southern literature and brian

2006-05-01T22:09:00.000-04:00

In the book that we have been reading, I have noticed many new things that we have not seen in the books that we have read in the class. Mainly it revolves around the mental and physical abuse of Bone. It kind of put a downer on the book for me because I am not a fan of stories of people going through these experiences especially children like Bone. In our last homework assignment we had to read about Bone's friend Shannon Pearl. I felt that having her in the story gave the book a little more interest in my eyes. I liked how the author, Allison decided to give us a little story aside from Bone's problems. I liked how even Shannon was a middle class child, she was still Bone's equal because Shannon was not the prettiest and Bone was poor. Another thing that I liked about the passage is how the author described Shannon's parents -how they were religious and how they didn't give the right amount of attention to Shannon and her needs. One line that I liked was in the describtion of Shannon's parents looked. "They looked like children in adult clothes (their parents clothes). It humored me when I got the visual of how that would look. It made the story a little more interesting and it tied in well with the rest of the story.

2006-04-25T22:05:00.000-04:00

In the poem Hunting Civil War Relics at Nimblewill Creek by James Dickey, It seemed as if I was in the junkyard of cars with the main character. Dickey's words really got me into the poem to make it seem as if I was there. Everything that he wrote made it seem as if i could see what he was seeing. The image and colors of the cars and how they looked with the rust. Once again he talks about the sexual incounters that he experienced in his poem. With his descripted words you could tell that he had sex with his girlfriend there and how much the moments that he shared with her meant to him and how he will cherish them forever. That is the reason why he will never forget Cherrylog Road.

2006-04-18T22:44:00.000-04:00

I enjoyed the story called "Revelation". I thought it was very interesting how you can get drawn in by the personalities of the characters in the story. Every single one of them were very unique. The one character that I really liked was Mrs. Turpin. I thought that she was very unusual and interesting. She seemed to bring out a little part each character by just bringing up a conversation with them. I also that it was interesting how she brought religion to her side of the story, it made it different and it gave the story a more creative approach to tell a story.

2006-04-10T16:55:00.000-04:00

Today during the oral presentations I learned many new things. One thing that I learned was the difference between cayjon and creole(spelling is most likly wrong). One was a one-potted meal and the other has a french style to it. I thought that they were both the samething. I did not know that they were separtated by rich and poor peoples recipes that they have had passed down through their families. In another presentation I learned that the south is not just about country music, there are many different styles of music that originated in the south. I also noticed that just like with my topics focus on rednecks, country music is also trying to be more commercialized and is trying to be more open and popular. Overall, I thought that all the presentations have been outstanding with very interesting facts about the south and its people.

2006-04-04T21:08:00.000-04:00

In the story A Good Man is Hard to Find, I was a little lost with O'Connor's ideas and thoughts on how this story is set up. By this I mean, why is the mother just an object on the outsides of the story? Why does the story revolve around the grandmother and her interpretations on people and places? I found the story a little confusing and a feeling unsatisfication with the story. On the other hand, I found the story different and unique from the ones that we have read so far and I can not find another story that I can compair to it.

2006-03-28T14:29:00.000-05:00

Comparing and contrasting the book to the movie for a Streetcar Named Desire, I have noticed that the movie uses less vulgar words to please the audience of the movie for when it first came out. Also, i have noticed that the movie shows more feeling, mainly because a reader can't get much emotion from stage directions. Personally, I like the movie interpretation more than the book, mainly because it makes it easier on the viewer with the actors facial expressions and the way they show emotion towards each other. I also think that the movie gives the story more to it than what the play-write could on paper. This could also be true because the story is meant for a play, not a book. This would naturally make it a more visual story that is shown to you, rather then making you try to interpret it for yourself.

2006-03-20T16:57:00.000-05:00

I enjoyed this book. I believe that Hurston wrote a great book discussing a woman and her independence. I noticed how the author expressed the feelings toward segregation and of it affected people in that time period. I also saw the struggle of one woman went through so much drama to find a true love, one that met her needs. I thought that the main character was an unbelieveable person that shaped the story to make it a more interesting story. It made it worth reading, to find out what she would do next and what was going to happen to her when she met up with her next problem. It was an over-all good book.

