Bastard Out Of Carolina

During the class discussion the question of sympathy for Anney came up. Of course it's impossible to say that I would have done this or I would done that in a similar situation. But I just don't feel that I would have stayed with Glenn like Anney is doing. While the lie Glenn tells can be very believable, it's just crazy that she would sit by and watch. The fact that he builds on old lies to justify the beatings makes it tricky. On the other hand, I feel like I would know my child well enough that she wouldn't say something like that. If Anney had asked Bone, said to her in private, is this what really happened then Bone might have opened up, because she was so emotional and vulnerable at that point. Instead, Anney almost accuses Bone, and repeatedly asked her what she did wrong. Of course Bone isn't going to open up when she has the feeling that her own mother might not believe her, and thinks that if her mother believes she had done something to deserve this abuse, then maybe she really has.

I guess looking back, I didn't really feel sympathy for Anney anymore after the whole bathroom incident. She enabled Glenn completely. I'm sure that she didn't think that Bone could hear her having make up sex with Glenn, but by doing that it was a slap in the face to Bone. But the major turning point for me came when she was accused of beating her child in the emergency room. Hearing the harsh words of the doctors, and the evidence of continual brutal abuse Anney had to know that Glenn was taking his "punishments" too far. After this I felt myself judging Anney. Get over yourself. I get it that she has had a hard life, with Bone's dad leaving and Reese's father getting killed. I understand that she just wants to be loved. I also understand her stubbornness, how she doesn't want to go back home to her family because then they would have known she failed. But come on, these are your children. The abuse that Bone has suffered is getting to the point that it's life threatening. She has a broken tailbone, a broken collarbone, tons of bruises that never go away. Anney is obviously in denial. I just can't feel sympathy for a woman who has an out, someone who has a way to get out of a situation that is negatively harming your child, but doesn't. If Anney was all alone in the world with nowhere to turn, then I might feel a little, tiny bit of sympathy. But I won't feel sorry for her.

A Dog Sleeping On My Feet

After discussing the poem A Dog Sleeping On My Feet in class I had a new found appreciation for the poem. I really liked how Dickey started off the poem by being literal- the author was sitting in his chair beginning to write a poem, with his faithful companion sleeping on his feet. This was such a cute image. For some reason I imaged an old man with gray hair sitting in his easy chair with a fire and just relaxing with his dog that he's had for quite a while. The poem starts out very simple, and straight forward, there is nothing confusing and is just exactly what the author says. Then the tone changes, and us as readers go into the dogs mind. I never would have thought to take an approach like that when writing poetry, and I think that's the reason why I was so confused when I tried to get through this poem the first time.
At the point when the dog is supposedly taking over the poem, the reader feels rushed and very excited. That is exactly how most dogs are, especially if they are getting ready to go outside and hunt or something like that.
When the author comes back into the front of the poem its like his whole body is being taken over by writing the poem, not just his mind. The line that I feel shows this is: " My hand, which speaks in a daze The hypnotized language of beast." To me this shows that the author was actually imaging that he was a dog, or that he was following a dog in the woods, something like that.
In my notes I had written down: "Poems are instinctive, the hound represents the author while the fox represents the words and the thoughts." I'm not sure if I came up with that or if someone said it in class- but that sums up this poem for me.

Walking On Water

I decided to write my blog about the poem Walking On Water. I really liked the images that Dickey used to describe the beach: "I stepped from the clam-shell beach, breaking in nearly down through the sun where it lay on the sea." This was a really powerful image for me, because being from Long Island I am surrounded by beaches and I could actually get a vision of this beach in my head. I'm not really into poetry, so analyzing poems is something I was never good at. I was getting the idea that it had religious undertones, with the walking on water image. Also the line, "Leaving behind me no footprint, but only the shimmering place of an infinite step upon water." That made me think of Jesus, or some all knowing, all seeing, all powerful deity.

A Streetcar Named Desire (The Play vs The Movie)

I really enjoyed watching the movie version of A Streetcar Named Desire, mostly because I find reading a play with all the stage directions, and the way the character is supposed to be delivering the lines completely distracting. On the other hand, I like to have the freedom to imagine the characters in my own way. After watching the movie, I could never go back and read the play without having the movie version of all the characters in my head. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does limit my imagination.

