Blog 12

I feel like I have learned so much over this past semester. I really enjoyed our class. When I came in, I felt like I was a pretty good writer but I always have room for improvement. I think I learned most how to read and write critically in the class. Before, I was good at just reading the text straight through and telling you what I read and where you could find connections, but now I am really able to make meaningful, in-depth connections regarding the text. The theories still give me a bit of a time and so do the counterarguments but overall I think with work I have a much better idea of what I’m supposed to have. I definitely think what I have learned in this course will help me in other areas. I like to read a lot so knowing certain things to look for when I read will definitely help me to understand the material a little more initially. Also we learned a lot about researching! I had no idea it took so much time and so much work! Now that I know how to research I can better plan my research and know how to use it and when and where to use it. Finding and analyzing research takes a good bit of time; I’d even say it took more time to research than to actually write the paper. As far as the class goes, I really like it and I think it was neat that there were only three of us because we all got a lot of one on one time. However I did not like our schedule. We only met once a week and we never really had finite due dates which is not good for a procrastinator like myself. I think if we would have met more as a class and had definite due dates we would have learned a little more and been better prepared for our papers and assignments. I really liked the class though and I enjoyed discussion.

Blog 11

I have chosen to write about Beneatha and how she represents modern feminism in my research. I chose to write about Beneatha because of all the characters I related to her the most. I was first attracted to her because she is a college student with dreams of being a doctor. I myself want to be a doctor so that really makes a difference to me. I really liked that Beneatha was so independent. She did not want to marry a man because he could support her but she wanted to marry because she and he truly loved each other. She also made it very clear that she wanted a man to love her in every sense, not just because she was pretty or because she could cook and clean. The men in her life nor the women for that matter could really respect Beneatha’s desire for her own identity. Walter wished she would just be like other women, Asagai and George wanted her to be a trophy, and Ruth and Lena wanted her to just appreciate being a woman and fulfill her womanly “duties”. It might be important to other readers because Beneatha was standing up and being different at a time when women just were not doing that at all. So I would not necessarily say that my research or thesis addresses being a human purse` but it does address how one is treated as a result of who they are. In Beneatha’s case, she was born a woman! She cannot help that, however she is judged and viewed differently because she is a woman. I do not think it really addresses how to live a good life either. I really think Hansberry wanted to show black women that they too could have part in the women’s independence area. Beneatha knew what she want and she would not settle just because her dream did not line up with the average person’s dream.

Journal 8

At this point you have taken the midterm and you should have turned in your first paper. Reflect on how these went. How do you feel that you did on the midterm? Did you study sufficiently? What might you change as you look toward the final exam (which is just six weeks away)? What about the paper – what went well and what didn’t go well? How will you improve on the next paper?

I think I passed the midterm! I would not go as far to say that I passed with flying colors because I do not think that at all!! I was not as prepared as I had thought I was for the midterm. As for my paper, based on how most do on their first paper in your class I was somewhat pleased. However I was not completely satisfied because I am used to getting A’s on my papers. For the midterm, I would have to blame a below standard grade on no one but myself. I had a fool-proof plan of studying and preparing myself for it during spring break and as soon as I got home, I totally dismissed it. However, when I got back to school I did buckle down and make flashcards and really studied the terms for the most part. However, I did not completely understand the concept of the theories. I think that hurt me on the paper as well as the test. Most of the theory portion on my test was left blank because I did not really understand what was going on when we had to write a thesis. To better understand I totally should have attempted it beforehand and asked for feedback from my professor, because that’s what a smart person would have done. However, I was incredibly lazy and I so did not do any of that. I did receive a little help from a friend of mine that also has the class and that helped some but not very much. For the final exam I will obviously prepare myself a lot more adequately a lot sooner. That is what really killed me for this first exam! I can retain a lot of information; I just did not completely absorb it. If I do this for the final exam I am sure that I will do very well on it. For the next paper, I plan to spend way more time writing it, and getting feedback before I completely turn my paper in to be graded.

