Happy Endings

This has been my favorite story in this chapter. I think the reason i liked it so much was becasue i completly understood it and it was funny. I have been looking for funny in this book of storys and i found it.
The story was extremely short, but if it were to go on any longer then i think it would have been repetitive. I am gong to use this story as a start off point for my essay 3. I am excited to start working on this essay while using this story.
This story really did use the different roles of genders very accuratly i thought. At times it was stereotypical, but did seem a little right. I hate the fact that thats what women and men are seen as these days, thats how people see us? It's very interesting.
I am excited to talk about this story in class and see what other peoples opinions on it are.

Lady with Lap Dog

The first paragrah already pulled me in. The name in the first paragrah, DMitry Dmitrich Gurrov, very interesting i thought. I saw it atomiaticaly as a love story, he saw her, he saw her again in the park....very love story i thought. THe way he describes his wife is kind of pathetic. Who would describe there wife like that? She was borrowed browed and narrow minded.
I found the part about her seeing him and blushing and almost fainting interesting. It doesnt matter what age you are, you awlays get a little frazzled by a member of the opposite sex(or the same, depending).

THe story was narrarated by Dmitry, i like when the story is narrarated by one of the characters, you get to see what they are thinking and how they cope with what is happening in the story. I also wonder though, what the other characters are thinking. What if the other characters have completely different thoughts of what is happening?
When he meets Anna it seems to change the way he talks, and narrarates. She is quiet and kind of to her self, and he just seems like a shitty guy that talks really terribly about his wife.
By the end i am not completely convinsed that Dmitry loves Anna, throughout the story he seems like a bad guy so its hard to believe that he loves this shy girl.

More on essay 2

So i have defenitly decided to use the story "I Stand Here Ironing" and relate it to mother daughter relationships. I need to figure out how to narrow it down, talking about two peoples entire relationship i think would be way too much and way too broad. I'm not sure really how i want to narrow it down. I would like to write about the problems mothers and daughters have, or the extremely close connection some mothers and daughters have OR different types of relationships mothers and daughters could have throughout the world. I really need to figure out which one i would like to do, all three of them interest me a lot, so i guess i need to figure out which one i could write the most about but at the same time be concise. So, i'll think about that over the weekend and get back to you.

Ordinary People part 2

I unfortunetly didnt get to finish the whole movie, but i think i only missed like 15 or so minutes of the movie. But from my understanding the last part is the most important. I'll have to order the movie from netflicks or something. But as i was reading other peoples blogs i noticed that some people thought the acting was excellent, more then perfect. But i didnt find the acting all that great. By no means was it bad, but i didnt think it was mind shattering amazing.

But the idea of the movie, it just made me so sad at how far apart the mom and son are. She just pisses me off so much. She doesnt like to talk about anything personal, she wont let people into her life, she closes off all emotions. There are so many people like this, but seeing in a movie a person like this just really bothered me. She refused to see the therapist, she gets mad when the father talks about it. Then she just got so angry when she found out Conrad had quit the swim team. I understand her being mad becuase he still pretended to go to practice and she had no idea where he was going. But the only reason she was really upset was because her friend told her before she found out.
I am going to try and watch the end of this movie so i can let you know what i thought about the movie as a whole.

essay 2

From my understanding the second essay is like the first but dealing with the new group of stories? If i am correct, then my idea would be to use "I Stand Here Ironing" and connect it with relationships between mothers and daughters. I'm not exactly sure how i could twist this into a semi research paper. I was thinking maybe i could compare mother daughter relationships from around the world. To see what differs from one culture to another.
I am still thinking and will hopefully come up with some great new ideas soon!

Ordinary People part one

When i first heard we were going to be watching a film i thought oh great, its probably going to be a documentary or one of those "educational" films. But it was an actual movie! So, that alone was pretty exciting. This movie was set in the 80's, and filmed in the 80's, so it has that feel to it, like 16 candles, and pretty in pink. When it first starts out you can kind of sense the 80's feel haha.

