February 26, 2005

Dreaming Poetry

Once again I woke up this morning to find poetry sitting on my desk. I don't exactly remember when I wrote this poetry, nonetheless, when random things like this happens I like to post them. I hope you all enjoy.

Silence

The Silence-
Growing faster than I know.
A Click, the furnace-
I jump and bump my toe.
Soft breaths-
My roommate breathes so quietly.
The sounds-
They fill the silence completely.

To Dream A Dream

How hard is it to dream a dream?
They slip through my mind like thin creme.
There are those that try to hold on fast,
But they never seem to linger or to last.
Glorious those mornings when I awake
To find my mind has taken shape.
I've dreamt a dream I knew not I had!
My heart beats fast as I place to pad
The dreams that my heart bore to me
Seeming that they belong.

There was this one, so long ago,
That showed me the shape of my beau.
And yet another that showed the end
Of things I can not comprehend.
I also dream of the distant future -
Those are the dreams that bring torture.
A teacher to the younger of our kind,
Will I make it or run forever out of time?
These dreams my heart gave to me
Making sure they belong.

Posted by Tiffany Brattina at 12:38 PM | Comments (3)

February 24, 2005

A Perfect Match

As I was reading Sophie Treadwell's Machinal for the second time I couldn't help but draw several familar qualites that it shares with The Adding Machine. Moira also seems to have felt this way.

In both stories the main characters are suppressed to the point that they feel lost and are driven by their everyday lives. They are never able to think for themselves, they are always involved in what their significant other or lack thereof wants them to do, and are hindered in some way to the present.

However of the two I would think that Young Woman is my favorite. She just seems so much more real than Zero does to me. You see I have to feel a connection with a character before I can get into a story and plays are even harder for me to read.

I also couldn't help but think what a fun play sticking these two works together would make. Could you maybe have a twist in the plot so that they worked in the same office, or maybe even a way for the two to meet before Zero kills himself. OH! Or what about an interesting curve ball where Young Woman took the blame for killing the boss to get away from her sick mother?!

I must pose my apologies at this time. My head is not exactly on straight. Hopefully it will replace itself before class takes place tomorrow, and if not I, once again, apologize in advance.

Posted by Tiffany Brattina at 2:14 AM | Comments (3)

February 16, 2005

In this corner...Gatsby!

I don't know how I feel about the end of this book, but I can say that I don't know who I dislike more, Gatsby, Daisy or Tom.

As last week's discussion was moving closer and closer to the end of the book I just wanted to scream. The class was coming so close to what I wanted to say that I couldn't without ruining the rest of the book for everyone else.

Tom seems to have figured out that Gatsby and Daisy are having this affair and he gets extremely jealous, but in my opinion he doesn't deserve to be. Look at him. He is having an affair with the lady at the Gas Station! What right does he have to judge his wife or even Gatsby. Just because he doesn't want to admit the fact that she is doing just what he is. He pulls out the whole "YOU MARRIED ME!" argument when really she could throw the same thing back in his face. And then, when he finds out that it wasn't Gatsby, but his own wife who hit his girl he still blamed Gatsby and it ended up killing him. He even sent the husband of the woman after Gatsby knowing that he wasn't the one who did it.

Then Gatsby continues to court Daisy knowing that she is married. He even has the odasity to tell Tom that Daisy never loved Tom in the first place. That he was only her substitute because Gatsby wantsn't around. What kind of person is he?! We discussed whether or not Gatsby was a selfish person or if he was just hypocritical. I don't know what to make of him, but I do know that towards the end of the book he certainly was full of himself. I do have to agree with the class though. It was a little bit rude of him to go after Daisy and then to say all those things to Tom.

And that leaves Daisy. How could she do this to these two guys! I have words for girls like her and none of them are nice. I mean come on now. You married Tom, you do all kinds of things for him and even say things to him that makes everyone including yourself and him believe that you love him dearly. Then when you are left with a choice about which you want and are put on the spot cower like the girl you are. She angers me in so many ways it's unbelievable.

I think in the end the one that I dislike more is Daisy. She kills a person and lets Gatsby take the blame, she cheats on her husband, she leads another man on, and then says nothing about this person she claims to love with all her heart. I really don't like people like her.

Tiffany

Posted by Tiffany Brattina at 4:26 PM | Comments (3)

February 9, 2005

My Valentines

Valentines come in all different shapes and sizes. People say they do not have a valentine or do not believe in Valentine's Day because they have no one spcial to share the day with. Friedrich Nietzsche once said:

What else is love but understanding and rejoicing in the fact that another person lives, acts, and experiences otherwise than we do…?

