Antigone

The question of "is Antigone a good person" is far to general. I think Sophocles shows us through Antigone that even good people do bad things. Are we determined to be good or bad based on one action or our many actions? Did everything Antigone do up until harming others and her pride fade away the good she did to her brother by burying him? I think she was a good person, not a perfect person, but a good person. Her intentions initially were of good nature. Sometimes when pride gets in the way we can make foolish decisions, but that decision can't forever define us. As it was talked about in the discussion forum being good is not simply "A" and "B" and now you're good. It's a much tougher tale to sell and each situation is completely different. 

What makes a good person?

What makes a person good will definitely differ from person to person, and yet we will have a lot of the same traits in our lists. When I get to know someone I usually let me gut take the reigns on deciding if someone is good. My list of what makes someone "good" consist of:

-Caring
-Thoughtful
-Open-minded
-Keen
-Understanding
-Honest
-Willing to help others if able
-Willing to give if able
-Listener

In the three stories that I've read I would say Haemon would be the most closely related to what I would define as "good". He stood by his father, Creon, and told him that he would never intentionally disagree with him, but then told the truth about what he thought of his decision. He told him that even though he is the "ruler" of Thebes, he should listen to what others think and be willing to accept outside advice.

David Foster Wallace's "Good People"

This was a tough read. David Foster Wallace left a lot open to interpretation. Lane has a hard time, but is convinced that it's the best idea, to go through with the abortion. He said he could always draw a "bring neon line" between good and evil. I think he wants to think he is good, but is trying to convince himself of it. He knows his religion says it is wrong to have an abortion. Sheri is sought out as not good either way. If she has the child out of wedlock she embarrasses her family with a "bastard" child and if she has the abortion, well that's sinfully wrong as well. It changes in the end when Lane has a "moment of grace" and envisions Sheri telling him that he can have an out, but she can't go through with the abortion. Then he decides that she will let him try to love her. Is his new outlook on himself, Sherri, a higher power, or just the sincere desire to be good? I think he wanted to do "right" all along, but maybe was scared of the responsibility and not getting to finish college. Like I said, for me this was a tough reading, and Wallace leaves a lot open for interpretation. Who was the man standing by the lake? Was he symbolizing God watching over them carrying a baby? Was the tree that he kept going back to a symbol of their faith being uprooted by the giant decision of their faith vs. what Lane wanted? It was a really good story and makes me want to read another one of Wallace's work.

Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find"

Throughout the story you hear the word "good" being used in multiple of contexts. It is used primarily by the grandmother, but is also used by other characters. She first uses it with Red Sammy when talking about why he let two complete strangers charge gasoline. She says he let them charge it because he is a "good man". So because he foolishly let someone take advantage of him makes him inherently "good". Then she uses it again when she is talking to the misfit. Saying that he wouldn't shoot a lady because he is "good". In this case and the other are both cases in which she values good and not what it really means to be good. If you have the same beliefs and views as the grandmother then you are naturally "good". When in both cases neither are true definitions of what it is to be good. They aren't based on a moral belief, but instead on having her same views of what people should be like.

Movie Vs. Text

A Midsummer Night's Dream. By William Shakespeare. Dir. Adrian Noble. A Royal Shakespeare Company Production. 1996. Netflix

It was the first time for me that I had either read or watched a movie about William Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. Reading it was a lot different for me than watching it because I didn't puck up on a lot of the humor that was involved. I knew parts were supposed to be funny and some parts weren't, but I couldn't always separate them. It was tough for me to understand the words at times, and even when I thought I read it correctly and had a correct definition of what a certain word was saying I would have to read the notes on the bottom of the page just to feed my urge of having to read what the annotations were. I would then get lost about what I was reading. It took all my attention to keep up with what was going on when reading it. The movie I could follow, and didn't realize how much of a funny man Puck was. The Netflix version pretty much followed the play word for word, and it did a good job of using foil characters and showing how the townsmen were in contrast to what the others stood for. The movie reassured me that I read it correctly, but it also gave me more of an insight into what Shakespeare was trying to show us through all the characters and how they assisted one another in developing.

Character - "Midsummer Night's Dream"

I believe the protagonist of "Midsummer Night's Dream" would have to be Robin (Puck). From what I could gather, especially after watching it on Netflix, Puck is the only character that is interacting in every plot line. His role as the central character is proven through him being directly involved in the rising action, conflict, falling action and resolution of the play.  He is involved in the action of the four lovers when he is poisoning their eyes with the love potions. He transforms Bottom into the head of an ass and lets bottom think, with his love poison on Titania, that he could be with the fairy queen. He is also involved in the argument for the Indian boy. It was hard to point out a central protagonist in this reading. None of the characters are completely developed, but Puck seems to be the closest by being forced to choose one.