In the beginning i was a little confused. I wasnt really sure what was wrong with Conrad, which by the way i hate that name, his dad seemed to be a little concerend about him. He went to check on him at night, then he talked to him in the morning. The mom didnt seem as concerned. She freaked out when he wouldnt eat her french toats though. I thought that was interesting. After finding out that the family had a son/brother that died i was very surpirised. The parents didnt act liek anything was wrong at all. They didnt seem sad, or confused, it seemed they were living there lives pretty normally.

The relationship between the mother and son was extremely awkward. THey hardly talked, but when they did it was so hard to watch. It was almost embarassing. I believe the first actual "conversation" they had was when he scared her when she was in his brothers room. They talked for an awkward minute or two about trig and shirts. Then the next conversation they had he started barking at her. It was really bizarre and botehred me so much. I dont really understand how a family can be that awkward.
I want to learn more abotu his hospital visit and his brothers death and his parents relationship. I can see lots of questions being answered soon in the next viewing of the movie!

I stand here ironing

I really enjoyed this story. I think that this story trumps the other ones and is becoming my favorite one.
"I stand here ironing, and what you asked me moves tormented back and forth with the iron."
I thought that line was so amazing. It started out the story and gave you a sense of what was to come ahead. The mother daughter relationship in this story was interesting. It seemed it the very beginning, before the mother started to explain everything, that she knew nothing about her daughter. That she never really connected with her. But once she started explaining things it seemed that she was really close with her. She had to leave her a few times with different family members but it seemed that when ever they were together they were pretty close. I thought it was cute that they would take days off work and school just to be together. My mom and i do that sometimes too. I liked how the daughter would make up things, like you look sick, i look sick, theres a holiday etc. instead of straight out just saying she didnt want to go.

Something that stuck out to me in the story was the very tiny bit about the teacher who was mean. "why arent you outside, because Alvin hits you? thats no reason, go out, scaredy." I thought that was terrible! Having a teacher like that, or sending my kid to a teacher like that would terrify me. Another kind of disturbing part to me was the part about the place where people send there kids so they can get the right attention and the right food and everything. I dont really understand why someone would willingly send there own child away for at least 6 weeks. They were saying that the mother should send her away so she could care for the new baby. I thought that was kind of selfish and must have been so hurtful to the daughter.
I wish that the mother never had other children, i wish that it was only the two of them, forever with no one else to get in the way of there relationship.
Throughout the story you could tell that the mother loved her daughter so much, and cared so much for her when she was going through all these hard times. I really enjoyed reading about mother daughter relationships because i have such a strong one with my mother.

Sonnys Blues

As soon as i began reading this story it interested me. The first sentence makes you want to keep reading. "I read about it in the paper, in the subway, on my way to work." It made me want to know what he read, and why it would be everywhere. I immidiatly realized that the story was mostly on family. Family related stories are my favorites becuase i like to relate them to my family and i like to read about other families that are so completly different from mine.

The man in the beginning was strange, the one that was friends with Sonny when they were younger. The way he talked was mysterious, it was lke he could talk in a way so that he gets what he wants.

Something interesting that i found in the beginining was when he said that there were two types of laughter, the type that people relate with children, then the type that was mocking. That made me think about the way people laugh, it is so true, you can defenitly tell the difference between the two. With the child laughter you can here the fun in it, you can tell that it is carefree. The mocking laughter seems to be done mostly with teenagers i have noticed. It is not a laugh out of pure funness and the joyness in something, it is the laughter at someone.

It was also difficult in the beginining to tell whether or not Sonny was alive, they didnt really say anything on the subject, they were saying things like "hung" but also "to help him" so i wasnt sure if he had literaly been hung, but then realized he was still alive.

