IUPENGL121-KendallLesa

The Invisible Man

2005-04-18T04:29:00.000-07:00

This book deals with historical issues that still have an effect on our society today. Racism always seems to be a relevant issue. Most people try not be be prejudice or racist. In order to not be like that then we must see the differences that make us who we are. Ivisible man wondered what would happen if he asked the white man to sing at the party more than he was offended about being asked to sing. The Brotherhood was to be a "colorblind" organization. Brother Jack criticizes IM for thinking in terms of race but the first 2 people he encounters at the party mentioned something about race. What if the man asking him to sing didn't mean anything by asking him? What if he just enjoyed the black culture? If the rest of the people at the party thought of it that way, he probably wouldn't have been kicked out. Race has always been a sensitive issue and I think that it will remain that way.

House of the Spirits Ideology

2005-03-30T15:57:00.000-08:00

On page 283 Alba questions Esteban as to why the workers don't own the land at Tres Marias too since they have lived there so long. She also wants to know why there has to be a patron. Esteban tries to justify being a tyrant by saying that the people need him to be in charge of them. He says that they are unable to take care of themselves and that without him they would all die off. I think that this was a common way of thinking at that time. The book talks about all the other haciendas that were around Tres Marias. Pedro Tercero goes to all of these places to try to get the people to stand up for themselves. Esteban's way of thinking wouldn't really be accepted today. Most people would consider what he was doing a form of slavery. The people at Tres Marias survived without him for all those years but he still says that they need him to take charge of their lives. Sometimes I think that we take our freedom for granted. Seeing these types of things makes me appreciate it more.

Question for Rachel Blau Duplessis

2005-03-13T18:50:00.000-08:00

Who is your favorite poet and does that person have any influence on your writing?

Antigone

2005-03-12T13:42:00.000-08:00

Antigone was willing to die for something that she believed in. I think that is more than most people can say. I admire her dedication and loyalty to her family. She put her brother's honor above her life. She was young, in love and had people around her that really cared for her. She gave up all of this just so that she could bury her brother, but I think that there is more behind the story than her just wanting to have a proper burial for her brother. I think that she was completely disgusted with the war all together. There were things that she wanted to voice to Kreon and the people of the city. The confrontation about the burial between Antigone and Kreon just helped to set it off. I have a feeling that she had been quiet about what was going on and after having two brothers dead because of the war, she just couldn't take it anymore. By hanging herself she sent the message that she wouldn't let the king or the war take anything else from her. She would rather take her own life than have it taken from her.

Gregorio Cortez

2005-02-24T13:07:00.000-08:00

Hero means many different things to different people. Culture and the time period also have an impact on what your definition of a hero is. I'm not sure that Gregorio Cortez would be considered a hero by today's standards. He didn't save anyone, he actually killed a cop and then he ran. I can almost see this story being reported on the five o'clock news. A lot of people would think that this guy is crazy right away. If he came knocking at your door I don't think that you would open the door and offer him food and a weapon like the people did with Gregorio Cortez. It was a different time and a different culture so this probably explains the hero-like portrayal of him. Our opinion of what a hero is will probably change in the next hundred years and what our attitude is like will depend mainly on what happens over the course of time.

Blood Wedding

2005-02-17T10:52:00.000-08:00

There are times in a persons life when a decision that they make will influence the rest of their lives. Sometimes you don't have a lot of time to really think about the decision that you are making. It seem like the bride made a decision right on the spot to go with Leonardo. If she would have thought about it for a while maybe her decision would have been different. A lot of people will disagree with me but there are times in life when you have to put your feelings aside and do what is best for everyone. I'm sure that the bride knew that if she ran away that the groom would come after them and that nothing good would come out of it. There are times when you must sacrifice your happiness for the happiness of others. I know that there are going to be people who say that you have to follow your heart but it just isn't possible sometimes. I think that Leonard and the bride running off together was a total act of selfishness. They were hurting a lot of people and they should have thought about that before making a life altering (ultimately life ending) decision like this.

The Awakening

2005-02-03T13:26:00.000-08:00

I was very surprised at the direction that this book went. By the time I got to the middle of the book, I had an idea in my head of how the book would end. Edna would find in Robert what her husband was lacking and then they would live happily ever after. I was taken off guard when I got to the end and Edna killed herself. I had to read the last few paragraphs over again to make sure that I read it correctly. Even though this wasn't a "happy ending", I really liked it and it made me like the story even more. It made it more interesting and made you think about the book more. I think that Edna did what she thought would be best for everyone by commiting suicide. She seemed like she was the type of person that wasn't ever satisfied. Once she got what she wanted, she didn't want it anymore so in the end I think that she realized this and she would rather die than feel like this for the rest of her life.

The Yellow Wallpaper

2005-01-27T13:29:00.000-08:00

This story was a lot different from anything else that I have ever read. I couldn't really figure out if that is a good thing or a bad thing. It did invoke some strange feelings. A lot of the time I was reading it I had a strange creepy feeling. After thinking about it for a while I came to the conclusion that anything that you read that can make you feel something whether it is a creepy feeling, a happy feeling or a sad feeling, has done an important job. That means that you got something out of it. You may not realize that you got anything out of it, but you may be able to relate something to it in the future. Any piece of literature that makes you take some time and think about it has been useful because it may open you up to new way of thinking about other things that you might connect to the story. Even if you can't relate anything to what you have just read, you have learned something about yourself, what things make you feel a certain way, and I think that being aware of those things might help you in some way at another time.

Douglass Narrative

2005-01-23T08:46:00.000-08:00

We have made several comments in class about how dedicated Douglass was to learning. He taught himself a lot of things and found clever ways to have others teach him. He went to great lengths to educate himself. We discussed that his reasoning for this was that he believed that education was his path to freedom. I feel like there was also another reason for his dedication and perseverance. Being a slave, he probably didn't have much and anything that he did have belonged to the slavemaster, because he belonged to the slavemaster. Education was something that belonged to him and nobody could take it from him. That is something that would stay with him for the rest of his life. He had something that was valuable that he could keep for himself or share with others. If he decided to share it he could choose who to share it with. He really could for the first time have some control of something in his life rather than someone else having control of him.