I say you just aren't looking hard enough.

I have so many valentines I don't know what to do with them. Two are goddesses in my mind: one of the written word and the other an artist of purest heart. Another is on who takes me into the Spanish world while throwing in a taste of Justice for all. A fourth is helping me learn Hospitality. And last, but not least is one who will save lives.

One of these is years old, others are a little over a year, and one is brand new, but all have a special place in my heart. I may be overstepping my boundaries here, but I really think that people need to stop looking at this day as just a day that must be spent with a significant other. Last year I was curious about how this day came about in the first place. This year I just wish people would stop complaining that they don't have someone, a thing I am guilty of myself until I remembered that I have many someones.

And so I charge you all. Celebrate your friendships, celebrate the love that comes from them because there is love, and celebrate the fact that we are all here and alive no matter where our lives are right now.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Posted by Tiffany Brattina at 11:05 PM | Comments (3)

Mid-Semester Slump

I seem to have already hit that mid-semester slump that I always go through. You know the point where nothing seems to really matter anymore. Could it be that because of J-Term I've been thrown off? I definetly think that is the case, which is not good. I find that I actually have to force myself to do my work. This is not good considering March is going to be the month from hell for me. I have three huge papers due back to back and all of the littler assignments that professors give just to make sure you are on track during the semester. Ah well. Let's hope that a good night's sleep helps out.

Posted by Tiffany Brattina at 8:48 PM | Comments (6)

Where is Gatsby?

Ok. So I started reading the novel and couldn't figure out how in the world this book got it's title. All we kept reading was stuff about some guy named Nick. Well it turns out that Nick is very important.

After reading the first 5 chapters I understand the basic concept of the book. Nick is telling the story of his distant cousin, Daisy, and his neighbor, Gatsby. I love the fact that this book is falling over the Valentine season (good job on this one Dr. Jerz). It's romantic everything that Gatsby does for Daisy. They fell in love years before and he has never fallen out of love with her, even though she is married.

I think that it's cute how he is nervous to see her. It's a classic love story. Boy meets girl, they fall in love. Have this fantastic romance, but girl's parents get in the way. Boy and girl separate due to girl's parents and don't see each other for years and yet the couple never finds true happiness. Then, by chance or by something that happens due to boy or girl's doing, they meet again. They fall madly in love and all is well with the world and boy and girl live happily ever after.

I am excited to continue reading this story although at first it was very difficult for me to get into. Then again...I do wear my heart on my sleeve.

Posted by Tiffany Brattina at 12:02 AM | Comments (4)

February 2, 2005

The women of the Jury

I believe that The Jury of Her Peers is a classic example of people just trying to watch out for themselves while helping another person in the process.

How do I come to this conclusion you may ask? Well. Throughout the story we see Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale stand around the kitchen and sewing nook (or room as Moira describes it) discussing things about this lady's kitchen who neither really knew. Then as they come upon the clues of why she killed her husband they get scared. Mrs. Hale wants to hide the evidence because she feels she is doing Minnie Foster a favor while Mrs. Peters, the typical sheriff's wife, thinks they should tell the men.

I don't know how I feel about the way they are acting. It comes as a shock to me that they do some of the things they do. Take for example Mrs. Hale resewed peices of the quilt. She did it to help make herself feel better. Then as the women come to the idea that they should take the quilt and it's peices and come across the dead bird they find the motive they don't really know what to do with it. They argrue through looks and gazes at each other and in the end decide to help her out.

Moira says that the "women in this story show more solidarity with each other. The two women make the decision they do because they know how Minnie must have felt - they understand her pain because they deal with the same problems every day." I think that the women in the story simply are, as I have said before, trying to make themselves feel better for ignoring the woman, even though they didn't mean to. Mrs. Hale even says that she would plan on coming to visit Minnie, but something would come up and in the end she just didn't come because of the way the place creeped her out.

They feel better about themselves in the end and help Minnie by hiding her motive. I remember talking about this story in another class and someone had mentioned that that was tampering with evidence and how that was illegal on any number of levels. I understand their reasoning, but what would you do in that situation? Would you help a person to make yourself feel better or let her go to prison and potentially death row?

Posted by Tiffany Brattina at 7:11 PM | Comments (1)

Machine's Can Drive Anyone Crazy

Zero:

[Calmly]: I killed the boss this afternoon.

