The Story of an Hour

Paragraph five pays a lot of attention to the external images because, the author tries to show us for ever life taken there is life given. It makes the life spring out of the story with the way she writes that paragraph. In paragraph seven "suspension of intelligent thought" was the author's way of showing Mrs. Mallard feelings on the verge of crying. In paragraph 11 Mrs. Mallard says under her breath, "Free, free, free!" This is somewhat the opposite of the earlier passage i described. My favorite passage in this story all of paragraph 5 because it shows so much life and imagery in it.

A Rose For Emily

The narrator of William Faulkner’s story A Rose For Emily is not officially mentioned. However, there are hints throughout the story as to who the narrator is. The narrator appears to be a third party observer in the town. The narrator influences the story’s development by telling us what happened in the past and present, changing the tone to be sometimes positive and sometimes negative. Once Miss Emily dies and is put to rest, the townspeople enter her home and find her husband’s, Homer, dead body in her bed. It was obvious by the indent in her pillow with her hair on it that she had been sleeping next to her dead husband for years. It is apparent in the text stating, “Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer” (Faulkner), that she did this to Homer because she was ashamed of herself for loving him and knew their relationship would not be accepted because of her high social status and his low social status. So she killed him and kept his body so she could keep the relationship alive for herself in private.

My thoughts......

I found "A rose for Emily" to be a little hard to follow, but deeply interesting just the same. It strikes me as sad how Miss Emily obviously did not trust her lover to stay with her thus bringing about the 'necessity' of the arsnec purchase. It was very morbid but a good read none the less.
"Story of an Hour" was very good at touching on the verious stages of a new widow's grief. First is the shocked tears, followed by the painful seclusion stained with memories, and finally the realization of the freedom the death of her husband entails. And last but not least, the shock of seeing someone thought to be dead alive and walking proves too much for a weak heart, and she who rejoyced at her own freedom is actually the one who ends up granting her husband a freedom of his own.

Test

Yay me

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I think I did it right.

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cool beans

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Easiest test of the semester.

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Just wanting to make sure I got this figured out

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i got it!

This must be where I'm supposed to be!!

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This is a test. Yay me!

Welcome to Spring 2010!

This is the course blog for College Writing II at MSCTC. Each student has access to post to this site. So does anyone else in the world: my friends, your parents, a teenager from Istanbul, etc. :)

Let me layout some basic guidelines beyond what I put in the handouts in D2L:

1. When you create your profile or log-in name, please make it something I'll recognize so I can grade accordingly.

2. Keep posts academic in tone and diction. They can be personal but should not be information you would not want to share with the world.

3. See these sources for help on posting, for directions on linking to another page, and tips on editing your posts.

4. Please do not write about other classes/instructors in this blog unless it is relevant to the unit materials and is not personal/rant-ish.

To get started with the blog, look for an email from me with the subject "You have been invited to contribute to J. Beyer's blog." It contains instructions for joining the blog.

The posts below are ones I have saved from previous students. They are good models of what you will be doing with this blog.

Irony Porphyria's Lover

In Robert Browning's poem "Porphyria's Lover" irony is a common theme. This is rather apparent as soon as the reader knows that the speaker has killed Porphyria. The reader does not know this, though, until after the speaker has given a detailed account of how much he loves Porphyria and her beauty. The scene is set up perfectly for a romantic engagement, wherein Porphyria has offered the speaker her bare shoulder. The speaker is so overwheled with how pristine the moment is, that he doesn't know what to do. This is where the irony comes in. Though the speaker is so in love with Porphyria, he kills her to capture the beauty of the affair.
This is the main theme of the poem, but it is not the sole sample of irony. At one point in the speaker's description of Porphyria, he is taken by her hair's gorgeousness. In the end of the story, he finally uses her hair to strangle her. This is obviously ironic.
The irony of Browning's poem is what brings the whole story together. Without it, we'd be left to think that the speaker is a senseless killer with some creepy tendencies.

