"Eveline" movie adaptation

Setting:

I would leave the setting the same as in the short story because I think that the time period tells a lot and is perfect for the story. The setting would be late 1890's to early 1900's, Dublin, Ireland. Also, the story would be set in a poorer neighborhood of a working class family. The setting is perfect for the character's need to escape. Ireland went through a pretty rough period during this time and by making the family struggling, the character becomes a sympathetic character. Also, while Ireland is usually seen as very beautiful and green, but rainy, Dublin is usually characterized as dirty, poor, and gray. The Dublin setting kind of reminds me of the New York Great Depression setting, which, if set in America, could also be a good setting for this movie. However, wherever the movie is set, past, present, or future, the general setting needs to be a poorer area that is seeing hard times causing a need for escape.

POV:

This is going to be interesting to turn into a movie with the current POV in the short story because it shows us her thoughts a lot of the time, which is difficult in movies. So, I think that the POV needs to be current first person for some of the story, but I think that a lot of the movie has to be flashbacks too. I also think that while we never personally hear from other characters in the short story, I would add the father, Frank, her boss, and other family members in too. The flashbacks POV would allow us to see into her past experiences without her telling us directly. I think that if she was telling the audience personally, it would seem like she is whining. The sympathetic nature is necessary as well as the theme of being stuck in a bad place. By creating flashbacks, the audience is introduced to the things that made Eveline who she is and that POV creates the sympathy the movie needs. The point of view would still be first person, but it would be presented differently.

Plot:

The movie "Eveline" would start with Eveline sitting at the window, the same as in the story, with that tired look. The audience would get a good look at Eveline, so they start to wonder why she seems to put out. Then, the movie would start to move into her flashbacks, so the audience can see what had happened to her. I think that every once and a while, in the present, Eveline would get up and walk around her house, to a picture, a room, or something that triggered a memory. Also, she would be talking to herself a bit, not enough to make her sound crazy, but to show her thoughts and how she arrived at the flashbacks. I think the first flashback would have to be of Frank and of him asking her to go to Buenos Aires with him. This would cause the audience to wonder why she is considering leaving and why she is having a hard time deciding. Then we would move to an image of her neighborhood when she was younger and the circumstances she lived in, after she views an old toy. I think it would show her and her siblings playing with other children in a dirty, empty lot. This formation would cause us to understand her need to leave. Then, she would go back to the window and look out dejected as she moves into the past week at her job, where she is not very happy. In the present, she would express anger over the way she is treated and contempt that people think that they are of a higher class than her. She would then ponder Frank's offer to leave and how it would end her problems. Then, she gets up with a packed suitcase, as to leave, and then she sees a picture of her father, who she still lives with. Memories would flood her of him beating her brothers, saying mean things to her as a little girl, and finally suggesting that she steals the money she makes just last week. Eveline would make for the door to escape the memories, but then she catches a glimpse of her dead mother's picture and dishes and she would remember what her mother said to do. The audience would then be transported to her mother's deathbed where she asks Eveline to take care of the family. In the present, Eveline puts down her suitcase, but stands at the door, trying to come up with good things that would make she stay. She thinks of two circumstances where her father was nice, desperate to think of more, she thinks of the children she looks after, and the brother who sends money. She then bursts out the door and makes for the docks where Frank is, as if escaping those memories that will try to make her stay. She arrives and Frank is there, and he boards, but she is struck by those ghosts of the past. The memories swirl before her, she faintly hears Frank calling her name, but she grips the railing, her eyes blank, and the boat pulls away. The movie ends with a single tear.
The plot is very similar to the short story, but my movie adds more reason for her to stay I think. I wanted the plot to create a "solid"for her to stay and I think the memories bombarding her almost forced her to stay.


Characterization:

Eveline: Eveline is a girl of nineteen who is facing a hard time, just like she is in the story. She is conflicted by the hardships in her life, a need for escape, duty to family, and an abusive relationship with her father. The plot shows how Eveline became this person and the reason she stayed. I think that the abusive relationship she has with her father was one reason she stayed, because many people are afraid to leave. Eveline is also portrayed as a passive person in the short story, but I made her pick up the suitcase, run out the door, and move around her house instead of just sitting at the window to make her more active.
Frank: I didn't talk much about Frank in the plot, but in the movie I am going portray him worse than he is in the short story because I feel bad for Eveline and I want her to have a reason to stay. I am going to make him not the marrying type. He is a sailor, so he won't be home a lot and he is offering to move her thousands of miles away from her home and family. I think that sometimes isn't the best thing because family is usually the best support group, even if its dysfunctional. He is going to be erratic, unpredictable, and nomadic.
Father: The father is going to be the stereotypical poor Irish man who is struggling and may turn to violence and drinking. Although, I want him to have a somewhat nice personality hiding way under everything else because Eveline decided to stay. I don't want Eveline to have misconstrued those nice flashbacks and I want him to start to come out of his "funk." So he will do as I say because I am writing this movie.
I think those are going to be the major characters, but I also want Eveline's boss to be in there a little. She will be a hardened woman who may have also come from a background like Eveline's. However, Eveline will not become like that woman because she has experienced that personality. Also, the children that Eveline cares for will also make an appearance so Eveline realizes that she did have a reason to stay- the children. She will be able to keep the family together and escape her circumstances without leaving her home or family.

Theme:

The theme will stay pretty much the same and that is the plight of a young woman caught in a place she doesn't want to be. This theme is important because it will allow her to start to come out of that place where she is stuck and start to face her circumstance instead of run from it. Also, Eveline seems like a pretty passive person in the short story, but I am making her a little more active to show that you can overcome bad things. Because I am changing the theme a little, the story will be changed. However, with this change, the message will be less dark and uncertain and more positive. I think that Eveline deserves a theme that will work for her after she stays with her family to care for them and the "everything looks up" theme works.

