Cheever and O'Connor Comparisons

First of all, i have to say that these two stories - "The Swimmer" and "Good Country People" - were really weird. They were both stories about nothing and seemed like there was no point to them, that is, until you have completed reading the two works.

In "The Swimmer" i kept saying to myself, "Ok. So what's the point behind the story?" It seemed like it was just a simple tale about a drunk who came up with this crazy idea of being able to swim across an entire county by swimming from pool to pool (i could be wrong, but i think a lot of other people might have been thinking this as well while they were reading it). In the end we find out what Cheever was building up to which is the swimmer finally returning home to an abandoned house. He had been drinking so much that hadn't realized how much time had passed that his family left him. This was, to me, a complete surprise ending. i never saw that coming.

"Good Country People" was another weird story to read. This, Like "The Swimmer", started off as a pointless tale to me. But, in another surprise ending in which we find out the reality behind the boy selling the bibles, we can understand what O'Connor was building up to. It wasn't until the very end that I saw the whole point of the story.

I think the obvious similarity between the two stories is the way that they are structured. They both start out as seemingly pointless tales. But, after surprise endings in both, we see what the point was behind each authors story. In "The Swimmer", the man was so caught up in his drinking and trying to achieve his goal of swimming across the county, that he had lost track of what's really important to him - his family - and in the end, they leave him. it shows that life is only sweet when you have people you love around you. In "Good Country People" we discover that the point of O'Connor's work is that we must pay attention to what's in front of us and that we shouldn't judge a book by it's cover. Although someone or something may look harmless, they might actually be lying and deceitful. So, in that sense, the similarities in these to short stories is that we have to read to the very end to see what the message is behind each author's writing.

women

i think that Zora Neal Thurston portrays women in her story in a relatively poor way. throughout the entire novel Janie is treated as more so of a piece of property than she is treated like a person. her first husband was using her as basically a work horse. she would have to get up to work in the fields and still be able to have a hot meal on the table for her husband when he got home at the end of the day. Janie's first husband didn't actually care about her and she obviously never cared about him. the only reason that she stuck around for so long was because he kept telling her that after he was dead and gone that she would inherit all of his land (something like 60 acres). eventually she cannot take it anymore and runs off with Joe Starks, a rich man looking to make his mark in society. starks was different she thought. she married him because she actually loved him. although he did care for her at the start of their relationship, he ended up treating her the exact same as she had been treated by her previous husband. being the mayor of the town and all, starks felt that he was the alpha male and everytime that Janie would try and defend herself against him, he would demoralize her and eventually hit her to "put her in her place". starks dies and after her period of mourning she begins to fall for a younger man. teacake, she feels, treats her like a woman should be treated. although she loves him he begins to take the same shape as her two previous husbands when he hits her to prove a point that he is suppose to have the upper hand in the relationship. thurston portrays women in this novel as items, not as people, and i think that this is how women used to be treated in earlier years of our countries history.

The Battle of Two Confusing Poems: Stevens vs. Moore

Ok. The two poems i chose to compare and contrast were Wallace Stevens' "The Emperor of Ice-Cream" and Marianne Moore's "To a Snail". These two poems completely baffled my mind. i didn't understand what either poet was trying to say in either of their poems. The only two similarities i can clearly see between the two is that there really isn't any set rhyme scheme and that each poem confuses the hell out of every single person that dares to read the poems. In "The Emperor of Ice Cream" i can honestly say that i have no idea what exactly the message is that Stevens' is trying to get across here. I dont think that he is talking about ice cream because i dont see any references in the poem that resmeble anything about ice cream or making ice cream. in fact, the only lines in the poem that even mention ice cream are the final lines of each stanza that say "the only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream". Moore's poem is a little less confusing than the last one by Stevens, but i guess i just dont really understand why she is writing a poem about a snail. in this poem Moore compliments a snail's abilitly to contract and move without feet. So, i have found the difference between the two poems: i can actually understand what Moore is talking about as opposed to Stevens poem. Like in Stevens' poem, Moore's also has a lack of a rhyme scheme and i also dont really understand the overall message of her poem. Overall, these two poems just really confuse me because no matter how hard i think about it, i can not figure out what each poets overall message is in the their poem.

Elliot vs. Modernism

After reading T.S. Elliot's The Waste Land, I can see why people might object to calling him a true Modernist. When i started reading this work i was having trouble trying to grasp his whole concept behind this complicated poem. i think i now know what you meant when you said that this poem is difficult. But, to do this blog assisgnment i realized that we dont have to understand what Elliot is saying; i only have to pull out concepts which i thought would be related to a modernists' writing. The way we described modernism in class, i got the idea that modernism is based around certain ideas or priciples -- these ideas include violence in terms of a form of identity, the rise of technology, and the rise of the social class system. Right away one of those ideas can be thrown away in this poem because i cant recall one time in the text when technology had been mentioned. there is also no real mention of the class system here either. Because those two ideas are missing from this poem i can see why people might not look at Elliot as being a modernist. On the other side, people might classify Elliot as a modernist after reading this poem because this text is all about death and destruction -- it has an all around dark and sinister feel to it. right away, just from raeding the title of the the first chapter "the burial of the dead" we can sense something dark about it. in the last section of this first chapter the speaker walks through London that is populated by ghosts of the dead. again, the title of the fourth chapter is "death by water" and is a brief description of man's death by drowning. the first section of the final chapter is all about destruction. it talks about how famous cities are destroyed then rebuilt then destroyed again. because of this notion of violence in this poem, critics might classify Elliot as a modernist.

