Through out this semester of school I have definitly learned a lot going from the 19th to the 20th century. Learning about ancient greek drama, Russian fiction, poetry, and all the different types of plays. The plays were harder for me to understand but getting into groups in class and discussing it in class really helped. I thought the stories we read were more interesting then the plays. I defintly learned and took a lot more out of the stories such as A clean well lighted place, A doll's house, and the yellow wallpaper. In a clean well lighted place it made me realize that you can not judge people before getting to know them. One of the waiters was constantly on the old man's case about him staying at the cafe late and how he wanted to just go home. The old man was unhappy and even tried to kill himself and by the waiters attitude im sure did not help him at all. In A Doll's House, it changed my outlook on womens role in society. It has changed so much from the nineteenth century to now. Women were seen more as what they refered to as an "ornament." It was looked down for women to work. They were supposed to be a stay at home mom, watch the kids, and make sure dinner was ready for the husband by the time he came home from work. Today it has changed from women rapidly entering the work place. Women have started their own business and are financially supporting themselves. However, most women are still able to be a mother and have a career also. It is amazing to see how roles of women changed through out the years. Who knows how it will be in ten years. Lastly in The Yellow Wallpaper, not many people would have the response to what I got out of the story. What it made me realize was how John never gave up on his wife. He knew she was mentally unstable but he did not just drop and leave her. He stuck by her when times got rocky. Not many guys would do this. Although, I think he did baby her a little too much but it could have been for her own good knowing she was mentally unstable. We only read the story from her point of view, it could have been totally different if we read it from his point of view. His actions probably would have made better sense. Over all I think it is important for us to learn about all these different litearatures because it opens up to a new enviorment. It opens us up to a level of deeper thought,expanding our minds to help teach us new ways of seeing the world. We read literature to discover and to learn about ideas and we write it to discover and to cultivate our own ideas. Overall I have learned a lot from taking this course. It has definitly made me realize a lot reading these several stories, poems, and plays.

Oedipus

In my opinion, I think Oedipus is a tragic figure being under the control of gods or not. He is a king who falls apart when he finds out his whole life story. Aristotle says that a tragic hero must be an important or influential man who makes an error in judgment, and who must then suffer the consequences of his actions. Toward the end of the play he realizes that the oracle was right, he had killed his father and married his mother. It was not his intentions to do any of this. He had ran into his father at a crossroad and out of self defense had killed him. Oedipus did not know who his mother was so when he had married the widow and had children, he did not realize until much later that she was his mother. Who knows if the play would have changed if he new who his parents were but then again the oracle always came true.

A Doll's House

In my opinion the theme of A Doll's house is The Sacrificial Role of Women. Even though men refuse to sacrifice their integerity, thousands of women have. In this play it gives a good example of this. In order for Mrs. Linde to support her mother and two brothers,she found it necessary to abandon Krogstad. Her true but penniless love, and marry a richer man. The nanny had to abandon her own child to support herself by working as Nora's (and then as Nora's children's) caretaker. As she tells Nora, the nanny considers herself lucky to have found the job, since she was “a poor girl who'd been led astray.” Society dictates that Torvald be the dominant partner in their marriage so Nora hides the loan from him. He could never accept the fact that Nora had helped save his lfe. Nora then works in secret to pay off her loan because it is illegal for a woman to obtain a loan without her husband's permission. I think it is called A Doll's House because he has treated her like a doll, to be played with and admired. This causes her to leave him so she can “make sense of herself and everything around her.

Good Student

Coming up with a play was not as easy as I thought it would be. The first problem we came across was a plot. We had to figure out the challenges and situations we wanted the good student to go through. We had to make sure our point was clear and that it made sense. Getting the plot down was the hardest part but once we got that, everything else seemed to come together. It was difficult to get a situation about procrastination because we did ours based off of saw. So it turned out to be brutal because thats how all those movies are but our situation fit perfectly with procrastination. The situation was the good student is nailed to the ground and above him is a swinging saw. In order to escape he has to push the buttons by his hand but everytime he pushes it, it crushes his hand. The saw drops lower and lower by the seconds slowly cutting him so he can not procrstinate and wait to push the buttons. He has to decide to crush his hands or slowly die.

Poem Response

One of the poems I found most challenging was "Let me not to the marriage of true minds" by William Shakesphere. You really have to pick apart each sentence and break down every word then put it back together to really understand what he is trying to say about true love. There are many metaphors he uses in this sonnett such as when he talks about "...the star to every wandering bark," you have to translate that bark is meaning ship, meaning the ships look to the stars for guidance. Stars never dissapear just like true love. It is something that is always constant. Just by that one line and translating it, you get so many different meanings to it and a real understanding of what the sonnett is all about.

