Final Blog

SIDE NOTE-Sorry I completely missed this on the homework sheet

I think what has improved in my writing is..... everything. I am able to write more,  I have a better idea of how I can back up my thesis, and how to make a thesis. I think the strategy that has helped out the most is just learning the different parts of fiction, and being able to discuss ideas in class.
The easiest paper for me to complete was the Dr. Faustus paper because I had the other two to practice on. I just had a better idea of how to write the paper. I think the most beneficial grammar guide lesson was the lead-in sentence lesson. Then I think the most beneficial class was any that was dealing with discussing a story or poem, and trying to find the deeper meaning in them. To finish off I do feel a lot better about writing a college level paper for my future classes. 

Poem Packet

From the poem packet I'm getting a feel of sexism and the different viewpoints from both males and females. The Beyonce song "If I were a Boy" and the David Lehman poem "Sexism" I see go hand in hand. To me, they both talk about how women get hurt by men. The Lehman poem is satrical  saying a woman is the happiest when her love has been cheating on her. With the Beyonce song, I watched the music video to it. Beyonce tells the message that it hurts when someone you love doesn't show the same love back in return, that they don't sacrifice their own wants for the person they are with or go even further than ignoring them and flirt with someone else. John Micheal Montgomery's "Sold" seemed to have a lighter tone to it. The song talks about a funny way of meeting a life partner. Besides it being country (no offense to country fans) it was a funny song, also it just had a complete different message than the previously mentioned poems. My explicate was that the woman picks the man not the other way around. The last poem the Children's Rhyme is a classic, well just the what girls are made of is the part I knew. This poem really just says the basic message of girls are good and boys are bad. The poem is probably used to scar little girls to stay away from boys till they are older.

The Flea -By: John Donne

The flea is a representation of the love between the narrator and her lover. It's about relating how a flea will takes blood from two people and their blood mingles together; two people are in love with each other and the girl has given up her virginity to her lover in a sign of their love and a long lasting relationship. The second stanza it talks about how they are to be married even if the parents are not happy about it and they have to live a monastic life. I'm not quite sure about the last stanza except for the last line means to me that if the flea/love dies then the narrator would die.

Poetry

Well, not going to lie about it that I haven't read to much poetry. In high school the only poetry I remember for sure is old poetry from around the 17th century, I don't really remember what the name of it was. In middle school I wrote some similes, metaphors, alliterations, the basics that I think pretty much everyone learns about. I don't have any favorite poets nor do I really know any by name. So pretty much in a nutshell this is going to be basically relearning everything, and a lot more.

My New Paper Topic

I know my gist suggested a paper topic, but today in class I decided on what I am really going to do. My new idea is giving into temptation leads to degrading oneself which ultimately leads to complete damnation. The graphic organizer that was put on the white board today helped a lot with the idea, since the whole plot shows that idea through Dr. Faustus's actions. I need to look up some sources, but a rough outline of the paper would be the introduction, then a paragraph on temptation, then another paragraph on how temptation degrades oneself and a third paragraph on how someone is damned. Then I shall finish up with a conclusion paragraph. Any critiques on the thesis would be much appreciated or any ideas for the outline of the paper. Class today was good, it helped clear up the Ralph scenes and what they represented, and obviously give me my paper topic.

Monday's Class

Monday's class discussion helped a little bit with getting a idea for the Dr. Faustus paper. I've been trying to think of a good paper topic that isn't about morals. I'm still not 100% sure of what I'm going to write about, I think I might do a type of biographical criticism and relate the book to what was happening to Marlowe at the time. I also liked reading that day even if we didn't get to read to much.

Dr. Faustus, Scene V

Scene V begins with Faustus and Mephistophilis (Meph) making the deal of Meph's servitude for Faustus's soul. Faustus writes the contract in his blood and asks why Lucifer needs souls and the answer to the question was to expand his kingdom. Then Meph starts talking about hell and tells Faustus why and how he is damned. Faustus in response explains that he doesn't think there is any pain in the afterlife so it doesn't matter. Faustus then asks for a wife which Meph goes and fetches a bride which was a devil and Faustus threw her away. Faustus then asks for a spell book which Meph supplies a spell book with every incantations possible and the scene ends with Meph showing the book to Faustus.

