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The Simpsons

Watching The Simpsons in class was very entertaining and I believe it also had educational value. It showed a different form of literature that we could examine in a similar fashion to the other forms we did throughout the year. Also, being a TV show, we were able to relax a little, laugh and focus on other end of the year assignments while still continuing our exploration and examination of literature.
The many different meanings of the soul in this episode seemed to be both meaningful and joking. Some of the more meaningful definitions include: it’s the most valuable part of you, a symbol of everything fine inside you, it’s the only part of you that lasts forever and possibly most meaningful: no one is born with a soul – it’s something you must earn, as evident by Bart getting his soul back at the end of the episode after searching and working tirelessly to get it. Some of the meanings meant for comedic purposes include: it’s something made up to scare kids, it comes out when you sneeze, it has wheels (in case you die in the desert and needs to drive) and monsters don’t have souls.

For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls

After finishing The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams and reading For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls, by Christopher Durang, I’ve decided I like the second play better (however without first reading The Glass Menagerie I wouldn’t fully understand the parody). Some things I really liked about this play were the comedy, the language and, like the other story, the mother. I actually laughed a few times while reading this play which made it very enjoyable. The language greatly contributed to comedic fashion of the play and was key to the parody. Amanda, the mother, was a favorite character of mine. I just like the way she interacts with her children and the things she says. One thing I think Durang could have changed better was the title of his parody. Something like Cocktails or The Glass Melanges may have been better suited to the play.

The Glass Menagerie

The first five scenes of The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, have got me much more interested than the play ‘night Mother, by Marsha Norman. That being said proves that it wasn’t just the fact that it was a play, but the fact that I didn’t like that play. So far in The Glass Menagerie we’ve seen aspects of all the characters (minus Jim the caller) and they all have their own distinct personalities which are seen through their actions and words. My favorite character at this point is Amanda the mother. She seems to question all the things which her children do which I like and she seems like she could be a real person. She cares for her children and wants the best for them (to be happy and live well) but she still argues with them like a real parent. I am interested to see how the rest of the play turns out.

'night, Mother

The play, ‘night Mother by Marsha Norman, had an interesting overall plotline but as a whole I did not like this story. The idea here is very interesting: a mother trying to convince her daughter not to commit suicide. However as I read the story the only parts that really appealed to me were the beginning and the end. At the start, finding out Jessie was going to commit suicide caught my interest. As I read though I became distracted by all the conversation and little things they did all night and was lost from my original ‘is she gonna do it or not’ questioning. By the end of the play was I pretty much over it and my lost question was finally answered when Jessie locked Mama out of the bedroom and killed herself. Overall I wasn’t happy with it, maybe seeing it instead of reading it would change my opinion.

Song Tra Bong

The story, Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong by Tim O’Brian, appealed to me for a few reasons. First, in similarity to some of his other stories, it’s unknown whether or not the story is fact or fiction. While some particular scenes and images, such as Marry Anne’s necklace of tongues, seem way too far-fetched to be true, most of the story seems legit and believable. This is an aspect I like particularly of this story. While it is not said explicitly if the story is fiction or non, it’s left up to the reader to decide and make a personal judgment. Another aspect of this story I like is the way it is narrated. The story being told in first person, yet from another character’s perspective interested me. A final facet of the story which caught my interest was the plot. Being very patriotic and deeply considering serving our country myself, war stories often attract me. Being true or not this story has the twist in it that I like as well as some mystery. I never expected Mary Anne to end up enjoying it there so much (I originally though she was just going to get killed) and then stay (although she was ‘missing’).

No class this week

The meetings this week for our rough drafts were very beneficial to the writing process. Having the class peer review our papers is definitely not as effective. Classmate’s reviews sometimes help but having the teacher’s opinion is far superior. Knowing exactly what the teacher wants will help the writing process and hopefully result in better papers and grades.

