a "good" person:

First I will start with a list of characteristics that I think a "good" person should have. This does not mean that people are not good if they make mistakes and do the wrong thing, or display characteristics at time that contradict my following list. The characteristics I hold as important are: Honest, kind, loyal, considerate, selfless, giving, and true. To be a good person, you do not have to be perfect. To be a good person, to me, means that you do your best to minimize the pain of others and if at all possible, maximize their happiness. If you are a good person then people should be able to trust you, to count on you, know that you will have their back but not to lie to them just to make them feel better. People should be able to come to you if they need you and you should be there for them as much as you can be. And, a good person would give all of these things in return. I know that people make mistakes and misjudge situations, and what's done is done and you can't take those things back. To me, that does not make them bad people. Good people are not perfect people, everyone makes mistakes. A good person feels bad about their wrong doings and tries to make them right if it is possible. Sometimes good people do bad things and I am not condoning that behavior, but I am not going to condemn that person either. Which brings me to think that I should also add forgiving to my list of characteristics for good people to have. I think that my definition compares with the ones we have read this week in the play and two short stories in different aspects. After reading all of the assigned texts, I am able to right a more comprehensive definition for myself about what being "good" means. Each story covered a different lesson, a different set of characteristics to be valued. They are all good stories and I have learned from each of them individually. I have learned enough to be able to write a comprehensive list of character traits that I value enough to use as a base for defining a "good" person. I am not saying that my list is the be-all end-all of good characteristics by any means, it is just a good jumping-off point in which I can build upon and try to emulate myself.

Antigone

Antigone was a heroine who saw past her own pain and suffering and did what she believed to be right. She knew that not doing something would be worse than facing the punishment that Creon would give her. She tried to tell Creon that he was wrong in his doings, as did many others. Antigone did eventually end up being banished to live in a cave where she immediately hung herself after being placed there. I don't think that she did this to giver herself glory or to make sure that Creon suffered. I think she saw past all of that and did this as a way to make an example of a situation so that others would remember it forever. So, yes, I do believe she did it to solidify her fame, but not in a selfish way. I do believe that she wanted Creon to suffer, and I do believe that she wanted to be famous, but she wanted it for the right reasons. She wanted for everyone to always remember and never forget the story of Creon, king of Thebes, who held his own pride above all else. She did this so that the story would stand the test of time so that nothing like this would ever happen again. Because of this, I do think that Antigone is a good person. She stood up for her beliefs in the face of death. She made a change for all others at her own expense.

good people

There are many different ways in this story that you could think of people as being "good" or "bad", which is the theme of the short story. Lane Dean is sitting frozen thinking about the decisions that people make and what those decisions say about that person. In the beginning of the story Lane Dean thinks that to be a good person he must sit silently and wait for Sheri to say something that gave him a clue as to what he should say to make her feel better. Then his thoughts changed, he thought that it would make him a hypocrite to say what he thinks would comfort her but then to not really mean what he said to her. He worried that it would make him a liar and that he might be doomed to Hell. Then he thought about how lying would get him what he wanted. That again made him feel like he was a bad person because he was thinking of lying to her for his own good, to get what he wanted. Then he realized that lying is not the way to go. He needed to be honest, but in being honest he would hurt Sheri. Sheri even offers him an out, saying that he does not hold him to any responsibility with the child other than his respect of her decision to not go through with the abortion. He feels really horrible when he hears her say this because he knows that she is lying. He knows that she views him as a good person who will make the right decision. But, his "right decision" and her version of the "right decision" are two different things. He knows that he must be honest to be a good person and make the right decision, and in doing so he must tell Sheri that he does not love her. He is sure that he doesn't love her, but needs to find the courage within himself to say it out loud.

what it means to be a "good" person

The different definitions of a "good" person are given by many characters throughout the short story. First the grandma thinks that to be a "good" person you must be respectful of each other and not speak rudely to others. Next in the play a different definition of "good" comes from Red Sammy, the owner of a barbecue stand that the family stops by on their trip. He thinks that a "good" person is someone that you can trust. He values honesty. Next, we get the Misfit's definition of being a "good" person. Once again, the definition we receive is based on what the character speaking values. The Misfit does not value much. His idea of a good person is someone who inflicts suffering on others for their own happiness. He values doing whatever he wants. To me, each person has their own definition of what being a "good" person means, and this is all based on our own personal values. If you have none other than to bring your own self happiness, then you will act recklessly in order to fulfill that. If you value honesty, then to you, a "good" person is an honest person. To me, my values reconcile most with the grandmother's and Red Sammy's definition of "good" people. I value honesty, respectfulness, and being kind to one another. The final comment made by the Misfit saying that the grandmother would have been a good woman if someone would have been there to shoot her every minute of her life, is confusing to me. I tried to put a meaning behind it, and I would be able to look up what other people have thought about it and then come to some sort of realization of what he meant, but I don't want to do that. I have not yet figured out what he means by this... But I will continue to try to figure it out.