Dr. Faustus

The conversation between Dr. Faustus, Valdes, and Cornelius is about dark magic. Dr. Faustus tells the other two that he wants to learn dark magic not just because they convinced him but also for his own reasons. Then Valdes explains how the magic works and that only the three of them will have control over the elements. Cornelius says that studying dark magic will make Faustus want to not study any other subject in the world. Faustus becomes overjoyed and asks Valdes and Cornelius to perform some magic that Faustus can start studying, which Valdes and Cornelius do show him some basic techniques that Faustus can try on his own.

The Semester

This semester I think actually has gone pretty well. I was skeptical in the beginning about how much use this class was going to be for me, but it has shown to have some good effects. I know that how I write papers will be better for my future classes. I also think that just reading in general will be more fun for me. I haven't always been the biggest reading enthusiast is the world, but I have started to enjoy reading more now that I start actually looking for the symbolism in stories. It has been more enjoyable reading and understanding what the reading is saying through what the setting or how the characters are. I would say that I have been happy to be in intro to lit.

Free Choice

I read the different style of story The Last Question by Isaac Asimov. I liked it overall, the story confused me at first after the first character switch. I thought it was just another completely separate story, but I figured out it was just different characters to represent the changing universe but the same old problem. I think one of the meanings of the story is a theory of that life is in a huge cycle and it repeats over and over and over again and that it is a non-understandable unbreakable cycle. Another theme is that people can't make life last forever or anything, and that everything has to reach its maximum entropy and there is no reversing it. 

Compare and Contrast

1) I think the characters and plot are extremely similar, by that I mean how in the end the same things happen and that there is someone being changed. Let us start with the characters, there is Bartleby and then there is the lawyer and they parallel Alymer and Georgina. Both the lawyer and Alymer want Bartleby and Georgina to change. When the lawyer and Alymer force the change they end up killing the people they are changing. The difference is how the story goes, but that is needed to have a different story instead of the same exact story. Like the lawyer is trying to change Bartleby's personality and Alymer is trying to remove a birthmark off of Georgina. When finally though that each character has changed they end up dying. Now yes Bartleby starved himself, but it was because of the force change of surrounding and how he couldn't be accepted for who he was just like how Georgina wasn't accepted for how she looked, but the birthmark was apart of her essential.

2) You learn from both stories that you should just accept people for who they are instead of forcefully changing them, because the people you try to change are already good people and by changing them it could have drastic outcomes.

Class Discussion

The class discussion was interesting. I actually really dislike the discussion, racism isn't one of my favorite topics to talk about. I didn't like either side of the discussion whether it was you explaining how deprived we here are of racism, because I think that is actually a good thing because now I don't actually judge people as much based on color, but more on personality. I also didn't like how some people were judging Native Americans, I know I said  something about them, but I was just pointing out a stereotype that I've heard before. I actually really do like Native Americans, the family of them that I know treat me like I'm part of their family and so I feel no hatred towards them. Same with any other race, in my hometown I'm friends with all different colors of skin and there were never any real fights because of skin color.
I know that racism happens, I know I participate in it sometimes also, but everyone is going to be likes this. I think it's all the stereotypes that are made up by people and then those stereotypes get followed by both the discriminator and person being discriminated against. Like I was told by my black friend and sister from Albert Lea that I'm white because I put pepper and ranch on my food all the time, and that I put my maple syrup in the fridge.  Then there is a laughing fit about half a hour about me putting pepper on my food.  So now I feel completely different every time I put pepper on my food.
I think is racism wasn't made such a big thing and everyone was finally able to get over the fact about skin color or even any other discriminations that we would as a society would be better off. Then yes there would still be those who discriminate, but if the majority of people were not discriminating then  the people that were would be like out casts in some groups not having a huge affect anymore on society.

Those Fake Twitter Accounts

I'm actually alittle torn about how I feel about this article. One side of me thinks it's fine to be making fake twitter accounts especially since twitter makes you have to put something saying it's fake in the name. With that being said, that side of me that feels okay with it thinks that it's just fun and games or even beneficial to society. I'll use Matt Mackowiak as the example of it being okay; Matt said in the article that the fake account helps point out how ridiculous he has been by lately. So it helps express people's opinions on what is bugging them or what they thought was wrong, but these people are to shy to voice what they think so they hide behind the fake twitter account which is fine in my book seeing how it's still getting the message across. The thing that makes me think that fake twitter accounts are not a good idea is that someone people can take it to far and instead of being funny or calmly explaining their point of view, people could start posting more hate messages than actual messages that will help out. I think it is a perfectly fine idea as long as you don't have people taking their comments to far.