Harrison Bergeron

I enjoyed the short story, Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, because of its sarcastic take of equality. The story takes equality to an over-the-top level in many ways and is a satire of the government. The handicaps that Harrison has, demonstrates the excessive ways this future government functions to dumb down the citizens, “he wore a tremendous pair of earphones, and spectacles with thick wavy lenses… Scrap metal was hung all over him… Harrison carried three hundred pounds.” Our capitalist economy requires that we survive by our own skill however in this piece everyone is dumbed down to the same level. Hazel is the representation of an ‘average’ person not needing handicaps, where her son is almost perfect and has many. Harrison represents free-will and human rights which the Handicapper General is restricting. This story shows how it’s easier to ‘dumb down’ people than to educate them.

The Lottery

The short story, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, was a story I really liked. I had been assigned to read this story in high school but just waited until we saw a short movie version; so it was nice to ‘read’ it again. When I first read the title however I didn’t recognize it as the story I had already read/seen. It wasn’t until the lines in the second paragraph regarding ‘stones’ that I started to remember the story and predict the ending. Once I had decided I was pretty sure it was the same story, I was able to read with more detail. Taking in more than just the plot, I was able to‘re-play’ the movie in my head which made the story very enjoyable, even though it’s not a particularly happy story.

poetry

The poetry unit this semester slightly broadened my interest and liking in/of poetry. Last semester in Intro to Creative Writing, it was necessary for me to read poetry of my classmates and critique it, as well as write my own. That class gave me more appreciation for poetry because I was able to read professional works as well as that of my classmates. Writing my own poetry also made me more interested because I was able to be expressive and creative with few guidelines. This class has done the same but in a different manner. The different groups of poems we read all had poems that I had different feelings for. Some I liked and some I didn't or just didn't understand. Those which I didn't understand were generally clarified through the (usually quiet) class discussions, as someone in the class always had some idea or interpretation. The final essay for the poetry unit made me realize even more how much I liked poetry. I listen to music everyday and most of those songs I'm sure also fit the measurements of poetry, as did most of the songs my classmates chose for their paper.

Stereotypes in poems

The stereotype poems we read produced more of a feeling in me as they were read. A lot of the poems we read don’t create much emotion, but some of these poems did; which I think poems are supposed to do. One of the poems which did this was In Response to Executive Order 9066, by Dwight Okita. I think the emotion created was in part due to the extreme sarcasm. The speaker seems very calm and joking while explaining such a serious situation evident by the lines, “I am a fourteen-year-old girl with bad spelling / and a messy room. If it helps any, I will tell you / I have always felt funny using chopsticks.” A messy room, bad spelling and chopsticks are completely irrelevant to the situation but it shows her sarcasm. From line 15 on is where the emotion is really created. Here this little girl is treated differently by her friend; abandoned and put down because of her race when just the day before they were happy together. The final lines, “…told her / when the first tomato ripened / she’d miss me,” shows that it will take a while for her friend to realize the mistake she has made and that it will be too late. This is a sad but true account of how stereotypes occur in people of young ages.

Love Poems

The poems about love seem to be the stereotype of poems. Usually clichéd and over the top, filled with metaphors and sometimes seem old (either time period or writer).  I think some of the poems we read fit this stereotype while others don’t. The Shakespeare poem started us off well with the metaphor of “the star to every wandering bark.” It was probably the hardest poem to read just because of its old style however it was still one of the more interesting poems. The next poem, To My Dear and Loving Husband is the kind of cliché, lovey-dovey kind of poem I think of when I hear ‘love poem.’ It has the metaphors, it seems obsessive and says the love will last forever. This type of poem reminds me of a young girl’s first boyfriend.

In Creve Coeur, Missouri

From the reading, How to Write about Poems, the poem, In Creve Coeur, Missouri by Rosanna Warren, gained my interest. It combines imagery with the story telling of a split second in time. The line breaks in the poem work very well. An example of this is in the fifth stanza, second line which reads, “Tell us that she will stand / again, quarrel and misbehave.” This line break allows Warren to rhyme hand with stand and still continue with her explanation. A final aspect of the poem I enjoyed was the ending. As I was reading I thought that the girl would end up living. The twist in the end of the picture winning a prize but the little girl not making it both brings closure to the poem but also keeps the sad theme that came out. One aspect of the poem I didn’t understand was the rhyme scheme. In the beginning of the poem it seemed to have an ABBA pattern but that isn’t the case.