Reflective Paper

     It wasn’t until I took this class that I realized how interesting literature can be. I usually like reading stories and poems but sometimes I would read a book and be bored out of my mind. What I learned from this class is to ask the question, “What is the author communicating and why?” I had never thought about this before and having this perspective helped me with looking forward to the readings. Before I would have been so bored with reading old English and Greek stories like Everyman and even The Tempest but breaking down the stories in class and explaining the symbolisms and references really helped. Sometimes I would even get confused when reading poetry such as “Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock” and “Coy Mistress”. If we did not break it down in class I would have totally missed the point of the story being told. Let alone understand what was going on!

            The stories I found most interesting were the cynical stories like “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” and the poem “Cinderella”. I found the characters very relatable but the way of their thinking as so abstract. Maybe because I am an optimist and the characters seem to be more of pessimists. The poem “Daddy” by far was my favorite of course. Some may believe that the poem is harsh and a tad cruel to read but I liked the honesty in it. Unfortunately not every child has a good and healthy relationship with their parents. I give Sylvia Plath props for not only realizing this but for recognizing how it affected her future relationships with men. Speaking of parental issues, Oedipus the King was another great story to read. For someone like Sophocles to create a story so long ago and yet be still relatable in today’s world is extremely rare. All in all, reading these stories and poems helped me understand how far we have come in the world yet how we morally think the same. 

All in all...

Fallacies Shmalacies!

     This Video below shows a Slipper Slope fallacy.

This is a slippery slope fallacy because the attorney assumes that this one step will set off a chain of uncontrollable events that lead to Mandy's downward spiral. Of course the attorney's assumptions are way out there an unrealistic.

This Video shows a Appeal to Fear Fallacy.

Apparently if the American people do not vote for president Johnson than we all will die from a nuclear bomb.

This Video shows the Bandwagon fallacy.

If you don't vote for president Eisenhower than everyone will not like you. This clearly is not true!

"Hell is empty, and all the devils are here"

     I feel like if I saw The Tempest at a theater I would see the story as more of a lighthearted story rather than so serious. Maybe because the actors would make sure to use a specific tone and emphasize certain words to help the audience put together what each character is like. For some reason it was hard for me to put together if someone was being sarcastic in the story or not. Maybe it was the old english language? Otherwise I thought it was serious until we covered the story more in class.

Here is a video of Russel Brand talking about his role as Trinculo in The Tempest. Enjoy!

Pinocchio Ain't Got Nothin on Nora

  
      When we read "A Doll's House" I couldn't help but think about how similar Nora was to the female characters we have studied in the past. Female lead characters from stories such as "The Yellow Wallpaper", "A Rose for Emily" and even in "Cinderella". They are all suppressed, talked down to by the male figures around them and are seen as childish. They are all smart and capable women who are not given a chance to prove to the male figures that women are not "overstimulated" by male conversations. Its unfortunate that this is how women were seen not too long ago. Out of all the stories though I think Nora is the only one who does not go crazy in the end. Instead we see how much of a jerk her husband really is. Especially after her tarantella dance. How creepy is that?

Oedipus Brings a Whole New Meaning to Mommy Issues

     Oh Oedipus. How your story made people cringe for thousands of years! I believe that he is a tragic figure because the audience can relate and sympathize for Oedipus so much. We relate to him because he technically was adopted and never had the chance to meet his biological parents before he would fulfill his prophecy. If he was just at a different place at a different time maybe he would have never met his biological father and mother and none of this would have ever happened. Or maybe he would have met them under different circumstances. Then again they shouldn't have tried to change the future. At the same time what parent would want this to happen? What parent would want their child to kill their father and marry their mother? Only the sick ones and Oedipus's were not that sick. What is really sad is that he let his intelligence, confidence and pride get the best of him. He was a little too arrogant to take a moment to maybe put the pieces of the puzzle together. You think he would but that is what is so tragic about Oedipus. He let his pride blind him until he literally blinded himself from the truth.

Excuse the cursing in this scene but I like puns.

This was from Mel Brook's History of the World Part II .