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" film

I can safely say that 95+% of the film is different from the short story. The differences include length because it took me 20 minutes to read the short story and 3 hours to watch the movie, but the characters, setting, plot in some cases, POV in some cases, and theme were radically different.
Setting
This film takes place in the 20th century, where the short story takes place in the 19th century. Rather than being born in 1860 before the start of the civil war in Baltimore, Benjamin was born the day WWI ended in New Orleans. The setting is very different because of the time period and the people are also very different. There are multiple settings like Paris, New York, Russia, the ocean, etc. Each of those settings represent a different part of Benjamin's life and a different part of the lives of those around him. Although Benjamin saw many places and lived many places, he always returned to New Orleans. Also, in the short story, Benjamin never left his hometown except to go to college, and in the film he is quite the traveler. I think the settings of the movie is more descriptive because it showed his ever-changing self and his personality. Also, there is the hospital setting where Caroline is reading to Daisy right before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005.
Plot
The plot of the movie is especially different from the short story. The movie adds the story of the clock maker who made a clock run backwards so he could turn back time. This was a reminder of those who died in the war and a memorial to show that sometimes you want life to go backwards. Also, the movie script added the reading of the diary to an old Daisy by her and Benjamin's daughter. There was a whole different set of plot to find out that Benjamin's daughter did not know about him. Some more plot changes include Benjamin's father leaving him on the porch of a nursing home for a black woman named Queenie to find and Queenie takes on Benjamin as her son. As Benjamin lives in the house, he befriends a lot of the wards because he is of the same appearance and condition as they are, but he has the mind of a child. As he "grows down" he sees a lot of death because of the place he lives at. On Thanksgiving 1930, Benjamin meets Daisy and it changes his life. She is the little granddaughter of one of the women in the nursing home and they become friends. For awhile nothing changes much, but in 1937, Benjamin's 17th year, he leaves New Orleans to work on a tug boat. He travels all over, meets people who help him grow up in personality and mentality as he is growing down in looks. He also goes to war with the tug boat to pull wreckage and rescue survivors, but he never sees action until one night a submarine splits an allied ship in half with a torpedo. This causes the men on the tug to shoot guns and run up over the submarine, ultimately sinking it. Benjamin then decides to return home in 1945, his 25th year. Also, Daisy comes home and she meets a much younger version of Benjamin. Also, Benjamin meets his father, a man he used to know but didn't know was his father, and despite being initially angry with his father for abandoning, he takes his father to his father's favorite place and they talk. Mr. Button eventually dies and leaves everything to Benjamin. Some time later, he and Daisy, who is now a famous ballerina, meet again and Daisy tries to love him, but Benjamin rejects her and she leaves. A little while later when realizing how much he lost, he finds her in New York, but she rejects him and goes off with her friends. For a long while Benjamin stays at home and does odd jobs at the nursing home until a letter saying that Daisy crushed her leg in Paris arrives for him. He flies to Paris and meets her where she said once again she doesn't want to be with him out of fear of him seeing her broken. Benjamin doesn't leave Paris right away so he can keep an eye on Daisy from afar, but he eventually leaves for home. But of course like any good love story, Daisy returns and they fall in love this time for real and spend a long time together as a couple. They return home one day form their adventure to find that Queenie had died. Benjamin sells the houses and he and Daisy buy a duplex where they live happily for a long time until Daisy announces she is pregnant with a girl (in the story it was a boy). Benjamin is scared because he knows he wouldn't be a good father as he becomes even younger and leaves. Of course, he comes back a lot later to find that Daisy has remarried and that his daughter is 12. They meet once and he leaves again for good. However, when Benjamin is a child and Daisy is an old woman, he cant remember anything and shows up at the nursing home. As he becomes even younger, Daisy takes care of him until the backwards clock is taken down when he is an infant and he dies in Daisy's arms. The daughter finishes reading his diary to Daisy when the hurricane hits and Daisy dies. I can honestly say that none of this is in the short story, but there is a woman, Hildegarde, and a son, Roscoe, but they are extremely different.
POV
The POV is similar in the regard that it is read from a diary in the short story and the movie. However, in the movie, Benjamin refers to himself as I in some parts when that never happens in the story. Also, the diary is read in 3rd person too, like the story. Now that I think of it, there was a person at the beginning of the short story that was reading the diary and there was Caroline, the daughter, reading it too which is a similarity. The narrator of the short story is never mentioned by name, but Caroline is. Also, the viewer gets POV's from Daisy as an old woman in the hospital and her experiences with Benjamin. One of the most important difference, but one of the best I think, is the POV of the daughter. She never knew her father and she was angry at first, but I think she came to terms with the "curiousness" of the situation.
Characterization
Benjamin: Benjamin is always different from everyone in the story and probably has the most experiences. He is most definitely a round and dynamic character because he goes through many changes. I think he is different in the movie because of the circumstances the script put him in, but I think his core part is the same. He is sweet, different, and nomadic.
Queenie: Queenie is a very crucial character and doesn't make many changes in the movie. She is not a character in the story, but in the movie she is Benjamin's adopted mother. She sees him as special and a child of God even though many are turned off by him. Throughout the movie, she is always there loving him and caring for him.
Mr. Button: Mr. Button is a character in both the movie and the story, but instead of abandoning him, he lives a miserable life with Benjamin. In the story I think the father changes, but in the movie he changes drastically. He is a dynamic character because he tries to make amends, follows Benjamin's life even though Benjamin doesn't know who he is, and in the end tells him. The father accepts the consequences that Benjamin might hate him because of this, but he does it any way. The father is a likable character for me in the end because of every thing he does to atone for abandoning his son. I did not like the father in the story because he doesn't accept Benjamin until later and doesn't make amends for the things he did.
Daisy: Daisy is also another character who was not in the story and I found myself liking her mostly. She, for awhile, was lost, but she then found Benjamin and ended up living with him. Daisy had a difficult role because she loved him through his aging and dealt with his coming and going. Also, when Benjamin left for the last time when their daughter was young, she was angry but understood. I think she was noble in her role. Finally, she took care of Benjamin as he grew younger, began to forget, and died as an infant. There was no Daisy in the story because I refuse to equate Hildegarde, Benjamin's wife, with Daisy. Hildegarde loved Benjamin when it was convenient to do so for her and couldn't accept his condition. She went as far as to say he could stop his aging backwards which is false.
Older Daisy: Older Daisy is a much more understanding and older(?). She has a good understanding of everything and a good view on love and life.
Caroline: Caroline is an interesting character because she is hearing Benjamin's story for the first time as her mother is dying. She does not know a lot about her mother's past and tells Daisy that she wishes they had more time. She also tells her she wishes she had something to show for herself. Caroline learns from the story a lot and is quite angry, but I think she comes to term with it in the end. Caroline is a round and dynamic character. She is also not in the story, but her equivalent is Roscoe. Roscoe is not a very good son as Benjamin decreases in age and he holds the same mentality as his mother, Hildegarde.
The were a lot of minor characters who impacted Benjamin's life throughout his life that were in the movie, but not the story. These characters helped him come to term with everything and helped him through his life. They were very important to the movie, but they all had the same purpose in different ages, genders, and points in Benjamin's life.
Theme: I think the themes are similar in the movie and the story which will make my life a little easier, but there are some differences (woohoo...!). I think the movie mostly points out the fact that Benjamin was different, but Queenie said he was a child of God and loved him anyway. I think this is a great theme because it shows that differences can be scary, strange, and different, but the people are still children of God and deserve love and compassion. Another theme is that life only happens once and "carpe diem"- seize the day. So many good things happened when the characters learned to live life once, rejoice that they have the time, and have no regrets. This is also a great theme. I think the other themes I analyzed form the story apply, but I think these new themes apply more and I like them better.

I probably don't need to say which I liked better, but whatever. I liked the movie better because it was in a time period more towards mine and Benjamin was accepted more. I like the changes made and while the essence of the story might have been changed, I like it a lot better!

"You're Ugly, Too"

This was the story that was hardest for me to read because it was so long and also it was pages and pages of character analysis. I found myself confused with Zoe and I had a hard time figuring out whether I liked her or disliked her. I think in the end I found her annoying, but didn't care one way or the other. Towards the end I wondered if she was sick, like having a tumor or something, because she acted so absurd. She even at the end, tried to push Earl off the roof and exclaimed and shouted "just kidding," like that was an excuse. Also, I was interested with Earl's fascination with what love is. He wants to know what Zoe thinks about love and she keeps brushing off the question. I wondered why he was so caught up in it and I think it might have to do with his recent divorce. Also, he is a strange man for wearing that costume, just saying. This story was just full of humorous, strange, and ironic events, characters, and situations.

"The Drunkard"

The thing that caught me of guard most about this story is the fact that the boy's mother is calling him her brave little man and an angel to his father. I think that most parents would be horrified to find that their child wanted to taste a beer and then got drunk off of it. However, I do not think this situation is like most others because the mother/wife has to deal with her husband's drunkenness when he falls off the wagon and now she only has to deal with he little boy. I think that the fact that the father was embarrassed by his son's drunken state will maybe cause him to think of his own. There was a role reversal in this story and now that the father realizes what a drunk person looks and acts like, and now that he sees it in his own family, he might not revert to drunkenness anymore. Another thing is that the drunken state of the little boy is funny, which is sad, because it is son unexpected and absurd. Also, the things he says sound like an adult coming from a child. This was really quite ironic in many ways.

"The Lottery" #4

I think the significance of the first box being lost and some of the rituals being forgotten is that the lottery is not as sacred and necessary as some of the town people and especially Old Man Warner claim. If it is so important to their town, I would think that the box would be preserved instead of being lost. Also, I would think that the rituals would be respected; however, they are actually forgotten. I think the line "Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon" best describes the original purpose of the lottery. I think it was a superstition that just kept being practiced long after most would have thought it would end. I think it was kind of like a "sacrifice" for a good corn harvest because corn is a staple. The lottery seems to have ancient roots and nobody from the original lottery is alive to keep things in perspective or to realize it isn't needed. For the town now, it is a mindless task that nobody thinks about or reasons with.

"Popular Mechanics"

Oh dear, this was a weird one. My group was talking about whether or not we thought the baby died and was ripped in half or not. I don't think that the baby was killed by being pulled apart, or cut in half like Solomon proposed in 1 Kings 3. I do think that the issue was decided in another way because I think that the parents would have realized it before they pulled him in half. Also, I am not sure that is even possible. I proposed that the baby's should was dislocated or something because that would result in a hospital visit. My theory might be out of the cone of meaning, but I think that the issue was decided by that because child services could remove the child or something like that could happen. I don't even know though if the means to the decision is important, rather the fact that the issue was decided. This story shows how people get this "mine" complex and have a hard time giving things up.

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

Plot:
The plot was interesting for this short story because instead of covering a day or a short period of time, the story took the reader through Benjamin Button's whole life... backwards. Something I noticed about this story was the generalizing of Benjamin's emotions. To me, he never seemed to have specific emotions, but an all-encompassing emotion for the period of time. Also, since the story did have to cover such a long period of time, only certain points in Benjamin's life were told and whole chunks of time were grouped together under a certain emotion or difficult situation. Finally, the most interesting part of the plot was that Benjamin aged backwards which in case people didn't know, is not normal. This affected the plot because it affected Benjamin's life and his interactions with the others around him. Also, the plot is unique from any other short story because only one person so far has ever aged backwards.

