CM 1120

I felt that is was most fitting to have my last blog post to be about the class I'm doing this for. I have nothing negative to say about this course, I quite enjoyed it. It allowed all of us to get a grasp on the expectations that are placed on us in university level English courses, with reading the stories and poem before class, and being prepared to discuss in class.

One of the things that caught me off-guard in this course though, would be the fact that we had to construct this blog. I had never heard of any course having this type of evaluation before, unless I just never paid attention before. I must admit that at first I didn't really like the idea of having to write 10 posts and allowing other people to openly comment on them. I  was also apprehensive about having to comment on five other people's posts. But after starting to write and getting the hang of things, I began to enjoy it. It allows us to openly give our opinions about the stories and poems we have read, the fact that we could openly dislike something was refreshing. It was refreshing because in high school they pretty much told us to suck it up and we couldn't quite voice our opinions like we can here.

The stories and poems we read, for the most part, were interesting. I wonder, though, why a good deal of the reading material had the subject of death or loneliness in it someway or another. It almost seems as though all the good writers were depressed or something. As for the essays, I have come to terms with the fact that they are going to follow me everywhere I go. This course has taught me to deal with it in the best way possible, which is be prepared. As well, all of the editing assignments has made me more conscious of the mistakes I make in my everyday writing. (Even though sometimes no one can tell)


So I would like to end this post by saying that I enjoyed this course, and this blog. The freedom to truly say what we want about any piece of writing is awesome (the only word I can think of at the moment to describe it). I also feel that this course has helped many of us become better editors of our work, and other people's work for that matter. I could probably keep rambling on in my normal fashion, but I shall cut it off by saying I hope the students after us have the same appreciation for this course as many of us have gained.

Writing In-Class Essays

I used to dread it when any teacher faced the class and told us that we were going to have to write an essay. I especially hated it when the essays were supposed to be in-class. To me, it was so unjust to only give us 50 minutes to try and write a coherent essay and make it worthwhile to read when it was finished. I don't know about you, but I love to be able to look over my work a few times and correct every little mistake and make sure it's up to par. In-class essays, I feel, were made to punish us. Of course I felt this way until I got into this English course.

In-class essays aren't as daunting now as they were before, I'm guessing it's probably because I actually prepare for them before I go to write them. In high school I used to go into the essay completely unprepared, I admit it, I never did any pre-writing for most stuff. So when I got into the classroom I'd be writing the whole period and I still wouldn't be finished because new ideas were constantly flowing in my head, and I felt that I had to write them down somewhere/somehow. Now I realize that when you have the outline and everything pretty much written out writing the essay is actually simple. When the paper is now placed in front of me I look at it as a challenge, not to write whatever flows into my head, but instead to write a good essay from the notes that I worked on the night before.

I would like to take a guess that I am not the only one that feels this way now. The CM1120 course has opened our eyes to new and more mature ways of going about an essay. We now have to prepare if we want to come out of the classroom with a good grade on our essays. So this has been my little, I shall call it a rant, on writing in-class essays.

Serotonin

When you read this story you get the affects of using drugs/drinking without even touching anything. The structural techniques that Russell Smith employed were ingenious. It allows the readers to "feel" what the characters feel.

The whole story spans one night in the life of a teen who, along with his girlfriend and friends, take illegal drugs and drink as they get ready to go out to a bar. The setting is as follows;

-First they are at a bar
- Next it's before the bar and they are on their way to Doke's (drug dealer)
-They are all back at the bar and it's 2am
-Flashes back to when they were all in Doke's apartment
-Back at the bar and it's now 5:45am
-Then we see Jason talking to Sherry (his girlfriend)
-Then they are finally leaving the bar at 6:23am

The author probably wrote it this way to symbolize blacking out for periods of time. I believe this because we don't have an account for what happened for all the night, we are only allowed to see bits and pieces, just like someone who took the drugs would remember the night.

During the course of the story we are allowed an inside view of what is going on in Jason's mind as he battles his feelings for Emily, all the while his girlfriend is on the sidelines watching it all happen. Jason has an attraction to Emily but he justifies this by saying "This is just serotonin". He is trying to blame his indiscretions on the drugs, which could probably produce this effect. Yet after his "wild" night he calls it quits because the night has "transformed" him. He doesn't want to feel conflicting emotions anymore and this solidifies his reason for "quitting" drugs.

