Cheever & O'Connor

The two stories "The Swimmer" by Cheever and "Good Country People" by O'Connor were stories that were told in the same way because they both have the beginning, middle and end. In "the swimmer," Cheever has this man that took his life for granted, and went for his goal. He wanted to swim across the county and at each yard he stopped to swim the length of the pool memories, or a certain place of recongition was written about each. To him the journey had gone by so fast, but when he got back to where he started and time hit him in the face that his family has up and left him, his good friend was ill and his house was sold. In "Good Country People," O'Connor has the story based on a family and a friend and her family. Mrs. Hopewell had two daughters. One of 15 that was married with a baby on the way, and another who was 32 with blonde hair and a fake leg. They meet this boy, Manley Pointer who came to the house selling bibles, but ended up in the end being bad news for Joy-Hulga. He left her stranded with her one real leg in a barn in the middle of the woods. I think both these stories were like any other story being told, and of course in the end had a point to the whole thing. "The swimmer," in not to take what you dont have and then forget what you do have, and in "Good Country People," you shouldn't let your guard down on people until your ready to face the pain afterwards.

These two stories have the same "telling" idea but the structure is a little different, because in "Good Country People" that saying is constantly repeated throughout the text. That oncce you get to know people and have an idea they get labels. In the Swimmer, the man didn't think of the result of him leaving to swim across the county. In O'Connor's story you were more involved in the characters head and what they were thinking at point, but in Cheever's it was much more narrative of what the characters were doing. Both these stories had unhappy endings, and i dont like reading those kind of stories.

Their Eyes Were Watching God. (Treatment of Women)

In the novel Their eyes were watching god, women were treated much different then what they are today. Women were considered a property of men. They could control what they do, wear, talk to and hit them.

"What she doin coming back here in dem overhalls? Can't she find no dress to put on?-Where's dat blue satin dress she left here in?- Where all dat money her husband took and died and left her?-What dat ole forty year ole 'omen doin' wid her hair swingin' down her back lak some young gal?- Where she left dat young lad of a boy she went off here wid?-Thought she was going to marry?-Where he left her?-What he done wid all her money?-Betcha he off wid some gal so young she ain't even got no hairs-why she don't stay in her class?" (Page 2)

This paragraph basically sums up what the people of the town expected from women. They addressed first of her clothing. Women were to be seen in dresses, nothing other then dresses. Being in a certain class is where you are supposed to stay. When she ran off with Tea Cake, everyone talked a big game when he was the one she truly loved. Money also had a lot to do with her class. They expected Janie to mourn the rest of her life from her dead husband, and appreciate what her husband left her. Her hair was long and beautiful but the town still talked because you have to be "young" in order to let your hair how you want it to be.

"why dont you go on and see whu Mrs. Bogle want? Whut you waitin' on?"... "Naw it ain't neither. You ain't put it where Ah told yuh tuh. If you'd git yo' mind out de streets and keep it on yo' business maybe you could git somethin' straight sometimes." (Page 70)

This dialect of Joe talking to Janie is an example of how the men looked down upon the women. He talked to her with no respect, and basically told her that she wasn't good enough at what she does. This was at the time when everyone was watching the boys play chess and she was very interested and Joe demanded her to not watch. He could have said to take care of the customer so she can come out and continue watching. Men were allowed to be rude and disrespectful to women and they all took it, and the town thought of it as the right way.

Stevens and Moore.

Well, getting a late start on this assignment not really understanding much about it, but then talking things over in class made me have more of an understanding.. When we did the group activity and we had to translate Moore's writing of "Poetry," we came up that she is critizing poetry writers, but at the same time she enjoys poetry. Writers don't have to make things so difficult because that turns people away from reading it. Every day events happen and they are good without us making a big deal about them. Both Moore and Stevens talk about nature, and animals a lot. They both also rhyme at times. When you asked about sound, I think my atempt to read them aloud was more difficult reading Stevens. Altho his stanza's clearly ended, it seemed choppy. Moore's was more easy going, when talking about sound, and i also think an easy going type writing style. When in class we also translated Stevens "Anecdote of the jar," I noticed he rhymed a lot more compared to Moore's in "Poetry." This poem that he wrote, seemed to be complicated because there's just random lines stuck next to eachother. I'm not sure where they came from, but he put them together to make a jar have a whole history. He starts and ends the poem with the same idea about "Tennessee," compared to Moore's that just kinda got to the point without making it so complicating to see the point.

Modernists.