watching the play

 R. (2013). "A Midsummer Night's Dream" presented by Rice University Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts. Retrieved April 14, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P-bJjrVOtI

I watched "A Midsummer Night's Dream" performed by the theater department at Rice University. It was fairly easy to follow, only after reading the play. If I hadn't read the play before watching it, it would be much more difficult to understand. I think that is because in this video they talk extremely fast and sometimes they don't pronunciate enough. If I were used to hearing people still use this type of language, it would be no problem, but I'm not. This is not how we typically hear people converse in this time period. So, with the language being harder to follow, I would definitely recommend reading the play before watching it and using that time to also find a resource that will translate the language into sentences that you would more commonly hear today. I used sparknotes in order to do this. They break down the entire play in this way.

Other than the language barrier difference between reading the play and watching it, I found it very helpful to watch the play in order to distinguish the characters. Putting faces to names helped make the play more fun to watch and I think that if I went back and re-read the play now I would use the images that I can recall from watching the play to help me re-enact the play in my mind while I was reading it.

Puck

I think that Puck is the main protagonist in "A Midsummer Night's Dream". He is the fairy that Oberon tells to go find a special flower. This special flower has the power to make anyone fall in love with the first person they see when they awake. Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius and spreads the flower over Lysanders eyes. When he awakes he sees Helena and then falls in love with her. Demetrius also falls in love with Helena. Puck is the one that started all of this. Then Demetrius and Lysander begin to fight with each other. Puck imitates their voices and leads them away from each other so that they are lost in the forest separately. Also Helena and Hermia start arguing and Hermia challenges Helena to a fight! This was all instigated by Puck. Oberon ends up having to fix all of this mess that Puck has created. In the end, everything works out as Lysander falls back in love with Hermia and Demetrius and Helena are in love and they all get married. At the end of the play Puck apologizes for his mishaps and tell everyone to think of it all as a dream.

Sundays too

In the poem "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden, it is written from the son's perspective. It starts with the words, "Sundays too" which to me means that on Sundays which are supposed to be a day a rest, his father would rise just as early as he does during the weekdays. He does not take rest, because he starts a fire before everyone else gets up so that they are not cold when they awake. He puts that duty, amongst all others during the week, upon himself. He gets no thanks, and his sons speaks indifferently towards him. Because then he did not know what he does now. He did those things out of love, he did not need thanks or gratitude. In resemblance to WIlly Loman, he also works hard day after day. The difference here is that Willy requires those thanks and songs of praises in order to think of himself as successful. The father in this poem does not do that, he just rises every morning and does what is needed to be done. Whereas with Willy's perspective on life I do not see that it was so easy for him to rise every morning without effort and do what needed to be done. This might be just because I am from the Midwest but I see this as a difference in lifestyles. I see the father in the poem to be a hardworking man who keeps his head down and just does what is needed and sees success as being able to have a happy, healthy family with food on the table. Willy represents a different lifestyle. He represents someone who thinks that success is having everything in the world at your fingertips, not having to cook your own meals or do the work anymore. Someone who takes health for granted, like it should just be there. This week reading these stories and thinking about them in terms of the world we live in today has solidified to me that it is so important that we view things with a positive attitude, because so much of our life is affected by our attitude towards what happens. We cannot control what happens to us, but we can control how we react to it and what we decide to turn that experience in to.

WIlly Loman

Willy Loman is a man after a dream. He is chasing the American dream. He believes that if you are a good person, if you do things right and you are honest, then good things will come to you. That is what he trying to do. He hates the fact that he has not gotten the American dream. This dream that he is chasing always seems out of reach. And it seems as though it's most frustrating to him because of the principal, not because he can't handle not being rich or having everything he ever wanted. It is more about that fact that some hard working people, some good and honest people, still have bad things happen to them. Misfortune happens to those people. Willy is one of those people that misfortune has come upon. It is not that he deserves for his life to be difficult, or that he deserves bad things to happen to him, or that he doesn't deserve everything that life has to offer. He is not comfortable with what he has. Maybe he is chasing the wrong thing, or his perception of the American dream is not what it should be. He has a good life, with good kids, and a good wife. He is just not accepting of what he has. He is not a loser, he was not born or made to be a loser. He sees it this way though. His perception is off. His way of looking at things is skewed. He needs to see the positive in things around him as apposed to comparing everything to the "American dream" and picking out every thing that is not what he sees as that. His definition of success is to have everything he could ever want and more money than he knows what to do with. That is not success. It can be part of a persons success but Willy needs to change the way he sees success and stop wanting other people's lives and be happy with his own.

