Friday, February 19, 2010

Final Blog Assignment

Select at least two literary pieces we read and discussed in the course and explore how the author's theme affects and influences you.

The first piece that i am going to choose is a drama piece: "Andre's Mother"

The theme in this piece is about sorrow. It is about the fact that Andre's mother never got to know her son for the last few years of his life, and that he died without telling her he way gay or sick. The theme involves emotions of sorrow, not knowing, being left out, and extreme pain for the loss of Andre's mother.

The author's theme affects and influences me because i have felt the emotions of sorrow, not knowing, and being left out. Though, I never had to go as far as feeling the extreme pain from the loss of a loved one. During my freshman year of college my mother ended up in the hospital and i never found out until a few days later. I was so hurt and confused and at a loss. I wasn't talking, all i did was cry and just be sad. I can relate to Andre's mother in this way because like her, I didn't want to speak to anyone about it. It was as though keeping everything inside made it a little easier for the time being. I was so angry and so hurt and i felt so left out and that is probably how Andre's mother feels while she is standing there saying goodbye to her dead son.

The second piece of literature that i am going to choose is a poetry piece: "We Real Cool"

The theme in this poem is about a group of boys that want to do nothing other than "chill". They want to leave school, stay out late, play pool, curse, drink, and listen to jazz music even though they knows its not a good path to be on in life. The author even states this at the end of the poem by saying "We Die soon."

The author's theme in this poem influences me because it shows me some of the things that i never want to do with my life. It shows me that I were to ever end up going down the wrong path in life, what would happen. Sometimes, as students, we all get caught up in the bad activities that we partake in as a group on occasion; but if it were to become a daily thing where we could not control our urges or behaviors or if it goes to the point where we are missing school on a regular basis that would be tragic.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Andre's Mother

Andre's Mother Analysis -
By: Terrance McNally

1. What is the genre of this piece of drama? Why do you believe this?
This piece of drama is considered to be a Tragicomedy. I feel this way because it embraces all the pieces of the definition. It focuses on character relationships and shows society in a state of continuous movement. There is a mental flsh back that takes places because it takes you back to a time where gay men were still it hiding and lived in the city together and AIDS was just starting to come about as a really big, killing disease. This piece also embraces a mix of comedy and tragedy side by side. Cal's father and sister find funny things amongst their family, but there is the serious issue of Andre's mother not speaking to them at all and the father that her son died and she never got to see him or know what he was dying of.

2. Identify the spectacle in this piece; this is a tangible item.
The Spectacle in this piece of work is the balloons. They seem to symbolize "letting go" of what was. Letting go of Andre and the anger that Andre's mother had towards him and his partner.

3. Terrance McNally is the author of this piece of drama, and the tile of this piece is "Andre's Mother". Though the tile of the story includes McNally's mother, she is the only character that does not speak. How does this fact affect the meaning, theme, and plot of this piece of drama?
Andre's mother being the only non-speaking character in the piece affects the meaning of
the play because it shows that the mother was not just sad about her loss of her son; she was
mad. Probably furious in the inside, she just chose not to express it outwards. This has affected
the plot of the piece because since she won't say anything Cal is making the story awkwardly
progress without her opinions on anything he is doing or saying. Lastly, this has affected the
theme of the piece because it is centered around her. From the title you would think that the
piece is literally about something that happened directly to the mother, but really its about what
happened to her son, but she was so left out that at the last minute it did kind of become about her
because it was her son ans she nothing about what was going on with him.


This picture made me think of what they would have been, had she had the chance to
truly know what he was going through.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Song #1: Beautiful Surprise - India Arie
Lyrics:
It's like yesterday
I didn't even know your name
Now today
You're always on my mind
I never could have predicted that I feel this way
You are beautiful surprise
Intoxicated every time I hear your voice
You've got me on a natural high
It's almost like I didn't even have a choice
You are a beautiful surprise

Whatever it is you came to teach me
I am here to learn it cause
I believe that we are written in the stars
I don't know what the future holds
But I'm living in the moment
And I'm thankful for the man that you are, you are, you are
You are everything I ask for in my prayers
So I know my angels brought you to my life
Your energy is healing to my soul
You are a beautiful surprise
You are an inspiration to my life
You are the reason why I smile
You are a beautiful surprise

I believe that this song is poetry because it has some of the elements that we reviewed in class. For example symbolism, alliteration and connotation. Songs that are considered to be poetry are usually full of connotation because everyone gets something different from a song. Usually poetry has a deeper meaning and is complex in syntax.


