Final Post: Recapping my Blog and Grade

Final Post

Recapping My Blog and Grade

It has been a very Long and Arduous semester. However I can not help but to feel pleased with all that I have learned. The obstacles that I conquered this semester were immeasurable but all the dedication has paid off.

Of all my work this semester in my first 200 leveled English class I would have to say that I enjoyed almost everything. When it comes to my very first Blog I am astounded when I can look back and cruise through a list of work that even requires me to visit "Older Work."

I think my strongest work in the blog this semester were...

Washington And Du Bois

•  A response on the the two authors works Up From Slavery by Taliaferro and The Souls of Black Folk by William. I was connected to the text and believed in the values I was speaking of when it came to the views on rising up against racial inequality. 

 Villanelle 

•  This has been my first assigned poetry in years. I love writing poetry. Thus the writing was long awaited and I put a lot of time into the Villanelle. I also think I did very well for just learning how to write a Villanelle. Its a good read.

 Close Reading a Poem

•  This post followed the assignment the best out of all my posts. I met all the requirements and even had a chance to fix some critiques. I also loved the poem Apple Picking by Robert Frost. It showed in the depth of the post.
  
  
  These three posts are my strongest blogs for a number of reasons. Earlier in the semester we were still becoming familiar with the scope racial inequality portrayed through our readings.
     
    When we were assigned Up from Slavery by Booker T and Souls of Black Folk by Du Bois I was becoming aware for the first time of the stories that are not taught in our history classes. I was tired of reading on history. Instead what we got were first hand accounts of the people who were rising up against racial inequality, not laws and regulations being passed by the government. This was good for me because I could appreciate the text and not think about it just like an assignment. Because I cared for once about what I was reading the texts became enlightening. I was able to write in a way that truly expressed how I felt about racial inequality after reading both stories. I was able to understand that even though Du Bois was more humanistic the candid voice of Washington was what it took to be heard in those times. All this showed in my writing making it a good blog post.
  
  
  When I read the poem Apple Picking by Robert Frost I immediately fell in love with it. I love poetry and this poem reminded me of when I was a kid growing up in Idaho City. My grandmother Sue used to work at a Bed and Breakfast maintaining everything from the kitchen to the garden. Every year we would make our rounds picking all the different apples for pies and cupcakes and applesauce. At some point and time during the production the place would look just like the scene painted in Apple Picking. Because I was so attached it seemed no task at all digging deep into the poem and finding all the knowledge required for the Close reading. I was able to meet all the requirements of the assignment and that made for a spot on blog post. It was enjoyable. 
  
  
  The Villanelle was also one of my strongest blog posts. Because it was the first time I have been assigned writing poetry in years I was able to put lots of though and love into the poem making a good read that was also great in following the proper structure of the style Villanelle. The only critique I had for this poem was maybe that it could use some work on the stressed and un-stressed syllables.
  
  
  My views on literature have changed considerably since the beginning of this class. Before this class I had not given much thought about literature since my last English class; which was still learning English not surveying literature. It changed my view considerably in the sense that literature is not just something that people created for fun or for education, rather it is a product of the emotions and circumstances of the people writing in their specific time. All the different literary movements we studied were not produced for education, rather they were direct essences of the stressful things that come from developing countries so to speak. I would say that now I can appreciate literature as more than just education, because I have learned how the some styles have been created. 
  
  
  It's been a wild semester taking five classes rather than four. The extra responsibility weighed on my grades and I will admit that I have struggled to stay on top of things. I am an A and B student but this semester there are only going to be B's and C's on my report card. I cant complain however. This is my first year of school completely independent with no family to help and encourage me along because my grandmother passed away last year. I have managed to pay for school and not drop any classes like last semester or failing. This is a huge achievement. Since I have no car I have also managed to stay consistent with my attendance even though I ride my bike miles a day just for class. I also have managed to take care of my dog this semester after she got badly injured in a dog fight with a pit bull. All these things are amazing achievements.
  