week 11

This blog will be over the play "Trifles" by Glaspell. In the play, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale both start off very quiet, only speaking when spoken to by the men in the play. As the play progresses and Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale get more time alone, I begin to notice that Mrs. Peters is more concerned with legalities than Mrs. Hale. Mrs. Peters is often keeping herself from saying or doing things she wants to do by thinking about those legalities. She even steps in and corrects Mrs. Hale a time or two for letting her emotions get the best of her. Mrs. Hale seems to me to be more caring for the situation that Mrs. Wright is in. She is more inquisitive about what is going on and what took place in the Wright's home. Mrs. Hale is taking in her surroundings, and with the feelings of loneliness and sadness that she is getting from the house, she starts to blame herself for never coming over to spend time with Mrs. Wright or to help her with things on the farm. Mrs. Hale seems to take it personally when she hears the men joking about how messy the house was. She finds it rude that they would carry on about Mrs. Wright in such a way when she knows how much work it can be to keep up a house and a farm. She seems to understand that the work can be even more daunting when you are sad, or feel lonely, without the joys of children around. I think Glaspell made the two women so different so that anyone who read or watched the play would see both points of view. Whether to intervene or just to let things play out as they might, with Mrs. Hale being the one who would intervene and without Mrs. Hale, Mrs. Peters might just let things go. Their differences contribute to the conflict of the play because you can see both points of view. Do you stick to legalities even if inside you feel like it is right for you to intervene? Or do you push the rules aside and do what you think is the right thing? This is a question that can be applied to so many different situations, not just the one that is posed in the play. The resolution of the play is that there must be a balance. There is not always black and white, right and wrong. Sometimes, you need a little bit of both, a grey area. Which is why, in the end, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale meet somewhere in the middle and hide the bird that they found in the box from the men.

Figurative speech in Taylor Swifts "Back to December"

In this song there are several lines of figurative speech that stick out to me. First, "the last time you saw me is still burned in the back of your mind" sticks out. Obviously she is not talking about something actually being burned in to the back of someone's brain, she is referring to a mark that she left on him, a metaphorical mark. She left him with a scar by the way that she treated him and that feeling that he had will never leave him, as if it were a scar from a burn that never goes away. Then there is a line, "you gave me roses and I left them there to die" that may or not be true that he did actually give her roses, but I don't think the meaning is literal. I think that she is referring to the way that he loved her, he was sweet and nice and did things that anyone would hope for like giving roses, and she left them there to die. She left his feelings and the way he treated her and she turned her back and let them die. Then tying in to the title of the song the chorus is "I go back to December all the time". Again, she is obviously not literally going back to December because we cannot time travel. She is saying that she thinks of that time which was in December when she decided to leave him. Following that she sings, "then the cold came, the dark days when fear crept into my mind". Fear did not actually creep into her mind, she means that the feeling of fear came over her, and that they were dark days because of that fear. Lastly there is a line in the song where Taylor sings "So if the chain is on your door, I understand". There is not actually a chain on any door that Taylor is trying to get in to. She is saying that if it is absolutely impossible for him to forgive her and come back and give her a second chance, she doesn't blame him, she would understand. She knows how much she hurt him, but she feels very sorry and hopes that he hasn't locked her out of his life forever.

Lies by Martha Collins

In the poem "Lies" by Martha Collins she uses a play on words. She uses the words lie and lay in many different ways. I had to read the poem many times before I got a sense of what she could be meaning. First I would like to examine what she means when she is using the word "lie". She uses it in a couple of different ways. First she uses it as an action, to lie, to not tell the truth. She questions what a lie really is, or what it means when someone lies. She also uses it as a form of laying down during intimate moments. The majority of her use of this word though I believe is focused on what lying is, and what it means to be dishonest. I think that she talks about omission as a form of lying or being dishonest. She questions it more than makes a statement about it. She is basically wondering if omission is a form of lying, or maybe is it more of a lie if you say something but you do not know for sure that you saw it. After reading this poem several times I was able to come to the conclusion that she is questioning what the best way to handle some situations are and in the end she knows that to say something, even if you think that you could be wrong, it is better to say it than to not say anything at all. I know this because of the last line in the poem where Collins writes, "if we must lie, let's not lie around.". I can honestly say that these poems, while they take more time to understand, really make me appreciate the English language and the ability to play on words.

stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone

I am choosing the poem "Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone" by W.H. Auden. The speaker in this poem is a female. It could be a male but I am interpreting it as a female. I think the speaker is a female because of line 6 where the speaker says "He Is Dead". Reading the poem I get the feeling that the speaker is the partner of a man who has died, someone she loved dearly. She seems to speaking to a higher power. It is as if she is crying out, to anyone who can hear her. It is not one specific person or thing she is crying to, it is everything, everyone who can hear. She mentions not wanting to hear things that she used to such as a dog barking or a piano playing. She wants for time to not exist, for phones to not work. She wishes the sun and the moon and all of the stars away. There is no more good that can come from any of them, she says. She is desperate, she is hurting. She hurts so bad that nothing else matters anymore. She wants for the world that she lived in with him to not exist anymore because nothing in it matters if he is not there with her. She is so sad. The poem doesn't say anything to orient us to a specific place or time in which the speaker is. I imagine it to be shortly after the news of her husbands death. I imagine the situation to be a wife who just wants to get the funeral over with, because nothing matters. The tone is that of solemnity.

"Home Burial"

There are two speakers in this poem, and you do not learn that they are involved until line 35. They have lost a child, who is buried on a hillside. The man speaking knows how burdened the woman speaker is. He just does not know how to talk to her about it. He begs for her to tell him what he can say, to teach him how he can speak to her, to help ease her mind. She does not want to talk about it. She is someone who carries her grief in silence, not talking about it, just holding it all in. He is the opposite, he wants to talk about the loss, to express their feelings and to learn how to help each other through a difficult time. He feels hurt that she won't let him in, and he feels that she is not honoring their child's memory by behaving the way that she is. She takes offense to what he says to her, taking it as criticism rather than an expression of his own feelings. She thinks that he is cold, she doesn't understand how he can talk about it, how he can function. You come to find that the man is someone who is trying to move on with his life, do what he has to do in order to carry on, maybe that means suppressing some of his own feelings, because why dwell on what you cannot change? She does not see it this way, she can't stand the way he talks about ordinary things while in the face of such a tragedy. She can't be around him because of it. I don't feel like one attitude is portrayed as "better" than the other. I think this is more of a story of how a couple is struggling to make it work in the midst of tragedy. He doesn't understand why she is grieving the way that she is, or how to talk to her about it. This is made apparent in lines 45-47 when he is telling her he doesn't know what to say. He is trying to talk her in to staying home with him, to work it out, in lines 56-59. She finally explodes, and tells him how she was disgusted to see that he was physically able to dig his own child's grave in lines 73-78. I know that she is in disbelief that he can carry on with every day conversation because she remembers what he said, so vividly, when he came inside from digging the grave in lines 92-93.

"A Certain Lady"

The speaker in the poem seems to be talking to a man that she loves. This man is also very selfish. He talks about himself a lot, which makes him seem very egotistical, the type of man that loves the fact that she will hang on his every word that he speaks. All of these things make me dislike him. I dislike that he brags about his encounters with women. He seems to only speak of himself and his adventures and everything that is good in his life, while ignoring the feelings of the speaker. You only discover the unhappiness of the speaker when you have gotten through most of the poem, about lines 11-12 is when it begins to become obvious. Reading the first parts of the poem, in my head I heard a voice speaking that sounds like a woman in love. I would express disgust towards the man being spoken to. I envision the speaker using a tone of sadness in the last two lines. The speaker seems like a woman who is confused, and hurt, and scared to tell the truth about how she feels. The most crucial parts to the poem are in the beginning when you can tell that the speaker daydreams about the man that she is speaking to, and then in line 9 when she states that she is aware of what he thinks of her. In lines 11-12 she says that he will never know all the straining things within her heart, which makes it obvious that he doesn't pay attention to her at all, he is just interested in being adored. The last two lines of the poem are also crucial as the speaker says that he will never know what goes on while he is away, meaning that he will never change, he will never ask her about herself, he is not interested at all in knowing about her life.

"We Wear the Mask"

I chose to reflect on the poem "We Wear the Mask" by Paul Laurence Dunbar.
First of all, this poem is referring to us, the general population, as the author uses the words "we" and "ours" throughout the entire poem. We are everywhere, anywhere that we go throughout our every day life. He is talking about the people that we encounter at the store, work, church, maybe even within our families. We are talking about every day life, at any given time. The author says that we wear a mask. This mask grins and lies for us. It hides what it beneath it. The mask is a cover for us so that we do not have to show what is beneath it. It hides our expressions, our features, and our true feelings. It can hide anything for us. And we use it, a lot, almost all of the time. When we had torn and bleeding hearts, the mask will smile for us. For vile humans with evil intentions, the mask will cover us and protect us so that nobody would know. Because our mask protects us from all of these things, we only want people to see us with our mask on.

