Contrast the difference in styles between these two stories.
The first thing I really noticed reader John Cheever's, "The Swimmer", was his lack of structured dialogue (when people spoke at all). Within a paragraph someone might say a sentence or two, but it's not until when Ned talks to Mrs. Halloran (on page 2048) that an exchange between two characters is indented. It's also at this point that the reader learns a little more about Ned than just his thoughts and actions which is all we've had to go on until now. In Ned's conversation with Mrs. Halloran the reader gets a sense that something's wrong (she mentions being sorry about his misfortune and he can't remember it). The next two conversations he has, both of which are in a traditional dialogue form different from the beginning, also reveals things about him; Grace Biswanger who unexpectedly greets him very rudely and reveals he asked her to borrow $5000.
In contrast, Flannery O'Connor's, "Good Country People", has a lot of dialogue and followed different people throughout (as opposed to "The Swimmer" where the action was solely dependent on Ned). By showing all the action which lead to the big ending event of Joy/Hulga having her artificial leg stolen, O'Connor kept the tale as her bio says, "moving inevitably toward completion. It seemed to me that to get to the climax of the story, O'Connor followed all relevant action whereas Cheever started his story after something took place. Personally I liked O'Connor's better because I felt like I had a clearer picture.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Sunday, April 1, 2007
*Their Eyes Were Watching God*
Discuss some of the ways women are treated in the text, and what Hurston's trying to say about the treatment of women.
The treatment of women throughout the text was my biggest complaint of the book – it was so angering to read. Women were completely taken advantage of or abused, regarded as property and beaten; and yet they allowed it to happen. I realize it was a reflection of the time and assume that it was Hurston's goal to bring the problem and its absurdities to light.
The very beginning of Janie’s story when she describes her family gives the reader a clear picture of women’s place at that time; they were treated more like property than humans. Janie’s Nanny (her grandmother) was born a slave and was forced to have Janie’s mother with her slave owner. Janie’s mother too was raped, but by her school teacher and then abandoned to have her baby. Janie too was treated like property which could be seen in her first marriage to Logan Killicks; she seemed to be traded from her grandmother to him.
Janie, unhappy with Logan, ran away with Joe Starks to be free and happy. However, though she felt free at the beginning, slowly that faded. I got the feeling as I read, that Joe’s constant ordering her around, was a lot like the beating her Nanny described in chapter 2. As a slave Nanny didn’t fight back against her master’s wife hitting her because if she had it would have been worse. Instead Nanny had tried to pacify her to stop the beating. Janie acted the same way with Joe: “The years took all the fight out of Janie’s face. For a while she thought it was gone from her soul. No matter what Jody did she said nothing. She had learned how to talk some and leave some. She was a rut in the road. Plenty of life beneath the surface but it was kept beaten down by the wheels.” (Ch. 7, p. 76) In this way Hurston showed that though free, when a man is allowed ultimate dominance marriage could be a type of slavery for a woman both physically and emotionally.
Tea Cake, who Janie truly loved and was free with, was still a flawed man. He too beat Janie once, and disturbingly, it wasn’t because of her. It was his jealousy over Mrs. Turners brother and need to show his dominance to others that he hit her. However, despite this he made Janie happy and was the first man that allowed her to be herself.
The treatment of women throughout the text was my biggest complaint of the book – it was so angering to read. Women were completely taken advantage of or abused, regarded as property and beaten; and yet they allowed it to happen. I realize it was a reflection of the time and assume that it was Hurston's goal to bring the problem and its absurdities to light.
The very beginning of Janie’s story when she describes her family gives the reader a clear picture of women’s place at that time; they were treated more like property than humans. Janie’s Nanny (her grandmother) was born a slave and was forced to have Janie’s mother with her slave owner. Janie’s mother too was raped, but by her school teacher and then abandoned to have her baby. Janie too was treated like property which could be seen in her first marriage to Logan Killicks; she seemed to be traded from her grandmother to him.