So the structural techniques employed plus being able to "see into" Jason's mind allows us to piece together how drugs alter our perception as well as play tricks on our short term memory. I must admit, at first, I didn't like the story but when I realized that the structure was purposely made to mimic black outs, I found a new respect for it. Not everyone can create a story like this and actually be successful with it. So altogether I learned to like this story

The Red Convertible

I enjoyed reading the story "The Red Convertible" by Louise Erdich. Everything that she added into the story fit and made sense. I especially like how she wove the red convertible into the story, it's quite symbolic of the relationship between Lyman and his brother, Henry. I also like how it shows the issue of PTSD, with regards to Henry. This story actually reminded me of another we have previously read in class, "Stones".

Lyman and Henry were almost inseparable before Henry went to war. They bought a red convertible together and that summer they took a road trip to wherever they felt like. During this roadtrip we are able to see the characterization of Henry as a life-loving, happy-go-lucky guy. It seems as though he has no care in the world and he never will. But when he returns, with his brother, from the trip he finds out that he has been drafted to go to war. After he returns from he war he is a completely changed person, he is no longer happy, he sits in front of the television biting his lip until it bleeds and he won't talk to anyone. Lyman, knowing that his brother loves the convertible, goes and beats up the car he kept in perfect condition so that his brother could go and fix it. Lyman knows that if Henry starts to fix the car then maybe he will turn back into his normal self. So once Henry fixes the car, grabs takes his brother and a case of beer and drives to the high water. So they get there and they drink and get into a little scrap which they later joke about. After this Henry jumps into the river and is swept away by the current, we can deduce that he committed suicide. So Lyman knowing that Henry isn't coming back, takes the car, puts it in neutral and allows the car to drive into the river, dying like Henry died.

So with this back story we can assume that the red convertible is very symbolic of the relationship between the brothers. It first symbolizes the bond of friendship bewteen the two brothers, they both bought it together and took equal care of it. Then is soon becomes symbolic of Henry's demise and also of how Lyman lets go of his brother.  Lyman went and beat the car to a pulp which represents how Henry's emotional state was when he returned. Then when Lyman allowed the car to roll into the river it was symbolic of his letting go of not only the car, but his brother as well.

This story, along with "Stones" , highlights the issues that arise from PTSD. Both Henry and David Max have been through war and have suffered with PTSD, though they both dealt with it differently. Henry committed suicide, we assume, and David Max became a drunk

So I truly loved reading this story, I can't quite exactly pinpoint one reason why I loved this story.

The Lamp at Noon

When I read this story, written by Sinclair Ross, all I could think about was the Great Depression/ drought of the 1930's. During this time so many people were suffering and not much could be done. People's livelihoods were taken away from them; either by the bank, or the unyielding dry weather. So when I read this I could imagine how Ellen, the wife, was feelings about everything that was happening at that moment in time. But I could also see Paul's point of view and why he wanted to stick it out and persevere.


Paul, like most farmers during that time, knew of nothing else but their fields. It was their livelihoods and they weren't about to give it up, even though there was nothing left. The picture below shows the extent of the drought, and probably what Paul and Ellen were dealing with. In the story, Paul was overly confident in the land because he believed things were going to get better, the drought would end, and he would be able to replant his crops. He had grown up on the farm and knew what to expect. Whereas Ellen doesn't believe/ have confidence in the land. She had grown up in a lavish lifestyle where she never had to deal with droughts or depressions. She led a sheltered life and didn't know how to face adversity.


I felt that this story highlighted the people's feelings about the drought/ Great Depression very well. Though it wasn't mentioned in the story, the great depression was "alive" during this time which added to Ellen and Paul's worries. I did like reading this story because it allowed us to peer into the lives of the people that were living during this time period.

Falling in Place

This short story was so confusing I contemplated not finishing it, even though it is short. The shifting narration is enough for anyone to lose interest or lose grip of what is actually going on within the story. I know that the author is trying to show how an event can affect many people in different ways, but they could have done it in such a way that it would be easier to follow along and understand.

This short story is about an international student named Su Lin who commits suicide one night by lying down on a train track with a train on its way. Before she decided to end her life so violently she was studying music at a university, where her first recital went splendidly. A young man soon fell in love with her, and she reluctantly went out with him (she felt that she didn't have enough time for a relationship). Soon after this she became overwhelmed with her studies and became ill, we are lead to believe that it is a mental sickness. Soon after this she decides to commit suicide.

The author switches perspectives because he wants us, the readers, to understand that when it comes to a bunch of people going through the same traumatic event we are all connected. So in this story the mechanic, who was driving on the road and saw/heard the train screech to a stop, the boyfriend of Su Lin (who heard about the accident in a cafe), the engineer of the train who tried to stop in time, the woman who was doing laundry and cutting her rose bushes, and maybe others (I can't tell) were the characters from who we gathered the story from. These people do not know each other but they are all alike, with respect to being a witness to the accident, and therefore they are all now connected.

