Sunday, March 22, 2009
The Great Gatsby
Ok, so I just finished up "The Great Gatsby" about ten minutes ago and now that it's done I'm glad to have read it. First off, I think that it was a great story and was very well written and told. However, there were some questions that I had in mind that I felt were left unanswered. Most importantly, the title. What was it about Jay Gatsby that made him so great? I dont think there were any specific actions or accomplishments that rewarded him with the title of "great". The only explanation that I could come up with was that he was considered great through the perspectives of those around him. Nick for example, has kind of an up and down relationship with him throughout the book, where he seems to admire him and look up to him. As the story progresses towards the end, Nick sort of turns away from him yet still shows his admiration and respect towards him. Nick realizes that Jay has a good life even though he doesn't always agree with some of his actions. Another thing that I have noticed after completing this book was the importance of the time period that Fitzgerald uses in his story. In today's economy, no one can just get all that money so easily just through inheriting it without anyone knowing, so the lack of intelligence to those present in the story is crucial to the development of the plot. Back in the 1920s the technology was far less advanced and if this story were to exist in the 2000s, it probably would hav taken many other twists and turns until it became a completely different story. The last thing that stuck out to me was how Fitzgerald used different crimes to express the consequences of living life without morals or laws. He shows all kinds of drinking and gambling in all of the luxurious parties that Gatsby threw and in his relationships with the bookies. The death of Myrtle also shows some murder and killing. All in all, I think Fitzgerald combined all of these elements and created a phenominal story that was a pleasure to read for me and hopefully for my classmates as well.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
The Great Gatsby Journal
In my recent readings of "The Great Gatsby", I have notice many different things about the author, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, and some of the main characters, Nick and Jay. First of all, in opening the novel with a quote, Fitzgerald establishes a background idea for the story to be based upon. Throughout the story, that quote is pondered upon and referred to because of its position and importance in the book. Fitzgerald also seems to be hiding some traits and other things that his characters posess to later be revealed in the story. For example, it seems to me like Nick isn't very happy and is somewhat lonely and in need of a partner. Fitzgerald seems to be very shady about Jay, making him a character who is extremely wealthy with no explanation for it but that he has inherited it all. I think as the story further unfolds, these characters and that opening quote will be deeper and more thoroughly explained in this interesting novel.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Poetry Supermarket
http://www.dunbarsite.org/gallery/TheDebt.asp
http://www.dunbarsite.org/gallery/Life.asp
The poet that I have explored over the past few days was Paul Lawrence Dunbar. He is a great American poet who published many famous works throughout his career. The two poems that I focused on were "The Debt" and "Life". I think that the two poems were very similar in construction and in meaning. Both were short, deep poems that dealt with life and some of the obstacles faced during it. In "The Debt", Dunbar seems to be describing the consequences of a small action that he performed in his own life, such as cheating on the woman he loved or something along those lines. His intentions seem to show how sometimes even if you think your actions only have a small consequence, it can grow into something that will effect you until you die. In "Life", Dunbar expresses how some Americans had to live and the ways their lives went. He shows like an optimist's outlook on life compared to a pessimist's outlook on life. His styles reflect America in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He discusses some of the issues that people in America face on a daily basis. I think this is what gives him his distinctive American style.
http://www.dunbarsite.org/gallery/Life.asp
The poet that I have explored over the past few days was Paul Lawrence Dunbar. He is a great American poet who published many famous works throughout his career. The two poems that I focused on were "The Debt" and "Life". I think that the two poems were very similar in construction and in meaning. Both were short, deep poems that dealt with life and some of the obstacles faced during it. In "The Debt", Dunbar seems to be describing the consequences of a small action that he performed in his own life, such as cheating on the woman he loved or something along those lines. His intentions seem to show how sometimes even if you think your actions only have a small consequence, it can grow into something that will effect you until you die. In "Life", Dunbar expresses how some Americans had to live and the ways their lives went. He shows like an optimist's outlook on life compared to a pessimist's outlook on life. His styles reflect America in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He discusses some of the issues that people in America face on a daily basis. I think this is what gives him his distinctive American style.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
American Realism
Over the past couple of days, i have read a few different pieces written by Mark Twain. I was expecting another boring story about people's outlook on nature, but was relieved after reading some of his works. Both his style and his stories differ from that of the American romantic authors, and I think that it puts him above them all and gives his stories a different twist from what is expected from other authors of his type. Most of them focus in on nature and how people react to it, but Twain is more realistic and goes into peoples' problems in daily life. His stories are far more interesting to me because instead of going on and on about his outlook on nature, Twain discusses the real issues and other things that people really experience. His writings aren't so much of him just describing his surroundings, but he goes into detail about his feelings and opinions on the entire situation.
Mark's stories all seem to have a life lesson or moral behind them which he expresses through examples on the little boys. The good boy goes through life trying to help people and do good deeds so that he can reap the benefits from it. Twain is obviously showing his opinions on the reason's people do things. If things are done for the wrong reasons, then the outcome might not always be as desired. But if the intentions were good, even if the actions aren't, the outcome is usually more favorable than not. Mark takes his readers on a different adventure than most authors by putting them through his own eyes on each aspect of his stories. This in my eyes is what puts Mark Twain on a level of his own when it comes to great American authors.