Song # 2: Wasted - Gucci Mane featuring Plies

Lyrics:
Im wasted, you wasted, she wasted, he wasted

Chorus
rock star, lifestyle, might dont make it
living life high everyday clique wasted
sippin on purple stuff, rollin up stankin
wake in the morning, 10 o'clock drinkin
party, party, party, lets all get wasted
shake it for me baby girl do it butt-naked
im so wasted, she so wasted
tell the bartender send me 20 mo cases

verse 1(Gucci)
lookin like whitney
geekin like brittany
gucci no hippie but he stoned like jimmy
x-pill poppers, geeked up crazy
whole click rollin, everyones wasted
purple codiene, sprite pink dont waste it
mix up grandma drink it didnt taste it
now grandma sippin syrup, leanin wasted
walkin round fucked up twisting her fingas
homegurl slipped up, drunk, got wasted
now she backstage and she tryin to get famous
see me, im a drinkie, drinkin, gucci mane shake it
club life, damn right, gucci mane wasted

I believe that this song is not poetry because there is not real point to me. There is no kind of truly deeper meaning that i would really have to sit down and think about in order to comprehend.

Questions:
1) Is Rap/Hip-Hop music poetic expression? Why or Why not?
I believe that Rap/Hip-Hop music is poetic expression. Lots of rap is written by the artist to express emotions of happiness, sadness, struggle and various other emotions.

2) What literary characteristics or poetic terms does this music express?

Beautiful Surprise - India Arie
  1. Imagery - someone in love
  2. Denotation & Connotation - music is usually to be comprehended differently by each person that listens to it. So there are many parts of a song that are literally and many parts that are hidden.
Wasted - Gucci Mane featuring Plies
  1. Alliteration, Assonance & Consonance
  2. Symbolism
  3. Denotation & Connotation

3) What type of critic are you? Explain why.
Thematic Critic - I understand that words sometimes hide some underlying theme. To me, theme is important in poetry and i like tot pick the artist's brain to see what they really feel. Most artists tie their music to consistent themes related to their lives.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Blog Assignment #3 Poetry


I felt a Funeral, in my Brain
by: Emily Dickinson

1) What emotions/feelings do you have after reading the poem? How does your chosen image reflect the emotions conjured by the poem?

http://www.matewan.com/Images/funeral.jpg
After reading 'I felt a Funeral, in my Brain" I felt emotions of depression and slight loneliness. It made me feel like I was at the funeral, like it was taking place in my own brain. I imaged every part that she was talking about in the poem, as she said it. But, the emotions of the people in the images were really intense. It was more than just the actions taking place to me, it was the sadness and sorrow of the people that were burring their loved one. The image I chose reflects the emotions conjured by the poem because it shows the depressed people and their sorrow for the person they are burying.

Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night
by: Gwendolyn Brooks

1) What emotions/feelings do you have after reading the poem? How does your chosen image reflect the emotions conjured by the poem?

After reading this poem I felt like I was reading something that went on in a concentration camp. It seemed to me it was a very angry poem. It mentioned rage and talked about crying and grieving. In the times of concentration camps that's all it was, grief. This image portrays my thoughts exactly, people that are unhappy and crying on the inside.

We Real Cool
by:

1) What emotions/feelings do you have after reading the poem? How does your chosen image reflect the emotions conjured by the poem?


The poem "We Real Cool" made me think of the rebels in high school. The kids that think they are SO cool and it's always a group of them that stand around watching the other kids go by rushing to class, rushing to their lockers, rushing to meet up with friends. It's almost like they're looking down on the rest of the student body. And as these kids are ditching school they look back and smirk almost like they feel like they're better than the rest of the students; when really they're not. I feel as though the image above belongs next to the poem. Care free kids just watching opportunities go by.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

"A Clean Well-Lighted Place" by Ernest Hemingway

Part 1

1. Describe the setting. Why is the idea of a well-lighted place so significant to this short story?

The setting of this short story takes place in the early 1930's. The place where the story takes place is a little cafe. It is a well-lit place. A place that sounds to be comfortable and beautiful on the inside. The setting of this well-lighted place is so significant to this short story because the old, deaf man in this story just wants to be in a "clean, well-lighted" place for the night. He is afraid of the nothingness that exists in the dark. The loneliness and emptiness that has to go with going home and leaving the cafe. It also shows how the bodegas are nothing like the cafe because the bodegas are not well-lit and they are filled with vulgar people. It shows that being in this cafe that is so pleasant does not compare to being in somewhere like a dark bar when you can't even hear yourself think.


2. Why are the characters nameless?

I believe that the characters are nameless because in this short story the names don't matter. Not that the names are not important but they really don't make a difference in the story. Also, I think that we are supposed to understand the loneliness of the old, deaf man, and him not having a name helps to emphasize his feelings of loneliness, to me. I feel like the names would make the situation less about the understanding of how people feel when they have to go home to nothing and night. I think that the point was just better understood when one doesn’t have to worry about who is who, and can just focus on the big picture of the story: the "clean, well-lighted place".

3. What is the connection between the old man and the older waiter? What is the purpose of the younger waiter in the story?

The connection that exists between the old man and the older waiter is that they bother have insomnia, they both have nothing to go to at night. They both have this fear of the thought and real-life existence of "nothingness". Being in a place where there is nothing, having nothing to hold on to, being nothing and going home to nothing. They both feel better when there is light. As if the light was to swallow up the darkness in its heroic return to the sky every morning. They both feel happier and more comfortable, like the nothing doesn’t exist as long as you are in clean, well-lit place.

