Week 10

So Picasso…when I first began reading it I actually thought that it was just the same words written over and over again for a page and a half. Then I realized it pretty much was the same words written over and over but with other added words being said in the same yet various ways. Either way it is very repetitious and a little bothersome.

            Anyways The first segment that I found interesting was “ One whom some were certainly following was one working  and certainly was one bringing something out of himself then and was one who had been all his living have been one having something coming out of him.” (Stein 856) I could be wrong but this text seems to me to say that this was a person who was working, and who was bringing something much greater out of himself by working on that specific idea, while others were following hoping to gain something like this person who had been working had gained for themselves. See even as I try to describe it in the terms that I understand it appears to make very little sense. Although I swear I am meaning to.

            At the end it says “ This one was one who was working. This one was one who was almost always working. This one was not one completely working. This one was one not ever completely working. This one was not one working to have something come out of him. He always did have something coming out of him. He was working; he was not ever completely working. He did have some following. They were always following him . Some were certainly following him. He was one who was working. He was one having something coming out of him something having meaning. He was not ever completely working.” (Stein 857)

For a moment I wondered if it was multiple kinds of people being described especially when it talks about those working and having something coming out of them that is meaningful while others are working and they are not fully working and they don’t have as much coming out of them so they follow others who have meaning coming from them.

            Although, as I was reading further I thought of it like we as people, following others who have great talent and strength and hoping something great will come out of us, while other follow and only try half heartedly and can’t provide something as wonderful because they are not trying hard enough. But the very last line when it says “He was not ever completely working.”(Stein 857) I think that might mean perhaps some people are just made with a certain skill or talent and there is no extra hard work given because it just comes naturally.

            Just so everyone knows I feel as if I may so wrong about this entire segment. Feel free to give me your input.

Response to Prof Inquiry

 "Great close reading of this section, and you raise some really interesting questions. Do you see any similarities between Nick and the Hopper? What are we to make of all the focus and attention that the story pays to them? The story tells us they're important because they get some much space, but the story doesn't tell us *why* they're important (which is often one of the frustrating and brilliant things about Hemingway).

What do you think?"  

I know I am supposed to responding to my group members, but I thought that I could further my argument and understanding of the reading if I elaborated on this.

One of the things my group discussed about the Hoppers in this story was that they represented the Soldiers that Nick had previously served with. I think the reason that they were charred in color was meant to be a representation of the men and the weight that they had to carry, with the deaths of their friends and others they had grown so close with. The black coal color was covering the original colors of the hopper, just like the weight of the war had changed the men and their “colors”.

When Nick originally has the Hopper lodged into his sock I got this feeling that it was signifying the war always being something lodged into his life pestering him. Then when he picks it up and really looks at it and looks at the surrounds charred just like this Hopper and it may have been a subconscious reminder.

I also get this feeling that when Nick is finally done examining the Hopper and tosses it back into the charred tree stump and the Hopper blends in with the mess; that it is him trying to let it go, maybe letting a fallen mate or even the memory of it all fall back into his mind and trying to make it all only a memory and leaving all of those men exactly where they lay never having any continuum.

Of course I must remind that this is just me rambling on about my crazy ideas. So take what you will.

Week 9

First off I decided to discuss a few things I found interesting in Hemingway’s Big Two-Hearted River. Yay!

In the prelude to the story we learn that Nick has been a very prominent character in Hemingway’s writing, I am wondering why this is?

What I found most interesting was the way that the grasshoppers were so detailed very early into the story. Nick has this grasshopper wedge its way into his sock and from there a paragraph describes these hoppers “They were not the big grasshoppers with yellow and black or red and black wings whirring out from their black wing sheathing and whirring as they fly up. These were just ordinary hoppers but all sooty and black in color.”(Hemingway 982)

And all this time we are gathering this description about these hoppers before Nick finally removes this grasshopper from his sock. Which makes me wonder how long he had let that grasshopper tag along before he finally decided to actually remove it? Then Nick contemplates further on the identity of these hoppers and decides this “He realized that the fire must have come the year before but the grasshoppers were all black now. He wondered how long they would stay this way.” (Hemingway 982)

Okay so now he finally, after all of this decides he is (for real) going to remove this grass hopper and at this point after already contemplating the reason for this color he actually looks at it. Actually puts a visual to all of his thoughts about this bug. “He turned him up, all his legs walking in the air, and looked at his jointed belly. Yes, it was black too, iridescent where the back and head were dusty.” (Hemingway 982)

So after such a long inquiry of the bugs visual being and then put a visual to his conclusion Nick simply tosses the bug away saying “Go on Hopper, fly away somewhere.” (Hemingway 982) Notice though how the word Hopper is capitalized, like a name would be. Why does the word Hopper become capitalized? Names are very important, why would this insect receive a name? Nick lets this Hopper go “He tossed the grasshopper up into the air and watched him sail away to a charcoal stump across the road.” (Hemingway 982)

I think just the description and the identity of the grasshoppers play a huge role into the character of Nick, and his own personal identity. But how?