In the movie, I was able to get a much more clear picture of Blanche. She comes across as completely self centered, and conceited. While, the reader was able to get this idea from the play every aspect of the character revealed this in the movie. From the way Blanche was dressed (compared to Stella and Eunice) and the way that she rambles really shows the audience from the start that Blanche is not all there. That was another thing that irked me about the movie. Blanche was completely insane! They way she talked it was so hard to understand anything that she was saying. While, maybe that was the intention of the director it began to get annoying at times. While the play did detail the way that Blanche makes Mitch act towards her, it was made that much more clear in the movie. The best example I can think of, is when Mitch presents flowers to Blanche. She makes him take them back, and present them in a way that she finds fitting. It just goes to show how she takes advantage of men, and how she really didn't believe that Mitch was good enough for her. The best way the movie shows that Blanche is a complete nut job is when Mitch turns the light on her. She starts shaking, her eyes bug out of her head, and she is having what looks like an anxiety attack. She is mumbling, and hearing the music in her head. When the light is actually turned on, it looks as if Blanche is in physical pain the way she cowers away from the light. The way the actress makes her eyes bug out of her head if very effective to show the craziness of Blanche.

Overall, the movie was helpful in showing how everyone in the movie was CRAZY, not just Blanche. They all needed mental help if you ask me. Stanley was an alcoholic, womanizer, who needs to go to anger management. Mitch was a 30-something mama's boy who needs to get out and live life. And Stella was completely obsessed with Stanley and couldn't see past her sexual attraction. They all need to join Blanche in the crazy house.

A Streetcar Named Desire

This was a very interesting play. Tennessee Williams shows us a different view of the gender roles we were used to seeing during his time of writing. While some other authors criticized the Southern Belle image indirectly, to me Williams takes it head on. He portrays Blanche as a whore, straight up. It's not very subtle in the fact that she got kicked out of seedy hotel, and us as the readers can only imagine why. We see her seduction of a young boy, and we also see how she's trying to bait Mitch. However, with all this being said- Williams in a way still makes us feel bad for her character. When it is finally revealed that Blanche is not a prim and proper Southern Belle, Mitch rejects her. He states that she is not clean enough to be in the house with his mother. We see that all of Blanche's lying and manipulative actions were necessary for her survival. She is not cut out to adapt to the ever changing world. America is turning industrialized, and Blanche is stuck in a time where women marry rich men who take care of them.

Stella plays a more conventional role of a lady, she stays at home with her child. Stanley dominates her and even abuses her, and she still stays with him. She believes Blanche's story when it comes to Stanley raping her, but states that she couldn't go on living with Stanley and believe Blanche. She chooses a man over her own sister. I think by this part in the play, we see that Stella isn't the good character we assumed she was.

Stanley plays the typical male role. He is domineering and aggressive. He brutalizes Stella and all of his friends- he runs his friends. No matter what they say, he always has something to say. He has to be in charge. He rapes Blanche as a way to get back at her for calling him common, and thinking that she is above him. He humiliates her and takes away any notion that she is better than him.

Overall, I really liked this story. It was a different take on the southern literature we are used to. There was a different kind of racism, and discrimination. We even see black people playing a power role, in Stella and Stanley's landlord is a black women. This play was a good break from the norm of what we've been reading so far.

A Streetcar Named Desire

We were introduced the all the main characters of this story right off the bat, but the most interesting by far was Blanche. From the get-go I knew she was a liar, she was so sketchy from the very beginning. Especially when Stanley was undressing. She seemed all into it, and was watching and flirting with him. This seemed to be foreshadowing for later on in the piece when all the secrets about Blanche's past start to come out.
I really liked how some things about the French Quarter were incorporated into this piece. I'm researching this for my paper, and the point of the story when Blanche doesn't want to go out on the stoop with Mitch because she's isn't properly dressed, and he dismisses it and says it doesn't matter in the quarter. This made me think of modern day Mardi Gras where people have very little inhibitions and act in a way they wouldn't normally. Things are taken less seriously in this part of the world.
I found a strong connection to Their Eyes Were Watching God in the theme of domestic violence and the romanticizing of that violence. When Stanley hits Stella, Blanche is outraged at the fact that Stella seems to brush it off as if it was nothing. But Stella says the same things that it seems Janie's character would say. As long as the man truly loves you, and is truly sorry it doesn't matter what happened. It just shows the passionate love that they shared. Stella explains that she is madly in love with Stanley and even though he hit her, she would never leave. As long as the violence was out of love, it's OK. Also, the fact that Stanley was drunk- Stella chalks it up to the fact that this is what men do. They play poker and drink, and she made it seem as if it was somehow her fault that she got hit. I find this dynamic of passionate love, to the point of accepting domestic violence to be very interesting.

