Part I:
I enjoyed reading both of the stories required for Thursday's class. Both of these stories had some degree of suspense to them, which can bait the reader into the story. And it definitely did for me, because as I was reading both of these stories, I kept telling myself "What the heck is going to happen? I MUST KNOW!!!" Plus, "A Rose For Emily" kept throwing me off on what was going to happen, which made it even more enjoyable to read. Just when I think I have the ending figured out by predicting what will happen, the story does something different. It makes me wonder what's going to happen next. It is as clear as day that Miss Emily dies somewhere near the end, because she's dead in the introduction to the story and it sort of calls a flashback to her life in the story. But how does she die is what I was always wondering. It's suspense... keeping the reader guessing about what's going to happen, which I enjoyed doing. The same goes for "The Lottery". Reading through this, I already was sucked into the story, thinking "Who's going to win the lottery?" But then my initial thoughts changed when the Old Man said that people weren't like they used to be. Then I got a sudden uneasy feeling that something is not going to end well, since people want to win this lottery. And of course, greed and not losing with dignity can definitely fall into place, which made me think somebody's not going to get a happy ending. But who? Both of these stories had me constantly guessing what's going to happen to who, and I definitely enjoyed that. I recommend both of these stories for people who likes suspense but hate stories that are really, really long.
Part II:
Both of these stories have one thing in common, suspense, as stated in the first part of the blog. "The Lottery" is a good example of a story that builds up to the ending by being foreshadowed by text at an earlier point in the story. "The Lottery" actually had two separate suspense moments that manifest themselves throughout the entire story. The first one that probably most readers are going to notice right away is the lottery itself. That's what the story is about, these people in a traditional annual lottery that they want to win. Initially, readers are going to get sucked into story thinking "Who will win the lottery?". Which makes sense, since everything seems quite calm and people are waiting for the big moment to happen. When the lottery actually begins, the moment of suspense then builds up, but then the story takes a bit of an unexpected twist. There happens to be a winner in the story, but then Tessie Hutchinson suddenly shouts out that the drawing wasn't fair. Then the entire lottery started over again. This now sparks the other moment of suspense, that Tessie was able to get them to restart the lottery. Now, because of people's general need for greed and wanting to win when something like the lottery is in play, this made me think that something bad is definitely going to happen. This confirmed that moment of suspense when Old Man Warner commented on people aren't being the way that he remembered. That definitely will make people think something bad is going to happen. And turns out, something bad does happen. Now it ends up as Tessie being the winner of the re-drawing and this makes the population rather ticked off at her. Then the people actually throw stones at her and the story ends with her commenting "it isn't fair". By Tessie's first commenting on the lottery not being fair, it foreshadowed that something awful was going to happen to her in the end. A lesson can actually be taken from this story, and it's a simple one: Don't try to change something like a lottery winner just because you want the prize yourself. If you do and the re-drawing winner ends up being that person, people are going to get a little ticked off at the person. And only bad will come out of a situation like this.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Blog No. 4, Mar 14th
Part I:
The assigned reading for Thursday "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" was very good. I can honestly say that this is one of the best works I have read for this class. Probably the reason I think it's so good is that it definitely relates to life for some girls in a sense. As shown, Bernice wasn't one of the "popular" girls, and Marjorie wasn't quite keen of Bernice's anti-social and quite "awkward" company. So she ends up trying to help Bernice become more popular-like with the boys. It can definitely seem familiar to people as this is something that has probably happened in high school or something. The story mostly is a struggle of identity and asks us: "Who the heck are we"? Bernice goes through this typical journey of identity throughout the story, much like what some students go through in high school, especially those labeled as unpopular. This is why I feel it's such a great short story. It can tie into people's lives very well, especially those in high school. It does teach a valuable lesson of identity that most people can learn without having to go through similar events that Bernice had to face.
Part II:
Fitzgerald sees the use of "identity" as something that can easily become manipulated. It is not set in stone in any way, shape, or form. Especially in a world where judgement on people is passed every day, identity can change in a heartbeat. For example, say there is a girl in school who is very popular, she's a "queen of the world" type of person. Then all of the sudden, this girl has to get braces and her appearance and voice change. Odds are, people will say that she looks like a geek. So her identity to the general public has greatly shifted from queen to geek in seconds flat. In the story "Bernice Bobs Her Hair", however, this change of identity is the complete opposite. Bernice takes a radical change from an anti-social, awkward girl into a perfect princess so to speak. She also seemed to be quite shy around boys at the beginning of the story. But this shy identity is soon destroyed when she finally gains the attention of the boys at the dances. This change from awkwardness to being the perfect girl wasn't the only change her identity takes in the story. Near the end, when Bernice was pretty much pushed into actually bobbing her hair, thus destroying her image, she goes into Marjorie's room in the middle of the night and cuts off both of her pigtails and leaves them on Warren's porch before she leaves. This shows a change in Bernice's identity in that she has changed from her normal timid self. After what Marjorie has done to her newfound popularity, she decided to take action and do a very gutsy thing to her cousin. This shows that she's no longer a shy girl but rather one who wants to take charge of her own life now. And revenge on Marjorie for backing Bernice into a corner would be one way to show her new identity.