Point of View:
This short story is told in the first person at the very beginning when the author begins the story and alludes to the fact that baby Benjamin Button is very unique baby. Then the narrator begins the story of Benjamin Button is a very hard POV to classify, so I'll make up my own because this is my analysis. I shall call this POV, the STORYTELLER POV (clever, huh?). From this point of view, the readers get the whole picture of the towns feelings and thoughts, but an even closer and personal view into Benjamin's feelings and thoughts. Later in the story when more major characters make their debut, the speaker weaves more important feelings and thoughts into the story more. I like to think of this POV as a movie when you see a person sitting in a chair addressing the audience directly and then their voice and the image fades out into the actual story. I think this POV helps the audience to get an unbiased POV, but also drives them into the story without dealing with a "visible and audible" middle man all the time. The POV is good for the story because it doesn't take the side of any one character, but still requires the necessary sympathy that is due to Benjamin.
Characterization:
I think that Benjamin Button is a round and dynamic character. The fact that the audience is taken on a ride through his life shows that fact. Benjamin regresses from a wise and tired old man to a elegant gentleman, a reckless young man, a whiny child, and finally a helpless baby. These shifts in age and the decisions and thoughts he has in all of them definitely show that he is a dynamic and round character. I think that Benjamin's father, Mr. Button, is also a round character, but a slightly round one. Benjamin is so round and dynamic that he could be an orange, while Mr. Button is more like an egg. At first Mr. Button starts out trying to make his son the baby that he is supposed to be by "[declaring] that if Benjamin didn't like warm milk he could go without food altogether" (page 18). Mr. Button was quite stubborn in the fact that Benjamin should be who he should be. However, after awhile, Mr. Button seemed to realize that he has to accept his son for who her is, just not completely, therefore, making him the egg. Finally, I'll lump together two characters who are affected by Benjamin's condition for awhile, but not as long as his father had been. These two characters are his wife Hildegarde and his son Roscoe. Both these characters were subject to Benjamin's reversing age and the affect it had on their family. After years of marriage, Hildegarde, whom Benjamin was completely in love with when he was old and she was young, moves to Italy because the now young Benjamin is out on the town with other women. I do not know how to characterize Hildegarde, but she did insist that Benjamin stop this process which is entirely impossible. Likewise, Roscoe, as a man, had to take care of his childlike father and treated him not like his father but as an annoying little boy. Roscoe and Hildegarde did not take this "curious case" in stride, but interacted with him at a very primary level.
Setting:
The setting is Baltimore, MA 1860. The Button family is wealthy so they own a substantial home in a good part of town and are very current with or ahead of their time. This setting is important to the story because 1860 was quite awhile ago before many genetic disorders were discovered and before mutations were accepted as science. I think that if this happened today, the child would have a very strange and scary life, but not for the reasons that Benjamin had. This child would be wanted by all sorts of scientists and would probably not have the chance to have others treat him like Benjamin was treated by people who just gave up being scared of him. I think the time maybe saved him because while he was embarrassed, talked about, and ridiculed, he didn't have people poking at him. Also, the story describes Baltimore as a Southern city which would show the staunch and proper culture of the time. The setting is important to get the theme across.
Theme:
I think two essential themes of this short story are family loyalty, love and acceptance and the actions of the human race. I'll start out with the family stuff because it seems most obvious to me. In this story, it starts our with neglect, not the type that you can go to prison for today, but lack of true love and family commitment. Benjamin is different, is made to feel different, and is forced, at least for awhile, to act outside the nature of his age. Also, Benjamin shows this neglect to his own wife when he is the age of a young man who should just be marrying and she is 50. He does not love her and he neglects his family by doing that. Roscoe does the same thing later in Benjamin's life, as Mr. Button did earlier. Instead of embracing the difference and trying to get through it together, they blame it on Benjamin saying he can control his backwards growth and that it is his fault. There is definitely a lack of familial "everything." In addition, I think that the story is demonstrating the things that we let people do because it is the "growing-up" process or because they are young or old. I think this stands out to me because Benjamin is not growing-up and doing what you'd expect, but he is "growing-down" and everything is such a surprise. What stands out most to me is when Benjamin grows tired of his wife when he is younger than her by a lot and he leaves he alone and goes out. I think that leaving one's girlfriend is sometimes expected by restless young men because they are restless, but since Benjamin is really old it is not okay for him. Also, Benjamin was not allowed to be grumpy when her was a old man in age but a little kid in everything else. Everybody expected that since he had lived so long that he wouldn't act like that. So I think that people let certain ages act certain ways, but were shocked by Benjamin.

"Eveline" #6

I think that Eveline has a will not to leave Ireland, but I think most of it is that she can't. Eveline remembers her promise to her mother to keep her family together. She remembers that she has family. Finally, I think the fact that she thought, "could she still draw back now after all he had done for her?" was a good indicator of her will. Eveline had doubts about going in that line, but she wasn't going to choose to go with Frank because she loved him, but because he had done things for her. In the end, I think that she realizes this and chooses not to go, but has that blank expression because she also can't. The father's relationship with his children kept coming back into my mind and I think that was also a reason. A lot of people in abusive mental and physical situations cannot leave and Eveline couldn't. She had all those thoughts about leaving, but she came back to her old life and to the fact that she loved him, but not the type of love most think about, and chose to stay. I think Eveline decided to let her life decide for her.

"A Worn Path" #6

I, like the student, asked the question, "is the grandson dead?" I asked this question because Phoenix traveled such a long and hard path to get medicine, only to forget for a while why she actually made the trip. I think that Phoenix is becoming senile or has dementia because she does not have any hurry once she gets there until she remembers. Also, the condition that the nurse describes does not seem like it could be treated with just soothing medicine. I think the remark is really quite brilliant and can be seen as an answer because I don't think it matters if the grandson is alive or dead. I only think it matters what Phoenix is like. She makes this difficult journey every week which shows obvious love for her grandson. So, it doesn't matter if he is alive because she still makes the faithful journey, even though it is hard for an old woman, and brings back the medicine. I think the trip is a ritual for her and is necessary for her character. So since Phoenix is alive, it doesn't matter if the grandson is, because the story is not about his character and journey-- the theme she portrays-- it is about Phoenix's.

"Once Upon a Time" fairytales?

This story was really disturbing. I spent a lot of this story confused, but I think I might have gotten it in the end. The child was influence by a fairytale, a children's story, the same type that the author was asked to write. I think that this story is denouncing fantasies by showing the horror that it created. However, I do not think that it was the fantasy that caused the problems for the child. I think it was the fence in the first place. Children are inherently curious and put up a big wall and children will play on it; I probably would have. The fairytale just adds to the fact that children play and there is reasons for safely locks on cabinets and locks on doors. However, there is also some precautions that do more harm than good, like the fence. The fairytale is the means to evil thing that happened, but I do not think it was the cause. I also was wondering if the boy actually died in the story and I also wondered what would happen to the fence if he did die. Would it be destroyed? Or, would the children be WARNED to stay away from it even more?

"Miss Brill" Lonely Hearts

This story really made me sad. I could not help but feel sorry for Miss Brill who seems to be very lonely and isolated. She is an English woman living in France, so she has a nationality boundary, especially since the English and the French don't really like each other. She is also unmarried, which shows that she is also alone in that regard. The poor woman spends her weekends watching people, never apart of conversations and pretending to be an actress. I think that she tries to fit in any way possible and tries to make herself noticeable. The animal fur suggests that she is apart of a different generation, especially from the young lovers at the end. Miss Brill seems excited to wear that one item that she has always regarded as "fashionable," but in the end, her fur is made fun of and she is too. That showed that Miss Brill is even more isolated and the boy said "who wants her here at all?" Miss Brill hears this and it is the absolute form of isolation.

"Bartleby the Scrivener"

First off, I thought this was an extremely hard and strange story to read. The characters are weird and the whole story is weird, but I'll attempt to make sense of these characters. The speaker, the Lawyer, spends a lot of time telling the audience about his other scriveners and gives us details that some would never think off or would think are strange. The speaker seems to have a strange fascination with people. Bryan Cary said a brilliant thing today in our small groups that I will have to give him credit for. He noticed that the audience could tell what time of day it was by the dialogue in the story. Sometimes Turkey would be perfectly coherent, and Nippers would be crazy, and visa versa. Also, I don't know why the Lawyer would not find normal people to work for him, instead of one who suffers from indigestion half the time and one who is drunk half the time. Finally, to Bartleby. I don't know if my explanation is again, out of the cone of meaning, but I had a feeling that he was suffering from a mental issue of some kind like autism, depression, etc. The very practiced and constant answer "I would prefer not to," plus his lack of social skills and precise writing technique makes me think he was autistic. That characterization makes me sad because if I am in the ball park, Bartleby died (at least I thought he did) because nobody understood. The characterization of each of the characters pushed the story along and the quirkiness of the other employees caused Bartleby's personality to stick out even more.