  
  In this class I feel, as always, that I could have done better. The only reason that I have a C in this class is because despite my best efforts to stay on top of all my classes, I inevitably forget assignment due dates and in this class, my blog posts. Missing these blog posts have made a huge detrimental impact on my grade, which is sad because I have learned and done well in the class. I managed to make it to class almost every day on my bike through the cold rainy or snowy, or once a blue moon sunny mornings. I paid attention in class, and participated in all the mini discussions we would ofter break into. I participated in the weekly class lecture to the best of my ability by interacting with the class every time I had a chance to voice my opinion or add thought towards something we were discussing instead or remaining quiet. 
  I feel I am a strong student when it comes to participation. When participating in the class you have to know your stuff to add any sufficient thought. I took my readings seriously so that I could add good information for these interactions. I feel I am a weak student when it comes to managing all the time it takes to get all of the reading and computer work done for the class. Because I have the extra class I cant be to hard on myself about what has happened this semester.
  
  
  I deserve a solid B in this class. It is my first English class were, in my own opinion, you apply what you have learned. I did a great job using all of the these things in my writings like simple Simile and Metaphor and essay structure like MLA and APA. It took a huge amount of dedication to make it to class every week given I have to ride my bike through the elements. This is not as easy as one two three. There are a lot of factors to consider when getting to class beings how I never sleep in the same bed twice in one week. Being a good student requires you to be in class, on time, and for the most part I did very well with this. I feel I was a great student in class because I interacted with the class to the best of my ability. To do this I had to know my stuff so I took all the content of the class seriously so I could present it in my own voice when ever I got the chance in class via discussions and small group assignments, like the small group discussion and the small groups we would break into occasionally to interpret texts. I did very well on all the other assignments like the essay and the presentation. My only antidote to a flawless year was missing some of my blog posts. This happened in other classes as well which is why I am not going to be getting any A's this semester. All in all I think a B is fitting towards my performance in class this semester. 
  
  
   
    

Post Follow Up: Pynchon

Post Follow Up

The Crying of Lot 49

This book has began to win my applause now that I finally have my actual hard copy which I received over the last weekend through the mail. I started reading the initial four chapters via the link provided in class that was bad because I struggle to read for a long time on the computer.

Initially I wasn't happy about how long the sentences were in The Crying of Lot 49 but the hard copy has helped a Lot! The sentence that I referenced in my previous Pynchon post was about page two paragraph four were Mucho is being "Back-Storied" involving his emotionally disheartening line of work. I now can appreciate all the mechanical devices he used to make the sentence not a run on. 

Now that I have the hard copy and have been reading past the fourth chapter the plot is still hot and the reader is still being drawn to try and look up all the confusing words. Oedipa is still lost in her disentanglement of Pierce's estate, and now having already met so many people and learned so much about the mysterious  "Muted Horn" so many opportunities arise as to how the story is going to unfold. In the back of the readers mind, you think this whole story is going to turn out that she is really hallucinating all of this. She has found so many symbols however, proving that the Trystero has survived test of time after the great Thurn and Taxis take over. After her conversations with Driblette, she was sparked to investigate the Trystero, after touring the plant and meeting Koteks the reader then kinda puts two and two together and its obvious that this cant be a hallucination because Koteks knows something about the Trystero .    

If its true that the Trystero really still exists, this may be the ultimate reward that Oedipa has been so desperately seeking. Is the Trystero still in existence? Did Pierce buy in with this secretive society and is that why at one point he "lost two million yet had still connections enough to keep the ball rolling," and was Oedipa the only person he could trust to not sell them out after he died unexpectedly?

The reader suddenly seems as if hallucinations might be spot on yet again but its not yet a disentanglement. Facts are starting to become reveled and maybe this is all coming true that the Trystero is going to make a come back. If so that would be big news for Oedipa. 

The Crying of Lot 49

The Crying of Lot 49

Thomas Pynchon

I have a lot of respect for Thomas Pynchon but I have to say there are some very long and extremely dragged out sentences. These were very hard to understand and that's frustrating but the plot of the story makes up for it. Secondly awkwardly eying Pynchon again I would say its a necessity for somebody who has never read Pynchon's The Crying of lot 49 to have a dictionary at bay at all times. I found my self looking up every other word as I read through chapter four.