The purpose of the younger waiter in the story is to show us how careless people in this world can be to one-another. To me, the younger waiter represents the someone that doesn’t know any better, but yet, doesn’t care to learn. The younger waiter doesn’t care about how neither the old, deaf man or his older co-worker feel. The older waiter tries to tell him about the darkness and the loneliness that exists in the darkness, but he doesn’t care to listen, because right now he has his wife and kids waiting for him at home. At one point the old, deaf man could have had all of this, but through his life he has lost the things that meant the most to him and now he is old and lonely. The young waiter represents the unwillingness to listen and learn, a quality that the younger generation so often posses. He is an example of the "nothing" that the old, deaf man and the older waiter are afraid of, because it used to be a "something" to them, but now it is nothing because they no longer have it. i.e. the “confidence" that the younger waiter possesses.

4. What is the plot. Be specific and briefly outline the 5 plot elements.

Conflict: The conflict in this short story is that the old man is staying in the cafe so late and the younger bartender feels as though his "valuable" time is being wasted taking care of this old man that he thinks is pretty much a waste of space and time.

Rising Action: The rising action in this short story takes place while the older bartender and the younger bartender talk about the old man and his past and how he tried to kill himself, but was saved and how the younger bartender wants to go home and therefore wants to kick the old man out and not give him another drink because the younger bartender wants to go home.

Complications: While giving the old man his last drink, the younger bartender told the old man that he should have killed himself the week before and then he intentionally overflows the old man's glass.

Climax: The younger bartender decides to deny the old man the last drink that he asks for. He treats him like he is a foreigner and doesn't speak English, and he says, “No.” to the old man very slowly.

Falling Action: After the old man is denied his last drink, by the younger bartender, the old man accepts it and gets up, pays his bill, and leaves.

5. What is the theme (in one sentence)?

The concept that I am left with after reading this short story is that for every person out there that has ever felt alone or scared of the "nothingness" that occasionally takes exists in life, there is always some place that is their safe-haven.


Part 2

Research the life of Ernest Hemingway. Compose a one paragraph biographical summary. Highlight the facts about Hemingway's life experiences that are evident in "A Clean Well-Lighted Place".

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), was born in Oak Park, Illinois and he won the Nobel Prize in 1954. Hemingway "believed that life was a tragedy and knew it could only have one end", Hemingway once wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald: "We are all bitched from the start and you especially have to be hurt like hell before you can write seriously. But when you get a damned hurt use it - don't cheat with it. Be as faithful to it as a scientist" (Lynn (13.), p. 10). Hemingway's first hurts were so grave it took him nearly ten years to write them down in a novel. Hemingway's good fortune in business, art and marriage was overshadowed by serious attacks on his health (anthrax infection, cut eyeball, glass-gash in his forehead, grippe, toothache, hemorrhoids; kidney trouble from fishing in Spain, torn groin muscle, finger gashed to the bone in an accident with a punching ball, laceration of arms, legs and face from a ride on a runaway horse through a deep Wyoming forest, later: car accident in Wyoming in which his arm was badly broken). Hemingway's suicide was not that surprising after all. During all his life he was obsessed with death and, in a way, also with violence. Nevertheless, when his father committed suicide, he strongly condemned this deed as a violation of his Catholic faith, but then committed the act himself. Hemingway was very preoccupied with death. In his youth, it was the death of small animals, later of big game or enemies in combat. Death was always present and always threatening but was, as in the Tibetan yin-yang symbol, linked to life, which Hemingway, considered most intense in the prospect of death. At times, he lived on the edge and sometimes tried to get even closer to the brink of that edge. On the other, on the yin side, waited what the Castilians call the "nada" or the endless dark nothingness. The very last years, 1960 and 1961, were marked by severe paranoia. He feared FBI agents would be after him if Cuba turned to the Russians, that the "Feds" (Burgess (9.), p. 110) would be checking his bank account, and that they wanted to arrest him for gross immorality and carrying alcohol. He got upset about perfectly normal photographs in his Dangerous Summer article. Hemingway was receiving treatment in Ketchum for high blood pressure and liver problems - and also shock therapy both for depression and his continued paranoia at FBI surveillance (The FBI, it turns out, were keeping tabs on Hemingway as a result of his period spent in Cuba). He attempted suicide in the spring of 1961, and received treatment again, but this was unable to prevent his suicide on July 2, 1961 - at 5:00am, he died as a result of a self-inflicted shotgun blast to the head. He is interred in the Ketchum Cemetery in Ketchum, Idaho. In 1996, his granddaughter, actress Margaux Hemingway, would take her own life; she is interred in the same cemetery.

References:

http://www.helium.com/items/838560-literary-analysis-a-clean-well-lighted-place-by-ernest-hemingway?page=2

http://www.helium.com/items/838560-literary-analysis-a-clean-well-lighted-place-by-ernest-hemingway?page=2

http://www.timelesshemingway.com/ernesthemingwayprimer.pdf

http://www.biographybase.com/biography/Hemingway_Ernest.html