Monday, September 28, 2009
Cigarette Girl
The preview of Cigarette Girl made me expect a cheesy, lame film. I walked into the Brooks museum with practically no expectations of a good time. I sat in the back of the theater, anxiously waiting for what hadn't even started yet to end. They started off the presentation of the movie with a short film that was most likely one of the strangest things I have ever seen. However, when the movie finally started, I found myself being slowly sucked into the story line. Throughout the movie, you saw the character of Cigarette Girl develop. In the beginning she appeared to be a nobody. As time moved on you saw the goodness of her character. She was a true hero and stuck up for those who needed help. She did not have to help anyone, she did it on her own accord. By the end of the movie, I was impressed by the plot and it left me with the thought: Could the world one day be in a similar state as the world Cigartte Girl lived in?
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" Questions
Group 1 Question 3
Connie is the main character of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” She carries the storyline from the beginning to the conclusion. Joyce Oates paints a picture of Connie’s life and shows how it becomes tainted by the appearance of sinister Arnold Friend. Her emotions control the tone of the story; especially the fear she gains after realizing Arnold is not a man with good intentions. The story is left off with the reader wondering what Arnold is going to do to her.
Group 2 Question 1
Connie’s identity, like the house she lived in, was a work in progress. Day in and day out her mother would make attempts to fix the house, to no avail. It needed repairs and fixings in just about every area. How the house would look like in the end, no one will ever know since it was never finished. Like the house, Connie’s mother was always trying to fix her. She was an adolescent girl who was still learning who she was. The end of the story was left off and it is assumed that she never returned home. Therefore, her identity, like the house, was never fully developed.
Group 3 Question 2
The family Connie belonged to was not one that contains close bonds. Her mother is a woman who has started to become insecure about herself as age sits in. Her father also seemed to be fighting a losing battle with age. Connie practically despised her sister due to the favoritism she received from their mother. Carol Oates limited their roles in the story to show how Connie’s life was on a day-to-day basis. It appeared that Connie was not crazy about her family, however, she basically gave up her life so they would not be harmed by Arnold Friend.
Group 4 Question 3
The setting of the story could be in any town. Any random guy could be as sinister as Arnold Friend at any hamburger joint. The settings the story occurs in are ordinary places that could be found in the smallest of cities. It makes the story more eerie to know that a man such as Arnold could be found anywhere. It is almost as if Oates is trying to warn her readers.
Connie is the main character of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” She carries the storyline from the beginning to the conclusion. Joyce Oates paints a picture of Connie’s life and shows how it becomes tainted by the appearance of sinister Arnold Friend. Her emotions control the tone of the story; especially the fear she gains after realizing Arnold is not a man with good intentions. The story is left off with the reader wondering what Arnold is going to do to her.
Group 2 Question 1
Connie’s identity, like the house she lived in, was a work in progress. Day in and day out her mother would make attempts to fix the house, to no avail. It needed repairs and fixings in just about every area. How the house would look like in the end, no one will ever know since it was never finished. Like the house, Connie’s mother was always trying to fix her. She was an adolescent girl who was still learning who she was. The end of the story was left off and it is assumed that she never returned home. Therefore, her identity, like the house, was never fully developed.
Group 3 Question 2
The family Connie belonged to was not one that contains close bonds. Her mother is a woman who has started to become insecure about herself as age sits in. Her father also seemed to be fighting a losing battle with age. Connie practically despised her sister due to the favoritism she received from their mother. Carol Oates limited their roles in the story to show how Connie’s life was on a day-to-day basis. It appeared that Connie was not crazy about her family, however, she basically gave up her life so they would not be harmed by Arnold Friend.
Group 4 Question 3
The setting of the story could be in any town. Any random guy could be as sinister as Arnold Friend at any hamburger joint. The settings the story occurs in are ordinary places that could be found in the smallest of cities. It makes the story more eerie to know that a man such as Arnold could be found anywhere. It is almost as if Oates is trying to warn her readers.
