Bastard Out of Carolina

This book definitely is a way to share what its like for some children to be abused by older "family" members. The main character is abused by her mother's love. He is not her real father. The main character is a little girl called Bone. Bone's abuser does it and blames it on "loving her." He says he loves her so he feels he has the right to physically discipline her.

Bones mother loves the guy a lot and even though it is pretty obvious what is happening, she can not leave him. I also think it’s odd that her mother doesn’t really do much to make Bone feel better. Bone at some points believes she deserves the wrath that the mothers’ lover inflicts on her.

poems

The poems we read the last couple meetings have completely threw me into a state of confusion. I never enjoy poems much but reading the ones that we discussed made me not like them more at all. All of them had some form of death/life situation in them and a bunch of them talked about naughty topics.
We read one poem about a sheep boy. I really did not like that poem at all. It basically is a little story about how a sheep boy was born and was much more descriptive then I would have liked. I am pretty sure people would agree with me that it wasn't the best poem they have read.

Another poem we read was about a stewardess who fell out of an airplane. The whole format of this poem threw me into a loop. It just kept going and going and going. I agree it was an effective way to describe the person’s feelings while falling but it was just far too long. It felt more like a short story to me. The whole ending was a little odd as well with her stripping her clothes off mid-air to die more "naturally."

The Heaven of Animals

I am not very good when it comes to poems. i chose this poem cause it seemed to be the easiest to read. I originally tried reading "walking on water" but from the very beginning I had no idea what was going on

The heaven of Animals seemed very peaceful when reading it. Im not sure if there is suppose to be a secret messege behind it but it could be assumed that the animals are slaves. Once they die they go to a peaceful place where no one can control them.

A Streetcar Named Desire: movie vs play

I in all honesty did not like the movie at all. The character of Blanch truly annoyed me with how she acted. I believe that movies do not need their actors or actresses to exaggerate their emotions with body language nearly as much as an actor or actress in a play. Yes this was originally a play and probably the acting would look much better on stage, but it wasn't.

I don’t remember everything about both versions but I do remember that Stanley was very violent in both and it still astonishes me that Stella kept going back to him. In the play Stanley always was very easily aggravated but in the movie he seemed more in control of his temper at some times. I remember in the movie Stella at the end does leave him and says she won’t ever return to him. It shows that women have a little more say in their life and aren’t fully dependent on men.

It took me a little while to get the motivation to read this play. I personally didn't think it was the most entertaining play I’ve dealt with. I did think it was interesting how they portrayed different characters and how they changed throughout the story. Blanche seemed like the dying breed of the old fashioned women while her sister, Stella, love Blanche but did not agree with a lot of what she said.
Stella falls in love with a man who is the complete opposite of Blanche. Stanley and Stella have a baby in the end of the story but throughout the play Stanley ridicules Blanche and practically harassers the whole time. The day the baby is suppose to be born Stanley actually comes in and rapes Blanche and to my surprise pretty much gets away with it. I was shocked that Stella, Blanches own flesh and blood didn't believe her sister and still stayed with Stanley.

the eyes are watching god

For the most part I enjoyed this book a lot more then the other stories we have read thus far. The story was kept moving so it kept my attention a little more. At first it was hard to fully understand what was going on when the characters were speaking but in no time it was almost like second nature.
I thought some of the different scenes in the book were very interesting. It was also a very interesting representation of women during the time period. Some times it seemed like Janie was a typical women of the time but other times she shined and became more of a powerful woman who took her own life into her hands. She ran away from her first husband got married, stayed with another husband till he died, then married a third guy who stayed with until she had to kill him for protection. I dont really think that was a typical life style of what happened during the time.

Make up Blog

Upon reading the beginning of Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, I actually thought it was somewhat interesting. The way the characters speak is what keeps my attention. I know a lot of people have issues reading like that but I find it entertaining. For some reason I wanted to read it with a European accent or something, I don’t know it was quite odd.

The beginning was very descriptive, even to the point where it was describing a female body. This particular female seems to make a lot of others very jealous. I think it was ironic that all the other girls thought the attractive woman came back for one thing when in fact they were completely wrong.

Barn Burning

I found it very interesting to read how someone can be caught between family blood and doing what is right ethically. The boy in the story, Colonel Sartoris Snopes, was always taught from a young age by his father that family blood is most important that everyone else is the enemy. This includes judges and anyone in authority.