2006-03-13T21:55:00.000-05:00

I enjoyed both stories "The Ethics of Living Jim Crow" and "How it Feels to be Colored Me". With Richard Wright's story, he uses an external view of how racism and segregation has played a major role in his life. I like how he explains how he uses experiences for survival so that he can make it in the world around him. In Hurston's story, I enjoyed how she brought up a different way of looking at the situation, as compared to Wright's point of view were he brought segregation up in his daily life-(he faced it). With Hurston, she skated around every situation dealing with segregation. It made the story more interesting. I liked the way that these stories compared and contrasted against each other.

2006-02-28T14:25:00.000-05:00

I have notice in the last homework reading, that all of these stories are about changing into the new ways of the south. In the book Go Down, Moses, they said how the old south was disappearing. In these new stories (like the Circus and the Witness), the characters talk about the mythology of the south and the history of how the south once was. The way it identifies this is by having older characters that say to the younger characters , "thats not the way to act , when i was a kid we did it this way." This way you notice the differences in the stories of how the south once was and how they the characters are dealing with the adjustment to the new ways of the south.

2006-02-21T21:37:00.000-05:00

The story of the bear, i believe was a two sided story. Not only was it about hunting this bear and the importance of the wild, but also it was about the ending of an "era". The story shows importance in the history in of the old south and how it changed from being the old nature and wilderness ways to industry era formations. When Old Ben dies, it shows the end of the old south. It shows that now that he is dead, we must move on to something new. He was a legend and now he is gone. It is time for something else to become important. Thats what I thought about the story.

2006-02-15T10:40:00.000-05:00

I thought the story about rider was really good. The only problem I had with the story was that he really had nothing to do with the rest of the characters in the book. Therefore it seemed like we didn't get to really know him before he dies. It felt like his story started in a slump in his life (his wife died). Then from there it seemed like he kept bringing himself lower and lower as the story went on. Throughout the story as I was reading it, I noticed how he was setting himself up for these things and there i was saying to myself "O man, don't do it." , it was as if I was cheering him on to do things right, (but he didn't end up doing what I wanted him to do.) I also thought the Faulkner put this story in, just to get a change up in the line of chapters and I enjoyed it. I felt like Rider's life was cut short and I wanted to know more about him, but thats not how the chapter in the book was written.

2006-02-07T13:59:00.000-05:00

Desiree's Baby was an interesting story. It is a story about "passing", which means being black with skin light enough to be considered white. Desiree was brought into a family that did not know Desiree's background. They just assumed that she was white. But when she had a baby with her husband that knows his blood-line of his family history, things go a little crazy because the baby is bi-racial. Later Desiree drowns herself and her baby. The problem with this story is that Desiree was not half black, therefore her husband must have had a black ancestor in his family. This is a twisted story because after the husband yelled and blamed Desiree for being half-black, which made her kill herself. He in turn was the one who had the "one drop rule" in his family.

2006-02-01T21:41:00.000-05:00

After reading Fredrick Douglass' first person account on "basically" the story of his early life, I couldn't get past the whole slave situation that he told. I felt a saddness just reading the beginning of his writing. An example is how he didn't know even know his actual age. The slave owners wouldn't let there slaves know how old they were because it would lead them to think that they were old enough to move on and stop working as a slave. Another thing is how the slave owners would have sexual relations with their slaves and then sell their love children into slavery to stop conflict with the children. Meaning the children not wanting to work because their dad was the master. Also, they sold these children because a child that is half white is worth more money. To be honest, I thought that was a great attention-grabber to get me interested in the story, but i felt that it was very sad to hear that Douglass went through something like that at such an early age.

2006-01-24T15:02:00.000-05:00

When i read John Pendleton Kennedy's "Swallow Barn" and "A Country Gentleman" , i noticed that the author mainly talks about the details of the environment in the south. Yes there is a story line that he follows but all i notice about his works is the detail in what he is describing.

2006-01-23T12:17:00.000-05:00

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