Dramarama

     I actually liked doing the short play/presentation during class. At first I was a little thrown off by the activity but once we worked as a group and created a short story I understood the point of drama. Drama is sort of hard to explain because it can range from comedy to adventure but either way dramas are usually relatable to the audience. Everyman is a good example of a drama because it shares a moral message as well. If the teacher just explained what a drama was the class would probably still be confused as to what is considered a Drama. Now that we did the presentation I think we all got a better understanding. I know it helped me on the quiz we had the next day as well!

I know this picture has nothing to do with the blog questions. I just thought it was funny!

"Daddy" Poem

     So I ended up doing my paper on the poem "Daddy" by Sylvia Plath. My best friend told me about Sylvia Plath's work a few weeks before our English class started this summer. She told me that she loved her work because her poetry was so "raw", honest and relatable. As well as the sad life she led until she committed suicide. Coincidentally I read the story "Daddy" right before class and decided to base my paper on the poem. That was when I realized who the author was and the poem made more sense.

To make sure my friend was correct on her facts about Sylvia Plath I researched her life to see why her poetry was so depressing, especially "Daddy". The poem is basically a memoir of Plath's life. Learning about her life made so much sense as to why she poured her heart out into her writing. Researching her life and going through the poem step by step with the teacher helped me appreciate the poem even more. Plath was a fantastic writer and unfortunately left us too soon.

This is for your Sylvia Plath. May you rest in peace.

Poetry

     Depending on when a poem was written sometimes poetry can be hard for me to understand. My favorite poem was "Cinderella" and "Ozymandius". I liked "Cinderella" because it was written so honestly and graphic. Ozymandius's message however was the most interesting to me because the statue symbolized that nothing lasts forever. Now that I think about it, I also like "The Flea". Just because I found it somewhat romantic and sweet. Despite his lover squishing the flea at the end of the story. The hardest poem for me to understand was "My Last Duchess" and "The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock". The first time I read the stories I was a little bored and distracted so maybe thats why I found the poems more interesting after we discussed them in class.

Understanding Short Stories

     My understanding of the short stories improved once we discussed the stories in class. At first I would just read the stories and disregard whatever words or references I did not understand immediately. However drafting, revising and discussing helped me understand what the author was communicating. I'm glad we actually go through the stories in class because there are so many things that I would have missed if we didn't. I think sometimes the authors just assume the readers will know the literature references they make. However if the reader was born in a different decade, let alone a different century, then the reference will go over our heads completely. I found that to be the case a lot for me. Working in small groups was very helpful too. People interpret stories differently and its interesting to learn the stories from their perspectives.

Ivan Ilych's Boring Life

Narrative of The Yellow Wallpaper

     Reading "The Yellow Wallpaper" from a 1st person narrative is more interesting to me than from any other perspective. I like it more because I get a better understanding of the situation(s) in the story. I like knowing what the main character is thinking and what she observes around her. If it was told from another perspective maybe the audience would have thought that her husband was abusive and unloving. Even though you get to read what the main character is thinking, the audience can still notice if something is off about the character(s) as well. For instance we know in the beginning that she hates the yellow wallpaper but as she stays in the room longer she starts to like and become attached to the wallpaper. The character might be saying one thing but we remember what she was also thinking earlier. Slowly the audience gets to see how she slowly becomes crazy while she remains in denial.

 

Significance of time in "A Rose for Emily"

      From what I understand, roses are a symbol of time in stories. This is the same case for "A Rose for Emily". Roses die pretty quickly if not taken care of properly. However a rose can also be preserved. I believe the towns people in the story tried to do this with Emily. Since she was the last symbol of the old school way of life, they wanted to preserve her in a sense and in doing so they covered up her mistakes. She has stayed the same over time while her environment around her is progressing and changing quickly. As you can tell, Emily does not handle change very well. This is probably also why she kills Homer. She wanted to preserve him and the good times they had rather than allow time to take its course. I am assuming that the narrator is one of the towns people who observed her life and/or one of the people who sent the tax papers to her. So you get an observers point of view of what happened to her after her father passed to the date of her death. Some areas are left open but the narrator hints at what happens to her over time. Time and change is inevitable. As much as the towns people, and even Emily, tried to stop time, the change was inevitable and that is what I think William Faulkner tried to express in this story.