"Ozymandias"

“Ozymandias” is a poem about a troubled tale and a rising and falling of a dynasty. “Ozymandias” was a man that’s insignificant and his efforts are hopeless when compared to the forces of time and nature. “Ozymandias” who once was the “king of all kings” (line 10). With many power, then he fell from his throne and did not stop falling till he hit rock bottom. Before the statue was destroyed, it was a representation of the king’s thought of the alertness, and the details of his behavior are much so expressed. Although the crushed statue seemingly contradicts the theme; the durability is not of importance. The length of the legend is vital to the understanding of the theme. “Ozymandias” is a figure representing all mankind, conveying our fragile lives. This poem was very hard to interpret but after reading it a few times you soon to find out about the poem.

"Doe Season" By David Michael Kaplan

In this story David Kaplan uses symbolism to represent the transition from childhood to adulthood. In the beginning of the story Andy says,"They were always the same woods" and "it was like thinking of the space between here and the moon" (pg. 456). The woods may be symbolic of Andy's world, her own safe haven, where everything is always the same. When she is out in the woods with her father and his friends however, the woods become unfamiliar. This symbolizes the transition that she is going through to become an adult. This experience is new and unfamiliar to her. When Andy spots the doe and is getting ready to shoot it she is thinking,"Why doesn't it hear us, why doesn't it run away" (pg. 464). When Andy is thinking these thoughts it symbolizes her fear and uncertainty of making the final move to becoming an adult (shooting the doe). There is another scene in the story where Andy is having a dream about the doe. There was a part in the dream where Andy "pressed deeper, through flesh and muscle and sinew, until her whole hand and more was inside the wound and she had found the doe's heart" (pg 466). This may symbolize the guilt that Andy feels from shooting the deer, she feels like she took everything away from the doe. The doe symbolizes the innocence that Andy possesses and by shooting and killing the deer she no longer feels that that part of her exists. Andy is transitioning into adulthood, and when she finally realizes how scary it is, she runs away.

"Doe Season"

Through out David Kaplan’s “Doe Season” There are several examples of symbolism. Firstly, when The story opens, the main character, nine year old Andy mentions that they are in the “same woods that lay behind her house” even thought they have traveled “for miles and miles” she is convinced that these are the same woods (Kaplan 456). Andy believes that these woods are the same as the ones behind her house to mask her fear of the unknown. In the mind of a nine year old, if there are the same woods, they are familiar. Andy compares the woods to the ocean, which she was afraid of because of its size, but in essence she is afraid of the woods. Finally, Andy spots a deer, and her father allows her to take a shot at is, because she is the one that spotted it. Andy is able to shoot the dear, however she is not able to kill it. She then experiences great guilt. In her sleep an owl awakens her, and nags at her. The owl is symbolizing her conscience, reminding her of what she has done, and the animal that is suffering at her hand. Finally they find the injured dear and begin to cut it. Andy runs, but she is running away from so much more than the blood and guts. She is running away from what her father has been trying to do, which is turn her into the son that he never had.

Work cited
Kirszner, Laurie G., and Stephen R. Mandell. Literature : Reading, Reacting, Writing. 6th ed.Boston: Heinle, 2006.

"Doe Season" by David Michael Kaplan

"Doe Season" by David Michael Kaplan carries the classic theme of a child entering adulthood. Andy, the protagonist is only nine years old, but understands that she will be entering adulthood soon. I see the doe hunt symbolizing a rite of passage for Andy. This is her first hunt, and she is innocently excited. She has watched her father hunt every year, and knows the enjoyment it brings him, and wants to be a part of it. "Please let us get a deer, she prayed."(462)This plead expresses her innocence as a child. Later, when she sees the deer and is pressured by the hunting group to "shoot", she is having second thoughts. She wants the deer to run before she has to shoot it. It doesn't and Andy shoots it, which catapults her out of the innocence she has only known. Now she has killed an animal, which she struggles with. "What have I done? Andy thought."(465)This moment in time has forever changed her. She will even change her name, showing her passage through childhood into adulthood. "And now they were all calling to her-Charlie Spoon and Mac and her father-crying Andy,Andy (but that wasn't her name, she would no longer be called that);yet louder than any of them was the wind blowing through the treetops, like the ocean where her mother floated in green water, also calling come in, come in, while all around her roared the mocking of the terrible, now inevitable, sea."(467) The sea symbolizing her inevitable advancement into adulthood.