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.