I feel like my most successful work was when I made the poem flyer on “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost. When working on this poem, I was really into it—so much that I read the poem over ten times, and each time, I found something different. I have a deep love for poetry, so this assignment really gave me a chance to explore Frost’s work. The process of diving into the poem’s themes, imagery, and repetition deepened my understanding and passion. I could’ve done better on the essay about “The Most Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” by Gabriel Garcia Márquez. I didn’t feel like I used enough supporting evidence, and my analysis could’ve been stronger. While I enjoyed reading the story and found its themes and magical realism captivating, I struggled to translate my thoughts into a cohesive and persuasive essay. I realized I could have went deeper into the text to uncover more insights and provided more concrete examples to back up my points. Additionally, I definitely think spending more time researching critical interpretations of Márquez’s work could have helped my understanding and strengthened my analysis.
Jahnay B
A personal experience of mine that is echoed in the vignette titled “My Name” is my struggle with my last name. As I shared in class, I have four siblings, and I’m the only one with a different last name. This came about because my dad was in jail when I was born. To be honest, I was bothered by it but not as bothered by the legacy of my last name on my mother’s side. My mother, her mother, her sister, her brother, and so on, were all in foster care and eventually turned to drugs. I hated that it seemed like history was repeating itself when I entered care. I felt as if I would just be another Butler on drugs; I thought I would be alone. The fear of becoming just another Butler swallowed me whole. The loneliness of my struggle weighed heavily on my shoulders, especially because I was the only one with a different last name among my siblings. In a world where your name is supposed to define you or open doors for you, mine felt like a sentence or a one-way ticket to a fate. I felt as if the weight of my last name was not just a label but a looming shadow.
Compare/contrast the pared down writing style of Raymond Carver to the style of another writer whose work we have read this semester. Provide examples from both stories to support your ideas. When reading this question I immediately thought of “Salavation” written by Langston Hughes because I feel as if both tones were raw and direct. In “Salvation,” Hughes recounts a moment from his youth when he grappled with the concept of salvation and the expectations of his community. “I was saved from sin when I was going on thirteen. But not really saved. It happened like this.”(Hughes, Line 1). Similarly Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” uses a raw tone, reflecting the characters’ struggle to connect emotionally. For instance, the narrator describes his wife’s past interactions with Robert, saying, “They talked of things that had happened to them—to them!—these past ten years.”(Carver,218)
Prompt: How is the terror readers feel when reading “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” different from the terror of watching a terrifying movie? Be specific in your response. When you read a scary story, you bring it to life in your mind, imagining the scenes and feelings based on your own thoughts. This makes the fear feel more personal and real because you’re actively involved in creating it. On the other hand, when you watch a scary movie, the fear is presented to you through visuals and sounds. You’re more of a passive observer, experiencing the fear as it’s shown on screen. This can make the fear more intense and immediate, but it’s not as personal because you’re not actively imagining it. So, the fear you feel when reading is different from watching a movie because reading involves your own imagination while watching is more about what’s shown to you.
So, for my research paper, I’m thinking about picking one fairy tale and comparing different versions of one story because i think It’s fascinating to see how the same tale can be told in so many different ways. My plan find the common themes that run through them, using analysis from secondary sources to back up my points. Right now, I’ve got my eye on Cinderella. Specifically, I’m looking at the version penned by the Grimm Brothers and to add a modern twist, I want to include a Cinderella movie from 2015 as one of my main sources. I’ve been searching the BMCC library database for articles to support my research, and I’m coming up short. Most of what I’m finding doesn’t quite align with the specific version of Cinderella I’ve chosen. It’s a bit frustrating, to be honest. So, I might need to rethink one of my primary sources and see if I can find something that fits better with my chosen angle.
After reading fairytales this week i’d say that I think deeper below the surface when reading fairytales especially after we read Snow White and Hansel and Gretel. I feel like reading the analysis for these stories opened my eyes and made me realize most fairytales are gruesome or contains a child worst fear such as starvation and abandonment. I also think after reading these analysis that show the grim realities taught me another level of discernment when it comes to reading nonfictional books and fictional books. It’s made me appreciate the depth of these stories and the important messages they convey about human nature and the challenges we face, even from a young age.
If I hadn’t read Flannery O’Connor’s article about “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” I might have missed some of the story’s deeper meanings when it came to religion. Her article explains how she intended to explore themes like the grandmother’s change of heart or her epiphany, which we talked about in class, and the idea of grace. Without this background, I really don’t think I would’ve realized that the ending was very important towards the topic of religion, or I would’ve thought it wasn’t deeper than what it was. O’Connor’s article helped me see how the story goes beyond just a tale of crime and punishment, diving into complex moral and religion questions. After reading the article I went back to reread “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” and to be honest it was a whole different read. I started to think more about the smaller things and try to interpret.
As a student who hasn’t read many plays, I think my level of ability to read and understand “Oedipus the King” is about average. It was easy for me to follow the plot and bigger story. I also got the play’s key ideas and messages. But I had trouble understanding some of the more complicated words and subtleties in the text, which made some parts hard for me. The ideas of fate and free will is one of my favorites to think about. These parts of the play were interesting and made me think deeper. Overall, I liked reading “Oedipus the King” because it had a lot of interesting stories and topics that are still relevant today. Being Oedipus himself would be my choice for a role in a production of the play. His character changes dramatically over the course of the play, which would be hard but satisfying to play on stage it would feel as me and the character are both developing. Plus, his complicated mind and inner battles would give the character a lot of depth.