Blog 7

So far this semester I would like to say that I have made a good bit of progress. Before I came to this class, when I read I looked at the plot and the story structure and tried to analyze it and what the author was trying to say. However I really only looked at it from my views rather than a plethora of views. After being in the class for this long, I have begun to read even deeper into the stories that we read. I think about what was going on around the time of when the story was written and I think about whether or not a man or woman is writing the story. I have even begun to enjoy reading the scholarly articles and what these critics have gathered from analyzing the stories. It is really interesting to consider all of these different properties when reading the story because the story becomes much more complex and different to me had I just read the story for its plain literal meaning. I cannot say that I have noticed these developments crossing over into other areas of life, but it has made me a little more curious about everything. For instance, in my biology classes I will sometimes Google something that I have a hard time understanding or just do not know about. Before I would not do that; also when we read Sonny’s Blues I found myself Googling research on the story and its allusion to the bible when it talks about the “cup of trembling”. With that said, I still have a lot of improvements to make. I have a pretty hard time making it completely through the scholarly articles. They can be really long and even though they are interesting sometimes, they do not always keep my focus. I think if I centered more time around really focusing on what I’m reading and really understanding it thoroughly I would be able to accomplish a lot more a lot faster in this course.

Journal 6

Students always struggle a good deal with literary theory. What do you think of theory at this point? What do you think it is? How much sense does it make to you? What things are you doing to help yourself understand it more fully? And how would you describe your own “theory” of what literature is and how it works at this point?

At this point, literacy theory is still pretty new to me. We talk about it in class and we discuss what views each theory look at a story from, but sometimes, I still do not quite get it. I think the idea that you can use one specific view of a story and gain so much insight is really very neat. I really like the concept because it gives you a chance to really see different situations in a different type of person’s point of view. In my opinion a theory is basically a perspective that can be used to view a story. The theories themselves make a lot of sense to me. Like the ideas and concepts of each individual one. What I do not get is how to apply those in a paper. I do not know really how one would go about writing a paper and incorporating which theory they used to view the story and how that shaped their paper. I could not really understand whether you plainly state what theory you are using or if you just analyzed the story using that view and had that reflect in your paper. To understand the theories more fully I really have just been trying to go over the notes that we have taken in class and reading over what is in the book. To more fully understand I think I should probably read a few papers using different theories to see how to thoroughly understand and analyze literature. As far as my own theory goes, I like to read a story and see how it relates literally to what I have learned from life and also how it relates symbolically to what I have read about and what I have learned. I think that probably goes along with the new critics theory, but I am also pretty interested in how the author’s personal history can help to shape what happens in a story.

Journal 5

You are being introduced to a lot of new terminology this semester, and you will be tested on the terms in the midterm and final exams. How are you preparing right now for this? Do you have a vocabulary study sheet? When you think about what you’ve read or when you take notes on the reading, do you use the new concepts and ideas? Do these concepts make sense to you? Do you find them useful? Talk about your relation to these new concepts and terms (such as “centered consciousness” or “New Criticism”).

I have a lot of new words to learn this semester. A lot of them I was already introduced to in high school. Especially the ones that are used to evaluate a story like the plot, and setting and all those terms. However, the theories are fairly new to me. In my AP lit class we talked about theories and which ones would be good to use for certain stories, but we did not talk about using them in analysis or how to use them in an analysis. I don't really understand this concept so I'm not really sure how to go about incorporating a theory throughout a paper, but I'm sure I will learn. Anyhow, to study for the terms and such, I started by looking over them and identifying words that I already knew. Then I used those definitions I already knew and compared them to the definitions given to us in the book and what I had written down in my notes. That way, I am able to come up with an accurate definition that I am also able to understand and really grasp. For the words that I did not know, I obviously looked them up in the book and tried to see what I could relate them to. I did this mostly with the theories. I picked something that I had read before or written before and saw how they were relative to eachother. This helped a lot! Most of the concepts and theories I can understand I just need a little more help knowing when to use them and how. Like the self/other theory which is post-structuralism, I get confused because sometimes I don't see exactly how it works when I'm reading the text. If someone were to tell me how it is illustrated then I could somewhat understand it, but if you asked me to explain it I would be completely lost. As for the terms though, knowing an example of each is helpful and it really aids my actual understand what is meant by the term. As long as I keep going over the words and writing down what I know, to help me remember, I'm pretty sure I will be able to do very well on the mid-term.