This is all I can think of to write about this story due to the fact that I didn't fully comprehend it at first and because I didn't enjoy it. All I can say is that I hope I wasn't the only one that was confused by this story.

Hills Like White Elephants

I did not enjoy the short story "Hills Like White Elephants", by Enrest Hemingway. I don't know if it was the point of view, which was dramatic, the use of symbolism, or just the story as a whole that threw me off. When we started reading it in class I had no clue what was going on, I certainly didn't jump to the conclusion that the woman, named Jig, was planning on having an abortion.

The whole story goes like this;
"What did you say?"
"I said we could have everything."
"We can have everything."
"No, we can't"
"We can have the whole world."
"No, we can't"

We don't know who is speaking to whom, all we know is it's two people bickering back and forth. To me I would rather know who is talking to who, maybe it would help me understand the story a bit more. Maybe this was the style of writing back in 1927, I don't know, all I do know is I don't like it.


One of the main symbols within the story would be the hills. One is barren and dry, looks like white elephants, and the other side is lush and green. With me not knowing what the story is about, I couldn't jump to the conclusion that the one side is symbolizing a Buddhist belief and the other is symbolizing having a child. The Buddhist's believe that a white elephant is symbolic of wisdon on the eve of giving birth, which would tie in to this story and how Jig is trying to decide whether or not to have an abortion. But if you never knew this you were trying to figure out what white elephants had to do with anything, like I was trying to figure out. To make it even more confusing, when Jig went and placed her bags at the fertile side, it meant nothing to me because I didn't understand what was going on.


So I truly didn't like this story, and I'm not a person who doesn't like many stories. I just feel that I was completely thrown off by the symbolism and the way it was written as a whole.





(This is a white elephant)

Stones

The short story "Stones" by Timothy Findley shows us a side of the war that most people pushed to the wayside in the 1940's. The story opens up during the 1940's and World War Two. To make a long story short, Ben's father returns from war and is a completely changed man. He used to be very loving, easy to get along with, and he never used profanity in the presence of his children. Now he is easily angered, constantly uses profanity, drinks profusely, he broke Ben's collar bone when he threw him of his bed, and he tried to beat Ben's mother with a hammer when the children were away. The children feel as though they are walking on eggshells around their father and the mother just tried to deal with it for the sake of her children. When Ben is older and beings to realize what happened to his father he becomes sympathetic (even after everything that his father had done to him). Ben finds out that his father was in the Dieppe raid that ended in disaster. He also found out that his father was supposed to lead a unit of soldiers in the second wave to hit the beach, but upon seeing the carnage he froze and then when the landing craft was bombed his father; took off his uniform, jumped on a British ship and when that got bombed he stayed with those people. He eventually was shipped to Britain and then sent back to Canada where he was dishonourably discharged and sent home in disgrace. Due to this his father was no longer the same and his family had to deal with his wrath and pent up anger, frustration, and sense of failure.

Now the story is written from the first person perspective of Ben. He is writing in retrospect about everything that happened to his family from shortly before his father left for war, and the aftermath of his father returning from war. The way he looks back without anger towards his father is amazing. His father became a violent man when he came back from war, he went as far as becoming abusive to his wife and children but Ben never blamed him for it. Actually Ben was the only person his father had left shortly before he died, he never left his father's side once. To me that shows the Ben understood why his father did what he did, it also shows how dedicated Ben was to his father.




I feel as though this story shows us the "ugly" side of the soldiers returning home back then. Many of the soldiers, like Ben's father, had to deal with Post traumatic stress disorder. Post traumatic stress disorder is stated in the Webster Merriam dictionary as being: a psychological reaction occurring after experiencing a highly stressing event (as wartime combat, physical violence, or a natural disaster) that is usually characterized by depression, anxiety, flashbacks, recurrent nightmares, and avoidance of reminders of the event —abbreviation PTSD —called also post-traumatic stress syndrome. This disorder completely takes over some people's lives and they are never the same again. During the time period that this story takes place having this disorder was probably a sign of weakness and post people wouldn't seek help to try and overcome it.


I believe that the reason Thomas Findley wrote this story was to open people's eyes about this disorder and the fact that not all reunions, between soldiers and families, are necessarily these happy, joyous occasions. Some soldiers leave for war and never fully return, yes they are back in body, but they aren't themselves anymore. It's very unfortunate but it's the way life is.


