In the poem "Daddy" Plath reveals her emotional struggle with her father's death. She goes deep into her herself and expresses all that she feels. She describes the hurt and anger she feel against her father. This poem fits well into the genre of confessional poetry because she openly discusses her feeling about her father.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Week 2, question 1
Confessional poetry is poetry that is personal and autobiographical. It openly discusses private feelings and personal experiences such as fears, relationships, depression and death. Confessional poetry received a lot of criticism because of it strait forwardness. Sylvia Plath is a well known poet for her writing of confessional poetry.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Week 2 Question 3
when Armand's father brought him from Paris he was eight years old. wouldn't a child of this age have recollection of what his mother looked like? the description of Armand on page 663 was that his face was dark and handsome. when Madame Valmondé came to visit she did not mention anything to Désirée about the baby's race because Désirée was so happy and she may have questioned Désirée's race due to the fact that she did not know her families history. the people working for him knew of his race but out of fear never told him the truth. i think Chopin was showing that the child brought a change in Armand's perception of what a family should be based on race more so than Désirée. he made a decision not to be with his wife because he thought she was black. the story never said that he did not love them. he was ashamed of what he thought was her race. Désirée did not want to end her marriage and i do not believe that she was not going to accept him if she knew that he was the one who was black. before she left she asked Armand, "Do you want me to go?" if he had said no. i believe she would of stayed. as a result due to his rejection of them, she ended up killing herself and the baby because he no longer wanted them.
Week 2, Question 3
I really do not think that the baby in Chopin's story "Desiree's Baby" has a real purpose towards the marriage. That is the basis of the story is not really around the effects of a baby, but the effects of racism. Desiree's baby is simply a turning point in the story, portraying an individual's true form, Armand and even Desiree, "...tell me it is not true...I must die. I cannot be so unhappy and live" (664). Chopin is trying to show that marriage, and even further family, sees no color. Armand had fallen in love with an african-american woman, fathered an african-american baby, and at one point lived a life with both in unconditional love. However, the mere knowledge of an unequal race, of the time, living in his home turned him into a heartless and spiteful man. I find great irony in the end of the story, "...Armand will never know that his mother, who adores him, belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery" (665), where the very reason he disowned his wife and son, burdened his own family. Desiree and him had a lot more in common than he thought. Chopin truly exposes ignorance of past societies, in particular slavery and inequality among race. Armand owned slaves, was cruel to slaves, was married to an african-american woman, and was among their race himself! It goes to show love is from within and family should be sacred, regardless of underlying conditions.
Week 2, Question 2
Jacob Pino
Upon first read of Sylvia Plath's "Daddy" I get the feel of a very disturbed woman who has faced numerous hardships in her life. Either an orphan or homeless wanderer, she has been shackled to her father's memory and forever confined to the emptiness that he left within her; which she tries to fill with suicide and men who resemble her father. In the beginning it only seems to be a mild anger towards her father for leaving her, but the end, "They are dancing and stamping on you...Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I'm through." (Clifford and Schilb, 265), suggests that her anger is actually animosity for something unknown he may have done. However after reading a little background on Path I learned that she grew up middle-class and educated. Her father died when she was eight and her deep resentment for her father really has no base. Rather than her father committing some kind of harmful act towards her, his death alone is what seems to have sparked her feelings towards him. Her suicide attempt, "At twenty I tried to die" (265), may only be a cry for the attention she lacks from her father. She titles the poem "Daddy", rather than father or dad, suggesting a diction of endearment, however her poem suggests such anger and rage. And now, after reading her background the mere loss of her father is what effected her so deeply that she cannot overcome it. Unfortunately it seems she may never. The background really gives a different perspective of Path's situation. She is just a woman painfully missing her daddy.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
week1 question 3
What we talk about when we talk about love
This short story provides the reader with two of the most common types of love people deal with. People often believe that life is either black or white. Mr. Carver focused on two types of love, spiritual and obsessive to include violence. Mel, a character in this short story believed in spiritual love, he inherited this type of love while spending five years in a seminary. Terri, Mel’s second wife was previously married to a man who loved her but was described as being violently obsessed with her. Terri’s first husbands Ed beat her and wanted her dead. Terri and Mel went back and forth on this subject debating whether it was love or not, Terri insisted it was and Mel felt it was impossible to think this man loved her. Mel’s belief on his spiritual love is the more traditional take on what love is and should be. My personal belief about love relates more with Mel’s definition. However, I do understand Terri’s belief and also agree with her to an extent. Terri’s past experience of love is not traditional on any level. Her experience of love somewhat challenges my personal beliefs because I do understand Terri when she says that she knows that Ed loved her. I do not agree with hurting someone you love but some people are unable express emotions like others and in a sick way it was obvious he loved her because he untimely killed himself on account of him not being able to have her. This is an odd and nauseating form of love but in terms of “black and white” I can understand that Ed truly did love Terri. I suppose this is a type of romantic love even though it is somewhat challenges my beliefs of romantic love. Ed was obsessed with Terri, he could not live with or without her and in a disgusting way this is a form of love. It’s hard for me to declare his love any less precious then Mel’s current love for Terri. I am a romantic lover that lives like Mel but Ed was also a romantic lover.
This short story provides the reader with two of the most common types of love people deal with. People often believe that life is either black or white. Mr. Carver focused on two types of love, spiritual and obsessive to include violence. Mel, a character in this short story believed in spiritual love, he inherited this type of love while spending five years in a seminary. Terri, Mel’s second wife was previously married to a man who loved her but was described as being violently obsessed with her. Terri’s first husbands Ed beat her and wanted her dead. Terri and Mel went back and forth on this subject debating whether it was love or not, Terri insisted it was and Mel felt it was impossible to think this man loved her. Mel’s belief on his spiritual love is the more traditional take on what love is and should be. My personal belief about love relates more with Mel’s definition. However, I do understand Terri’s belief and also agree with her to an extent. Terri’s past experience of love is not traditional on any level. Her experience of love somewhat challenges my personal beliefs because I do understand Terri when she says that she knows that Ed loved her. I do not agree with hurting someone you love but some people are unable express emotions like others and in a sick way it was obvious he loved her because he untimely killed himself on account of him not being able to have her. This is an odd and nauseating form of love but in terms of “black and white” I can understand that Ed truly did love Terri. I suppose this is a type of romantic love even though it is somewhat challenges my beliefs of romantic love. Ed was obsessed with Terri, he could not live with or without her and in a disgusting way this is a form of love. It’s hard for me to declare his love any less precious then Mel’s current love for Terri. I am a romantic lover that lives like Mel but Ed was also a romantic lover.
week1 question 4
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock .....Wow, this poem was probably the toughed piece of literature I have read in a really long time. The contextual literature helped to better understand the poem it severed as a deciphering tool for me. I choose to focus on Malinda Hollis' writing because it made the most sense to me. In the poem Eliot had a way with had words, he danced around his emotions and this poem is similar to a riddle that had to be broken down to correctly understand. To me, Melinda is able to clearly explain some of the most confusing points in the poem. Melinda defines the character in this poem as not being a confident man rather, he is intimidated by women although he attempts to portray himself a tough confident man it is now clear to me his was not what the type of man that I assumed he was. I cannot confidently breakdown the poem and understand it so to me the different contextual literature's seemed right. The three different author's used good examples when translating the poem however, for me, Malinda's interpretation made the most sense.
Week 1, Question #7
Susan Hines
Ms. Amy Bolaski
English 103
June 27, 2009
Week 1, Question #7
Compare/contrast the two versions of “True Love”.
