Drafting...revising...small groups...

The process of drafting, revising, and working in small groups really helped me understand all the short stories, poems, and plays a lot better. Sharing thoughts with the rest of the group was also very helpful because they had some interesting ideas that I would have not thought all on my own. I really enjoyed these small group talks because you learn more when you can have one-on-one interaction with someone, where as discussions in larger groups like a class doesn't do much for kids that don't raise their hands and don't share their thoughts with everyone.

7th Blog

My view of poetry in general changed a lot through out my researches for my paper. Poetry expresses a person's opinion or it can set a mood. You can become suddenly depressed because of what was written or you the exact opposite could happen. I'm really beginning to appreciate poetry because it can literally change the focus on your "lens" on life, you can learn new words, new cultures, and sometimes it even offers a different interpretation of a situation that was seen otherwise. Poetry has such deep meaning in every line that if not understood correctly one can miss the entire meaning of something so powerful written.

6th Blog

The poem that i found the hardest to comprehend was "The Flea." Reading it the first time I didn't see what a fly has to do with one's sex life or being in love or even wanting to have sex. I thought this poem was confusing because the flea could symbolize multiple things depending on how the reader analyzes the poem. After reading the poem I believed it symbolized the faith that brings people together. "And this flea our two bloods mingled be," stood out to me when thinking this way. Although after reading the footnotes, I know the poem is about love and sex. But overall, i found this poem a little confusing. The poem that I found the easiest to understand was "Richard Cory." It's easy to follow and you get the point of the poem right away about a guy who everyone admires and looks up to but little do they know he's tired of his own life and kills himself.

Ivan Ilych

“Ivan Ilyich’s life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible,” means that he lived a very simple, pleasant and happy life but yet by the end of chapter 2 he was so miserable. He was good at his work and had very little sympathy for people, he saw them only as a case and nothing else. Formality was more important to him than any kind of human feeling. Ivan explains he married because that was the right thing to do and that was also socially wanted. He admits that he did not love her and only married her because of the status. His home was was beginning to fall apart but he ignored it as always. He absorbs himself in official work, isolating   himself from the demands of a family. Ivan became obsessed with materialistic things and his focus was always on impressing society, not on the well being of his family. He is almost like a robot, doing things to impress his superiors and what is socially acceptable. By the end of chapter two it is evident that Ivan is beginning to close himself off from everything--perhaps even life itself. 

 

Critical Thinking lessons in the "CNN Leaves it There" video

In this video John Stewart mocks the CNN and most cable networks about never having the time to gives us real facts and when their guests come on and lie. From what I see and Stewart nails it, that CNN is always saying "We're out of time," and never getting to the truth. I thinks its hilarious when TDS clips together almost every anchor saying "We'll leave it there," and John Stewart firing back by saying, "There are 24 hours in a day, how much more time do you need?" This was a great segment, and he's absolutely right that they are on 24 hours a day. There is plenty of time to get the truth, just no interest in doing so. It's a shame. After watching this i believe that CNN has completely replaced actual news with filler in the form of "anybody" who's willing to show up and speak. 

The Yellow Wallpaper

The 1st-person narration point of view in "The Yellow Wallpaper," is a tough perspective when the narrator is slowly sinking into madness. The author's use of the first person to convey the story allows the readers to go along for the ride into madness and makes us feel a certain amount of sympathy for the narrator and her unfortunate situation. The constant use of "I" in the story puts the reader's right into the narrators head and allows us to feel what she feels too. It clues us to feel her uncertainty and hesitation at the beginning and determination towards the end. If we took everything she says at face value, we would believe that women really do get trapped in wallpaper. This is the best part of 1st-person narration, you'r never sure if the narrator's perceptions actually reflect what's going on. Because of this many topics are left to the interpretation of the reader and may not accurately depict what actually occurred or the emotions of the other characters.

A Rose for Emily

"A Rose for Emily," takes place over a long indeterminate period of time reaching back into the 19th century and coming into the mid 1920's. The narrator brings up several references to time but none helps the reader actually know or pinpoint when the event occurred. In fact the narrator, goes back and fourth through the events in Emily's life as if time in not important and beginning and ending the story with Emily's funeral. I think time is not important anyway in a culture that is forever grounded in the glories of the past. The narrator wants us to sympathize with Emily's character within the context of the past and not the present moment where Homer's skeleton is found in bed next to a pillow with Emily's iron gray hair on it. My sense of "time" while reading this was more subjective, that time can move forward but some memories can can still say alive and unhindered and really effect your present. Emily lives in the present world where life moves on, but she stays committed to the past.