This is meaningful because in my own personal interpretation, I see the mask as something we all do. When we are feeling sad we don't always wants people to know or to see us in that condition so it is much easier to just smile and go on about our day the best that we can. If you ask someone how they are in passing, you do not expect for someone to stop and say that they are not well, they are in fact so sad, and having a horrible day. No, most just reply with a simple "good" and move along. I believe the author is eluding to the fact that this is something we all do at times. We can do this for many different reasons, it is not always because we are sad.

"Poetry Makes Nothing Happen"

My first thought after reading the poem is that it is loaded. It is full of different stories that poetry had something to do with. There are many stories with different people involved. In the first 5 lines of the poem we hear about a man names Mike Holmquist who stays awake on his drive home by listening to the radio in his car, music I'm assuming, with is a form of poetry. This makes it possible for him to get home safely, it is what gets him through his drive home. Lines 5-10 tell us a story of a woman names May Quinn. Her husband must be sick, because he has many medications in their medicine cabinet. May Quinn I think is a woman who is sad, depressed, and has thoughts of hurting herself. She is home and in the bathroom when she thinks of taking her husbands medicine from the cabinet. Instead, she picks up a book and fell asleep reading it. It was a book of poetry, that she found refuge in that night. That night, the book stopped her from ending her life. Lines 10-15 tell us a story of Jenny Klein who was busy writing a paper on a Bishop poem one afternoon. She missed her ride because she hadn't finished. After finishing her paper, she was in a better state of mind than she had been before. When she arrived home she got news of a cancer diagnosis. She handled it much better than she would have, after writing the paper over a Bishop poem. Lines 15-20 tell us about a father who was at home with his little girl, Naomi Stella. They were in the living room together when the news gave report of troops dropping down in Afghanistan, war. Naomi's father quickly turned on a nursery rhyme for her, to distract her while he soaked in what was going on. Lines 20-30 then go on to name more people, Faith Chaney, Lulu Perez, Sunghee Chen, who I assume all have stories like those people named earlier in the poem. The author is saying that everyone says that poetry has done nothing for them, but in reality poetry is everywhere around us. At one point or another poetry has gotten us through something, or made a bad situation a little more manageable.

These things all matter because no matter how small it is, even so small that we don't notice, poetry has probably gotten us all through something in our life. Poetry comes in so many forms, nursery rhymes, music, books, religion, these are all examples. It means that maybe we should pay more attention to those little things around us, and realize that they do make our lives easier sometimes, and that maybe we can find refuge in things like that if we just realize that they are there and what they do for us.

week 6- A & P

 “What question (or questions) does the author want me to think about?” Questions are far more important in literature than concrete answers.

This story is a little harder for me to find many questions for. What I interpret of this story is that Sammy is a good, well-mannered boy, working at the grocery store of a small town. He still lives with his parents and seemingly has a good relationship with them (he mentions that his mom irons his shirt for him). Although the story is mainly about how three girls look in their bathing suits than anything else, I am focusing on Sammy and what his actions in the story say about him.

Possibly the author wants us to ask ourselves what the real reason is behind Sammy quitting his job right there on the spot. Which makes me think that Sammy is taking a stand for something that he believes in. When is it right to begin expressing what you believe in, or taking a stand for it? Which is what I believe happened here, Sammy took a stand. He didn't like the way that his manager spoke to the girls, who were unlike the rest of the "sheep" in the store. Was Sammy trying to say that he had had enough of this cookie-cutter lifestyle that everyone, including him to this point, was living? He saw the girls as black sheep in his world, and he admired them. He then took a stand against his manager for what he saw as wrong behavior on his manager's part. What would Sammy have done if his manager was not there? What would he have done if the girls would have ended up in Stokesie's line and not his? What is Sammy's life going to be like now that he quit? You can tell that he has an immediate feeling of guilt, but that he is someone to not finish what he started. Will he go on the rest of his life taking a stand for things he believes in? In which case, would this be considered a turning point in Sammy's life? Is this a deciding moment for Sammy, where he will make the choice of regretting his decisions, or standing by them and reinforcing his beliefs and reminding himself why he made the decision that he did. Really, this story makes me wonder what is next for Sammy.

week 6- boys and girls

 “What question (or questions) does the author want me to think about?” Questions are far more important in literature than concrete answers.