In comparing the two different versions of the poem “True Love” I can see and I can feel that each of the authors, Wislawa Szymborska and Sharon Olds, are each expressing a different sense of true love, one unattainable and one a reality. Wislawa is telling me what true love looks like as she describes the happy couple and she gives my mind an image of them laughing and allows my mind to imagine what the couple is saying to each other. Wislawa uses sarcasm to describe what true love feels like by depicting it as something worth putting up on a pedestal. I feel that she uses sarcasm to mask her jealousy and her pain. I feel that what Wislawa really feels is a longing for a true love that she cannot imagine herself ever getting to experience. In contrast, Sharon is telling me how true love feels by sharing her intimate thoughts. Sharon wants me to imagine and feel the love that she has which encapsulates her within its space which is the time and place she is in at the moment every moment. She wants me to feel the emotional peace that comes with true love and she shows me what true love looks like as she sits on the toilet and love is still there. Sharon found her true love years ago and still is embracing that feeling every day; the last line of her poem says “I cannot see beyond it” (579). Sharon is telling me that she cannot imagine her life without true love. Sharon has what Wislawa longs for.
Ms. Amy Bolaski
English 103
June 27, 2009
Week 1, Question #7
Compare/contrast the two versions of “True Love”.
In comparing the two different versions of the poem “True Love” I can see and I can feel that each of the authors, Wislawa Szymborska and Sharon Olds, are each expressing a different sense of true love, one unattainable and one a reality. Wislawa is telling me what true love looks like as she describes the happy couple and she gives my mind an image of them laughing and allows my mind to imagine what the couple is saying to each other. Wislawa uses sarcasm to describe what true love feels like by depicting it as something worth putting up on a pedestal. I feel that she uses sarcasm to mask her jealousy and her pain. I feel that what Wislawa really feels is a longing for a true love that she cannot imagine herself ever getting to experience. In contrast, Sharon is telling me how true love feels by sharing her intimate thoughts. Sharon wants me to imagine and feel the love that she has which encapsulates her within its space which is the time and place she is in at the moment every moment. She wants me to feel the emotional peace that comes with true love and she shows me what true love looks like as she sits on the toilet and love is still there. Sharon found her true love years ago and still is embracing that feeling every day; the last line of her poem says “I cannot see beyond it” (579). Sharon is telling me that she cannot imagine her life without true love. Sharon has what Wislawa longs for.
Week 1, Question #1
Susan Hines
Ms. Amy Bolaski
English 103
June 27, 2009
Week 1, Question #1
Choose a selection and explain how the concept of romantic love is treated. Does it offer a traditional take or challenge typical conventions?
John Updike’s story “A & P” is told as a monologue through the mind of Sammy, a 19 year old grocery clerk who is a romantic dreamer. Who else besides a romantic dreamer would see everything so passionately and see every detail so vividly? Who besides a person who longs for romance would share with you the littlest details so that you could be completely engrossed in the same place his mind is? Who else would write in a way that evokes every sense the reader has? Sammy is young and full of hope that some day he will find the love he dreams and fantasizes about. Sammy’s romanticism is depicted in his descriptive soft view of everything he sees. He sets the stage so that we, the reader, can feel like we are in the store with him, seeing every detail as he describes it. Sammy tells us about the three girls who enter the store in nothing but bathing suits and he describes in great detail what each suit looks like in color and texture and how each of the three girls are physically and characteristically different. He lets the reader see what he sees. Sammy brings to life for the reader his feeling of anticipation of seeing the girls when they had momentarily ducked out of his sight when he says “…and wait for the girls to show up again. The whole store was like a pinball machine and I didn’t know which tunnel they would come out of” (603). I believe that his is a wonderful analogy for what waiting for love really feels like. Sammy shares with us that after passing the girls in an aisle, a “few houseslaves in pin curlers even looked around after pushing their carts past” (602). I think that what Sammy was feeling was how sad it is that life goes on in such a mundane sad way daily for many who have not found romantic love. These “houseslaves” are his example of the need to not just settle and get by but instead to search and find a romantic love like the one he fantasizes about. When Sammy describes the way the barefoot queen girl walked saying that “she came down a little hard on her heels” it gave the reader a sound that they could imagine hearing in the store. After the girls have found the item they wish to purchase they are in his line at the register when Sammy is jerked from his romantic fantasy by his boss who has just come into the store and is displeased with the fact that the girls are only wearing bathing suits so he confronts them when they are paying for the item. This makes the girls eager to “be in a hurry to get out” (604). At the end of the story the author writes that Sammy quits his job after the girls have left the store. We are told that when Sammy walks out of the store he looks for the girls but they are gone. All Sammy sees is a “young married screaming at her children” (605). Sammy, in the story, describes to us his coworker Stokesie as “a responsible married man finding his voice.” (602). Sammy wants to be the happily married man .This to me represents the hope Sammy has that true love is possible and to find it Sammy feels he must leave the store and go in search of it.
Ms. Amy Bolaski
English 103
June 27, 2009
Week 1, Question #1
Choose a selection and explain how the concept of romantic love is treated. Does it offer a traditional take or challenge typical conventions?
John Updike’s story “A & P” is told as a monologue through the mind of Sammy, a 19 year old grocery clerk who is a romantic dreamer. Who else besides a romantic dreamer would see everything so passionately and see every detail so vividly? Who besides a person who longs for romance would share with you the littlest details so that you could be completely engrossed in the same place his mind is? Who else would write in a way that evokes every sense the reader has? Sammy is young and full of hope that some day he will find the love he dreams and fantasizes about. Sammy’s romanticism is depicted in his descriptive soft view of everything he sees. He sets the stage so that we, the reader, can feel like we are in the store with him, seeing every detail as he describes it. Sammy tells us about the three girls who enter the store in nothing but bathing suits and he describes in great detail what each suit looks like in color and texture and how each of the three girls are physically and characteristically different. He lets the reader see what he sees. Sammy brings to life for the reader his feeling of anticipation of seeing the girls when they had momentarily ducked out of his sight when he says “…and wait for the girls to show up again. The whole store was like a pinball machine and I didn’t know which tunnel they would come out of” (603). I believe that his is a wonderful analogy for what waiting for love really feels like. Sammy shares with us that after passing the girls in an aisle, a “few houseslaves in pin curlers even looked around after pushing their carts past” (602). I think that what Sammy was feeling was how sad it is that life goes on in such a mundane sad way daily for many who have not found romantic love. These “houseslaves” are his example of the need to not just settle and get by but instead to search and find a romantic love like the one he fantasizes about. When Sammy describes the way the barefoot queen girl walked saying that “she came down a little hard on her heels” it gave the reader a sound that they could imagine hearing in the store. After the girls have found the item they wish to purchase they are in his line at the register when Sammy is jerked from his romantic fantasy by his boss who has just come into the store and is displeased with the fact that the girls are only wearing bathing suits so he confronts them when they are paying for the item. This makes the girls eager to “be in a hurry to get out” (604). At the end of the story the author writes that Sammy quits his job after the girls have left the store. We are told that when Sammy walks out of the store he looks for the girls but they are gone. All Sammy sees is a “young married screaming at her children” (605). Sammy, in the story, describes to us his coworker Stokesie as “a responsible married man finding his voice.” (602). Sammy wants to be the happily married man .This to me represents the hope Sammy has that true love is possible and to find it Sammy feels he must leave the store and go in search of it.
Week One Discussion Questions, # 8
Jazmine Navarro
8. Our text categorizes Othello as a play about "jealous" love -- why do you think this (very general) thematic idea is the best/most ideal lens through which to look at Othello? How does Shakespeare introduce/develop the notion of jealousy?
In Act 1, Scene 1 Roderigo (with the help of Iago) begins to shout that thieves are robbing the estate of Brabantio, thus waking him and causing him to ask them to explain themselves. They say that his estate has been robbed, but not of material items, but of his daughter, Desdemona. They do this because Desdemona has married Othello and Roderigo is in love with Desdemona. This first scene begins the theme of the story – love and jealousy.
