Final Project2

Assumptions Literary works- support
Big novels “The Glass Castle”
Fiction vs. Poetry Sonny’s Blues& cathedral vs. Alzheimer’s & How I love thee?
Drama Death of a Salesman

For my final project I would like to talk about how at the beginning of the semester getting through big novels was a big challenge for me. I am going to use my literacy circle book, “The Glass Castle” and talk about how I wasn’t sure how I wasn’t sure how I was going to get through this book when I started it but, I didn’t manage to get through it and really enjoyed it.

I also want to talk about how reading poetry for me has always been easier for me to read and understand where as reading some of the fiction pieces that we read this semester were a little challenging for me to get through. I want to use Sonny’s Blues or Cathedral for the challenging fiction pieces and the poetry pieces I want to use is Alzheimer’s or How I love thee?. Of those two poems I think I like the poem Alzheimer’s the best because it was easy to read and the author created a very clear picture for me of an older man coming back home and not really knowing where he was. I did think it was strange having this unknown person at the house. I really have discovered this semester that I like contemporary poetry rather then more traditional poetry.

Finally, I want to talk a little bit about my first reaction when we got into reading the drama “Death of a Salesman” the other day. Even though looking at a Drama in particular “Death of a Salesman” at first glance can be overwhelming to me I think that reading it in class where I am not reading even but maybe a line here or there is much easier for me because if I am reading just a little here and their I can sit back and sort of think about what I just read or what someone else is reading. Reading long drama like this I have never really liked and I think after reading a little in this class my option about drama hasn’t really changed but I will say that reading them as a class does defiantly help.

Final Project

For my last project I would like to run with the idea of option #3, “Tell me a Story” or a literacy narrative. I would like to do this by writing you a letter. I am still working on the assumptions that I have seen changed over the course of the semester but, the one big assumption is being able to get through big novels without having that “How am I going to get through this?” feeling. I have also discovered while reading short stories and poems this semester that I really like contemporary pieces rather than traditional pieces. As for one more assumption my list has a blank. Can you give me a direction to maybe think about a little bit for one more assumption? For all of these assumptions think I am going to defiantly use the memoir “The Glass Castle” that I read for our class. As for a contemporary piece that I liked from this semester I have not come up with one yet but, plan to keep thinking and searching for one. Also when I find something to fill in the last blank for my third assumption I will find the perfect story to compare it too.

Sestina vs The Raven

After reading all the poems that we have read over the last couple of weeks I have discovered something about what I like and what I don’t like about poetry. I have discovered that modern day poems are easier to read and get through whereas the poems that are more traditional with language that is harder for me to understand doesn’t keep my attention as well and it seems to take me longer to get through poems and understand what I had just read. I would have to say of all the stories that I read for this blog entry I would have to say I liked the story “Sestina” the best. I think that is because it was written more modern and not traditional then the other ones. On the other end even though I read “The Raven” when I was in a high school English class I would have to say I still don’t fully get the back ground of what the story is about. What I think I did finally get out of that story was that it is about some who is in jail and is lonely and looking out in to the world with hopes of someone coming to visit them.

Love poems

When I started doing some research on the computer I discovered a website called http://www.gigglepoetry.com/. I thought that this website was able to offer lots of different options of poetry but I chose to look at the “Love” poems because I found that they had a lot of different themes but they also had different twists to make each poem their own. Even though I still don’t know what direction that I want to go with my second analysis paper I believe this website is going to be able to help me narrow my search and come up with the perfect paper in the end. At the moment I have Lovesick and I think you’re cute by Bruce Lansky, Georgie Porgie, Pudding and Pie, Oh my darling, Valentine and Today I got a Valentine by Kenn Nesbitt picked out. At first glance I picked these out for a couple of reasons. The first two poems started out different, but they both were about love and they ended the same way. The next three were about valentines but, again they were both written a little bit different. So, I can see all these poems have potential but, I seem to be a little lost as to how to go about writing this paper. I do hope that this coming week after reading some other classmates blogs and talking to some people I will feel better about writing this paper and by the end of this week be well on my way to writing that first draft.

Collection of my own poems

When I was a junior in High School the English class that I took we were required to write a book of poems. The two poems that I write myself and really like how they turned out, the first one was what my teacher called “the city poem” which I wrote about my home town of Mattawan. The other poem that I really liked that I wrote and I liked how it turned was one called Scars. Another one that I found in a poem book that I remember from my childhood was from the book “Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices the poem was called Fireflies. Because I liked all three of these poems from my own collection I decided to go out onto the internet and see if I can find any other poems that maybe written on the same topic or written in the same style and to my surprise I was able to find three poems that fit under one of these two category. One was called Snow Day that was written like my Mattawan poem, another poem about scars and finally one called Grasshoppers which was written in two verses and written by the same author as the Fireflies poem that I had found in my own book back in High School. I think I would have to say that of all six of the poems that I read I would have to say that I really like the two poems that I personally wrote from my own experiences and surroundings. I liked these to poems to such that I want to share them with everyone next class period and my hope is you will get as much out of the poem as I did when I was writing the poem.