I should probably go on to talk about the poetic devices used within this story, but I feel as though the message behind it outweighs what poetic devices were used.

Dead Man's Path

Dead Man's Path, written by Chinua Achebe is a wonderful example of how ignorant some people can be towards other people's cultures and beliefs.

First of all I would like to point out that Chinua Achebe was born in the 1930's in Ogidi, Nigeria. He experienced the effects of the imposing western culture on the African societies. Both of his parents were converts to the evangelical Protestant faith. They were mindful of the traditions of their culture but never practiced them. So many of the things he writes about he has knowledge on since he saw it happen. It allows us, the readers, to try and grasp what actually went on during apartheid.

In this story we are introduced to Michael Obi, who is a young man who just recently was awarded the job of headmaster at Ndume Central School. The year is 1949 and he feels as though the school needs to be modernized and brought up to standard. So he and his wife set out to  do this by planting a garden within the school compound as well as trying to heighten the standard of teaching. While the second goal wasn't much of an issue, the first one turned out to cause a problem. The problem was that one day Michael watched an old woman from the village hobble across the school compound, through a marigold bed, and go off into the bushes on the other side. Michael had no clue that this path is connecting the village shrine with the villagers' place of burial. So Michael sets out to block the path by setting up a blockade of sorts. Soon he is visited by the village elder asking for the path to be re-opened because it's where the dead relatives depart, their ancestors visit by it, and it's also the path of children coming in to be born. The village elder goes on to explain that is has been there for generations and if the issue is not rectified something bad is going to happen.  Michael ignores this and wakes up two days later with all of his work in shambles, the hedges were torn up, the flower beds trampled, and part of the school was ripped down. The mayhem was caused by the villagers trying to appease the ancestors insulted by the fence, since a young woman died during childbirth.  On top of that the supervisor came and inspected the school and wrote a bad report but also added that  a "tribal-war situation" was " developing between the school and the village, arising in part from the misguided zeal of the new headmaster."

I believe that in writing this story, Chinua, was trying to tell people that ancient traditions can't be changed. That just because you want people to change their tradtions and beliefs doesn't mean that they are actually going to. Michael Obi was so blinded with his intense reasoning of having to convert the people of the village, that it ultimately back fired on him. Michael Obi is symbolic of the western civilization during apartheid, and the village people are representative of the whole of Africa. Western idea and beliefs were pushed on the African people and some rebelled.

So the main reason I like this story so much is because we see the village prevail. The western civilization wasn't the one to comeout as the victor in the case. I strongly believe that every culture should be able to practice their traditions without other people judging them or trying to change them. I feel that this is also the message Chinua is trying to put across to the western people.

My Misstress' Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
     And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
     As any she belied with false compare.

I personally love this sonnet by the famous writer William Shakespeare. The message that it is getting across to its readers is still pertinent to today's society.

This sonnet was written to poke fun at the other writers of Shakespeare's time. Shakespeare saw how most all of the other writers were characterizing the women in their writings as these beautiful, goddess-like people who didn't have a thing wrong with them.  Most of the time these females characters were completely fictitious, or in other words, a re-creation of what the writer thought was the "perfect" female. So Shakespeare wrote this sonnet in jest of these other writers. As well, this sonnet is from a collection of sonnets he wrote, this particular sonnet is from a series of sonnets within the collection named the "Dark Lady Sequence".


When we read this sonnet we all probably immediately thought that the narrator was disgusted by his mistress since he was speaking so ill of her. For examples he says "If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head",  this is simply saying that her hair is coarse and black. Most of us would be appalled if our lover/ significant other came up to us and said our hair looks like wires! The narrator also goes on to say that;
- Her cheeks have no colour in them
- Her breath reeks
- That he doesn't like the sound of her voice
- And that she treads on the ground

We, the readers, get the feeling that the narrator has nothing good to say about his mistress, and we also feel as though he possible doesn't have any positive feelings towards her. Yet when we read the last two lines, "  And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare/ As any she belied with false compare." completely throw us of our previous thinking. Once we read this it all makes sense. The entire poem was about how the narrator doesn't feel the need to lie about how his mistress looks. He knows that she isn't beautiful and never will be, but he's okay with that fact. He loves her for who she is, not how she looks.

This is the main reason I love this sonnet is because it makes people take a step back and think about the message of this poem. Love is blind, or at least it should be, if you love someone you shouldn't care what they look like. People should love you for who you are as a person, not what you look like! I feel as though that message is carried strongly within this poem.