There was no real moral, or point to this story. It was not a story to teach you a lesson, or something to be learned from. In this story the author was just telling us how she grew up and the views she had throughout her childhood on being a girl. I think what the author wanted me to think about while reading this is my own childhood. Whether you're a boy or a girl, when you're little, it isn't so much about your gender as it about what is good and what is bad in the world. What do I genuinely like? When you're little, there is no judgement about what you like or don't like. It isn't until you begin getting older that people start expecting for you to act in a certain way. You are only then negatively judged if your actions do not coincide with what is expected of your gender (for her generation). I think she wanted us to think about the way that kids are raised. What expectations do we have right from the get-go when we find out that a baby is a girl or boy? Do we set ourselves up for failure when we create these expectations in our minds? How would we feel as a parent or sibling if that baby did not grow up to meet those expectations? If we pressure them enough, will they change? What does she think of me if we are both girls, but I have chosen to life my life a little bit more traditionally than she? Does my daughter think highly of me or does she think that my purpose is unimportant or less than that of her father?

Those are all things that I think could cross a person's mind while reading this story. If you are trying to think of things in different characters point of view, you could come up with many many more questions to ask yourself. As a little boy, how did Laird see his sister when she was still stronger than him, and how does he see her now that he is bigger, and stronger as his mother said that he one day would be? 

When there is no moral to the story, no lesson to be learned, just a glimpse of some memories from the childhood of a person, I feel like there is a wide range of ideas to be taken from the story. Whereas if it were a fairy-tale, there would be a moral, a single lesson that you should have learned by reading it. Not this story, from this story you can walk away with many questions to think about.

The Birthmark

In this story, Aylmer is a successful scientist, portrayed as a very smart man. He take some time off in order to get married to Georgiana. Georgiana is beutiful to Aylmer, all except for the birthmark on her cheek. I immediately dislike Aylmer because being the intelligent man that he is, he should know better than to insult Georgiana by asking questions that reference her getting her birthmark removed. If it was a big enough deal to him, he should have dealt with it before they got married. When he makes these remarks it makes Georgiana feel as though she is not loved by him. Many people admire Georgiana's unique birthmark (it is in the shape of a hand). Aylmer eventually gets to the point where the birthmark consumes him, and represents more than just a mark on her face. For him he sees the birthmark as a sin and even a sign of weakness (mortality, which is something that Aylmer despises, as he later dedicates his work to finding a potion that could make him immortal). It consumes Aylmer to the point of him dreaming of killing Georgiana even after he removes the mark from her face with a knife. Georgiana gives in and agrees to wanting her birthmark erased from her face and Aylmer is delighted at this. When Georgiana comes to Aylmers laboratory, she faints. Even Aylmers assistant states that he would not remove the birthmark if he was in Aylmers position. After Aylmer has been back at his work for a while, and has shared many ideas with Georgiana about potions he could create, and idea that he has, she realizes that she feels funny. Aylmer has been adding something to her food, or she thinks he may have put something in the air that she is breathing. One day she reads his journals, realizing that he never actually accomplishes exactly what he set out to do. She cries. Aylmer comforts her, but he is angry with her. He carries this anger with him and when Georgiana comes to visit him in the laboratory he explodes again, telling her to quit prying in his experiments. He has brainwashed Georgiana. He comes to her with a potion and shows her that it can clear spots, so she drinks it. As she sleeps, the birthmark disappears. When Georgiana awakes she tells Aylmer that he has rejected the best that the earth could offer, and then she dies, just as the flower had died earlier.

There is a lot of symbolism in this story, with the birthmark, and all of Aylmers creations. His creation of the flower is what stands out in my mind. It grew so extremely fast, and died just as quickly. This story goes to show that we should really value earthly things, and stop trying to make everything bigger and better and just appreciate things the way that they are.

The Thing in the Forest

This story reminds me of a fairy tale. There are many direct references in the story to a fairy tales most of us have read in the past such as Hansel and Gretel. Of course this fairy tale is a little bit darker than most that we know from our childhood. Penny and Primrose meet while being swept away from their homes to safety. They became orphans together along with another little girl named Alys. When Primrose and Penny decide to take a trip in to the forest, they leave Alys behind. Now we have to decide whether we choose to believe that the girls did indeed see the monster that they claim to have seen, or if they made up this game in their minds? I believe that they did see this worm-like monster, who they deem is the reason for the disappearance of Alys. They never speak to anyone of this, but they carry it with them for the rest of their lives, and they end up choosing careers that keep them devoted to helping children.
Now, when Penny and Primrose meet up again by chance later in life, Penny (now a psychologist) states that she has never questioned whether she really saw the monster or not after Primrose posed the question. They decided that the monster was real, as children, but not to tell anyone for fear of their disbelief. As adults, they make the same decision, as they sit in silence, soon to part again.

I really liked this story, it was interesting, it never got boring to me. Byatt's story contains many allusions. She references so many things from past literatures if you just take a second to look for the references after you realize that they are there, which I did not at first.

