Language 2

As we continued reading, language remained a very important topic of focus. We learn that Manus does in fact know how to speak English, or at least some, but is very reluctant to actually speak with Yolland in English. I think this is because he does not like the fact that Britain has come into his home, Ireland, and doesn't want to do them any small favors, not even communicate with them. This is evident in the interaction between Owen and Manus on page 56 when Owen asks Manus to speak in English, and Manus says, "For the benefit of the colonist?" and then reluctantly uses English only to appease Owen.
Also, as we discussed in class, the relationship between Yolland and Maire is a complicated one. Neither of them speaks the other's language, and so language in this case acts as a barrier. I also found it curious that they are both characters which want to learn the other's language. Maire believes, "Old language is a barrier to modern progress," confirming again her thought that the Irish should learn English, and Yolland wants to learn Gaelic and live in Ireland.
Their interaction from page 62 to page 67 is fascinating in the way that neither of them know what each other is saying, but they are somehow able to communicate and progress in a conversation. Did this make anyone else think of the scene in Love Actually where Colin Firth falls in love with the woman who comes to work for him? She speaks only French and he speaks only English, and despite the language barrier, they fall in love.

Language

I have actually read this book before, in the fall semester of my senior year, and something I remember talking about a lot is that the playwright, Brian Friel, wanted us to recognize the importance of language in this book. There are many references to four languages in particular, Latin, Greek, Irish (gaelic I'm assuming), and English. All the characters so far know Irish, since obviously the play was originally written in the language.
Something I find amusing is when Bridget is talking on page 19 about how the new national school will not teach in Irish, and they will only teach in English, and the fact that this book is written in English. Also, Jimmy Jack Cassidy and Hugh are the only ones who know Latin and Greek fluently, and Maire knows only one line of English her aunt taught her when she was younger. Manus seems to know some Latin and Greek, but does not speak it frequently like Jimmy does. He only uses it when Jimmy bothers him about the translation of something, like Jimmy is giving Manus a constant quiz of knowledge. Clearly, because we are given so much information about language, and what languages each character can speak (or not speak at all like Sarah) whereas normally we wouldn't get this information in a play, it is a key part of Translations.

Home

One thing about this last reading in Power which stuck me was Omishto's feeling of homeliness when she goes to "The Place of the Old Law." On page 154 she describes home as a place where, "the old people live among tradition and memory," and talks of how the people behave the way the creator has told them to behave. Previously, she talked about how afraid she was to go there and once she looks around at her surroundings, her feelings change. "You can see this goodness of life on their peaceful faces, on their skin, even though not far from here are the old, rusted cars. Seeing this, I feel as if I am home here" (154). It is incredible that she can have such an intense change of heart just by being there. I think Omistho's feelings of displacement have finally subsided, and that she feels as if she knows where she belongs now. She knows that the old traditional ways of the Taiga people are the ways she wants to follow. She even claims that Ama does not look at home there. She feels a closeness with this place that even Ama doesn't feel.

Connections

When we were discussing the quote, "I'm my sister's project. She's always trying to fix me up, but I don't want to look pretty" (7), and how Omishto does not want to be someone who is considered pretty and how the idea of her becoming even more of an object to look at than she already is by her stepfather, I couldn't help but think of the song "Popular" in the play Wicked. I didn't make this connection because of her great discomfort around her stepfather, but rather that she is solely considered a "project." The song even begins with Galinda saying, "Elphie, now that we're friends, I've decided to make you my new project!"
Another reason I thought of this song, were the connections between what we were saying in class about how being "pretty" gives you a sense of power, and how Galinda talks about being popular in the song. Galinda believes that by giving Elphaba a new make-over, making her pretty, she will become popular, and have some sense of power. In the song, Galinda claims, "It's all about popular. It's not about aptitude, it's the way you're viewed, so it's very shrewd to be, very very popular like ME!" In the book, Power, Omistho's sister does the same thing and tries to make Omishto as pretty as she is.