I was not expecting the story to take such an erotic twist as Mrs Oedipa Maas drunkenly cheated on her semi-rehabilitated car lot junkie turned disk jockey husband. I didn't expect all the explicit  and wild bar talk and drug scandals such as the pot smoking good times at the lake and drinks at the bar, or even the unethical science experiments with unsuspecting patients taking LSD. This style of writing is amazing and draws the reader in because you don't feel as if you are trying to learn something your are being assigned to read, rather from this work you feel like you are getting a chance to read something you want to read for once, or something you decided to read on your own.

I will admit Thomas reminds me of how i used to write back in high school because everything that I wrote had such descriptiveness.  A good example of Thomas using way to long of a sentence, yet still being good in plot with amazing descriptiveness is on page two paragraph four of the first chapter when Thomas is describing Mucho's affair with the lot is

 

"Maybe to excess: how could he not, seeing people poorer than him
come in, Negro, Mexican, cracker, a parade seven days a week, bringing the most godawful of trade-ins:
motorized, metal extensions of themselves, of their families and what their whole lives must be like, out
there so naked for anybody, a stranger like himself, to look at, frame cockeyed, rusty underneath, fender
repainted in a shade just off enough to depress the value, if not Mucho himself, inside smelling hopelessly
of children, supermarket booze, two, sometimes three generations of cigarette smokers, or only of dust and
when the cars were swept out you had to look at the actual residue of these lives, and there was no way of
telling what things had been truly refused (when so little he supposed came by that out of fear most of it had
to be taken and kept) and what had simply (perhaps tragically) been lost: clipped coupons promising
savings of .05 or .10, trading stamps, pink flyers advertising specials at the markets, butts, tooth-shy combs,
help-wanted ads, Yellow Pages torn from the phone book, rags of old underwear or dresses that already
were period costumes, for wiping your own breath off the inside of a windshield with so you could see
whatever it was, a movie, a woman or car you coveted, a cop who might pull you over just for drill, all the
bits and pieces coated uniformly, like a salad of despair, in a gray dressing of ash, condensed exhaust, dust,
body wastesit made him sick to look, but he had to look."

 

     It seems like Thomas uses every literary device possible to keep the sentence going without being a run on, and this works on the readers mind just as hard trying to read it without getting lost and making it sound like a run on to you self as you read it. 

 

     For some reason I become more relaxed and aligned with the tone of the text when it feels like im reading something that is not educational. In a text book you are not going to hear many words like "Cracker" which is now days considered a racial slur. Because Thomas uses that type of personal expressiveness in his descriptiveness, this draws the reader in. Aside from being mentally exhausted by the time you get to the end of the sentence you are still enthralled by what your reading. 

     The descriptiveness Pynchon uses here leaves the reader no room for interpretation given the chance to put a finger on what its like to be in the shoes of Mucho the car sales man, that poor fellow. And later on the plot thickens as you get enlightened by the fact that something is still haunting him about the job; even though he has a new life. 

 

 I did become very confused as to the meaning of the play that Metzgert and Oedipa attended; what has that got to do with anything so far, and why must Pynchon again get the reader so deep into the dictionary and into trying to not get lost in very very long sentences? I must continue on reading past chapter four to find out I guess as I have not been able to understand yet.

 

 

Small Group Discussion Blog Post

Small Group Discussion Blog Post

Notes of a Native Son

Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin was a phenomenal read capturing the contempt, hardship and indignity faced by those living through the race riots of the summer of ninety three. The small group discussion on the essay was a great activity for critically analyzing the text and broadening my learning curve as a student. 

