Blog 7

Hello once again inquisitive readers,

This is my final blog of my English class. It has been a long 18 weeks partly due to my inability to formulate correct sentences. None the less this class has served as a great learning experience for me. I’ve learned complex forms of writing analyses. Even though this is the penultimate week of class I still have one final frontier to cross and that my friends is my research paper. My research paper consists of the paper itself and also an annotated bibliography. The topic I decided to write about is “55 miles to gas pump” I decided to use historical criticism to analyze the text previously stated.   What was shocking though was that the topic proved quite challenging to write about.    It wasn’t that the text was hard to analyze or that I knew nothing of historical criticism the problem was that I just had no idea where to start or how to start. For this research I had to use my schools’ library web database to search for my sources. The yield of my searching came out to be quite scarce. The scarcity of my resources falls upon two concepts either I have no idea what to search or look for or there’s no information on my topic. Unfortunately, I did my discussion in the class at the very last minute, this in turn snatched the opportunity to discus with my classmates their findings and to get a better concept of my paper’s desired format. Writing this research paper will come as a big struggle for me due to the paper being so close to all of my final exams, a proper challenge I say.

The word count of this essay is at least 1200 words which is standard for this class. I already have a few ideas and connections that I can possibly run with for my essay.  In my personal opinion writing 1200 words won’t be all that bad. My real problem is what I stated in the beginning of the blog and that is my successful execution of grammar in my essay. I’ve noticed in my pass essays  my major down fall of my writings is my grammar use, there is none  ha-ha,  which I’ve noticed has most likely killed my chances of getting a higher grade on my essays.  I fear my own self review of my essays will not be enough to fix my papers of errors.  I dread the fact that I have no grammar skills to the extent that when I reread my work I do not have the ability to pick up any mistakes I have unfortunately made. This flaw of mine may seem to pose a problem in my future essays such as my personal statement for medical school. I digress back the essay that’s coming up I need at least five sources for my annotated bibliography. I will most likely have a couple of people read my bibliography over. After my annotated bibliography is finished all that’s left is my actual essay.  Wish me luck!

Thank you to all who followed me through my first blogging experience.

Till we meet again.

Cheers,

Blog 6

Hello faithful readers,

Well this is for sure my second to last blog of this class and what better way to bring to an end to these series of blogs but nothing other than a very heated topic. That topic readers is Gender Criticism. What is Gender criticism exactly? One may ponder about. From the notes I read in class Gender Criticism is basically criticizing gender as we commonly perceive it. From the lecture notes of my class I discovered that gender and sex are two completely different things. The true meaning of sex is your natural born bodily appendages a person acquires in the womb.  These appendages deem a person male or female biologically. While gender is the way we perceive are self.   This perception is commonly masculine or feminine and just recently the new coined style of gender metrosexual which is a “balance” of both genders. Now, back to gender criticism, what makes gender criticism so intriguing to me; it is the fact that the way the work is criticized or conceived is completely varied by the sex criticizing the text. These views are broken down into essentialism or constructionism. The previously stated concepts are to lengthy to explain in one blog so feel free to look them up.  Gender criticism may at times focus on gender reading. A great example gender reading is when a female reader criticizes that men writers immaculate women in there text, in a sense creating inferiority of women when it comes to men.  Although, gender criticism does play a pivotal role in peeking into how a males view the world and vise versa if it were a women written text.

In class we read the text “Goblin Market” by Christina Rossetti. I found the text incredibly easy to apply what I learned about gender criticism to analyze the text. First things first I will give a little short background information on the text “Goblin Market”.  “Goblin Market” is about two sisters who hear the commotion of the goblin market that’s right next to their house. The Goblin market is completely male population and the males being considered goblins hence the name goblin market. The sisters try their hearts out to ignore the luring noise of the goblin market but unfortunately one sister gives into her inhibitions and goes off to the goblin market. Once there the sister trades her golden hair for a “tasty “goblin fruit which she consumes and in consequence goes home and begins to wither away. The other unharmed sister worries about her sister’s condition and runs off to the goblin market to find a way to save her sister which she does, but I won’t spoil the rest for you. Rossetti portrays men in a very maniacal way, calling the men Goblins which applies a negative connotation to men.  Rossetti also portrays   men (goblins) as corrupters of innocent women and to an even greater extent the unity between females represented in the story as sisterly love. Rossetti in her text also establishes men as deceivers, tricking one the girls with tasty fruit to steal her life force and her precious commodity which is her hair. All these portrayal of men in this story shows a very negative extreme and radical feminist approach to men.

