Reflection May 6, 2008

          Throughout high school, English was always my favorite subject.  I loved all of the books we read, I liked our discussions, and I enjoyed writing papers.  As I went through the first semester, I was told everything I learned in high school was wrong.  I kind of went through a writer’s crisis then, because I was really confused on what I was doing wrong.  However, after this semester, I feel things are normal again, and I know what I was doing wrong.  I have since made the necessary changes to my writing. 

I really enjoyed our English class this semester, and I really appreciated the writing workshops we had.  I thought that my writing skills improved an enormous amount from them.  I learned how to write a strong thesis statement, and it helped to improve my writing not only for English class, but for all my classes.  My history teacher even wrote “strong thesis” on my paper!  Anyways, I felt that this class was extremely beneficial to my writing.  Last semester was a total waste when I think of what I learned about writing, and this semester more than made up for it.  I learned more in these past 15 weeks I feel than I did all last semester.  The writing workshops helped me to become a stronger writer in so many ways.  It helped me to write strong introductions to my papers, to write well developed body paragraphs, a good conclusion, and solid thesis statement.  I always knew the analysis in my body paragraphs should come back to my thesis statement, but I feel that I learned how to do it so much better this semester.  I feel that the things I learned this semester will be so beneficial to me, and I really enjoyed improving on my writing.  I love writing, in fact I would much rather write an essay for a class than take a multiple choice test.  Although I do not always look forward to writing (I tend to be a procrastinator), when I do have the time necessary to work on my papers, I feel the work I put into it can be easily seen.  All in all, I really appreciated everything I learned this semester.  I know I will be able to apply everything I learned to my writing in the future, and it will make me a person with strong writing that can be depended on by others. 

Another thing I liked about this semester was the books we read.  I LOVED Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, yet I know it is a book I would have never chosen to read myself.  I loved the story, the originality of everything, and it was just such a good book.  However, I was not the biggest fan of The PowerBook.  I just never really got into it, and I found it hard to read.  I always put it off, and could have thought of a billion other things I would rather do than read it.  That said though, I thought the book was somewhat interesting, it was another book that I would never have chosen for myself, and it opened the horizons of my reading selections (I am kind of stuck on any Jodi Picoult book right now).  I also really enjoyed The Bloody Chamber.  I had already read most of the stories in it last semester in my German Fairy Tales class, yet I still enjoyed reading them.  The discussions we had on the stories were much different from the ones I had in my class last semester, and I thought the different things the people had to say about it were interesting.  I really enjoyed the discussions we had in class, and I felt they really helped me to understand the novels we read and it helped me when I went to write my papers.

Also, I really liked our blogs.  I thought it was a really original way to integrate risk into our class, and I had fun posting on my blog for class.  Additionally, I think it helped me to think about what I read before I went to class and discussed it with everyone. 

In conclusion, I think that I learned so much from class this semester.  I know my writing improved by leaps and bounds, and I was very excited about that.  I think the way I analyze books is much more thorough, and it is helpful in my writing too.  Have a good summer, and thanks for such a good semester! 

The Erl-King April 22, 2008

The Erl-King is a story of a man who lives all alone in the woods.  He has a one room house that is made out of sticks and stones.  He is even credited as being “an excellent house wife” (Carter 87).  His home is very clean, despite what one may think.  He has hair the color of dead leaves, and when he brushes it, dead leaves fall out.  This man keeps birds in the cage, and later it is found out that the birds are young girls.  When the narrator realizes the bad in the Erl-King, she kills him, and then waits for the birds to change back into the young girls.  As she does this, she knows of the revenge the young girls will have on the Erl-King. 

The significance of the fiddle in this story is the life of an instrument.  The fiddle, like any instrument, works just fine when it is brand new, however, without proper care it will need a tune up.  And, over time, a tune up is necessary.  The Erl-King, like the fiddle was in his prime, when he captured many girls and took their virginity.  However, over time his “tricks” began to wear out, and he needed a tune up.  Yet, since he did not have a tune up, he becomes sloppy and careless.  When he does not have a tune up, he is left susceptible to others, and that is how he suffers his fate.

