More than just another word on paper...

2006-05-03T10:34:00.000-04:00

After finding out that Allison was a lesbian, I could definitely see how she related different parts of the book to her own personality and lifestyle. The amounts of female masturbation in this novel was overwhelming. I realize that this is a direct affect from when Daddy Glen molested Bone. Children act out from their treatment in different ways. And, like Tenesha said, Bone was feeling more sexual after being treated like a sexual being. I thoguht it was interesting that Allison put Raylene in the novel. SHe was such a strong female character. It made me wonder if this was a reflection of herself. I am now interested in doing some research on Allison to find out if she is more masculine or feminine in real life. It would be really interesting to see if Raylene and Allison were similar. I am also interested now to watch the movie. I would love to compare the two and see how copyright laws changed the movie.

2006-04-26T19:40:00.000-04:00

I was in complete and utter shock when I read about Daddy Glenn molesting Bone in Bastard Out of Carolina, by Dorothy Allison. I think any man who can act so inappropriately with a child should be put in jail for life. And to sit there and tell Anney when he proposed how much he loves her and her children. If that wasn't a lie, I don't know what was. You don't hurt someone you love especially like that. He has ruined Bone's image of a father figure. She never had one since the time she was born and was known as the "bastard child" in her town. I almost think being known as the bastard child is better for her than being molested. Bone needed guidance and a male figure in her life, but obviously Daddy Glenn was not it. She admired her uncles and could have learned a lot from that had her mother not jumped on the marriage wagon so fast. Altogether, Daddy Glenn is not the guy that anybody thinks. I can't wait to see what else happens. Does Anney find out? If so, does she do anything? Does Reese get molested too? I have so many questions...

2006-04-12T16:55:00.000-04:00

First off, I want to say thank you to everyone for bearing with us on our presentation! We made do with short notice of the change we had to make. So, thanks again for being so patient with Hannah and I! Now, about the other presentations. I think they were amazing. It looks as though everyone worked really hard. I can totally relate with Monica when she said that she only remembers Little Richard from his rendition of the Itsy Bitsy Spider. It's so funny how different generations make different connections with music. Certain songs just stick out. At the same time, I knew the elvis songs that were played because my grandparents listened to them quite often. I also thought it was fascinating when Nolan was talking about the program (I can't remember the name of it) where the white guys played the voice of the black guys. It is pretty degrading. The white people were attempting to act black with their broken slang and such. Obviously, I can't go on and on about everyone's presentations, but they were all great and these were just a few of the things that stuck out to me.

2006-03-29T15:53:00.000-05:00

After the discussion in class on Monday (March 27th), I think Blanche is a pretty self-destructive person. She seems to get herself stuck in situations, and honestly, it is nobody's fault but her own. I can definitely see where her problems stem from though. She was happily married and then walks in to find her husband cheating on her with another guy. I would probably resort to alcohol too. It's the easiest way to pretend reality doesn't exist, but it also doesn't make things any better. In fact, for Blanche, things got worse. She began prostituting herself. This lead to her being fired after she was caught having sexual relations with a 17 year old. Blanche just wanted to feel secure. And yes, although sex does make you feel wanted, it does not mean there is love. And when Blanche moves in with Stella and Stanley, she kind of acts like she wants to forget the past. SHe doesn't realy want to talk about it, unless it's to make Stella feel guilty about losing Bella Reve. She lies to Mitch, which isn't the smartest thing to do if she wanted to have a real, mature relationship with him. I don't know if I'd say Blanche deserved to be put into special care, but she did need help. She was an alcoholic and didn't know how to cope with her past.

2006-03-22T16:25:00.000-05:00

After reading "Their Eyes Were Watching God" and the first five scenes of "A Streetcar Named Desire" I'm in a little bit of shock. I can't believe women will stay with men who beat them and treat them poorly. We see Teacake hit Janie and she is kind of proud of it. It makes her feel a little feminine. We also see Stanley beat Stella, and rape her as well, in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and she tried to protect to him. Stella believes that nothing is wrong and convinces herself that she wants to have sex with him so it's not rape. To me, I don't think that's having any self respect. How could you stay with someone treats you in such negative ways. And more importantly, why would Stella want to bring her unborn child into that kind of relationship. It definitely won't be good for him/her. As a mother, you would think she would want to think of what will be best for her child. Maybe I'm wrong about all of this, but it just seems like it would be the right thing to do.