The story is best categorized as jealous love because it is just that. It shows the extent people will go when jealousy plays a part in love. Roderigo is jealous of Othello because he has Desdemona – the one thing we wants and even wanted to kill himself over her. Othello is jealous of Cassio because Iago manipulates him into believing that Cassio and Desdemona are having an affair. Iago goes as far as planting a Desdemona’s handkerchief in Cassio’s quarters. At one point Othello even falls into an epileptic fit because he is so consumed with jealousy over Cassio and Desdemona. All the while Roderigo is still there and is still jealous of Othello and Cassio. Iago then tells Roderigo that he must murder Cassio to be able to have a clear path to Desdemona and to keep them from leaving. Roderigo ends up wounding Cassio instead of killing him and Roderigo ends up being murdered. Meanwhile, Othello is planning to kill Desdemona and does so. After Othello finds out that Desdemona never had an affair with Cassio he tries to kill Iago, but fails, which kills Emilia and while trying to flee he is caught. Othello is then told he has to go back to be tried but ends up killing himself. The whole entire story is about someone being jealous of someone else’s love, which ends up in a blood bath, and no one really getting what they wanted.
week 1 question 8
The category of Othello in jealous love is very fitting, and I think that this theme is one of the most ideal lenses to view the play due to the entire play. The use of love and jealousy among the cast gives a good point of reference to see that play in terms of love, and how other affect that, or provoke feelings of jealousy. Iago is mad he didn’t get the promotion, and hatches a plan to make Othello pay. From the start of the play, jealous love is what sparks the series of events that leads to others creating other forms of jealousy. Roderigo inflamed, since the girl he loves and is trying to elope, Desdemona is with Othello. They excite Brabantio by making him jealous, and fearful of Othello, saying he’s trying to take his daughter away. The plot of Iago is to make Othello jealous and unsure of the fidelity of his wife, Desdemona. And last, another motivation for Iago, is where he mentions that Othello had an affair with his wife, and thus making iago jealous Othello, and to provide with enough of a reason to hate Othello.
Week One Discussion Questions, # 3
Jazmine Navarro
3. Does the selection you chose challenge the definition/beliefs you have about romantic love? How so? Does it correspond to your definition/beliefs? How so?
In Raymond Carver’s, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”, Terri has a very, well, different outlook on what love is. Her ex, Ed, showed his “love” by beating her up and at once instance almost killing her. She stands by her belief that even though he did these things to her he still loved her. Through out the story the reader find out that Ed killed himself which brings Terri to concluded that, “It was love….Sure it’s abnormal in most people’s eyes. But he was willing to die for it. He did die for it.”
Terri and I have very different views on what love is. I do not believe that love has to hurt. I do not think that is love at all – it is just dominance or a reach for dominance. If a man or women has to beat there significant other up or almost kill them to show how much he or she cares about him or her then that relationship is just unhealthy. There is nothing okay about domestic abuse and I do not think that any type of abuse equals love. Love is something that makes one happy – not scared for their life. Someone should not have to live in fear because of someone who claims to love him or her shows it in an unsettling and hurtful way. Love is something that fills one up with joy and it should always be that way – it should never elicit fear.
week one. question four
This poem messed me up for a few hours. I had a hard time reading this since I didn’t see the ‘love’ song connection. I actually have to read the critical contexts first, and then went back to re-read the poem. The critical context I’ll be talking about was Walcutt’s “Eliot’s ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Profrock.’” From the critical context, I first gained a general idea of what the poem was about. Luckily the first part of the first paragraph helped me realize what I was supposed to read somewhat neglected the “love song” part of the title. I also gained the thought like process in which the poem was written. I didn’t see the many connections before this review I did notice in the poem how the physical appearances where clearly a subject, but this review by Walcut, but the sexual tone that the hair brought with other ‘constant symbols’ that Eliot used. The question of marriage is led by Mr. Profock’s feeling of being inadequate (when talking about his scrawny appearance), and trying to formulate a proposal out of pity to move the potential engagement. I somewhat agree with the author that this was a marriage proposal, or at the least a big hook up moment. . The morning coat in a tea party was a bit of an eye opener, seeing how Profrock over killed the wardrobe for a tea party. I was amused when the writer wrote, that Profrock was so preoccupied, that it seemed like he lead himself to make it seem how he was unsure about this moment, so he aborted it, fearing ridicule. I don’t agree with this part of the critical context. I think that rather than being unsure of himself he was trying to be “careful, politic, and cautious” like polonius, and not like hamlet, which centered the scene. After reading this interpretation, which was the one I favored the most out of the rest of them, I felt like I had gotten a better grasp of what I had read. I had bits and pieces from this critique that I gathered most of my opinions from. But this review helped me see this poem more like the thought process before the moment, rather than something that was a love letter to someone.
Week 1, Question #3
In What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Carver, love is discussed by the four friends in many different forms. We see the passionate dangerous love that Terri experienced with Ed, the comfortable love between Mel and Terri, the new and exciting love between Nick and Laura, and the love gone wrong between Mel and Marjorie. This selection does not challenge my beliefs about love because I don't believe that there is one single definition for love. Love is a concept that means something different for everyone. Mel did not believe that Ed loved Terri because of the way that Ed abused her. While I agree with Mel that the kind of things that Ed did to Terri are not things that you do to a person you love there are people like Terri who believe that people can hurt you like that because they love you and don't know how to express their love. The kind of love that we see between Mel and Terri is what I believe most people share, quiet companionship. Nick and Laura have only been together for a short period of time and they are enjoying the adventure of the new and exciting which is what everyone experiences at one point or another in their relationship. Can it last forever? Anything is possible.
Week 1, Question # 1
In True Love by Szymborska, the concept of romantic love is treated cynically. She talks about the kind of love that most people search for and hope to find someday as something that is unnecessary. My belief is that she is scared and/or jealous of this type of love. She sees it as something that can hurt her if she were to let herself give into it. It is something to be avoided and ignored...."True love. Is it really necessary? Tact and common sense tell us to pass over it in silence, like a scandal in Life's highest circles." Her comparison of love to a scandal is interesting to me because it suggests something that is morally wrong. While I may agree with the overall idea that love does not make life better and happier I don't think that it is wrong to want to view love as making the world a better place.
It is true that love is not necessary but I believe that it is natural for us to want to make our lives better. Most people are not happy with what they have. They want to find the kind of love that is shown in movies or written about in novels, however, that kind of love does not last forever. In reality, love may start out like that but after a while love is what most people live with, friendship.
It is true that love is not necessary but I believe that it is natural for us to want to make our lives better. Most people are not happy with what they have. They want to find the kind of love that is shown in movies or written about in novels, however, that kind of love does not last forever. In reality, love may start out like that but after a while love is what most people live with, friendship.
Week 1, Question 2
Nikole Neiberger
Ms. Amy Bolaski
English 103
24 June 2009
What broader statement (theme) is the text making about romantic love? Why do you think so? (Theme is NOT a one-word answer but a complete idea)
The poem “True Love”, written by Wislawa Szymborska seems to have been written with a tongue in cheek appeal. The author writes about the type of elusive love we all long for. She asks the question “What does the world get from two people who exist in a world of their own?” in the first paragraph. A question that as a divorced woman I could ask myself if there was but one moment in a day I did not fill with things to distract myself from asking such hurtful questions. To stand outside a couple in love and look in is like shaking a snow globe and watching the snow fall in a surreal world that exists within a bubble. There is something magical and mythical there. In all bitterness those of us who have tasted the sorrow of being betrayed by the tongue of lying lovers, it is easier to deny the existence of love and remain safe in the bud, than to entertain the emotions that may once again prove deceiving. Sometimes the most frigid of people may be housing the most warmest of hearts, yet make great pains to ensure the rest of the world does not see it. The theme of the poem quite clearly is no matter where you are standing when love enters the room, either within the snow globe or simply observing, you can not deny its power, nor can you deny its existence.