Janie, unhappy with Logan, ran away with Joe Starks to be free and happy. However, though she felt free at the beginning, slowly that faded. I got the feeling as I read, that Joe’s constant ordering her around, was a lot like the beating her Nanny described in chapter 2. As a slave Nanny didn’t fight back against her master’s wife hitting her because if she had it would have been worse. Instead Nanny had tried to pacify her to stop the beating. Janie acted the same way with Joe: “The years took all the fight out of Janie’s face. For a while she thought it was gone from her soul. No matter what Jody did she said nothing. She had learned how to talk some and leave some. She was a rut in the road. Plenty of life beneath the surface but it was kept beaten down by the wheels.” (Ch. 7, p. 76) In this way Hurston showed that though free, when a man is allowed ultimate dominance marriage could be a type of slavery for a woman both physically and emotionally.
Tea Cake, who Janie truly loved and was free with, was still a flawed man. He too beat Janie once, and disturbingly, it wasn’t because of her. It was his jealousy over Mrs. Turners brother and need to show his dominance to others that he hit her. However, despite this he made Janie happy and was the first man that allowed her to be herself.
Thursday, March 8, 2007
*Stevens and Moore - lyric line*
Compare one poem from one author in regards to sound elements that exist.
I don't usually take too much more from poetry than what can be found on the surface, so needless to say Marianne Moore and Wallace Stevens's poetry went way over my head. What I did get out of them was their rhythm and flow as I read.
In Moore's poem, "What are Years", and in Stevens's "Anecdote of the Jar", there was a very choppy or fragmented flow. Moore uses groupings of phrases and similar ideas to to achieve this: "What is our innocence, what is our guilt? All are naked, none is safe...". While Moore's stanzas run into each other, Stevens's "Anecdote" did not. Through his punctuation in seemingly odd places, he causes the flow to be disrupted.
I don't usually take too much more from poetry than what can be found on the surface, so needless to say Marianne Moore and Wallace Stevens's poetry went way over my head. What I did get out of them was their rhythm and flow as I read.
In Moore's poem, "What are Years", and in Stevens's "Anecdote of the Jar", there was a very choppy or fragmented flow. Moore uses groupings of phrases and similar ideas to to achieve this: "What is our innocence, what is our guilt? All are naked, none is safe...". While Moore's stanzas run into each other, Stevens's "Anecdote" did not. Through his punctuation in seemingly odd places, he causes the flow to be disrupted.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
*T.S. Eliot*
Consider how "The Waste Land" is different than most of the rest of the modernists you've read so far and how Eliot embraces the modernist movement.
After reading T.S. Eliot's poem "The Waste Land", I honestly had no idea what he was trying to say (I seemed to have gotten lost somewhere looking between the poem and all of the footnotes.) So, in my opinion, its the complexity of Eliot's poem which separates him from the other writers. William Carlos Williams for example, would never have needed footnotes to translate or explain references in his poetry. His subjects are simplistic but what he says has a deeper meaning that can be explored easily. "The Waste Land" however, is excessively complex and it's deeper meaning is very well hidden beneath all the layers.
From what I did understand in the poem it's easy to see that Eliot was a modernist. The title alone creates a picture in my mind of ruin. Also the language that Eliot uses, even just in the first section, doesn't give the reader an uplifted feeling: "April is the cruellest month", "dead land", "Dull roots", "A heap of broken images", "dead tree" and "no relief" are just examples from the first 23 lines. I thought "A heap of broken images" was the most important phrase because it goes along with the idea of a fragmented world which has been a theme of all the modernists we've read so far.
After reading T.S. Eliot's poem "The Waste Land", I honestly had no idea what he was trying to say (I seemed to have gotten lost somewhere looking between the poem and all of the footnotes.) So, in my opinion, its the complexity of Eliot's poem which separates him from the other writers. William Carlos Williams for example, would never have needed footnotes to translate or explain references in his poetry. His subjects are simplistic but what he says has a deeper meaning that can be explored easily. "The Waste Land" however, is excessively complex and it's deeper meaning is very well hidden beneath all the layers.
