Blog: Drama

My first experience with drama was probably when I was in elementary school and I got to see a Harriet Tubman play for one of my class field trips. I thought it was pretty interesting and it brought alive that time in Americas history. I am pretty sure the stage was a proscenium stage. The play happened all in one house. Then I never thought about all that goes into plays to create specific desired effects and have much more appreciation for them now.

I have recently attended some of the plays UNCW has put in in the Cultural Arts building. The most recent play I saw was about a man who uses inside information that he found out from college to con many people living in NYC. The protagonists meet him and find out that he is gay when he brings a man home for the night. I can’t remember the name of this but it was very interesting. Another play that I saw before that one was the Seagull. My roommate was actually in both plays and I always get to hear her memorizing all her lines.

The last time I read a drama was the Death of a Salesman, but I read this in High school. I don’t believe that I read many more dramas in high school so I don’t have much experience with reading them. Although, of the ones that I have read like Oedipus Rex, they tend to be very interesting. Oedipus Rex was my favorite drama  have read because of the surprising twist. Now that I think about it, many dramas do have a surprising twist. I suppose that is to provide for an extra element of entrainment to keep the audience interested and wanting to see/read more dramas in the future.

Blog #8: What I have learned through Poetry!

I have never read so much poetry before in any of my classes or in my life. I have had only experience with the longer, “epic” poetry that I read throughout high school. I have learned how important the style or format of the words can have have on the effect or theme trying to be represented within the poem. With the epic poetry, the format was much more standard and never could be altered to create a specific, desired image for the reader. The emphasis was much more within what was being said in each stanza. With some of the more recent poems I have read in class such as the “Love Poem” by Linda Pastan, the format gives you a sense of flow like a stream would as suggested in her poem.

One other important aspect of poetry that I have learned to have a powerful effect on how I interpret poetry is implementing my own memories and ideas about a certain element of the poem to relate to what the author is trying to say.I thought that thinking about your own memories in juxtaposition with the memories created by Rita Dove in “Fifth Grade Autobiography” can make the poem that much more significant and powerful. I found my self thinking of how my grandparents smelled and understanding exactly how powerful smells can be in sparking memories.I was also remembering my childhood memories of spending time with my family at our camp and then that sparked even more memories and so on as the domino effect continued. And this all happened because of using my own memories to interpret a poem.

When reading older poems like “On Her Loving Two Equally” by Aphra Behn, I learned that translating poems written in a different time into a more modern prose definitely helps when getting lost in the perplexity of old English. In addition to that, I also found reading the sentences along one line instead of a broken up stanza helped to create more clarity in what was trying to be said.

Blog #8: The Vacuum

The poem, “The Vaccum,” by Howard Nemerov offers some very descriptive images about his wife who recently died or left him. One very visual word that he uses is the word “slovenly.” According to the Oxford English Dictionary, when defining this word in terms of  a person, it means ” Habitually or naturally careless in dress or personal appearance; untidy.” This particular definition is most relevant to the poem because it seems to cover the whole of what I’m sure Nemerov was going for. Other such definitions include the “characterization of neediness and careless or negligent in work.” These definitions all create an image of a slob, you dont even have to know what the word means and you can understand that slovenly, which is very similar to slob, suggests based on the pronunciation. The other definition which would also work for the poem, but maybe make you think of the man as less of a slob but more of an individual who is not of great stature. The other definition states “Low, base, rascally; lewd. Obs. rare.” These word will fit perfectly into the poem as well but do not offer the same effect as they dont give you much imagery for how much of a mess his life is.

One word that could potentially cause confusion within the poem is the word “dog” used in the sentence “..my dog-dead youth.” We immediately think of the canine when the word “dog” is used, but in this case, dogs as we know them would lead you to believe the exact opposite of what is meant in the poem. Based on context clues, you would assume the word dog to mean something similar to lame or uneventful. According to the OED, the word dog, used in his case is most likely defined as a “euphemism for damn.” Although, the way he says it in the poem, it doesnt seem like ‘damn’ would be the best fit, some other definitions may work better like when it is used figuratively ” Of some immaterial agent (in early use personified), as misfortune, ill health, etc.: to beset continually.” Either way, it is obvious that dog is not used to refer to a canine which in modern day would suggest happiness however, the other two definitions for “dog” seem to fit in the poem much more appropriately.

Blog #7 Poetry

I have always been pretty fond of poetry. I remember writing haiku’s when I was in elementary school, my haiku’s always had to rhyme because that was what made them more interesting in my opinion. As I have grown, I have come to respect and admire the haiku’s that did not rhyme for the exact same reason as I liked rhyming before. The haiku’s which do not rhyme seem to be more difficult to maintain a cohesiveness and therefore, may have more depth.