The assigned reading for Thursday "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" was very good. I can honestly say that this is one of the best works I have read for this class. Probably the reason I think it's so good is that it definitely relates to life for some girls in a sense. As shown, Bernice wasn't one of the "popular" girls, and Marjorie wasn't quite keen of Bernice's anti-social and quite "awkward" company. So she ends up trying to help Bernice become more popular-like with the boys. It can definitely seem familiar to people as this is something that has probably happened in high school or something. The story mostly is a struggle of identity and asks us: "Who the heck are we"? Bernice goes through this typical journey of identity throughout the story, much like what some students go through in high school, especially those labeled as unpopular. This is why I feel it's such a great short story. It can tie into people's lives very well, especially those in high school. It does teach a valuable lesson of identity that most people can learn without having to go through similar events that Bernice had to face.
Part II:
Fitzgerald sees the use of "identity" as something that can easily become manipulated. It is not set in stone in any way, shape, or form. Especially in a world where judgement on people is passed every day, identity can change in a heartbeat. For example, say there is a girl in school who is very popular, she's a "queen of the world" type of person. Then all of the sudden, this girl has to get braces and her appearance and voice change. Odds are, people will say that she looks like a geek. So her identity to the general public has greatly shifted from queen to geek in seconds flat. In the story "Bernice Bobs Her Hair", however, this change of identity is the complete opposite. Bernice takes a radical change from an anti-social, awkward girl into a perfect princess so to speak. She also seemed to be quite shy around boys at the beginning of the story. But this shy identity is soon destroyed when she finally gains the attention of the boys at the dances. This change from awkwardness to being the perfect girl wasn't the only change her identity takes in the story. Near the end, when Bernice was pretty much pushed into actually bobbing her hair, thus destroying her image, she goes into Marjorie's room in the middle of the night and cuts off both of her pigtails and leaves them on Warren's porch before she leaves. This shows a change in Bernice's identity in that she has changed from her normal timid self. After what Marjorie has done to her newfound popularity, she decided to take action and do a very gutsy thing to her cousin. This shows that she's no longer a shy girl but rather one who wants to take charge of her own life now. And revenge on Marjorie for backing Bernice into a corner would be one way to show her new identity.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Blog No. 3, Mar. 7th
Part 1:
Both of the assigned readings for Thursday were both quite strange but at the same time I liked them. For example, "The Yellow Wallpaper" confused me quite a bit at first when I sat down and read it. But after re-reading it, I was better able to figure out what the main driving point of it was. It actually connected somewhat to my life, as currently I'm suffering from an illness. The narrator of this story starts by having a more normal illness, affecting physical health but as the story progresses this illness gets better but a new one is made... a mental illness. A & P was definitely a weird but humorous short story that made me laugh, especially near the end. A & P helps show the point that we humans don't exactly think straight, especially when it comes to the opposite sex. As these three girls in swimsuits came into the A & P, the narrator's boss tells them that the girls are inappropriately dressed. Just that alone caused some sort of strange thought to enter the narrator's head, and quit his job just because of what his boss said. After he left the A & P, the narrator couldn't even find those girls anymore. Which means he just quit for nothing. While it does sound stupid, it ties into the tradition that people do stupid things when dealing with the opposite sex.
Part 2:
For this part of the blog assignment, the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" will be discussed. As stated in the first part of the blog, the narrator apparently starts out in this story very sick, physically anyways. Not being able to move around much in the place where her friend John has temporarily decided to stay, she begins to notice some very strange things. Mostly, this is because of the hideous wallpaper that exists in the room where she is held. At first, she really just doesn't like the wallpaper, and that seems to be a rather sane opinion. However, as her physical illness begins to heal, she begins to adapt a mental illness, as is shown when she believes that the designs of the wallpaper are actually moving. She reveals her extreme dislike towards the wallpaper near the end of the story by going completely insane and she just starts tearing it up. The transition from having a physical illness to going completely insane due to wallpaper is the transformation that the narrator is going through throughout the course of the story.
Both of the assigned readings for Thursday were both quite strange but at the same time I liked them. For example, "The Yellow Wallpaper" confused me quite a bit at first when I sat down and read it. But after re-reading it, I was better able to figure out what the main driving point of it was. It actually connected somewhat to my life, as currently I'm suffering from an illness. The narrator of this story starts by having a more normal illness, affecting physical health but as the story progresses this illness gets better but a new one is made... a mental illness. A & P was definitely a weird but humorous short story that made me laugh, especially near the end. A & P helps show the point that we humans don't exactly think straight, especially when it comes to the opposite sex. As these three girls in swimsuits came into the A & P, the narrator's boss tells them that the girls are inappropriately dressed. Just that alone caused some sort of strange thought to enter the narrator's head, and quit his job just because of what his boss said. After he left the A & P, the narrator couldn't even find those girls anymore. Which means he just quit for nothing. While it does sound stupid, it ties into the tradition that people do stupid things when dealing with the opposite sex.
Part 2:
For this part of the blog assignment, the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" will be discussed. As stated in the first part of the blog, the narrator apparently starts out in this story very sick, physically anyways. Not being able to move around much in the place where her friend John has temporarily decided to stay, she begins to notice some very strange things. Mostly, this is because of the hideous wallpaper that exists in the room where she is held. At first, she really just doesn't like the wallpaper, and that seems to be a rather sane opinion. However, as her physical illness begins to heal, she begins to adapt a mental illness, as is shown when she believes that the designs of the wallpaper are actually moving. She reveals her extreme dislike towards the wallpaper near the end of the story by going completely insane and she just starts tearing it up. The transition from having a physical illness to going completely insane due to wallpaper is the transformation that the narrator is going through throughout the course of the story.
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