"Respice Finem"

Looking up the definiton to "Respice Fine," it means "look at the end." This is something Ivan definitly did. Toward the end of his life he started to look at the beginning of his life. In the beginning, Ivan Ilych's life was somewhat pleasant, but still some loneliness inside him. Later when he becomes sick, he begins to realize he can not escape death. He also realizes he doesnt have any good friends. They dont really care about him dying they are more fixated on who gets his job or his promotion. With your family, you dying shouldnt be putting your family out of misery where they can be happier now. It seems it should be the opposite. You shoudnt have to wait until you are on your death bed to notice you didnt live a good successful life.

"Ivan Ilych's life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible."

Because Ivan set his life to be simple and ordinary, it led to something terrible. Ivan wanted a more successful job that pays more, but when he got the job it caused him to have problems with his wife and family but he just choose to ignore it. I think it also goes back to "money cant buy happiness." He focuses in so much on his career and exceeding in it, he just settles for his wife because he thought it would be a good career move. In the end he realized he could have done more promising things in his life and him dying will put his family out of misery. He also realizes that he has no close friends and know one really cares that he is dying.

Unreliable Narration: "The Yellow Wallpaper"

The story of "The Yellow Wallpaper," was told through an unreliable narration. I think a lot of narrators do this to help us better connect with the characters and allow you to have a common bond with them. In "The Yellow Wallpaper," since it is told in first person, you are getting the information from one person. You get the point of view from her perspective and how she feels about the other characters in the story. The downfall is, it limits the information given about John or his sister. If the story was told through John, everything would been completely different. It would have given you an outward look on how he views her and his thoughts and logic of how he is trying to make her better. Having the story told with an unreliable narrator helps you get insight on their thoughts and feelings and lets you know the character better.

The Yellow Wallpaper

The story of, The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is about a lady named Else and her husband John. The story is told through her journal entries that she is secretly writing because John doesn't think it is good for her. They rent out a house where Else can get better. Else is mentally unstabble and you learn throughout the story she is slowly getting worse and worse. In my opinion it sounds like the room they are renting out is already a mental insitution. The bed is nailed to the ground, there are bite marks on the bed posts, the windows are made for no one to get out, and the yellow wallpaper is all cracked. She stays up late at night just looking at the wallpaper and saying how much she hates it. Towards the end of the story she starts imaginning a lady shaking the wallpaper from behind. I think her being indoors so much didnt help her get better, it just made her more sick. She rips down the wallpaper which makes her feel free of John and his sister Jennie. He then faints as a reaction to her behavior. This shows that even when she is "free" he is still in her way. Looking at this story in first person you experience a lot of confussion. You only get one perspective on things which hear happens to be from a mentally ill person.

Chrysanthemums

In the story "The Chrysanthemums," by John Steinbeck,it signifies a lot. The two main characters in this short story being Henry Allen and Elisa Allen whom are married. Elisa seems satisfied in her marriage but doesn't seem too happy. The chrysanthemums are very pretty flowers but smell bitter. This compares to Elisa because she is masculine and is covered in a layer of clothes. The flowers are like her children that she doesn't have. She is protective of them, cares, and nurtures for them as well. When the old man comes along he asks about her chrysanthemums, saying a lady along the road wanted some. Her attitude then changes. She can not hide her excitement and becomes more confident and shows interest in him. She then takes a layer of clothing off which reveals more of her femininity and also shows weakness. By the old man showing interest in her flowers she reluctantly finds a pot for him to fix. On her way to town with her husband she sees her pot on the ground and shows weakness by hiding her face and crying. This can also signify the flowers and how they are weak and frail. The flowers still need to be nurtured to help them grow, just like Elisa needs her husband to help her grow.

A clean, well lighted place

My inital reaction to the story was more of a dissapointment. It made me feel really bad for the old guy, he isnt happy with his life and just wants a quiet place to drink and hangout. The younger waiter is saying to him how he should have just killed himself last week. In my opinion he is being selfish and just wants to leave the cafe early and is only worrying about his own feelings while the older waiter is more understanding and is telling him he should have let him stay. He seems to think that since he has a lot of money he shouldn't have problems or any worries but in reality know one is ever free of problems. The only question I have about the story is why the old man is so unhappy and tried to commit suicide?

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