All in all this story was really touching, hearing about the family members that had died, seeing everyone help out sonny, and relating music into it. The part about the young daughter that died was very sad and well written, it was like you could picture it while it was happening, which made it even more real, which also made it even more powerful and hurtful.
I would love to read more stories by James Baldwin. This has been my favorite out of all the Haunted House stories so far.

Haunted Houses

I have a feeling this chapter is going to be fun! The introduction pulled me in and it made it seem that this whole chapter would be full of exciting emotional stories. My favortire types of stories, stories on family and love are in this chapter. I am very excited to begin reading all these stories.


I read Bone Black, it was very touching and very emotional to read about a daughters view on her parents abusive relationship. I noticed this writer used very short choppy sentences, which i thought worked very nicely with this story. This story was different, i have read many stories coming from the childs point of view but it was intersting the way the author wrote it.
I hope to read many more stories like this.

Essay uno DOS

So I have decided that i am going to write about America's obsession with security, while relating to Once Upon A Time. I am going to use the book as a basic guideline to help me come up with a thesis and help my the ideas of the book relate to my ideas.

Essay uno

At the moment I am a bit confused on what the first essay is about. It seems that the essay is us writing about the stories we have read so far? Thats what it sounds like at least, and if that is what it is about then that sounds good. So far I have enjoyed most of the stories we have read. There have been some i dont like as much as others, but all in all they have been interesting and very fun to analyze. Sometimes i wish a story could be just a story, that we wouldnt have to analyze and rip it apart until it's dead. But at the end of each class i come away knowing so much more about the story and the author. I come away knowing what my classmates think of the story, and i come away with thousands of questions on the story. I think thats the most important thing, to have questions, i think its even more important then completly understanding the story. If you completly understand the story then your finished with it, there isnt any more you can get from it. But if you walk away with more questions and more thoughts running around in your head then your not finished with it, there is still room to explore and gather new information.
So far out of all the stories we have read, there have been two that i have enjoyed greatly. Once Upon A Time and Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Those two stories I feel have had the most room for exploring and ananlyzing. Especially Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? at first read you dont think much of it, then you start thinking, i mean really thinking, about it and you start realizing things arent what they seem, maybe there is a hidden meaning in the story, maybe there is something you didnt catch the first time. Then you start thinking about the characters and who they remind you of. You go from a simple story to people being a fallen angel, the devil, elvis presley.
I loved hearing what everyone else's opinions were too. Some peoples were similiar to mine and some peoples were completly in the oposite direction.

Cathedral

This story wasnt my favorite out of all the stories we have read. I did find it intriguing though. I liked to see how the characters changed throughout the story, which was set in mostly one day. The husband seemed to have changed the most, at first i really didnt like him, he seemed rude and bland and not open to new ideas or new people. He was very skeptical about the blind man coming and everything he said was very stereotypical and rude. But by the end of the story him and the blind man got along and he was much more open to him and even wanted to talk and get to know him. The wife in the begininning seemed very open and loving, but towards the end she seemed kind of paranoid and skeptical of her husband talking or getting close with the blind man. The blind man himself was a very interesting guy, the way he talked, what he talked about, the way he moved and ate and drank and smoked. He seemed just like any other guy, except he was blind. He seemed very interested in everything that was going on, he was very open to new ideas and going with everything that was happening.
While i was reading the story i was thinking about how it would be to be blind, what i would do if i were blind. I love people watching and watching and observing everything, so it wouldnt be too great for me. But what if he loved people watching before he went blind. He didnt seem depressed or mad about his blindness he seemed to imbrace it and take it in. I really enjoyed reading to see how it would be for a blind person, it did change my perspective on how a blind person could be, what they could still do even though they can not see.