Theme - Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays" and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman

The poem by Robert Hayden and the drama by Arthur Miller are very similar. They both speak about the love in a family. Not the kind of love that is seen in love stories of movies or chick flicks, but more along the lines of rugged bond/love. Both works speak about fathers that are willing to work day and night 365 days a year. No matter what kind of animosity is between the father and child, the father still knows he has a responsibility to take care of the child. There were times growing up where my father/mother and I were angry at each other, but that didn't stop one or both of them from still going to work and continuing to put food on the table. There have been times where I have been mad at my significant other, but it doesn't take the love out of you. Love comes in many different shapes and sizes. Doesn't always look pretty, sound like love, smell like love, or even look like love, but if it is love it will remain. On the reservation where I come from there is a lot of alcoholism. You could even say most of the time there seems to be no love between tribal families. A lot of anger and not so kind words are said. From the outside looking in it would seem like love is a distant, unfamiliar cousin. We all know that when it comes down to it, we will have each other. One family loses and elder, we all lose an elder. It also reminds me of the movie "Click" with Adam Sandler. He is always trying to do what he has to do to get ahead in the business. He thinks by making more money his family will be happier. He realizes by fast forwarding and seeing all his "success" that he really doesn't have anything. That he should be working to live and not living to work. 

Character - Willy Loman

Willy's dream was that of the "American Dream". Quick and easy money. I don't think he had the "wrong dream", but more he went about trying to get the dream the wrong way. He assumed that with a flashy smile and dominant personality you can have all the money and power in the world. That's the way he raised his sons and neither of them were at the top. Everyone that surrounded Willy and his family were successful. They all put their hard work in and didn't just wait for good things to come. I think Willy could have had a successful life, and in many ways did. He had two boys who thought the world of him growing up, a wife that would do anything for him and expected nothing, and a brother who would give him a job that could keep him around home. It bothers me, the idea that someone can put their whole professional life into something and leave with nothing. My old boss just had that happen to him. He put 23 years into his job, basically his whole professional life, and one day they took him in the office and said, "thank you for your time, but your services are no longer needed." Willy put all that time into his job, found the salesman and lost the salesman in him all in that time, but never found his true, personal self. So did he find success? Yes, but he didn't see it. He saw the failures which a lot of time stand out a lot more than our successes.

"Trifles" and "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers"

The similarities I see between "Trifles" and "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" both show the suppression of women in a patriarchal society. They both are of a woman suppressed by their husband, and find life miserable.  Both women have struggled because of their gender. They are similar in those ways, but there is one big difference. The difference is in the end resolution of how they each handled the situation. Aunt Jennifer will live and die in this type of patriarchal system, but Mrs. Wright killed her husband to escape his controlling ways.

Trifles

Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are different in the beginning of the play and transition into becoming more unified toward the end. Mrs. Peters was initially tied to the law, and her identity was that of what her husband was. Her husband, the Sheriff, was the law, and initially she was too. Mrs. Hale could empathize with Mrs. Wright because she knew the struggles and requirements of being a homemaker. This difference between Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale set up the conflict of being what they had to be in the shadows of their husbands. Mrs. Hale was more of an independent thinker, but Mrs. Peters would defend the law at all cost. The conflict in the story was Mrs. Wright feeling so trapped and secluded that her identity was taken from her, much like Mrs. Peters initially didn't have her own identity. As the drama continued Mrs. Hale got the point to Mrs. Peters her identity as a woman is more important than the identity that Mr. Peters has put upon her.

Reflection

The process I used was to check out some YouTube videos that explained finding meter and how to hear the stressed unstressed sounds. After reading the poem out loud a handful of times, and watching youtube I realized you can't read it without hearing the stressed sounds. It was a neat realization that the whole time it was right in front of me. I selected the option I did because it was words I understood and it was easy for me to read. I selected to do the voice because I really hate hearing my voice. I thought maybe if I forced myself to listen to me read it over and over I wouldn't be so self conscious about my voice. My biggest challenges were really just letting the poem flow out of my mouth and listening to what I am saying. I tried to be lazy and read it in my head over and over, but it wasn't until I said it out loud that I could really scan it and hear the stressed syllables/words. An insight I gained by doing this exercise is that once you scan the poem, find the meter, or feet, the poems are that much easier to read. You don't have to worry about it once you have it figured out. The words just flow out and you can focus on the speaker and meaning of the poem instead of how I was supposed to read it. 

Project Poem

The poem I chose was [There was a young girl from St. Paul] by Anonymous. This poem is a limerick meaning a short funny verse of, usually, five lines. Like I stated it is meant to be funny. You can tell when the speaker talks about her "newspaper dress" starting on fire and burning the "sporting section and all." I enjoy these kind of verse poems because they are light hearted. Maybe I just don't get into poetry and I didn't challenge myself, but every once in a while you have to sit back and enjoy a short poem for what it is.