As I mentioned before, poetry has always attracted me more so than a bland paragraph of words which don’t rhyme. I now know that poetry will often not rhyme, however, and it still can be very beautiful. Now that I think about, I think that the most experience I had with poetry was when I was a young kid. I remember fighting for the Robert Frost book of poems during our designated reading time because of how much easier it was to read a poem than a book. Throughout my high school career, I read some longer versions of poems like Dante’s Inferno, Shakespeare, and some other given reads for a high school student.Of all these poems. my favorite was Beowulf and then the Odyssey.

I thoroughly enjoyed many of these stories because of how they must be interpreted. They are stories written as poems using elegant and embellished wording, so you are, often, trying to decipher what is being written. I have a lot of experience with the larger poems like I listed above, so hopefully, I can get some more exposure to shorter, more concise poems.I feel like poetry can have a more powerful effect on its reader due to its constraint in form and I’m hoping to read poems with in-depth meaning

Blog #6: What have I learned?!

I have found that writing is something that can always be improved upon. By reading all the short stories in class and having to read other peoples journals or essays in peer review I have been able to incorporate certain elements that I found interesting into my own writing. I have also come to realize how important it is to write and then rewrite something and try to tweak it from a different perspective. Writing something over and over and over again allows me to change what I have written so that I can transition better through paragraphs, create more variety in dull sentences, and make my writing more concise.

The most important thing I have learned in this class so far is to be concise! I know that I have a tendency to flare up sentences with unnecessary additional words and this could cause my writing to be unclear or hard to follow. When writing an essay, I would rather have my writing easy to understand than being a rambling mess. I guess this is something I have always known myself to do but I have never really thought about the consequences of a rambling flamboyant sentence.

Ironically, with my flamboyant sentences, I realized that in my last essay, I tended to start sentences with the same phrase throughout. This is something that I normally try to stay away from, so it was surprising to look back and see how much of my essay was littered with the same dull beginning of sentences that could easily become very interesting with some word switching.

Based on my last essay, I also learned that sometimes I like to write about many different disjointed topics within one essay and sometimes even in one very long paragraph! Based on the type of essay, this could be either a bad thing or a good thing. I think that in most cases with this class, a single more detailed account on one topic is much better than trying to cover many different ideas within one essay.

Blog #5

One of the most interesting things I have learned since studying literature, is how vastly different a story can be perceived based on the context of the reader. I have never really thought about the implications of the stories at the time it was written but really have only ever interpreted based on what I am familiar with today. Thinking about the time at which a certain story was written, like that of Feminist writings, it is very interesting to see how a woman could overcome insubordination and figure out a way to print a story that many could see including men. This must have really empowered the members of the Feminist movement, knowing that men are able to see their opinion on the issues they were facing at the time.
Literature has the power to open ones mind to the world and allow you to critically examine writings in a way that is culturally relevant rather than interpreting based only on what is familiar with you. I have found this to be one of the more rewarding aspects of literature because in many cases, it gives me a first hand account about issues that I would never have been able to experience in my every day life. Learning such cultural intimacies about a society has greatly expanded and opened my views and I have been able to think in a less bias way. Although bias is inescapable, understanding, accepting , and respecting another persons view on a situation is invaluable in developing my own argument.

Since studying literature, I also have found other peoples interpretations of short stories to be very intriguing. Hearing their point of view or beliefs about what has happened in the story has made me rethink my take on what has happened. In many cases, I was surprised to hear what other people have picked out in a story, that I have missed. Either or, hearing and understanding other peoples view on a story or situation is an invaluable aspect in examining the world.

Context Blog #4

Kate Chopin, author of many feminist themed writings, lived during a time when there was radical change for the well-being of women and many other changes in society. Many of her writings center on the realization or acceptance of the possibility of life as an individual woman rather than a life constrained by the boundaries of patriarchy. Considering much of her writing is set in a time where women are just starting to come to terms with this realization, they are often hesitant about breaking out of the shells created by the men in their lives. However, once they do come to terms with this reality, they often rejoice and celebrate their new found freedoms.

These notions are demonstrated best in one of her short stories, “The Story of an Hour.” Based on the title, all the events of realization and coming to terms with this new found independence happen in as little as an hour for a woman who finds out her husband was killed in a train accident. At first, she is saddened, but then soon after she starts to think of all the possibilities being independent of her husband will lead her to. The woman kept whispering “Free! Body and Soul Free.” It seems as if she is convincing herself it is okay to be happy with this sudden incident happening in her life by having to keep on repeating it to herself. She does have moments of guilt where she says she did love him, but then she says that it is alright, because that fact is negligible. By the end of the day she was completely ecstatic that the rest of her long life, for that is what she now wished for; “It was only yesterday that she thought with a shudder that life might be long,” would now be full of her own happiness. Unfortunately, this was all over as soon as she layed eyes upon her living husband who walked through the door, for there was a mistake in the newspaper. This was so much of surprise that she died of a heart attack.

