Austrailian Speaker

Today for class, an Austrailian speaker shared information about studying abroad with us. I really enjoyed listening to what he had to say and thought it was a nice experience.  He answered many questions about Austrailia and the differences between the United States and there.  I has no idea that minimum wage there is double what it is here! That makes me want to move to Austrailia! However, he then shared that everything there is more expensive than it is here. Overall, I enjoyed his presentation  and thought  it was a nice change to have a speaker for the class. 

The Fish

We were assigned to read this poem for homework and it was the poem my group recieved in class to analyze.  I enjoyed reading this poem and thought it was interesting. At first, you think the poem is simply about a fisherman catching a fish and eventually throwing it back.  However, the poem has a much deeper meaning.  It actually is about a fisherman who catches a fish and realizes that the fish has been caught many times as the poem goes on to explain in great detail the lines and hooks going though the fish's lip.  The fisherman understands that this fish he has caught has been through a lot. He throws the fish back because, in a way, he respects the fish. 

Poems

I enjoyed reading the poems and I also like the group work we did in class concerning the poems.  Refreshing our memories by making a list of all the different things involving poems on the board was nice.  It helped me to remember all the componenets of poetry before we started discussing them. I also enjoyed having a group and one poem to pick apart a piece than discussing them with each other in class and figuring out there meanings.  The video at the end for one of the poems was very interesting and helped me to further understand the meaning of that poem.

Peer Reviews

I feel that the peer reviews we do in class before a paper is due are very helpful.  It helps a lot to have other people read your paper and give their advise.  Other people can see and point out the grammatical errors and structure problems within a paper.  It is a very helpful process that most definitely helps to improve a paper.  I also think it is nice to recieve a 100 quiz grade when we attend class on the days of peer reviews.  I feel that it stresses the importance of recieving peer reviews.  Overall, I enjoy the process and think it is helpful. 

The Glass Menagerie Paper

I decided to go with doing a character analysis for my paper.  The character I chose is Amanda because I feel that she is the most interesting.  Although she is extremely annoying, she is that way for a reason.  I feel that she is the way she is because she lived her teenage years being wanted by everyone, mostly men, and in her older years she becomes abandoned by her husband and left on her own to raise two children.  Obviously no women would be happy about something like this happening. I think this explains why she is so pushy and annoying with her son.  She wants him to be successful and take care of her and her daughter.  She also would like for him to find his sister a nice gentlemen to take care of her.  Overall, she is annoying simply because she wants the best for her children but in the end she pushes her son away and ends up alone with laura. 

The Glass Menagerie

We are currently watching The Glass Menagerie in class.  I actually kind of like this movie even though it is a little boring.  It is about a mother living in an apartment with her two adult chidren. She has one son and one daughter.  The mother is extremely annoying and is always nagging about something.  The son seems miserble and is trying to find anyway to get away from his mother.  The daughter is somewhat handicap but very sweet. In the movie, the mother wants her son to find a man for his sister.  He eventually does this and they have the man over for dinner.  The man and the daughter have somewhat of a romamtic moment when they kiss.  However, it turned out the man was engaged to be married.  I'm excited to find out what happens next!

A Good Man is Hard to Find

In this story there was a lot going on and it was a little difficult to follow.  I feel like I say that about all of the story's we read but it is true.  I usually do not completely understand the story's until our class discussions.  In this story, a family decides to go on a vacation and the crazy grandma is completely agianst it and nags the entire time.  On the way to there destination, the grandma tells everyone she knows about an interesting place they should visit on the way there.  Eventually they discover they are going the wrong way and this place the grandmother spoke of was actually in a different state.  In the end, the whole familyis murdered. Very intense ending.  However, throughout the story the grandmother is very fake. in the end, when she knows her life is coming to an end, she changes.

Hills Like White Elephants

This story was very short and interesting.  I enjoyed reading it and trying to interpret what the man and woman were referring to as the "operation."  In class we came to the conclusion that the opereation was actually an abortion the woman was plannning to have.  In the story, the man and woman sit at a train station and drank alcohol the whole time.  They also discuss the "operation." On one side of the train station  the land is dry and plain with hills, while on the other side the land is green with trees and mountains.  We discussed in class that the two different sides represent life and death.  We also discussed  that the man is older than the woman considering that is the story he refers to her as a "girl." This could be the reason they want to go through with an abortion. Overall, the story was very interesting to read.

The Yellow Wallpaper

This story was very confusing to me. I enjoyed reading it because I thought that the ending would explain everything, however; the ending actually left me even more confused.  The story tells of a woman who apparently is mentally ill, her husband is a physician and feels the best way to treat her is to force her to stay in a room.  I don't really agree with his treatment method but we discussed in class that he probably is "hiding" her from society.  While in this room, the woman develops an extreme interest in the wallpaper.  At first, she hates the wallpaper and tells of how discusting it is. As the story progresses, she begins to become attached to the wallpaper and studies it day and night. She decides that the wallpaper illustrates a woman trapped behind bars always trying to escape.  I feel that she is mentally ill and feels that she is trapped with no way out  Therefore, in the end of the story, the woman goes crazy and rips all the wallpaper off the walls.  When her husband comes home, the story explains that he comes in the room and faints.  The story ends with the woman saying she has to "creep over him everytime she leaves the room!" This could be taken in many different ways.  Is the woman dead? Is her husband dead? What caused him to faint? Very confusing yet interesting.

The Chrysanthemums

 I feel that the story we read this week in class was very enjoyable with an interesting twist.  The ending of the story was slightly disappointing, however; once we discussed the story in class and I had a better understanding, it made more sense to me.  There were so many things that I didn't pick up on when I first read the story.  The discussion in class helped me to further understand the plot. The main character Elisa, is a lonely women whom is trapped in her own life. In the story she meets a traveler that interest her, however; she is married.  Her marriage seems to be boring which may be why she is so interested in something different.  Elisa also seems to struggle with knowing and accepting her place as a women. She wants to have the same opportunities as a man.