 My thinking on this essay was instantly different than normal readings because I was required to participate in a group discussion about it later. This made me want to set up more time than usual to become familiar with the story, and try and understand it my self in stead of coming to class with questions and waiting to be informed. I researched this essay on the internet searching for articles, blogs, and other cites that had more information than the text book on the essay, and on Baldwin which I usually do not have to do. I never take notes on essays and this didn't change with this essay but I did read it out loud to my self and to an audience at times to better understand it and get others input on some confusing scenes such as when the cops shoots the black soldier with the negro woman.

I read the essay multiple times because it is rather long compared to the poems we have been reading in class. I wanted to make sense of the entire essay my self for once and this required me to be able to read it out loud to my self without any mistakes. In doing this I completely understood all the written material, even if I was still unsure on the figurative and deeper meanings of the essay. I did not write a blog about the essay which made me feel as though I needed to make up for it by reading the essay even more before the discussion. I also read all the questions for the group discussion before and after reading the essay to help get a sense of what I needed to focus my attentions on. I answered all the questions in writing.

I was refreshed on my time management skills with this group discussion. To get all the parts of the project done took considerable planning, so I feel I learned how to be a better student because I was able to discover plenty of unnoticed time between other projects to focus on the assignment. I also learned that reading out loud helps me to understand better. For some reason when I read to my self I tend to think more to my self, and some how I will be thinking to my self and reading at ther same time but the only thing I remember is what I was thinking about. I will find my self a page or two into a text before realizing I have no idea what I just read. So after reading the story out loud a number of times I finally got it.

Lastly I feel that I got a better understanding of the text after the group discussion. Because we didn't have the normal class time to discuss and understand the text, I sought towards the discussion to fill in the blanks for me. Particularly I was unsure as to weather Baldwin actually hated his father or not. As it turns out, he did hate him only to avoid the pain of the relationship, which was not known to me until the discussion. After this project I feel that I understand and can remember Notes of a Native Son better than any other reading I have indulged in in this class previously. 

I think it is because of the entire process that I went through just to learn the story and help lead the class through the discussion that helped me learn. All in all the project was a good learning experience that helped test and strengthen my abilities as a student.

Notes of a Native Son

Notes of a Native Son

James Baldwin

James Baldwin touches the hearts of his audience in his short three part production Notes of a Native Son. Not only does he capture the emotion and realness of the race riots in Harlem during the summer of 1943, he hands over the essence of what it meant to be a "Negro" during the times of great social distress. He gave the reader a peak into the hearts and souls of some of the most ordinary of black folk from the ghetto of Harlem to the uniforms of the armed services. As well he grabbed the reader with sympathy in the portrayal of his father and the death that he was to witness.

     Baldwins uses stainless imagery when describing the scene of the streets of Harlem during a riot that broke out over the rumor of a white police officer shooting a black soldier in the back while protecting a negro woman. You get a look at the flow of the event when Baldwin penned...

From the Hotel Braddock the mob fanned out, east and west along 125th Street, and for the entire length of Lenox, Seventh, and Eighth avenues. Along each of these avenues, and along each major side street- 116th, 125th, 135th, and so on- bars, stores, pawnshops, restaurants, and even little luncheonettes had been smashed open and entered and looted- looted, it might be added, with more haste than efficiency.

 And then the sight of all the mob's hard work...

The shelves really looked as though a bomb had struck them. cans of beans and soup and dog food, along with toilet paper, corn flakes, sardines, and milk tumbled every which way, and abandoned cash registers and cases of beer leaned crazily out of the splintered windows and were strewn along the avenues.

         These two scenes, in succession, within the third part of his text slaps the reader in the face with the all too real sight such a devastating event such as the race riot would have been. Earlier in the text Baldwin provides a glimpse of the inner turbulence felt by the peoples of the ghetto Harlem. 

All of Harlem, indeed, seemed to be infected by waiting. I had never before known it to be so violently still. 

And again...

That year in New Jersey lives in my mind as though it were the year during which, having an unsuspected predilection for it, I first contracted some dread, chronic disease, the unfailing symptom of which is a kind of blind fever, a pounding in the skull and fire in the bowels. 

