English 200 BLOG : )

2007-05-07T09:38:00.000-07:00

Both the film and the novel begin with the following quote from Dr. Johnson: "He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man." How do the main characters go about making beasts of themselves and does it really relieve their pain?

I did not really enjoy the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It was way too trippy for me, and I did not like all the wierd things that went on after the main characters took the massive amount of drugs. This movie was not entertaining for me whatsoever, but I guess I can sort of see how it can be analyzed. I've never really been exposed to any sort of hard drugs, and this movie was just a little too much for me. I don't see how it fits into this "American Dream" talk at all. The rediculousness of these characters and their drug addiction/ escape from reality makes me think of people who do these hard drugs in real life, and how lame it is, and how they take advantage of people in society and con their way out of so many things. We all have problems, and issues that we have to deal with in life. Suck it up, and deal with it, just like everyone else.

Dr. Gonzo and Raoul Duke made beasts out of themselves by continuously taking these hard drugs that cloud their perception and does not allow them to see reality for what it is. These drugs just distract themselves from themselves, and the pain that they deal with on a regular basis. It only temporarily gives them relief from their pain and problems, which is the reason why the taking of these drugs lasts the entire movie. I feel as if they are entering their own little bubble when they do these drugs, and reality has no meaning. As soon as the drugs begin to wear off, they take more. What happens when they run out? They'll have to face the "harsh" realities of life that they have been escaping from. They have to revert back to life on this Earth just like everyone else does day in day out. They appear to be these beasts when they take the drugs to the everyday non-drugtaker.

Is being Earnest really that important?

2007-04-18T08:48:00.002-07:00

Like a number of our short stories, The Importance of Being Earnest is overly concerned with the issue of identity. Should we take Wilde's discussion of identity seriously, or does his humor conceal critical ideas regarding how we know who we are?

I really enjoyed Oscar Wilde's The Importance Of Being Earnest. I could actually get the humor within the witt projected by each chacter. The language of the drama made it easy fro me to understand everything that the characters were saying. Where as in The Taming Of The Shrew, the Shakesperian language made it difficult for me to really get a full understanding on all the characters. The humor in that drama really wasnt funny to me. But I was able to laugh at The Importance of Being Earnest.

I think that deep down each one of us have bunburyist tendencies. We all take on many different roles which can make us act different around certain people or in different circumstances. When I go back to my home town, I often feel like a completely different person.I think that is just because I am outside of this Newark bubble that is UD. I do not beleive that I am like Jack because I am not trying to convince people that I am not really who I am in both places. It is just a different places that can give you different emotions which cna make you feel different. I believe that Wilde is just trying to put a twist on Jack's character. I do no think that he is trying to get the reader to analyze themselves and compare their bunburyist tendencuies to Jack's bunburyist lifestyle. It also adds more humor when Jack finds out that Gwendolyn,the girl he loves and wants to marry only wants to marry someone named Earnest. I do not believe this humor portrayed here should be taken seriously.

The Shrew is being tamed

2007-04-08T19:16:00.000-07:00

Most of the humor in Taming of the Shrew is based on romantic conflict. Choose one of the many conflicts between two (or three) characters where romance is in the air. Looking at particular passages in the play, discuss how is humor generated by the situation and what sort of subtext that humor may or may not be concealing.

This is my first time actually reading "Taming Of The Shrew". I have watched some movies based on the novel (10 things I hate about you), and I knew what the book was about, but I've never actually read through it. I like it , but it's a little hard to follow, and some of the humor within it is hard to catch with the Shakespearean English.

One of the passages where humor is generated by the situation is when Katharina and Petruchio begin to bicker back and forth. There is humor in that fact that Pertruchio repeatedly refers to Katharina as "Kate" after shes corrects him by saying, " They call me Katharina". He knows that it eats at her, and is annoying but he does it anyway. From the start Katharina puts off this strong "independent woman", quick witted, sassy kind of persona. She is not used to dealing with men who are as quick to come back at her with the same attitude. She also tries to insult him by calling him a stool, and he comes right back with an "OK come sit on me then" comment. This conflict is just humorous to me because for once Katharina is getting a run for her money and she really doesn't know how to react to Petruchio's wittyness. This is a hint that Pertruchio is feeling something for Katharina. He enjoys the rise he gets out of her by getting under her skin.