Once Upon a Time

As we were talking about this story in class a lot of people related it to fairy tales. I thought it was semi fairy tale like, but for the most part it just seemed more of an overprotective paranoid family. In some ways i can defenitly see the fairy tale aspect, but it was kind of like a weird twisted creepy sketchy fairy tale i guess. I didnt really understand why the grandmother kept getting called a witch, we didnt hear much at all about her, other then she said to keep people out and she gave her grandson a fairy tale book. The story was kind of sad in my opinion, the family started out happy and for the most part care free. They had a wonderful home, and loved each other very much. But soon everything seemed to go down, there house became ugly when they added the wall and gate and barbed wire. I understand the need for protection, but some times it can go too far.
Another thing i noticed was that everyone loved everyone so very much. It said over and over that he loved her ver much, she loved him very much, the boy loved the cat so very much. It almost seemed like they were trying to convince the readers of there love for one another. It was like at the end of the day thats all they really had, they never felt completly safe, they never really had everything they wanted, but at the end of the day they had love for eachother.
It also seemed strange the person thinking of the story was trying to make her self feel better because she was scared of everything she heard at night, and she thought of that story. Which defentily did not make me feel any better at all.

A Good Man is Hard to FInd

Where to begin, this story was insane. It started off simple, just the family going on a vacation to Florida. In the beginning I couldnt really tell what the time period was, i thought it was around this time, maybe in the 90's. But as the story kept going it seemed to me that maybe it was set in the 50's or 60's maybe. I wasnt completely sure. Throught the beginning of the story you got a sense of the main characters, the dad, Bailey seemed strict, some what conservative, it seemed like he liked everything his way, nothing out of the ordinary to happen. The grandmother was very oldfashioned it seemed, she liked to be catorgarized as a lady, she made sure to wear a nice lady like outfit so people would know she was a lady. She was also very proper and liked to talk about the old times, where things werent as scary and everyone was a lot safer. The mom didnt say much or do much, she seemed pretty laid back, didnt really take control of the kids when they spoke out or didnt add her opinion in on anything. The two kids were very obnoxious, they spoke out way to much and were very rude. They didnt know how to speak to adults in a polite manner and said whatever they wanted to without thinking. Throughout the story everyone talked about the misfit, who ended up reminding me of Arnold Friend from our other story. But an older version. Him and his two friends were very creepy, as soon as they drove up i had a feeling it was going to be the misfit, and i had a feeling that the whole family was going to die. I wish the grandmother had kept her mouth shut and didnt even say anything about the big house she wanted everyone to see, which wasnt even in the same state. It seems like the whole time she was trying to protect the family by staying away from danger, especially the misfit, but it turns out she led everyone right for danger. It was her who decided to look for the house, who decided to bring the cat, who freaked out and woke the cat up, who spoke to the misfit. She really brought it all onto herself, of course she didnt mean to, but she did.

Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

I really enjpyed this story. I had no idea what was going to happen in the beginning which was exciting because i hate reading stories where you can just predict the ending. It defenitly drew my attention in the beginning, i thought Connie was extremely cocky and kind of annoying. Which actually made me view her as ugly, throughout the story i pictured her as an ugly girl, not a cute or pretty girl that the guys were talking about. When Arnold came to the house at the end it scared me. I had no idea what he was trying to do, i just knew that something bad was going to happen, but then i was confused. Did she just go with him? I wish the story went on for just a little bit more so we could figure out what really happened. At the same time its fun to guess what happened and make your own ending up.

The Power of Myth

The Power of Myth would have been a good movie if you had nothing else to do. I personally did not like the movie. I thought it was kind of dull, some of it interested me, like when they refered to Star Wars or other movies to tie into what they were talking about. But for the most part it was hard to follow because the two older men weren't very easy to understand. It also didnt grab my attention in the beginning so i got lost pretty fast and wasnt sure what they were talking about at first.

hey everyone

You know what I really love? I love these little symbols!
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So cool! Ok, well I'm going to go check out some more of you guy's blogs.
peace.

First Post!!

This is my first post, i'm pretty confused so far about what this is really. But i think i will get it soon.
ok, well post to you later.