Nancy Drew
Growing up, one of my favorite things to do was to read the Nancy Drew series by Carolyn Keene. Nothing could have been more satisfying or entertaining than to curl up with my newest volume of Nancy Drew and read it from beginning to end in one sitting. If anyone was daring enough to interrupt me, I would become upset. Generally, I had the intentions of just ignoring everything around me that tried to capture my attention, which was a great annoyance to my parents. Page after page, I would be hanging in suspense to see what the next clue Nancy would find to solve the crime. There could not have been a better past-time on a warm summer night than to read a Nancy Drew book.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Alleen Rowe
The story of how Alleen Rowe was murdered will never be forgotten. At the age of 15, she disappeared from her home in Tucson, Arizona. Her mother, Norma Rowe, reported her daughter missing only for the police to say she more than likely ran away. In reality, Alleen Rowe was led from her house to the middle of the desert by three people and killed by being repeatedly struck in the head with a rock. The murders buried her body in the sand and left it hidden in the arid terrain for years. The news of Alleen Rowe’s murder sparked the inspiration for several different types of writers to permanently write down her story for future generations to hear.
Prestigious news magazines took great interest in spreading the bone-chilling story. Journalists and the judge who tried the case wrote articles that were inserted into Time Life Magazine. The articles in Time Life Magazine gave an accurate reporting of what happened to the Arizona teenager. A timeline of the demise of Alleen Rowe and two other female adolescents is told. Background information that led up to the crimes is made public to let readers aware of the killers’ motivations. The judge who tried the case was able to focus more on the man who was put on trial and give more information on the man and what happened to him during the trial.
Carol Oates was also inspired to base her fiction story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” on Alleen Rowe. Her short story focuses on the eeriness of the murders’ personas and Alleen Rowe’s habits as a high school girl. The basic story is the same, however, minor details are slightly changed around. Carol Oates’ story was turned into the movie “Smooth Talk” to let audiences get a visual of how strange her killer was.
Even the legendary singer and songwriter Bob Dylan felt the need to write something that memorialized the murder. People around the world listen to his famous music. Bob Dylan sang about how her life had come to an end and she had to unwillingly let go. He sings the sad tale of a girl dying who had her whole life in front of her.
The murder case inspired writers from prestigious news magazines, to fiction writer Carol Oates, to even song artist Bob Dylan. No matter what style the story is written down in, the basic information is accurately relayed with evolving details. Each style gives a different point of view to the murders. The writers’ works collaborate together to have one thing accomplished: Alleen Rowe’s story will never be forgotten.
Prestigious news magazines took great interest in spreading the bone-chilling story. Journalists and the judge who tried the case wrote articles that were inserted into Time Life Magazine. The articles in Time Life Magazine gave an accurate reporting of what happened to the Arizona teenager. A timeline of the demise of Alleen Rowe and two other female adolescents is told. Background information that led up to the crimes is made public to let readers aware of the killers’ motivations. The judge who tried the case was able to focus more on the man who was put on trial and give more information on the man and what happened to him during the trial.
Carol Oates was also inspired to base her fiction story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” on Alleen Rowe. Her short story focuses on the eeriness of the murders’ personas and Alleen Rowe’s habits as a high school girl. The basic story is the same, however, minor details are slightly changed around. Carol Oates’ story was turned into the movie “Smooth Talk” to let audiences get a visual of how strange her killer was.
Even the legendary singer and songwriter Bob Dylan felt the need to write something that memorialized the murder. People around the world listen to his famous music. Bob Dylan sang about how her life had come to an end and she had to unwillingly let go. He sings the sad tale of a girl dying who had her whole life in front of her.
The murder case inspired writers from prestigious news magazines, to fiction writer Carol Oates, to even song artist Bob Dylan. No matter what style the story is written down in, the basic information is accurately relayed with evolving details. Each style gives a different point of view to the murders. The writers’ works collaborate together to have one thing accomplished: Alleen Rowe’s story will never be forgotten.
Ingredients, Recipes, and Their Products
All forms of literature are products of separate pieces put together in a particular fashion. The separate pieces, or the ingredients of a work of literature, can consist of a plot, characters, settings, and much more. These separate pieces, or recipes, are then combined in a specific manner to create things such as short stories, poems, plays, or essays. The combined pieces are then read by a person to get the final product: an idea or meaning that leaves the person in deep thought. The deep thought leads to pulling apart the recipe to see its ingredients. As a result, the reader sees the work of literature in a new light with a better understanding of what the author wants people to get out of his or her work. The short story, “A & P” and the poems “Rites of Passage” and “The Only Girl at the Boys’ Party” are examples of recipes that are meant to leave the reader with the resulting product of a deep meaning.