And The Winner is,........

2007-03-21T06:17:00.000-07:00

The only reason (besides the fact that it was assigned) why I continued to read this story until the end was to find out who "won" the lottery. I didn't really like it, nor did I enjoy the "climactic ending." The entire poem I thought " Hey! Someone is going to win the lottery! This is going to be good." I was unaware that the "winner" did not win anything but to get stoned. This story did not resonate anything in my personal life. I tried to think of any way that I could relate, but the only thing I could think of was the pink elephant gift exchange at Christmas time. Where everyone fights over the "mystery box", and when it finally gets open, the person who opened it is dissapointed to find out that the "mystery" was in fact a rubber chicken. These twisted endings get me every time.

There were many things within this story that foreshadowed the ending of the reading. On thing in particular was right in the beginning ot the story where the boys were picking out the smoothest and roundest stones and were placing them in the corner of the square. The reader may wonder, "Why did they do this", or maybe not even catch on to the importance of these rocks that were pilled up. Another foreshadow within the text was when the black box was placed right in the center of the square, as was Tessie Hutchinson was standing in the center of a cleared space. There was some sense of hesitation when people were going up to the tattered black box, but the reader may not assume that that meant the outcome of "winning" the lottery was a bad thing. The lesson that the author is hoping for the reader to gain is not to assume what the ending of the story is. The author obviously wanted to shock the reader, and wait until the very end to do so. The author also wanted the reader to feel the build up to that climax.

Bernice Bobs Her Hair

2007-03-14T09:45:00.000-07:00

I kind of enjoyed this reading. I do feel like I can actually relate to Bernice, and the pressures that she felt to be "popular". Although she was pretty, and sweet, her dullness took over all the positives and made people not want to be around her. I think everyone has felt these pressures at one time or another. That pressure that makes you think that you need to change for people to like you. All through high school I feel like 90% of things that I did, and that I was involved in was only to make people like me, and to make myself more popular, and to make more friends. But I've come to a point where I am content with who I am and I pretty much just do what I want, and thankfully, I still have friends. (hah) It was a pretty easy read.

This nature of identity that Fitzgerald represents in "Bernice Bob's Her Hair" is the nature that your identity cannot change. There is always some room for improvement with anyone, and who they really want to be. That improvement can change people's view of you, but that identity is still the same. When Bernice was oblivious to the fact that boys didn't want to "cut in" and dance with her at the dance, or that she really wasn't that popular, she was more content with who she was and her identity. But when she overheard her cousin talking to her aunt about how "hopeless she is", she realized that she wasn't, and she needed to change her identity to become just like everyone else, she felt like she needed to do something drastic. This whole "bobbing of the hair" must have been a pretty bold move back then, otherwise people wouldn't have made such a fuss about it. Maybe Bernice felt like she accomplished something by "not bluffing", and really getting her hair bobbed. But she should feel almost like she surrendered to these people's opinions of her. She should feel defeated. By the end of the story though, there is this sense of calmness, and a feeling of Bernice moving on from this defeat, and her coming to the realization that she doesn't need to conform to other peoples ways, and what everyone wants her to be.

The Yellow Wallpaper,.......

2007-03-06T20:24:00.000-08:00

1.) I got sucked in from the first page of this reading, although I was confused through the entire story. I felt extremely sorry for the woman in the story as she had this sickness, and was told to sit there and do nothing all day by her husband . I didn't really relate to the reading, but I'm kind of thankful that i didn't. This story was easy for me to read because I didn't get bored with it, and I found myself just waiting to get to the end of the reading to see how this yellow wallpaper related to this woman. I still don't get the ending and why John fainted.(???)