         This inner turbulence obviously had its impact on the people of Harlem- not just the blacks- and on Baldwin as later in the text he describes a scene after a slew of racial inequality pointed in his direction; he tried to harm a waitress in a restaurant who pushed him past his breaking point by refusing him service; he almost knocked her out with a pitcher of water hurled across the room. 

        These scenes gives the reader an emotional tithe with Baldwin as everybody knows how it feels to reach the point in which you might actually lash out. Through the text is the developing story of Baldwins father and his passing and all of these scenes and the very short dialogue really get the reader emotionally attached. Baldwin lost his father after never knowing him, and only ever even talking to him once for real. In the end, what Baldwins father had for him to have on earth was forever to be unknown. This is in common on what racism had for humanity. Was it nothing but a detriment to society, or was something formed out of all this? The reader is left to interpret this right alongside Baldwin.

 

Villanelle

Climb On

Reach forth and grasp with all your might,

Muscles shredding but no progress lost;

The end, a sight ,don't fear the height. 

Even in raining night,

Or so great of heat that death is cost.

Reach forth and grasp with all your might.

The texture is rough so slippery palms are alright, 

The rock face, sheer and dominant, the dice, tossed.

Reach forth and grasp with all your might.

Your death was unseen in any foresight.

So climbing faster makes your spirit fostered. 

The end, a sight, don't fear the height.

Ascending vertically, a glorious fight.

Again the reaper you've cheated in this final cross.

Reach forth and grasp with all your might.

The crux exhausted, your body is tight.

The last moves up, then viewings  for a boss.

The end, a sight, don't fear the height.

Reach forth and grasp with all your might.

 

Peer Post Feedback

Peer Post Feedback

Robert Hayden and The Middle Passage

In regards of another renowned peer post by...

 linzersamples

Lindsay does s great job in recognizing and understanding the imagery used in Robert Hayden's The Middle Passage.

 

“Sails flashing to the wind like weapons,

Sharks following the moans the fever and the dying:

Horror the corposant and compass rose

Middle Passage:

voyage through death

to life upon these shores.” (Hayden 1114).

In this passage by Hayden Lindsay goes to explain how there are two different types of imagery being displayed here. The literal imagery goes...

to a person ripped away from everything that is familiar and perhaps not having ever seen a sailing vessel the sails must have seemed terrifying.  Seeing them rip through the wind for the first time, it would perhaps seem frightening and dangerous…like a weapon.

          This is a very serious image the reader gets. you can feel the anxiety and the fear behind the eyes of the individual upchucking such a visual. To somebody who was unwillingly removed from their complete way of life and thrown into a horrific struggle for survival in a new world all the different from what they are accustomed to, the sight of the sails ripping through the wind and the blood thirsty sharks following the death hungry moans of the dieing would have been most likely memorably noted as a cacophony. This literal interpretation  is appalling and makes the reader grimace in denial that something like this could be allowed to happen. Next, Lindsay point out the figurative imagery of  Hayden's passage as goes...

The sharks could be a metaphor for those capturing people for slave trade, following the cries of those people desperate to escape them.

          You can see the connection Lindsay is making with this observation of figurative imagery. The poor souls caught in the fleeing of the slave trade were relentlessly pursued, like sharks in the ocean; detecting the faintest wafting of its next victims blood. To the reader, through this imagery, you get a keen sense of the inner chaos of the slaves in their helplessness to their persecutors. The reader feels like they are stuck on the ship, helpless and scared; without any means of rescue or help.

         Understanding the different views of imagery here is important to getting at the true meaning of Hayden's work. By taking into aspect the figurative aside from the literal imagery provided, the reader can get a sense of duel emotion. Instead of just watching the events of The Middle Passage go down, you can feel them, and youa re along for the boat ride with the slaves on the ship.
         The reader can see the anger and content of the slaves towards the white slave drivers, and can also feel the sad emotions of depressions, hopelessness and weariness. By drafting such genuine schemes of emotional attachment to the plot, Hayden gets the reader to become the true nail bitter. Lindsay does a great job of showing this to anybody who previously did not realize this!