Week 4- A pair of two tickets

This story was of an amazing woman, who did everything that she could to save her life and the life of her twin daughters while fleeing for safety only to find she had been made a widow two weeks before she arrived to where her husband had been stationed. It is also a story of a young woman, who is trying to find answers about her mother and lost twin sisters that she wishes she would have asked before her mother had passed away. She has wondered for a long time what her mother's true feelings towards her were, whether she wished she was her sisters. She has also always wondered what her mother meant by telling her that she Chinese is in her blood, and there is no way to escape it.


This was such a complicated situation. To go to China for the first time, arranged by her aunt Lindo, to meet many relatives she has never seen and to meet her lost twin sisters, this must have been a confusing mix of feelings. I can't imagine being in her shoes, having the pressure of telling her sisters what had happened to their late mother, a woman that they were planning on meeting.


When June May arrives in Guangzhou, some familiar details she find are the amenities of the hotel. One thing she finds that makes her realize she is not in America is the shampoo she finds in the bathroom. She is constantly making comparisons between America and China because I think in a way she is making comparisons between herself and being Chinese and trying to find her differences and similarities.

Week 4- Interpreter of Maladies

In this story, I feel as though I am reading about 3 separate lives. The life of Mr. Kapasi, the life of Mr. Das and the kids, and the life of Mrs. Das. The life of Mr. Das and the kids is, in a way, separate from Mrs. Das' life on her own. Yes, she is physically there, sometimes, when she is not isolating herself in that way, but she is mentally absent. She is self-absorbed and does not show her love (if she has any) for her husband or for her children. I believe that this self-absorbed isolation began after her affair with Mr. Das' friend that stayed with them for a week while he was interviewing. The affair lead to the birth of Bobby. Neither Boddy nor Mr. Das is aware of the affair, or of the fact that they are not biologically related. Mrs. Das has kept this a secret and plans to keep it a secret from her family. For this reason, I look down so much on Mrs. Das' character. She is dishonest, unloving, selfish, and lost. She is a very unhappy person who cannot see past her own dismay in order to realize what is in front of her. She has a devoted husband, 3 children whom love her, especially her daughter, Tina.
I want to cover the questions at the end of the story from the book:
1.I think Mr. Kapasi sees them as foreign in the way that they dress, they belongings they carry, and in the way that they relate to each other. Although he is used to foreigners, he says that there is something different about them, in particular, Mrs. Das. He entertains the idea of building a relationship with Mrs. Das because of her expressions of interest in his semmingly uninteresting and underwhelming life. Although he is flattered by her interest in him, he cannot move past her infidelity and how selfish she is.
2. Mr. Kapasi's encounter with the Das family may alter his sense of being Indian because although they appear Indian in their physical features (minus the way that they dress), nothing else about them resembles what he finds as important about his culture. You know this because of the places he takes them (religious shrines). He knows much about them and admire the fact that they find these things as interesting as he does. But after getting to know the Das family, Mr. Kapasi probably thinks more highly of himself.
3. The thematic significance of Mrs. Das' revelation to Mr. Kapasi is that things may seem shiny and beautiful on the outside, but once you learn about their foundation, their upbringing, their story, you might not find those things so appealing. It is human nature to be attracted to things that we find attractive.

Plot of Sonny's Blues

1.       Read the first few paragraphs and then stop. What potential for conflict do you see here? What do you expect to happen in the rest of the story?  (For this particular story, what effect does the use of “it” throughout the first two paragraphs have on you as a reader?)

a.       I see potential conflict between two brothers over life decisions. I can see that one brother has lost contact with another and is now shocked to find out that his estranged brother has been busted for drugs during a raid. I expect the story to unfold a troubling relationship between the two brothers, to provide some background, and to see their relationship as it is now unfold. The use of the word “it” makes me feel as though “it” is being used to replace a description of an even that happened that is so horrible that he doesn’t want to say it aloud, or talk about “it”. It means to me that this brother cares deeply for the other, otherwise he would not be bothered so much by the article.

2.       What is the inciting incident or destabilizing event? How and why does this event destabilize the initial situation?

a.       Sonny and the Narrator have an argument about Sonny becoming a musician. The narrator disagrees with this decision. This event destabilizes the initial situation because it is the new reason for rise of conflict between Sonny and the narrator.

3.       How would you describe the conflict that ultimately develops?  To what extent is it external, internal, or both? What, if any, complications or secondary conflicts arise?

a.       The conflict that develops is the narrators struggle between being happy with his success and wanting to escape the hurt of his past and, now, his present with his brother. I think that the conflict is predominantly internal, but with the secondary conflicts being external. Some example of the secondary conflicts in the story would be the location of where they live, how hard it will be for Sonny to escape his world of drug addiction with that lifestyle still surrounding him every day.