Wislawa is correct to articulate the rarity of true love in comparison with the person who settles on companionship. In humor she says in reference to true love “Perfectly good children are born without its help. It couldn’t populate the planet in a million years. It comes along so rarely.” She is completely right on with this, the human race has reached the mass number of existence by lust, and less by true love which requires sacrifice, abandonment, and openness. We humans are creatures that do not desire to be alone, and will sometimes fill that void with whatever or whoever comes our way even to the point we occupy the space of “the one” with anyone and miss out on our opportunity of finding “true love”.
Ms. Amy Bolaski
English 103
24 June 2009
What broader statement (theme) is the text making about romantic love? Why do you think so? (Theme is NOT a one-word answer but a complete idea)
The poem “True Love”, written by Wislawa Szymborska seems to have been written with a tongue in cheek appeal. The author writes about the type of elusive love we all long for. She asks the question “What does the world get from two people who exist in a world of their own?” in the first paragraph. A question that as a divorced woman I could ask myself if there was but one moment in a day I did not fill with things to distract myself from asking such hurtful questions. To stand outside a couple in love and look in is like shaking a snow globe and watching the snow fall in a surreal world that exists within a bubble. There is something magical and mythical there. In all bitterness those of us who have tasted the sorrow of being betrayed by the tongue of lying lovers, it is easier to deny the existence of love and remain safe in the bud, than to entertain the emotions that may once again prove deceiving. Sometimes the most frigid of people may be housing the most warmest of hearts, yet make great pains to ensure the rest of the world does not see it. The theme of the poem quite clearly is no matter where you are standing when love enters the room, either within the snow globe or simply observing, you can not deny its power, nor can you deny its existence.
Wislawa is correct to articulate the rarity of true love in comparison with the person who settles on companionship. In humor she says in reference to true love “Perfectly good children are born without its help. It couldn’t populate the planet in a million years. It comes along so rarely.” She is completely right on with this, the human race has reached the mass number of existence by lust, and less by true love which requires sacrifice, abandonment, and openness. We humans are creatures that do not desire to be alone, and will sometimes fill that void with whatever or whoever comes our way even to the point we occupy the space of “the one” with anyone and miss out on our opportunity of finding “true love”.
Week 1, Question 3
Nikole Neiberger
Ms. Amy Bolaski
English 103
24 June 2009
3) Does the selection you chose challenge the definition/beliefs you have about romantic love? How so? Does it correspond to your definition/beliefs? How so?
In Raymond Carver’s story “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” there are definitely aspects that reinforce my philosophies on love. Passionate love is dangerous by nature. The intensity of having experienced such love is difficult to compare to the comfortable love that most of us settle into. There is much less risk in a domesticated quiet love in comparison to the loves of our youth when we feel love or love unrequited may kill us. In many ways those loves do kill us, because how can we say we are the same person we were before we loved another? There is truth in saying all lovers have left evidence of their presence in our souls. Pieces of our lovers haunt our thoughts and hearts. Although there may be some paths we may say we would never travel again; the internal roads are already paved.
In the initial paragraph the narrator quickly introduces his friend Mel, who is a cardiologist. His occupation is one of the first things introduced to us about Mel, perhaps because the narrator wants us to see him as accomplished and responsible. The narrator then introduces the people in the room as himself, his wife, and Mel’s second wife, Teresa. He finishes the paragraph with the line “But we were all from somewhere else”. This choice of statement combined with the fact that Mel is old enough to have been married twice lends the reader to conclude there is a deep cauldron of experiences that is being brought to the table. The participants in this story have experienced other lovers besides the ones that now accompany them.
The story quickly becomes a discussion between Mel and his second wife Teresa, also referred to as Terri. Terri tells of Ed whom she described as “the man she lived with before she lived with Mel”. Terri then describes a scene where Ed beat her, then follows up with the statement, “What do you do with love like that?” The most political correct thing a person can say is get away and file domestic violence charges immediately. However, that is the uninvolved scientific answer. That answer gives no relevance to love sometimes being similar to the theory of relativity, in the sense that the mass, energy, and momentum of those two people’s love at that particular moment in their lives collided in a way that prove to be toxic. Toxic love is no less powerful, memorable, or educational than healthy love and often times is much more difficult to put behind you.
As Mel and Terri hash out whether or not what she experienced with Ed is love, Terri makes the statement, “It may sound crazy to you, but it’s true just the same. People are different, Mel. Sure, sometimes he may have acted crazy. Okay. But he loved me. In his own way maybe, but he loved me. There was love there. Mel, don’t say there wasn’t.” She is really pleading with Mel not to discredit what that relationship meant to her at that time. Her pleading indicates she may have been very young when involved with Ed or perhaps came from an abusive upbringing where such actions were indicative of love. Obviously Terri progressed into a healthier love pattern with Mel but her experiences with Ed were probably an important part of the journey that allowed her to love and appreciate Mel the way she does. Love is passionate and raw at times. Love is impossible to be easily interpreted by an uninvolved party.
Ms. Amy Bolaski
English 103
24 June 2009
3) Does the selection you chose challenge the definition/beliefs you have about romantic love? How so? Does it correspond to your definition/beliefs? How so?
In Raymond Carver’s story “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” there are definitely aspects that reinforce my philosophies on love. Passionate love is dangerous by nature. The intensity of having experienced such love is difficult to compare to the comfortable love that most of us settle into. There is much less risk in a domesticated quiet love in comparison to the loves of our youth when we feel love or love unrequited may kill us. In many ways those loves do kill us, because how can we say we are the same person we were before we loved another? There is truth in saying all lovers have left evidence of their presence in our souls. Pieces of our lovers haunt our thoughts and hearts. Although there may be some paths we may say we would never travel again; the internal roads are already paved.
In the initial paragraph the narrator quickly introduces his friend Mel, who is a cardiologist. His occupation is one of the first things introduced to us about Mel, perhaps because the narrator wants us to see him as accomplished and responsible. The narrator then introduces the people in the room as himself, his wife, and Mel’s second wife, Teresa. He finishes the paragraph with the line “But we were all from somewhere else”. This choice of statement combined with the fact that Mel is old enough to have been married twice lends the reader to conclude there is a deep cauldron of experiences that is being brought to the table. The participants in this story have experienced other lovers besides the ones that now accompany them.
The story quickly becomes a discussion between Mel and his second wife Teresa, also referred to as Terri. Terri tells of Ed whom she described as “the man she lived with before she lived with Mel”. Terri then describes a scene where Ed beat her, then follows up with the statement, “What do you do with love like that?” The most political correct thing a person can say is get away and file domestic violence charges immediately. However, that is the uninvolved scientific answer. That answer gives no relevance to love sometimes being similar to the theory of relativity, in the sense that the mass, energy, and momentum of those two people’s love at that particular moment in their lives collided in a way that prove to be toxic. Toxic love is no less powerful, memorable, or educational than healthy love and often times is much more difficult to put behind you.
As Mel and Terri hash out whether or not what she experienced with Ed is love, Terri makes the statement, “It may sound crazy to you, but it’s true just the same. People are different, Mel. Sure, sometimes he may have acted crazy. Okay. But he loved me. In his own way maybe, but he loved me. There was love there. Mel, don’t say there wasn’t.” She is really pleading with Mel not to discredit what that relationship meant to her at that time. Her pleading indicates she may have been very young when involved with Ed or perhaps came from an abusive upbringing where such actions were indicative of love. Obviously Terri progressed into a healthier love pattern with Mel but her experiences with Ed were probably an important part of the journey that allowed her to love and appreciate Mel the way she does. Love is passionate and raw at times. Love is impossible to be easily interpreted by an uninvolved party.