The Road Not Yet Taken Week 6

Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Yet Taken”, In a few brief words it is the choice between two roads and which one to take, and the character’s decision to choose the road less traveled and that it ended up making all of the difference.

1.       The title reminds me of the ability to walk alone as an individual instead of following everyone else and their trail. Because you need to make your own. If there was any other title I suppose you could call it the road with the grass more squished down, but then who would want to read that? Kidding. Sometimes it’s hard to imagine any other title for a poem, because it feels like there couldn’t be one any better.

2.       There weren’t any words that I didn’t understand.

3.       I hear some rhyming like line 1 and 4wood and could. It seems that in one line there will be the beginning rhyming word and then two shorter phrases would pass before the next rhyming word would follow.

4.       If you looked at the poem literally; there is a person (we don’t know if it is male or female, although I think it is meant to be sexless so we can all relate to the meaning of the poem.) and they are at a crossroad. They have the ability to choose two paths. One that is obviously more worn from being used more often, while the other is less used. So the path less traveled was taken and apparently that was worth it for the main character.

5.       Things that I am seeing are 1. The roads. 2. The first road looking like the grass had been beaten down. 3. The second road not worn and grass is fresh. 4. The road less traveled almost begging to be walked through. 5. Also the character of this poem looking back and feeling confident with his decision.

6.       1. The speaker is sexless. 2. There is a decision to be made. 3. Obviously at a crossroad in his/her life. 4. Weighing options and decisions. 5. Having the feelings of following comfort. 6. Or following the road that will make the speaker grow as a person. 7. The speaker finally makes a decision. 8. starts moving forward in the chosen direction. 9. Feeling confident. 10. And having no regrets for the decision made.

7.       The attitude of the speaker is about making decisions concerning the entirety of one’s life. And deciding to live it like everyone else or to march to the beat of your own drum.

8.       The poem has some structure but overall it’s a lesser amount it gives the mind some freedom to roam while still giving it boundaries.

9.       Obviously the tension in the poem has to do with the speaker trying to determine which way to go after traveling thus far. The decisions don’t seem too terribly difficult for the speaker, although it did take some thought.

10.   “And sorry I could not travel both…” I found this interesting. Not having the ability to see what both paths could produce at the end and having to make one decision and hoping it is the right decision. “Because it was grassy and wanted wear…” I like how the road almost has its own voice begging to be trodden on. “ I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere  ages and ages hence two roads diverged in a wood and I…I took the one last traveled by, and it has made all of the difference.” I like the feeling that a decisions was well made, and even in old age there is no regret, which should be how we all live our lives.

I like the feeling of life giving you choices and you can make a decision and once it has been made you can’t go back. Life is set in motion the moment a decision is made. And I love how the speaker says “And sorry I could not travel both…” because I think we all want both, wonder what could have happened if we had made better decisions in our lives, even simply just making decisions in our lives. And the path more worn is like our comfort zone and our fault at following the footsteps before us in fear that going the other way may result in our downfall. And the path less worn is giving the ability to march to your own drum and become independent, and decide a life based on what is important personally as opposed to what is expected.  

What's your path?

Essay

Right now I am currently in a dilemma. I can’t decide whether or not to discuss the irony aspect or the trickster aspect over the readings we have been studying. I really want to discuss the irony in the passing of Grandison and how after the colonel boasts of Grandison’s faithfulness, and Grandison’s constant expression towards his faithfulness that he still escapes. Not only does he escape, but he also helps his family escape. But at the same time I want to talk about Grandisons as a trickster as well as Dick and Charity .      

                Then I also wanted to talk about the role that women play, I thought I could talk about Charity and then the infidelity of the wife from the short story the storm. I just want to express how these two women really have this control over there men. Charity making Dick “free a slave”, and Dick only doing it in hopes that he can have Charity. And then the infidelity and the stress that relationships can cause. I just like the idea that men can so easily be influenced by women, and how women can have so many secrets and abilities to achieve what they want in these stories.