Well readers that’s all I have to write today, my next blog shall be my last I will catch you then

Blog #5

Hello, my active readers of this literature oriented blog.

I regret to tell you that I wrote to soon. I thought in the last blog that Reader-Response criticism was the most interesting form of analysis to me but that was until today, when I read about historical criticism. Historical criticism takes what a person reads in a text and interprets and completely changes that interpretation dramatically. Historical criticism puts biographical information into play when interpreting a piece of work. What seems fine in today's society could be a completely different attitude in the past in which that text was written. Let me give you an example “We finally made it to New York City from Eastern Germany." (Written in 1940)

 In today’s society this seems quite fine to do. If a person looks at the time period this sentence was written in, 1940, shows that this group of people just escaped the beginning of the Nazi movement.  Knowing the biographical context of a piece of work the meaning and interpretation completely changes dramatically. This week I was instructed to read Norman Stock's “What I said" and Amis' “The Last Day of Muhammad Atta”, then use historical criticism for my interpretations. These pieces of text were perfect for historical criticism for the sole fact both texts revolved around the 911 terrorist attacks which was a tragic and pivotal point in American history. This text to no surprise was filled with emotion that created many understanding biases which to me is the point of historical criticism.

Stock's “What I said" is a powerful and emotional text, stock employs a feeling of helplessness and at the very end he uses the words “let’s kill them." In today’s society it’s pretty easy to interpret Stock's feelings since the 911 terrorist attacks are still recent and relevant in most if not all Americans minds. The helplessness Stock portrays in this text from my understanding is nothing this tragic has ever happened in American history. Like him no one in America were prepared for this emotional shock  that only option left is/was learned helplessness. Now transitioning to when Stock states “let’s kill them" mean a variety of things. I interpreted Stock's meaning of this quote   was that war was the next step of action against the terrorist. I also interpreted Stock’s quote that even though the word kill is a very serious and powerful word that a vast number of Americans could or have agreed with him. the anger and insecurity crated form 911 could beyond a doubt push a person to that rationale.  From this text 911 showed an unfair negative view of Arabic decent individuals were created, which could have loose ties to Stock’s quote of “ Lets kill them.”

So! As the final weeks of this class has begun to wind down my writing style has grown notably which I like. I have learned to analyze a variety of text and to communicate my thoughts more effectively.

 Once again good bye bloggers till next time!

Blog 4

Hello again all who choose to read my blogs. My final weeks of this class are upon me. This week my class teachings changed from formal analysis of fiction to Reader- Response criticism.

The idea of Reader- Response criticism is still quite hazy to me, even after reading a dreadfully long section out of a textbook on the subject.  With what  I learned from the textbook and various Google sites, is that reader response criticism is not an objective type of analysis , Reader- response criticism is more personal than  a formal analysis. Reader response criticism is what emotions, feelings and thoughts a person gets form the text rather than what the text is actually trying to portray. To make the story short Reader- Response criticism is how the text a person reads effects a person's interpretation of a text. Don’t quote me on that I could be very off with this self-made definition. Reader response criticism to me is great for discussions and group work for this type of analysis, this criticism let’s differing interpretations clash or mingle. This week to get a better feel of reader response criticism I was instructed to read " 55 miles to the Gas Pump" by E.Annie Proulx and " The Lynching" by Claude McKay. I like these two texts because they were fairly vague but still established a concrete point to be interpreted. With this opaque text I read I could create my own response and interpretation and then later look up the real meaning of the text and most of all ask myself" why did I am think this way?" or “Wow! I was thinking the same as the Author(s) who wrote these text.” 