Week 1 Question#5
The interpretations of the poem are widely divergent from my own interpretation when I first read the poem of "My Last Duchess". The poem does not mean to connote the duchess about her death. I myself first thought that the speaker (duke) did an unforgiving crime because of jealousy. The interpretation of the poem confuses me and deceives any reader to any possible motives of the poem. In addition, I find an intriguing line that says, "Nay, well go together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though". Line 53-54 seems that the duke is envious because he cannot be as dominant as he can be to make the duchess smile. The duke seems to be demanding too towards the actions of the person he is referring or commenting to.
The speaker's use of tone in the poem is quite similar in making ballads and songs. The tone used improves the sarcasm of the duke's motives such as the line that says, "This sort of trifling? Even had you skill in speech--which I have not--to make you will" (line 35-36). Reading the line 35-36 also tells that the skipping of lines gives an idea that the speaker is losing time to tell more about a part in the poem. However, the whole composition of the poem made me understand in the end that the whole idea of it is about the duke remembering the duchess for her shameful behavior towards him.
The speaker's use of tone in the poem is quite similar in making ballads and songs. The tone used improves the sarcasm of the duke's motives such as the line that says, "This sort of trifling? Even had you skill in speech--which I have not--to make you will" (line 35-36). Reading the line 35-36 also tells that the skipping of lines gives an idea that the speaker is losing time to tell more about a part in the poem. However, the whole composition of the poem made me understand in the end that the whole idea of it is about the duke remembering the duchess for her shameful behavior towards him.
Week 1 Question#1, 2 & 3
Title: "What We Talk When We Talk About Love"
The story connects the essential value of "true love" by showing all kinds of it through spiritual, sensual, idealistic, possessive, brutal, obsessive, and even having unreturn love. The concept of romantic love is greatly felt in the story as a powerful feeling that provides a deep ecstasy and a deep suffering when frustrated. In the story, Mel and Terri connected love with time as has occurred in our modern culture. The two couples in the story tells love as the contemporary world they live in which is a world of continuous relationship where you first feel love and next thing you know is that your relation will eventually lead to courtroom adversary. In addition, romantic love is deceiving for Mel's monologue while he was drunk in the story. However, I do believe that romantic love does not deceive consistently in our everyday existence in this world. It is a matter of how people must treat romantic love to be able to have a successful marriage. Romantic love should be treated as a sacred treasure of all that whatever effort or risk you put into it, will eventually be well rewarded.
The theme of the story "What We Talk When We Talk About Love" expresses bewilderment about a whimsical and battered condition of romantic love in the modern world that we live in. In the story, Mel and Terri has a different view on what is a real love by basing it from their past relationship. In this case, their insights somehow differ.
The story moved me and made me think of what romantic love is. Somehow the characters in the story does have a point about love. Love is not perfect for any people in a relationship and people does have different views with regards to love. In addition, Mel in the story does show a different perspective on what is love for him. In this case, we can only know what romantic love is if we know how to treat it correctly and that is why we should treat romantic love as a sacred treasure of all so that it will lead to a rewarding relationship.
The story connects the essential value of "true love" by showing all kinds of it through spiritual, sensual, idealistic, possessive, brutal, obsessive, and even having unreturn love. The concept of romantic love is greatly felt in the story as a powerful feeling that provides a deep ecstasy and a deep suffering when frustrated. In the story, Mel and Terri connected love with time as has occurred in our modern culture. The two couples in the story tells love as the contemporary world they live in which is a world of continuous relationship where you first feel love and next thing you know is that your relation will eventually lead to courtroom adversary. In addition, romantic love is deceiving for Mel's monologue while he was drunk in the story. However, I do believe that romantic love does not deceive consistently in our everyday existence in this world. It is a matter of how people must treat romantic love to be able to have a successful marriage. Romantic love should be treated as a sacred treasure of all that whatever effort or risk you put into it, will eventually be well rewarded.
The theme of the story "What We Talk When We Talk About Love" expresses bewilderment about a whimsical and battered condition of romantic love in the modern world that we live in. In the story, Mel and Terri has a different view on what is a real love by basing it from their past relationship. In this case, their insights somehow differ.
The story moved me and made me think of what romantic love is. Somehow the characters in the story does have a point about love. Love is not perfect for any people in a relationship and people does have different views with regards to love. In addition, Mel in the story does show a different perspective on what is love for him. In this case, we can only know what romantic love is if we know how to treat it correctly and that is why we should treat romantic love as a sacred treasure of all so that it will lead to a rewarding relationship.
Week 1 Question 3
“What we talk about when we talk about love,” does not challenge my beliefs about romantic love. I believe that marriage does not create or keep romantic love. In order to love someone, and for that love to endure, one requires the ability to see his or her couple with clarity. Also, I believe that love does not teach couples to communicate or to keep their love going for the rest of their life but why is that? I think the answer is simple most couples never learn to keep a loving marriage. Romantic love produces any kind of excitement for most people who fall in love. In the short reading, we can identify two couples. One couple has been married for one year and their love is still young full of joy and happiness. In the other hand, the couple represented by Mel and Terri has been married for five years. This couple has been married for a long time now. As we can see, personages of this couple feel alone and they usually find faults on each other becoming jealous, angry and cynical to each other. So, romantic love is the one that keeps couples united the rest of their life no matter the time or the experience if two individuals love each other they will keep love alive for the rest of their life.
Week 1 Question 1
In the story “What we talk about when we talk about love,” American author Raymond Carver portrait the life of two couples that discuss the topic of “real love.” Both couples discuss about the different kinds of love experienced in their life. We can barely see romantic love in this reading. In fact, Mel who is one of the main personages believes that “real love was nothing less than spiritual love.” This text suggests that romantic love may not be the goal for a solid marriage. Instead, communication and security between couples is the key for a successful and happy marriage. Laura and Nick did not show any romantic love signs but they were happy and together until the end of the reading.
Jessica Silva – Week 1, Question 1
Choose a selection and explain how the concept of romantic love is treated. Does it offer a traditional take or challenge typical conventions (i.e., we should date/marry for romantic love rather than security; everyone should find/have a "soulmate"; "true" love lasts forever; romantic love should be reserved for a man and a woman, etc.)
In “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” I feel that Raymond Carver reveals contrasting concepts of love: one that appeals to tradition and serves as an idealized vision of what love is, or should be, and one that challenges said view. We have Terri, whose first husband beat her and dragged her around the house by her ankles, all while telling her “I love you, I love you, you bitch.” By most standards, this could not possibly be considered love, but Terri is quite adamant about the fact that he did indeed love her – so much that he killed himself, in fact. Terri offers up the idea that love is not an absolute: that we all love in the only way that we know how and can love others to varying degrees. On the other hand, her current husband, Mel, tells the story of an elderly couple who had been critically injured in a car accident. When treated separately, the husband fell into a depression over the mere fact that he couldn’t make visual contact with his wife. For many, this is an ideal picture of love: where two lives are so intertwined that something as simple as not seeing one another becomes a crisis. When exploring the idea of love from this point of view, Terri’s idea of love is something that would never come into play. Terri and Mel’s contrasting views also reflect on two different time periods. Today we are fascinated by celebrity quickie weddings and game shows centered around the prospect of matrimony, and divorce is steadily on the rise – some might say that “true” love and marriage have been devalued over the years, whereas in yesteryears, couples married young and actually stayed married and in love with one another for the rest of their lives. Overall, “What We Talk About…” allows readers to ponder their own interpretations of what true love is, while subtly suggesting that the entire concept has become over-complicated, and that we should take a step back and revert to simpler times.