The Adding Machine page 50

I couldn't believe my eyes as I read that scene. Who would have guessed that Zero would kill his boss after him being let go. I think that all the "figgerin'" finally drove Zero crazy. In fact by reading the Fourth Scene in the play I knew he had gone crazy. He just kept rambling on and on about how he knew it was wrong to kill the boss but he seemed to think that that would have no affect on him and that he would get off scott free.

Another thing I would like to note is the fact that there seems to be a lot of rambling that goes on in this play. The play opens with Mrs. Zero and her monologue that to me seemed like it was nothing but a lot of complaining and a lot of stuff that really didn't make sense. I found myself having to go back and reread sections because I wasn't entirely sure what she was saying. Then in the beginning of Scene 3 Mrs. Zero again goes on a rambling rampage leaning into her husband without even knowing that he had just gone and murdered his boss.

Another odd thing that I found in the first four scenes of the play is how often Zero and his wife complain about each other. It seems to me as if there is no love in their own home. I mean in the second scene of the novel Zero states that he would date Daisy if he could when his wife died or what about this girl that he sent to prison (?) for six months. He said that he would even like to date her.

I do want to also comment on Karissa's blog. She puts the play into numerical aspects that my simple English mind could never concieve. She says that "Mathematically, with the miserable circumstances that seem to cloud Zero's life, I suppose he'd have to kill someone..." She goes into long discriptions about how numbers come into this play. Now that I have had them pointed out to me I'm excited to see how they will play out in the course of the literary work.

*More To come As I finish the Play*

Posted by Tiffany Brattina at 2:49 PM | Comments (4)

Blogs Hacked!

Is nothing safe anymore? Who in their right minds would want to hack my poor defenseless blog?! You would be greatly saddened too if you had gone to connect to the great world wide web expecting to find your homepage (in this case my blog) pop up to greet you, but no I found the dispicable page for SpyKids. (Who are SpyKids anyway?!)

All I wanted to do was complete my blog entries for American Lit and head off to bed, but instead I found myself investigating into other people's blogs. Mike, Karissa, and even our poor NMJ were replaced crudely and violently. Who knows how many countless other blogs were replaced in such a way. However, I am still curious as to why Amanda's was replaced....hmmm.

Well that's all for now, I'm glad I have gotten back my poor blog is no longer being held hostage by the evil SpyKids....

Tiff

Posted by Tiffany Brattina at 10:52 AM | Comments (3)

February 1, 2005

An Outward Appearance

What started off as a simple joke or a line among friends in order to push the popularity of one girl higher ended up being a major downfall and self-esteem buster...

This being the second time I have read Bernice Bobs Her Hair by F. Scott Fitzgerald I was able to pick up on things I didn't notice the first time I read it. I stick by my previous statement that Majorie was the stronger character, however I did see where my classmates of the previous class came to their conclusions.

As Dr. Jerz said in class when we first started reading this story there are three different versions of Bernice. The mild and slightly socially confused Bernice that we see at the beginning of the story. It can be said that Bernice is a little bit too sure of herself and maybe even a bit stuck up, but I believe that she is just lost and feeling the neglect of a place she probably didn't want to be in in the first place. Then, we see the Bernice under the direction of Majorie. I'm not particularly fond of either character in this stage. Bernice seems to have turn from mild young girl to a dog sitting in Marjorie's lap. The selfish nature of Majorie kind of spoils the quiet that was held in Bernice in the beginning of the story. Bernice turns into a mini version of Majorie. Then at the end I found a stronger Bernice that seemed to have left her awkwardness behind her, and found new confidence in herself.

From these three discriptions of one character it's a bit difficult to discern which is the better. Personally I found the Bernice at the end the best. Even though she bobed her hair, her only real beauty on the outside, she was able to stay strong even though she probably felt like dirt. Bernice I would say lost a lot of respect for herself in doing the drastic deed, but tried to make up for it by holding her head high. In this aspect I do find that she is the stronger character. She was able to overcome the views of those around her and keep on striving for a better person in herself.

Now, let me defend my position on Majorie. She was a strong character yes, but in a different way than her cousin. Marjorie was very strong willed. She expected people to see things the way she saw them and when things were not going her way she made sure that she turned them to her advantage. I see now that she was nothing but a bully, however in order to be a bully you have to have a will of your own and it needs to be a strong one.

Throughout the story I kept thinking back to what I had stated before and how hugely my views had changed. Where I once thought that Bernice was a bit of a cry baby I now see that she was just being strung along by a bully whom she was just trying to please. I see now that although Bernice was very quiet and did not exactly know how to act around Majorie's friends, she also had an inward desire that just needed to come out.

Posted by Tiffany Brattina at 1:18 PM | Comments (3)