"Hunters in the Snow" #7

I think the purpose of the scene is to show the lack of care that Tub and Frank have for Kenny. He is laying in the truck dying and repeating "I am going to the hospital," but Frank and Tub and having a nice meal. It shows mostly the lack of concern that each character has for each other. Each of the characters spend the majority of the time obsessed with their own problems, and I think that they would take out their problems on the weakest link. At first the weakest link was Tub, and then it was changed to Kenny. The scene basically is screaming self-centeredness. I think that Frank's insight holds seeds of real remorse, but a lot of the time I think he is just kidding himself. Some examples are his "smile" to Tub when Tub tells him that he will always be on his side. For some reason that smile did not seem genuine to me, especially when he was acting horribly to Tub a couple of hours earlier. Also, the biggest one is that if Frank really experienced a change in character or had some remorse, he would not be leaving his friend out in the cold to die. I think he would be rushing him to the hospital. I think his remorse is just a front to get people on his side for leaving his wife.

"Everyday Use" my thoughts

Something I found especially interesting in this story was Dee's bipolar attitude towards her heritage. In the beginning, she hated it and hated the house. She dressed stylishly and went to school, so she did not want to embrace her culture. However, years later she did a 180 and took on the culture of her African ancestors. I thought this was interesting because I think either way Dee is rejecting her culture. I might be going out of the cone of meaning on this one, but Dee is reverting back to her African roots, but still denying her African-American roots. African-Americans have just as much to be proud of and have a very vibrant culture themselves. I read the little blurb on the short story and it said that a lot of members of the black community rejected the names they inherited from slavery and went back to African names. They saw that as a rebellious towards white people in general, but I think that they were mostly rebelling against the family and the close-knit communities they came from. By embracing her ancient roots, Dee is rejecting her family, community, and roots.

"Every Day Use" #4

I think the mother's refusal does indicate a change in her character. At first the mother's attitude toward Dee is respectful almost because she does not seem to adore her, but more look up to her. I don't think the mother has ever done anything like this before because she has never felt like she was violated before. Not only did Dee try to take something away from Maggie, the unfortunate sister, she tried to take her mother's promise away from Maggie. The mother felt like she needed to intervene because Dee got everything she wanted from the beginning, while Maggie never really learned to want something. The mother realized this and when Maggie wanted the quilts, I think that she realized that Maggie should have something that she truly wanted and would love. I think some details that foreshadow the refusal include Maggie's view of life Dee's open disapproval of their house. I think the mother realized that Maggie has always appreciated their lifestyle and Dee never did. So, the mother realized that Maggie would be the one who should get something she wanted for once and something she has always appreciated.

"How I Met My Husband"

I was also surprised by this surprised ending. I think it is interesting how the author spends the majority of the story talking about Chris and spends one paragraph talking about her husband. This probably has to do with the element of surprise, but I also pick up a regretful tone almost when talking about her husband. She describes their relationship as numbers without any real emotions. The only time she ever displays an emotion regarding her husband is when she laughed when he tells their kids the story. In addition Edie says, "I like for people to think what pleases them and makes them happy." This quote really got me because it made me doubt Edie as a person and her relationship with her husband. She seems to have no fight in her and goes with the flow. Also, if she does what makes people happy, there is a possibility that she married her husband because it made him happy. I think Edie had always been that way, instead of becoming that way when Chris never wrote her, because she never seemed to have a fight in her. She let Chris kiss her without a fight, although she might have had feelings for her, and she let everybody push her around. I think it was just the type of person she was.

"A Rose for Emily" #5

I was confused a lot of the story the first time reading it, as I believe, were others. I think that a first person POV would be slightly advantageous at some parts because the speaker was a vague person or maybe the town as a whole. If Emily was telling the story, the reader would know a lot more about her, but less about the town's perceptions of her. If another person told the story in first person, the reader would have to assume that a relationship once occurred or that the person has special knowledge that others didn't. However, if the story was to be told in first person instead of third, that whole mystery would be lost and the confusion of the town would not be as evident. By seemingly rolling the town into one POV, the audience can consider all of the events and the mixed up chronology. The only point of view that is missing really is Emily's and I don't think her view matters that much to the story. As I think about it, I think that the story is not so much about Emily's life, but more about her effect on the people of the town and the history of it. They said at the beginning that she was a "fallen monument" which I think exemplifies her impact on the town perfectly.

"Interpreter of Maladies" #1

I think the central conflict of this story is Mr. Kapasi's general unhappiness with his position in life, whether it be his job, home, and education. He spends a lot of time in the story struggling with his life. He especially focuses on what he does and how marrying held him back or how he used to know a lot of languages but only remembers a few now. I think that Mr. Kapasi needed to be reassured or even see how much he actually does. Mrs. Das arrives and she does just that for Mr. Kapasi and while he is dreaming of writing letters and having an international correspondence, Mrs. Das is just filling the time until the car stops. I think she is genuinely interested in Mr. Kapasi's job, but not to the degree that Mr. Kapasi thought she was. I think the central conflict is resolved because Mr. Kapasi did get his reassurance and started to reflect on his life. However, it is also resolved when the address gets lost and nobody except Mr. Kapasi notices. This completes Mr. Kapasi's revelation because he can move on and start to rekindle his life instead of pining over the affection and interest of a younger woman thousands of miles away who didn't care for him the way he imagined himself caring for her.

"A Rose for Emily"

The author of this short story added a little surprise for us at the end which clarified a lot of things in the story. However, I cannot decide whether it was part of the stories structure and plot for it to come out as a surprise or not. The ending included the corpse of the man that Emily was supposed to have married and a strand of long grey hair. This leads the reader to assume a couple of things; however, it is never really clarified. This ending affects the plot because, for me, I would have never suspected it and it changes or affirms a lot of what I thought during the story. A couple things that stood out to me after I read the whole story was the smell that the town covered up, the purchase of the rat poison without Emily dying (I was pretty sure she was going to commit suicide), and the fact that Emily's father never let men get close enough to her for a relationship. These all should have been bells going off in my head alerting me of a twist, but it never really happened. Another element of plot was Emily's relationship with her father. This struck me as kind of odd because she lived with him her whole life, he kept sending away potential suitors, and then he died. It made me feel kind of sorry for her because I really think she was confused on what to do. I think she never really got a chance at anything, which drove her to kind of be an odd ball and do crazy things. The plot and structure emphasized certain elements and foreshadowed events.

"Edward O"

This poem really annoyed me, probably because I got the notes from a friend before I actually read the poem, but still. I was confused at reading the notes first because two things were classified as lie and one as truth. The killing of two animals were the lies and the killing of the father was the truth. It was only after I read the poem that I began to understand the meaning behind the poem and everything that occurred. The mother convinces her son to kill his father and the son gives the mother a curse because of the evil she made him commit. Also, when the son told his mother that he killed those animals, she knew he was lying the whole time. I wonder what type of sick person would convince her son to kill her husband and still try to keep his favor. It is a weird poem according to me.

"Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night"

First, I kind of thought it was funny that in the title it said "good night" and that is usually what you say before you go to sleep; however, it was meant differently in this sense. Back on track though, I think I can relate to this poem more than the rest because all or most of the poems are about death in some shape or form. In this poem, though, the speaker is saying how much he wants his father to stay with him, to "not go gentle." I just didn't comprehend how some of the other poems didn't care or didn't have a respect for life. Anyway, I also thought it was interesting how the tears could be a blessing and a curse at the same time. It really brought death into perspective for me. The tears are a blessing because the father tires to stay and it shows the love of the son. On the other hand, the tears are a curse because it shows the pain of the father and the son. The pain is of the father's struggling and of the son's loss.

#10- "That Time of Year"

I think that there is a lot of imagery in this poem to show the theme of death and things coming to their end. In the first quatrain of the poem, there is the image of autumn. I usually think of autumn as beautiful, but here it signifies an end because it starts to get cold and only a few leaves hang, signifying life. In the second quatrain, there is a image of twilight, which is after sunset where the sun ends and the sky is dark. Finally,in the third quatrain, the author organizes another image to show an end of things which is one of a fire dying. As the fire dies, the room starts to get colder, the light fades, and soon only the ashes are left. These images show that the speaker is nearing the end of his life and soon he will become fire, autumn, or twilight. Finally, all these images show the constant progression of time and that everything will always end.

#17- Delight in Disorder

The pattern of this poem achieves the sense of disorder. This poem is all about disorder and the lack of perfection. The speaker seems to enjoy disorder and even like it and they show the lack of care throughout the poem. Such words like "careless shoestring" and "flow confusedly" show the lack of order and the chaos that seems to be present. Most eye-catching for me, though, was the pattern. The rhyme scheme was broken and had no particular reason except to show disorder in the poem. It stuck out to me most because I read poems out loud and there is usually a certain rhythm or flow to the poem. For me, this poem did not have one and I often found myself getting caught on a word. Therefore, the disorder was evident to me and the pattern was the reason for the broken rhyme scheme.

