EL 267. For those of you who do not regularly keep up with my blog, I am going to welcome you to the entries you may be missing. My name is Melissa Berg and I am a freshman this year at Seton Hill University. I am currently on the Women's Tennis team and currently working on getting my Elementary Education, Special Education and Family and Consumer Science degree.
These blog entries are posted for public view for anyone who enjoys reading about American Literature or random information which is posted every once in awhile. This is an introduction to my blog portfolio in EL 267. The following links and topics will be discussed in my upcoming blog portfolio:
THE COLLECTION: The Best Blog Entries
Coverage Blog: The Great Gatsby This is an entry relating to the end of the Great Gatsby, I felt that I demonstrated intellectual skills and talked about the assigned reading appropriately.
Depth Blog: Poetry Unit.
This is my example of Depth in one of my blog entries involving poetry. In this blog entry i provided readers with three different poems involving my opinions, settings, emotional view points dealing with the poems, and other such details. Since I am not an expert at reading poetry I looked elsewhere for help on different websites for summarys and comments to help me comprend the poem. This one website gave brief information about the poem Judith of Bethulia by John Crowe Ransom. It wasn't of much help, however Daddy by Sylvia Plath had not old listed history of the author, but facts, summarys, and information about the poem which was required for our reading in EL 267.
Interaction: In Christopher Parfitt's blog, i had noticed one of his entries about The Great Gatsby, and how he really is "great." I disagree when Christopher comments in his blog, "My agenda item for the week is, is Gatsby really great? In my honest opinion, I believe he is. Sure he tells little white lies and strecths the truth from time to time. If the definition of great should mean a "perfect character," no character in any literary work qualifies. Everyone has flaws and short comings. Despite his I believe Fitzgerald was really trying to display Gatsby as great." Here, Christopher talks about how he thinks Gatsby is great and it doesn't need to be this perfect person. He says, to be great doesn't mean you have to be this univeral person who everyone knows your name and what you have accomplished. However, I am going to have to disagree on Christophers comment on Gatsby being, "great." I really do not see how Gatsby can be so great, sure he was popular and rich but thousands of other people are too. What makes him so great about that? When I think of a "great" person, I think of an individual that has impacted my life in some way, or who has accomplished "great" things in life. People who have changed the world for the better, to improve people's lives or explore certain things. That is my definition of great. However, I do understand how some people may think Gatsby is great and done great things.
Discussions: In my blog, Poetry 2 had sparked several interesting comments in which helped me open my mind to several other options of thinking the poem's contain. First, Dr. Jerz had commented, "Why did you group these three poems together? The two poems about fathers naturally go together. When you researched this, did you come across a reference to The Book of Judith, from the bible? Judith is a dashing heroine who rescues the Israelites by cutting off an evil king's head... she does what the author of "Daddy" (Sylvia Plath) seems to wish she could have done to her own father." His comment had helped me better understand the meaning of poem, because intially I was clueless and wasn't quite sure what the author was tring to tell the readers. Being able to understand poetry a little better would obviously help, but I never really dedicated myself into studying the meanings and way of reading poems.
Secondly, Karissa made a great point about Judith, and how she was really a great heroine. She comments, "Yeah, like Dr. Jerz said about Judith, she was really a great heroine. *shameless plug* Go check my blog for the entry called "What rhymes with "orgy"?" I wrote about Judith, and you might be able to take something away from that entry :-)
And the lines from "Daddy" you pointed out are my favorites, too! They really put a picture in your mind, don't they? Cool.
Lastly, Neha makes an excellent point about the title of the poem, My Father Moved Through Dooms of Love, and how she had came across previous meanings of the title. She comments, "Melissa, what do you think cumming's meant when he used the word "dooms" in his title? I once heard that to make love happen, you have to stop falling in it and start rising in it instead. If love was so wonderful, then why do you think his was doomed?"
Therefore, I had commented back to one comment inparticular, Neha's comment about the title "doom." I commented, "Neha, I'm not really sure why cummings used the word "dooms" in his title, but it might have something to do with heartbreak? Maybe dooms referring to the bad in relationships, not just how everyone thinks love is this wonderful thing, with no problems or hardships."
Timeliness: Since I am a busy person, I hardly get around to blogging that night it is due. However, one entry that I had posted early enough for students to comment on was the entry on Gatsby's Ending. This blog entry had recieved two comments, one from Maggi, who talked about Gatsby as being "unrealistic and how it made it a much deeper story because of it." She had also mentioned how if Gatsby wasn't the tragic character, he wouldn't have given up on Daisy's love so easily.