Important: Use "New Post"
I note that some of you are posting your blogs by commenting on the post that contains the questions. You need to use comments for comments on blogs; you need to post an actual entry for your blogs. Use "New Post" up at the top, in the right-hand corner, to do so.
Thanks!
Thanks!
Blogs Thus Far
Just a quick note to let you know that I'm really enjoying the analysis you've come up with in your blog discussions. They take a long time to read and grade (and I grade ancillaries and essays first), so that will happen next week. I want to read each of them thoroughly and provide responses here and there. I comment at random, so please don't think there's a problem with your response if you don't have feedback. You DO need to comment on others' blogs -- certainly not all of them, or even most of them, but a few. I don't "grade" on comments the first few weeks, but after that, if you want full credit, you'll need to comment on a couple in each discussion.
It's difficult to "scroll" through the blogs because it's overwhelming to look at, so use the sidebar to navigate.
It's difficult to "scroll" through the blogs because it's overwhelming to look at, so use the sidebar to navigate.
Friday, June 26, 2009
WEEK 1 QUESTION #3
The selection "Araby" definetely has challened my definition and beliefs that I have about romantic love. My interpretation of loving someone is expecting the love in return. Also, having to be in love with that very person, dreaming of being with him and not being able to have him present with me and especially not being able to spend time talking would be the most difficult thing to do. Joyce on the other hand, as a young boy, has not given up on loving Mangan's sister no matter what may faced against him. He continually looked at her brown figure and tried to get a glimpse of her beauty whenever he had a chance. "Her dress swung as she moved her body and the soft rope of her hair tossed from side to side," has really shown me that this woman means the world to him and her image was all he saw.
This short story also corresponds with my defintion and beliefs in such a way that I would have probably felt the exact same way as Joyce did. The reason is because love makes you do indescribable things. Being in love with a person is a great feeling and I have experienced what it is like to think of that person day and night. The first thing that is on your mind is that person and you see their image in your head every minute of your day.
This short story also corresponds with my defintion and beliefs in such a way that I would have probably felt the exact same way as Joyce did. The reason is because love makes you do indescribable things. Being in love with a person is a great feeling and I have experienced what it is like to think of that person day and night. The first thing that is on your mind is that person and you see their image in your head every minute of your day.
Jessica Silva – Week 1, Question 5
Discuss your interpretation of "My Last Duchess" before you read the annotated copy and after. Are these interpretations widely divergent? Which aspects of the poem intrigued you upon your first reading? Does the narrator's diction and/or tone lead you to a possible interpretation?
My initial interpretation of “My Last Duchess” was the Duke thought his wife was a beautiful woman that should be admired by others, but that she did not adequately appreciate the fact that she was his wife and had taken on a prestigious name, as reflected in the words “as if she ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name with anybody’s gift.” Though I didn’t pick up on any allusion as to how she died, the Duke’s tone in the last 10 or so lines changes from reflective to almost cheerful: he seems happy that she is gone, and that the painting allowed him to have a wife that was only seen and not heard. Instead of having what we’d now call a “trophy wife,” he almost literally does have a trophy piece of her – something that he can hang on his wall and call others to admire, without having to actually interact with her. Lastly, the title in itself reveals that the Duke is not phased by the Duchess’ passing, and that he will undoubtedly marry again.
My interpretation does not veer far from the annotations. The difference lies in the fact that the notes speak of the Duke as cold-blooded; I felt that while there was an underlying tone of disregard toward her death, pride is in the forefront. The Duke took great pride in his name and status, and the Duchess seemingly did not kow-tow to that, and thus had to be done away with.
Week 1, Question 1
In Sharon Olds's "True Love" a sort of modern spin is placed on traditional love. The same concept of love and overall devotion to an individual exists, however, the author places love and sex in the same category. She represents an explicit concept of love based on real life rather than the cliche existence of butterflies and pretty hearts. Olds talks about the consequences of sex, pain and exhaustion, in a sense that may otherwise be considered crude. Though she takes it and makes it a beautiful norm, "...I can hardly walk, I wobble through the granular shadowless air..." (579). You can understand the love that exists by the mere description of the characters life rather than a 'luvy-duvy' tribute to the mushy heart of a romanticist. The sex, children, and ultimate serenity in the theme represent the overall devotion the character has for the love that exists inside him.
WEEK 1 QUESTION #4
Reading the contextual article on "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," I undertood that Eliot was trying to tell us that he has this desire to lead the woman that he loves on this secretive journey without really telling her where they would go, even though she might desire to know, intstead of interpreting as wanting to propose to this woman. My interpretation of that particular jouney is that the author talks about life. How people really change as life goes on. The phrase "With a bald spot in the middle of my hair," made me interpret it as him growing old. We begin the journey when we are young and as time goes on, we end up growing old. He is trying to tell this woman that on this journey we will have time to do many things before growing old. While walking on this path together the setting changes, beginning the journey at night time and make a sudden leap into urban setting. Even though it is a long journey, the man will try to convice the woman of the fact that she will have time to explore great adventures in life and that there is time for everything.
I slightly disagree with the author. Here in this poem Eliot is questioning his past and how he could have accomplished his life differently. I really did not look at this poem as he wanting to propose to this woman that will be attending the tea party. My perspective would be that we as humans cannot measure our life span on this earth nor can we change our past. We can only try to live our life ot the fullest and make the best of it. Many of us might regret the past, but it is humanly impossible to change it. We can only move on and change our future by making decision that would positively benefit us.
Having read this interpretation, the author made it really come alive. I would have never been able to interpret it the way Walcutt did. The descriptive vocabulary that the author uses makes you really think twice on whether I understood the poem correctly and what Eliot was really trying to express.
I slightly disagree with the author. Here in this poem Eliot is questioning his past and how he could have accomplished his life differently. I really did not look at this poem as he wanting to propose to this woman that will be attending the tea party. My perspective would be that we as humans cannot measure our life span on this earth nor can we change our past. We can only try to live our life ot the fullest and make the best of it. Many of us might regret the past, but it is humanly impossible to change it. We can only move on and change our future by making decision that would positively benefit us.
Having read this interpretation, the author made it really come alive. I would have never been able to interpret it the way Walcutt did. The descriptive vocabulary that the author uses makes you really think twice on whether I understood the poem correctly and what Eliot was really trying to express.
Week 1, Question 3
In Wislawa Szymborska's poem True Love, a pessimistic and almost cynical viewpoint of love is portrayed. Her work presents love as an ungraspable happening that only occurs in few who should proceed by faking unhappiness to the rest of the world. She writes "Let the people who never find true love keep saying that there's no such thing. Their faith will make it easier for them to live and die" (578). While I may not necessarily an advocate of true love, I find it odd that Szymborska talks about faith in the absence of love as a foundation for survival while at the same time criticizing those who have found true love. Is it not the faith in love in order to survive the same thing? People search for love and that eternal emotion in order to make life for them easier as well, to even give them fulfillment in death. I find the author's critique of loved ones a possible reflection of her own feats towards love and ultimately a negatively bias opinion.
I feel more two-sided in this particular issue. If people have found love and that gives them the strength they need in life, then they should be able to prosper and live accordingly. However for a person that has not found that love and has a more cynical view point, like that of the author, I hope they either find what they are looking for or are content in what they have. I believe love is an emotion, an acquired state of mind that has a different meaning for most everyone and with that we as an individual can only determine whether we are in love or not. No one can account for another's love.
Week 1; Question 1
In Raymond Carver’s short story “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”, the notion of love is examined in several different viewpoints. Romantic love is portrayed through an old couple in the hospital that survived a horrific accident. Mel does not understand the feelings of the man, needing to gaze upon his wife while recovering. This kind of love is not only romantic but shows that love can be enduring. The friends conversing at the table were all new in love, the one couple being married only a year and the other only five years. The old couple in the hospital had most likely been married for decades but still was able to be romantic and love each other through all situations.