Struggles

While reading Power I could not help but see connections between Omishto in this book and Lucy. Both Omishto and Lucy have troubled relationships with their families, and I think they feel out of place and are struggling between two identities.
As we discussed in class, Lucy has a very strained relationship with her mother and her father. In Power, Omishto also speaks of the relationships she has with her family. One passage which gives insight into each member is, "I'm my sister's project. She's always trying to fix me up, but I don't want to look pretty in the house with my mother and stepfather looking at me, his eyes always looking too much in places they don't belong, and my mom jealous like she is being replaced by me and it's all my fault, my design" (7). Clearly her sister and her have different ideas on how they want to appear to others, and Omishto is disturbed by the way her stepfather looks at her. She also believes her mother is a jealous person. She mentions later how her mother is also jealous of her "Aunt" Ama.
Lucy and Omishto both deal with struggle as well. Lucy deals with the struggle of past and present, and Omishto struggles with two different ways of life: tradition or westernized living. Omistho's mother is very much westernized, and her "Aunt" Ama is very traditional although she does not keep the ways completely. Omishto struggles to find which she identifies with more and seems to be in between, just as Lucy struggles by living in a mix of past and present.

Does anyone else notice any other conflicts. Do you think that Omishto deals with her own feelings of displacement? On pages 6 & 7 she discusses continents and the tree from Spain planted there and later how she is her own continent. Do these and the fact that this tree is unrooted in the storm signify these feelings?

Train of Thought

Something that fascinated me about this last chapter was Lucy's way of thinking. On page 142 her thoughts go in two very different directions. At first she is talking about Mariah and she cannot comprehend why she does not understand that, "everybody knew that men have no morals, that they do not know how to behave, that they do not know how to treat other people." She says this as if it were a scientifically proven statement.
THEN later on in the same paragraph (train of thought) she says, "And if I were to tell it to her she would only show me a book she had somewhere which contradicted everything I said--a book most likely written by a woman who understood absolutely nothing" (142). When she says this it makes me think that she doesn't think very highly of the women she has come to know in America. To her they must be ignorant and not know simple fact of life like the fact that men have no morals and are likely to leave their wives.
This also reminded me of the part in A Room of One's Own when the narrator is looking at the stacks of books written about women and how they are all written by men who clearly don't know anything really about women. This is more backwards though when Lucy is saying how women write books about men and they don't understand how men are naturally born without morals.

An Echo

First, I would like to point out how amazing of a person Lucy is. Lucy is so far away from her home, which was exactly what she wanted to be away from, yet she still misses it and almost everything she mentions about her new home with Mariah and Lewis reminds her of home. I don't think I would ever be able to be that far, with no contact (even by choice), knowing I can't go back.
Next, I would like to bring up my favorite quote in the whole book. On page 36, Lucy confesses, "I had come to feel that my mother's love for me was designed solely to make me into an echo of her; and I didn't know why, but I felt that I would rather be dead than become just an echo of someone." This quote struck me because for me, it brings together one of the main themes in the book, the relationship between Lucy and her mother. Even though Lucy is so far away and has no other contact with her mother other than the letters her mother sends (which Lucy never even opens), her mother has such a large influence on Lucy's life.
As can be seen in this quote, Lucy does not want to be like her mother or anyone else for that matter. She seems to be very much an individual, as is Peggy, which is why I think they became friends and why they remained friends throughout the book. Lucy also continuously mentioned how people tell her she is exactly like her mother, and while she refuses it in words, on the inside she knows that it is true. That is why I love this quote, I could just hear her saying it with doubt in her mind about how she would rather die than be like anyone else, yet at the same time realizes that is exactly what she is.
Does anyone else see the relationship between Lucy and her mother as being a main theme in this book? What other themes are there?