From what I did understand in the poem it's easy to see that Eliot was a modernist. The title alone creates a picture in my mind of ruin. Also the language that Eliot uses, even just in the first section, doesn't give the reader an uplifted feeling: "April is the cruellest month", "dead land", "Dull roots", "A heap of broken images", "dead tree" and "no relief" are just examples from the first 23 lines. I thought "A heap of broken images" was the most important phrase because it goes along with the idea of a fragmented world which has been a theme of all the modernists we've read so far.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
*Native American Oratory*
Impressions of Zitkala Sa's (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin) narrative. What do you see as the overall message in this portion of text?
The impression I got from this reading was of Zitkala's innocence and the beginning of that innocence's end. In section 4, The Coffee-Making, Zitkala attempts to show the warrior kindness and hospitality and acts as she thinks is best, but her naivety and lack of experience causes her to mess it up. Also, in section 3, The Beadwork, she recounts how she used to chase her own shadow, not realizing the connection between her movement and its fleeing. This innocence is what causes her to trust the palefaces. She forgets her mother’s warnings of them from the beginning (that they caused her uncle and sisters death) and begs to be allowed to leave with them. (I found it ironic that the translator was tempting her with apples – almost like Eve and the snake.)Upon leaving with them she begins to be afraid, comparing herself to ‘a captured young wild creature.’ (pg. 1019)
Also I felt a big message was that of community and tradition, which like her innocence is beginning to fade.
The impression I got from this reading was of Zitkala's innocence and the beginning of that innocence's end. In section 4, The Coffee-Making, Zitkala attempts to show the warrior kindness and hospitality and acts as she thinks is best, but her naivety and lack of experience causes her to mess it up. Also, in section 3, The Beadwork, she recounts how she used to chase her own shadow, not realizing the connection between her movement and its fleeing. This innocence is what causes her to trust the palefaces. She forgets her mother’s warnings of them from the beginning (that they caused her uncle and sisters death) and begs to be allowed to leave with them. (I found it ironic that the translator was tempting her with apples – almost like Eve and the snake.)Upon leaving with them she begins to be afraid, comparing herself to ‘a captured young wild creature.’ (pg. 1019)
Also I felt a big message was that of community and tradition, which like her innocence is beginning to fade.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
*Washington and Du Bois*
Consider how Washington and Du Bois are "in conversation" with one another. How do their respective opinions differ?
In W.E.B. Du Bois's work, “Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others” Du Bois responds to Washington’s Atlanta Exposition Address of 1895 and states that “the time is come when one may speak in all sincerity and utter courtesy of the mistakes and shortcomings of Mr. Washington’s career, as well as of his triumphs, without being thought captious or envious, and without forgetting that it is easier to do ill than well in the world.” (pg. 885)
In Washington’s address, he expresses the idea that “the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremist folly, and that the progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forging.” (pg. 763) He is not, as many blacks would, demanding equal rights and reform immediately, but believes rights will come as the race proves itself by contributing to the country. He also says “No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilting a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities.” (pg. 761-2) When he says to ‘cast down your buckets where you are’ he’s referring to the south and that they should help themselves so that they will “be prepared for the exercises of these privileges [the law.]” (pg. 763)
Du Bois does not agree at all with Washington’s idea of how to gain equality. He says “Mr. Washington represents in Negro thought the old attitude of adjustment and submission… and Mr. Washington’s programme practically accepts the alleged inferiority of the Negro races.” (pg. 888-9) Du Bois describes Washington’s idea as a policy of submission which forces them to give up political power, insistence on civil rights and higher education of youth which concentrating solely on industrial education, acclamation of wealth and conciliation of the South. He questions Washington’s theory by asking “Is it possible, and probable, that nine millions of men can make effective progress in economic lines if they are deprived of political rights, made a servile caste, and allowed only the most meagre chance for developing their exceptional men?”(pg. 889) Whereas Washington advocated his races own efforts to succeed and achieve equality, Du Bois promotes the idea that blacks should press for civil rights; “By every civilized and peaceful method we must strive for the rights which the world accords to men…” (pg 893)
In W.E.B. Du Bois's work, “Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others” Du Bois responds to Washington’s Atlanta Exposition Address of 1895 and states that “the time is come when one may speak in all sincerity and utter courtesy of the mistakes and shortcomings of Mr. Washington’s career, as well as of his triumphs, without being thought captious or envious, and without forgetting that it is easier to do ill than well in the world.” (pg. 885)