In this blog I will start with the text " 55 miles to the Gas Pump" by E.Annie Proulx, I didn’t really start interpreting the text till my second read through which I definitely think helped me in creating a better interpretation of text, because from that point on I played attention to every little detail and question every little emotionally charged sentence. Before I begin I’ll give everyone reading who isn’t familiar with this story an extremely short summary.

          A man  name Mr. Room, cheated on his wife multiple times and killed all his mistresses and locked them in an attic  at  some point in time   Mrs.Croom broke into and found  the deceased bodies. Mr. Croom is also drunk in this story and has reached an edge of a cliff. 

          So, now for my  interpretation, once  I read the story a second time a new view of the situation came about in my mind especially in regards to Mr.Croom. In the text the author said Mr.Croom went to a place he knew there was a cliff.  To me when a person is drunk I believe   that person’s inner personality comes out. In regards to Mr.Coom I believe that inner personality is guilt, from the act of murder and infidelity. From the text I assume these are the reasons he attempted to commit suicide (later learned he did). Now for Mrs. Croom  I believe honestly Mrs.Croom knew all along and just wanted to see the horrors and  the truth for herself of her husband  twisted deeds or hobbies such as going to great extents to get into the  the extremely secured attic. Over all I really like the text I found it great for reader response criticism.

That’s all the blogging I can do for today, I will see you next time bloggers!

Blog 3

 Through out this week I have been learning about the  connections between poetry and  its literary elements. What I have grasped that a poem never really has to rhyme to convey  vivid imagery,  or to better say I've realized that figurative language can really bring a poem to life. Such as the poem  I read a few days ago " Titanic" that was posted as assignment to read.  The multitude of  tones in this poem inspired a number amount of feelings,  the way the author portrayed  the  tone deviated me from the norm of how much they suffered and the tragedy of it all but to a more in depth tone,  relief  instead of despair. Even though many lives were lost that day , none of them really went alone, and that each  death could of possibly  been painless , also, no one died   with superiority. When I say superiority, I mean the rich 1st class  was just in the same spot as the beggar that made it on the boat they were all equal and they would all be remembered and glorified in movies, books and such.

 Its interesting a different context and figurative language could easily change my view of this tragic event.  The next text I read was the " Convergence of the twain"  it was a hard read but with time I understood that poetry can take two items and fabricate  a kind of humanistic  view of them. The author describes the vessel as being majestic full of its makers pride and the iceberg as its partner of demise.  The author portrayed using figurative language and metaphors  to describe this one event to be predetermined and  somewhat unstoppable/unpreventable.

 The both authors manged to portray a form of symbolism that  for the "Titanic"   we all die the same tonight but never be forgotten. For the "Convergence of the Twain" we learn  you never know what lies along the path and whose twined in you fate. Im looking forward to  writing this comparison essay.

Blog 2

How is it going to all who choose to read my blogs, I hope that mental answer is good!

After reading the directions of this week I was quite excited all to the sole fact of this week’s topic, and this topic my friends is symbolism. I like symbolism or the idea of symbolism because it looks beyond the superficial things of the world/society. I click with the idea of symbolism quite easily do to my great obsession with comic books and anime for as long as I can remember. In comics, a person usually reads about a super hero. Superficially a superhero is just a hero on steroids, that is someone who “saves the day" but looking at the hero symbolically they are symbolic for justice and altruism. This is the opposite for villains. What gets me going even more when a person looks at it in an even bigger picture everyone wants a good battle of good versus evil but they want good to always prevail. When it comes to heroes down to it the hero always beats the villain. Which ties into the comic makers giving into what the society wants which is good prevailing.

 This solidifies the reason why I love the literary element symbolism because symbolism can apply to everything in life and society, such as the typical modern family. Fathers for instance in the nuclear family are considered the paternal birthing unit but symbolically a father is a person of structure and security. This also can apply to mothers of a nuclear family. Mothers are superficially considered the maternal birthing unit, but symbolically they are the unspoken care givers and nourish the environment for eloquent minds.

