Topic Proposal Blog Post...

What is the guiding question for your analysis of the text? In other words, what about this text confuses you? What do you want to learn more about?
I chose to research cults and how they relate to The Handmaid's Tale. I would like to learn more about the different cults and the different beliefs they may have. I think the men in The Handmaid's Tale are cult like and they act as the leaders of this so called cult.
What topic do you plan to research that will help you answer your guiding question? 
I plan on researching the different cults and their beliefs. I would like to compare to see how they relate to the story.    Why did you choose this topic? How will it help you better understand Atwood?
I chose this topic because there are so many possibilities. I think I will also have more information available for my research. I think it might help me better understand Atwoods thinking when she wrote The Handmaid's Tale. 

I found an interesting bio of Margaret Atwood at : http://www.notablebiographies.com/An-Ba/Atwood-Margaret.html


I got my images from: http://jerirosenberger.wordpress.com/2011/02/21/its-gettin-scary-out-there/ , http://scooterchronicles.com/2008/08/11/the-handmaids-tale-by-margaret-atwood/ and http://recycledminds.blogspot.com/2011/02/handmaids-reminder.html 

Mid Session Check In....

Mid Session Check In...

When I started this course I was very intimidate. The thought of blogging scared me. I had never blogged before and I didn't think that I would like it. I was pleasantly surprised I actually liked it and I am planning on continuing a blog after this course is over. The biggest challenge I have in this class so far is there is a lot of writing assignments. I used to cringe at the thought of a paper being due but now its become less stressful. I think my biggest success so far is my blog. I feel comfortable with it now. The readings in this class have really affected me. They are emotional and I have learned a lot from them. I have never had to write a paper on literary analysis before. It is a lot different than any other writings for me.  My goals for the second half of this session is to learn as much as I can and I feel I still need to improve my writing skills. I am still in the process of trying to do a correct literary analysis and not just a summary.. :) its a work in progress. I have a great teacher so I'm sure I can accomplish any goals I set for myself in this course. 

I got my images from:
http://www.parmacityschools.org/staff/g/gedeonj/
http://www.freewebby.com/smiley-faces/

Sean Huze: "The Sand Storm"

I enjoyed reading "The Sand Storm" by: Sean Huze. I would love to see the play. The Sand Storm is a little hard to follow but it is a touching story. I never really knew a lot of the details about the current war. The Sand Storm gave me a whole new view of it. Huze writes about how innocent lives were lost. He writes "I couldn't stop crying and I hugged this man whose family had just been massacred by us, by my Marines" (Huze 5).  How horrible to have to deal with the fact that you just killed a mother and her children as her husband watched just by doing your job and doing as your told by your superiors. Huze writes "And then, this man, this man who had just witnessed his family being slaughtered looked up at me. "Not your fault. I blame Saddam." (Huze 5). What a horrible thing to have to experience, it was horrible for everyone involved the man and the soldiers. There has been a lot of bloodshed, and it's not just the enemies blood but also the blood of their comrades and innocent by standers who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Huze writes "We lost five Marines in that fight" (Huze 10). Most of them men in his division were young and to lose them so violently was probably very hard to deal with. Huze goes on to write "I personally visited with the families of the Marines I lost." (Huze 10). Having to go and explain to the families what happened to their loved one was probably a difficult thing to do. They probably had a million questions they wanted answered. This is a very sad story but it is a true one.

 

I got the images from: http://www.seanhuze.com/stageplays/the-sand-storm  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sean-huze/    http://informedvoters.wordpress.com/2008/03/17/five-years-of-the-iraq-war-when-will-it-ever-end/  http://www.snopes.com/photos/natural/sandstorm.asp#photo4

   Works cited: "The Sand Storm" By: Sean Huze

THE THINGS THEY CARRIED "How to Tell a True War Story" By: Tim O'Brien

I enjoyed reading the chapter "How to Tell a True War Story" pages 64-81. I always wondered about the different war stories I would hear. I wondered if they were true or just someone trying to impress other people. In that chapter Tim O'Brien states "You can tell a true war story if it embarrasses you. If you don't care for obscenity, you don't care for the truth; if you don't care for the truth, watch how you vote. Send guys to war , they come home talking dirty." (page# 66 second paragraph). I never really thought about it until now how true that statement really is, the more graphic the story is the more you can tell it's a true story. Tim also states "In any war story, but especially a true one, it's difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen." (page#67 third paragraph) I think this is because as human beings we tend to block out memories especially traumatic ones. Its our minds way of protecting us. In war everything happens so quickly its hard to remember every detail. Tim also writes " In many cases a true war story cannot be believed" (page#68 second paragraph). I've really enjoyed reading this book so far and I can't wait to finish it to see how it's going to end.