Thoughts On My Final Draft

After getting everything orgainzed, I thought that the paper went decently well. The things I could work on in my opinion is making a better thesis and then finding better supporting facts. I did enjoy the peer review style because it really did point out my flaws of the paper and the honest one-on-one helped direct me to the right place for improving the paper. This paper overall didn't seem too tough, but we'll see when the grade comes back

2nd Time Around With the Bug

Reading The Metamorphosis a second time around was more interesting. I noticed more of how Gregor's family treats him right away in the beginning, how Gregor's parents transformation happen quickly too. I found it ridiculous of the dad violently ready to get rid of Gregor and how they were astounded by how Gregor looked. I mean I understand that when your son instantly transforms to an insect that could be a bit frightening, but they continually treated Gregor as an alien which isn't right. Gregor's parents should have been more supportive and trying to help Gregor out then locking him up in his room and claiming they did everything they could. I think Gregor was looking for me family support in his life, and then when he really needed it, it was only his sister (to a certain extent) that showed that support. That's the new thing I noticed reading the book a second time around.
It was pointed out though in class was that Gregor doesn't even really show any care that he is a bug. Gregor is just focused on getting to work, because he needs to support his family. Which Gregor thinks he is solely responsible for his family he even says to the chief that he is in a jam, and he shouldn't think that, it should be more of him worrying about himself. How I see of being in a jam is when, for example, if I was in debt and about to lose everything, but if it happening to my mom instead then she's the one in the jam. I can see it being a good thing to want to help your family, but you should not make it your obligation to take care of them. The real jam that Gregor does need to worry about is the fact he's some weird bug, and should be trying to figure out how to change back.

Sources in MLA style

Source A:
Service, Robert. Stalin: A Biography. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2005. Print.

Source B:
Wright, Patrick. Iron Curtain: From Stage to Cold War. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2007. Print.

We MLA Style:
Zamyatin, Yevgeny. We. New York: Modern Library, 2006. Print.

The Plan

My plan for my topic is going to be talking about how the author how predicted how a communist nation would be like. I'm going to use The Benefactor, Green Wall, and the "outside the wall people" and compare them to Stalin, the Iron Curtain, and Hitler. My scholarly resources are a couple of books that I'll bring to class on Monday that I found at the library.

WE are I

To start off that ending was pretty depressing, I just like to point out the obvious there. I have not quite understood though what exactly the "Operation" is . I get that it removes the soul, but I kind of want to the actual procedure. Is it like a brainwashing program, or an electro-therapy, my logical guess though is that it is a lobotomy. I think this because it was a procedure that was being tested at the time, and it had some affect to make people not be the same anymore. Which would explain why D-503 said that he did not write any of the pass entries and why he did not recognize I-330. What I liked the most in these part of the book was how the Glass Wall broke, just like how the Iron Curtain fell too, I swear Zamyatin can tell the future.

The Worst Law of the One State

The worst rule in the One State society would be a tie between being caged in like animals or having every hour being planned out for me every day of the week. I know that I probably wouldn't mind anything in the One State if I grew up there, but because I haven't lived would be terrible being stuck in one place for the rest of my life doing same thing everyday. I wouldn't like living like that, I need to be able to at least have the option to go move somewhere else. I need to be able to have a flexible future where I can change what I'm doing without risking my life, and the One State cannot offer that. The One State wants to keep their people in and everyone, every influence out.

The New Historic Criticism

Well I'm going to have to say that this part in WE had be completely sucked in. throughout the whole reading I was trying to figure out some type of unique interpretation. The one that I thought of is that there are alot of parallels to the biblical story of Adam and Eve. Adam being D-503, and Eve being I-330. D-503 is in conflict because he is trying to make the decision about following the One State (Not breaking the one rule that God gave Adam and Eve) or follow the ways of I-330 who has broken the rules of the One State (tasted the the Forbidden Apple). This story you could see as what it was like from Adam's point of view; to decide whether to stay loyal to God or Eve. The book mention that the One State is the restored Garden of Eden, since they gave up their freedom to be back in safety with God (Benafactor in the One State's case).