#8- "Getting Out"

The tone of this poem is sad rather than bitter. This surprises me because divorces are usually very disruptive and an angry process. The couple is having problems because they have matching hair and eyes, so they only have physical similarities, and nothing else in common. Also, they are imprisoned by each other and when the man tried to leave, he was stopped by all of the things they hadn't worked out or the things that need to be addressed. Those things were like the piles of clothes on the floor and unstrung tennis rackets. At first the couple tried to ignore it, but finally they had to part. Another thing is that they do not assign blame, they just fell out of love. In the end, they were crying and sad and it showed that the tone was correct from the beginning. A theory is that the couple is unable to conceive a child and that inability drove the couple apart.

"The Apparition"

I think this is a kind of strange poem because the speaker is worrying over something that has not happened yet. He warns his lover that if she leaves him, her new lover will not be able to protect her like he can. He keeps saying when you reject and scorn me, and it is like he is waiting for his lover to leave him. This makes me think that there is something wrong with the couple. Therefore, the man believes that he will be left. This poem is interesting because it is written in the future tense. Since it is written in the future tense, the tone is shown to be one of worry and a little bit of anger. The man is the one who might be causing the problems and he might be driving his lover away. However, that is just a theory. The only thing we know is that for some reason, the man is warning his lover that if she leaves him, she will regret it.

#10- "Crossing the Bar"

In this poem, the speaker is using ocean images to represent death. I think that the choice of imagery is helpful because so many of the functions of the ocean can represent a cycle, life, and death. The boundless deep image reminds me of a vast and calm ocean and that represents heaven because it is also described as home. A person is created by God in heaven and returns to heaven(hopefully) in the end. Also, the tide represents fate. It is a beautiful image of fate and the feeling that you'll go when you go because tides are strong forces of nature, but are not as conspicuous as waves, but ever present. The sand bar represents that step from shallow water to deep water or crossing over into heaven=death. The images in this poem support the peaceful and quiet tone of this poem. The author wants to meet his Pilot(God) in a quiet and calm way, just like the ocean on a calm day.

"My Mistress' Eyes"

When I read this I automatically thought of a ridiculous line in Dawn of the Dinosaurs(don't judge, yes I watch animated movies!). "I fell in love with a pineapple- an UGLY pineapple! But I love her." At first this poem reminded me of this silly kid's movie because I thought that the speaker is saying that his love is not the prettiest but he loves her. However, after discussion, I realized that the speaker is actually saying more by contrasting her to the objects that most people of the time compared women to. The speaker is satirizing the men who wrote poems to women and compared their beauty to the sun and the snow. The speaker makes the argument that his lover's eyes cannot be like the sun, because they are not the sun, but she is just as beautiful as the women who are having those poems written for them. I think the honesty of the speaker makes this poem more beautiful and true than the other poems written because of the "lies." Also his love for this woman is rare because it is not made under false pretenses like some are. It is rare because it is not exaggerated, it is honest, and it is true.

next of course god america i

This poem was really overwhelming for me because of the lack of significant punctuation and the speed at which you read the poem. After class discussion though, I felt like I really understood what the poem is about. A lot of Americans go through the patriotic motions but really do not feel or know what they are saying. It has become mindless, the Pledge of Allegiance, and something I don't even have to think about. This is what the speaker is warning against and what he is angry about. I think he is posing the question, "Do we really know or care?" With this satirical piece, he is calling the audience to action and to take pride in their country. The identity of quoted speaker is never really said, but I think that it is a person just like the rest of us. He talk fast in a jumble of nonsense at first, but then starts to form actual coherent thoughts toward the end. I think that he is unsure and doesn't want the attention on him, but is trying to figure out patriotism. His last couple thoughts really strike a cord, especially the one on the soldiers. This poem is trying to help the common people figure it out just like the speaker is trying to.

APO 96225

This poem reminded me overwhelmingly of The Things They Carried. There is a similar motif in that the people at home pretend to care and understand, but really just want to forget about the war. I think that this poem is written in the objective point of view because there is not embellishment or feelings that the writer conveys, just the facts. However, while the POV is objective, the author assumes the role of the speaker to convey his thoughts on the war through the poem. I think that by being objective, the speaker really shows how he feels and conveys that emotion. The Vietnam War and the Iraq War are very similar in the regard that after awhile people stopped being horrified and just wanted to forget. I will always remember something Mrs. Helbing taught us that is that the veterans of WWI and WWII received floats and parades and were considered heroes when they returned, but the veterans of Vietnam received nothing and people would not even listen. The author is expressing frustration in the American public for their lack of compassion and concern.

#10- Barbie Doll

I think the Barbie Doll is a symbol of the ideas of society and the plastic surgery the girl goes through is society's hold on youth. The beginning is characterized by a beautiful little girl playing with her Barbie, not caring about the Barbie as much, but her game. As she grows older, she cares less about her creativity, her individuality, and more about becoming that very Barbie she grew up with. The Barbie has different purposes throughout the girl's life and ultimately leads her to change who she is. The casket has its own meaning. It symbolizes the death of the old image of the girl and her individuality and marks her entrance into society and blending in. I think this girl was told that she had a weird nose and fat legs and that she was not pretty. In doing that though, the girl became less beautiful, I think, because she gave up her uniqueness and now fits the mold. Finally, the overstatement of "cutting off" her limbs shows the sacrifice she made to society... she cut herself up.

#13- Much Madness is divinest Sense

This poem is filled with paradoxes. The poem itself is a paradox too, I think, because not only do line lines form paradoxes, but the poem is one as a whole. The two most important paradoxes and the ones that the poem is based off of are "madness is sense" and "sense is madness." These lines are paradoxes because they seem to be contradictory and wrong, but there is a truth in what is being compared. Madness is sense when you object to the ideas of society and sense is madness when you assent to the ideas of the majority. The first one means that while society calls objecting the norm "madness," it is really the sane thing to do because a lot of the time society and the majority are wrong. The second one goes right along with the first as opposite because society calls assenting "sense," while the speaker disagrees and call it mad. I tend to agree with the speaker because a lot of the times society is not driven by faith or morals, but greed and immorality. If you go along with society because it is what everyone is doing, you are assenting to live an largely immoral life. Also, a lot of the ability to think for yourself is lost which does not help the condition at all.

"I Taste a Liquor Never Been Brewed" (she was an interesting one)

This poem was the hardest for me because I have never really gotten Emily Dickinson before. I take poems to literal so I thought the speaker was just a drunk who was explaining how it felt. I did not understand until the small group discussion that the speaker was drunk on nature and it made the poem beautiful, but still confusing to me. The speaker uses a lot of nature imagery to describe this intoxication as beautiful and real like the fox gloves and butterflies. I think that the speaker is so overcome by the beauty that she cannot describe it other than totally taken over by nature. However, I was confused by the seemingly random entrance of the Seraphs and Saints because they have nothing to do with nature. I think that it possibly might have to do with the Saints and Seraphs blessing her love of nature and watching over her as she takes in the world. The "leaning against the sun!" is actually the only part in the poem that before the small group led me to believe that nature has something to do with the poem. The sun is a lamp post and I think the speaker is standing outside, taking in everything and taking in nature.

February... oh dear

The overall message of this poem is left until the very end when the speaker says "so get going on a little more optimism," but before that its a bunch of whining. The title of the poem is February, but never does the speaker actually mention February except to define it as the Month of Despair(dun dun duuuuuun). Most of the time the author talks about winter in general. This fact makes me think that the speaker has angry feelings toward February and especially February 14th. The poem is a heartbreak poem because the speaker has felt love, but has had it taken away. The speaker spends the majority of the poem complaining about her cat's whining and neediness when she is actually complaining about her lack of love and need for comfort. She used the bed to describe the comfort that she is lacking from a person, so she spends more time in bed. Finally, at the end, she realizes that she cannot be a lonely cat lady forever, tells the cat to get off her face, and orders herself to be optimistic. The last line is "make it Spring" which solidifies the despair she felt in winter.

#11 Dream Deferred

"Dream Deferred" was full of figurative language! Most of the comparisons are similes, but there is a metaphor that cause quite a bang at the end. The purpose of the figurative language is to make the author's point as clear as possible in each way. The first simile, "does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?," compares the speaker's dream to a raisin that has become smaller and smaller until it shrivels up, without much life and meaning. The next is "festers like a sore." This simile was the saddest to me because dreams are supposed to drive you and make you happy, but in this case it is causing the speaker pain and is infecting him. Does the dream "stink like rotten meat" is also quite descriptive because it is describing the dream as old and the chance has been lost and finally, "crust and sugars over." This was the hardest for me to understand because sugar usually has a positive connotation for me, especially chocolate. This shows that the dream comes back to bite you because it seemed better than it really is and has become sickly sweet and overpowering; it acts as a barrier between the speaker and moving on with his life. Finally, OR DOES IT EXPLODE is a metaphor. I think the speaker left this example of figurative language for last because it is the most destructive. I think the author left it until last also because he thought that this is the course that his dream would take.