I did not wait until tonight to read The Waste Land, i took my time and still found this poem completely overwhelming. This reading seemed very dark, and the footnotes to the words he wrote were very long, that made me just more confused because you couldn't read without the footnotes, but to me the footnotes didnt make much sense anyhow. I don't think I could clearly state what the point that T.S. Eliot was trying to get across. Modernism from what i interpertated from class is a sense of lack of identity, violence, experimentation, speed of change in technology and communication. Besides the actual words in the poem, the way that the poem is actually written also classifies a peice as modernism. Sentence fragments, a rythum or pulse to it, their might be some traditional elements like nature. In The Waste Land, I did not find speed of change in technology, but I did find violence. "He who was living is now dead We who were living are now dying With a little patience" (page 1440 stanza 328-330)The writing itself was modernism because it contained fragmentation. Besides a good example of above another is, "April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire..." (Page 1430 first 3 lines) The way T.S. Eliot writes these, I got confused with the breaks on whether certain words went with certain phrases or the continued on one below but seemed to be it's own with the Capital letter. But the capital letter at the beginning of each stanza can just be the way of writing. I think all together that this peice was modernist, it shows certain places like the prison and describes this "unreal city," leaving this peice as kinda of impersonal. ALthough I'm not quite sure if any of that is what the reading was stating but that's what I interpreted out of it.

Zitkala Sa

Throughout reading the life of Zitkala Sa I thought she was trying to put many themes or overall point to the story. She talks about things she sees and the way the culture around her works. She talks about her mother and how she's quiet and grieves of her lost family members and is not very fond of the pale faces. The legends, showed much about their culture and how respect for people around her, who are basically like family and her mother. "this taught me to remember all I saw in a single glance. Often I told my mother my impressions without being questioned." (page 1010) In the Beadwork it shows how dependent they are for themselves. They don't go to stores and buy things, the things they had we're hand made and still as beautiful as ever. The children would get together and have parties. "we delighted in impersonating out own mothers." (page 1012) how much of a role model their mothers were, and passing on culture down to their kids. In the end she talks about how she wants to go with the pale faces to the east. Although her mother is very uneasy about this, she decisides to let her daughter go and with her curiousity was very excited. Along with her excitement came the disappointmen of how much she missed her mother after such a short time, but in the same time was doing this to not follow what her mother was doing, but to decide her own path for her life.

Booker and Du Bois

Well, when I read Booker T. Washington's story on the Atlanta Exposition I felt that he was trying to bring blacks and whites together as equals. He used the idea of a bucket on a boat to show that all men were created equal. "there is no defense or security for any of us except in the hightest intelligence and development of all. If anywhere there are efforts tending the curtail and fullest growth of the negro, let these efforts be unred into stimulating, encouraging and making him the most useful and intelligent citizen." (762) i think he wants changes to happen but in the future when people realize that skin color shouldnt matter.

When reading Du Bois's I understand when you said it was thick. This part was kinda hard for me to understand and comprehend what he was saying. I defently think that he admired Washington's idea for the blacks. But i think that he thought that Washington didn't think he realized all the hardships that came along with such an idea. "And yet the time is come when one may speak in all sincerity and utter courtesy of the mistakes and shortcomings of Mr. Washingtons career, as well as of triumphs, without being thought captious or envious, and without forgetting that it is easier to do ill then well in the world" (885) Du Bois seems to think that there are many people who congradulated him when he gave his speech but there was still many people who dispised him. He thinks that men should have all equal rights but they can't practice those rights without any background information or proper education on how to excerise these rights.

Not quite sure if this is what you were looking for, but thats my input on the question.

1st blog assignment

Well, in reading Henry James piece of "Art of Fiction" I got confused on what exactly he was trying to get across. He himself thought that a good novel is determined upon the person reading it and their interests. He believes there is much to critism given to fictionous novelist. James believes that they can take an experience and make it seem very real without having to experience it themselves, altho he still believes that in some way their idea's for their stories come from real events.
His thoughts on fiction contradicts with those of Mr. Besant. He believes that every novel must come with "precision and exactness." He thinks that the novelist should have personal experience with the situation, and that it's impossible to define a character without a full knowing description of them.
These views i though also contradict those of Edith Wharton in "Souls Belated" because in the story there is never a full description of either Lydia or Garnett but the events in the story seem so real you can get the idea in your head without needing that description. THe idea of the story, and having relationship issues is very much a real problem in todays world. Whether topic can be considered a good one is not is depended upon the reader.
Overall I believe that novelist that write fiction should be aloud without any criticism. Everyone has their own opinions and if they don't like to read fiction novels, nobody is forcing them too. I also think that it depends on the kind of story whether a full description of people or places around them need to be detailed in order to understand the reading, and without that the reader would be lost.