Anonymous' "The Twenty-third Psalm"

The controlling metaphor in this psalm is God is our shepherd. Saying that, like a shepherd, god will lead us to food and water. Through God we will not want. We will not want because he will give us what we need. I will not have to fear evil because God will guide me through the darkness. Just like a shepherd will guide his flock. It restates the metaphor when it says "thy rod and thy staff they comfort me". The green pastures that a shepherds flock need is saying to us that the lord will lead us to a land that has what we will need. I think it's interesting toward the end it says "surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life". It implies that we will have imperfections and we will screw up. But as long as we allow the lord to lead us we will make it through and be forgiven. Just like a sheep may go astray but with the help of a shepherd he will lead us back to the right path.

Marge Piercy's "Barbie Doll"

The speaker in "Barbie Doll" is a narrator telling us a story. There is no specific speaker and it could be left to anyone who the speaker is. I came to this conclusion because it is always speaking of someone specific but never engages with the storyteller exactly. It starts with "This Girlchild was born as usual" in line 1 and lines 7 and 12 is starts with "she" and uses "she" throughout the poem.

The situation of the poem is a girl who grew up playing with barbies. As she grew older barbies were no longer toys and instead were a means of physical beauty. She was teased for not looking like a barbie by classmates in school as she hit puberty. The situation turned into turmoil over her looks and ended up taking her own life trying to fix what others saw as imperfections.

The tone of the poem is matter-of-fact when it starts in line 1 with "this girlchild was born as usual". The tone stays the same even when it gets to line 5 and says, "Then in the magic of puberty". It really maintains the same tone throughout the whole poem. Even in the end when it takes it's most dramatic turn and says, "so she cut off her nose and her legs". It doesn't darken or anything just telling us a nonjudgmental story of a girl who took her life because she didn't possess the external beauty.

Women often have to change their appearance and who they are to become what society wants them to become to fit in.

Robert Frost's "Home Burial"

The two speakers in the poem are a mother and father who have just lost a child. The child is buried within view of a window on top of the stairs. The husband and wife both handle the death differently.

The wife does not handle the loss of the child very well, and resents the husband for being so composed. Her reasoning and thoughts are clear when she talks about the anger she feels about the death, and how she will not accept it. From lines 102-106 she talks about how people eventually move on and go back to what they know. She has no intention of doing that, and instead will live in grief and think the world is evil. 

The husband follows the path that the wife see's as everyone else is follows after death. He accepts the death, but he has grieved. The husband handles the grief inside himself, and the wife resents that. He handles death how I do. He is able to reason it, accept it, and move on but never forget. The wife knows how much she is grieving, and wants to see him grieve like her. 

I know how they both feel. We are all different in the grieving process. It's unfortunate, but it happens. I don't know what it is like to lose a child, and I hope I never have to lose a child in my time alive. 

Dorothy Parker's "A Certain Lady"

It took me a time or two of reading the poem to figure out who I believe is talking and who they are talking to. The speaker seems to be talking to a man that she adores, but he is busy talking about the other woman he is with. He seems be a a womanizer. Always talking about his experiences and exploits with other woman. I feel like he is a boy still basing his success on things that aren't important in life. I don't like how he brags about his conquest and being with multiple of females. I am not a fan of arrogant and cocky people and that is how I see him. I can tell in line seven when the speaker says, "and you laugh back, nor can you ever see the thousand little deaths my heart has died." I would read the first 22 lines in a candid voice. I would want the person spoken to understand the effects of his stories and unmatched feelings have. The last two lines I would read with an uncertainty. The speaker is a very candid and emotionally distraught person. She seems caring, but wants him to know how she feels. The speaker is also very generous in that she is willing to listen to his stories even though she feels hurt by them. The way she moves and responds to his stories and then describes her feelings that are opposite of those mannerisms.

Alice Munro's "Boys and Girls"

I enjoyed this initiation story and watching the narrator grow. It was interesting the two separate ways they used the phrase "only a girl". At first she found the phrase derogatory, you can tell in the phrase, "A girl was not, as I had supposed, simply what I was; it was what I had to become. It was a definition, always touched with emphasis, with reproach and disappointment". She hated the word "girl" at this point, but at the end she found the phrase rewarding.
Throughout the whole story Munro did an amazing job using personification. The first use of personification that caught my eye was when the narrator described the outside that her and her brother were not afraid of. She says, "...when snowdrifts curled around our house like sleeping whales and the wind harassed us all night, coming up from buried fields, the frozen swamp, with its old bugbear chorus of threats and misery." This along with the imagery used kept a mental image of every moment that was being discussed during this story.
I remember playing that game of don't touch the ground. I'm sure most kids did. I always thought as long as my feet were under the blanket I was safe, that was my "rule".
The change and the rebellion this narrator goes through seems similar to John Updike's "A&P". Both this narrator and Sammy go through that same moment of change. When the narrator from "Boys and Girls" left the gate open out of nowhere and Sammy from "A&P" decided to quit. Both were impulses, and their consequences were not thought about.

