IUPENGL121-HallerMatthew

Duplesis Question

2005-04-24T23:04:00.000-07:00

In understanding your poetry, does it help to know a little bit about you?

Invisible Man

2005-04-18T09:46:00.000-07:00

Invisible Man has a lot of themes that are still very apparant in today's society. I think this book was written like 60 years ago, but it still really does apply to today. Some parts, such as the whole stripper/boxing match/electric money rug/inspirational speech thing probably would not have happened, without several law suits and all that. The main, basic story of the book - a person of minority standing struggling to make an impact and trying to reach complete equality - is still seen today. Today, however, conditions are much better and it is much more equal though its still not completely equal. I think the racial group that this applies to is more Hispanics than it would be African Americans. It seems like they are the fastest growing group and they have the greatest struggles that need to be overcome to reach equality. This book and I think many others help the African American race as well as the other races realize what was really going on at the time and they had a major impact on the advancment of other races.

Antigone

2005-04-11T10:42:00.000-07:00

My job is to create an Antigone that would fit in today's society. Like many other people's ideas, mine would focus around the idea of some sort of homosexuality. This is a highly debated subject today and I feel that this would capture the same feeling that Antigone did. It would have to revolve around some man or woman falling in love with a person that is of the same sex as them. It would also have to be socially unaccepted in the movie and must cause some sort of fight. In the end I feal to live up to the tragedy part, the main character(s) would have to die for some cause, whether it is to save the life of someone else or in suicide to prove a point and have an affect for future generations.

The House of the Spirits

2005-03-29T22:26:00.000-08:00

In class we related the Toolbox's ideology with Allende's The House of the Spirits. If I had to chose one exaple of where the ideology in the book reminds me of my own, I would have to say the double standard part.

When Esteban finds out that Blanca is pregnant he is furious. Clara tells him that he shouldn't be mad because Blanca did nothing that he didn't do. At this, he loses it and punches several teeth out of Clara's mouth. This part of the story really applies to many things, maybe not in the exact some situation though. I, a lot of times, will judge someone for doing something while I am doing that same thing, holding myself to the same double standard as Esteban did. It's so easy to pick out what other people are doing wrong, but when someone confronts you about that same thing, it is hard to deal with. This is why I feel that this instance of ideology best fits me.

Cortez

2005-02-25T10:18:00.000-08:00

El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez was a fun story about a Mexican hero. It was about how his brother was killed and Cortez avenged his death by killing a sheriff, thus, becoming an outlaw. From there people are afraid of him and the Americans are no match for his bravery and shooting skills.
The part that I found most interesting was in the variations of the story. Different variations have the main outline of the story, but they change the smaller details. Some of the details changed are the reward for the capture of Cortez, the amount of men that he faced and defeated in shootouts, and how he finally surrendered. Some more extreme Mexican versions made the Amercians lower in that they would increase the reward and have Cortez defeating thousands of Americans. The purpose of this was primarily to increase Mexican pride.

Blood Wedding

2005-02-14T09:00:00.000-08:00

Blood Wedding was a play full of foreshadowing. Take the name for example, Blood Wedding. Just by reading this you know that there is going to be a wedding with death involved. Also take the first scene, where the groom is talking to his mother. They have a conversation about knives, and about how her husband and her other son were both killed with knives. When reading this, i picked up on it and predicted the major plot of the story. I thought to myself, his character is the groom, it is called blood wedding and his mother is warning him about knives. I pretty much knew that he was going to die in a knife fight.
Fate also played a big role in this play. With the example that I gave before, the groom was doomed to die because of his fate in being in that family. The girl that he is proposed to be married to is in the family of the guys that killed his father and brother. As the story progresses, you see the characters (mainly the groom and his mother) come to realize his fate, and that it is the way it has to be.
In the end, as the title bears, the wedding ends in tragedy with the groom and Leonardo both fallen due to knife wounds, very predictable.

The Awakening

2005-02-14T08:04:00.000-08:00

In short, The Awakening was about a woman who was trying to escape society's hold on her and become her own women. Throughout the story you gradually are able to see this transformation. It is described in literal terms as well as metaphoric terms. To open the story, the setting is at a beach resort type place. You are introduced to the characters and you find out what is going on. Shortly after this, you a placed in the conversations of the different characters. It is at this point that you are able to detect the relationship problems between Mr. and Mrs. Pontellier (who the story basically revolves arond).
One of the things that I found to be most interesting was the use of birds to parallel the story. At the beginning there is mention of caged birds. This directly relates to Edna's situation. At this point in the story she says she feels like a caged bird, trying to escape. Also along this line, later in the story, she moves into a different house known as the pigeon house. This shows that she is trying to free herself from her husband and society, but is unable to. The final place is at the very end of the story. Right before she is about to commit suicide, she notices a bird flying around with a broken wing. The bird then falls to ground and die. We are then presented with Edna's death right afterwards.
Througout the story you see Edna's "Awakening." In the end it leaves the reader to decide whether or not she was was able to escape society, based on her decision in suicide.

The Yellow Wallpaper

2005-01-25T14:22:00.000-08:00

While reading this story, I really had no idea what to think of it. It jumped around so much and it kept coming back to the wallpaper, and it became pretty annoying. It was basically about a woman who was slowly going crazy, and spent all her time focusing on the wallpaper.

As the story progressed you could see certain struggle evolving more clearly. First, it was the struggle between her and her husband. He claims that there is nothing wrong with her and that she just needs some rest. He is continual in this feeling throughout the story. She on the other hand becomes more and more suspicious of him.

Further along in the story, we see the struggle that she is having with herself develop more and more. She is going crazy. At first the wallpaper is just an annoyance, but towards the end of the story it becomes an obsession, and the entire story revolves around it. The question was brought up, whether or not Charlotte Perkins Gilman should be considered an author. This is a hard call. The story is fiction, but almost inspired by a true story. I would have a hard time labelling her an author with what is there at the moment, but if the story was more developed than it would sway my opinion a little more.

Douglass' Author/ity

2005-01-24T10:09:00.000-08:00

The question was raised, whether or not biographies are considered literature and if so, is the writer of it an author? There are many cases for either answer, but in the case of Frederick Douglass' Narrative, I would have to say yes to both questions.

The Narrative of Frederick Douglass is not just a written copy of someones life, but more a story that had a huge impact on what was to come. It is a story of one man's stuggle to overcome two problems - slavery and illiteracy. At the time this was written, slavery still existed and was considered to most people, normal. Douglas describes, with great detail, the horrors that he was presented with and how he was able to overcome them and stay focused on his goals (being freedom as well as literacy). From working conditions to punishment, Douglas was able to make the reader feel as though they were in the story experiencing the same thing. He was able to describe his emotions with words perfectly. All these things together, I feel, place Frederick Douglas into the author category and his Narrative as true literature.