A Rose for Emily

A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner was a very interesting story about a woman who kept to herself once she lost her father and the "love of her life." Her father didn't allow for her to have acquatnces so once he died, she was all aone. I believe that Emily came from a highly respected family, but the town started talking about her. I think that they were jealous of her family and that is why they continued to enjoy her sadness. It seemed that they wanted her to be down and thats why they gossipped about her and stayed in her business.

Emily seemed to become a cold person as she got older and I don't balme her. When Homer Baron came to town, he basically swept her off her feet. She had never experienced love so most likely he was her first love. The town gossipped about them getting married and when he left they were ahppy to some extent. They just wished she could've been embarrassed in front everyone. Emily's character was sort of scary. When she brought poison, it showed even more of how crazy she was.

The ending wasn't such a surprise to me. I figured that she had killed Homer so he would never leave her again. I have watched alot of "Snapped" on the Oxygen channel and many of the women killed the their husbands or the ones they loved with poision. An expert said that when woman murdered it was usually by poison. The fact that she killed him and was most likely laying next to his dead body didn't seem that outrageous because she desperately wanted to be with him. It reminded me of the movie Psycho.

Hills Like White Elephants

This story was about a conversation between an American man and a “girl” who is spouse. I assumed that the woman was younger than the man and not from America. The first time that white elephants is mentioned is by the lady when she is looking at the mountain. The term “white elephant” can mean something that is rare and costly or something that is unwanted by one person and maybe usable by another.

The man and woman continue to have a normal conversation until out of no where the man starts to talk about a some kind of operation. He says, “It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig.” This is the first time that he refers to the woman by this name. The name is very awkward, but may be a nickname. He keeps talking about the operation and how simple it is. It becomes obvious that he is trying to persuade her to get the operation. They never actually reveal what type of operation it is, but the only operation I can think of that would make a man beg a woman to get is an abortion.

The man tells the woman that after the operation they will be happy because “It’s the only thing that’s made us unhappy.” I’m guessing that “it” refers to the baby or the fact that she was pregnant. I believe that they were acting very selfishly. The woman said that they couldn’t have everything because “once they take it away, you never get it back.” I think that “they” referred to children and “everything” referred to their own freedom.

The woman seemed to get more frustrated as he kept talking about what they were going to do. Its like deep down she didn’t want to do it, but she knew she had to because of him. Since they are at the train station, this story probably took place in the early 1900’s and they were probably on their way to have the operation. At the end of the story when the man comes back to the table, I could picture the woman putting on a fake smile to make him happy and then lying about being fine.

Proposal for second essay

I would like to talk about the relationship between siblings. (Sibling rivalry)

Essay 2 topics

Since essay 2 has to do with family, I started to think about my family in order to come up with ideas. One thing I found interesting was how a funeral brings a family closer, not matter what they are going through. Its like they put their differences aside in order to pay respect to the person that recently died. Sometimes a funeral also serves as a family reunion because distant relatives and friends all reunite.

Another topic is how a person grows and gets "promoted" to higher positions. For example, as a child, one acts like a child, but when he/she grows to a higher positions, he/she looks down at childhood and remembers how it felt to be a child. A teenager acts like a typical teenager and acts rebellious against their parents, but when the teen grows and becomes a parent with a teenager, he/she learns what they put their parents through when they were younger.

Ordinary People

The movie Ordinary People was about a family who was actually not ordinary, but ordinary in the sense that there is not such thing as ordinary. The setting looks like it takes place in the 80’s. The son, Conrad, seemed to be disturbed at first. It was evident that something was wrong with him. He had the same nightmare over and over and this was most likely the root o his sadness. In school, Conrad was quiet and inattentive. He was unlike a normal teenager because he didn’t have any friends or a social life. At home, he didn’t really converse with his parents. His father seemed more worried about him than his mother. Since Conrad was in the hospital for four months, it becomes clear that he is depressed.

When Conrad started seeing the psychiatrist, he revealed that he would like to be more in control. Conrad’s father was very supportive of Conrad. He showed him love and kindness, but Conrad’s mother was the opposite. She didn’t show Conrad any emotion and he seemed more concerned about herself and her family’s image. This is why she was so upset with her husband when he told one of their friends that Conrad was seeing a psychiatrist. The mother acts like she is uncomfortable around her son. I believe that she loved her older son more and she blamed his death on Conrad. She was not the only one though because Conrad also blamed himself for his brother’s death.