Journal 4

You are about to write your first literary analysis. Are you prepared to write this? What do you plan to write about? How will you go about writing the essay? Do you have a writing process? Describe your process and what you plan to write about in as much detail as possible.
Am I prepared to write this upcoming literary analysis…….hmmmm..That’s a great question. Physically, yes. I have all the capabilities needed to write it. I have a pretty good idea about what I need and how to write a literary analysis. Mentally, I do not know if I have a strong desire or great energy source to write this first literary analysis. However, seeing how this paper is for a grade, I have no choice but to be prepared and continue to prepare myself to write it. Right now, my idea is to write my analysis on how A Rose for Emily is extremely symbolic of the old south flirting with succumbing to the ways of the north post-civil war. I think this should be a pretty great story to analyze because the options are endless. You can compare what goes on in this story to the North and South from a million different angles; or you could just compare it to how Miss Emily could have just been a psycho. You could talk about how significant Tobe is or is not in the story regarding the North and South during that time period. You could talk about how Miss Emily is symbolic of the old south as a whole. You could even discuss how the town itself was representative of different issues that went on during the post-civil war era. I figure, as long as I stay on topic I can’t go wrong with this story because there are so many different ways that I could go about writing the analysis. To write this essay, I will start off by coming up with a thesis. Once I do that I will pull at least three pieces of evidence to prove my thesis. Then I’ll find some quotes to back my claims from the text. Next, I’ll write an outline so that I can try to have a pretty decent structural foundation for my paper. Next I will find a quote that closely relates to my thesis or the story. Depending on how I feel, I may or may not begin my paper with the quote that I find. After that, I will probably have writers block for a few hours, maybe even a day or two. Finally at some point I will realize that my due date is rapidly approaching so I will buckle down and write my paper. After I write it, I will get my mom and maybe my roommate to proof read it for me. I don’t usually read over my own papers. I probably should, but I really don’t like to. So lastly, I’ll make changes from my mom and roommate, then I’ll get an English teacher to read it for me and I’ll make the necessary changes. Finally, I will turn my paper in on time! After that I’ll pray I get an A.

Journal 3

You have read a few stories and scholarly articles at this point. How do you feel so far about what you have read? What was enjoyable? What was difficult? Has anything in your reading process changed yet? Are you noticing new things as you read (either in the reading, in yourself, or in the world around you)? Have you made connections between the reading and your life or the world around you?
So far, everything we have read in class has come off pretty weird, but everything has had a pretty deep theme. Cathedral was awkward because the narrator was obsessed with how he was “anti-blind people”; In A Good Man is Hard to Find, the grandmother was beyond obnoxiously annoying; and in A Rose for Emily, Miss Emily was just flat out strange. I really like A Rose for Emily and Cathedral, but not so much A Good Man is Hard to Find. I think I enjoyed those two stories so much because I made more connections with the symbolism in the stories. I also liked the characters more. The grandmother in A Good Man is Hard to Find was just severely annoying to me. She talked so much and because of her, her family was extremely self-absorbed and they had no true value for life outside or their own. I don’t think any of them changed as a result of what happened in their story. However, in the other two stories, I feel like they were much more dynamic. Robert and the narrator in Cathedral communicated with each other which led the narrator to reach a sort of epiphany about his own life. In A Rose for Emily, Emily was changed by the way she was isolated from mainstream society by her father and her town. The most difficult story to read would have to A Rose for Emily. There was so much that could be read into and interpreted, however it was still pretty enjoyable. The other stories were a little more direct about their symbols and themes which made them a little easier to comprehend. Since reading and discussing the stories in class, I have begun to look even more closely into the smaller details from stories. I also pay more attention to who the narrator and auditor may be. I never realized how much simple things like that had on the tone of the story. I never really paid much attention to how significant knowing the setting and tone was when you actually analyze a story. After paying more attention to smaller details in the story rather than the big picture and the plot, it’s easier for me to pick up on the deeper meanings and symbols that are in some of the stories that we read. Noticing these details allows me to relate to the readings on a more personal level. Like in A Rose for Emily, knowing the setting and identifying the auditor and narrator made making connections a lot easier. At first it was really difficult trying to make a claim about why the author chose to tell that story, but after considering the history, the way it was told, who it was told by and then actually dissecting the words in the text, it became much clearer. I also have made connections with the world around me as a result of the stories. Looking at the issues that the characters go through, it encourages me to be more mindful of how I treat life and how much value I put on it.