Zora Neale Hurston

"How It Feels To Be Colored Me" was a very interesting and thought provoking piece. One quote that really stuck in my mind throughout the whole reading was when she was talking about how slavery was 60 years in the past. "Someone is always at my elbow reminding me that I am the granddaughter of slaves. It fails to register depression with me. Slavery is sixty years in the past. The operations was successful and the patient is doing well, thank you. The terrible struggle that made me an American out of a potentila slave said 'on the line!' The Reconstruction said 'Get set!'; and the generation before said "Go!' I am off to a flying start and I must not halt in the stretch to look behind and weep. Slavery is the price I paid for civilization, and the choice was not with me. It is a bully adventure and worth all that I have paid through my ancestors for it. No one on earth ever had a greater chance for glory. The world to be won and nothing to be lost. It is thiriling ot think-- to know that for any act of mine, I shall get twice as much praise or twice as much blame. It is quite exciting to hold the center of the national stage, with the spectators not knowing whether to laugh or to weep." (417)

This quote was amazing to me, that Hurston took a look at slavery and put some kind of a positive spin on it. Especially since today almost 200 years after slavery has been abolished there are still people blaming the hardships of thier lives on the fact that their ancestors were slaves. I do not intend to make light of the serious topic of slavery, nor do I intend to come across as saying that slavery hasn't in some ways impeded the African American population. I only mean to point out the fact, that sixty years after slavery was abolished, I can guarentee that it was harder then in the year 2007 for African Americans. If Hurston could feel this back then, I don't see why more people can't take this out look now days. Perhaps, I am reading too much into her writing, or I am being un-realistic. Surely, this wasn't the normal view for this time period, but I believe it is a good one. Today we see billionaires who are black in Oprah and Tiger Woods, we see Barack Obama (Presidental Candiate, hopefully), we see Colin Powell, and Condaleezah Rice. African Americans have a say, and are powerful in today's society. I think Hurston was ahead of her time in taking this attitude of "Im black and I'm proud."

Katherine Anne Porter

While reading "The Old Order" by Katherine Anne Porter I was amazed. I never thought that a writer in this time would write about the friendship between a black women and a white women. The fact that Sophia Jane kept Nannie with her for her whole life, was just great. While we saw when we further examined the piece that Nannie wasn't exactly an equal in the friendship, she was still highly regarded in the eyes of Sophia Jane.
I loved the imagine of Sophia Jane and Nannie sitting on the porch and making a quilt, making coverings for the antiques in the house. It showed how they were protecting their past, even though they were not really sure they loved and missed the past so much.
Sophia Jane was an amazing and confusing character for me, on the one hand she was so independent- farming, taking care of her finances, and things a man would "normally" do. But then on the other hand she did what she was told, or what she thought she was expected to do. For example she was worried that she had not pleased her sons enough, and had not spoiled them enough. Another confusing instances was when she was talking down about her son's wives. She dislike the one because she was out farming her land, and wanted to take a honeymoon chasing the cattle, even though Sophia Jane herself had done these things. She also hated the other for dying during childbirth. I mean, it seems like the latter wife was doing what she was "supposed" to do and staying at home to have children, and she still hated her. It was amusing.
I thought that Chopin was going to be the only female we read that defied gender roles and had the nerve to talk about such things. I was happy to see that Katherine Anne Porter was more of the same.

Kate Chopin

This week, we read three amazing stories by Kate Chopin. These were definitely my favorite assignments thus far in the class. The one story that really struck me was Desiree's Baby. I have found myself telling people who are not in the class about the story, and have been discussing it with other people who are in the class saying how sad it was to me. Perhaps, being half black and half white myself this story hit close to home. I can easily imagine a time where being 1/4 African could be looked down upon so much, partially because it still happens today. I know that I have been discriminated against, and so have my sisters. While, I'm pretty light to be half black, one of my sisters is a lot darker than me- and I know she's had people come up to her when she's been with my mom and ask if she's adopted. People can be so ignorant, and while most are accepting, it seems like not a lot has changed from the time of Chopin's story.