John Updike’s short story, “A & P,” a boy narrates an ordinary day at a grocery store. Updike uses a multitude of ingredients to get his readers to understand his intended product. He uses his character Sammy, an important ingredient, to describe the store he works at in great detail. The detail vividly describes the setting, another ingredient, of the story as a boring, everyday supermarket that can be found in any town or city. The tone of the story is dulled, to emphasize the average quality of Sammy’s place of work. Sammy standing up for what he believes in is the climax of the story. Updike makes his character a hero for having this quality. The reader is then left with the product, wondering what the qualities of a hero should be.
In the poem “Rites of Passage,” written by Sharon Olds’, gives the final product of what she thinks a hero should be. Sharon Olds’ poem focuses on making the reader believe that wisdom is what makes a person heroic. Some of her ingredients include irony, setting, and conflict. The major conflict in her poem is it is her son’s birthday and all the boys are fighting each other, trying to prove who is the toughest of them all. Her son then cleverly finds out a way to calm all the boys down with a simple solution, saving his party and the sanity of his mother. Ironically, after he calms his friends down, they begin to play war games. The poem takes place in a living room, full of six and seven year olds and birthday decorations. These ingredients are put together according to its recipe, to get the final thought that the little boy’s wisdom makes him a hero.
Another poem by Sharon Olds’, “The One Girl at the Boys’ Party,” also focuses on a person’s wisdom, or even intelligence, as what makes up a hero. Instead of a woman’s son being the hero of the poem, a woman’s daughter is the main character. Like the previous literary works, the character is an ingredient. Other ingredients Olds uses in this poem include setting and point of view. The daughter is at a swimming party with a group of bustling boys. Her mother’s proud tone tells how smart her child is in comparison to the other children there. It does not matter that her daughter is the only girl there and therefore seen as the weakest, but that her daughter could beat all the boys just because of her wit. The product of the poem is leaving the reader thinking that intellect is stronger than a physical force.
Focusing on what makes up a literary work- the ingredients, recipe, and final product- is an important task when reading. It gives a deeper understanding of what an author has written. Focusing on these three items helps give a reason behind what a reader’s thoughts are when examining a piece of literature. Pulling apart these three pieces of literature has allowed me to find reason behind the authors’ words and why the authors wrote their works the way they did. By dissecting the recipes’ ingredients, I have discovered the final products.
John Updike’s short story, “A & P,” a boy narrates an ordinary day at a grocery store. Updike uses a multitude of ingredients to get his readers to understand his intended product. He uses his character Sammy, an important ingredient, to describe the store he works at in great detail. The detail vividly describes the setting, another ingredient, of the story as a boring, everyday supermarket that can be found in any town or city. The tone of the story is dulled, to emphasize the average quality of Sammy’s place of work. Sammy standing up for what he believes in is the climax of the story. Updike makes his character a hero for having this quality. The reader is then left with the product, wondering what the qualities of a hero should be.
In the poem “Rites of Passage,” written by Sharon Olds’, gives the final product of what she thinks a hero should be. Sharon Olds’ poem focuses on making the reader believe that wisdom is what makes a person heroic. Some of her ingredients include irony, setting, and conflict. The major conflict in her poem is it is her son’s birthday and all the boys are fighting each other, trying to prove who is the toughest of them all. Her son then cleverly finds out a way to calm all the boys down with a simple solution, saving his party and the sanity of his mother. Ironically, after he calms his friends down, they begin to play war games. The poem takes place in a living room, full of six and seven year olds and birthday decorations. These ingredients are put together according to its recipe, to get the final thought that the little boy’s wisdom makes him a hero.
Another poem by Sharon Olds’, “The One Girl at the Boys’ Party,” also focuses on a person’s wisdom, or even intelligence, as what makes up a hero. Instead of a woman’s son being the hero of the poem, a woman’s daughter is the main character. Like the previous literary works, the character is an ingredient. Other ingredients Olds uses in this poem include setting and point of view. The daughter is at a swimming party with a group of bustling boys. Her mother’s proud tone tells how smart her child is in comparison to the other children there. It does not matter that her daughter is the only girl there and therefore seen as the weakest, but that her daughter could beat all the boys just because of her wit. The product of the poem is leaving the reader thinking that intellect is stronger than a physical force.