#8 Pink Dog

The tone of the poem is degrading and sarcastic, but I think it is supposed to be satirical. The tone is meant to get the audience to think and is a call to action because they are supposed to be embarrassed about the subject of the poem. The tone is achieved by the word choice, the images, and especially the rhyme scheme. The rhyming gives the poem the degrading tone and calls the audience to action. The subject is the beggars and poor that the rich seem to ignore and only cover up during the holidays. Also, the radios and Americans influence the change in culture and the shift from tradition to the need to cover up problems instead of fixing them. The author is intentionally harsh toward the subject because he wants the rich to see how they are being treated and to help them. The imagery is also humiliating for poor because he compares them to dogs. He uses phrases like "in what slum have you hidden them[your babies]...? and "a dilapidated dog would not look well" to cause the rich to pity and help them. The "slum" brings a nasty image to mind and hopefully, if the author's goal was accomplished, the audience of the time also felt pity and was moved to action.

#9 Bright Star

Bright Star was one that I had problems with initially, probably because I was stuck on the "star" instead of what the speaker was really saying, but here it goes. The diction means a lot in this poem because it is what compares the star and the lover. One of the words that I paid a lot of attention to was "swoon" in line 14 "swoon to death." I was confused because I thought that swoon meant to faint and I couldn't figure out what it meant. Swoon in this sense is a positive connotation I think. The speaker would rather be with his lover for eternity, or "swoon to death" at the peak. This poem is very sweet and the diction leads the readers to make the connection and understand the meaning. Another example is the comparison of the star to a hermit. Hermits to me are very holy, patient, and always there and the comparison helped me see how the speaker was comparing the love he wants to a star.

#6- "Those Winter Sundays"

The central purpose of this poem is to show the love or lack there of in this household. When I first read this poem I think I skipped over the part about the chronic anger in the household because I felt sorry for the father due to my great relationship with my dad. This shows love because the father gets up in the brutal cold and heats up the house and polishes the shoes, but I think these actions are the only way he could show love. The poem doesn't not show just the temperature cold in winter, but the emotional cold felt by the whole family. The father was never thanked, but he still loved. This poem leads me to believe that something held the family back from love and it could be the anger or it could be the father's job. I think the speaker is also still cold from the anger and lack of love being said. He cannot warm up because he cannot thank his dad for all of the things he has done for him. Something is holding this family back.

#7- "After Apple Picking"

I believe the central theme in this poem is the age of the speaker and the weariness he is feeling. I think that this is about a man who has lived his life, but is growing tired and has come to grips with the fact that he is tired and that death is the inevitable end of life. I do think that he is unhappy with some of his choices, but that it is life. The empty barrel (ln 3) could represent the things he hadn't done and "no matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble" could represent the things he had done and the battering he took sometimes as well. I especially was proud of my analysis of the window in relationship to the theme. The previous line talked about the strangeness in sight, which to me represents the failing sight older people face, as the speaker looks through a pane of glass. I always think of looking through a pane of glass as a glimpse into another world or a setting which you are not, so the glass could be representing his life as he remembers it and plays back his memories. Finally, is the repetitive apple picking itself. The speaker is clear when he states that he is tired from apple picking and doing it every fall. This shows how tired the old man is and how waking up is almost like apple picking to him.

#12- "The Convergence of the Twain"

I think the mirrors, the "opulent glass," are symbols of the vanity and the grandeur of the ship. This poem seems to focus on human vanity (ln 2) and what can come from it. The ship was designed to be unsinkable and it was decorated as richly as a palace because it was that "special" but still it was reduced to a wreck in the ocean. I think the sea worms could represent how all of the chandeliers, painting, and expensive objects were reduced to nothing. I think the speaker's objective is to use the symbols and our knowledge of the Titanic to warn the human race about the destructiveness of vanity. People of that time were really sad about the sinking, but I think they were also angry. The sinking of the unsinkable ship dented the armor of the human race and I think the vanity was reduced a little. The disaster caused people to be more careful and to doubt their advances.

#17- "Spring"

I learned something today and it is that this poem in a sonnet, an Italian sonnet to be exact. I did some research on sonnets because I did not have any idea of what they were besides eight lines followed by 6 lines and I wanted to understand the author's reasoning behind writing in this form. The first eight lines formed a description, while the next six lines formed the comment. In this poem, I think that the speaker is describing new life and innocence and how Spring is used as a symbol. The new grass, the eggs, and the lamb especially represent new life. Additionally, I think the frolicking of the lambs represents the innocence of youth. The six lines at the end are sent up as a prayer and possibly a warning. The speaker is noticing the changing lifestyles and the loss of innocence and is commenting on how the young kids will not be innocent but will be "sour with sinning." The prayer, which is sent up to heaven, is also an important part because not only is the speaker commenting on the loss, but he is pleading and praying that they will change.

#8- "The Widow's Lament in Springtime"

I automatically thought of the juxtaposition that occurred in this poem when I read it and that is the normal joy of Spring and the grief of the loss of a loved one. The tone is that grief that is so evident when compared to the new life and joy of spring. The tone is grief, but longing as well because the speaker would rather "sink into a marsh" than live with the grief. This woman is so distraught that she cannot be in her yard because it reminds her of her husband and the happiness they shared together. She can't go to the meadow because the little white flowers that are present remind her of her husband too. I think that the tone has something more than grief though as I think more about it, and I think that despair fits more than grief. She is very sad over the death of her husband, but with the despair comes a panic almost because she is left alone and can't move on. The tone is what stuck out to me in this poem even more than the similes and symbols because I could feel the despair she felt in her tone.

Poetry... grrrrr

I do not like poetry that much because I would much rather read something that went into more detail and actually unfolded instead of just ending after a couple of lines, but I suppose I'll put my feelings aside and try to enjoy it.
Perrine's approach to determining correct interpretations make sense to me, but I think there are always exceptions. Sometimes, I think that details in poems are there to add to the poem, but should not be zeroed in on like they usually are. I, personally, would like to read a poem that is not cryptic and that doesn't hurt my head, but uses its details as an aid to the meaning, not the whole meaning. I have not studied poetry, so my analysis might be totally wrong, but I do not like the emphasis put on things that are analyzed, but could be totally irrelevant. I do agree with the second one because I think that random poetry is created for children and for laughs. I was struck by the "that it is satisfactorily account for as many as possible of the known facts without being contradicted by any fact." It took me a fifth read to understand the words and that even if there are as many as possible that are not contradictory, there will be some that are not in that "as many as possible" because it doesn't say that all will. It is confusing because the first criteria is that all details must not contradict each other or it is wrong.
This article did change some of my interpretations of the poems and how to interpret poems in the future, but I still have problems with poems in general. I get how the stars in The Night March can be described as an army and I now understand how by describing stars as what they aren't can give a more vivid and can keep dead metaphors from showing up. However, I don't like the untitled poem by Emily Dickinson. I feel almost cheated from the real meaning of the poem, the sunset, because there are so many beautiful ways to describe a sunset. I did not get the sunset in this poem. I saw a garden that was full of life, but when I read this paper and learned it was a sunset I felt like I could have seen it, but my analysis kept me from it. I do understand the "any interpretation is acceptable which lies in that area." The horse example helped me a lot when it came to understanding. The more detail the author puts in a poem, the less he leaves to the reader to come up with on their own. The author has their own meaning, but I think now that I have read this, they want the audience to get it, but they do not want them to only get it because it is black and white. I think the trick is to find a happy medium between too much detail and too little detail, so that the audience can understand it fully.

XIX- Dynamic Character

"Yes. Isn't it pretty to think so?" Yay! I feel like a proud mama. Jake has finally come full circle and let Brett go. This quote to me showed that Jake has finally decided to move on and realized that their life would have never worked out. For some reason, a wound he received in the war had come between him and Brett and neither could get past it. Brett moved on in a messy way, but at least she moved on. I don't think Jake ever did and that held him back psychologically. By saying that it is pretty to think so, Jake has shown that he realizes that it would never work out and that moving on is the best thing to do. Hopefully, this will let him be happy with himself and a better friend to those he has pushed away.

XVIII- The Symbol of the Bull

I think the bulls are symbols in the novel because Pedro Romero says that the bulls are his best friends and he kills them because they'll kill him if he doesn't. This is interesting to me because it almost seems like it is mirroring the relationships between our group of characters. They never seem to be in good terms with each other, but yet they are still friends. Also, from studying bullfighting in Spanish class, I learned that the bulls are seen as extremely noble creatures that stay and fight instead of running away. In early Spanish culture they were revered and even worshipped. So, I think that Hemingway is an aficionado of bullfighting himself and wanted to incorporate the honor that is seen as in Spanish culture into his novel to set almost a standard for the changing world. I also researched Belmonte and found that he is considered to be the most famous matador of all time. I think that when Hemingway said that the crowd was against Belmonte, it means that they have abandoned the old way and are now ready to start anew after the war. Bullfighting is used as a symbol to convey truths about the time to his readers.