                                                




I got my images from: http://ronaldarichardson.com/2008/01/30/the-things-they-carried/ ,

 Citations:
                   The Things They Carried by: Tim O'Brien

My response to a poem #2....

 "The Woman Hanging From The Thirteenth Floor Window" by: Joy Harjo
                                         

I loved reading this poem and I think that at some point in every one's lives they have felt the same indecision and loneliness as the woman in the poem. I liked how the author described the woman's family and how she wrote "The woman hanging from the 13th floor window on the east side of Chicago is not alone" (second paragraph pg#1) The author is making the woman seem more and more real. "She is all the women of the apartment building who stand watching her, watching themselves." (second paragraph pg#1) What I think the author is trying to say is that they aren't judging the woman because they know that they themselves have been right there on the ledge as well. The ending to this poem is very powerful I think. The author leaves it up to the woman to chose. It's her choice on how she ends it. " She thinks she remembers listening to her own life break loose, as she falls from the 13th floor window on the east side of Chicago, or as she climbs back up to claim herself again." (6th paragraph pg#2)

                                               
                                          




 I got my images from: http://creativethinkersintl.ning.com/profile/PoetryLifeandTimes, http://womensmediacenter.com/blog/author/joy-harjo/,http://bibliosity.blogspot.com/2009/01/woman-hanging-from-thirteenth-floor.html and http://ericatwitts.wordpress.com/2010/03/15/woman-without-a-candidate-in-kentucky/sad-woman-silhouette/

 Citations:
"The Woman Hanging From The Thirteenth Floor Window" By: JOY HARJO

My response to a poem #1...

My first response is to "Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting" by Kevin C. Powers...
                                               

I enjoyed this poem. It made me stop and think about our service men and women and what they sacrifice for us and our freedom. It made me also stop and think about what their families must sacrifice as well. When I think about our troops I would think about them risking their lives but I never really thought about what else they are giving up for us, like the fact that most of them have children who they don't get to see grow up or holidays and much more. I never imagined the hell they must go through. When I read the line "I tell her in a letter that will stink, when she opens it" (second paragraph) that gave me the chills. These are the things that I never knew about until now. At the end of the poem when he tells her "that war is just us making little pieces of metal pass through each other". That makes it real for me.

I got the images from:
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Write-Poetry/ , http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/kevin-c-powers and http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/likefire/yours-truly

         Citations:
"Letters Composed During a Lull in the Fighting" By: KEVIN C. POWERS

The Necessity to Speak- by Sam Hamill

As I read The Necessity to speak by Sam Hamill I agreed with him on a lot of topics and I liked his essay. It has a lot of emotion and truths in it. I was surprised by some of the facts he included. I had no idea that the most common felony was battery against women and children. The fact that it is happening so often that it goes unreported is so sad. I agree with the statement that he makes about poetry and that it is not just about emotions. He turned his life around and turned a bad situation into a good one and poetry helped him to find a way out of his own "hell".

I got the images from: http://afghanistan.foreignpolicyblogs.com/tag/bagram-prison/
http://www.layoutsparks.com/1/214443/united-states-marine-corps-3.html

Good readers and good writers...

I think that Nabokov believes a good reader is someone who reads and re-reads. I agree with that because that is what I have to do before I really get what the writer is saying. Everyone’s interpretation of what they read is different. I believe the characteristics of a good reader are someone who reads often. To be a good reader you have to keep an open mind. I don’t consider myself a good reader because I don’t read that often.  I always have to re-read. I can read a couple of chapters and then I forget what I had read, so I end up re-reading it again. In order to be a good reader you have to identify with the story and the writer.   

                   My daughter Alyssa reading to her sister Shelby.... 


I got the book image from: http://www.gavilan.edu/library/english/academicres.html

Introduction