Zitkala Sa

While reading Zitkala Sa’s narrative I got many impressions. My first impression came during the first chapter title My Mother. Here, I got the impression that the Native Americans not only had a strong dislike for the Palefaces (Anglo-Americans), but also feared them a bit. “She pointed to the hill where my uncle and my only sister lay buried. ‘There is what the palefaces has done! Since then you father too has been buried in a hill nearer the rising sun. we were once very happy. But the paleface has stolen our lands and driven us hither. Having defrauded us of our land, the paleface forced us away’” (1009). This exerpt gave me this impression of fear and hate towards the white settlers of early America.

The next impression I got was in the third chapter titled The Beadwork. In this chapter I got the impression that the youth of the tribe really held their elders up high and respected them on the utmost level. “I remember well how we used to exchange our necklaces, beaded belts, and sometimes even our mochassins. We pretended to offer them as gifts to one another. We delighted in impersonating our own mothers. We talked of things we had heard them say in their conversations. We imitated their various manners, even to the inflection of their voices. In the lap of the prairie we seated ourselves upon our feet; and leaning our painted cheeks in the palms of our hands, we rested our elbows and knees, and bent forward as old women were most accustomed to do” (1012). I interpreted this as showing that the older one is in the tribe, the higher they were held amongst members and the wiser they were.

One last impression I got during Sa’s essay was that of respect for the dead. I got this impression from the fifth chapter titled The Dead Man’s Plum Bush and also from the quote I used earlier from chapter one. This impression was one that really jumped out at me, even more so than the obvious one’s such as the respect for nature that can be seen throughout all the chapters. Zitkala’s mother would not let her pluck a plum from a plum tree because buried underneath this particular plum tree was the remains of a fallen warrior. “’Never pluck a single plum from this bush, my child, for its roots are wrapped around an Indian’s skeleton. A brave is buried here. While he lived, he was so fond of playing the game of striped plum seeds that, at his death, he set of plum seeds were buried in his hands. From them sprang up this little bush’” (1015). This shows the true spirit of the Native American which is respect for your family, your tribe, the dead, and nature, which I believe is encompassed throughout these few chapters we read of Zitkala Sa’s work.

Washington Vs. Du Bois

In his speech at the Atlanta Exposition, Mr. Booker T. Washington states his claim for the Negro race. In this speech he claims that 1/3rd of the population of the south is of the Negro race and that, if given a chance in society, they will make a difference in a positive way; they would not be a burden. This rise of the Negro race as an equal in the American society would happen over time, not over night. Mr. Washington states that the White Population of America fears that the Negro population would ruin our society, but he begs to differ. "Nearly sixteen millions of hands will aid you in pulling the load upward, or they will pull against you the load downward. We shall constitute one-third and more of the ignorance and crime of the South, or one-third its intelligence and progress; we shall contribute one-third to the business and industrial prosperity of the South, or we shall prove a veritable body of death, stagnating, depressing, retarding every effort to advance the body politic" (762-763). This statement says that Mr. Washington agrees that if change isnt made soon towards the equal rights for the Negro race in the South, that they will become what everyone else fears: ignorance, crime, and death.

W.E.B. Du Bois, although he respects Mr. Washington's stand, disagrees with what he said at the Atlanta Exposition. Du Bois quotes this statement from Washington by saying that it was the most notable thing in Mr. Washington's career: "In all things purely social we can be as separate as the five fingers, and yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress" (885). This notion stated by Washington, Du Bois agrees with. But, there are other things from his speech that Du Bois does not agree with.

Mr. Washington's idea was to essentially surrender some civil and political rights in exchange for future considerations to larger chances of economic development for the Negro race. "Mr. Washington distinctly asks that black people give up, at least for the present, three things,--
First, political power,
Second, insistence on civil rights,
Third, higher education of the Negro youth,--" (889).

Du Bois completely disagrees with this (I do as well) because aren't those three things the basis of our equal rights in America right now? How can a major leader for the Negro race ask his people to give up essentially what it is that they are striving for all on the idea that it might, and i stress might, be beneficial in the long run? Du Bois goes on to say that members of this nation should feel that they have the right to ask for three things: 1. The right to vote 2. Civic Equality 3. The education of youth according to ability (890). But, my god, arent these the three things that Washington asks his race to give up for the time being? I now see where the bitterness of Du Bois and the Negro race comes from towards Mr. Washington's speech at the Atlanta Exposition.

Regionalism Story

She awoke to the annoying beep of the weather alert on TV; she had fallen asleep to it 6 hours before. Yet another winter weather advisory in Monroe and Chataqua Counties. They had been feeling the torment of the the lake effect snow showers for the past 2 months. She looked at her clock -- it read 7:22 AM. She watched nervously while waiting to see her schools name pass along the bottom of the screen, signaling it being closed. She paced back and forth as she heard the names of Jamestown, Dunkirk, and Silvercreek schools closing. She grimaced at the sound of the names of Buffalo institutions being shut down. "Of course my school is the only one in Western New York that would remain open," she thought to herself. Then, in a moment of pure glee, there it was: Fredonia High School -- Closed! She slumped back into bed with a feeling of joyness and warmth. She was going to do absolutely nothing for the rest of the day. Pulling the covers over her body she snuggled herself tight in the sheets. She fell asleep with a huge smile on her face. All of a sudden she woke to the same regurgitating beep she had heard only moments ago. "What's going on?" she thought, "I already heard the winter weather advisory and saw the closing of schools." She sat up and watched again as the names of schools passed along the bottom of the screen. There flashed Jamestown, Dunkirk, and Silvercreek schools. Next came the names of Buffalo schools. "Ok, Fredonia should be next," she thought. But, her school never came. She jumped out of bed and grabbed the remote, switching the tube to another local news station. Still no sign of Fredonia schools closing. She looked at the clock and watched in horror as it passed from 7:22 to 7:23 AM. It was then that she realized that it had all been a vicious dream.