Week 1; Question 7
In Wislawa Szymborska’s version of “True Love”, love is portrayed as being unnecessary and possibly unattainable. Her tone throughout the poem seems to be jealous, but the last three lines change direction. With these lines, it seems that she was writing the poem as tongue-in-cheek. At the end she declares that those who “never find true love” should hold onto their “faith” that “there’s no such thing” because this “will make it easier for them to live and die”. These last lines show that Szymborska believes in true love and is trying to console those who have never experienced it.
Sharon Olds “True Love” depicts a couple that has been together for awhile. After years of “loving” each other, they know each other’s bodies and the needs of each other without even having to say anything. The feeling this poem gives is that love after years, may become comfortable, but can still persist. True love can be one of friendship and compassion. From the beginning of this poem to the end – love is represented as attainable and real.
Sharon Olds “True Love” depicts a couple that has been together for awhile. After years of “loving” each other, they know each other’s bodies and the needs of each other without even having to say anything. The feeling this poem gives is that love after years, may become comfortable, but can still persist. True love can be one of friendship and compassion. From the beginning of this poem to the end – love is represented as attainable and real.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
A & P
Does anyone have a point of view on the story A & P on page 600? I did not see what it had to do with love or why Sammy quit his job? Did the young girls that came into the store made an influence on him?
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Discussion question #4
"The love song of J.Alfred Prufrock" is a very complex poem to understand. I found that by reading the critical context that it gave me a much better understanding of the story. The context explained thoroughly many aspects of the story such as the meaning behind the title, interpretations of different lines and the overall theme of the story.I feel like I understood the story much better after reading the interpretations. It helped me to see the meaning behind the story.
Out of the three critical context I chose "Prufrock Road to Love is Paved with Irony" by Melinda Hollis. I felt that Hollis interpreted the story well. She made the most sense to me. I agree with how she interpreted story. She described Prufrock as a fearful, self-critical and lonely man, that is how I saw him in the story.
Out of the three critical context I chose "Prufrock Road to Love is Paved with Irony" by Melinda Hollis. I felt that Hollis interpreted the story well. She made the most sense to me. I agree with how she interpreted story. She described Prufrock as a fearful, self-critical and lonely man, that is how I saw him in the story.
Re: Discussion Question Choices for Week 4, Unit 3
The story is well written and easy to follow. It kept my interest and it makes for a very good arguement about love. The details given about Mel makes you want to feel sorry for him and also very angry for being judgemental about Ed, when he is also abrusive and very depressed. It seems as though he does not see his flaws. I wonder what Laura really thinks of him.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Discussion Question Choices, Week 3, Unit 2: Family
1. Consider the plot of "A Good Man is Hard to Find". Readers often find the plot confusing and/or inaccessible, questioning the likelihood of the story and the "point" of the story. You must keep in mind that an author is certainly making a point . . . what you're often looking for is a linear narrative with a clear beginning, middle, and end along with resolution of a recognizable conflict. Of course, there's a main conflict in this story, but there are also several others. Considering this, what is the major conflict here? Yes, it's the showdown between the grandmother and the Misfit, but what is at stake here? What do you think O'Connor is trying to explore in this face off between a selfish old woman and a sociopath? You will need to consider the Misfit's motivations as well as the grandmother's.
2. Consider the imagery Hemphill uses in "Commitments". What do these images highlight or establish about the narrator? (Consider that the images are largely of other people).
3. The speaker begins with the announcement "I will always be there", and yet later he says "I am the invisible son" (line 32). How can these two statements be reconciled? (554)
4. Consider the details the author provides in "A Chinese Banquet". What do these (largely image-driven) details establish in the poem? For example, we are told that the grandson is a dentist and drives a particular kind of car, specific dishes, etc. Consider that these details are offered primarily in the first half of the poem but are largely absent from the second.
5. Consider the final stanza of "A Chinese Banquet", which is highly symbolic (unlike most of the rest of the poem). Interpret these statements: "my back is healing" and "i dream of dragons and water". How do these elements help you understand the more literal aspects of the poem?
6. Focus on the final two lines of the poem "Heritage": "From my family I have learned the secrets/ of never having a home" (44-45). Use the information she offers throughout the poem to interpret this statement. Consider what her relatives have given to/left her and how these admissions adds up to her conclusion: "the secrets of never having a home". What do you think she means by "secrets" here? Do you think she's speaking of a literal home, or do you see this as symbolic?
7. Ortiz Cofer packs a powerful punch in a very short poem. Again, consider the last few lines: "Once she had made a pact with man and nature and kept it. Now like the sea/she is claiming back her territory" (15-17). What is this "pact", and why is made with only men? Which territory is she claiming back? Lastly, how does the image/understanding of the sea reconcile with the notion of claiming territory? What does/will the sea claim as its own?
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A rather long but very informative lecture on O'Connor as a writer, her themes, etc. The lecturer quotes O'Connor on writing, on teachers, on English teachers, on the world, etc. Definitely worth a watch.
Short lecture on "Good Country People" (considers how O'Connor incorporates Christian themes in her work (he discusses and focuses on how her works, read together, are far more revealing than a single reading of one story).
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Discussion Question Choices, Week 2, Unit 2: Family
2. Having read several of the cultural contexts for Plath in your text, explain how one best informs your reading and understanding of "Daddy". Whatever you come up with, consider this in your answer: many, if not most, readers attribute nearly all of Plath's work to her life. Confessional poetry, is, by nature, autobiographical (at least to some extent). However, while her life informs her poetry, you, as a reader, might not know much about her life as they read a poem ("Daddy" in particular). I find that students often look at the poem quite differently once they know some specifics about her life. How/why do you view it differently once you have a basic understanding of Plath's life?
3. What do you think Chopin is saying about marriage in "Desiree's Baby"? Keep in mind that, while you might think a question about marriage belongs in the "Romantic Love" section, the couple has a baby, and that baby's existence, and thus the existence of a "family" (nearly always imagined as three or more, being that most people's definition of a family requires children) is important here. Do you think Chopin is commenting on how a child affects/changes marriage? Why or why not?
4. Discuss point of view in "I Stand Here Ironing". Do you think the writer is a reliable narrator? Why/why not? Why do you think the narrator shares the "parts" of the story she does but not others?
5. Discuss the cultural construct of "mother" in our culture for the same story.How does the narrator fit into/reject this construct? How do others define her (most likely) in terms of this construct? How much do you think general society's view of motherhood and its expectations have colored the narrator's beliefs about her own mothering?
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Listen to Sylvia Plath herself reads "Daddy".
Interview with Sylvia Plath: Where she began as a poet; her themes (she wrote "confessional poetry", a genre which gained much steam and credibility because of Plath); she discusses poet Anne Sexton, to whom she relates personally (you must read Anne Sexton as some point, absolutely); poetry she most enjoys. . .
Lecture on "My Papa's Waltz": informative, thorough. You don't need to know that much about metrics for this course (we study these aspects of literature in an introduction to lit course, not so much here), but the commentary breaks down the poem in a way that, ultimately, creates clear understanding.
Tillie Olsen: speaks about the heart "in action"; Alice Walker (The Color Purple) and others on Olsen's contributions to a feminist view of writers and writing.
Just for fun:
Ryan Adams performs "Sylvia Plath" live (his song, not the poem).
A Timeline of Sylvia Plath in Original Photos
Listen to Lucille Clifton talk about her poetry and read her most famous: "Homage to My Hips" (which became two different songs). This poem comically highlights an almost rebellious approval of the author's ample body in a society that values tiny, not ample, when it comes to its women.
Listen to Sylvia Plath herself reads "Daddy".