The way the story ends is still important for the context at the current time because, while woman did want to be independent, many felt that with men, independence would not be so easily achieved. I think that this was a statement to many of the woman at the time, expressing how while the possibility was there, the constraints that men placed on women were also still there. According to some of the research that I did, Kate Chopin was not as much of a feminist as she claimed to be, knowing this could explain how she ended her story. Even so, she still believed that woman were much stronger than that which was perceived by the masculine views of society.

Extra Credit Blog

During the Womens Rights Movement, women were starting to gain suffrage, and independence that they never thought would be a reality. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was an important figure in the womens movement as a model feminist for other women to look up to. Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” as a statement expressing the improper conductance of woman’s health by male physicians in that time period. Gilman actually wrote this short story as a semi autobiography while she, herself, was sentenced to bed rest by a doctor while undergoing post-partum psychosis, a more severe form of the depression. It is obvious that being put into a room alone for many months at a time is not going to help one get better with depression. Physician, at the time were mostly men, and did not understand the montage of emotions women must feel after they have given birth, therefore would not know how to treat such a case. From my understanding, it seems that men did not even think it was a real medical condition and hence put no time in trying to find an accurate cure.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” knowing that their ideas of a cure for this depression were wrong. This idea is expressed many times throughout the short story, and it is clear Gilman wanted to make a statement, “Personally, I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good.” She was absolutely right! The only thing that she could do, stuck in the room was write and observe her surroundings. So naturally, she sees the wallpaper, which is a hideous color of yellow and slowly becomes obsessed with the patterns and intriguing lines of the yellow wallpaper. The longer she stays in the room, the more she becomes delusional and starts to believe the wallpaper is another woman who her husband is cheating on her with, “I’ve caught him several times looking at that paper .” The woman eventually goes insane and believes she is the paper and must tear it off the wall to get out of the room, when she does she crawls over her fainted husband.

Gilman, supposedly sent this to her current physician who had sentenced her to bed rest, this was like a slap in the face because the story clearly explains how being absent from society will not help a woman get over depression. Reading this will change how one views a woman’s role in society.

The White Elephant (Blog #3)

Ernest Hemingway wrote “Hills Like White Elephants” to demonstrate how abortion was perceived between couples at the time. This story can still be translated in the same way and be just as relevant in todays society if not even more so. The couple is having a discussion about abortion, where the man is trying to convince the woman to have the “simple” surgery. Ironically, abortion was and is not simple, both physically and emotionally. In the context of the story, abortion was clearly not as much of an ordeal as it is today. Of course, religion was not a factor in the story as it is today. The main reason that abortion is an issue nowadays is the heavily religious based opinions of abortion. These opinions crossed with more liberal, “pro choice” views creates a strong conflict in which government got involved with. Liberalism and the opposite, usually conservatives with religious-oriented views, tend to be the base of much political debate.

It seems that in todays society, abortion is not as readily an issue between couples who are married and more often considered with unplanned pregnancies from couples. In the story, the man ended up getting the last word (from what we know), today, it is rare in which the man would even have a say in such a decision. “Pro choice” is, more often than not referring, to the choice of the woman, rarely influenced by the man. With changing morals of the next generations, abortion is becoming more common in todays society, almost as if it is a quick fix to an unwanted pregnancy. Even so, as is shown, in the show “Teen Mom,” it is still not easy to make such a decision because of the complex emotions having a child can bring about. Happiness is discussed in the story many times in a way that having the abortion will bring about happiness whereas, it could also be looked at in the other way. I would think that many mothers would attest to this; having a baby can also bring about happiness and love that was never dreamers about until their child was brought into the world.

Literary Devices

I believe that, many times, authors will convey a certain message to the reader without intent on using a literary device, by definition it just happens to be a device. What I mean by this is that the author may just be writing what they believe to be the best way to write a certain moment, and a reader will later confine such a moment to the definition of a literary device. Such as, an author slowing down the pace just because they know how to describe a certain scene with exact and specific examples just from experience with no intent for the reader to pay more attention. Although, this may be true in some cases, authors will often specifically use literary devices to create a certain mood or hone in on that which is important. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins often uses flashback to add depth/background and complexity to characters that we may have just met. Collins also only gives us the thoughts of the main character, Katniss, to provide complexity to her “star-crossed” lovers scenario because of the, often, rash emotion of Katniss.

Literary devices are important to analysis because they give readers a start in analyzing the story to find important elements of the literature. I have found that the way an author narrates a story is very important to understanding the theme in the way the author intended. For example, in Recitatif, the author narrates so that the reader will never know whether the racial identities of the two protagonists. I read the whole story believing one way never picking up how she never mentioned their exact race. It wasn’t until the end, when I was confused, did I have to reanalyze the whole story. Using such a device makes you really think about the plot and how/why the action was portrayed in the way it was.