In Washington’s address, he expresses the idea that “the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremist folly, and that the progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forging.” (pg. 763) He is not, as many blacks would, demanding equal rights and reform immediately, but believes rights will come as the race proves itself by contributing to the country. He also says “No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilting a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities.” (pg. 761-2) When he says to ‘cast down your buckets where you are’ he’s referring to the south and that they should help themselves so that they will “be prepared for the exercises of these privileges [the law.]” (pg. 763)
Du Bois does not agree at all with Washington’s idea of how to gain equality. He says “Mr. Washington represents in Negro thought the old attitude of adjustment and submission… and Mr. Washington’s programme practically accepts the alleged inferiority of the Negro races.” (pg. 888-9) Du Bois describes Washington’s idea as a policy of submission which forces them to give up political power, insistence on civil rights and higher education of youth which concentrating solely on industrial education, acclamation of wealth and conciliation of the South. He questions Washington’s theory by asking “Is it possible, and probable, that nine millions of men can make effective progress in economic lines if they are deprived of political rights, made a servile caste, and allowed only the most meagre chance for developing their exceptional men?”(pg. 889) Whereas Washington advocated his races own efforts to succeed and achieve equality, Du Bois promotes the idea that blacks should press for civil rights; “By every civilized and peaceful method we must strive for the rights which the world accords to men…” (pg 893)
Friday, February 2, 2007
*Regionalism*
Late into the evening on a cool August night, just as the sun began setting over the lake, a man walked through the vineyard with quick decisive steps, making his way from row to row. The grapes which were his screen against watchful eyes had been protecting him for several months as he had traveled and they served as his most useful safeguard to avoiding detection besides the endless expanse of trees. Ducking with each sound from the roadway the man laughed to himself at the irony of the situation; all his life he had hunted deer and other animals in the area but now he was the hunted.
It had been almost four months since his escape from prison and since then the area had exploded in activity in an attempt to find and arrest him again. State policemen were called in and news trucks never seemed to leave. So much excitement in such a quiet, rural area where interesting is a rarity and excitement has never happened before created a lot of discussion, especially as time wore on with no capture. The man, Ralph, was not unaware of the attention. However, he knew that if it had been a different region or at a different time of year, he never would have escaped detection for so long.
While mostly cool in late summer, nights in the winter would have been tortuous and impossible, with; lake effect white outs so bad you can’t see your hand in front of your face and wind that can make your breath feel frozen inside of you. The woods however, even before the mild summer weather, were his best alliance. A seemingly endless expanse of birch, elm and oak trees so dense in places that no one but locals could successfully find their way. And then there were the farms – grape vineyards mostly but also hay and corn where a man could just disappear into the fields. With so much land and so few people around there were more places to hide than people in the towns. The towns themselves were nothing too impressive; mostly little or no shops, abandoned buildings and one traffic light if they were lucky, the perfect picture of a deteriorating community.
It had been almost four months since his escape from prison and since then the area had exploded in activity in an attempt to find and arrest him again. State policemen were called in and news trucks never seemed to leave. So much excitement in such a quiet, rural area where interesting is a rarity and excitement has never happened before created a lot of discussion, especially as time wore on with no capture. The man, Ralph, was not unaware of the attention. However, he knew that if it had been a different region or at a different time of year, he never would have escaped detection for so long.
While mostly cool in late summer, nights in the winter would have been tortuous and impossible, with; lake effect white outs so bad you can’t see your hand in front of your face and wind that can make your breath feel frozen inside of you. The woods however, even before the mild summer weather, were his best alliance. A seemingly endless expanse of birch, elm and oak trees so dense in places that no one but locals could successfully find their way. And then there were the farms – grape vineyards mostly but also hay and corn where a man could just disappear into the fields. With so much land and so few people around there were more places to hide than people in the towns. The towns themselves were nothing too impressive; mostly little or no shops, abandoned buildings and one traffic light if they were lucky, the perfect picture of a deteriorating community.
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