My Last Blog

I figured I'd make one last blog, tear! It's sad in a way. I thoroughly enjoyed Sweeney's English class. It made my mornings worth waking up at the crack of dawn. I'm glad Sweeney got us to do blogs, I think it was a really great way to express ourselves, which most professors don't care to do. In our last class we had to do an assessment on how we thought our grade should be due to our attendance and participation in class. Which is another thing I loved about Sweeney is because he got us to get out of our I guess you could say "comfort zone" by speaking and interacting in class and wanted our input or opinion on things. Which is a big thing for me because I usually don't like to speak in front of the class. But over all I'm glad I had Professor Sweeney because I now actually know how to use a blog! (See I don't match my hair color) And I also bettered my reading skills and talking in front of the class. Well adios blogs!  

The Fish

The Poem The Fish was one I actually really enjoyed reading. I think it made you feel what the narrator was feeling. It's about a fisher-women who's been fishing and catches as she calls it a "tremendous fish". She describes the fish into every little detail, down to even his speckles. You can eventually tell her compassion for the fish when she says "The frightened gills, fresh and crisp with blood, That I cut so badly". Also you get a sense of her feelings when she tries to look the fish in the eye. I think the poem was trying to show the dominance humans have over animals. She eventually goes to explain that she see's the five or four old pieces of fish line and the hooks that have been in the fish throughout time. That show's his fight and how he got away from being killed. I think then, the narrator's compassion is at a high point for the fish. All in all she lets him go in the end. Makes me happy that she didn't kill him :) Fishy's have feelings too! 

Hard Rock

 From what I understood, Hard Rock was a bad guy, so he underwent a lobotomy to try to change that. Everyone thought it was a success since he stopped doing bad things, when really it mentally impaired him. This poem had to have taken place a long time ago because people do not get lobotomies anymore I don't think. We can concur that the consequences of them and that they do not work. I use to actually want to work with the criminally insane until my sociology professor that I took in high school told me that she worked part time with the mentally insane at Poplar Springs and she has to work every other week or it will drive her insane. Her stories were fascinating though! It almost seems pointless to us now that they actually thought they were helping people by doing that all those procedures. But in the poem everyone of the inmates looked up to him and say that he had the attitude where he didn't get stepped on or I guess you could say didn't "take crap" from anyone. They looked up to him because none of them would bring themselves to have that attitude or mindset. But when he comes back in the end they see that he's changed and wasn't that person they once looked up too. They lost hope I guess you'd say. 

Taking a different road

 "The Road Not Taken", by Robert Frost, is a poem of a man who is stuck between two "roads" I guess you could say or "choices" in his life and is not quite sure which one to take.  Each path has its ups and downs and he is alone on this choice.  In the end,  he takes the riskier one, or  "the one less traveled" as it says in it. It shows emphasis on taking the "one less traveled" because most would take the obvious path, the one others have journeyed down. Taking the other path shows courage and accepting the new beginnings and difficulties that come along with it. Although it does not say whether that difference is good or bad, I feel like it was the one that was the right choice to him.  But I guess no matter which road you take in life it will somehow effect you along the way but that is how you learn to overcome things. This poem really showed that taking a different path could be okay.

The Yellow Wallpaper

“The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator was a mother whom had sort of post depression after having her child, which was later taken away from her. The family went on a trip and the mother was confined to an upstairs deteriorated room. If that doesn't sound terrible enough, the room was bared up, the wallpaper was ripped, and the room was basically empty with not a thing for her to do. The women’s husband locked her up in this room and told her this was best for you considering she was "sick". He would tell her things to make sense in her mind and convinced her, that he knew what he was talking about just because he was a doctor. As the narrator, the women, is deserted in the room alone, she begins to write a journal of the wallpaper. As days go by she continues to study the wallpaper and starts to hallucinate I think. She talks about seeing a women in the wallpaper. She begins to rip down the wallpaper afterwards, so that she could free the lady that she thought was there? So weird to think that this type of mind set actually happens to people. The last day of summer at the house, she continues to rip the wallpaper and walk around the walls of the room. Her husband had come up to get her, but she refuses to unlock the door for him. When he finally gets the key and unlocks the door, she is found walking around the room touching the wall. She says to her husband, that she is finally free, meaning the women, but I also think that has a double meaning towards herself. I think she saw herself being freed. Her husband dies, but I really think the women had something to do with it, because that would be freeing herself for him too and all the confinement. This mother was insane and at the end of the story, it is believed that she killed her husband. I also interpret The Yellow Wallpaper to have a meaning for women of that time possibly. Why should women be locked up and why should men have all the power and say so? I mean who is he to tell her what to do with HER life? She was pretty much powerless in the story which made me sad and want to fight for her. It also shows the empowerment of the husband, he made all the decisions for her. I guess the message of the story was to show the man's empowerment in a women's life and what total control is. If that was me, I would divorced him, said hell no being confined to a room, and got myself FAR FAR away from there.

