IUPENGL121-PansmithShannon

Invisible Man

2005-04-22T06:26:00.000-07:00

In this novel, it seemed that the narrator was trying to find his true identity but couldn't because everywhere he traveled it seemed that he had to take on a role that was forced. Every place he went, black men were "Expected" to act in a certain way so he was continually molding to that stereotype. He soon realizes that by people imposing "expectations" on him, they are limiting his potential. That is why he terms himself invisible because society doesn't really see him as a person but they fit him into a mold and don't think another thought about it. So, the narrator decides to make sure that people DO see him and DO hear him because he wants to be seen for who he is and not what a stereotype says he is. Overall, this book made me think about if I classify people by their race or heritage right off the bat or if I actually get to know who they are inside.

Ideology and The House of Spirits

2005-04-03T17:55:00.000-07:00

"She put away her party dresses and the silver candlesticks and carefully avoided him. She told her father that if he ever mentioned marriage again, she would take the first train out of town and return to her convent as a novice." (185)

While I was reading this all I could think about was how my mother and father always try to pressure me in to doing things that I don't always want to do. My dad especially tries to control who I date and bring home to meet the family. I am a very independent person and stubborn, my father doesn't like this because we always butt heads when he tries to make decisions for me. I can only imagine how Blanca must have felt being in a house with a father who tried to force her into marriage all the time. She really had no choice but to live there and that must have really been hard for her to deal with. It was good that she got the courage to finally tell her father to back off. The only way I could get my parents to back off was by moving out of the house.

Rachel Blau Duplessis Question

2005-03-13T16:17:00.000-08:00

One question I would like to ask any author of poetry would be: Is there one person/object that inspires most of your poetry? Or do you find inspiration everyday in random objects/people?

Antigone

2005-03-01T18:31:00.000-08:00

This was a story about a very strong woman, Antigone, who wasn't going to listen to a king, Krona, about not being able to bury her relative. I think it was very courageous of her to defy the government to do something she believed in her heart was right. She was engaged to Hamon, the kings son, you would think because of that the king wouldn't punish her severely. That was not the case, Krona exiled Antigone. I cannot believe that someone would do that to their son's love. Parents are supposed to embrace the person their children choose to love, not try to kill them. This story was a very easy read, and the plot was simple to understand. I liked how I understood almost everything that went on in the story instead of after reading it being so confused. It does seem like a story that with expansion, it could be turned into a movie. The activity we did in class really made me think that it could because it has the main things a good movie has. It has a love story, a war, a antagonist and a protagonist.

Cortez

2005-02-24T17:21:00.000-08:00

This was a good story that kept me interested because it was more of an action/drama story, instead of a story that you had to really think about to understand anything in the story. I also thought that it was crazy that people were living in an area with one another and had very different way of life. There was Cortez and his family which seemed to be a family that was more reserved and did things by hand. The sheriff and the translator seemed to be more of a modern type of person. This is why I think, that Cortez got in to the trouble he did: Miscommunication. The scene from the book that we saw and analyzed in the video really helped me understand that there was huge communication problem between Cortez and the authorities. If Cortez would have turned himself in right away I don't think he would have gotten a fair trial. I think it was bad that Cortez shot the sheriff but the sheriff shot his brother for no apparent reason. I think that is why Cortez was on the run, because he knew everything was a big misunderstanding but he knew that no one else would listen to him because he was Mexican and was in a white persons world. One part of the story that I thought was funny was when he didn't go to jail for killing people, but for the reason that he stole the horse to ride away on. That just goes to show how silly the government was back then.

Blood Wedding

2005-02-13T19:54:00.000-08:00

This play was one of my favorites so far because it had a good plot. It was very confusing though at times. Some of the things that confused me was why the bride and Leoardo didnt get married to eachother in the first place? Instead, he married her cousin and she married the bridegroom. I dont know if it had to do with a money issue or not. Maybe, Leonardo wanted to be rich so he married the brides cousin for money, and maybe the bride knew that the bridegroom had money from his vineyards so she married him too. Then once they were both married, they realized that love was better than money. Or, maybe it had something to do with the fact that the bride had no mother. Throughout the play, they made a big deal about that fact. Even though those could be possible reasons it doesnt make me understand why at the end of the play the bride comes back and apoligizes to the mother that she made a mistake by leaving the bridegroom. That was when I really started to get confused, and i still was at the end of the play.

The Awakening

2005-01-31T17:57:00.000-08:00

The Awakening was a really good book. It kept me interested the whole time and was an easy read. I really didn't like how it ended though because I thought Edna should have ended up with Robert. Robert and Edna seemed like they were so in synch with eachother. I still don't understand why she would kill herself after she broke away from the boring life she lead and created a life that she loved. Maybe, she didn't think that when her husband returned that she would still be able to live the life she was living while he was away. Either way, I think she would have led a happy life if she divorced her husband and did what made her happy. Some people might think that she did it because she didn't think she could divorce her husband because it would be a bad image, but she didn't seem to care about image at the end of the book.

Another character that really interested me was Edna's husband. When first reading about him I thought him to be a very strong and smart man. That is why I don't understand how he didn't know that his wife was cheating on him. Even if he was gone for long periods of time, how could he not pick up on it. When he went to his long time doctor for advice, the doctor even could pick up on Edna wanting another man by talking to her and seeing her actions. Maybe, he loved her so much that he didn't want to know what really was happening in front of his face. Sometimes powerful men wont admit that anything is wrong with their lives.

Yellow Wallpaper

2005-01-25T19:21:00.000-08:00

The Yellow Wallpaper was a very interesting and odd story. The whole time I was reading it, I kept trying to figure out what was going on. I really thought that it was a freedom vs. Confinement issue but after reading "Why I wrote the Yellow Wallpaper" by the author I had a better understanding of what was going on throughout the story. Even though she said that it happened to her and that a local doctor gave her the wrong treatment, I think it was strange that in her story she portrayed the doctor as her husband. I think that there may have been some deeper issues that she didn't want to have come across but did. This story was a good one to keep discussion going in class and it was fun to hear everyone's interpretations of the story.

Douglas Response

2005-01-25T19:09:00.000-08:00

After reading this story and having our in class discussion I really agree that it is a more powerful story coming from someone who experienced it. If we were to find out it was fiction and was written by a white man who didn't experience the situation, I wouldn't have liked it as much. The feelings I got while reading were extreme because I knew that a man really had experienced this and that it wasn't a lie. Having real hard facts in front of you make it hard to turn and forget about what was said. A fiction story may let readers think that it is over emphasized or untrue. Overall, the story was better as a non-fiction narrative than a fictional story.