Blog # 7 - The Fish

I choose to write about "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop, mostly because I like fish. I thought this poem was full of great imagery, comparing the characteristics of the fish to flowers, made it more familiar to me. Even though I like fish, I don't know too much about them. I thought it was also interesting how the whole poem was just about a fish. It did not have a real rhyme scheme to it, but I still enjoyed reading it. Sometimes describing a simple thing can be something wonderful. You can describe anything you want and it will interest someone. I liked how in the end of the poem the fisherman(or woman) let the fish go along with the other ones who caught it. I am not sure why he/she did that, but by the end of the poem it seemed the right thing to do. Even though a person does something great, sometimes being unselfish (ha fish) is the way to go. So, I hope the fish was free to swim some more and the next catcher, let it go too.

Blog #6 - Waiting for Lefty by Clifford Odets

I have read "Waiting for Lefty" before and have liked it since the first time I read it. I have noticed that I have picked plays twice in the readings for this class. I don't really enjoy reading plays, but I do like going to them. I thought this play was interesting because it showed the reader every aspect of what was going on. Unlike most plays, stories, and poems, it let you know everyone's story. Most of the time you only hear one side of the story. I think Lefty represents the answer you want to hear, when you are in an argument with someone and think that your side is right. You just want them to agree with you so the arguing will finally be over, maybe because you believe your side is right, or even the other person's side is right, but you don't want to agree with them, or you don't even want to hear their side. Lefty can be all of these things, whatever people are arguing about they have to find out what is really important to them and focus their point on that, not how the other person is wrong, or whatever else they have on their mind. Lefty was thought to be the savior of the group to fix all problems. Sadly, sometimes all problems can't be fixed and you have to go through life dealing with things that can not be fixed. I think dealing with things that can't be fixed teaches us a lot and lets us become stronger and better people that we can make it through the tough times no matter what.

Blog #5 - Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway

I love the game "White Elephant." I am one of the few people I know who actually knows what this game involves and who plays it. I have always remembered playing it at Christmas time with my dad's side of the family. When I was little of course I didn't really understand the point of the game, I was just excited to get another present. As I got older I learned what the game really meant. I always thought of it as something funny, nothing serious. This short story took a different side to "white elephant." I never thought of it as something you don't want, pretty much against your will and opinion. The dialogue between the man and the girl, is similar to a conversation anyone might have about something they don't want or didn't plan. Mostly, asking themselves, what I should do about the situation and how did I get into this situation. In the case of the short story, it's a harder decision than just getting a weird present (we just give the present we got back the next year - ha). Sadly, in this case and many other cases that have gone through something they weren't expecting or didn't want, it isn't that easy. The world throws us white elephants all the time, these things are what make life interesting, we just have to figure out what we are going to do about them.

Blog #4 - What if a much of a which of a wind by E.E. Cummings

I choose to write about this poem, mostly because the title was a tongue twister to read which intrigued me. The first lines of each stanza of this poem are somewhat of tongue twisters. I think poems and other literature that are hard to read at first, force the reader (or at least myself) to re-read the passage and even think about it more. I kept reading this poem over and over trying to understand what he really means. Of course, my evaluation may not be anything related to what he was trying to convey to the reader. What if is always a question people ask themselves. What if this and what if that. I know I ask myself that sometimes, just curious as to what life would be like if I did something different, lived somewhere other than Ohio, or even wore something I normally wouldn't wear one day. How would those simple things have changed how my life is RIGHT NOW. It is something we never know but I am always curious about it. Sometime I want to go back into time and change things, but if that could happen, what would happen to the memories I already have??

Blog #3 - The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

In my senior year of high school we were given different colored sheets of paper, with different quotations, poems and words of wisdom. "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost was one of them. This poem has always stuck out since the day we got it. I have always liked Robert Frost's writing. But, this poem is one I could really relate. Multiple times throughout my college career I have wondered if I have taken the right path in life, or how my life would be if I took a different path. Another reason I like this poem is because of the imagery. I have always enjoyed nature, camping in Pennsylvania and hiking. This poem lets you get away from the rest of the world for a couple minutes, which I think is healthy for everyone to do once in a while. As I sit here writing this blog post, I am still wondering if I took the right path...

Reading Response for 2/22

Out of the readings for this week I liked Mary E. Wilkins Freeman...she has a long name. I liked her piece "New England Nun" the best. I thought it was an interesting side to the story. Most of the stories that are written about people being alone are usually depressing and sad. This surprisingly was upbeat and showed that living alone might not be that bad. Of course, it has some of the aspects as the more depressing stories, the lady seems to be a bit out there by staying inside her house, getting weirded out when Joe Dagget comes to visit and also keeping everyone in "cages'. She along with her animals are all kept in "cages" she is kept in her house, which she likes her way and only her way, her dog ceasar is usually kept in a dog house himself, and the bird is in a cage as well. Like most people who are alone seem to close themselves off from the rest of the world.

I enjoyed her style of writing as well. It was easy to read and understandable and overall a good story. I'm glad she was included in our book.

Reading Response for 2/15

The readings for this week were interesting. They all dealt with human nature and the different things they were going through. I thought they also focused on the mind and what could happen to people’s minds when they are dealing with certain circumstances.

As in the first few readings, war was the prime subject. War affects everyone in different ways, especially the soldiers. The little boy in the first reading didn’t know what to think of it. At first he was laughing at the men and then at the end he was devastated because he lost his home and his family, which is still happening today over in Iraq. This reading was very descriptive which helped to understand what the boy was going through.

Crane’s writings also dealt with war as well. He wrote prose and poetry about it, both of which were creative. I liked the poems more than the prose because I thought they were different from most poems I have read in the past. I thought another interesting part to his poems was that the title of his poems was also the first line of them. I wonder what he came up with first?
Harper also had a selection of poems that I liked. Along with Crane they were different from what I have read before. It was also nice to read from a woman writer of the time, considering this time was focused on the war going on and the men fighting in the war.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman needed some help. I have read The Yellow Wallpaper before and also have seen a movie version of it. Every time I read it or see the movie again, it still creeps me out a bit. I feel somewhat bad for the narrator because she is so messed up. She doesn’t even realize what is wrong with her. Reading something and seeing it on the screen also give a different perspective. Sometimes the screen depicts the writings accurately and sometimes they don’t. In this case I think you would understand that something is terribly wrong by either reading or seeing it, which is a strong point for Gilman, that she can convey something like that just in words.