Ah! Decisions, decisions!

Washington

 “ while doing this , you can be sure in the future, as in the past, that you and your families will be surrounded by the most patient, faithful, law abiding, and un resentful people that the world has seen. As we have proved our loyalty to you in the past, in nursing your children, watching by the sick-bed of your mothers and fathers, and often following them with tear-dimmed eyes to their graves, so in the future, in our humble way, we shall stand by you with a defense of yours, interlacing out industrial, commercial, civil, and religious life with yours in a way that shall me the interests of both races one. In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress. (443)

Washington was making an attempt to express that the slaves were just as much as equal as those who are white. That they are mothers and father, employees, people who will buy up plots of land and contribute to the overall culture of mankind. That if there was a willingness to create a whole community instead of many individual ones, that there would be several more things accomplished and with a higher success rate.

Washington also displays pure honesty, which I found to be very refreshing. He wasn’t simply pleading the case of his people as innocent and without fault. He says himself “Nearly sixteen millions of hands will aid you in pulling the load upward, or they will pull against you the load downward. We shall constitute one-third and more of the ignorance and crime of the South, or one-third its intelligence and progress; we shall contribute one-third to the business and industrial prosperity of the South, or we shall prove a veritable body of death, stagnating, depressing, and retarding every effort to advance the body political.” (444)

Washington admits that the change won’t come easily, that it will be a struggle each and every day and can’t be forced upon people, but slowly introduced. That the privileges of the law can be theirs, and are deserved, Although, exercising these privileges needs to be learned. 

Washington wraps up his speech and his last few words were “…will bring into our beloved South a new heaven and a new earth.”(445). which was referring earlier to what could be possible if everyone was able to pull themselves together in a joint unit. I find him realizing the possibilities and being very hopeful for the best outcome possible.

Du Bois

“How does it feel to be a problem?” (454) Du Bois admits to it being a strange experience. Du Bois goes argument is that the Negro is what it is and it shouldn’t be anything else than what it is. He say’s himself “The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife- this longing attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. Into his merging he wishes neither of the older slaves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of opportunity closed roughly in his face. (455)

It seems as if Du Bois is basically expressing that Negros have been forced to be so many other things than it actually is. He drives home the actual struggle that it has taken his people to come to the point at which they now reside. And the further actions they will have to take to continue on a forward motion and sometimes things ahead of them seemed dark and without any head way, but for others a process which would eventually provide a positive.

Du Bois even speaks of Washington and his recent proclamation, he says “ Mr. Washington’s counsels of submission overlooked certain elements of true manhood, and that his educational programme  was unnecessarily narrow (462)  

Which at this point it makes me really think about Washington’s speech? Was it really a plea for submission? Or was it a compromise? Did he basically roll over and play dead in hopes of gaining even an ounce of freedom?

Du Bois also mentions that due to Washington’s past he tip toes about with his ideas to presents them in ways that would be more pleasing to his audience. Du Bois is just expressing that every man should be made to be equals.

I feel that Washington makes very valid points and I feel Du Bois is right about him. He does appear to be presenting his case in ways that are more appealing to the ear of the audience. While on the other hand Du Bois is straight up with his facts and feelings. Washington appears in my opinion to be more conservative based on the fact that he is trying to please while create a change, and Du Boise is more militant in his actions.

Response

http://nathanaelgracelovesliterature.blogspot.com/ I like the quote you used about Grandison be “aboloishinist proof”, It makes me think about what exactly the Colonel picked up from Grandison’s personality that made him think this way. I also find it interesting how the Colonel could be so ignorant and big headed to think that a human being would be thrilled with the idea of being a slave. Yes the conditions on that plantation were far better than other plantations with other slave holders.  While Dick is about to leave on his trip the Colonel says something to him that I feel accurately describes his personality. “…I hope you will keep your eyes and ears open to find out what the rascally abolitionists are saying and doing. They’re  becoming altogether too active for our comfort, and entirely to many ungrateful niggers are running away…”(pg 233) The ungrateful part is where in my opinion the Colonel went wrong. Thinking he could ever own a person as if an object introduced him to embarrassment and reality. So when Grandison escapes and then brings along the whole family it’s like a huge screw you. And the fact that the Colonel chases after Grandision and his family just further proves the Colonel’s ignorance as well as his hurt pride.