XVI- Pedro Romero no habla Ingles

For me, this chapter is about Pedro Romero. At the beginning of it Jake's friend Montoya asks Jake to keep Romero from being taken over by the ambassador's people because it would ruin him as a leader. Montoya did not want him to be mixing with foreigners because they could corrupt him and his image. he wants him to stay with his own people. However, later in the chapter Montoya sees Romero sitting and drinking with Jake and his friends and he is very displeased. I think that he sees any foreign influence on Romero as a poison because he might be influenced more by money and power other than the love of the sport. In the end though, Romero is shown to know English pretty well. I think this shows that while is is the leader of the people, he is not as innocent as everyone believes him to be and can be influenced strongly. He says that none of his people can know about his English because it would ruin his standing with the people and he says "Bull fighters are not like that." I think it means that the bull fighters are supposed to be pure and good models for the common people. A bull fighter who knows English would be denying his people and his homeland.

XV- Cohn Drunk... what a concept!

This is going to sound a little weird, but I think it was a good thing that Cohn finally got drunk. The rest of the characters have been drunk for the majority of the book, but Cohn never was. I think it is going to snap him out of the rut he is in. That simple act of having too much I think will be good for him. One, it will get him a little more respect from the other people in the group since they think he is weak. Two, it will let him get past his old routines and start to make new ones and get a healthier life style. Cohn is seen as uptight and not fun, so by showing that he can party with the other characters, he will be less despised in the group and seen more as a comrade. On the other hand, it could also be really bad for him since he acts out when he is sober and he could really be bad if he is drunk. It will be interesting to see how he progresses.

XI- Random Thoughts That I Think

I decided to do a blog entry to express my thoughts about some of the things in this novel so far. First of all, I feel really sorry for Cohn's children from his first marriage. They are mentioned once, maybe twice, so far and it seems that he has no contact with them and doesn't care about them. I think it would really stink if my dad didn't visit or write. I also feel really bad for Francis too. She is sent off to England by Cohn because he wants to spend two weeks in San Sebastian with Brett. Francis has been with Cohn for a long time and I think he is losing interest in her. I also think it is extremely distasteful of Cohn to intrude on Michael and Brett's time together in San Sebastian. So, while I feel sorry for Cohn, I also think he is being a butt head to say the least. Finally, these are my thoughts on the actual going-on's in this chapter. I think this sojourn to the Spanish mountains to fish will be a good thing for Jake. I think it will help him relax and have time away from those who push his buttons. This will be important because I predict it won't be the last time we will see Cohn, Brett,m and Michael and I think Pamplona is going to be interesting.

X- Passports

The Basque man getting turned away by "border control" is what stuck out to me in this chapter. It kind of reminded me of the Mexican people crossing into the United States. I did not know that there were border control problems back in the 1920's and that surprised me. However, I guess there has always been a desire for a better life, so crossing over into different areas of more wealth has been around for ages, I mean look at Moses and the Promised Land. I am also surprised about how much I am learning about this time period and the people from this novel. I don't like the novel so much because I find Hemingway hard to read and I do not get some of the things happening or the words, but I am learning. Anyway, back to the Basque man. How can a man who just wants to sell his goat not get a passport into a country he can just cross a stream into? It is not like he wants to live there; he just wants to make a living. It also makes me think about how people like Jake, Bill, and Cohn can get passports while the poor, old Basque man cannot. I think it comes down to learned versus illiterate, the white versus the indigenous, ans all of those usual differences. I think this is one of the universal truths of the world which is sad. The poor were treated differently back then and they are treated poorly now.

XIV- Light On, Light Off

"There is no reason why because it is dark you should look at things differently from when it is light." There are a couple of things I would like to point out from this chapter and maybe it is because I really have something here, or because I'm a smart-Alec (something my mom calls me), or even because I procrastinated and am finishing this blog while visiting family in Pennsylvania. I really don't know, but I'll say what I think anyway because this is my blog. first off, I would like to point out that when Jake was thinking this, he was extremely hung over and feeling pretty sorry for himself because Brett is not with him, but with Cohn, then Mike. Second, most of the time you cannot see anything in the dark unless you are a cat or a superhero and the things you do see are fuzzy and more blob-like. So, you can look at things in the dark and in the light the same if you really want to, but in the light everything is so much clearer. Also, light usually means day and that usually means not drunk, so everything is usually clearer anyway. I believe Jake is starting to pine for Brett just like Cohn and that is why he is acting so messed up. I think that when he finally learns that everything is really clearer in the light, he will feel much better and have a better understanding.

IX- Flappers

Brett reminded me a lot of flappers form the 1920's in this chapter. I think with that hint, Hemingway is describing the shift the world made from pre-WWI to post-WWI life and culture. Flappers were the new breed of women who wore short dresses and skirts with no stockings, smoked cigarettes, are were not the quiet women of old. Brett is the epitome of that lady. She is already seen to be a little loose with her morals. She drinks liberally and has no problem with letting the men know what she wants. also, she does not go around with a chaperone and has no problem telling men what she wants. She is the first hint at the changing world that Hemingway is describing and living in. I am not quite sure yet if he is approving of the changes or whether he is offended by them. I think though that with his tribute to Brett, the way she holds the men's attention, and the careful details he gives her design, that is at least approving of the changes of the women.

VIII- Drunks, Dogs, and Diction

I don't know what it was about this chapter that made me think a lot about the diction in the novel, but I have a feeling it was the word "tight" and how Bill Gorton went on about stuffed dogs. It literally took me probably four times reading this chapter and a couple of Google searches that finally told me that 'tight" meant drunk, which makes no sense to me. I always think of uptight or something that is tight and doesn't let loose when I hear the word. My understanding couldn't be farther from the truth. They definitely let loose when they got drunk. I guess it was just the word that was used int he 1920's. Hemingway is quite masterful in his diction. I feel as if I am getting a glimpse of the culture and the people when reading the novel and mostly it is from he conversations not the details. And the dog... Bill was quite set on getting the stuffed dog, but it wasn't the fact that he wanted a stuffed dog that got me, but how he said it. It is hard to explain how different it is from now, but it is. Hemingway wanted to portray his characters to a T and the diction used is more descriptive than background or personalities. I wouldn't be surprised if Hemingway modeled some of his characters off real people he knew because he seems to know his characters so well.

XII- Local Color

I don't know if Hemingway has ever been to Burguete, but he seems to have a special place in his heart for it. He vividly describes the Basque people they met on the way, the beautiful landscape, and the tranquility of fishing. I think the emphasis on this place is the calmness of it and the refreshing nature. Jake and his friends had been having a difficult time before, drinking and having a hard time getting through the day. The trip to the mountains helped and I think the pace of the book changed for a little while. I did not have to read and think so hard during this chapter and I think that reflected what the characters were feeling. So far, I have not seen such detail in Hemingway's settings. Paris was described, but it was mostly the people doing the describing, not the author, so I had to look for hidden meanings and think about the characters. When describing Burguete, Hemingway painted a picture by telling us himself, not the characters telling the reader. By him telling his audience, I think it showed his feelings for the place and his need to not complicate it with the problems of the characters.

VII- All That Drinking

I have to say that I am confused on what the purpose of all this drinking and therefore drunkenness going on in this novel already. I know that it is frowned upon now and that there are laws to keep the drunk from driving and from even going certain places. It makes me wonder if it was a celebration: eat, drink, and be merry for we won the war, or, whether it is a way for these hurting people to become different and not hurt as much. I believe it is most likely the second, but I could be wrong as the book progresses. So far we have met people with some pretty heavy problems. Francis is in danger of losing a man she has given up two and a half years for. Brett is quite a mess form loving Jake, but marrying another man, not being able to marry Jake, and sleeping around. And Jake, Jake is likely the most stable of them, but is still hurting from not being with Brett and his mystery wound. Cohn also has a lot of problems, but interestingly enough I have not seen him drunk yet. In conclusion, while I think being drunk is an insanely stupid thing to do especially on such a regular basis, I think it is from the character's desire to wash aware their problems.

VI- Culture Changes

So far in this book, the culture of the time surprises me, I am not sure if it is just the characters Hemingway chose for the book or whether it is actually how people were. What stood out most i show Harvey called Cohn a moron to his face before Cohn said one significant thing. In the 21st century, that type of conversation would be out of line. I have seen this type of interaction earlier in the novel too. It makes me wonder whether the characters are being brutally honest, are speaking their mind, or are just trying to rub the other the wrong way. It is also the way that friends talk to each other in this book, although it is a little less harsh. So I have come to the conclusion that if it is the way of acting, then culture has come a long way from the 1920's and I'm glad I live in the 21st century.