My mom always tells me stories of when she would be in the doctors office with my two younger sisters and I and people who ask her if all her children had the same father. Strangers! They would just come up to my mom and think it was their business to find out if we all had the same father. It was completely inappropriate and quite offending to my mom. It just goes to show that some people are still obsessed with race.

The story to me just was terrible, because I wanted everything to work out for Desiree. It's crazy of how people judged, and jumped to conclusions. I wish there was a sequel to the story so the readers could find out what Armand Augbigny did when he found out HE was actually the one with "tainted" blood, and that it came from his family- one of the oldest and proudest names in Louisiana.

Reading Frederick Douglas was an eye opener. First off, him not knowing his birthday or even how old his was was completely insane to me. I mean, I love my birthday and I would be so upset never knowing when it was. The descriptions of the brutal force used by plantation owners was great was amazing, even though it wasn't anything I didn't know before. But once again, I got the most out of the in class discussion. I really liked how we all talked about the reasons why the masters were the way they were, and the politics behind slaves.

What I got out of this piece was the way we could draw conclusions from Douglas' writings, I found it so interesting that we could see a transformation right in front of our eyes. At first, we saw Douglas with nearly no emotion. He recalls his mother's death, and how he never felt a connection to her, and didn't even seem effected by her death. Then, we see when he moved to Baltimore, he starts realizing that slavery is wrong- that being a slave for life is not something he wants to be. We see him learn about abolitionist, and we know as readers that Fredrick Douglas became one of the most powerful abolitionists in history.

Another thing I found interesting was the language Douglas used, he was straight foward, and not very graphic, but the mental images you got were disturbing enough. I couldn't have imagined if he had used extremely graphic language, I'm not sure I would have enjoyed it as much.

Basically, I really enjoy the class discussions, debating the stereotypes of the south, the unjust treatment of the slave owners, and the reson why slaves were important.

George Fitzhugh

This week, my favorite part of class had to be the class discussion on George Fitzhugh's piece. I really liked how we tried to to look at slavery as an economic factor rather than about black or white. While I am certainly not advocating slavery in any way I felt that Fitzhugh made some very valid points. He brought up valid points, unlike those views of Thomas Jefferson on how the south flourished with the use of slaves. At least Fitzhugh used logical thoughts, while Jefferson just believed that the Africans and native Americans were smelly and just biologically different. Plus, the type of economy just wouldn't have been possible without someone doing the dirty work. If you think about it, the south still doesn't flourish the way it did back in those old days.

Someone pointed it out in class that since slavery was made illegal we just pushed it off to different countries. I believe that pretty much everyone in America would say that slavery is wrong...however, out of those people look down and see how many are wearing Nike sneakers (and I'm guilty of this) that were produced in a sweatshop, I would consider that a form of slavery.

Fitzhugh, in my opinion tried to make the point that they didn't enslave the Africans because they were black, and that the motives weren't racist ones- they enslaved them because the lower class white people of the south were educated well enough to know that they couldn't be forced to work in fields with no pay. Clearly, the Africans were exploited...but it was necessary.

John Smith

While the piece "A Description of New England" was quite confusing on the surface, the class discussion helped me gain alot of insight. The old language used was difficult to follow, and I felt that the account was quite dry. However, after looking more deeply into exactly what John Smith was trying to say it became a little more understandable. John Smith wanted more Englanders to come to the new lands and use the earth for their gain. It just goes to show how ironic John Smith's stance on others coming to Virgina. The whole reason the English left was because they felt held down by the rule of the King, John Smith felt that the Native American's were savages that needed to share his values and religion. He was trying to impose his morals on a group of people that were surving just fine in their way of living. He was doing the same exact thing that he fled. Also, it showed how he used a sort of propaganda. John Smith tried to will people to come to Virginia by bragging about the rich natural resources that were prevelant. While this is true, his account is majorly exaggerated.

Reading John Smith's other account where he refers to himself in the 3rd person was also an eye opener. I felt that anything John Smith said in that in that account was practically unreliable. The fact that he was talking about himself in teh 3rd person shows that he was trying to make a name for himself. John Smith was hoping to be a legend.

I also liked how we watched a clip from the Disney movie Pocohantas. It just showed how everything gets turned around and made to be so nice and fluffy. Really, John Smith was an old man, and Pocohantas was a teen age girl. I'm sure they were not in love, and in actuallity she never even marries John Smith. Strange.