Also, Mina had commented on this entry opposing Maggi's view of Gatsby being unrealistic. She commented on Gatsby being realistic before he became rich, but he lost his sense after he gained wealth.
I agree with both of these student's comments and how one can view Gatsby as the realistic or unrealistic character in the story.
Xenoblogging: Here are three entries that demonstrate my willingness to contribute selflessly and generously to the online classroom community:
The Comment Primo: In Maggi Quinlin's blog entry, Hart Crane and David Lehman. I was the first to comment on her entry on March 2, 2005 at 12:45 AM. I had commented to Maggi that I agree with her comment to the visualization within both poems. I also told her that I had also blogged about the same concept on the World Trade Centers, and how people may need to see tradegy in order to respect the greater things in life more fully.
Neha, Karissa and Kayla had also commented on Maggi's entry, however I was the first to get commenting and start a discussion or topics to spark the mind of other students.
The Comment Grande:
The Comment Informative:
The Link Gracious:
Wildcard:
Here I will include two blog entries dealing with both of the poetry entries I had submitted previously: Poetry and Poetry 2. Both of these entries will allow you to evaulate me as a student weblogger and how I had grown as a writer from my first blog entry in the very beginning of the semester till now. Hopefully, this will allow you to see my truthful options as a weblogger, serious or non serious entries which in include in my blog.
I haven't really read too much poetry, it doesn't really interest me, therefore this poem was fairly hard for me to comprehend. I wasn't quite sure what the meaning or theme was, but I understood that there was this beautiful woman who sat with elders. I saw John describe something about her husband but i wasn't sure if he was a good guy or the bad guy who made this woman upset. I tried looking more information up on the internet to try to underand this poem more, but i couldn't find too much information or help.
Daddy
Daddy, by Sylvia Plath was quite an interesting poem. Kind of depressing and vivid in a weird way. But overall, i enjoyed the reading. I liked how Plath added the every other line rhyme, which made it more interesting to read. Plath also gave off a great visual in the readers mind of the hatred oh his father and what he caused in his life. I especially enjoyed reading the lines, " Bit my pretty red heart in two. I was ten when they buried you. At twenty I tried to die And get back, back, back to you. I thought even the bones would do." These couple of lines gave off a great idea of how the author wanted to express how he felt. Throughout his childhood till his adulthood he had these hidden feelings of his father and how he was this awful man.
My Father Moved Through Dooms of Love
This poem by E. E. Cummings was emotionally wonderful. I believe the author expressed how this father went through these dooms of love in very expressive ways to getting the readers to understand. I took the poem maybe slightly differently than maybe some. I took it as the father in love and how he is on this emotional rollercoaster sort of. Maybe in and out of relationships, getting his feelings hurt and other times totally in love, head over heels. I enjoyed how cummings involved the father having this magical voice and how he could "sing women to sleep." I liked these couple of lines where cummings wrote, " my father moved through theys of we, singing each new leaf out of each tree." I took it as maybe each new relationship he sang out his love for each woman and put his whole heart into his relationship.
Never Again Would Birds' Song Be the Same
The creativeness and rhyme which Frost put into the poem i felt added the affect of the beauty of the birds. The repetitive sounds of the poem show how Adam's love for Eve will be continous and longing in an unyielding form no matter what problems come their way. I liked this poem, because it put a smile on my face, it was a soothing reading and peaceful to the mind. The soft and smooth rhyme of the words had an effect on the visual effect.
In the Old Age of the Soul
This poem pretty much was opposite of what i took the last poem of Robert Frost, this poem was mostly sad and dreary. It made me think of my grandparents and how they are beginning to become forgetful and stop dreaming. I believe everyone should keep dreaming, no matter how old or how weak one may get. Dreaming opens the mind to great experience instead of closed minded with a boring, stubborn attitude. Ezra expresses the forgetfulness of old age to the readers and how it affects the mind.
The World Trade Center
David Lehmans poem expresses the negative and positive aspects of the twin towers and how they had the affects on people and their everyday daily lives. Throughout the poem, Lehman is more found of the building toward the end. This bombing event kind of reminds me of funerals, and how distant family comes together when only someone is either married or dies. This relation reminds me of that because throughout this poem, Lehman wasnt as fond of the buildings before there was a bombing. Whereas, when this tragic event happened he had more respect for the building and the "way the light hit the building, and the way they dissolved into the white skies." In society today, sometimes it takes a tragic event to appreciate things, buildings, or people. Which is a sad way of life, however that is the way society has unfortunalty become.