God's Works

As I was reading, I never could quite get a sense of where the story was going. I thought that maybe they would discover that someone they knew kept placing things there on purpose, or perhaps that the previous owners has purposefully left them there and why they left them.
I also thought that the relationship between Twinkle and Sanjeev was a curious one. Twinkle, in accordance with her name, seemed very childish. While it says she was 27 years old when they met, she still acts like a child. She doesn't help around the house, seems lazy in that she continuously says she will do something and then doesn't and she acts as if she couldn't care less what the house looks like.
Twinkle also doesn't seem like she has as strong of a Hindu belief as Sanjeev does. Twinkle identifies more with her American side. Sanjeev wants to keep his Hindu identity strong, and doesn't want to have to explain to all of their house-warming guests that they are not Christian, because Twinkle keeps displaying all the Christian items she finds around the house on the mantel. Twinkle also seems more carefree about what others think and even gets everyone up in the attic looking for the next item.
ALSO, a question I have is about a short scene after she gets out of the bath. Do you think that the blue mask on her face is supposed to have a correlation with the Virgin Mary? I know I often read readings in high school in which blue was a symbol of Mary. Another question is about the tears she shed in that scene. Was it trying to relate her to the large poster of Christ crying in her study?

Writing Process

As you can see in a blog below...this same blog has already been posted, but despite many many many attempts at fixing the sizing of the letters, I am incapable of editing that post. I have re-typed it here (with only a small section of font that will not return to original size) so that it is more easily read and not so distracting:

I have been brainstorming for this paper for about a week now. All weekend I came up with some topics I wanted to talk about, managed to form some main points, created an introduction, AND formed with a thesis (the last thing I do before I begin to write). So things are going great...until I go in to class yesterday and we begin discussing counterarguments. I am sitting there and can not come up with a counterargument for the topic I already started for the LIFE of me. Of course, I then think of a counterargument for a totally DiFfErEnT paper topic. I quickly write down some of the main points of this new topic and the counterargument I had come up with. After class I go in to talk with Professor Ambrose, and now the problem is finding a THESIS for my new topic. And that is where I am now, trying to come up with a thesis for my new paper.
Does anyone else have this problem?? Knowing what you want to write, having evidence, and points and a counterargument...all that JAZZ and then not being able to write a thesis that brings everything together? Guess I'll start writing and hope it comes to me...

"O"

One very interesting thing I was just thinking about is the use of drugs in this movie. In the play, Othello was accused of using drugs (Act 1, Scene 2, line 75) in order to get Desdemona to marry him, and in the movie, Hugo gives Oden drugs in order to numb all the pain and hurt he feels after Hugo convinces Oden that Dessie is cheating on him with Mike. While they are obviously not talking about the same drugs, it is still curious to think about why the producer of the film chose to have Oden start doing them. Was this a coincidence? Did the producer not realize the connection between the use of drugs?

Do you all have any other insights on the use of drugs in either the play or the movie? Is something else being symbolized by their use in the movie?

Cyprus

Plays and Movies

I really enjoyed our discussion last class about whether the scene we watched in class was an appropriation, interpretation, etc. of the play. I always just thought of a play being turned into a movie as something that wasn't able to be changed much because all of the lines were already given. From watching the movie in class and on the blog, I can see how, especially with Othello not having stage directions or detailed scenery, a director or producer can also take the words of the play and the scenes and portray them in the film very differently than another director or producer would.
Also, while watching the movie in class it was especially interesting to see, in comparison to the movie posted on the blog, how these specific directors chose to portray the play since Shakespeare chose not to leave stage directions. Noticing which lines the directors chose to leave out of the play was curious as well. I wasn't aware of how much of a difference it makes until I watched the version in class where Desdemona doesn't have her "not dead yet" moment.
In middle school we read Romeo and Juliet, and we also watched two versions of the movie. We watched the version with Leonardo DiCaprio in which the movie takes a very modern look at the play but keeps all the original dialogue, and we watched an older version in which the original dialogue is the same but a much more traditional view.
A Question to Think On:
Do you think Shakespeare purposefully left his play without stage directions so that it may be left up to interpretation; Did he want people to use their imagination or for the play to be timeless, to fit into any future culture?

