ENGL121-Lacey Madore

Invisible Man

2005-04-24T11:02:00.000-04:00

Ellison's writing is excellent. The whole work has prolific meaning. Each word, each sentence is pregnant with layer upon layer of interpretation. The black and white text, the black and white struggle is full of color! Vivid, vivid color and words. The whites where described in reds and the blacks in blues for a while, but later in the book, the blacks were also described in red. This shows how the invisible man changed, how he became invisible.
IM takes us on a journey of the finding of humanity, of conscoius thought, of whole human beings. At the end we can see that the simple boy from the south has changed, but is left at a crossroads and this is where America was left at the time. The racial tension was changing, morphing, becoming so many things and so compounded, but it was not resolved in that time, during IM's time. While those never thought to be human before are finding themselves, there's still a block in the road. While some are changing, others are not, and still others are going backwards. This is a time of turmoil that we find personified in the IM. He's invisible because he's stripped away the definitions society has given to describe lesser beings of the black people, but invisible still because he can't move the next step on his own. He can't make himself visibile, others have to see that there are inivisble people before they can see all the world at all. Others have to see to help make the IM whole. While it is dependent on himself, it is also dependant on others. Let all the invisible people come out of hiding and make their presence known and let us accept their presence. Let us see them human beings in the least.
Whence all this passion towards the conformity to not see some and regards others as objects? Conformity is the downfall of a thinking human being who is unique because of this consciousness. Conformity is for the people seeking an easy answer, a blanket to cover the world and their eyes, a decision that does not require thought but only the limited ability of partial sight. Diversity is the word because it is the world. Escaping reality through limited sight or no sight is the downfall of us all.

Invisible Man, Reactionary Man

2005-04-18T08:36:00.000-04:00

IM reacts to ways in the situtations he's been placed in very similiar the feelings and actions of my own. He experiences waves of paranioa when he is in doubt about the organization of the Brotherhood and when he was searching for a job on his own. People piss him off and he learns to control himself, just like a child growing up, which is really apporpriate because society (the white man) made him feel like a child, an imcomplete human being. And people don't realize, this happens to us all the time by others making us feel inferior in some way. They try to exhert their power over others because of various reasons, or just a plain "I think I'm better than you" attitude so that they can push others around. IM feels the pressure of this from all around him, especially when he learns that to be a Brother is to be disciplined.

House of the Spirits

2005-04-04T17:51:00.000-04:00

I thouroughly enjoyed the type of story telling Allende used in this text. She kept things mysterious yet did it push it too far to make it rediculous and evoked great feelings at different points in her book. Unfortunately, I felt that during the military coup, the book took on a more historical factual setting rather than still telling a terrifying story of the military uprising sponsered by the Conservatives. It also reminded me of the installment of Soviet Russia and how its people were governed with fear and hostility. The beautiful mystical tale of generations became nothing but unknown terror coming from every level. The way the novel ended seems like it was trying a bit too hard to leave the reader with a bit of the unknown or something to ponder. It could have gone on strong and ended more poingointly than lamenting the possibly of history repeating itself, that Fate was in control and there was nothing Alba could do about it but except that it was going to keep happening over and over again and that there was really no change at all.

Allende Blog 3-30-2005

2005-03-30T17:56:00.000-05:00

One of the ways Allende presents foreign ideologies is in how the traditional political parties treat the newer ones of Socialism and Communism. Convinced that those Marxist ideas are creeping into every mind in the country, Senator Trueba’s friends assure him that those political ideas will never take over because they don’t allow for magic. It seems to the people of Chile common sense that magic must be included and allowed for in the country since it is so rampant and influences many people who influence others with it. Magic seems to be an integral part of their society, something we Americans do not account for. We seem to allow for unknown, unexplained phenomena or we want to break it down to the facts and uncover what really happened and who was using parlor tricks. To Americans, magic is a game for mostly children to enjoy.
Another example is the earthquakes. The earthquakes are, of course, major event turning instruments in this novel. Earthquakes in the US, for example, are only limited to the west coast and particularly for this student and in this area, earthquakes are not a concern. The earthquakes in Allende’s novel provide vital turning points to the story and catastrophes that we would not experience or even expect in this area. If there was a large earthquake in the US we would probably only feel it economically and not be subject to its destruction.