John Steinbeck’s “The Chrysanthemums” is a perfect example of symbolism. At a first superficial glance, the text is just about an   apparently beautiful lady   tending to chrysanthemums. Looking at the   text symbolically reveals that the chrysanthemums and the woman attending to them are connected in much deeper way.  The woman attending to the chrysanthemums at first glance looks fragile and at that time period very weak due to her female biology (society view of woman at that time). The woman is very similar to the chrysanthemums in that way looking fragile and dainty, but  actually  when a person take a closer  look the woman is putting a "man's effort” into tending the chrysanthemums showing she is quite tough deep on the inside just as the chrysanthemums are touch at the roots but aren’t seen. Once the woman goes inside after talking to a visitor she looks dirty and worn, the woman begins to wash them vigorously to return to her pristine sate as how society wanted woman to be.  Once clean the woman walks around puffing out her chest like a man. To me this seeming strange behavior, pose of inner conflict within her, the conflict in her maintaining society’s view how woman should be or her pursing her aspirations to be touch and wild.

To me symbolism is a comparison of two things that eventually brought to an underlying concept. I’ve begun researching central ideas of symbolism of people, organizations and even bed stories. Anything, no matter how diverse those aspects of society may be.

Once again that is all for now fellow bloggers. Till next time cheers

Cheers!

Bog #1

Hello, to everyone reading.

 This is first of a series of blogs I will be writing for my English class. Over the next couple of weeks I will be just posting my ideas on the discussions we have in my online class. This week we divulged deeper into the core of a story which is plot, character and setting, at least in my opinion.

I analyzed the plot of the story “A rose for Emily” by Ernest Hemingway.  As I read on through the story the plot wasn’t set up in the usual manner following the chronological order of rising action, denouement, falling action etc...

The plot had all its parts, but how the author displayed the events in the story seemed to backwards. How so a person may make ask? Well   from the start of the story I discovered the main character was already dead and everyone was at her funeral!  This was probably the calmest or uneventful part of the story, the rest of the story just kept getting more and more intense and intriguing. As if the falling action came before the rising action which again I found perplexing but interesting.  But I digress back to the story of Emily; the author began to reveal the history of Emily and who she really was and why she was like that. I noticed the more I read the more  grotesque/awkward this woman named Emily was. The more I read the text  the more tension acquired,  knowing just by a guess something tragic and weird would probably take place. So all my anxiety paid off Emily had died and the climax of the entire story was that Emily had killed her suitor unfortunately and was sleeping with his dead carcass which was a complete shocker! But, out of this strange ending I finally realized the way the author developed this plot really captured my attention. As I sit back and ponder on the plot of this text a few questions danced along my mind. The question that arose from me immediately from this strange plot organization is that does plot have a chronological order and that it must obey it? Such as the falling action must come before the rising action? Also, does scrambling the order of plot, at times give a more successful story or does it hinder it?

The next big issue/subject of this week is setting and character. Even though I believe plot drives the story on to progress to a form of resolution, I’m at a standstill whether character or setting  gives life and emotion to a story that a reader feels when reading a story. When I say life, I mean a sense of understanding the situation of the story a form empathy I suppose. This week I also read Ernest Hemingway’s “A Soldier’s Home" to further understand character and stetting. In this text “A soldier’s Home" A soldier, who is the main character, returns home from war. The solider is distant to his family and seemingly grief stricken or in mental turmoil over something. The soldier’s mental turmoil causes his family much stress especially his mother. The mother in this story is extremely pivotal due without her none of soldier’s feelings could be picked up easily the mother served as the medium. The main character , the soldier, to me gave life to the plot because I could now understand the feelings this story i tried to portary.  My problem immedately arose right after this realization, did the setting of post war have anything to do with making the plot and story come alive?  After a few hours of thinking I’ve made up my mind, character and setting in a way coexist to bring alive the story to capture a readers emotions in my opinion. My final frontier for these discussions I’ve been having over the last few weeks is my fiction analysis paper, I wonder what text I will be given to analyze.

Well this is the end of my technically first blog, till next time my fellow bloggers.

Cheers!