"Marks"

Of all of the poems that I read for this blog entry I feel that the poem “Mark by Linda Pastan was a very well written and a creative poem. I couldn’t help but laugh my way through it. I thought that it was a very funny and creative topic to write about and because it was written this way it was not only funny to read it was also an easy read from start to finish. The one thing that I thought was creative was how the author expressed each family member’s opinion of how their mom took care of the housework and the family. The one thing that I thought would have added to the creativity of the piece would have been if the author would have continue with the idea of getting the rest of the families opinion on grading mom on her effects of running the house the husbands opinion and the children’s opinion were real but, in my opinion it would have been kind of fun if the author would have taken the story to the next level and asked other relatives their opinions (i.e. grandparents, aunts, uncles). In my opinion that would have given the story just that much more of a creative twist to the story as a whole.

Alzheimer's

A small brick house. A crazy old man stands in the doorway. When he gets back from the hospital he is trying to remember what it was like to live in his own house before he went into the hospital. Roses and columbine are already clawing at the mortar of one of the walls of this small house for a new owner to enjoy. Rhododendrons are also already planted in the back for a new owner to continue to enjoy. The sun is shining in the late afternoon in England after a good rain. A very special hot iron grillwork piece has its own placed outside. There is one problem with it, it has sparks flying off of it and causing the bushes and the rose bushes to burn. The house has white wood trim. There are sidewalks between the front room and the garage. He remembers a younger man in a tweed hat who loves music.
This story in my opinion was very well written even though it was a good story from beginning to end I didn’t really like how the author left her reader hanging. Who exactly is the woman who welcomes the crazy old man back into his house when he arrives home from the hospital?

Poetry

I thought that each one of these poems had something that was different and unique about each one of them. I thought that the first one “How do I love thee?” was very repetitive. I thought that it stopped kind of abruptly at the end. On the other hand I really liked that second story “The Tally Stick” was very descriptive, this in my opinion made the story really good. These are the two stories that stuck out in my eye as the best of the ones that we read this week. The other ones on the list in my opinion just didn’t to anything for me or they were kind of hard for me to follow. The one that I thought was hard to follow was, “On her loving two equally”. I had a hard time keeping the people straight, the wording was confusing and the overall way the poem was printed in my opinion just did not work for me for some reason. Another story that I liked was “Wedding-Ring” it was touching but, in my opinion again the format was kind of crazy. Why, would a writer write a poem with most of the lines on the left margin and then after four or five lines all of the sudden change margins and then go back after just a couple of words? I didn’t see the purpose to that at all.

Glass Castle

I have really enjoyed reading The Glass Castle but, the more I get into it the more I just can’t believe people can live the way this family had to live. One thing I can’t believe is the things they eat and really enjoy, for example, lard on wonder bread just sounds so bad but, the kids all seem to really like it. Another thing that just blows my mind is why parents would leave their teenage children to take care of another parent (aka their father). Finally why is it so hard for some people to find and keep jobs, pay bills, be able to raise a family and provide a job home for their family? In this case it has made for an interesting story but, I just feel so sorry for those people have to work so hard on a daily basis.

The Glass Castle

After reading the first the half of the Glass Castle, the one question that comes to mind is why in the world would have are their people in the world that have to struggle so much just to survive on a daily basis? I do think and the family in the story started out very rough. I don’t believe anyone should have to live their life the way these people did. No kid should have to worry about if they are going to have food on the table for dinner, a roof over their head or are they going to be sleeping the car for another night, how is their parents are feeling and how they are going to act tonight and also am I going to be safe from other people walk around the town. Things started out rough but I get the since that now that the daughter brought to her father attention that she didn’t like the way he acted and she wanted him to stop drinking, I do believe her father is now aware and will try to do his best to improve his health and help his family live a much better life. I look forward to reading the rest of the book to if the father does follow through and does his best to make a better life for his family.

What is non-fiction

According to allwords.com non-fiction is a written works intended to give facts, or true accounts of real things and events. Often used attributively

Chapter 28, 29

I feel that after reading chapters 28 & 29, it is very important and helpful to read these chapters before writing our first paper in this class. Even though both of the chapter in my opinion was written in simple semi step by step instructions for writing a paper I feel that it gave a good review, guidance and ideas as to how to go about writing an analysis paper. Even though I have written lots of papers in my time in school thus far I always seem to struggle with formatting my writing but, I feel that after reading these chapters and doing a little outlining I believe I can make this paper a really good one. The one thing that I struggle with sometimes is the thesis statements for some reason but, after reading chapter 29 and the section about thesis statements I believe it gave some good ideas of how to go about writing good clear thesis statements. It also gave good reminders as to how to make the paper flow smoothly. These chapters in my opinion were defiantly worth my time to read.