Rachel Blau DuPlessis

2005-03-18T08:45:00.000-05:00

I personally didn't like DuPlessis work. It wasn't her style that through me off, the choppiness of it, but rather the lack of meaning or a focal point. It seems that its just a collection of words and fragments running together that don't go anywhere or mean anything. It seems as though she chose this style, not that it chose her, so there is lack of emotion or feeling put into it. It seems to be produced just to be produced and in such an odd setup of form, just to be represented in that form. There just seems to be something important lacking from her work, like she's holding back or isn't inspired. There's not artistic pleasure in her words.

Antigone

2005-02-22T13:23:00.000-05:00

Antigone is full of symbolism, actually it seems to be a recurring theme throughout history of different rulers and the meaning of their roles. Antigone, The Elders, and Kreon are all excellent representations of such and explanations follow.
Antigone: Greatly represents the logical, moral, thinking human being. She does not care for customs or laws and decides what to do and say based on her own volitions. She does not take the word of others for their face value. She realizes there is more going on than is being let on and tries to reason with the brute of a leader.
Kreon: He represents the unthinking brute force, the muscle, the body. He composes himself of brawn, not brain, saying the might always win and that a strong hand makes a good leader. He demands the surrender of Antigone's mind in the form of her obedience. He cares only about the material assests the war will bring and how their society must rejoice and not hear Antigone's truthful warnings.
The Elders: They are those without action only using their minds to think with no follow through. They got Kreon to fight their war because their way is not action. They encourage Antigone's death to erase her logical mind from the rest and because they hold death as something honorable and to appease their gods.
Both the elders and Kreon want Antigone to surrender because they think their brains or muscles are superior and that all others should fall to their will. The Elders and Kreon also conflict against each other in the end, also because one thinks brawn and no brain is the key, and the others think brain and no brawn is the way.
Antigone's form of selfishness, of her desire to live, and her thinking mind and actions would have caused her to live if she wasn't dealing with unjust anti-people.

Cortez: Variants

2005-02-17T23:41:00.000-05:00

This section of reading was definitely much more enjoyable than just reading one text alone becuase of the signification of the themes that popped up in the majority of them. It was also interesting to notice what certain people had changed or added to their telling of the legend and to note the various things about them. For instance, certain town names would reappear, the differing of the bounty on Cortez's head, the relation and idolization of Cortez as a star, the Mexicans vs. Americans theme and much more. The comparisons of the different variants made the over all story much more in-depth to me and I was able to relate more with the characters. The oddest thing I noticed, though, was the occasional omittance of the horse trading section of the story.

Cortez: The Legend

2005-02-16T23:29:00.000-05:00

My first reactions to the preview of the Cortez balland were optimistic and amused. The website succeeded in illiciting my attention and providing audio and visual to the text I was about to read. The audio, however, sounded like most Mexican music I've heard, though, and didn't thrill me. Reading the ballad proved to be no more interesting than the song. The premise, the layout for the ballad is typical of that time period and culture it seems and I would have enjoyed to hear a balland sung in a Mexican style I've never heard that would delight the senses. While the legend aspect of the balland adds enjoyable bravado, the machismo maleness of the character was often portrayed in less of a way than a despriction of what he was like and more a statement of what it means to be a man, stereotypically. This story didn't really do it for me.

Blood Wedding Act 2 and 3 and overview

2005-02-07T02:22:00.000-05:00

Comments: The poetry and lyrics in this play were well placed strains that enhanced the play like crazy. I really enjoyed all this symbolism in them as well as them adding to the setting of the play. They describe the characters and provide forsight into the proceedings of the story. I liked the way the enriched the play. Also, the way death and the moon were depicted and intereacted with each other was litery beatiful, yet also disturbing.
Questions:
Why did the bridegroom ride off with only a small youth to back him up in a fight instead of bringing a hunting party or waiting for the rest?
Why did the bride become so indecisive at the last minute?
What about the last scene where we enter to small girls playing in a church and the significance of the youngest smallest girl and her interaction with the begger woman?
How do the lullabies and prose fit into Spanish culture of the time?

Blood Wedding Act 1

2005-02-03T14:32:00.000-05:00

So far the dark and dank setting of the tragedy is well in place. The Mother perpetuates it with the continual grieving of the ones she lost and her fear of knives. One of the oddest things about the play is the lullaby they're singing to the baby about a horse drowing in a frosty stream. This seems like the last thing you'd want to sing to an impreshionable babe. There seems to be much derogatory conversation affronted on the women or concerning them in this play, but it seems to be integral to the plot. Another odd thing is that the bride and her Father live in a cave in a wasteland. This also contibutes to the setting; the vast wastelands and contrasting fertile vineyards have to do with finanical situations which some of the characters' main goals, to inprove their own familes wealth with out concern for feelings. A play, so far, devoid of any true postive attitudes.