After two suicide attempts, frequent visits to the psychiatrist, and the death of his good friend, Conrad realized that it wasn’t his fault. He stopped blaming himself. His father realized that his wife had changed and he didn’t love her anymore. After the mother left with her emotionless attitude, everything seemed to come together. The movie ends with the father and son telling each other “I love you.” This is ironic because the movie was about how the mother didn’t show any emotion towards Conrad and how she stopped showing emotion towards her husbands and after she leaves they tell each other what she was afraid to tell either of them- I love you.

I Stand Here Ironing

I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen was a very complicated story. The woman was talking the entire story, but it did not mention who she was talking to or they never responded to her. I believe that the mother was not there for her daughter. When whoever she was talking to asked her to help her daughter, she said, “You think because I am her mother I have a key, or that in some way you could use my key.”

I wonder what happened to Emily. The stories that her mother was telling about her childhood showed that she was a normal child at first. The woman kept repeating how beautiful she was when she was a baby. That suggests that she didn't believe she was beautiful then. Emily's father ran out on them when she was born. The woman said that he “could no longer endure sharing want with us.” I think this impacted her greatly ans the new baby made her frustrated. She had to work and was struggling financially.

I think that Emily was suffereing from child abuse because her mother would leave her in the house by herself and send her off to places. I'm not sure the mother was entusiastic about her first baby because she never smiled at her. She didn't show Emily any emotions. The place that Emily was sent to was kind of awkward. I't not sure why she was sent there, but she became very skinny and frail. When she returned home she seemed very depressed and sad.

This story is the type of story that the reader has to read over and over to understand.

Sonny's Blue

The first thing I noticed about Sonny's Blues is that Sonny and his brother reminded me of two typical siblings. The older sibling makes their parents proud and the younger sibling tries not to be like the older sibling. In this case, Sonny has been hooked on drugs and Sonny's brother, who's name is never stated, finds it hard to understand. Their relationship reminds me of the relationship between Connie and her older sister in "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"

James Baldwin uses a lot of figurative language in this story. The most noticeable is his constant reference to the "darkness." I think that the darkness represents bad. In the very first paragraph, he refers to the "darkness" from outside. Before it was known that the narrator was Sonny's brother, it was obvious that he loved and cared for him. He thought about Sonny all day while he taught class and compared the younger Sonny to the boys in his classes.

When Sonny's brother talks to Sonny's friend, the reader can tell that he has little respect for him because he keeps referring to him as "boy." I think that he doesn't respect him because of his appearance, how he carries himself, and his addiction. The guy (Sonny's friend) showed his ignorance through the way he talks.

In Sonny's letter to his brother, he realizes that what happened to him hurt a lot of people. This shows that he wasn't selfish and he understood how his actions affected others. The story that their mother tells Sonny about his father's brother made me wonder if that caused Sonny's father to treat him differently than how he treated his brother.

There are so many questions that are left unanswered in this story. What did the newspaper article say? Where was Sonny before he was sent home?

First Essay

Originally, I was going to use the topic about comparing "Our Hurried Children" with "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" I still might try this, but I'm not sure. The topic that interests me now is the one about individual vs. society. In "Where are you going, where have you been?", I beleive that Connie was impacted by society. If I talked about this I could also refer to "Our Hurried Children."

Where are you going, where have you been?

This essay was very interesting and to my liking, the dialect makes the time period evident from which this essay was written. Most likely the time period is the 60’s or 70’s.
The girl Connie was very self involved, even cocky. She only worried about herself and her appearance. Her relationship with her family was almost non-existent. Her sister was the complete opposite of her, fat and unattractive. Her mother seemed as if she was jealous of her. I think that her mother was probably like her when she was young.
When the two men appeared on her doorstep, all she though about was how she looked. She didn’t even think about the potential danger she may be in.
When she went to the door and started to have a conversation with the driver I though that she was really stupid. Hasn’t her mother ever taught her not to talk to strangers? The man came off as a sweet talker who was trying to kidnapped or do damage to her.
The guys were very awkward and scary. The author described every element of their appearance which made it easy for me to picture them. I have a feeing that the Arnold Friend was not who he said he was because he was obviously trying to portray someone younger. His sunglasses hid his eyes and his “soul.” The way he walked suggested that he maybe had an injury in one of his legs. His ability to know many things about her also frightened me. How did he know so much?
After Connie realized she was in danger, I want to know what happened to her when she tried to call someone. Why couldn’t the man come in and get her. Maybe, it would then be seen as kidnapping. And since she walked out and got in the car he didn’t do anything.
Connie really changed throughout the story. She was once arrogant and self-involved and then she changed into a more selfless person. She thought about her family and sacrificed her life for theirs.

