last post

One thing that has improved about my writing from this class is that I use the text a lot more to back up the points that I am trying to make about the story, poem, or play that we are reading.  The strategy  that has helped me the most is when we are in class talking about what we are reading and taking notes on important parts of the text, and using that to help me develop an idea for the paper. The paper that was easiest for me to complete was the Doctor Fatuas play because I enjoyed that paper because I liked the play a lot.  Out of all the lessons we did the one that helped me a lot was the one when we went over how to do a paper for a college and what is needed to make it a scholarly paper.  I think that I could use a lot more work on my papers that I will need to write in college, but this class did help me with that.  And I now know what I need to work on.

music

After reading the poems and listening to the songs, and the theme that I picked up on is that there is a lot about giving your heart out and then getting it broken.  Like in "If I Were a Boy" when it says "How it felts to love a girl I swear I'd be a better man.... 'Cause he's talking you for granted."  Then in the "Sexism" poem it says,"But forgive him because she has him and doesn't have to sleep alone."

Those two passages, describes how men are sometimes when they aren't trust worthy or they can do one thing and then if the girl goes and does the same thing the guy can get mad, but the girl can't be mad.  It's a double standard.

Poetry

In high school my freshmen year and my junior year in my AP English class we did poetry.  I really enjoy poetry I think that it is a good way for someone to express how they are feeling and getting their emotions out.  We had to write our own poems.

Paper

Yet, in Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus his main character Doctor Faustus once was all of these things then he decides to practice black magic, and his morals and everything that fits a Renaissance man goes out the window.  Since his morals start to go out the window Faustus starts to become very childish, therefore I believe that he is starting to lose site of he morals and what he lives for.


This is what my thesis would be or part of it.  For the research I don't know where to go with it. Since I think that Faustus' morals are changed drasticly throughout the whole play from the beginning to the end of the play. What should I do?

Paper for Doctor Faustus

For my paper I was thinking about just adding onto my last gist that I wrote, or writing about the comic relief that is in the play.  Using when Wagner and the Clown meet and also how Faustus starts to act like a child with how he acts by using his magic.  In a sense that is sort of comical relief in the play just because he is so ridiculous. What do you think?

Untitled

What I got out of the reading that I did in Doctor Faustus is that when he talks to the Emperor and the Emperor almost calls him out in what Faustus is doing with his black magic.  Then the knight chimes in and wants Faustus to prove himself.  Yet, Faustus gets all defensive, but never really says that he can or can't do "magic".  I think he starts to realize that he dug himself a deep hole for his life, and that he really wasn't thinking about what he was going to be getting himself into with practicing "magic".

Faustus

In scene four when Wagner meets the clown and tries to make him be his servent, I think that since Faustus is acting all big and mighty, because he wants to learn magic and use it.  Wagner thinks it is okay to act that way.  I think that maybe since Wagner can do magic, then maybe his servent and Faustus will teach all of them to bring people back to life if he can figure it out and really do it.

what means a lot to me

In Dr.Faustus he has his Archie and priorities set different than most people would in the Renaissance time period.  I think that our Archie today is very different and what we would say is the most important is a lot different now then even when I was born.  For instance I think a lot of people put money for one of their number one things, then jobs, medicine, and I think that religion is slowly falling to the bottom.  Also philosophy and scholars aren't very high up there either.

I would say this it how it ranks for Americans now:
1. Money
2. Technology
3. Medicine
4. Law
5. Religion

Class So Far

Over all for this class I like how we have to think and write the gists.  It's good because then we can see what we think of the story and it's good to get an understanding of the story right away and write about it while it's still fresh in our heads right after reading it.  Also I like it better when we do the small groups when we are discussing a story or book that we are reading instead of the whole class talking about it together, because the topic changes so much and not everyone has a change to just say what they want.

So far I have been enjoying this class and how organized it is.

The Little Mermaid

The setting in the, The Little Mermaid takes place obviously under the sea. When the girls get older they are allowed to go up to the surface.  The Mer-King's castle is described to be very beautiful.  There at the castle there are strange plants and trees that grow there.  Fishes' swim across the branches of the trees freely. The walls are made from coral and the windows are of amber, and the roof of the castle is made of oyster shells.  The little girls have their own gardens and are allowed to have whatever they want in it.  The most significant part about the setting is it opens up a whole new site on sea.  Also I think how it is so deep into the sea, that when the little mermaid gets "depressed" when she can't see the prince at the place where she left him from saving his life.  And since blue is a cool color and symbolizes many things.

Bartleby, the Scrivener and The Birthmark

The characters in Bartleby, the Scrivener and The Birthmark are different in many ways and similar in many was as well.  In Bartleby all the characters all contribute to the story in a certain way.  Both story have round and foiled characters.  This is important because foil and round characters because, they bring out the other characteristics of other characters. Yet, round characters are more complex which is more of what The Birthmark's characters are since they both wanted to be perfect for each other and they don't really ever change.


Between these two stories I think there is a lot in common in both of them.  I think this because Bartleby is about giving and trying to make others happy too.  Then in The Birthmark they are trying to make each other happy by being "perfect" but maybe there is more to a relationship than trying to make the other think you're perfect.  They should just love each other for who they are.  You can't love someone if  you can't love yourself.  And I think that was a big message in The Birthmark.

Racism

Our class discussion we had in class on Wednesday was really interesting.  I think that there are a lot of people out there that don't think about what other races think of other races.  The way that people perceive others I think it all depends on how they were raised.  I know that when I went to California or Texas it was very different than it is here in South Dakota.  I wish that South Dakota had a more diverse community, than what we do.

Some of the things that were brought up in class I have never thought about, and I didn't know that segregation was still that big in some cities and towns.  It's quit ridiculous that we still as humans can't see passed the color of a person and get to know them for them.