The Awakening Ch 29-39

2005-01-30T23:13:00.000-05:00

This section of the book is the most tumultous, including the end. Speaking of the ending, it was horrible. Edna, instead of making a choice about how she wanted to live life with her knew self in place, made the choice that was the easy way out. I don't understand why Edna would want to kill herself instead of being with Robert, being independent, or restraining herself and staying with her husband for the children. It seems as though her last meeting with Adele made the final decision for her that she would never return to the life of the unthinking object, but it also seems to instill a "despondancy" in her which overcomes her being. Edna lets this emotion direct her actions until her last conscious moment which once again shows her lack of forsight. Edna's lack of forsight, however, seems to be the main cause of death. If some one close to her would have seen her before she left for Grand Isle she might have chosen to live and face the consequences of her new found self. Also, she died in the sea where she reached her total independence, her birth or rebirth shall we say, and her being naked at death is how she came into the world at birth. The sea, the water in general is a symbol of Edna's apprehension and fear of the consequences, of the future, of who she really is and how she should feel about it. This book is full of symbolism quite aptly used.

The Awakening Ch 12-29

2005-01-28T20:45:00.000-05:00

Mrs. Pontellier's mental development and her infatuation with Robert are growing together through the story, although her personal awakening started first. With respect to the time period this is set in, it delights me to see Edna mature into a whole person for the first time in her life. She is bringing her real self to the foreground and refuses to let her husband or anyone curb her triumph. Like the Yellow Wallpaper though, Leonce has begun to question her mental state, although in this story the doctor and husband do acknowledge that being the picture of physical health is different than mental standing. However, it is very demeaning how the pair refer to women as if they are a sub species, as if they are animal in a cage they are studying. I ask myself the same question here as in Gilman's story, why don't the doctors realize that they can't speculate and try to treat women if they don't consult them and heed their words instead of brushing off as a women's thing. Oh how society warped their mind with what is thought to be acceptable and unacceptable.

The Awakening Ch 1-11

2005-01-25T18:43:00.000-05:00

I can see where the connection is between this book and "The Yellow Wallpaper" in each of their focuses on women's mental faculties. The name for this book is a obvious title as it describes Edna's transformations in the book. We read that not only is Edna's mind awakened, but also her body. This story allows much more freedom for the women in it. Edna even comments on her shock of the openness of the Creoles that are dominating the Grand Isle vacation home. Edna's mind is awakened by her own effort, but her nature of hiding things either suggests the inappropriateness of women who are intellectual or that she starting to link the dual lives she created in childhood. We see Edna talking of past loves and her growing attention and affection for Robert, which occurs after her analyzation of her relationship with her husband. Edna seems to feel that Fate has dictated her love and her life and that now is trying to rid herself of Fate (maybe something else too) and become a whole human being, body, mind, and soul.

The Yellow Wallpaper

2005-01-24T18:15:00.000-05:00

Point : So it seems that there are many layers to the story and the wallpaper (ha ha, not really). One of the points I'd like to bring is about the medical practices of the doctors in Gilman's time. It is obvious that these doctors only concentrate on the body. The body is their focus of knowledge and therefore, they only know how to treat the body. Not only did these bodily procedures not help the mind, but the fact that during that time period only men were allowed to be doctors. Doctors only had male-infused information and male references. Additionaly, all models for human anatomy and treatments were based on a male body. Gilman's character was only treated for her body and at that, from a strictly male oriented view. Male doctors may as well have only treated males at that time period when they felt females were inferior and when all their medical information was on the MALE BODY. Their efforts seem to be ineffectual and detrimental to women in general.

Douglass II

2005-01-23T23:53:00.000-05:00

I don't really have much more to comment on about Douglass. It brought to light many things I hadn't considered about slavery however. The power that one can feel just because the have slaves and how they can abuse was an interesting concept to ponder. Douglass paints an excellent picture of what being a slave entales and how the slave-masters used every tool possible to control the slaves mood and demeanor, even using holidays as a tool. We can see here that being a master means having complete control and power... and we all know absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Intro Blog

2005-01-14T10:13:00.000-05:00

This is my test blog.