Cathedral

The first thing that I noticed as I began to read is that there were no names mentioned. The author also used a variety of sentences. Some of the sentences sounded awkward, like the sentence in the first paragraph that said, “ He was no one I knew.” He also stated stereotypical remarks about blind people. As if he didn’t believe that blind people were human.
In the second paragraph, Carver talks about him wife’s ex-husband. He does this by talking about the man his wife married. The paragraph also tells about how his wife met the blind man mentioned in the first sentence. And the ironic part is that he said his wife always tried to write a poem about it. It was like he wasn’t giving her any credit.
After the next paragraph, the author begins to refer to himself in third person again, but in the middle of the paragraph he goes back to first person. I have never seen this before in a piece of writing. His wife’s suicide attempt was really unexpected.
I really enjoyed the conversations between the blind man, Robert, and the narrator. Robert discloses many of the stereotypical things the narrator though about blind people. I think that the narrator was really shallow and unable to realize how ignorant he sounded throughout the story. For example, the way he prayed at the table was very concerning.
The relationship between the narrator and is wife is not extremely loving. It seems as if they are very comfortable around each other and each day is a continuous cycle.

Happy Birthday To ME!!!!!!!!

Today is my birthday, of course, and there is no telling what's going to happen. My arms are sore and it feels like my ribs are broken from the crazy stuff I did until 4 o'clock in the morning Saturday night. Hopefully, I don't die.

Our Hurried Children

The moment I started to read this text, I began to agree with the author. I've always felt that adults were confused about whether that want a child to grow up or stay under their control. Childhood is rushed because adults automatically express to children that they should act more mature. I enjoyed my childhood and I believe it was a critical time in my life.

This essay was extremely different from those we have been reading so far because it is nonfiction and sounds more like an argumentative article. The author uses expert tesimony and facts to prove his overall point. He seems very concerned about the topic. It is a good possbility that his childhood was rushed.
I like how the essay was divided into different sections. The section entitled, "Miniature Adults" focuses on the children that live in middle-class homes and who were put under pressure to achieve academically at a young age. His first example was a boy that entered Harvard College at the age of eleven who is now lonely and pitiful.

In the section called, "The Child Inside" , Elkind makes a grat point. He states that children get confused when society says grow up fast, but remain a child. I have personally seen this myself. It is as if adults must make up their mind and choose one. He makes a good argument by listing the crimes young teenagers and preteens were arrested for. He also proves that those children listed were not disadvantaged youth who were acting against society, but teens from middle class families.

Once Upon A Time

“Once Upon A Time,” by Nadine Gordimer starts off in an awkward way, but I like it. The author begins by telling the reader about how she doesn’t write children’s stories. She then goes to tell how one night when she couldn’t sleep, she tells herself a bedtime story. How ironic because bedtime stories are for children. I like the sentence that says, “A woman was murdered (how do they say it) in broad daylight…,” because its like the author is riducling the suggestion that murders only happen at night time.

The author does not use quotes when telling what someone said. She simply puts “she/he said” after the sentences. The story that the author tells involves a “perfect” family that lives in the suburbs. It starts off by saying that the family lived happily ever after and this was often repeated. The more it is repeated, the more it shows that they weren’t perfect. Another phrase that was often repeated is “loved very much.” This made the ending very ironic.

The family seems really uppity and they act as is they are better than others. I believe that there is also a sense of racism because of the remarks about “these people,” made in the second paragraph of the story. I find that the level of security that they began to have was ridiculous. These people were taking there precautions to an extremely unneeded level. It was sort of like the people in the suburbs were competing over who had the best security.

After all the precautions taken to secure their family from harm, the Dragon’s Teeth gate ends up harming their son. I know that there is some sort of lesson to be learned from this story, but I can’t put my finger on it ( I know…cliché).

I almost died

Today I was power walking to J. Sarge. It was so cold and I didn't want to walk. I decided to cross the street when there were no cars coming and BAM!! I hit the ground....talk about embarrassing. This random guy was like, "Are you alright?" and I was like," I'm fine." I scrapped my hand and my knees. A car was coming and I almost died!

March 3, 2008

I'm excited because my birthday is around the corner. I'm gonna be 18!!!YAY. My birthday party is March 1. I should be passing out invitations soon.

why are we here today?

So we're in English class, but we're not in class....we're walking around town! Hello!