We Real Cool

Gwendolyn Brooks is the author of one of the poems we read in class called, "We Real Cool".  This poem is about teenagers making bad decisions skipping school, partying and such. It's basically describing most teenagers these days. I think it also shows the meaning to slow down, and not live the "fast life" I like this poem because it's short, simple, and gets to the point, plus it has rhyme to it where as some poems do not.  I also like the fact that it's very literal and you can convey exactly what  the poem means and what she's trying to say. A link to watch Gwendolyn recite her poem. I love her voice!

The Chrysanthemums

The Chrysanthemums By John Steinbeck is about a women who feels almost trapped you would say. It's about a women named Elisa who loves gardening her flowers which are Chrysanthemums, her husband named Henry, and a man named Tinker. You can almost say she feels unhappy about her life but turns to gardening as an escape. Her husband Henry is a nice man but almost seems like he doesn't know how to appreciate her or make her feel loved. The man Tinker is stopping by one day to offer his business because he claims he needs to eat and business is slow. A tinker usually repairs like pots, pans, or kitchen ware. Elisa claims that she doesn't really have any work for him but he begs and pleads. He's a sly cons-man almost. He uses her love for flowers to get money and what he wants. He claims to know a women who's been looking to grow Chrysanthemums and was wondering if he would be able to take some to her. Elisa becomes excited and tells him all the instructions on how to grow them. Then she comes around to saying that he could    fix a few pans for pay. Of course in reality he had no interest for the flowers or no friend that wanted to grow them. Henry and Elisa go into town for dinner and on the way there she sees her Chrysanthemums thrown out on the side of the road. That breaks her heart and she cries. I think she felt an emotional attachment with the flowers because of how dull and unhappy her life was.When she saw the flowers on the side of the road she took it as her prized possessions being destroyed and it made her think all men are arrogant jerks. 

Coping with Cancer

      I figured I'd blog about dealing with someone with cancer. My grandfather has prostate cancer. This is the second time he's been diagnosed with it. The first time he got rid of all the cancer cells in his body and they controlled the spreading. This time though he wasn't so lucky, it has spread up his spine and deteriorated most of his bones. It's always hard to see a loved one going through something so heart breaking and not being able to stop or do something about it. I find it especially hard because my grandfather has not only taken the grandfather role throughout my life but the father role as well. I'm extremely close to him. I visit and take care of him almost every day. But although I don't know what it's like to have cancer I figured I could talk about coping with someone who has it. Seeing that my grandfather is 85 and still upbeat and happy makes me see life in a whole new perspective. He doesn't let the chemo, the pain, the bad days, or anything get to him. I believe that that's a really good thing. The first time he got cancer he tried to be positive but you could tell his bad days and when he just wanted to give up. Now being his second, I can never tell when he's sad. He's almost always happy. Which shows me that I don't need to be sad or feel bad for him. I know you think you should bring it up or talk about it all the time... but you really don't have too. I don't like to remind him about the bad so it's easier to try to make light of the heavy situation. He jokes and smiles about it so I figure I should as well. "Oh Lauren we have to go to that crummy life sucking place today, but atleast I know you're taking me to all you can eat Shoney's buffet afterwards right?" Is usually what I hear when I'm taking him for his shot at the chemo place. Knowing he's ready to get it over with and more excited for the "all you can eat breakfast buffet" makes it all better. Most people when they have a friend, or loved one with cancer like to introduce them as "Charlie, he has cancer" Like what? It's just something that people do and I've always found it really odd ha! It's like when you're told someone has cancer then you instantly think of someone that's had cancer and it comes out like, "Oh yeah my cat had cancer" No just stop.. no one wants to hear a sad cancer story especially the person who has cancer. So I guess all in all, is to never take the carefree life you live for granted and to always stay positive and upbeat. Cancer sucks but there's always ways to make the person who has it have bright happy days!