The Lame Shall Enter First and From "The Fiction Writer and His Country"

After reading "The Lame Shall Enter First” and From “The Fiction Writer and His Country”(1957) I feel that it has one common similarity between the two stories. “The Lame Shall Enter First” is a about a man who finds an old friend, that none of the family has either seen in a while or don’t really remember, His name is Rufus Johnson. In this story the man wants to go find were Rufus in living on the street and take him in and try to help him get back on his feet. Which I believe is a very kind thing to do for anyone whether they are a new or an old friend.
On the other hand the first entry in the Passages from Essays and Letters entitled, “The Fiction Writer and His Country, I believe can relate to the story “The Lame Shall Enter First” because the writer is talking about writing about poor people. Even though it doesn’t come right out and say that Rufus was poor it does say he dug through garbage cans to be able to eat on a daily basis. There is a defiant correlation between this story and this letter and one that would nice to have a little more information about.

A rose for Emily

1856- Miss Emily was born
1894- Remission of Miss Emily's taxes by Colonel Sartoris and China Painting when Miss Emily was about 40 years old. Miss Emily's father died
1896- Miss Emily buys some poison
1930- "A Rose for Emily" was published
1938- Miss Emily died

After reading "A Rose for Emily" and "Of time and its Mathematical Progression: Problems of Chrology in Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily", I thought that even though the story had one initial date mentions it did mention a few other things so, I was thinking to make ti easier to read I would make a little time-line of events but, in the progress of doing so, I discovered that it was not an east task. Above is what I could kind of piece together by what some people had already had figured out but, as Gene M. Moore mentions, "the original manuscript Faulkner assigned a different date to the remission of Miss Emily's taxes and a specific date of her father's death: that date ub 1904 when Colonel Sartoris...remitted her taxes dating from the death of her father 16 years back, on into perpetuity" (Horton pg. 497). After reading this passage it makes it hard to figure out who is actully giving the informaiton in the order that it was actually done. But, if this information is right the remitted was in 1904 which was 16 years after the death of her father in 1888. This is all very confusing but, can also have some meaning to what exactly happened in Miss Emily's life.

An obiturary for Characters in "The Management of Grief"

The Kutty brothers and their father died Tuesday June 12 in a plane crash on their way back to their home town of Toronto, Canada. The boys were in their late teens early twenties and their father was in his early fifties. They all leave behind their wife and mother Mrs. Bhave and a couple of sisters and daughters. The father (Vikrom) Mrs. Bhave says, was a saver and a careful investor (pg 282). Even though Mrs. Bhave didn’t have anything to say about their son’s, all three guys will be missed for sure. Mrs. Bhave knows that one day they will be all together again in heaven.

About Me

Hi My Name is Lauren Harkness
I am 22 years old
I am from the small town of Mattawan about 20 minute west of campus.
This is my third year at Western. I am an elementary education major.
After graduating from Mattawan High School in the spring of 2003 I started my college career at Kalamazoo Valley Community College where I started working towards an elementary education degree and after two and a half years discovered I was closer to a Assoc. degree in Special Education. So, last fall I switched my major their and graduated in Dec of last years with an Assoc. degree in Special Education.
I lived in Smith Burnham Hall on campus for the last two years and then this fall decided to move into an apartment with a friend of mine.

About Me

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How to drive a car without the use of my legs.

I have to use hand contorls which is a control that is attached to the steering wheel. Their is a control on the left side that I push in for the break and push down on it for the gas.

I also have a knob that can help me turn corners.

This is what I use to help me drive a car!

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The Story Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte is set in a house that is, “The most beautiful place! It is quiet alone, standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village.” “There is a delicious garden! I never saw such a garden- large and shady, full of box- bordered paths, and lined with long grape-covered arbors with seats under them”. “There were also greenhouses” (pg. 514).
The lady in the story seems to be getting sick. After talking a little bit about the location of the house that her and her husband lives in she moved onto talking about their bedroom which seems to be a room the she spend a lot of time in because all John her husband will let her do is sleep. She seems to have a lot a time looking at what the bedroom looked like because she never likes to sleep. She starts to explain one night what the old yellow wallpaper looks like on the wall when she couldn’t sleep one night. “It is a big, airy room, the whole floor nearly, with windows that look all ways, and air and sunshine galore. It was a nursery first, and then a playroom and then a gymnasium, I should judge; for the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls”. The color is repellant, almost revolting; a smoldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight” (pg.514).

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In the story,” Roman Fever” by Edith Wharton, Mrs. Slade who is one of the main characters of this story sat down and started thinking about how past generations, present generations and future generations would characterize the city of Rome, Italy. She thought that her grandmother’s generation would characterize Rome as, “Rome Fever” while her daughter’s generations would characterize Rome as, no more dangers than the middle of Main Street.
First of all, Mrs. Slade says her grandmother’s generation would describe Rome as “Rome Fever”, which in my opinion means they had a love for the city. They loved the people, the atmosphere and the culture around them. They appreciated what the city had to offer them.
On the other hand, Mrs. Slade says her daughter’s generation would describe Rome as, “No more dangers than the middle of Main Street”. This in my opinion means there is no dangers around them expect for if anyone were to play in the middle of Main Street.
Finally I believe that while Mrs. Slade’s grandmothers generation didn’t seem to have to many worries in their life from the beginning. Her daughter’s generation seemed to have a few problems but, as long as they paid attention to what they were doing that generation to could lead a happy and healthy lifestyle as well. All and all I think even though both generations were characterized differently at the same time they are the same and could in the end be characterized the same way.