Another thought that kept popping into my head is how Yevgeny Zamyatin predicted how Communist Russia was going to be like in the future 20-25 years. I think the people of the One State all know that something is weird in their society, and they live in a type of fear. Which the people don't know what or who to fear, but they should fear the Benafactor, who to me represents Stalin. During Stalin's regin he made daily lists of people to die, but the people of Russia loved him and he was kind of the replecement god. The Benafactor does not make the lists of people to get killed, but he is in complete comtrol like Stalin was and is hailed as a god. Also alot of restrictions and rules are in the same style as communist Russia, and how the One State is cut off from all outside influences just like Russia was.

Parts of a Story, WE page53-75

To define the style aspect for this section on page 53 the second paragraph the author changes the descriptive style. Throughout the book the describtions have all been either science or math related, but in this part the describtion changes to a nature-style metaphor, "Steely gray eyes encircled by the shadows of a sleepless night." Then on the next page D-503 comes back to his senses and the author starts writing the science/mathamatical descriptions again. This example also pplies with tone, because the main character during these time is confused about who he is, and as the reader I felt like D-503 was about to accept freedom till the tone changes and D-503 says to himself that "This is all junk and the ridiculous sensations is all a delirium." which the tone sounds now aggressive and defensive. There is a lot of dramatic irony too with. D-503 was realizing that he might actually like to have freedom and then when he realizes this about himself he quickly says it's just nonsense and that he is still loyal to the One State, but deep down he know that he might be drifting to the Ancient's side. D-503's point of view right now sounds like he's super confused and is feeling quite torn. He is just stuck in the middle and is fighting with himself which is really the right way of living. I think the whole conflict that D-503 is going through is a great characterization because everyone can relate to this. Everyone has those rough descisions that they need to get through, granted they are never about turning against everything you believe in (well in most cases). I think it's the conflict within that makes D-503 seem like he could be really alive.One symbol throughout the book are digits, they represent that rational thinking of the One State and help D-503 stay in what he thinks as "clear thinking". Another symbol in the section of reading is the sky, which can be related to freedom when it's described as golden looking and D-503 has been thinking of the Ancients and if their idea of freedom was right, but he says that his sky is blue and clearless when he talks about how great the One State is. Which speaking of the sky, outside during the day is one of the settings for this section along with the Bureau of Medicine, and that old rickty Ancient house. Which these places have something golden at them, which always sounds like it's suppose to be a place of freedom which it is, since like at the Bureau of Medicine there is a golden fog, and D-503 is free from the Table of Hours, or at the rickty house the Buddha has a golden smile. Which in Buddhism the goal is to be free from the cycle of life. The plot the author choose works as in D-503 first has a conflict with himself because of his thughts of freedom, but then he thinks that he snaps himself out of it and is just going to return to normal by going to work and meeting with O later. Then the freedom influence happens again with I-330 taking him back to the rickty house and having him skip work. Then fight with O and break her heart, which the next day at work he starts having a flashback to I-330 and the rickty house and the golden fog.
The theme of it all,generally, seems to be to decide what is better, D-503's old life with the triangle, working on the Intregal, and being loyal to the One State. Or should he go with the flow of the golden sun and Buddha, follow with I-330 and freedom. Personally relating to this there is a part where it does seem like he is trying to decide if he wants to stick with the old or go with the new, which I relate to since coming to college and then going back home and visiting old firneds from high school. I caught myself seeing that my old life isn't as fun as my new life at college and the friends I have made here, which I feel like D-503 is noticing that about his life, that there are new things out there for him to try.

A little about me

I'm 19 and I am from Albert Lea Minnesota. I was born in Wayne Nebraska and lived there till I was 3, which then I moved to Minnestoa. I am a sever at the Applebee's in my town. I am studying biology in hopes to become a plastic surgeon and own have my own practice sometime in the future. Let's see here, my favorite color is red, I like music, listening to it (except country) and performing it. My favorite bands are Vampire Weekend and MGMT. Movies are always a fun thing to do especially making funny comments at the right spots. I like traveling, I've been to Costa Maya, Florida, New York, California, a lot of stereotypical vacations spots, but I like to tour other contintents in the future.