Drama Drama Drama

While reading this play, Othello, I keep getting very frustrated with Othello and a few other of the characters in the play. They all think Iago is such a great guy, and as the reader who is able to see all the mischief he is creating, this is very irritating. Cassio even says to Iago at one point, "I never knew a Florentine more kind and honest" (95). They don't realize that Iago is manipulating every single one of them and essentially turning them all against each other.
I also become very frustrated with Othello when he believed Iago so easily about Desdemona being unfaithful to him. Instead of confronting Desdemona about it, he takes the false evidence Iago gives him as fact without checking if it is trustworthy evidence.
Was anyone else really irked by Iago and how he so easily pulled the wool over everyone's eyes? Or were you more irritated by the fact that everyone was so ready to believe anything he told them?
I also have some questions about the times. Were a woman's views on a situation seen as irrelevant? Were women inferior to men in that way and that is why Othello never confronted Desdemona? Do you think it would matter if she explained the situation or would Othello have still believed Iago?

font size

I have no idea how to get my font to go back to normal size. I try highlighting and putting it back to normal...is that not right? I'll keep trying.

Writing Process

I have been brainstorming for this short paper for about a week now. All weekend I came up with some topics I wanted to talk about, managed to form some main points, created an introduction, AND formed a thesis (the last thing I do before I begin to write). So things are going great...UNTIL I go in to class yesterday and we begin discussing counterarguments. I am sitting there and can not come up with a counterargument for the life of me.
Of course, I then think of a counterargument for a totally DiFfErEnT paper topic. I quickly write down some main points for this new topic and the counterargument I had come up with. After class I go in and talk with Professor Ambrose and now the trouble is finding a thesis for my new topic. And that is where I am now. Trying to come up with a thesis for my new paper.
Does anyone else have this problem?? Knowing what you want to write about, having evidence and points and a counterargument...all that JAZZ and then not being able to write a thesis that brings everything together? Guess I'll start writing and just hope it comes to me...

Oops!

When I was reading this short story I thought it was Gilman talking, I hadn't realized it was a fictional character's journal which Gilman had created. My thoughts still hold true, but I just wanted to point out that error in my writing!

Relationship with John

In my opinion, not only is the rest cure not helping her, but the narrator's relationship with her husband John is not helping her one bit either. Though she claims he loves her, he speaks down to her and makes her feel guilty about her condition. Despite the "my dears," he treats her as any other patient. She describes her feelings, "He takes all care from me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it more." (369). She goes on later to confess, "It is so hard to talk with John about my case, because he is so wise, and because he loves me so." (374). Even when she is talking about the care and love John gives her, we get a sense by the way she says she feels "basely ungrateful" and how she confesses "it is so hard to talk with John," that she feels trapped and guilty for not agreeing with him about the rest cure.

John even talks to her as though she is a child, and Gilman seems to look right past that. He refers to her as little several times throughout the reading: "called me a blessed little goose," (370), "What is it, little girl?" (374), and "Bless her little heart!" (375). He also, "gathered me up in his arms, and just carried me upstairs and laid me on the bed, and sat by me and read to me till it tired my head," (373), as though she was a child going up for bedtime. The final reason he is not helping her and most likely making her worse by being condescending, is by telling her, "There is nothing so dangerous, so fascinating, to a temperament like yours. It is a false and foolish fancy." (375).

It is so obvious to me that he is doing her no good. How could she see past that? Was she really that ill? Was it just the time? How could be think locking someone up by themselves without being able to do something would make them better? Would she have been better off with a different husband? Someone who wasn't a physician?

Mistreated Illness

I am so glad times have changed and now we are able to correctly evaluate and help those with mental anxiety. It is so sad to read this story of the narrator's dealings with mental illness. After being prescribed the "rest cure", in which the patient is not allowed to do anything at all, she knows it is not making her well again and expresses this from page one, claiming, "Personally, I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good." (368).