Twitter

In the twitter article that we had to read I feel that Twitter is a good way to express what you can't really say on Facebook.   There are things that shouldn't be said on Twitter that are.  The Twitter accounts that are "Chuck Norris" or any other celebrity that has a Twitter account might not always be real.  Therefore, I think that it is like stealing someones personal identity.

But I think that Twitter has a cool concept if you tweet to fallow what you're friends are doing.

First Paper

Writing this paper for this class was not as hard as I thought it was going to be.  The only thing that I had a tough time with when I was writing this paper was when I was looking for research, because I didn't know what to really look for when I was looking for sources for my paper, until I knew what I wanted to do write my paper about for sure.  Than after I figured that it wasn't too bad.

Also when I wrote papers for my composition class it was more of analyzing what we read.  Now that I know what is expected of us now for when we write papers.

Metamorphosis

From the reading for Metamorphosis on page twenty eight and twenty nine when it is explained that Gregor's father had money, but he never really knew about it.  I feel as if Gregor feels like he has to impress his father and be good enough for him.  That is why I think that Gregor works so hard and provides for his family, because he feels like he needs to be as good as his father is.

I don't understand why his family was all for taking care of him for a little bit and then in the middle they don't really try to be understanding and helpful as much as they use to be.  In a sense this short story is sort of hard for me to understand a 100 percent what the author wants us to take out of the book.

Sources

Feagin, Susan L. "Emotions from the Perspective of Analytic Aesthetics." Journal of Literary Theory
             (2007):275-91. Web. 31 Jan. 2011.

Skillaes, Ole Martin. "Philosophy and Literature." Journal Literary Theory (2007): 45-60. Web. 31 Jan.
                  2011.


Zamyatin, Yevgeny. "We." Modern Library. New York.

Paper

For my paper for class I'm going to write about how the Zamyatin wrote how different D-503 started being when he met I-330.  She was the one thing that made him open up his eyes and made him have a soul.  Also how they have a set style of living.  I want to compair it to how we live today, and to how they lived in the book.  I guess I'd be looking at Marxist criticism.

We

For the overall book I thought that it was a pretty good story.  I like how I could relate a lot of different events that happened throughout We with how our society is today and how we as humans live on this Earth.  And most the time I don't really care for Sci-Fi books, but this one I really enjoyed of what was being said in the book.  I got a lot more out if it than I thought I was going too, and I appreciate it.  I also enjoyed that the author knew so much about numbers and didn't have to make them up sort of thing to symbolis other things that were key in the text.

One Thing I Wouldn't Like Being Taken Away From Me

The one thing that I wouldn't want taken away from me that the One State seems to take away from D-503 and all the numbered people is their freedom to have free thoughts.  It seems since they have the set times for everything, forced to give their children away, or anything else that the One State makes them do.  They never really have time to think about anything other than all the things that they are told to focus on.  That is kind of how I feel like that is how or society is.  There is so much out there that schools and the government don't tell us.  For example numerology or astrology. Things like are so interesting that there should be something like that out there for kids to take in school.

Historical Strategies.

Out of all three of the strategies that we needed to read, the one that I think fits with We the most is the historical strategy. The Marxist Criticism fits well because it focuses on culture, race, class, and power. I think this fits because it seems as if the One State is all based off of power.  Also since the book is written as a look into the future, it describes our society today.  Since that is what keeps the world going around everyone wants power and wants money and to work their way up the ladder of "success."

I do think that all three strategies could all fit, but the historical one stood out the most to me.

Terms

Style- In We style is used how the author used numbers to make us think that they are robots and how he describes how he the people that live in the state have no identity really, and makes the reader think that they are robots.


Tone-  this is showen in We how Randall words how D-503 sees how the One State is, and how they are all the people see how the Ancient ones are. 


Irony- when they sit in the glass box that they are in they don't really see what is out in the world and what they could do with their lives because they aren't able to see the truth in life in less they rebel. 

Plot-  at first D-504 doesn't realize that everyone is different he is always taught to fallow the rules and do what his "society" has told him to do. Yet, throughout the story he starts to realize the real "him" as he says. 


Characterization- Randall makes it feel like D-503 was a real person and that something like the One State could be really going on.

Setting-  The setting is set for the reader to think that it is in the past, but gives the reader the feeling that it is a futuristic view because of how they are all known by numbers, like we are know by numbers in todays society. 
 
Point of View- We is told by the main character of the story which is D-503, and he tells the story in first person. 

Symbol- The notebook that R gives D-503 is symbolic because this is more when D-503 starts to find himself.

Theme- To me the theme of We is that there is so much out in the world that we as humans could learn and see if we would just stop being part of the norm and tried to open our eyes and realize that there is so much more to life than trying to be like people and what society says is right or wrong.  Americans and the world in general don't use all of their brian and could see so much more out of life if they would just open up their eyes and look.  And I think that is what Randall is trying to get at in the story, because D-503 starts to change when he meets I-330.

Intro

First of all I'm Billie.

I'm still learning a lot about myself and who I am as a person.  I've gone through a lot of changes this year already coming to college.  I use to play soccer at USD, but then I realized how hard it was to balance school, soccer, and a social life.  So I quit soccer so I could focus on my school work.

I'm from Rapid City. I'm definitely a west river girl.  I love to snow board, long board, wake board, anything really that involves being out side and out in the hills.  I'm an only child. I'm a pretty open minded person.  I'm always up for a new idea or "adventure".  I enjoy meeting new people and learning what they think of life and to hear what they think their meaning of life is.

Someday I want to write for a snow boarding magazine and travel with a bunch of riders.  After college I plan on moving to Colorado or Oregon.