Interview with Sylvia Plath: Where she began as a poet; her themes (she wrote "confessional poetry", a genre which gained much steam and credibility because of Plath); she discusses poet Anne Sexton, to whom she relates personally (you must read Anne Sexton as some point, absolutely); poetry she most enjoys. . .
Lecture on "My Papa's Waltz": informative, thorough. You don't need to know that much about metrics for this course (we study these aspects of literature in an introduction to lit course, not so much here), but the commentary breaks down the poem in a way that, ultimately, creates clear understanding.
Tillie Olsen: speaks about the heart "in action"; Alice Walker (The Color Purple) and others on Olsen's contributions to a feminist view of writers and writing.
Just for fun:
Ryan Adams performs "Sylvia Plath" live (his song, not the poem).
A Timeline of Sylvia Plath in Original Photos
Listen to Lucille Clifton talk about her poetry and read her most famous: "Homage to My Hips" (which became two different songs). This poem comically highlights an almost rebellious approval of the author's ample body in a society that values tiny, not ample, when it comes to its women.
Discussion Question Choices, Week 1, Unit 1: Romantic Love
Be sure to address three different works of literature: two original posts, one "reply" to a peer. Blog writing is an informal genre, but I do expect that you will make yourself clear. Discussions are graded on clarity, thoroughness, and originality of ideas.
1.Choose a selection and explain how the concept of romantic love is treated. Does it offer a traditional take or challenge typical conventions (i.e., we should date/marry for romantic love rather than security; everyone should find/have a "soulmate"; "true" love lasts forever; romantic love should be reserved for a man and a woman, etc.)
2. What broader statement (theme) is the text making about romantic love? Why do you think so? (Theme is NOT a one-word answer but a complete idea. You need to read the lecture on theme to answer this question. You will need to read it anyway to complete your first essay, so you might as well read it now!)
3. Does the selection you chose challenge the definition/beliefs you have about romantic love? How so? Does it correspond to your definition/beliefs? How so?
4. Choose one of the "critical contexts" selections based on "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufock. This is a beautiful but highly complex and difficult to understand poem, so reading the context literature will really help you make some sense of it. Keep in mind also that Eliot, who headed the theory of interpretation referred to as either formalism or New Criticism believed that good literature should be highly complex and difficult to understand, that readers would benefit from having to work to achieve meaning. You'll read about this theory later on in the class. To the question: what did you get from the contextual article you read? Do you agree with the author? Disagree? How do you feel about the poem having read this interpretation? (Hint: do not assume the author is automatically "right" -- he/she offers an interpretation -- yes, a scholarly, professional one, but this by no means makes the interpretation the only valid one out there.
5. Discuss your interpretation of "My Last Duchess" before you read the annotated copy and after. Are these interpretations widely divergent? Which aspects of the poem intrigued you upon your first reading? Does the narrator's diction and/or tone lead you to a possible interpretation?
6. How does the filmed reading (re-enactment or recitation, below) compare to your reading of "Duchess"? Did you emphasize certain elements similarly? Does something about the interpretation of the poem differ drastically from how you read it? Did you find the film useful?
7. Compare/contrast the two versions of "True Love". You can go a number of places with this question, but you should focus on the effect that each poem produces given its use of diction, tone, general structure, imagery, and the like.
8. Our text categorizes Othello as a play about "jealous" love -- why do you think this (very general) thematic idea is the best/most ideal lens through which to look at Othello? How does Shakespeare introduce/develop the notion of jealousy?
***************************************************************************************
Othello's final speech, delivered by Lawrence Fishburne (Othello in Kenneth Branaugh's 1995 film version.
Filmed Re-enactment of "Duchess". Might be useful in getting at the cadence, tone and emphasis in the poem.
Recitation (monologue) of "Duchess"
Hearing a writer talk about his/her text, in multiple contexts, is a rare treat. Obviously, we don't have access to this kind of contextualization for so many works of literature, including many of those that we study in this course. I think you'll get a lot out of the interview -- and you can always listen to the transcript while you are working on something else.
Interview with John Updike (part 1): Here he talks about his inspiration for the story, characteristics he shares with the protagonist, Sammy, explanation of characters
Interview with John Updike (part 2): Continue of his discussion on "A&P" and how people conform (or don't) socially. Discusses how the reader "should" read the story. He also reads an excerpt (the beginning) as the story is visually re-enacted. Very interesting!
Just for fun:
Music Video: deus's "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love".
Sharon Olds reading some of her work (unfortunately, not "True Love", but fortunately enough, she's quite amusing. An honest homage to what happens as the body ages . . .and falls).
1.Choose a selection and explain how the concept of romantic love is treated. Does it offer a traditional take or challenge typical conventions (i.e., we should date/marry for romantic love rather than security; everyone should find/have a "soulmate"; "true" love lasts forever; romantic love should be reserved for a man and a woman, etc.)
2. What broader statement (theme) is the text making about romantic love? Why do you think so? (Theme is NOT a one-word answer but a complete idea. You need to read the lecture on theme to answer this question. You will need to read it anyway to complete your first essay, so you might as well read it now!)
3. Does the selection you chose challenge the definition/beliefs you have about romantic love? How so? Does it correspond to your definition/beliefs? How so?
4. Choose one of the "critical contexts" selections based on "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufock. This is a beautiful but highly complex and difficult to understand poem, so reading the context literature will really help you make some sense of it. Keep in mind also that Eliot, who headed the theory of interpretation referred to as either formalism or New Criticism believed that good literature should be highly complex and difficult to understand, that readers would benefit from having to work to achieve meaning. You'll read about this theory later on in the class. To the question: what did you get from the contextual article you read? Do you agree with the author? Disagree? How do you feel about the poem having read this interpretation? (Hint: do not assume the author is automatically "right" -- he/she offers an interpretation -- yes, a scholarly, professional one, but this by no means makes the interpretation the only valid one out there.
5. Discuss your interpretation of "My Last Duchess" before you read the annotated copy and after. Are these interpretations widely divergent? Which aspects of the poem intrigued you upon your first reading? Does the narrator's diction and/or tone lead you to a possible interpretation?
6. How does the filmed reading (re-enactment or recitation, below) compare to your reading of "Duchess"? Did you emphasize certain elements similarly? Does something about the interpretation of the poem differ drastically from how you read it? Did you find the film useful?
7. Compare/contrast the two versions of "True Love". You can go a number of places with this question, but you should focus on the effect that each poem produces given its use of diction, tone, general structure, imagery, and the like.
8. Our text categorizes Othello as a play about "jealous" love -- why do you think this (very general) thematic idea is the best/most ideal lens through which to look at Othello? How does Shakespeare introduce/develop the notion of jealousy?
***************************************************************************************
Othello's final speech, delivered by Lawrence Fishburne (Othello in Kenneth Branaugh's 1995 film version.
Filmed Re-enactment of "Duchess". Might be useful in getting at the cadence, tone and emphasis in the poem.
Recitation (monologue) of "Duchess"
Hearing a writer talk about his/her text, in multiple contexts, is a rare treat. Obviously, we don't have access to this kind of contextualization for so many works of literature, including many of those that we study in this course. I think you'll get a lot out of the interview -- and you can always listen to the transcript while you are working on something else.
Interview with John Updike (part 1): Here he talks about his inspiration for the story, characteristics he shares with the protagonist, Sammy, explanation of characters
Interview with John Updike (part 2): Continue of his discussion on "A&P" and how people conform (or don't) socially. Discusses how the reader "should" read the story. He also reads an excerpt (the beginning) as the story is visually re-enacted. Very interesting!
Just for fun:
Music Video: deus's "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love".
Sharon Olds reading some of her work (unfortunately, not "True Love", but fortunately enough, she's quite amusing. An honest homage to what happens as the body ages . . .and falls).
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