Julius Ceasar Play April 21, 2008

I went to the Sunday evening showing of Julius Caesar at the Oxford Community Arts Center.  I will admit, this is the first time I have ever seen this play and I did not know what to expect.  That being said, I wanted to say good job to Erin Haley.  She did a great job in all of her parts and with all of her lines!  Actually, that being said, I thought everyone did a great job last night.  The girl who played Cassius was especially good, and she did an excellent job of portraying her emotions in the play.  Cassius was the one who organized Julius Caesar’s death, and she also chose the other members of Senate to help her take down the emperor.  She was angry at Brutus when he was reluctant to murder Caesar, yet with her patient convincing, she compelled him to join in the action.  Also, I thought it was very interesting that Cassius would be played as a woman in this rendition of Julius Caesar.  I am taking Western Civilization this semester, and we spent a great deal of time on the Romans, Julius Caesar, the Senate, etc.  During this time period, there were no women in the Senate.  It was strictly a job for men, and women would not even be considered worthy enough to represent a group of people.  There job was to stay at home, and the fact that this play showed Cassius to be a strong, willful, and powerful woman, completely changed the dynamics of the original play.  In this play, there were many women who had powerful roles; however, the role of Cassius was the most dominating female role. However, casting Cassius as the main female role made we wonder why did the director choose to make Cassius a woman?  I thought Erin said in class that the person who directed this changed a lot of things, but left the basics or something like that.  So then, why not make Julius Caesar a woman and leave Cassius as a man?  With Julius Caesar cast as a woman, the play could have been centered on Cassius wishing to slay Caesar because she was a woman, and he felt that a woman should not be allowed to rule a country, and that she was inferior to him.  But anyways, casting Cassius as a female gave women such a more powerful role in this play.  However, casting Cassius as the lead female portrayed women as the heartless, fearless, and angry members of society.  Although at times I was a little confused by this play, I thought overall that it was very well done.  Cassius looked like an FBI agent almost with her badge on her shoulders, and her death was a very gruesome one.  Additionally, I thought it was very ironic that there was a gun in the play, and even more so, that someone was killed by the gun! I am pretty sure that guns were not around back in those days, but they made for a very interesting end to some of those lives.  However, that also makes me wonder why more people were not killed by the guns, and make it a sort of Jack Bauer (from the shoe 24) meets Julius Caesar kind of thing.  I think that would have made for a very interesting play.  All in all, I thought this play was very good, and their use of costumes and changing of roles made things original, and that is a very good thing. 

A New “Message” April 16, 2008

In “The Company of Wolves” the message is not to talk to strangers.  This story takes place in the woods and in an old cottage.  However, my new story would be told from the point of view from the grandmother.  In the story, she is made out to be clueless on the enitre idea of a werewolf coming into her house to eat her, and throw her clothes into the fire.  In my story, I would make her more aware of the situation, and perhaps make her fight off the wolf and throw his clothes into the fire, and hide his bones under the bed.  Also, I could make the story in the present day time, so the granddaughter sends her tech-savvy grandma a text message saying that there is a scary man she is walking with towards her house, and they are racing to see which way is faster. I think there are many different ways I could change this story, and that they would all combine not only to make a new story, but also a new message.

Perrault’s Cinderella Fairy Tale April 15, 2008

http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/cinderella/index.html

Well, since I took German fairy tales last semester, I have read many versions of alot of fairy tales, some of which I had never heard of before.  So, after reading so many, I decided to chose my favorite one to reread again.  The one I chose to write on is Cinderella.  I thought the Charles Perrault version of this was very different from the Disney one I had grown up knowing.  I thought it was funny the way he said things.  For example, it says “She empoyed her in the meanest work of the house: she scoured the dishes, tables, etc., and scrubbed madam’s chamber, and those of misses, her daughters…” (Perrault).  Cinderella, as the only child of her father, is forced to do the work around the house that would normally be left for the maid.  Also, in this version, the godmother, sends Cinderella to get seven lizards.  In the Disney version, however, the fairy godmother brings the mice to her with the flick of her wand.  In addition, the finer things which the girls have are made out of velvet, gold, silver, and jewels.  I thought that the different things in the story were very interesting.  I couldn’t find it online, but in the Brothers Grimm version, the two step sisters were walking home from the ball when two birds came and plucked out their eyes.  Until I took that class, I had never read anything like that before and I thought it was very interesting, and funny. 

