Final Blog :)

At the beginning of the semester, I really did not know much about writing, especially writing literary analysis papers. This class taught me what a literary analysis was and how to write one. My researching skills became better developed also. The grammar lessons that we did, clarified some of the grammar things that I struggle with. The most helpful guides were the quotes and comma lessons. Strategies that helped were when we just talked together as a class, because we listen to each other and realize things on our own. That helped me think more about those types of things when I read by myself. The easiest paper for me to write was the Dr. Faustus one. This was probably because I had already done two papers, but I think I actually liked what I was writing about because it was kind of weird. It made me feel smart that I had looked at the play in a way that I could not find other sources on. I do not really like writing about things that have already been written about. The most helpful lesson was the one on commas, because I always use them wrong. I definitely feel more prepared to write college papers.

Poetry Packet

All of the poems portrayed women as the victim. Beyonce claims that if she was a boy she would know how to treat a woman right, insinuating that men don't know how. Well, if you have ever heard the remix where Beyonce features R. Kelly, R. Kelly claims thats if she really was a boy then she would understand,but she is not so there is no way she knows. The second poem, "Sold" by John Michael Montgomery clearly portrays a woman as an object. I do not think that was his intentions but after reading it, that is exactly how it appears. He bids on her and describes only her exterior appearance. He does not even know her and claims he would give her anything to make her his. "Sexism" by David Lehman talks about the different emotions of men and women regarding sex. A male wrote this and portrays men as not really caring about the woman they are with, all they really care about is getting laid. The woman though, is just happy that he came to see her, even if he is drunk and going to leave in an hour. The final poem is a children's poem. I got out of it that boys are slimy and dirty, and women are sweet and nice.

"The Flea"

The flea is told by a girl who's first love was of the boy who is symbolized by the flea. The flea ventured off and cheated on the girl. This is apparent because it says he bit her first and then moved on to another and bit her too. The flea is happy with himeself because "Yet this enjoys before it woo." The girl was hoping to marry the flea. Her parents dislike the boy but they meet again, and she falls in love once again. She is weaker now because she let him get away with it once so he knows he can do it again, and she is worried he will do it again. In the end, the flea dies and she is miserable now.

Poetry

I did not learn much of anything about poetry in high school. When we were on poetry units we would read poems and then they would ask us what they were about. We would tell them what we think and then usually they would be like no this is actually what is being said. But I think that is wrong because some poetry should be completely up for individual interpretation. I don't like poetry because it is too abstract. I feel like if you have something to say, say it. The only poems I like are fun ones, like Dr. Seuess's. Defininging poetry is difficult because there are the ones who follow specific rules, and then there is a category for poems who don't follow any rules. I guess I would say a poem is anything that someone writes that flows out of them, with no real reason.

End of Faustus

In the last scenes of Dr. Faustus realizes he made a mistake in turning to the dark arts. He was encouraged to repent many times, and the question was is it too late? Since he never did really try to repent until the end of the story, no one really knows. We are left thinking about how far is too far. In the end Faustus lived his life happily with the dark arts but when it was over and he was damned to Hell, he wanted to be forgiven and taken back. He wanted to the have his cake and eat it too, in a sense. He gained knowledge from working with the Devil but didn't want to pay the consequences.

Dr. Faustus 6-10

When Dr. Faustus sees Lucifer, he calls him ugly. Then the Seven Deadly Sins appear and tell Dr. Faustus about themselves which makes him really excited. He asks Lucifer to take him to hell. Dr. Faustus asks Mephistopholis to make him invisible and bring him to Rome, so he does. Once in Rome, he goes to the Pope and taunts him. He steals his meat, steals his drink, warns him not to do the cross, and finally hits him.The friars start singing and Mephistophilis and Faustus beat the friars too. Ralph and Robin attempt to do magic too, but Mephistophilis gets mad and turns one into an ape and one a dog. The emperor comes and asks to see Faustus do his magic because he has heard he is the best. Faustus denies being the best and brings Alexander the Great and his Paramour up.

Dr. Faustus Scene 5

In scene five the good angel and the bad angel come back. the good one does not want him to continue doing magic and the evil angel tells him to. Mephistophilis comes back and then goes to hell. He tries again to warn Faustus that working with the devil is not very much fun. The devil dresses up as a woman because Faustus wants a wife.

Dr. Faustus Post 1

Faustus asks his friends Cornelius and Valdes to teach him how to do magic. The three of them will work together to force people to listen to them. They are going to spend all their time perfecting their skills. They will get better by studying former magicians. I think that Faustus will use these to two to get stronger and once he gets better than them he will kill them. Dr. Faustus is going to become extremely powerful and since he is so conceited he will not feel bad about any destruction he causes.