V- Foil Friends

This chapter is quite interesting to me because it actually makes me wonder why Jake and Cohn are even friends. It seems that Jake says whatever he feels and is quite blunt about everything. On the other hand though, Cohn takes offense at everything and does not even want to hear the truth. In theit conversation about Brett, I could see that Cohn had already fallen under another woman's spell and that Francis was forgotten. I wonder what will happen to her seeing as Cohn is smitten with Brett. But going back to the friendship thing, Jake is obviously the protagonist and while I do not believe from what I have read so far that Cohn is the antagonist, I think he is the foil of Jake. Jake seems to strong, not quite happy but okay with his situation, does not have a love but is not pining for someone he cannot have, and mostly importantly, has had an adventure. Cohn is weak and overly-sensitive, discontented with his place in life, has a steady relationship but is head-over-heels in love with a woman he just met, and has not had an adventure worth telling anybody. I think it is safe to assume that while Jake and Cohn are friends, Cohn is jealous of the fact that Jake has "lived" while Cohn is stuck.

IV- Connotation of Funny

In this chapter, funny is used to describe a couple of very different scenarios and a couple of very different feelings. I always think of something as funny when I laugh at a joke or think something said is laughable. So, I guess you could say that for me laughing and funny go hand in hand. However, in this chapter, Brett describes Jake's wound as funny and that word choice confused me because a bullet going anywhere in a human body is a tragedy to me. I htink that funny in this situation means unfortunate enough to be ironic because it keeps Brett and Jake apart. Another situation is when Jake says being in love is funny. He later clarifies it as being enjoyable, but neither Brett nor Jake are enjoying this "funny" situation where the funny wound keeps Brett and Jake from living together. I can say that I don't think the situation is funny and I think that it is actually quite sad. Anyway, I think the different meanings and overtones of funny let the situation stand out to the reader. I think Hemingway wanted to show the irony of this love and the humor of, well, the unfortunate events. I had to reread this section many times before I could understand Hemingway's motives because I could not get past the word "funny."

III- Stereotypes

I can't help but think that Hemingway used a stereotype in his most famous novel. I think I heard somewhere that when an author relies on a stereotype then they are inexperienced. However, I don't think Hemingway ever wrote something that didn't have an explicit purpose. Anyway, I think he portrayed Paris in its stereotypical manner, but having never been to Paris I don't really know what it is really like. I do know the stereotypes and it is famous for being a city of loose people and morals and for being a dirty city. I think that Hemingway had his characters start out in Paris and continue on their journey to other places to prove a point and show growth, but that could just be me. I think it is to show where the characters started out mentally and psychologically and to set a clear beginning. Then, as the characters travel and meet new people, the changes start to show up. It is kind of like rising to the climax of their growth and then falling down with new insights.

II- Alluison

I think this chapter is about midlife crisis that Robert Cohn faced when he read "The Purple Land" by W. H. Hudson. He did not have such a great life before the book because he was bullied in college, his wife left him, and he is rethinking his relationship with Francis, and this all took a toll on him. However, I think the book did it in for him. It showed him how he had been a failure compared to the man in the book. I think it showed him that his life was getting a little dull or boring and that he needed to become more like the man from the book who went on adventures in an "intensely romantic land." I feel sorry for him because he needs something to do to keep himself interesting. Ultimately, I think that everything is about girls for Cohn. He could not keep his wife, so Francis was nice to him, but controlling. Then other girls were nice, and he forgot about Francis, and now he wants to go to South America. This is a common case of the "I'm boring's and nobody like me's." If he heads off to this exotic place and brings back some exhilarating stories, maybe he thinks people will stick with him. However, another interesting thing about Cohn is that he won't go alone. He wants to go, but he refuses to go alone. This puts him between a rock and a hard place because he has never had the adventure that Jake did. Jake went to war and had his adventure, but Cohn never did and that is why going to South America is so important to him. I hope he gets his adventure because I think he'll be stuck if he doesn't.

I- Cohn's Motivation

I think Cohn's motivation for acting throughout this novel is his upbringing. He was a shy, nice boy who because of his religion had to take up boxing as a way to overcome those who persecuted him. He also had to overcome probably the most difficult thing for someone to overcome as well: his own feeling of inferiority. This made him an awkward combination of a ruthless fighter and naive, mostly moral man. Thus, he is socially inept and verbally attacks those who hurt him and, as seen, will resort to violence when he is angry and thinks he was wronged. He has been controlled by women, especially his mother, which is also a possible reason for his naivety and motivation for his need to get women and then leave them until one of them, Brett, reduced him to a lovesick little boy. I think that because he is so awkward, the other characters take out their insecurities on him because his are so apparent. His behavior throughout the novel is, like most of other people's behavior, caused by his upbringing. His motivation for finding a girl and protecting himself is caused by the opinions and persecutions he faced as a young man.

XVII- Climax

I think the climax of the novel is when Cohn learns that Brett has gone off with the bullfighter and hits Jake. The entire novel to this point has been an escalating feeling of hatred towards Cohn by Jake. Jake is the only character in the story who actually is Cohn's firend and has a friend to lose if the hatred gets too far out of hand. I think the entire time before the fight Jake was hating and forgiving and hating and forgiving and Cohn did nothing to deserve Jake's friendship and the forgiveness. I find it ironic that Mike is the one who actually riles Cohn up, but Cohn goes for his only friend. It probably has to do with the fact that while Mike is Brett's fiance, no one will have the friendship and love with Brett that Jake does and Cohn is jealous of that. The climax was the breaking point where Cohn lost the only perosn who could stand to be around him since he sent Francis away. It is quite pitiful actually I think, and I think that is what it took to get Cohn to see the light. The falling action takes place quite rapidly three pages later when Cohn cries and begs Jake's forgiveness although I believe they will never be "friends" again.

This has nothing to do with the climax and it might be just a coincidence, but Cohn came from a wealthy banking family, and Mike is bankrupt and while Cohn has the money, Mike has Brett most of the time.

XIII- Racism

In this chapter, Mike makes a comment about Brett going off with men before, but never Jews. This seems like quite a antisemitic comment and while the Jewish people had not been persecuted in the Holocaust yet, it still struck me hard. Were Jewish people considered that badly by American people too and what caused them to have such discrimination towards them? I do not know if Hemingway was antisemitic, but I wonder if Robert Cohn being described as the instigator had anything to do with it. Cohn seems to cause tensions not only as a result of his feelings for Brett, but also with the feeling of emptiness in his life and his wavering loyalty to his friends. The narrator also doesn't seem to know what to think about Cohn because he is his friend. Cohn is also described as self-centered, shady with his intentions (mostly towards Brett, especially in San Sebastian), and an angry person. I may be missing something, but I have not seen a part yet where Cohn decided to do something for Jake that didn't benefit himself. So I come to the conclusion, which is quite possibly wrong, that Hemingway harbored some small feelings of antisemitism or racism that wound their way up in one of his characters. While Cohn seems to be a pig headed man with wavering loyalty, I do feel sorry for him and his plight.

The Title Is the Theme... whoa

I think the theme of the Sun Also Rises is that well, the sun also rises. In this novel, the characters have been hit with some pretty horrible things. Robert Cohn is connected to a girl he only partially love because he is afraid no one will except her, and then he falls in love with Brett. Jake Barnes, the author, has a bullet wound that plagues him even after the war and he cannot be with his love, Brett. Frances loves Cohn and wants to marry him but he sends her away. These are only a few of the characters whose lives have become miserable. So, I think the theme is that while the characters have had some pretty cruddy lives, all hope seems lost, the sun has set, and they are is a dark patch, the sun will rise and the characters will be able to finally move on to new and better things. Also, while I feel sorry for the characters and their unfortunate events, I thinks a lot of their pain was brought on by their unwillingness to move and their affinity of being drunk 99% of the time. I do hope, though, that in their "story world" they found happiness.

Desperate Measures (Ch. 21)

I was very surprised when I read that Rat Kiley shot himself in the foot. I am not surprised, however, that the war pushed him so far over the edge. Humans do not have a very high pain tolerance, and I think that only a very desperate man would go so far as to shoot himself. From personal experience, I am afraid to get shots still as a seventeen year old and I am afraid to use a needle to pull ticks out. Rat Kiley decided to shoot himself in the foot to escape from the Vietnam War which says a lot about the conditions he had been living in. For a person to shoot himself, the war must have been more terrible than the pain and the fight between his senses. Also, the decision must have been more difficult for Rat Kiley because he was a medic, someone who knew the chances of a deep infection that could potentially cost him his foot. Another scenario for Rate Kiley's situation I think is closer to the truth. I think Rat Kiley was so far gone from his senses, that he was not thinking like a human, soldier, and especially medic. I think he just wanted to be free from the suffering and from the land that was haunting his dreams. I don't think that he rationalized at all; I think he just did.