Journal 2

Last week you evaluated your reading process. This week, I want you to evaluate your relationship to literature. What do you think literature is? Why do you think that a literature course is required in college? Describe your feelings toward literature and your experiences with literature.



I have mixed feelings about literature. I think the idea of reading something and being able to gain a great deal from it intellectually is awesome. However, the idea of reading a 500 page novel with tons of fluff and an amazingly boring plotline is like being in prison to me. By definition, literature is imaginative creative writing, especially of recognized artistic value. To me, literature is a piece of work that has substance and worth. This is why a lot of times I do not mind reading literature. When I'm reading a piece of literature I am expecting to learn something useful from a character's experiences, or to escape my own world and fall into another. I have learned that reading literature and just reading in general helps to build your vocabulary and keep your mind running. I really like that about literature because having a broad vocabulary allows you to express exactly what and how you feel rather than generalizing it. I think it is also really great that it keeps my mind running because when I read I'm constantly thinking about how whatever happens in the story is relative to me and my life. It even helps me to think deeper about what's happening and how it can be symbolic of something else. Reading a piece of literature forces you to think analytically and to truly understand fully what is going on you have to be able to think outside of the box. You can learn so much about life from reading literature, whether it’s how an author uses a metaphor to symbolize something or the growth of a character; much of what is learned in literature can be applied in everyday life. Plus most scholarly people read often and that makes them well rounded. If you are in college, more than likely you are or will be a scholarly person who will have to interact with other scholarly people. Reading a lot of literature will help us to relate to other scholarly people because they might talk about a piece of literature or refer to it. With that said, that is probably why a literature course is required in college. However, I really do dislike literature sometimes because some books can be very very boring and extremely long. If a piece of literature is really long and boring most times, I do not really read too deeply into it and I do not really try to understand it.

*~*Reading*~*

I was about five years old when I started reading. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world because my parents and family members and teacher were just so happy that I could read. So for most of my life I have enjoyed to read. Growing up, I read tons of books. How to Eat Fried Worms, The Boxcar Children, The Babysitters’ Club, Junie B. Jones, and The Princess Diaries; these books were all among my list of books to read growing up. Then I got a little older and read a lot of fictional books by African-American authors. The only time I really read a legit piece of literature was when one of my teachers forced me to do so. As I got older I really did not enjoy reading unless it was something that I had picked for myself. All the books that my middle school teachers, and some high school teachers, assigned just seemed so boring and irrelevant. All that changed my junior year of high school. Allison Bird was my English teacher and she said that her sole purpose in life was to teach students how to get the most of what you read and to love what you read. Mrs. Bird was completely against trash novels. She referred to these books as “mind-candy” and “any student with an intellectual mind was too good to read such trash” she would say. Mrs. Bird would assign us books that had so much meaning to them. We would learn so much about people and life as well as different literary terms. My favorite novel that we read in her class was A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. It was a fictional novel that took you along the span of two young boys’ lives together in a small town in Connecticut. So after completing her class I had developed a greater appreciation for literature and I really did not have the desire to read anything without substance. The rest of that year I read more than I have probably ever read in a period time. I would read before I went to bed, whenever I was traveling, getting my hair done, and basically just any and every time that I would be sitting idle. I would get so involved in whatever book I was reading that a lot of times it was hard for me to just stop reading it so I would finish a book in like a day or two. I get the most out of what I read when I can just sit down and completely focus on what I’m reading. Lately I have been reading a lot of non-fictional books and some books that are classified as classic literature. I think I enjoy those books the most because I gain so much from them. The non-fictional books that I read are always like self-empowering books and the fictional literature books I have read lately all have to do with the main character growing in more ways than one. I like books like these because it really feeds into what I want out my own life and they allow me to view different situations in ways that I had never thought of.