Refelction on Semester

I think so far the semester has been going really well. I like when we spend time going over the story because I feel like when we all discuss it together we figure out what it is about together. I have trouble finding the symbolism in the stories so sometimes it's frustrating when it seems like everyone else sees it and I don't, but I like listening to what other people got out of a story. I like the grammar guides because they are really helpful. The quizzes are hard sometimes because although I read the stories as closely as I can I still tend to see the big picture and not remember all the details, like names. I also like working in groups because working with other people is a skill that everybody will benefit from and it gives us a chance to get to know each other better.

Beauty and the Beast

The Beauty and the Beast is set in the city at the very beginning and then they have to move out in the country. The rest of the story occurs in the Beast's palace. It happens during the winter. It is told in third person omniscient.

Bartleby and the "The Birthmark"

Both stories' plots were in media res. All the characters in "Bartleby, the Scrivener" were not motivated, not plausible, consistent, and only the lawyer was dynamic. "The Birthmark" had two motivated and plausible characters. One was consistent while the other was not. "The Birthmark" also included a dynamic character, a foil character, and a static character. We learn by reading these two stories back-to-back that the way a story is told (plot} is important to what the readers get out of it. We decided that we would have liked "Bartleby, the Scrivener" to be read like a flashback. We also learned that different character types are suitable for different stories.

Class Discussion

The class discussion on race was pretty intense. I didn't like how we were asked to describe the stereotypes and when we did, I felt like we were called racists. There are stereotypes of all races-white people can't dance, and are not very good at sports. I also don't agree that the African Americans and Native Americans are traumatized because we took everything away from them, because we didn't. Our ancestors took it from their ancestors, and I think with the new generations coming up the race issues will get lesser and lesser. There's always going to be racism, but it's a mutual thing. In fact, white people get judged by other white people too. Also, by adressing race issues, I think it makes them more apparent. There shouldn't be a channel called Stars in Black if we don't want to emphasize our differences. What our ancestors did was wrong, but in order to get over it, the issue needs to be dropped.

Reaction to First Paper

Our first paper was really hard for me because I haven't written a paper since high school. I had no idea what MLA was and was really overwhlemed. My professor in high school never corrected what I was doing wrong, she'd just give me a bad grade, which was no help at all. After this paper it should get easier, though.

The Metamorphosis

A second reading of The Metamorphosis allowed me to subconsciously think more about the elements involved, than the actual story. A first read gives the major outline of a book, but because you already know what happens, you pay more attention to the details. There is so much imagery in this short story. You can picture the scene perfectly because it not only tells you what is there, it tells you precisely what it looks like. I also noticed that the author slips in quite a few short sentences to make it seem like you are right in the action. The sentences have to be short because in life, things change in a second, so it has to do this in your mind too. I've never really read a book more than once, but after learning so much by rereading this one it makes me want to read all my favorite books again.

Sources

Hutchings, William. "Structure and Design in a Soviet Dystopia: H.G. Wells, Constructivism, and Yevgeny Zamyatin's We." Journal of Modern Literature, 9.1 (1981): 81-123. EBSCO. Web. 31 January 2011.

Parrinder, Patrick. "Imagining the Future: Zamyatin and Wells." Science Fiction Studies. 1.1 (1973): 17-26. JSTOR. Web. 3 February 2011.

"Totalitarianism." Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2011. Web. 31 January 2011

Zamyatin, Yevgeny. We. Trans. Natasha Randall. New York: Modern Library, 2006. Print.

Every line after the first of a source gets a hanging indent.

Thesis

For my paper, I am going to write about how the author warns of the dangers of a totalitarian government. At the time he was writing this novel, there wasn't really a term for this kind of government, but the later definition describes the cipher's lives perfectly. If given the chance, government will control all aspects of life.

Prediction

Before I finish the book, I would like to guess how it will end. At the point I am at right now, D-503 has to decided whether he wants to be with the one he loves, or be "happy." They are performing operations on them to get rid of every one's imagination. The government has decided that without this "sickness" everyone will be happy. I-330, though, is still rebelling. She doesn't want to be cured. More than that, she doesn't want D-503 to get the operation done either. Does she really love him or is she simply using him? I think she is just using him because it is obvious that she picked him for the reason that he has access to the Integral. It's possible that she fell in love with him during the process of changing him, but it is unlikely. The only thing I-330 loves is freedom. Maybe if D-503 follows through with the plan she eventually could love him, but for the moment she just wants to live. If the story follows its pattern, D-503 will follow through with the plan because he always does what she wants. But books like to surprise us, so I think he will get the operation after he helps I-330 escape.