If I were to rate my poetry reading skills, I’d say they’re about a 7 out of 10. I have strong critical thinking skills, which sometimes leads me to overthink, but it helps me delve deeper into poetry to uncover possible meanings. I feel I need more practice with reading poetry that’s not modern. For instance, when I read “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day” by William Shakespeare, I found it challenging due to unfamiliar terms like “ow’st.” However, after rereading it about three times, I became more familiar with the piece. Another challenge I face is the tendency to rush through a poem instead of breaking it down piece by piece. While this approach sometimes works for me, I’d like to develop the habit of taking my time to fully absorb and understand each poem. In closing, moving forward into poetry I will be more intentional with my reading and open.
After thinking back to the COVID-19 days I noticed a big contrast in the way an outbreak was handled. In “Oedipus the King,” there’s a scene where the people of Thebes beg Oedipus to save them from the plague. They tell him, “You freed us from the Sphinx, Oedipus, our king; and in your care we find ourselves lifted from the surge of death” (Lines 62-64). This shows how much they rely on Oedipus to solve their problems, without taking much action themselves. In contrast, during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a big focus on people taking responsibility for their health and stopping the virus from spreading. Public health campaigns encouraged things like wearing masks, washing hands, and getting vaccinated. While not everyone followed these guidelines perfectly, there was a big effort to teach people how to be responsible and safe.
The quote, “Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it” was stated by C. S. Lewis, and it is the character of Mangan’s sister and the night of the bazaar in James Joyce’s “Araby” that brings the above quote to life. The girl is not merely a character; rather, she is a representation of beauty and purity, which demonstrates the protagonist’s deep desire for a life that has more significance. Through the usage of Mangan’s sister, Joyce is able to express stronger thoughts and emotions, hence making the story more meaningful and authentic. In addition, the author makes use of the expectation of the bazaar to demonstrate his disillusionment and his longing for something which is more significant or satisfying. This is an example of how literature can help us in gaining a more profound understanding of life, one that goes beyond what we view in the physical world.
In the compelling short story “Araby” by James Joyce, the author encourages readers to examine the intricate character of the nameless narrator and the complexity of the human condition. Please answer the following 2 questions: What is ineffective about this sentence? How might you rewrite it in a way that offers specific details that would be informative to a reader? In all honesty, the line does not offer any information regarding the manner in which the author demonstrates the complexity of the nameless individuals or the way in which it makes it difficult. I have a feeling that if I were to write this in a different way, I would preserve everything that is in this line, but I would add a transition word that would lead into me talking about cases where the author displays the complexity of the nameless character. After that, I would either supply direct quotes or paraphrase the cases, and then I would follow up with an analysis that is connected back to the claim that I made initially. In the compelling short story “Araby” by James Joyce, the author encourages readers to examine the intricate character of the nameless narrator and the complexity of the human condition by showing the character in a constant battle between desire and reality vs fantasies. This can be see when….
If I were to write an essay that focused less on the socio-economic issues in the story “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara and more on important details and elements I would most likely write it on how she used symbolism throughout her essay and how it connects to the bigger themes. The symbolism with money which is recurring serves as a symbol of power And privilege, she also shows how the children interact with money. The toy store also symbolizes wealth which I feel highlighted a big contrast between her neighborhood and other neighborhoods that had more money. I believe that when a writer adds things like symbolism and metaphors it really adds depth and gives the readers something to think about rather than surface-level reading ultimately leaving readers more engaged in the story. The title of my essay would be something like “Priceless prices” or maybe “Money problems”
Some ways that I relate to the young narrator in “Salvation” is because I also journal my experiences as they happen, and when I write, the language I use is informal and the tone is direct. In “Salvation,” the narrator is conversational and informal, and I feel that it enhances the authenticity of the narrative and allows readers to empathize. An example of this is when the young narrator starts off the story with “I was saved from sin when I was going on thirteen. But not really saved. It happened like this.” (Hughes). This portrays the writer’s innocence and the sincerity of a child while maintaining straightforward sentence structures to show us that informal and direct tone. Another way I relate to the young narrator is that he is a people pleaser. The definition of a people pleaser is the want/need to please others even at their own expense. This can be seen twice when the narrator is at church and says “I began to be ashamed of myself, holding everything up so long… I decided that maybe to save further trouble, I’d better lie.” (Hughes). Another example of this can be viewed toward the end of the story when Jesus did not come to the narrator, and he states “But I was really crying because I couldn’t bear to tell her that I had lied, that I had deceived everybody in the church.” (Hughes). I feel like these two quotes give some insight into a people pleaser’s mind and how complex it is because he went from pleasing everybody by pretending to be saved to crying about lying to everybody that he got saved and let his aunt push the narrative that he was crying because he saw Jesus, which was ironic. While reading this story, it really […]
I believe that “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez was strategically chosen as the first reading for our course for several reasons. Firstly, Marquez incorporates various themes, notably beauty and identity, throughout the narrative. By diving into these themes during class discussions, both my classmates and I have the opportunity to develop critical thinking skills and gain deeper insights into the complexities of the human mind. Moreover, the story has captivating imagery that immerses readers in its world, allowing us to visualize the coastal village and presence of the drowned man. This vivid imagery not only enhances our reading experience but also serves as a door opening for deeper analysis and interpretation. Additionally, Marquez’s narrative style demands active engagement from readers. The portrayal of the narrator and the layers of meaning scattered within the text forces us to approach the story with an open mind. By initiating our course with “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World,” our professor has set a tone of curiosity and exploration. This text encourages us to delve into the depths of literature with open minds and keen insights, which I feel like transforms us in the world of literature.