Mark's stories all seem to have a life lesson or moral behind them which he expresses through examples on the little boys. The good boy goes through life trying to help people and do good deeds so that he can reap the benefits from it. Twain is obviously showing his opinions on the reason's people do things. If things are done for the wrong reasons, then the outcome might not always be as desired. But if the intentions were good, even if the actions aren't, the outcome is usually more favorable than not. Mark takes his readers on a different adventure than most authors by putting them through his own eyes on each aspect of his stories. This in my eyes is what puts Mark Twain on a level of his own when it comes to great American authors.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Does writing have the power to enact social change?
I think that writing could have the possibility to enact social change depending on your audience and style of writing. If you are writing fictional works for adults, chances are nothing in society will change from it. If you are writing for children, your writings might influence their entire lives and cause them to make different decisions and altercations along their lives. If your writing informational or persuasive pieces, your works may be successful in collecting believers and results of your writing may vary. Also, your position in society can affect how much it influences people because if you are a governor or a mayor, people will have more faith in what your discussing than if you are a carpenter or a plumber. In conclusion, good writing can influence many things if it hits the right spot in people.
Monday, February 16, 2009
price of a child
Joseph Coppola
“The Price of a Child”
Dear Lorene Cary,
As I began reading “The Price of a Child”, I did not know what to expect. The title of the book certainly makes you think a little bit, and there can be so many different interpretations of this title that I could not settle on one until I read the book and found out for myself. Before I started reading, I had expectations of yet another boring slave novel which would just tell how the main character planned and executed their attempts at freedom, but once again that title kept me on my heels. Why would any normal runaway slave leave behind one of her children? It just didn’t make sense to me until I got through the first chapter.
Unlike most slave narratives where the slave has to escape to freedom, “The Price of a Child” gave a different outlook on escaping when Ginnie and two of her three children just walk right away from their master without any struggle at all. But the fact that Bennie was left behind put many different thoughts into my head as to what might happen to him. Also, most books about slaves stress the actual escaping as the main focus of the book, but in this novel, the main character gets her freedom within the first few chapters and then focuses on developing a new life as a free woman in the northern states. The traditional name change and hiding is typical for all slave narratives, so it wasn’t much of a surprise when Ginnie changed her name to Mercer and lived in a shed for a while. But all in all, I think the plot of the story was much different and much more effective than most other books of this sort.
The most confusing part about this novel is that the title of the book is so heavily based on Bennie, that I would have expected him to play much more of a major role in the book. He really is only mention mostly in the beginning while the setting is still in the southern plantations, and is not heard from again until the very end of the book. If I had to change one element about this book, this would probably be the only thing I would want to alter. I think that if throughout the novel the reader is looking for an explanation to what the “price” of the child is, then the child should have a very major role in the book and not just mentioned in the beginning and then briefly again at the end.
In conclusion, I think that this novel is different from most and takes some unusual twists and turns that divert it from the other slave narratives that I have previously read. With a few changes and different decisions by the main character, I think that this novel could be taken to a whole new level and remembered as one of the best of its kind.
Sincerely,
Joseph Coppola
“The Price of a Child”
Dear Lorene Cary,
As I began reading “The Price of a Child”, I did not know what to expect. The title of the book certainly makes you think a little bit, and there can be so many different interpretations of this title that I could not settle on one until I read the book and found out for myself. Before I started reading, I had expectations of yet another boring slave novel which would just tell how the main character planned and executed their attempts at freedom, but once again that title kept me on my heels. Why would any normal runaway slave leave behind one of her children? It just didn’t make sense to me until I got through the first chapter.
Unlike most slave narratives where the slave has to escape to freedom, “The Price of a Child” gave a different outlook on escaping when Ginnie and two of her three children just walk right away from their master without any struggle at all. But the fact that Bennie was left behind put many different thoughts into my head as to what might happen to him. Also, most books about slaves stress the actual escaping as the main focus of the book, but in this novel, the main character gets her freedom within the first few chapters and then focuses on developing a new life as a free woman in the northern states. The traditional name change and hiding is typical for all slave narratives, so it wasn’t much of a surprise when Ginnie changed her name to Mercer and lived in a shed for a while. But all in all, I think the plot of the story was much different and much more effective than most other books of this sort.
The most confusing part about this novel is that the title of the book is so heavily based on Bennie, that I would have expected him to play much more of a major role in the book. He really is only mention mostly in the beginning while the setting is still in the southern plantations, and is not heard from again until the very end of the book. If I had to change one element about this book, this would probably be the only thing I would want to alter. I think that if throughout the novel the reader is looking for an explanation to what the “price” of the child is, then the child should have a very major role in the book and not just mentioned in the beginning and then briefly again at the end.
In conclusion, I think that this novel is different from most and takes some unusual twists and turns that divert it from the other slave narratives that I have previously read. With a few changes and different decisions by the main character, I think that this novel could be taken to a whole new level and remembered as one of the best of its kind.
Sincerely,
Joseph Coppola
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