2.) The narrator in this reading was very suppressed by her husband I think. He made her remain in this room, and kept her from doing things that she wanted to do. She couldn't even write. (Or maybe she was just schizophrenic and thought she couldn't do anything).The woman in the story must have spent an extremely long time in this room to give such detail about the room and the wallpaper, and she also takes much delight in looking out the window(in hopes of being outside I'm sure). She realizes that she is sick, but I don't think that she has come to the reality of the insanity that is settling within herself.Her husband keeps her in this room and says that her imagination is leading to bigger problems. The narrotor gets progressively worse psychologically, even though as the story pans out she continues to say that she is getting better. On page 119 she says "there is recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down," I knew that she's going crazy. For some reason she is OK with the splintered floor and the room that seems to have been through a war, but she just cannot get over this wallpaper. Paranoia also sets in on page 124 when she begins to catch her husband "looking at the wallpaper!" I could not figure out the significance of this yellow wall paper that reminded her of old foul bad yellow things and that had a peculiar odor. Also in the beginning and middle of the story the narrator says that she shouldn't say something but says it anyway, but then closer to the end she becomes less trusting and says that she "shan't be telling it this time." What was so important about this wall paper that she be the only person to touch it? I am guessing that the woman that she imagines within the wallpaper is a representation of herself, which is why in the end she talks about, "getting out" and not being put back. This constant sitting and starring and picking the pattern of this yellow wallpaper about eventually led to the complete insanity of this woman.

Isn't it Ironic?

2007-02-21T05:56:00.001-08:00

Although each of Donne's poems are about some sort of love, in two different situations. I liked both of them. When I read the first few lines of each, I thought that they would be difficult to read, or hard for me to comprehend, but in focusing on the feeling behind all the English words, I was able to really understand what Donne was saying.

I feel that it is very ironic to put these "three lives in one flea". A flea is a tiny little insect that feasts on blood, and to use that to show how these two people have become one within this flea because it holds both their blood is very odd. He sees this flea as making them one, which giving her virginity to him would also do. If the flea has already made them one, why not have sex? Also, if the blood within the flea has already made the "two bloods mingled", and that makes them one, this flea holds the marriage between them. As she holds on to her virginity, and stays without sin, Donne continues to seduce her. In knowing that she is trying to keep her morals, he uses killing this flea as sacrilegious because she would be committing murder. She would not only be killing the flea, but Donne and herself. So after the flea's life is taken, Donne goes on to say that as easy as it was for her to kill the flea, so easy it would be to give herself up to him. This all affects the poem by giving a sense of desperation of Donne to have sex with this woman. So desperate as to say that they are married by the joining of their blood within a flea. He even uses her faith, and her want to stay pure as a weapon for himself in saying that killing the flea would be sacrilegious, making her impure, sin full, or even a murderer. I think that the speaker is going a little overboard in trying to get this woman to have sex with him.

Deffering Dreams

2007-02-13T11:02:00.000-08:00

Q.) What does the last line of Hughes's "Dream Deferred" imply? What does Hughes see as the consequences of a dream deferred?

1.) I really liked this poem. I loved the intensity, and the detailed description of what Hughes thinks comes of deferred dreams. I do believe in dreams coming true, and I think that when you think about something so much that you dream about it, you should do whatever you can to make those dreams become real. I think that if you just let your dreams just remain dreams, it remains unreachable, it "festers like a sore" if you will, as Hughes quotes. This poem was not hard for me to read at all, and it was easy for me to see into Hughes' outlook on dreams.

2.) The last line in Hughes' "Dreams Deferred" gives a definite end to this "dream". This dream that has "dried up", "festered", "rotted", and "crusted" has exploded. This dream that has formed and has been added up from someones desires has ceased to be. It has disintegrated. Hughes implies that he thinks that if you deffer your dreams, it will no longer be with you. You'll have nothing to reach for. Hughes thinks that this putting off your dreams will only lead to the absence of the dream all together. You can put your dreams on the back burner, but while it's just sitting there, you move on from that, and that dream doesn't become real, it could explode. When you go back and try to remember those "deferred dreams", when you try to recall those intense wants withing your heart at one point in your past, it will seem impossible. It's no longer there.