Focusing on what makes up a literary work- the ingredients, recipe, and final product- is an important task when reading. It gives a deeper understanding of what an author has written. Focusing on these three items helps give a reason behind what a reader’s thoughts are when examining a piece of literature. Pulling apart these three pieces of literature has allowed me to find reason behind the authors’ words and why the authors wrote their works the way they did. By dissecting the recipes’ ingredients, I have discovered the final products.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Comparing Heroes
“A &P,” “Rites of Passage,” and “The One Girl at the Boys’ Party” all tell completely different stories. However, each of the stories has the common theme of having a different kind of hero. In “A & P,” the author focuses on standing out from the crowd and sticking up in what a person believes in. The author’s definition of a hero is within someone’s individuality and the ability to go beyond what is expected of you. In “The One Girl at the Boys’ Party,” the author values knowledge. The only little girl in the midst of a group of bustling boys is able to outsmart them all. The girl thinks critically instead of jumping headfirst into the pool the way the boys do, showing that if she were to be in a predicament, she would be better able to handle herself than the boys. In “Rites of Passage,” wisdom is what the author focuses on. It was the boy’s birthday and all his friends were trying to fight each other. He wanted to have fun and found a way to calm everyone down with a simple sentence. Each story has a different trait that is valued. The message from these stories tends to lead to the thought that a hero has no simple definition, but is in the eye of the beholder.
John Updike's View on Sammy
John Updike describes the character Sammy in his short story, “A & P” as a well-intentioned young American. Updike views Sammy as an ordinary, “blue collared,” kid who wishes to be an individualist in a time when people were expected to conform. In Updike’s eyes, Sammy is a hero since he was sticking up for what he believed was right. His character was fighting a feminist’s battle as a young male. The fact that Sammy liked the girls he was standing up for was a natural reaction, being an adolescent.
Hearing John Updike’s opinion of his character makes my views of Sammy change slightly. At first glance Sammy seems like a selfish boy with an alternative goal rather than just trying to be the nice guy. Everybody is going to have some type of selfish motivation to get them to achieve a goal. I still see Sammy as choosing the hero role at a convenient point for him, however; perhaps he really did want to stick up for the girls since it was the right thing to do.
Hearing John Updike’s opinion of his character makes my views of Sammy change slightly. At first glance Sammy seems like a selfish boy with an alternative goal rather than just trying to be the nice guy. Everybody is going to have some type of selfish motivation to get them to achieve a goal. I still see Sammy as choosing the hero role at a convenient point for him, however; perhaps he really did want to stick up for the girls since it was the right thing to do.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Is Sammy a Hero?
In 2005, a teenager by the name of Jordan Thomas was in a life altering accident. At the age of 16, Jordan and his parents took a scuba diving trip on their family boat. Jordan jumped out of the boat and his feet were pulled up by the boat’s wake into its spinning propellers. The propellers in turn cut up his legs and left him helpless. His parents, doctors, did their best to help him as they rushed back to shore to get their son to a hospital. After extensive surgery, Jordan still lost most of his right and left leg. He now has to depend on a set of prosthetic legs to walk for the rest of his life.
After his life altering accident, Jordan Thomas realized what he was going to make his life’s purpose about. The prosthetic legs that enable him to walk like a normal person cost $24,000 on average. Insurance will only cover up to a fifth of the costs. Since he comes from a well off family, Jordan was fortunate enough to easily obtain a pair of prosthetic legs. However, many families do not have the option to pay that kind of money for medical help. Children in particular, who will out grow several different sets of limbs that cost thousands of dollars cannot have the luxury of an arm or leg with a bendable joint. Seeing how much the prosthetics help his life, Jordan Thomas wanted his opportunities to become available to small children. He started the Jordan Thomas Foundation as a way to raise money to give kids a chance to have a normal childhood. The charity raised hundreds of thousands of dollars through bracelets, fundraisers, and cookouts.
Jordan Thomas helped children have the ability to run and play the way a child is suppose to. He was deeply affected by his condition and realized there are people in his same condition that could not get the help he had received because of a lack of money. Jordan Thomas had the intention to help others for the sake of making the world a slightly better place. His foundation was not started to gain a little bit of fame or limelight. He is a true hero for the children who can now live happy lives instead of being looked at as outcasts.
True heroes are defined by the intentions behind their actions. If a person saves someone’s life, but only because of selfish motivations, it does not make him or her a true hero. The person may be a hero in the eyes of the person they saved, however, it does not make him or her a true hero at the core.
