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!
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