D-503 did end up getting the operation but he did not help I-330 escape. In fact, he actually led her to her death. Once he gets his operation he can't even believe that he once had such crazy thoughts. It took great power to get him to realize that she only used him. That's the way love is; your heart thinks more than your head. Logically, you understand that something isn't right, but your heart overrides these thoughts and prevents you from seeing it. The only character who has a truly happy ending is O-90 because she escapes and gets live with her child and the rest of the unnumbered people.

State of the Union

Personally, an important issue that Barrack Obama brought up was the education points. I am double majoring in elementary and special education. Getting rid of No Child Left Behind is a good thing for me. Hopefully the new Race to the Top program will be beneficial. He put emphasis on the importance of educators. We need to further our education in order to be on top of the world economy.

I also thought it was interesting that the Democrats and Republicans sat next to each other. Usually, they are split in the middle. At times it looked like it was kind of awkward because every-other person would be standing up, while the other people sat.

It was kind of annoying how they clapped after everything the President said.

Living in the One State

The thing I would dislike most about living in the One State would be the loss of a family. My family is very close, and I can't imagine not having that relationship. These days, there are many different varieties of families. Some people have more than two generations living in their household. Some live in single parent homes. I live in the traditional, mom, dad, kids home, although my dad is gone most of the time working. I'm the youngest and was heavily influenced by my siblings, especially my sister. Over the last couple of years she has not only been my sister but one of my best friends. We share the same group of friends and if we hadn't grown up together we probably never would've becam friends.

Reader-Response

Love is a powerful thing. It can make people do crazy things. When I read We, I get the feeling it is about something more than totalitarianism. There is a powerful love story behind it. You can't use logic to figure out love, most of us know this. D-503finds this out first-hand. He knows what he should do, but there is something keeping him from doing it. He even goes as far as to convince himself he will do what is right, but at the last minute he can't get himself to do it. His love for I-330 is so strong that he would do anything for her. The government did their best to keep anything like this from happening, but it the end you can't keep stop love.

We Post Number One

Style: The author writes in a purposefully messy way. He makes the reader feel like he or she is really in D-503's head by cutting sentences short and jumping from thought to thought. He also uses mathematically terms a lot to enforce the that thought everything can be calculated to perfect life.


Tone: I think it has a mocking tone. The author is ridiculing society for the way it is. In this futuristic One State, they think it is funny how we used to do things. I don't know maybe this is way off, but that's what I get out of it.


Irony: I think an ironic moment occurs after D-503 and I-330 have sex. When O-90 comes over for her turn, D-503 tells us he can't. He says I should, but i mustn't. Today, you shouldn't have sex with two people but for them, it was like a duty.


Plot: The plot occurs in a chronological order. It's a diary, with an occasional flashback; like the one of him in school.


Characterization: The author tells us how the characters are by giving physical descriptions which also relate to their personalities. We also learn about the characters through their actions. D-503 is a dynamic character. We watch as he transforms from as he puts it the "real me" to "sickness." So far O-90 seems to be a static character. She does as she's told. 

Setting: The story occurs in the One State, in spring of many years from today. 

Symbolism: Cipher I-330 represents the old ways of freedom, fun, and sin.

Theme: What would happen if government controlled every aspect of our lives?

Point of View: The story is told through D-503 in a first person narrative of a major character.

About Me

Hey! This is my first year in college and so far I love it. I decided to go to USD because I wanted to stay in state, and I didn't know what I wanted to do. A few months after school started, I decided to double major in elementary and special education.

Throughout high school I was involved in activities. My favorite one was gymnastics. As a freshman in high school I only competed varsity vault, but the last three years I competed all four events. My senior year was filled with many injuries, keeping me from participating in some of the meets. As a junior I experimented with drama club and had a part in one of the school plays. Also that year, I helped plan and set up prom as a prom co-chair. Senior year I participated in DECA and was the class secretary. In the summer, I play co-ed softball.

Working is something that has always taken up a lot of my time. I started working at Hardees at the beginning of freshman year. I was a cashier for two years, but when I turned sixteen my boss began training me to become a supervisor. I also learned how to cook. I am still currently employed there. I have also taught gymnastics seasonally in the fall and summer.

In my spare time I like to read, color, play Just Dance, cook, watch movies, and hang out with my friends and family.