Since a person’s intentions are the definition of a true hero, Sammy, in “A & P,” is not a true hero. In the short story, Sammy quits his job to impress the girls. Quitting his job does not seem to be that much of a sacrifice for him to make. Throughout the story Sammy’s bored tone makes it apparent he does enjoy working at the grocery store. He may have been trying to stick up for the girls; however, his motivation was to get their attention. He did not want to stick up for them because he thought they were treated wrong and is therefore not a true hero.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Chapter 1 Questions
Page 6
1. There are a few differences between the North Wind and the Sun. The North Wind is impatient and forceful, while the Sun is patient and persuasive.
2. The North Wind's force backfired on itself and made the man wrap the blanket around himself tighter.
3. The Sun is patient and gently coerced the man to take the wrap off by slowing shining more light on him.
4. The human in the story serves as the lesson.
5. The story is an example of the old saying "patience is a virtue." If something is forced, things are less likely to go your way.
Page 8
1.The end of the story is the exposition. Only four sentences are used to tell the story.
2. Tzu changes the subject to the tortoise in order to give a metaphor of his answer. He makes a point that what happened to the tortoise will happen to him as well. He makes the point more apparent when he makes the servants answer the question he already knows.
3. The story shows how wise the fisherman is. Despite the honor of working for the prince, he realizes that it will do him no good.
Page 19
1.Updike makes the supermarket seem ordinary by the character's tone of voice and describing things in the store such as the items mixed together in isles. The detail helps to show the boredom of his character and how this is a story that could happen in real life at anytime.
2. Updike shows the character's attitude toward his job. He shows he is a typical teenager- bored, waiting to get out of work. Sammy wanting the girls to know how he stood up for him does make him less of a hero. If he truly ment it he wouldn't have cared if they heard or not. Sammy's thoughts are fully displayed versus Death's in the other story.
3. The exposition of the story is when the three girls walk in and Sammy describes what they are wearing.
4. He slowly goes from criticizing the girls to merely observing them.
5.The conflict becomes apparent when Sammy's boss comes into the story. His boss looks at the girls and tells them off for wearing their bathing suits inside the store. The climax of the story is when Sammy quits his job in their defense.
6. Sammy quits his job to impress the girls.
7. Sammy began to like the girls. He admired them when his boss walked into the room.
8. He means he's going to have to find a job and tell his parents why he quit working at the store.
9. He states that the supermarket society is lame. It's always the same with hardly any excitement. One grocery store is the same as the next.
1. There are a few differences between the North Wind and the Sun. The North Wind is impatient and forceful, while the Sun is patient and persuasive.
2. The North Wind's force backfired on itself and made the man wrap the blanket around himself tighter.
3. The Sun is patient and gently coerced the man to take the wrap off by slowing shining more light on him.
4. The human in the story serves as the lesson.
5. The story is an example of the old saying "patience is a virtue." If something is forced, things are less likely to go your way.
Page 8
1.The end of the story is the exposition. Only four sentences are used to tell the story.
2. Tzu changes the subject to the tortoise in order to give a metaphor of his answer. He makes a point that what happened to the tortoise will happen to him as well. He makes the point more apparent when he makes the servants answer the question he already knows.
3. The story shows how wise the fisherman is. Despite the honor of working for the prince, he realizes that it will do him no good.
Page 19
1.Updike makes the supermarket seem ordinary by the character's tone of voice and describing things in the store such as the items mixed together in isles. The detail helps to show the boredom of his character and how this is a story that could happen in real life at anytime.
2. Updike shows the character's attitude toward his job. He shows he is a typical teenager- bored, waiting to get out of work. Sammy wanting the girls to know how he stood up for him does make him less of a hero. If he truly ment it he wouldn't have cared if they heard or not. Sammy's thoughts are fully displayed versus Death's in the other story.
3. The exposition of the story is when the three girls walk in and Sammy describes what they are wearing.
4. He slowly goes from criticizing the girls to merely observing them.
5.The conflict becomes apparent when Sammy's boss comes into the story. His boss looks at the girls and tells them off for wearing their bathing suits inside the store. The climax of the story is when Sammy quits his job in their defense.
6. Sammy quits his job to impress the girls.
7. Sammy began to like the girls. He admired them when his boss walked into the room.
8. He means he's going to have to find a job and tell his parents why he quit working at the store.
9. He states that the supermarket society is lame. It's always the same with hardly any excitement. One grocery store is the same as the next.
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