4.       Where, when, how, and why does the story defy your expectations about what will happen next? What in this story—and in your experience of other stories—created these expectations?

a.       At the end of the story when Sonny’s brother goes to watch him perform, I didn’t think that would ever happen, but even furthermore, I did not expect for Sonny’s brother to have the realization that he did while watching him perform. He finally sees how music is Sonny’s escape, and the way that the story was set up, with his brother always doubting and never allowing himself to experience those feelings that there may be hope after all for his brother, made me feel that the story would end like that. I felt as though this was not a story that would provide a hopeful feeling in the end, I thought it was going to be more of a realistic, very small step in the right direction at the end, possibly. When instead, he had a revelation.

5.       What is the climax or turning point? Why and how so?

a.       The climax is definitely when Sonny and his brother begin arguing in the apartment. They both share their feelings of anger, and struggles with abandonment, etc. Sonny’s brother admits to not being able to fully understand Sonny and his desire to be a musician. This is the climax because this is where it all comes out, everything that has been unspoken and just buried beneath the surface, is spoken out loud.

6.       How is the conflict resolved? How and why might this resolution fulfill or defy your expectations? How and why is the situation at the end of the story different from what it was at the beginning?

a.       The conflict really does not get fully resolved until the very end of the story when Sonny’s brother goes to watch him perform. I see this as resolution because it means that his brother is at least opening up to the idea that he actually knows nothing about Sonny’s world, and maybe there are things that he needs to see in order to understand why he makes different life choices than what he thinks Sonny should be making. This situation at the end of the story is completely different from in the beginning because in the beginning Sonny’s brother was always doubting and disagreeing with everything that Sonny says and thinks (even if he did not voice it every time). Now, he is opening himself up to Sonny’s world, where Sonny gives his brother a different meaning to the word success.

7.       Looking back at the story as a whole, what seems especially significant and effective about its plot, especially in terms of the sequence and pace of the action?

a.       The way that the author paints a picture of what Harlem is like, for the rest of us to understand it, really gives significance to the struggles and challenges of everyday life there. It also gives huge significance to the success that Sonny’s brother has as a teacher with a family. The plot is effective in setting the pace for the story in the sense that you can tell when something is going to happen with Sonny, and it helps you to understand the feelings and decisions made of each of the characters.

8.       Does this plot follow any common plot pattern? Is there, for example, a quest of any kind? Or does this plot follow a tragic or comedic pattern?

a.       The quest in the story is definitely for the two brothers to grow closer, build a relationship, or at least to understand each other. There are many tragedies throughout, stories of people dying and other stories of substance abuse.

Journal 2

I am choosing to reflect on the short story regarding a wife that murdered her alleged lover. When I first started reading this story I had ill feelings towards Mrs. Uhl. As the story progressed however, I couldn't decide whether to stay upset at the fact that she had an affair with a man or to be mad at myself for pre-maturely judging a woman who could have been attacked by a bigger and stronger person than she. This is a story that I will never know how to feel about because I do not know the end verdict. It makes me want to find out whether she was found guilty of murder, or acquitted of her charges due to self-defense. In which case I would think that her husband would feel bad for not believing her. This story is easy to relate to because it is non-fiction.

Journal 1

I read the play, Oz in high school. I expected for the play to be similar to the classic Wizard of Oz. I chose to read this play knowing that I would have the opportunity to travel with my class to Chicago and experience this play live. I loved reading the play and as it progressed I realized that it followed the same storyline as the classic Wizard of Oz but that it had also been modernized a bit. For me, I enjoyed that. As a young reader, it made the play more fun for me to read. Reading the play lead me to make the decision to go to Chicago with my classmates and watch the play live. I loved Oz. Watching Oz live was the highlight of my trip to Chicago. As I watched the play, I do feel like I learned more about the characters by reading the play rather than watching it. The combination of reading and watching Oz made me more likely to read and watch more plays in the future.


On another note, I remember reading the book Phantom Tollbooth when I was in 3rd grade. At the time, the book was a little hard to grasp. I thought that the characters were very intriguing. Also the places described in the book were very though-provoking. Looking back now, I understand the meaning behind the various names and places of the characters and towns, but not being able to fully grasp that when I was younger definitely allowed for my mind to wander while I was reading, making it difficult to answer questions about the book and it's characters. To really understand the story there are substantial key points relating with the places that the characters visit that I feel as though I missed out on. It did however inspire me to read the book again when I was in middle school, just for fun.