2006-03-15T16:57:00.000-05:00

I had read the work by Richard Wright previously for a different class and I was still amazed reading it this time how awful people used to be. White people thought they held such a high status over blacks. For example, the part in the story where they take the black girl into the back of the store and beat her until she is basically unconcious is just awful. First of all, nobody has the right to beat somebody because of their skin color. And secondly, what MAN in their right mind beats a WOMAN!?!? That just infuriates me! And what's even worse is that nobody even had the decency to help her as she came out. All that one man could say was something to the effect of, "She's lucky. Most of them end up dead." It was also sad to read about the situation the two white guys put the boy in at the first optical company. If he had admitted to calling him just Pease, then he was being disrespectful, but if he denied it, he was calling Mr. Morrie a liar. It was a no win situation for him and it was interesting to see that he knew jsut to walk away and tell them he'd never be back.

2006-03-01T19:41:00.000-05:00

I really enjoyed the works by Katherine Anne Porter. They were very easy to understand. I thought it was very interesting that Sophia Jane and Old Nannie were close interracial friends. It was interesting throughout the stories to see the comparisons that were made about both of their lives. For instance, Sophia Jane married a refined southern gentlemen and Old Nannie was basically forced to marry Uncle Jimbilly, the male she was paired with to reproduce. It's just fascinating to see how two very different people got along so well and were such good friends. I'm not sure if this was a true story or not, but it jsut seems funny to me that after the end of slavery it would be that easy for an interracial friendship to take place. Up until the 1960's there was still segregation and racial issues in the United States. I'm just wondering how true this story could actually be? I'm not saying I don't like it, because I thoroughly enjoyed the plot and storyline. It just seems funny that there could be that bond between a black and a white, a slave and plantation owner's wife, so fast.

2006-02-15T14:41:00.000-05:00

The more I read of Faulkner's Go Down, Moses, the more confusing it gets. It wouldn't be so bad to read if all the stories weren't connected one way or another. This book is worse than a soap opera. Everyone that is mentioned in it is related to everyone else one way or another. It's getting harder to keep track of how everyone is related as the stories continue. Faulkner uses such odd places to use detail too, such as after the character is introduced, he'll simply put it in paranthesis. The family tree that we received in class was very helpful, because looking at that, it's easy to tell who is related to whom. But, when reading the book, it's hard to keep track of the relationships because it jumps around so much. Honestly, I can't wait for this book to be over and I hope books we read in the future are not this confusing!

2006-02-08T00:07:00.000-05:00

When I was reading Faulkner's "Was" I felt like I didn't know who anybody was. Who was telling the story? Maybe I completely overlooked it, but I couldn't tell whatsoever. I'm going to assume it was a nephew since he kept referring to the characters as Uncle Buck and Uncle Buddy. Altogether I felt that the story was hard to read and I finished it not really sure as to what I had just read. What was the deal with the betting too?? I felt like everytime I turned around Mr. Hubert and Uncle Buddy were making a new bet over something. Was it typical in that time to place such large bets? Because 500$ seems like a lot of money to be betting now, so why would they have bet that much back then? I'm easing into Faulkner's next story, and so far it's easier to read. Hopefully it stays that way.

A picture's worth...

2006-02-02T22:42:00.000-05:00

I really enjoyed the discussion we had at the beginning of class yesterday (wednesday, february 1). I love how the pictures were tied into the discussion about the reading. I truly believe in the saying, "A picture's worth a thousand words." From two different pictures, we were able to come up with several different interpretations as a class. I also like the contrast with the pictures. They are from the same time period, yet one photo is such a strong representation for the afriacan american race and the other one is humiliating to the african american race. It jsut completely amazes me that two parts of the same country can portray the same race in completely different perspectives during the same time period.

2006-01-25T17:28:00.000-05:00

A lot of the work we've read lately, such as John Smith, Thomas Jefferson and Phillis Wheatley is very familiar to me. At my old college I took a Literature class that focused on early American writings. It's interesting to learn new things about writers based on a different teacher's teaching style and curriculum. Since this class is based on Southern Literature, we have learned mostly about slavery and / or each writer's views and hopes for the "new country." In my other class, however, we learned about each writer's backgrounds, history and standpoints on other topics as well. It is also interesting to see where points have overlapped and connected. In both classes, John Smith and Pocahontas were major discussion points. And like Professor Wells said, how can only three lines in one story be such a huge deal? Phillis Wheatley stood as a prominent figure in both classes as well because she was the first African-American, female writer. In American and American Southern history this is a huge deal. I look forward to later this week see where the works of Edgar Allen Poe compare and contrast with what I've learned already as well.