We can also see that the narrator realizes writing is one thing she is able to do in secret and also a way to relax her mind when she says, "I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind." (368). She later claims that writing is tiring, but after rereading this section, I saw that it is not the act of writing which is tiresome, but the constant need to hide what she is doing. She obviously knows that the rest cure is not helping her condition, but she trusts her husband, John, to do the right thing for her.

I was also thinking as I was reading that maybe it is not a nervous disorder that she is suffering, but perhaps it could be Postpartum Depression. It mentioned how she had a child and was not even allowed to see the baby, which made her sad. I'm not sure if they knew what this was then, but do you think this has potential as her actual problem?

Class Questions from Friday 1-30

In class on Friday we were discussing 3 questions: What is Woolf's "take away" point or conclusion? Is her point still relevant today? and, Does it need to be adapted in any way? I didn't share my opinions in class, but I would like to share my thoughts now.

I think Woolf's "take away" point is that the women she is speaking to have no excuse not to succeed, to not be ground-breaking. Women before them were denied the means needed for success and now these women are given those means and must take advantage of what they have been given. Woolf wants these women to succeed for all the women before them. She explains, "but she lives; for great poets do not die; they are continuing presences; they need only the opportunity to walk among us in the flesh." (p.113).

This point is still relevant in today's world because there are many people who have been given all they need to succeed and do not use it. For example, some people have the ability to go to college, get an education, and later a job, but choose not to go. Then there are those who do not use their God-given talents and waste their gifts.

Woolf's point does need to be adapted slightly in that we don't need to focus on using our gifts for those before us, but rather that we should just take advantage of all the opportunities we have been given and use them to our full potential

What makes a person valuable?

One thing I really enjoy about Woolf's writing is that we know exactly what is on her mind at all times. It is also interesting to see how she doesn't think the same way as everyone else; she doesn't follow the trend of how others view women. Woolf even seems to question society's thoughts, especially men's thoughts of women. From the bottom of page 39 to the top of page 40, she mentions, "how much harder it is now than it must have been even a century ago to say which of these employments is the higher, the more necessary." She realizes that there is no way to put value on a person and asks, "Is the charwoman who has brought up eight children of less value to the world than the barrister who has made a hundred thousand pounds?" She wonders how one can possibly put a worth on someone. Why can't the mother have as much impact on the world than the worker? Does how much money a person makes determine their value in society? What about the accomplishments outside of the workforce?

Knowing that all these ideas and questions are running through Woolf's mind, how do you think someone would respond to her if she shared her thoughts? Would a man's opinion be different than a woman's?

Writing is like...

Writing is like finding the perfect outfit. When I am going out with a group of friends for the night I end up with a large pile of discarded clothing strewn about on the floor and on the back of chairs before I decide what I will wear. Writing is similar. In order to find exactly what I want to say I "try on" different words to see how they fit together. The unused words go in "the pile."
There are many word variations of the way something can be said. Same with finding an outfit, there is no fixed way I must look. I don't have to wear this shirt with those pants, but finding the main part of my outfit can take time. I start by laying out the clothes I think I will wear (I write my outline). Then, after I have tried it on, I decide that's not really what I want. So I try on other things (find other words to use, points to make), and end up with something I like.
Then come the accessories (ways to bulk up and make your writing more interesting). I put a pair of earrings on but they are too flashy (this addition to my story is too much and takes away from what I want to say). Then I find this great necklace that would match perfectly with these other earrings so I try them on. Finally, I have found an outfit that works well together and has created the look I want.
Even after all those changes and editing of my outfit (story), I ask my friends what they think (ask them to look over my paper). If they tell me something doesn't work and to change it I will start the process over again until I end up with something both of us can agree on is my best look (best possible writing). And I have my final look/final writing.