Power Book Essay April 1, 2008

Right now, the hardest part about writing my essay is that I keep wanting to change it.  I don’t like how I dont have names for the characters- its just the narrator and the lover with a husband.  I think that it’s confusing and that having names would make this seem a lot less confusing for me.  Also, I think I am having trouble with evidence, I think I am jumping around and not staying in my sub-story, so I need to quit doing that.  Also, the more I think about my essay the more I doubt which sub story I am writing about.  I’m not really sure why, but I just keep doubting myself on this essay.  I think I might just start completely over to help me get over this doubt.  If the due date was moved to Thursday that would help me alot so I could do that.  Well, I think that about sums my paper up for me….it’s just full of doubt, sooo I have no idea really.  haha

Two Lovers in Capri March 26, 2008

Sorry this is late…I accidentally hit some button and it deleted my post…twice, and I was too angry until now to try for a third time!  Sooo, for my sub-story I have chosen the one with the two women, and the one is married.  I think this sub-story has alot of examples of risk in it.  One quote from the story is “This was my chance-not to speak to you but to find out your room number.  I got into the lift with your husband, got out with him on the third floor, and walked purposefully past him as he let himself into Room 29.  All right.  Now all I had to do was wait” (Winterson 107).  This quote illustrates the risk in this sub-story by showing how she snuck through the hotel, followed her lover’s husband, and deceived him by passing him to fin out which room she was staying in.  Although it was a short quote, alot of risk was presented here.  Her husband could have noticed her following, he could have become angry, and he may have recognized her from somewhere else.  I think that in sharing the elevator, she took a very big risk.

Another quote is “It was night.  He sauntered onto the terrace and was shown a table by a waiter….I went quickly into the hotel, up to the third floor and along the corridor to Room 29.  She was just coming out in a little black dress…” (Winterson 109).  This quote also has alot of risk in it.  Once again, the husband easily could have seen her.  Had he notcied her lurking around him, and appearing to follow him, he could have become very angry and called the police on her.  She also snuck into the room, and her lover could have been angry with her for doing that.  Maybe she wanted this time with her husband to forget her lover, and realize it was a one time thing and they may never see each other again.  But, despite all of this, she still took that risk and went up to the different floors and into the room.  She risked being caught and rejection in this seemingly small act.

My hypothesis (for the time being) is… I argue that despite numerous chances of being caught or rejected, the woman in this sub-story forgets the amount of risk involved, and only sees the prize of time spent with her lover.

Similarities March 11, 2008

On pages 73 and 74, the novel begins to seem very similar to Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.  The passage begins to take on the tone of the grandpa.  The narrarator talks in ways very similar to the way Grandpa wrote his letters to his son.  The author says “I typed in your address. Nothing. I swt one of the search engines to find you. Nothing.”  The resemblance this has to Oskar’s grandpas narratives is very suprising.  When first assigned this, I thought we would not be able to find any similarities at all.  However the tone this passage seems to take on, and the way the author writes does seem to be very alike.  They even both write about nothing alot.  Grandpa always writes about the Nothing Places inthe house, and the author here tells of how they searched so hard for nothing, kind of like how the grandpa searches so hard to find Anna in Grandma, yet there is nothing.  They also both share in common a virtual world.  Although the authors image of a virtual world is more in the literal sense in this passage, Oskar’s grandpa constantly tries to a virtual world in the airport.  The similarites these two passages have is very interesting, and I could continue to go on and on about the many similarities. 

PowerBook Post March 6, 2008

The PowerBook has been a very interesting story so far.  I never thought someone could take something as nice as a tulip and make it seem so wrong.  The tuplip has been referred to many times in this novel, and it makes me wonder why the author chose a tulip.  Why not a rose? A rose means love, but so does a tulip.  I looked up what the different kinds of flowers mean and this is what I found: A regular tulip means perfect lover, frame, and it is the Flower Emblem of Holland.  A red tulip means believe me, and is a declaration of love, a white tulip means beautiful eyes, and finally, a yellow tulip means there’s sunshine in your eyes.  Why does the author not tell us what color the tulips are?  Is it because there is no love in this story, just “no dificulties, no complications” (Winterson 65)?

A Belated Blog Entry March 4, 2008

In all the excitement of writing my paper last week, I forgot to enter my blog…so here it is a little bit late.  After reading the first chapter of ELIC, I was a little bit nervous about what the book would bring.  Oskar was going a million miles a minute,  yet it was only the first chapter of the book!  However, as the book went on I began to understand all of Oskar’s ramblings, and began to look forwaard to the end when everything would be explained.  I know I would not have chosen this book at a store, but I am glad we had to read it for class.  I really enjoyed reading this book, and I thought the way he integrated it into the story of 9/11 made it seem so much more real.