John Updike's "A&P"

This was an interesting short story. This story follows Sammy, who works as a checkout in a supermarket. I laughed when I read through this story because it reminded me of myself when I was 19 and worked at Hy-vee. I never got put in the awkward situation that Lengel put Sammy in, but I remember being that awkwardly staring boy. It's comical the way Sammy talks about the customers in the store, referring to them as sheep. It's very true though, when people are in the store it's a whole different ball game. Not a lot of eye contact, a lot of thinking and moving in directions as if there are signs pointing to which way everyone moves. What was Sammy doing quitting his job? Was it Queenie and the other two girls that sparked something inside of him? I don't think Sammy quit his job just to impress those girls, I think he had a bigger reaction of growing up and not being like the "sheep", and they sparked that inner fire. He saw how they were rebelling, and he decides to rebel and quit his job. I don't think he would have quit his job if it was an 80 y/o lady wearing a two piece and got told to dress more decent. I think the story and what it means for it to be an initiation story are all in one. Sammy is a symbol of adolescence and Lengel being that of maturity. Sammy grows up within this story. Quitting his job because he didn't agree with Lengel's treatement toward them, hoping to impress the girls, and the satisfaction he is hoping to get from rebelling all teach him valuable lessons when he is walking out. The girls may not have noticed Sammy quitting, but he learned the lesson that his actions have consequences. Once he quit he knew it was too late and he couldn't go back on it. He was initiated into society and the struggles he will have to face. I think his actions are still heroic in a way. It would have been less heroic if he would have begged for his job back.

A.S. Byatt's "The Thing in the Forest"

When I first read the story, and heard the first descriptions of the "thing" I immediately thought the "thing" was what the girls were experiencing and their own way of making sense of all the questions they had. The train they were on was described as it "crawled sluggishly" and not being clean and had a "dank smell of unwashed trousers." That sounds a lot like the characteristics of the "thing."
Back to the "thing." It also makes me imagine war. When they describe the "thing" it sounds like anything that it comes in contact with gets wrapped up in it. It had wire, vegetation, meat, dishcloths, and wire wool all entangled in it. Just like war, it engulfs everyone and everything. Nothing is left unchanged after war. The struggles that families, and especially kids, go through are abundant and I'd imagine, much like Penny and Primrose, they find a way to make sense of their struggles and a way to cope with them. The "thing" is how Penny and Primrose make sense of their situation.
The narrator takes time to point out that Penny and Primrose are very different, but are very much alike. The narrator does the same with the two mothers. I'm not sure exactly why the narrator keeps pointing it out, but maybe to show that in times of distress, no one knows exactly what to do or how to cope with it.
I like all the personification that the narrator describes everything with. Giving the train characteristics to describe how it is moving really sets the scene in my head. The description of the "thing" was very well drew out to give you a good picture of what it looked like.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Birth-Mark"

This short story is about Alymer, a genius scientist, and his wife Georgiana. Georgiana was born with a birth-mark on her cheek that resembled a hand. I was left curious to why he waited until after they were together and proposed marriage to bring up his trouble with the birth-mark. You'd think if it is that obvious he would have said something sooner. Was he able to separate science and the love of his life from each other for a little while, but the scientist in him linked them back up? In the beginning the birth-mark was described as this tiny, little imperfection, but as I kept reading it seemed as if the birth-mark was growing and I imagined it covering her whole cheek. That's like any imperfection we see now, especially with ourselves, the more we focus on it, the larger it gets. It always seems to stick out more with the added attention we give that "little" imperfection. I was a big boy, and I mean big, all through high school. I eventually lost 85 pounds because I was sick of the imperfection of being another overweight person. Life was great for a little while, but then you notice the next imperfection that was never on the radar before, and then the next. I think there are always going to be things we want to change, superficial or not, but more times than not we have to learn to accept the things we cannot change.
In the beginning, Georgiana believed the birth-mark to be a charm, or at least that is what she told herself to accept having the mark on her face. By the end, Alymer convinced Georgiana that it is the most hideous thing, and neither life nor death should stop them from removing it. It's neat to read stories with timeless life lessons like this. These are issues we read about all the time. Models being airbrushed to cover any imperfections for ads, because anything less than perfect is not acceptable. Bullies convincing other kids that their glasses make them a geek. It's a valuable lesson that no one is perfect, no matter how close someone may come to perfection, everyone has their "birth-mark."