The boys’ father seems like a very abusive person. He would abuse his animals and I am sure that he would abuse his son if he ever did anything that he did not like. He always told his son that if he ever went against his family blood that no matter what Sartoris would have no one to go to if he needed help. “You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain’t going to have any blood to stick to you.” This caused the biggest problem for his life.

Kate Chopin

For the time period i think it was astonishing how well Kate Chopin did with her works. First off it wasn't easy for women to get much education let alone be educated enough to write the level she has accomplished.

When reading her stuff it becomes clear that her point of view is a lot different then other authors that we have read. She brings up points that a very skeptical for the time and that many people in society would not agree with.

In Desiree’s Baby I believe she portrays the male as the figure who takes control and what ever the male says goes. He said at the beginning that he loves Desiree but by the end he ignores her and wants nothing to do with her. As much as Desiree doesn’t like it, she obeys her husband and leaves and is never heard from again. However, in The Strom, Calixta shows her self to be more independent from what her husband has to say and even has a very friendly experience with a man in a different social class.

Frederick Douglass

I personally enjoyed this rather long passage of reading that we had to do. The name Frederick Douglass is well known throughout history. We learned about him in high school but we never were told his whole story. I remember only learning that he was taught the Alphabet and the rest is a blur.

Reading the Life of Frederick Douglass has been an enlightening story that tells about his life as a slave. Starting off from the time he was very young till after being sold many different times. I believe while he was a young man that he went through so many different stages of slavery that he at times didn’t even know what to think. At some points it seems like he was not aware of what was going on around him, while other times he seemed like he was right on top of society. He has had masters that were the meanest people in the world while others were a little less cruel.

Thomas Jefferson and George Fitzhugh

I personally think as we keep going with our discussions, they will become very intense. By the time Friday came, it almost felt like we were in a debate. Not really with our selves but against the writer of the piece we read. Even though many of us don’t agree with him, George Fitzhugh was a very intelligent man who unlike Thomas Jefferson, backed up his opinions with strong and confident information.

We started out in the beginning of the week talking about Thomas Jefferson. He was a president of the United States, writer of the Declaration of Independence as well a man who we believe had Asperger's syndrome. Through his writings we concluded the Thomas Jefferson was one who contradicted him self. He said he didn’t approve of slavery and yet he owned slaves. Personally I think becomes has Asperger’s that even though he doesn’t believe in slavery, he doesn’t know how to control his actions and go against society.

George Fitzhugh definitely is a man who did not go against what he said. He fully believed in slavery. The interesting thing though was that he didn’t believe blacks were the only ones who should be slaves. He believed that if the blacks weren’t around in the south, that the whites should do it. He was proud southern man who believed that they were the best. He explained how slavery was apart of every rich cultures history. For example he talked about slaves in Greece as well as in the Roman Empire. We concluded in discussion though that maybe they weren’t slaves as we think of today. The most interesting thing to me was that he said that the Pope was a radical reformer. But I guess to his society that anyone saying that slaves shouldn’t be allowed is an outsider and can be considered a reformer.

John Smith

John Smith was the first person in America to have a whole myth about him. Whether it’s completely accurate or not his name is very famous to people of all ages. Kids know about him through Disney’s movie, Pocahontas. That is where most of us now know his name.

In one of his stories, he is trying to convince Englishmen to move to America. According to John Smith it is “mans duty to god” to own land, earn money and have a farm. I thought it was very interesting how he put things, almost like he was preaching to uneducated. He used similes to try and convince English to come over. For example, the fish was used to show that any one can earn money, and that England its self does not have any natural resources.

Later on, Smith explains that the natives are savages and need to be “saved.” One thing that was said in class that I thought was very interested was that John Smith is kind of like President Bush. Taking over land and putting it to use in its own way.

Like most storybooks and text books, much of the stories are one sided. It would be interesting to hear the story from the native Americans point of view.

First Day

First day of class and already there was a pretty intense discussion. The topic of southern stereotypes is definitely a way to get a group of people to talk. Although there are very different view points everyone does agree that the people down south are completely different then those of us up here. Some common stereotypes that we discussed were that the southerners are dumb and very slow. Other students stated how they thought of certain states when they thought of the south. Some states included: Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, as well as many others. Other Stereotypes dealt with how blacks treat whites as well as other blacks. Southern blacks treat northern blacks with no respect according to what was said in class last week.